TRIP THROUGH THE NATCHESS PASS—[CONTINUED].
It is strange how the mind will vividly retain the memory of some
incidents of no particular importance, while the recollection of other
passing events so completely fades away. I knew I had to cross that
ugly stream, White River, five times during the first day's travel, but
cannot recall but one crossing, where my pony nearly lost his balance,
and came down on his knees with his nose in the water for the moment,
but to recover and bravely carry me out safely.
The lone camp well up on the mountain had chilled me, but the prospect
before me and that I had left behind brought a depressed feeling most
difficult to describe. I had passed through long stretches of forest
so tall and so dense that it seemed incredible that such did exist
anywhere on earth. And then, the road; such a road, if it could be
called a road. Curiously enough, the heavier the standing timber, the
easier it had been to slip through with wagons, there being but little
undecayed or down timber. In the ancient of days, however, great giants
had been uprooted, lifting considerable earth with the upturned roots,
that, as time went on and the roots decayed formed mounds two, three,
or four feet high, leaving a corresponding hollow in which one would
plunge, the whole being covered by a dense, short, evergreen growth,
completely hiding from view the unevenness of the ground. Over these
hillocks and hollows the immigrants had rolled their wagon wheels,
and over the large roots of the fir, often as big as one's body and
nearly all of them on top of the ground. I will not undertake to say
how many of these giant trees were to be found to the acre, but they
were so numerous and so large that in many places it was difficult
to find a passageway between them, and then only by a tortuous route
winding in various directions. When the timber burns were encountered
the situation was worse. Often the remains of timber would be piled in
such confusion that sometimes wagons could pass under legs that rested
on others; then again others were encountered half buried, while still
others would rest a foot or so from the ground. These, let the reader
remember, oftentimes were five feet or more in diameter, with trunks
from two to three hundred feet in length. All sorts of devices had been
resorted to in order to overcome those obstructions. In many cases,
where not too large, cuts had been taken out, while in other places
the large timber had been bridged up to by piling smaller logs, rotten
chunks, brush, or earth, so the wheels of the wagon could be rolled up
over the body of the tree. Usually three notches would be cut on the
top of the log, two for the wheels and one for the reach or coupling
pole to pass through.
In such places the oxen would be taken to the opposite side, a chain or
rope run to the end of the tongue, a man to drive, one or two to guide
the tongue, others to help at the wheels, and so with infinite labor
and great care the wagons would gradually be worked down the mountain
in the direction of the settlements. Small wonder that the immigrants
of the previous year should report that they had to cut their way
through the timber, while the citizen road workers had reported that
the road was opened, and small wonder that the prospect of the road
should have as chilling effect on my mind as the chill of the mountain
air had had on my body.
But, the more difficulties encountered, the more determined I became,
at all hazards, to push through, for the more the necessity to acquaint
myself with the obstacles to be encountered and to be with my friends
to encourage and help them. Before me lay the great range or pass, five
thousand feet above sea level, and the rugged mountain climb to get to
the summit, and the summit prairies where my pony could have a feast
of grass. It was on this summit hill the immigration of the previous
year had encountered such grave difficulties. At the risk of in part
repeating, I am tempted to quote some of my own words to a select party
of friends, the teachers of the county in which I have lived so long,
prepared for that special occasion.
"About twenty miles north of the great mountain of the Cascade range
is a picturesque, small scope of open country known as Summit Prairie,
in the Natchess Pass, some seventy miles southeasterly from this city
(Tacoma). In this prairie, fifty years ago this coming autumn, a camp
of immigrants was to be seen. * * * Go back they could not; either they
must go ahead or starve in the mountains. A short way out from the
camp a steep mountain declivity lay square across their track. As one
of the ladies of the party said, when she first saw it: 'Why Lawsee
Massee! We have come to the jumping off place at last!' This lady felt,
as many others of the party felt, like they had come to the end of the
world (to them), and the exclamation was not for stage effect, but of
fervent prayer for deliverance.
"Stout hearts in the party were not to be deterred from making the
effort to go ahead. Go around this hill they could not; go down it with
logs trailed to the wagons, as they had done before, they could not, as
the hill was so steep the logs would go end over end and be a danger
instead of a help. So the rope they had was run down the hill and found
to be too short to reach the bottom. One of the leaders of the party
(I knew him well) turned to his men and said, 'Kill a steer'; and they
killed a steer, cut his hide into strips and spliced it to the rope.
It was found yet to be too short to reach to the bottom. The order
went out: 'Kill two more steers!' And two more steers were killed,
their hides cut into strips and spliced to the rope, which then reached
the bottom of the hill; and by the aid of that rope and strips of the
hides of those three steers, twenty-nine wagons were lowered down the
mountain side to the bottom of the steep hill.
"Now, my friends, there is no fiction about this story—it is a true
story, and some of the actors are yet alive, and some of them live in
this county. Nor were their trials ended when they got their wagons
down to the bottom of that hill.
"Does it now seem possible for mortal man to do this? And yet this is
only a plain statement of an incident of pioneer life without giving
any names and dates, that can yet be verified by living witnesses; but
these witnesses are not here for long.
"James Biles, who afterwards settled near Olympia, was the man who
ordered the steers killed to procure the hides to lengthen out the
rope. Geo. H. Himes, of Portland, who is still living, was one of the
party; so was Stephen Judson, of Steilacoom; also Nelson Sargent, of
Grand Mound, now a very old man.
"The feat of bringing that train of twenty-nine wagons in with the loss
of only one is the greatest of anything I ever knew or heard of in the
way of pioneer travel.
"With snail-like movements, the cattle and men becoming weaker and
weaker, progress was made each day until it finally seemed as if the
oxen could do no more, and it became necessary to send them forward on
the trail ten miles, where it was known plenty of grass could be had.
Meantime the work on the road continued until the third day, when the
last particle of food was gone. The teams were brought back, the trip
over the whole ten miles made, and Connell's Prairie reached at dark.
"The struggle over that ten miles, where to a certain extent each
party became so intent on their particular surroundings as to forget
all else, left the women and children to take care of themselves while
the husbands tugged at the wagons. I now have in mind to relate the
experience of one of these mothers with a ten-year-old boy, one child
four years and another eight months.
"Part of the time these people traveled on the old trail and part on
the newly-cut road, and by some means fell behind the wagons, which
forded that turbulent, dangerous stream, White River, before they
reached the bank, and were out of sight, not knowing but the women and
children were ahead.
"I wish every little boy of ten years of age of this great State, or,
for that matter, twenty years old or more, could read and profit by
what I am now going to relate, especially if that little or big boy
at times thinks he is having a hard time because he is asked to help
his mother or father at odd times, or perchance to put in a good solid
day's work on Saturday, instead of spending it as a holiday; or if he
has a cow to milk or wood to split, or anything that is work, to make
him bewail his fate for having such a hard time in life. I think the
reading of the experience of this little ten-year-old boy with his
mother and the two smaller children would encourage him to feel more
cheerful and more content with his lot.
"As I have said, the wagons had passed on, and there these four people
were on the right bank of the river while their whole company was on
the opposite bank, and had left them there alone.
"A large fallen tree reached across the river, but the top on the
further side lay so close to the water that a constant trembling and
swaying made the trip dangerous.
"None of them had eaten anything since the day previous, and but a
scant supply then; but the boy resolutely shouldered the four-year-old
and safely deposited him on the other side. Then came next the little
tot, the baby, to be carried in arms across. Next came the mother.
"'I can't go!' she exclaimed; 'it makes me so dizzy.'
"'Put one hand over your eyes, mother, and take hold of me with the
other,' said the boy; and so they began to move out sideways on the
log, a half step at a time.
"'Hold steady, mother; we are nearly over.'
"'Oh, I am gone!' was the only response, as she lost her balance and
fell into the river, but happily so near the farther bank that the
little boy was able to catch a bush with one hand that hung over the
bank, while holding on to his mother with the other, and so she was
saved.
"It was then nearly dark, and without any knowledge of how far it was
to camp, the little party started on the road, only tarrying long
enough on the bank of the river for the mother to wring the water out
of her skirts, the boy carrying the baby, while the four-year-old
walked beside his mother. After nearly two miles of travel and
ascending a very steep hill, it being now dark, the glimmer of camp
lights came into view; but the mother could see nothing, for she fell
senseless, utterly prostrated.
"I have been up and down that hill a number of times, and do not wonder
the poor woman fell helpless after the effort to reach the top. The
great wonder is that she should have been able to go as far as she
did. The incident illustrates how the will power can nerve one up to
extraordinary achievements, but when the object is attained and the
danger is past, then the power is measurably lost, as in this case,
when the good woman came to know they were safe. The boy hurried his
two little brothers into camp, calling for help to rescue his mother.
The appeal was promptly responded to, the woman being carried into
camp and tenderly cared for until she revived.
"Being asked if he did not want something to eat, the boy said 'he had
forgotten all about it,' and further, 'he didn't see anything to eat,
anyway'; whereupon some one with a stick began to uncover some roasted
potatoes, which he has decided was the best meal he has ever eaten,
even to this day.
"This is a plain recital of actual occurrences, without exaggeration,
obtained from the parties themselves and corroborated by numerous
living witnesses.
"There were 128 people in that train, and through the indefatigable
efforts of Mr. Geo. H. Rimes, of Portland, Oregon, who was one of the
party, and in fact the ten-year-old boy referred to, I am able to give
the names in part.
"I have been thus particular in telling this story to illustrate
what trials were encountered and overcome by the pioneers of that
day, to the end that the later generations may pause in their hasty
condemnation of their present surroundings and opportunities and to
ask themselves whether in all candor they do not feel they are blessed
beyond the generation that has gone before them, the hardy pioneers of
this country."
This book could easily be filled by the recital of such heroic acts,
varying only in detail and perhaps in tragic results; yet would only
show in fact the ready, resourceful tact of the pioneers of those days.
I want to repeat here again that I do not look upon that generation
of men and women as superior to the present generation, except in
this: The pioneers had lost a large number of physically weak on the
trip, thus applying the great law of the survival of the fittest;
and further, that the majority of the pioneers in the true sense of
the word—frontiersmen for generations before—hence were by training
and habits eminently fitted to meet the emergencies of the trip and
conditions to follow.
One of the incidents of this trip should be related to perpetuate the
memory of heroic actions of the times, that of the famous ride across
these mountains and to Olympia, of Mrs. Catherine Frazier, one of this
party, on an ox.
Three days after arrival, Mrs. Frazier gave birth to the third white
child born in Pierce County, Washington Frazier, named after the
great territory that had been chosen for the home of the parents and
descendants.
The first report, that the "mother and son were doing well," can again
and again be repeated, as both[7] are yet alive, the mother now past
seventy-three and the son fifty, and both yet residing at South Bay,
near Olympia, where the parents soon settled after arrival.
The curious part of such incidents is the perfect unconsciousness
of the parties of having done anything that would be handed down to
posterity as exhibiting any spirit of fortitude or of having performed
any heroic act. The young bride could not walk, neither could she
be taken into the wagons, and she could ride an ox, and so, without
ceremony, mounted her steed and fell into the procession without
attracting especial attention or passing remark. Doubtless the lady,
at the time, would have shrunk from any undue notice, because of her
mount, and would have preferred a more appropriate entry into the
future capital of the future State, but it is now quite probably that
she looks upon the act with a feeling akin to pride, and in any event,
not with feelings of mortification or false pride that possibly, at
that time, might have lurked within her breast.
The birth of children was not an infrequent incident on the plains,
the almost universal report following, "doing as well as could be
expected," the trip being resumed with but very short interruption, the
little ones being soon exhibited with the usual motherly pride.
FOOTNOTE:
[7] Since these lines were penned Mrs. Frazier has joined the majority
of that generation in the life beyond.