1915: Ed “Patriarch” Clayson, advocate for Chinuk Wawa

A Settler with an interesting back story was remembered, in large part, for his advocacy of Chinook Jargon!

Image credit: The Muck Rake

Edward Clayson, Sr., has shown up on my website a number of times. He was a veteran of the Crimean War, he published a cranky newspaper called The Patriarch, and he was a mover and shaker behind Seattle’s big city party, the Golden Potlatch. But he also stood out in people’s minds for his post-frontier promotion of the Jargon:

Mr. Clayson, who took up a perma- nent residence at Seabeck, in the state of Washington, forty-nine years gao [ago], had done more to per[pe]tuate the Chinook jargon than any other Wash- ington pioneer. He repeatedly made public addresses in that language, and urged its wider use throughout the Northwest. “Cumtux,” Chinook for “do you understand?” was his favor- ite expression.

— from “Veteran Author Honored by Royalty”, in the Cordova (AK) Daily Times of January 1 ,1915, page 3, column 5 It’s good to know someone was speaking up for Chinook Jargon as it was entering a time of decline.

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