A Pioneer’s Search for an Ideal Home
Phoebe Goodell Judson
This book presents selected entries from Phoebe Goodell Judson’s diary, chronicling her remarkable journey as a young bride traveling by covered wagon from Ohio in 1853 to her final home at the head of the Nooksak River in 1904. Rather than offering daily accounts, these excerpts provide readers with vivid glimpses into the realities of pioneer life. Like many women of her era, Phoebe gave birth to a child while journeying west, and she candidly describes the hardships faced along the way—scarcity of water and food for livestock, and encounters with local tribes that were sometimes fraught with tension.
The Judson family initially settled in Ground Mound, Thurston County, near Phoebe’s parents. However, the discovery of gold near Fort Colville in 1855 brought dramatic changes. Discontent among Eastern Washington tribes over treaty terms led to attacks on prospectors and government troops, and the resulting unrest soon spread to the western side of the mountains, creating an atmosphere of uncertainty and fear.
In 1858, following her husband’s election to the state legislature, the family moved to Olympia. Through Phoebe’s eyes, readers gain insight into the early history of this developing town. Yet the search for an ideal home continued, and the family eventually relocated to the headwaters of the Nooksak River—a remote and uncharted region, far from other white settlers. For a time, Phoebe was the only white woman north of Bellingham Bay. It was here that she overcame her fear of Indigenous peoples and earned their respect and friendship.
This is the story of a woman who exercised her right to vote in territorial elections from 1883 to 1887, witnessed Washington’s transformation from a new territory to statehood in 1889, and whose son George, a graduate of the Territorial University in Seattle, helped lay out the town of Lyden. More than just the personal account of Phoebe Judson, this narrative offers a unique perspective on the history and development of western Washington.
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