Page:History of the Oregon Country volume 2.djvu/57

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PIONEER SETTLEMENT

Tumwater.1 Ward ? and Hays had a sawmill at the upper fall, and at the lower fall Captain Clanrick Crosby had a sawmill and flour mill. At Olympia were two hotels; one kept by Corliss and Ensign, advertised as the “Washington Hotel, the Lone Pine Tree in Front” – which pine tree was an ordinary fir; the other, the Pacific, kept by Colonel William Cock. All these persons long since passed away. George A. Barnes, who still lives, was a merchant here. From him we bought the goods wanted for pioneer life. He had been a member of the first city council of Portland. Edmund Sylvester, the proprietor of the townsite, taken up under the donation land law , I did not know . I was a shy boy and sought no access to the influential life of the early day. Most of the country settlers I knew , however, for there was more freedom among us of the country than between us and the townspeople. Strange as it may seem at this day, looking backward to that time, there were sharper lines of social caste or distinction than we see now . They who had " store clothes," a fixed habitation and had advanced just a little beyond camp life, were the aristocracy of that day .

Up and down these bays, and through the many passages and channels, we worked our way in canoes . My father, 10 in the early spring of 1854 , settled in Sawamish , now Mason County ," near

1 Tumwater means " strong, swift-flowing water" ; of Indian origin . The name has displaced Deschutes,once applied, and New Market. See Compiler's Appendix , vol. 11, p. 246 . ? For biography of Ira Ward, see Compiler's Appendix , vol. 11, p. 247. • Smith Hays arrived at Port Townsend in 1852. Next year he, Nicholas DeLin and M. T. Simmons built a sawmill near the site of Tacoma. • For biography of Clanrick, Nathaniel and Alfred Crosby, see Compiler's Appendix, vol. II, p. 247. 5 For biography of George W. Corliss, see Compiler's Appendix, vol. II, p. 247. Lewis Ensign arrived at Olympia in 1853. • For note on the Pacific Hotel, at Olympia, and William Cock, its proprietor, see Compiler's Appendix, vol. II, p. 248.

  • For biography ofGeorge A. Barnes, see Compiler's Appendix, vol. 11, p. 248.

& For biography of Edmund Sylvester, see Compiler's Appendix, vol. 11,p .248. · For note on the donation land law, see vol. 11, p. 34. 10 For note on John Tucker Scott, see vol. 1, p. 132. 11 Named for Char H. Mason , first secretary of Washington Territory. Sawamish is an Indian word. See Compiler's Appendix, vol. 11, p. 248. [29]