Pierce County Pioneers Gather at Ferry Museum
Early settlers of the region meet to preserve local history, swap stories of the Indian Wars, and share a basket dinner.
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On Wednesday, January 13, at the Ferry Museum, the Pierce County Pioneers' Association held its first regular meeting since organizing in December. The program featured songs including 'Fifty Years Ago' and 'The Old Settler'—the latter performed by an old miner in costume—as well as an address on the 'Indian Wars of Washington' by Edwin Eells. The organization, which began with 40 charter members, aims to bring together those who arrived on the coast prior to 1887 to collect relics and preserve early history. Officers include Mrs. Laura K. Bartlett, president, and W. P. Bonney, trustee.
“The object of the association is to bring together the pioneers of Pierce county in social gatherings, to preserve early history and collect relics of pioneer days.”
The Ferry Museum was a landmark institution for Tacoma’s historical identity, though its collections were eventually absorbed into the Washington State Historical Society. The tension between remembering settlement history and acknowledging the violent displacement of Indigenous people, represented here by the talk on 'Indian Wars,' remains a central thread in contemporary local discourse.
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