History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 11

Author: Bancroft, Hubert Howe, 1832-1918; Victor, Frances Fuller, 1826-1902
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: San Francisco : History Co.
Number of Pages: 880


USA > Idaho > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 11
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 11
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 11


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The most important matter to which the attention


19 Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Oct. 21, 1854. Monroe died at Olympia Sept. 15, 1856, aged 40 years. He was buried on the point on Budd Inlet near the capitol at Olympia, but 15 years afterward the remains were rein- terred in the masonic cemetery. Olympia Transcript, March 13, 1869.


2V Id., Dec. 9, 1854.


21 Edward Lander was a native of Salem, Mass. He was graduated at Har- vard in 1836, and soon after entered the law school at Cambridge. His first law practice was in Essex co., but in 1841 he removed to Ind., where he was soon appointed prosecuting attorney for several counties, and subsequently judge of the court of common pleas of the state. His habits were said to be correct, his manners dignified and polished, and his legal and literary attainments of a high order. Boston Times, in Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Jan. 7, 1854. For McFadden's antecedents, see Hist. Or., ii., chap. xi., this series. He died of heart disease, at the age of 58 years, at the residence of his son-in-law, W. W. Miller of Olympia, in June 1875, after a residence of 22 years in the territory, during which he was a member of the legislature and delegate to congress. Spirit of the West, June 26, 1875; Olympia Transcript, July 3, 1875; U. S. House Jour., 43d cong. Ist sess., 13. F. A. Chenoweth was born in 1819, in Franklin co., Ohio, and admitted to the practice of law in Wisconsin at the age of 22 years. He came to Or. in 1849, and settled on the north side of the river near the Cascades, being elected to the legislature from Lewis and Clarke counties in 1832. In 1863 he removed to Corvallis, where he was again elected to the Or. legislature, and to the presidency of the Willamette Valley and Coast railroad. Portland West Shore, July 1877.


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LAND LAWS.


of the national legislature was called was a change in the land law, to effect which congress was memorial- ized to grant them a surveyor-general of their own, and a land system "separate from, and wholly discon- nected with, that of Oregon territory."22


By comparing the demands with the memorials of the Oregon legislature from time to time, it will be perceived that the earth hunger was not all confined to the people south of the Columbia. And by refer- ence to my History of Oregon, the reader may learn to what extent congress responded to the demands of


22 The amendments petitioned for were: 1. To be relieved from the prohibi- tion preventing the holders of donation certificates from selling any portion of their claims before they received a patent; their certificates to be prima facie evidence of title. Suggestions were given as to the manner of establish- ing a claim by witnesses before the surveyor-general. 2. That persons enti- tled to a donation should be permitted to take irregular fractions of land. 3. That town proprietors should be authorized to convey lots by valid deeds, the same as if a patent had been issued. 4. That when either parent of a child or children should have died upon the road to Washington, the survivor should be entitled to as much land as both together would have been entitled to; provided the land taken in the name of the deceased should be held in trust for the children. Or when either parent should have started for or arrived in the territory, and the other, though not yet started, should die, having a child or children, the surviving parent should be entitled, by com- plying with the provisions of the law, to the full amount that both parents and such child or childreu would have been entitled to had they all arrived in the territory. Or that when both parents should die after having begun their journey to Washington, or before locating a claim, having a child or children, such child or children should, by guardian, be entitled to locate as much land as both parents would have taken under the law had they lived. 5. That widows immigrating to and settling in the territory should be allowed to take the same amount of land as unmarried men, by compliance with the law. 6. That all persons who should have located claims under the provis- ions of the donation law prior to the Ist of Jan., 1852, should be entitled to their patents as soon as the land should have been surveyed, and they have obtained a certificate from the surveyor-general. And that all persons who should have located claims subsequent to the 1st day of Jan., 1852, should be entitled to patents by residing thereon for the term of two years, or by hav- ing made improvements to the amount of four hundred dollars; provided, that the removal of timber from the public-lands without intention to reside thereon should be regarded as trespass; the improvements to be estimated by the increased value of the lands by clearing, cultivating, fencing, and building. 7. That all American citizens, or those who had declared their intention to become such, including American half-breeds, on arriving at the age of twen- ty-one, should be entitled to the benefit of the donation act. 8. That the provisions of the law be extended to an indefinite period. 9. That each sin- gle person should be entitled to receive 160 acres, and a man and wife double that amount; provided, that the estate of the wife should be sole and sepa- rate, and not alienable for the debts or liabilities of the husband. 10. That all persons who had failed or neglected to take claims within the time pre- scribed by law should be permitted to take claims as if they bad but just arrived in the country. Wash. Jour. Council, 1854, 179-81.


HIST. WASH .- 6


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ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.


both legislatures in the matter of amount of bounty and limit of time.23 A surveyor-general and register and receiver were given to Washington; in no other wise was a separate land system granted; but the new territory was entitled to the same privileges with Ore- gon, no more or different.24


23 Hist. Or., ii., chap. x., this series. The points gained by an act of con- gress passed July 17, 1854, were the withdrawal of town sites from the pro- visions of the donation act, and subjecting them to the operation of the act of May 23, 1844, 'for the relief of citizens of towns upon lands of the United States, under certain circumstances,' and the reduction of the time of occu- pancy before purchase to one year; the repeal of that portion of the land law which made void contracts for the sale of land before patent issued, provided that sales should not be valid unless the vendor should have resided four years upon the land; the extension of the preemption privilege to Oregon and Washington; the extension of the donation privilege to 1855; the grant of two townships of land for university purposes; the donation of 160 acres of land to orphans whose parents, had they lived, would have been entitled to a donatiou; and the appointment of a register and receiver for each of the two territories. Wash. Ter. Statutes, 1854, 53-5.


24 The subject of amended land laws for their territory was not permitted to drop with this attempt. When the privileges of the old donation act ex- pired in 1855, a petition signed by 200 settlers was presented to congress, asking that the clause in that act which required them to reside for 4 years consecutively on their claims before receiving a certificate should be ex- punged, and that they be allowed to purchase them at the rate of $1.25 an acre, counting the value of their improvements as payment; the amount of labor bestowed being taken as evidence of an intention to remain a permanent settler. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Aug. 19, 1855. No change was made as therein requested. Tilton, the surveyor-general appointed for Washington, was directed to join with the surveyor-general of Oregon in starting the sur- vey of his territory, carrying out the work as already begun, and using it as a basis for organizing the Washingtou surveys in that part of the country where the settlers most required a survey. U. S. II. Ex. Doc., vol. i., pt i., 33d cong. Ist sess. In his first report, Sept. 20, 1855, Tilton asked for increased com- pensation per mile for contractors, owing to the difficulty of surveying in Washington, where one enormous forest was found growing amidst the decay- ing ruins of another, centuries old, in consequence of which horses could not be used, and provisions had to be packed upon the backs of men, at a great cost. Id., vol. i., pt i., 292, 34th cong. Ist sess. .


W. W. De Lacy ran the standard meridian from Vancouver through to the northern boundary of Washington. The Willamette meridian fell in the water nearly the whole length of the Sound, compelling him to make re- peated offsets to the east. One of these offsets was run on the line between range 5 and 6 east of the Willamette meridian, which line runs through the western part of Snohomish City. After the close of the Indian war, De Lacy ran and blazed out the line of the military road from Steilacoom to Bellingham Bay, with the assistance of only one Indian, Pims, who afterward murdered a settler on the Snohomish River, named Carter. Morse's Wash. Ter., MS., xx. 36-7. The total amount surveyed under the Oregon office was 1,876 miles, the amount surveyed under Tilton previons to Dec. 1855, 3,663 miles, and the quantity proposed to be surveycd in the next 2 years, 5,688 miles, all west of the Cascade Range. The Indian wars, however, stopped work for about that length of time. It was difficult to find deputics who would undertake the work, on account of Indian hostilities, even after the war was declared at an end. Deputy Surveyor Dominick Hunt was murdered on


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LANDS AND TITLES.


Next in importance was a memorial relative to the extinguishment of the Indian title, congress being urged to make provisions for the immediate pur- chase of the lands occupied by the natives; and this request was granted, as I shall soon proceed to show. Congress was also asked to change the organic act of the territory, which apportioned the legislature by the number of qualified voters, so as to make the appor- tionment by the number of inhabitants, which was not allowed. Not less important than either of these was a memorial concerning the Puget Sound Agricultural Company, and the difference of opinion existing be- tween the company and the citizens of Washington in relation to the rights of the association under the treaty of 1846. The memorial set forth that the then present moment was an auspicious one for the extinc- tion of their title, and gave as a reason that "build- ings, once valuable, from long use are now measurably worthless; and lands once fertile, which paid the tiller of the soil, are now become destitute of any fertilizing qualities; that said farms are now less valuable than the same amount of lands in a state of nature;" and congress was entreated to save the country from this


Whidhey Island in the latter part of July 1858. Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Aug 6, 1858; Land-office Rept, 1858. The field of operations in 1858 was on Shoalwater Bay, Gray Harbor, Whidbey Island, and the southern coast of the Fuca strait. As there was but one land-office in the territory, and that one situated at Olympia, the land commissioner, at the request of the territo- rial legislature, recommended the formation of three new districts. No action was taken, and in 1838 the legislature passed another resolution asking for three additional land districts, one to be called Columbia River Land Dis- trict. The commissioner again made his former recommendation, the house committee on lands recommending two new districts. U. S. Misc. Doc., 130, vol. ii., 34th cong. Ist sess .; Id., doc. 114; Id., doc. 30, vol. i., 35th cong. 2d sess .; U. S. H. Com. Rept, 376, vol. iii., 35th cong. Ist sess. On the 16th of May, 1860, congress passed an act to 'create an additional land district in Washington territory,' but provided no appropriation for carrying out its purpose until the following year, when the office at Vancouver was established. In 1857 a bill was brought before the house of representatives to extend the public surveys east of the Cascade Mountains. The senate referred the mat- ter to the secretary of the interior, who declared there was no necessity for the bill, and that it would render emigration overland dangerous by exciting the Indians. U. S. Sen. Misc., 28, 34th cong. 3d sess. It was not until the close of the Indian war east of the mountains in 1858 that the land laws were extended to that region. In 1862 the legislature memorialized con- gress for a land-office at Walla Walla, which was established. Wash. Stat., 1861-2, 139.


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ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.


deterioration.25 The memorial also stated that at the period of the ratification of the treaty the amount of land enclosed by the Puget Sound Company at Cow- litz and Nisqually did not exceed 2,000 acres, yet that the company claimed 227 square miles, or in other words, all the land over which their herds of wild stock occasionally roamed, or to which they were froni time to time removed for change of pasture. The Ameri- cans held that the treaty confirmed only the lands en- closed by fences. They had settled upon and improved the unenclosed lands in many instances; yet they had received written notices from the agents of the com- pany commanding them to vacate their homes or be served with writs of ejectment and trespass; for which causes congress was petitioned to take steps to ascer- tain the rights of the company, and to purchase them. 26


A joint resolution was also passed instructing the delegate to congress to use his influence with the ad- ministration to effect a settlement of the disputed boundary between the United States and Great Brit- ain, involving the right to the islands of the archipel- ago of Haro, the matter being afterward known as the San Juan question, and to take some steps to remove the foreign trespassers from the islands-a res- olution suggested, as we already know, by the message of Governor Stevens.27


25 This remarkable statement is corroborated by subsequent writers, who account for the impoverishment of the soil by the substratum of gravel, which, when the sod was disturbed, allowed the rains to wash down, as through a filter, the component parts of the soil. For the same reason, the cattle-ranges, from being continually trampled in wet weather, received no benefit from the dung of the animals, and deteriorated as stated above. On the plains between the Nisqually and Puyallup rivers, where once the grass grew as tall as a man on horseback, the appearance of the country was later one of sterility.


26 Wash. Jour. Council, 1854, 183-5. Two other memorials were passed at this session; one asking that the claim of Lafayette Balch for the expense incurred in rescuing the Georgiana's passengers from Queen Charlotte Island be paid, and one praying congress to confirm the land claim of George Bush, colored, to him and his heirs. Id., 185-8. As to the first, congress had already legislated on that subject. Cong. Globe, xxx. 125.


27 The other joint resolutions passed related to the establishment of a mail service, by the way of Puget Sound. between Olympia and other points in Washington to San Francisco, New York, and New Orleans; to appropriations for territorial and military roads; to light-houses at Cape Flattery, on Blunt's


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TERRITORIAL OFFICERS.


The selection of territorial officers by the legislature resulted in the appointment of William Cook treas- urer, D. B. Bigelow auditor, F. A. Chenoweth pros- ecuting attorney of the first judicial district, D. R. Bigelow for the second, and F. A. Clarke for the third. B. F. Kendall28 was chosen territorial librarian. The legislature adjourned May Ist, after passing 125 acts, and conducting its business harmoniously.


That which appears as most deserving of comment in the proceedings of this body is a resolution passed early in the session, that, in its opinion, no disad- vantage could result to the territory should the gov- ernor proceed to Washington city, "if, in his judgment, the interest of the Pacific railroad survey and the matters incident thereto could thereby be promoted." Stevens was anxious to report in person on the results of the railroad survey. In anticipation of this, he made a voyage down the Sound, looking for the best point for the terminus of the Northern Pacific, and he named Steilacoom, Seattle, and Bellingham Bay as impressing him favorably.29 But there were other matters which he wished to bring to the attention of the government in his capacity of superintendent of


Island, and at New Dungeness; to an appropriation for a marine hospital; to a requisition for arms and equipments for the male citizens of the territory between the ages of 18 and 45; to the completion of the geological survey; to the building of an arsenal; to having Columbia City, Penn Cove, Port Gam- ble, Wbatcom, and Seattle made ports of delivery; to having the office of the surveyor of customs removed from Nisqually to Steilacoom; to increasing the salary of the collector of customs; and to the advantage of annexing the Sand- wich Islands; with some lesser local matters. Among the latter was oue set- ting forth that Henry V. Colter, one of the firm of Parker & Colter's express, had absconded with $3,875 of the government funds, and instructing the del- egate to urge congress to confer authority upon the accounting officers of the treasury to place that amount to the credit of the secretary of the territory. This matter has been already referred to in Parker's account of the earliest mails and express companies. It is said that Colter afterward fell heir to a fortune of $200,000. Olympia Transcript, Aug. 8, 1874.


28 Wash. Jour. Council, 1854, 116. The first appropriation for a public library, $5,000, was expended by Stevens. The report of the librarian for 1854 was that there were 2,130 volumes iu the library. Stevens said in his first message that he had taken care to get the best books in each department of learning, and that he had applied to the executives of every state and ter- ritory and to many learned societies to donate their publications. In 1871 the territorial library contained over 4,100 volumes, besides maps and charts. Wash. Jour. House, 1871, app. 1-86.


29 Olympia Pioneer and Dem., Jan. 28, 1854.


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ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.


Indian affairs for Washington, and as a commissioner to ascertain what were the rights and what was the property of the Hudson's Bay and Puget Sound com- panies in Oregon and Washington, as well as to urge the settlement of the northern boundary of the latter territory.80


The matter of the boundary line between the island of Vancouver and Washington was a later question. The earliest conflict arose in 1854 between I. N. Ebey, in the discharge of his official duties as collector


30 In Stevens' report is found a list of all the forts of the H. B. Co., with their rank and value, and the amount of cultivated land, making the whole foot up no more than $300,000, whereas they received twenty years later more than double that amount. The other information contained in the report relates to the segregation of the land claimed by the companies into donation lots, with the names of the squatters, and is of interest in the history of the early settlement of the country. The following are the names of the so-called trespassers: At Fort Vancouver, Bishop Blanchet, for a mission claim, the same 640 acres being claimed by James Graham of the H. B. Co. The county of Clarke also claimed 160 acres of the same land as a county seat, which was allowed, as I have mentioned elsewhere. Over all these claims the United States military reserve extended. Immediately east of Vancouver 640 acres were claimed by Forbes Barclay (British), and the same tract by an American, Ryan, who resided on it and cultivated it, while Barclay lived at Oregon City. Adjoining was a claim of 640 acres, which, after passing through several hands-a servant of the company, Chief Factor Ogden, and Switzler-was finally sold to Nye, an American. A tract 4 miles square above these claims, and embracing the company's mills, was claimed by Daniel Harvey (British); but 640 acres, including the grist-mill, were claimed by a naturalized citizen, William F. Crate; and 640, including the saw-mill, by Gabriel Barktroth, also a naturalized citizen. A portion of this section, with the mill, was claimed by Maxon, an American. On the Camas prairie, or Mill Plain, back of this, were settled Samuel Valentine, Jacob Predstel, and Daniel Ollis, Americans. On the river above Nye were Peter Dunning- ton and John Stringer. Mrs Esther Short, widow of Daniel V. Short, claimed 640 aeres adjoining the military reservation. The other claimants on the lands near Vancouver were George Maleck, American, and Charles Prew, naturalized, who claimed the same section, Maleck residing on it. Francis Laframboise, Abraham Robie, St Andrew, and James Petram held each 640 aeres as lessees of the H. B. Co. Seepleawa, Isaac E. Bell, John C. Allman, T. P. Dcan, Malky, William H. Dillon, David Sturgess-also claimed by Geo. Harvey, British subject-George Batty, James Bowers, Linsey, John Dillon, Ira Patterson, Samuel Matthews, Clark Short, Michael Trobb, John B. Lee, George Morrow, J. L. Myers, George Weber, Benjamin Olney, Job Fisher, William M. Simmons, Alexander Davis, Americans, each claim- ing from 320 to 640 acres, were residing and making improvements on land claimed by the H. B. Co. on the Columbia, and in several instances by indi- viduals under the treaty, but only when not resided upon by these claimants. This list was made by I. N. Ebey for Governor Stevens. U. S. Sen. Ex. Doc., 37, 33d cong. 2d sess. W. H. Dillon resided at Dillon's Ferry, near Van- couver. His daughter Olive married Matthias Spurgeon, who was born in Muscatine, la, and migrated to Or. in 1852, residing for 7 years in Dillon's family. He went to Idaho during early mining times in that territory, but returned and engaged in farming near Vancouver.


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THE SAN JUAN TROUBLE.


of customs, and a justice of the peace under the colo- nial government of Vancouver Island, named Griffin. Ebey finding San Juan Island covered with several thousand head of sheep, horses, cattle, and hogs, im- ported from Vancouver Island without being entered at the custom-house, was questioned by Griffin as to his intentions in paying the island a visit, and declined to answer, but proceeded to encamp near the shore. On the following day the Hudson's Bay Company's steamer Otter ran over from Vancouver and anchored in front of Ebey's encampment, sending a boat ashore, in which was Mr Sankster, collector of customs for the port of Victoria, who also desired to know Ebey's errand, and was told that he was there in his official capacity of collector for the district of Puget Sound. Sankster then declared that he should arrest all per- sons and seize all vessels found navigating the waters west of Rosario strait and north of the middle of the strait of Juan de Fuca.


This growl of the British lion, so far from putting to flight the American eagle, only caused its repre- sentative to declare that an inspector of customs should remain upon the island to enforce the revenue laws of the United States, and that he hoped no persons pre- tending to be officers of the British government would be so rash as to interfere with the discharge of his offi- cial duties. Sankster then ordered the British flag to be displayed on shore, which was done by hoisting it over the quarters of the Hudson's Bay Company on the island.


During these proceedings James Douglas, governor of Vancouver Island and vice-admiral of the British navy, was on board the Otter, waiting for Ebey to capitulate. Sankster even proposed that he should go on board the Otter to hold a conference with his excellency, but the invitation was declined, with a declaration that the collector of Puget Sound would be happy to meet Governor Douglas at his tent. Soon after, the steamer returned to Victoria, leaving a boat


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ORGANIZATION OF GOVERNMENT.


and crew to keep watch; and Ebey next day appointed and swore into office Inspector Webber, whom he stationed on San Juan Island.31


This occurrence was in the latter part of April or first of May 1854, about the time that Governor Stevens left the territory for Washington city, and was probably occasioned in part by the intimations given in the message of the governor and resolution of the legislature that the question of boundary would be agitated, with a desire and determination on the part of Douglas to hold the islands in the Fuca straits when the struggle eame. This subject furnished a valid reason for wishing to secure the attention of the heads of government. The extinguishment of the Indian titles was perhaps more imperative than any other, and to this Stevens addressed himself with the energy, ability, and straightforwardness which were his characteristics, supplementing the feebler efforts of Lancaster, and with Lane of Oregon coming to the rescue of the most important bills for Washington,32 and really doing the work of the delegate. In his readiness to assume every responsibility, Stevens re- sembled Thurston of Oregon, but was more solidly and squarely built, like Napoleon, whom he resembled in figure, and less nervously irritable. No amount of labor appalled him; and when in the midst of affairs of the gravest importance, he was alert and buoyant without being unduly excited ..




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