USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 20
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"Success always brings decadence or lethargy in its wake. And for years after suc- cess had come to Walla Walla the tinge of lethargy fastened itself upon the community. and it ceased to grow and expand as it had in days past. Then a new era of progress and development came, and of that we of to-day know about all there is to be told. New life was infused into the city and growth took the place of dormant energies. New people came and made new homes, new industries took the places then vacant. After a few years of this energetic development we have the Walla Walla of to-day.
"Great-hearted nature has done a great deal for the places which man has tried to build up. In fact. nature always lays the founda- tion and man comes along and erects the super- structure. New York was given a harbor. New Orleans a great river opening to the gulf. San Francisco was given the Golden Gate to the Pacific. Seattle and Tacoma were pre- sented with a Puget Sound. Spokane, the queen of the northwest, was tendered by nature a wonderful cataract, yet Walla Walla was not neglected. The gifts were not parcelled out parsimoniously, yet in the distribution Walla Walla was given her share. No spot in ali the broad land, no city within the borders of our country has received from a kind nature more smiles than has our city. Surrounded by a most fertile section of country, stretch- ing scores of miles in every direction, at the
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confluence of sparkling mountain streams af- fording a bountiful supply of water for do- mestic, irrigation and industrial purposes, the location is ideal. The Blue mountains frown down upon the city in grim sturdiness, remind- ing one of the great sturdy men and women who have taken such an active part in the progress and development of the valley. With mountain and stream, the rugged hills and pleasant valleys present a landscape which for real beauty and picturesqueness of effect, is rarely equalled and never excelled.
"In the early development of the valley the live-stock industry was an important factor, as stock fed all the year upon the luxuriant growth of bunch-grass which covered the hill- sides from Snake river to the southward for a hundred miles or more. Great droves of horses, cattle and sheep were raised and from the sales of stock came fortunes easily and quickly. As the settlement became more gen- eral the pasture disappeared and the produc- tion of wheat began. The grain grew well and the yields reported in an early day were gen- erally large. When transportation facilities
were secured good money was made year in and year out by farmers and the business of the country was very good. The foundations for the successful men and the many fortunes which are to be found now were laid in the early days of wheat raising in the valley of many waters.
way to the large orchards where hundreds of acres of land and scores of men and boys are employed in the production and packing of fruits for the markets which have now widened and broadened until the supply is not equal to the demand. Hundreds of carloads of fruits and berries are shipped from the city every years to points in Montana, Idaho, British Co- lumbia and Sound cities, where Walla Walla fruits are in demand over the article sent in from California.
"The Walla Walla valley proper is a large belt of agricultural land lying south of Snake river and west of the Blue mountains, extend- ing across the Oregon line on the south. It comprises the valley lands, the Eureka Flat country, a high plateau where wheat grows as naturally as weeds, the upper or foothill lands near the mountains and all of the lower bottom lands, used mostly for gardening. A great rich belt of land producing millions of bushels of wheat and barley and hundreds of carloads of fruit and vegetables annually. capable of maintaining a population of a million souls, is a brief description of the valley as it is to-day.
"Fortunate is that community so favored by the gifts of nature that its descriptive story plainly told attracts and interests the wanderer in less favored climes. Strained efforts by deft penmen to show conditions which do not exist : elaborate effusions and exaggerations to draw attention to cities and districts possessing no particular advantages or charms, have long since ceased to attract the home-seeker or in- vestor. . A simple rehearsal of what a comniti- nity possesses in natural and acquired wealth. like the sayings of the plain, blunt man, elicits more attention that the grandiloquent effort where boom propensities are all too apparent. "That section of the Walla Walla valley ad-
".As the years went by the lack of fruit was noted and men were led to consider the neces- sity of planting orchards for the production of fruits for local consumption. The market was limited and the territory which could be drawn on was necessarily circumscribed. But orchards were planted, and from them has sprung the great horticultural interests of the section of to-day. The little tract of fruit trees has given jacent to Walla Walla is indeed a favored sec-
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tion. It is a vast expanse of fertile fields, bur- is more active and liberal than the staid old dened orchards and prolific nature. To one commonwealths of the east." even partially acquainted with its natural wealth The following excerpt from the history of Washington, edited by Julian Hawthorne and Colonel G. Douglas Brewerton, and issued in 1893. is worthy of reproduction in this con- nection : there is an inspiration in the subject. Imagina- tion does not have to be called into play, as the varied topics which the subject suggests give the writer a sufficient range upon which to dwell indefinitely.
"Think! Orchards of luscious fruit and fields of waving grain ; hills of precious metals and dales of fertile soil; rain and sunshine; running brooks : pleasant nooks in hidden dales, and busy marts of trade; swift rushing trains over transcontinental rail,-all these, and many more topics, are suggested to the mind when Walla Walla is mentioned. It is easy to begin but hard to end.
"This growing city is yet in its infancy,- just beginning to assume metropolitan propor- tions. The view of the city to the stranger. particularly in the summer season, is most in- viting. . A panorama of wide and beautiful streets, lined with shade trees. The scene is one that never fails to inspire the weary traveler. after his dusty journey across the continent. On every hand he cannot but observe the evi- (lence of thrift and commercialisin. He will find that nearly every person he meets is busy or intent on doing something. When the stranger shall have pursued his investigations further he will discover that this bustling little city is built for all time and is the natural trad- ing center for a very rich and extensive country.
"A mistaken idea prevails that society in the northwest is different from what it is in the older commonwealths of the country. This was partially true in times gone by, but happily it is no longer the case, only in the particular that it is only those of an enterprising turn of mind who seek homes in a new country : con- sequently, the general spirit of the new west
"Walla Walla county. still Indian. and. alas, but too suggestive, as we turn the pages of Washington's blood-stained history, of the war-whoop and the scalping-knife, comes next under our review. Its Astoria. Walla Walla and Vancouver are household words in the story of territorial strife and struggle and in- delibly associated with the darkest of her early days. They are to the native of Washington "to the manor born' what the tower of London is to the Englishman .- the repository of dread- ful deeds and by-gone sorrows .- for we make history more rapidly in our days than in those vaunted 'good old times." As we breathe the name. the syllables of Walla Walla trip glid- ingly over the tongue with the musical step of many another Indian appellation, as. for in- stance, Minnehaha : it is appropriate, withal, for a .: the latter means 'laughing water,' so Walla W'alla signifies 'valley of waters.' which is even better, for we have seen Minnehaha in the arid season when it laughed not at all. It is de- rived from 'Walatsa.' meaning 'running -for it carries both the interpretations,-but this is the less mellifluous Nez Perce, the Walla Walla or Wallula meaning the same thing, being taken from the language of the tribe whose name it bears .- the Walla Wallas. This region is, in- deed. well named the 'valley of waters.' From whence, we wonder. does the "Siwash' get his poetical inspiration, for it would ofttimes puzzle the paleface to better either the beauty or ap- propriateness of his nomenclature. It can not be inherent, still less inherited. It is, we fancy,
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unconsciously absorbed from the surroundings ( natural, we mean, not artificial) of his every- day life. However he gets it, it may not be denied that the divine afflatus is held in most repulsive vessels, the filthy, unwashed jar of the red man's human clay. Of a surety poor Pegasus was never prisoned in a filthier stall.
"To return to more prosaic themes, Walla Walla county was admitted in 1854, the only one of the southeastern Washington counties created with the establishment of the territory. It then embraced all the valley of the Columbia east of the Cascades, an area of nearly two hundred thousand square miles .- an imperial domain, as it has very properly been called. It has, however, suffered successive curtailments till reduced to its present dimensions of thirteen hundred square miles. 'What is left,' says Evans, 'is the oldest, best cultivated, and in every respect the most advanced part of Wash- ington.' Yet this grand expanse of exceedingly desirable country, in all its original fullness and fertility, was shut out from settlement for an extended season, through the foolish or vin-
dictive actions of General Wool, who endorsed the equally short-sighted policy of his sub- ordinate. Colonel Wright,-a policy that pro- tected the Indian, neglected the white. and prac- tically relegated to its primitive savagery this mighty and most productive domain. The original empire of Walla Walla. we are tokl, was recognized as a garden spot even long before some other regions, where the soil was equally good, were deemed eminently desirable. It is said to produce more money's worth of grown products than any other county of the state. Walla Walla derives its wealth from the ground. So enriched is this county by nature that it is not improbable that her recorded pop- ulation of the last census (1890)-12.224- will be doubled within the next decade. It is well watered, being bounded on the north and east by the Snake and Columbia rivers, while its southern boundary is irrigated by the Walla Walla and its tributary streams.
Take it all in all, it is a lively, progressive region, an example to all good counties in the state, prospering and likely to prosper."
CHAPTER XIII.
A JOURNEY THROUGH WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
In this chapter we propose to invite the reader to accompany us upon a journey throughout Walla Walla county. In the prog- ress of this journey we shall take time to drop in at every town or village in the county, as well as view in a general way the country through which we pass. We shall omit the city of Walla Walla from this chapter, inas-
much as we intend to make it the subject of a special visit. It is fitting that we should visit first the place next in size to the capital, and this is Waitsburg. In order to see Waitsburg first of all we must enter the county from the northeast, and we will therefore suppose. if you please, that we have come from Spokane by the O. R. & N. Railroad.
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WAITSBURG.
Leaving the main line at Bolles Junction, we proceed by the Waitsburg and Dayton branch, and after riding about two miles find ourselves approaching a beautiful little city occupying a level tract of land along the junction of the Touchet and Coppei creeks. But before pro- . ceeding to speak of the attractive and beauti- ful surroundings of the place and adjoining country, let us remember that our quest is not only descriptive but historical, and that we shall therefore desire to turn our glass back- ward for a few moments upon the period of earliest settlement in this part of Walla Walla county. Claims were made substantially as early in the present vicinity of Waitsburg as of Walla Walla. In 1859 Robert Kennedy set- tied at the junction of the Touchet and the Coppei. Above him on the creek were Abner T. Lloyd. George Pollard, Joseph Star and Samuel Galbreath. A string of claims were laid out up the Coppei by Messrs. Patten, Mor- gan. Paine, Doolittle. Bateman and Cox. On the Touchet below the mouth of the Coppei were James Woodruff. Edward Kenton, Jona- than Kenny, Martin Hober. Luke Henshaw. Andrew Warren and John Foster.
The universal impression throughout the country at that time was that none but the bot- tom lands were worth cultivating. and inas- much as the area of bottom land in that por- tion of the county is very small the popula- tion remained scanty. A faint attempt at a town was started on the Coppei about five miles from the present site of Waitsburg. In Jan- uary, 1863, this became a postoffice by the name of Coppei. Luke Henshaw being the first postmaster. Coppei apparently was in a fair way to become a town, when in 1865 the start-
ing of Waitsburg undermined it, and the pros- pective city of Coppei died a natural death.
The founder of Waitsburg was Sylvester Vi. Wait. Mr. Wait was a pioneer of the pio- neers in this country, having lived for some years in southern Oregon and then at Lewis- ton. Having learnel in 1864 that a quantity of wheat could be purchased for one dollar and a half per bushel on the Touchet, he formed the project of putting up a grist mill and transforming this wheat into flour. This would evidently be good business, as flour was worth fourteen dollars per barrel. The farm- ers very enthusiastically accepted Mr. Wait's plans. Mr. Bruce and Mr. Willard, who then owned most of what became the town site of Waitsburg, gave ten acres of ground for a mill and a residence and a right of way for the mill- race. The farmers contracted to sell all their grain to the mill at the rate of one dollar and a half per bushel. With this basis of opera- tions Mr. Wait proceeded to get machinery from San Francisco and lumber from whatever source he might obtain it, mainly at a very high price. The mill cost about fourteen thousand dollars, which was a heavy debt to carry in that condition of the country. But it proved an ex- cellent investment, as Mr. Wait rapidly dis- charged the debt and laid the foundation of quite a fortune.
William N. Smith, a teacher by profes- sion, came to the new town in the spring of 1865 and decided to open a school on the Touchet. This was the first school ever held in that portion of Walla Walla county, being opened on the first Monday in April. 1865. School district Number 3 was organized in the fall of that year.
In the fall of 1866 a postoffice was estab- lished, with Mr. Smith as postmaster. Up to
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this time the place had been variously known as Wait's Mill, Waitsburg and Horsehead City, but when it became a postoffice it was necessary to select some definite name. Mr. Smith suggested the name of Delta, by which the place was known until 1868, when by vote of the people the name was changed to Waits- burg.
L'p to this time there had been no attempt to lay out a town. Mr. W. P. Bruce, the chief owner of the location, had seemed disinclined to encourage the building of a town on his farm. But as it had become evident that the place was destined to become a business center, he made a survey and a plat of the beginning of the town, which was recorded on the 23d of February, 1869.
The town grew slowly but steadily during the years that followed. The census of 1870 gave a population of 109. In that same year a notable event occurred in the arrival in Waitsburg of P. . \. and W. G. Preston. They, ir. connection with Paine Brothers and Moore, bought out Mr. Wait's mill, of which they be- came and are still the sole owners. The first newspaper of Waitsburg, the Weekly Times, was first published in March, 1878.
The year 1881 was a notable one in the history of Waitsburg. For in that year a city government was organized, the railroad was constructed, and the greater portion of the business part of the town was destroyed by fire. The first town government was organ- ized in February of that year. The first elec- tion resulted in the choice of George W. Kel- licut, William Fudge, Alfred Brouillet, M. J. Harkness and E. L. Powell for trustees; W. HI. George for marshal; J. W. Morgan for treasurer; and J. C. Swash for clerk. Accord- ing to the census of 1880, Waitsburg had a population of 248. It will give the traveler
of the present time some impression of the growth of the town to be informed that it then contained two hotels, four saloons, four general merchandise stores, one furniture store, two drug stores, one hardware store, one variety store, one brewery, one harness and saddlery shop, two livery stables, two blacksmith shops, one jewelry store, one meat market, one flour mill, one planing mill, one castor mill, one corn meal mill, besides a Ma- sonic hall, postoffice, telegraph office, express office, railway station, school house and two churches.
The first pioneer church of Waitsburg was of the Methodist denomination. This was established in 1859 by Rev. George M. Berry. Like most pioneer churches it held its meet- ings in school houses for some time, but an excellent church edifice was built in 1871. A Presbyterian church was established by Rev. T. M. Boyd in 1877. The Christian church established itself in Spring Valley, four miles from Waitsburg, in 1876. The first pastor was Rev. Neil Cheatham, who has since be- come quite noted in connection with Populist politics. In 1880 a Christian church was es- . tablished in Waitsburg itself. Still later a United Presbyterian church was founded, so that there are now four churches.
Waitsburg, like most of our pioneer towns, has been well equipped with fraternal organi- zations. The pioneer fraternities were Waits- burg Lodge, No. 16, .1. F. & A. M., organ- ized March 23, 1870; Touchet Lodge, No. 5. 1. O. O. F., organized September 12. 1871; Pioneer Lodge, No. 16, 1. O. G. T., organized July 20, 1867 ; and Occidental Lodge, No. 46, .1. O. U. W.
The pioneer newspaper of Waitsburg was the Times, established in 1878. The very im- portant educational institution, Waitsburg
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AAcademy, was established in 1886, though the name was first employed in 1869. Of many of these features of Waitsburg thus briefly referred to we speak at length elsewhere.
Such is a general view of the pioneer life of Waitsburg. Having it in mind we are prepared to compare the present city with the past. We find as we stroll through the pleas- ant town that it has become an exceptionally well-built and well-equipped place of ( accord- ing to United States census of 1900) 1,059 inhabitants. We discover a $16,000 public school buikling of brick, in which seven teach- ers are employed, and there is an enrollment of 345 students. There is a high school de- partment in connection with the common school work. The school also possesses a library of over two hundred volumes and an excellent equipment of physical apparatus.
We visit Waitsburg Academy and find it equipped with an elegant new building, erect- ed in 1899 at a cost of $20,000. The acad- emy is provided with an efficient and devoted faculty. We discover also four commodious and well-furnished churches, and these organi- ยท zations are usually influential in Waitsburg and vicinity.
We discover the fraternal orders to have developed at equal pace with the rest of the town. the Masons and Odd Fellows each own- ing a fine two-story brick building.
We see also an excellent system of water works owned by the town, which derives its supply of water from the Coppei creek, and which, being a gravity system, furnishes the town perfect protection against fire and a bountiful supply for domestic use.
Telephones and electric lights are among the more recent acquisitions of Waitsburg.
Waitsburg, for its population, is a very heavy railroad shipper. During a period of
six months in 1895 there were shipped from the town 10,168 tons of freight, and there were shipped in 637 tons. This shows a far more remarkable disparity between exports and imports even than in the case of Walla Walla itself.
We find in Waitsburg the following list of stores and other business establishments : Three general merchandise stores, two gro- cery stores, two hardware stores, one furni- ture store, two jewelry stores, two drug stores, two saloons, two newspapers, one bank, a planing mill, two lumber yards, one bakery, two livery stables, three blacksmith shops, and two hotels.
The city government of Waitsburg con- sists of a mayor and five councilmen, who are elected annually on the first Monday in April. The present incumbents of these positions are as follows: Mayor. J. H. Morrow; council- men, J. L. Harper, B. 31. Kent. J. B. Caldwell, W. J. Honeycutt, C. M. Taylor; attorney and city clerk. R. H. Ormsbee; treasurer, L. E. Johnson.
One especially attractive feature of Waits- burg is the profusion of flowers and trees throughout the town. Especially to one hav- ing come across the dry and treeless plains to the north, the freshness and luxuriance of the town on the Coppei presents a striking and at- tractive contrast.
We may leave Waitsburg by either one of two railroads, the Oregon & Columbia River Railroad by way of Dixie or the O. R. & N. R. R. by way of Prescott. We will, however, take our journey by way of Dixie. This route follows Coppei creek for several miles south and then climbs a high ridge which lies between that and Dry creek. This region contains some of the most magnificent farms in the state of Washington. Although
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WAITSBURG PUBLIC SCHOOL
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somewhat high and rolling and at first sight inconvenient to farm, the soil is of the most fertile quality, and the rainfall is heavier than in any other part of the county. Among the notable farms in this section may be men- tioned those of Messrs. Cornwell, Phillips, Minnick and Connick. The Royce farm, which in 1900 had an undesirable notoriety by reason of the murder of the venerable owner by his grandson, is also in this general neighborhood.
From Summit station a magnificent view can be obtained looking down the winding valley of the Coppei to the north, and the hazy plains of the Walla Walla to the west. At our feet we see a pleasant little village situated in the narrow and fertile valley of Dry creek.
DIXIE.
The first settler in Dixie was Herman C. Actor, who located a homestead at this point. The name was derived from the following circumstance : Three brothers of the name of Kershaw had become noted as musicians in the emigrant train with which they crossed the plains. A great favorite among the peo- ple of the train was the song of "Dixie." Almost every night the Kershaw boys ren- dered this song, to the delight of the immi- grants. As a consequence the boys became known as the Dixie boys. Having subse- quently settled in the vicinity of where Dixie now is, the crossing of the creek first became known as Dixie crossing, then a school-house was built and styled as Dixie school-house, then a cemetery was laid out which was des- ignated as the Dixie cemetery, then a post- office was established which was called the Dixie postoffice, and finally Dr. Baker's rail- road established Dixie station, and thus such has become its accepted name.
Dixie became a genuine American frontier village, true to the ideal of an early establish- ment of school, churches, postoffice and other elements of an American community. Among the pioneer preachers were Messrs. Granville Gholson. W. H. Robbins, Bailey, Hamilton and Hastings. There are at the present time three churches, Christian, Methodist and Bap- tist. The pioneer school-teacher was Jolin Ross. Mr. Storey, now one of the substan- tial farmers of Dixie, was one of the stand- bys in the Dixie school-room. At the time of this publication the corps of teachers consists of J. E. Myers, Elmer Chase and Mrs. F. B. Faris. That Dixie also has an excellent spirit of fraternalism is shown by the fact that they have a number of lodges. The Odd Fellow's' lodge is the strongest, having fifty-seven mem- bers. There are two well-equipped stores in Dixie, one conducted by C. L. Cochran and J. F. Jackson, and the other by M. E. Demaris & Company. The population of the place is about 250.
Leaving Dixie, we find immediately below it in the valley one of the largest fruit ranches in the county. It contains about sixty acres of trees, the great majority of which are prunes and apples. Mr. Clancy, one of the pioneer orchardists of the county, is the owner of this fine orchard. Unlike the large orchards in the near vicinity of Walla Walla, the Clancy orchard uses no water for irrigation. It is planted on a north hill slope of the rich- est, deepest soil, and thus far its development seems to justify the opinion held by many that the finest fruits of the valley will be found in the foot-hills, where there is a sufficient amount of rainfall to dispense with irrigation.
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