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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Free Resources Stories & Photos
(Seattle & Northern 1890)
Covers from British Columbia to Puget sound. Counties covered:
Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan. An evolving history dedicated
to the principle of committing random acts of historical kindness
Noel V. Bourasaw, editor 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
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Capt. Lewis Alexander Boyd
of Skagit County, Washington

      Written by Mabel Boyd Royal-Steen; aided by Norman Boyd, Katie Savage Pulsipher, and Archie Boyd. Portions in italics added from Norman Lewis Boyd's version, Endnotes by Dan Royal. Some dates corrected by Lee Ware. See more photos on Dan Royal's fine website http://www.stumpranchonline.com/. Please note: these features are shared from our old Subscribers Edition website and most of the links on those pages are now dead. Please come back here for links that work or email us and we will send you the proper link. All these stories are being updated for the summer of 2004.
Atlantic sailor at age ten
(L.A. Boyd)
L.A. Boyd, circa 1896
      Our father's name was Lewis Alexander Boyd. He was born in Staten Island, New York of Scotch parents in the year of 1841 Mother's name was Olive Clara Torrey, born in Wisconsin in 1854 of French parents.
      As a boy, Father's dream was of being a seaman. As he watched the old "Windjammers" of that day sail in and out of New York harbor, he could hardly wait for the time when he would be old enough to sail away to far off places where he had been yearning to go. At the age of 10 or 13 years, he ran away from home, unknown to his parents, and stowed away on a sea-going vessel. By the time the sea captain discovered him, they were far out at sea. At that time there was no way of notifying his parents as to where he was, and no way of putting him ashore to send him back, so the only thing the captain could do was to take him along with him, as a cabin boy. The nature of such work was to keep the captain quarters in shape and serve the captain his meals. In later years, Father dearly loved to sit and tell of the interesting experiences of his travels while aboard that old ship. He had a good memory, and he was a good talker.
      This ship was bound for Shanghai, China. After arriving at Shanghai and discharging their cargo, they sailed to Sidney, Australia. Australia at that time was a British penal colony; that is, all work was by convicts. The first sight Father saw in Sidney was four convicts being led to the scaffold on lower George Street to be hanged at a public execution.
      The captain he was sailing with was a wealthy man. He owned the ship they were sailing on, and two others, and was about to retire from the sea. The captain took a liking to Father and thought him a bright lad. When they reached France, he took him home and put him in a school, where he acquired a good education. In the years of his schooling, he took up music, studying the violin, French, and also took up carpentry. He seemed to have a musical talent, for he could play both by ear and note. The captain paid all expenses for this, and when his education was finished, the captain took Father aboard his vessel as a full-fledged sailor, and they sailed together for many years all over the world, including many trips around Cape Horn, where many ships sank. Eventually, the captain retired and Father took over. He was always known as "Captain Boyd." He was a mariner for 21 years and made three full trips around the world.
      While sailing from Tarapico, Mexico, bound for Calcutta, India, they were shipwrecked off the coast of Brazil. There were nine of them in an open boat for 14 days, with neither food nor drinking water. Two of them died, and the rest of them were nearly dead when a French ship sighted them and took them on board and to France with them. After Father recovered, he went over to England and sailed from Liverpool to New York City, intending to visit his father and mother.
      One night, as he was far out at sea, sitting on deck and smoking his pipe, his thoughts reverted to New York and his childhood home and parents. Suddenly, his mother appeared before him in a long white nightgown and yellow braided hair as I had seen her so often as a child and held her arms out. It so surprised him that he quickly spoke her name, as he reached out for her. But the vision vanished as suddenly as she had come. He could hardly believe what he had seen. He then entered the date, hour, and month the incident occurred in his notebook.
      The captains on the ships in those days were very strict and often cruel. This English captain he was sailing with was no exception. He ordered Father and another sailor on deck to be hung by the thumbs until the pain was so severe that they could stand it no longer, for breaking some slight rule. When they arrived in New York, they resolved to get even with the captain. They waited for him on the dock at night and when the captain came from the saloon quite drunk, they shot him in the head with a sling shot and left him for dead.
      Father visited his old home, only to find that his parents had passed away many months before. There was no trace of parents or siblings. It was assumed that they had died from a "plague" that had killed many in NY City. He searched but never found his family, and strange people were living in the old home. When he investigated their passing, he found that his mother had died on the exact date and hour in which she had appeared before him. My father was not a superstitious man, and believed it had been a sort of mental telepathy, for as his mother lay dying, no doubt she was thinking of her son and longing to see him, which resulted in the hallucination.
      After Father got over the shock of his parents' deaths, he sailed from New York around Cape Horn to San Francisco, California. Father left California and sailed the high seas all during the Civil War.

Father Leaves the Sea to Settle Down
(Stump Ranch)
You can see photos of Capt. L.A. Boyd and his family at http://www.stumpranchonline.com/, a website published by Boyd descendant Dan Royal.
      After the war, he decided he would quit the sea and work his way over to the prairie country and take up a homestead. He quit the ship at Baltimore, Maryland and bought a saddle horse and started out for the prairie country, doing carpenter work in the summer and teaching school in the winter. At that time, land was being opened up for homesteading in Nebraska and Iowa. He decided that he would go and see that country. Stopping in Iowa first, he made the acquaintance of a man by the name of James Torrey, who owned a small mill that cut and hauled lumber from cottonwood trees, which grew along the river. Father was offered employment here as a bookkeeper for the mill, which he accepted for the winter, thus earning a little money while looking the country over. Apparently, he did not find the land that he wanted in Iowa, but stayed on through the winter until spring.
      The Torrey’s were very nice, educated French people, who originally came from Wisconsin. There was one son whose name was Ira and three daughters, Jane, Etta, and Clarissa, and Nelly, who was adopted. Jane was a schoolteacher and taught at an Indian Mission operated by a Catholic priest. 5 After teaching a few years, she met a young man from the East whose name was Will Ramsey. He was well educated and kept books and did office work there. His father was very wealthy, having some connection with the Pullman Car Co. The young man and Jane fell in love and were married. They then went back East, or the "States" as the East was called. The family never saw Jane again as her health failed and she suffered for many years. Finally she had an operation, hoping it would remove the trouble, but she passed away from the shock and weakness after suffering so long.
      Ettie, (Georgetta Adelia) the second girl, was a chubby, happy lassie who took everything as a joke, no matter what it was. One day a tall, curly-haired fellow by the name of George Savage came to Grandpa Torrey's mill with an ox team hauling a load of logs. George, a surveyor, quite a religious man and a good violinist, was hired. He and Ettie were married July 24,1865 in Omaha Mission, 5 Nebraska and moved away, traveling here and there. They had several children before deciding to move to Washington Territory in 1873, settling at Birdsview, Washington. Here they took up land where their descendants still live and lived many years. George surveyed much of upper Skagit area, naming Savage Creek for his family, Mill Creek for the Boyd & Minkler Mill, Boyd Creek for the Boyd family, and Marietta Creek for Mary Boyd and Etta Savage.
      The last and youngest Torrey girl was Clarissa Olivia, born Feb 22, 1854, who was then fourteen years old, and was a beautiful girl in a plain sort of way, with big grey eyes and a clear, rosy complexion. She was nick-named "Doll" when a child and that is the name she always went by. She was destined to be the mother of us 14 kids.
      The Torreys had had two other children, who passed away in childhood from an epidemic. They nearly lost all of the children with this sickness. The doctor that attended them gave the few kinds of medicines available at the time, but to no avail. After losing the two girls, Mrs. Torrey dismissed the doctor and started doctoring with herbs and different types of seeds that she felt would help. Her father before was a herb doctor and a good one. Mrs. Torrey learned a lot from him and with this home-made medicine of herbs, she saved her last three girls.

Nebraska, locusts and fire
      When spring rolled around, Father made ready to leave Iowa and start out for Nebraska, but when the day of parting came, it was more than he or Clara could bear as they had fallen madly in love. Needless to say, Clara insisted on marrying him and in spite of the age difference and her youth, she wanted nothing but to be with him. Her mother said, "Clara Torrey, you must be out of your head to marry a man 13 years older than you and you being only fourteen (15) years old." Clara cried and carried on so that her eyes were full of tears and her voice was sobbing and hoarse, that her parents finally broke down and gave their consent for their marriage, in March, 1869. After the marriage, they started on their long journey to Nebraska, with a team of horses and a wagon which he had purchased, and a cow and chickens that her parents gave them to settle somewhere in a strange land.
      Clara's mother, Olive Taylor/F. Torrey, was an ambitious educated woman and insisted that her children marry men who were well educated. As the family lived way out in Nebraska territory, people with any formal education were few and far between. Lewis A. Boyd, although many years Clara's senior, was considered a well educated, world traveler for his day and a very desirable marriage partner. Mrs. Torrey felt Clara should marry this ambitious, educated man.
      Neligh, Nebraska was the first stop where they found a nice piece of Homestead land, on which he filed and built a house and other buildings near Elkhorn River in Pierce County (which became Antelope Co.). My brother, Archie, was born here in 1870 (and every year thereafter another baby came to them, until nine children were born). In 1873, Clara was picking wild plums 1/4 mile from home when she noticed a "war-party" of Indians riding toward her. She gathered her two young babies and plums and ran for the house. Archie, 3 years old, ran at her side with their pet pig. They arrived at the house and ran up the steps. The Indians jumped from their horses and ran up behind her. She asked what they wanted and they said, "matches." As she started down the cellar, one brave took his scalping knife and made a gesture at her coiled hair, but the Chief shook his head.
      After several years of fighting grasshoppers, prairie fires (which burned their buildings- Father and Archie saved most of the livestock and Clara and children took a wagon and horses and waited in the Elk Horn River), droughts, blizzards, and unfriendly Indians, he said, "This country is too cruel to raise a family in." So he sold the homestead Sept 11, 1882, gave up his position as a French teacher in Omaha, where he had been teaching in a school, and retired from his job as Road Commissioner of Antelope County, he gathered his family and started out for Washington territory. With nine children, who were Archie, Jim, Annie, Jane, Grace, Maggie, Mary Olive (nicknamed first Molly then Maud), Gertrude, and Lillian (a baby 9 months old at the time), they left.
      Aunt Ettie and George Savage had already settled in Washington Territory some time before this, and filed on a claim up on the Skagit River across from what is known now as Birdsview. From them, we had learned something of that part of the country after hearing it praised highly through letters from them and other people who had settled there. Our folks decided that this would be the place they would be going to settle.

Skagit County, Washington Territory
      The Union Pacific Railroad was running immigrant trains from Omaha to San Francisco at cheap rates. The Boyd family traveled via covered wagon to Omaha, and from Omaha, Nebraska they took the train to San Francisco. This train was made up of regular box cars with windows in them and bunks and a stove to cook on. They would load as many families in a car as they could, and each took their turn cooking on the stove. Each family had their wash day. When the train would stop at little towns to take on water and fuel, the men would get off and look for a store where they could buy a few groceries, or maybe shoot small game so that they might have something to cook. The fretful tired children got to be quite a problem as food was scarce and the trip tiresome. The mothers would wash the baby clothes and hang them by or out the windows to dry. The trip to San Francisco took twelve days of rough traveling. How my mother ever lived through such a trip with nine children to care for, I'll never know. However, they arrived there by September 30, 1882.
      On October 2, the family took passage on an old side-wheel steamer Dakota from San Francisco to Seattle. It was a rough 7-day trip all the way up the coast and the family was seasick. This ship, "Dakota," arrived in Seattle October 9. When they reached Seattle, which then was a small town, father looked at the nearby timber and said, "This is good country--no prairie fires, no blizzards, grasshoppers, or drought." He loved this Washington Territory, that was to become a state in the near future, until the day he died.
      During a three-day stopover in Seattle, father looked around and talked to men who knew the country, inquiring about land. Then they continued their journey up to Skagit County. The Savages, already living up there, had a great deal to do with his decision to go up the Skagit River.
      Early on the morning of the 12th of October, they took passage on the steamer or stemwheeler "Josephine"with Captain W. R. Merlin as master. The mouth of the Skagit River was reached the next night after dark, so the captain said that that was as far as they could go that night, for the river was low and dangerous to travel on; they tied up here till morning.
      Mt. Vernon was reached the next forenoon on October 15, and Father got rooms for the family in the old Ruby Hotel for a few days. This hotel was the first one built in Mt Vernon, and was a landmark there for many years after. It was then owned and operated by Mr. McNamara. Upstairs in the hotel were bedrooms and a parlor, while downstairs was the kitchen, dining room and saloon.
      Everything seemed so different from the Prairie country. Here was the great green forest all around them, the snow capped mountains in the background, the cool clear water of the Skagit River winding its way to the sea. What a contrast it was from the prairie country. Mt. Vernon at that time was just a steam boat landing, with a few buildings on the waterfront and many Indian camps along the river bank. Father decided to go and see Savage.
      When logging camps and mills were closed down, or on Saturday nights and Sundays, the loggers and shingle weavers all came to town to celebrate over the weekend. There was little sleep then for anyone in the hotel, for the noise from the saloon was terrific. Along with the tinkling of glasses there were drunken brawls, cursing, and many other annoyances. Often some fellows on a singing jag would howl in thick voices such songs as "Sweetheart That He Left Somewhere Long Ago" or about a dear old "Grey-haired Mother," who was pining for her wandering boy; most likely it was a blessing that she couldn't see him as he was right then.
      The town was full of Indians most of the time, who traded their furs and dried fish, clams, and other such things for food, blankets, and Calico, prodding and peeking into everything they could get their hands onto. Whenever a white woman bought material for a dress, she might see a half dozen squaws wearing a dress of the same material.
      There was at that time a man from Boston who clerked in the clothier store in Mt. Vernon. He was a stuck-up fellow and thought he was far above the common settlers, loggers, and especially Indians, whom he tried to avoid waiting on if possible. One day when Archie was in the store, an Indian was standing beside him waiting to be helped. The Indian turned to Archie and said, "Ok, ok, Hyas cultis Boston man," which meant "big no good." The clerk heard him, and thinking "cultis" meant cultured, and "hyas" meant highly, he put those words together and said, "Even those lowly savages know a highly cultured man when they see him." Archie fairly roared with laughter at that. The Indian didn't see the joke but laughed with Archie.

Settling in at Birdsview
      Mr. Adolph Behrens carried the mail from Mt. Vernon to Birdsview on his back. Taking Archie and Jim with him, Father and Mr. Bherns hiked along the trails that the old man knew so well. These trails were made by Indians and wound in and out and around trees, through the high-standing timber, and across streams and hills. Fallen trees often blocked the way; they were so large that steps had to be cut into them to enable travelers to climb over them. They made it to Sterling that night, which then was only a steamboat landing at the time, about three miles up river from Burlington. Mr. Ness, who was a German, owned and operated sort of a store and trading post there.
      On October 18, they left Sterling, making their way on up the river, but before they got as far as Lyman, the rains came in torrents. Actually, the fall coastal rains had set in six weeks before, but they had not gotten accustomed to them yet. Now both Lyman and Hamilton were only steamboat landings then, and passing on through Hamilton they got as far as Benson Creek, now known as Grandy Creek [actually Hansen creek in the Skiyou district near the Van Fleet homestead]. At that time, a man by the name of Benson homesteaded that land at the mouth of the creek. He built a fair-sized house there and had a large family. After several years, he sold out and the house later burned down. By the time the party reached the creek, they were drenched to the skin. Finding an old shed near the bank of the creek, they lit a fire and dried all their clothes and slept as best they could. The boys had brought some candy for their cousins, but before they got there it was a sticky mess in the bags.
      Next morning they resumed the last lap of their journey to Birdsview Landing. As they reached the landing, the Savages came across in their canoe, whooping and hollering all the way. Archie and Jim were actually seeing their cousins for the first time. Their cousins' father, George Savage, settled here in 1873. It was quite a meeting for them all, as one didn't see many people in that part of the country, especially relatives.
      Now crossing the mighty Skagit River at the time was done in canoes, which were hewed and shaped from cedar logs. Although they were shallow and seemed rather unsteady at first, with practice they handled smoothly and skimmed over the water with grace. The white people took to using the canoes for transportation as readily as the Indians, learning from them how to make and handle them. Often the Indians were hired to make them for the settlers.
      Our father hired two Indians to make a canoe for him at the cost of $5.00. The Indians started in hewing the canoe, then burning chips inside it to help form and hollow out the log. This was the proper way to shape them, but care must be taken to prevent the canoe from burning up while you are chipping the sides. These two Indians got drunk and lit the fire in the canoe, then lay down and went to sleep, letting the fire burn through the bottom of the canoe. Pa came along and when he saw what happened, he booted the Indians out of there without pay. Forty years after that, this same canoe lay where it was started, covered by years of fallen leaves, brush, and blackberry bushes. We dug around and found it still there where it had remained until the new super highway was built in 1958, and it was graded out.
      After looking that part of the valley over and discussing plans with George Savage, Pa decided that he would file a Mineral Claim, as he had already filed his homestead right in Nebraska. George was a surveyor, so he ran the lines for him. Pa then walked back to Mt. Vernon and filed and recorded the claim. After this was properly attended to, he bought a supply of groceries, then gathered up the rest of the family. He hired several Indians with their canoes to transport the family. The children were somewhat frightened of the Indians, for all they had ever seen were the plains Indians, who were usually hostile; the children sat as still as little mice, expecting any moment to be scalped, and wondering which one of them would be first.
Endnotes:
      Although Norman Boyd calls his father "Alick" or Alex, he was called "L.A." and "Lewis" in all legal documents and other works about him. Ed. note: he is also called Capt. or Captain in some histories. Return to text.
      Lewis told census takers he was born 1841. Different documents have indicated different birth years.Return to text.
      She is Olive Clara Boyd in all land deed, and was born in IL. She was also called Mary, and Doll. Return to text.
      1880 Federal Census, 1885 state census, and her obituary say 1854. Return to text.
      Barb Thompson, "The Savage Connection", Our Boyd Project Newsletter Vol 1, Issue 1. Also Marriage Cert. of George Savage and Georgetta Adelia Torrey at Omaha Mission, Nebraska Dated July 24, 1865, ceremony performed by Rev. R. J. Birt; Witnessed by Jehile Savage [father of George Savage] and Eva Jane Torrey. Note: this is probably the mission Jane Torrey worked at as a school teacher — Dan Royal. Return to text.Return to text.
      In this story and in obituaries, she is called "Clara". In land deeds, she is "Olive C."; her tombstone says "Clarrisa Olivia". Return to text.
      If Boyd was born 1841 and Clara 1854, it was 13 years difference. Return to text.
      Estimated date based on first child's birth, July 1870, when Clara was 16. Return to text.
Click here for Boyd Page 2 — up and down the Skagit from Birdsview to Nookachamps creek

Story posted on July 11, 2002, and updated on March 1, 2004
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