"Early History of Thurston County, Washington; Together with Biographies and
Reminiscences of those Identified with Pioneer Days." Compiled and Edited by
Mrs. George E. (Georgiana) Blankenship.  Published in Olympia, Washington, 1914.
p. 246.
 
JUDGE O. B. McFADDEN

     A sketch of Thurston County's early history without at least a mention of
Judge 0. B. McFadden and his family would, indeed, be like a play of Hamlet with
Hamlet left out.
    Born in Pennsylvania of a sturdy and well-to-do family,Judge McFadden spent
the early years of his life in that state.  There he was married and there his
four elder children were born. In 1853 President Franklin Pierce appointed the
young lawyer, who even then was beginning to attract attention by his legal
attainments and tactful statesmanship, to the position of Circuit Judge over the
newly organized Territory of Oregon. Judge McFadden made the trip to his new
field of labor by water, crossing the Isthmus and coming on up to San Francisco,
then by boat up the Columbia to Vancouver, which was then but little more than a
trading post established by the Hudson Bay people. Court was held in the Rogue
River country and the Judge would make his visits from Vancouver always on
horseback, with his legal books and documents
packed in his saddle bags. Soon after the formation of Washington Territory, and
her separation from Oregon, Judge McFadden was appointed Chief Justice to
succeed Edward Lauder, who was the first Judge to enjoy that honor.
     The year before his coming to Olympia, Judge McFadden had returned to his
home in Pennsylvania and yielding to the entreaties of his wife, who could no
longer bear separation from her husband, brought his family back with him upon
his return to Oregon.  Mr. Frank P. McFadden, one of the sons, relates their
experiences during their first few weeks in Vancouver. The mother and children
were filled with dread and apprehension of the Indians, and before coming West
had been told by their friends of the dire fate which would probably await them
when they reached the wilds of Oregon. One day the McFadden boys, while playing
by the banks of the river, espied a flotilla of apparently empty canoes and
small boats drifting down the Columbia. They rushed to the settlement, giving
the alarm that the Indians were coming. Even some of the men who hastened to the
river's edge to see the cause of the boys' scare thought they were correct, for
the long string of boats were certainly approaching and it was thought that in
the bottom of each canoe was lying a savage buck with his gun pointed toward
them. But when the boats came near enough for thorough investigation, they were
seen to be. indeed, empty, and it afterwards proved the craft had been made a
few miles up the river and were being brought down for sale among the settlers.
     Another scare the McFaddens experienced was one dark night after they had
all retired, the mother and children were awakened by the most terrible yelling
and screaming, Sure now that the Indians had come and were murdering everyone in
Vancouver; they cowered in their beds in the dark wondering what moment their
time would come. Morning broke, however, and they were surprised to find
themselves still alive.  Making their way to the nearest neighbors they were
relieved to learn that the horrid sounds had been made by a pack of coyotes
which had fallen upon the carcass of a horse lying in the brush not far from the
McFadden home.
    In 1873 Judge McFadden was elected a delegate to Congress on the Democratic
ticket, defeating Selucius Garfielde on the Republican ticket. The nest two busy
years were spent in Washington, D. C. Judge McFadden died in Olympia in 1875,
shortly after the expiration of his term as delegate. The McFadden home, on a
point of land overlooking the Sound, was for years one of the beauty spots of
Olympia, but the march of progress has developed business establishments in the
neighborhood and detracted from the loveliness of the view once to be obtained
from the windows of what was, in its days. considered a mansion. In this home
for many years after the death of her husband lived Mrs. McFadden, who finally,
in 1904, sank to rest.  The children of Judge and Mrs. McFadden are: Mrs. Mary
Miller, of Seattle; O. B. McFadden, Jr., Prank P. and J. Cal McFadden of
Olympia. R. N. McFadden of Seward, Alaska, and Mrs. L. P. Ouelette, of Olympia.

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Submitted to the Washington Bios. Project in May 2007 by Diana Smith.
Submitter has no additional information about the person(s) or family mentioned
above.