The Daily News from Port Angeles, Washington • Page 13

Special weekly bicentennial page of The Daily News THE DAILY Port Angeles, March 28,1976 Chapter 13: The military and the Peninsula Port Townsend has always had a love affair going with the military. It started as far back as 1855 with the organization of their own citizens into the Port Townsend Guards. The Point-No-Point Treaty had Just been signed, and there was a general feeling it had done more harm than good. This seemed to be home out when, soon after the signing, there was a large convocation of disgruntled Indians at Port Madison. Cayuses and Yakimas came from east of the mountains to attend; their influence on the local Indians was much feared.

Even if, as it was believed, Chief Seattle and Chetzemoka counseled against war, the situation was ehancey at best. And there was always the threat from northern Indians. Port Townsendites decided to act on their own by converting a large building on Water Street into a blockhouse and forming their own citizens into a defensive force. They were encouraged when Col. Casey (for whom Fort Casey on Whidbey Island would later be named) gave official blessing to the project.

James G. McCurdy in his book "By Juan de Fuca's Strait" goes into detail with what is probably the only complete account of the guards. His deadpan report of the utter confusion that arises from public funds in private hands may be funnier than he intended. Gov. Izaak Stevens appointed one of the 24 guards to be a commissary quartermaster.

He immediately bought 100 pounds of beef and pork, 4,000 pounds of sugar, 2,000 pounds of coffee, and 1,000 pounds of candles. The bill was for $81,592.61, which figures out to just under $3,500 a man. And he had just started. Local merchants ran out of goods, and the commissary captain hied himself to Victoria where Gov. Douglas advanced $7,000 of his own money for "powder, lead and other munitions." Before this spending spree was over, scrip had been issued for $1,600,000.

Gradually, at a great discount, the scrip was redeemed. It was three years before Gov. Douglas got his loan back. It is safe to say that Port Townsend's 24 guardsmen didn't lack for supplies. It was 1856 before Maj.

Granville 0. Haller, commanding Company I of the 4th Infantry, arrived with his men at Port Townsend. The major was not a typical soldier, a statement in no wise intended to disparage him. He had distinguished himself two years before when he had been sent with 84 men into YaWma country. When confronted by 250 armed hostiles, he buried his howitzer in the Simcoe Mountains and outran the Indians.

It may not have been in the best military tradition, but it was good common sense, and it kept the major alive to set up the first military post on the Peninsula. While on the Peninsula he kept a sharp eye out for investments. One of them was the Cherburg Land the first real estate promotion in Clallam County. Later he purchased the bankrupt Hoff Mill on Chimacum Creek. This mill was powered by a waterwheel which, due to sea water rising into the mouth of the creek, could be operated only on an ebb tide.

Neither venture was a financial success, but Major Haller's interest in them suggests an open-mindedness not always found in the military. Even in establishing Fort Townsend he demonstrated inventiveness. The site he chose was delightful, about five miles south of the town on a creek that offered an excellent supply of water. He ordered his men to fall trees and start building with their timber. Finishing lumber was brought by schooner, and plaster was made from the piles of clam shells left by Indian encampments.

There were a couple of squatters inside the fort boundary, but he simply built around them. Two years later Col. J.K. Mansfield came from San Francisco on a tour of inspection, and sent back to his superiors a report that having squatters on a military post was intolerable. He found several other matters to desertions in 1856 were 11; and in IRSa, 37.

Say 74 men in three years. This has to be attributed to four causes. First, the worthless unprincipled character of many recruits. Second, the want of proper discipline. third, the vicinity of this post to the British frontier where gold diggings are enticing, and where they cannot be seized if Fourth, the bad treatment of an orderly sergeant since reduced to the ranks." Even assuming that Col.

Mansfield was not an easy man to please, this report, written only three years before the Civil War, makes a reader wonder how the Confederacy managed to lose. The colonel mentioned specific recruits: "Flannegan, 21 years old, born Cavan County, Ireland dislocated wrist and to be rejected. Kelly, Queens County Ireland contusions of the right leg, cannot stand long." He mentioned a German who could not speak or understand English, and "who would need five years to learn to be a soldier." He closed his report with a suggestion that men be kept at the Recruiting Depot "till defects such as malformed limbs and fits were uncovered." Mansfield had some opinions, too, about the very existence of the fort, opinions that could be summed up in modern terms as "too little and too late." The Indians should never have been allowed to pose a threat. "These northern Indians should be shut out of these waters entirely, and the only way it can be effectually done is by pursuing them when enter our waters in their large canoes. This can be done only by means of a small steamer that will move at the rate of 15 miles the hour, and run them down and pursue them to their homes." No shot was ever fired in anger from Fort Townsend.

In the 120 years since it was built, it was active no more than a dozen years, and the location is now a state park. But Port Townsend was thwarted only temporarily. It had a later darling in Fort Worden, with Forts Casey and Flagler nearby. A History of the North Olympic Peninsula by Patricia Campbell of Elizabeth Hadanfe Schweitzer, who came to Port Angeles in 1909 from Peoria, made this needlepoint sofa cushion in 1895. The colors of the rose wreath are still bright against a black background.

John Schweitzer remembers the pillow was always on the couch in his mother's living room, as it is now in his. Needlepoint has retained its popularity over the years, and similar patterns may be found in today's magazines. Daily News photo by Tom Thompson First ladies' recipes Recipes by America's First Ladies, including Martha Washington and Betty Ford, appear in a new bicentennial booklet being sponsored as a special war on cancer project by the American Cancer Society and the American Legion. The "First Ladies' Recipe Booklet" will be mailed on request to anyone in the United States who sends a donation of $2 or more to any unit of the American Cancer Society or to any Legion Post in Maryland or other cooperating states. The booklet includes such recipes as Martha Washington's "Beef Steak and Kidney Pie," Betty Ford's "Strawberry Blitz Torte" and Mary Todd Lincoln's "Scalloped Oysters." From a Greaf American Savings Loan Association by permission uf THE UE1TMANN ARCHIVE 1775: A battle lost, but a point won.

Benjamin Franklin is back from England, where he did his best as a diplomat. Now, he admits that diplomacy won't work. We go into battle at Lexington. We take Fort Ticonderoga. In June, the British storm us at Bunker Hill and give us three bloody fights.

Our gunpowder is low. To save what we can, our cry becomes, "Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." The British far outnumber us. And soundly defeat us. But we give them what-for. And heavy losses.

Our backwoods militia marksmanship strikes fear into their hearts and inspiration into our own. They used to laugh at our lack of spit and polish. They're not laughing anymore. And we're beginning to feel we just might have a chance for independence one of these days. 8 YOUR SAVINGS GROW GROW GROW Especially when you save something regularly and then add our attractive high dividends that are payable like clockwork.

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