Thurston County, Washington - The whole text, 1914 (part 9 of 9)

May 13 - Announces drowning of G. N. MeConaha and Capt. Barstow, which occurred May 4th, while making passage in a canoe between Vashon Island and Alki. Mr. Me- Conaha was returning home from Olympia, where he has presided as President of the first Legislative Council.

July 8 - Henry Cock, Dr. Kauby and Judge Roundtree start for Yakima to prospect for gold. Reported that $3 to $5 per day to the hand has been obtained.

July 15 - Firm of Bettman & Brand dissolve. ]\Ir. Bettman was third one to open business in Olympia, and now becomes associated with his brother in same.

Messrs. Ensign, Blankenship and Kirtley return from a prospecting tour in Cascade Mountains. Convinced gold exists there but doubt its presence in paying quantities. They reported favorable progress on the immigrant road over the mountains.

Death of A. M. Berry, senior })roprietor of the Pioneer and Democrat announced. He died in New Hampshire of smallpox. He had gone East to make contract for printing the laws and journals for the Territory.

Edmund Sylvester returns from East, where he went to be married, accompanied by ]\Irs. T. F. McElroy and Mrs. A. J. Baldwin, a sister of Mrs. Sylvester.

February 3 - Legislature adjourned, after locating capital at Olympia, penitentiary at Fort Vancouver, and University at Seattle, with a brand* on Boisfort Plains, Lewis County.

Wm. Hicks eomniitted suicide by drowning in the liay just below town. The first recorded act of self destruction. Insanity, caused by too close application to study of spirit rapping.

November 9 - The Pioneer and Democrat announces as reason for having missed an issue of the paper that "the hands in the office were either acting as volunteers or were engaged in the work of fortifying Olympia."

April 4- - A detachment of twenty men were sent by Gov. Stevens to apprehend Indians who had raided Yelm Prairie and driven off and killed a large number of head of stock belonging to Messrs. Brail, Longmire and Chambers.

July 4 - On account of the Indian troubles the National holiday was not celebrated. A picnic was held down the bay,' on the return from which the revenue cutter, Jeff Davis, accompanied the Steamer Traveler, firing a salute.

September 19 - Died, at Olympia, on the loth inst., Victor ]\Ionroe, Associate Justice of the United States Court. He was a native of Kentucky and was aged about forty years.

March 27^W. K. Stockend, a farm hand on Teualquot Prairie, killed a panther, six feet, seven inches long, in a fair fist and boot fight. The elaborated account in the Pioneer and Democrat proves that likely candidates died before the Ananias Club was organized.

May 29 - "Colored" Republican convention met in Olympia and nominated a candidate for Delegate to Congress, after adopting a platform affirming that "James Buchanan, as well as the Supreme Court, should be abolished as a great humbug and that a white man was a good as a negro when behaving."

January 29 - Meeting held in Olympia to protest against fhe failure of the Pierce County authorities to hang the Indian murderer Leschi, under sentence of death.

August 24 - Contract let for clearing the capitol grounds. Much local criticism of the Territorial Capital Commission for not proceeding to build with .$30,000 appropriated by Federal Government.

Eighth Legislative Assembly convenes and on December 11 passes bill removing capital to Vancouver, and the penitentiary from Vancouver to Port Townsend.

New administration for Washington Territory announced as follows : Governor, W. H. Wallace ; Chief Justice, C. C. Hewitt; Receiver of the Land Office, Jos. Cushman; Register. A. A. Denny; Secretary, L. J. Turney; Attorney, J. J. Mc* Gilvra ; Associate Justice, J. E. Wych.

September 20 - A theatrical company, presenting "Lucretia Borgia," "Lady of Lyojis," "David Copperfield," "The Brigands," etc., appeared for one week in Olympia.

October II - Five hundred and twenty-cme dollars subscribed by citizens of Thurston County for relief of federal soldiers, and grand ball projected to raise funds for like purpose.

(lied on 7th inst., from effect of a pistol shot fired bv Horace Howe. Kendall was thirty-fonr years of age and a graduate of Bowdoin College.

June 27 - Died, Rev. Richard J. Evans, aged twenty-eight years. At the time of his death Mr. Evans was pastor of the Presbyterian Church, from March 13, I860, to time of his death.

March 4 - Married, James Scott to Electra Rutledge. July 1 - Died, Mary Frances, daughter of Levi and Christiana Shelton. aged nineteen years.

July 21 - The Pixley family gave their first performance in Olympia. Annie Pixley, at this time fourteen years of age, gained a national reputation as an actress. Her mother, at this time, opened a millinery shop on Washington Street, between Third and Fourth.

January 9 - Capt. D. B. Finch presents to Olympia Lodge of Good Templars, the Olympic building, southwest corner Fourth and Columbia Streets, on condition that the lodge maintain a free reading room.

April 3 - Two velocipedes appear upon the streets of Olympia. One a two-wheel affair and the other a three-wheel, the latter of home construction.

April 17 - Died, Isaac Wood, a pioneer of 1851. Mr. Wood was the first brewer in Thurston County, his lirewery ])eing located at Fourth and Columbia Streets.

December 25 - G. A. Barnes commenced the erection of the first brick building, which still stands on Main Street, between Third and Fourth. In this building the first bank in the Territory was started.

August 27 - Gen. Hazard Stevens and P. B. Van Ti-iiiii]) return after making first ascent made of ^Mount Iiainier. although Captain F. W. Ferrell claimed to have ascended it in October 1847, in company witii John Edgar, and a Fi-eiicliman and Indian, names unknown.

Early Fraternal Organizations

The first lodge of Free and Accepted Masons to be instituted north of the Columbia River was organized in Olympia, December 11, 1852. The names of the petitioners were : Thornton F. McElroy, James W. Wiley, ]\Iiehael T. Simmons, Nicholis Delin, Smith Hays, Ira Ward and A. K. Skidraore, under dispensation granted by M. N. Berryman Jennings, Grand ]\Iaster of the Grand Lodge of the Territory of Oregon and wa.s known as No. 5. under the Oregon jurisdiction. This lodge exists today under title of Olympia Lodge No. 1, under jurisdiction of the Grand Lodge of Washington.

The first meeting of this organization was held Saturday evening, Dec. 11, 1852. The lodge was opened with T. F. ]\Ic- Elroy as Worshipful Master; J. W. Wiley, Senior Warden and M. T. Simmons, Junior Warden.

The second meeting of the Lodge was held December 18. 1852. At this meeting a petition for the degrees was received for the degrees from B. F. Yantis, one of the earliest and most respected pioneers of the Territory. At a subsequnt meeting, B. F. Yantis was the first to receive the three degrees in this lodge. B. P. Shaw, of Vancouver, having received the preceding degrees, received the Master ^Mason's degree the same evening as IMr. Yantis.

Olympia Lodge Avas chartered by the Grand Lodge of Oregon, June 15, 1853 and was numbered 5. Upon the organization of the Grand Lodge of Washington, December 8, 1858. Olympia Lodge became No. 1 under the new jurisdiction.

This lodge was organized under a charter dated April ]0. 1855, by the Supreme Lodge I. 0. 0. F. of the United States The following Avere named on the charter list : C. C. Llewitt. J. L. Head, James C. Head, Daniel Kiser, Cyril Ward.

Dedication

It would, perhaps, have been more appropriate to have dedicated this little volume to the brave and sturdy Thurstoi. County Pioneers, whose life stories I have striven to set forth in their own language wherever possible, and such, indeed, wasi my intention at the beginning of this work, but as time went on and I grew to realize the trials, hardships and privation!-, which were the lot of the women who crossed the Old Oregon Trail in the middle of the last century, I became more and more impressed with the magnificent courage displayed h\ one w^ho has ever been the guiding star of my life. Surel^ making this arduous trip not once, but three times, entitles her to an honorable place among the pioneers of whatevei section.

She started from a home of comparative wealth and east in ^Minnesota w^hile still in the freshness of her youth with hei husband and two small children, of whom the writer w^as the youngest, arriving in Sacramento, California, after six months hard travelling, during which time the family never slept un der a roof other than the canvas wagon cover, and endured all hardships wdth an unparalled cheerfulness and fortitude ever striving to assist and encourage her husband and to trait her children in the right w^ay. ^Many an evening the Avritei can recall being tucked into her little bed in the wagon box by those kind hands and sinking off to sleep, lulled by the monotonous sound of the horses crunching their grain from flu long feed box on the ground beside the prairie schooner.

The stay in California was short, barely long enough foj the family to recover from the fatigue of the long journey and for this modern Cornelia to add one other gem to hei jewel casket, then, becoming satisfied that all the shining gold of which this young couple had dreamed, had already l)eer picked up out of the streets by earlier pioneers, they decided to retrace their journey as far as the Grande Rounde Valley, in Oregon. Here, although the loose gold had also been already gathered in, tliere were plenty of oppoi'tunilies for gaining a competence for the thrifty and industrious, virtues which these people certainly possessed.

Within a few years prosperity had shed its golden glow over the adventurers to such a degree that they decided they had acquired enough to give them a cmnfortable start in their old home as they were homesick and possessed of an overwhelming longing to see once again the friends of their youth

Bundling the children into the wagons in wdiich the first start was made, the long trip back to JMinnesota was undertaken. Here the money acquired in the West was invested in a farm which proved to be an unfortunate venture, for the ground was worn out and exhausted and the knowledge the young people had of all agriculturaal pursuits was purely theoretical. The final result was that the money was soon alJ spent and then the rememl)erance of the many opportunities they had left in the Golden West lured them to return.

Again the family and plunder w^ere loaded in the wagons and the return trip along the now familiar trail was started. There were four children by this time, and on the way, somewhere back in Iowa, another baby was born to this heroic woman. A lay-by of only a couple of days was all she asked before the onward march was resumed.

At one time, while passing through Utah on the first trip west, their train was fired upon by the Indians while the emigrants were preparing their evening meal, the miscreants then charging down and, with horrid yells and flourishing of blankets and robes, endeavored to stampede the horses picketed a short distance from the wagons. The bravery of the men in rushing to the rescue was all that prevented this catastrophe. In the morning the way led on through a deep ravine with rocky walls crow^ding close by the trail on either side. The frightened emigrants were sure they would be fired upon by the enemy from the tops of these walls but there was no other alternative than to proceed. The women drove the teams while the men with their guns over their shoulders, walked, beside the wagons, guarding their families, their lives and their every earthly possession. But they were not further molested.