The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1915-03-04
{. L. SMITH TELLS OF
HOOD RIVER ARRIVAL

! i nave little story 10 tell you.
said +. L. Smith, stopping in the Gla-
eier Office Monday afternoon. IL was
shortly after noon. when Mr. Smith
stopped at the office.
in about an hour and half it will
/ be just SO years ago that nearly all the
settlers in the Hood River valley were
mbled on the sand bar west of the
present site of Hood River. They all
had their wagons and teams and were
awaiting the arrival of the boat from
/ Portland. When the steamer landed q
/ bOatman went down the gang plank
I lie was followed by tall fellow and
| then came a woman and five little
girls. "
/ The man was Mr.. Smith, himself
ard he was followed by Mrs. Smith
and their five little daughters. A year
and half before Mr.. Smith had pur-
chased four quarter sections of land in
| the FTankton district. The Frankton
school stands in the northwest corner
Of one of the quarter sections. The
| family had resided at that time at
Olympia. Mr.. Smith had for asnumber
of years been secretary of Washington
territory. After purchasing his Hood
River property he had shipped lumber
from Portland and had a handsome
country home erected. The wagons
and teams had assembled at the boat
landing to convey the furniture of the
family to the new home.
THE people," continued MIR. Smith,
declared that they had never seen so
much furniture, nearly as much as was
in all the rest of the valley. Among
the lot was big square piano. And
then we had many coops of different
breeds Of thoroughbred chickens. While
they were being unloaded little Sill
yer Spangle hen slipped between the
stats of one of the coops and flew onto
the paddlewheel of the steamer. A
Mr.. Humason, brother of Judge Hu-
mason, took the boat of an Indian and
rOwed to the stern of the boat and
caught the little hen.
when we started for home tooka
big mirror which | was afraid would be
broken if it we're sent up on wagon.
When ! got home two of my little girls,
now Mrs. William Stewart and Mrs.
Elmer Rand, met me-they had gone
on ahead with their hands filled with
bluebells and other varieties of wild
flowers not common on the Sound.
" oh, papa" they exclaimed, What
beautiful country you have brought
US to- And ! think the Hood River
valley has never looked more beautiful
to me than on that afternoon. Our
home was really sylvan paradise.
We had fine young apple orchard, and
an orchard of excellent peaches.
f'IODd RiUpr buh rpifo n fat
for its peaches in the early days. We
used to ship them down by boat.
have often hitched up my team, usually
taking two of the little girls along on
the spring seat of the wagon, and have
taken an early drive to the boat land
ing. One day the boat failed to stop,
and cargo of my peaches remained on
the bank in the hot sun, which was not
good for them. The next day | was
ready with my handbag and boarded
the beat. | explained to one of the
crew that ] was going down to Port
land to tell Capt. Ainsworth about the |
failure of the boat to stop. Il do not
believe | said, that he would be |
pleased to know that you have done
that way Before reached Portland |
the crew had got together and made |
plea with me not to report them. They
promised if | would not, such an occur
renee as had taken place te day before
would never happen again. And sure
enough it didn't.
1--WE had little school house near
the Lyman Smith place. 1t was 1920 |
feet, and we grabbed all the travelling
preachers for services. Later we added |
10 feet to the structure, which is now
the kitchen at Mrs. Alma Howe's Cot
tage Farm.
THAT winter colony from Elmira,
N. Y, and Pennsylvania points came
here and put up their barracks. They
began to drift away the next summer,
and at the present time but two of
them, James Wallace and Mrs. Alfred
Ingalls,, remain in the valley. The
State road, the route to be used by the
Columbia highway, was begun the year
of our arrival"
In coming from Olympia to Hood
River Mr.. Smith and his family took
boat from Olympia to Tacoma, and
from that place they Travelled by train
to Kaama, from whence the Columbia
formed highway all the way to Hood