Summer Days on the Sound
A lively report from a 1878 community on the Puget Sound, celebrating mill work, new infrastructure, and the social joys of the frontier era.
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.
Times have been very lively here all summer, and unusually so since the Fourth. Work is progressing rapidly on the new bark. The old and new mills are running to their full capacity. Several dwelling houses are in course of erection, and the new school house is almost complete. The Eagle Hotel is finished, and for neatness and accommodation is equal to any on the Sound. Our brass band furnished some excellent music on the Fourth, and I must say that the members deserve great credit for the proficiency they have attained in so short a time. Picnics and excursions appear to be all the rage at present. I had the pleasure of attending one the other day, and can candidly state that it completely outshone any of the kind I ever before attended. We went as far as Colseed Bay, some fifteen or sixteen miles, which was quite a long distance to pull a boat. The ladies who accompanied us sang all the way, and the boys said the singing facilitated the rowing. Among the party were the following ladies: Mrs. and Miss Kendrick, the Misses Ella, Mary and Lizzie Green, and the Misses Jane and Belle Butcher. Messrs. Spearin and Green managed the affair and deserve great praise for the manner in which everything was conducted. Arriving at Colseed, we proceeded to the residence of Mr. Hale, where we found a repast awaiting us, 'fit for a prince.' Shortly after supper, dancing commenced and was continued until late at night, first-class music being furnished by Messrs. Helgrove and Bentson.
“Times have been very lively here all summer, and unusually so since the Fourth.”
This 1878 account captures the rapid, often frantic pace of industrial and social growth in Puget Sound logging towns. While the names of the mills and hotels have vanished, the familiar cadence of a 'booming' local economy and the necessity of community-organized recreation in isolated company towns mirrors the social fabric of the Pacific Northwest today.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.