Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget SoundDenny, Emily Inez
History
Blazing the Way; Or, True Stories, Songs and Sketches of Puget Sound
Denny, Emily Inez
Indians of North America -- Northwestern States; Oregon Territory -- History; Washington (State) -- History
"Fifty-two years and two months ago David Thomas Denny came to
Seattle, to the spot where Seattle now stands enthroned upon her
seven hills. Mr. Denny, the last but one of the little band of
pioneers--some half dozen men first to make this spot their
home--has been gathered to his fathers; 'has wrapped the mantle
of his shroud about him and laid down to pleasant dreams.' Gone
is a man and citizen who perhaps loved Seattle best of all those
who ever made Seattle their home. This is attested by the fact
that from the time that Mr. Denny first came to Elliott Bay it
has been his constant home. Never but once or twice during that
long period of time did he go far away, and then for but a very
short time. Once he went as far away as New York--and that proved
a sad trip--and once, in recent years, to California. Both trips
were comparatively brief, and he who first conquered the primeval
forest that crowned the hills around returned home full of
intense longing to get back and full of love for the old home.
"Mr. Denny lived a rugged, honorable, upright life--the life of a
patriarch. He bore patiently a long period of intense suffering
manfully and without murmur, and when the end approached he
calmly awaited the summons and died as if falling away into a
quiet sleep. So he lived, so he died.
"Few indeed who can comprehend the extent of his devotion to
Seattle. Living in Seattle for the last two years, yet for that
period he never looked once upon the city which he helped to
build. About that long ago he moved from his home which he had
maintained for some years at Fremont, to the place where he died,
Licton Springs, about a mile north of Green Lake. Said Mr. Denny
as he went from the door of the old home he was giving up for the
new: 'This will be the last time I will ever look upon Seattle,'
and Mr. Denny's words were true. He never was able to leave again
the little sylvan home his family--his wife, sister and
children--had raised for him in the woods. There, dearly loved,
he was watched over and cared for by the children and by the wife
who had shared with him for two-score-and-ten years the joys and
sorrows, the ups and downs that characterized his life in a more
marked degree than was the experience of any other of the
pioneers who first reached this rugged bay.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account