The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1894-06-24
stare CAPITAL AID rs PEOPLE
Impressions OF an Ola Resident OF Oily M
pa Retaining After Many Years

Ia 1861 Governor Of Washington Territory,
and later its delegate in congress. tod Tue
writer of visit he made while an the
Eastern states 10 the home OF his yoain-
He found his native town sadly Changed
The familiar faces he was won't 20 meet N
his daily waik and avecation were gone;
many welI-knoxn buildings betrayed signs
of neglect or decay. Some, the occupants
OF which he had known Intimately, were
uutenanted save by bats, the gell-renleEn-
bered scenes Of his early years he could
only recall By an effort OF memory Inc
place was not without Inhabitants. but
they were strangers to him. The desoia-
ton every where visible filled his heart
with sadness, and he eagerly embraced the
first opportunity TO turn his back upon
scene shrouded in such gloom.
Very different was my visit last week to
Olympia. the chosen capital of our state.
II was my home twenty-five years ago.
Then / knew every man, woman and child
in the place. Some of the middle-aged and
older people we're among my first acqnaint-
ances on arriving in the territory, eleven
years earlier. A few have departed pre-
mature for another world; few more,
full OF years, are resting peacefully in the
u
youthful and luxuriant locks are thinned
BY age and Spanked with the silver bios
SONS OF the grave. admonishing them that
the years allotted to them are drawing 70
an end. To meet and greet once more
those who have survived this long period
was a rare pleasure, and one that amply
compensated me for the loss of rest and
fatigue incident to journeys undertaken
by people past three score and ten years.
Ii 1t was very gratifying TO meet the
aged who had survived all these years, It
was not less so to renew nv acquaintance
with some whom | first knew as bright
eyed, winsome girls of 10 or IL years and
happy and aspiring boys in their early
teens. They are now charming women
and worthy men of 30, 30 and 40 years.
Ii was fiattering to realize that they recog-
nIzed me after so long separation.
Several recognized my voice before they
saw my person. When they challenged
my memory and detied me TO recall my
early acquaintance with them the years
rolled backward and | saw them again in
their youth and hopefulness and ambition.
They were girls and boys once more. and
with the vision came the recollection OF
many happy days spent in the territorial
capital. All retain features by which they
will ever be Identified, and which the
passing years are pogerless to change.
Not the least of these are warm and gen.
erous hearts. which go out freely to the
stranger and guest alike on all occasions.
Like its familiar forms and faces,
Olympia retains many landmarks promi-
nent thirty years ago. Some of these I'M
less destructive fires come TO the aid OF
time, bid fair to outlive the oldest inhabi-
tant. One of these was long known as the
Pacific hotel in which the writer was
guest in 1859. when it was kept by Mrs.
Rebecea Howard, 25o-pound colored
woman who had formerly been slave.
Notwithstanding her condition of servi-
tude in early life. she displayed much
business tact and succeeded where others
failed. acquiring handsome fortune be-
fore her death. While doing this, she
regularly RENTED money to the East to
pay for the support and education of
daughter of her former master. 'Aunt
Becky" as most of her patrons called her,
had black skin but not black heart
Her private charities. unknown to the
world at large, we're many and generous.
Among the members and attaches of the
legislature she was always popular. and
deservedly so, tor she spared no means to
splease them.
The rival hotel was kept by one of two
twin brothers (which one L never could
telI) named Mllas and Silas GalIiher.
During the legislative sessions both hotels
were crowded: at other seasons their pat
ronage was confined to persons having
business with the Federal officials. Both
OF these buildings yeta remain to remind
old settlers OF the time when they wished
no more white people would come here
OF old style dwellings in Olympia with
gable roofs and ends, many still defy time
and the elements. Long years elapsed,
after the first settlement of this country.
before architects and skilled carpenters
found their way here. The only house
builders were men who had assisted in the
erection of barns or the most simple kind
of dwellings in the rural districts of the
East. Hence the uniformity in the style
OF the first dwellings erected in Olympia.
II 10 one of the dwellings in early DAYS
was added a verandah, a balcony or a
porch with turned rungs, the fact was
chronieled by the pioneer journalist as a
wonderful achievement in the mechanic
art, and the carpenter was regarded as a
prodigy in his line.
Elwood Evans was one of the first fif
not the hrst) residents of Olympia 10 have
the walls and partitions of his dwelling
plastered. This was about the year 1870,
and 1t was an important event. Prior TO
this period the ceilings and partitions
were entirely of wood, sometimes of cheap
cotton cloth tackled on scantiing, and
brick ehimneys were few and far between
A stoyepipe and q hole in the roof then
sufficed for chimney. The houses were
all one-story or one story aud attic. These
things are briefly mentioned TO convey TO
the reader an idea of the changes wrought
by time in the capital of our state.
Olympia now contains as commodious.
as slightly and as picturesque dwellings
and public buildings as any city in the
state. Its chief hotel, as kept bv f. q.
Deming, is an establishment the peonle
may justly be proud of In cuisine and
service it is eqasled by few and surpassed
by none. ITS estimable hostess, Mrs.
Deming. is one we'll designed by nature to
win the hearts Of patrons of her own sex
bY her afability and kind attentions.
while her husband cannot fail 20 win the
heasts of the men by his generous pro-
vision for the inner man. The man or
woman who can ind anything in the
Hotel Olympia TO complain Of must be
chronic grumbler or extremely fasndious.
The architectural features of the hotel
added 10 its dimensions, would rivet at
tention among the most stately edilees
anywhere.
OF equal interest TO the casual visitor is
Ia 9 fN~ 81