Pacific County WA Archives Biographies.....Munson, Fred S. 1860 - 
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Ila L. Wakley iwakley@msn.com May 19, 2010, 11:20 pm

Source: History of the Columbia River Valley From The Dalles to the Sea, Vol. III, Published 1928, Pages 317 - 322
Author: The S. J. Clarke Publishing Company

     FRED S. MUNSON.  One of the veterans of the Pacific coastwise 
transportation service is Fred S. Munson, of Warrenton, who for forty years 
followed steamboating along the coast from British Columbia to old Mexico. His 
family is well known in the Columbia River country and was ably written up by 
Fred Lockley, who, after an interview with Mr. Munson's sister, Miss Clara C. 
Munson, printed the following in the Portland Daily Journal of May 29 and 31 
and June 1, 1925:

     "While en route from Astoria to Portland recently I met Miss Clara C. 
Munson, of Warrenton, on the train. 'Sit in and tell me the news of 
Warrenton,' I said, as I made room for her to sit beside me. When we had 
threshed out the current topics of the day, I said, `Now is a good time for 
you to tell me when and where you were born, what you have done and what you 
are planning to do.'

     "'I was born at Oysterville, Washington, on the last day of the oyster 
season,' she replied. `The year of my birth is neither here nor there, for if 
I told you it was June 15, 1861, you would get busy with your pencil and 
notebook and figure out how old I am. My father, Captain Joel Wilson Munson, 
was born on Christmas day, 1818, at Hebron, New York. My mother and father 
were married on St. Patrick's day, 1859, at Oysterville. My mother, whose 
maiden name was Sarah Sophia Kimball, was born in Indiana in 1841.

     "'My father came to Oregon in 1853 by way of the Isthmus with his cousin 
and two boyhood friends. He brought his fiddle with him. On the boat they 
nicknamed him "Fiddler Smith." His cousin and chums continued to call him that 
in a joking way after they came ashore, and the first thing father knew the 
name had taken and everybody was calling him "Fiddler Smith." If strangers 
asked where J. W. Munson lived no one could tell them, but everybody knew 
where "Fiddler Smith" was to be found. His mail came addressed to "Fiddler 
Smith," and the first property he bought the deed was made out to "F. Smith." 
When it came to being married, my mother thought it was time to call a halt 
and to resume his real name.

     "'When father got to Portland, in 1853, he had ten dollars. He was a 
carpenter and secured work at once, working on the building of the Abernethy 
mill at Oak Point. The purser charged him five dollars fare for himself and 
chest of tools from Portland to Oak Point. Father later met Captain Ainsworth, 
owner of the boat, and told him he had only ten dollars when he landed in 
Portland and that the purser on Captain Ainsworth's boat had charged him five 
dollars fare to Oak Point. "He was a mighty inefficient purser," responded 
Captain Ainsworth. "He should have found out that you had ten dollars, and 
charged you five dollars fare for yourself and five dollars on your carpenter 
tools. It was mighty careless of him to let you leave the boat with that five 
dollars."

     "'Father worked on this water-power mill till it was finished and then 
worked in the mill for three years. In 1856 he went down the Columbia to 
Astoria and did contracting and building. He built a house for Dr. Trenchard 
that is still in use. In 1857 he moved to Oysterville and went into the oyster 
business. He owned a large oyster bed and planted a large amount of oysters. 
As you know, it takes several years for the baby oysters to mature and be 
ready for the market. By the winter of 1861-62 he had out ten thousand baskets 
of oysters ready for the market. The oyster schooners came up from San 
Francisco and the oyster buyer offered him one dollar a basket, which price he 
agreed to accept. Just when he was ready to harvest and sell his oysters and 
bank his ten thousand dollars there was an extremely low tide, and at the same 
time there was a most unusual cold snap. The cold snap caught the oysters 
exposed to the air while the tide was out and froze every oyster, so my father 
lost the work of several years in a few hours. He went into Oysterville with 
four thousand dollars cash, put in six years of hard work, and came out with a 
wife and two babies and no money.

     "'My mother crossed the plains in 1847 with her parents, Mr. and Mrs. 
Nathan Kimball. My mother's father, Nathan Kimball, started for Oregon with a 
fine outfit, fifteen hundred dollars in gold, a wife and seven children. Their 
oldest child, a boy sixteen years old, died of mountain fever on the plains, 
as did one of their little girls, three years old. They reached Dr. Marcus 
Whitman's mission in September, 1847. Dr. Whitman, after talking to Mr. 
Kimball for awhile, suggested that he winter at the mission. He told him he 
could give him enough work to keep him busy till spring and that the children 
could go to the mission school all winter. On November 29th the Indians killed 
Dr. and Mrs. Whitman and some others and wounded my mother's father. He went 
up into the loft with the Sager children. The Indians killed him the next day. 
Peter Skene Ogden, factor of the Hudson's Bay Company, went up from Vancouver 
and gave the Indians blankets, beads, tobacco and other trade goods for the 
captives the Indians were holding. Among these captives were my grandmother 
and her five children, Susan, Nathan, Byron, Sarah and Mina the baby. Susan 
later married August C. Wirt, who came across the plains to Oregon in 1844. My 
mother, Sarah Sophia, was married in 1859 to my father, J. W. Munson. Mina 
married A. J. Megler. She was running a lodging house at the time of the big 
fire in Astoria and lost all she had, so she went to Portland and entered the 
Odd Fellows home, where she now resides.

     "'My mother's father was killed November 30, 1847. Her mother, with the 
other rescued prisoners, was taken to Oregon City. Bachelors and widowers from 
all over the valley came to Oregon City to select wives from among the women 
who had escaped being killed. My mother's mother married John Jewett, a 
widower with eight children. With my grandmother's five, this made thirteen 
children in the family, They didn't think thirteen was a lucky number, so they 
had two more, so when it came to children it was a case of yours, mine and 
ours. They were married in April and moved to Clatsop Plains. Later they took 
up a donation land claim about midway between Warrenton and Seaside. This 
place was later known as the West place, as Joseph West bought it and owned it 
for many years, living on it till his death, a few years ago. Grandfather 
Jewett died at Astoria in 1885.

     "'My mother and Bethenia Owens were children together on Clatsop Plains. 
Bethenia was married at fourteen, and her sister at thirteen. Bethenia married 
a man named Hill. They separated when she was about sixteen, leaving her to 
care for her baby son. She took in washing, and while she rubbed the dirty 
clothes she studied from a book she had fastened beside the tub. When she had 
got through the third reader, she wanted to become a teacher. My father was 
chairman of the school board and school examiner. He was entrusted with the 
job of selecting a teacher for the school there. He had a great deal of 
sympathy for Bethenia, so when she came to be examined for her diploma he 
said, "Spell 'baker.'" She spelled it correctly, so he gave her her diploma 
and appointed her teacher. She later married Colonel Adair. She is now known 
as Dr. Owens-Adair, and at the age of eighty-five is still engaged in working 
in behalf of the public welfare and in the service of humanity.'"

                                    * * *

     "'In 1853 my father, Captain J. W. Munson, went from Portland to Oak 
Point, where for the next three years he worked in Abernethy's water-power 
mill,' said Clara Cynthia Munson, of Warrenton, when I interviewed her 
recently. 'In 1856 he went to Astoria, where he worked for the next two or 
three years. From there he went to Oysterville, Washington, where he was 
engaged in the oyster business. He was married at Oysterville on March 17, 
1859. My brother Fred was born at Oysterville in 1860. I put in my appearance 
the following year. Fred has followed the river most of his life. He served 
his apprenticeship on my father's boat, the "Magnet," in the late '70s and 
early '80s. Later he worked on the "Emma Hayward" and the "Alice" and for 
awhile he ran on the "Chilcat" on the Alaska run. He was engineer on 
the "Puritan" and still later on the "Wenona."

     "'John Boyd was the first keeper of the Cape Disappointment light. Not 
long after the Modoc war, when General Canby was killed by the Modocs in the 
lava beds, the name of the Cape Disappointment lighthouse was changed. It was 
rechristened Canby lighthouse. When John Boyd died, during the Civil war, my 
father was appointed keeper. Father had charge of the light for the next 
twelve years. I was a little tot when we moved into the lighthouse. The first 
school I attended was the post school, held at the garrison for the children 
of the officers. The teacher was an enlisted man who before enlisting in the 
army had been a teacher.

     "'In 1873 father employed a young woman from Portland to come to the 
lighthouse and serve as our governess. She was the daughter of J. C. Carson, 
who ran a sash and door factory in Portland. Her name was Luella Clay Carson. 
She lived with us in the lighthouse two years, teaching my brother Fred and me 
the common school branches. In 1875 Luella and I decided to go to St. Helen's 
Hall. She was two or three years older than I, so she graduated in three 
years, while it took me five years to graduate. She became a distinguished 
educator and the author of various popular textbooks.

     "'When I attended St. Helen's Hall, Miss Mary D. Rodney and her sister 
were in charge under the general supervision of Bishop B. Wistar Morris. I 
studied mathematics under Mrs. Mary Clopton. 1 have never known a more lovable 
and cultured woman. All the girls loved her. Miss Ida Boyd, her sister, taught 
there for a year or two. Another popular and capable teacher who taught while 
I was a student was Lydia Blackler. I graduated in 1880. Lizzie Myrick, 
Frankie Burnside and I composed the graduating class that year. I planned to 
be a teacher. I taught my first school at Walicut, near Ilwaco, Washington, 
when I was sixteen. I boarded at the home of John Hunter. My next school was 
at Fort Stevens. I boarded with Grandfather and Grandmother Kindret. After 
graduating from St. Helen's Hall I accepted a position as teacher at Astoria. 
I taught only one year, for I found teaching more work than pleasure, so I 
became a music teacher.

     "'I moved from Astoria to Warrenton, where I was honored by being elected 
mayor of Warrenton. I was the first woman elected mayor of any city west of 
the Rocky mountains, so Warrenton received columns of publicity in the papers 
and magazines throughout the United States. The first woman mayor in the 
United States was elected in a small town in Kansas. Today there are scores of 
women serving as mayors, and we also have women serving in Congress and the 
State Legislatures and even filling gubernatorial chairs. I served as deputy 
postmaster at Hammond and also at Warrenton. In am now serving my nineteenth 
year as school clerk.

     "'My father was fond of hunting and boating. He used to kill lots of elk 
and deer when I was a little tot. He had an Indian canoe of which he was very 
proud. He got it in a rather peculiar way. He bought it from a dead Indian. It 
came about in this way. All Indians — in fact, all so-called uncivilized 
peoples — unlike many white people, believe in a future existence. When a 
plains Indian died they would kill his horse and put it on his grave, so he 
would have his favorite steed when he arrived in the happy hunting grounds. 
They would put his blankets, ornaments, spear and bow and arrows on his grave, 
for his use in the land of the hereafter. The coast Indians used to bury a 
chief or a warrior in his best canoe, so he could ply the dark river to the 
land beyond the setting sun. One day father was hunting. This was when we 
lived at Oysterville, in the early '60s. He saw lashed in a treetop a very 
fine canoe. He climbed up the tree, examined the canoe, and found its former 
owner in it. That night father returned with a spade and dug a shallow grave, 
in which he buried the Indian. Then, cutting the elk skin thongs that bound 
the canoe to the tree, he carried it home. He put it into our boatshed and 
locked the door, so no inquisitive Indian would discover it. He painted the 
canoe so it would not be recognized as a memaloose canoe and began to use it. 
A few days later a delegation of Indians came to our place and demanded the 
canoe. Father told them he had bought it. They pointed out certain marks by 
which they identified it as the property of the dead chief, and intimated that 
father handled the truth recklessly. They are very superstitious about white 
men taking the property of dead Indians, for, to them, a "memaloose," or 
death, canoe is sacred. Father asked them what he had better do about it. He 
offered to trade two quarts of whiskey to the dead Indian for his canoe. The 
Indians went into council, and after considerable discussion decided it was a 
trade, and as the dead chief could not drink the whiskey they drank it for 
him, regarding it as a "potlatch" from the dead chief.'"

                                   * * *

     "Clara C. Munson, former mayor of Warrenton, comes of pioneer stock. Her 
mother was present when Dr. Marcus Whitman and his wife were killed by Indians 
at the Whitman mission in 1847. Her father came to Oregon in 1853 and was one 
of Oregon's early lighthouse keepers. Miss Munson told me recently of the 
wrecking of the bark 'Industry' in 1865 and the bark 'W. B. Scranton' in 1866.

     "The 'Industry' was built at Stockton, Maine, in 1858. Captain Corno 
purchased her at San Francisco. M. D. Staples was mate. He was later a bar 
pilot at the mouth of the Columbia for many years. The 'Industry' sailed from 
San Francisco on February 23, 1865. After being buffeted by heavy gales for 
two weeks she reached the Columbia. After waiting several days for a pilot, on 
March 15th one came out and raised his flag. Captain Lewis, master of 
the 'Industry,' changed his course so as to approach the pilot boat and take 
on a pilot. The pilot boat changed its course and started back over the bar. 
The captain of the 'Industry' supposed that the pilot boat was going to guide 
him in, so he attempted to follow, but missed stays and had to anchor to keep 
off the sand spit. Presently the bark got under way once more, but drifted 
upon the sand, stern first, unshipping its rudder. A boat was lowered, with 
Mr. Coppin, the mate, in charge. It was swamped and the mate was drowned. The 
crew took to the rigging and during the night heavy seas destroyed all the 
small boats. The next morning two rafts were made and launched. Soldiers from 
the fort near by put out and rescued the five men on one of the rafts. On the 
other raft were eight people, one a twelve-year-old girl, daughter of Mr. 
Marks, of Walla Walla. Five of the eight on this raft, including the girl, 
were drowned. One died of exposure. The other two were rescued. Captain Lewis 
and sixteen others were drowned. Those saved were John West, James Peterson, 
Silas Wrightman, Charles D. Harold, the young son of James Shiveley, of 
Astoria, one of the sailors and a Chinaman.

     "'My father, Captain J. W. Munson, was appointed lighthouse keeper at the 
Cape Disappointment light, now known as the Canby lighthouse, in 1865,' said 
Miss Munson. 'Not long after his appointment he found on the beach the wreck 
of a longboat. The sides were stove in, and about the only part uninjured was 
an air-tight compartment in each end. Father realized that if he had had a 
good lifeboat he could have saved the crew of the "Industry," so he decided to 
fix up this old boat for future emergencies. He gave two dances at Astoria, at 
which he played his violin. These netted over two hundred dollars. Working for 
him was an old sailor, who rebuilt the boat and fitted it up with cork-filled 
fenders. Father then rustled some lumber and, with his two assistants, built a 
boathouse.

     "'The next spring the "W. B. Scranton" met its fate on Sand Island. The 
boat was owned by Captain Paul Corno, owner of the "Industry," wrecked the 
year before. The "Scranton" started from San Francisco with eight hundred tons 
of freight, worth two hundred thousand dollars. On May 5th, at ten A. M., it 
drifted onto the sand spit at Sand Island. With his two assistants, a couple 
of soldiers and two men from a tug as a volunteer crew, my father went out in 
the boat he had built and rescued Captain Corno's wife and Miss Mary Ann Brown 
of Astoria. The sailors decided to stay with the ship. Some hours later it was 
seen that the ship could not be saved, so father and his crew put off once 
more and took off eleven members of the crew. The "Scranton" broke up that 
night. Knapp, Burrell & Company, of Portland, lost thirty thousand dollars 
worth of farm machinery. Captain Corno had spent six thousand dollars in 
fixing up the vessel just before leaving San Francisco. He had become well-to-
do from the brig "Susan Abigail" during the 50s, but the loss of 
the "Industry" and the "Scranton" broke him up and he was never able to get 
back on his feet. Mary Ann Brown, rescued from the "Scranton," later married 
W. H. Twilight, who became sheriff of Clatsop county.

     "'When the bark "Architect," in ballast from San Francisco, attempted to 
follow the British ship "Pactolus," which had a pilot and was crossing the 
bar, it was wrecked on Clatsop spit. My father helped to save ten lives from 
this wreck. When the life saving service was organized it took over the boat 
my father had rebuilt. It was one of the first boats in the life saving 
service. My father served twelve years at the Canby lighthouse. In 1880 he was 
appointed keeper at Point Adams, where he served nineteen years. Battery 
Russell now stands on the site of this old lighthouse. The light that father 
operated there nineteen years is now used as a harbor light on Desdemona 
sands.'

     "The first boat ever used for saving life or property at the mouth of the 
Columbia was the launch of the 'Peacock.' Digging through records of the 
Provisional Legislature recently, I ran across the following record:

     "'An act authorizing the governor to take charge of, re-fit, and employ 
the launch of the "Peacock," in accordance with the conditions of Lieutenant 
Wilkes.

     "'Section 1 — Be it enacted by the House of Representatives of Oregon 
territory, as follows — That the governor be and is hereby authorized in the 
name of the territory, to take into possession the launch boat of the United 
States sloop of war "Peacock," now lying at Astoria, or Fort George, near the 
mouth of the Columbia river; and that he is hereby authorized to request Dr. 
John McLoughlin to deliver over to him, or such agents as he may appoint, the 
anchor, cables, oars, sails and all other parts of her rigging left with him, 
or in his charge, or the charge of any of the officers of the Hudson's Bay 
Company at Fort George or Vancouver: and in case of refusal to deliver up the 
same, the governor or agent shall proceed to purchase materials and have the 
said boat put into immediate repair for any service the territory may require.

     "'Section 2 — That an agent shall be appointed by the governor to 
superintend the repairing and fitting up of said boat; and said agent shall 
forward a correct and true statement of the entire expenses thereof, when such 
repairs shall have been completed, for which service the said agent shall 
receive the sum of twenty-five dollars; and for the payment of such repairs 
and expenses, the governor or agent is hereby authorized to let the boat to 
some able seaman, or some responsible person, for a term of time not exceeding 
six months at any one time, with the condition that said boat shall not be 
taken out of the waters of the Columbia river, unless for the relief of ships 
or other crafts in distress on or near the bar at the mouth of the Columbia 
river; and when a sufficient sum of money shall be collected to pay all 
demands against said boat, she shall be kept at Astoria or Fort George, for 
the purpose she was originally designed for by Lieutenant Wilkes.

     "'Section 3 — This act to take effect from and after its passage.
     "'Approved December 20, 1845.
                                             "'H. A. G. Lee,
     "'George Abernethy.
                                             Speaker Pro Tempore.' "

     Captain Joel W. Munson died March 22, 1899, and his wife passed away 
August 13, 1917. The Captain was a prominent member of the Independent Order 
of Odd Fellows, was a man of strong character, great courage and marked 
individuality and commanded the genuine respect of everyone who knew him. His 
daughter, Miss Clara C. Munson, whose vivid account of some stirring events of 
early days in the Columbia River valley is given in preceding paragraphs, has 
served as clerk of the city schools of Warrenton for the past twenty-two 
years. She is a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution; the 
Daughters of Rebekah, of which she is a past noble grand, and past treasurer 
of the assembly, and is a communicant of the Protestant Episcopal church. 
Because of her long and efficient service, her kindly and courteous manner and 
her gracious character, she is highly esteemed throughout the community where 
she resides.

     Fred S. Munson, who was born at Oysterville, Washington, in 1860, 
received his early education under a tutor in the old Canby lighthouse, and 
later attended old Pacific College, at Forest Grove. He then went to work on 
his father's sloop "Magnet," a sailing vessel, carrying mail from Astoria to 
Skipanon. Two years later the sloop was converted to steam power, a boiler and 
engine being installed, and Mr. Munson ran the vessel until 1880, when he went 
to work for the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company as engineer on the 
steamship "Emma Hayward." The boat ran from Astoria to Portland, carrying 
mail, freight and passengers, and Mr. Munson remained with that boat for four 
years. He was also for several years engineer on the steamship "Chilcat," 
which was on the Alaska run. He had many and varied experiences, one of the 
most thrilling of which was in 1907, while on a trip from San Francisco on the 
steam tug "Samson," towing the large freighter, "Bonanzo," bound for the 
Columbia river for a load of lumber. This was during the rebuilding of San 
Francisco, following the great earthquake and fire. The boat ran into a 
terrific storm off Cape Blanco, along the southern Oregon coast, and they were 
compelled to cut loose from the "Bonanza" after their tug was nearly swamped 
and its storehouse carried away. The vessel had five feet of water in the 
hold, the fires were put out under the boilers and the machinery was disabled. 
Mr. Munson and his subordinates worked up to their necks in the icy water for 
over twenty hours, making the necessary repairs to the boilers and engines. 
They then had to fill the boilers with buckets, dipping the water up, as they 
had no steam with which to operate the pumps. Eventually they managed to start 
fires, got up steam, and finally put into Coos Bay harbor, where permanent 
repairs were made, and two weeks later they steamed into Portland harbor. Mr. 
Munson is now retired from marine life and is one of the honored and respected 
residents of Warrenton. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd 
Fellows, in which he has passed through the chairs; the Benevolent Protective 
Order of Elks and the Improved Order of Red Men, and is deservedly popular 
wherever known.

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