Olympia High School WW Miller High School - Olympiad Yearbook (Olympia, WA)

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newspaper. Whensthe Civil War came, Olympia declared itself whole-heartedly on the Union side, and sent the first mes- sage in IS64 on the newly-completed telegraph line, one of encouragement to President Abraham Lincoln. Had it not been for a curious chain of circumstances, Olympia might now be the metropolis of Washington and Tacoma an obscure settlement in the sticks The Northern Pacific railroad, which was to terminate in Olym- pia, was featured by an accompanying wave of land spec- ulation. On the board of directors of the railroad were a group of men who were owners of a land company. Their policy was to buy the land through which the rail- road was to run and then sell it at a tremendous profit. Planning to locate the terminus of the western road in the capitol city, they sent west lra Bradley Thomas to secure the title to lands at Budd's Inlet. Shortly after doing this, he died and the company realized that these lands would be involved in probate courts and litigation which would take over a year. Time was an all-import- ant consideration with the road. So the company went to an obscure settlement near old Tacoma and bought lands. And here, instead of in Olym- pia, the terminal was located. Since Olympia was chosen capitol of Washington its growth has been closely linked with the growth of the state. It is a far cry from the one-story, frame building that served as the lirst capitol to the beautiful administrative group of to- day which is one of the finest in the country. But there is also a great contrast between the gay capitol city of today, small and beautiful, and the wild frontier town of filled- in mud flats and corduroy roads .with its mixed population of Indians and whites. The pioneer spirit of Washington has still been retained, although the sweep of civilization from ocean to ocean has obliter- ated the old frontier. For the same spirit which claimed a state from jealous forests has led to pioneering in the new frontiers- the frontiers of progressive government. HEN Washington territory was or- ganized, the Federal government granted l32,000 acres of land for the erection of buildings at the state capitol. The endowment has proved princely because it included much valuable timber land. Sylvester, founder of Olympia, donated twelve acres for the capitol site, where the present structures are erected. With the completion this year of the Social Security unit, newest in the group, the scheduled construction pro- gram has almost been completed. Only a few portions remain to be erected. In pioneer days hoss thieves and bad boys were lynched with due eclat from this stalwart oak. still standing, as shown in the pictures, near Chambers prairie on the road to Yelm. A proposition being considered today to beautify the capitol is the creation of a lake l by damming the small section of Budd's Inlet on the banks of which the state buildings stand. Plans include terracing of the ground to the lake which will be fed by the Des chutes river. If this is accomplished, en- thusiasts say, the capitol site will be one of the most beautiful in the country. Amazingly rich in historical value, Olym- pia and surrounding territory abounds in buildings and landmarks which recall early days of the settlement of the West. ln the modern Masonic temple on Capitol Way may be seen a model of the first Masonic meeting hall in the state, erected in Olympia in 1853. One of the most frequently visited spots of interest in Olympia is Priest Point park. In July, 1847, Pascal Ricard, a Catholic missionary, with nine companions located a donation claim of 360 acres on the east side of Budd's Inlet and here established a school for lndian boys. When the Indians, years after, were transferred to the reser- vations, Father Ricard abandoned his mission claim and took up work elsewhere. The land which constituted the mission was later acquired by the city of Olympia, and be- came Priest Point park. The greater area of the park today remains in its primeval state, with fir, cedar and maple woods giving it a natural beauty. On the corner of Was-hington and Second streets still stands the building which for many years housed the offices of the Washington Standard, the evergreen state's most famous early newspaper. The Standard was published by John Miller Murphy, pioneer journalist, who commenced publication November l7, l860. The Indian totem above is at Priest Point Park, beauty spot north of Olympia. To the left is a picture of Tumwater ,falls taken in the l880's. The settlement of Tumwater was founded in 1845 as New Market by the Colonel Michael Simmons party. The falls, furnishing the power for embryonic in- dustries, gave the town its Indian name.

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from the occasional sailing vessel which made the em- bryonic port. Prices were unbelievably high, because of the difliculty of shipment. In 1852, pork was selling at from S40 to 21550 per barrel and flour was as high as S40 per barrel. The supplies came around Cape Horn and sometimes all the food in the settlement ran out and the settlers were forced to live on nature's bounty for five or six weeks until the next boat came. The new settlement had been called Stechas or Beans Place by Indians-which provides a hint as to where Olympia's athletic teams got their traditional nick- name-but Levi Lathrop Smith, who founded it, evidently disliked the name because he changed it to Smithfield. The settlement occupied a part of what is now Olympia. Smith's partner was Edmund Sylvester, who by virtue of the park named for him which lies today in the center of the capitol city, is well known to students. Upon the death of Smith, who died of apoplexy during a canoe trip up the Des- chutes river from Olympia to Tum- . water, Sylvester became the sole owner 1 of the site of the capitol city. I-le moved there from his prairie farm and built a log hotel which meas- ured 16 by 24 feet and contained two rooms. This was the first build- ing in Olympia. In i850 Sylvester laid off the claim as a townsite and called it by the more pretentious name of Olympia. The attitude of the free days of early Olympia is described by a para- graph from Pioneer Days on Puget Sound by Arthur A. Denny, pioneer Seattleite: The man who had the best stock of health and the most faith and pluck was the most wealthy, for we were all capitalists in those days. Each one expected to help himself, and as a rule, all went to work with energy to open up the country and make homes for themselves. At the same time they were ever ready to help each other in case of need or misfortune. Olympia was the third city in the state, and when Wash- ington became a separate territory from Oregon, it was the largest city in the region. It was here that Governor Isaac I. Stevens, lirst ruler of the territory, arrived on November 25, 185 3, after a trip that took him live months and nine- teen days from St. Paul. History records that the first territorial legislature con- I ,V ,,.. , ,WN Neeym vened in a small two-story building, the Star Cafe, on Main street CCapitol Way, between Second and Third. By 1865 affairs were well under way on Budd's Inlet. Albert D. Richardson, an Eastern journalist who accom- panied Schuyler Colfax, the speaker of the national House of Representatives, on a trip of inspection, braving the uwilds of the west gathering material for his book, Be- yond the Mississippi, leaves in it a -f graphic picture of the primeval settle- ment. Leaving Portland, he wrote they steamed down the clear Wallamet Cwillamettel for twelve miles, the blue Columbia and the muddy CowIitz, and landed at Monticello, one of the early settlements in Wash- ington territory. Thence they made a two-day covered wagon ride which took them to the capitol. Here they found that Washington territory, with a population of 20,000 people has no daily news- paper. Olympia, the seat of govern- ment at the most southern elbow of Puget sound, contains 600 people in winter, and perhaps half as many in summer. It is a settlement struggling hard against primeval nature and ab- original man. Thus far the advan- tage is rather with the forest and the Indian. After dark, the entire popu- lation-men, women, children and Indians-were ad- dresed by Mr. Colfax. Modern Olympia dates from January 29, IB59, when the city was incorporated with Ct. A. Barnes, T. P. McElroy, James Tilton, Joseph Cushman and Elwood Evans, trustees, and Cushman, president of the board. In this year the old blockhouse on the square was commissioned as a jail, and the new city took its place in the urban world. In the same year John Mil- ler Murphy started the historic Washington Standard, early Fort Eaton, shown above, was built by the settlers during the ln- dian War of 1856. The- marker commemorating it, pictured at the bottom of the page, was erected by the Freedom community in 1932. The oak tree on this historic spot still stands. The center picture is of the marker indicating the end of the famed Oregon Trail.

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Such plates as these, mere ornaments for a mantel or a side-board in their day, are now relics of historical and sentimental value. The art work is reminiscent of the pioneer period. The original plates were in colors. C' of s- Q15 in