Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told
by the Pioneers
Mrs. J. P. Hoyt was Peepbo; Mrs. C. M. Bolton was Kattisha; Mr
John Y. Ostrander was the :Mikado; Mr. R. G. 0 'Brien was Nankipo
Mr. Sam ·Woodruff was Poobah; Lieutenant H. T. Mayo was KoK(
and Mr. L. P. Ouelette was Pish Tush. Of these, the only one now liv.
ing is Sam Woodruff. I mention these names as the old timers will
remember them all and the splendid work they did.
Butler's Cove was situated about 1Y2 or 2 miles north of Olympia
about where the Olympia Golf Club is now. It was a famous picnic
ground and almost the whole town would turn out to attend clam bakes
presided over by "Uncle Bennie Morrell".
The big boats could not land at Percival's Dock, so they had to land
at Brown's ·Wharf north of town. These boats were the Dakota and
the Panama, making the run to San Francisco from Olympia every ten
days. Later they came once a week. The Eliza Anderson (and later
1he North Pacific) was the Victoria boat and made the trip only once
or twice a week. Round trip was $20.00.
When I was nine years old we moved to a house on Thirteenth and
Main Streets called the P. D. Moore House; however, the house was
built by Col. Cock, grandfather of Mrs. H. K. Owens of Seattle and of
the late Capt. Reinhardt of Olympia. The stage, drawn by four horses,
which met the Portland-Tacoma train at Tenino, came into Olympia
over the"plank road" which extended for about a mile south on Main
Street.
In the seventies, there were two boats running between Olympia and
Seattle, the Messenger, owned and run by Capt. J. G. Parker and the
Zephyr, run by Capt. W. R. Ballard. One boat left Olympia at 7 :00
A. M. and the other left Seattle at the same time. It took all day to
make the run. They stopped at Kanaka Jacks, Steilacoom and Tacoma
for passengers and freight, also for wood and water. We always
took a good book or some fancy work along to help pass the long hours,
for the ladies did not play cards as they do now.
My father owned some property on Oyster Bay in Mason County
near Kamilche. On the back of it, wild cranberries grew and he
thought there was no reason why the Eastern cranberries would not
grow there, so be sent for some plants and was quite successful, and
so was the first one to bring the Eastern cranberry into Washington
Territory. In 1878 he built a small steam boat and ran her between
Shelton (then only a few houses) , Kamilche and Olympia. He named
her The Old Settler. She had a big whistle that used so much steam
that she had to slow up after blowing it until the pressure was up
again. Capt. Chapman had an engine on a scow and called it The
Capitol. When he wanted to pass The Old Settler he would blow the