The Oregon Trail, by most standards, ended inOregon City on the Willamette River. However, for Willisand Mary Ann Boatman their journey’s end was daysaway and many miles farther.

FINAL DAYS ON THE TRAIL

The Boatmans were married in Sangamon County,Illinois, on 14 October 1851. Willis was twenty-five andMary Ann eighteen. That fall they rented a farm inIllinois and put in winter wheat with the intention ofsettling down. However, during the winter Willis wastaken with the “Oregon fever,” and by spring the desireto go west could not be overcome. On 29 March 1852,accompanied by their brothers, John Boatman andWilliam Richardson, together with a few friends fromthe community, Willis and Mary Ann left SangamonCounty in oxen drawn wagons with high expectations ofa bountiful life in far off Oregon.

At Kanesville (present Council Bluffs, Iowa) on theMissouri River the small band joined a larger groupforming a wagon train. However, Mary Ann’s brother,William, died of cholera in June along the Platte River.His illness delayed them, so they traveled much of theway with only the William Scott family. They arrived inThe Dalles, Oregon Territory, the last of September 1852.Weakened by their long and grueling journey, theremaining three were suffering from exhaustion. Theyhad planned to obtain provisions at The Dalles on theColumbia River and then continue their journey overthe Cascade Mountains by way of the Barlow Road tothe Willamette Valley. However, because they arrivedlate in the season, they feared there would be snow onthat route and decided to continue by way of theColumbia River.1

Following are excerpts from a handwrittenmanuscript by Willis Boatman which he prepared someunknown number of years after their trip over theOregon Trail. He tells about their journey west andabout settling in the Puget Sound country.2 Alsoincluded are some of his statements from a series oflocal newspaper articles that appeared during thesummer of 1922.3

. . . We arrived at The Dalles the last of September,1852 . . . my brother was taken down with themountain or nervous fever. A day or two after my wifeand I were both taken down, my wife with scurvy andI with the fever. We were all down sick, not one ableto wait on the other. My wife lay for three days with apiece of a tooth that had broken off in her mouthbefore she could get it out — her mouth was so soreand swollen from the effects of the scurvy. I was lyingthere not expected to live from one day to the next. Ithought my days numbered and told my wife to sellthe wagon and team and try to get back to her folk inIllinois. We lingered along there between life anddeath about ten days when we got able to walkaround a little. My brother still grew worse. By thistime it had commenced clouding up and the tradersat The Dalles said it was not safe to attempt to crossthe mountains, that it already commenced snowingin the mountains. So the only thing left was to shipour wagons and stuff down the river and drive ourcattle down the trail. We commenced looking aroundfor a boat to take our stuff down the river and finallystruck a man who had an old bateau. Four or five ofus made a contract with him to take us down to TheCascade Falls [a distance of about forty miles].

We loaded up our wagons and what little householdgoods we had left, together with our families andpulled out after making arrangements for some of themen to take the cattle down the trail.4

Their voyage down the Columbia was fraught withproblems. Not only were they weak from sickness, buthigh winds that are, to this day, common in theColumbia River Gorge, hampered their progress. Also,the man Willis had hired to drive the cattle along theriver gave up. Thus, Willis, in his weakened condition,had to take over driving the cattle.

. . . finally [I] got down to the Cascades where I foundthe remainder of the party that came down on theboat. My brother was not expected to live. I went tohim and found him in a dying condition. He liveduntil the next morning when about two a m on thesixteenth day of October he died. This was anotherhard duty to perform but we had to make the best ofit. So Mr. Scott and myself went down to an old milland got some lumber and made a box. We buried himat the grave yard at the Cascade Falls on theColumbia River. 5

Boatmans — Page 2

TRAIL’S END AND BEYOND

Weldon Willis Rau

“We got to our Journeys end but we then just began to realize our situation. Here we were three

thousand miles from our homes and relatives, without money and without home, among

strangers and in a strange land. There were more tears shed than sleeping done that night.”

—Willis Boatman

Weldon Willis Rau, a great-grandson of theWillis Boatmans, is a semi-retired researchgeologist and has had careers with both theU.S. Geological Survey and the State ofWashington. Most of his published works areabout the geology of the Northwest.

In later years Willis recalled “. . . digging that graveand laying him away so near the end of the long, longtrail, pretty nearly took the last atom of courage andstrength we had.”6

The cascade falls were usually referred to as TheCascades of the Columbia River. Geologically they wereformed many years ago by a tremendous landslide thatblocked the Columbia River for a time. The scarp formedby this slide can be seen on the mountain side for milesupstream. Eventually the river broke through thedammed area but remained in a narrow channel of fastflowing water.8 Today the cascades are submerged due tothe elevated water level caused by the Bonneville Damlocated down stream from the old cascades.

The graveyard where Willis buried his brother islocated on a wooded knoll overlooking the ColumbiaRiver just above the trace of the old wagon trail leadingup the ravine from the head of the cascades.

A few years ago this writer had an opportunity tospend a day in the area with Clifford Crawford, ahistorian for the Skamania County Historical Society inStevenson, Washington. We visited the graveyard siteand found it totally overgrown with brush. Furthermore,there was evidence that at least some of the graves hadbeen disturbed. According to Crawford, until a few yearsago two graves still remained recognizably intact.However, now there is very little left with which toidentify even these graves.

By 1852, a considerable community haddeveloped on the north side of the Columbia River, justa mile or so west of the present town of Stevenson,Washington. Its existence came about largely because ofits proximity to the upper end of non-navigable water ofthe cascades. In 1852, at this point, all travel on the river

required portage for some four miles around thecascades on the north shore either by a tramway thathad recently been constructed or, more commonly. by awagon road. The community consisted of a generalstore, owned by Daniel E. Putnam Bradford, and severalother establishments. The mill where Willis obtainedlumber for his brother’s coffin, also owned by Bradford,was located a short distance down the wagon road fromthe graveyard.8

After putting their wagons together and loadingtheir belongings, the Boatmans traveled about six mileson the old wagon road around the cascades to whatWillis described as “the steamboat landing at the lowerend of the Falls.” In later years he recalled:

Our supplies were about gone, and our appetites werenot good after the fever. It was hard to eat the littlestale and mouldy food we had left.

We were in this plight, hardly able to move wonderingwhat to do, how best to get down the Columbia toPortland when a kind hearted settler [whose namewas Stephens] came up to meet the train with a wholescow load of fresh vegetables.

I arranged with him, after the treasure he hadbrought us was divided up among us all, to take mywife and our household goods back with him and Iwould follow [on the trail] with the others and driveour cattle.

The scow reached the east bank of the WillametteRiver, present site of east Portland, on 22 October 1852.Willis recalled, “I’ll never forget the sorry picture my

Boatmans — Page 3

C. E. Watkins photo (Oregon Historical Society and Skamania County Museum)

Upper Cascades

on the north shore

of the Columbia

River as it

appeared in 1867.

The center

building is

Bradford’s general

store, and the mill

where Willis

obtained lumber is

in the lower right.

The large structure

above the mill is

Fort Lugenbeel,

not yet built in

1852. The

graveyard where

Willis buried his

brother is in the

wooded area just

beyond the fort. No

structures remain

in this area today.

young wife made sitting on the bank of the river, keepingguard over her pitiful household goods crying, when Idrove up.”10 They camped on the river bank that night,and the next day Willis went to the little community ofPortland to look for a house.

. . . I looked all over the place (and by the way, thatdid not take long for there were not more than twentyhouses in the place) but I could find nothing but anold shed which had an old dirt fireplace in it and oneside out to the commons. I secured it and moved overthat night. We carried what little stuff we had on ourbacks, made our bed down on the dirt floor withoutsweeping. This was the first roof that we had beenunder for seven long months.

I presume you think we had a good night’s sleep, butfar from it! We got to our journey’s end but we thenjust began to realize our situation. Here we were threethousand miles from our homes and relatives,without money and without home, among strangersand in a strange land. So you may imagine that therewas not much sleep that night. There were more tearsshed than sleeping done that night.11

The Boatmans survived the particularly hard winter of1852-1853 in their little dirt-floored shack. Bothcontinued to suffer with chills and fever. At times Willisbecame strong enough to earn some money by choppingwood at seventy-five cents per cord. He also raisedadditional funds by selling his two ox teams at asacrifice price of fifty dollars per yoke. On 31 December1852 their first child, George Washington Boatman, wasborn.

WILLIS GOES TO PUGET SOUND

By February of 1853, Willis began to regain hisstrength and to give some thought to where his growingfamily might make its home. Although their originalplan was to settle in the Willamette Valley, they becamediscouraged because much of the valley had alreadybeen taken. About this time, however, Willis heard thatwork was available in timber camps on Puget Sound, sohe decided to go north in search of employment.

Settlers north of the Columbia River had becomeincreasingly determined that, for geographic reasonswith respect to both government and business, aseparate territory should be created for lands north ofthe Columbia. Roads and waterways were virtuallyundeveloped north of the Columbia River, thus placinga hardship on those having to attend the territoriallegislature in the Capitol south of the river. Furthermore,northern settlers, being so remote from the center ofactivity south of the river, felt that they were not giventhe proper consideration in territorial matters. Businessdevelopment had been hampered because of a lack ofsupport from the territorial government.

The first serious effort toward separation from theOregon Territory was made at a convention held on 29August 1851 in the Clarke Hotel at Cowlitz Landing, inthose days a thriving little community on the CowlitzRiver near present Toledo, Washington. A second

convention was held on 25 October 1852 in thecommunity of Monticello, near present Longview,Washington, where forty-four delegates signed adocument urging the territorial split. It was sent to theOregon territorial legislature and then on to the 32ndCongress of the United States. On 2 March 1853 the U.S. Senate passed a bill creating the separation, and a fewdays later President Fillmore signed the act into law.12 1314

By this time many newcomers to the Oregon Territoryhad become aware of the largely unsettled country northof the Columbia River and were considering it as analternative to the Willamette Valley as a place to settleinasmuch as the best land in the popular Oregon valleywas rapidly being claimed. A few settlers had tricklednorthward earlier, but it was not until 1853 that agrowing number of settlers began to give seriousattention to the land north of the Columbia as a place tomake their homes.

Prior to the coming of the Americans, the Hudson’sBay Company had conducted a thriving trade with theIndians and later, under the name of the Puget SoundAgricultural Company, farmed in areas near the presenttown of Toledo and northward around Fort Nisqually onPuget Sound. Furthermore, the trading company hadallowed some of its employees to take up land claimsalong the corridor of trade and travel between theColumbia River and Puget Sound.15 Many of these earlysettlers were of French descent. Simon B. Plamondon,among the earliest, was largely responsible forestablishing the St. Francis Xavier Mission in the late1830s near present Toledo. This was the first CatholicMission in what is today Washington State.16 It was intothis frontier country that Willis was about to venture.

When I concluded to take a trip to Puget Sound, I toldJ. M. Hawk, a friend that I had traveled with on theplains, what I had decided to do. He then proposedgoing with me.17

John M. Hawk settled in the Olympia, Washington,area on what is known today as Hawk’s Prairie.18

We bought some lumber and built a skiff in which totravel by water as far as we could. The rest of the waywe planned to travel on foot. Hopefully we wouldhave our boat for the return trip. When the boat wascompleted and we were ready to go, two other fellowswanted to go. We charged them ten dollars apiece totake them as far as we could up the Cowlitz River.

On the morning of the fifteenth of February [1853] weset sail for the sound. We went down the Willamette[and Columbia rivers] to the mouth of the CowlitzRiver and went up that river about six miles, until thecurrent got so strong that we had to leave our boat.From there we took a trail on foot. It was a hard andrough trail and in places the snow was two and a halffeet deep.19

The route of travel from the Columbia Rivernorthward to the Puget Sound was not an easy one. Itwas established first by the Indians and was confined

Boatmans — Page 4

to the waterway of the Cowlitz River northward as faras navigable to near today’s Toledo. The routecontinued overland through the area of presentCentralia, Chehalis and Tenino, then on to the sound.

Later, Hudson’s Bay traders followed this same route

from the Columbia River northward to Fort Nisqually onthe sound. Early American settlers also found their wayover this route. In 1845 the Michael T. Simmons partymade the first crude wagon road from the head of theCowlitz waterway to the southern most tip of PugetSound where they established the first American

Boatmans — Page 5

community on Puget Sound, known then as New Marketand today as Tumwater, Washington. Others, such as J.R.Jackson in 1844, settled along the way. The Jacksoncabin still stands a few miles north of Toledo. It ispreserved as a Washington State Parks Historical Siteand is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.The hospitality received at the Jackson place made it afavorite stopover in later years for settlers on their wayto Puget Sound. Beginning in 1853, the American influxnorthward greatly increased over this route.20 21

Boatman continues the story of his trek north:

We carried nothing with us except our small packs inour blankets. Every man carried his own blanketsbecause lodges were scarce and costly. Of course wecould stop at almost any settler’s place along the way,but if we did we rolled up in our blankets and slept onthe floor. For supper we had salmon and hard-bread,and for breakfast hard-bread and salmon! The costwas about a dollar or a dollar and a quarter a meal.22

Finally we reached a place called Clark’s Landing.23

[Here] . . . there was an old fellow who made abusiness of taking in strangers. He and his son hadtaken an old deserted farm house and made it into asort of inn. He literally fed his guests nothing but

hard-bread. and so they dubbed him “Old Hard-bread.”24 I thought the name very appropriate.25

Old Hardbread’s place was located at the mouth of atributary to the Cowlitz River known today as the ToutleRiver. According to Ezra Meeker, the man’s name was “.. . Gardner, the old widower that kept ‘Bachelor’s hall’ atthe mouth of the Toutle River.”26

We partook of his hospitality and enjoyed it verymuch. We were tired and hungry. So we spread ourblankets and were fast asleep . . . The next day we gotto the old Cowlitz Landing.27

Cowlitz Landing was situated about one and a quartermiles downstream from present Toledo, Washington. By1853 it had become a thriving community of greatimportance to those traveling between the ColumbiaRiver and the Puget Sound country. It was at the end ofthe navigable water of the Cowlitz River and thejumping off place for those heading overland to thePuget Sound area. The community developed mainlyfrom the efforts of two early settlers, E. D. Warbass andFred A. Clarke, who had adjoining donation land claimsalong the Cowlitz River. The original Cowlitz Landingdeveloped on the Clarke land. Among the first structures

Boatmans — Page 6

Lewis County Historical Museum

Cowlitz Landing, about a mile downstream on the Cowlitz River from present Toledo, was the “jumping” off place” overland for thePuget Sound county.

to be built was a blockhouse erected in 1849 out of hewnfir logs. Next were built a general store and the ClarkeHotel where the 1851 territorial separation conventionwas held. A few homes and farms grouped around thiscommercial center formed the community. Warbass,who took his claim out in 1850, also built a hotel (theCowlitz Hotel), a saw and gristmill and a store. Hiscommunity was known as Warbassport. In a few yearsthe two places were considered one, with the nameCowlitz Landing prevailing for the locality.28 Today not avestige of the town remains. Over the years the CowlitzRiver has repeatedly changed its course and erodedaway the land once occupied by Cowlitz Landing.

It took us over a week to walk to Olympia [on PugetSound]. We walked two or three miles through deepmud in a swamp opposite where Chehalis is now.[The area in the vicinity of Chehalis was then knownas “Saunders Bottom.”)29

There was a sawmill at Tumwater, then known as“New Market,” on the southern tip of Puget Sound.30

Olympia had a few houses, really just cabins, but areal boarding house with plenty of good food.

Isaac I. Stevens would arrive in Olympia later thatsame year (26 November 1853) to take over his newposition as the first governor of the Washington

Territory. He would come from the field where heheaded a government survey for the first continentalrailroad. Under him, a friend from the military, GeorgeB. McClellan (later to become Commander of the UnionArmy for a time during the Civil War), had beenassigned the task of establishing the route through theCascade Mountains. In October, having completed muchof his survey, McClellan met with Stevens at FortColville on the east side of the Cascade Range to reporthis findings. From there they went their separate ways,but eventually both arrived in Olympia for the winter.32

We only stopped over night in Olympia. In themorning we met three other fellows who wanted to goto Steilacoom, so the five of us hired a boat, sort of ayawl, to take us as far as Fort Nisqually. From there wewalked the eight or nine miles to Steilcacoom.33 Herewe began looking for work and soon met LafayetteBalch who informed us that he needed some men togo across to Henderson’s Bay to work in a timbercamp.34

The community of Steilacoom was founded by Capt.Lafayette Balch in 1851. Late in the year 1850 hebrought two ships loaded with merchandise to PugetSound. Having stopped at Olympia, he decided it didnot meet his business needs and sailed approximatelyten miles northward on the sound where he formed hisown town, Steilacoom. By donating money for civic

Boatmans — Page 7

Steilacoom was a thriving commuity in the 1860’s.

Steilacoom Historical Society

needs such as a Masonic lodge. courthouse, school andthe first church to be built in the southern Puget Soundarea, he encouraged pioneers to settle nearby. LafayetteBalch died suddenly in San Francisco on 25 November1862, ending his twelve-year enterprising career in thePacific Northwest.35

Steilacoom, during its early years, had high hopes ofbecoming the hub of the Puget Sound country. By 1855it consisted of seventy dwelling-houses, six stores, twoblacksmith shops, one tailor, one cabinet maker andthree hotels. Within a short distance of town there werethree sawmills and a gristmill, a church, a daily school,a public press, a billiard hall, two bowling alleys and awharf.36 Steilacoom was indeed a thriving community inthose days. However. the development of Seattle andTacoma soon overshadowed it. Today Steilacoomremains a quaint little town of about 5,000 citizens whotake great pride in their pioneer heritage.

We made arrangements to go to work the next day atseventy five dollars per month and board. There werefour of us and an Indian started in a canoe forHenderson Bay about nine miles away. Just after westarted the wind raised and the sound became veryrough. There we were, two or three miles from landwith some of the waves breaking over and filling theboat half full of water! Fortunately we had a bucket,of which we made good use in bailing out the water.Finally I rigged a sail out of the Indian’s blanket andthat helped steady our little boat until we got to shore.On coming near shore the sea was so rough that wecould not land so we had to work our way around thepoint where the sea was not so turbulent. We had tolay there until late in the evening before we couldmake another start, arriving in camp a little afterdark. We found that a lot of men worked at thiscamp.37

WILLIS RETURNS FOR MARY ANN

I had been there a month when I was told they neededa woman cook, and if I would bring my wife over, theywould pay her fifty dollars a month to cook for thecamp. So, I went back to Portland.38

When Mary Ann was confronted with the job offer sheis quoted as saying, “Yes I’ll cook. I’ll work at anythingthat will earn money enough to take us home, away fromthis awful lonely country!””

. . . Henry Winsor, who settled in Mason County,[Washington], had a large bateau that he ran fromPortland to the Cowlitz Landing. So, I shipped mywagon on a sailing vessel from Portland to Steilacoomand took passage with Captain Winsor for CowlitzLanding.40

Henry Winsor also crossed the plains in 1852 but witha horse team. By the spring of 1853, he had begun acanoe and bateau transport business on the Columbiaand Cowlitz rivers. In 1854 Winsor moved to CowlitzLanding where he began a horse rental business fortravel between there and Olympia and also started the

first regular government mail service by mule betweenthe Columbia River and Olympia.41

Several families had decided to go. The boat was justlarge enough for passengers [and crew] only.

When we came to the Cowlitz it took passengers aswell as crew to get the boat upstream because thecurrent was so terrific. We worked her almost foot byfoot, fastening the rope to big trees ahead and everyable man doing his share at pulling. Those of us notbusy at the rope, poled.42

Boatman further describes hardships that travelersendured in those early days in the Pacific Northwest:

When we finally got to Cowlitz Landing, I went to mywife and found her feeling pretty miserable. “I’vecaught a cold. Willis,” she said. “My eyes feel strangeand I don’t feel well a bit.” She trembled as I helpedher off the boat, and her voice sounded excited andfrightened as she said, “Oh Willis. I can’t even see thebaby! I can’t see anything! Am I going blind? I mustn’tgo blind!” I led her up to the house. There was notmuch we could do; nobody knew how to treat such astrange eye trouble. We just went on.43

Even though Mary Ann was ill they started out on footfrom Cowlitz Landing for Olympia. Soon two more ofthe party became ill at which time it was concluded thatmeasles had struck their party. Eventually they cameupon a man with a wagon but without a team. Inasmuchas their party had two oxen but no wagon, theycombined their resources and managed to get the sicklylittle group safely to Olympia.

We got through to Olympia safe enough where werested over night. The next day we hired an Indian totake us in his canoe over to Henderson’s Bay.

We had our jobs alright, but it wasn’t long before wesaw that our $125 a month was too slow [inaccumulating]. We wanted to go home quick.44

We worked [at the timber camp] only about threemonths and then went back to Steilacoom.45

[There we] built a house and started a boardinghouse.’

THE BOATMANS DECIDE TO STAY

All the time our minds were set on going home [toIllinois]. Day after day we looked for mail that wemight learn what had happened since we left . . .weeks passed and no news came. We had left home inMarch, 1852 . . . it was July [1853] before we got aletter, and when that letter came it brought the newsof the death of my wife’s mother. It was then that wegave up the hope of going home. We decided we mightas well stay.47

After about eight months the Boatmans sold their

Boatmans — Page 8

Boatmans — Page 9

WILLIS’S FIRST TRIP TO THE PUGET SOUND REGION

Going from Steilacoomto Hudson’s Bay“. . . the wind raisedand the Sound re-came very rough . . .Fortunately we hada bucket . . . (to) bailout the water. Irigged a sail out of the Indian’sblanket.” (Sketch byMark MacLeod)

“We worked her almost footby foot, fastening the rope to

big trees ahead and everyable man doing his share at

pulling. Those of us not busyat the rope, poled.”

(Sketch by Mark LacLeod)

WILLIS RETURNS TO THE PUGET SOUND AREA WITH HIS FAMILY“When we started across that stretch from Olympia (from Cowlitz Landing) . . . we loaded what stuff we had into the wagon

and put the girls with measles on top ... we gave the baby to one of the girls and started on our way.” (Sketch by Mark MacLeod)

boarding house and on 11 January 1854 took out adonation land claim in the Puyallup Valley, some twentymiles to the northeast of Steilacoom and about ten milesup the valley from Tacoma, Washington.49

The trip from Steilacoom to the Puyallup Valley wasby way of Puget Sound in canoes to Commencement Baywhere the Puyallup River enters the sound. From therethey continued in canoes up the Puyallup River, havingto portage a number of times because of log jams.50

In a few days I started back (to the Puyallup valley] incompany with John Carson to build a house on myclaim. I exchanged work with Mr. Carson.51 He was afine carpenter and built my house first . . . I found abig cedar fallen on my place with the best lumber init I ever saw . . . we could have built a half a dozenmore [houses] like it [from the same tree] and hadwood left over . . . [It] was the first house weatherboarded with shakes in the valley . . . I could hardlywait to bring Mary Ann to see her nice home.52

In a few days we moved down to our new home. Mr.Carson and family moved down at the same time andstayed with us in our house ‘till he got his house built.Then they moved into their house.53

The Boatmans and the Carsons, the first all-whitefamilies in the Puyallup Valley, were soon followed by anumber of other families who also had recentlyventured west by way of the Oregon Trail. Includedwere several families of the first train to cross theCascade Mountains through the Naches Pass ofWashington.54 That spring, 1854, Willis began clearingland and planted a small garden. By summer, “We beganto be very happy there . . . everything promised well.That summer the second baby came.” John WilliamBoatman was the first white child to be born in thePuyallup Valley.55

The Boatmans had finally reached their trail’s end.Over the following years they prospered, and in the

early 1870s they built a larger home for their growingfamily which eventually totaled seven children.

In 1862 another emigrant who had traveled theOregon Trail in 182 came to the Puyallup Valley to settleafter having lived in several other parts of the PugetSound region. His name was Ezra Meeker.56 Thisenterprising, and to become renowned, young mansettled on the south side of the Puyallup Riverimmediately across from the Boatmans where he plattedhis land to form the town of Puyallup. In 1865 Meekerintroduced the valley to its first commercial crop —hops.57 Willis Boatman, as well as many other valleysettlers, followed Meeker’s lead and prospered fromgrowing this crop. During the latter part of thenineteenth century Willis became involved in bankingand, for a number of years, was president of one of thefirst banks to be formed in Meeker’s town of Puyallup.5859 Mary Ann died in 1911, but Willis lived on, enjoyingremarkably good health, until 1926 when he passedaway quietly in his sleep at the age of ninety-nine yearsand three months.

NOTES

1. Both Mary Ann and Willis Boatman recorded storiesof their trip. Although the original handwrittenmanuscripts are among family documents, typedcopies have been placed in local libraries, includingthe Washington Historical Society in Tacoma. MaryAnn wrote in far greater detail than did Willis. buther story was never quite completed. A manuscriptincluding her story is currently under preparation bythe writer.

2. Willis Boatman, no date, but the stories are believedto have been written in the latter part of the 1800s. Aversion of his story was also presented in Told by thePioneers, 1937, Vol. 1, (United States Public WorksProject Administration, Washington State).

3. Mabel Cleland, “On the Pioneer Tacoma Trail,” TheTacona News Tribune, June and July 1922. Thisreference is a series of articles about the Boatmanfamily in which Willis was quoted extensively.

Boatmans — Page 10

This photograph of Willis andMary Ann Boatman was taken in

1904 in front of their originalpioneer home, fifty years after the

house was built. It was the onlypioneer home in the Puyallup

valley not destroyed during theIndian conflict of 1955-11856.

Private Collection

Boatmans — Page 11

The Puyallup Valley home of Willis and Mary Ann Boatman on its original site, circa. 1900.

Willis Boatman, age thirty-nine, 1865. Mary Ann Boatman, age thirty-two, 1865.

THE PUYALLUP VALLEY COMMUNITY

Boatmans — Page 12

Private Collection

(Right) Old settlers ofthe Puyallup Valley:back row left to right:Peter Smith, Mr.Dorhety, Ezra Meeker,Willis Boatman, Mr.Rogers; front row leftto right, Polly AnnWollery, Mrs Dunlap,Mrs. E. Meeker, Mrs.W. Boatman and Mrs.Rodgers.

4. Boatman, unpublished manuscript. 5. Ibid.

6. Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 23 June 1922.

7. John E. Allen, The Magnificent Gateway, A Laymen’sGuide to the Geology of the Columbia River Gorge(Forest Grove, OR: Timber Press, 1979), p. 52-56.

8. Clifford Crawford, 1989, oral communication.

9. Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 23 June 1922.

10. Ibid.

11. Boatman, unpublished manuscript.

12. Cecil Dryden, Dryden’s History of Washington(Portland, OR: Binford and Mort, 1968), p. 118-121.

13. A.G. Kletsch, “Cowlitz River navigation with respectto the development of the town of Toledo,Washington,” Master of Arts thesis in history, 1943,State College of Washington, Pullman, Washington,p. 22-23.

14. Longview Daily News Cowlitz-Columbia CentennialEdition, 19 August 1953, p. 6.

15. James R. Gibson, “A Diverse Economy, The ColumbiaDepartment of the Hudson’s Bay Company, 1821-1846,” Columbia, the Magazine of Northwest History,Summer, 1991, Washington Historical Society, p. 28-31.

16. F.F. Ross, “A History of St. Francis Xavier Mission,Toledo, Washington, 1838-1988,” presented to theFriars of St. Francis Xavier Mission, April 1988, p. 1-4.

17. Boatman, unpublished manuscript.

18. Shanna B. Stevenson, Lacey, Olympia, andTiamrater. a pictorial history (Norfolk, VA: TheDonning Company, 1985), p. 44.

19. Boatman, unpublished manuscript.

20. E.S. Meany, History of the State of Washington (NewYork: McMillan, 1941) p. 223-224.

21. Kletsch, “Cowlitz River navigation,” p. 10-26. 22.Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 5 July 1922.

23. Boatman, unpublished manuscript. 24. Cleland,“Tacoma Trail,” 6 July 1922. 25. Boatman,unpublished manuscript.

26. Ezra Meeker, Pioneer Reminiscences of Puget Sound—The Tragedy of Lesch (Seattle, WA: Lowman andHanford,1905), p. 79.27. Boatman, unpublished manuscript.

28. Kletsch, “Cowlitz River Navigation,” p. 19-21.

29. Robert R. Weyeneth, “Urban Ambitions—the Originsand Urban Development of Chehalis,” Columbia, The

Magazine of Northwest History, Winter, 1991,Washington Historical Society, p. 5.

30. Elwood Evans, History of tire Pacific Northwest:Oregon and Washington, Vol. 2 (North Pacific HistoryCompany. 1889). p. 558-560.

31. Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 6 July 1922.

32. K.D. Richards, “The Young Napoleons,” Columbia.The Magazine of Northwest History, Winter, 1989/90,Washington Historical Society, p. 21-28.

33. Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 6 July 1922.

34. Boatman, unpublished manuscript.

35. W.P. Bonney, History of Pierce County, Washington.Vol. 1 (Chicago, IL: Pioneer Publishing Company,1927), p. 65-66.

36. “Steilacoom,” Puget Sound Courier, Vol. 1, No. 1,Saturday, 11 May 1855.

37. Boatman, unpublished manuscript.

38. Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 6 July 1922. 39. Ibid.

40. Boatman, unpublished manuscript.

41. Longview Daily News, 19 August 1953, p. 8. 42.Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 7 July 1922.

43. Ibid.

44. Ibid, 8 July 1922.

45. Boatman, unpublished manuscript. 46. Cleland,“Tacoma Trail,” 8 July 1922. 47. Ibid.

48. “Pioneer couple 60 years wed,” The Daily Ledger,Tacoma. Washington, Friday, 20 October 1911.

49. Bonney, History of Pierce County, p. 148-149.

50. “Latest News of Puyallup,” The Tacoma Daily Ledger.30 March 1908.

51. Boatman, unpublished manuscript.

52. Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 10 July 1922. 53. Boatman,unpublished manuscript.

54. Bonney, History of Pierce County, p. 93-96. 55.Cleland, “Tacoma Trail,” 10 July 1922.

56. Frank L. Green, Ezra Meeker-Pioneer (Tacoma:Washington State Historical Society, 1969), p. 10.

57. Ezra Meeker, Hop Culture in the United States(Puyallup. WA: E. Meeker and Company, 1893), p. 8.

58. “Puyallup Banks and Bankers,” The Daily Ledger,Tacoma. Washington, 9 April 1890, p. 6.

59. J.P. Stewart, Puyallup Banks (Puyallup, WA:Karshner Museum Notebook, no date), p. 1-4.

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