"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. 255.
 
HARVEY R. WOODARD

    The account given by the pioneer son of a pioneer father of their early days
on Puget Sound presents a photographic reproduction of the scenes and
experiences which are now but a dream of by-gone days. Alonzo B. Woodard, senior
representative of one of Thurston County's best known pioneer families tells the
following:
    "Father, mother and we three boys, Theodore, Delbert and your humble
servant, came to Oregon in the early fifties, reaching The Dalles after a cruel,
hard trip, over the Oregon Trail.
     "Father's cattle were so worn out that they every one died of starvation
and exposure early in the winter. He had left them to be taken care of at The
Dalles, but the winter was unexpectedly severe, there was no feed to be bought
and the snow covered the ranges.
     "The family came on down to Vancouver before the extreme cold set in, and
father tried to rent a house for us, but found that to be impossible. A piece of
ground large enough to set a tent upon was rented for $10 a month, so my parents
decided that where there was so much unoccupied territory you might say all of
what is now both Oregon and Washington being still unsettled, this was two much
of a price to pay. Accordingly, they went a few miles out of Vancouver, and
father built a little one-room affair of logs in which we could store our
plunder and sleep. All that winter mother  cooked our meals on an open fire made
from the green wood father would cut from the forest. As the snow lay
twelve inches deep on the ground we all had a pretty uncomfortable time. Up to
February the Columbia was frozen so solidly no boats could come up from
Portland, but as Spring came on the weather moderated and the swift water formed
an open channel in the river. Father fixed up some canoes, and leaving mother
and us boys at Vancouver started for Puget Sound.
     "After many perils and hardships he reached what he always referred to as
God's Country and located a claim on South Bay. When the weather got nice and
warm father sent for his family and we made the trip by water. The boat came to
the landing place in connection with Fort Nesqually and there father met us with
a row boat and took us to what was to be our home for some years.
    "I was but a lad, and had never seen salt water before. I was filled with
admiration of the beautiful picture presented by South Bay with the dense forest
coming down to the shores of the bay and the clear, delightful looking water.
We camped that night on the beach and in the morning imagine my dismay when I
looked out on what seemed to me but a sea of mud. Father reassured me, however,
and told me that was the way of the tide, always on the ebb and flow, and as
sure as it went so surely would it come again. We lived here on South Bay for
the next two or three years in peace and were beginning to feel quite
prosperous. Father, with the help of us boys had cleared and planted twelve
acres of land. We had a yoke of oxen, a cow and some pigs, and father had built
a very comfortable home.
     "In 1855, just as we began to reap the reward of our hard work and previous
privations, the Indian war broke out. We had been hearing ugly rumors for some
time, and one afternoon Owen Bush rode up to our place and told us about the
killing of McAllister by the Indians. Father went on up to the head of the bay
to learn all he could about whether there was real danger and found that all the
settlers had already fled to Olympia. Hastening back home he hurried us all into
a row boat and started for town. On the way he stopped and took Mrs. Knott and
Mrs. Frazier in our boat.
     "When we got up opposite Herbert Jeals' place, we were terrified to hear
firing back of the house. Father and I were pulling the oars and Theodore was
steering the boat. We struck out across the bay for the west side, expecting to
see Indian war canoes take after us, in which event we knew we would soon be
overhauled, for our boat was clumsy and over-loaded. When we got off the
Harstein Island point one of the worst wind storms came up I have ever
experienced. I have never seen the waters of Puget Sound so rough. The waves
were lashed into a fury, and ran so high that our capsize seemed imminent. Mrs.
Frazier was the worst scared woman I ever saw. She lay in the bottom of the boat
moaning and crying, not knowing whether she was to meet death at the hands of
the Indians or be drowned in Puget Sound. But along toward morning we reached
Olympia all safe and sound, although almost exhausted. The next day father and I
went back home for the rest of our things and we lived all winter in Tumwater.
    "Right here I want to say that after my experiences of that year, no talk of
war time prices can scare me. Father had to pay $3 a bushel for potatoes, $20 a
barrel for flour, $8 a keg for syrup, and there was a tradition that butter was
a dollar a, pound, but about that I cannot say. The Woodards didn't see any of
that luxury for many a month. Our main living was potatoes, clams, oysters,
ducks and always salmon. Until father built his grist mill, all our flour came
around the Horn and from being for months in the hold of vessels became musty
and all but unfit to eat. I have seen mother lift squirming worms out of the
mildewed stuff she was obliged to use in making our bread.
    "After the close of the war father went back to South Union and later
overhauled and rebuilt a mill on the Sequalechen, but I spent my winters in town
attending school.  Among the teachers I remember in those days were Rev. Dillon
and Mrs. Doyle, both fine instructors, leading their pupils along learning's
path with a kind firmness that has had its effect all through my life. Father in
later years bought the old Woodard home on the West Side, where he died in 1872.
Mother lived over twenty years after father's death.
    "When I attained my majority I spent some years in Oregon, was there during
the Civil War, and while here had my greatest piece of good luck. While living
in Lafayette, I met and was married to my wife, formerly Miss Wallace.  Later we
returned to Olympia, where for years we have led a peaceful, uneventful life. We
have had two daughters and one son born to us: Elma Amelia, now Mrs. Crawford of
Tacoma and Ada Salome, the wife of Captain George S. E. Krem. Our son Van Eugene
died a few years ago."

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