From the time Lewis and Clark reached the Pacific Ocean, until 1846, the United States and Great Brittain competed for the Pacific Northwest. The area north of the Columbia River was particularly controversial. With considerably more American settlers around Oregon City and a Hudson’s Bay outpost at Vancouver, it was thought highly likely the area north of the Columbia would go to the British.

Settlers from both countries were being urged to move into the area. The Hudson’s Bay Company, through Fort Nisqually, made promises to potential settlers from the Red River area in Canada to encourage their emigration to the Puget Sound region.

In 1846, the two counties finally settled with a border at the 49^th parallel, except for some controversy over the San Juan Islands. In 1848, the Oregon Territory was formed. North of the Columbia the Puget Sound Region was called Lewis County, Oregon Territory (OT).

Fort Nisqually spent a great deal of effort trying to defend its boundaries from American settlers. Their expansion from the fur trade into agriculture saw them develop many farm sites around south Pierce County. From Patterson Springs in Graham to the East Gate of Joint Base Lewis McChord there was William Benston, John McLeod, John McPhail, Henry Smith, Henry Murray, L.A. “Sandy” Smith, Peter Wilson and Charles Wren. At Spanueh, now Spanaway, there was John Montgomery and between the Fir Lane Cemetery and Crescent Park, there was another farm built by a fellow named Greig. In Elk Plain, there was a place known as Mullock house. On the McChord field side of the present day Shibig farmhouse was a farm known as Sastuc. Other farms were around American Lake and areas of Fort Lewis near the Nisqually River and near the impact zone where the younger Charles Ross had his farm on Nisqually Lake.

The HBC strongly defended their holdings in this area from 1846, stating they were a business, not a country and asked $2 million for the land. Pierce County and the Oregon then Washington Territories argued with them in court until 1867, when they finally reached a settlement. In 1869, the Hudson’s Bay Company was paid $750,000 for the land. The settlers that had stayed those 23 years, were able to be granted their rights to a donation land claim. You will see those on maps to this day.

On those farms, they raised cattle, sheep, horses and pigs along with various grains like oats and barley. It has been noted that the seed, brought up from Oregon City, also contained acorns and started the Garry Oak trees that are only found in Pierce County. The sheep were sheared and the wool was sent to back to England until the Pendleton Woolen Mill was started in 1863.

New settlers were often supplied by the Hudson’s Bay Company although there was competition encouraging American settlers to buy from the American stores in Steilacoom instead.

Complicating the controversy between the Americans and British was the British relationship with the indigenous tribes. Many of the local Indians were hired by the British to work on their farms. On Sundays, the indigenous people were encouraged to attend the Catholic church services at Fort Nisqually. Many of the HBC employees took native wives, leaving south Pierce County as a common place for families of mixed heritage to reside. For the women, it was a step up in their social standing to have a white husband.

The American settlers did not have such a relationship with the indigenous people. These settlers arrived by boat or up the Columbia River from Oregon to Cowlitz Portage, present day Toledo, Washington. In October of 1853, the first settlers travelled over the Naches Trail, a new, northern branch of the Oregon Trail through the Cascade Mountains from Yakima to Greenwater. The end of the trail is marked by a monument at Brookdale Golf Course in Parkland.

The area north of the Columbia River had to become a territory of its own when Oregon sought statehood. In 1853, Washington Territory was formed and President Millard Fillmore sent Issac Stevens as Territorial Governor and Indian Agent. In order to enhance the settlement of the area, the United States wanted to insure the native residents would not cause havoc with the new residents. Issac Stevens was ordained to arrange treaties with each of the tribes to secure the regions livability.

The first of those treaties was with the Nisqually, Puyallup and Squaxin tribes. Along the shores of Medicine Creek in the Nisqually Valley (where Interstate 5 now climbs toward Lacey), the natives camped in December of 1854 while the treaty was discussed. Although signed on December 25 and 26, there was controversy over whether the Nisqually representatives Leschi and his brother Quiemuth actually signed those X’s. Within a few months, there was an uprising known as the “Indian War” in Pierce County. From the Fall of 1855 to the summer of 1856, the “Indian War” went on. Native people who did not want to be involved in the hostilities were sent to Fox Island. Any native people still on the mainland were referred to as “hostiles.” Governor Stevens hired a volunteer militia to seek out and kill the “hostiles” on sight. Leshi was the main target of the Governor’s wrath.

During that period, several outposts known as block houses were built to help the local settles defend themselves from the Indians. Along the White and Puyallup Rivers, several families had been killed.

Near Clover Creek, the blockhouse was called Camp Montgomery. Military road west of 36^th Avenue has a stone monument in honor of that site.

Spanueh, a Lushootseed word for “dug roots,” had a barn somewhere between where the Little Park Café and the Columbia Bank stand now. John Montgomery ran that station. His home and donation land claim ran from Clover Creek Elementary to the area known as Stoney Lake. At 176^th Street, there was a road from Spanueh Station which ran south of Spanaway Lake and north of the Spanaway Marsh. The road still ran there until the late 1960’s, when it was closed and became only a driveway to the remaining houses that were not sold to the military base expansion. Just past the old 176^th Street crossing over Coffee Creek, the road forked south to Muck Station, which was located near the Joint Base Lewis McChord East Gate on SR507 and north to Sastuc which was on McChord Field. The road that was planned for the present day Cross Base Highway has been the historic main road to and from Spanaway. In fact, there is an old Hudson’s Bay map from the 1840’s that shows the military road ran from Montgomery’s place to the Spanueh Station and crossed south of the lake as well. There is a long and well-worn trail still running over that hill through the blackberries and into the woods. At one time, there was a grade school called Whittier at the top of the hill on the south side of the road. A mile farther up the road was a small town known as Hillhurst.

Among the oldest schools in Pierce County are Spanaway, Whittier, Clover Creek and Muck. They were all started in 1855. As you travel back and forth in your daily routine, you still may see small symbols left over from this older era. Other signs have gone forever save for the records of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the Northwest room of the Tacoma Library.

Currently, Jean Sensel, a Spanaway resident and former owner of the historic Exchange Tavern, is working to write a more comprehensive and condensed history of Spanaway. If you have access to any old photographs through your family roots, scanned digital copies might be greatly appreciated.

Marianne Lincoln, editor of the Pierce Prairie Post, is also historian for the Descendants of Fort Nisqually Employees Association. Through the connections of these descendants, they are putting together the combined knowledge and stories to help build a better picture of the early days of settlers to the area. Through letters of the HBC themselves, former Fort Nisqually Museum director Steve Anderson has compiled two Indian Accounts books which show some history of local tribal families and place names as well.

Who we are matters. You can read a former Post story, There’s a reason for love the Braves, which talks about the influence of mixed native families on the history of South Pierce County.