move for the settlement of the controversy December 10th, when Lord Lyons suggested that the question be submitted to the King of the Netherlands, the King of Sweden and Norway, or the President of Switzerland for arbitration. December 24th the State of South Carolina passed an ordinance of secession from the Union, the storm which McClellan says Harney, Stevens and Pickett had seen gathering, broke, and threw the nation into the Civil war. Nine years passed before another attempt was made to establish definite ownership of the island. Writing of this period McKay says "we had peace and lots of fun." The commander of the British camp seized a boat belonging to the British customs officers, would not return it and defied the owners. A political row developed and Queen Victoria, upon the request of Victoria politicians, removed the commander. About this time McKay succeeded in having the American commander removed. The telegram which McKay sent to San Francisco, and which resulted in the removal of the American commander, was the first ever sent from the island and cost the sender $45. The British gave the Americans a great feast and the Americans returned the compliment by giving another feast at which they fed their guests every kind of food they could prepare. When the Englishmen. had eaten until the Americans thought they could eat no more, the waiters cleared away the dishes, which were washed and again placed upon the tables. "What are you going to do?' asked one of the Englishmen. "We are going to serve the balance of our feast,' replied the waiters. "My eyes! We can't eat any more.' 66 'Well, if you can't eat any more the waiters will carry away the dishes.' "The writer was invited to that feast and knew of the trick. There was not another thing to put on the table, but the bluff worked well," says McKay. Through the period of joint occupancy settlers enjoyed freedom from taxation and customs duties. The United States levied a heavy duty on all wool importations. Federal customs officers grew suspicious of the large quantities of wool yielded by San Juan Island sheep and, being unable to prove the settlers guilty of smuggling wool from Vancouver Island, took a census of the sheep. The census. showed that each animal was growing an annual clip amounting to more than one hundred and fifty pounds! The annals of wool do not show its parallel. Because the arbitrator, the President of Switzerland, was given the right to draw a new line in case he found neither the Canal de Haro or Rosario Straits to be the boundary intended by the treaty of June 15, 1846, the United States Senate refused to confirm the treaty signed in 1869 by United States Minister Johnson and Lord Clarendon and the question was referred to the Joint High Commission. In May, 1871, the commission, sitting in Washington, D. C., voted to submit the question to Emperor William I, of the German Empire. After an exhaustive investigation by three German scientists, Emporer William, October 21, 1872, rendered a decision in which he declared the Canal de Haro to be the boundary contemplated by the original treaty. It was the line proposed by Lord Aberdeen in his conference with American Minister McLane, in London, in May, 1846, and but for the desire of Governor Douglass to make the United States pay the Hudson's Bay Company another, and additional, sum for its "possessory rights" perhaps would never have been disputed. About a year after the German emperor had made his decision, President Grant appointed Gen. Hazard Stevens commissioner on the claims of British subjects on the island. General Stevens made a canvass of the island, but failed to find any British subjects-McKay was right when he said it was a loadstoneevery Britisher had become an American citizen. Beautiful marble monuments now mark the sites of the British and the American camps. They were erected October 21, 1904, by the Washington University State Historical Society. CHAPTER XX STORY OF A PIONEER WEDDING "HARD BREAD'S" HOTEL-SHOT AT FORT SUMTER ENDS AMBITIOUS ROAD PLANS IN NORTH WEST SEATTLE'S FIRST NEWSPAPER— FAMOUS OLD RAMAGE PRESS NOW IN UNIVERSITY MUSEUM-LOTTERY CONDUCTED FOR GOOD ROADS PURPOSES-MANY YEARS BEFORE SNOQUALMIE PASS IS MADE PASSABLE. J. G. Parker, commissioned by Governor Stevens in 1853, was the first express messenger over the route. In the fall of 1860 the Federal Government began letting daily mail contracts in the Northwest. Portland, already beginning to boast metropolitan pretentions, became the hub from which radiated mail route. spokes in all directions. Winsor obtained the Portland-Olympia contract and established the first daily service between the two towns. The trip required three days-days when the stage route patron might be forced to wade through the mud and water of flooded swamps or steep hills, jolt over rough corduroy and sleep where night might overtake him. One writer has said that such passengers, after completing the journey, went into quarantine for a week to get rid of insects in their clothing and the rheumatism in their joints. Winsor, resourceful and courageous, with a touch of the quiet dare-devil in his make-up, was as successful in his stage route venture as he was in the joke that led to his marriage. The first week in June, 1853, Rev. C. H. Kingsley was called from Portland to Rainier to unite a Mr. Fox and a Miss Dray in marriage. Winsor, a friend of the bride and one of the guests, pretended to be much disappointed that he was not the "lucky bridegroom" and as an evidence of sorrow, was wearing a crepe band around his hat. Early day marriages, like early day dances, drew to them the young people from many miles around. Ministers were few in number and as there were present on this occasion several couples who, from all appearances, Winsor judged to be candidates for matrimony, he suggested they embrace the opportunity and told the minister he had "better marry a lot of them this time so you won't have to come so often." All of those named by Winsor said they were not ready. Winsor then turned to a young iady from Monticello and asked her if she was ready. She replied with the question: "Did you ever know a girl that was not ready-if she had a chance?" One joke led to another and finally to a dare that the girl and Winsor take the chairs recently occupied by the bride and groom; then that they arise. Other guests told the minister to "say the ceremony in fun;" and he replied that if he said the ceremony "it would be no fun"-a reply which the girl and Winsor did not hear. In as few words as possible the minister "said the ceremony" and closed by pronouncing the couple husband and wife. On the occasion of her fiftieth wedding anniversary, Mrs. Winsor, in telling of her marriage said the minister's last words were "such a shock that Mr. Winsor could not speak when he realized what we had done. I did not realize it as soon as he did, and went to my father's house. Mr. Winsor came to visit me and said that as neither of us cared for another, if I was willing and wished it, we would try what life had in store for us together. We have celebrated our fiftieth anniversary." Vigorous were the lamentations of those forced to travel this pioneer road. It, however, was not without its resting places. At the crossing of the Chehalis River, near the mouth of the Skookum Chuck, was the hospitable home of Joseph Borst. John R. Jackson, a Scotchman who came by way of Missouri in 1845 and settled on Jackson's Prairie, was a genial host and the fame of Mrs. Jackson's cooking lived in the memory of every traveler. Near the present City of Castle Rock was "Hard Bread's Hotel," famous, but shunned by travelers, because its bachelor proprietor fed his guests on hard tack. Newcomers raised such a protest over the road, and the high tariffs charged, that Congress finally heard the petitions and legislative memorials, and appropriated money for improvements. From the Landing down the Cowlitz Valley to Monticello a primitive road was opened. It served the needs of the people until the building of the railroad in 1873. It was a link in a construction scheme through which the Federal Government expected to supply Western Washington with a system of good roads. Another link was a projected road from the mouth of the Columbia by way of the head of Sound to Port Townsend-175 miles to be built at an estimated cost of about ninety thousand dollars. Still another link was a continuation of the Monticello-Steilacoom Road to Fort Bellingham. The first shot fired on Fort Sumter at the opening of the Civil war shattered this ambitious plan. Congress, early in 1857, authorized the construction of the Fort SteilacoomFort Bellingham Road and in August W. W. Delacy began surveying the route. Lieutenant Mendell was placed in charge of construction and the work was prosecuted to the Stillaguamish River when orders came to disband the crew of laborers. Many returning Fraser River miners found needed employment on this road, which was completed to Seattle in October, 1860. In that month Rev. Daniel Bagley, wife and son Clarence, arrived in the Elliott Bay settlement, having driven overland from Salem, Oregon, in the first buggy ever brought to King County. High winds threw great trees across the road almost immediately after the Bagley buggy had passed and for some years wagon traffic over the route was impossible. The great difficulties encountered in crossing the Cascade Mountains by the Nachess Pass immigrant road, coupled with the favorable report made by Lieut. A. L. Tinkham, in January, 1854, caused Puget Sound people to turn towards the Snoqualmie Pass for a solution to the important problem of trans-mountain communication with the eastern part of the territory. Seattle, fully expecting to become the western terminus of Governor Steven's Northern Pacific Railroad, took the initiative in the building of a wagon road through the pass. In the summer of 1855, Judge Lander, Dexter Horton, F. Matthias, Charles Plummer, C. D. Boren, A. F. Bryant, J. H. Nagle, Charles Walker, Doctor Bigelow and others explored the route to a point well beyond the summit. They reported no serious difficulties but the Indian war breaking out about the time of their return, the matter was held in abeyance for three years. 1 |