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It was simply the camp of a company of United States soldiers, quartered in wooden shells of houses and log cabins. Intense rivalry ran between the two towns, upper and lower Steilacoom, at this time. As a result things were booming.
They would often go out even to the open sea on their fishing excursions in canoes manned by thirty men or more. After spending two or three days exploring the country, we turned back to the bay where lay the seven ships we had seen near Steilacoom.
During the stay at Steilacoom in the time of the Indian troubles, we had begun a trading venture, in a small way. The venture having proved successful, we invested all our savings in a new stock of merchandise, and this stock, not all paid for, went down with the ship. Again we must start in life, and we moved to a new location, a homestead in the Puyallup valley.
Then the drive for our lives began, the women and babies lying close to the bottom of the wagon, the men with guns ready for action. We reached Fort Steilacoom unmolested. But we could not in safety stop there. The place was really no fort at all, only an encampment, and it was already filled with refugees from the surrounding settlements.
With a fifty-pound flour sack filled with hard bread, or navy biscuit, a small piece of dried venison, a couple of pounds of cheese, a tin cup, and half of a three-point blanket, all made into a pack of less than forty pounds, I climbed the hill at Steilacoom and took the road leading to Puyallup.
Thus you get glimpses of Seattle, Steilacoom, Tacoma, and of the so-called saw-mill ports Port Madison, Port Gamble, Port Ludlow, and Port Townsend the last named being also the boundary of our Uncle Samuel's dominions for the present, and the port of entry for this district, with a custom-house which looks like a barn, and a collector and inspectors, the latter of whom examine your trunk as you return from Victoria to save you from the sin of smuggling.
Those going later either failed altogether and gave up the unequal contest, or lost an average of one canoe or boat out of three in the persistent attempt. How many lives were lost never will be known. Contingents began to arrive in Steilacoom from Oregon, from California, and finally from "the States."
John V. Meeker, my brother, passed by my cabin when he carried the sack of roots on his back from Steilacoom to my father's home, a distance of about twenty miles, and from the sack I took roots enough to plant six hills of hops. As far as I know those were the first hops planted in the Puyallup valley.
The Spanish explorers in this region do not seem to have taken much pains to record and publish the result of their discoveries. Vancouver held on to his with true English grip, and often supplanted their names by others of his own choosing. At night we reached Steilacoom, where there was formerly a military post.
Steilacoom, three miles across the bay, had grown during my absence, and in the distance it looked like a city in fact as well as in name. Mt. Rainier looked bigger and taller than ever. Even the songs of the Indians sounded better; the canoes looked more graceful, and the paddles seemed to be wielded more expertly.
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