OPINION
4A
THE DAILY ASTORIAN • FRIDAY, OCTOBER 2, 2015
Try the whalebone soup with
a side of tight boot corns
Matt
Winters
A
“Bill of Fare” from about
1879 advertises these en-
ticing main courses:
• Umbrella with Rain Water
Sauce
• Tree Toads, Fried and Stuffed
with White Mice
• Stewed Cat, Boston Style
• Spiders’ Toes, Breaded
• Humming Birds, Stuffed with
Old Shoes
• Buzzards’ Eyebrows, Larded
• Fried Buffalo Robes (very
tough)
Peter Williams, Ireland-born
proprietor of the Palace Saloon,
had a hearty 19th century sense of
humor, steeped in western folklore.
His obituary in the Morning Ore-
gonian of July 29, 1880, noted he
“was a genial, impulsive and gener-
ous-hearted man.” Williams’ saloon
at the corner of First Avenue and
Stark Street near the Portland wa-
terfront was feet away from what
is now the Homeless Veterans Cen-
ter — appropriately enough, since
he served during the Civil War as a
sergeant in the 1st Washington Ter-
ritory Infantry.
Folded many times and obvi-
ously carried around for years in
someone’s wallet, this novelty ad-
vertising item initially attracted my
attention because it refers to Olym-
pia oysters, the little native shell¿ sh
that played such a big role in the
earliest settlements around Willapa
Bay and south Puget Sound. But
this worn document also is a rare
tangible link to the Paci¿ c 1orth-
west’s obscure role in the war be-
tween the states.
F
Findagrave.com
Peter Williams’ grave is in Port-
land’s Mount Calvary Cemetery.
It indicates the Washington Ter-
ritory Civil War-era soldier was
45 when he died, although U.S.
Census records show he was 41.
in fact nearly all of them. They are
in a state of actual destitution and
want, which is the more aggravated
by the extreme severity of the win-
ter.’” The captain sought after-the-
fact permission to feed settlers and
Indians near the fort.
T
NW Civil War
rom the tremendous www.his-
torylink.org encyclopedia of
Washington history, we learn that
at the outbreak of the war, the white
population of “the entire territo-
ry, which until 1863 included all
of present-day Idaho and part of
Western Montana, was just over
11,500.” Busy chasing rumors of
gold, there wasn’t a À ood of volun-
teers when the ¿ rst territorial mili-
tia was activated in May 1861.
An early historian observed,
“The blare of trumpet, and soul-stir-
ring throb of drum, that sounded so
continually in the ears of people in
the Eastern States, hardly penetrat-
ed to their quiet homes, and when
they did it hardly seemed probable
that any patriotic response on their
part, if made, could be of any ben-
e¿ t.” Only 361 Washington people
stepped up to join several coun-
ty-based militias, including the
Puget Sound Rangers, while few-
er still joined the territorial unit.
Eventually, of the 1st infantry’s 10
This worn document also is
a rare tangible link to the
Pacifi c Northwest’s obscure
role in the war between the states.
companies, only one was actually
made up of territory citizens.
Peter Williams, like most mem-
bers, enlisted at the Army fort on
Alcatraz Island, California, off San
Francisco in early 1862. Initially
in Company A, Williams sailed for
Fort Vancouver on April 30, 1862.
From there, he served in Walla Wal-
la, and later as a member of compa-
nies E and H, in what is now Idaho
at Camps Lapwai and Boise.
Although some other Califor-
nians serving in Idaho participated
in one of the West’s most horren-
dous war crimes, the massacre of
Shoshone Indians at Boa Ogoi in
the state’s far southeast corner, the
1st Washington Territory Infantry
was an easier-going out¿ t. They
helped feed settlers and some In-
dians, while also ¿ ghting outlaws.
Of an estimated 800 to 1,500 infan-
trymen who served over the course
of the war, 12 died of disease, and
10 from accidents and other causes,
including one murder.
According to History of Wash-
ington: The Rise and Progress
of an American State by Clinton
Snowden, “During the winter of
1864-65, which was very severe,
many immigrants were overtak-
en on the trail by the early snow-
storms, and would have starved
but for the aid furnished from Fort
Boise and other military posts. On
Dec. 20, Capt. Seidenstriker wrote
to Gen. Alvord from Fort Boise
that ‘A large number of emigrants
are living around this vicinity, and
a great many of them have families
Why is FERC taking the word
of the applicant that everything can
be ¿ xed by mitigation and by other
means? The Skipanon Peninsula is
made of dredge spoils from the low-
er Columbia and Skipanon rivers.
Exploratory drilling has been done
to try and ¿ nd bedrock. There was
no bedrock found at the depth of 350
feet. How can a huge gas terminal be
built on this kind of terrain?
Oregon L1G seems to have all
the answers you want to hear. Your
DEIS is full of holes and won’t hold
water. This isn’t the ¿ rst DEIS I have
read. Your other EIS for L1G proj-
ects are sorely lacking, too. In the
communities where these enterpris-
es are proposed, the citizens say that
FERC is a rubber stamp agency for
energy companies.
Show us that FERC does not
stand for Forget Environmental Re-
strictions Commission. Do not give
Oregon L1G the green light. Ex-
porting L1G would exploit our
communities and our state, and have
huge environmental impacts. This is
also true for the Jordan Cove L1G
project in Coos Bay.
LORI DURHEIM
Astoria
but that doesn’t make it a world-
class port. There is no incentive to
off-load or onload any cargo here
but timber and ¿ sh. We do not have
a high-usage track spur, nor do we
have an expressway running nearby.
The idea that we will become a
freight and transportation hub is de-
lusional. Enlarging the airport to ac-
commodate 747s is, once again, de-
lusional. We don’t generate enough
traf¿ c to keep a small carrier pro¿ t-
able, so what is all this arm-waving
about?
I don’t think it’s about making As-
toria a commercial center. I think it’s
about lique¿ ed natural gas (L1G).
Admittedly, it’s a bit more obtuse
and grandiose, but it’s still about a
pipeline to the coast with a degasi¿ -
cation plant to make it shippable to
Asia. Our efforts to put an end to this
The aftermath
hanks to genealogical research,
(www.tinyurl.com/pll8v5q),
we know Peter Williams served as a
hospital steward during his service
in Idaho. Thus, he probably wasn’t
out chasing stage robbers and hos-
tile Snake Indians with fellow 1st
infantry soldiers. By 1870, the U.S.
Census lists him living in Portland,
serving as a clerk to the medical di-
rector of the Department of Colum-
bia Quartermaster.
By 1872, city directories ¿ nd
Williams ensconced in his career
as saloonkeeper. He and his wife,
Joanna Dempsey, had a daughter,
Carrie, in 1869. Who knows —
maybe they have descendants still
living in our region.
Williams died at age 41 from
the impacts of alcoholism, per-
haps a victim of H. & H.W. Cath-
erwood’s Liquors he served at
Portland’s Palace and Welcome
saloons. Distillers of “Brunswick
Club,” “Catherwood’s A. A. A.,”
“Mountain Dew,” “Old Special,”
“Red Tape,” “Three Feathers” and
“Upper Ten,” the ¿ rm may have
been annoyed to see Williams de-
scribe its products as Castor Oil
and Soft Water.
I’m happy Peter Williams’ hu-
mor survived, giving us a chance to
remember him.
—M.S.W.
Matt Winters is editor and pub-
lisher of the Chinook Observer and
Coast River Business Journal.
Open forum
FERC: Say no
O
pen letter to the Federal En-
ergy Regulatory Commission
(FERC):
The many regulatory requirements
for permitting Oregon L1G’s termi-
nal and pipeline are stated in your
Draft Environmental Impact State-
ment (DEIS). Their proposal clearly
violates part, if not all of the Clean
Water Act, the Rivers and Harbors
Act, the Endangered Species Act,
the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the
Golden Eagle Protection Act, Mag-
nuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation
and Management Act, Marine Mam-
mal Protection Act, Marine Protec-
tion, Research and Sanctuaries Act,
the 1ational Historic Preservation
Act, and most importantly, the Coast-
al Zone Management Act (CZMA).
Blowing bubbles
H
ow big can a soap bubble get?
Depends on the soap and the
amount of wind it takes to sustain it,
right? The other salient factor is that
it’s still a bubble and you won’t have
anything tangible left after it pops.
Astoria may be at the mouth of
one of the great rivers of the world,
foolishness have been successful to
date, but each new approach is trou-
blesome.
So, while they’re making pretty
bubbles and making us think they
are real, we must remind ourselves
that though Clatsop County has al-
ready rejected L1G, when we con-
sider the huge pro¿ ts that accom-
pany such an enterprise, we must
expect victories to be temporary,
but in the end worthy of the effort.
We will have preserved a unique
place in an increasingly unremark-
able landscape.
We must and we will prevail. In
the end, it will come down to votes
and though we may not have the
money, we do have the votes and that
surely is enough.
JACK GUYOT
Astoria
STEPHEN A. FORRESTER, Editor & Publisher • LAURA SELLERS, Managing Editor
BETTY SMITH, Advertising Manager
• CARL EARL, Systems Manager
JOHN D. BRUIJN, Production Manager
• DEBRA BLOOM, Business Manager
HEATHER RAMSDELL, Circulation Manager
Founded in 1873