Produced by David E. Brown, Bryan Ness and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) [Illustration: O. Jacobs] _MEMOIRS OF ORANGE JACOBS_ WRITTEN BY HIMSELF _CONTAINING MANY INTERESTING, AMUSING AND INSTRUCTIVE INCIDENTS OF A LIFE OF EIGHTY YEARS OR MORE, FIFTY-SIX YEARS OF WHICH WERE SPENT IN OREGON AND WASHINGTON._ SEATTLE, WASH. LOWMAN & HANFORD CO. 1908 DEDICATION. To the Pioneers of the State of Washington, whose privations nobly borne, whose heroic labors timely performed, and whose patriotic devotion to the Republic, gave Washington as a star of constantly increasing brilliancy to the Union--this book is gratefully dedicated. CONTENTS. I. My Autobiography. II. Incidents in crossing the Plains in 1852. III. Pen sketches of events, amusing, interesting and instructive of a Pioneer's life on the Pacific Coast, extending over fifty-six years. IV. Indian civilization, its true methods, its difficulties. V. Indian customs, legends, logic and philosophy of life. VI. Religion and reasons for some fundamental doctrines. VII. Official life and some incidents connected therewith. VIII. Game animals and birds of the State of Washington. IX. A few public addresses delivered by me. X. The result of Pioneer patriotism and energy. Introduction I have often been requested by my friends to write a sketch book, containing, first, my autobiography, with some of the incidents of a life already numbering eighty years and more; secondly, some of the addresses and papers made by me as a private citizen or public official; and, thirdly, some of the impressions, solemn, ludicrous and otherwise, made upon me in my contact with all the forms of the _genus homo_, principally on the Pacific Coast, where I have resided since 1852--in Oregon for seventeen years; in Seattle, Washington, thirty-eight years, plus the dimming future. I have finally concluded to undertake the delicate task. If it is ever completed and printed, I fondly hope its readers, if any, may be interested, if not instructed, by these extracts from a long experience of contact and conflict with the world. I say "conflict," because every true life is a battle for financial independence, social position and the general approval of one's fellow-men.