(Image courtesy of Washington State Library)

Many of the collections or documents featured in our “Library jewels” blog series go deep into Washington history. Our first jewel for December goes back to soon after the creation of Washington Territory. It’s the Washington Volunteer papers from 1854 to 1861.

The State Library has the story on these documents:

The Washington Territorial volunteers were authorized by an Act passed by the Washington Territorial Legislative Assembly January 26, 1855 to organize a militia. With the outbreak of the Native American War east of the Cascades in October 1855, Acting Governor Charles H. Mason called for the raising of Volunteer companies, and those companies comprising the First Regiment of Washington Territory were mustered into service on 14 Oct. 1855 in the Army of the United States. These Volunteer companies were mustered out in December 1855 so when Gov. Isaac Stevens returned in Jan. 1856 from his Treaty with the Native Americans he assumed the responsibility for the Territory of mustering into service one thousand volunteers. These companies formed the Second Regiment of Washington Territory Volunteers, Army of the United States.

These records were originally in the office of the Territorial Governor. In 1903 the records were placed in the Washington Territorial Library, now known as the Washington State Library (WSL). For most of the 20th century, they were housed in the WSL without many people being aware of their existence. They were loaned to write a history of the Washington National Guard. The collection was arranged in 1962 for easier access. The collection was microfilmed about 1976 by WSL.