TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
I, like all the other men, freighted in summer, or harvested in the
Big Bend. Freighting is accounted by all who did it as the biggest and
only real hardship. There were no roads save as we ground them out
with our wagons up the mountain sides and down the precipices. Mud
holes would swallow wagons and horses. The freighters would gang
up their horses and pull each other out. They held their wagons right
side up by main strength, when by all the laws of gravity they should
have tumbled down the mountain side or over a cliff.
V·le starteu always with our equipment in order. If anything broke
there was another freighter along soon to help. The reservation had
been thrown open for settlement, Ruby and Conconully were booming
mining towns, and the roads, such as they were, were busy highways.
Harvesting in the Big Bend was another way to earn money, but
whatever one did and however hard one worked, wages were $1.00 a
day. Twenty-five days in the wheat fields and I came home with but
twenty-five dollars. At that season of the year, there were not many
men in the vallev.
•
Our place was on the way to Ruby, Conconully and Tonasket. The
Indians were passing all of the time. Unless drunk, they did not molest
anyone. Indian trouble as such was over, but the white man's
liquor made an Indian unaccountable.
Everybody knew everybody even if they had not met before. A
newcomer at the door, if he mentioned his name, everyone in the country
would have known him and made him welcome. The doors were
never locked. It was not unusual to return home and find a note of
thanks from a stranger for a meal.
There was no rivalry and no envy. Everyone was doing the same
thing. A call of help and I would saddle my cayuse and ride at night
through the canyons to help a sick neighbor.
There were no old people in the country. One missed them among
the young married couples. It was rather sweet to see an old man or
woman. Dances were the most fun of all. I would yank my horse
out of the mud by day and if at home at night, would play the fiddle
for dances, and what was more, the people danced what was played.
Recently I played a quadrille and darned if. the young folks did not
dance a round dance to the music. I never saw the like of this before.
The Devil's Dream, Arkansas Traveler, Old Zip Coon, Tassels on ~l~'
Boots, these were some of the old time favorites. Surprise parties
were in vogue. Once I stood on my doorstep and wondered at all the
dust in the canyon. It was my birthday and every white man and
woman in the settlement was coming to honor my day.
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