The Klickitat County Agriculturist, Goldendale, WA., August 5, 1921, page 3

FILED ON LANDS IN 1858

     Alonzo H. Curtiss, father of Leon W. Curtiss, was one of the early settlers of The Dalles, and the earliest resident of Klickitat county, coming west in 1854 from Ohio.
     On April 21, 1854, he left New York to come to Oregon, by way of Panama. After crossing the Isthmus, the company spent several weeks in San Francisco, and then sailed for Portland, arriving June 22, 1854.
     A writer in The Dalles Chronicle, from which the above is taken, then proceeds.
     In 1858 he filed on the land across the river; this was six years before the organization of Klickitat county. He had built a number of the early buildings of The Dalles. The "What Cheer House," one of the early hotels, was owned by Mr. Curtis.
     On November 25, 1858, he started to Illinois to be married. He went by boat to San Francisco, by stage to Los Angeles, and then by stage across the plains.
     He arrived at Hillsboro, Illinois, his destination, on Jan. 10, and there he was married to Lizzie Gould. Mr. Curtiss had found the return trip east so tedious that he returned by the Panama route.
     The land across the Columbia from The Dalles, was devoted to stock raising. This first claim was added to until he had acquired 4000 acres.
     Upon the organization of Klickitat county in 1864, which covered a large area, it was found that because of the unsettled condition, the only logical location for the county seat was across the river from The Dalles. It was called Rockland, and the court house, which was torn down sometime between 1896 and 1898, stood upon a rocky eminence straight across the river.
     The county seat was moved to Goldendale in 1878, to be more centrally located.

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©  Jeffrey L. Elmer