 In 1872 at the age of 19, his family moved to the Snoqualmie Valley where William took a cooks assistant job at the Newcastle Coal Mine cookhouse, near Issaquah.Later, he relocated to Fall City to help clear land and worked as logger near the mouth of the Skykomish River.Like most pioneers, he found work wherever he could and later returned to the upper Snoqualmie Valley to work as cabin builder, logger and general laborer for Lucinda Fares and her uncle Jeremiah Borst, known as the "Father of the Snoqualmie Valley".