USA > Idaho > An illustrated history of the state of Idaho, containing a history of the state of Idaho from the earliest period of its discovery to the present time, together with glimpses of its auspicious future; illustrations and biographical mention of many pioneers and prominent citizens of to-day > Part 65
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In 1872 the first mail route was established in this section and the post-office was situated about one mile east of Moscow and called Paradise post-office. The mail was then carried from Lewiston on horse- back by Major Winpey. In May, 1875. Mr. Lieuallen, at the urgent request of his neighbors, decided to establish a little store at some convenient point and having purchased from John Neff that tract of land extending westward from the present Main street for one-half mile, he erected a little one-story building on the vacant lot just north of Kelley's jewelry store, laid in a small stock of merchandise and christened the embryo village, and thus Moscow was started on the road to future prosperity. He hauled his goods from Walla Walla, then the nearest railroad point, and that was reached only by Dr. Baker's "rawhide road." Two ordinary wagon-boxes would have held his entire stock in the store, but the prevailing prices made up -
Moscow, Looking Northward from State University Grounds.
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in size for the smallness of the stock. Five pounds of flour sold for one dollar, brown sugar was fifty cents per pound, common butts and screws were fifty cents per pair and everything else in proportion. But at Lewiston prices were infinitely worse. Some of our older settlers will remember paying C. C. Bunnell one dollar for one-half a joint of stovepipe, although a whole joint could be bought for fifty cents. He charged fifty cents for cutting it and had half left. In 1877 the post-office was moved to Moscow and located in a little shed in the rear of Lieuallen's store, he becoming Moscow's first postmaster. The office furniture consisted of a boot-box, about the size of a half-bushel, which Postmaster Lieuallen used as a receptacle for the mail. This box is still preserved as one of the relics of the early history of Moscow. About this time John Benjamin, now at Kendrick, Idaho, put up a little "shack" and opened a black- smith shop, and a little box house was torn down and moved over from the former Paradise post-office and put up on a little knoll which was just back of Zumhoff & Collins' present blacksmith shop. This was afterward remodeled and moved on to William Hunter's lot adjoining I. C. Hattabaugh's. The only other building the village contained was an old log barn, which may yet be seen standing, just south of the fair grounds, on the John Niemeyer place. In June, 1877, came the Joseph Indian war. At the first alarm the settlers with their families sought safety in temporary forts and stockades that were hastily constructed as a protection against the raids of the
treacherous redskins. Moscow's first stockade was built near the residence formerly occupied by J. S. Howard, who died in the early '8os. The permanent stockade was built where part of Moscow now stands, back of the residence of John Russell and now the residence of Mrs. Julia A. Moore. The stockade was built out of logs from six to ten inches in diameter, set on end in the ground close together. They were hauled from the mountains six miles distant and at a time when it was taking a man's life in his hands to make a trip. These old posts may yet be seen along the road to the south of the Moore residence. Here about thirty settlers and their families spent many anxious days and nights. The greatest danger was from the Coeur d'Alcne Indians of the north joining their forces with those of the wily leader of the Nez Perces and making a raid on the settlers, who were very poorly supplied with arms and more poorly supplied with ammunition. But through the efforts of their chief, who was always peace- ably disposed toward the whites, and the timely assistance of the good Father Cataldo, the mission priest, they were held in check. In the meantime the United States troops and volunteers pressed the hos- tile Joseph and his warriors so hard that they re- treated across the old Lo-Lo trail to Montana, where they were finally captured. The very scarcity of set- tlers in this section caused the savages to turn their
attention southward toward Grangeville and Mount Idaho, where there were more scalps and plunder to bc obtained. By way of digression one little incident of this war may be mentioned, as it concerns one of the most estimable ladies of Moscow who was also one of our earliest pioneers. Herself, husband and little child, a boy about ten years of age, and another settler and family were fleeing from near the south- ern portion of the county to Mount Idaho for a place of safety. En route they were surrounded by a band of the bloodthirsty cut-throats and at the first fire her hus- band fell, mortally wounded. Calling his little son to his side he told him to slip away if possible and go for assistance. The little fellow succeeded in elud- ing the savages and made his way to Mount Idaho, thirty miles distant. Early next morning a score of avenging settlers arrived at the scene of the fight, but too late except to succor his mother, who had been shot through both limbs and left for dead; the others had all been killed. Tenderly she was conveyed to the settlement and in time recovered from her wounds. She has since married and Mrs. Eph. Bunker is known and respected by all. Her little boy is now a man, and who is better known to the boys who call him friend than Hill Norton?
The first sawmill in the Paradise valley was about six miles northeast of Moscow, owned by Stewart & Beach, but it was soon moved away. Just at the close of the Nez Perce war, R. H. Barton, our pres- ent efficient postmaster, arrived in the Palouse coun- try, bringing with him a portable sawmill, which he hauled all the way from Corine, Utah, with an ox team. He settled in the foot-hills. six miles east of Moscow and here, together with S. J. Langdon and Jack Kump, succeeded, after many difficulties, in man- ufacturing lumber late in the fall of 1878.
In the meantime Hi. Epperly bought out the inter- est of Kump who returned to Utah, and these three men continued in the business over two years, saw- ing all the lumber used in Moscow at that time, including the lumber used in building our first hotel, erected by Mr. Barton. On the same ground where stood the Barton House, afterward burned down, there now stands that magnificent structure known as "The Moscow."
By this time several had pitched their tents in Mos- cow, among them Curtis and Maguire, who had wan- dered here distributing eyeglasses among the mem- bers of our little community, collecting thereon their usual commission. Attracted by the many natural advantages of the locality, they built a little box house where the Moscow National Bank building now stands, and were ready for business. St. George Richards had also built on the lot just south of Miss Farris' millinery store, and kept a stock of drugs in the front room. The stock consisted principally of a barrel of old Bourbon and a few bottles of Hostet- ter's stomach bitters.
Early in the spring of the following year W. J.
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McConnell, our ex-governor, visited Moscow and, im- pressed with the richness of the country and its future possibilities, bought out Mr. Curtis and went into partnership with Mr. Maguire, under the firm name of McConnell, Maguire & Company. This new firm at once proceeded to erect a large and commo- dious store on the corner of Second and Main streets, where now stands the Moscow National Bank. The store was one hundred and twenty feet deep, with a thirty-foot frontage, and was stocked with fifty thou- sand dollars' worth of goods. The people in the sur- rounding country were greatly encouraged at the sight of this, at that time, mammoth store, and from that time on the town began to grow rapidly. When this store was complete, Moscow had the immense popu- lation of twenty-five. The news of the great store at Moscow spread everywhere and people from all parts of the Potlatch and Palouse country flocked to Moscow to do their trading, and it is no exaggera- tion to say that to no other men living in Moscow is the town so much indebted for its present size and flourishing condition as to ex-Governor McConnell and J. H. Maguire. Dr. H. B. Blake, Moscow's first physician, and the Rev. Dr. Taylor arrived during the year 1878, and James Shields and John Kanaley came in the fall. John Henry Warmouth had started a hotel on the present site of the U. S. Store, and also kept whisky for "medical purposes." Shields and Kanaley boarded with him; Splawn and How- ard had built a saloon where the Commercial Bank building now stands, and A. A. J. Frye had a small house on the present site of the Commercial Hotel, and "Hog" Clark kept a butcher shop on the lot now occupied by the drug store of Hodgins & Rees. They often amused themselves by shooting holes through the ceiling of Howard's saloon or taking a shot at the whisky bottles on the rude shelves, and by way of variation Scott Clark would proceed to paint the town red until someone would yell "Indians" when Clark would at once subside. The next sum- mer, that of 1879, there were but three families living in Moscow. R. H. Barton had moved to the north Palouse and engaged in the sawmill business with Jerry Biddison, leaving Dr. Reeder, Asbury Lieuallen and A. A. J. Frye to hold the fort. While Barton was living in Moscow, and before he went to the Palouse, he had been keeping boarders; Johnson's family had in the meantime come out from the east and were working with Biddison on the Palouse, and so when Barton went to Palouse to go into the sawmill he sent the Johnsons to Moscow to attend to the boarding house, which they did till the spring of 1880, when one morning Barton got up and found the dam had washed out and all his logs floated down the river to Palouse City. Being disgusted with the turn affairs had taken, he came back to Moscow and built the old Barton House and also a livery stable, where the handsome Skatteboe brick now stands. The old wooden building was moved back and became
a part of the Red Front stables. Moscow did not grow much during the summer of 1879. James Shields had gone into the implement business in a building later occupied by Kelly & Allen, and this was after- ward torn down to make room for the handsome brick in which the James Shields Company now have
their quarters. When he opened business he had in stock two wagons, half a dozen plows and a sec- ond-hand standing plow-coulter. Barton bought the coulter for what he would have to pay for a first- class breaking-plow nowadays and traded for one wagon which he in turn traded to Splawn for the house and lot adjoining his, being a portion of the ground now occupied by the Hotel Moscow. About this time C. & M. C. Moore built the Peerless, after- ward the Moscow, roller mill, which was located just west of the ball park and was destroyed by fire about four years ago. This, together with the noted McCon- nell & Maguire's store, gave the town a start, and it has been growing ever since, except in 1884. when Moscow became almost bankrupt, owing to the col- lapse of Villard and the failure to complete the rail- road into the growing city. Before this the residents of Moscow and vicinity had to go to Palouse City for flour, and of course that diverted from this place a great deal of trade that rightly belonged here.
People who come to our city to-day have but little conception of the hardships and difficulties which fell to the lot of the early settlers. All the grain had to be hauled to Wawawai and shipped by boat down the Snake river, and all other products had to be sent the same way. Freight rates were exorbitant and prices for grain were low, while everything brought in was almost worth its weight in money. Had this not been one of the richest and most productive coun- tries in the world, every one would have been bank- rupt. But Moscow continued to steadily increase in population and wealth till 1890, when her position as one of the leading cities of the state was assured. From that date to the summer of 1893 was witnessed a prosperous and growing city and a happy and con- tented people, and these three years will long be remembered as the time during which Moscow reached the high-water mark of prosperity. Everybody made money and everyone had money, and the volume of business transacted here during that period was enor- mous. Among the great business enterprises_which were rapidly building up fortunes for their owners at that time may be mentioned the elegantly furnished and palatial store of the McConnell-Maguire Company, who had built up a business which any Chicago or New York house might justly have been proud of; the magnificent establishment of Dernham & Kauf- mann, on the southeast corner of Main and Third, they carrying at that time a one hundred thousand dollar stock, the largest amount of goods in any store in the Palouse or Potlatch country; the mammoth business of the M. J. Shields Company, which taxed to its utmost capacity their three-story brick, with
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its one hundred and sixty foot frontage; this com- pany was also owner of the electric-light plant which lighted the city, the Moscow planing mill, which gave employment to fifty skilled mechanics, and was, besides, interested in five large grain warehouses outside of Moscow; and the Chicago Bargain House, an exclus- ive dry-goods store owned by Messrs. Creighton & Company who had just moved into their new and commodious quarters in the Skatteboe block. Many other lesser business houses and corporations, too numerous to mention at this point, were flourishing and all combined to make Moscow one of the wealthy cities of the northwest, and the wealthiest in Idaho. With individuals and with cities prosperity is no test of stability, and it was destined that Moscow should pass through the refining and crucial test of adver- sity, crop failures, and business depression before we could prove to the world and to ourselves that the superstructure we had reared was as solid and per- manent as the foundations laid by the pioneers of the '70s. In the fall of 1893 a long continued wet season caused almost the entire loss of our staple product, the wheat crop, and to make matters worse there was a complete demoralization in prices on all products. Wheat dropped from eighty-five cents per bushel to fifty cents, then down lower and lower till it seemed that it would be a drug on the market. Debtors were absolutely unable to meet their obliga- tions, the farmer had no money to pay his bills, the smaller concerns could not settle their accounts with the wholesale houses and money could not be bor- rowed, even though gilt-edge security was offered. The panic spread to large cities, and business houses of long standing and established credit toppled and fell into ruins, carrying with them many smaller firms. Banks everywhere were compelled to close their doors. In Portland there were seven bank failures recorded in one day. A number of our business houses were driven to the wall, but the most far reaching failure of all was that of one of our largest and most import- ant establishments, the McConnell-Maguire Company.
In 1894 and 1895 wheat was quoted in Moscow as low as twenty-three cents per bushel, and it seemed as though universal bankruptcy was inevitable, but the pendulum of adversity had reached the lowest point of its arc and slowly but steadily it swung onward and upward to better prices and better times, and we had time to draw a long breath and find out "where we were at." One fact patent to all was that, though some of our strongest props had crumbled and fallen, yet Moscow was still here, and, though tried in the crucible of hard times, had maintained her title as the Queen City of northern Idaho. In 1896 an abundant crop, with prices of our staple prod- uct touching seventy cents per bushel, brushed away the last traces of depression. Along all lines was seen unusual activity,-old debts were cancelled, old scores straightened up and new business houses opened and old ones enlarged their quarters. Moscow has truly
proven that, unspoiled by prosperity, she can, un- scathed, withstand the "slings and arrows" of adver- sity.
The county-seat of Latah, and with a population of five thousand, Moscow stands to-day the gem city of the northwest and is an educational center of unsur- passed facilities with her public schools and the Uni- versity of Idaho (described elsewhere in this volume). Nowhere in the northwest can be found a more thriv- ing town. Its location is favorable to its rapid growth and development, its site being both healthful and accessible to the surrounding country. The principal business center is on Main street. To stand at the north end of this principal street and look south with- out having a knowledge of the population of the city, one would think, judging from the palatial business brick buildings to be seen, that it might be a city of ten or fifteen thousand people.
Socially speaking, Moscow has no equal in the northwest, for it is a city of cultured ladies and beau- tiful, rosy-cheeked maidens. During the long winter months there is no dearth of amusements,-musicals, social dancing parties, theater parties, etc., follow each other in rapid succession, and the stranger within our walls is always sure of a pleasant time and a hearty welcome. There are to be seen here neither "finicky" cliques that make life a misery in many of the smaller cities nor the chilly exclusiveness to be found in a metropolis. Thus it may be seen that Moscow is a very desirable place to live. We have two railroads, the Oregon Railway & Navigation Com- pany's line and the Northern Pacific. (The Moscow & Eastern Railroad Company has been organized (1899) and will soon build its line, which will tap the vast white-pine timber belt of Idaho, in which it is esti- mated there is 1,293,000,000 feet of lumber. This road will be an immense accession to Moscow's prosperity.) The city is well supplied with the purest water, free from all organic and deleterious matter and derived from artesian wells situated within the city limits. The cli- mate is delightful and healthful, and within a short drive of mountain or forest is situated our beautiful city. These are environments especially appreciated by invalids and convalescents, and the benefits derived from a residence amid this diversity of scenes is incal- culable. No epidemic has ever visited us, and no pre- vailing disease makes its home here. It is a matter of fact that the longevity attained by many of our citi- zens is greater in proportion to our population than in other places. We are fanned by airs untainted by malaria and we have sunshine and shadow in suffi- cient quantity to suit the most fastidious. Between the months of March and October the rainfall is much less than during the remaining months, when we have an abundance of rain and snow, often enjoy- ing the finest of sleighing, and the tinkle, tinkle of the merry bells may be heard night and day for sev- eral weeks at a time. Our average temperature is about fifty degrees, the thermometer seldom register-
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ing ten degrees below zero in the winter or higher than ninety degrees in the summer. The "Chinooks," or warm winds, during the spring rapidly melt the snow, which carries in its bosom a fruitful and refresh- ing fullness to the soil. Finally, Moscow is a natural distributing point and has a class of business men who always work in harmony and concert for the upbuilding of all her interests, and she is destined to become a great manufacturing center, which will in- crease her population, her wealth, her prestige and make her a power and producer among the great cities of the northwest.
The newspapers of Moscow are duly considered in the chapter devoted to the press of the state.
Moscow's first school-house was built in 1878, just beyond the south Palouse. It was known as the Ma- guire school-house. In the fall of that year R. H. Barton was engaged to teach, and district No. 5 was supplied with its first educational facilities. But this location was not satisfactory to the inhabitants of Moscow, it being nearly a mile from the one store the village contained, so a petition was circulated to move it in closer. It was finally decided to settle the matter by a vote to be held at the school-house, . as the country people did not wish to change its location, on the ground that it was easier to move the town to the school-house. It seemed as though their wishes would prevail, as there were many more votes from the country than from the town. But Asbury Lieuallen threw off his coat and rustled around among the floating population and by running a free 'bus all day between his store and the polls, carried the election. John Russell donated a piece of ground, and a new building was put up on the present loca- tion of the Russell school. It was not long before the young and growing city found that this building was entirely too small. and those interested in the welfare of Moscow early gave consideration to the erection of a public-school building capable of afford- ing accommodation to the school children then resi- dents of the village, making some allowance for any increase that might take place. Silas Imbler, one of Moscow's beneficent citizens, donated a splendid piece of land on which to place the proposed building. The site is most centrally located in the northeastern por- tion of the city. At the time of which we are writ- ing it was admirably suited to the convenience of the residents, being equidistant from all. The new building, finished in 1883, was capable of accommo- dating one hundred and twenty pupils, and was thought to be of sufficient size to meet all the requirements for the next decade. In the meantime reports as to the richness of the country and the productiveness of the soil began to go abroad, with the result that the country began rapidly to settle, and Moscow, with the neighboring district, began to take the leading place in northern Idaho, so that in 1889 the trustees of the public-school found it necessary to procure additional school accommodations. They immediately
set to work, had plans prepared, and soon the con- tract was let for the erection of the present Russell school. The cost of this structure was sixteen thou- sand dollars, making in all twenty-two thousand dol- lars for school buildings. No pains were spared to make this school second to none in the state. In this endeavor the trustees received the hearty endorse- ment of the citizens of Moscow. The school furni- ture is all of the most modern and improved manu- facture. The interior of the building is so arranged that each department can be reached with the least possible confusion. The different rooms are so located that each grade can depart from the building with- out intruding on the province of, or coming in con- tact with, members of other departments, thus avoid- ing the slightest confusion. This is borne out by the fact that the entire school, numbering over four hundred pupils, has vacated the building in less than thirty seconds. On the 3d day of July, 1890, Idaho was admitted into the Union, and since that time the state has experienced a steady increase in population. Moscow continued to keep the lead, so much so that during the seven months of the last school term of 1892, in spite of her new school building, she was compelled to rent a place of worship and to utilize it for a school in which to place over fifty of her children. Many thought this state of affairs would not continue longer than the end of the term but on the reassembling of the school in the fall it was found that the same state of affairs existed, thus mak- ing it necessary for the trustees to secure another temporary building. This was found to be impos- sible, so a new room was fitted up on the present site and the building, on south Main street now occupied by Emery's photograph gallery, was rented and as many children placed therein as could be accommodated. In spite, however, of the most stren- uous efforts the school began again to be overcrowded. It was clearly seen that one of two things had to be done-either to overcrowd the building they had, thus making it impossible for the teachers to do jus- tice to the children, or to purchase property and erect another building to serve the purpose of a high school, thus taking from the Russell school those pupils who had passed the curriculum prescribed by the board and were prepared to enter a higher grade and more advanced course of study. They chose the latter course, and purchased a tract on Third street for which they paid about four thousand dollars. The plans had already been prepared and the contract was let for over twenty thousand dollars, exclusive of school furniture and heating apparatus. This building. as finished, is of hard brick, with a stone foundation. It is fitted up with the most modern improvements and is constructed according to the most approved principles, both for sanitary arrangements and venti- lation. Although the capacity of this school is four hundred and twenty-five pupils, the same old trouble has been worrying the trustees for the last two years.
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