Nicholas Delin first arrived at the Puget Sound in 1851, after spending the previous year in Portland, and the year before that in Massachusetts. Whatever he was searching for, he seemed to find in Olympia, because it was there that he began to gain recognition for his lumber work. However, Delin was not content to work someone else’s mill for long, and quickly found backers for the construction of a mill at Commencement Bay. The site of that mill is now Tacoma’s Twenty-Fifth and Dock streets. Delin did all of the work himself except for the three days he had the assistance of Sam McCaw, a nearby Irishman who owned a team of oxen. Mr. Delin also built his own house to the south of the mill.Delin’s Mill turned Commencement Bay into a port of call for ships moving down the west coast, even though he only employed a few other helpers, and took six months to make a full shipload. The mill also attracted new settlers who brought him logs in exchange for lumber. In 1853, the first party to make it over the Cascades arrived, with thirty-four wagons and 171 people. Only two wagons had been lost during the passage, when oxen were slaughtered for ropes to lower the other wagons down a cliff.The growing community brought a wife for Delinyoung Gertrude Mellerand the first real European presence on the south side of the bay. Other industries grew up in the wake of the mill, including farming, barrel making, and fish-packing. However, the Indian War of 1855-1856 brought an end to Delin’s Mill and the thriving community around it, when the residents were forced to abandon it. However, the first foothold had been made, and in 1864, postmaster and civil war veteran would return to the area. He later sold it to developer Morton McCarver, who named his new real estate Tacoma City.