would have, and how bright the fire would be, and how
joyous the welcome in the cabin home!

The trees and stumps are all gone now and brick buildings and other good
houses occupy much of the land. As many people now live in that school
district as lived both east and west of the mountains when the Territory
was created in March of 1853. Instead of going in ox teams, or even
sleds, the people have carriages or automobiles; they can travel on any
of the eighteen passenger trains that pass daily through Puyallup, or on
street cars to Tacoma, and also on some of the twenty to twenty-four
freight trains, some of which are a third of a mile long. Such are some
of the changes wrought in fifty years since pioneer life began in the
Puyallup valley.

[Illustration: A hop field with the hops ready for picking.]

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

FINDING AND LOSING A FORTUNE

OUR youthful dream of becoming farmers was now realized in fullest
measure. The clearing was gradually enlarged, and abundant crops came to
reward our efforts. The comfort and plenty we had hoped and struggled
for was attained. Next came a development in the family fortunes that we
had not dreamed of. Never had we thought to see the Meeker family
conducting a business that would require a London office.

This unexpected prosperity came to us through the hop-growing industry,
upon which we entered with all our force. The business was well started
by the time of my father's death in 1869, and in the fifteen years
following the acreage planted to hops was increased until the crop-yield
of 1882, a yield of more than seventy-one tons, gave the Puyallup valley
the banner crop, as to quantity, of the United States--and, some
persons asserted, of the world.

The public, generally, gave me the credit of introducing hop culture
into the Northwest. Therefore it seems fitting to tell here the story of
the beginnings of an industry that came to have great importance.

In March of 1865, Charles Wood of Olympia sent about three pecks of hop
roots to Steilacoom for my father, Jacob R. Meeker, who then lived on
his claim in the Puyallup valley. John V. Meeker, my brother, passed by
my cabin when he carried the sack of roots on his back from Steilacoom
to my father's home, a distance of about twenty miles, and from the sack
I took roots enough to plant six hills of hops. As far as I know those
were the first hops planted in the Puyallup valley. My father planted
the