An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 4

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524

USA > Idaho > Kootenai County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 4
USA > Idaho > Nez Perce County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 4
USA > Idaho > Shoshone County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 4
USA > Idaho > Latah County > An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho > Part 4

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

11.47

Horst, Elias E.

II20

Horton, Abraham P I202

Hovey, George E. 1069

Huckelberry, Charles II49

Hunt, Robert W 1163

Hunt, Charles D. I166

Hunt, Thomas W 1166

Ihrig, Henry 1131

Jacobs, Jerome F. . 1075

Jameson, Ralph R. II22

Jameson, Theodore F. I202

Jenkins, Benjamin E.

1177

Johnson, Charles M.

II27

Johnson, Frank F. I201

Johnson, John B. 1080

Jones, Charles H. 1105

Jones, Christian D 1100

Jones, Henry A. I199

Jones, O. D.

1082

Jones, Walter A. 1077

Kcane, Patrick II35

Kelly, Fred. H ... 1068

Kelly, Robert S. 1193

Kendall, Joseph B. I172

Kingsbury, Roy H. 1084

Lafavre, Charles A .1159

Landes. Clarence C.

II35

Landon, Wellington II26

Larson, Joseph N. II27

Lehman, Abraham L 1081

Leonard, James II04

Lesher, George S. TI.44

Linn, Ole H III2

Linn, Samuel H 1160

Lockman, Jacob 1086

Lyle, James III7

Maler, Michael .1086

Maitland, George A 1153

Mallon, Carl H. IO7I

Manley, Charles .1153

Markwell, Frank P. 1090

Markwell, J. Fred.

Markwell, Sylvester

Marshall, Angus D. 1071

Massing, E. Albert .II29

Matchette. Franklin P. I194

Matthew, Edward R

1158

Mays, C. W

1109

McDougall, William

1185

McEachern, Daniel

1168

McGillivray, Ally III3

McKinnis, George

McKissick, David C.

Mcleod, Roderick J

1100

Melroy, Charles II37

Hansen, John H. III4 Metz, John F. ITO8 Simmonds, Thomas H 1186

Miller, William R 1076

Moe, William K .. .1090

Moffitt. Edward H. . 1093

Molloy, John T JI5I

II78

IOS7

,1090

1089

I198

Penney, Norton R.

1108

PAGE

xxviii

INDEX.

PAGE

Smith, Andrew T. .1150

Tahor, Jesse W.

1203

Ward, Harry P. .1074

Smith, Clarence P. II76

Talbot, Charles H.

II.40

Warren, Aaron S.

1180

Smith, Edwin. 1156

Taylor, James H. . 1081

Watkins, Amos . .

. 1135

Smith, Frank 1165

Taylor, Marshall M1

1077

Weber, Philip P.

1198

Smith, Frank S.

.1164

Teats, Mrs. Mary E. 1195

Wentz, Charles H.

.1165

Smith, Paul F.

1083

Thomas, Thomas C. 1166

White, John P

1175

Smith, William H.

.1076

Thomas, James O 1185

White, Michael

1156

Snyder, Samson, Jr. 1161

Thorkelson, Gilbert III7

Wilkinson, William P.

1158

Squance, Annie. 1099

Thyne, John 1183

Wilkinson, Winfield S.

.1159

Stedman, Louie W 1160

Tibbals, Frank M. 1154

Williams, Charles H.

1125

Stenzel, Charles 1133

Toner, John J. I199

Wilson, Thomas

1128

Stevens, Joseph F. 1190

Toner, Richard T. I200

Wilson, William P.

1125

St. Germain, Israel

III6

Tucker, Leroy. 1163

Wimer, John W.

1080

St. Jean, Joseph E.

1092

Tupper. Howard T .11.12

Wittner, Nathan

1074

Wood, George A

1177

· Stonebreaker, Edward G. 1163

Stringam, Benjamin F 1077

Strode, Amos M. II36

Stuart, Robert C .. 1069

1142

Van Derwerken, Emmet L. 1170

Wright, Thomas I188

Swan, Axel 1073

Sweet, Lewis L. 1067

Swicegood, William R. 1075

Swinerton, William P.

.1173

Ward, Andrew B. .1175

Zeitfuchs, Emil

1088

SHOSHONE COUNTY PORTRAITS.

PAGE

Amonson, Carl.

.1132

Gaffney, Frank. .1006

Nordquist, John H. .1072

Anderson, Ole A.

. 1128

Gaffney, Jolın J. .1096

Greer, John. 1096

Pascoe, Richard H. .II20

Bennett, Charles E. III2

Brady, J. A. 1072

Hammond, Edward 1096

Reed, Thomas B II46

Hansen, John H. III2

Reeves, Charles H .. .1088

Cowen, Israel B. 1065

Horst, Elias E. II20

Saling, Francis M. .1072

Day, Henry L. 1080

Leonard. James II04

Linn, Ole H. III2

Schill, Charles .1152

Schue, Peter III2

Edmonson, Frank M. III2

Skonnord. Bernt O. 1152

Flink, John W

. III2

Maitland, George A 1152

Myers, William H. 1168

Tilsley, John H. 1120

Furst, John C. II20

McGillivray. Ally III2

Steadman, Louie W 1160

Cardoner, Damian 11.36

Heller, Mrs. Eliza. II20

Richardson, Harry M. III2

Saling, Mrs. Francis MI. .1072

1078

Stevens, Fred A. 1173

St. Jean, Leopold J .. 1095

Turk, Engelbert 1093

Turner, William R. 1100

Wood, John C. 1108

Wood, Lyman II07

Van Allen, John F 1188

Wright, Edward H. IIOI

Vance, Charles W. 1183

Wright, Jesse T. 1096

Swails, Ethelbert W

Wadsworth, William B. II61

Young, Peter 1124

Walton, Fred W . 1095

PAGE

Peterson, Guis III2

Tilstey, John H. 1120

Wilmot, Andrew

INTRODUCTORY

The opening of a new century is a fitting time to cast a backward glance in our local history, reconstruct to the eye of the present the interesting and heroic events of the past and by comparison between past and present forecast something of the future.

Hardly could our task be accomplished without some reference, even though it must be brief and frag- mentary, to the old Oregon territory, of which the counties of northern Idaho were once parts. It had a strange history. It was the ignis fatuus of successive generations of explorers, luring them on with that in- describable fascination which seemed always to drawn men to the ever receding circle of the "westmost west," and yet for years and years veiling itself in the mists of uncertainty and misapprehension.

We do not usually realize how soon after the time of Columbus there began to be attempts to reach the western ocean and solve the mystery of the various passages, northwest, southwest, and west, which were supposed to lead through the Americas to Asia. The old navigators had little conception of the breadth of this continent. They thought it to be but a few leagues across, and took for granted that some of the many arms of the sea would lead them through to another ocean that would wash the Asiatic shores.

In 1500, only eight years after Columbus, Gasper Cortereal, the Portuguese, conceived the idea of entering what afterward became known as Hudson's Bay and proceeding thence westward through what he called the strait of Anian.

That mythical strait of Anian seems to have had a strange charm for the old navigators. One of them, Maldonado, a good many years later, gave a very con- nected and apparently veracious account of his journey through that strait, averring that through it he reached another ocean in latitude seventy-five degrees. But by means of Magellan's straits and the doubling of stormy Cape Horn, a connection between the two oceans was actually discovered in 1519.

In 1543 Ferrelo, a Spaniard, coasted along the shores of California, and was doubtless the first white man to gaze on the coast of Oregon, probably somewhere in the vicinity of the month of the Umpqua river.

In 1577 that boldest and most picturesque of all English sailors and freebooters, Francis Drake, started

on the marvelous voyage by which he plundered the treasures of the Spanish main, cut the golden girdle of Manila, Queen of the treasures of the Spanish orient, skirted the coast of California and Oregon, and at last circumnavigated the globe.

But in 1592, just one hundred years after Colum- bus, comes the most picturesque of all these misty stories which enwrap the early history of Oregon. This is the story of Jaun de Fuca, whose name is now pre- served in our northwest boundary strait. According to this romantic tale of the seas, Jaun de Fuca was a Greek of Cephalonia, whose real name was Apostolos Valerianos, and under commission of the king of Spain he sailed to find the strait of Anian, whose entrance the Spaniards wanted to fortify and guard so as to pre- vent ingress or egress by the English freebooters who were preying upon their commerce. According to the account given by Michael Lock, "he followed his course, in that voyage, west and northwest in the South sea, all along the coast of Nova Spania and California and the Indies, now called North America (all of which voyage he signified to me in a great map, and a sea- card of my own, which I laid before him), until he came to the latitude of forty-seven degrees ; and that there finding that the land trended north and north- west, with a broad inlet of sea, between forty-seven and fortv-eight degrees of latitude, he entered thereinto, sailing more than twenty days, and found that land still trending northwest, and northeast and north, and also east and southeastward, and very much broader sea than it was at the said entrance, and that he passed by divers islands in that sailing : and that, at the en- trance of the said strait, there is, on the northwest coast thereof, a great headland or island, with an exceeding high pinnacle of spired rock, like a pillar, thereupon. Also he said that he went on land in divers places, and that he saw some people on the land clad in beasts' skins : and that the land was very fruitful and rich of gold. silver and pearls and other things, like Nova Spania. Also he said that he being entered thus far into the said strait, and being come into the North sea already, and finding the sea wide enough everywhere, and to be about thirty or forty leagues wide in the mouth of the straits where he entered, he thought he had now well discharged his office ; and that not being

HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO.

armed to resist the force of savage people that miglit happen, he therefore set sail and turned homeward again toward Nova Spania, where he arrived in Aca- pulco, anno 1592, hoping to be rewarded by the viceroy for this service done in the said voyage."

This curious bit of past record has been interpreted by some as pure myth, and by others as veritable his- tory. It is at any rate a generally accurate outline de- scriptive of the straits of Fuca, the gulf of Georgia and the shores of Vancouver Island and the mainland ad- joining. And whether or not the old Greek pilot did actually exist and first look on our "Mediterranean of the Pacific," it is pleasant to imagine that he did and that his name fittingly preserves the memory of the grand old myth of Anian and the northwest pasage.

There is one other more obviously mythical tale concerning our frontier coast. It is said that in the year 1640 Admiral Pedro de Fonte, of the Spanish ma- rine, made the journey from the Atlantic to the Pacific and return through a system of rivers and straits, en- tering the coast at about latitude fifty-three degrees. Coming from Callao in April, 1640, and after having sailed for a long distance through an archipelago, he entered the mouth of a vast river, which he named Rio de Los Reyes. Ascending this for a long distance north- easterly he reached an immense lake, on whose shores he found a wealthy civilized nation, who had a capital city of great splendor called Conasset, and who wel- comed the strangers with lavish hospitality. From this lake flowed another river easterly, and down this Fonte descended until he reached another great lake, from which a narrow strait led into the Atlantic ocean.

There is one curious thing about these legendary voyages and that is the general accuracy of their de- scription of the coast. Although these accounts are unquestionably mythical, it is not impossible that their authors had actually visited the coast or had seen those who had, and thus gathered the material from which they fabricated, with such an appearance of plausi- bility, their Munchausen tales.

We are briefly referring to these fascinating old legends. not for the purpose of discussing them here at any length, but rather to remind the reader of the long period of romance and myth which enveloped the early history of the northwest of which out state forms a part. Many years passed after the age of myth be- fore there were authentic voages. During the seven- teenth century practically nothing was done in the way of Pacific coast exploration. But in the eighteenth, as by common consent, all the nations of Europe became suddenly infatuated again with the thought that on the western shores of America might be found the gold and silver and gems and furs and precious woods for which they had been striving so desperately upon the eastern coast. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Russian and Americans entered their bold and hardy sailors into the race for the possession of the land of the occident. The Russians were the first in the field. That gigantic power which the genius of Peter the Great, like one of the fabled genii, had suddenly trans- formed from the proportions of a grain of sand to a figure overtopping the whole earth, had stretched its

arnts from the Baltic to the Aleutian archepelago, and had looked southward acress the frozen seas of Siberia to the open Pacific as offering them another opportunity of expansion. Many years passed, however, before Peter's designs could be executed. It was 1728 when Vitus Behring entered upon his marvelous life of ex- ploration. Not until 1741, however, did he thread the thousand islands of Alaska and gaze upon the glaciated summit of Mt. Elias. And it was not until thirty years later that it was known that the Bay of Avatscha in Siberia was connected by open sea with China. In 1771 the first cargo of furs was taken directly from Avatscha, the chief port of eastern Siberia, to Canton. Then first Europe realized the vastness of the Pacific ocean. Then it understood that the same waters which frowned against the frozen bulwarks of Kamtchatka washed the tropic islands of the South seas and foamed against the storm-swept rocks of Cape Horn.

Meantime, while Russia was thus becoming estab- lished upon the shores of Alaska, Spain was getting entire possession of California. These two great nations began to overlap each other. Russians became estab- lished near San Francisco. To offset this movement of Russia, a group of Spanish explorers, Perez, Mar- tinez, Heceta, Bodega and Maurella, swarmed up the coast beyond the present site of Sitka.

England, in alarm at the progress made by Spain and Russia. sent out the Columbus of the eighteenth century, in the person of Captain James Cook. and he sailed up and down the coast of Alaska and of Wash- ington, but failed to discover either the Columbia river or the straits of Fuca. His labors, however, did more to establish true geographical notions than had the combined efforts of all the Spanish navigators who had preceded him. His voyages materially strengthened England's claim to Oregon, and added greatly to the luster of her name. The great captain, while tempo- rarily on shore, was killed byIndians, in 1778, and the command devolved upon Captain Clark, who sailed northward, passing through Behring strait to the Arctic ocean. The new commander died before the expedition had proceeded far on its return journey; Lieutenant Gore, a Virginian, assumed control and sailed to Canton, China, ariving late in the year.

The main purposes of this expedition had been the discovery of a northern waterway between the two oceans and the extending of British territory, but, as is so often the case in human affairs, one of the most important results of the voyage was entirely unsus- pected by the navigators and practically the outcome of an accident. It so happened that the two vessels of the expedition, the Revolution and the Discovery, took with them to China a small collection of furs from the northwest coast of America. These were purchased by the Chinese with great avidity, the people exhibiting a willingness to barter commodities of much value for them and endeavoring to secure them at almost any sacrifice. The sailors were not backward in communi- cating their discovery of a new and promising market for peltries, and the impetus imparted to the fur trade was almost immeasurable in its ultimate effects. An entirely new regime was inaugurated in Chinese and

HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO.

East India commerce. The northwest coast of Amer- ica assumed a new importance in the eyes of Europeans, and especially of the British. The "struggle for pos- session" soon began to be foreshadowed.

One of the prnicipal harbors resorted to by the fur-trading vessels was Nootka, used as a rendezvous and principal port of departure. This port became the scene of a clash between Spanish authorities and cer- tain British vessels which greatly strained the friendly relations existing between the two governments repre- sented. In 1779 the viceroy of Mexico sent two ships, the Princess and San Carlos, to convey Martinez and De Haro to the vicinity for the purpose of anticipating and preventing the occupancy of Nootka sound by fur traders of other nations and that the Spanish title to the territory might be maintained and confirmed. Mar- tinez was to base his claim upon the discovery by Perez in 1774. Courtesy was to be extended to foreign vessels, but the establishment of any claim prejudicial to the right of the Spanish crown was to be vigorously resisted.

Upon the arrival of Martinez in the harbor, it was discovered that the American vessel Columbia, and the Iphigenia, a British vessel, under a Portuguese flag. were lying in the harbor. Martinez at once demanded the papers of both vessels and an explanation of their presence, vigorously asserting the claim of Spain that the port and contiguous territory were hers. The Cap- tain of the Iphigenia pleaded stress of weather. On finding that the vessel's papers commanded the cap- ture, under certain conditions, of Russian, Spanish or English vessels, Martinez seized the ship, but on being advised that the orders relating to captures were in- tended only to apply to the defense of the vessel, the Spaniard released the Iphigenia and her cargo. The Northwest America, another vessel of the same expedi- tion, was, however, seized by Martinez a little later.

It should be remembered that these British vessels had in the inception of the enterprise divested them- seives of their true national character and donned the insignia of Portugal. their reasons being: First, to de- fraud the Chinese government, which made special harbor rates to the Portuguese, and, second, to defraud the East India Company, to whom had been granted the right of trading in furs in Northwest America to the exclusion of all other British subjects, except such as should obtain the permission of the company. To maintain their Portuguese nationality they had placed the expedition nominally under the control of Jaun Cavalho, a Portuguese trader. Prior to the time of the trouble in Nootka, however, Cavalho had become a bankrupt and new arrangements had become necessary. The English traders were compelled to unite their in- terests with those of King George's Sound Company, a mercantile association operating under license from the South Sea and East India Companies, the Portu- guese colors had been laid aside and the true national character of the expedition assumed. Captain Colnutt was placed in command of the enterprise as constituted under the new regime, with instructions, among other things, "to establish a factory to be called Fort Pitt, for the purpose of permanent settlement, and as a center of

trade around which other stations may be established."

One vessel of the expedition, the Princess Royal, entered Nootka harbor without molestation, but when the Argonaut. under command of Captain Colnutt, ar- rived, it was thought best by the master not to attempt an entrance to the bay lest his vessel should meet the same fate which had befallen the Iphigenia and the Northwest America. Later Colnutt called on Mar- tinez and informed the Spanish governor of his inten- tion to take possession of the country in the name of Great Britain and to erect a fort. The governor re- plied that possession had already been taken in the name of his Catholic Majesty and that such acts as he (Colnutt) contemplated could not be allowed. An altercation followed and the next day the Argonaut was seized and her captain and crew placed under ar- rest. The Princess Roval was also seized, though the American vessels in the harbor were in no way mo- lested.

After an extended and at times heated controversy between Spain and Great Britain touching these seiz- ures, the former government consented to make repar- ation and offered a suitable apology for the indignity to the honor of the flag. The feature of this corres- pondence of greatest import in the future history of the territory affected is that throughout the entire con- troversy in all the messages and debates of parliament. no word was spoken asserting a claim of Great Britain to any territorial rights or denying the claim of sov- ereignty so positively and persistently avowed by Spain, neither was Spanish sovereignty denied or in any way alienated by the treaty which followed. Certain real property was restored to British subjects, but a trans- fer of realty is not a transfer of sovereignty.

We pass over the voyage of the illustrious French navigator. La Perouse. as of more importance from a scientific than a political standpoint ; neither can we dwell upon the explorations of Captain Berkley, to whom belongs the honor of having ascertained the existence of the strait afterward denominated Jaun de Fuca. Of somewhat greater moment in the later history of the northwest are the voyages of Meares, who entered and described the above mentioned strait, and who, in 1788, explored the coast at the point where the great Columbia mingles its crystal current with the waters of the sea. In the diplomatic battle of later days it was even claimed by some that he was the discover of that great "River of the West." Howbeit, nothing can be surer than that the existence of such a river was utterly unknown to him at the time. Indeed his con- viction of its non-existence was thus stated in his own account of the voyage : "We can now with safety assert that there is no such river as the St. Roc ( of the Span- iard, Heceta) exists, as laid down in the Spanish charts," and he gave a further unequivocal expression of his opinion by naming the bay in that vicinity De- ception Bay and the promontory north of it Cape Dis- appointment. "Disappointed and deceived." remarks Evans facetiously, "he continued his cruise southward to latitude forty-five degrees north."

It is not without sentiments of patriotic pride that we now turn our attention to a period of discovery in

HISTORY OF NORTH IDAHO.

which the vessels of our own nation played a prominent part. The northern mystery, which had been partially resolved by the Spanish, English, French and Portu- guese explorations. was now to be completely robbed of its mystic charm, speculation and myth must now give place to exact knowledge, the game of discovery must hereafter be played principally between the two branches of the Anglo-Saxon race, and Anglo-Saxon energy, thoroughness and zeal are henceforth to char- acterize operations on the shores of the Pacific north- west. The United States had but recently won their independence from the British crown and their ener- gies were finding a fit field of activity in the titanic task of national organization. Before the constitution had become the supreme law of the land, however, the alert mind of the American had begun projecting voy- ages of discovery and trade to the northwest, and in September, 1788, two vessels with the stars and stripes at their mastheads arrived at Nootka sound. Their presence in the harbor while the events cul- minating in the Nootka treaty were transpiring has already been alluded to. The vessels were the ship Columbia, Captain John Kendrick, and the sloop Washington, Captain Robert Gray, and the honor of having sent them to our shores belongs to one Joseph Barrel, a prominent merchant of Boston, and a man of high social standing and great influence. While one of the impelling motives of his enterprise had been the desire of commercial profit, the element of patriotism was not wholly lacking, and the vessels were instructed to make what explorations and discoveries they might.

After remaining a time on the coast, Captain Ken- drick transferred his ship's property to the Washing- ton, with the intention of taking a cruise in that vessel. He placed Captain Gray in command of the Columbia with instructions to return to Boston by way of the Sandwich Islands and China. This commission was successfully carried out. The vessel arrived in Boston in September, 1790, was received with great eclat, re- fitted by her owners and again dispatched to the shores of the Pacific with Captain Gray in command. In July, 1791, the Columbia, from Boston, and the Wash- ington, from China, met not far from the spot where they had separated nearly two years before. They were not to remain long in company, however, for Cap- tain Gray soon started on a cruise southward. On April 29, 1792, Gray met Vancouver just below Cape Flat- tery and an interesting colloquy took place. Van- couver communicated to the American skipper the fact that he had not vet made any important discover- eries, and Gray, with equal frankness, gave the emi- nent British explorer an account of his past discover- ies, "including," says Bancroft, "the fact that he had not sailed through Fuca straight in the Lady Washing- ton, as had been supposed from Meares' narrative and map." He also informed Captain Vancouver that he had been "off the mouth of a river in latitude forty- six degrees, ten minutes, where the outset, or reflux, was so strong as to prevent his entering for nine days."

The important information conveyed by Gray seems to have greatly disturbed the equipoise of Vancouver's

mind. The enteries in his log show that he did not en- tirely credit the statement of the American, but that he was considerably perturbed is evinced by the fact that he tries to convince himself by argument that Gray's statement could not have been correct. The latitude assigned by the American was that of Cape Disappointment, and the existence of a river mouth there, although affirmed by Heceta, had been denied by Meares : Captain Cook also had failed to find it ; be- sides, had he not himself passed that point two days be- fore and had he not observed that "if any inlet or river should be found it must be a very intricate one, and inaccessible to vessels of our burden, owing to the reefs and broken water which then appeared in its neighbor- hood." With such reasoning, he dismissed the matter from his mind for the time being. He continued his journey northward, passed through the straight of Fuca, and engaged in a thorough and minute explora- tion of that mighty inland sea, to a portion of which he gave the name Puget Sound.

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An illustrated history of north Idaho : embracing Nez Perces, Idaho, Latah, Kootenai and Shoshone counties, state of Idaho, Part 4

Author: Publication date: 1903 Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 1524

Author:
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: [S.l.] : Western Historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 1524