Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/23

Rh the influence of pure-minded women. At that time there was not a single woman of marriageable age on Puget Sound or the inlets north of Olympia. save two or three 'school marms,' who had accompanied me from the East the year before, and they were all preparing their wedding trousseaux. On the other hand, 'the woods were full' of single men—strong, brave and true-hearted, who had gone West to help subdue it and build a home. There were few families, and the bachelor element was almost wholly beyond the reach of female influence and its wholesome results. Most of these men had taken claims along the various streams and commenced the slow process of clearing. Prospectively their farms were valuable, but at that time unsalable, save for a pittance. The cost of a trip by steamer to the East was $250, not to mention incidentals. Thus the round trip, with the necessary expenses of finding a wife and returning to the 'Sound' would be $1,000 at least, and this was more than any claim in the country would sell for. So it was evident that Mahomet could not go to the mountains and the mountains had to be taken to Mahomet.

This was just at the close of the Civil War, when thousands of widows and orphans filled the East, many of whom, I reasoned, would be glad to seek a home in the sunset land, then terra incognita. Hundreds of government vessels were lying idle and thousands of seamen were still on the pay rolls, with bunkers overflowing with coal, at all of the government wharves. My thought was to call on President Lincoln, tell him of our situation, and ask him to give me a ship, coaled and manned, for the voyage from New York to Seattle, I furnishing the food supplies. This, I was confident, he would gladly do. Having sat upon Lincoln's lap as a five-year-old lad and listened to his funny stories, and knowing the goodness of his heart, not a shadow of doubt existed in my mind as to tile outcome.

The steamer arrived in New York about noon and I arranged matters so as to leave for Washington on the morning train. Reaching the hotel office at 6 o'clock so as to breakfast and be off, crepe greeted me from all sides, and a bulletin