An illustrated history of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas counties; with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 54

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 54
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 54
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 54

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).

KENNEWICK.

In the southeastern part of Yakima county, and eighty-seven miles from its seat of justice and local government, is the thriving town of Kennewick. It enjoys an exceedingly fortunate location, being about midway between Spokane and Puget sound, while its low elevation, three hundred and sixty-five feet above sea level, gives to it and the country immediately surrounding the advantage of a semi-tropical climate. Cer- tainly no town in the state surpasses it in the brevity and mildness of its winter seasons. "Here smiling spring its earliest visit pays," while autumn's delightful charm lingers long after winter has enfolded most of the other towns of the state in its chill embrace.

The advantage of a warm, genial climate to a town depending in large measure upon fruit cul- ture for its support is fully apparent. A high price always rewards the men who can first get their fruit products on the market. The earliest strawberries often command prices several times greater than those which often obtain even a week or two afterwards, and the same is true of other small fruits. Kennewick growers are in a position to outdo practically all competitors in the matter of early berries, for they enjoy a sea- son earlier by two or three weeks than do grow-

ers in most other parts of their own county, one of the warmest in the state. Indeed, it is claimed that they can even antedate with their products the horticulturists of the famed Hood River val- ley of Oregon.

Inasmuch as Kennewick is located in an arid plain of great extent, one would hardly expect it to be favored with an environment specially pleasing to the eye, but the surrounding country is not without scenic beauty. Far to the east, the wondrous Blue mountains rear skyward their lofty crests; on the south the general level finds at length a boundary in the hillsides which form the stairway to the prodigious Horse Heaven wheat plateau; away to the northward shadowy uplands, clad in the beautiful hue which nature delights to give to all distant objects, stand pro- jected against the paler blue of the sky; while right at one's feet is the great Columbia, world- famed for its beauty. A trip to the center of the railway bridge which spans at Kennewick this mighty river places one in a position to view its pellucid waters, and soon the beholder is con- vinced that it needs not the embellishment of verdure-clad banks to give it a divine charm. Though its currents are not of crystal clearness, a greenish blue cast has been imparted to them which, while it takes away transparency, adds a touch which appeals most strongly to the æsthetic eye. At times the Columbia, as seen from the bridge, suggests to one the river of Addison's vision, which appeared to emerge from a deep mist at one end of the valley and to lose itself in a deep mist at the other.

On the Columbia plains contiguous to Kenne- wick may be observed the exceeding gorgeous- ness of coloring which is wont to characterize the advent and departure of the sun in desert places -a gorgeousness never equaled in more favored localities-while here and there a wealth of ver- dure contrasts strongly with the sandy, sage brush plains, and gives earnest of the beauty which shall here develop, when irrigation shall have done its perfect work.

The history of Kennewick for many years is one of long waiting and hope deferred. When the railroad made its way into the country in 1883, and it was known that eventually a bridge would span the great Columbia at this point, the fact that a town would one day be built became apparent to some of the men engaged in con- struction work. C. J. Beach, who was at that time in the company's employ, filed upon govern- ment land in the vicinity, and his homestead is a part of the townsite. The other part was railroad

Îand. The first building in town was Beach's house, which still stands, but the honor of having erected the first structure for business purposes belongs to one Joseph Diamond. It was built in 1884 and filled with a small stock of general merchandise. Mr. Diamond catered to the trade of the railway employees, during the period of

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road building, then to the needs of settlers in the vicinity, until about 1890, when he removed to Walla Walla. Several merchants had stores in Kennewick at different times, and blacksmith shops and saloons were opened-perhaps a few other business establishments also, but the growth of the place was slight until 1892, when an attempt was made to irrigate the arid lands contiguous. It was then that the town was reg- ularly platted. Mr. Beach tells us that the vil- lage received its rather peculiar name in this way : The railway company, desiring to name the town to be after the first white man to visit its site, aside from those of Lewis and Clarke's party, made some inquiry among the Indians as to who of the pale-face race first came among them. The simple natives tried to say "Chenoweth," referring to an early trapper, but corrupted the name into something which sounded like "Ken- newick," and Kennewick the town was chris- tened.

The Yakima Irrigation and Improvement Company, for such was the name of the aggrega- tion of progressive individuals who first sought to redeem the Kennewick country, did not meet with complete success, though it spent much money in the construction of a lengthy canal from the Horn rapids of the Yakima river, some seven miles below Kiona. The work of this company gave a temporary impetus to Kennewick, and in the years 1892 and 1893 there was a very consid- erable influx of people. It was then that the magnificent Columbia Hotel building was erected. But the ditch was too small and totally inade- quate; the irrigation company was unable to enlarge it, owing to the hard times which began to oppress all classes in 1894; so the town sus- pended developments and soon relapsed into much the same condition it was in before the quickening resulting from this enterprise.

The return of prosperity brought renewed activity to the Columbia plains, as to other parts of the state and nation, but it was not until 1902 that the work of town building was resumed at Kennewick in good earnest. The ditch, water right and realty holdings of the old irrigation company passed at length into the hands of what is known as the Northern Pacific Irrigation Com- pany, which in February of the year designated began the work of enlarging the ditch. This undertaking was intrusted to Superintendent John Russell, a comptent and careful man, who, supplied with abundant means and instructed to do a good job at all cost, has built what is claimed to be the finest irrigation canal in the state. At Kennewick, twenty-one miles from the head-gate, it is five feet deep, eighteen feet wide on the bottom and twenty-eight on top. The ditch is thirty miles long and so situated that about fifteen thousand acres can be irrigated from it. A perpetual water right costs the farmer or horticulturist about thirty-five dollars

an acre, and a maintenance fee of a dollar an acre a year is thereafter charged.

Though the ditch was not completed in time for use in 1902, it has already produced a won- derful effect in the development of Kennewick. The population of the town a year ago last May was fifty. In May, 1903, it was estimated at four hundred, and conservative inen now claim for Kennewick a population of five hundred. Almost all the present business houses have been opened in the past eighteen months, so a simple enumer- ation of them gives a good idea of the commer- cial development wrought in that brief period. They are: Dry goods and furnishings, Scott & Company ; general merchandise, Johnson & Ful- lerton, Robert Geary, Coffin Brothers, L. S. Erley; hardware, Rudow & Schweikert; hard- ware and furniture, H. A. Bier; Exchange Bank of Kennewick, S H. Amnon, president, John Sherman, vice-president, J. R. Amon, cashier ; shoe and second-hand store, T. S. Cantrill; drug store, H. R. Haynes; blacksmith shop, Charles E. Reed; carpenter shop, Schroeder & Callahan; real estate, C. J. Beach, C. A. Lundy, Cosgrove & Hanson, C. F. Freithaupt, H. A. Hover; shaving parlors, J. F. Shafer and B. F. Nye; livery and feed stables, H. E. Beach and C. M. Lloyd; lumber yards, St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company and Frank Emigh; saloons, N. R. Sylvester, Hawkins & Wilkie ; hotels, the Antlers, William Keefer, proprietor, the Hotel Hover, H. A. Hover, proprietor, the Hampshire House, C. P. Stanyan, proprietor, and the Hotel Kenne- wick (the last named of which was built by C. J. Beach in 1892); Japanese restaurant; confection- ery, etc., W. A. Morain; postmistress, Ida M. Morain ; confectionery and ice-cream, B. F. Nye; wall paper and paint, M. P. Fuller; attorneys, Daniel Boyd and Fay Dean, the latter being also an abstractor; physicians, Drs. William Pallister and J. W. Hewitson; music teacher, Mabel Haney; newspaper, the Columbia Courier, C. A. Anderson, editor.

There are two churches in Kennewick-the Presbyterian and one used by the Congregation- alists and Methodists jointly. The Modern Woodmen of America have a flourishing local camp, and a camp of their auxiliary society, the Royal Neighbors of America, has also been established. The Kennewick public school dis- trict was organized in 1884. At that time it was twelve miles square and contained fifty-four chil- dren of school age. The present schoolhouse, which was erected in 1893, is a two-room struc- ture in which a graded school is maintained dur- ing nine months of each year. An addition the importance of which can hardly be estimated has recently been made to the educational facilities of the town by the establishment there of the Academy Emanuel. The superb building* orig-

*Since this was written the Academy building has burned.

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inally erected by the Yakima Irrigation and Improvement Company for hotel purposes ·has been purchased by Matinas O. and Mrs. Carolina Klitten, and is now being renovated and fitted for the use of the academy at a cost of about seven thousand dollars. The people of Kenne- wick take great pride in this institution, but as it is described in some detail elsewhere in this vol- ume, extended reference to it here is unneces- sary.

An enumeration of the attractive features of Kennewick would surely include notice of the very extensive and superb collection of curios belonging to D. W. Owen. Though it is a strictly private collection, it has attracted not a little notice from government naturalists and curio hunters far and near. Mr. Owen receives many letters of inquiry from persons in all parts of the United Staes, while an occasional com- munication reaches him from some point in the British Isles. A man of seventy-three summers, he has been an enthusiastic collector from his earliest years, and the result is a miniature museum. It includes mounted animals and birds, petrified objects, fossil remains, rare pot- tery, heirlooms, buffalo robes and other skins, specimens of Indian handiwork, arrow heads, ancient pottery, pictures of monstrosities, a Buddhist idol, portions of papyrus with Greek characters inscribed thereon, curios from Pompeii, the holy land, the far north and the far south, pieces of wood from the steamer Beaver, the Charter Oak and other historic structures, speci- mens of the continental and other paper money of two centuries or more ago, ancient American coins, rare foreign coins, shells, beautiful agates, opals and other precious stones and many things rare and interesting. The collection and the kind hospitality of the enthusiastic curio lover who owns it have made a deep and lasting im- pression upon the mind of the writer.

It is hoped that the foregoing paragraphs of this sketch have conveyed to the reader some idea of the town of Kennewick and the country contiguous to it, past and present. One of the most hopeful portents of its future is the faith and courage of its inhabitants. These are not backward in pointing out to the visitor that the Northern Pacific Railway Company believes in and is partial to their town, and some of them infer that the recent building of a five-thousand- dollar passenger depot and the expressed inten- tion of the company to build a freight depot of like cost, together with other unmistakable signs, indicate an intention to build down the north bank of the Columbia at no distant date, thus making Kennewick an important distributing center and railway point. "At any rate," say they, "the state of Oregon will build a portage road around The Dalles, has appropriated money for that purpose already-and soon the cheery whistle of the steamboat will greet our ears."

These people are firm in the belief that the warm, dry, healthful climate of their section, its excellent drainage to the Columbia river, its rich, volcanic soil, the superb system of irrigation with which it is supplied, its early seasons, its splendid location, its excellent railway facilities and its inexhaustible markets must secure for their town and country a high and abundant development.

MABTON.

Mabton, a bustling village on the Northern Pacific railroad thirty-eight miles southeast of North Yakima, lies at the extreme eastern edge of the Yakima Indian reservation in the lower valley of the Yakima. It is the shipping point of the rich Sunnyside district and considerable of the fertile Horse Heaven and Bickleton wheat belt, a fact in itself sufficient to give more than ordinary importance to the station. A few years ago Mabton was but a telegraph point with a side track and a store; to-day it is a lively, rapidly growing place of probably one hundred and fifty people with exceedingly bright prospects for the future.

Thousands of acres of rich, arid sage brush soil surround Mabton on every side. The great stretches of dull gray plains, for the most part practically level or slightly undulating, extend for miles up and down the valley, which winds three or four miles wide between Snipes moun- tain and the Columbia river divide. Across the river a mile and a half north of Mabton, green fields and foliage mark the beginning of the Sunnyside irrigated district, which extends back many miles, reaching far up the slope of the Rattlesnake range and as far as the eye can see up and down the river. Through a low gap in the high basaltic wall to the north, a glimpse may be had at this writing of a verdant wheat field, betokening the lower edge of Yakima's cereal region, but not one green spot is to be seen on the vast plain below; only the promise of a great future, when irrigation shall have begun its transforming task.

The reason for the present condition of this valley land is that the lower end of the reserva- tion is still without water, and the presence of the large reserve makes it almost impossible to carry out any canal project which has for its object the irrigation of the valley below the reservation. It is quite probable that the new government ditch will be extended so as to cover most of the reservation, and some of the Mabton region, but it is thought that in order to bring water upon all the land in the vicinity of and beyond Mabton, a canal will have to be taken out of the Naches river. This would be an expen- sive undertaking, but enterprising men have nevertheless applied for permission to build an aqueduct across the reservation, and are now preparing plans for its construction. The open-

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ing of the reservation which is expected to take place in the near future, will greatly simplify the water problem, and, owing to Mabton's fine natural location, will give a mighty impetus to the life of that town.

When Samuel P. Flower, formerly of Bickle- ton, erected a warehouse and store building at Mabton in June, 1892, the only other structures there were a section house and a water tank. They stood on the reservation a few yards west of the line. Mr. Flower's building was placed on the company's right of way just west of the section house. His small stock of general mer- chandise occupied one end of the little ware- house, and his customers were the few home- steaders in the region and those who occasionally came to Mabton siding to ship stock. The next year the railway company built a station and installed T. W. Howell as telegraph operator. That year also Edward F. Flower became the pioneer postmaster of theMabton settlement. In 1894 Tobias Beckner established his present gen- eral store, just off the reservation ; in 1895 Frank Martin opened the Hotel Mabton on its present site; school district No. 36 was also organized and a little frame schoolhouse built a mile and a half southeast of Mabton, in which Miss Lima Platt taught the pioneer school during the winter of 1895-96. The year following a substantial depot building took the place of the telegraph station.

The next business to be established at Mabton was Tilton F. Phillips' general store, which came in 1898. A year later George Miller opened a blacksmith shop; then came J. L. Brewer's har- ness shop, and in 1901 the Hub Mercantile Com- pany's store, the North Yakima Milling Com- pany's warehouse, the Birk Hotel, built by Fer- dinand Selle, and other business concerns. Mabton's greatest development, however, came in 1903, and at the present writing it is rapidly expanding along all lines; nor is its growth un- natural or in any degree the result of an effort to boom the place for purposes of speculation.

The original townsite lies in section one, town- ship eight north, range twenty-two east, being upon railroad land. Of this section, one hundred and eighty-eight acres are within the reservation. So strong was the demand made for a townsite that about the first of the year 1901 the railway company platted eight acres of this section adjoining the depot grounds. The lots were all soon sold, and May 16, 1902, Joseph A. Hum- phrey and Mrs. Amy M. Flower purchased the remainder of section one-four hundred and forty- four acres. They incorporated the Mabton Town- site Company, which has platted one hundred acres into town lots, practically all of the property being south of the railroad. Northeast of this and the original townsite and adjoining the res- ervation, lies Phillips' addition of forty acres, which is a portion of the southeast quarter of section thirty-one, township nine, range twenty-

three, originally the Dalton Mansfield homestead, filed upon in the early nineties. Fred Phillips subsequently acquired the homestead through relinquishment. The reservation line passes through the center of the town as now built up, those living on Indian land leasing it; but it is quite probable that this condition of affairs will not long continue. The town is as yet unincor- porated.

District No. 36 held a special election May 28, 1904, at which, by a vote of fifty-three to five, the taxpayers voted to issue bonds in the sum of four thousand dollars for the purpose of building a new brick schoolhouse. The site selected is on the Mabton Townsite Company's addition south of the tracks: the building will be erected this summer. The old schoolhouse southeast of town was abandoned after the first year's use, the dis- trict accepting the offer of the Methodists to use their church at Mabton. This comfortable little building has served as both church and school-

house since that time. It was built in 1894. At present the Presbyterian society also uses the building. Rev. H. E. Hoadley conducts the Methodist services. The Mabton school board is composed of Tilton F. Phillips, E. J. Eide- miller and Ewald Selle. Miss Mary McKay and Miss A. M. Cone will have charge of the school next year.

An interesting enterprise is now under way at Mabton, namely, the drilling of an artesian well, the Mabton Townsite Company being en- gaged in this laudable undertaking. At this writing the drill is down eight hundred and forty feet.

Mabton's business interests are much larger than a casual observer would judge. Last Decem- ber (1904) the freight receipts at this station are reliably reported to have been between thirty thousand and thirty-five thousand dollars, and December was not an unusual business month. Some days as high as twenty cars are loaded with wheat, hay and fruit from the Bickleton, Horse Heaven and Sunnyside districts.

The Mabton Chronicle was established by Bernard J. Pacius, May 12, 1904, and is a cred- itable weekly, a six-column folio, independent in politics. It occupies a cozy, well-equipped office. A directory of the town's other business men and establishments follows: General stores, Tilton F. Phillips & Company, the Hub Mercantile Company, of which Charles Bilger is manager, and The Spot, owned by N. J. Beckner; lumber, lime, cement, etc .. Samuel P. Flower & Com- pany, St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company, Dean D. Stair, manager, and the Cascade Lumber Com- pany ; hotels, The Mabton, Frank Martin, propri- etor, East Side Hotel, C. M Christy, proprietor; livery, Cyrus O. Wommack; restaurants, J. B. Early, Roy Glaze; warehouses, Interior Ware- house Company, Balfour Guthrie & Co., propri- etors, Tacoma Grain Company, James Skirving,

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manager ; feed, flour, grain, North Yakima Milling Company, Edward Eidemiller, manager; black- smith shop, A. Safstrom; drug store, Mabton Drug Company, Alexander Angus, proprietor ; barber shop, J. S. McArthur: temperance hall, Herbert Kenyon: boots and shoes, Frank M. Nelson: real estate, Mabton Townsite Company, Samuel P. Flower, manager, Fred Phillips, W. L. Leonard, Fred Selle, J. B. Early; lawyer, George W. Paswater; physician and dentist, Dr. James E. Stephenson : plumber, house-moving, Ewald Selle; carpenters and contractors, Ernest A. Colby, A. W. Mckinney, N. E. Litherland.

A thrice-day line of stages is operated by Allen & Mathieson between Sunnyside and Mabton, and a tri-weekly line between Mabton and Bickle- ton by C. O. Wommack. The Pacific States and the Christian Co-operative Telephone Companies have lines extending into the town.

TOPPENISH.

Situated about the center of a large, fertile valley on the main line of the Northern Pacific Railway, nineteen miles southeast of North Yaki- ma, is Toppenish, the principal trading and ship- ping point on the Yakima Indian reservation. At present it has perhaps a hundred inhabitants, but the volume of its business transactions would do credit to a place of much larger population.

Toppenish is an Indian word, applied also to a creek whose source is in the Simcoe mountains, the valley's western boundary. In the Yakima tongue, "toppenish" is said to mean "sloping," and in the Klickitat, "the main or highest trail."

The valley in which Toppenish lies is similar in shape, except that it is longer, to the valley surrounding North Yakima. It is bounded on the north by the Columbia river divide, on the south by the Simcoe range, and on the east and west by low hills pierced by the river. The Top- penish and Satus creeks, whose sources are in the Simcoe range, flow through the reservation. As the valley reaches the foothills, the lands become very broken and rough, except in these creek val- leys, where the principal Indian settlements are.

When the Northern Pacific Railway was built through the reservation, in the middle eighties, a section house, water tank and telegraph station were established there. The point was desig- nated Toppenish. Some years later stock yards were built by the company, side tracks were put in and a station agent was appointed. W. J. Jor. dan in 1888 became the station's second agent, and with his advent the shipping business began at once to increase materially.

Thomas Stalen, late in the eighties, opened a trading post on the reservation about three miles below Toppenish, but conducted it only a short time. In 1890 N. H. Lillie secured a post-trad- er's license from the government and opened the first business house in Toppenish, his building

being erected on the south side of the track. A postoffice was also established in 1890, Mr. Lillie becoming the first postmaster.

George Harvey in 1895 succeeded Lillie as post- trader at Toppenish, but in the fall of 1896 sold out his business to J. B. George, who erected the building now forming the rear portion of the Hotel Toppenish. This same year William L. Shearer became station agent, relieving Mr. Jor- dan. Two years later, in August, 1898, another mercantile establishment entered the community. the Toppenish Trading Company, of which F. A. Williams was the manager and principal owner. This concern soon became the official trading post, which resulted in its becoming master of the business situation. In the meantime Mrs. Carrie Staten secured George's old building and opened a hotel, but she soon after sold to Mrs. S. E. Stone, who leased the place to her son, Harry Stone. The station also had a blacksmith shop at this time, established by Lillie, for whom John Palmer conducted it at first.

About 1898, also, white men began leasing large areas of the reservation, inaugurating the present universal method of farming the valley lands. The first government canal on the reservation was built during 1896-7, covering an area of twenty thousand acres. This aqueduct diverts water from the Yakima river near Wapato, flows for twelve miles in an easterly direction across the valley and empties into Toppenish creek. From the first, the agricultural experiments on the reservation proved highly successful, with the result that white settlers flocked into the region by the score, rapidly placing the Indian lands under cultivation. This year more than five thousand acres of this area will be farmed. A larger area would be cultivated if leasing condi- tions were more favorable.

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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 54

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