An historic voting roll

The list of names below is historic in two ways: big and gigantic.

It was big because it's the voting roll for the first vote on land that would eventually become Washington State. On the evening of November 24, 1805, Captains Lewis and Clark polled the members of their expedition on the matter of where the winter camp should be. They decided to examine the south side of the Columbia River (eventually settling on Fort Clatsop near modern Astoria), but the actual vote was held on the north side of the river at 'Station Camp' near modern community of Megler, Washington.

It was gigantic because of the last two people on the list. York, a black slave, and Janey, better known to us as Sacagawea, were invited to vote with the other men of the expedition. Since the military expedition was officially sanctioned by the United States government and Lewis and Clark were the de facto executives on site, this vote was significant. The votes of York and Janey were the first official votes cast by an African American or a woman in American history.

And it happened on Washington soil 201 years ago today.

Sergt J. Ordway
Serjt. N. Pryor
Sgt. P. Gass
Jo. Shields
Go. Shannon
T. P. Howard
P. Wiser
J. Collins
Jo Fields
Al. Willard
R Willard
J. Potts
R. Frasure
Wm. Bratten
R. Fields
J: B: Thompson
J. Colter
H. Hall
Labeech
Peter Crusatte
J. B. Depage
Shabono
S. Guterich
W. Werner
Go: Gibson
Jos. Whitehouse
Geo Drewyer
McNeal
York
Janey