clockwise around Whidbey Island
first county commissioner meeting
- [Benjamin] Barstow established a trading post at the [Penn] cove, and Samuel took 320 acres at Point Partridge on the north side of today’s Libbey Road. He was joined by his family in 1859.
- May 29th [of 1853]. The doctor [John Miller Haden] and I, piloted by Col. Eby, tramped to a little settlement on Penn’s cove, called Coveland. Here Capt. Boscoe and Dr. Lansdale were holding claims preparatory to the inauguration of a big city, which, however, can only be realized after they have provided a water supply for the future occupants. Dr. Lansdale lives in a little hut on the edge of the prairie at the head of the cove. Capt. Boscoe was building a trading store.
- Old Maj. Snow had a store, which we visited and where we met a Dr. Vincent and a Mr. Howe. Their trade supplies, however, came from the mainland, which can only be reached by boat. The [Penn] cove is a deep indentation in the [Whidbey] island, about two miles wide and six miles long. It is a beautiful bay and thoroughly protected, but it can only be approached by large ships from the south around Skagit head, a circumlocution of great length.
- We decided that the only way to get the murderer was to bribe the Indians to assist in his capture. On the 12th we proceeded to Penn’s cove to interview the settlers and propose that they should raise a contribution in order to induce the Indians to deliver Sla-hai. The proposition met with favor and a subscription paper was started. I waited over the 13th to learn the result. After my failure to hold the chiefs I was very anxious to make amends for my bungling, but I felt that now that the Indians were alive to the fact that I was after the murderer of [Judah] Church it would be a difficult matter to retrieve myself. There was no hope of any result except through the Indians, and that only by paying well for it. They showed themselves full of zeal to assist, and although I contemplated making a night trip, I gave it up, as I had no confidence in such allies…
