USA > Washington > Lincoln County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 10
USA > Washington > Adams County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 10
USA > Washington > Douglas County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 10
USA > Washington > Franklin County > An illustrated history of the Big Bend country, embracing Lincoln, Douglas, Adams, and Franklin counties, state of Washington, pt 1 > Part 10
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The story of the capture and execution of Leschi is, perhaps, one of the most sensational Indian episodes in the career of Governor Ste- vens. Leschi, together with Nelson, Stahi, Quiemuth and the younger Kitsap, had been ringleaders in the attack on the Decatur, in the Sound, and now Governor Stevens desired to try them for murder. These Indians had at- tended the council with Colonel Wright, in the Yakima country, and Wright had paroled them. At that period an attempt was being made to quiet the Indians east of the Cascade range. In the opinion of Wright, of whom these five savages had been demanded, it would be unwise at this juncture to give them over to certain ex- ecution, but the governor was insistent in his demands, and again made requisition for the hostiles. To this demand nearly all the army officers were opposed, believing the policy to be unwise.
In November Leschi was arrested. Slug-
gia and Elikukah, two of his own people, be- trayed him into the hands of the whites. At that period Leschi was an outcast and, practi- cally, outlawed by both Yakimas and whites. The traitorous Sluggia and Elikukah found him and handed him over to Sydney S. Ford who forwarded him on to Olympia. Leschi was now to stand trial for the killing of A. B. Moses. At the first trial, November 14, the jury failed to agree. March 18, 1857, a sec- ond trial was had, resulting in conviction June 10 was the day set for his execution. The attorneys engaged for Leschi's defense appealed the case to the supreme court, and this appeal served as a stay of proceedings and de- ferred execution beyond the day assigned. However, the verdict of the lower court was sustained and January 22, 1858, was set as the day for the hanging of Leschi. McMullin, who had succeeded Stevens, was now governor of Washington. Friends of Leschi appealed to him for pardon ; seven hundred settlers vigor- ously protested. The execution was to be at Steilacoom and on the day set there was a large audience. This time, however, the death pen- alty was delayed by friends of the condemned by a most peculiar legal manipulation. Shortly before the time for the execution the sheriff and his deputy were placed under arrest by a Uni- ted States marshal. The charge against the prisoners was that of selling liquor to Indians. In vain an attempt was made to reach the sheriff and secure the death warrant, without which it would be impossible to strangle Leschi legally. But that officer was retained in close custody until the period set for Leschi's hang- ing had passed. The "United States marshall" in these proceedings was Lieutenant Mckibben, stationed at Fort Steilacoom, who had been ap- pointed for that express purpose. All in all this coup was in the nature of a ruse on the part of the regular army, between whom and the citizens of the territory there was at all times considerable friction.
Indignation at this perversion of justice and
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palpable miscarriage of law ran high among the people. Public meetings of protest were held and the legislature appealed to. This body pro- ceeded to adjust matters in a most strenuous manner, repealing certain laws and enacting new ones until the legal coils around Leschi were deemed sufficiently strong to insure his punishment. Again the prisoner was tried and, although his counsel demurred to the jurisdic- tion of the court, he was overruled and Febru- ary 19, 1858, the Indian who had so success- fully fought off the hounds of law was hanged. It is a matter of historical record that few of the more active Indian participants in the vari- ous outbreaks on the Sound escaped. Three of them were assassinated by white men in re- venge for the murder of friends; a number were hanged at Fort Steilacoom; one of his own people killed Kitsap in June, 1857, on Muckleshoot prairie, and Leschi's friends re- venged themselves by taking the life of the treacherous Sluggia. Comparative peace was restored to the Sound country, yet the horrors of the outbreak were long remembered. To the Puyallup and upper White River valley many of the settlers did not return until 1859.
Patkanim, the horrible blood-hunter, who, for American gold, trafficked in human heads as nonchalantly as he would deal in wolf-pelts, did not long survive the war. The following estimation of this barbarian is given by the Pioneer and Democrat under date, January 21, 1859: "It is just as well that he is out of the way, as, in spite of everything, we never be- lieved in his friendship."
Indemnity claims following Indian troubles on the Sound amounted to some twelve thous- and dollars, which sum was appropriated by congress. But the actual expenses incidental to the conduct of this war, a war in behalf of the peace and prosperity of Washington and Oregon, approached quite nearly six million dollars, or exactly $5,931,424.78, divided as follows: Washington, $1,481,475.45; Ore- gon. $4,449,949.33. Payment of $1,409,-
604.53 was made to the Oregon, and $519,- 593.06 to the Washington volunteers. At that period the eminent editor and publicist, Horace Greeley, had not advised the young men of the country to "go west," and he was unkind enough to say, in the New York Tribune : "The enterprising territories of Oregon and Washington have handed into congress their little bill for scalping Indians and violating squaws two years ago. After these (the French spoilation claims) shall have been paid half a century or so, we trust the claims of the Oregon and Washington Indian fighters will come up for consideration."
The scene of Indian troubles now removes itself to a point in eastern Washington more immediately identified with the limitations of this history. In April, 1858, the mines in the vicinity of Colville had become attractive to "stampeders," and two white men pushing on into the "gold country," had been slain by a party of savages belonging to the Palouse tribe. A petition for troops, signed by forty residents of Colville, had been forwarded to Colonel Steptoe. The latter informed General Clarke of the fact and advised that an expedition be sent north to punish the savages and protect the settlers. Adding to the crime of murder the Palouses had gone down into the Walla WValla country and driven away a band of gov- ernment cattle. The Palouses who, it was claimed, had killed the Colville miners, were found by Colonel Steptoe at the Alpowah. Steptoe had left Walla Walla May 6, 1858, with one hundred and thirty dragoons en route for the country of the Nez Perces. On ap- proach of the whites the Indians fled. Because Steptoe placed no confidence in a report he re- ceived on the 16th that the Spokanes were making arrangements to attack him he, unfor- tunately, found himself surrounded with a force of six hundred miscellaneous "braves." includ- ing warriors of the Cœur d'Alenes, Palouses, Spokanes and Nez Perces. They were attired in war paint and had chosen a position where
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from three sides they could assault Steptoe's detachment of troops. During a short parley the Spokanes confirmed the reports that they were on the war path, and announced that they purposed to do considerable fighting before the whites would be permitted to ford the Spokane river. Doubtless the Indians were emboldened in their conduct by the fact that these dragoons of Steptoe's were without other means of de- fense than their small arms. For this inexcus- able blunder no reason has ever been assigned, and none could be that would, at this day, be acceptable to a military man. The savages rode along side by side with the troops and hurled at them insults and cries of defiance. At nightfall the chiefs demanded to know the reason for this invasion of their country.
No explanation was made that in any way pacified the chiefs, although Steptoe said that. having learned of trouble near Colville he was on his way thither to inquire into the cause of it. The chiefs pointed out the fact that he was not on the Colville road at all. Unfortunately he had been led astray by a guide. Timothy, by name. Without suitable arms, and otherwise unprepared for fighting. Steptoe decided to re- treat. He began his return to the Palouse on the 17th. A few miles away a party of Coeur d'Alenes were gathering roots, and to them the Spokanes appealed asking their assistance in bagging an enemy whom the Spokanes, par- ticularly, did not intend to allow to leave the country alive. A Coeur d'Alene chief. named Vincent, attempted to hold a parley with Colo- nel Steptoe, but firing was commenced by the Palouses and the skirmish soon resolved itself into a general engagement. Encumbered by a pack train, which it was necessary to guard: passing over ground rough and most favorable for Indians and their mode of warfare Step- toe's command labored under a serious disad- vantage, and were in no condition for any effective fighting. The savages charged a com- pany commanded by Lieutenant Gregg. but the prompt support given by Lieutenant Gas-
ton repulsed the Indians and they suffered se- verely at this point. Twelve of them were killed, including Jacques Zachary, brother-in- law of Vincent: James and Victor, the latter one of the powerful chiefs of the Cœur d' Alenes. Later on, while attemping to reach a stream of water, Lieutenant William Gaston and Captain Oliver H. P. Taylor were killed. The result of this "Battle of Steptoe Butte." fought at a place seven miles from the present town of Colfax, must be, impartially, recorded as a defeat for the whites. On the morning of the 19th the retreating troops reached Snake river and from this point continued on to Walla Walla.
The animosity of the Indians exhibited in this disaster has been variously explained. The most plausible reason for it lies, probably, in the fact that the Cœur d' Alenes had been told of the proposed government road through their country, from the Missouri to the Columbia river. This was subsequently completed by Lieutenant Mullan, from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton.
In June. 1858, active preparations were made to avenge the defeat of Steptoe. Quite a large body of troops were mobilized at Fort Walla Walla. some of them being brought from San Francisco and other California points ; some from the Sound. Here for a period of time they were industriously drilled in the tactics of Indian warfare. This was to be an expedition against the Cœur d' Alenes and Spokanes : another was being put in motion against the Yakimas. The campaign plan was to have Major Garnett move toward Colville with three hundred men. co-operate with Cap- tain Keyes, and "round up" the tribes of In- dians. Major Garnett was to leave August 15: Captain Keyes left Walla Walla on the 7th. Fort Taylor was built at the junction of Tucannon and Snake rivers, which. with its six hundred and forty acres of reservation, was intended as a permanent post. Here Colonel Wright arrived August 18. The expedition
4
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GENERAL HISTORY.
consisted of one hundred and ninety dragoons, four hundred artillery and ninety infantry, the latter armed with Sharpe's rifles. Seventy-six miles north from Fort Taylor Indians appeared on the hills and fired on a company of Nez Perces Indians who had been enlisted as volun- teers by the whites and uniformed as regular soldiers. Soon afterward the hostiles retreated. They reappeared on September I, in force, and one of the most important battles of this particular Indian war was fought. The victory was plainly with the whites, the savages losing twenty killed and many wounded.
But the Indians were desperate. Colonel
Wright resumed his march September 5th, and was again attacked by the enemy. Shells from the howitzers burst among them ; the fire of the whites was deadly, and defeat of the Indians complete. On September 10 the Cœur d'Alenes surrrendered, and the redoubtable Vincent was not the least active in inducing this submission. They had attempted to stay the progress of civilization through their wil- derness and civilization would not be stayed. Whatever of home or country they once had was gone. Henceforth enterprise, industry and intelligence were to supplant barbaric ignorance and Indian squalor.
CHAPTER VII.
TERRITORY AND STATE.
"The West" of the days of the Revolution was embraced within the limits of the Atlantic coast and longitude 89 degrees west from Greenwich, or 12 degrees west from Washing- ton, D. C. Compare this narrow strip of terri- tory with the magnitude of the Northwest of to- day and remember, also, that the geographical center of the United States, from east to west, lies at a point in the Pacific Ocean six hundred miles west from San Francisco, California. From the latter fact we are enabled to obtain a fair comprehension of the extreme western ex- tension of our Alaskan possessions.
States have increased, territorially, since the surrender of Lord Cornwallis. The "midgets," smaller than many western counties, lie along the Atlantic shore. Washington, the "Ever- green State," of whose stirring and romantic past this history treats, is more than three- fourths the size of New York and Pennsyl- vania, combined, or more than equalling the size of all Kentucky, Connecticut, Massachu-
setts, Delaware and Maryland. Its area is 69,994 square miles. Its entire western boun- dary is washed by the waves of the Pacific; the great "ill-tasting lake" of the Indians; discov- ered by Balboa and once claimed in all its sub- lime immensity by Spain as her own national property. From British Columbia it is sep- arated by the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which forms its boundary until it reaches a point where the 49th degree of north latitude crosses the strait. Thence the northern boundary line of Washington runs east on the 49th parallel two hundred and fifty miles nearly to the 117th de- gree of longitude west from Greenwich, and thence south to the 46th degree of latitude; thence west on that degree until the Columbia river is reached, where Klickitat, Walla Walla and Yakima counties converge, the Columbia river then forming its southern boundary on to the coast.
The Puget Sound Basin and the great val- ley of the Upper Columbia combine to greatly
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GENERAL HISTORY.
diversify the topography of Washington. Be- tween these two distinctively marked territor- ies runs the Cascade Range of mountains, north and south, separating "The Inland Empire" from "The Coast," or variably, "The Sound Country." This mountain range is, in its en- tirety, one of the most imposing on the North American continent. Creeping upward from the far south, for hundreds of miles but a suc- cession of low hills, or chain of buttes, the range grows bolder in contour and height until to the far north Mount St. Elias accentuates its most imposing altitude. Volcanic, snow-capped cones rise to heights of fifteen and twenty thousand feet, and a number of the highest of these are within the boundaries of Washington.
In a preceding chapter outlining the "Ore- gon Controversy," it was noted that in 1846, when the southern line of British Columbia was finally determined, all that remained south of that boundary to the 42d parallel was called Oregon. In 1849 a territorial government was granted covering all the original Oregon. It was then an indefinite region embracing the lands lying between the Rocky Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, and north of the 42d parallel. In 1851 steps were taken toward dividing Ore- gon. All that portion north and west of the Columbia river was thrown into a new territory, supplied with a distinct territorial government. No opposition having appeared either from the Oregon legislature or from congress the con- summation of this division was effected in 1853. Then Washington embraced the rather indefinite territory of Idaho. Oregon became a state in 1859. Washington, then including Idaho, was under territorial government, re- maining thus until March 3, 1863, when the territory of Idaho was set off by congress. The eastern portion of Washington, from a line near the 117th degree of west longitude, and portions of Montana, Dakota and Nebraska combined to form the creation of Idaho at that period.
Of the first inroads of civilization, aside
from the Hudson's Bay Company, into the ter- ritory of Oregon, then including Washington, Archibald M'Vickar writes :
The earliest emigration from the United States for the purpose of settlement in this territory was in 1832. Three years afterward a small party went out by land with Nathaniel Wyeth, of the Boston Fishing and Trading Company under the direction of Rev. James Lee and David Lee, who established a mission settlement among the Callopoewah Indians, on the Willamette river. This colony afterward received some small accessions, and in November, 1839, Rev. James Lee sailed from the United States for the Columbia river with a party of fifty-four persons, among them six missionaries and a physician, with their families. This party arrived safely out, and the annual report of the missionary society of the Methodist Episcopal church, in May, 1841, presents a favorable account of their labors among the Indians. Some parties of young men had started for the Columbia from states bordering on the Mississippi. The whole number directly attached to the mission is only sixty-cight, including men, women and children. The first settlers along the river, accord- ing to Mr. Parker, who visited. the country in 1835. consisted of Canadian Frenchmen formerly in the em- ployment of the Hudson's Bay Company.
"The Oregon Controversy," and "Tragedy of Whitman's Mission," preceding chapters, have traced in outline the more important de- tails of this early settlement. Western Wash- ington, on the coast, was the first portion of the torritory settled. The advantages of sea coast fishing and fur-trading, of course, account for this fact, together with its accessibility by voy- ages around the Horn, and proximity to the more fully developed settlements of California. The name, "Puget Sound" was much more familiar to eastern people and students than the coasts of Oregon or Washington. Thus, in a general way, the resources of western Washı- ington became gradually known to a certain limited number of the inhabitants of the ex- treme east. Concerning the various enterprises of these pioneers of Washington Hubert Howe Bancroft has pertinently said in his "History of Washington, Idaho and Montana:" "In the previous chapters I have made the reader ac- quainted with the earlier American residents of
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GENERAL HISTORY.
the territory north of the Columbia, and the methods by which they secured themselves homes and laid the foundation for fortunes by making shingles, bricks and cradling machines, by building mills, loading vessels with timber, laying out towns, establishing fisheries, explor- ing for gold and mining for coal. But these were private enterprises concerning only indi- viduals, or small groups of men at most, and I now come to consider them as a body politic. with relations to the government of Oregon and to the general government."
The plan of this history demands that we pursue the same course in the treatment of our subject, and also to show how narrowly Wash- ington escaped being called "Columbia." The provisional government of Oregon adopted in 1843 did not include the territory north of the Columbia river. So late as 1845, at the time of the Hudson's Bay Company made a compact with this provisional government, there existed no county organizations north of that river with the exception of Tualatin and Clackamas "dis- tricts," which claimed to extend northward as far as 54 degrees 40 minutes. But these dis- tricts were not peopled by American citizens, and not until the compact went into effect was there established an American settlement in the region of Puget Sound, and a new district created called Vancouver. The first judges were M. T. Simmons, James Douglas, and Charles Forrest. John R. Jackson was sheriff.
Lewis county was created December 19. 1845. Primarily its northern limit extended to 54 degrees, 40 minutes, or was supposed to. comprising territory north of the Columbia, and west of the Cowlitz, rivers. In 1846 it was represented in the legislature by W. F. Tolmie ; Vancouver county by Henry N. Peers, the lat- ter described as "a good versifier and fair leg- islator." He was an attache of the Hudson's Bay Company. The initial agitation for a new territory north of the Columbia was made July 4, 1851. At Olympia a number of American
citizens of the Sound had assembled to appro- priately celebrate the day. In his oration Mr. Chapman alluded eloquently to "the future state of Columbia." His remarks awakened an enthusiastic response, and the same evening a meeting was held, the avowed object of which was to procure a separate territorial govern- ment. Of this meeting Clanrick Crosby was chairman ; A. M. Poe, secretary. H. A. Golds- borough, I. N. Eby. J. B. Chapman and C. Crosby addressed the audience. Their speeches were followed by the appointment of a commit- tee on resolutions which recommended that a meeting to be held August 29 at Cowlitz land- ing, the object of which "to take into care- ful consideration the present peculiar position of the northern portion of the territory, its wants, the best methods of supplying those wants, and the propriety of an early appeal to congress for a division of the territory." The convention thus called was attended by twenty- six delegates. It adjourned the following day, having defined the limits of twelve intended counties, requested the benefits of donation lands, petitioned congress for a plank road from the Sound to the mouth of the Cowlitz, and a territorial road from some point on Puget Sound to Walla Walla, and otherwise memorializing congress on the important sub- ject of division. It was the expressed inten- tion of the delegates to move, should their re- quest be denied, for immediate admission into the union as a state. It is needless to say that enthusiasm ran high at this meeting on the Cowlitz. At that period the population of the territory under consideration was less than four thousand souls.
Nothing tangible resulted from this meet- ing, although The Columbian, a weekly news- paper, published at Olympia, continued the agi- tation for territorial division and independent organization. November 25, 1852, a conven- tion was held at Monticello, on the Cowlitz river, at that period an enterprising munici- pality of Northern Oregon. Congress was
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GENERAL HISTORY.
again memorialized and the document for- warded to Hon. Joseph Lane, territorial dele- gate. This memorial contains so concise and graphic a description of early territorial condi- tions that it is deemed best to reproduce it in ftill :
To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the United States, in Congress assembled :
The memorial of the undersigned, delegates of the citizens of Northern Oregon, in convention assembled, respectfully represent to your honorable bodies that it is the earnest desire of your petitioners, and of said citizens, that all that portion of Oregon Territory lying north of the Columbia river and west of the great northern branch thereof, should he organized as a saparate territory under the name and style of the Terri- tory of Columbia, urging these reasons: In support of the prayer of this memorial, your petitioners would respectfully urge the following, among many other reasons, viz. :
First: That the present Territory of Oregon con- tains an area of 341,000 square miles, and is entirely too large an extent of territory to be embraced within the limits of one state.
. Second: That said territory possesses a sea coast of 650 miles in extent, the country east of the Cascade mountains is bound to that on the coast by the strongest ties of interest; and, inasmuch as your petitioners be- lieve that the territory must inevitably be divided at no very distant day, they are of the opinion that it would be unjust that one state should possess so large a sea- board to the exclusion of that of the interior.
Third: The territory embraced within the bound- aries of the proposed "Territory of Columbia," contain- ing an area of about 32,000 square miles, is, in the opinion of your petitioners, about a fair and just medium of territorial extent to form one state.
Fourth: The proposed "Territory of Columbia" presents natural resources capable of supporting a popu- lation at least as large as that of any state in the union possessing an equal extent of territory.
Fifth: Those portions of Oregon Territory lying respectively north and south of the Columbia river must. from their geographical position, always rival each other in commercial advantages, and their respective citizens must, as they now and always have been, be actuated by a spirit of opposition.
Sixth: The southern part of Oregon Territory, hay- ing a majority of voters, have controlled the territorial legislature, and benefit from the appropriations made by congress for said territory, which were subject to the disposition of said legislature.
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