WA Secretary of State Blogs

A Frontier Army Wife

Wednesday, March 25th, 2009 Posted in Articles, Digital Collections, For the Public | Comments Off on A Frontier Army Wife


In 1871 Frances Marie Antoinette Mack married Fayette Washington Roe.  Both had been raised in upstate New York, though Faye (as he was known) was born in Virginia.  The wedding occurred immediately after his graduation from West Point, and they quickly left to travel to his first army assignment in Fort Lyon, Colorado far from their quiet upstate homes.  sl_roearmyletters_004small

Kit Carson, Colorado Territory, October, 1871.

Tis late, so this can be only a note to tell you that we arrived here safely, and will take the stage for Fort Lyon to-morrow morning at six o’clock.  I am thankful enough that our stay is short at this terrible place, where one feels there is danger of being murdered any minute. Not one woman have I seen here, but there are men – any number of dreadful-looking men – each one armed with big pistols, and leather belts full of cartridges.

Here she begins a series of letters that will later be collected and published as Army Letters from an Officer’s Wife, 1871-1888. Frances followed her husband to posts throughout the West from busy, established garrisons to small redoubts with dirt floors, and provides a detailed description of life in the frontier army from a woman’s point of view.

She describes their first home at Ft. Lyon, her lessons in riding and shooting, and her confusion with military protocol and customs.  She enjoys the outdoor activities and the social life at the fort and throws herself into creating her first home.  It is a rude shock when her husband’s company is transferred for the first time and she learns that their destination is Camp Supply in what is now northern Oklahoma – more isolated, more primitive, and surrounded by hostile tribes.  As the wife of a junior officer she must leave behind many of her household goods, her furniture, her horse, and her new greyhound puppy.  She reacts as many very young wives might have, but soon finds her feet.  fwroe-01small

I have cried and cried over all these things until I am simply hideous, but I have to go just the same, and I have made up my mind never again to make myself so wholly disagreeable about a move, no matter where we may have to go. I happened to recall yesterday what grandmother said to me when saying good-by: “It is a dreadful thing not to become a woman when one ceases to be a girl!” I am no longer a girl, I suppose, so I must try to be a woman, as there seems to be nothing in between.

(Also, when the company stops the first night and several soldiers are sent back for forgotten supplies, she manages to convince one of them to bring her puppy as well.  “Hal” grows and spends the rest of his adventurous life with Frances.)

Frances is a woman of her time, full of both courage and prejudice, who undertakes a strenuous and demanding life for the sake of her husband.  She endures sandstorms, Indian attacks, floods, killing cold and countless moves.  She also bakes fruitcakes, hunts buffalo and organizes cotillions.  It turns out that army life suits her very well.

Read her account online in the Classics in Washington History under “Women’s Stories.”

What’s New in Digital Collections: a list of the latest newspapers, books, maps

Wednesday, February 25th, 2009 Posted in Articles, Digital Collections, For Libraries, For the Public, News | Comments Off on What’s New in Digital Collections: a list of the latest newspapers, books, maps


newspapers_introHistorical Newspapers in Washington

Classics in Washington History
classics_intro

County and Regional History

  • Fort Colvile, 1826-1871 by U.S. Dept. of the Interior, National Park Service. Contents: This pamphlet summarizes the history of Fort Colvile, founded by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1825.

Military History

  • 600 days’ service by Harold H. Burton. Contents: A history of the 361st Infantry Regiment of the 91st Division of the United States Army.
  • Camp Lewis. Contents: An early historical record of the Ninety-First Division at Camp Lewis.
  • Official history of the Thirteenth Division. Contents: The history of the 13th Division, organized at Camp Lewis, American Lake, Washington on July 16, 1918. The book contains photographs of troops and descriptions of their duties.

Native Americans

Natural History

  • Natural history of Washington territory and Oregon by George Suckley. Contents: Preface, including a brief narrative of the explorations from 1853 to 1857.–Errata, with additions and corrections up to 1860.-[pt. 1. Meteorology – not included (see Notes).–pt. 2. Botanical report.–pt. 3. Zoological report
  • Climate of the state of Washington by W.N. Allen. Contents: “A careful and elaborate treatise on the climactic conditions, with reference to temperature, winds, rainfall and snowfall.”

Miscellaneous

maps_introMaps

Ranald MacDonald

Friday, February 13th, 2009 Posted in Articles, Digital Collections, For the Public | 4 Comments »


ranald1The son of a Hudson’s Bay factor and Raven, the daughter of Chief Comcomly of the Chinooks, Ranald MacDonald grew up on trading posts in the Northwest.  Fascinated by the idea of visiting Japan since his youth, he conceived the plan of shipping out on a whaling vessel and marooning himself on the Japanese shore.  Despite the fact that the government of Japan threatened death or imprisonment to foreigners trying to enter the kingdom, he did just that in 1848.

Ranald was taken captive and moved from one jurisdiction to another, but was well treated.  He was friendly and intensely curious about everything he saw and everyone he met.  The Japanese responded to his courtesy, and Ranald soon was teaching English to a significant group of Japanese officials.  His adventure ended when an American vessel, the Preble, arrived to retrieve a group of sailors that had been genuinely shipwrecked, and his captors allowed Ranald to accompany them back to America.

He continued his life as a sailor for some time, traveling widely.  When gold was discovered in the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, he worked there for several years.  He died in North Central Washington in 1894.

When Japan finally opened to the West, Ranald’s student, Einosuke Moriyama, served as one of the chief interpreters between Commodore Perry and the Tokogawa Shogunate.

 The State Library has two items in its online collection that tell Ranald’s story:

1.  Ranald’s deposition given to Captain Glynn of the Preble on the voyage back to America in 1849.

Deposition of Ranald McDonald regarding his imprisonment in Japan, made to Captain James Glynn, USS Preble] [Washington, D.C.: G.P.O., 1850]From: Senate Executive Document (United State. Congress. Senate); 31st Congress, 1st Session, vol. 10, no. 84, p. 24-28.

2.  Ranald’s own account written years after the fact and edited for the Eastern Washington Historical Society.

Ranald MacDonald : the narrative of his early life on the Columbia under the Hudson’s Bay Company’s regime, of his experiences in the Pacific whale fishery and of his great adventure to Japan : with a sketch of his later life on the western frontier, 1824-1894 by Ranald MacDonald.  Spokane, Wash. : Published for the Eastern Washington State Historical Society of the Inland-American Printing Co., 1923

Washington Historic Newspapers Now Available in PDF

Thursday, February 12th, 2009 Posted in Articles, Digital Collections, For Libraries, For the Public, News | Comments Off on Washington Historic Newspapers Now Available in PDF


blog_newspaperWashington State’s Historical Newspapers as digitized by the Washington State Library are now available in PDF format. This means that teachers, students, and public library users no longer need to download the DJVU viewer in order to use the historical newspaper collection online. (DJVU format is still available for those who prefer it.) To view and/or search the newspaper collection, go to the Historic Newspapers in Washington site or search our Washington electronic newspaper holdings in the Washington State Library Catalog.

Historical newspapers from Washington State’s territorial period (1853-1889) are excellent primary source documents to support the new Social Studies CBA requirements. Teachers and students will particularly appreciate Moments in History, the pre-selected groups of articles on popular research topics. Additionally, Classics in Washington History, a digital collection of rare, out of print books, is also available in full-text for searching and viewing in PDF format.

Inauguration Day

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009 Posted in Articles, Digital Collections, For the Public | Comments Off on Inauguration Day


Photograph of Lincoln taken by Alexander Gardner, 1863.
Photograph of Lincoln taken by Alexander Gardner, 1863.

On this Inauguration Day, and in anticipation of Abraham Lincoln’s bicentennial in February, we thought it appropriate to revisit Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, one of the great speeches of American history. The text of the speech is found in the Congressional Globe (1865, pages 1424-1425), which is housed in Washington State Library’s federal collection.

inaugcrowd
President Lincoln delivering his inaugural address on the east portico of the U.S. Capitol, March 4, 1865. Image via LOC.

A second digitized version can be viewed in our Historic Newspaper Online Project from the Walla Walla Statesman of March 17, 1865, (Page 2, Column 3). Interestingly enough, the wording in the newspaper account differs somewhat from the Congressional Globe version. We surmise that this was editorial license at work.

If you would also like to see Lincoln’s own handwritten draft of the address, visit the Abraham Lincoln Papers digitized by the Library of Congress.

A Woman’s eye on Washington Territory

Monday, January 12th, 2009 Posted in Articles, Digital Collections, For the Public | Comments Off on A Woman’s eye on Washington Territory


“… and before us was a dark sea-wall of mountains…”

With those words, Caroline Leighton ended a journey from the civilized eastern states and began recording her responses to fifteen years on the Pacific coast.  Born and educated in New England, she worked in a school for former slaves in Washington DC during the Civil War.  There she met her future husband, Rufus Leighton.  After the war they married and sailed for the Pacific Northwest where Rufus had an appointment as a customs official.  They endured shipwreck, stormy seas, and travel by canoe during spring floods.

Caroline’s eye is both humorous and humane as she examines the West and all the people she meets there:  miners, farmers, Chinese workers, Native Americans, and immigrants from many countries.  She accompanied her husband as he traveled across the Territory, journeying by wagon to Walla Walla, taking steamers on the upper Columbia where the boat had to be winched up through canyons, and traveling by lumber ships between Washington and San Francisco.  On one such journey she writes:

ship“One day it was more than I could enjoy.  The wind roared so loud, and the sound of the waves was so heavy, that I retreated to my berth and lay down; but I could not keep my mind off the thought of how deep the water was under us.  After awhile I went on deck and sat there again, and the vessel began to plunge so that it seemed as if it were trying to stand upon one end.  I felt so frightened that I thought I would try to speak with the captain, and ask him if he ever knew a lumber vessel to tip over; and if I dared I would suggest that he should carry a little less sail…

but a little while after, he came to me and said, ‘Are you able to go to the forward part of the ship with me?  I should like to have you if you can.’   So he helped me along to the bow, where it seemed almost too frightful to go, and said, ‘Kneel down;’ and knelt down by me, and said, ‘Look under the ship.’  It was one of the most beautiful sights I ever saw, – such a height of foam, and rainbows over it.  …

Presently he said, ‘Men don’t often speak of these things to each other, but I feel the beauty of it.  Nights when the vessel is moving so fast, I come and watch here for hours and hours, and dream over it.’  When I thought about it afterward, I wondered how he could know that the way to answer my fear was to show me what was so beautiful.  I was not afraid anymore, whatever the vessel did.”

I recommend Caroline Leighton to your acquaintance.

The 1884 edition, Life at Puget Sound : with sketches of travel in Washington Territory, British Columbia, Oregon, and California, 1865-1881 is available electronically in the State Library’s online digital collection, Classics in Washington History.

Caroline’s book was reprinted as West Coast Journeys with an introduction by David M. Buerge in 2002 by Sasquatch Books.