Posts Tagged ‘I.A. Clark’

Everybody knows… or do they?

Saturday, September 24th, 2011
At The Village Entrance

     As a writer of local history, one of my primary sources of information is our very own Pacific County Historical Society.  Established in 1966, it is (according to its official website) a private, not-for-profit, charitable organization devoted to preserving and presenting the history of Pacific County, Washington, USA.  I am proud to say that I have periodically volunteered my services to them by writing/editing issues of their magazine The Sou’wester.
     So, I was truly amazed, to say nothing of being a bit embarrassed on their behalf, to learn that they have a sign posted at their museum in South Bend crediting the founding of Oysterville to early settler John Douglas in the year 1841.  No mention of my great-grandfather R.H. Espy who, with I.A. Clark, actually did found the town in 1854.  I don’t have a copy of that signage, but if memory serves, I think it does accurately credit Clark for platting the town the following year.  Hooray for that bit of accuracy, anyway!
     This information was conveyed to me and to a number of other people last night at our usual Friday evening gathering.  One of our Oysterville residents (whose roots here go back to 1863) had visited the museum with his cousin from Santa Fe.  They were confused about the information conveyed on the sign, took a photo of it, and through the magic of digital cameras and their screens, read it to the six or seven Oystervillians gathered in our library.  Quite a hubbub ensued.
     All eyes looked to me for clarification and I guess I could have felt very much “on the spot” but, fortunately, John Douglas is a well-known historic character to me.  He was, according to his daughter Mary Garretson’s 1939 account, the first settler on Shoalwater Bay.  His donation land claim was about a mile south of Oysterville; my house on the bay was built on what was originally the John Douglas Claim.
     Whether or not Douglas was still in the area when Oysterville was founded, I don’t know.  I’ve never seen his name mentioned in connection with Oysterville’s first pioneers.  In her book, Coast Country, Lucile Mac Donald says only that “the family lived alone except for the Indians.”
     There are several interesting stories about Douglas, one being that he literally died with his boots on.  Somehow, one of his feet got infected and swelled up.  The only way to deal with the injury was to cut the boot off which Douglas would not allow.  They were brand new boots and a good pair of boots was hard to come by!  As far as is known, those boots went to the grave with him.
     Well, it didn’t surprise me that the Friday night crowd didn’t know anything about John Douglas.  He is a rather obscure character.  But it does indeed surprise me that the Historical Society doesn’t know about the founding of Oysterville.  After all, it is the oldest extant town in Pacific County and it’s not like there hasn’t been a lot written about it.  In fact numerous books sold in the PCHS’s own bookstore are about Oysterville.  You’d think they would know…

Happy Birthday to Oysterville!

Monday, April 12th, 2010



A Salute to Oysterville


Hip Hip Hooray!  Raise the Flag!  Fire the Cannon!  Today marks the 156th anniversary of the founding of Oysterville!  According to the account by Robert Hamilton Espy, he and Isaac Alonzo Clark kept their rendezvous with Chinook elder Klickeas on April 12, 1854.  This is what Espy said: …when came along front [what is now] Oysterville tide was out – was foggy – could not see shore but heard something tapping in shore.  Tied up & came in.  Found Klickeas pounding on old stump on beach (one had been washed in).  He had seen [us] coming & tried to call…

Checking the Facts

Monday, April 5th, 2010
The Wrong Man

In a recent review of my book North Beach Peninsula’s IR&N the writer commented on my “meticulous research.”  I was thrilled!  I do try to be thorough when I am writing about historical events, but the problems are legion. 
Take, for instance, the identity of the Indian who told my great-grandfather, R. H. Espy, of the huge stand of oysters on the west side of  Shoalwater Bay – information that ultimately led Espy and his friend Isaac Clark to establish the town of Oysterville.  My venerable uncle Willard Espy wrote in Oysterville: Roads to Grandpa’s Village that it was Nahcati who led Grandpa and Isaac Clark to this part of the bay.  I, like everyone else, always assumed that was so.  After all, I knew Willard to be diligent in his pursuit of facts and a bit of checking into earlier publications on my part did not reveal any particular discrepancies in his information.
There was just one little thing.  In 1893, while R.H. Espy was still living, a two-volume work by Julian Hawthorne, History of Washington, was published.  The book included biographies and portraits of Washington’s pioneers based on personal interviews.  In my great-grandfather’s case, his biography was written and submitted by his wife Julia, a former school teacher to whom Espy deferred in matters to do with writing.  She made no mention of Nahcati or of any Indian at all.
In fact, the earliest mention I could find of R. H. Espy’s association with an Indian was in a speech, later published in a small book called A Collection of Historical Addresses, by George Johnson of Ocean Park:  Mr. Espy moved over on to the Palix with the idea of locating a homestead.  While there he was told by an Indian of the great beds of oysters on the flats on the peninsula side of the bay, or out in front of where he subsequently located the following year…  following the sound went ashore, and there sat the Palix Indian pounding on a hollow cedar log to attract their attention… This speech was delivered before the Lower Columbia Associated Chambers of Commerce sometime prior to Johnson’s death in 1934.
By 1966,  Nahcati’s name had been attached to that “Palix Indian” by Lucile MacDonald of Coast Country fame and, the following year, by Oysterville native son Charles Nelson, president of the Pacific County Historical Society.  Apparently no one, not even Willard, questioned the validity of their stories.  And so in the ensuing half century the Nahcati-Espy association has become “fact.”
Imagine my surprise and dilemma, then, when I recently unearthed amongst the family papers, an account by R.H. Espy, himself, in which he spoke of his Palix Indian friend by name, “Old Klickeas:” …while on Palix old “Klickeas,” Indian, had told of oysters here…When came along front Oysterville tide was out – was foggy—could not see shore but heard something tapping …Found “Klickeas” pounding on old stump on beach…
In my forthcoming book Oysterville for Arcadia Press it is Klickeas, not Nahcati, who will be given long overdue credit for his role in the founding of Oysterville.  I expect flack from my readers as was my experience when writing the circumstances of Medora’s death in Dear Medora. Willard had that wrong, too, but when it comes to his word vs. mine I don’t have the necessary renown and, therefore, credibility – meticulous research or not.  Such is the lot of the author/historian!