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
The two children slept snugly under a fir bark shed made of slabs of
bark leaned up against a large log. Father and mother sat by the fire
under a cedar whose branches gave a partial shelter. Some time in the
night I was awakened by my mother lying down beside me, then slept
calmly on.
The next morning everything was dripping wet and we hastened on to the
Duwampsh crossing where lived the old man who stood on the bank at
Seattle when we started.
What a comfort it was to the cold, wet, hungry, weary quartette to be
invited into a dry warm place! and then the dinner, just prepared for
company he had been expecting; a bountiful supply of garden vegetables,
beets, cabbage, potatoes, a great dish of beans and hot coffee. These
seemed veritable luxuries and we partook of them with a hearty relish.
A messenger was sent to Seattle to apprise our friends of our return,
two of them came to meet us at the mouth of the Duwampsh River and
brought us down the bay in a canoe to the landing near the old laurel
(Madrona) tree that leaned over the bank in front of our home.
The first Fourth of July celebration in which I participated took place
in the old M. E. Church on Second Street, Seattle, in 1861.
Early in the morning of that eventful day there was hurrying to and fro
in the Dennys' cottage, on Seneca Street, embowered in flowers which
even luxuriant as they were we did not deem sufficient. The nimble
eldest of the children was sent to a flower-loving neighbor's for
blossoms of patriotic hues, for each of the small Americans was to carry
a banner inscribed with a strong motto and wreathed with red, white and
blue flowers. Large letters, cut from the titles of newspapers spelled
out the legends on squares of white cotton, "Freedom for All," "Slavery
for none," "United we stand, divided we fall," each surrounded with a
heavy wreath of beautiful flowers.
Arrived at the church, we found ourselves a little late, the orator was
just rounding the first of his eloquent periods; the audience,
principally men, turned to view the disturbers as they sturdily marched
up the aisle to a front seat, and seeing the patriotic family with their
expressive emblems, broke out in a hearty round of applause. Although
very young we felt the spirit of the occasion.
The first commencement exercises at the University took place in 1863.
It was a great event, an audience of about nine hundred or more,
including many visitors from all parts of the Sound, Victoria, B. C.,
and Portland, Oregon, gathered in the hall of the old University, then
quite new.
I was then nine years of age and had been trained to recite "Barbara
Frietchie," it "goes without the saying" that it was received with
acclaim, as feeling ran high and the hearts of the people burned within
them for the things that were transpiring in the South.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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