Told by the Pioneer's - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
MISS ANNA PATTISON
F1-01n an Inten:ieu:
Pierce County •
:My father crossed the plains in the early days in an ox cart and
brought the first fruit trees to be planted in the northwest, north of
the Columbia river. Seth Luelling was in partnership with my father
and father was the agent. Father worked one year and learned the
nursery business and started north over the trail with pack horses
and brought trees for grafting. When he had left old Oregon and
reached here this territory had been set off, and was now ",Vashingtoll.
After he had packed these on horses, he ferried across to Monticello
filed his claim and immediately set out a nursery. This was in :March,
1853. He shipped trees from Victoria down to Steilacoom and then
sold to private citizens. The old cherry trees at Bigelow's, in Olympia,
are from father's nursery.
Father was justice of the peace at Steilacoom for twenty years. He
was married 13 years after he crossed the plains. ~Iother's name was
:Miss Elizabeth Oliver, and she came west by way of the Isthmus of
Panama. She came from Newark, New Jersey, in 1864. :My sister,
Mary, was born in 1868 near Fort Steilacoom. She taught school ill
the old courthouse at Fort Steilacoom when a young girl. She died in
the year 1934 in Tacoma. She was one of the organizers of Christiall
Endeavor movemellt in the Parkland district and took acti,-e parts iu
the Pioneers' Association and the Daughters of Pioneers.
I am the onlv one left of the familY. I still li,-e on the homestead
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near the city of 'racoma. I haye lots of old papers, books, letters, etc.,
left by my folks.
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The P. B. Moore family came to ",Vashingtoll on the boat which
brought my mother. Their baby got the smallpox, and died in my
mother's arms. She was buried on a small island.
Indian TVars
The Indians didn't b0ther father's nursery but they tried to burn
his log cabin when father was away. The logs were green and it didn't
burn. This cabin had a large room with a fireplace and bedroom.
There were two windows in the cabin. The Indians came into the cabin
and got blankets and a feather bed. Ripped the bed up and set fire
but did not succeed in the attempt. During the Indian war he would
take his blankets and sleep out at night so the Indians \vouldn't find
him. He went to Steilacoom for a short time, burying his naturalization
papers in the root of a stump. He wrote a letter to his brother
in Iowa in case he was killed. He had twin brothers who owned farms
in Iowa. Father was in Iowa but returned to New York in 1848 or
1849 as he did not like the climate and then came arross the plains.
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