TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
until 10 :00 0 'clock, when a couple checked out and everyone rushed
to the desk. The obliging clerk drew attention to myself and family,
and every man of them said, "You come first," and we took the room.
The following day we saw the town, then about 25,000 or 30,000 inhabitants,
with the main street being Commercial, now First South,
and First Avenue, mostly one or two story wooden buildings, and west
of First and Commercial the buildings were all built 011 piling.
The next day I obtained work, for the same spirit prevailed then as
it did with the early pioneers, every man ready to take what he could
get to do, as long as it provided him with an honest living what a
contrast to today's ideas! The climate we admired and enjoyed. Led
by the advice of m~r "ife's aunt, who had a homestead across the
Sound, I filed on one nearby, right back of the tall timber, and seven
miles by road and trail to the nearest boat landing. There were bear,
wildcats, coons and more than enough cougars in the timber. In the
game line were deer, pheasants, grouse, quail and pigeons, so that in
the matter of supplying the table, one simply needed guns and ammunition
and the "know-how" to use them.
The word "bear" seemed to strike terror to the hearts of the "tenderfeet,"
but in fact, are the least to be feared, except as "food
thieves for if you saw one, he'd make faster time than a person ill
running away. Not so with the cougars, however, for if they were interrupted
in preying on hogs, sheep or calves, they'd climb a tree, get
out on a limb and be prepared to drop on you, which I know to have
occurred three times, once when the young man was on horseback,
and they claw and bite viciously. I had the satisfaction of killing
three of these beasts. The last one was eyeing my wife and son, who
had come to meet me on my week-end trip home, and thanks to the
good old pioneer motto, "always carry your gun when on the road,"
I had mine along and kne\v how to use it. This chap was a big one,
a little over 98 pounds.
It got to be part of the home life to fall trees, build houses, lay in
the winter's wood, salt down deer meat and salmon and pork and to
smoke it. All the women folks put up blackberries, raspberries, cranberries
and huckleberries, which grew wild and in abundance. By
growing our own vegetables we often celebrated Thanksgiving and
Christmas with home dinners roast pheasants and cranberry sauce,
potatoes, tomatoes, peas and asparagus, homemade bread, cake and
pie and fruit, sometimes venison.
The influx of settlers was surprising in 1889-90 and after running
the line myself to the nearest boat landing, the neighbors all turned
out and helped built the road, and my distance was reduced from seven
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