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 12
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 12
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 12
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 12
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and will indicate to congress the rightful basis of our claim for admission into the union of states."
In the last paragraph of this quotation may be traced the central thought which appears to have actuated Governor Squire in his untiring efforts. To accomplish the admission of Wash- ington he spared no labor in collecting an ar- ray of statistical information that could be molded into powerful arguments for state- hood. And to these reports is due largely the great volume of immigration which flowed into the Territory on the wheels of the Northern Pacific railway. From 75,000 in 1880, the population increased to 210,000 in 1886. In the latter year this pioneer railroad company operated four hundred and fifty-five miles of railway within the boundaries of Washington ; the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company two hundred and ninety-five miles; the Colum- bia and Puget Sound Company forty-four miles, and the Olympia and Chehalis Company fifteen miles, which, together with other com- pleted lines, gave to the Territory eight hun- dred and sixty-six miles of railroad. The ef- fect on all industries may be easily conceived. The building of shipping tonnage was stimu- lated on the coast; the output of produce east- ward increased wonderfully. The wheat mar- ket was, at that period, still in the east, and in 1886 the Northern Pacific Company trans- ported 4,161 tone of wheat and 1,600 tons of other grains to the Mississippi river; the Ore- gon Railroad and Navigation Company took out 250,000 tons of wheat, flour and barley to southeastern points. These appear, at this date, insignificant figures compared with the present volume of grain business, but eighteen years ago they gave indubitable proof to the people of the eastern states of the remarkable fertility of the soil of Washington Territory.
Associated with Governor Squire in the Territorial offices were R. S. Greene, chief jus- tice: J. P. Hoyt, S. C. Wingard and George Turner, associate justices ; N. H. Owings, sec-
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GENERAL HISTORY.
retary. The delegate to congress was Thomas H. Brents. The federal officers were John B. Allen. United States district attorney: Jesse George. United States marshal; C. Bash, cus- toms collector ; C. B. Bagley and E. L. Heriff, internal revenue collectors : William McMicken, surveyor-general: John F. Gowley, registrar, and J. R. Hayden, receiver of the United States land office at Olympia ; F. W. Sparling, regis- trar, and A. G. Marsh, receiver, of the Van- couver land office ; Joseph Jorgensen, registrar, and James Baden, receiver, at Walla Walla ; J. M. Armstrong, registrar, and John L. Wilson, receiver, at Spokane, and R. R. Kinne, reg- istrar, and J. M. Adams, receiver, at Yakima.
Governor Squire was succeeded in 1887 by Eugene Semple. Although a republican, he had won the confidence of a democratic admin- istration at Washington, D. C., and was re- tained in office long after his place could have been conveniently supplied with a democratic partisan. His attitude during the Chinese riots had done much to establish him in the estima- tion of President Cleveland. At the time of Semple's accession the questions of statehood and woman suffrage were agitating the people. Affairs were somewhat disquieted. The suff- rage question had been defeated by popular vote in 1878, but the legislature of 1883-4 had passed an act conferring this privilege upon women, and the act had been declared unconsti- tutional by the courts, but not until the women of the Territory had enjoyed the benefits of voting, holding office and serving on juries for two years, were they disfranchised. In 1886 woman suffrage became an exceedingly lively party issue : the republicans favoring, the dem- ocrats opposing the same. There had, also, been a "capital removal" scheme injected into the campaign, and strong "North Yakima" and "Ellensburg" factions developed in the "In- land Empire." A large number of those favor- ing statehood had assumed, upon what logical grounds is rather obscure, that with admission
into the union the "panhandle of Idaho, lost in 1863. would be restored to the state. This remote probability was, however, employed as an argument in favor of capital removal, but the strenuous "coasters" of the extreme west stoutly opposed a location of the seat of gov- ernment east of the Cascades, and the hopes of the Yakima Valley people were doomed to dis- appointment. During the second term of Gov- ernor Semple, Charles S. Voorhees succeeded Congressional Delegate Brents, and James Shields succeeded Hayden in the Olympia land office. N. H. Owings continued as secretary. R. A. Jones was chief justice, Frank Allyn, George Turner and W. G. Langford associate justices.
The fight for admission continued bravely. In 1886 the Tacoma board of trade resolved that "The commercial independence of Wash- ington Territory acompanying the completion of the Northern Pacific railroad to tide-water should be supplemented by its political inde- pendence as a state of the American union. Ad- mission can not in decency be delayed many years longer, whatever party influences may sway congress. The census of 1890 will show a population within the present limits of the Territory exceeding 200,000, and a property valuation of at least $200,000,000." Prev- iously the claims of Washington for admis- sion had been urged by Governor Squire in one of his reports, in forceful language, assigning among other reasons "the sterling, patriotic. and enterprising character of its citizens; its present and prospective maritime relations with the world: its position as a border state on the confines of the dominion of Canada, the most powerful province of Great Britain; its wealth of natural resources and growing wealth of its people : the efficiency of its educational system, requiring that its school lands should be allotted and utilized: its riparian rights should be set- tled, capital and immigration encouraged, and the full management and control of municipal
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GENERAL HISTORY.
and county affairs should be assumed by the legislature, which is not allowed during the Territorial condition."
According to the report of Governor Semple for 1888 the population of Washington Territory was 167.982; the taxable property was $84.621,182; the revenue produced by a tax of two and one-half mills, $212.734.92 ; the amount of coal mined, 1,133.801 tons ; the lum- ber output 320,848,203 ; the estimated capacity of the combined mills 1,043.796,000 feet : the total railway mileage 1,157.3. broad-gauge, and 40 miles narrow-gauge. The same year an insane asylum at Steilacoom was completed at a cost of $100,000 and $60,000 appropriated for a hospital for the insane at Medical Lake. The citizens of Vancouver donated land, and the legislature appropriated money for the erection at that point of a school for defective youth. The national guard consisted of two regiments of infantry and one troop of cavalry.
Such, in rough outline, was the material condition of the Territory of Washington on the eve of statehood. On the anniversary of President Washington's birthday, February 22, 1889, congress passed an enabling act pro- posing the terms on which the Territory might be admitted into the union. By these pro- visions the governor was, on April 15. 1889. to call for the election of seventy-five delegates on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May, to meet in constitutional convention at Olympia on July 4. 1889, for organization and formulation of a state constitution. The en- abling act by virtue of which Washington Ter- ritory was permitted to call a constitutional convention embraced other territories. Its title was as follows: ".An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two states and to en- able the people of North Dakota, South Da- kota, Montana and Washington to form con- stitutions and state governments, and to be ad- mitted into the union on an equal footing with the original states, and to make donations of public lands to such states." The land grant to
Washington was: "For the establishment and maintenance of a scientific school, one hundred thousand acres; for state normal schools, one hundred thousand acres ; for public buildings at the state capital, in addition to the grant here- inbefore made, for that purpose, one hundred thousand acres; for state charitable, educa- tional and reformatory institutions, two hun- (red thousand acres."
To defray the expenses of the constitutional convention the sum of $20,000 was appropri- ated by congress. It was further provided that there should be appointed one district judge, United States attorney, and United States marshal ; the state to constitute one judicial dis- trict to be attached to the ninth judicial dis- trict ; the regular terms of court to commence in April and November : the clerks of the courts to have their offices at the state capital; the judge to reside in the district and receive a salary of $3.500 per annum, and the courts of the state to become the successors of the terri- torial courts.
On July 4. 1889, the delegates elected to the constitutional convention procceded to bus- iness at Olympia. Following is the represen- tation of the several counties :
Stevens, S. H. Manley, J. J. Travis; Spokane, C. P. Coey, George Turner, J. Z. Moore, J. J. Browne, T. C. Griffitts, H. F. Suksdor. Hiram E. Allen; Lincoln, H. W. Fairweather, B. B. Glascock. Frank MI. Dal- lam: Kititas, J. A. Shoudy, A. Mires, J. T. McDonald: Whitman. J. P. T. McCloskey. C. H. Warner, E. H. Sullivan. J. M. Reed, James Hungate, George Comegys: Adams, D. Buchanan ; Garfield, S. C. Cosgrove: Franklin, WV. B. Gray ; Columbia, M. M. Goodman, R. F. Sturvedant : Walla Walla, Lewis Neace. D. J. Crowley, B. L. Sharpstein, N. G. Blalock ; Yakima, W. F. Prosser: Clarke, Louis Johns, A. A. Lindsley; Skamania, G. H. Stevenson ; Pacific. J. A. Burk ; Wahiakum. O. A. Bowen ; Cowlitz, Jesse Van Name: Mason, Henry Winsor, John McReavy : Chehalis. A. J. West :
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GENERAL HISTORY.
Jefferson, Allen Weir, George H. Jones, H. C. Wilson; Skagit, James Power, Thomas Hayton, H. Clothier ; Whatcom, J. J. Weisen- berger, E. Eldridge; Snohomish, A. Schooley ; Island, J. C. Kellogg; Kitsap, S. A. Dickey ; King, R. Jeffs, T. T. Minor, T. P. Dyer, D. E. Dwrie, John P. Kinnear, John P. Hoyt, M. J. McElroy, Morgan Morgans, George W. Tibbetts, W. L. Newton; Pierce, T. L. Stiles, P. C. Sullivan ; Gwin Hicks, H. M. Lillis, C. T. Fay, R. S. Moore, Robert Jamison ; Thurston, Jolın T. Gowey, T. M. Reed, Francis Henry ; Lewis, O. H. Joy, S. H. Berry.
J. Z. Moore, of Spokane Falls, was elected temporary chairman of the convention, and Al- len Weir, of Port Townsend, was chosen tem- porary secretary. Permanent organization was effected by the election of John P. Hoyt, of Seattle, president, John I. Booge, Spokane Falls, chief clerk, and Clarence M. Bartin, Tacoma, reading clerk. The deliberations of the session occupied fifty days. At the election of October 1, 1889, the constitution framed by these seventy-five delegates, representing twen- ty-eight counties, was adopted by the people. All in all it was an instrument fairly well adapted to the requirements of the people of Washington. Although not extravagant the salaries allowed state officers were liberal; the corporations were treated impartially ; it pro- vided for five supreme judges and ordained su- perior courts in all the counties ; fixed the num- ber of representatives at not less than sixty- three nor more than ninety-nine; and the senate at nor more than half nor less than a third of that number ; and claimed all tide-lands except such as had been patented by the United States. The question of woman suffrage, prohibition and capital removal were voted upon separately. Of the votes cast 40,152 were for adoption of the constitution and 11,879 against it. Pro- hibition was defeated by a vote of 31,487 to 19,546; woman suffrage was again laid aside by 34,513 votes against, and 16,527 for, that question, and for location of the state capital
Olympia received 25,490 votes ; North Yakima, 14,718; Ellensburg, 12,833; Centralia, 607; Yakima, 314; Pasco, 120; scattering, 1,088.
At this initial state election John L. Wilson was chosen for congressman and Elisha Pyre Ferry for governor. The other state officers elected were Charles E. Laughton, lieutenant governor; Allen Weir, secretary of state; A. A. Lindsley, treasurer; T. M. Reed, auditor ; William C. Jones, attorney general; Robert B. Bryan, superintendent of public instruction ; W. T. Forrest, commissioner of public lands. Ralph O. Dunbar, Theodore L. Stiles, John P. Hoyt, Thomas J. Anders and Elman Scott were elected to the supreme brench. All of these succeessful candidates were republicans. Of the one hundred and five members of the legis- lature elected one senator and six representa- tives were democrats. Following is the per- sonnel of the first Washington state senate and house of representatives
Senate-F. H. Luce, Adams, Franklin and Okanogan; C. G. Austin, Asotin and Garfield ; C. T. Wooding, Chehalis; Henry Landes, Clallam, Jefferson and San Juan; L. B. Clough, Clarke; H. H. Wolfe, Columbia; C. E. For- sythe, Cowlitz; J. M. Snow, Douglas and Ya- kima; Thomas Paine, Island and Skagit; W. D. Wood, J. H. Jones, O. D. Gilfoil, John R. Kinnear, W. V. Reinhart, King; W. H. Knee- land, Kitsap and Mason; E. T. Wilson, Kittitas; Jacob Hunsaker, Klickitat and Ska- mania; J. H. Long, Lewis; H. W. Fair- weather, Lincoln; B. A. Seaborg, Pacific and Wahkiakum; John S. Baker, L. F. Thompson, Henry Drum, Pierce; Henry Vestal, Snoho- misli ; Alexander Watt, E. B. Hyde, B. C. Van Houton, Spokane; H. E. Houghton, Spokane and Stevens; N. H. Owings, Thurston; Platt A. Preston, George T. Thompson, Walla Walla; W. J. Parkinson, Whatcom; John C. Lawrence, J. T. Whaley, A. T. Farris, Whit- mail.
House-W. K. Kennedy, Adams; Will- iam Farrish, Asotin; L. B. Nims, J. D. Med-
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GENERAL HISTORY.
calf, Chehalis; Amos F. Shaw, John D. Geoghegan, S. S. Cook, Clarke; A. B. Luce, Clallam; A. H. Weatherford, H. B. Day, Col- umbia ; Chandler Huntington, Jr., Cowlitz; E. D. Nash, Douglas ; C. H. Flummerfell, Frank- lin; W. S. Oliphant, Garfield; George W. Morse, Island; Joseph Kuhn, Jefferson; J. T. Blackburn, W. C. Rutter, W. H. Hughes, Alex. Allen, W. J. Shinn, George Bothwell, F. W. Bird, F. B. Grant, King; M. S. Drew, Kit- sap; J. N. Power, J. P. Sharp, Kittitas; Bruce F. Purdy, R. H. Blair, Klickitat ; S. C. Herren, Charles Gilchrist, Lewis ; P. R. Spencer, T. C. Blackfan, Lincoln; John McReavy, Mason; Henry Hamilton, Okanogan ; Charles Foster, Pacific; George Browne, A. Hewitt, George B. Kandle, Oliff Peterson, James Knox, Stephen Judson, Pierce; J. E. Tucker, San Juan ; J. E. Edens, B. D. Minkler, Skagit ; George H. Stev- enson, Skamania; Alexander Robertson, A. H. Eddy, Snohomish; J. W. Feighan, J. E. Gandy, S. C. Grubb, J. S. Brown, A. K. Clarke, E. B. Dean, Spokane; M. A. Randall, Stevens ; W. G. Bush, Francis Rotch, Thurston; Joseph G. Megler, Wahkiakum; Joseph Painter, Z. K. Straight, James Cornwall, Walla Walla; R. W. Montray, George Judson, Whatcom; J. C. Turner, E. R. Pickerell, J. T. Peterson, R. H. Hutchinson, B. R. Ostrander, Whitman; John Cleman, Yakima.
On joint ballot the republican majority of the legislature was ninety-six, thus insuring the election of two United States senators. Wat- son C. Squire and John B. Allen were elected, their respective votes on joint ballot being sev- enty-six and seventy-one. In the United States senate Mr. Squire drew the short term, expiring . March 4, 1891, and Mr. Allen served the long
term, expiring March 4, 1893. In January, 1891, Mr. Squire was re-elected for six years. The omission of the signiture of Governor Mason to a certificate accompanying a copy of the constitution adopted, caused a delay in the proclamation of President Harrison, and in consequence of this the legislature had assem- bled before Washington was actualy a state. On November 11, 1889, the proclamation was issued by the President, attested by James G. Blaine, secretary of state, and Washington stepped into the ranks of that sisterhood at whom she had long looked with rather envious eyes. During the past fifteen years her course as a state has been one fulfilling the most san- guine expectations of her sponcors. Indeed, a retrospective glance shows scarcely one unwise step taken by the leading factors in her political and industrial history from the first agitation for territorial division until to-day.
At the date of admission into the union Washington had, approximately, a population of 200,000. The census of 1900 accords the state 518,103, and the past four years have ma- terially increased these figures. From twenty- eight counties at the period of admission the state now has thirty-six, and Indian reserva- tions to the number of fourteen. We can not more fittingly close this portion of our history than with the words of the late Julian Ralph, written ten years ago :
"Washington is in every material way a grand addition to the sisterhood of states. With the easy and rich fancy of the west, hier people say that if you build a Chinese wall around Washington, the state will yield all that her inhabitants need without contributions from the outer world."
AN ABIDING LANDMARK IN THE BIG BEND
PART II.
HISTORY OF LINCOLN COUNTY CHAPTER I.
CURRENT EVENTS-1854-1887.
The original county formed in eastern Washington was Walla Walla. It was the creation of the first Territorial Legislature of Washington, in 1854. These were its bound- aries : Commencing its line on the north bank of the Columbia river, opposite the mouth of the Des Chutes river, in Oregon, and thence running north to the 49th parallel of north latitude. and it comprised all of Washington Territory between this line and the Rocky Mountains, which at that time included what is now north- ern Idaho and a part of the present state of Montana, in addition to the greater part of the present eastern Washington. The whole of this vast territory then contained less than a dozen American citizens and the creation of Walla Walla county has been spoken of as a "legislative absurdity."
The officials appointed to jurisdiction over this immense county failed to qualify; the suc- ceeding legislature in 1855 appointed others. In this age of place-hunting and patronage-beg- ging it is interesting to note that none of the gentlemen last appointed seemed to desire the honors or emoluments of public office, and as none of them qualified for their positions the Walla Walla county organization was of mere- ly nominal character as was the case the year
previous. But in January, 1859, Walla Walla county was successfully organized. The county seat was located at a small settlement which had sprung up near Mill Creek. Its first name was Steptoeville: then Waiilatpu, and at the first meeting of the commissioners it was given the name of Walla Walla. In 1858 the Territorial Legislature organized the county of Spokane. These were the boundaries: Beginning at the mouth of the Snake river, thence following the river to the 46th parallel; thence east to the crest of the Rocky mountains ; thence following the divide of the Rocky mountains north to the 49th parallel: thence down the Columbia river to the place of beginning. In the bill, county commissioners and other officials were named. but county organization did not' materialize de facto. The following year new officials were named with the result that none qualified. It was a duplication of the Walla Walla organ- ization. In 1860 another "act to create and or- ganize the county of Spokane." was passed by the Territorial Legislature. County organiza- tion was effected-a county comprising about one-third of the state of Washington, and por- tions of Idaho and Montana. Pinkney City. about three miles from the present town of Col- ville, Stevens county, was named as the county seat of all this wide expanse of territory. In
5
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HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
January, 1863, the legislature created the coun- ty of Stevens, the same being taken from Walla Walla county. It was located at that period en- tirely west of the Columbia river and along the borders of the British Possessions, and north of the Wenatchee river. March 3, 1863, con- gress forced a division of this large county by organizing the Territory of Idaho from the eastern portion of Washington. This greatly reduced the size of the Brobdingnagian Spo- kane county.
In 1864, by legislative act the county of Spokane ceased to exist, and thenceforth it was known as Stevens county. The county seat remained at Pinkney City, or Fort Colville, these names being interchangeable. Whitman county was cut off.in 1871; at that period it included Adams and Franklin counties. Octo- ber 30, 1879, Spokane county was organized from a part of Stevens county. At that time the area included Spokane, Douglas and Lin- coln counties. The boundaries of Spokane county, as created at that time were as follows : Commencing at a point where the section line between sections 21 and 28, in township 14, range 27, Willamette Meridian, Washington Territcry, strikes the main body of the Colum- bia river on the west side of the island; thence west to the mid-channel of the Colum- bia river; thence up the mid-channel of the Columbia river to the Spokane river ; thence up the mid-channel of the Spo- kane river to the Little Spokane river; thence north to the township line between townships 29 and 30; thence east to the bound- ary line between Washington and Idaho Ter- ritories : thence south on the said boundary line to the fifth standard parallel; thence west on stid parallel to the Columbia guide meridian ; thence south on said meridian to the fourth standard parallel ; thence west on fourth stand- ard parallel to the range line between ranges 27 and 28; thence south on said range line to the section line between sections Nos. 24 and 25, in township 14, north, range 27 east, Willa-
mette Meridian ; thence west to the place of be- ginning.
Within these boundaries were the present counties of Spokane, Lincoln and Douglas, with an area of 8,844 square miles. The legislative session of 1883 changed the map of eastern Washington. In the Big Bend country, with which we have to deal particularly, the four counties which form that country were created ; Lincoln and Douglas from the western portion of Spokane county, and Adams and Franklin from the western part of Whitman county.
We have traced the county formations of eastern Washington so far as they effect Lin- coln county. The Spokane county, as formed in 1879, remained intact until 1883, when the present Lincoln county was formed. But be- fore proceeding with the creation of the county let us look into the early settlement before it became a county. All these changes indicated a period of voluminous immigration. The days of the aborigines, the explorers, the fur traders and the missionaries, which we have glanced at in brief panorama, were merging into those of the agriculturist, the miner, the tradesman and the scholar, with the soldier on the stage during the brief intervals between acts.
Previous to the advent of white men Lincoln county contained an Indian trail extending from east to west. It was considered one of the most popular Indian thoroughfares in eastern Washington. The over-night camping place was the spring where now is located the town of Davenport. Bunch grass was abundant in the neighborhood and the present site of Dav- enport was in the nature of an oasis.
Otto Woolweber, residing eight miles north of Reardan, Lincoln county, an enthusiastic delver after data relating to the early history of the west, has in his possession valuable writ- ings and maps, once the property of Governor Isaac Ingalls Stevens' surveying party which passed through the Territory of Washington in 1853. From this source we learn that a detach- ment of this party under Lieutenant Richard
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HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY.
Arnold traversed a portion of what is now Lin- coln county. From Fort Colville Lieutenant Arnold followed the Columbia down to the point where Hunter Creek ( Paw-Waw) forms a confluence with that stream. From here he crossed over the ridge toward the Spokane river, camping November 16, 1853, on the north side of this stream where now is located the Detillion bridge. On the 17th he crossed the Spokane and traversed the Spokane and Columbia bluffs to the Columbia river and that evening camped where Peach, or Orchard Val- ley is now located. Still following the bluffs down the Columbia he camped on the 18th near Hellgate and on the evening of the 19th near where Tipso is located. The party entered the Grand Coulee, the altitude at this point reg- istering 1,435 feet, and on the 20th went into camp where now stands Coulee City, Douglas county. At this place Lieutenant Arnold found the altitude to be 1,642 feet above sea level. They explored and followed the Grand Coulee to the Columbia river reaching it No- vember 25th. From this point the party march- ed to Fort Walla Walla.
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