Incidents and Annals of Settlement III
Washington Standard - Olympia
March 15, 1918

The late Colonel M. T. Simmons headed the small party of American families who settled in the vicinity of the falls of Des Chutes river in October, 1845, about one year anterior to Mr. Sylvester occupying the Olympia claim. Colonel Simmons was of the emigration of 1844, being colonel in the Independent Oregon company commanded by General Cornelius Gilliam. These offices were created and conferred by the emigrants. Colonel Simmons and family and those in his immediate train or subcompany wintered at Washougal, in Clarke county, spending however about one month at Vancouver.

Upon leaving Missouri it had been his intention to settle in Southern Oregon, but on arriving at Fort Vancouver Gov. McLoughlin so pertinaciously forbid Americans to settle north of the Columbia river that the Colonel determined to locate upon Puget Sound. At the request of the company he started in December, 1844, for a reconnaissance of the Sound country, accompanied by Messrs. Loomis, Williamson and the three brothers, John, James and Henry Owens. 

They traveled up the Cowlitz river to the forks, when their provisions became short and the navigation of that stream discouraging. But the colonel, who had considerable superstition in his bold, manly nature, says he really turned back because of a vision which he had before leaving Missouri, indicating he would find just such a place as the forks of the Cowlitz and be compelled to abandon his enterprise.

Here he saw mapped out the place which appeared to him in his dream. Several old settlers will call to mind that vision of the Colonel. All will however agree that the forks of the Cowlitz in the month of December would discourage the boldest. They returned, Colonel Simmons determining to resume the exploration at a more fitting season. Neither of the others of that party attempted to return to the Sound.

In passing, we may note that Mrs. Simmons, while at Washougal (April, 184S) gave birth to a son, Christopher C., the first white American child born north and west of the Columbia river and the first white male child within the confines of the present Washington territory. This distinction is made because of the fact that the first white American child born In Washington territory was a daughter to Mrs. Marcus Whitman, at Waillatpu, in the present county of Walla Walla, W. T.. though several miles east of the Columbia river.

In July, 1845, Colonel Simmons again started from the Columbia river for Puget Sound, accompanied by George Waunch, now a settler near Skookumchuck, William Shaw, father of Colonel B. P. Shaw, and seven others, none of whom, however, settled in the country except Messrs. Simmons and Waunch. At that time Mr. White, known only as "Old Man" White, was the only American settler between the mouth of the Willamette and Cowlitz rivers, occupying a claim near the site of the present town of St. Helens. 

The late James Birnie, in the Hudson Bay company service, lived at Cathlamet. on the Washington side of the Columbia, and Captain Scarborough was settled near the mouth of the Columbia. Returning to the Cowlitz river, Anton Gobar, a herder in the employ of the Hudson Bay Co., occupied the small prairie on the east side of the Cowlitz river, opposite to but a little below the granaries of the H. B. Co., near the site of the town of Monticello. Gobar kept the station and herded stock in transit from Vancouver to the Cowlitz Farms and Fort Nisqually, which passed on the trails on the north side of the Cowlitz river.

The above, with Fort Nisqually and the Cowlitz Farms and Mission, were all the white settlements except Fort Vancouver, north and west of the Columbia river. Colonel Simmons and party, upon reaching the Cowlitz prairie, procured the services of Peter Bercier as guide and then started for the Sound. It is proper to add that they learned at this point that John R. Jackson had been in the vicinity just before, and being pleased with the country had made a location and was then upon his return to Oregon City for his stock and effects. 

It will thus be seen that while Colonel Simmons had essayed in the winter of 1844-5 the first exploration with a view to settlement that John R. Jackson had made the farthest advance and actually marked the first location. For both of these old settlers the claim as "pioneer" has been asserted. It therefore becomes Interesting to examine the facts upon which such claims are respectively based.

Mr. Jackson, during the winter of Durham, parish of Steindrop, England, where he was born January 13. 1800. He arrived at New York September 27. 1833, and shortly proceeded to Illinois, where he made his first settlement November 5, 1833. On the 1st day of May, 1844. he left the western frontier of Missouri for Oregon, arriving at Clackamas bottom on the 5th of November, 1855 singular to relate, on the anniversary of settlement in Illinois.

Mr. Jackson, during the winter of 1844-45, heard of the magnificent water power at the mouth of the Des Chutes river (Tumwater) and with the design to take this and to explore the adjacent country, in March, 1845, he made a trip in which, having arrived at the house of old Simon Plamondon on "Jolly Prairie," the latter accompanied him as far as the Newaukum river, one of the confluents of the Chehalis.

Just after the 4th of July, accompanied by W. P. Dougherty, now probate judge of Pierce county, Major H. A. G. Lee, speaker of the Oregon house of representatives under the provisional government, Messrs. Watt, Jacob Haldry and Stewart, Squire Jackson left Oregon city in a ship yawl belonging to John Campbell, for Puget Sound. They traveled in this conveyance down the Willamette and Columbia and up the Cowlitz river to the site of Monticello, where they procured a canoe and proceeded to the old Cowlitz Landing.

They started on horses for the Sound, but meeting with a mishap were induced to abandon the trip after reaching Marcel Bernier's. Lee, who had been elected to the legislature, desired to return to be present at the organization. Jackson, however, was not satisfied and they finally determined to go down the Chehalis to Gray's Harbor and procured a canoe and Indian crew for the purpose.

They went as far as the forks of the Chehalis, when all of them but Jackson determined to return. Overruled, he returned with them and made an examination of the country in the vicinity of Cowlitz Farms and took the claim on which he has since lived, known as "Highlands" and situated about 10 miles from the old Cowlitz Landing.

From this expedition he had set out for his return to Oregon City for his effects, as Simmons' party appeared and continued their journey to Puget Sound. It need only be stated that Jackson immediately returned, arriving early in October, 1845, and at once commenced the erection of his cabin, which was so far completed that the Simmons party, when en route for their permanent settlement, visited him at his domicile.