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Pekin Ferry. A post office was established here in 1867. There are two possible sources for the name. One is the rage for foreign names which raced across the United States, resulting in Athens, GA; Rome, NY; and Canton, Ohio. However, a more intriguing story is that of the Pekin, a British ship, a former man o'war, which arrived in 1851 at Vancouver carrying much needed cargo. She had hoped to make the spring flood on the river, but missed it, got stuck and firmly, and didn't get out for 14 months. The crew was evidently a devil-may-care lot, for they turned the great cabin on the ship into a theater and began giving entertainments. Some of them stayed and settled along the river. The ship was, a great source of comment and conversation during her long stay. Pekin Ferry is at about 324th Street and the Pekin Ferry Road.

Extracted from Naming Clark County By Pat Jollota http://www.fvhscc.org/naming/namingnopq.htm

When the Pekin Post Office was opened, the Bottoms became known as Pekin until Woodland was established in I 88 1. Pekin served the East Fork of the Lewis River area before La Center was born. It was on the Bozarth claim that the town of Woodland was founded. Squire Bozarth named his home the "Woodland Farm House" because of the surrounding stand of fir trees. In 1881 Christopher Columbus Bozarth (better know as "C. C.") opened a store on the Lewis River and named it Woodland after his father's farm. It was the first store in the community and in 1882 began serving as a post office, with Mr. Bozarth as the first commissioned Post Master. The first hotels and restaurants were built in the 1890's. The Woodland Grange now occupies the building that was the Hobb Hotel.

Extracted from The Woodland Chamber of Commerce Community History Page http://www.lewisriver.com/woodlandchamber/history.html

Pekin: Pekin was located about three miles south of Woodland, on the north bank of the Lewis River. The Pekin post office was established in 1854 by Jefferson Huff. Huff was born in Indiana and served as the county's first Representative to the Washington Territory legislature. The post office was discontinued in 1886 (Ramsey, p. 156-58).

Extracted from Cowlitz County Towns http://www.halcyon.com/jennyrt/wacowlitz/townsmz.html#Pekin

The dairy farmers made butter, hand churned, and sold it in 60# firkins or round tubs. Most of the commerce at that time was to ----from a boat landing at Pekin. Kalama as well as Portland was an important outlet for the produce of Woodland.

The first Post Office in the Lewis River community was at Pekin established April 29, 1854. Jefferson Huff was postmaster. The succeeding Postmasters with date of appointment were: William Ginder, August 27, 1861; William Bratton, Sr., May 22, 1863; Gustave Greve, May 16, 1866; Patrick Quinn, January 12, 1869; F.H. Marsh, January 17, 1872; F. LeLewis, August 4, 1873; John W. Caples, May 11, 1874; Charles Miller, April 3, 1876; Andrew F. Millard, August 9, 1876; Thomas S. Colvin, May 22, 1877; C.C. Byuth, July 29, 1877; Christopher C. Bozarth, September 7, 1877; Melissa L. Taylor, February 28, 1882; Laurence V. Maxwell, May 24, 1882; J.A. McElhany, March 2, 1883; James A. Rosenfeld, February 5, 1884; the Post Office discontinued November 11, 1886.

A Telephone Company, known as the Sunset Co. and later the Pacific Co., had a direct line from Seattle to San Francisco (with a huge pole placed at Pekin Ferry south of Woodland to carry the line across the Lewis River).

Extracted from ...Fields of Flowers and Forests of Firs... A HISTORY OF THE WOODLAND COMMUNITY 1850 ~ 1958 1999 REVISED EDITION BY JUDY CARD http://www.lewisriver.com/jcard1.html

DAVIS, ENNELS CLOUESS by Willa or Maud Maxwell Brain - granddaughter.

Nancy and Gallitan Kinder separated in 1866 and Mrs. Kinder moved over into Cowlitz County and located on a part of what had been the Owen Bozorth donation land claim situated on Lewis River about a half mile below the forks, with the Pekin property joining on the West.

Now I shall have to go back several years; Mrs. Kinder's son, Ennels Clouess Davis, who was born in North Carolina in 1825 and who had gone to Illinois with the family, had married in the late 1840s. About 1852 he brought his wife and one son to Sacramento, California, where their daughter Mary Elizabeth (later my mother) was born August 22, 1853. Then on October 28, 1855 their youngest son, William Alfred was born at Drytown, about thirty miles from Sacramento. Mr. Davis' wife died in 1858 and two years later he brought the two younger children North and left them with his mother who was at that time, as mentioned earlier, living on the North fork of Lewis River in Clark County. He returned to California, where he and his brother Linzy, who had came west with the family earlier, operated a ranch for a few years. Then in the late 1860's he and his older son, Ennels Columbus and his brother came back to the Lewis River country. He took up land on Lewis river in Clark County and directly across the river from where his mother had located in Cowlitz County a short time before. His three children, who were nearly grown by this time, were with him at this place.

He maintained a ferry here until his death on March 27, 1888. There was a steam boat landing at this place and it was always known as Davis Landing or Davis Ferry, but now it is being called Pekin Ferry, and the road leading to the river on the Clark County side is called "Pekin Ferry Road". This I regret very much, for I think the names of the pioneers should be retained. True, Pekin is a pioneer name too, but it is on the other side of the river and downstream a short distance.

FISHER, JOHN H. by Clara Fisher Powell

My father, John H. Fisher was born in Nova Scotia, July 18, 1853. My mother, Elizabeth Higgins, was born in Nova Scotia February 20, 1854. At the age of 19 she came to Boston, there she met my father and was married in November of 1876. My oldest sister was born there in October 1877. In 1878, they came to Portland, staying there about 1 1/2 years.

In 1880 they moved by train to Amboy, staying there only a short time. They then moved from Amboy to Yacolt and took up a timber claim. Stayed there about 3 1/2 years, my brother, Herbert Fisher was born at Yacolt, November 25, 1888. In the spring of 1884, they moved to a farm in Clark County just across the Lewis River from Pekin. They planted a prune orchard, one of the first prune orchards in Clark County.

My mother lived on the place across from Pekin till 1927. The heirs sold the place in 1941 to William Bone, who still lives there.

HUFF, JEFFERSON

Jefferson Huff, a native of Indiana, took up a Donation Land Claim on what are now the Fleetwood, Jay and Andy Smith places in 1853. He was the first representative in the territorial legislature. He established a Post Office and store called Pekin on Lewis River in 1853 and conducted both until 1855 when he removed the sphere of his labors. He was a man of considerable importance, holding the office of Vice President of the Territorial Agricultural Society. He was a neighbor of Capt. William Bratton from whom he received some grape cuttings. Sometime after the Capt. asked him how the vines were doing, the Dr. replied, "I do not think they will grow. I have pulled them up two or three times and there is no sign of roots to them yet!"