An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 42

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 42
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 42
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 42

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).

"It is therefore ordered by the board that the county auditor advertise in the Yakima Record, a weekly newspaper published in Yakima City, for sealed proposals to furnish the lumber and material necessary to construct a building suit- able for a courthouse, the plans and specifica- tions of which may be seen at the auditor's office on application. Also for proposals to erect the said building, all bids to be presented and filed with the auditor on or before the first Monday in May, the board reserving the right to reject any and all bids."

The erection of the courthouse was delayed somewhat by hostile litigation, but after the creation of Kittitas county there was no further reason for opposition, and by consent of the parties this litigation was dropped.

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One of the first acts of the board of county commissioners at its regular session for the year 1882 was to establish toll rates as follows: For crossing the Yakima river, wagon and six-horse team, $1.25; wagon and four-horse team, $1.00; wagon and two-horse team, 75 cents; man and horse, 371/2 cents; pack and horse, 121/2 cents; loose cattle and horses, 121/2 cents each ; footman, 25 cents; sheep and hogs, 5 cents each ; for cross- ing toll bridges, wagon and six-horse team, $1.25; wagon and four-horse team, $1.00; wagon and two-horse team, 75 cents; man and horse, 25 cents; footman, 1272 cents; packhorse, 1272 cents; loose horses and cattle, 10 cents; swine and sheep, 3 cents. At the same session the county was divided into twenty-two road districts; also into the following election precincts: Horn, Parker, Yakima City, Ahtannm, Cowiche, Wenas, West Kittitas, East Kittitas, Alder and Simcoe.

The early eighties were very important years for Yakima and Kittitas counties, as for all other parts of Washington territory. It was then that the light of another day began to illuminate the horizon, the day of the railway, the telegraph, rapid transportation, rapid communication and modern civilization. The wealth of pasturage of the broad valleys and wide expanse of undulat- ing uplands had drawn the first scattering popu- lation to central Washington; experimentation had proved its agricultural possibilities when artificially supplied with water, and it needed now naught but the stimulus which could come only with the railway and its concomitants to inaugurate a period of intensive development; a period in which large things should be attempted and accomplished; a period when, by the magic of well directed industry, the dry ground should be made to blossom as the rose.

The history of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, its inception, organization, its strug- gles before congress, its financial embarrass- ments and its operations in the mammoth under- taking of spanning a continent, developing a vast wilderness and securing to itself a mammoth grant of public land-would form the theme for a work of more than one ponderous volume. For more than a quarter of a century this com- pony was conspicuous in the public eye. Though it began its efforts before the close of the Civil war, and though its survivors were making reconnoissances of the Yakima country as early as 1867, not until 1883 was any construction work done within the limits of the territory constitut- ing Yakima county. In the fall of that year, however, the first twenty-five miles of the Cascade division were built, extending from the banks of the Columbia to a point about three miles to the westward of Kiona. Late in the year 1884, it had been extended to Yakima City and shortly afterward the steel rails were laid into North Yakima. Here the march of the

giant was stayed for nearly two years, owing to difficulties presented by the canyon of the Yakima river and to the still greater difficulties arising out of the Villard crash and the subsequent financial stringency.

The period of railroad building was one of great intellectual as well as industrial activity for the people of the Yakima and Kittitas valleys, in common with other residents of the territory of Washington. Many problems of great moment were engaging the attention of the general public, and certain questions arising out of the land grant had a personal interest for not a few, in addition to the interests which such persons felt as citizens. It is hard to realize at this time the anxiety of men who had settled in good faith upon land which was afterward claimed by the Northern Pacific Company, they of course, being in doubt as to how the company would deal with them in the adjustment of con- flicting claims. The members of the United States congress were also perplexed, and on the whole the period was one of uncertainty, political discussion, bitter denunciations and general excitement and unrest. The railroad company was persistent in its protestations of an intention to deal fairly by all bona fide settlers, and it may be asserted with assurance that it was as liberal and just as a corporation could be reasonably expected to be under the circumstances. Early in 1883, President Villard made the following statement regarding the purposes and intentions of his company :

"In cases where in past years a settler has gone on railroad land and in good faith resided on and improved it for a home, the company proposes to allow such actual settler the privilege of purchasing the quarter section of land on which his buildings and improvements have been made at the minimum price of two dollars and sixty cents per acre cash, or four dollars per acre on time. It is intended that the privilege to make purchase at these minimum prices shall so far as practicable be confirmed by the company to the actual settler whether any application for the purchase of the land may have been made by him or not."

It is hardly possible in a reasonable space to adequately represent the spirit of this interesting epoch in local and territorial history. The com- pany was busy not alone in a tremendous effort to conserve its interests in congress and to keep public opinion as favorable toward it as possible, but to overcome its financial difficulties and to solve perplexing problems about the best routes, the means of surmounting natural obstacles and the like. One of the questions at issue was how to get over the Cascade range of mountains. Concerning this problem President Harris, in October, 1884, said :

Until the most careful examination of the several passes through the Cascade range has been made, it was

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thought not desirable to file in the Interior Department the map of definite location of that part of the Cascade division from Tacoma eastward, although the road was completed to Wilkeson in November, 1877, because the precise point at which the second section would commence could not be determined until the best mountain pass had been found.

The search for this pass has been one of great diffi- culty, requiring the highest skill and perseverance. That known as the "Stampede," about midway between Natcheez and Snoqualmie passes, has been adopted by the company as the place for crossing the range.

This selection determined the point of connection with the first section east from Tacoma and the map of definite line of location from Tacoma to South Prairie was filed in the Interior Department and the commissioners appointed by the President of the United States to examine this sec- tion have recommended its acceptance.

The line of definite location from South Prairie twenty- five miles to a point in the canyon of the Green river has been determined, and the grading has been let; and on the east side of the Cascade range, from Yakima City to a point twenty-five miles west of the Columbia river has been adopted and maps of the same have been filed in the Interior Department.

Surveys are in progress for the definite location of the rest of the line across the summit of the Cascade moun- tains, a distance of about seventy-four and one-half miles. A tunnel two miles long will be required. The highest elevation of the tunnel above sea level will be two thou- saud eight hundred and eighty-five feet. The summit of the pass is three thousand six hundred and ninety-three feet above the sea. The mountain is supposed to be hard basaltic rock, and the construction of the tunnel may require from two to three years.

It was the necessity for this tunnel, the diffi- culties of the Yakima canyon and the financial stringency which caused the long delay in build- ing westward from Yakima. The company had already exceeded the time in which the road should have been completed in order to secure the benefit of the land grant, and in all parts a considerable proportion of the people were demanding that congress should declare the grant forfeited. There was, however, a large class of people who, while recognizing the fact that the company had failed to comply with the terms of the grant and had no legal rights in the premises, argued that the best interests of the country required that the government should be lenient with the railway company and should allow a reasonable extension of the time limit. In Yakima and Kittitas counties the discussion waxed warm, and bitter personalities were at times made use of. In no way can an idea of the opinions and reasoning of the two parties be better conveyed than by quoting in extenso reso- lutions passed by two different popular assem- blages within the territory of the counties named.

On March 22, 1884, at Elliott's hall in Ellens- burg, a mass meeting of citizens adopted the fol- lowing as the sentiments of the majority :

Whereas, By an act of congress in 1864 half of a strip of land eighty miles in width was granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to aid in the construction of a railroad from Lake Superior to Puget Sound ; and

Whereas, The original grant was large and valuable enough in itself to build the road within the time specified

in the granting act without further aid, and now that eight years have elapsed since the grant has expired; and

Whereas, The original intent of the granting act was to open up what was then a wild and uninhabited region of our country-to act as the forerunner of civilization- whilst now thrifty and intelligent communities have sprung up in advance of construction, making the traffic alone highly remunerative for a railroad, consequently the original intent has ceased and become null and void; and

Whereas, By subsidizing newspapers, sending agents out to misrepresent the true sentiments of the people by making a show of work before the assembling of each session of congress; and

Whereas, By forming the blind pool and buying the Seattle & Walla Walla railroad, with their grant in the way, they have forestalled action on the part of other companies ; and

Whereas, By one-half of the land being withdrawn from settlement, the growth of the country has been retarded, immigration checked, business stagnated, lands from which no revenue could be collected and settlers on such lands handicapped; therefore

Resolved, That the lands lying along the Cascade division of the Northern Pacific Railroad have unjustly been withheld from settlement for a period of twenty years, thereby filling the coffers of a predaceous monopoly at the expense of the poor frontiersman.

Resolved, That these lands belong, and of right ought to belong, to the people, and that we most emphatically condemn the policy of congress in taking away the poor man's heritage and giving it to stock gamblers and rail- road sharks.

Resolved, That the actions of the several boards of trade of Seattle, Walla Walla and Tacoma, praying for congress to extend the grant, would shine out far more brilliantly had they shown their zeal for their masters in giving something they had a shadow of right to give. These boards of trade have already a railroad and they can well be magnanimous in giving away other people's property.

Resolved, That we are opposed to any further time being extended to the Northern Pacific Railroad or to congress' fixing any price per acre on railroad lands.

Resolved That we, the settlers of Kittitas county, in mass meeting assembled, are in favor of an unconditional and absolute forfeiture of all the lands along the Cascade division of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Resolved, That we learn from our present delegate in congress that the only knowledge he has of our present situation is through the action of our late legislative assembly. Therefore, we view with surprise and indigna- tion the action of our late representative, John A. Shoudy, in refusing to memorialize congress to forfeit the land grant of the Cascade division of the Northern Pacific Rail- road and in exempting their property from taxation.

Resolved. That we heartily and unequivocally endorse the course of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Adams, of the Yakima Signal, in advocating and championing the cause of the poor man and in standing by the rights of the people in their fight with a vast corporate power, in refusing all their overtures of place and preferment, and that we recommend the Signal as the best family paper in our midst and that we will do all in our power to sustain the Signal in its efforts for right.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be for- warded to the chairman of each committee on public lands of both houses of congress; also Judge Payson, Hons. William S. Holman, Cobb, Slater, Scales and Henley, and be published in both county newspapers, the Yakima Signal and Klickitat Sentinel, the Dallas Mountaineer and the Post Intelligencer.

F. S. THORP, F. D. SCHNEBLY, B. E. CRAIG,

S. T. STERLING, Secretary.

Ellensburg, W. T .. March 22, 1884. Committee.

A few days before this, a similar meeting was

Copyrighted by Rutter.

A WILD INDIAN ON PICKET DUTY IN FULL WAR COSTUME.

WILBUR SPENCER (THE EDUCATED SON OF THE NOTED "CHIEF SPENCER") AND FAMILY.

RAILROAD BRIDGE ACROSS THE COLUMBIA AT KENNEWICK

THE OLD GOVERNMENT BRIDGE ACROSS TOP- PENISH CREEK ON RESERVATION.

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held at Yakima City, called on account of the fact that certain persons, under the influence of powerful excitement and bitter prejudice, had expressed indignation against their opponents in a too forceful manner. This assemblage adopted (it is claimed with few dissenting votes) resolu- tions very different from those adopted by the Ellensburg meeting. As reported to the Kittitas Standard by one of its correspondents, they were:

We, the citizens of Yakima county, would most respect- fully represent that:

Whereas, congress did grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company a certain piece of land along either side of said proposed railway from Duluth to Puget Sound, in aid of the construction of said road, and

Whereas, Said railway company was organized upon the basis of said grant, and

Whereas, Said company did in 1869 in good faith com- mence and prosecute the survey of said road and com- mence construction thereof in good faith, and with the intent of completing the same at the earliest practicable time, as their work will show as follows: From the year 1869 to 1873 they made continued surveys from the eastern end to the point designated by congress as the western end, through a wilderness and desert entirely unknown to either railway engineers or other intelligent people, but a country given up to savages from whom it was impossible to procure information of a valuable nature. The results of said surveys were compiled at great expense and time, and the maps and profiles filed and the withdrawals made. The company also prior to 1873 constructed what is known as the Pacific division from Kalama to Tacoma, also about five hundred miles of the eastern end of said road, and were at the time of the great panic of 1873 pushing their work to the utmost, and

Whereas, At or about this time our government did resolve to or agitate the question of a return to specie pay- ment, and by its action threw the country into a financial panic which extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast and from Maine to the gulf of Mexico, thereby at once put- ting an end to the prosecution of all public works, and more particularly the Northern Pacific Railroad, then in its infancy, and

Whereas, By said action they forced said company to suspend work and into insolvency, and

Whereas, It was not until the year 1879 that confidence was so restored in the finances of the country that the rail- way construction of the country could be resumed, and

Whereas, The said Northern Pacific Railroad did in that year reorganize and get into working condition and did immediately commence work and have prosecuted the same from that time to the present with the greatest energy, at an enormous expense and under the greatest difficulties, working through snow and ice, heat and cold, and have succeeded in giving us a continental line of rail- road from a point on the Columbia river to the Atlantic coast, and

Whereas, There remains an uncompleted portion of said road from the Columbia river to Puget sound, the western terminus, which was contemplated by the grant and which is of the greatest importance to Washington ter- ritory, and more particularly to the citizens of Yakima county and others settled along the line, as well as to said company, who cannot have a continuous line as intended by the grant unless said line is constructed, and

Whereas, There seem to be rival interests which are favoring the forfeiture of said land grant, to the great detri- ment of the whole of Washington territory, and more par- ticularly to Yakima county and the sections of country said Cascade division of the Northern Pacific Railroad traverses, be it

Resolved, That we, the citizens of Yakima and vicinity, assembled, do most respectfully petition congress to take such action as will insure to the Northern Pacific Rail-

road Company their land grant and to the people the speedy completion of said road; and be it further

Resolved, That we cordially endorse the bill introduced by our delegate in congress, the Hon. Thomas H. Brents. in reference to the Cascade division, to-wit: That the time for construction be extended two years from January 1, 1884; that the odd sections granted them be sold at the rate of $2.60 per acre ($4 on time), and we earnestly request our delegate to use all means in his power to have said bill passed by congress.

Congress, it appears, was disposed to shape its course in accord with the latter set of resolutions. It bore with the Northern Pacific very patiently in all its delays and failures, showing no disposi- tion to forfeit the grant on technical grounds, and the result was that in the course of a long time, after many tedions and vexatious lapses into com- parative inactivity, the company was enabled to complete the Cascade division, tunnel and all. Whether the advantages accruing from the road are or are not sufficient to justify the enormous subsidy which the government bestowed upon the company is a matter of opinion, but certain it is that the Northern Pacific Railroad has been a most potent factor in the development of Washington, and that to its construction so early in the history of the territory must be largely attributed the phenomenal progress of this now prosperous state.

The tariffs exacted on the uncompleted Cas- cade division were very high compared with what they are over the same road to-day. From a schedule issned in February, 1885, we learn that the fares then exacted were as follows: Pasco to Melton, 11/2 miles, ro cents; Pasco to Kennewick, 2.3 miles, 55 cents; Paso to Badger, 1712 miles, $1.65; Pasco to Kiona, 27 miles, $2.30; Pasco to Prosser, 41 miles, $3.15; Pasco to North Yakima, 86146 miles, $6. 10.

An incident of the construction of the North- ern Pacific Railroad through Yakima county was the inception of the important town of North Yakima. Prior to the advent of the steel rails, Yakima City was the metropolis of the valley, but its youthful rival, under the patronage of the railway company, gained prestige very rap- idly. Many of the old town residents and busi- ness men, realizing the hopelessness of maintain- ing two prosperous and thrifty towns so close together, and believing it good policy to accept the liberal offers of the new town's promoters, moved their establishments over. In a very short time North Yakima had a thousand inhab- itants. It was laid ont on a plan similar to that of Salt Lake City, with wide streets and alleys, artificial streams of water, rows of shade trees, and abundant provision for parks and public buildings. Its promoters were evidently per- suaded that it would one day be the capital of the commonwealth and kept the possibility of its securing this honor in mind while making the original plats. By an act approved by Governor Squire January 9, 1886, it was provided that

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North Yakima should thenceforth be the county seat instead of Yakima City, and ordered that the county commissioners should remove the court- house and all other county buildings or property by them considered of sufficient value to justify the expense. The courthouse was moved in due time; a jail was built under it, and all the ma- chinery of local government properly installed in fitting quarters at North Yakima, where it has ever since remained.

During the period that the western terminus of the railway remained at North Yakima, important developments took place in the sur- rounding country. Naturally, the products of the region found a market to the eastward, that being at the time the path of least resistance. It is stated that during the season of 1885, "from April to October 31st, there were shipped by rail out of the Yakima valley to Montana and Chi- cago 37,477 head of cattle. There were also in the same period shipped out of the Yakima valley 4,228 head of horses and 29,823 sheep. This necessitated the use for cattle of 1,647 cars; for horses, of 235 cars, and for sheep, of 397 cars. This was bone, muscle, fat, wool and hide of bunch-grass."

But the completion of the Cascade division through to the coast was destined to exert a much more powerful influence upon the course and momentum of development in central Washing- ton. It rendered easily accessible the markets of the sound country and the ocean, and even before the Cascade tunnel was in use there had begun the decline of the cattle industry, which must needs give way before the advance of an army of settlement. A. J. Splawn fixes the date at which the business of stockraising commenced to contract rapidly as the year 1887. It had long been apparent that the higher development for Yakima county must take the direction of canal construction and the irrigation of arid lands. Experiment had proven the practicability of making the desert to bloom and bring forth; the railway furnished the incentive, and very soon a progressive people was actively engaged in multi- plying by this means the productive capability of the central Washington valleys.

Some of the earlier irrigation enterprises have already been mentioned in these chapters. A summary of the later ones undertaken prior to or during 1888 was furnished by the Seattle Post Intelligencer early in 1889 in the following language:

A short account of some of the principal irrigation schemes in Yakima may be of interest, which we attempt, giving them not chronologically, but topographically.

The city of North Yakima is situated at the confluence of the Naches and Yakima rivers. There are several minor irrigation ditches taken out of the Naches. The only ex- tensive one is the canal of the Selah Valley Ditch Com- pany, of which B. F. Young, of Pierce county, is the able superintendent. This company, going up the Naches river some thirty miles, posted their notices of appropriation and

took out a canal twenty-four feet on the bottom, carrying three feet and a half of water in depth. Excavating around the foothills on the north of the Naches valley, they have conducted their canal over into the Selah valley just north of the city of North Yakima. This valley contains about twenty thousand acres of beautiful land, which, now under the impetus given by the Selah company, is being rapidly settled and brought under the dominion of the plow and harrow. This same company, branching off with a side cut, where their main line crosses the divide between the Naches and the Selah by means of flumes and conduits, are conveying a portion of this pure, fresh, ice-cold water to the top of the high bluff just north of the city of North Yakima, and here is being constructed a reservoir forty feet in depth and with a surface of five acres, in the head of a ravine. From this point the company purposes conduct- ing the water down the bluff, across the Naches in iron pipes, to supply their mains in the city, thus affording the inhabitants of that favored place a sufficiency of pure, fresh water under a four-hundred-and-twenty-foot pressure.

Just across the Yakima river from the city are the lead- gates of the Moxee Company's ditch. This company, of which Gardiner G. Hubbard, of Washington, D. C., and William Ker, Esq, of Moxee, are the principal owners, under the intelligent supervision of President Ker, has car- ried the science of irrigation to a higher degree of perfec- tion than any other canal company in the country. This company's main ditch is eighteen feet on the bottom and calculated to carry a depth of three feet of water, winds around the foothills of the beautiful Moxee valley, and supplies all of those thousands of broad acres with a suffi- ciency of water for irrigation, domestic and stock purposes. The Moxee Company uses a portion of this supply on two thousand acres of its own land. * %

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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 42

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