proclamation, Samuel T. McKean, of Clatsop, was elected councilman and Michael T. Simmons, of Lewis county, representative.

A NEW TERRITORY.

During the few years following, the influx of settlers to the country north of the Columbia river had far exceeded the expectations of the little band of pioneers who first located their homes in the gigantic forests. It became apparent that steps toward a separate territorial government could not be taken any too soon. At the session in the winter of 1852, the legislature of Oregon created the county of Thurston out of the northern portion of Lewis county. The new county embraced all of the Puget Sound Country, and its northern limit was the international boundary.

Levi L. Smith, of New York, and Edmund Sylvester, of Maine, were the first settlers of Olympia, coming there in 1846. They settled as squatters upon the present site of that city. They proposed to lay out a town at that place, which they believed would become an important place in the future as it was at the head of navigation on Puget Sound. They agreed to call the place Smithter, which name was formed by a combination of Smith and "ter," the last syllable of Sylvester's name, although this was not altogether satisfactory to Sylvester. Smith was elected a member of the Oregon legislature in 1848, but did not live to take his seat, having been drowned in August of that year, while on his way in his canoe from his cabin to Tumwater. Subsequently, Sylvester acquired by purchase such interest as Smith had as a squatter on the land, and afterward entered, under the donation act, a claim which covered both of their original locations. The statement heretofore frequently published that the town was to be called Smithfield is not correct. It was first surveyed in 1850 and was given the name of Olympia, which it has since retained.

When the bill to create a new county for the Puget Sound Country was first presented to the Oregon legislature, it was proposed to name it Simmons, but the sad death of Congressman Samuel R. Thurston, which occurred the spring before, and a general disposition among the people of Oregon to perpetuate his memory, suggested his name for the new county.

During the summer of 1852 the talk in favor of a new territory to be formed out of that part of Oregon lying north of the Columbia river, became general and met with favor from all of the rapidly growing settlements. The suggestion received its first public expression in a Fourth of July speech at a celebration in Olympia. A few weeks later, at a term of the district court held at the residence of John R. Jackson in Lewis county, a convention was called to meet at Monticello on the last Thursday in November, to memorialize Congress for a new territory. Monticello, then an important town, was located near the mouth of the Cowlitz river on the direct route from the Columbia to the Sound.

The Monticello convention was held November 25, 1852, and was attended by delegates from each county in that portion of Oregon that was asking for a separate government. A memorial to Congress was prepared, setting forth existing conditions and asking that there be created the territory of Columbia out of that portion of Oregon lying north and west of the Columbia river. No opposition to the move was manifest on the part of the people residing in the other portions of Oregon.

On December 6, 1852, Hon. Jos. Lane, delegate to Congress from Oregon, introduced the subject of a new territory. The committee on territories reported a bill to create the territory of Columbia, which came up for consideration on February 8, 1853. Congressman Stanton, of Kentucky, suggested the name of "Washington," saying that there was already a district of Columbia, while the name of the Father of his Country had not been given to any territory in the Union. With the name of "Washington substituted the bill became a law on March 3.

The act created a territory more than twice the size asked for in the memorial, being "All that portion of Oregon territory lying and being south of the forty-ninth degree of north latitude and north of the middle. channel of the Columbia river from its mouth to where the forty-sixth degree of north latitude crosses said river near Fort Walla Walla, thence with said forty-sixth parallel of latitude to the summit of the Rocky Mountains." This included all of Washington as it now stands, together with portions of Idaho and Montana.

CHAPTER XVIII.

HARDSHIPS AND INCIDENTS OF TRAVELING ACROSS THE PLAINS.

A large proportion of the settlers in the Puget Sound Country came from the Mississippi valley, crossing the plains with ox-teams, after they learned that wagons could be taken across the Rocky and Cascade. mountains. This journey was not only tedious and toilsome but full of danger, and from the time these emigrants passed the western borders of Iowa and Missouri, constant watchfulness was required by day and by night; for they were surrounded by hostile savages and wild beasts, who were the terror of horses and cattle, as well as the emigrants themselves. To stampede the former and massacre the latter was the ambition of most of the Indian tribes through which they passed, and all their cunning and ingenuity were made use of, to compass these ends. For self-preservation and mutual protection, the emigrants traveled in large companies, corralled their wagons, and within the circle so formed they enclosed their families and, if possible, all of their horses and cattle. Thus they traveled day after day, week after

week, month after month, until their destination was reached, which was usually six months, sometimes more, after leaving the borders of civilization. Occasionally, an epidemic would break out amongst these pilgrim bands, as the cholera did in 1852, and for the want of care, proper medical attention and nursing, the mortality would be great, and their numbers much reduced before they came to their journey's end. It was not strange, therefore, that the road they traveled, which eventually became a broad highway, should be frequently bordered by lonely graves, which marked the last resting places of the victims of disease, of Indian hostility, or of accident, or by drowning in some of the many cold and swift rivers they were obliged to cross, particularly, in the Rocky Mountain region, the Cascades, and other ranges over which they were obliged to pass.

The hostility of the Indians was further intensified by the wanton and cruel acts of lawless and unprincipled white adventurers, who were too frequently to be found in these emigrant trains, and who were not restrained by the ordinary laws, rules and regulations of organized society. It was not strange, therefore, that these Indians, conscious of the tide of civilization advancing with apparently irresistible force from the Atlantic, in the direction of the Pacific, crowding out and destroying the aborigines of the country, should undertake in their wild and ungovernable passion, to wreak vengeance upon any members of the hated race with whom they came in contact and should slaughter men, women and children indiscriminately whenever an opportunity to do so presented itself. Yet there was something grand and inspiring in this long journey of two thousand miles, over plains whose billowy roll extended in every direction as far as the eye could reach, or over mountains whose snowy peaks seemed to touch the clouds throughout the entire year. Many of these emigrants had never before seen a mountain, and to them it was like the first view of the ocean, or of Niagara Falls. In the wonderfully clear and exhilarating atmosphere of the plains and mountains, the stars looked down upon their lonely encampments with peculiar and unusual brilliancy; and it would have been strange indeed, if the watchful sentinels and the wakeful travelers, whose bed was the earth and the sky their covering, brought, as they were, into such intimate communion with nature, should have been led to inquire with Napoleon, Who made all these? or should have realized more fully than ever before, the constant and all-prevailing presence of God himself. There were many who sailed away from New England, New York and elsewhere on the Atlantic, for the northwest coast, who had similar experiences. Their long voyage of fifteen thousand miles, traversing day after day, week after week, month after month, for from three to six months, a barren waste of waters, bounded only by the horizon in every direction, enabled them to form larger concep

tions of the great world in which we live, and must have made them feel the immensity of the heritage given to man for his use and benefit, more thoroughly than they ever did before. These long journeys or voyages were calculated in the highest degree to broaden the view, to increase the mental scope of vision, and to serve as a stimulus to the intellectual capacity of every man, woman and child making either the one or the other. No such lessons in patience, fortitude, courage and endurance could be learned in any of the books, or from any of the professors in the schools, colleges or universities of the country. The ordinary troubles of life would have but few terrors for those who had made such a journey across the plains in the years intervening between 1840 and 1870, or a voyage around the Horn before the age of steam had superseded sailing vessels. A few extracts from original documents may be of interest in this connection.

The following paragraphs are taken from a manuscript volume by Samuel Hancock, long a respected citizen of Whidby Island, and who was engaged in business at various points in the Puget Sound Country for many years. It is entitled "Thirteen Years' Residence on the Northwest Coast, 1847 to 1860, An Account of Travels and Adventures Among the Indians, etc:"

"In the spring of 1845, the author of this book took his departure from Independence, Missouri, in company with two hundred others, their wagons and necessary teams, for the long and at that time uncertain journey across. the plains. The destination of the party was Oregon, which at the time might be considered somewhat indefinite, the whole of the possessions of the United States on the northwest coast of the Pacific embracing an immense area of country beginning at the forty-second degree of north latitude, and extending to forty-nine degrees north, or to the British possessions, east to the summit of the Rocky Mountains, and from there to the line separating this territory on the seashore from California. At the time referred to, the now state of Oregon and the present existing and flourishing territory of Washington constituted this far off and attractive part of the wilds, known as "Oregon," and which seemed to possess the inducements for our adventurous citizens to go to, and undertake its settlement, to build up new homes and, if possible, new everything, and in undertaking this the reader can well imagine it was no trifling task to separate one's self from all the old associations of early life and start upon such an enterprise at such a time, for at that time little was known of the northwest from the Atlantic to the Pacific seaboard. It is true a small emigration did cross the year before, but little information was derived from these early pioneers other than that they reached Oregon after a long and hazardous journey.

"Our party, after leaving Independence, proceeded up the Missouri

river for four days, when it was thought best to halt and here remain for a week, there being good grass at this encampment, and to recruit our animals and get everything in proper readiness for the progress of our long journey. Our company at this encampment, having all got together, embraced forty wagons. Soon after our arrival at this point, we discovered fresh signs of Indians, which caused us to keep a pretty close guard upon our animals, and, indeed, ourselves too, for we were disposed to regard these Indians suspiciously from the accounts we had heard of them before leaving the settlements. During the second day at this place Indians could be seen on the hills adjoining, to all appearances taking a survey of the position of our encampment, doubtless for the purpose of making a descent upon either us or our cattle, either of which we did not particularly desire, so we detailed a double guard to provide against a surprise. The Indians could see this movement, and doubtless did, for in two or three hours after this extra guard was instituted they left, seemingly, but were evidently still about, for in the night of the third day it was discovered the cattle were very restless and apparently frightened at the Indians, and we immediately took the precaution of staking our horses near the corral, formed by placing our wagons around in a circle. This formed a kind of fortification besides being a place of comparative safety for our stock. In addition to the guard already on duty, we detailed a special horse guard, the night being very dark, indeed so dark it was almost impossible to distinguish any object a little remote. Just about daylight the cattle made another demonstration of uneasiness, and one of the guards, perceiving an Indian rise from his place of concealment and run, discharged his rifle immediately at him, but without effect. Notwithstanding all the vigilance on our part in the establishment of guards so as to keep a good watch upon the movements of these wily Indians, yet they succeeded in stealing quite a number of our cattle. This being ascertained, a party of twenty-five men immediately struck out from camp in the direction of where we could hear a bell that was around the neck of a trusty animal that the Indians had driven off amongst the others they had stolen. This animal, being frightened at the appearance of these unfamiliar masters, would not allow them to approach her to get this bell off, and by this means we were enabled to pursue our stock. The Indians, after finding it impossible to get near this bell cow,' endeavored to kill her, for we found a number of arrow heads had pierced the poor animal. It seemed to be an effort on the part of the Indians, to get this animal out of hearing, for she was in advance of all the rest of the animals. In our pursuit after the cattle and Indians we passed pretty much all of our stock save this one and perhaps two or three others that were hurried along by the Indians. By means of this bell we were enabled to follow them up. When daylight fairly opened