The Pioneer Who Brought the First Families Over the Mountains
Remembering Mr. Sargent, who led a train of twenty-five families through Naches Pass to the Puget Sound frontier in 1852.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Mr. Sargent, who died at Olympia last week, was 73 years, 8 months and 23 days old. He came to California in 1849 from Indiana with his two sons. In 1850 he moved up the coast to Puget Sound. In 1852 he returned to the East and brought the remainder of the family—his wife, one son and two daughters—with whom he crossed the plains at the head of a train of twenty-five families. These were met east of the mountains by his son Nelson and safely piloted through Naches Pass, the first immigrants brought directly to the Sound. Mr. Sargent took up a claim on Mound Prairie, where he pursued the business of farmer and later miller, except for a few months while absent on the Queen Charlotte gold mining enterprise about a quarter of a century ago, when the party were taken captives by the Indians and kept several months in servitude.
“These were met east of the mountains by his son Nelson, and safely piloted through the Naches Pass, the first immigrants brought directly to the Sound.”
The Naches Pass wagon train remains one of the foundational myths of the white settlement of the Puget Sound region. Today, the geography Sargent traversed is a network of highways and protected wilderness areas, marking a stark contrast to the grueling months of transit required by the 1852 immigrants.
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