The following exerpt is from the Bulletin, Issues 12-18 by the Washington Geological Survey in which the Human History about camp lewis by E. S. Meany.
“May 30th, 1833, Thursday. Arrived here this afternoon from the Columbia with four men, four oxen and four horses, after a journey of fourteen days, expecting to have found the schooner Vancouver lying here. She sailed the afternoon of the same day we started, with trading goods, provisions, potatoes, seeds, etc., bound for Nisqually Bay, where we have now determined, should everything come up to expectation, to locate an establishment.”
There was with this first party a young Scotch surgeon, William Fraser Tolmie, who was on his way for service with the more northern posts of the company. The serious illness of Pierre Charles kept him at Nisqually for some time. During that time the young doctor made a number of botanical excursions. On one of these he took Indian guides and attempted to climb Mount Rainier. He succeeded in ascending one of the foothills overlooking the glaciers on the larger mountain. That little mountain is now called Tolmie Peak and his diary of the trip is the prized record of civilized man’s first approach to the great mountain.
Chief Trader McDonald did not stay long at Nisqually House. He had already requested retirement for age, and soon he was relieved by Chief Trader Heron. The new trader did not like the location selected. He explored the shores as far as Whidbey Island and later decided to build the fort at the water fall where Tumwater now stands, near Olympia. A band of Indians arrived at Nisqually for trade and would go no farther. That incident decided the case and Nisqually House became the first settlement by white men on the shores of Puget Sound.
The new fort served its purpose well from the very beginning. When it was three years old an important occurrence was recorded in the journal when the Hudson’s Bay Company steamer Beaver arrived for work on this coast. This historic boat was the first steamboat to ply the waters of the Pacific Ocean. The fur trade was greatly stimulated by this new means of transportation and of course the Indians were profoundly affected by such a manifestation of the white man’s power as this great “fire canoe”.
The Hudson’s Bay Company men at Fort Vancouver had given attention to lumbering and agriculture from the foundation of the fort in 1825. Similarly, those at Fort Langley had found fish packing a good addition to their regular fur trade. Nisqually House was to become an agricultural center. One reason for Chief Trader Herron’s dissatisfaction with the site was the poorness of the soil on the south side of the Sequalitchew Creek where the warehouse had been built on the beach. There was better soil on the north side of the creek but that
would necessitate an expensive bridge near the mouth of the creek to the only suitable place on the beach for the warehouse. A road was built from the warehouse on the beach to a level tract above. There the first fort was constructed near two large oak trees known as “The Twins”. The sunken outlines of the old stockade may still be seen and ‘some evidences also of the first fruit trees and garden site. These old relics of the beginnings of civilization are now mingled with such signs as “Xitro-glycerinc—Beware!” of the powder works.
In a few years the fort was moved a mile to the eastward to be nearer a source of fresh water and the new fort there erected was larger and more substantial. It also gave better command of the expanding prairies where the proposed agricultural enterprise could be attempted. Many of the old Hudson’s Bay Company officers were opposed to such experiments. “We are in the fur trade. Let those raise potatoes who wish to,” was a form of their protest. Others urged the case until they won the day by the organization of the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, about 1839. Chief Factor John McLonghlin at Fort Vancouver was given charge of the new company, thcmgh the real supervision of its work was made from Nisqually House. One of the larger experiments was on Cowlitz Farm Prairie south of the present city of Chehalis. The care of cattle, sheep, hogs and crops began to add largely to the activities of Nisqually House.
This all fitted well into the plans of the Hudson’s Bay Company officers in the far west, or Oregon Country, which was still jointly owned by the British and Americans. . In 1834 the American missionaries began to arrive and Dr. McLoughlin, the chief factor, directed them south of Columbia River. He continued that policy as other missionary parties arrived and as Xisqually House enterprises increased. He felt sure that when the joint occupancy treaty was settled the British would get the Columbia Kiver as the boundary.
News from these American missionaries and of the new British posts caused the United States Government to awaken its interest. On November 11, 1835, Secretary of State John Forsyth instructed William A. Slocum to visit the settlements on the Columbia Kiver and, without exciting British suspicions, to bring back a report. He performed his mission and his report of 1837 included a strong and earnest plea for the United States to cling most firmly to Puget Sound which he described as of great value.
The missionaries sent by the Methodist Episcopal Church had accepted the advice of Dr. McLoughlin and had settled south of the Columbia, in the Willamette Valley. They received large reenforcements in 1840 and began to expand. One of the new missionary stations was established at Nisqually House, where Dr. J. P. Richmond and wife and W. H. Willson and wife were located. Though this was contrary to the advice of Chief Factor McLoughlin, he gave orders that the missionaries should be treated with kindness. The home of Dr. Richmond waa blessed by the birth of a baby boy, the first American white child born on Puget Sound. This mission’s work among the Indians did not prosper and it was abandoned in 1842.
While the American missionaries were at work there the keeper of the journal recorded a most important visit by a squadron of American vessels in command of Commander Charles Wilkes. The official title of the party was United States Exploring Expedition. For four years, 1838 to 1842, this expedition sailed around the world making scientific explorations for the United States Government. The officers and men were cordially welcomed at Nisqually House in 1841. Temporary headquarters were fixed upon there while small parties were sent in different directions for the work of explorations. One of these parties, under command of Lieutenant Robert E. Johnson, passed across the parade grounds of the present Camp Lewis on the way across the Cascade Mountains to inspect the missionary stations and mining camps in the Walla Walla, Spokane and Colville districts. The report of that trip constitutes one of the valuable sources of early Northwestern history. It is one of the very first records we have of white men crossing those mountains.
Other excursions were made from the Nisqually headquarters which gave rise to many such names as Budd Inlet, where the present Olympia is located. It was aanied in honor of Acting Master Thomas A. Budd of the expedition. Another excursion passed through the Narrows and began surveys at a place which they called Commencement Bay, now known as Tacoma Harbor.
Independence Day was celebrated near Nisqually House in 1841 by the officers and men of the American squadron. There was an imposing parade, barbecue of a beef, programme and various sports. There was one casualty. A sailor died from injuries received while firing a salute. In 1906, the Washington State Historical Society, assisted by other organizations, unveiled a monument with elaborate and appropriate ceremonies to commemorate the sixty-fifth anniversary of that first Fourth of July celebration in the Puget Sound region. That celebration and the arrival later of American settlers gave rise to the well known name of American Lake. Commander Wilkes in charting and naming other places paid his respects to the British officers who had been kind to him. McNeil Island he named in honor of Captain William Henry McNeil of the steamer Beaver and Anderson Island was named in honor of Alexander Caulfield Anderson, chief trader at Nisqually House.
It is singular that the vicinity of Camp Lewis should have had a military character almost continuously from the beginning to the present time. The Hudson’s Bay Company and the Puget Sound Agricultural Company were semi-military in their methods. Chief Factor McLoughlin was commander-in-chief, under whom worked the various chief traders. Under them were the clerks and lastly were the companies of employees, usually called servants. Commander Wilkes maintained military discipline while his men were in camps on shore. In 1846, Robert Mills Inskip, royal navy, naval instructor in her majesty’s ship Fisgard, established a regular camp at Nisqually for the instruction of junior officers. In 1849, the United States Government established and manned Fort Steilacoom for protection against Indian attacks or outbreaks. Even during the long season of peace and quiet after the Indian dangers had passed, the State of Washington maintained National Guard encampments at American Lake in the summer months. The First Washington Infantry, United States Volunteers, was mobilized and drilled there for the Spanish-American War of 1898. In 1917, there came the greatest military quality the region has known by the construction and maintenance of Camp Lewis.
While the British were still hoping for the Columbia River as the boundary there came a shock to those at Nisqually House when the Americans elected James K. Polk as President under the political battle cry of “Fiftyfour, Forty or Fight!” War was imminent but was finally averted by adopting the present boundary and giving the Puget Sound Country, including the vicinity of Camp Lewis, to the Americans in the treaty of 1846. During the year previous to that treaty the first real American settlers arrived under the leadership of Michael Troutman Simmons and established themselves at Tumwater, near the present Olympia. Many of them were well treated and some of them were given employment at Nisqually House.
The British did not leave their establishment as soon as the treaty was signed because the United States Government had promised compensation for improvements and property taken. Dr. William Fraser Tolmie was one of the last officers and he finally moved to Victoria, B. C. The claims for property and improvements at Fort Vancouver, Nisqually and elsewhere in the Northwest dragged along until September 10, 1869, when a decision of award was rendered by which the United States was to pay to the Hudson’s Bay Company $450,000 and to the Puget Sound Agricultural Company $200,000. The last clerk in charge at Nisqually House was Edward Huggins, who became an American citizen and secured the site of Fort Nisqually as a homestead. It remained the Huggins homestead until the property became a part of the holdings of the company now operating the powder works.
About Patrick