TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
week, then twice a week and then once a day, and diminished in trips
the same way after the railroad was built.
The men wore blue denim overalls, and women wore gingham. For
food the standbys were beans, potatoes, bacon, salmon and flour. I
had one exciting experience with an Indian, but I didn't know just
how exciting it was until later. One day I was walking down the bottom
of the canyon trail when I met an Indian on a pony. He had a
rifle slung across his knees and his face all painted up. He watched
me closely and as we drew near, I thrust my hand in my hip pocket
and turned sidewise to him as we passed. I pushed the side of my
pocket out with my finger to make him think I had a gun there, and
we slowly passed each other. He went on to Chenowah and shot a
man there, for which he was hung. I went to the timber to get out
some railroad ties. Coming back one evening I met an old squaw and
some others and told them of meeting this painted Indian on the trail.
The squaw said, "'Didn't he shoot you?" I replied, "No, or I wouldn't
be here." Later Greenleaf, below Bonneville, told me that the Indian
had painted himself up and set out to shoot the first white man
he met on the trail.
There were schools here when I came. Did· vou ever read "The
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Little Red School House on the Banks of the Columbia" by Gray1
Well, that school house was located a half mile up the road from here.
It was the first school house I saw in this country. A quarter breed
Indian in Washougal wrote a book about this country in 1887. About
this "Little Red School House." I was afterwards a clerk of that
very school. Later this building' was sold and made over into a house
and it is still standing, although all remodeled. Lumber for the second
school built here, came from the Cascade Locks.
I remember a Stevenson man, called on the petty jury during the
high water of 1894, had a bad time getting to Tacoma to serve. The
railroad was out, so he went to Astoria by boat and then up through
the Sound. He was three days late, so the judge fined him $25.00.
But the fine was afterwards remitted, when the man's friends objected.
One day I went to the Locks (all our trading was done there in the
early days) with the Indian Kanche. Coming back, a 12 pound salmon
leaped into our boat. This has happened to other people, so you can
believe me. When the salmon are running they do not stop for obstacles.
Kanche showed me how to cook it over glowing coals and
covered with ashes. It was delicious. He also showed me how to
hake Indian bread without pans. Make the cakes of dough pretty
dry, about one-half inch thick. Put red coals in the bottom of a shallow
hole and cover with more ashes, then red coals on top. Leave for
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