Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
have lived here continuously, with the exception of two, one of whom
lives in Salt Lake City, Utah, and the other in Seattle.
My father, L. H. Rhodes, was born in Illinois ill 1844 and crossed
the plains with his parents by ox team in 1848, their destination being
the town of Champoeg, Marion county, Oregon. :My mother, ~liss
Catherine Parrott, was born in the County of Kent, England, and
sailed with her parents and other relatives for the United States in
1852 in a small two-masted schooner, a very hazardous voyage of seven
months around Cape Horn. They were nearly shipwrecked off the
coast of Patagonia. They landed at, or near, S1. Helens on the Columbia
river, after their long trip, then went to Champoeg, 'where she
and father became acquainted and eventually married. Father was
16 years old and mother but 15 when they were married. Two years
later, in 1862, they moved by boat down the Willamette and Columbia
rivers, landing at what is now Chinook, Washington. From this place
they came by pack and canoe to Shoalwater Bay and on to the little
town of Bruceport, where father began his career as an oysterman,
oyster gathering being the chief industry of the bay at that time. They
were among' the early pioneers to locate here. The Indians outnumbered
the whites at that time ten to one. Most of the Indians were of
the Chinook tribe and peaceable.
In 186G father filed on a homestead in Section 17, Township 13,
Range 10, and after having lived on this land until within six months
of his residence requirements, walked to Olympia, capitol of the Territor:'
of "\Vashington, and paid the full amount of $1.25 per acre,
which was the price for government land at that time, thereby purchasing
his land instead of acquiring by homestead right. This he