Our travels were taking us towards a town called Boistfort. Unfortunately we never got to see the town. If there even was one anymore.

Boistfort was a town we’d never heard of, and when we got back home I Google’d it and found this:

This western Lewis County community has a French name meaning “a small valley surrounded by green hills.” An easier way to pronounce it was Baw Faw. To complicate matters even more, it is on Boistfort Road, spelled with a t. Evidently usage has dropped the hard-to-pronounce letter t. But notice that the Yahoo map retains the letter t in their spelling.

The Government Road connected Vancouver and Tacoma. Several churches were built on this route including Castle Rock and Centralia. After some clearing, Boistfort Valley is about two miles wide and 14 miles long.

Key pioneer families with a Christian Church heritage were the Charles F. Whites, the George Buchanans and the Turner R. Roundtrees. The White family had arrived from Peoria, Illinois in the spring of 1852; the others settled at Boistfort the following year.

The Christian Church was organized in 1863 and met in homes and the school house. It apparentlly did not have its own building, but did meet frequently at the Boistfort church building after it was built in 1888.

Edward Harris
The first preacher was probably Edward Harris. He had arrived in the area in 1866 and married Mary, the recent widow of Martin D. Roundtree, son of pioneer T. R. Roundtree.

The Disciples Year Book of 1892 lists 25 members at Boistfort. Disciples historian Peterson also included Boistfort in his 1897 listing of churches.

A report appeared written by U. L. Harmon of Chehalis to the Christian Standard of 1893:

Chehalis, Sept. 28. — At a meeting recently held at Boistfort, Lewis County, Washington by Elders Tinley and Boyles, 18 persons were added to the church. The elders, who had formerly served but resigned, were selected again to serve the congregation. The meeting was a splendid success.
Circuit-riding Judson Brown included “Baw Faw” on his monthly preaching rounds during 1900.

It appears that two gospel preachers shared the name of Judson Brown. Mr. Brown in this story was single and based at Winlock, Washington. He was born in Missouri, according to the 1900 census.

Another Judson Brown preached in Michigan and Idaho. He was born in Canada and entered the United States about 1877. He later retired in Colorado with his 37-year-old unmarried daughter. He told the census taker that he was a widower. This Mr. Brown had attended Bethany College is West Virginia.

The Boistfort church probably dissolved as the families moved to Centralia and other larger communities.

Historical background for this section came from the 42 page book Baw Faw written in 1976 by Bernice Sweany Roundtree Dawley, granddaughter of Edward Harris.

Fascinating stuff that, yeah? As Nolemana and I drove to the next comparable sale, we ended up here, at the Boistfort Cemetery, which was established in 1890. It was small kine raining, but that didn’t stop us from getting out of the car to explore the little cemetery.

As usual, we walked around the cemetery, as we did, silently said “mahalo nui” to the brave men and women who protected our country in times of war.

This gravestone I particularly loved. The front was wonderful…

…and the back was even better, even though it was very sad. Carl was only thirteen years old when he died.

These ones looked at home next to the old shed in the background.

This one had an old gazing ball or maybe it was just a decoration on top of it.

This one wen gimme wai maka too. Only three months old, and he died.

There was another tall gravestone.

It was getting colder, windier, and rainier so we reluctantly left and got back on the road. I grumbled when we came to more clear cutting.

Ditto.

Ahahahaha… I have absolutely no idea why we took this photo! Furthermore, I have no idea why Iʻm even including it here!

Yet in other places there were signs of new growth.

The trees were starting to turn. Here in the Pacific Northwest, even some of the oak trees lose their leaves. Sorry foa da blurry.

Okay, whydaheck did we take this photo? Cuz I love Montana, thatʻs why. Heh heh.

Some of the nearby residents fashioned their own Burma Shave-like signs. Ho da kewt! Donʻt know about Burma Shave signs? Wat? U stay too young? Too bad… u wen miss a lot! Sorry some are blurry.. hard to photograph when weʻre driving.

Next:

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Final:

And, for your viewing pleasure:

For Kikue, hereʻs another photo of that magnificent hale:

As we drove to the next comp, we saw some bison in somebodyʻs yard.

Actually, after seeing the bison in Yellowstone roaming free, it made me kinda sad to see these ones all cooped up.

Somehow it just didn’t seem quite right.

This guy stared right at us.

Then he looked away.

And went back to looking for something to munch on.

When we do appraisals in daboonies, we frequently have to backtrack a little bit. Now we found ourselves next to the river again.

I can never get enough of water. My eyes search it out wherever we go.

Next time, gonna have a shaka video for you!