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About The illustrated west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1891-1891 | View Entire Issue (April 11, 1891)
THE ILLUSTRATED WEST SHORE. 245 national meeting in Chicago at the time of the Columbian exposition, when it will place at the service of the ladies the assembly room in the woman's build ing, and, should it not prove large enough, through our congress auxiliary the magniticent Auditorium can be secured for the meeting of the International Council of Women. WOMEN WHO HAVE TAKEN UP CLAIMS IN THE NEW STATE OF WASHINGTON. One of the remarkable women in the northwest is Mrs. H. E. Hough ton, of Spokane. Mrs. Houghton's career is a living illustration of what pluck and grit can accomplish, and teaches the lesson to even energetic young men of the country that they must look well to their laurels. There are many eastern young women in the new state of Washington who have made money chiefly by taking up timber, pre-emption and homestead claims, and by buying town property, but Mrs. Houghton is, so far, ahead of all. She moved to Washington six years ago from Wisconsin. Her husband, H. E. Houghton, is a lawyer, and now a state senator. The boom was just striking Washington at that time and Mrs. Houghton got to investing money on her own account. She pur- chased timber and coal lands and desert acres, good if irrigated. Be sides this she became interested in numerous town sites, notably 'at Bonner's Ferry and Post Falls. Everything has gone her way and she is now worth some $500,000, all realized, it is said, from an original investment of but $100. Mrs. Houghton is not boastful about her suc cess, however, and says that what she has done can be done by other young women, and that she lecls the great west is the place fur the young women of the crowded east, whether they want to obtain wealth or husbands. Mrs. Houghton is but little more than thirty years old. Although naturally one of the most retiring of women she has often been known to make long trips by rail to Tacoma and St. Paul to consult with rail road officials and others in regard to land deals. She has also made many a perilous trip by stage over the wild and mountainous sections of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. Where many men would hesitate to set out on a journey because of snow or rough roads, Mrs. Houghton sees in such obstacles an incentive to her energy. She has acquired nearly all her wealth since 1887. Emulating Mrs. Houghton's example many young ladies from the east are locating on the public lands of the state. About Olympia, Tacoma and other towns of Western Washington many of these young ladies have made and are now making locations. Many of them have come from the far east, principally from New York and Boston. They have taken up their lands un der the timber, pre-emption or homestead act mainly, and in some cases they have gone out into the woods, put up cabins and made their nominal home in the wilderness, while engaged for a part of the lime in the towns from eight to a dozen miles away in teaching or typewriting. 0te a number of them have very good log cabins, well furnished and truly comfortable. Lots of the girls can shoot with the best marksmen of the sterner sex, and if you go into one of those cabins you will see a sight that will interest you in the highest degree deer horns, a gun, skins of wild animals, Indian relics and glittering specimens of ore are a few of these things. The young lady's cabin, how- ever, differs from that of the young man in being more neatly kept. One of these young women from the east is Miss Lulu Lamson, of the Emerson high school, of Tacoma. She came two years ago from New York City. She came to make a winning, and with this in' view did not differ from scores of other young ladies who arrived about the same time. Miss Lamson began teaching at once, and meantime took up a pre-emption claim and afterward a homestead at Washougal, on the Columbia river, near Vancouver. She built a cabin and has lived there for part of a year as required by the land laws. Only a small fee is required by the government when the initial papers are filed, and if the claim be a pre-emption or a umber claim only $1.50 or $1.25 an acre, according as it is within the railroad limit, will have to be paid to complete title and get patent. The pre-emption claim requires the locator to live upon the land at least six months, On a homestead claim the locator must live five years, but after that there is no money to pay. People of little or no means are therefore enabled to get land, which, on account of the rapid settlement of the country, speedily becomes quite valuable. Oftentimes a single claim of 160 acres that has cost, all told, not more than $500 or $600, will be sold for $2,000 to $5,000 in a year. This gives the locator a good start, and if he or she be shrewd, a large sum can sometimes be made in fu ture operations. These lands, however, are fast being taken up, escially " "'v. . . . . .; .... , . T 1 . - .. W J, St'KXK ON THK (OKNKI.I. ROAD, NKAK IMKTI.ANI), ORKliOS. those that arc accessible and covered with good limlier, The lands that are now to be liad are mainly in outlying sections somewhat remote from railways, and can be reached only with some difficulty. As new wagon roads and mil roads are being pushed all the time, however, there are other opportunities for people who w ish to take land. Probably not lrss than 1 50 young women have taken timber lands along Puget sound during the past year. In F.atlem Washington probably loo others have located hinds. Just now there is a growing interest in the arid, or desert, lands along the Columbia river. There are some large enterprises for irrigating these lands, and the thounarals of ai res are being picked up. In a short lime pmhahly lens of thousands of acres of these lands, upon which there is now nothing hut sage brush, will be made highly prtxluctive. So long as there arc limlx-r hinds to locate, however, the girls have some hesitancy a!out going to the desert. Xrw York Sun. THE COKNELL ROAD. ."What a lovely retreat!" She was a faded woman, young and fair, who had once been pretty 1 but bereavement, disappointment, ill health, or all combined, had wrought serious havoc with her charms.