As I wrote last month, the Denny Party reached Portland in late August 1851, after five months on the Oregon Trail. They had crossed the plains and mountains, then been separated while some took the difficult journey down the Columbia River and others took the equally hazardous trip on the Barlow Road.
For Mary Denny, the last part of the journey was especially hard. She was pregnant and had been sick during the last few weeks of the trek. After months of traveling by wagon, caring for her husband and children through much of the journey, and then making the difficult voyage through the rapids of the Columbia, she arrived in Portland exhausted. Once there, both she and Arthur remained ill with malaria
On September 2, 1851, just days after their arrival in Portland, Mary gave birth to a son, Roland.
Still, Mary and her family could not settle down. They had made it through the hazards of the Oregon Trail, but Arthur was determined to move on. He had heard of the bounties of Puget Sound, well north of Portland, and thought it would be a better place to settle than the Willamette Valley, which he believed was becoming too crowded.
Later in September, Arthur sent his younger brother David and their fellow traveler John Low north to investigate Puget Sound. Along the way, the men met Leander “Lee” Terry, who joined them.
The three men traveled north, eventually reaching the area around Puget Sound. On September 25, they came ashore at what is now West Seattle and camped near a Duwamish village, where they met Chief Seattle.
The men explored the shoreline and surrounding country. On September 28, they reached Alki Point, where John Low and Lee Terry selected land claims. David was too young to claim land himself.
And David had no idea how long he would have to wait for the others to arrive. As it turned out, he would have a rough time during his weeks alone. More on that next month.
John Low returned to Portland to tell the others what the men had found and to bring the rest of the party north. David and Lee remained at Alki Point to begin building cabins. But Lee soon left to look for a tool he needed, leaving David to work alone.
When have you had to deal with a problem by yourself in a strange environment?
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Too many to mention but spending time in France and trying to use my college French language experience to get me through. Didn’t work but NOTHING compared to pioneer times.
Yes, trying to make one’s self understood in a foreign language is definitely a problem!
Theresa
Relieved to know Mary made it through that perilous river trip and had her baby. I was reading a bit more on Chief Seattle and when the city was founded. Also interesting that Washington’s unofficial state motto is “Alki”. Thank you for the drawing and this leg of the journey. Curious what will befall David next.
Cindy,
I’m a native Washingtonian, and I didn’t know Alki was the unofficial state motto.
As a place name, Alki started out as a joke. It means “by and by” or “”maybe someday” in the Duwamish language. The first white settlement there was called New York, and someone tacked on “Alki” to indicate that the settlement had a long way to go to be like New York. The Alki part of the name stuck, but the New York part did not.
Thanks for the comment.
Theresa