Tumwater Pioneers-
Who were the first Tumwater Pioneers?

The Tumwater pioneers were the first European-American settlers on Puget Sound. Led by Michael T. Simmons and George Washington Bush, they left their homes in Missouri for a new life in the West. They decided to go west for many different reasons. Some were inspired by the adventure and challenge of creating a new home in an unsettled territory.   Some wanted to escape the illness and poverty of life back East. Others, like George Washington Bush, who was of Black descent, might have wanted to go West to escape the prejudice of life in the pre-Civil War South.

In the October of 1845, exhausted and almost out of supplies, the 28 people of the Simmons-Bush party arrived at the falls of the Deschutes River. Here they built their first crude log cabins to survive the winter. In the spring of 1846 they plowed land for their farms, and built the first grist mill (a mill for grinding flour) on the lower falls of the Deschutes. They named their settlement New Market, later changed to Tumwater, a Native American word meaning "noisy water." These first pioneers lived as neighbors with the Native tribes and the British Hudson’s Bay Company who were also living in this area. Later more settlers came to New Market, lured by stories of the incredible beauty and rich farmland.

Five women, seven men, and sixteen children made the journey to Tumwater.  They were: