Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
the big prairie, with big tall timbers, two hundred and fifty to three
hundred feet high on the river bottom. Just below the bank, about
thirty feet of an elevation, were two large springs of good water; also
quite a body of open land in the river bottom from the bank where the
cabin stood, one mile and a half west of the mound itself, in the middle
of Section 9, Township 15 North, Range 3 West. An Indian village
was on the bank of the river where it washes right up to the prairie.
Near the mound and a half a mile east of the cabin, were two
families of Indians, the Hatstute and the We-i-We families. 'We-i-We
had a wife and three sons, Tesian, Colallowan and Heom.
,life made camp as usual. Mother spread our quilts down at the end
of the cabin for us boys on the outside, just the same as the first camp
at Vienna in Wisconsin two veal'S before. I am not sure but it was
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the same red quilt that made the bed look so inviting and cozy.
Next day Father sent one of the boys to bring Brother Samuel and
Thomas and one of the teams and wagon back from up at what is
known as the Tilley Donation Claim, as he had concluded this was a
more desirable spot and was anxious to get settled, as winter was not
far off.
'With the big ox teams, a plow and something of an outfit to work
'with and four boys to help, he commenced breaking the prairie and
fencing, so that the place soon looked as if somebody were living
there. Strangers would remark to Father how well he was getting
along with improvements. Father got a little steel burr of a grist mill,
bigger than a coffee mill, of Mr. George Bush, and had the mill fastened
to a post on the porch of the cabin and it was a chore for us
~-ounger ones to grind enough meal for breakfast. We ground boiled
wheat or peas. I used to feel a delicacy about turning the crank, (just
like an automobile), in the morning wher strangers would be staying
all night, as the jar and noise of the little old mill would disturb a deaf
man in the quiet early morning hours. The guests would come out
and examine the machinery and comment on its work. :l\lam" travel-
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ers would come to our cabin for a night's lodging on their way to Puget
Sound.
Father bought a few sheep of :l\lr. Bush, seven head at seven dollars
a head, I know it was only a few. We children or younger ones
were to keep watch on them, but we allowed them to stray off and
they were not found until the next day. Most of them had been killed
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by the coyotes. I remember of only one ewe coming back from o,-er
by Scatter Creek. Afterwards Father and Brother Samuel went to
Nisqually and bought forty-one head of Mr. James :l\IcAllister. I
think this was in the summer of 1853. I had gathered up senn dollars
and fifty cents and sent it along to buy one sheep.
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