USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > An illustrated history of Walla Walla County, state of Washington > Part 39
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"Peter Werner, president; John Kremer, vice-president ; W. H. Weber, secretary; Al- bert Neibergall, treasurer ; James Corliss, fore- man; William Ritter, assistant foreman; Ru- dolph Seifke, second assistant foreman. Tiger No. I was organized February 22, 1877.
"Rescue No. I is another efficient com- pany, with a membership of 40, which was organized in March, 1894. The officers are: Harry Riffle. president; J. P. Scalley, vice- president : Frank Ennis, secretary; George Retzer, treasurer: William O'Rorke, foreman; R. M. White, assistant foreman.
"The third company is known as 'Our Boys No. 3.' which was organized in July, 1895, and has a membership of 40. Its officers are : J. W. Mackay, president ; William Foster, vice-president ; Al Kelling, secretary; J. F. Krepps, treasurer; John Bachtold, foreman.
James W. Mackay is one of the oldest members in the volunteer fire service, having joined in 1895, and served continuously since that time. He has been the president of 'Our Boys No. 3' company, since 1893, and was president of the Eastern Oregon and Washington Fire- man's Association in 1898.
"Harry Debus, the present secretary of the local organization, started as a torch-boy with Tiger No. 1, in 1879, and has served contin- uously ever since that time. He has, at vari- ous times, held the offices of president, secre- tary and treasurer of his company. Mr. De- bus was a prominent member of one of the early hose teams and has been on several of the teams which have won the state champion- ship in the various contests of the Eastern Ore- gon and Washington Fireman's Association.
"Many of the oldest resident citizens of Walla Walla håve served a full term in one of the three volunteer companies and are now on the retired list. Among them are: John Aheit, Sr., Jacob Betz, John P. Kent. A. Swartz, Emil Sanderson, J. J. Kauffman and J. P. Justice.
"The term of service in the volunteer fire department is seven years, during which time and thereafter the members are exempt from the payment of poll tax and service as jury- men. About one hundred are now on what is termed the retired list, having completed seven years of service and received honorable dis- charges. Every member of each company is expected to respond to the alarm of fire, day or night, and if an employe of any firm in the city, he is permitted to leave his work, without a deduction of his salary.
"The aim and object of the volunteer fire department is, in addition to providing a force for protection against fire, to hold annual tournaments, annual competitions and picnics
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and to render assistance to any disabled per- sons who have received injuries while on duty. "The next meeting and tournament of the Eastern Oregon and Washington Fireman's Association will be held in Walla Walla, on June 13 and 14. During this meeting there will be various contests, and Walla Walla's cele- brated hose team will again be a competitor in one of the competitions. This team under the captaincy of Emil Sanderson, has won the championship in all the contests since 1885, and there is but little doubt that it. will carry off the laurels at the coming tournament.
"Walla Walla has the distinction of having the first steam apparatus in the state of Wash- ington. The volunteer fire department was or- ganized in 1868, the Tigers being the first company, and operating an old-time hand en- gine when the company was first organized, and for some time thereafter."
Questions of sewerage and water-works having been satisfactorily settled, the greatest subject now looming up in municipal politics is that of a new charter. Walla Walla has existed under a unique charter, the only one of the kind in the state, bestowed upon the city in territorial days. As it appears that Walla Walla has now surpassed the population of ten thousand people, and become a city of the sec- ond class, the question is being agitated as to reincorporation. It will be an interesting thing to future readers and historians to find here a statement of the requirements for such reincor- poration, together with something of current public opinion in regard to it. An examination of the laws with respect to this elicits the fol- fowing facts :
To become a city of the second c'ass there must be a petition signed by two hundred or more freeholders of Walla Walla presented to the council, and that body must call a special
election to designate that at the next regular election this question will be submitted to the voters of the city. In voting for this the mark- ing on the ballot will be "For Advancement" or "Against Advancement." After it has been decided to become a second class city, there must be an election held at which the following officers are to be chosen by the people : Mayor, twelve councilmen, collector and street com- missioner (combined), assessor, police judge, and city attorney.
The changes resulting from passing into the second class would be many. The increase in the council would be followed by an in- crease in the permissible expenses of the city government. There would be no necessary in- crease in the expenses, but some of the salaries might be made higher if the board of aldermen saw fit.
One of the most important changes would be in the schools inside the city limits which, according to the law, have already ceased to exist as district schools and have entered the class of city schools. This form of school re- quires a board of education consisting of five members instead of a school board of three niembers as at present. The members of this board are elected for a term of three years, the election occurring the first Saturday in the month of November. The board of directors of the public library is also changed from three to five, which are appointed by the mayor with the consent of the council.
The other officers of the city shall be ap- pointed by the mayor with the consent of the council and shall be: Chief of police, treas- urer, clerk, surveyor, poundmaster, and, if so desired, superintendent of irrigation. For these officers the salaries of only the chief of police, clerk and treasurer are stipulated .. The chief of police cannot receive more than one
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thousand dollars per year. the treasurer fifteen hundred dollars, and the city clerk the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars per month.
The salaries of the city attorney and the city justice are not stipulated and may be fixed at whatever the council may see fit. The as- sessor will be paid the sum of five hundred dol- lars per year and the collector and street com- missioner cannot draw more than fifteen hun- dred dollars per year. No other salaries are stipulated. The chief of the fire department will be elected by the council and not by the volunteer firemen as at the present time. There may also be. if the council sees fit, a city jailor, to be appointed by the mayor.
The city election is fixed for the first Mon- day after the first Tuesday in December and six councilmen shall be elected each year after the first election,at which time the entire tweive will be chosen, the hold-overs to be decided by lot. The council must choose one of its number to act as president during the absence of the mayor and there shall be a board of three councilmen, whose duty it shall be to try all cases of com- plaint against policemen or other city officers for neglect of duty, exceeding their authority and similar crimes whenever such charges shall have been preferred. The mayor shall have a vote in case of a tie in the council.
Any officer shall have the power to select and appoint, subject to the approval of the council, such deputies as he may deem neces- sary for the proper performance of the duties of his office. The salaries of these deputies must not exceed the sum of one hundred dol- lars per month in any case.
In connection with the question of a new charter a difference of opinion has developed. the central point of which seems to be the powers of the mayor. The conflicting opinions have been represented by the Union and the
Statesman. the former maintaining the con- centration of power in the hands of the mayor. and the latter advocating a popular election for every officer and a consequent distribution of power, and consequently it favors the retention of the present charter. We present extracts from the two papers, in the belief that such a preservation of current opinion will prove of permanent interest :
From Walla Walla Union of February 16, 1001 :
Spokane is discussing the propriety of giving the mayor more authority on appointments. It is believed that in this way the expenditures can be kept under bet- ter control. The idea is that the mayor is the general manager of a business, and that to be successful he should be given the widest scope in his management of affairs, and then be held responsible for results.
There is something in this that should appeal to the people of Walla Walla. In Spokane the mayor is rec- ognized as the head of the city government, but there is also a board of county commissioners, a board of public works and a board of fire commissioners. The individu- als appointed by the mayor constitute these boards, one member being the head of each board and these boards select the appointees. By this act the mayor loses actual control and vests it in his appointees. In a measure this is a success, but it is not as successful as it would be in case the appointments were directly in the hands of the mayor. There is a chance for the mayor to evade the responsibility for errors, which should not be.
If the control of the city government is placed in the hands of the mayor, then the people can hold him re- sponsible for the errors and by the same token he is en- titled to the credit for a successful administration. The people should not divide the responsibility. For good work or bad it should be placed as nearly as possible in the head of the city government.
It is proper and right that the mayor, the treasurer, the councilmen, the assessor, the police judge or city jus- tice and the street commissioner should be elected by the people, and there would be no great harm done if the clerk and the attorney were also elected, though there is no doubt but the better government would be secured if the clerk and the attorney were appointed. This is not a new suggestion. It is the method which applies in a major- ity of the cities, large and small, in all the cities of the United States. It is found to be good law in Spokane Seattle and Tacoma: why is it not good law here to ap- point the head of the police department, and have him responsible to the mayor? As has been pointed out before, if the mayor is to be the head of the city govern- ment and is to be held responsible for the success of his
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administration, he should have the police force under, not equal with, him. The attorney is largely counsel for the mayor and the council; thence he should be appoint- ed and confirmed, for in this manner an attorney is always secured who is acceptable and in whom all parties have confidence. The clerk is very close to the council and could be appointed, as he should be chosen for his clerical ability rather than anything else, though as other duties are placed upon him it is largely a technical ques- tion whether he is elected or appointed.
From Statesman of February 18, 1901 :
It is proposed to make for Walla Walla a new charter. There are not many reasons apparent for this change, but since we have reached the dignity of a city of the second class in point of population there are those who think we should cast aside our former official clothing and wear something different.
There is a plot in this proposed program. One not seen by the people at a glance, and yet one which in future years may seem a great deal to everyone here. It is suggested by " some," and argued by the Union, the organ of these " some," that the offices of chief of police, attorney and clerk be appointed; that they be named by the mayor and held at his will. There is no reason in the world for such a move save a desire to build up a politi- cal machine.
And there is exactly the plot at this time.
If the mayor can name the chief of police, the chief of the fire department, the attorney and the clerk, will he not name those who have used their pull to get him in office, and who, when they are once in, will use their offi- cial positions to continue the machine of which they are then a part? Has this not been the history of all cities? Is it not the very thing which is causing trouble and scan- dal in more than one city at this time? Is not this build- ing of political machines the cause of forcing honest citizens in many cities to take the work of reform in their own hands.
The city of Walla Walla may be metropolitan, but it is not metropolitan to the extent that it desires a corrupt machine in the city hall and a public scandal in the papers. Elect the officers. Bring every man who is connected with the management of city affairs as close to the people as possible. Have the people say whom they may want for chief of police, for clerk and for attorney. In county affairs are certain officers appointed that better men may be secured? More efficient men are secured by appointment than by election, argues the Union. Then why not, in county affairs, appoint the clerk and the at- torney and the sheriff instead of electing them?
The giving of too much power to the mayor is danger- ous. It has so proven in every city in which it has been done, and Walla Walla ought to recognize the fact that she can gain much by the experience of others.
One of the most important and historic in- stitutions in or around the city is Fort Walla
Walla. It is sometimes necessary to remind a stranger that Fort Walla Walla, under the Hudson's Bay regime, meant the old fort at the present site of Wallula. AAs elsewhere narrated, that was abandoned about the year 1853. In the winter of 1856-7 rude barracks were established by the soldiers within the present limits of Walla Walla city. During the fall of 1856 a considerable number of soldiers occupied huts constructed of poles and slabs set on end and roofed with dirt, brush, and rye grass. Several log cabins for the of- ficers were put up in the same vicinity, which was the present location of McBride's Iv .. stable. One of those buildings was standing until about six years ago. In October of 1856 General Wool directed Colonel Wright to es- tablish a permanent military post at some point ir: the Walla Walla valley. In pursuance of these directions Colonel Wright issued orders from his post at The Dalles to Colonel Step- toe to locate the post. The present location of the post (and a more beautiful and convenient one it would be hard to imagine) is due to Colonel Steptoe, assisted by Charles Russell and Joseph McEvoy. In the spring of 1857 per- manent buildings were erected and Lieutenant- Colonel Steptoe took charge of the fort. By 1860 the buildings were substantially as at present.
Our space is insufficient to give any his- torical narrative of Fort Walla Walla. Suffice it to say that it has been a prominent financial and social, as well as military, feature of the place. There have been usually about two liun- dred sokliers established here. There has been inuch talk at times of abandonment of the fort. but it seems now that there is no reason to ap- prehend such a step in the near future. Thou- sands of dollars are spent yearly in the county for the purchase of provisions and equipment
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for the fort. The gallant officers, together with the accomplished ladies of the fort, have be- come almost indespensable to the ongoings of society in the town. For these and allied reasons the people of Walla Walla greatly de- precate any talk of abandonment.
We have mentioned but a small part of the interesting features, historical and descriptive, which an extended visit to the Garden city would reveal. Every visitor to Walla Walla must see the Whitman monument and old mis- sion grounds. He must spend at least part of the day upon Dr. Blalock's great fruit ranch. It is equally incumbent upon him to go to the magnificent wheat ranch of W. P. Reser and
"see the elk." Nor could any one truthfully consider that he had seen Walla Walla unless he had ridden behind one of the spanking teams for which the town is noted up the wild and picturesque canyon of Mill creek to the points which are favorite resorts for camping parties during the hot Walla Walla summers. These and many more things must be deferred to a later visit.
In concluding this chapter, and with it this history, we will only add :- If a period of forty years since the termination of bloody Indian wars can effect all the changes which greet our eyes on all sides, what will be accomplished by the next forty years ?
BIOGRAPHICAL
RECORDS
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BIOGRAPHICAL RECORDS
HOLLON PARKER .- Not all men order their lives to their own liking; nor yet are all men true to their ideals and their potentiality for individual accomplishment. It is, therefore, ever gratifying to take under review the life history of one who has wrought earnestly and faithfully and has proved a power for good in various relations of human existence, maintain- ing a high sense of his stewardship and having a constant recognition of the extraneous re- ¡sponsibilities concomitant with personal suc- cess. Such a man is he whose name initiates this paragraph, and no compilation having to do with the annals of Walla Walla county or the present state of Washington would be con- sistent with itself were there a failure to incor- porate a summary of his active and signally useful career.
The subject of this review is a native of the old Empire state, having been born in Ar- cada, near Palmyra, Wayne county, New York, October 2, 1832. His father, Preston R. Par- ker, was numbered among the early settlers in the northwestern part of New York state, hav- ing located his farm about thirty miles east of the city of Rochester. He rendered yeoman service in the war of 1812, after which he de- voted his attention to the clearing and cultiva- tion of his farmstead, which was as yet prac- tically a primitive forest. With his own hands he felled the heavy timber, laboring assiduously to establish a home for his family. He was 18
united in marriage to Miss Lana Sanford, and they became the parents of six sons and four daughters, Hollon Parker being the sixth in order of birth. The father was a man of spot- less character and marked intellectual strength, and for about half a century he rendered de- voted and efficient service in the ministry of the divine Master.
The preliminary educational discipline of our subject was attained through the somewhat meagre sources afforded in the early days, and through which so many of our most eminent men have risen to exalted station and high preferment. He attended the primitive log schoolhouse, where he laid the foundation for that broad general information and ripe intel- lectuality which have marked his later years. His later successes in life are doubtless due not less to his own indomitable spirit and firmness of character than to the atmosphere of his early youth and the worthy example of his honored father and most estimable mother, the latter being a representative of one of the foremost families of the old Empire state. Endowed with sturdy independence of spirit and with a courage born of his recognition of his own powers to will and to do, Hollon Parker severed home ties at the early age of nineteen years and started for the far west, intending to re- turn at the expiration of two years and to fit himself for college. Crossing the isthmus of Panama, part of the distance on foot, lie ar-
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rived in San Francisco on May 22, 1852, fol- lowing the rush into the mines in the northern part of the state. Although fatigued from his long journey and emaciated by the fevers of the swamps of Panama, he finally succeeded in reaching the mines alive. It was here that the true grain and fiber of his most commend- able nature manifested themselves to the best advantage. Fully seven thousand miles from home, by the isthmus route, five hundred dol- lars in debt, a veritable walking skeleton, alone and among strangers, with not a dollar in his pocket and with a hard, cold winter at hand .- the prospects were assuredly not alluring. After various efforts he finally secured an in- door position for the winter, at fifty dollars per month. This stipend seems all the more diminutive when we take into consideration the circumstance that in the more remote min- ing districts flour was at this time worth one dollar and twenty-five cents per pound, salt six- teen dollars per pound, and other necessities in proportion. This was in the winter of 1852-3. Mr. Parker afterward taught school in the northern part of the state, saving his earnings, and finally, on October 28, 1853. engaged in business with a partner, under the firm name of Parker & Roman, in Yreka, Siskiyou coun- ty, California, handling a line of books, sta- tionery and notions. He continued in this line for over seven years, within which time he had accumulated about forty thousand dollars' worth of real estate and other property. These investments, mostly brick stores and merchan- (lise, were lost during the dry winters which proved so disastrous to that country at that time. and by his being deceived in those in whom he trusted and had confidence.
In August. 1855. Mr. Parker, accompany- ing several others on an exploring expedition, made the ascent of Mount Shasta, a feat that
had been declared impossible by Fremont. In the party were three physicians, two of whom were overcome with the gases and sulphurons vapors emanating from the boiling springs of the old crater at the summit of the mountain, several weeks elapsing before they were fully recovered from the effects of this ordeal.
In 1856 Mr. Parker returned to his home in New York state, and while there was an active member of the Wayne county convention which supported James Buchanan for the presi- dency. After the election Mr. Parker attended the inaugural ceremonies at the federal capital, and while there was one of over four hundred victims who, with President Buchanan, were poisoned at one of the leading hotels in the city. and of whom forty or more died. while many were left injured for life, Mr. Parker himself not recovering from the effects for many years.
In the spring of 1862, after having closed his stores at Yreka, California, and Jackson- ville, Oregon, Mr. Parker started north for the then celebrated Oro Fino mining camp in northern Idaho, arriving at Portland. Oregon. the following April. Continuing his journey northward, he arrived at Walla Walla about the middle of July, 1862, and here he has ever since maintained his home. His intention had been to visit his brother. Esbon B. Parker. who owned some valuable mining property at Oro Fino, and then to return to San Francisco. where he had his dental instruments and stock, intending to go to Lima, South America, for the purpose of entering upon the practice of dentistry in that place, for he had become an expert in this profession. However, after looking about in Wall Walla, he decided to again enter the mercantile business, handling his old line of books, stationery. etc.
In 1863, having procured the requisite
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papers, Mr. Parker effected in Walla Walla the organization of the Union League, whose object was the promotion of a spirit of patriot- ism among the citizens of the community, and he was an active and zealous worker in the Union cause throughout the entire period of the war of the Rebellion. Although it met with some opposition, the league proved a suc- cess and gave to the country the impetus then necessary to clear it of the blacklegs and thieves who had secured such a vital hold upon the community that it had become necessary to organize a vigilance committee to protect the lives and property of the citizens. During this time Mr. Parker, with the able co-operation of Messrs. Thomas K. McCoy and Anderson Cox, worked incessantly to secure for the people hon- est and just government and a more favorable condition of judicial affairs.
In the summer of 1863 Mr. Parker was ciected a delegate to the Republican territorial convention, held at Vancouver. While there he entered into a contract with the registrar and the receiver of the United States land of- fice, and agreed to pay their expenses, which the United States refused to do, in order that they might come to Walla Walla and give set- tlers an opportunity to secure titles to their land before the same could be bought by speculators, as there was to be a government sale of the same lands the following month. In this praise- worthy undertaking he was successful and thereby saved for the community over fifteen thousand dollars which would have been lost had the settlers been obliged to go to the land office. In 1864 Mr. Parker, in connection with his other business, and at an outlay of sev- eral thousand dollars, opened a private land of- fice in Walla Walla, the object being to enable the new settlers to file on their land claims without going to Vancouver and Oregon City
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