The Spirit of the Cowlitz: 1849 – 1854

LADUE – 1849

Mrs. Crumaline Ladue, whose husband sailed around The Horn in 1849, told an interesting story. Her husband, after sailing around The Horn, stopped at Astoria where he sold his vessel. He went to Portland for a while and then down the Columbia as far as Mt. Coffin, staking his claim on the west side.

During his absence one day, while going across the Columbia to Rainier to do some shopping, five Indians came into the large woodshed attached to the house. Mrs. Ladue and five small grandchildren became very much frightened when they could see through a crack in the door, the Indians sharpening their knives on the Ladue grindstone.

The oldest Ladue grandson wanted to get the old musket down and fire through a crack in the door. Mrs. Ladue thought it best to do nothing until they started toward the door; then she, with another gun, would stand against the Indians. After the knives were sharpened, the Indians departed as quietly as they had come.  A few hours elapsed when there was a knock on the door. Opening it, Mrs. Ladue faced an Indian with the hindquarters of a deer. She stood speechless. The Indian said, “Mahsie, mahsie,” pointing toward the grindstone (Thank you, thank you).

HENRY DARBY HUNTINGTON –1850

By 1850 many families had taken up claims on the Lower Cowlitz and the little settlement where Henry Darby Huntington built his house near the Hudson’s Bay company structures was called Monticello (Present day Longview).

HENRY BRUCIE – 1852

The first Euro-American settlement in the Mossyrock area began in 1852 when Henry Brucie filed a claim on Klickitat Prairie near Mossyrock. Initial settlement came slowly. Mossyrock did not acquire a post office until 1875.

THEODORE WINTHROP – 1853

Theodore Winthrop traveled throughout the Pacific Northwest and journeyed up the Cowlitz River on a steamboat in July 1853.

PIUS COTTLER – 1854

In 1854, Pius Cottler became the first settler in what would later become the community of Morton. The pace of settlement accelerated by the 1890’s with the communities of Glenoma, Nesika, and Riffe becoming established. The community of Kosmos appeared soon after.