The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1891-09-27
PIONEER DAYS ON THE wILLAPA.
What the First white Woman in Pacific
County Kemem bers
CIT Nd T-H

cOuln beEu JOuTuh
Mrs. Jane Adams, who was the first white
woman in Pacific county, accompanied By her
brother, Van K. Wheaton, OF Willapa, and Mrs.
Osborne, of Olympia, stopped ct the Hotel Wat
son last night. Mrs. Adams and Mrs. Osborne
were on their way back to their home in Olym-
pia and left this morning for that city. Mrs.
Adams has been visiting her brother, and also
her old homestead on the banks of the Willapa
near Riverside, where the brick-making plant
now stands, and trying to recall scenes as they
were over forty years ago when she first came
here.
She says the route from Olympia to here was
the same now, but the mode of travel has
changed somewhat. The first time sshe ever
rode on the cars was when she took the train at
Olympia for Montesano on her way here, about
three weeks ago. She said the sensations she
experienced as the train moved off were most
unpleasant, and she was at first somewhat
frightened.
Speaking of her life in the West she said: 81
crossed the plains with my husband from
Illinois when l was IS. That was in 1S47.
In 1s4S we settled in the Willamette valley, but
moved to California in 1s49, when gold was dis
covered. In 1850 We moved back to Pacific City,
a town they were trying to build at the mouth
of the Columbia river, between where uwaco
now stands and Fort Candy. Ii was at one time
quite a large town, composed mostly of houses
which had been framed in Boston and shipped
In sections around the Horn. At present, as
you know, no vestige remains of that city; the
government took that spit for q reservation and
the people had to move.
'Means of locomotion in those days were
rather primitive. There were no steamboats,.
I remember / went down the Columbia in a
yawlboat. When oysters first were exported
from Willapa harbor they were taken to the
Columbia by the Portage, road running from
the head Of navigation on Bear river to the
Wallicut.
"After living about year in Pacific City we
moved to the Willapa river and took up claim,
and il was nine months before another white
woman came on the river. Our nearest neigh
Dor was five miles away, so that the society sea-
son was not particularly exciting. We never
had any trouble with the Indians except during
the Cayuse war, when we had to move into the
boekhouse on the Sebastian Giesy farm There
were only two blockhouses on the harbor, this
and the one at BRIDGEPORT"
show did you manage to live and where was
your market?"
"That has always been a wonder to me- Ire
ally don't know how it was, but know we lived
comfortably. After the oystering business be-
gan we used to sell few eggs and little farm
produce to the oystermen at BRIDGEPORT, and
later on when Oysterville was founded, we used
to trade there"
Mrs. Adams lived here until 1871. when she
moved to Olympia. This Is the first time she
has visited her old home since then. The one
year-old city of South Bend was, of course, a
surprise to her and also the improvements
which have taken place up the valley with the
influx of settlers. Mrs. Adams though over 70
years old, and in spite of the hardships and pri-
vatons she has passed through in her long life is
as bright as dollar mentally, still retains her
hearing perfectly and her old age Ia anything
but a burden.
Her brother, Mr.. Van R. Wheaton, is also one
OF the willapa valley pioneers, having been in
the valley over twenty years. He helped build
the Northwest Lumber Company's mill at South
Bend, which is popularity supposed to have been
made when the world was created.