Page:The Souvenir of Western Women.djvu/100

92 The first Fourth of July celebration in the county was on the slough just above Cosmopolis. There were about twenty persons in all. We took our baskets and babies and boarded a large scow with Old Glory floating on the breeze. The eagle screamed and we sang patriotic songs and had such a good, jolly time. The next celebration was at Father Smith's. I shall never forget that Fourth. Early in the morning Mrs. Scammon and children. Mother Byles, myself and children got into a canoe with an Indian to row, and started up the river to the Melville Slough. There we got out and carried our babies, with the help of the Indian. We would take one at a time part of the way, put it down and go back for another. The bushes were so thick we could get but one through at a time. I had four children and Mrs. Scammon had four. Finally we reached Father Smith's.

We had a sumptuous dinner with a great big cake baked in a milk pan, with frosting and red candy over it. It was made by Father Smith. We had strawberries of his own raising. The table was set under the oak trees, for the house was too small for us all to get in at once. John Medcalf came riding an ox with the Stars and Stripes afloat from its great horns and John blowing a horn. There was a fiddle, and John played while Father Smith and John Brady danced. We sang patriotic songs and squealed the eagle hoarse, but we had no smoke, as there was no powder. Those were memorable days. How happy we were, for we had everything in common. Late in the afternoon all went their own way and took to the brush to find their canoes. When we got to the slough, behold the tide was out." "Tide waits for no man." We had to sit down and wait for the return tide.

The first election was at Westport. I told my husband I wished to attend, so we started very early in the morning with Messrs. Arch, Campbell, Karr, Milroy and Young, myself, husband and babies in a large sailboat. We had smooth sailing until we got opposite James' Rock, when the tide left us. We would have to wait for the tide, so I said I had rather wade out the half mile to James' cabin than to sit there for six hours. So the men took a baby apiece and started for shore. My husband and Mr. Karr wished to carry me, but I prefered to wade, so took their arms and stepped out, sometimes knee deep and sometimes waist deep, but I made it. On reaching the house the difficulty was in getting dry clothes Mother James and her daughter being very small and I very tall. But I got into Mother James clothes, and I'd give a dollar if I had had my picture taken. My dress just came to my knees, and the stockings just touched the hem of my dress. After we got through laughing I put my dress out to dry. The boys all sat in the sun till they dried off. When the tide returned we started for the polls to vote, but after all they would not let me vote. Don't tell me that women can't go to the polls.

The spring of '60 my husband went to the Salmon River mines, having lost all we had. I was left all alone with my children, without a neighbor nearer than ten miles except Edward Campbell and Mr. Karr.

The first time I was at Montesano I came up the river in a sailboat.