TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
their education here, and were desirous of higher education, were
graduates of the University of California, in a way ,'ery creditable
to themselves and worthy of being mentioned. In order to save their
means for school purposes, they walked part of the way to California,
and each, on graduation, was valedictorian of his class, the younger
brother one year later than the elder. These boys were Harry and
John Whitworth, sons of Rev. Geo. F. Whitworth. Harry Whitworth
is now a civil engineer in Seattle, and J olm, who was a lawyer in San
Francisco, died all too young.
The simple pleasures of those days were ample. The hunting
grounds for the boys of that time are now built up with residences.
The Des Chutes river at Tumwater Falls, was excellent fishing, and
salmon, salmon trout, and tom and rock cod were plentiful in Budd's
Inlet. There were no restrictions in those davs and it was common
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for the expert shots to take stations on the Marshville bridge (to the
west side) and Swantown bridge (to the east side) and shoot the
ducks on the wing when passing over in flocks. Then one could even
dig clams whenever or wherever desired without being embarrassed
by a trespass sign.
The" public square," what is now Capitol Park, was donated by
Edmund Sylvester for park purposes, was a baseball grounds. Upon
the southeast corner, for many years, stood an old blockhouse which
served as city bastile and county jail. This, as a place of retention,
was exceedingly popular with the prisoners, as anyone desirous of
taking leave, tired of confinement, could easily do so without the aid
of officer or habeas corpus, relying only on his o"vn personal efforts.
Swimming was indulged in promiscuously without the formalities
of bath houses or bathing suits. Above the Swantown bridge, back
of the old Barnes residence, was a place well patronized, as was also
a little wharf in the rear of the old Olympic hall, where the Knights
of Pythias hall and the Bolster & Barnes business block are now located.
Ladies, desiring to cross the bridge for Marshville, were well
aware of the informality prevalent among the boys, and accepted as
an established fact that at any hour of the day and until early candle
light in the summertime, there was spread out for their gaze an exaggerated
September morn scene which they could pretend to ignore
and go their way, or they could take a boat and cross the bay lower
down. The boys' prerogatives in this respect were never interfered
with until later regulation forbade bathing in the city limits without
a bathing suit The tideflats were left as bare in those days as now
at low tides, and the impatient boys would strip and lie wallowing in
the soft mud like hogs, until the tide came in and washed them off.
At any time during the summer, one could make any young hopeful
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