Incidents and Annals of Settlement IV
Washington Standard - Olympia
March 22, 1918

To return of the Simmons party. 

They reached the shores of Puget Sound in August and obtained canoes, went down the Sound examining the various points, passed around the north end of Whidbey's island, returning through Deception pass on the east side of said island. The party having returned to the Columbia river, Colonel Simmons and his family was then joined by James McAllister (killed In the Indian war of 1855) and family, David Kindred and family, Gabriel Jones and family, George Bush and family, and Messrs. Jesse Ferguson and Samuel B. Crockett. Peter Bercier again acted as guide, conducting through the first American colony for Puget Sound.

They were 15 days cutting through the road from Cowlitz Landing to Tumwater, a distance of 58 miles, where they arrived late in October, 1845. Colonel Simmons took the claim at Tumwater, calling it New Market. All made settlements in the vicinity, mostly on what is now known as "Bush Prairie." Notwithstanding the fact that the good Dr. McLoughlin used the most strenuous efforts to discourage the American settlement north of the Columbia, yet in September, 1845, when the little colony of Simmons started for the Sound, he and Governor Douglas gave an order on Messrs. Forrest and Tolmie (the former in charge at the Cowlitz and the latter at Fort Nisqually) to furnish the party, on credit, with 200 bushels of wheat at 80 cents, 100 bushels of peas at $1.00, 300 bushels of potatoes at 50 cents, and 10 or 12 head of beef cattle at $12 per head.

The claim taken as Kindred's, on the edge of Bush Prairie as the timber skirting the Sound is entered, was the first built upon in the fall of 1845 Colonel Simmons building at Tumwater the next summer. During that winter Messrs. Wainbow, Wall, Smith and Pickett came over from Oregon, made a trip down the Sound as far as Nisqually. None of these, however, remained in the country.

On the 15th of March, 1846, Mrs. James McAllister gave birth to a son (James Benton) the first-born of the Puget Sound settlement. In the summer of 1846, Sidney S. Ford, Sr., and family and Joseph Borst settled at the confluence of the Skookum Chuck and Chehalis rivers, half way between Cowlitz Landing and New Market. In the fall of the same year Messrs. William Packwood and Charles Eaton, the former accompanied by his family, located at Puget Sound. Mr. Eaton was the pioneer settler on Chambers' Prairie. This year also marked the erection of a grist mill at Tumwater by Colonel Simmons, in which he ground wheat but did not attempt to bolt it.

The return made by John R. Jackson, Esq., the first assessor of Lewis county for the year 1846, exhibits the following as the produce of said county: Wheat 12,450 bushels; oats, 9,520; peas, 4,475; potatoes, 5,760. Of course the largest proportion of this was raised by the Puget Sound Agricultural company on their claims at Cowlitz and Nisqually, but it shows the settlers had already begun in earnest to cultivate the country and raise the means to live.

On the 10th of June, 1847, Mrs. Sidney S. Ford, Sr., gave birth to a daughter (Angeline, now Mrs. John Shelton), the first American girl born north of the Columbia. Here, too, is another indication of progress the first "giving in marriage" in the little colony: Married, at New Market, Puget Sound, at the house of Mr. Davis on the 6th day pf July, by Judge Simmons, Mr. Daniel D. Kisney to Miss Ruth Brock, of the former place.

During this year Colonel Simmons erected a sawmill and the little settlement was strengthened by the arrival of Messrs. Chambers, Brail, George Shazar and W. P. Dougherty. The country north of the Columbia had by this time grown to assume some importance in Oregon politics; indeed the vote of Lewis county determined the election of the governor of Oregon at the last election held under the provisional government.

The race between Governor George Abernathy, a candidate for re-election, and General A. S. Lovejoy had been extremely close, all the other counties were in and the vote stood: for Abernethy 475, for Lovejoy 518. Lewis county, last to be heard from, changed the result, giving 61 for Abernethy and 2 for Lovejoy and re-electing Governor Abernethy by a plurality of 16 over his principal competitor. At this same election Simon Plamondon was elected representative in the Oregon house of Representatives and A. M. Poe, late editor of the Overland Press, was elected sheriff.