Name: __________________

The Founding of Washington

This story is almost complete, as we read it together and describe what is happening you will fill in the blanks of some of the major historical character, places, and events.

As we know, Native Americans were in Washington territory long before it was even called Washington. They lived complex lives, had their own families, traditions, and languages and used the land to help them live.

Eventually, European explorers came out to the area, saw the abundant natural resources and decided to stay and make money. The British moved in first and started the Hudson Bay Company, which traded fur and brought many different people to the area.

Later, American settlers began the long journey out West. They came out West looking for new land to call their own and to make a home and money in a new place. One of the first big groups of settlers, who came out to Washington on the Oregon Trail was led by Big Mike Simmons and George Washington Bush.

George Washington Bush was a Black man married to a white woman. He faced some racism in Missouri and decided to try his luck out in the West. He and his family traveled in covered wagons out to Oregon territory, while Big Mike Simmons and his family moved up to Olympia and started the town and a general store. George Washington Bush was generous and worked hard to help his family's farm grow. Unfortunately, Oregon’s government passed the Lash Law

saying that Black people who lived in Oregon could stay and be whipped or leave, so he was forced to move up to Washington. He and his family started a new farm near Olympia and again his reputation for being generous and hardworking spread throughout the state. When Washington became a state and passed its own law saying that black people could not own land, they made an exception for George Washington Bush because his reputation was so strong.

Big Mike Simmons ran the General Store in Olympia. He was making good money so he wrote home and asked his sister Catherine Broshears to come out to live with him. On the Oregon Trail on their way out, Catherine, Catherine’s husband and many others in their wagon party got sick with cholera. Thankfully, a doctor who was making his way out West too, road by and helped Catherine get better and bury her husband. Doc Maynard was his name, and he was coming out West to escape a horrible financial situation and a wife who had cheated on him back in Ohio. He was headed towards California to find himself some gold. She was headed to Olympia to find her brother.

Doc Maynard offered to escort Catherine the rest of the way out to Olympia. As they moved along the trail, they got to know each other better and fell in love. Doc Maynard forgot all about California, and decided to make his home in Olympia, and marry Catherine!

When they finally reached Big Mike and the told their story, Big Mike was skeptical of Doc. Big Mike did some investigating and found out that Doc was still married to his wife back home! He told Doc he had to leave his sister alone, unless he made enough money to be a good enough husband for his sister.

Doc Maynard left and got to work. He had heard there was good land up north of Olympia and decided the best way to get money was to start his own town that was even better than Big Mike’s. Doc then asked Chief Patkanim, who was the leader of tribes around the Puget Sound to take him in a boat and show him

the place called Duwamps (what would be Seattle).

Chief Patkanim was a dangerous man. He often told white people he would take them on a trip to show them around, when really he would kill them and take all of their belongings. He did not want white people coming in and taking the land that he controlled. But Doc Maynard had a plan.

The first night of their trip, Doc put ipecac (a drug that makes you throw up) in the food and didn’t eat any of it himself. When everyone, including Patkanim got sick, he

stood up, said that he was a magic man and that he carried more spells in his bag that would make them even sicker! The message was received! Chief Patkanim and the others believed him and word spread about Doc Maynard and his magic bag.

When he got to Duwamps (Seattle) Doc knew this was the perfect place to build a city, because there was already a Native American village there. At the time, the village of Chief Seattle was abandoned because he had fought with Chief Patkanim who told him to leave. When Seattle heard about Doc Maynard’s interest in the land and his magic bag, he went to Doc and they made a deal. If Doc Maynard would protect Seattle and his tribe with his power, he would allow Doc to share some of the land with him. After the agreement was made, Chief Seattle and his people moved back into their village and Doc Maynard made his way back to Olympia.

Doc told Big Mike that he had the perfect place to build a town, that it would one day become a major city, and so could he please ask Catherine to marry him. Big Mike laughed at him. “You can’t make a city without money, come back when you have some.”

Doc walked into the woods near Big Mike’s store, and built a home from which he could see the light of Catherine’s bedroom, and he began to chop wood. He chopped and he chopped and he chopped, and each night he would sit and watch the light in Catherine’s window. People began to wonder what he was doing out there and what he would do with so much wood. Was he crazy? But Doc had a plan. He was going to sell the wood to San Francisco.

San Francisco was a booming city because of the gold rush. Thousands of people had

moved to the city in order to try their luck at striking it rich. However, there was a lot of crime in the city because very few people actually became rich. Rival gangs worked to steal from one another by burning down a building, and then while everyone tried to save that building, stealing from many others, which they would then set on fire so people couldn’t find what they stole. This meant that San Francisco needed a lot of wood in order to keep rebuilding all of its buildings. This is where Doc Maynard steps in.

He bought a ship and hired people to help him move his lumber from the woods to San Francisco. After spending the months of effort

chopping the wood, the months of effort getting his lumber down to the city, he came back incredibly rich.

Finally, he went back to Big Mike and asked for Catherine’s hand in marriage. Big Mike accepted that they could be together, but they could not get married. Doc’s previous wife had refused to divorce him. But they were at least, finally together.

When Doc and Catherine moved back up to Seattle, they found that several other settlers had already moved into the area, including Arthur Denny and Henry Yesler. Together, these founders of Seattle began to set up a strong city that continued to grow as more and more people moved out West.

Doc Maynard built a store. He then built Seattle’s firstPost office!

Funnily enough, you had to go through his store to get your mail, so Doc Maynard made quite a large sum of money as a result. Doc Maynard then made many of Seattle’s first buildings, including the first pharmacy, hotel, casino, and saloon.

For all his awesomeness, Doc Maynard was a bit of an outcast. Many people did not like him because he was friendly with many of the First Nations tribes that lived in the area. Doc Maynard’s friendship sadly did not help Chief Seattle or his tribe in the end, as they would eventually be kicked off their land, sharing the fate of every other tribe in the area. Many First Nations people would die as a result of conflicts with Whites, but even more would die as a result of the diseases White settlers brought with them.

Sources: - HistoryLink.Org - “Doc Maynard,” “Arthur Denny,” “Big Mike Simmons,” “Chief Patkanim”- Schwantes, Carlos A. The Pacific Northwest: An Interpretive History. Lincoln: U of

Nebraska, 1989. Print.- Speidel, Bill. Doc Maynard: The Man Who Invented Seattle. Seattle: Nettle Creek Pub.,

1978. Print.