This Monday, Americans will honor our fallen soldiers during our nation’s 250th birthday year. At one of our grandest local observances, held Monday at the Claquato Cemetery, one gravestone reminds us of a pioneer settler whose life directly connects us in Lewis County with the earliest days of this new nation a quarter of a millennium ago.
Lewis Hawkins Davis, founder of the pioneer settlement of Claquato (a few miles west of modern-day Chehalis), was born in 1794, less than 20 years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence. The nation was so young that George Washington was still president, and our founding leader was about to astound the world by doing something that no other modern leader would have considered: voluntarily giving up power.
Perhaps, the nations wondered, there was something special in this new democratic republic, these United States of America.
It was in these unprecedented times, amongst the still-vibrant revolutionary generation, that Lewis Davis was born in Windsor County, Vermont. This is the area where the Vermont state Constitution was written by people he must have known while he was growing up.
According to a fascinating account of his life, written recently by his great-great-granddaughter, Janice Davis-Duncan Erickson, Lewis served in the War of 1812 and in the Black Hawk War in Illinois.
(There’s another tie there to the sweeping arc of America’s grand story. Long before becoming president, Capt. Abraham Lincoln also served in the Black Hawk War.)
In his late 20s, Lewis moved to Fort Wayne, Indiana, where he became a partner in a black walnut sawmill. (Later he built a mill in Lewis County and donated the first boards he milled to build the Claquato Church, which still stands today.)
There, Davis married a young woman born in 1809 in Harrisburg, Penn., named Susan Clinger. He married this descendent of Bavarian Germans in 1829, when she was about 20 and he was about 35. They had seven children together.
The family came west from Indiana in 1851 and settled on a hilltop that still is called by the local native term Claquato, meaning “high ground.”
It was a wise choice. Their 640-acre homestead was high above the frequent floodwaters.
Lewis Davis was a Lewis County Commissioner and in 1852 he was one of four Chehalis District representatives to sign the Petition to Congress to create the Washington Territory. Congress approved their request in 1853.
No photos exist of Davis, but according to a history provided by the Claquato Cemetery, his granddaughter described him as “a man of grave and serious face, short and stocky, much resembling some portraits of General U.S. Grant. He was not much of a talker, a man of few words, kind in his home. His sons all looked up to him as their counselor and advisor.”
Davis and those five hearty sons worked hard to build roads six miles down the west side of the Chehalis River to present day Centralia, and six miles southeast over the densely-timbered Newaukum Hill. These roads led to and past their farm and the community that sprung up around it as it was declared the seat of county government.
Claquato became the largest community between the Columbia River and the new territorial capital of Olympia, according to Erickson’s account. Claquato had two hotels, a general store, stables, a blacksmith shop, and a carpentry shop.
The community created its cemetery in 1856 after a 2-year-old girl died of pneumonia. Davis donated the land. A year later, after building a timber and grist mill, he gave the wooden plank “first fruits” from the mill, along with the land, to build the Claquato Church. His brother-in-law, John Clinger, supervised construction and personally made the hand-mortised and pegged doors, the casings for the doors and windows, and created the distinctive “crown of thorns” atop the steeple of the church.
A.F. Gordon, the village blacksmith, forged the square nails that can still be seen at the church.
Lewis and Susan Davis stipulated that the church also be used as a school. The first pastor of the church thus became the first schoolteacher at the “Claquato Academy.”
Claquato continued growing but then declined when the county seat was moved to Chehalis. Lewis Hawkins Davis wasn’t there to see it. He died in 1864 at the age of 70 from painful lingering injuries sustained after a fall at his mill. His was the second burial in Claquato Cemetery.
His family still cares for his grave and will be among the Daughters of the Pioneers of Washington who are hosting an open house at the Claquato Church this weekend.
It’s a small, quiet church fairly bursting with heritage. It will be full of living history this weekend — an embodiment of the pioneering, 250-year-old American lineage that is woven into the vibrant, thriving spirit of Lewis County, USA.
Claquato Cemetery Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony
As the United States marks 250 years since independence, the Claquato Cemetery marks 170 years since it was founded in Lewis County’s pioneer era.
Its annual Memorial Day Remembrance Ceremony will begin at 10:30 at the flagpole this Monday. The keynote speaker will be Larry Cappetto, a veteran historian, filmmaker and storyteller who has worked to preserve the voices and experiences of America’s veterans.
The equally historic Claquato Church, which recently has received a new roof and other historic preservation work under ownership of the cemetery board, will be open for visits and tours all Memorial Day weekend from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. with the classic American theme of “Honoring the Past. Celebrating Faith. Welcoming All.”
That’s a good philosophy. None of us will be here in 250 years, but let’s hope, pray and work to ensure that an America with that spirit survives, thrives and lives when our nation’s 500th birthday arrives.
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Brian Mittge is a community enthusiast who has written for The Chronicle since 2000 as a reporter, editor and columnist. He can be reached at brianmittge@hotmail.com.
