Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
Joe ::\laurman settled away in the wilderness, at the most out of the
way place any settler had gone to at that time, away off from any
roads on the Upper Chehalis. Being a big, powerful man, he packed
his provisions and utensils in over a bad trail for miles. A settlement
had been started on the ",Villapa River by come Germans. The Crellans
had developed the oyster business on Shoalwater Bay. The old
settlers at this time were John R. Jackson, of J acksoll Prairie; the
Hunting-tons at the mouth of the Cowlitz, also the Catlins, .Toe Borst,
George Wanch and the Sidney Ford, Sr., family on Ford's Prairie on
the Chehalis and at the mouth of the Skookumchuck. A gap north
several miles without anyone until you came to George Bush on Bush
Prairie, together with Gabe Jones, Kindred, Ferguson; at Tumwater,
Col. Simmons; at Olympia, Edmund Sylvester; at Chamber's Prairie,
the Chambers family, Charles Eaton and others I cannot designate;
at Nisqually, Mr. Neah Packwood, Sr. 'With Mr. Packwood at the
mouth of the Nisqually, or near there, was Captain Terrill, who used
to claim that he came around the Horn, "Cape Horn," with six yoke
of cattle. His contention was that, as he had floated his cattle down
the Columbia River in a flatboat, around what is known as "Cape
Horn," he was correct in his statement.
Others were Benjamin F. Shaw, Ignatius Colvin. These are a few
of the names of those I knew who had crossed the plains in 1845 to
1849. Mr. Sargent, our next door neighbor, settled at Grand Mound in
1853, crossed the plains in 1849, and sailed into Puget Sound in December
of the same year and landed in Olympia on the 28th day of
.January, 1850. These were some of the old settlers when we arrived
in 1852.
The Chinook jargon is entitled to space in the reminiscences of "Ye
Olden Times."
John ",Velch, the son of Dr. Welch, of Clackamas, Oregon, where
Father rented the farm, gave us our first lessons in Chinook the winter
of 1851.52. Brother Tom and I had lost our ponies, the ponies we
got while crossing the plains. One a roan and one a bright ba~·. I
used to think so much of the bay pony. I claimed it as mine. His
back was so warm and soft to my tired legs when I had been trudging
along after the wagons, trying to keep the lame ox or wandering cow
from straying too far off the trail. I became quite attached to the
ponies. ",'Then they strayed off while we were camped and living in
Milwaukie, I learned to inquire of every Indian I would meet, "Mica
munich cewtant1" (Did you see my horse?) From one phrase to another,
we had been in the country hardly over a year before we could
Converse quite freely with the Indians of any of the tribes of the
Coast. It has always been a great advantage to be able to talk in the
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