The Log School-House on the Columbia Read online

  THE LOG SCHOOL-HOUSE ON THE COLUMBIA

  A Tale of the Pioneers of the Great Northwest

  by

  HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH

  Author of the Zigzag Books

  ILLUSTRATED

  1890

  New YorkD. Appleton and Company

  _Gretchen at the Potlatch Feast._]

  PREFACE.

  A year or more ago one of the librarians in charge of the young people'sbooks in the Boston Public Library called my attention to the fact thatthere were few books of popular information in regard to the pioneers ofthe great Northwest. The librarian suggested that I should write a storythat would give a view of the heroic lives of the pioneers of Oregon andWashington.

  Soon after this interview I met a distinguished educator who had latelyreturned from the Columbia River, who told me the legend of the old chiefwho died of grief in the grave of his son, somewhat in the mannerdescribed in this volume. The legend had those incidental qualities thathaunt a susceptible imagination, and it was told to me in such a dramaticway that I could not put it out of my mind.

  A few weeks after hearing this haunting legend I went over the RockyMountains by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and visited the Columbia Riverand the scenes associated with the Indian story. I met in Washington,Yesler, Denney, and Hon. Elwood Evans, the historian; visited the daughterof Seattle, the chief, "Old Angeline"; and gathered original stories inregard to the pioneers of the Puget Sound country from many sources. Inthis atmosphere the legend grew upon me, and the outgrowth of it is thisvolume, which, amid a busy life of editorial and other work, has forceditself upon my experience.

  H.B.

  28 WORCESTER STREET, BOSTON, July 4, 1890

  CONTENTS.

  CHAPTER

  I. GRETCHEN'S VIOLIN

  II. THE CHIEF OF THE CASCADES

  III. "BOSTON TILICUM"

  IV. MRS. WOODS'S TAME BEAR, LITTLE "ROLL OVER"

  V. THE NEST OF THE FISHING EAGLE

  VI. THE MOUNTAIN LION

  VII. THE "SMOKE-TALK"

  VIII. THE BLACK EAGLE'S NEST OF THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI

  IX. GRETCHEN'S VISIT TO THE OLD CHIEF OF THE CASCADES

  X. MRS. WOODS MEETS LITTLE "ROLL OVER" AGAIN

  XI. MARLOWE MANN'S NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE

  XII. OLD JOE MEEK AND MR. SPAULDING

  XIII. A WARNING

  XIV. THE POTLATCH

  XV. THE TRAUMEREI AGAIN

  XVI. A SILENT TRIBE

  XVII. A DESOLATE HOME AND A DESOLATE PEOPLE

  XVIII. THE LIFTED CLOUD--THE INDIANS COME TO THE SCHOOLMASTER

  HISTORICAL NOTES.

  I. Vancouver

  II. The Oregon Trail

  III. Governor Stevens

  IV. Seattle the Chief

  V. Whitman's Ride for Oregon

  VI. Mount Saint Helens

  LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

  Gretchen at the Potlatch Feast E. J. Austen (Frontispiece)

  Indians spearing fish at Salmon Falls

  "Here were mountains grander than Olympus." The North Puyallup Glacier, Mount Tacoma

  In the midst of this interview Mrs. Woods appeared at the door of the cabin A. E. Pope

  The eagle soared away in the blue heavens, and the flag streamed after him in his talons E.J. Austen

  The mountain lion D. Carter Beard

  An Indian village on the Columbia

  Afar loomed Mount Hood

  A castellated crag arose solitary and solemn

  At the Cascades of the Columbia

  Multnomah Falls in earlier years. Redrawn by Walter C. Greenough

  The old chief stood stoical and silent. E. J. Austen

  Middle block-house at the Cascades