TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
Alexander Canutt put in the first irrigation ditch and
first fruit trees.
planted the
Groceries were brought across the hills from "'Valla Walla or were
shipped from Portland.
We had no near neighbors for two years, excepting the Indians
three miles down the river, where they had their lodges. One winter
there was an epidemic of small-pox. Their treatment, the 8weathouses,
killed many. In later years, the influenza epidemic greatly
diminished the tribe as the result of sweat-hoUf;e treatment. The
chief died during' this epidemic and the tribe disbanded.
The railroad right-of-way ran through the Indian cemetery. Graves
were opened and ransacked. After it \vas discovered that gold pieces
were being discovered in these graves, ruthless searchers came, even
from the East, to desecrate the resting places of these simple people,
who believed that the departed would find use for the treasures which
were placed with them in their graves. Twenty $20 gold pieces were
found in one gTave, a necklace of gold pieces in another. "We don't
find just beads," said one of these white men, reared under Christian
influences.
Mr. Spalding made his blacksmith shop into a school room in 1877.
There were 42 pupils in 1884 when the school house was built.
The first homes were box houses with crude furniture, home-made.
Rev. Eells, tra,-eling through the country, held church services in our
home.
There were parties and dances, many of the latter in our home,
which was a hotel. H. H. Selfridge, warehouse agent, was the fiddler.
The old canyon road up which the pioneers rode their ponies or
drove their wagons to Colfax sixty years ago, is overgTown with
weeds and covered with rocks. Pole bridges have decayed. The warehouses
and stores have disappeared. The mill wheel lies in the dust.
Today only silence reigns.
S. J. KAVANAL'GH
Skagit County
Born of the union of two races, 1\11'. Kavanaugh seems to have inherited
the good qualities of both. His mother was Tal StoIa, daughter
of an Indian chieftain of the Swinomish tribe. In his youth, Mr.
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