Incidents and Annals of Settlement I
Washington Standard - Olympia
February 22, 1918

On the 20th day of October, 1846, Edmund Sylvester of Deer Isle, state of Maine, commenced the occupation of the claim upon which the town of Olympia, as originally located, is situated. He erected his cabin on the point of land about two miles from the extreme head of Budd's Inlet, the southernmost arm or branch of Puget Sound, at what may be styled the head of navigation of that remarkable inland sea, the great special feature of Washington territory, and by the way of the Sound and Strait of Juan de Fuca, about 200 miles from the entrance of the latter into the Pacific ocean. Its altitude is 47 degrees 55 minutes west.

Budd's inlet, upon both sides of which the incorporated town of Olympia is now located, is six miles long, three-quarters of a mile wide, and lies almost due north and south. Its shores are bluff and heavy-timbered, and a vast mud flat covered with oyster beds bounds the waterfront of Sylvester's claim on the north and west, which is bare at low water for nearly a mile north of his location, excepting two narrow channels. The maximum divergence between the highest and lowest tides is nearly 24 feet. On the west side of the inlet a depth of three fathoms at the lowest stage of water can be carried to within one and a half miles of the wharves; on the east side with one fathom to within a mile.

The sandy point at the north end of Mr. Sylvester's claim, now the foot of Main street, was the north terminus of a small tract containing about two acres of land, bare at extreme high water and devoid of that heavy timber and undergrowth which universally lines Puget Sound and skirts the rivers emptying into it. A bayou, extensive at high water, now crossed by the bridge connecting Swan's addition with the town proper, bounded the claim on the northeast and when the tide was up it left the land bare at high water, an ill-resemblance to the shape of a bear's head and back, on the east, from which circumstance, Indians have stated, arose the native name of "Schichtwoot," which in the "Squally" dialect means bear.

Other Indians have stated, and with much more apparent reason, that such name was conferred in consequence of the abundance of bears found here in the marshy ground which furnished them food. Both statements have been made, the latter most frequently, and it is deemed by the old settlers as the true reason for the above euphonious name, which Sylvester perpetrated by ascribing as the name to the first specimen of naval architecture built upon these waters.

The first building was the log cabin of the proprietor, about 16 feet square, erected on the spot immediately south of the site of the present Tacoma house, adjacent to and west of the lot on which is now erected the restaurant of A. B. Rabbeson on Main street, half way between Second and Third streets. At that time the town had not been laid out and a considerable portion stood on what now constitutes Main street. The heavy timber came well down towards Second street, especially on the west side of Main street, and skirting the Sound from about Third street southward.

At this time (1846-7) Mr. Sylvester had no white neighbors nearer than Tumwater, then called New Market. The shore of the Sound north of Third street was occupied during the winter months by the Duwamish Indians, of which band the old patriarch Seattle was the chief. The party wintering here numbered between 250 and 300, although it was seldom that the number were collected at one time. The territory, however, was included in the lands of the Nisqually nation, who never made permanent camps on this particular spot.  They were in close alliance with the Duwamish and by frequent intermarriages, both to a great extent had lost their distinctive tribal character. The Nisqually in many respects might be regarded as prairie Indians, while the Duwamish lived entirely on the Sound.

At this time the place or point had acquired the name of Smithfield, from the name of its first occupant, who had abandoned it about the time of Mr. Sylvester's arrival. He had taken some steps indicating an intention to locate upon the claim, but never attempted any settlement. The following copy of an original document is a pleasant as well as a curious reminiscence of those primitive times. 

The contrast between that primitive cabin and its simple furniture and the present mansion and home of the original town proprietor is not only marked indeed, but it affords a fair comparison of the Olympia of 1847 with the Olympia, of 1867. It also serves to remind us how the pioneers of American settlement were obliged to live and while they so willingly submitted to privation in their great mission of making homes for American men and women, yet they found time for facetiousness and jest in the very poverty that surrounded them, satisfied because they had abundance to supply their passing wants:

Smithfield. July 25th, 1847.

N. B. New Market precinct, Lewis county, on the shore of Puget Sound, Simmons' Inlet, one mile below the falls of the LaSchutes river. In it you will find, one house built of split cedar, with a stone fireplace and a stick chimney. It is covered with four-foot shingles put on with weight poles. It has three lights and one door, with a rough puncheon floor made of split cedar, with a closet and bedroom made of the same materials. The furniture consists of two tables, one bedstead, which is made by boring holes in the side of the house and driving in sticks, three benches and two stools.

The cooking utensils consist of one frying-pan and tin kettles, one 12- quart, one 6-quart, and one 3-quart, for boiling, and one teakettle. The closet contains one tin pan, three tin cups, three tin plates, three knives and forks, two half-pint tin kettles, one basin and a trencher. The enclosure, two acres of land, with one and a half under cultivation, with corn, beans, pumpkins, squashes, potatoes, peas, turnips. cabbages, melons, cucumbers, beets, parsnips, carrots, onions, tomatoes, radishes, lettuce, parsley, sweet fennel, pepper-grass, summer savory and sunflowers. The out-houses, one hog house and one hen house, with five hogs, three pigs, seven hens, a cock, cat and dog, one yoke of oxen and two horses.