The Daily News from Port Angeles, Washington • Page 13

lekly bicentennial page df fhe Daily THE DAILY Port Angeles, Oct. 17, 1976 Chapter 42: On the side against the bad guys Even before Alanson Smith of LaPush was forced by his convictions to take sides against his brother-in-law and sister, he had been caught up in another facet of the continuing struggle for possession of land that went on between whites and Indians. As a matter of principle, Indian Service employes were committed to policies that would benefit the Indians; in practice, some of them were influenced by every consideration other than the welfare of the tribes. In the 1880s the Makah Agency had a rare partisan in Charles Willoughby. When he went to the agency in 1878 he was 50 years old, a hard-nosed sea captain already in poor health.

Ten years later he died at the Quinault Reservation, but during his tenure he, with the backing of Alanson Smith among others, fought off the best mounted and most nearly successful of the many attacks on Indian property rights. Prime mover in this scheme was Francis James who by this time (1882) had spent 30 years on the Peninsula and had established himself as a merchant and trader with headquarters in Port Townsend. As a young man he had been a customs inspector and in that capacity had been sent to LaPush when the Southerner was wrecked nearby. Salvage was a slow process; James was there long enough to leave his name on the island the Indians called AleWstet. In 1864 he had made a wild gamble on greenbacks, down then to 35 cents on the dollar.

When they were redeemed he had a tidy nestegg to invest in a store and trading schooner, the latter used chiefly to buy sealskins in the Neah Bay area. It was not unfamiliar ground to him: he'd been an assistant keeper at Tatoosh Light in his less prosperous days. But by 1882 he was considered the wealthiest man in Jefferson County, and did not lack political clout. A fellow merchant and trader was E.H. McAlmond of Dungeness.

Both men built splendid houses that still stand today. The McAlmond house is not without charm, but the James house (across from the post office in Port Townsend) is a monument to ugliness. It was built for James 1 wife, then still in New England. She was spared from having to see it by dying in the East. James took care of that by marrying his housekeeper.

This event, however, was still in the future when McAlmond and James got their heads together over the waterfront of Neah Bay. Five years before, James had tried to buy the island that stood close inshore to the village, feeling its ownership would give him advantage over other traders, McAlmond particularly needed a foothold since he had made so much trouble at Neah Bay that neither he nor anyone else from his schooner was allowed ashore there. They could not even get their mail at the Neah Bay post office, a courtesy readily accorded to other traders. In 1882 Thomas Brents was rounding out his third term as a Territorial Delegate to Congress. At James' urging, he sponsored a bill to allow the Neah Bay waterfront to be separated from the reservation and offered for sale.

James primed his political friend with a variety of arguments in favor of this move: distressed mariners were refused shelter by the Indians, sealers needed a place to store their skins, the Makahs themselves would welcome the move and would be enabled thereby to get better prices for their skins. When Willoughby got wind of what was going on, he wrote a blistering letter to the Indian Service, branding James' claims as completely false and self-serving. To separate the Makahs from their access to the beach, he wrote in one letter, would not only destroy their main industry but would deprive them of land to them "endeared by many generations" and would oblige them to "behold the bones of their fathers trodden underfoot by the whites." Strong political pressure was brought to bear in Washington, but Willoughby was not wholly without influence. He rallied others, James Swan among them, to the defense of the reservation and, although it was a near thing, James' scheme was defeated. For Alanson Wesley Smith, the Pullen-Quileute quarrel was a replay of this earlier battle for Indian rights, and, in spite of his affection for his sister, he was relieved with a settlement in favor of the Indians.

Harriet herself was not one to stay with a loser. After the decision on the homestead she went her own way. During the Klondike gold rush she went to Skagway, Alaska, arriving with only $7 in her purse. She got a job cooking for a work crew at $3 a day, but she found ways of making money on the side. Soon she had enough saved to buy a team of horses which she used to haul prospectors' duffle across White Pass.

It is estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 horses were either beaten to death or killed by overwork on the Pass, but Harriet managed to keep her team going until she had saved money to buy a 13-room house in Skagway. It became the noted Pullen House. Income from this famous hostelry supported and educated the four Pullen children. Pullen's own affairs went from bad to worse and after the turn of the century he died in Seattle, leaving very few assets and a good many debts. Through all of this, Alanson was the family bulwark, quietly administering the tangled estate left by his brother- in-law and trying to spread what was left among a number of claimants.

He brought up four children of his own, and a foster son, and kept an eye on Harriet's children while she was in Alaska. For the community, he served as a lay preacher, postmaster, and justice of the peace, all this after 20 years in the Indian Service. He lived until 1938, when he was 84 years old, and there probably had never been a day in his life when he had not gone out of his way to do a humane and kindly act. When we remember the rascals of our early days, it's well to remember, too, the Alanson Wesley Smiths. More next Sunday A History of the North Olympic Peninsula by Patricia Campbell Christening clothes Ben Epperson, 84, of Dry Creek came to Eden Valley in 1900 with his parents, Even and Ora Epperson, from Boise, Idaho.

Mrs. Epperson was a seamstress and made Ben's christening dress and petticoat. The lace-trimmed dress of fine lawn has many rows of tiny tucks, and lace on the petticoat is handmade. Also shown is a small silver handbell, which was his favorite toy. Daily News photo by Tom Thompson City tries 'homestead' project More than 100 years ago, President Lincoln signed a bill allowing citizens to claim up to 160 acres of unsettled land as their own.

Citizens could purchase the land for 11.25 per acre after cultivating and residing on the land for five years. This bill was the Homestead Act of 1862. Following the Bicentennial theme of blending past and present, the City of Berkeley, is conducting its own homestead program. Located in northwest St. Louis County, Berkeley covers a 5-square mile area and has a population of 20,000.

Berkeley residents and businessmen are encouraged to "stake a claim" on a high quality life-style for themselves and their community by participating in the city's HI" program. Like the original homesteaders of our nation, the ultimate goal of the program is to promote pride in ownership. Homesteading Century II provides awards to residents whose homes and businesses meet the housing standards specified in the program. After a resident applies for the program, a professional housing inspector evaluates the property. When property fails to meet minimum requirements, the participant is notified of the deficiencies and encouraged to make the necessary improvements to reapply for an award.

Winning participants are awarded a "Pride In Ownership" sticker and a "Homesteading Century III" Certificate. After the contest deadline, special awards will be made to those residents with exceptionally high ratings Times From a Great American Savings Loan Association by permission of THE HETTMANN AKCIIIVE 1820 and beyond: Europe's loss is America's gain. They're calling us the "last best hope of mankind." Ireland is about to face a five-year potato blight and the terrible famine. England is draining off what little Irish food there is. Persecuting the Catholics, too.

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