Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
first white men adopted the same practice, so that this \'eo'etable soon
became the principal article of vegetable diet. t>
In 1852-53 there 'was a scarcity of food supplies: flour was $40 a
barrel and scarce at that; salt pork was $20 a barrel. There were no
stores, other than a very small affair at Port Townsend, nearer than
Victoria; no grist mill nearer than Tumwater, just above Olympia.
Cows had been brought to the island, so there were milk and butter;
but there was little of fresh meat except for Yenison, which, happily
\\'as to be had for the shooting. Salmon, too, was plentiful and formed
a staple article of food.
III 1853 a settler went from Ebey's Landing to the present site of
Oak Harbor and remained there at work for a week. Upon his return
he was asked about conditions on the other side of the island.
"I don't see much difference," he replied. "Over there they have
salmon and potatoes, while here we have venison and potatoes."
As late as 1866, pork-fresh, salted or smoked-was about the only
meat other than venison that was obtainable, except that occasionally
a farmer would kill a beef and share the meat \\'ith his neighbors, who
later, in their turn, would return an equal quantity of beef after butchering
their cattle. Flour, for years, was almost unobtainable. At a
barn-raising in the fifties, of all the men who attended and carried
their dinners, only one had bread and that was in the shape of a biscuit.
Clothing was bought for service, regardless of the dictates of
fashion. One pioneer, who later became a man of meaI1S, told of go.
ing for more than a year without a coat. Linsey-woolsey was a common
rough material used for children's dresses. In the late sixties
the writer saw a woman and her four girls, ranging in ages from six
to twelve, all dressed alike in calico which the mother had bought in
Victoria and smuggled through by fastening it to her clothing under
her hoop skirt.
Styles were often as odd as the material used for clothing. One old
bachelor, on his semi-occasional visits to Port Townsend, wore a bellcrowned
hat and a short blue cloak, to the never-ending amusement of
the populace.
Homes were scantily furnished, as nearly all furniture had to be
shipped around the Horn, transferred to a sailing vessel at San Francisco
and brought to the island. The sailing vessels made only irreg.
ular voyages, and were always welcomed; for most of them carried
supplies of many sorts which were sold or traded to settlers.
Farming methods during the first few years were primitive. Hay
was mowed with a scythe and grain cut with a cradle and bound by
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