Paga 6
Portland Obaervar
October 11 1979
The H eritage of Cooking Series
Pioneering Washington State
by Norma Jean Darden
for Kraft. Inc.
W ith its sprawling seacoasts
natural harbors, majestic mountains,
untapped forests and fertile valleys,
the ruggedness and the beauty o f the
Pacific Northwest has challenged the
imagination and claimed the souls of
the hardy and the adventuresome for
centuries. Folktales of ho» the bold
an courageous settlers tamed the
hazardous terrain are tucked into the
memory banks o f all Americans—
yet h o * man) k n o * that Blacks
played an important and integral
part in the process and »ere, from
the biginning, significantly involved
in Northwest history?
Some historians believe that
Blacks were aboard the ship that
brought Sir Francis Drake, the
English explorer-pirate, on his trip
around the world in 15"8. As Drake
sailed past what is no* California.
Oregon and W ashington, he claimed
the entire territory for the British.
This o f course meant little to the In
dians who waved hello and good-bye
to him as he cruised by. It also meant
little to the United States, who based
its claim to the land on voyage by a
Bostonian, Captain Robert Gray,
200 years later. With Captain Gray
on his first expedition to sell furs
from the Northwest to China in 1788
was Marcus Lopez, the first Black
man in recorded history to set foot in
the Northwest. Unfortunately. Mar
cus Lopez’s rendezvous with history
was brief. Shortly after touching the
soil, he was killed by Indians.
The second known Black to enter
the Northwest had a much more
positive experience with the Indians.
His name was York and he acted as
interpreter between the Indians and
had just purchased a huge and unex
fact-finding mission for President
Thomas Jefferson in 1804. Jefferson
had just purchased a huge and unex
plored block of land from Napoleon,
who was going broke from his many
wars. To find out exactly what he
had bought, Jefferson dispatched
Lewis and Clark, two Virginians.
After the historic charting o f the
Northwest Passage, many lone,
daring Black cowboys, hunters, fur
trappers, traders, cooks and guides
joined the westward exodus. Some of
these solitary figures were freed
Blacks, others were fugitive slaves -
all looking for fewer restrictions and
greater opportunities Most notable
in the 1820 - 30 period were James
Beckwourth and Edward Rose.
The discovery o f gold was also
heard by Black ears, and the lure of
untold wealth was a great incentive
to many who got the news and could
John and M agnolia Gayton w are am ong the spirited Black pioneers
of W ashington, settling in Spokane at the turn of the century.
Black hom estead of Roslyn around 1900
make the trip . Take the case o f
Richard Bogle, a penniless stowaway
from Jamaica »ho, during the gold
rush, crossed the Plains to the
Oregon Territory Bogle managed to
find gold twice and moved to \kalla
W alla, W ashington, where he
opened a savings and loan bank. The
sixth generation o f Bogles n o *
makes Portland home.
But liv in g in Oregon in the
nineteenth century was no easy feat
fo r Blacks as pioneer George
W ashington Bush was to discover In
1844. wishing to move his wife and
six sons to a non-slave state. Bush
arranged to join a group of white set
tlers in a caravan o f 80 covered
wagons from Missouri to Oregon. It
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was an arduous four-month journey
of 2,000 miles. During the trip many
fam ilies ran out o f supplies and
money and Bush assisted them.
What Bush and the others d id n't
know was that after they began their
treck, Oregon declared it illegal for
Blacks to own property or live there.
Hearing this news on arrival in
Oregon, Bush and some o f his
friends opted to homestead north of
the C olu m b ia on Puget Sound.
Ironically, in its border dispute with
England, the L.S . based its suc
cessful claim partly on the land on
which Bush lived. This then placed
Bush's property back in Oregon
where it was illegal for him to live!
Special legislation had to be passed
to waive restrictions for him. Later,
when W ashington T e rrito ry was
formed, his property was part of
Washington.
Gaeorge Washington Bush, who
was a s k illfu l
farm er
and
businessman, went on to become one
o f the wealthiest men in the North
west. His son, ca rrying on his
tradition o f leadership and social
service, was twice elected to the
Washington State Legislature. This
same son, William Owen Bush, had
displayed his prize wheat at the Cen
tennial Exposition in Philadelphia in
1876, winning the gold medal in
w orld co m p etitio n and thereby
publicizing the resources and oppor
tunities waiting in the Northwest.
But the Northwest was still far
away from the roots and ties o f most
o f the newly-freed Blacks. True,
some had gone purposefully, some
had drifted there, and others had
been taken as slaves or as personal
servants; but active recruitment was
the catalyst that brought the first
m ajor
Black
m ig ra tio n
to
W ashington in 1888.
It all started when the Northwest
Improvement Company, a mining
subsidiary o f the Northern Pacific
Railroad, was faced with a strike.
James Sheppardson, a Black coal
m iner, p o litic a l activist and per
suasive orator, was hired to gather
Black miners and bring them to
Roslyn, W ashington, in order to get
things rolling again. From Alabama.
South and North Carolina, Virginia.
Illinois and all points along the way,
Sheppardson collected his men with
the inducement o f high wages and
steady work. The first train brought
the men and the second brought
their families.
O ff the second tra in stepped
H a rrie t T a ylo r W illia m s , a lone
woman traveling with a two-and-a-
half year old son. She had joined the
pilgrimage in Illinois to escape a sour
marriage and start a new life. Her
daughter Ethel Craven, grandson
Willie Craven, and grand daughter
Beulah Craven H art s till live in
Roslyn and strong are their
memories o f when coal was kin and
two thousand Black miners and their
families were in their heyday.
“ Shepparson had told the men to
expect some contusion on arrival.
Mrs. Craven says. “ But for people
just out o f slavery, born in trouble,
accustomed to trouble and needing
jobs and money, they »ere not put
o ff coming They didn’ t expect the
people to be so cross, though,” says
Mrs. Craven, explaining h o * an
angry armed mob met the train. For
quite some time the newcomers were
te rro rized and only the ta lle st,
strongest men with the longest nfles
were sent to town to purchase
groceries. But eventually tempers
cooled and dissidents moved on or
went back to work Roslyn got used
to the idea that it was suddenly fifty -
two per cent Black.
Much later, some in the coal
miners' union would agree to admit
Blacks so they w o u ld n ’ t break
strikes. This was not accomplished,
however, u n til the m iddle o f the
twentieth century, when coal was on
its last leg as a major commodity.
Meanwhile, in turn-ol-the-century
Roslyn, things settled down to a
peaceful coexistence. Perhaps it was
because o f the common dangers the
men shared, like fear o f the dread
black-lung disease or the threat o f
collapsed mine shafts, cave-ins and
explosions that k ille d tw o and
three at a time. Or the fact that when
the men emerged from the shafts a f
ter up to sixteen hours o f work, it
was impossible to tell the color o f
one man from another. At any rate,
black culture snuggled unmolested
into the Northwest mountains.
People began planting vegetable
gardens and growing peonies, pan
sies and sweet williams around their
doors just as they had done at home.
Children made “ coal flowers’ ’ by
adding epsom salts to pieces o f coal
and dyeing the resulting crystals with
food color. Life went on. For blacks
two churches were established, two
saloons and restaurants were
opened, with social clubs and lodges
fo r men and sewing and quilting
clubs fo r women flourishing. On
weekends, traveling haberdashers
came up to o u tfit the fa s h io n
conscious who didn’t like mail-order
clothes. For those in the marching
band or on the baseball team, special
uniforms were also made. Mme. de
Neal, a beauty expert from Seattle,
made periodic jaunts bringing the
latest in hairstyles, hair preparations
skin potions and make-up aids.
M instrel shows and road shows
also found th eir way to Roslyn.
There were many such shows in the
Northwest and one, "T he Dixieland
Show" in 1909, featured Ms. Nora
Hendrix who settled in the N orth
west and later became the grand
m other o f rock star J im i H en
drix. Everybody in Roslyn followed
Bing Crosby's career with interest
because his father »as the
bookkeeper at the company store.
According to Ms. Craven there was
never a lack o f local entertainment
either. Many good musicians were in
the town and after church suppers
Boome Braxton was known to play a
mean banjo for dances.
But all was not fun and games.
There was a lot o f drudgery , toil and
tension. As the child o f a miner and
the wife o f "rough-hand Sam, the
coal-digging m an," Ms. Craven says
that two things caused most marital
rifts. One, the husband wearing his
“ Smokey Joe” in the house. "The
whale oil used to light the flame in
front o f the helmet smelled up the
whole house.” And, two the wife
not preparing the bath, which was a
must for the soot-riddled miner. The
water had to be hauled in, stored in a
shed, heated on the stove, then
poured in a large tin tub in the k it
chen. ‘ ‘ M any a woman were
threatened with a black eye for not
getting it hot enough," joked Ms.
Craven.
Cooking was a skill that truly held
a miner’s wife in good favor because
large meals were thought to give the
miners stamina for their tough work.
Breakfast was, by necessity, a lavish
meal with all-night oatmeal topped
with brown sugar and cream for star
ters followed by a slab o f bacon,
ham, sausage, eggs, grits, flapjacks,
frie d cornm eal mush or strike
biscuits (created durin g a one-
month strike when no one could at-
fo rd much lard), plus syrup and
every manner of fruit— fresh, dried,
stewed, or preserved. They knew
how to start the day in Roslyn!
As Beulah Craven Hart tells it,
men without full lunch pails were not
even allowed into the mines by the
company. First, it was a waste of
time to bring out a miner collapsed
with hunger, and second, if the men
were trapped and some killed, the
survivors would have to rely on the
lunches o f others. So, into the lunch
pails went pork chops, fried fish or
chicken, sandwiches, sweet potatoes
or fried apple pie.
Then o f course came supper time
A m o n g th e h is to ric a l treasures B eulah C raven H a rt holds is a
photograph of Jam es Sheppardson. a Black coal m iner w h o in 1888
brought tw o trainloads of Black men to w ork in the mines near Roslyn.
for the tired and hungry miner. " I f
you had a strong man, he might
catch you a bear, then you could skin
it and have bear steak or ste* for
your main course," said Ms. Craven,
and she was not joking!
The holiday that meant the most
to the blacks o f Roslyn »as Eman
cipation Day It was celebrated with
a picnic on August 4 because that's
the day that news o f freedom
reached the N orthw est. For the
Emancipation picnic everyone con
tributed something--a dish, money or
time to watch the fire built three days
earlier, barbecue the meat, or just
fan the flies away. “ We always had
drinks, even during P ro h ib itio n ,"
says Ms. Craven. "P eople would
get together and tell stories o f their
youth. This was a rip-roaring to w n!"
A ll that good eating not w ith
standing, some o f the Roslyn settlers
tound mining too hazardous to lile
and limb, many owed too much to
the company store, and for others
the deep snow and frigid mountain
climate (fifteen degrees below zero
was too severe.) so they moved on to
Tacom a, Spokane and Seattle.
Now, Ms. Craven, her daughter, and
her son W illie Craven are the only
three Blacks who still live there.
But W illie Craven is the mayor o f
o f the tow n, and they are again
holding the Emancipation picnic for
friends and relatives who remember
that Roslyn was the cradle for many
Blacks who are in the Northwest
today.
The influx o f the recruited Black
labor force was to have a profound
influence on the lives o f Northwest
Blacks for decades to come. But as
the Black population increased so
did the attitudes that many had
hoped were buried on the trip there.
They, who had ventured to the Nor
thwest looking for greater freedom
and found it in 1880s, suddenly were
faced with anti-Black laws in the
1910s. Leaders o f the group buckled,
down and worked harder so that
th e ir children and newcomers
wouldn’ t face the same dilemma.
Ms. C orinne T a y lo r’ s father,
Charles H. Harvey, arrived in Seattle
in 1887 when it was a real pioneer
town and conditions were poor. He
liked the yearround moderate
weather that Seattle mysteriously en
joys and felt he had a chance for
unlimited employment. In 1889 most
ot Seattle was burned by a terrible
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