Part 1 (1/2)

Blazing The Way.

by Emily Inez Denny.

PREFACE

BLAZING THE WAY.

In the early days when a hunter, explorer or settler essayed to tread the mysterious depths of the unknown forest of Puget Sound, he took care to ”blaze the way.” At brief intervals he stopped to cut with his sharp woodman's ax a generous chip from the rough bark of fir, hemlock or cedar tree, leaving the yellow inner bark or wood exposed, thereby providing a perfect guide by which he retraced his steps to the canoe or cabin. As the initial stroke it may well be emblematical of the beginnings of things in the great Northwest.

I do not feel moved to apologize for this book; I have gathered the fragments within my reach; such or similar works are needed to set forth the life, character and movement of the early days on Puget Sound. The importance of the service of the Pioneers is as yet dimly perceived; what the Pilgrim Fathers were to New England, the Pioneers were to the Pacific Coast, to the ”nations yet to be,” who, following in their footsteps, shall people the wilds with teeming cities, a ”human sea,”

bearing on its bosom argosies of priceless worth.

It does contain some items and incidents not generally known or heretofore published. I hope others may be provoked to record their pioneer experiences.

I have had exceptional opportunities in listening to the thrice-told tales of parents and friends who had crossed the plains, as well as personal recollections of experiences and observation during a residence of over fifty years in the Northwest, acknowledging also the good fortune of having been one of the first white children born on Puget Sound.

Every old pioneer has a store of memories of adventures and narrow escapes, hards.h.i.+ps bravely endured, fresh pleasures enjoyed, rude but genial merrymakings, of all the fascinating incidents that made up the wonder-life of long ago.

Chronology is only a row of hooks to hang the garments of the past upon, else they may fall together in a confused heap.

Not having a full line of such supports on which to hang the weaving of my thoughts--I simply overturn my Indian basket of chips picked up after ”Blazing the Way,” they being merely bits of beginnings in the Northwest.

E. I. DENNY.

NOTE--The poem referred to on page 144 will appear in another work.--AUTHOR.

INDEX

PART I--THE GREAT MARCH

CHAPTER PAGE

I. CROSSING THE PLAINS 17 II. DOWN THE COLUMBIA IN '51 34 III. THE SETTLEMENT AT ALKI 41 IV. FOUNDING OF SEATTLE AND INDIAN WAR 63 V. THE MURDER OF McCORMICK 96 VI. KILLING COUGARS 105 VII. PIONEER CHILD LIFE 113 VIII. MARCHING EXPERIENCES OF ESTHER CHAMBERS 151 IX. AN OLYMPIA WOMAN'S TRIP ACROSS THE PLAINS IN 1851 168 X. CAPTAIN HENRY ROEDER ON THE TRAIL 177

PART II--MEN, WOMEN AND ADVENTURES

I. SONG OF THE PIONEERS 182 II. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES AND SKETCHES, JOHN DENNY, SARAH LATIMER DENNY 186 III. DAVID THOMAS DENNY 203 IV. THE FIRST WEDDING ON ELLIOT BAY 257 V. LOUISA BOREN DENNY 272 V_a_ MADGE DECATUR DENNY 288 V_b_ ANNA LOUISA DENNY 294 V_c_ WILLIAM RICHARD BOREN 300 VI. ARTHUR A. DENNY, MARY A. DENNY 305 VII. HENRY VAN a.s.sELT OF DUWAMISH 320 VIII. THOMAS MERCER 329 IX. DR. HENRY A. SMITH, THE BRILLIANT WRITER 344 X. FAMOUS INDIAN CHIEFS 358