The Pioneer Argument

I recently noticed an article in the Pacific Christian Advocate, headed 'First Things in Washington Territory,' by Rev. J. P. Richmond. The reverend gentleman claims he and his family were the first full-blooded white settlers on Puget Sound, and that his son Francis was the first white child born in Washington Territory, west of the Rocky mountains. There is evidently some mystery connected with the history of the first white child in this Territory. In 1841, one of the party, Kerny by name, who crossed the plains and mountains with us, standing on the ground of what had been the old fort on the bank of the Spokane River, said, pointing to his son, 'This boy, Isadore, was born right here.' Furthermore, the doctor states that in 1843, Sir George Simpson arrived at Nisqually with seven or eight families of Scotch Canadians. The Doctor is mistaken; the date of their arrival was 1841, and there were seventeen families, not seven. I cannot account for the desire of the reverend gentleman to see an Indian in every family but his own, unless he had Indian on the brain. He fills two newspaper columns, but never gives us a word about his missionary work.