The Unsung Pioneers of Yakima
A reflection on the rapid turnover of life in the Yakima Valley as early settlers pass away in their youth.
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.
The old-timers are dying this winter. George Goodwin, who was buried several days ago, had as good a title to this distinction as anybody, for the reason that he was about the first to build a house here. Even Goodwin was but forty-three. And now a still younger 'old-timer' drops out in the person of J. W. Masters, who came down from his homestead on the Cowiche last year. He was probably known to nearly everyone in the county, yet he was a trifle under forty. He, too, was one of the early county officers, having been auditor for two terms some ten or eleven years ago. Many of the settlers hereabouts who come to the United States land office to see about their claims talk about having 'filed with Masters, at the Old Town.' What they mean is that they made application and affidavit before him, which he sent to Walla Walla in the old days when this was in the Walla Walla land district.
“And now a still younger 'old-timer' drops out in the person of J. W. Masters, who came down from his homestead on the Cowiche last year.”
This piece captures the fleeting nature of 'pioneer' status in a rapidly developing frontier. Just as these men became historical artifacts before reaching middle age, Yakima continues to grapple with the rapid, often jarring evolution of its identity as a boom-and-bust agricultural center.
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