An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 44

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 44
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 44
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 44

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).

I took no cross-section of slopes, and my estimate is based simply upon the grade line. The estimated cost is five hundred thousand dollars for the canal ninety-eight miles long. Storage reservoirs may be built at a cost of one hundred thousand dollars, which will double the capacity of the canal. In order to successfully irrigate the whole tract of two hundred thousand acres of land a lower line of canal should be built at some future time after the settlement will justify it, to be taken from Yakima river five miles above Union Gap and extended around Moxee valley, and thence parallel with the old Sunnyside line, a distance of about eighty miles, which, with a proper sys- tem of storage reservoirs, would cost approximately four hundred thousand dollars, making in all the total estimate of cost one million dollars. These estimates are based upon a canal twenty feet wide on the bottom, thirty feet wide on top, and capable of carrying four feet of water for one-half the length of each canal, and fourteen feet wide on the bottom and twenty-four feet wide on top, and capa- ble of carrying three feet of water for the lower half of each canal.

By reference to the general map herewith, the locality of the lands is shown. * * * The surface or contour of the ground is rolling and broken by occasional ravines. The soil is sandy-a loam-having its origin in the sedi- ments of a great inland lake, varying in depth from five to fifty feet and resting upon a bed of basaltic rock. No bowlders or gravel channels are found in the tract. The basaltic rock comes to the surface at rare intervals, but does not reduce materially the amount of available agricultural

land. The slope is generally to the south and the surface is covered with a thick growth of sage brush, varying in height from two to five feet.

The productions of the Yakima valley are very much the same as those of Fresno county, California, omitting, of course, the oranges. The cereals all do well, but the character of the products, such as fruits, hops, tobacco and alfalfa, are such as will make the lands too high-priced to be used for the production of cereals. I have made a close examination of the products of the basin with a view to finding out what kinds of fruits, vines and plants are best adapted to the soils and climate. I find that the staples are grapes, apples, pears, peaches, plums, prunes, sorghum, melons, tobacco, hops, alfalfa or lucerne, sweet potatoes, peanuts and all the small fruits. Wheat produces with irrigation about thirty-five bushels per acre, oats fifty bushels, barley forty bushels, rye thirty-five bushels. I saw eleven different kinds of shade trees growing in one yard; the butternut, walnut, maple, mountain oak, ash, weeping willow and cypress growing side by side. Those who are said to be experts in grape culture claim that the finest varieties of wine grapes are grown here. The tobacco raised from Havana seed upon the Moxee farm near North Yakima and there made into cigars is said to possess a flavor not excelled in this country. The Yakima basin must at no distant day become famous for its productions of many of the fruits, vines and plants mentioned above. *

* * *

* *

The climate may be regarded as semi-tropical about. ten and one-half months of the year and the products are semi-tropical. Here may be found a latitude of forty-nine degrees north with a mean temperature about the same as San Francisco. This unusual feature of climate may be accounted for by the warm winds of the Japan current, which follow up the Columbia river through the rift in the Cascade mountains and deflect into the Yakima basin, so that when residents both north and south, during the months of the winter solstice, are suffering from cold, those of this region are enjoying bright suns and warm winds,

The result of this surveying was that on the 4th of December, 1889, the Yakima Canal and Land Company was organized with a capital stock of one million dollars divided into two hundred thousand shares. The officers of the company for the first three months were Walter N. Gran- ger, of St. Paul, president; James Millisch, secre- tary, and Albert Kleinschmidt, of Helena, treas- urer. Previous to making the surveys, this com- pany had obtained from the Northern Pacific Company an option for the purchase of all rail- road lands in the Sunnyside region. The success of McIntyre's survey and the substantial evi- dences presented that the enterprise was about to be consummated induced the Northern Pacific Company to make advances to the irrigation company looking toward an amalgamation of interests, with the result that the Northern Pacific took two-thirds of the stock and lent its mighty force to the undertaking. Upon the entrance of the Northern Pacific into the company, Paul Schultze, of the land department, succeeded Mr. Granger as president, the latter taking the posi- tion of vice-president and general manager, and upon his shoulders fell the greater part of the burden of making a success of this gigantic indus- trial scheme. The name chosen for the new cor- poration was the Northern Pacific, Yakima and Kittitas Irrigation Company. It purposed to con- struct seven reservoirs in the mountains and to

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build one irrigation canal in Kittitas and two in Yakima county. In order that no mistake might be made, the services of William Hamilton Hall, a famous irrigation engineer of California, were procured to verify the work of Mr. McIntyre and to make further surveys. His report on the practicability of the enterprise was favorable, and early in the year 1891 work on the great irriga- tion system was in progress. The company began operations on the lower of their two pro- jected ditches in Yakima county, one which "left the Yakima river just below a gap where the river pinches itself between two high hills. Nature seemed to have designed it as a place for an intake of a great canal. At once an agreement was made with the farmers by which their ditcli, known as the Konnewock, was to be owned by the company and enlarged and extended, so as to carry one thousand cubic feet of water per second of time and serve sixty-eight thousand acres of land." Work was continued in the prosecution of this design until the main canal was con- structed nearly to the forty-second mile-post, and many laterals were put in and land sales made. The first water was taken by the new settlers from the main canal in April, 1892. The next year operations had to be suspended, owing to the widespread financial depression, and a period of not a little distress among the settlers followed. But "they had before them what the farmers had accomplished under the Konnewock ditch, and they did not lose faith. They cleared their land of the sage brush; they leveled it; they placed water upon it; they planted fields of alfalfa, clover, timothy, corn and potatoes; they set out orchards of peaches, prunes, pears, apri- cots, cherries and apples," and with the advent of prosperity came also an abundant reward for their labors.

The stockmen of the Yakima valley were in no wise dismayed by the approach of winter in the year 1890, as their cattle were in good condi- tion and they had plenty of feed. Prices, how- ever, were very low, owing to the fact that the hard winter of 1889-90 had discouraged many stockmen, causing them to rush to the markets with their cattle. Indeed, it seems that there was a species of reaction at this time from the great prosperity which ensued upon the building of the railroad, and a stringency of money was com- plained of throughout the entire Northwest. The Herald informs us that in the spring of 1890 the deposits of the First National Bank of North Yakima touched the low-water mark of about thirty thousand dollars. By May, however, they rose to an aggregate of more than eighty thou- sand, and it was thought that with the harvesting of bountiful crops in the fall all signs of depres- sion would disappear. They did disappear, and there was no permanent financial stringency until the total eclipse of the sun of general prosperity in 1893.

During the fall of 1890 a very successful county fair was held at North Yakima of three days' duration. It is stated that the display of fruits and vegetables was excellent and that sev- eral hundred dollars were distributed as prizes among the exhibitors of stock, garden produce, dairy products, vegetables, fruits, cereals, poultry, mechanical devices, fine art work, fancy work, etc. The executive committee in charge of this fair was composed of Captain J. H. Thomas, Edward Whitson and Joseph M. Baxter.

An incident growing out of the inception and organization of the Washington state govern- ment was the contest among several different counties of the state over the agricultural col- lege, each county contending for the location of the institution within its own borders. As the college had an endowment of one hundred and ninety thousand acres of land and an annual appropriation of thirty thousand dollars from the general government in addition to state aid, be- sides an appropriation by the preceding session of the legislature of sixty thousand dollars for building purposes, it was considered a valuable acquisition and well worth striving for. Of course, Yakima county wished it, and was ready to offer any reasonable inducements to secure it. On petition of men representing more than half the taxable property of the county, the commission- ers, in special session assembled, on April 7, 1891, appropriated fifteen thousand dollars out of the general fund for the purpose of buying a site for the college should it decide to come to North Yakima.

Those appointed to decide upon the location of the coveted institution were George A. Black, S. B. Conover and Andrew H. Smith. About the last of April they rendered a decision in favor of Pullman, Conover and Black voting for that town, while Smith, of Tacoma, cast his ballot for North Yakima. It was thought that certain citi- zens of Pullman used improper influences to secure the college; indeed, some of them inti- mated as much to the writer a few years ago. The residents of North Yakima felt certain that the Palouse town had not won the prize fairly, also that there were irregularities in the appoint- ment of the three commissioners, so they insti- tuted a suit to test the validity of the award. Messrs. Crowley, Sullivan and Snively were retained to represent North Yakima in this litiga- tion.

The case was tried before Hon. Fremont Campbell, judge of the superior court of Pierce county, who on May 20th granted the following temporary restraining order :

In the Superior Court of Pierce County, State of Wash- ington.

W. L. Jones, plaintiff, versus T. M. Reed, auditor of the State of Washington; A. A. Lindsey, treasurer of the State of Washington; George A. Black, S. B. Conover and Andrew H. Smith, claiming to be commissioners, and S. B. Conover, J. H. Bellinger, Eugene Fellows, Andrew H.

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Smith and George W. Hoppe, claiming to be regents of the agricultural college, school of science and experimental station of the State of Washington.

In this case a temporary restraining order is granted to restrain the defendant, T. M. Reed, auditor of the State of Washington, from issuing any order or warrant upon the treasurer of the State of Washington, for any money upon the order of George A. Black, S. B. Conover and Andrew H. Smith, claiming to be commissioners appointed to locate the agricultural college, school of science and experimental station of the State of Washington, or upon any order or request made by S. B. Conover, Eugene Fellows, Andrew H. Smith, J. H. Bellinger and George W. Hoppe, claiming to be regents of the above named institution.

And the defendant, A. A. Lindsey, treasurer of the State of Washington, is hereby restrained and inhibited from paying any money upon orders drawn by said per- sons claiming to be commissioners, or said persons claim- ing to be regents aforesaid. And the said S. B. Conover, George A. Black and Andrew H. Smith are restrained from acting in any manner or attempting to act in any manner as commissioners, claiming to be appointed to locate an agricultural college, experimental station and school of science of the State of Washington.

And the said S. B. Conover, Eugene Fellows, J. H. Bellinger, Andrew H. Smith and George W. Hoppe, claim- ing to be regents of the agricultural college, experimental station and school of science of the State of Washington, are restrained and inhibited from doing any act whatever of any kind or character as such regents, or relating to the establishment, organization or conducting of said institu- tion, to be in force until this application for a temporary injunction asked for by the complainant can be heard and determined, the hearing of which is set for the 29th of May, A. D. 1891, at ten o'clock a. m., before Judge Fremont Campbell at Tacoma, Washington.

The plaintiff to give au undertaking, with sufficient surety, with approval of the clerk of this court. for the sum of one thousand ($1,000) dollars.

Dated this 20th day of May, A. D. 1891.

FREMONT CAMPBELL,

Judge of the Superior Court of Pierce County.

June 12th Judge Campbell granted a perma- nent injunction against the parties named in the foregoing order. He filed a lengthy opinion hold- ing that the agricultural college commissioners were never legally appointed, hence their pro- ceedings were illegal and void, and any attempt on the part of the board of regents to appropri- ate the money of the state for the erection of buildings at Pullman, being based on the illegal and void acts of the commission, would therefore be illegal and a court of equity would have the power to restrain them from appropriating or paying out the money of the state in the carrying out of an illegal and unlawful purpose.

The case was of course appealed to the supreme court. It came on for hearing October 23d and was argued by Attorney-General Jones and Judge Turner for appellants, and D. J. Crowley and H. J. Snively for respondents. The chief ques- tions at issue were: (1) Was the act of the com- missioners in locating the college the act of an authorized body? (2) Can a taxpayer institute a suit to restrain the illegal disbursement of public money? (3) Does the allegation of the complaint stating that Acting Governor Laughton and Com- missioners Black and Conover entered into a cor- rupt conspiracy to fraudulently locate the college at Pullman, the fact of locating being admitted,

constitute a cause for canceling the findings of the commission? In due time the supreme court handed down a decision adverse to those at whose instance the restraining order was granted, and reversing the findings of Judge Campbell. Thus, Yakima county was defeated in the contest it waged with so much vigor and the erection of college buildings at Pullman was allowed to pro- ceed.

It would appear from the local press that the summer of 1891 was an unusually rainy season. We are informed that on May 26th there was a cloudburst on the divide between the Moxee and the Konnewock, breaking the Konnewock ditch in several places, flooding a number of fields and threatening to carry away travelers, but doing no serious damage. Nealy a month later the Her- ald states that the rain of June 22d "from Union Gap bridge down was the hardest of the season, and above the place of M. B. Curtis and as far as the timber land of Peter Gervais it was a genuine waterspout. The road was gullied out in places, while tons of rock were piled up in others. The Konnewock ditch was broken in several places, and great quantities of mind and rock washed into the channel. At one place the ditch was com- pletely filled up. A severe hailstorm accompa- nied the rain, and at one place there must have been a wagon load of hail stones washed into a heap in a canyon. The berries have been badly injured by the continued rain, and corn is also damaged."

Yet it is safe to assert that 1891 was neverthe- less a prosperous year in the county. Stockmen were jubilant over excellent range and high prices, and that other producers were reaping abundant harvests is apparent from the ship- ments at North Yakima, one of the nine shipping points of the county, which shipments according to the statement of Agent Humphrey were as fol- lows: Hops, 45 cars, containing 2,746 bales; mineral water, 245 packages, weighing 39,200 pounds ; hay, 155 cars, weighing 3, 100 tons ; sheep, 86 cars, containing 16,779 head; hogs, 4 cars, con- taining 191 head; cattle, 128 cars, containing 2,816 head: horses, 12 cars, containing 268 head ; hides, 934 packages, weighing 52,000 pounds; eggs, 80 packages, weighing 4,000 pounds; onions, 2 cars, containing 475 sacks, weighing 42,750 pounds ; vegetables, 4 cars, weighing 96,000 pounds; fruit, 6,615 packages, weighing 190.300 pounds ; flour, 99 cars, weighing 1, 911, 850 pounds; wool, 82 packages, weighing 27,000 pounds; pota- toes, 92 cars, weighing 1,822, 200 pounds; melons, 59 cars, weighing 1,416,000 pounds: estimated total value, $291,500.

· With the opening of the year 1892 came re- newed activity in the great work of redeeming the soil by irrigation. In January, arrangements were made for the construction of a canal from Horn Rapids of the Yakima river to the Colum- bia. The ditch was to extend along the south

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side of the Yakima, but it was also proposed to redeem several thousand acres on the north side, conveying the water across the river by means of conduits. This work was undertaken by a cor- poration known as the Yakima Irrigation and Improvement Company. Their operations inade things lively in the vicinity of Kennewick throughout the whole of 1892 and a portion of the succeeding year. The ditch they constructed was, however, inadequate, but it has been recently enlarged and improved until it is now claimed to be the finest canal of its kind in the state.

The Cowiche and Wide Hollow irrigation dis- trict, on January 9, 1892, held an election at which was carried by a vote of fifty-two to fifteen the proposition to bond the district for a half mil- lion dollars for the construction of an irrigating canal. The plan was to take water out of the Tietan river by a canal ten and a half miles long and to distribute the same by three laterals, one to cover the Naches and Cowiche ridge, one the Cowiche valley and one to skirt the foothills. It was proposed to irrigate in all about forty-six thousand acres.

The interest of the people in irrigation was manifested March 26th on the occasion of the completion of the first twenty-five-mile section of the Northern Pacific, Yakima and Kittitas Irriga- tion Company's canal. "The announcement of the date of the ceremonies," says the Herald, "was very brief, but sufficient to attract a large throng of people, who, early in the morning, could be seen wending their way down the river road by every means of conveyance that could possibly be secured. Paul Schultze, president of the company, arrived in his special car on the eight o'clock train from Tacoma, accompanied by a number of distinguished guests, including T. B. Wallace, president of the Fidelity bank ; Theodore Hosmer, president of the Tacoma Light and Water Company; George Brown, of the Tacoma Lumber Company; I. W. Anderson, president of the Tacoma Land Company; Presi- dent Strong, of the Eastman Kodak Company, and Architect Pickles, who were desirous of wit- nessing the ceremonies and inspecting the great work, which is but the beginning of the most important system of irrigation canals in America. The intake of the canal, where the dams and head-gates are located, is seven miles from North Yakima and within sight of the Two Buttes, the historic Indian battle-ground. There a platform had been built, and at ten o'clock Hon. R. K. Nichols, as master of ceremonies, called the assembled people to order. * *

* Hon. Ed- ward Whitson, Hon. J. B. Reavis, Hon. Gardner C. Hubbard (of Washington, D. C.) and Paul Schultze made speeches appropriate to the occa- sion. Miss Dora Allen broke a bottle of cham- pagne over the head-gates as the waters swirled into the new canal and the band played lively

airs." The whole country celebrated, and the Herald considered the occasion sufficiently im- portant to call for an illustrated special edition.

An event of the year 1892, which evinces the faith of the leading citizens in the present pros- perity and future prospects of their county, was the incorporation on April 19th of the Yakima, Natcheez and Eastern Railway Company. Its capitalization was five hundred thousand dollars, divided into five thousand shares, and the objects it purposed to accomplish were to construct, maintain and operate a system of railways, tele- graph and telephone lines upon the following routes: A line commencing at North Yakima and running through the Moxee valley and the Moxee pass to a point on the Columbia river at or near Priest rapids; a line commencing at North Yakima and running thence up the Naches river to the mouth of Bumping river, thence to Bump- ing lake, thence to certain coal fields at or near Fish lake, known as the Yakima coal fields; a line commencing at North Yakima and running in a general southeasterly direction into and through that portion of Yakima county known as the Konnewock valley and Sunnyside; a line commencing at North Yakima and running by the most convenient route up the Ahtanum valley to the Yakima mineral springs, and thence up the north fork of the Ahtanum for a distance of twenty miles; a line commencing at North Yaki- ma and running in a southerly direction to Satus creek, and thence by the most practicable route through Satus canyon to Goldendale ; all the roads to be narrow gauge.

The company, of which George Donald was president and Edward Whitson vice-president, asked a bonus of one hundred thousand dollars and the various rights of way. This the people of North Yakima and the county were willing to furnish, but the hard times came on before all preliminary arrangements could be made and the enterprise was of necessity abandoned.

A single other event of the very busy and prosperous year 1892 can receive notice in this review. On the morning of March 2d an earth- quake shock was experienced from Santa Ana, California, to North Yakima. The disturbances were felt by numerous persons in different parts of this county, but no damage resulted. At Fort Simcoe the peculiar rockings of the earth were somewhat more violent than elsewhere in central Washington, the shocks numbering three, as they did also in Portland and The Dalles. Charles Lombard, clerk at the Yakima agency, stated that a very light shock was felt there at 2:45 a. m. and two heavy ones at 3 and 3:20 respect- ively. "The latter," said he, "frightened the inhabitants, made the houses rock and shook down a portion of the plastering in the new boarding-house. It also wrenched the office suffi- ciently to tear away the light wire fencing attached to the front. Mrs. George L. Mattoon

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was frightened into sickness and has not yet been able to recover from the dizziness with which she was attacked."

An important point was scored for Yakima county in the state legislature during the earliest months of the year 1893. Representative Webb, of King county, introduced a bill for the organ- ization of a state agricultural fair for the advance- ment of agriculture, stock raising, horticulture, mining, mechanical and industrial pursuits, etc. The bill also provided that exhibitions should be given at or near North Yakima, beginning the last Monday in September each year and contin- uing five days. It authorized the seven com- missioners, to whom its management was to be entrusted, to purchase not less than two hundred acres of land as near North Yakima as possible, for state fair buildings and grounds, appropriat- ing forty thousand dollars to be expended in 1893 and ten thousand dollars in 1894. The bill, amended to provide that Yakima county should donate the groundsto the state, also amended to re- duce greatly the appropriation, was passed earlyin March. In November the county deeded the state one hundred and twenty acres near North Yak- ima, and the work of clearing off the sage brush and preparing it for occupancy began at once. Buildings were erected during the ensuing sum- mer, and the next fall the first fair was held.

It may be asserted without fear of doing vio- lence to truth that the impetus given Yakima county by the developments of the preceding two or three years rendered it in large measure im- mune to the deadly blight of financial stress which had attacked the rest of the country, at least for a considerable time. In its issue of June 29th, the Herald, commenting on the fact that the first half of a very unprofitable year had passed, says: "This community has probably suffered less from the general business stagnation than any other on the coast, and with the vast amount of money which will soon be available for the prosecution of work on our irrigation systems, and the flattering outlook for the crops, Yakima may confidently hope for prosperity and plenty this fall. The population of this county has increased over fifty per cent. in the last eighteen months; county warrants are being discounted again, to be sure, but this is not due to any depreciation in their value; rather to the fact that the banks are not buying securities, as they realize that it will require a vast amount of money to pick and prepare the hops for market and to harvest the other crops."

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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 44

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