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:
“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.
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