WINTER

Oysterville School BoysBILL AND NED NEEDHAM

Circa 1910

VOLUME XIII1978

Number 4

A Quarterly Publication of the Pacific County Historical Society, Inc .A Non-profit Organization

Subscription Rates $4 .00 Annually - Payable in AdvanceAddress : P.O . Box 384, Raymond, Washington 98577

Entered as second class matter at the Post Officeof Raymond, Washington 98577Mrs. Harold C. Dixon, EditorMEMBERSHIP SOLICITED

"Any person interested in the history ofPacific County may be enrolled as a member of the Societyupon receipt by the secretary of the first payment ofdues . " ($3.00 per calendar year.)

OUR COVER PHOTO : William and Edward Needham, the sons of C . E .Needham, a South Bend pioneer who passed away in April 1904, and Lydia SouleNeedham, of the Soule - Wheaton families who pioneered in the Willapa Valley.Their mother later married Leonard Wentworth of the Naselle logging family .

CENTERFOLD : This double page is from the 1864 Webster's Dictionary,given to the Oysterville school by James Pell ; it bears the fingerprints of hundredsof children interested in maritime lore.

OYSTERVILLE SCHOOL STORY : The basic narrative was compiledby Velma Laakko of Nahcotta, and has been read by her at many gatherings in theold school building, including a meeting of the Pacific County Historical Societyattended by many former students . Cecil Espy and Charles Nelson had attendedclasses in the two-story building, and Charles brought a letter written to him by histeacher, Mrs . Harvey Woodgate, assuring him he was a good boy.

THE SHENANDOAH : This was put together by the Editor from varioussources. Lewis & Dryden's MARINE HISTORY OF THE PACIFIC NORTH-WEST, 1895, has added information and a picture of the ship .

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History of Oysterville SchoolDistrict No. 1

Pacific County

by Velma Laakko

Oregon Territorial Schools 1851-1854

Pacific County's first school was formed under the laws of Oregon Territory .at Pacific City (Ilwaco) . THE COLUMBIAN, a newspaper published atOlympia, printed this news item from Baker Bay on November 12, 1853 : "We haveone school of superior character in our immediate neighborhood ably conducted bythe most excellent lady, Miss Elizabeth Lincoln, formerly of Portland, Maine ."This school was attended by members of the Holman and James Johnson families, byhate McCarty and others . (Refer to Swan's NORTHWEST COAST, page301) Miss Lincoln was married to Alonzo A . Skinner by the Reverend GustaviusHines on May 22, 1856 at the Holman home ; the couple went to Astoria, whereboth taught school and he became a judge .

J. G. Cooper, M .D. (refer to Swan, again, pages 214 and 327) has a reportin Volume XII, Book 2, EXPLORATIONS AND SURVEYS 1853-55, in whichhe states : "I am indebted to Miss Elizabeth Lincoln for a very well preparedcollection of plants from the vicinity of Cape Disappointment containing severalspecies which I did not myself obtain ." It is an educated guess that Miss Lincolnwas a relative of Abraham Lincoln, as was the "First Lady of Pacific County",Mary Jane Fiester of Pacific City . (Refer to THE SOU'WESTER, Spring 1972)

Washington Territorial Schools 1854-1889

Early in the spring of 1854, Isaac Alonzo Clark first came to Shoalwater Bay,and filed a claim to the site on which Oysterville stands, on April 12, 1854, atVancouver . Certificate 109 covers 161 acres in Section 3, Township 12N, Range11 W, and is recorded in Book III on Page 37 . Here, Clark soon moved from a

63

tent to his 10'x 12' cabin built of alder poles which served until "a schooner oflumber was brought from Astoria", enabling him to put up a board house 16' x 24',which, with additions, was always his family home .

THE COLUMBIAN later carried this news item : "Shoalwater Bay :Assembled at the house of Isaac Alonzo Clark, Saturday, August 5, 1854 : Commis-sioners John Crellin, G . T. Easterbrook, and Daniel "Cougar" Wilson ; H. K .Stevens, Auditor ; J . D . Holman, Treasurer ; I. A . Clark, Assessor ; George Bowers,Sheriff ; Ezra Weston, Probate Judge ; the Reverend Wood, School Director ; andThomas Martin, Coroner . This meeting had John Briscoe at its Chairman, andGeorge Bowers acted as Secretary .

"It was reported that the Messrs . Warbass, Shaeffer, Giesy, Roundtree, Knightand Pierre Charles opened a trail from Cowlitz Trail to the head of the waters ofShoalwater Bay . Charles J. W. Russell, Dr. James C. Cooper, Daniel WebsterBush, Henry Woodard, Seth Bullard, and William Cushing, residents of the Bay,assisted . "

The same newspaper had the following item : "On August 2, 1854, ColumbiaLancaster wrote from Washington City, that the list of Post Routes in WashingtonTerritory included : from Astoria by Chinook, Edmonton (Pickernell's), Tarlit,Oyster Beach (Oysterville), Brigham City (Hawk's Point) and the most directroute to intersect the route from Olympia to Grays Harbor, 120 miles and backonce a week ."

On May 14, 1855, Oysterville, by special election, was officially made theCounty Seat, and the officials continued to meet at the Clark home ; on March 3,1856, $5 .00 rent was paid him for the previous year . Clark sold half of his claimto Gilbert Stevens, who platted the town and built a hotel . Later, Clark plattedhis remaining property as Clark's Addition to Oysterville .

On May 8, 1860, Pacific County was reorganized, losing some of its formerareas, but gaining two tiers of townships to the north . The next day it was "decidedon and after this date, the Commissioners and Courts will be held in the SchoolHouse at Oysterville ."

Pacific County School District One

This Oysterville Public School consisted of one room 18'x20', located on Lot6, Block 2 . It was a portable, pre-fabricated of redwood sawed in San Francisco .

64

When it arrived by oyster schooner, the progressive citizens declared a holiday, and,with the aid of carpenters, quickly "raised" it . At first, it was a subscription school,and, although the teachers had been hired, all had resigned before the terms ended,some within a week or two .

Bethenia Angelina Owens had taught a part of a term in Astoria, while attendingclasses, herself, then came to Bruceport for three months . She had been born in1840, crossing the plains with the Applegate Party in 1843, married at 14, the motherof a son, George, and divorced at 18 . She was a friend of the Captain Munsonfamily and known in Oysterville . The board members invited her to teach a term,and promised, if she could finish the three months, she would be known as "Oyster-ville's first regular teacher ." Discipline had been the problem, and Bethenia toldthem : "I'll teach and I'll stick it out, but only if you'll promise to stand behindevery decision I make to keep order ." It took a bit of time, what with some studentsof about her own age, and towering high above her slender, petite but determinedform . When her three months were up, the Oysterville people donated money tokeep her another term, which she completed . But before this time had elapsed,Bethenia, whose reputation as a good teacher had spread, received a fine offer fromClatsop, which she accepted . Against many discouraging odds, she determined topractice medicine, and became the first woman graduate physician on the PacificCoast . Her Portland practice began in 1878 ; then she and her son, George, alsoa medical doctor, traveled to Europe, studying in hospitals in Scotland, London,Paris, Berlin and Munich . She returned to practice again in Portland in 1881-84 ;at Yakima 1884-1905 . In 1884, she was married to Colonel John Adair, by whomshe had a daughter . She died near Warrenton, Oregon, on September 12, 1926 .In her day, her controversial ideas about medicine, woman's rights, and politicsattracted much attention, and today a study of Bethenia Owens-Adair makes quitecontemporary reading . And she really was "Oysterville's first regular teacher ."

This school became the first supported by taxation, and James Pell was thefirst to receive his stipend from the county, rather than by subscription . It washe who supplied the students with the copy of WEBSTER'S UNABRIDGEDDICTIONARY (New Revised and Illustrated Edition of 1864, with 3000 Pic-torial Illustrations) . Charles Nelson has related that one punishment for mis-behaving in Oysterville school was having to stare at the page which showed thestocks, pillory, ducking stool, guillotine, and maiden - it's a well-worn page .

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TEACHER'S INSTITUTE, August 14, 1885

Oysterville, W. T.

Back row : Sarah Brand, May Lilly, Emma Bailey, Lincoln L. Bush, Mrs.Kenouse, and Rebecca "Puss" Brown . Center: Bessie Gillespie, Ola Gillespie, Mrs.Adda Brown Hicklin and son, John, and Mollie Hutton . Front: T. B. English, EllaTanger and Willie Mathews.

- This photo, with information, from the Don Cox Collection

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James Pell's students included John and Eva Clark, Ella, Arthur and LorisCrellin, and Ada, Frank and Alice Stevens . Some of the other teachers in theredwood school were Norris Wirt, Julia Jefferson, Agnes Lowe, Jane Griswold,Wilson W. Lilly and Josie Richie .

On July 2, 1860, Elder George Wills of Oysterville (Refer to THESOU'WESTER for Winter 1967, pages 67-69) was paid $25 for serving asCounty School Superintendent for 1859 ; he received the same fee for 1860 and1861, but on November 4, 1862, Henry S . Gile drew the money.

On November 4, 1868, the Commissioners purchased a dwelling from AndrewWirt to be used as a Court House, and on May 3, 1875, because the school hadoutgrown its capacity, it was "ordered that the Oysterville School District be grantedthe use of the Court Room for two terms at the rate of $10 per term, the sameto be vacated at any time the County shall require it for Court or other purposes."

Oysterville School 1874 - 1905

Since the school house was too small to accommodate the enrolled students,John Peter Paul, a master craftsman in his day, was commissioned to draft plansand erect a suitable new building, which he did . It was approximately 40'x 40',consisting of two rooms and two stories high, a most imposing building constructedon a block of land donated by Gilbert Stevens for school purposes . This buildingwas destroyed by fire in 1905 .

The County Superintendent of Schools for this period, through 1876, seemsto have been Miles Standish Griswold, a graduate of Harvard who was offered aprofessorship, but declined, to go to sea, landed at San Francisco, and came toOysterville as a cook on an oyster schooner . The students, hopefully out of hishearing, called him "Old Baldy" for obvious reasons . He sent for his sister, Jane,who once taught a class of 74 children, but died of smallpox in Seattle on the wayEast for a vacation. He then went east and brought back a wife, Jennie, who wasas kind and helpful as her husband was gruff . In fact, he was called the "Wrathof God" while she was referred to as the "Love of God."

Superintendents following Griswold were E . W. Dolan, 1877-78 ; C. A. Reed,1879-80 ; Mrs. A. S . Bush, 1881-82 ; Jennie Griswold, 1883-84 ; Mrs. Adda BrownHicklin, 1885-89 ; Miss Olla Gillespie, 1889-90 . Miss Gillespies' report to thenew state showed the county property valued at $5767 ; districts 28 ; students of

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OYSTERVILLE SCHOOL 1910

Teacher: Gilbert F. Winslow

Students include William and Edward Needham ; Les, Dorothy and Ed Goulter ;Bill, Docie, Fred, Ed and Bob Sargent ; Frank, Louise, Grace and Ida Wolkowski ;Sue and Medora Espy ; Harley Lehman; Ruth and Eva Slingerland; an Andrewsboy; George Kistamaker; Eve Parent, and Wesley Bowen.

- Photo from the Lydia Needham Wentworth CollectionIdentification by Edward Needham

school age 943 ; teachers 20 ; average salaries for men $44 .00 and for women$40.00 . Serving as superintendents under state law were also Lloyd W. Fancher,1891-94 ; E. S. Stevens, 1895-96 ; Mrs. Ada M . Harris, 1897-1900 ; and Mrs .C. A. Murdock, 1801-05 .

E . S . Stevens' personal record of visits to Pacific County Schools, show thaton January 21, 1895, H . E. Baker was the teacher, receiving a salary of $57 .50,and 32 students enrolled . He rated the discipline "not quite perfec", and sorated the teacher 98% ; school apparatus in use were charts, maps and globe . OnDecember 6, 1895, the enrollment had dropped to 25, with 21 present, but thediscipline and government were rated "poor" . Stevens had a list of improperpunishments : blows on the head, shaking, personal indignities such as pulling earsor hair, the dunce cap and block, epithets, ridicule and sarcasm .

Mrs. Ada M . Harris reported 1744 children of school age, with 1490 enrolled ;average school 5 112 months term ; 68 teachers ; average men's salaries $55, butwomen's remained at $40.

Oysterville Schools 1905 -1907

Some reminiscences of Oysterville have been written for us by Clyde Winslow,who is now living at Seal Beach, California .

"Pioneer days at old Oysterville were over and the period of high prosperityand importance past when I first came to the village around 1903 at the age of ninesSome of the pioneers, however, were still around . I remember R. H. Espy, wholived in the big home he had built there for his bride, Julia Jefferson . And therewere Meinart Wachsmuth, Sr., Captain Nelson, father of the boys and their sister,Andrew Wirt, and Frank Garretson, Sr., one of the "Bruce Boys" .

"My father had been managing a popular oyster and seafood restaurant in Port-land, Oregon for Darby & Immel, a San Francisco firm, when that company boughtout the oysterlands and equipment of Meinart Wachsmuth, Sr ., in Shoalwater Bayand started operations under the name of West Coast Oyster Company . Myfather, Gilbert F . Winslow, was transferred to the coast to manage that operation .

"I remember when our big school house burned to the ground, and we youngstudents put in a school year in the old Methodist Church until the new one-storyschool could be built ."

(This latter school still stands .)

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PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS FOR

70

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WEBSTER'S UNABRIDGED DICTIONARY .

SHIPS AND NAUTICAL AFFAIRS. -Continued .

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1751

Screw-propeller, p . 1185

To our knowledge, no picture exists of the original "red wood" school of thelate 1850's.

The top photo is of the large building constructed in 1874 by John Peter Paul,which burned to the ground in 1905.

The lower photo shows the building erected in 1907 on the same site, which isthe present community center in Oysterville .

72

Mr. Winslow's cousin, Mrs . Arthur House, of Portland, nee Asenath Barnes,remembers, too, when the Methodist Church "became an emergency school house .We had some exciting times in the new quarters when the winter tides, blown shore-ward by high winds, flowed in over the salt meadows and surrounded the church,marooning those of us who didn't wear rubber boots - until somebody in the village

P

would drag in a flat-bottomed skiff to our rescue .

"There was the day, too, when mothers all over the village became aware, Justbefore supper time, that none of their offspring had come home from school . Whenone of the fathers was sent to investigate the absences, he found the Briscoe bull, anotoriously cantankerous animal, broken loose from pasture, still belligerently pawingthe ground at the foot of the church steps where he had kept the frightened teacherand the rest of us prisoner for the last two hours ." (This was Mr . Clark'sMethodist Church of 1872, not to be confused with Mr . Espy's Baptist Churchwhich stands today.)

During this period of transition, Miss Josephine H . Bush, of Bay Center, wasthe county school superintendent .

Oysterville School 1907 - 1957

The one-room schoolhouse which arose from the ashes of the large buildingwhich burned in 1905, had the same bell, which, when the wind was right, could beheard in Ocean Park . The two small rooms on each side of the entrance, where woodis now kept, were the cloak rooms where the children hung their coats and left theirlunch pails . Two paths led to buildings marked "Boys" and "Girls", for insideplumbing was not installed until 1945, when the second class-room was added . Thefirst teacher in the third Oysterville school was William Riddell .

Edward Needham, now of South Bend, has written some reminiscences of theOysterville school during the years 1908-1914 :

"We moved to the Peninsula in March 1908, one and a quarter miles south ofOysterville on the bay . The Sargent family lived south of us, the last house in thedistrict . My brother entered school then, but I did not start until September .Miss Butler was the teacher in 1907-8 and also my teacher in 1908-9 ; we went toschool for seven months at that time and had 18 to 20 students . In 1909-10, Mr .Winslow was our teacher . In 1910-11, a Miss Sorselei, from Nebraska, was theteacher . In 1911-12, Miss Blair helped me to take two grades to catch up withmy brother .

In 1912-13, Mrs. Rhorbeck was the teacher .

In 1913-14, my last

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Oysterville Primary SchoolOysterville, Pacific Co., Washington

1916-1917

0Alice Holm,

Teacher

School OfficersGeo. A. Lehman Mrs. Lydia Wentworth

H. A. Espy

PUPILSOtis Gilbert

Loyd GilbertHarold Christensen

Melvin Nelson

Ernest NelsonRussell Brooks

Edwin Espy

Willard EspyVernon Andrews

Carl Andrews

Albert AndrewsKenneth Wolkowsky

Leonard Wolkowsky

Claude FisherRalph Bowman

Erwin Bowman

Fred NewertIra Newert

Ora Gilbert

Pauline FisherRuby Andrews

Gwendolyn Smith

Virginia CurlMuriel Espy

Ethel Wentworth Estella WentworthFrances Sargant

Mary Sargant

Sylvia NelsonMuriel Beekley

Ruby Newert

Rosie Walkowsky

Hippety Hip! Gazzip!GaZZip! Boom ! Bah !Oysterville PrimaryRah ! Rah ! Rah !

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School was held in the store buildingof West Coast Oyster Company whenthere were too many students enrolled forthe capacity of the 1907 building . This"Remembrance" pamphlet was the keep-sake of the late Estella Wentworth Dun-ing, and is printed through the courtesyof her half-brother, Edward Needham .

year, Robert Yoder taught 38 to 40 students : the following year, they had twoschools ."

The second Oysterville school for 1914-15 was known as the "Winslow Store",but in reality it was the company store of the West Coast Oyster Company . Herethe oystermen could purchase general merchandise needed and "put it on the books"until harvest time . This building was located across the road from Espy's, but ablock and a half south, near what is now called "The Cottage", and the teachersuntil August 1917 were : Miss Brooks, Miss Heinrick, Miss Siler from Raymond,Miss Alice Holm and Mrs . Jack Owens."

Miss Belle Coats came from Montana about 1920, and taught the primarygrades, and Miss Nora Stoner taught the upper grades . Miss Stoner marriedLewis Morehead and they moved away . Mrs. Glenn Heckes began teaching in1927, and still remembers the years she spent with grades one to eight, especiallyhaving to pack wood from the shed in the back to fire up the old cast-iron stove!While Charlotte Osburn was teaching in 1934, she instigated the building of aplay shed which later housed the Oysterville fire engine . In 1937, Mrs. GeorgeLittle was the teacher .

The School Superintendents during the days of this Oysterville school were Mrs .C. A. Murdock 1907-9 ; Miss Lottie Bode 1909-13 ; Angus Jack 1913-1917 . Mr .Jack ran a column in the local newspapers, and in 1915 he asked these questions :can your 7th grade pupils measure a field? A pile of wood? Can your 8thgraders compute the number of board feet in a sidewalk?

In 1917, Miss Edith Soper was elected, serving until 1921 . Mrs. C. A.Murdock (Arepta) completed her last term, was elected, and re-elected, serving to1927 . Jessie Simmons served until 1935 . Chauncey D . Davis was elected, butresigned January 1, 1939, to become superintendent of the South Bend schools.Marcella Lawler then served until January 15, 1941, when she resigned, and NeilBailey was appointed to serve out the term, and continued to serve until January1971, a total of thirty years .

School was held in the present building continuously until 1957, when it wasconsolidated with Ocean Park, and for the first time in one hundred years, the townhad no school . But some Oysterville ladies soon formed a club which met in thebuilding ; later on, a group was formed which included the men, where social eventswere staged for the benefit of the historic building . An electric stove, refrigerator,and sinks were installed in the second class-room, and it remains the setting formany gatherings, serving the community, not as first intended, but very well, indeed .

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Lost at Sea .

A Mystery of 1864 Explained

By L. H. Rhoades of Bay Center

(L. H . Rhoades was born in 1844, crossed the plains in 1850, came to PacificCounty in 1862 - a married man with a daughter, and only 18 years of age .This article was written on March 30, 1912, and he died in 1913 . Nearing theend of his eventful life, Mr . Rhoades realized that he alone knew many early his-torical facts, and hurried to set them down on paper . We are indebted to hisgrandson, the late Irving Rhoades, for the original copy of the story which follows .)

In the year 1864, there were a few men who were anxious to do everythingin their power to assist the Southern Confederacy to gain its cause . Five of thesemen organized in San Francisco to fit out a two-masted schooner as a small gun-boatfor the purpose of preying upon the commerce of the Pacific Coast . The vesselselected was a fast-sailing one named the J . M. CHAPMAN (original name theJOHN M. CHAPMAN) .

These men seemed to have ample capital at their command and succeeded ingetting guns, ammunition, and an entire outfit aboard while the schooner lay atanchor some miles from the city, out in the harbor . But apparently, as the menwere about ready to start on their piratical expedition, the officials got a tip andhad the men and vessel seized . When examinations were made, the schooner andher entire outfit were confiscated and sold at public auction .

The schooner was bought by Crellin & Company, which was doing a largebusiness in shipping oysters in bulk from Shoalwater Bay, W.T., to San Franciscoand selling them at great profit. This Company usually chartered small coastingvessels to carry a stock of goods to their stores in Oysterville and Bruceport, re-turning with oysters .

The schooner J . M . CHAPMAN was considerably larger than they wereaccustomed to load with oysters . It could carry 4,000 baskets or more at a time .This required extra effort to get a cargo together, and as the company wished to

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take a full cargo the first trip, the oystermen were given culling money sometime

in advance, so they could have a full load ready when the schooner arrived .

After the schooner's purchase, it required some weeks to get all things in

readiness for the first trip north . A captain and full crew of men, consisting of

six all told, were employed and put in charge .

It was the custom to discharge these men when the vessel was laid up . Then,

when the owners wished to make a trip, they hired captain and crew along the water-front from among the many seafaring men who were usually waiting for a job .

Frequently, these men were entire strangers to the owners of a vessel, and all thatwas required was for the captain to have his papers .

Sometimes papers wereunnecessary if someone was found to say the captain had had considerable experiencesailing ships.

The five men who had been fitting out the vessel with arms were not convictedand were discharged . They were chagrined and plotted to in some way carry outtheir original enterprise . This they partially succeeded in doing . Changing theirappearance and hanging around the waterfront for a few weeks, all five securedpositions to go on the first trip for oysters with the J . M . CHAPMAN! Onlyone other man, a cook, was hired .

The new owners, Crellin & Company, had no idea who these men were, simplythinking they were ordinary seamen . $2000 to $3000 worth of goods was loadedon the schooner, general merchandise to supply their two stores on Shoalwater Bayin Washington Territory . The ship was a good sailer, and with fair winds, thetrip was made in five days . After discharging the goods, and being filled withoysters in the shell, the schooner sailed for San Francisco with Caesar Crellin, oneof the brothers of the company, aboard as a passenger . The schooner never arrivedin San Francisco and was given up as lost .

Forty-eight years have passed since that time, but an old sailor has been foundin Valparaiso, Chile, South America, who claims he was the cook employed on theoyster schooner J . M . CHAPMAN in San Francisco in 1864 . This man tellshow the schooner, instead of going to San Francisco, sailed past and continued onsouth until it reached the Gulf of California, in Mexico . Here they discharged. theoysters which had spoiled, and the ship was cleaned with chloride of lime, whichhad been taken on at San Francisco, seemingly to provide for such an occasion .

It is remembered now that those men took supplies on amounting to about four

times the amount normally taken, but they told Oysterville questioners that they

liked to have enough for any emergency . This seemed sensible, for in some cases

such a trip was prolonged by headwinds, calms or storms .

Caesar Crellin went ashore in Mexico and did not return to the ship . He wasdeaf and dumb, but a very bright, intelligent man of about 30 years . As therewas nothing ever more ever heard of him, it is supposed that while trying to getback to the United States overland, he may have taken the fever so prevalent inthat land, and died . Also, there were hordes of robbers made up of a mixture ofIndian and Mexican blood that would not hesitate to rob and murder ; he mayhave fallen into their hands, as they infested that whole country .

The old cook relates how those five men sailed along the coast of SouthAmerica, until, after many weeks, they reached Callao, Peru . There they tookon a supply of fresh provisions and arms enough to fit them out as a pirate ship, orprivateer . They claimed they only wished to prey on the commerce of the UnitedStates, thereby assisting the secession of the Southern States . The man claims henever joined them, except for being employed as their cook . He tells of someships they took, and after getting all the money and valuables, let the men taketheir own small boats and attempt to get ashore before sinking the ships . Theyworked as far south as Valparaiso, Chile .

There were many American ships coming up that coast which were neverheard of by their owners, and of course were given up as lost somewhere roundingCape Horn. Few, if any, of the men let go in their own little boats ever reachedshore . If they had, they would have been so near devoid of life and reason fromsevere suffering as to make their stories disbelieved in the South American countries .

One day, early in 1866, as they were looting a large American ship, they cameacross a newspaper from New York dated April 30th that gave a full account ofGeneral Lee's surrender to General Grant, and also described the assassination ofAbraham Lincoln . The captain and leader, after reading the account of thoseincidents, called his men together, saying : "Our cause is lost l the South has beenwhipped by the North . Lee surrendered to Grant . Booth shot Lincoln. Thejig is up with our business." Part of the crew of the large ship they were lootinghad already taken to the boats with the hope of reaching land, or being rescuedby some passing ship . The old cook tells the story that the leader of that piraticalgang, after consulting with his men, took a megaphone and called loudly to the

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men leaving to come back, and he would restore the ship to them and all he hadtaken, so they might go on their way .

At first the men feared to return, thinking some scheme had been hatchedwhereby they were to be put to death . It was only by repeated calls and full'explanations they were finally prevailed upon to return . Restoring money andall valuables to the ship, and swearing them all to forever keep that day's transactiona secret, the privateer vessel sailed away and the merchant ship proceeded north toher destination. Shortly after this, the five men took on an extra supply of provisions,planning to make a trip to the South Seas and never return to America .

The cook was not satisfied with these plans, and refused to go, so a new manwas hired as his replacement . The former cook of the J. M. CHAPMAN haslived in Chile most of the time since, and has never heard of those who sailed awaywithout him . They may have been lost in one of the fierce storms which blowin the south seas.

Earle A. Crellin, the oldest living member of the family, agrees that CaesarCrellin, born September 29, 1838, in the Isle of Man, was indeed deaf and dumb,and was "lost at sea" in November of 1864 on a trip from Oysterville to SanFrancisco .

Mrs. John M . Boutwell, Earle Crellin's sister Ruth, recently deceased, wasthe family historian . She said the family came from Brackabroom, Isle of Man,in 1853, and made the hazardous trip overland from the east coast to Oysterville,where they first entered the oyster trade . She confirmed the "lost at sea" recordgiven to us by her brother .

John Lyman, our "Consultant in Maritime History, Nautical Vexilloiogy,and the Ocean Environment", had this to add to the information on the "OystervillePrivateer"

"The schooner JOHN M . CHAPMAN was a two-master of 91 tons, built atNew London, Connecticut, in 1859 . She was registered at New London on Sep-tember 22, 1862 and at San Francisco on March 3, 1863, so she must have comearound Cape Horn in November or December 1862 - early summer in thoseparts . Her San Francisco owner was named Ridgeley Greathouse and her skipperwas William C . Law . They seem to have shortened her name to initials when shepassed through the Federal Courts in 1863-64, but her documentation in 1862-63clearly shows her to be JOHN M. CHAPMAN, as above ."

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The Confederate Privateer"Shenandoah"

Perhaps the Confederate privateer which has the greatest effect on the historyof Pacific County was the SHENANDOAH, an English ship which was especiallyequipped for an attack on the U . S. whaling fleet. She was a clipper-ship-riggedpropeller of 1,160 tons register, and sailed from London in October 1864 flyingthe British flag under the name of SEA KING . On January 25, 1865, she sailedfrom Las Desertas, an uninhabited island near Madeira, where she had been armedand fitted out. She collected several prizes on the way to Australia for coal,including 58 crew members from vessels seized . The engines were 240 horse-power,and the armament consisted of eight rifled Whitworth guns . The first intimationof the SHENANDOAH'S advent in Northern seas was in the early part of thesummer, when the whaler MILO reached San Francisco with 190 men from vesselsburned by its commander . The JAMES MURRAY, GENERAL PIKE andNILE were also released by Commander Waddell . Surviving seamen crowdedaboard like sheep, were sent adrift scantily provisioned ; he cooly informed one bandof hapless mortals that if they ran out of provisions they could eat one another .

One of the last destroyed was the SUSAN ABIGAL, an old Columbia Riverand Puget Sound trader, whose captain informed Waddell of the war's end . Notabout to be taken in by such Yankee nonsense, the SHENANDOAH went on andmet the British bark BARACOUTA, on August 2nd off the California coast .Convinced of the war's end finally, he promptly dismounted his guns, closed hisports, whitewashed the funnels and disguised the ship as an ordinary merchantman .He then set sail for England and achieved the long voyage without communicatingwith another ship ; he arrived at Liverpool on November 6th . There he turnedhis ship over to the British authorities who would have nothing to do with anyattempt by the American authorities to arrest him on charges of piracy .

The U. S. Congress had, in March 1863, passed a bill authorizing the Presidentto issue Letters of Marque . Captain Waddell not only had one of these Lettersof Marque signed by the President himself, in the presence of two witnesses, but hewas a commissioned officer in the Confederate Navy . For these reasons, theOfficers of the Crown pointed out quite firmly to the United States representatives,that they were talking "moonshine" ; Waddell was cleared and set free .

But in 1865, the expected appearance of the dreaded SHENANDOAH wascausing such consternation that President Lincoln armed Cape Disappointmentwith heavy cannon and balls .