TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
I was then only 11 years old, but a very busy small girl. Few people
today realize the amount of work that had to be done in an hotel in
those days. There was, of course, no running water, and each room
npstairshad its wash bowl and pitcher, to be cleaned and refilled
every morning. And the kerosene lamps needed to be cleaned and
filled, besides the making of beds and changing of linen. Every day
was wash day sheets, pillow cases, towels, table linen, etc. and no
"washing machine either, just the good old wash board rub-a-dub-dub.
I helped, too, in the dining room at meal time. There was little time
for play.
During the boom, with homes and business houses going up as rapidly
as boards could be sawed and hammered into place by scores of
earpenters, ours was an exciting tOW'l1 to live in. It was far from
beautiful, however; for the streets were piled with lumber and the din
of hammer and saw continued from early morning until late in the
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evenll1g.
By 1893 the population had grown to 500 people, with from 800 to
1,000 prospectors and railroad men constantly coming and going. A
tent hospital had been established and in that year my sister, Lena
Gnnn taught the first school in a room of a private home. A small
school house was built the next veal'.
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As seemed inevitable in all pioneer towns, Index was visited in the
summer of 1893 by a fire which destroyed virtually the entire town.
The fire was started b~' a boy who, reading in bed, upset a candle.
No lives were lost, but two little girls were badly burned. My father
immediately rebuilt the store and hotel, and others also replaced the
burned buildings.
But by now the railroad had been built and the workmen had de-
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parted, and the mining excitement died down.
About 1897-98, mining excitement again grew and the discovery and
development of the Sunset copper mine brought renewed life to Index.
Two new" hotels, a drug store, and other mercantile establishments
were built. A newspaper was established, giving us our first
opportunity to read of local happenings in our own town. Many were
the stories run in this little paper about the vast interests about to
invest in mining' great concentrators and stamp mills to be built.
railroads to carry the ore, etc. but most of these rumors never materialized.
Such ore as was removed was brought down from Galena
and other mines in bags and from here transported to the smelter in
Everett.
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