President Grant's Centennial Proclamation 1876

 

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Ulysses S. Grant

18th President of the United States: 1869 ‐ 1877

Proclamation 228—Publishing a Resolution of Congress Recommending That Counties and Towns Develop a Historical Sketch for the Nation's Centennial Celebration

May 25, 1876

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

Whereas a joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States was duly approved on the 13th day of March last, which resolution is as follows:

Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled , That it be, and is hereby, recommended by the Senate and House of Representatives to the people of the several States that they assemble in their several counties or towns on the approaching centennial anniversary of our national independence, and that they cause to have delivered on such day an historical sketch of said county or town from its formation, and that a copy of said sketch may be filed, in print or manuscript, in the clerk's office of said county, and an additional copy, in print or manuscript, be filed in the office of the Librarian of Congress, to the intent that a complete record may thus be obtained of the progress of our institutions during the first centennial of their existence.

And whereas it is deemed proper that such recommendation be brought to the notice and knowledge of the people of the United States:

Now, therefore, I, Ulysses S. Grant, President of the United States, do hereby declare and make known the same, in the hope that the object of such resolution may meet the approval of the people of the United States and that proper steps may be taken to carry the same into effect.

Given under my hand, at the city of Washington, the 25th day of May, A. D. 1876, and of the Independence of the United States the one hundredth.

U.S. GRANT.

By the President:

HAMILTON FISH,

Secretary of State.

Any idea how many of the "several counties or towns" actually responded to this presidential plea????

Family Tree of Vincent Van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh was a Dutch painter who produced over 2000 works, including 900 paintings. "His work is known for its vibrant colors and expressive style...." He was born in 1853 in the Netherlands and died in 1890 in France. We've all seen examples of his work......

Vincent never married and had no biological children. I doubt very highly that he would accept this rendering of his family tree: 

Port Crescent: A Forgotten Town

 

Port Crescent, Clallam County, Washington, is a historic ghost town today. Once a booming timber port in the late 1800s, today all that's left is a small cemetery situated in a popular camping ground. 

This was once a thriving community with railroad cars brought huge logs to this deep-water port. Port Crescent flourished briefly as an industrial hub thanks to this deep harbor and proximity to timber-rich land. In its day, the town boasted a hotel, general store, post office, sawmills and even a dance hall. When the Northern Pacific Railroad bypassed the town, the place slowly dwindled and eventually it was abandoned.......... all except those resting in the historic cemetery.

This town figures into my family tree:  my son, Benjamin, married Vera in Port Angeles. She was a descendant of Emanuel Wasankari, born 1862 in Finland. He and his brother, August, born 1856, also in Finland, immigrated to Clallam County before statehood (1889). August arranged for Kindricka Pudilla to come from Finland to marry her and had a license dated 8 Jun 1889. But on the day her ship arrived, August was ill and Emanuel met her at the Port Crescent dock..... and promptly married her on June 20th!  Poor dear August never married. 

At 40 Miles An Hour

 

Page 4 of the June 3, 1903 issue of The Spokane Press carried this article that was just too good not to share:

"No. 5, westbound, which left Pendleton Wednesday morning on time in charge of Conductor Maher, was doomed to experience a great novelty before reaching Portland, says the Pendleton East Oregonian. While counting his tickets, the train speeding along at 40 miles an hour, within 30 minutes of Portland, an elderly gentleman who proved to be a doctor informed him that a woman, Mrs. Sears of Sumpter, in the chair car, was in a delicate situation and would undoubtedly add another passenger to his list before reaching Portland. 

"The conductor was horror-struck. It was too near the end of the run to allow such an annoying thing to happen. Besides, No. 5 was on time, and he would not stop and lose five minutes arguing the case with the woman for a month's salary. He swore vengeance on Conductor Nash, who turned the woman over to him in this condition. His first thought was to ask Jim Randall, the engineer, what to do, as he always did on all previous perplexing occasions. But he happened to think that Jim was always out on the road when such things happened at home and his wife attended to them, so Jim would not know. 

"He then determined to put on a bold front and ask the woman to wait till she got to Portland; she had waited this long, she could certainly put if off 25 minutes longer. While he was frantically wondering what to do, things were happening over in the chair car, and by the time he had resolved to make the best of it, a 10-pound bouncing boy had been added to his passenger list and his bosom swelled with pride to think of the good luck of the youngster who might have been born in the North Powder desert, had it not been for the fact that his train was on time.

"His feeling of enmity towards the little woman who had caused the trouble was swept away. He admire her for her judgment as she had evidently intended to reach Portland before the momentous event happened and had only missed her guess by 20 minutes, a feat which even an O.R. & N. conductor would not accomplish."

Anybody have a Mr. Sears, born in 1903 on a railroad coach between Pendleton and Portland, Oregon on their family tree???

(Thanks to a delightful little Spokane publication, Spokane Time Traveler, for this bit.)

Costco Came To Seattle in 1983

 

And where were you on September 15, 1983, if you were living anywhere near 4401-4th Ave So, in Seattle? Were you among the crowds on that historic opening day of the new Costco wholesale store?

The Costco Connection, July 2026, told the story titled "Golden Anniversary." The concept of a warehouse club began in San Diego in 1954 with FedMart. In 1976, the first Price Club warehouse opened in San Diego. Partners Brotman and Sinegal pioneered a new warehouse club company in Seattle and called it Costco. By 1983, Costco and Price Club had merged and in 1997 the company became simply, Costco. Our own Evergreen State became the birthplace of the company's iconic no-frills, membership-based warehouse model with headquarters in Issaquah, Washington. 

The partners were ambitious visionaries. In direct competition from other retail competitors, Costco in 1987 opened their Optical, Bakery, Produce and Meat departments. The famous "hot dog and soda" combo debuted in 1985 and still is only $1.50. 

There are now 35 Costco warehouse stores in Washington. And surely more will come. And there are 650+ stores spread all across America.............Maui or Fairbanks, Costco is the same! (Except for snow.)

Costco customers in 1983 in that first store in Seattle could choose from a nice selection of corded telephones. 

Washington's Connect to Washington

Did you know that Washington State has ties to the Father of our country, George Washington?? Read on..............

The Columbia Basin Herald, issue 12 Aug 2026, told the story:  "Tucked away in a quiet neighborhood (in Ephrata, Grant County), pushed up against the Beezley Hills, guarded by a white picket fence is a piece of Americana with ties that go all the way back to the founding of this country." 

"Historic documents traced the footsteps of Bushrod Corbin Washington (1839-1909) and his family’s trek west from West Virginia. Bushrod was the great-great-great-grandson of George Washington’s brother John. History would tie two great families together on the new frontier. Bushrod’s wife Emma Edwards Willis was the great-great-great-granddaughter of James Madison, the father of the fourth president of the United States and called the Father of the Constitution by some."

Artifacts belonging to President George Washington and his descendants, the first Washington family to move to the Evergreen state, proudly line the walls for all to enjoy in this home, now placed on the Washington State Historical Registry.

Built in 1909, by his grandfather and father, where Nathaniel "Nat" Washington, Jr., who was a Washington state legislator for 30 years ,lived. Today the home is a historic tourist destination and a small hotel run by the current owner. 

Maybe plan a visit to Ephrata? Besides its natural hot springs, its history as a World War II training base and nearby access to Grand Coulee Dam, add a visit to the Nat Washington house............ come learn about Washington's connection to Washington.

Hood Canal: Washington's Natural "Canal"

 

"The Hood Canal waters journey from China, from San Francisco and from Alaska, past Victoria and down the Strait of Juan de Fuca. Leaving Puget Sound with a hard right, as if the water had a mind of its own, it cannels below the snow-capped Olympic Mountains for 45 miles until it eddies into Annas Bay..... when it elbows east it seems to hook into a separate ecosystem, not only of geography but also of mind; it becomes a source for creamers, drifters and vagabonds. It creates a vacationland of warm days and inspiring scenery and its shores attracted four of America's great fortunes: California gold, Alaska gold, Washington timber and Seattle's Microsoft..."

So begins the Images of America book on Hood Canal. This delightful read has fully four pages of the history of Hood Canal. I quote from this book.................

Named after the Right Honorable Lord Samuel Hood, member of the British Board of Admiralty, by Capt. George Vancouver in 1792 who called it the "mouth of the loveliest river." The first building on Hood Canal was a blockhouse at Union (which has an interesting history itself). In 1851, loggers arrived; Pope and Talbot built a mill at Port Gamble. The treaty of Point No Point in 1855 scattered the local tribes. By the 1860s, tug boats were hauling logs up the Canal to Port Gamble. Lake Cushman sprouted a new dream for the area: tourism, which continues to this day. In the late 1930s, the CCC corps constructed many improvements around the Canal.

"The Hood Canal is a jewel of mountain scenery and beautiful water and it has been loved....first by native peoples, then by loggers, then artists and the wealthy and now by all the rest of us."

Fun Facts About Spokane

 

Spokane is barely thirty miles from the Idaho border and nearly 400 miles to the Pacific Ocean. How many Washingtonians have never been west to Seattle or Forks, or east to Spokane? Maybe these bits will entice you to come east to visit.

* The Spokane River flows directly through the heart of the city. Not many places can claim that.

* Spokane boasts the largest urban waterfall in America; Spokane Falls surges thousands of gallons of water annually through basaltic cliffs.

* There are more than 75 lakes within a short, easy drive from Spokane.

* The Centennial Trail connects Spokane to Coeur d'Alene with paved miles inviting walkers, runners and cyclers (no motorized vehicles). 

* Spokane boasts 87 parks within the city limits!

* The Inland Northwest Wine Scene continues to grow; some 20 wineries invite tasting.

* From Spokane, if you drive 20 minutes or 20 miles, you can be in a vastly different geography: Go west, scablands; go east, mountains; go south, wheat; go north, rivers. 

* Did you know Bing Crosby, John Stockton and Craig T. Nelson all claim Spokane heritage? 

* And Spokane is home to the Garbage Goat! (Google it if you don't know.) 

Funnies Time!

 

 Ready for some fun? Whoever "did" this photo must be a really fun parent, right??

* Is there a 4th of July in England?  Yeah, right after the 3rd of July.

* What happens to cows that get too much sun?  They produce evaporated milk.

* What do you call a snowman in summer?  A puddle.

* Why don't seashells take baths? Because they wash up on the beach.

* Who keeps the ocean clean?  Mermaids.

* What do ghosts like to eat in summer?  I-scream!

* Why don't oysters share their pearls? Because they're shellfish. :-) 

* Why did the sun not go to college? Because it already has a million degrees.

* Who's Irish and stays outside all summer?  Patty O'Furniture.

* How do you prevent a summer cold? Catch it in winter.

* Where does seaweed look for a job? In the kelp-wanted section.

* What' s the difference between a piano and a fish? You can tune a piano but you can't tuna fish.

* What did the ocean say to the beach? Nothing. It just waved.

Elwha Tribal Center

Would you guess that there are 29 federally recognized Native American tribes in Washington State? Well, tiz so. Suz Bennett is the tribal historian for the Klallam Tribe in Port Angeles. She explained to me that there are three "parts" to the Klallam Tribe: Port Gamble, Jamestown and Klallam. All have health clinics, housing and casinos and all speak the same language but they are "separate but equal." 

The Elwha Tribal Center in Port Angeles (in the old Carnegie Library) is where to start learning about the Klallam peoples. When I visited there in May 2026, Suz was a deee-lightful tour guide. She showed me a 1000 pages dictionary of Klallam words...... for instance, the word for "sheep" is lemetu, pronounced "leMEtu." She explained that the site of their ancestral village is now a weedy fenced lot at the entrance to Ediz Hook but they have future plans for an interpretive center. She gave me a colored map of Clallam and Jefferson counties with dots showing the 26 sites of S'Klallam Villages of yesterday. 

The Center is open 8:00-4:30, Monday through Friday, and would welcome your visit. 

The Center has artifacts and exhibits which taught me more about these native peoples. Thank you, Suz, and may the Elwha Tribal Center thrive!

Mesa and Parker: Little WA Towns

 

Originally called Bluff Wells, then Judson and now Mesa, this little town in Franklin County was a stop on the Ainsworth (now Pasco) to Spokane branch of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The station house was established in 1883. Mesa is situated in Esquatzel Coulee which means it sits in a depression relative to the surrounding terrain. Apparently, Mesa does not have its own cemetery; the nearest one is City View Cemetery in Pasco.

Parker is a census-designated place in Yakima County, located on the Yakama Indian Reservation between Union Gap and Wapato. The first plat for the town was filed in 1909; it was originally settled by William Parker in 1864 and was named for him by the Northern Pacific Railway in 1890. The only cemetery I found for Parker was the Parker Dam Cemetery (on FindAGrave).

This cemetery is located on a hill behind a Yakama Nation fruit orchard; the cemetery contains a stone monument inscribed with the names of some of the Yakama Nation's notable Chiefs. There was once a thriving Yakama Indian community at Parker Dam which is the basis for the community that uses the Wapato Longhouse. 

Is there really a Parker Dam? YES! According to Google:

• Parker Reservoir Dam: This is a small 24-foot-high earth-fill dam located in Yakima County. It is in Dakota Draw, about 11 miles west of Yakima, Washington. 
  
• Parker Dam (Yakima River): A historical, low-head diversion dam located on the Yakama Indian Reservation along US Route 97 between Union Gap and Wapato. It was historically tied to a thriving Yakama Nation community. 

Roots, Records and Relatives

 Do hope you are planning to attend our EWGS Fall workshop on Saturday, October 3rd. 

I crafted this blurb months ago and so encourage you to click to our website, www.EWGSI.org, for the latest details. 

Consider this a teaser if you've not yet planned to come and have registered. (You do want lunch, do you not?)

More Lewis & Clark Plants

 Lewis & Clark documented many other plants besides Lewisia and Clarkia. 

In their journals, they noted Balsam Root, Prickly Pear Cactus, Glacier Lilies, Silky Lupine, Snowberry bushes and Bear Grass. How many have YOU seen????

Plants Named For Lewis & Clark

 

President Thomas Jefferson sent captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on a journey of exploration. Congress approved the expense of the venture because it was hoped that a water route across the continent would be discovered. On a personal note, Jefferson was eager to learn what there was to be discovered in the 530 million acres America had purchased from Spain in 1803 for a mere $15 million dollars.

There was no water route across the continent, as the Corps of Discovery found out. But Lewis and Clark collected and sent back to Jefferson 239 pressed plants and some 176 were new to science at that time. 

In what is now North Dakota, they "discovered" the plant was named after Meriwether Lewis, the lewisia.  (Pix on left.) This plant was also known as Bitterroot because the Indigenous Peoples had been making bread flour from the dried roots for centuries. Lewis found the taste bitter; hence the name. 

Clarkia (on the right) was named in honor of William Clark. Lewis found this plant near Kamiah, Idaho, in 1806 on their return trip. 

For the record, Lewis and Clark really didn't discover that many new plants. The specimens they collected were likely sub-sets (for lack of a better name here) of known species. 

Lewisias come in a variety of colors (as shown above) and may be purchased in most area garden centers in spring. They are a hardy perennial. 

Old Jokes For Old Folks

 

This is a deee-lightful, hits-the-nail-on-the-head joke book. For instance:

* "The future will soon be a thing of the past." George Carlin

* "You know you're old when you see the movie Jurassic Park and it brings back fond childhood memories."

* "The older I get, the better I used to be!"  Lee Trevino

* "Life's tragedy is that we get old too soon and wise too late." Benjamin Franklin

* "Old age is 15 years older than I am."  Oliver Wendell Holmes

* "True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country."  Kurt Vonnegut

* "A diplomat is a man who always remembers a woman's birthday but never remembers her age."  Robert Frost

* "You know you're getting old when the candles cost more than the cake." Bob Hope

* Some people will never be too old to learn new ways of being stupid.  Unkown

* "Just remember, once you're over the hill you begin to pick up speed." Charles Schulz

* "You can live to be a hundred if you give up all the things that make you want to live to be a hundred."  Woody Allen

* "If wrinkles must be written upon our brows, let them not be written upon the heart. The spirit should never grow old."  James A Garfield

Baumann's Excelsior Meat Roaster

 
Charles Bauman's Meat Shop was a thriving business in Belleville, Illinois. The business placed this ad in The Semi-Weekly Advocate, the local paper, on Friday, Sept 26, 1879:

BAUMANN'S EXCELSIOR MEAT ROASTER

"This apparatus is an air-tight chest or box, which must be put in the parking part of the Cooking stove. By this mode of Roasting or Baking, meats will cook as tender as mutton. Poultry of all kinds cooked in this way is the most palatable and delicious ever produced by any other mode of cooking and as regards economy this chest cannot be excelled. The cost of this apparatus will be more than saved in three or four months from the fact that butter, (by the way, a large item in the course of a few years) as the essence from the meat forms a most delicious gravy, by a distilling process. The chest if made of the best quality of sheet iron, on a self-sealing principle. Any housewife who gives it a fair trial will not do without it. The cost of the Apparatus is very small, from the fact that it is very durable. If well cared for it will last from ten to fifteen years.            320 East Main Street, Belleville, Ill. 

This image is the best I could find for a Baumann's Excelsior Meat Roaster. 

Likely not correct but surely close? 

Washington Cities From The Air

 I'll leave it to you to name the city shown! Good luck!

 

Kennewick, Bellingham, Grays Harbor, Seattle, Spokane, Port Angeles

Cemetery Trees Tell Tales

Couple of years ago, a like-minded friend and I spent a delightful day driving in southern Spokane County to the places where her family had lived. 

I snapped this pix in that cemetery (name I've forgotten). I was wandering around while she was taking pix of her family's tombstones. I was immediately struck by the eyes in the tree. Do you see them?

We cemetery-wanderers have often times felt a special kind of feeling when we visit any cemetery and especially when we visit a family cemetery. It's the sort of feeling nearly impossible to describe but it is real enough, as many would attest.

Is that big tree a "hiding place" for spirits? A resting place? A visiting place? Do the spirits of our dead ever come back to the places of their burials? And we have to ask: why would they? But if they do, they surely have their reasons. 

This photo I took in Fairmount Cemetery in Spokane. Some family member (I surmise) had come to visit and had left this little red ceramic cardinal bird atop their family's tombstone. Why would they have come to visit........ and to leave that little red bird.......... unless they felt "something," some connection with their dearly departed. 

Ah, the tales that cemetery trees could tell if they only could. 

Without A Plan All Is Lost

 

This is a true story. If you can't handle a very sad truth, quit reading right now.

I was walking one day with my Tika (dachshund) a few years ago on my gravel-county road. I came upon some stuff that a yahoo had dumped along the roadside. THAT was bad enough, but this picture, all busted apart, was in that pile of dumped junk. It didn't look recent enough to me to be a jilted girlfriend but somebody's mother or grandmother. And there it was dumped into the weeds along a gravel road.

Picture on the right was taken in a big thrift shop near Sequim. One corner of a big room was filled with stacked picture frames......... and not just frames but PICTURES. Family pictures. Why in the world? How in the world?

Okay, dear readers. A line from an old Kingston Trio song rings in my mind: "This could happen to you!" 

If you do not have a plan for all your family genealogy and photos and memorabilia, the likelihood is 90% that it will go to the dump or Goodwill. (Where do you suppose all those shoeboxes of old photos found in thrift shops comes from??????) 

Your family has their own busy lives and collecting genealogy and family history was YOUR hobby. You must not assume that they'll be as fanatical about it as you've been. 

Please, please know that I "preach" the truth here today. Please start crafting a plan for when you "cross over that Rainbow Bridge." It takes a plan to leave a legacy and not a mess.

Porky Rides Log Pile

 I do apologize that I didn't think to note the date but this wonderful story was found in The Spokesman Review. It's hard to read, so here goes:

BRISTLY VISITOR RIDES LOG PILE

Johnny Porkypine Goes To Police Station but is Later Released

Gunting (sic) irritably and threatening everyone who approached, Spokane's strangest tourist arrived in the city this morning on a load of logs from the north woods.

Motorcycle Officer Victor Hudson and employees of the Milwaukee railroad discovered the visitor, an immense porcupine, hiding beneath a load of logs on the railroad tracks near Sprague and Greene. The porcupine was rounded up and coaxed into a sack. He was taken to the police station.

"I didn't lose him," declared Captain R. W. Hinton. "Call up the park board."

After some discuss, the animal was taken to the Manito zoo, where he was refused admission on the grounds that he would pine away and die. Unable to find a home for the porcupine, he was carted to the timbered flats of Hangman Creek and released."

Gotta wonder how they coaxed him into the sack and whose job it fell to????