Andrew Jackson Chamber's Homestead Site

Andrew Jackson Chamber's Homestead Site. . "My father's reading Lewis and Clark's Journal was the cause of our crossing the plains. We started the 1st of April, 1845..." , Recollections by Andrew Jackson Chambers, 1904, And so it was that Thomas M. Chambers moved his family to the west from Missouri. Included in the party were his wife, Letitia, their eight children, and two sons' families. Among the children was Andrew Jackson Chambers who was 19 when the journey began. They arrived in the Puget Sound area in 1847 and settled on what is now known as Chambers Prairie., This is the site of the Andrew Jackson Chambers Homestead. Andrew and his brother Thomas J. took up adjoining claims in this area, now the Indian Summer Golf and Country Club residential development. They built a small cabin on Andrew's claim and lived there for a time, milking their father's cows for their board. In 1848 they completed a tan yard and made shoes. After a brief attempt at striking it rich during the California Gold Rush of 1849, Andrew returned to his claim where he lived the rest of his life as a farmer and rancher. He grew wheat and vegetables, and had a cattle ranch a few miles away., Andrew's first wife, Rebecca Buckner, died in 1853 along with their child during childbirth. In 1854 he married Margaret White. Together they had ten daughters., During the Puget Sound Indian War of 1855–1856, Andrew constructed a stockade around a barn and shed that he had only just completed. This stockade provided shelter for up to 32 families at one point; however Margaret chose to reside in the main house. This was, as Andrew noted, in an effort to avoid "the crying of children, the barking of dogs, and the scolding of the women." Andrew volunteered to protect the homes of the settlers., Although the stockade was removed some time after 1856, the barn remained into the 1900s. Andrew Jackson Chambers died April 25, 1908 and Margaret on December 22, 1911. This marker is dedicated to the entire Chambers family and their role in the early development of this area., "I went to the settlers on the prairie and we called a meeting the next day. We decided to build a stockade around a large barn I had put up that summer... The settlers came in force, and in seven or eight days we had a stockade one hundred feet square and sixteen feet high, with guard houses at the opposite corners. It was built of fir logs eighteen feet long, and from ten to twelve inches in diameter. These logs were set just as close together as they could be, straight up and down in a trench three feet deep., As soon as the fort was completed, a company was organized with Isaac Hayes as captain and A.J. Chambers as first lieutenant." , Recollections by Andrew Jackson Chambers, Fairfield Washington: Ye Galleon Press, 1975. p. 28–34, Captions , (Photo #1) Andrew Jackson Chambers Homestead, ca. 1890. This is the view one would see if the home were still here today. Some of the black locust trees seen here were removed due to disease, but the remaining trees are original to the homestead. , (Photo #2) Andrew Jackson Chambers Homestead, ca. 1890. , (Photo #3) Andrew Jackson Chambers, ca. 1880. , (Photo #4) Andrew Jackson Chambers and Margaret White Chambers (Addie) on the porch of their home, ca 1900. , (Photo #5) The Chambers' house in the winter, ca. 1900. , (Photo #6) Interior of Andrew Jackson Chambers Homestead, ca. 1900., Photos from the Richard Talcott Collection and Chambers Prairie Collection, courtesy of Lacey Museum.