Blazing The Way Part 30

Van a.s.selt to Puget Sound, have been dead many years. Arthur A.

Denny has been gathered to his fathers, along with many others of the old pioneers of King County and Washington. Van a.s.selt is the last of that hardy race that opened the wilderness on Puget Sound and made it blossom like the rose.

"The news of the death of Van a.s.selt was received as a sad blow among the people of Van a.s.selt, where the aged pioneer spent the greater portion of his days in the house which still stands as a monument to his rugged pioneer days. In Van a.s.selt the people speak the name of the pioneer with reverence on account of the many charities he extended to the poor during his lifetime, and also on account of the many acts which he did in pioneer days to save and maintain the peaceful relations with the savages.

"The marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Van a.s.selt was celebrated in this county, on Christmas evening 1862. All of those present at the wedding have now pa.s.sed away with a few exceptions.

"Mr. Van a.s.selt leaves a wife, Mrs. Mary Jane Maple Van a.s.selt; a son, Dr. J. H. Van a.s.selt; two daughters, Mrs. J. H. Benadom, of Puyallup, and Dr. Nettie Van a.s.selt Burling, and a grandson, Floyd Julian, son of Mrs. Mary Adriane Van a.s.selt Julian, who died in 1893. Mr. Van a.s.selt also leaves a brother, Rev. Garrett Van a.s.selt, of Utrecht, Holland, and several sisters in Holland.

"The following were selected as active pallbearers: William P.

Harper, Dexter Horton, D. B. Ward, O. J. Carr, Isaac Parker, M.

R. Maddocks. The honorary pallbearers were: Edgar Bryan, Rev.

Daniel Bagley, F. M. Guye, Joseph Foster, William Carkeek, Judge Orange Jacobs.

"As ill.u.s.trative of the regard and esteem in which this pioneer was held by those who knew him best, Dexter Horton, the well known banker and capitalist, who met Mr. Van a.s.selt in 1852, said last night:

"'Mr. Van a.s.selt was a man of sterling character. His word was as good as a government bond. I knew him almost from the beginning of his life here. He was one of the kindliest men I ever met.

"'For fifteen years after I came to Seattle I conducted a general merchandise store here. There were mighty few of us here in those early times and we were all intimately acquainted. I dare say that when a newcomer had resided on the Sound, anywhere from Olympia to the Strait of Fuca, for thirty days, I became acquainted with him. They dropped in here to trade, traveling in Indian canoes. There never was a man of them that I did not trust to any reasonable extent for goods, and my losses on that account in fifteen years' dealing with the early settlers were less than $1,000. This is sufficient testimony as to the character and integrity of the men who, like Van a.s.selt, faced the privations and dangers of the Western Trail to find homes for themselves on the Pacific Coast.

"'Mr. Van a.s.selt located on a level farm in the Duwamish valley on his arrival here. He was a man of great energy and thrift, and soon had good and paying crops growing. He used to bring his produce to Seattle, either by Indian canoe, or afterwards, when a trail was cut under the brow of the hill, by teams. This produce was readily disposed of, as we had a large number of men working in the mills and few to supply their necessities.

"'I remember that after he had lived here for several years he moved to town and established a cabinet maker's shop. He was an expert in that line of work. I have an ancient curly maple bureau which he made for me, and Mrs. A. A. Denny has another. They are beautifully fashioned, Van a.s.selt being well skilled in the trade. Doubtless others among the old-timers here have mementos of his handicraft.

"'Van a.s.selt was of the type of men who blazed the path for generations that followed them to the Pacific Coast. His integrity was unchallenged, and his charities were numerous and unostentatious. He used to give every worthy newcomer work on his ranch, and many an emigrant in those days got his first start from Henry Van a.s.selt.'

"Samuel Crawford knew Mr. Van a.s.selt intimately since 1876. He said last night:

"'Henry Van a.s.selt, or Uncle Henry, as we all called him, spent the winter of 1850-1851 with my great-great-grandfather, Robert Moore, at Oregon City, Ore., or more properly speaking, on the west sh.o.r.e of the Willamette, just across from Oregon City. Mr.

Van a.s.selt told me this himself. Moore kept a large place, which was a sort of rendezvous for the immigrants, and many a man found shelter at his ranch. He gave them work enough to keep them going, and Van a.s.selt found employment with him that winter, making shingles from cedar bolts with a draw knife.

"'Mr. Van a.s.selt was one of the best men that ever lived. His word was as good as gold, and he never overlooked a chance to do a friend a favor. While he spoke English with difficulty, on occasion he could make a good speech, and he always took a deep interest in public affairs. There was probably no important public question involving the interests of Seattle and the Puget Sound country but that Mr. Van a.s.selt had his say. He did not care for public office, however, but preferred to go along in his quiet way, doing all the good that was possible. He firmly believed in the future of Seattle, which he loved dearly, and I remember many years ago of his purchase of two blocks of ground on Renton Hill, in the vicinity of the residence where he pa.s.sed the last years of his life. This was nearly twenty years ago.'

"Thomas W. Prosch had known Mr. Van a.s.selt for many years. He, too, paid a tribute to his fine character, and rugged honesty.

'Six years ago,' said Mr. Prosch, 'I went to talk with Mr. Van a.s.selt regarding his early experiences on the Sound. He told me of his long and arduous trip across the plains in 1850, and of his escapades with the Indians then and afterward. He said himself that he believed he led a charmed life, as the Indians took many a shot at him, but without avail. He was a dead shot himself, and the Indians had great respect for his skill. He was a very determined man, and undoubtedly had a great influence over the savages.

"'Mr. Van a.s.selt told me that he met Hill Harmon, a well known Oregon settler, in the spring of 1851, and together they crossed the Columbia and came to Olympia. From there they went with two or three others to Nesqually, where they met Luther M. Collins, one of the first settlers in King County. Collins endeavored to persuade them to locate near him, but they wanted a better place.

Finally Collins brought them to the Duwamish valley and located them here. One of the party bought Collins' place at Nesqually, and he came here to locate with Van a.s.selt and the others.

Collins' family was the first white family to establish a home in King County.'"

CHAPTER VIII.

THOMAS MERCER.

Thomas Mercer was born in Harrison county, Ohio, March 11, 1813, the eldest of a large family of children. He remained with his father until he was twenty-one, gaining a common school education and a thorough knowledge of the manufacture of woolen goods. His father was the owner of a well appointed woolen mill. The father, Aaron Mercer, was born in Virginia and was of the same family as General Mercer of revolutionary fame. His mother, Jane d.i.c.kerson Mercer, was born in Pennsylvania of an old family of that state.

The family moved to Princeton, Ill., in 1834, a period when buffalo were still occasionally found east of the Mississippi river, and savage Indians annoyed and hara.s.sed outlying settlements in that region. A remarkable coincidence is a matter of family tradition. Nancy Brigham, who later became Mr. Mercer's wife, and her family, were compelled to flee by night from their home near Dixon at the time of the Black Hawk war, and narrowly escaped ma.s.sacre. In 1856, about twenty years later, her daughters, the youngest only eight years old, also made a midnight escape in Seattle, two thousand miles away from the scene of their mother's adventure, and they endured the terrors of the attack upon the village a few days later when the shots and shouts of the thousand painted devils rang out in the forest on the hillside from a point near the present gas works to another near where Madison street ends at First Avenue.

CROSSING THE PLAINS.

In April, 1852, a train of about twenty wagons, drawn by horses, was organized at Princeton to cross the plains to Oregon. In this train were Thomas Mercer, Aaron Mercer, Dexter Horton, Daniel Bagley, William H.

Shoudy, and their families. Some of these still live in or near Seattle and others settled in Oregon. Mr. Mercer was chosen captain of the train and discharged the arduous duties of that position fearlessly and successfully. Danger and disease were on both sides of the long, dreary way, and hundreds of new made graves were often counted along the roadside in a day. But this train seemed to bear a charmed existence.

Not a member of the original party died on the way, although many were seriously ill. Only one animal was lost.

As the journey was fairly at an end and western civilization had been reached at The Dalles, Oregon, Mrs. Mercer was taken ill, but managed to keep up until the Cascades were reached. There she grew rapidly worse and soon died. Several members of the expedition went to Salem and wintered there, and in the early spring of 1853 Mercer and Dexter Horton came to Seattle and decided to make it their home. Mr. Horton entered immediately upon a business career, the success of which is known in California, Oregon and Washington, and Mr. Mercer settled upon a donation claim whose eastern end was the meander line of Lake Union and the western end, half way across to the bay. Mercer street is the dividing line between his and D. T. Denny's claims, and all of these tracts were included within the city limits about fifteen years ago.

Mr. Mercer brought one span of horses and a wagon from the outfit with which he crossed the plains and for some time all the hauling of wood and merchandise was done by him. The wagon was the first one in King county. In 1859 he went to Oregon for the summer and while there married Hester L. Ward, who lived with him nearly forty years, dying last November. During the twenty years succeeding his settlement here he worked hard clearing the farm and carrying on dairying and farming in a small way and doing much work with his team. In 1873 portions of the farm came into demand for homes and his sales soon put him in easy circ.u.mstances and in later years made him independent, though the past few years of hard times have left but a small part of the estate.

The old home on the farm that the Indians spared when other buildings in the county not protected by soldiers were burned, is still standing and is the oldest building in the county. Mr. D. T. Denny had a log cabin on his place which was not destroyed--these two alone escaped. The Indians were asked, after the war, why they did not burn Mercer's house, to which they replied, "Oh, old Mercer might want it again." Denny and Mercer had always been particularly kind to the natives and just in their dealings, and the savages seem to have felt some little grat.i.tude toward them.

In the early '40s Mr. Mercer and Rev. Daniel Bagley were co-workers in the anti-slavery cause with Owen Lovejoy, of Princeton, who was known to all men of that period in the great Middle West. Later Mr. Mercer joined the Republican party and has been an ardent supporter of its men and measures down to the present. He served ten years as probate judge of King county, and at the end of that period declined a renomination.

In early life he joined the Methodist Protestant church and has ever been a consistent member of that body. Rev. Daniel Bagley was his pastor fifty-two years ago at Princeton, and continued to hold that relation to him in Seattle from 1860 until 1885, when he resigned his Seattle pastorate.

To Mr. Mercer belongs the honor of naming the lakes adjacent to and almost surrounding the city. At a social gathering or picnic in 1855 he made a short address and proposed the adoption of "Union" for the small lake between the bay and the large lake, and "Washington" for the other body of water. This proposition was received with favor and at once adopted. In the early days of the county and city he was always active in all public enterprises, ready alike with individual effort and with his purse, according to his ability, and no one of the city's thousands has taken a keener interest or greater pride than he in the recent development of the city's greatness, although he could no longer share actively in its accomplishment. He was exceedingly anxious to see the ca.n.a.l completed between salt water and the lakes.

His oldest daughter, Mrs. Henry Parsons, lives near Olympia, and is a confirmed invalid. The second daughter was the first wife of Walter Graham, of this place, but died in 1862. The next younger daughters, Mrs. David Graham and Mrs. C. B. Bagley, lived near him and cared for him entirely since the death of Mrs. Mercer last November. In all the collateral branches the aged patriarch leaves behind him here in King county fully half a hundred of relatives of greater or lesser degrees of kinship.

His generosity and benevolence have ever been proverbial. The churches, Y. M. C. A., orphanages and other objects of public benevolence and private charity have good cause to remember his liberality. In a period of five years he gave away at least $20,000 in public and private donations.

Judge Mercer was a charter member of the Pioneers' a.s.sociation, and took great interest in its affairs. He always made a special effort to attend the annual meeting, until the last two years, when his health would not permit.

Another of the band of hardy pioneers who laid the foundation of the great commonwealth bounded by California on the south, British Columbia on the north, the Rocky Mountains on the east and the illimitable Pacific toward the setting sun, has gone to rest.

"Judge Thomas Mercer died yesterday morning, May 25th, at 5:15 o'clock, after a brief illness, at his home in North Seattle, within a stone's throw of the old homestead where he and his four motherless daughters, all mere children, settled in the somber and unbroken forest two score and five years ago, when the Seattle of today consisted of a sawmill, a trading post and less than a half hundred white people."--(From Post-Intelligencer of May 26th, 1898.)

For many years we looked across the valley to see the smoke from the fire on the Mercer hearthstone winding skyward, for they were our only neighbors. Even for this, we were not so solitary, nor quite so lonely as we must have been with no human habitation in our view. And then we felt the kindly presence, sympathy we knew we could always claim, the cheerful greetings and friendly visits.

When his aged pastor, Rev. Daniel Bagley, with snowy locks, stood above his bier and a troop of silver-haired pioneers in tearful silence harkened, he told of fifty years of friendship; how they crossed the plains together, and of the quiet, steady, Christian life of Thomas Mercer.

He said, "Whatever other reasons may have been given, that he understood some Indians to say the reason they did not burn Mercer's house during the war, was that Mercer was 'klosh tum-tum,' (kind, friendly, literally a good heart), and 'he wawa-ed Sahale Tyee' (prayed to the Heavenly Chief or Great Spirit). Thus did he let his light shine; even the savages beheld it."

In closing a touching, suggestive and affectionate tribute, he quoted these lines:

"O what hath Jesus bought for me!

Before my ravish'd eyes Rivers of life divine I see, And trees of Paradise; I see a world of spirits bright, Who taste the pleasures there; They all are robed in spotless white, And conqu'ring palms they bear."

HESTER L. MERCER.

When a child I often visited this good pioneer woman--so faithful, cheerful, kind, self-forgetful.

With busy hands she toiled from morning to night, scarcely sitting down without some house-wifely task to occupy her while she chatted.

Of a very lively disposition, her laugh was frequent and merry.