The Log School-House on the Columbia   By: Hezekiah Butterworth (1839-1905)

A Tale of the Pioneers of the Great Northwest

by

HEZEKIAH BUTTERWORTH

Author of the Zigzag Books

ILLUSTRATED

1890

[Illustration]

New York D. Appleton and Company

[Illustration: Gretchen at the Potlatch Feast. ]

PREFACE.

A year or more ago one of the librarians in charge of the young people's books in the Boston Public Library called my attention to the fact that there were few books of popular information in regard to the pioneers of the great Northwest. The librarian suggested that I should write a story that would give a view of the heroic lives of the pioneers of Oregon and Washington.

Soon after this interview I met a distinguished educator who had lately returned from the Columbia River, who told me the legend of the old chief who died of grief in the grave of his son, somewhat in the manner described in this volume. The legend had those incidental qualities that haunt a susceptible imagination, and it was told to me in such a dramatic way that I could not put it out of my mind.

A few weeks after hearing this haunting legend I went over the Rocky Mountains by the Canadian Pacific Railway, and visited the Columbia River and the scenes associated with the Indian story. I met in Washington, Yesler, Denney, and Hon. Elwood Evans, the historian; visited the daughter of Seattle, the chief, "Old Angeline"; and gathered original stories in regard to the pioneers of the Puget Sound country from many sources. In this atmosphere the legend grew upon me, and the outgrowth of it is this volume, which, amid a busy life of editorial and other work, has forced itself upon my experience.

H.B.

28 WORCESTER STREET, BOSTON, July 4, 1890

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER

I. GRETCHEN'S VIOLIN

II. THE CHIEF OF THE CASCADES

III. "BOSTON TILICUM"

IV. MRS. WOODS'S TAME BEAR, LITTLE "ROLL OVER"

V. THE NEST OF THE FISHING EAGLE

VI. THE MOUNTAIN LION

VII. THE "SMOKE TALK"

VIII. THE BLACK EAGLE'S NEST OF THE FALLS OF THE MISSOURI

IX. GRETCHEN'S VISIT TO THE OLD CHIEF OF THE CASCADES

X. MRS. WOODS MEETS LITTLE "ROLL OVER" AGAIN

XI. MARLOWE MANN'S NEW ROBINSON CRUSOE

XII. OLD JOE MEEK AND MR. SPAULDING

XIII. A WARNING

XIV. THE POTLATCH

XV. THE TRAUMEREI AGAIN

XVI. A SILENT TRIBE

XVII. A DESOLATE HOME AND A DESOLATE PEOPLE

XVIII. THE LIFTED CLOUD THE INDIANS COME TO THE SCHOOLMASTER

HISTORICAL NOTES.

I. Vancouver

II. The Oregon Trail

III. Governor Stevens

IV. Seattle the Chief

V. Whitman's Ride for Oregon

VI. Mount Saint Helens

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Gretchen at the Potlatch Feast E. J. Austen (Frontispiece)

Indians spearing fish at Salmon Falls

"Here were mountains grander than Olympus." The North Puyallup Glacier, Mount Tacoma

In the midst of this interview Mrs. Woods appeared at the door of the cabin A. E. Pope

The eagle soared away in the blue heavens, and the flag streamed after him in his talons E.J. Austen

The mountain lion D. Carter Beard

An Indian village on the Columbia

Afar loomed Mount Hood

A castellated crag arose solitary and solemn

At the Cascades of the Columbia

Multnomah Falls in earlier years. Redrawn by Walter C. Greenough

The old chief stood stoical and silent. E. J. Austen

Middle block house at the Cascades

CHAPTER I.

GRETCHEN'S VIOLIN.

An elderly woman and a German girl were walking along the old Indian trail that led from the northern mountains to the Columbia River. The river was at this time commonly called the Oregon, as in Bryant's poem:

"Where rolls the Oregon, And no sound is heard save its own dashings."