sentences:  In 1852, Olympia became the county seat of the newly organized Thurston County which at the time was still part of Oregon Territory.In about 1853, Ezra Meeker says that Olympia contained about 100 inhabitants; it had 3 stores, a hotel, a livery stable, a saloon, and a weekly newspaper called The Columbian, which was in its 30th publish.By the early 1850s American settlers began agitating to separate the area north of the Columbia River from Oregon Territory.