USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 24
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"The Belgian hare exhibit, prepared by S. C. Wingard and E. . \. Coull, was a feature not before seen at these fairs. This exhibi- tion, with its hundreds of dollars worth of valuable imported specimens of Belgian hares and fancy stock, was perhaps the most valu- able at the fair, and of the greatest in- terest because of its novelty. Belgian hare culture is yet in its infancy, and the gentle long-eared creature was the center of at- traction for those who wished to know more of these animals which are monopolizing so mich attention among breeders of pet stock. "The railroads doing business in Walla Walla took a most active interest in the fair. Two pretty and unique booths were erected and they proved among the attractive features of the event.
"The Northern Pacific and Washington & Columbia River Railways took the cue of the Boxers and a pretty fashoda was designed. The structure was erected near the band pa- vilion and was provided with seats and accom- modations for the ladies and children. The fashoda was built of native woods and finished with moss brought from Tacoma for the pur- pose. The work was artistically done. . At night a number of colored electric lights gave a finishing touch to the scene. The design was largely the idea of Manager McCabe and Pas- senger Agent Calderhead. of the Washington & Columbia River Railway.
"The booth of the Oregon Railway & Nav- igation Company was located near the main
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entrance and it was neatly planned. A com- modious square booth was finished and trimmed with grains and fruits taken from the com- pany's experimental farm near this city. The ceiling was made of a variety of handsomely colored wools in the unwoven state. blended together with artistic effect. The walls of the booth were hung with pictures, and chairs and reading offered rest and entertainment to all. The booth was in charge of General Agent Burns and C. F. Van De Water."
The officers of the association for 1900 were as follows: W. A. Ritz. president : C. F. Van De Water, secretary ; O. R. Ballou, super- intendent: Mrs. J. B. Catron, superintendent of the woman's department.
One final item of interest concerning which the reader is likely to desire information, and that is the location and character of the market for fruit. Mr. W. S. Offner, who is probably better qualified than any one else liere to report. prepared a statement for the Walla Walla Union some time ago, which we insert here :
"The markets for Walla Walla valley fruits and produce are world wide, as the past sea- son has proven. Our market in days gone by has been confined to a small scope of country, owing to a lack of proper transportation fa- cilities; the fruit industry being in its infancy. we were known only to our local markets in our own state and portions of Idaho and Mon- tana. However, as our orchards and gardens have increased, so have our transportation fa- cilities, and to-day we practically have four through or transcontinental lines, viz. : the Union Pacific, Northern Pacific, Great North- ern and the Burlington route, carrying our fruits into other states. This gives us a choice of the above named routes to all eastern mar- kets. All these roads make every effort pos-
sible to supply us with suitable cars and accom- modations for handling our fruits.
"Our early fruits and vegetables are mar- keted principally in what we term our local market-Washington, Idaho and Montana, the latter two being a good market the entire sea- son. As stated before, we furnish a large por- tion of our own state with early fruits and vegetables. As is well known of our valley, owing to its mild climate and early springs, we are able to bring our produce into the mar- ket from two to three weeks earlier than other parts of the state. This gives us a great ad- vantage, especially with strawberries, allow- ing us to ship the bulk of the berry crop be- fore they are in market elsewhere in the state. We have, until the past season, marketed most of our berries and cherries in the local mar- ket, but experience has shown us that we have a market for berries in car-load lots in Denver, Omaha, Kansas City, St. Paul, Minneapolis and other eastern cities. Our berries ripening at the time they do, do not come in competi- tion with the home-grown berries of Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska and Minnesota.
"When we come to our larger fruits, espe- cially the prune, pear and apple, for which our valley is particularly adapted, I repeat the foregoing assertion that 'our market is the world,' having demonstrated the fact by ship- ping a number of cars of prunes and pears to St. Paul, Minnesota, Chicago, Kansas City, Indianapolis, Philadelphia and New York. We have had calls from many other eastern cities for our fruits that we cannot supply as yet, our output being too limited to supply the de- mand. Another market unknown to us until the last season is British Columbia. They have been calling upon us for our fruits, and a great many cars of apples found their way
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to these markets the past year, which only made the purchasers give us orders which we were unable to fill. Right here I will state that the greatest trouble the fruit or commission men have is to get sufficient quantities of fruit to fill their orders. While the past season's fruit shipments from this valley have been numbered by the hundred cars, had we had a sufficient quantity of the right kind of fruits our car shipments would have been numbered by the thousands. With increased production and bet- ter facilities for transportation to the eastern markets, we will soon be shipping our fruits by the train-load instead of car-loads, for it is a fact wherever our fruits have been tested they have met with favor and have created a demand which we have been unable to supply.
"Another market opened to us is Texas, Arizona and Mexico, for it is a well-known fact that warm countries to not grow good apples, and even California, with all her wealth of fruit, orange groves, famous vineyards and big orchards in other fruits, comes to us in the spring for our fancy, well-kept winter apples. While California and Mexico may send u13 their gold, oranges and lemons, we will send them in return the famous winter apples of the Walla Walla valley.
"Last, but not least, comes our market in England for apples, some having already been shipped there. When our apples are once well known we will have a market for more than can probably be raised in the state, as our win- ter apples we would be glad to compare with the fruit of the most favored parts of the United States.
"As to our fruit drying, it is yet in its in- fancy, we having been able so far to dispose of our fruit in a green state. There were several cars of prunes dried here last season and they were eagerly sought for in our eastern
markets. Our Italian prune (which is mostly raised here ) commands a higher price than the famous California French or Petit prune, as it grows much larger and is of superior quality. An interview with any of the com- mission men of this city will undoubtedly verify the facts that I have heretofore set forth and there is no question that we will find a mar- ket for all the fruit we can possibly raise in the Walla Walla valley."
We have now spoken at length in regard to the three fundamental industries of this region. It remains to note more briefly the other lines of business which have become evolved from the necessities and opportunities of the country. It may be said that though it is yet too early to find extensive manufactur- ing here, yet Walla Walla county has many of the natural facilities in abundance. Rapid and abundant streams may be made to furnish water-power in unlimited quantities. All the fruits of the earth and the products of animal lite can be secured cheaply and of the finest qualities. The greatest drawback to manu- facturing is that iron and lumber must be shipped in for every kind of work.
The chief industries of a manufacturing nature in Walla Walla are the flouring mills. the Gilbert Hunt separator manufactory. the Weber tannery. the various creameries, the sash and door factory, and other wood work factories, the saddle-trec factory, and the marble works.
First in order of time and capital come
THE FLOURING MILLS.
The first flouring mill in this county was built in 1859 by A. H. Reynolds, in partner- ship with Dent and Simms, on the place owned now by Charles Whitney. The building was
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, afterwards used as a distillery. It is still stand- ing, being used by Mr. Whitney as a store- house. In 1862 MIr. Reynolds built a second mill on the Yellowhawk, known as the Star mill. In 1862 H. P. Isaacs erected the mill in the eastern part of what is now Walla Walla, named it the North Pacific flouring mills, and thereby entered upon his long and successful career as the leading miller of this county. In 1883 he erected the mill at Prescott, then the largest in eastern Washington. Andrew Mc- Calley was another pioneer mill man, coming here in 1872, for some time superintending the North Pacific mills, then purchasing a mill west of town, erected by I. T. Reese in 1866. Mr. McCalley was burned out, but rebuilt, and the business was maintained by himself, and, after his death in 1891, by his sons, until the property was sold to W. H. Gilbert, who lost it by fire in 1897. The Eureka (first known as the Agate) inills were built by Ritz and Schnebly and conducted by W. C. Painter. Eventually they were sold to Welch and Schwabacher, who in turn sold them to Dement Brothers the date of the latter transfer being 1880. The grades of flour manufactured by this mill have become famous wherever used, and in fact they have found their markets in all parts of the world. The Washington Roller mill of Waitsburg was established in 1865 by S. M. Wait, the founder of that "burg," but was sold by him to Preston Brothers, who en- larged and improved it, and now do a business in all quarters of the globe. Paine Brothers and Moore bought Mr. Wait's stock, and after- wards owned an interest in the mill, but sold out to Preston Brothers. It will give one an added sense of the largeness of this industry, as well as of the commercial closeness of the rest of the world, to learn that flour from these various Walla Walla mills goes to England, 11
Italy, China, Japan, Philippine Islands, South Africa, Alaska and British Columbia. The City mills were erected by Scholl Brothers on Paluose street in Walla Walla in 1898. There is also a mill on the Yellowhawk, known as the Rising Star, erected by II. S. Kinzie, but now owned by Mrs. Rattlemiller. Several chop mills are also in operation in different parts of the valley.
Such is a very brief summary of the flour- ing mills of this county. As to their capacity it may be said that the North Pacific mills of Prescott can grind five hundred barrels per day. Its average output, however, is about three hundred, and it ordinarily runs about three hundred days in the year, thus representing about ninety thousand barrels per year. The Washington Roller mills of Waitsburg and the Eureka mills of Walla Walla have each a capacity of two hundred and fifty barrels per day, aggregating in the year about sixty thou- sands barrels each. The City mills and the Rising Star mills turn out about seventy-five barrels each per day, or a yearly output of about twenty thousand barrels. Their total cutput may thus be seen to amount to about two hundred and fifty thousand barrels an- nually, or a business in flour alone of over three quarters of a million dollars. In addi- tion to this it should be noted that for every barrel of flour there is, on an average, seventy pounds of bran and chop, or an aggregate of perhaps eighty-seven hundred and fifty tons. In addition to this, large quantities of break- fast food, as farina, germea, whole wheat and graham, in addition to the ordinary standard brands, enumerated above, are sold at home and shipped abroad. It may doubtless be stated in round numbers that the annual out- put of mill products in Walla Walla exceeds a million dollars.
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
Next in magnitude of the manufacturing industries of Walla Walla county is the
"PRIDE OF WASHINGTON'
factory of Gilbert Hunt & Company. This great industry originated in machine shops owned by Byron Jackson. Gilbert Hunt and Christopher Ennis bought the establishment in 1888. Its work at that time was little more than that of a repair shop. In 1891 Mr. Hunt bought out his partner and conducted the busi- ness alone until 1893, when the business was reorganized under the firm name of Gilbert Hunt & Company, with Mr. Hunt as president and manager, and Walter McCalley as sec- retary and treasurer. Associated also in the business are Frank Hunt and Jay Williams. The business was conducted in wooden build- ings, seeming rather to invite disaster by fire, which was realized in 1898, when the entire works on the north side of Main street, to- gether with the foundry of J. L. Roberts, were swept from the earth. Undismayed by the heavy loss the company at once proceeded to the establishment of a far more complete and . elaborate plant than before. Large brick build- ings were erected and every department of the enterprise was reorganized on a vastly larger scale than before. While the company makes the "Pride of Washington" separator their specialty, they do a vast business in engines, pumps, wind-mills, hose, leather and rubber belting, water-tanks, and in fact pretty much everything concerned in farming, harvesting and irrigating machinery. Their business ex- tends all over Washington. Oregon and Idaho. During the year 1900 they manufactured fifty threshers and employed an average of seventy- five men throughout the year. They now make all their castings, as well as every sort of wood
work which enters into the construction of their various machines.
It is fitting to mention here the Walla Walla foundry, conducted in 1879 by Messrs. Mar- shall and Jones. J. L. Roberts, for many years prominent in business and political circles in Walla Walla, became a partner in the enter- prise in 1879, and the entire owner in 1887. The business became extensive and lucrative, but the disastrous fire in 1898 destroyed it, and on account of inadequate insurance proved very unfortunate to Mr. Roberts. The foundry was not replaced, but the assumption of the same kind of work by Hunt & Company has filled the demand for that class of manufacture.
Of the
OTHER MANUFACTURING ESTABLISHMENTS
of Walla Walla the sash and door factory of Whitehouse and Crimmins occupies a very im- portant place. This extensive industry was founded in 1880 by Messrs. Cooper and Smuck. In 1888 George Whitehouse and D. J. Crim- mins became chief owners of the establish- ment, although Mr. Cooper has continued to be a partner to the present time. The mill is equipped with all the most recent and improved machinery, and turns out annually an immense amount of finished lumber, sash and doors, mouldings, lath, besides large supplies of cup- boards, desks and other house furnishings. There is handled annually from two to four million feet of lumber. The number of men employed varies from twenty to thirty, accord- ing to the season.
Two other extensive lumbering houses in Walla Walla, the Chamberlin Lumber Com- pany and the Oregon Lumber Company, deal in lumber, although not engaged in its manu- facture. The supply of the former comes in part
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
from Gray's Harbor, that of the latter in part from Bridal Veil Mills in Oregon. It is esti- mated, however, that ninety per cent. of the lumber used in Walla Walla comes from Puget Sound, although these last named lumber com- panies of the county. The lumber business of the amount of the lumber used in a commu- nity is so large au index to its progress that we shall find it of interest to note the volume of business performed by the various com- Fanies of the county. The lumber business of the city and county are performed substan- tially by the three companies named in the city, together with two establishments at Waits- burg, one at Prescott, and one at Eureka Junc- tion. The entire amount of business is esti- mated to amount to about ten million feet of lumber, five million shingles, fifty thousand cedar fence posts, and six thousand doors and windows annually.
The Weber tannery was established by Frank Weber, Sr., in 1871. In 1879 it suf- fered destruction by fire, but was at once re- built on a larger scale, and since that time has continually broadened its business. An im- portant part of the leather, as well as other of the harness-makers' and shoe-makers' supplies of all kinds for this entire upper country, come from the Weber tannery.
There are three creameries in the county at the present time, and their products in round numbers is estimated at 133,189 pounds of but- ter, besides considerable cheese, representing a total value of probably over thirty thousand dollars.
One of the most interesting and prospect- ively important enterprises of recent establish- ment is the Cox and Bailey Manufacturing Company. This company has been established by the purchase of the building and plant of the Walla Walla Fanning Mill Manufactory,
which was started by Messrs, Carnahan and Fuller in 1898. Cox and Bailey acquired the property in the beginning of the year 1901 and are, at the present writing, actively engaged in equipping their factory with the best machinery and material. Their design is to do a general manufacturing and repair business, especially in the line of agricultural implements. They will also have a first-class sawing department, and will be prepared to furnish all kinds of scroll and bracket work of the best sort. They expect to ship logs directly from the Cascades. When fully equipped they will employ from twenty-five to thirty men.
The inauguration of this enterprise at this time is not only of importance in itself, but is one among many indications of the broaden- ing and ever enlarging business activity of this section.
Another home manufacturing establish- ment worthy of more extended notice than we can here give is the saddle-tree factory of Ringhofer Brothers. This was founded by Steve Ringhofer in 1880, his brother joining him in a few years. Few people in Walla Walla realize the amount of work done by these two industrious men with their assistants. Nor do they realize the wideness of the market reached by these Walla Walla saddle-trees. It is nearly as large as the market for Walla Walla fruits. In Calgary, Caribou, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Idaho and southern Oregon, to say nothing of points near at hand, cowboys, vaqueroes, prospectors and packers sit astride saddles whose frames were shaped right here in Walla Walla. This business is about as near- ly a home enterprise as any here, for though wood must mainly be shipped in, the hides, which are an equally essential feature, are se- cured from the Weber tannery in Walla Walla.
The extensive marble and granite works of
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
two different firms here, those of Niles & Vin- do extensive business not only in this but also son, and Roberts & Son, are deserving of an elaborate description did space permit. The extent of the supply, as well as of the market of both these establishments, is as much of a revelation as are similar facts in regard to some of the other lines of business described.
In a review necessarily limited as this is in space, it is not possible to present an ex- haustive account of every worthy and interest- ing industry. We have endeavored to present in the preceding pages a clear picture of the essential lines of constructive industry, to de- scribe the basis of those agencies by which the people of this country actually create products A rough estimate would probably show the ag- gregate value of the material thus made by the people of the county in 1900 at somewhere in the vicinity of four million dollars; certainly a very large amount to be produced by less than twenty thousand people.
In addition to the true productive indus- tries hitherto described, Walla Walla city has a correspondingly active list of mercantile and miscellaneous establishments, which may be summarized as follows: Three banks, of which two are national banks and one a savings bank ; three hotels, beside five lodging houses and a large number of boarding houses, and eight restaurants : eleven general merchandise stores ; six hardware stores : two furniture stores ; four house decorating and painting establishments ; five watch and jewelry stores; seven drug stores: three shoe stores; thirteen grocery stores : five regular mcat markets, besides four fish and poultry markets ; four plumbing estab- lishments : four bakeries, besides a dozen con- fectionery and fruit stands : four dressmaking and millinery establishments ; five agricultural implement houses, and these, it may be added,
in adjoining counties; two saddlery stores; three toy stores ; thirty-four saloons ; five cloth- ing stores ; three wood-yards; two bicycle and sporting goods stores; three music stores; four book stores; two breweries; ten barber shops, of which six have bath rooms connected; four photograph galleries ; and seven livery stables. In addition to these, which may be called the standard lines of business, there are a large number of work shops and repair shops of various kinds, laundries, of which one is a large steam laundry, and various small, miscellaneous establishments.
As an interesting evidence of the steady increase of manufacturing industries in this county, we may add the following statement with respect to a factory at Waitsburg. which appeared in a paper of that city, while this work was in preparation :
"The Evans Harvester Manufacturing Company is the name of a new company or- ganized in Waitsburg. The new company will erect a factory in that city in the near future for the manufacture of the combined harvester patented by J. G. Evans. The incorporators are J. G. Evans, Frank McCown, AA. Storie, Arthur Roberts, J. W. Morgan, G. M. Lloyd and J. L. Harper.
"The board of trustees for the first six months will be G. M. Lloyd, J. L. Harper, Arthur Roberts and Andrew Storie. Mr. Frank Mccown is mentioned for president with J. G. Evans as secretary and Arthur Rob- erts as manager. The arrangements will all be perfected within a few days.
"Mr. W. E. Singer will have charge of the mechanical department, assisted by Mr. J. G. Evans.
"The object is to perfect one machine this
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HISTORY OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
season and get a perfect pattern from which to construct more. The machine has been set up in Mr. Cox's wagon shop, and will con- vince the most skeptical that it will thresh, as
it has been operated quite frequently of late and gives every promise of being a complete success."
CHAPTER XV.
THE TRANSPORTATION LINES OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY.
As sufficiently developed already in prior pages, Walla Walla county was long isolated from other portions of Oregon territory. Yet even in the days of the fur-traders there were regular lines of transportation by which goods from vessels at Vancouver were distributed to all the posts of the Hudson's Bay Company throughout the Columbia valley, and by which the furs gathered along the thousand brawling streams of the interior, were transported to ship-board, and thence to the markets of the Old World. The transportation lines of the fur-traders consisted of bateaus, with frequent portages on cayuse back or Indian back. That was the true age of romance in the history of traffic. No braver and more enduring knights of the wilderness ever existed than those French Canadian voyageurs. Bold, res- oiute, indefatigable, always ready for privation with laugh, and jest, and song. those Canadian boatmen were the very beau ideal of explorers. From the blue waters of the Athabasca they would enter the lake on the crest of the Rocky mountains from which the Columnbia issues, and descend the mighty stream. through its succession of cataracts, lakes, and broad ex- panses, until they whiffed the salt spray of the Pacific.
When American immigration began to en-
ter Oregon, the bateaus were still a frequent ineans of transportation from The Dalles to the Willamette valley. Far-seeing men, like Whitman and others, even in the earliest period of settlement, plainly grasped the conception of the great steamboat lines along the rivers, and the railroad lines across the prairies and through the mountain passes, which would some time bring that majestic wilderness into communication with the rest of the world.
STEAMBOAT LINES.
The first steamship that ever ploughed the waters of Washington state was the Beaver, a Hudson's Bay steamboat, which entered the Columbia river in 1836 and afterwards went to Puget sound. She is still afloat somewhere on the waters of the gulf of Georgia. The first American steamship on the Columbia was the Carolina, in 1850. The first river steamer was a little double ender called the Columbia, also in 1850. On Christmas day, 1850, was launched the first river steamboat of any size. This. was the Lot Whitcomb. It is interest- ing for Walla Walla people to remember that the purser of this boat was Dr. O. W. Nixon, who has been such a steadfast friend of Whit- man College. In 1851 a movement to estab-
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