In the last post I wrote about the Denny Party, they had reached Portland, Oregon, in late August 1851, after five months on the Oregon Trail. Mary Denny gave birth to a son, Rolland, on September 2, while still ill with malaria.
Arthur Denny, Mary’s husband, who was also ill, was already planning to leave Portland and the Willamette Valley and explore Puget Sound to the north. John Low, who had traveled with the Dennys from Fort Hall to Oregon, needed to find winter pasture for his cattle. So John Low, and David Denny, Arthur’s younger brother, crossed the Columbia River with Low’s cattle to explore.
When they reached the small community of Olympia, they met Leander “Lee” Terry, who joined them in their exploration of Puget Sound. On September 25, 1851, the three men reached the mouth of the Duwamish River, camped near a Native village, and met Chief Seattle. They explored the surrounding waterways and shoreline before deciding that what is now Alki Point, on the western side of Elliott Bay, offered a promising place to settle.
On September 28, John Low and Lee Terry selected land claims at Alki. David Denny, who was only nineteen, was too young to claim land under the Donation Land Claim Act. He stayed behind with Lee to help build cabins for the rest of their party.
John Low returned to Portland to tell Arthur what they had found. He carried a note from David, who knew his brother would want to hear from him.
David wrote:
We have examined the valley of the Duwamish river and find it a fine country. There is plenty of room for one thousand settlers.
Come at once.
After Low left, David and Lee Terry struggled to build the cabin. They had little more than an axe and a hammer. Lee left to find a tool called a froe, used to split cedar shingles for the roof. David continued working alone, but then cut his foot with an axe. With Lee gone and the cabin unfinished, David faced a lonely wait for help to arrive. To top off his woes, animals got into his food.
Low reached Portland in mid-October and delivered David’s encouraging message. That was enough to convince Arthur to move the party to Alki. Arthur then organized the next stage of the journey. Accompanying Arthur were his wife Mary, their three children (including baby Rolland), Carson Boren and his wife and daughter, Louisa Boren, William and Sarah Bell and their children, and John Low’s family.
Arthur’s father, John Denny, and stepmother Sarah, chose to remain in the Willamette Valley, as did John’s other sons who had traveled west with the party.
On November 5, 1851, the families boarded the schooner Exact in Portland and set sail for Puget Sound. After months on the trail, they were exchanging wagons for a ship and the familiar Willamette Valley for an uncertain future on the unsettled coast.
They could hardly have imagined what awaited them at Alki Point. David was still struggling with the unfinished cabin, and the newcomers would soon discover that finding a place to settle was only the beginning of their challenges.
Next month, I’ll continue the story with the Denny Party’s arrival at Alki Point on November 13—and the less-than-welcoming sight that greeted them there.
Have you ever thought your journey was over, only to need to travel farther?
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