First I tried to locate in the Willamette Valley, but land prices were out of sight, and homestead land left was not worth taking. I therefore turned towards Astoria, and on June 8, 1886, I landed in Rainier, a filthy hamlet of about 11 houses, a few barns and outbuildings, several wharves, a sawmill, one store and postoffice, two saloons. The streets were dirt roads, the boardwalks were full of holes, some places tilting, some places missing; they had seen better days. Fences were much dilapidated and scattered were refuse heaps, tin cans and bottles. While houses and lots were comparatively tidy, there was an utter lack of civic pride to keep the so called streets and sidewalks somewhat clean and in repair.

The place had been incorporated the year before, was boss ridden and run by the saloon element; there was no church, preacher, doctor, dentist, barber, druggist, editor or lawyer, no telegraph, telephone, drinking fountain, or public toilet. The town was too small to carry such professions and conveniences.

The town consisted of two units, Rainier and Cedar Landing, now [called] West Rainier or Kentucky Flat. The latter consisted of 5 houses, 3 stores, 2 wharves and a blacksmith shop, and it was here where most business was transacted.

Between the two lay the Winchester place, in the bottom near the mouth of Fox Creek, and southwest of it the Nice place on the site now owned by the state and occupied by the World War Veterans State Aid Commission; aside of these there were no dwellings between Rainier and Cedar Landing, a distance of nearly half a mile.

There were two connecting links, the old Beaver Valley road over a low log bridge, now the cement bridge across the Nice Creek, and over an old wooden bridge across Fox Creek near the present school house, which road was planked, and a trail on the site of the railroad grade, bridging the creeks by logs, impassable, in high water. On the river front were cottonwoods, willows and wild rose bushes.

The families then in Rainier (1886) are easily enumerated; there were the Dibblees, the Pomeroys, the Silvas, the Weatherwaxes, the Dobbins, the Suttons, the Woodruffs, the Winchesters, the Moecks, the Merrills, the Lelands, and two families near the blacksmith shop.

The school house was near the present Masonic Hall.

There were though quite a number of unmarried men then: Dean and Merrill Blanchard, John Dresser, Bob Campbell, Dorah Dobbins, John Kettering, Lem Thompkins, Charlie, Ed and Jessie Bryant, Joe and Bill Doherty, John Braim, N. D. Johnson, Bill Forester, Barry Bussing, Loren Bohnert, Ben Taylor, Tom Wells, Charlie Doblebower and probably a few more.

Against this number of men there were only three girls of marriageable age, very desirable objects and known among the young men by outrageous nicknames: Edith Dibblee, "the Wild West"; Dora Winchester, "the Mudhen" and Emma Kettering, "the Swamp Angel." [note: Joe married Dora Winchester.]

There were altogether about 150 people in Rainier then, and of these there are the following yet living in Rainier or close proximity: Mrs. Pomeroy, Mrs. Clement, Mrs. Reid, Mrs. Nettie Bourne and Rupert Dibblee. The rest either died or moved away.

The main occupation was fishing, and many lived in houseboats, then called scows. Some worked in the woods, in stores and on the docks.

The people were sociable, kindhearted and accommodating. The men were used to hard work, a rough life and were no mollycoddles. Quite a few were drinkers and gamblers. There was friction, occasional fights and a few killings; it was, in fact, still the wild West.

The articles in trade were fish, cordwood, lumber and shingles, farm products cut a small figure. Then, as now, the credit system, next to outright dishonesty the worst curse in our commercial life, was in vogue, and the charges made for goods in the Rainier and Cedar Landing stores were outrageous, since aside of the slow steamers there were no communications. The vilest names of dishonesty, such as thieves, robbers, picker, cutthroats and pirates, were hurled at the merchants, who, on the other hand, lost by dishonest customers. Every cord of wood in the woods was piled as 1 1/4 cord, cheating the steamers on the dock, and the steamboat men had to be satisfied, as cord wood was then the only fuel.

There was a steamer every day to Portland and two to Astoria, carrying passengers, mail and freight, landing at Rainier about noon, while the Kellog and Toledo went up the Cowlitz to Castle Rock every other day and the Manzanillo to Clatskanie twice a week. The latter had no regular time of landing. The fare to Portland was one dollar, and the time consumed five hours.

Roads leading out from Rainier were poor excuses and part of the year almost impassable. Rainier then never paid the slightest attention to roads or any other obligation to the outside world.

The taxes were insignificant as the licenses of the saloons paid most of the expenses.