An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 43

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 43
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 43
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 43

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On the west and around North Yakima, the Union, Hubbard, Schanno, City and different Ahtanum ditches, all small, supply the farmers and city with an abundance of water. Just opposite the site of old Yakima is the initial point of the proposed canal of the Sunnyside Ditch Com- pany which will be constructed next spring. The waters will be conducted on to the rich plains back of Prosser. If done, eighty thousand acres of good farming land will thus be thrown open. The Sears Brothers, of Tacoma, and St. Paul capitalists are backing the scheme. Thus far nothing has been done other than the preliminary surveys, which have demonstrated the feasibility of the scheme.

Just above Kiona, still lower down the Yakima, the Yakima Improvement and Irrigation Company are going right ahead constructing a canal for irrigation and com- mercial purposes. This canal is intended to cover some nineteen thousand acres of the company's own lands and twice as much more open to the pre-emptor and home- steader. The location surveys have been made and the company is going ahead with the construction work. This canal is to be built of sufficient size and depth for canal boats to transfer freight to and from the shipping point at Kiona on the Northern Pacific Railroad, and when com- pleted will be a large addition to the constantly increas- ing resources of Yakima county.

An idea of the rapidity with which the central Washington country was being appropriated by the settler at this period may be gained from the following from the pen of Luther S. Howlett, receiver of the United States land office :

"During the year 1888, 207, 360 acres of land have been filed upon at the United States land office in North Yakima (including Yakima, Kit- titas, Douglas and Okanogan counties). This has been taken under the various acts of congress giving away lands, as follows: Pre-emption, 644 entries; homesteads, 305; timber cultures, 290 ; desert land, 19; coal pre-emptions, 5; coal land purchases, 3; mineral land, 2.

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YAKIMA COUNTY.

"Besides this showing there have been appli- cations to enter under the desert land act, which are now before the secretary of the interior on the question of price per acre-whether it shall be $1.25, as formerly held, or $2.50, as required under the Sparks ruling. These applications cover some 50,000 acres along the left bank of the Yakima river. One hundred pre-emptors have proven up, fifty-one homesteaders and eleven desert land claimants.

"The best and most extensive agricultural region in the district (and in the territory) lies around the city of North Yakima and is known as the Yakima valley, though it really includes sev- eral valleys. Here you will find fruits and vege- tables in abundance. The land is too valuable to be given up to grain, which should be left to the Big Bend, Walla Walla and Klickittat regions. The railroads take the garden stuff raised in the Yakima valley to the coast cities in a day, and there is never a time from the middle of June to the end of October when the market is slow. In fact, the sound cities are coming to rely more and more upon the Yakima valley for those fruits and vegetables which formerly came from California. Many of the new-comers prefer to stop in this valley and take land rather than go farther away from the railroads and city schools. Here ten acres will give a family as good support as a mar- ket garden near an eastern city, with a surer thing of it year in and year out on account of the irrigation. While all this is true, it is also true that the resources of the valley are not yet one- twentieth part developed. The 160-acre ranches are gradually subsiding into small farms as the original owners prove up.

The general condition of Yakima county at the close of 1888 was excellent. Its total indebt- edness was only one hundred thousand dollars, contracted, it is said, chiefly for the construction of bridges to replace those carried away by the oft-recurring freshets. The total taxation was thirteen and three-fifths mills, claimed to be the lowest from Minnesota to California, both inclu- sive; not over half the average taxation of Da- kota; five mills less than the average of Washing- ton territory, and seven less than that of Mon- tana. The total assessed valuation of the property was two millions, very much less than the real value, and the population was estimated all the way from four thousand eight hundred and fifty to six thousand.

One of the most important movements before the people of Washington territory at this period was that for admission to the Federal Union. It was not a new movement. A Walla Walla stu- dent of local history is quoted as stating that "the proposition for calling a convention to frame a state constitution, preliminary to asking for the admission of Washington territory to the Union, was first submitted to the voters by an act of the legislature, session of 1868-9, providing for a

ballot upon the question at the June election of 1869. Failing to meet the favorable considera- tion of the people at that time, it was again sub- mitted at the general elections of 1872 and 1874 and each time defeated. In 1876 the question was again submitted, and, the people declaring in favor of such action, delegates were chosen and the convention met at Walla Walla the second Tuesday of June, 1878. After a session of forty days, a constitution was framed, which received the indorsement of the people at the general elec- tion of that year, the vote being 6,462 for and 3,231 against-a total of nearly 3,000 less than the vote cast for delegate."

From the year 1878 until the year 1889 the admission of Washington to the Union never wholly ceased to be a living issue. At one time a bill passed both houses of congress admitting the territory with the northern counties of Idaho added to the federal sisterhood, but it was pocket- vetoed by President Cleveland. The measure was insisted upon, however, and on February 22, 1889, the celebrated omnibus bill, enabling North and South Dakota, Montana and Washington with- out the North Idaho counties to become states, was signed by the president of the United States.

Among the most important provisions of the enabling act relating to this territory were the following: That the election for the purpose of choosing delegates to a constitutional convention to be held at Olympia should be held on the Tuesday after the second Monday in May, 1889; that seventy-five delegates should be chosen, should meet on the Fourth of July, and having organized and adopted the constitution of the United States, should proceed to form a state government republican in form and to frame a constitution which should make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not taxed, and should be in consonance with the constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declara- tion of Independence. The constitution must also provide for perfect toleration of religious sentiment, disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries of the state and to all Indian tribal lands; provide for the assumption and payment of the debts and liabilities of the territory, also for the establishment and maintenance of a sys- tem of public schools open to all children of the state and free from sectarian control. The act also provided that the constitution should be sub- mitted to the qualified electors of said state for their approval or rejection at an election to be held on the first Tuesday in October; that if said constitution should be in compliance with the form provided and be adopted, the same, together with the vote thereon, should be forwarded to the president of the United States, who should issue a proclamation announcing the result of the election and thereupon the said state should be

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deemed admitted into the Union; that until the next general election, or until otherwise provided by law, the state should be entitled to one repre- sentative in the national house of representatives; that the representatives to the fifty-first con- gress, together with the governor and other officers provided for in the constitution, might be elected on the day of the election for the ratifica- tion or rejection of the constitution, and until the said state officers were elected and qualified and the state admitted into the Union the terri- torial officers should continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices in the said terri- tory; it provided for the customary gift of sec- tions sixteen and thirty-six in each township of all unappropriated public lands to the state for common-school purposes; gave fifty sections of unappropriated lands for erecting public build- ings at the capital for legislative, executive and judicial purposes; provided that five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within the state, which should be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of the state into the Union, after deducting all the ex- penses incident to the same, should be paid to the state for use as a permanent fund, the interest of which only should be expended for the support of the common schools within the state; reserved such quantity of lands authorized by the fourth section of the act of July 17, 1854, for university purposes, as, together with the lands confirmed to the vendees of the territory by the act of March 14, 1864, should make the full quantity seventy- two entire sections; provided that all lands granted the state for educational purposes should be disposed of only at public sale at a price of not less than ten dollars per acre, the proceeds to constitute a permanent school fund, the interest on which only should be expended in the support of said schools; that said school lands might, however, under such regulations as the legisla- ture might prescribe, be leased for periods of not more than five years in quantities not exceeding one section to any one person or company ; granted Washington lands equal in quantity to those granted Dakota, March 2, 1881, for peni- tentiary purposes ; gave the state ninety thousand acres for the use and support of agricultural col- leges in said state, and in lieu of land grants for internal improvements made to new states by an act passed September 4, 1841, and of swamp and overflowed lands under the act of September 28, 1850, the following grants: for the establishment and maintenance of a scientific school, one hun- dred thousand acres; state normal school, one hundred thousand acres; for public buildings at

the state capital, in addition to the grant here- inbefore made for that purpose, one hundred thousand acres; state charitable, educational, penal and reformatory institutions, two hundred thousand acres; it also provided that all mineral lands should be exempted from grants made by the admission act, mineral school lands to be exchanged for lieu land; allowed the state an appropriation from the national treasury of twenty thousand dollars for defraying the ex- penses of the constitutional convention; made the state a separate judicial district; arranged for the regular and easy transfer of all territorial judicial matters from the territorial courts into the state courts, etc.

The constitutional convention met as provided by the enabling act. Those chosen to represent Yakima and Klickitat counties were Colonel Wil- liam F. Prosser, of North Yakima, and R. O. Dunbar, of Goldendale, republicans, and J. T. Eshelman, of North Yakima, democrat; while the fifth district, consisting of Kittitas and a part of Douglas counties, was represented in the con- vention by J. A. Shoudy and A. Mires, of Ellens- burg, republicans, and J. T. McDonald, of Ellensburg, democrat. These gentlemen and sixty-nine others continued their labors until the 22d of August, by which time they had completed a document of not a little merit and containing a considerable number of progressive features. Two separate articles, one providing for female suffrage and one prohibiting the sale of intoxicat- ing liquors, except for medicinal, sacramental or scientific uses, were submitted to the people to become a part of the state constitution, provided a majority of the male voters should favor them. The election for the adoption or rejection of the constitution was held on the first Tuesday in October, as provided by the enabling act. It resulted in the adoption of the constitution as prepared by the convention, the vote being 38, 394 for and 11,895 against. The vote in Yakima county was 845 for and 115 against. Both the separate articles were defeated.

At 5:27 o'clock p. m., on the 11th day of November, 1889, President Harrison signed and issued his proclamation declaring the territory of Washington a state of the Federal Union. His name and that of Secretary James G. Blaine were affixed with a pen of gold from Washington mines in a holder of ebonized laurel, from the same section, both made specially within the limits of Washington, for this purpose. Thus the new ship of state was fairly launched for what we may hope will prove a long and prosperous voy- age in the peerless federal fleet.

CHAPTER IV.

CURRENT HISTORY .- 1889-1904.

Unfortunately, the first months of Yakima county's history as a political division of the state were not entirely free from disaster. The open- ing of the winter was somewhat unpropitious, the cattle being poor and ill prepared to with- stand the rigors of a possible cold season. This was owing to the fact that the previous winter had brought but little snow, causing the grass of the ensuing summer and fall to be short and lacking in succulence. So it happened that when the weather became severe, as it did January 2d, the death rate among range stock ran up to an unusual height. In its issue of January 30th, the Yakima Herald said:

"There is no question but that the cattle have suffered greatly this winter and that the loss is heavy. It was not the cold nor the snow but the poor condition in which they had entered upon the winter. Had the grass been good dur- ing the summer the loss would have been light, but with no snow during the winter of 1888-9, the range has never been known to be so poor before. The chinook which has been blowing most of the week cleared away much of the snow but still left a coating sufficient to make feeding necessary. Joseph Baxter believes that ten per cent. have thus far been lost."

In its issue of February 27th, the same paper tells us that not only had the loss among cattle been great, but that of horses was depressingly heavy; that the range riders were still bringing in gloomy reports and that Joseph Baxter then estimated the loss of cattle in the county at fifty per cent. and of horses twenty-five per cent.

A single additional quotation from the Herald will give the reader a sufficiently clear idea of the cattle losses of the winter of 1889-90. In its issue of March 6th, it said :

"The backbone of the winter has at last been broken. The winter has been a hard one on stock, and many of the largest cattlemen have received a blow from which it will take a num- ber of seasons to recover. To estimate the per- centage of loss is difficult. Snipes & Allen, P. J. Flint, Baxter & Sharkey and other large cattle raisers will lose more than fifty per cent. of their bands, while the loss of the Moxee Company and many of those with a few hundred head, who had plenty of feed, will be comparatively light. The

loss on different ranges varied. The cattle on the Moxee range doubtless suffered the least, while the mortality on the Cowiche, Lower Yakima and Horse Heaven ranges was the greatest. In the Naches, Wenas and Ahtanum valleys the cattlemen generally had sufficient feed, but had the severe weather lasted a week or ten days longer, all the hay in the country would have been exhausted. The loss falls principally on a few, as the farmers with barn- yard stock or small herds of range cattle had, for the most part, ample provision for caring for the stock, and their losses are slight. At the com- mencement of winter the estimate of range cattle in the county was twenty thousand. Roughly stated, half of these are now dead, and two-thirds of this loss will fall on less than a dozen men. It was the longest and most trying winter since the memorable one of 1880-81.

But the time had gone by when a blow to the cattle industry was sufficient to paralyze even temporarily the entire progressiveness of the county, and the loss of the winter of 1889-90, though severe on those whom it directly affected, caused no halt in the march of the county's industrial development. Besides the stimulus which its admission to the Union had given to the state at large, a stimulus which could not fail to make itself felt in every part of the common- wealth, there were progressive forces specially af- fecting central Washington at this time. The reasonable contention of both Ellensburg and North Yakima for the honors and benefits of be- coming the state capital was advertising the re- sources of the country contiguous to each and directing public attention thither. The attention of capital had been at length attracted by the splendid opportunities for profitable investment the Yakima and Kittitas valleys offered, and large irrigation enterprises were being inaugu- rated. Furthermore, there was much activity among railway companies and many reasons were given the people to hope that their section would soon be traversed by more than one iron pathway of commerce. Were it not for the panic of 1893, which prevented the consummation of some of these schemes, the development of Yakima and Kittitas counties would have been marvelously rapid. As it was, the railways failed to materialize, though the oldest irrigation

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CENTRAL WASHINGTON.

scheme has since eventuated in the mammoth Sunnyside canal, and some of the less preten- tious projects have been carried to a successful consummation.

Notwithstanding their failure, a short discus- sion of the railway projects of the time may throw an important side-light upon this period of the country's history. One of these was a road from Portland, Oregon, across the Cascades to tap the wheat fields, mining districts and gardens of central and eastern Washington. The aggregation of New York and English capitalists which projected the road styled them- selves the Portland, Lower Columbia and Eastern Washington Railroad Company. A committee of this corporation was met at Portland in December, 1889, by Hon. J. B. Reavis, George W. Jones and Edward Whitson, from North Yakima, to whom through its committee, the com- pany stated in writing the following proposals: In consideration of Yakima's subscribing a bonus of one hundred thousand dollars, the company agreed to build a road from some point on the Columbia river in Clarke county to North Yakima and have the same equipped and in operation within two years. The bonus was not to be paid until the completion of the road but was to draw interest at the rate of five per cent. per annum. North Yakima was to be given depot facilities within the corporate limits and for a time at least was to be made the terminus of the road, although the plans contemplated its exten- sion to a connection with the Canadian Pacific, which would give North Yakima another trans- continental road.

On December 20th, an enthusiastic meeting was held at the council chambers. It resulted in the appointment of G. W. Jones, Captain J. H. Thomas, William Ker, J. C. MacCrimmon, John Bartholet, S. J. Lowe and W. A. Cox a com- mittee to canvass the town for the purpose of receiving the subscriptions. These gentlemen began at once their herculean labors and con- tinued them with such success that by January 16, 1890, more than the required sum was sub- scribed, as appears from the following peal of triumph in the Herald of that date:

"Yakima aspired to raise one hundred thou- sand dollars bonus. She has not only raised that amount but three thousand dollars over. She has done that which Walla Walla and Ellensburg failed in, and which has only been equaled in this great state by rich and prosperous Spokane Falls. The latter raised one hundred thousand dollars as a bonus to secure the building of the Spokane and Northern railroad, and now plucky Yakima, which claims a population only one-eighth as great as that of the Empire City, comes proudly to the front with a like amount for the Portland, Lower Columbia and Eastern Washington Railroad Company. * *

* Edward Whitson heads the list with six thousand dollars; J. H. Thomas and

William Ker follow with four thousand dollars each."

The central Washington country also had another railway prospect at this time. It was furnished by the Illinois Central, one of the richest railroad corporations, which sent in May, 1889, a party of engineers from Sioux Falls to seek out a feasible route to the sound. The party arrived at North Yakima September 16th ensuing. From their leader, George M. Nix, who was the general manager of the Midland Pacific Railroad Company, it was learned that the party had traveled westerly up the Lugen- bee river, thence through the Big Horn and Wind River mountains; thence across the Rocky moun- tains and down the Salmon and Snake rivers to Lewiston; thence down the Snake, crossing the Northern Pacific at Palouse Junction, thence westerly via Crab creek coulee to Priest Rapids of the Columbia, from which point they pro- ceeded through the Moxee coulee to North Yakima. To a press reporter Mr. Nix made the statement that the line was not only feasible but that its grades were economic, that the road would traverse a splendid country yet untapped by railroads and that fewer difficulties would be encountered in its construction than have been surmounted by the other transcontinental lines. He also claimed the route was three hundred miles shorter from Chicago to Puget Sound than that of the Northern Pacific, and advanced the opinion that if the rest of the country presented no greater obstacles than had that already tra- versed, engineering parties would be in the field in the early months of 1890 permanently locating the road.

All these projects naturally had the effect of encouraging home-seekers to come to the country, even though there was no assurance that they would ever materialize ; but the local project, that of constructing the large irrigating ditch, was much more direct and immediate in its effects. The history of the Sunnyside canal scheme takes us back to about 1885, when the first survey was made. However, the enterprise was not taken up in good earnest until 1889, when a number of persons experienced in irrigation conceived the idea of buying up the lands of the Northern Pacific Company to the southward of North Yakima and constructing a canal to water them and alternate sections belonging to the govern- ment. With this end in view they began again the work of surveying for a practicable route. The result of the investigations of their corps of engineers is embodied in a report of Chief En- gineer J. D. McIntyre, the most of which is here reproduced :

I completed the surveys of the Yakima canal Novem- ber 2, 1889, after having been engaged with an assistant engineer and a force of men for about three months. Four hundred and seventy-one miles of grade line in all were run and six different routes investigated.

Yakima River - And-

Sunnyside Canal Intake.

Sunnyside Canal

Six-Year- Old Oreland

18.4 lbs

POTATO A MEAL FOR TEN.

Field of Alfalfa:

Stacking Alfalfa.

THE SECRET OF YAKIMA COUNTY'S COMMERCIAL GREATNESS.

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YAKIMA COUNTY.

The plan at first proposed was to build an irrigating canal from Uuion Gap onto what is known as the "Sunny- side" lands along the Yakima river in Yakima county, Washington, which lie on the easterly side of the Yakima river between Union Gap and the mouth of the Yakima river. Six other engineers had preceded me at various times during the past four years, and they had all reported that the Sunnyside line which begins at Union Gap was the only practicable route. I found this line to be a favor- able one, but too low to cover more than forty-seven thou- sand acres of railroad land; the estimated cost for eighty miles of canal about four hundred and seventy thousand dollars, and it was decided that unless a higher line cover- ing more land could be found it would be better to abandon the enterprise. I shall not attempt to describe in detail the various routes surveyed and abandoned, but will con- fine my description to the one adopted, which I call the "Natcheez line."

The Natcheez line begins at the Natcheez river, about two miles above where that stream mingles with the waters of the Yakima, and runs in a southerly direction around and to the west of the Ahtanum basin, crosses the Athanum creek about five miles to the west of its confluence with the Yakima river; follows along the steep hillside south of Ahtanum creek to Union Gap, a distance of about eighteen miles ; thence across the Yakima river by a pipe line to the easterly side of the river, at which point the elevation ob- tained above the Yakima river and above the Sunnyside line is one hundred and ninety-nine feet; thence along the foot of the Rattlesnake range in a southeasterly direction to a point about north of the town of Prosser. a distance of about eighty miles, making in all a length of ninety-eight miles of canal. By the adoption of this route the great objection of all lines heretofore run by us or by the en- gineers of the Northern Pacific Land Department to cover the Sunnyside lands is fully overcome. It is one hundred and ninety nine feet higher; its course heads many of the deep ravines encountered by the other lines and covers more than twice as much land as any of them. I estimated the water in Natcheez river in September last, at a time when great drouth was prevailing, and found twenty-nine thousand miner's inches of water in the stream. There is probably from five to ten times as much water as this in the stream during the irrigating season. It has its source in the perennial snows of the Cascade mountains, and in my opinion the water supply is abundant and permanent and the title undisputed.

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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 43

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