Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pi(meers
on heavy straps as the cumbersome vehicle jolted along through clouds
of dust.
The only roads were the old Indian trails. Some of them are still
visible five miles east of Pomeroy; the same trails that Lewis and
Clark followed when Indian guides led them through here in 1806 on
their return from the month of the Columbia River.
In 1874 my father located his land. He bought a relinquishment
from John Rush, who had filed a preemption. There was a log cabin
16 x 20 feet in size, and thirteen of us to occupy it, as one of my sisters
was married and lived with us. There was a tiny cabin built to
smoke meat, that accommodated two beds, while trundle beds 'were
used by the younger children.
Soon we were building a roomier house, hauling the logs from the
Blue Mountains. 'Ve hewed the logs and made the floors of lumber
hauled from the Eckler mill on Eckler ~fountain. We made the sash
for the doors and windows ourselves, getting the window-glass from
Waitsburg. There were two rooms, with a sort of gallery between
them, where we often ate in hot weather. There were rooms upstairs,
so we were not crowded.
In 1881 we built a really good house. There was a planing mill at
Pomeroy by that time, so we brought lumber from the sawmill and
had it planed. 'Yindows and doors were shipped up the Snake river
and we hauled them from Kew York Bar.
About the first article manufactured in this localitv was a chair.
•
Hartrode made the first chairs, using native maple which grew along
the creeks and gulches. The seats were made of rawhide strips.
'Ve still have our set, made more than fifty years ago.
There was a lot of game in those days, although the Indians had
killed off many of the deer. There were no elk. Prairie chickens and
•
grouse were here by the thousands. The first elk were brought into
the Blue 2Vfountains by the Game Commission, which sent to ?lIontana
for two carloads, and turned them loose in the mountains.
There were no bridges. I used to watch the stage horses, lathered
with sweat, plunge into the ice-cold streams, the stage coach dropping
down the hank a foot or two, jolting the passengers unmercifully.
Four miles east of Waitsburg a man named Star lived on the banks of
the Touchet River by the stage crossing. The road commissioner, :Mr.
Fudge, decided that the time had come for a bridge. My brother-inlaw,
Thornton, and my brother and I were given the contract for its
construction. It was a simple affair, but a real blessing to travelers
208