An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 25

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146

USA > Washington > Kittitas County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 25
USA > Washington > Yakima County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 25
USA > Washington > Klickitat County > An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 25

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).

February roth the snow started to go away and by March Ist cattle could feed. They had just started to gain strength again when, on March 15th, there came another snowfall a foot deep, remaining until April Ist. Many of the cattle that had survived the long, cold winter were still too weak from starvation and exposure to weather another storm and the result was that many of the remaining cattle died. Fully three- fourths of all the stock in the country perished that year. The largest cattle owners in the

county at that time were Willis Jenkins, William Murphy, Ben E. Snipes, John and Thomas Burgen, Lewis Parrott, John Golden and Joseph Knott, of Portland.

Willis Jenkins had close to two hundred head of cattle out of which he saved about fifty, most of them steers. £ Ben E. Snipes lost practically all he had in Klickitat county. He had, how- ever, about two hundred head in the Okanogan country and these wintered all right. The fol- lowing summer he drove them with some others he bought to British Columbia, where he disposed of them at a very high price. Beef sold that summer at the Caribou mines as high as a dollar and fifty cents a pound. In the spring, because of his heavy losses, he had been generally considered a broken stockman, but by fall he had cleared over forty thousand dollars.

The losses of other stockmen were proportion- ately heavy. M. S. Short, on Chamberlain Flats, succeeded in saving ten head out of the sixty- five he brought to the county the previous year. These also would have perished if he had not driven them to the mouth of Ten-mile creek, where they were in a measure sheltered and could get sufficient grass to sustain life. The journey over a rough trail through the deep snow, Mr. Short informs us, was attended with trials and hardships never to be forgotten. At the same time he moved his family to The Dalles, where they spent the remainder of the winter. It was the 23d of January when he started with his wife and one small child to make this journey down the Columbia to The Dalles. The weather was cold, the coldest of that unusual winter. The trail was rough, as a train of pack mules had gone over it just before the heavy frosts had hardened the snow, leaving it very uneven and full of holes. This unevenness made walking extremely difficult, as the trail was narrow. The distance from Chamberlain Flats to The Dalles is in the neighborhood of thirty-five miles and two days were required to make the journey. Mr. Short was forced to camp one night with his family in an open cabin without blankets, and the discomforts of that night may be readily imagined, but the following day they arrived at The Dalles without accident.

By January Ist the water in the Columbia was very high and the snow and sleet falling in the river formed a slush ice, which increased in the cold weather to a thickness of about fifteen feet, as nearly as could be determined. At one point a crack formed in the ice, which, though almost closed at night, expanded during the day to nearly a yard in width. At this place it was possible to look down probably fifteen feet and no open water was to be seen. When the ice broke up in the spring and floated out of the river, the ice press was tremendous. The high water crowded huge blocks of ice well out on the sandbars, where they remained until April Ist.

KLICKITAT COUNTY.

Should a bridge be built across the lower Col- umbia, the ice is a mighty force that would have to be reckoned with. Some winters there is no floating ice in the river; others there is very little, but should such a condition as has just been described ever again occur, the structure must be strong and the foundations secure indeed that would withstand the heavy ice floe brought down upon it with the current when the ice should break up and float out of the channel.

Before the cold winter there were thousands of jack rabbits and prairie chickens in the valley, but the severe winter left hundreds of them dead on the plains. The prairie chickens, in accord- ance with their custom, allowed themselves to be covered in the snow, and when the crust formed on the top they were unable to get out, and per- ished in great numbers fromn starvation. After it got warm in the spring and a man's weight would break through the snow crust, it was not uncommon to see birds that had survived escape through the holes made by the feet of pedes- trians. The rabbits were not able to get enough food to keep them alive and many starved to death.

The very unusual winter of 1861-62 was to say the least most discouraging to the cattlemen. In one year they had seen the herds, which had taken them years to accumulate, worse than dec- imated. A few were entirely disheartened and left the valley, but most of the settlers remained and went bravely to work to build anew their shattered fortunes. It speaks volumes for the fortitude of these early settlers that they were sufficiently courageous to take up the struggle again in the face of such disasters. Had such a winter as has been described occurred a little later in the history of the county, it is doubtful if the losses would have been so great, for with each succeeding year an increased amount of winter feed has been provided in the valley while improved transportation facilities early made it possible to secure assistance from outside sources in case of need.

There are few disasters so complete that they do not bring a certain measure of compensation, and in one respect the severe winter was a for- tunate circumstance for the settlers of the valley. It is believed that the Indians had planned a gen- eral uprising for the summer of 1862 with the intention of ridding the whole country of white settlers. As the Indian population far outnum- bered the whites at that time, they would prob- ably have experienced little difficulty in executing their plan had it not been for their loss of ponies during the previous winter. But the Indians lost nearly all their horses, and as they will not make war on foot the white people were left unmolested.

The cattle losses also had a tendency indi- rectly to encourage agriculture. The importance of providing some winter feed for stock could no

longer be denied and some of the settlers turned their attention to raising grain for fodder. It was with reluctance at first that the cattlemen countenanced any attempt at farming, for they watched with a jealous eye experiments that might, if successful, result in their being finally deprived of the valley for a stock range. It was a good cattle country and they, as cattlemen, did not wish to see it devoted to any other use. They were inclined to discourage all experiments in agriculture, maintaining that the valley was more valuable as a stock range than it would ever be for anything else, and there are still peo- ple in the district who maintain that when they plowed down the bunch grass they destroyed a better crop than can ever be raised in its place. But the time was nevertheless fast approaching when agriculture would supersede all other pur- suits in the county.

As early as 1861 some grain was sown in the valley. This, because of the exceptional win- ter that followed, was valued very highly for horse feed. In 1862 a little more grain was grown. As there were no threshing machines'or mills in the valley for a number of years after- ward, it was used for fodder only, but these experiments were useful in that they showed what the country was capable of doing.

The people also began to branch out into other industrial pursuits. At first all lumber used in the county had been manufactured by the use of the whipsaw, a slow and unsatisfactory implement. There was no lack of first-class tim- ber in the county to supply any number of mills, but no little difficulty attended the bringing of the necessary machinery to the valley over poor roads and with poor transportation facilities. A company of men was found, however, who were willing to undertake the difficult task, and during the year 1860 Jacob Halstead, David Kitson, Benjamin Alverson and his brother Isaac, built a mill on Mill creek and furnished it with the necessary equipment for sawing timber. This first little mill was of small capacity and made no pretense of furnishing anything but rough lum- ber, but it was the beginning of an important industry in Klickitat county. It is estimated that the county contains seven hundred and forty- three million feet of standing timber, and al- though much of this is not yet opened up, the lumbering business has since assumed important proportions and now furnishes labor to a small army of men throughout the county.

The furnishing of wood for the boats was still an important business. Columbus had become quite a center of activity. One man opened a shop where he furnished fresh meat to the boats, and A. G. Davis started a store there. A couple of years later, however, he sold the building to a man who utilized it as a saloon. As the man had no license to sell liquor, his business was illegal, but if he had proceeded

CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

quietly in the business and had not sold whiskey to the Indians, it is doubtful if anyone would have molested him. But he persisted in dispens- ing his bad whiskey to the red men and they became very noisy and troublesome; indeed, conditions soon became so bad that men's lives were scarcely safe. There was no satisfactory manner of proceeding against the man by law, as the county had no effective organization of its own. An appeal to the courts would have to be made at Vancouver and the people of the valley were in no way sure that any redress could be obtained from that source. Thomas Jenkins,

who at that time was loading wood for the boats, lived with his family at Columbus. As he had a sick child, these night orgies were especially annoying to him, and he asked the owner of the saloon to desist from selling whiskey to the Indians, as it made the town an unsafe place to live in. This the saloonkeeper refused to do, saying that he would sell whiskey to the Indians as long as he pleased. Exasperated beyond further endurance, a number of the citizens of the valley eventually decided to put an end to the whole matter. It was agreed by a company of men, among whom were Thomas Jenkins, Nelson Whitney, Lewis Parrott, Stanton H. Jones and William Hicinbotham, that they would enter the saloon and empty out all the liquor. As the members of the party were respected cit- izens and no mob, they chose the daylight in which to execute their designs. It was known that the owner of the saloon kept a loaded gun always in readiness on the counter; also that he was a desperate man and liable to use it. He was a good customer at his own bar and very often rendered harmless by over-intoxication, but it was nevertheless thought a wise precau- tion to dispose of the shotgun before anything else was attempted. Jenkins walked into the saloon alone and taking the gun from the coun- ter, discharged both barrels into the air. Then the others entered, each of whom took a keg or demijohn out to an old hole where once had stood an Indian hut, and emptied out its contents. They kept this up as long as there was any liquor left in the building. When the saloon- keeper, who had been in a drunken stupor while the operation was going on, came to his senses and found his shop empty, he made all manner of dire threats of what he would do, but in the end he did nothing. The saloon has never since been reopened nor was there ever another estab- lished at Columbus.

Although some of the settlers became dis- couraged because of the hard winter and heavy loss of stock and left the valley, others came in to take their places and the county slowly in- creased in population. The country was still very attractive to the stockmen and during the summer of 1862 a number of extensive stock- raisers moved their herds to Klickitat. William

Connell and William Hicinbotham settled at Rockland and went into partnership in the cattle business. Thomas Johnson, a nephew of Con- nell, also came to the county that year and was also associated with his uncle and Mr. Hicin- botham in the business. They bought stock from the settlers and drove them overland to British Columbia, where they disposed of them at the mining camps. Watson Helm also brought a band of cattle to the county from Wil- lamette valley during the year and sold them to Ben E. Snipes at thirty dollars a head. These Snipes atterward took to British Columbia with a herd of his own and sold at a high figure.

By January, 1863, there were two ferries con- necting different points in the country with the Oregon shore, one running between Rockland and The Dalles and the other connecting the Rock creek wagon road with the road on the Oregon side. These were operated under restric- tions and limits prescribed by law. The follow- ing rates were established by an act of the legis- lature: Wagon and span, three dollars; each additional span, one dollar; man and horse or horse with pack, one dollar; loose animals, fifty cents each; sheep and hogs, fifteen cents each. The ferry connecting Rockland and The Dalles was established by James Herman in 1859, and when it made its first trip, July 9th of that year, John J. Golden, who was then on his way to Klickitat, was aboard. A second ferry was put in operation at Umatilla in 1863, and in 1868 William Hicinbotham established a third at Columbus.

As if to lend credit to the view of the stock- men that Klickitat was not for the agriculturists, a new enemy of the farm products appeared in the valley at an early date. This was a tiny black cricket. When the first settlers came to the valley, and no one can tell how long before, there were crickets along the south side of the mountain that flanks the Columbia, but it was not until 1864 that they crossed into the valley. It is claimed by some that the significance of the word Klickitat is cricket, but there is a differ- ence of opinion on this matter, and as few Indi- ans can any longer talk the language of the Klickitats, it is difficult to determine what is the correct English translation of the word. These insects were small in size and in color about like a housefly. During the summer season they traveled in bands and after depositing their mil- lions of tiny eggs, they died off. One peculiar habit of these insects was that they always trav- eled in straight lines. When the young were hatched in the spring they were as apt to start out in one direction as another, but whatever direction they took in the first place, they never varied from it afterwards. They would hop right into a stream of water or a ditch nor would they ever make any effort to avoid them. If they came to a wall or a tree, repeated attempts were made

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KLICKITAT COUNTY.

to climb over but none to find a way around. Whatever crops or gardens their course brought them to they utterly destroyed. In the morning they would attack a green field and by evening it would be as bare as the streets.

Ingenious methods were devised by the set- tlers to protect their crops and gardens. They nailed boards around the bottoms of their fences so close to the ground that none of the insects could crawl under, and on top of this they nailed a strip at right angles so as to protrude a short distance outward beyond the vertical boards, so that when the insects attempted to climb over the top board they would fall back. To destroy the pests they dug trenches along the edges of the fences in such a way that the insects would fall in and could not climb out. It is claimed that as soon as the crickets fell into the pit dug for them they would fall each upon the other, tearing off all their limbs as if their neighbors in distress had been responsible for their own trouble. When the trenches were filled with the insects, the farmers would cover them up with dirt to prevent stench. Some built fires across the line of travel of the pests, into which they would jump and be consumed, and by these and other methods a few saved their grain and gar- dens from being entirely destroyed. The crick- ets made their appearance each successive year until 1870, and by the Ist of March of that year the hillsides and valleys were almost black with the little insects, but ten days later a heavy fall of snow covered the ground and before it melted away the crickets were all dead. This species has never given any serious trouble since.

Up to this time, 1864, the whole Alder creek and Camas prairie country was an unsettled wilderness, nor were there many settlers on Rock creek or Chamberlain Flats. In 1861 Joseph Chapman settled and put out an orchard on a place along the Columbia beyond Rock creek. The same year Merrill S. Short came to Chamber- lain Flats, where Tim Chamberlain and his brother had a wood-yard and were engaged in hauling wood for the boats. Mr. Short moved away the following winter and did not return for some years. The Chamberlain brothers lost all' their oxen during the severe winter and had to abandon the wood business. In 1863 Chancey Goodnoe first came to the Flats and remained a short time, but he did not become a permanent settler until the following year. Thomas Bur- gen moved to Cliamberlain Flats in 1864, settled on the place where his family still live, and spent there the remainder of his life.

A few years after the Indian war, Neil and A. Girdon Palmer, brothers, became the second per- manent white settlers in the White Salmon coun- try, locating on land just below the Joslyn place. Rev. E. P. Roberts, a retired missionary, and his wife were the next to enter that region. They came in 1860 or 1861, and settled upon the

claim adjoining Joslyn on the east. Roberts sold out to J. R. Warner in 1864. A year or two later John Perry and his Indian wife settled on the river near Lyle. E. S. Tanner came to White Salmon in 1865, and in the early sixties, also, David Street, a bachelor, settled in the valley about four miles above White Salmon river.

The first schoolhouse in the Klickitat valley was built in the year 1866 by private donations of the settlers. The building was afterward moved to its present location on the Columbus road, about four miles south of Goldendale, as a more central site than the one it originally occu- pied. It has since given place to a more com- fortable and commodious structure erected across the road. A private school supported by sub- scriptions of the settlers had been established several years before on the Swale. Nelson Whitney taught the first term in the private school, and Miss Jennie Chamberlain, afterward Mrs. Nelson Whitney, taught the first public school. No particular system of text-books was used, each pupil making use of the books he hap- pened to possess, whether they were purchased for his special benefit or came to him as the abandoned text-books of his parents. These irregularities would be demoralizing to a school of this day, but it was surprising how much the children learned then, notwithstanding such dis- advantages.

The only Indian trouble in Klickitat during the early years which gave evidence of develop- ing into anything of a serious nature happened in 1866, and this could scarcely be considered anything more serious than a family quarrel. The quarrel occurred at Joseph Chapman's place, on Rock creek, now known as the W. B. Walker ranch. The Chapmans had a little Indian boy staying with them, and they were in the habit of sending him out every evening to drive up the horses. They also had a boy of their own who was about equal in age to the Indian. The young "Siwash" did not consider it fair that he should be sent for the horses every night while the other boy remained comfortably at home, so he made complaint to the boy's sister, Jane. All the satisfaction she gave him was a sound cuffing upon the ears, a treatment which probably did not hurt the young brave very much, but thor- oughly ruffled his temper. He went forthwith to the other Indians with his tale of woe and stirred them into a violent passion. Being deter- mined to slaughter the whole Chapman family, they went with loaded guns directly to Chap- man's and made an attack on them. In the fight that ensued one of the Indians shot Jane Chap- man in the head, but the bullet failed to pene- trate the skull, and after its removal the girl soon recovered. One of the Indians, called Chief George, was shot through the body and also badly slashed with a sword. The Civil war was

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CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

closed then only a short time; soldiers were con- tinually passing back and forth through the country, one of whom had left an old sword at the Chapman place, and when the Indians made their attack, a man stopping at Chap- man's, familiarly known as "Alabama Joe," made at the old chief with the sword and slashed him so severely that he was left for dead, though he subsequently regained consciousness and crawled away. He lived a year.

It was thought this was liable to cause a gen- eral outbreak of the Indians, and a runner was immediately despatched to warn the settlers and summon aid. As the Indians still far outnum- bered the whites, a war would have been fraught with great danger to the settlement The real danger of war was greatly magnified because the circumstances of the trouble were unknown to the people and there was danger that some indis- creet act on their part might incense the Indians not already disaffected by the Chapman incident. Many of the settlers collected as much as they could of their effects and left the country. Some, thoroughly panic-stricken, fled in wild disorder. racing their horses across the plains in their mad rush to get away, but most of the people took the matter more calmly. A number went to the assistance of the Chapman family and a guard was maintained during that night, which was so dark that the watchers could see very little, but the Indians never molested them, although the dense darkness seemed to favor a night attack. The four or five hundred Indians seemed to be afraid of a handful of white men.

Father Wilbur was then Indian agent at the Yakima reservation, and when any serious trouble occurred it was customary to send for him. This great, powerful, fearless man seemed to under- stand thoroughly Indian character and could manage the Indians as if they were children. When he went to the Yakima reservation, the government thought it necessary to maintain a large force of soldiers as an inducement to peace to the red men, but shortly after his arrival the soldiers were removed at his request, and it was never found necessary to replace them. He would go right into the midst of the armed and angry Indians, arrest the leaders and compel the others to desist from their hostile acts.

Although many of the early settlers opposed county organization, on account of the taxation which was its necessary concomitant, it soon became evident that there were some advantages which could not be obtained without some form of local government. The county had no public school system, no roads, no bridges and no method by which these desiderata could be pro- vided. Those who were opposed to organization in the first place because of the paucity of set- tlers in the county, now began to favor it. Pre- vious to this time the county had been organized and officers elected, as has been said, but very

little attention was given to the county govern- ment. Some paid their taxes, others did not, most of the officers never qualified, and nothing was ever done with the taxes collected, that is, nothing to the advantage of the county.

We are informed by a settler of that time that it was customary for the officials to divide the spoil and spend it for their own purposes. At that time the sheriff collected the taxes and turned over the money to the treasurer. In 1865 Sheriff Reuben Booten collected from all who were willing to pay and left the county, and the following year no attempt whatever was made to collect taxes. Very early in 1867, however, the county was reorganized, and the following offi- cers were appointed by the territorial govern- ment: Commissioners, Amos Stark, August Schuster and H. M. McNary; auditor, Thomas Johnson; treasurer, William Connell; assessor, Stanton H. Jones; probate judge, James Taylor. August Schuster resigned and was appointed sheriff. John Burgen was appointed superintend- ent of schools. This was the first really effective organization that had ever been accomplished in the county. The courthouse was a building at Rockland, rented from William Connell at the rate of eight dollars per month. It is still stand- ing.

These officers were appointed to hold office only until the general election of June 30, 1867. The officers elected were: Amos Stark, H. M. McNary and T. J. Chambers, commissioners; August Schuster, sheriff; A. H. Simmons, pro- bate judge; Martin Harper, auditor; John Bur- gen; superintendent of schools. Most of the officers were then paid fees or wages by the day for the time spent in the service of the county, but the superintendent of schools was granted the special dignity of drawing an annual salary. He received twenty-five dollars a year.

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An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 25

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub Publication date: 1904 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company Number of Pages: 1146

Author: Interstate publishing co., Chicago, pub
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate publishing company
Number of Pages: 1146