History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 63

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 63
USA > Montana > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 63
USA > Washington > History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889 > Part 63

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564

MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

yet to be erected, its military roads to be constructed, and its rivers made fit for navigation. Petitions have been repeatedly offered by the legislature for these objects. In due course of events they must be granted. That so much has been done by so small a population against great natural obstacles in the building of wagon-roads is an illustration of the energy of the in- habitants. Stages were running to all the mining towns almost as soon as they were located. Railroads were early advocated.25

county to care for the insane and idiotic by levying a tax; but as this could not very well be done, the insane were usually sent to Oregon or Califor- nia at the expense of friends. A law was approved in Jan. 1881, making the governor and the president of the council commissioners to contract with the proper anthoritics of California or Oregon, or both, for the care and treatment of this class of indigent and unfortunate persons where the insanity was of a violent or dangerous form, the expense to be borne by the territory. Idaho Laws, ISSO-1, 300-5. The benevolent orders of ma- sons, odd-fellows, and good templars have lodges in the principal towns. In 1872 the grand lodge of masons in Idaho issued a circular to the order, warning its members to cease intemperance, gambling, and playing games in drinking-saloons, and asking masons to leave off keeping such places.

The territory has a historical society of Idaho pioneers, for the main- tenance of which, and the furtherance of its work of collecting and pre- paring historical matter and statistical records, the legislature of 1880, by resolution, appropriated $250 per annum.

23 An act of the legislature of January 11, 1866, incorporated the Idaho, Salt Lake, and Columbia River Branch Pacific Railroad Company, with au- thority to construct a road from the north end of Salt Lake to a point ten miles below Old's ferry on Snake River. The incorporators were Caleb Lyon, H. C. Riggs, E. Bohannon, John Wasson, George Ainslie, Jobn M. Cannady, W. H. Parkinson, E. T. Beatty, F. O. Nelson, W. W. Thayer, S. W. Wright, S. S. Fenn, of Idaho; H. D. Clapp, Ben Holliday, Erastus Corning, William M. Tweed, Marshall O. Roberts, of New York city; J. C. Ainsworth, Charles H. Larrabee, William L. Ladd, of Portland, Oregon; and Amos Reed and W. L. Halscy of Salt Lake City. Idaho Laws, 1865-6, 201-3. Preliminary sur- veys were made by the Union Pacific railway in 1867, and the route declared favorable down Snake River from climatic considerations, and believed to be without serious engineering difficulties. In 1869 the sale of the Union Pacific west of Ogden to the Central Pacific caused the abandonment of the branch through Idaho. Boisé Statesman, Nov. 19, 1865, Feb. 9, 1867; Walla Walla Statesman, Dec. 27, 1867; Idaho World, May 20, 1869. The people of the Humboldt Valley then held a meeting at Elko, resolving to give all possible aid to the Idaho people in constructing a branch to the Central Pacific. A proposition was made in 1871 to extend the California Pacific from Davisville via Beckworth's and Noble's pass through south-eastern Oregon and the Snake River plains to Salt Lake. Sac. Union, Feb. 22, 1869, May 20, 1871; Boisé Statesman, July 10, 1879. In the spring of 1872 congress passed an act granting to the Portland, Dalles, and Salt Lake Railroad, an Oregon cor- poration of March 25, 1871, the right of way. Il. Ex. Doc., 47, pt 3, p. 1002-3, 46th cong. 3d sess. The Oregon legislature passed a act appropriating the proceeds arising from the sale of certain public lands to which the state was entitled to the assistance of this company, authorizing it to issue bonds, and requiring it to commence with the construction of the portage links. Or. Laws,

565

RAILROAD AND TELEGRAPH.

Such was Idaho twenty years after settlement. Without markets or manufactures or transporta-

1872, 16-21. An effort was made to get bills through the Idaho legislature in support of the scheme of the Portland, Dalles, and Salt Lake road, propos- ing to pay the interest on $3,000 or $5,000 per mile for a term of years. But the committee to which they were referred reported adversely. A substitute was passed exempting railroads built within the territory from paying taxes for seven years. Idaho Laws, 1872-3, 63. John H. Mitchell of Oregon, in Jan. 1874, introduced a bill in the U. S. senate providing for the construction of a narrow-gauge railroad by the Portland, Dalles, and Salt Lake road com- pany, the work to be commenced on the division east of the Columbia River within six months, and in consideration of the free transportation of troops and despatch of telegrams for the government, the latter should guarantee the payment of five per cent interest on bonds to be issued to the extent of $10,000 per mile, secured by a mortgage on the property and rights of the corporation. Twenty-five per cent of the net earnings were to be set aside as a sinking fund to provide for the redemption of the bonds at maturity. Boise Statesman, Feb. 14 and May 23, 1874. This bill received a favorable report from the committee. In 1875 W. W. Chapman, president of the company, made a contract with a London company for the completion of the road, at from $26,000 to $28,000 per mile, exclusive of $2,000 per mile local aid pledged, the London company to be secured by mortgages as the road pro- gressed. None of these plans were carried to a successful conclusion. Con- gress neglected to pass bills as desired, and time slipped away until, by the vigorous measures adopted by the Northern Pacific in 1879 to complete its line to the Pacific, thereby controlling the transportation of the north-west, the Union Pacific was inspired to construct the long-deferred branch through Idaho, called the Oregon Short Line, making, with the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company's road to the Snake River in Baker county, a continuous railway from Granger, in Wyoming, to the Columbia River, with one branch to Hailey, and other branches in construction and contemplation. In the mean time congress granted the right of way, in 1873, to the Utah and Northern Railroad, and a narrow-gauge road was hnilt 127 miles from Ogden to Oneida, on the Fort Hall Indian reservation, a distance of 53 miles north of the Idaho line, when the capital of the company became exhausted, and the road passed into the hands of Sidney Dillon and Jay Gould, in 1878, who immediately gave it a fresh impetus, completing it almost to the Montana line the following year. Codman's Round Trip, 259-60; Port Townsend Argus, Oct. 16, 1879; Bonanza City Yankee Fork Herald, Oct. 11, 1879; S. F. Bulle- tin, Dec. 12, 1879. It was completed to Deer Lodge, Montana, in 1881-2, and soon after to the junction with the Northern Pacific, at Blackfoot. At the time of its construction it was the longest continnous narrow-gauge line in the U. S., and was well cquipped.

A number of acts were passed by early legislatures authorizing the con- struction of telegraph lines. The only project which seemed to promise con- summation was that of a line from Portland, by the way of The Dalles, Uma- tilla, Walla Walla, La Grande, Uniontown, and Baker City to Boisé City in 1868, but it finally failed of completion because the people of eastern Oregon lacked the energy or the means to carry it through. The first line established was in 1874, from Winnemucca in Nevada to Boisé City via Silver City, dis- tance 275 miles. It was completed to Silver City in August, when on the 31st its advent was celebrated by public festivities. On the 18th of Dec. a branch was extended 25 miles to Sonth Mountain. In Sept. 1875 the line was completed to Boisé City, and the same autumn to Baker City in Oregon, the Idaho farmers transporting the poles to their places along the route be- tween Boise and Snake rivers to assist the work. In 1879 the signal service office constructed a line from Walla Walla to Lewiston, Idaho, for the use of the government, the labor being performed by troops, the principal object

566

MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

tion, it had to pay out the riches dug from its mines for the necessaries of life brought to its doors at enor- mous expense in the "prairie schooner," the old-fash- ioned Pennsylvania freight-wagon.

The Northern Pacific railroad, which so suddenly populated and developed eastern Washington, and helped to develop eastern Oregon, performed no such service for Idaho, merely crossing the Panhandle as far north as Pend d'Oreille lake. That it assisted in bringing to notice the mines of Cœur d' Alene district was true, and that later it sent off branches to these mines and to other parts of the Panhandle was also true. But the road which relieved central and south- ern Idaho of the state of lethargy into which its busi- ness was falling, and which brought population and mining capital to the territory, was the Oregon Short Line railroad, constructed by the Union Pacific com- pany. Traversing the territory from east to west, through its most inhabited belt of counties, it com- municated to the dormant nerves of these isolated communities a shock from the thought batteries of the great world, rousing to action the brain and mus- ele lying idle. The taxable property of the territory, which in 1884 was $15,497,598, was three years later $20,441,192, mining property, in which the greater amount of capital was invested, being non-assessable. The population, which in 1884 was 75,000, was in 1887 over 97,000.

The forward impulse given to the prosperity of Washington revived in the northern counties of Idaho the project of annexation to that commonwealth, which, it was believed, would soon arrive at statehood, and whose constitution, adopted in 1878 by a vote of the people of the Idaho Panhandle as well as of Washington, included the counties north of the Salınon

being to facilitate in the event of Indian disturbances. Sce S. F. Chronicle, Jan. 25, 1879. In the Nez Perce war of 1877 Gen. Howard was compelled to send all his despatches to Walla Walla by stage or steamer, one of his aids being constantly employed in sending despatches to San Francisco.

567

LEGISLATIVE.

river range of mountains. In this form the Washing- ton delegate, Mr Brents, advocated in congress the admission of Washington, and its legislature in 1881- 82 passed a memorial for an enabling act, including this portion of Idaho.

The politicians about this time saw in this subject opportunity for a party issue, and seized upon it, making it the point on which the election of 1882 was lost and won, George Ainslee, democratic candidate for congress, opposing, and T. F. Singiser, republican, advocating it, Singiser being elected by a majority of nearly 3,000. In 1884, however, the democrats hav- ing put an annexation plank in their platform, re- turned to power, and Singiser was defeated, while John Hailey was elected to congress, and sccured the passage of a bill for annexation, which passed both houses, and only failed to become a law by the failure of the president to sign it.26

In 1886, the parties returned to their former rela- tive positions in Idaho,27 although Hailey, democrat, was supported by the Panhandle republicans on his

26 The legislature of ISS4-5: George Pettingill, Ada co .; T. C. Galloway, Ada and Washington; Benjamin Wilson, Boisé; E. C. Brearly, Boisé and Alturas; James E. Hart, Bear lake; Charles A. Wood, Custer and Lemhi; R. L. Wood, Cassia and Owyhee; S. C. Poage, Idaho; H. W. Smith and George W. Crawford, Oneida; S. G. Isaman, Nez Perce; S. W. Moody, Nez Percé, Shoshone, and Kootenci, councilmen; and Charles I. Simpson, D. W. French, M. H. Goodwin, D. L. Lamme, Ada co .; J. K. Watson, Al- tnras; W. N. B. Shepperd, Amos R. Wright, Bear lake; G. B. Baldwin, M. G. Luney, Boisé; J. C. Fox, Custer; W. C. Martindale, Cassia; W. S. M. Williams, Philip C. Cleary, Idaho; William King, Shoshone; J. P. Clough, Lemhi; W. T. McKern, J. P. Quarles, L. P. Wilmot, Nez Perce; David Adams, Owyhee; D. R. Jones, C. M. Hull, A. R. Stalker, W. B. Green, Oneida; George W. Adams, Washington, representatives.

27 The 14th legislative assembly, 1SS6-7, was composed of Charles Him- rod, Ada co .; R. H. Robb, Ada and Boisé; James H. Beatty, E. C. Hel- frich, Alturas; H. W. Smith, Bingham; P. L. Hughes, Bingham and Oneida; E. A. Jordan, Bear lake, Cassia, and Oneida; A. J. Macnab, Lemhi and Custer; Robert Larimer, Idaho; Charles Watson, Nez Perce; James I. Crutcher, Owyhee and Washington, councilmen; and D. L. Badley, George Goodrich, M. H. Goodwin, Ada co .; E. G. Burnett, G. J. J. Guheen, W. Hunter, T. B. Shaw, Alturas; R. W. Gee, Bear lake; T. A. Hartwell, C. B. Wheeler, Bingham; Josiah Cove, Boisé; Charles Cobb, Cassia; J. C. Fox, Custer and Bingham; John S. Rohrer, Custer; F. A. Fenn, Idaho; J. P. Clough, Lemhi; James De Haven, A. S. Chaney, W. A. Elyea, Nez Perce; William B. Thews, Oneida; John S. Lewis, Owyhee; John M. Burke, Sho- shone and Kostenai; R S. Harvey, Shoshone; M. L. Hoyt, Washington, representatives,

568

MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

record as an annexationist, he receiving a majority of 536 in the northern counties; and the people of Nez Percé county, by a vote of 1,679 to 26, expressed themselves in favor of being joined to Washington; but Frederick T. Dubois, republican, who gave a pledge not to oppose annexation, and to use his influ- ence for the suppression of polygamy among the Mormon population, was elected by a majority 28 of 426. But the interest in annexation began to de- cline with the increase of population and the revival of industries, giving hope of statehood for Idaho at no distant day, and that for which a majority had more than once voted began to be denounced as a scheme "born in local jealousy and petty spite, fos- tered by political hatred and party spleen, and advo- cated by many political jobbers and tricksters," and as "thoroughly distasteful to a majority of the people of Idaho, and repugnant to the best interests of the territory." 2"

26 The federal and territorial officers in 1885-6 were Edward A. Steven- son, governor, appointed Sept. 29, 1885, for four years; Edward J. Curtis. secretary and librarian, appointed Feb. 12, 1885; Joseph Perrault, treasurer; Silas W. Moody, comptroller and ex-officio supt of public instruction; D. P. B. Pride, attorney-general; James P. Hays, chief justice; Norman Buck and Case Broderick, associate justices; James H. Hawley, U. S. dist attorney; A. L. Richardson, clerk sup. court; Ezra Baird, U. S. marshal, appointed Aug. 22, 1886. In 1887 Charles Himrod was chosen territorial treasurer, and J. H. Wickersham comptroller.

29 There was probably a spice of party spleen in these remarks, although it was true that the annexation fever of a few years previous was visibly decreasing. The reasons, both for its access and its decline, were easily per- ceived. At the time it existed the Panhandle counties truly felt that their natural and almost impassable southern boundary, the Salmon river range, prevented that freedom of intercourse between them and the southern coun- ties which would make them a homogeneous people. They had yet to learn what railroad engineering could do with the insurmountable. They believed that immigration came to them with reluctance, because the prospect of statehood was so remote, and they justly complained of the inaccessibility of their own capital, whereas if they were joined to Washington the capital of that state would doubtless be removed to within easy distance, and reached quickly by railways. The evidence of what one railroad had doue, and the promise of what others would do, created a diversion of interest, and the extraordinary wealth being discovered in the Cœur d' Alene mining district caused promoters of the agitation to reflect upon the injustice of taking away Idaho's jurisdiction over so valuable a portion of its domain. But doubtless had the counties interested only been empowered to decide the matter, they would have united themselves to Washington; and a bill was, in fact, pending in congress in 1888 for the admission of that common- wealth into the union with this part of Idaho attached, subject to the vote

569

FEDERAL AFFAIRS.

It was in harmony with the restrictive acts affect- ing territories, passed about this time, that congress should say that no law of any territorial legislature shall be made or enforced by which the governor or secretary of a territory, or the members or officers of any territorial legislature, are paid any compensation other than that provided by the laws of the United States. This law, the result of the recklessness of long-past territorial legislatures, came at a period in the affairs of Idaho when the duties of the governor were truly onerous, and the practices of legislatures had so much improved that the people were willing to make the pay of the executive commensurate with his services, and consistent with the dignity and requirements of his position. The salaries of judges of the supreme court were also beneath the value of the services performed with the expenses attached to them. Besides, the business of the courts demanded the establishment of another district, and the appoint- ment of another judge. Idaho had collected and paid into the national treasury an amount largely in excess of the sums appropriated by the government to pay the federal expenses, covering also the many defalca- tions of federal appointees during twenty-two years. Governor Edward A. Stevenson, appointed in 1885, mentioned this fact in his report to the secretary of the interior, together with the further one, that no officer appointed from the people of the territory to a federal office had ever defaulted.30

About 1884-5 there was reached a distinctly for- ward tendency in territorial affairs. In 1872 the indebtedness of Idaho amounted to $132,217.71; in 1885 there was a surplus in the treasury over its bonded debt of $5,546.30. After years of dissension

of the four counties, but delegate Dubois was instructed to labor to suppress it, and had also a bill before congress to divide Nez Percé county and create the county of Latah out of the northern portion of it, this being the substitute for a bill to remove the county seat of Nez Perce from Lewiston to Moscow, taking local matters entirely out of the hands of the legislature.

30 Gov.'s Rept, 1885, 18-19.

570

MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

concerning the capital, the legislature of 1884-5 had established it permanently at Boisé City, and appro- priated, with the consent of the people, eighty thou- sand dollars to erect a capital edifice, the city devot- ing a whole square to a site, the building, of brick, being constructed with every modern appliance, com- bining elegance with convenience, furnishing not only legislative halls, but offices for the territorial and federal officials, a supreme court room, library, and judges' chambers. An appropriation was made by the same legislature of $20,000 for the erection of an insane asylum at Blackfoot,31 which was subse- quently enlarged at a considerable additional cost. The expense of maintaining the institution was about $17,000 per annum.

In the matter of a penitentiary, the territory still paid annually about $18,000 to the United States for keeping its prisoners in a federal building which was located two miles east of Boisé City, and which Governor Stevenson pronounced a "disgrace to great, rich, proud, and humane government"; and where the prisoners were "clothed, fed, and crowded into cells without any employment, and only kept there by the shot-guns of the guards," the wall surrounding the penitentiary being built of inch boards set up on end. This, too, while there was a quarry of excellent stone immediately adjoining the premises, where the prisoners could have been

31 Gov. Stevenson remarked in his report to the secretary of the interior that the necessity which called for the action of the tax-payers of the terri- tory in incurring these expenses reflected 'little credit on congress, which lavishes its millions in the way of appropriations upon worthless jobs ... Congress generally winds up with a dividend day for all the states, with the territories left out. The right thing for congress to do at its coming session is to appropriate $150,000 to reimburse our territorial treasury for the outlay in erecting the capitol building and the insane asylum, which will be needed to complete and finish those buildings as they should be, and the purpose of flagging the walks, fencing and beautifying the grounds,' etc. Id. 17. The main building of the insane asylum was destroyed by fire on the night of the 23d of Nov., 1889, when several of the inmates lost their lives, it being im- possible to rescue every one, the asylum being located at some distance from town, and the employees of the institution having all to do in saving the patients. The estimated loss to the territory of the building and furniture was $50,000.

571

PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS.

profitably employed in getting out material for a prison, combining security with some regard to sani- tary conditions. The governor proposed that the United States should furnish $20,000 to pay for extra guards, and purchase the necessary iron, lum- ber, and tools, when the territory would put the convicts to quarrying stone and building a peni- tentiary which should be a credit to Idaho and the general government.32

Other government buildings in Idaho there were none, if I except the United States assay-office at Boisé City, which cost about $100,000. For many years it was of little use. It cost the government so much to send out its bullion-the producers having to pay the fee-that the office received only a small pro- portion of the gold-dust and bullion produced in the territory. In 1886 an arrangement was made with the Pacific express company, by which they were sent to the mints either at San Francisco or Philadelphia free of express charges. The business of the office for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1886, was 7,910 ounces, valued at $122,046.61; but in 1887 it was 32,954 ounces, valued at $446,641.66; and for the year ending June 30, 1888, it was estimated the busi- ness would reach $1,000,000.

Boisé City had a court-house, erected at a cost of $60,000, which occupied a square; and another square was devoted to the use of the Independent school dis- trict of Boisé City-a district organized under a spe- cial charter granted by the territorial legislature, and which was independent of school officers, either terri- torial or county. It had a board of trustees, with power to examine and employ teachers, disburse moneys, and transact all business necessary for the maintenance of the schools in the district. In addi- tion to the county apportionment, a revenue was col-

32 The number of territorial prisoners was 75, and U. S. prisoners 3. Gov.'s Rept, 1888, p. 54-5. The citizens of Boisé formed a Chautauqua reading circle among the convicts, who gladly embraced the opportunity for study. Id. 1887.

572

MATERIAL AND SOCIAL PROGRESS.

lected from escheated estates, and from a special tax. This was a graded school system consisting of primary, intermediate, grammar, academic, and high school de- partments, and from its text-books seems to have been of a high order of public school. Lewiston, also, had its independent school district and system in four grades. The territorial condition handicapped the cause of public instruction by withholding the school lands from sale until the attainment of statehood, the school money having to be drawn from the people by taxation, for which reason no great advance could be expected before the territory became a state. Idaho will have much and valuable land for school pur- poses. In anticipation of soon coming into possession of these lands, the legislature, in January 1889, passed an act locating the university of Idaho at Moscow, in Latah county, and appropriating $15,000 with which to commence its foundation.33

Turning to the condition of the mining interests of Idaho in 1889, it appears that there has been an im- portant increase in the yield of the mines from 1884 to 1889, the product in 1885 being $5,486,000; in 1886, $5,755,602; in 1887, $8,905,136; in 1888, $9,245,589; these figures being from conservative sources.34 Other authorities 3ª claim ten millions in gold, silver, and lead for 1888. The actual amount reported for 1889 of gold and silver was $10,769,000; of lead, $6,490,000; of copper, $85,000-making a total of $17,344,600 as the product of the mines for this year, while $120,000,000 is claimed as the amount of the precious metals which Idaho has given to the world since mining began within its borders. The territory in 1889 stood fifth in the list of bul- lion-producing commonwealths. Besides the precious

33 The first board of regents consisted of 9 members, Willis Sweet being prest, and D. H. B. Blake sec'y. The site of the university consists of 20 acres, one mile from Moscow, on the slope of a hill facing the town, and approached by two broad avenues, which will be shaded with trees.

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History of Washington, Idaho, and Montana : 1845-1889, Part 63

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

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