Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1904-03-18

and vicinity fitted out with the sup.
plies and equipments needed, com.
menced at Montgomery's on the east
ern edge of the Nisqually prairie and
cut rough road across the mountains.
Quincy A. Brooks and myself met the
emigrants on the summit of the Cas-.
cades. near the Natchez pass. We
were on horseback and attended by
the celebrated Indian chief and guide,
Quiemuth, Leschi's brother, leading
pack horse that carried our blankets
and provisions. Among the party II
emigrants that we met were: Charles
Biles and wife, their sons David, Char
lie, Van Ogle, Asher Sargent and fam
lily, Nelson Sargent, Marion and sis
ters, Matt Baker and family, Isaac
and Abram Woolery and their fami-
lies, the Kincaids and their families,
and Hines and family. They were
followed a couple Of weeks later by an
other party, among whom were Isaac
Carson, Rev. G. +. Whitworth and
family, Mr.. Boatman and family and
the Wright brothers.
The first school house was bull, in
Olympia in 1853 by the ladies OF that
place.
In the fall OF 1853 Isaac l. Stevens,
then recently appointed Governor OF
Washington Territory and Superin.
tendent OF Indian affairs, arrived over.
land via Vancouver on the Columbia
river, with his party of surveyors and
engineers, then in the interest of the
Northern Pacific Railroad company.
The frat legislative body of Washing.
ton convened over the store Of ]. G.
Parker.
In the fall OF 1853, Olympia becom-
ing the capital of the Territory, at
trated emigration from many places,
and the population increased quite
notably.
In December, 1853. the following
additional persons had arrived and
were residing in Olympia and vicinity:
Hon. Charles H. Mason of Virginia,
Secretary of the Territory, one of the
finest men that ever lived), Hon. Ed.
ward Lander, Chief Justice of the Ter.
ritory. Judge Monroe. Associate Judge.
Judge Gilmore Hays (who had crossed
the plains from Missouri to California
in 1S49, returned home via the isthmus
in 1850, and in command of a large
emigrant train re crossed the plains
with his family in 1922 James A.
Tilton, Elwood Evans, B. F. Kendall,
Mr.. and Mrs. Edward Giddings, Col.
William Cook and family, David
Drewry, John Monroe, Captain A. B.
Cove, Miss Cove, Major H. A. Colds.
borough, Lieutenants Donaldson and
G. B. Mcclellan, Captain U. S. Grant.
who was then at Vancouver on the
Columbia river, Patton Anderson,
United States Marshal, Butler An
derson, J. G. Head and family, United
States Attorney, Clendenin and wife,
DR.. r. Willard, Benjamin Harnard,
H. ID. Morgan. John p. Hays, Alex
Robinson w. II. Mitchell, C. f. Weed
and DIR. Lathrop.
The name Of John Monroe recalls
to memory the following incident that
occurred in the fall of 1852; l missed
him from our boarding house table,
and was informed that he was in an
adjoining room sick. l visited him
after dinner and then called on his
physician, who told me John had
typhoid fever. My reply to DR.. Lath-
rop was: Doctor, John Monroe has
the smallpox" And so it proved.
We had Monroe moved to the old
Thibault cabin and Messrs. Alex Rob-
inson and Tai Bush, who years before
had suffered from the disease, waited
on him. A few nights sfterward Mon.
roe. while delirious, leaped out Of his
bed, and in his night clothes rushed
out doors and ran into the bay. OF
course, the cold water checked his
perspiration and caused his death.
Robinson and Bush laid him out,
placed bis coffin in . canoe, and Rob-
inson and padded the canoe up the
bay to the new burying ground, fol-
lowed at respectful distance by the
mourners in ships row boat. I WAS
in the stern of the small narrow canoe
and Robinson was forward. but before
We had gone half mile I told Robin
son that I would have to change posi-
tions with him and set to the wind
ward OF the coffin, as the smell from
the corpse was unbesrable. Robinson
laid down on the coffin while /
crawled over him and exchanged
places. The grave was on a knoll
near the beach, and six of us carried
the coffin up the hill and buried it.
l reeled back from the grave, feeling
sick, faint and dizzy. That was the
first case of smallpox that 1 ever
heard of q white mans having on
Puget Sound.
An interesting occurrence trans
spired near Olympia in 1855. l had q
remarkably feet riding horse, whose
speed was known to none. A we'll
known business man in Olympia had
a very fast saddle horse that he con-
sidered "ne plus ultra" He BAN
tered me for a race and his PROPOSE
ton was accepted. The stakes origin
ally we're very light, but eventually