Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
ropes and chains were still seen on the trees of Laurel Hill. We
crossed the Columbia at The Dalles.
,Ve had to layover there for three days on account of wind and sand.
The ferry was an old scow manned by three men. Our train consisted
of one wagon and team, four cows and four calves and one saddle
horse. After three weeks time, we arrived on March 10, 1886, at the
present site of Wiley City.
1'hat fall a school house was built at Skookumchuck (where the Ahtanum
pavement now ends) and we had a two-mile walk morning and
night in order to attend classes. \Vinter was coming on and we had
only a small tent for a family of six.
After two weeks spent on the trail, we entered the Ahtanum Valley.
on October 10, crossed the creek and proceeded up the valley. Passing
a ranch, we saw a woman coming toward us along the trail. She had
seen the wagon coming a long way off and had come to welcome another
woman to the lonely valley. The woman was Mrs. A. P. Crosno,
and a life-long friendship between the two families had it beginning
that day as we accepted the hospitality of these new neighbors.
Within a few days we had the logs assembled and all the men who
had settled within miles came for the house-raising, which was done
in one day. (1 think there were about 15 men.) The next thing was
to make shakes for the roof. This was as great a job as building the
house. Suitable timber was found near the mouth of Nasty Creek (a
short distance above Tampico on the north fork of the Ahtanum), and
was bolted and hauled home.
1 cut down cottonwood trees for our first home. It was 18x18, with
upstairs bedrooms reached by a ladder. Split shakes of yellow pine
were used for shingles. Floors were of split puncheon and the furniture
was made of the same. 'We had a stove, and the fireplace was
built two years later of sandstone from the Lower Naches.
We brought food for the first winter. The next winter we exchanged
shelled corn with our neighbor, J. B. Nelson, for dried peas, so our
fare consisted of potatoes, cornbread and peas.
Pioneer women made their own soap, using wood lye. There were
ill Ahtanum at that time, a sorghum mill, a furniture factory, where
tables and chairs were made of oak and birch from along the creek.
Clothing for the men and boys was made from" hardtimes cloth,"
while the girls' dresses were made of "ladies cloth." They wore big
aprons to school to cover these pretty dresses.
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