The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-01-11
THE GOOD OLD DAYS.
Some "reminiscences of Wash
ington Pioneers.
CROSSING TO PUGET SOUND
A Characteristic Anecdote of General
Francis e. Spinner-The Senatorial
Outlook is Very Bright.

Last night number of Washington pio-
neers were at the Arlington hotel, Mr..
samuel Wiley, OF Olympia, who had with
MN DIR. T. Mckinney, Of Olympia; Mr..
w 3 jameson, OF Port Gamble; Mr.. John
Phlnncy, of Wildly island; and Mr.. Fred
Drew, OF the Puget Sound Mill Company.
Mr.. Phinney is on his way to Olympia
70 attend meeting of the Washington
worlds Fair Association, in which he viii
represent Island county. He is also a
member of the state board of immigration,
which meets at Olympia this week.
MT. Wiley is the owner Of the steamer
Multnonlah, which he claims can beat any
stern-wheeler on the Sound. even the
Greyhound.
The talk Of the happy group of old-tim-
ers naturally turned to the happy DAYS
when Washington was a bowling wilder
ness. Mr.. Jameson, who used TO be part
ner at Port Gamble with Mr.. John Col
Inns, OF this city, told of the difficulty of
crossing the country between the Column
bia river and the Sound. 81 remember
spending five days on the trip with my
family, said he, land paying $75 fare.
we came In wagon, with no springs,
over the toughest corduroy road that ever
was on this earth. We bumped over logs
INTO noles and boys, ran on stumps and
got tipped over every now and then, while
the rain poured in torrents. When the
wagon went over We would wade about in
the mud until we could get her righted.
once We were not only tipped out, but the
wagon was turned squarely upside down.
Then the children were plastered with the
cold mud. Going down to the Columbia
was big undertaking when you had to
endure such things as that.
Steiiacoom was then the biggest place
on the Sound, and Port Gamble was of
much more importance than Seattle"
The jovial Mr.. Wiley then took up the
thread OF the story: when / came to
the Sound twenty-four years ago--T had
had landed in California in the fall of
lSo2-the going was, as Jameson says,
pretty rough. The trip to the Columbia
was really awful. remember that Cyrus
Walker, Fred Drew and | started to go
down by an express. for we were in great
hurry TO catch the old steamer, Moses Tay-
lor--' Rolling Moses we used to call her
because she rolled so.
I'VE started in wagon with solid axles,
and were shaken over that terrible cordu-
roy road. In spots the boys were piled
on top of each other, in spots they were
missing; here they were submerged in
water up to the wagon box, and there
they hoated, forming q shaking, quaking
raft. The horses simply scrambled over
them, dragging the humping wagon, in
which we could hardly hold our seats.
Il had valise nllcd with white shirts
and clean clothes. 1t was. dropped ont,
and we did not miss it for half an hour.
Then we started back, and finally discov-
cred 1t lying in pool of muddy water,
and a hne lot of duds had as the result
of it ALL
cat humphreys, on the Cowiitz, we
had some Indians engaged to take us
down in canoes. The stream was swollen
-
run on snags, upset and do everything of
that kind to make the voyage lively.
1.-The worst of it was that after we had
posted down to the Columbia in such hot
haste to catch the steamer, we found her
three days late and had to wait for her.
Those adventures are amusing enough to
look back at now, but they were not SO
very funny at the time.
1.-The country has changed in good
many ways since then. For twenty-five
years followed logging, making Olympia
my trading post. A good deal OF the time
l was down in Mason county. At hrst
man with six oxen thought he had a
pretty good outnt, so far as animals went,
FOR logging; but nowadays he can't get
along without six or seven yoke. Then a
mill would run night and day and put out
10000 feet of lumber, which was consid-
cred big saving. But the machinery has
improved so much that it takes less men
TO saw 800 600 feet day than used TO be
employed on the &C, 600 feet.
'.The first people TO cross from the
Columbia to the Sound were man named
Bush and his wife, who took up dona-
ton claim of $40 acres at what is now
Bush's prairie near Olympia. That was in
1917. They used TO say they were the
first white people to come through, but
the fact is that though Mrs. Bush was
white her husband was q negro. Yet he
was a white man in everything but his
skin-one of the finest old fellows you
ever knew. When the people going across
struck Bush's the best the place afforded
was free to all, and royal hospitality was
dispensed. Everybody thought .
good deal OF old man Bush,
who was one of the most popular
men in the Northwest. His son has inner
tied his good traits, is everywhere re-
spected, and was in the legislature. This
son, the young Bush, had a daughter who
is one of the handsomest women you ever
saw She is married now, and well-mar-
ried. | believe.
although the pioneer times are over
forever, and the hardships and toll of those
years are impossible today, yet now and
tEen am sorry TO think we shall have no
more such adventures; for we were happy
through it all.