An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 25

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056

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丁 HIS is as snitable a place as any to give a space to the history of the relations of Isaac Ingalls Stevens to Washington Ter- ritory. The historian cannot pass this theme or this name as he can almost any other theme or name with a sentence or two, as, take him for all in all, Mr. Stevens' place in the his- tory of the Territory is unique and representa- tive beyond comparison, and its story must be treated accordingly. In the course of our pre- vious narrative we have shown under what anspices he came to the Territory, and how he wes related to the early Indian difficulties that so seriously threatened the entire country. On his election as a delegate to Congress, he en-

tered on a new sphere of duty, but one for which his previous education and life had well prepared him.

Mr. Stevens was a small man physically, and yet he had an imposing and magnetic presence. This was owing to the fact that his face and brow and eye bore the seal of a lofty manhood. His large and fine-grained brain was filled with knowledge, which, in private conversation, he knew well bow to use. He was not what is usually called an orator, and yet he could strongly influence men, and those who were about him naturally deferred to him as their representative. There was not a great deal of the suave in his composition. His nature was

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too rugged and full of points for that. But he was intellectually honest, and duty was a word he knew how to utter, and his actions always showed that he felt its full and mastering force. Coming to the Territory as an appointee to its highest office, he filled it with such devotion to the interests of the people over whom he pre- sided that, almost as early as it was possible for them to testify their appreciation of him by a popular vote, they did so by putting him into the national Congress by a majority of votes over those given to one of the oldest and most respected of the pioneers of the Territory of more than two to one. Still the very elements that created such friendships also created cor- responding enmities, but they were not numer- ous and strong enongh to alienate the great mass of the people from the support of this strong and patriotic man.

Mr. Stevens entered upon his duties in Con- gress at a time and under circumstances not propitions to his political success. The result was that during his first term he was able to secure but little legislation for the benefit of his constituency. He was faithful in plans and energetie in urging them, but he could only de- serve success, not command it. But he did not lose the confidence of his people, and at the election of 1859 was again returned to Congress over W. H. Wallace, gaining the election over him by nearly as large a majority as he had two years before over A. S. Abernethy. This en- dorsement of him by the people of his Territory gave him larger influence with the Congress than he had before, and consequently his meas- ures met with more favor at its hands. At the session of 1860-'61, several appropriations of great value to the Territory were secured, and provisions were made for the payment of the Indian war debt, though at figures greatly, and, without doubt, unjustly reduced.

This session of Congress brought Mr. Ste- vens to a crisis in his career. Politically he had been a pro-slavery Democrat, or, if not that, in the division of the Democratic party pending the election of 1860, he adhered to the Brecken-

ridge wing, and so high did he stand with it that he was selected as chairman of its national committee. But notwithstanding his relations to that party he could not be persuaded nor frightened into the support of secession, for he was a patriot first and a politician afterward.

At the close of the session of 1860-'61 Stevens returned to Olympia. He was wan and care-worn, and it was plain that strongly opposing forces had been tugging at his heart strings. He had scarcely reached home before the news on the firing on Fort Sumter and the beginning of civil war reached him. He could no longer hesitate between party fealty and pat- riotic duty. Nor, duty being determined, conld he delay its clear announcement, "I conceive it to be my duty to stop secession " were his clear words to the people of Olympia who had assembled to do him honor. There was no hes- itation, no tergiversation. What this meant to him can hardly now be understood. It dis- rupted all the political associations of his life, and brought down upon him the bitterest hos- tility of those who had counted on him as both comrade and leader in the struggle that treason precipitated on the nation. Nor did it secure at once the confidence of those who had hitherto acted against him politically. Lane of Oregon and Gwin of California, with many others, were in the hot flush of disloyalty, and it was hard to convince the people of the Southwest that Stevens was not in leagne with them for the inauguration of a Pacific republic even if he was not committed to the purposes of the South- ern disunionists.

Stevens had returned to Olympia intending to become a candidate for re-election to Con- gress, but at the Democratic convention, that assembled at Vancouver soon after, he with- drew his name, promising however to support the choice of the convention. This action was prompted by his determination to return im- mediately to the East and proffer his services to the Government in the cause of the Union. This purpose he put into execution,

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From his early and thorough training in the military academy at West Point, his leading position in the councils of the Democratic party and his concededly great ability, much was ex- pected of him and for him. He was at onee appointed colonel of the 79th New York regi- ment, the famons Highlanders, whose accom- plished colonel, Cameron, had been killed at Bull Run. His service in that capacity began on July 31, 1861, only ten days after Bull Run had been fought, and was in the defenees of Washington. In Steptember, however, he was commissioned brigadier-general and con- manded a brigade until July. 1862. On the 4th day of July Mr. Lincoln appointed him major general of volunteers, but the senate re- fused to confirm the appointment, and he con- tinued to serve as general of a brigade in the Virginia campaign although he was actually in command of the division. At the battle of Chan- tilly, while leading his faltering command, him- self carrying the flag which the color-bearer who had been struck by a shot was about to let fall, he was struck in the head by a ball and in- stantly killed. When this sad event occurred his name was among those who were being con- sidered by President Lincoln as successor to Mc- Clellan as commander of the army. . In the es- timation of the army his name was ranked with Meade, Hooker, Reynolds and others like thein, and his special friends believed him fully able to cope with Lee, undoubtedly the greatest leader of the Confederates during the war, and they prophesied for him the most brilliant career. He had made a careful study of the mental characteristic of the great Confederate commander, together with his methods and taetics, with the expectation that he might be called to match himself against them. Certainly his position and ability justitied him in thus preparing for the largest responsibilities that could come to him. In the army his death was felt as a great national disaster, and was cata- logued with that of Kearny and Baker as one of the three most chivalrous spirits that went out on the altar of patriotic sacrifice.

The intelligence of the death of Stevens kindled the deepest griet not only in Washing- ton but on all the l'acific coast. Like Baker in Oregon, Stevens typed and personified the loy- alty of Washington. If, in his death, Wash- ington lost its one hero in the field of battle, his death made a thousand heroes around the altar of Washington homes. Disagreements and political rivalries and jealousies were for- gotten. His character was enlogized and his memory was canonized. When the Legislature met appropriate resolutions were passed in his honor, and the members wore crape for ten days. The legislature of his native State, Rhode Island, also formally regretted his loss. An em- inent scholar and publieist, Professor Bache of the coast survey, with whom he served four years, thus characterized him: "Generous and noble in impulses, he left our office with our enthusiastic admiration of his character, appre- ciation of his services and hope for his success."

Thus in the full hey-day of his power, at forty-four years of age, the man who most im- pressed the early history of Washington passed away. But he left an inheritance of real great- ness and patriotism to his adopted Territory and State that constitutes no small part of the fame that crowns them.

After the withdrawal of the name of Stevens before the Democratic convention of 1861, Salu- cius Garfielde was named by that body as its candidate for Congress. The convention had passed resolutions under the lead of Stevens en- dorsing the cause of the Union, and its nominee was therefore called " Union- Democratic." The Republican convention of that year named W. HI. Wallace once more as its candidate. A faction of the Democrats, who were so strong in their pro-slavery affinities that they would not be bronght to sustain the cause of the Union under any circumstances, put forth the name of Edward Lander as a candidate. The result of this triangular contest was to draw away enough votes trom Mr. Garfielde to give the election to Mr. Wallace by a plurality of 318 votes, while the united Democratic vote in the Territory yet

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exceeded the Republican by 333 votes. Thus, for the first time, Washington sent a Republi- can to represent her in the national Congress, although it was not yet clear that her politieal complexion had been changed.

In the executive department of the Terri- torial government, meanwhile, rapid changes, not always to the profit of the people, had sn- pervened. After the removal of MeMullin, already referred to, the secretary of the Terri- tory, Charles H. Mason, became acting gov- ernor. This was entirely satisfactory to the people. Mason was a man to be believed in and trusted, and had a strong hold on the eonti- dence of the Territory in an eminent degree. But soon after assuming the duties of the exec- utive office he died, universally regretted. Stevens prononneed his funeral enlogy. The Legislature honored him by naming a county after him. He was in all ways a worthy man, and an able public officer. He was succeeded by Richard D. Gholsen, of Kentucky, who is entitled to a place on the pages of this history only because he was "clothed with a little brief authority " over a people with whom he had nothing in common, but over whom he was in- stated by the appointment of a national executive who had political debts to pay, and whose po- litical small-change for their payment was the offices of honor and emolument in the Terri- tories. In less than a year after his arrival Gholsen returned to Kentucky, much to the re- lief of the Territory. He was an nltra State- rights Demoerat, and here ends his history as connected with Washington Territory.

With the departure of Gholsen the executive administration devolved on II. M. McGill, the Secretary of the Territory. There was little in the internal politics of the Territory during these administrations that requires any special record.

Like all new commonwealths the question of the location of the seat of government caused considerable agitation. The Legislature of 1854-'55 chose Olympia as the capital, but later a strong effort was made to remove it to Vanconver. At the session of 1860-'61 a deal

was made between the representatives of Port Townshend and Seattle and those representing the Columbia river region by which Port Town- shend was to have the penitentiary, Seattle the university and Vancouver the capitol. Acts for this purpose passed both honses of the Legis- latnre without debate, but in the haste of such legislation the enacting clanse was omitted from the bills, and they thus became inoperative. The matter was finally decided by a vote of the Territory, supplemented by a decision of the conrts, in favor of Olympia, but the nniversity was permitted to remain at Seattle.

The administration of McGill as Governor was rather ereditable to himself and beneficial to the Territory.

The inauguration of Mr. Lincoln as president was followed by a change in the political com- plexion of the Federal appointees in the Territory. W. II. Wallace, a resident of the Territory for several years, was appointed governor, but his appointment was soon followed by his nomina- tion and election by the Republican party as delegate to Congress. L. J. S. Turney, who had been appointed secretary when Wallace was made governor, thus became acting governor. But, though the national administration was Republican, and consequently the Federal ap- pointees were of that political faith, the Legis- lature still remained Democratic, and at its session of 1861-'62 signalized its history by voting down a series of resolutions sustaining the general Government in its conrse and de- claring against a Pacific coast confederacy. The council went even further than this in its disloyal course, and ponred contmmely on the national cause by referring such a series of resolutions sent up from the house for concur- rence to the committee on foreign relations, with directions to report on the first day of April, or two months after the session wonld terminate. This action, redounding so little to the credit of the men who voted for it, was so really contrary to the sentiments of the people of the Territory that at the session of 1862-63 the joint assembly hastened to pass a series of

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resolutions strongly supporting the Government in putting down the rebellion.

There was little to mark the current of Wash- ington history during this period but that which was purely political, but sneh changes eame fre- quently enough to keep up the gossip of a " nine- days wonder " among the people. Accordingly William Pickering, of Illinois, arrived in Olympia in June of 1862, as governor of the Territory by the appointment of Mr. Lincoln. In December following Mr. Turney was removed from the office of secretary and Elwood Evans was appointed in his stead. Mr. Pickering came with the recommendation of a long per- sonal acquaintance with the president. He was by birth an Englishman, but had been a resident of the United States since 1821, and for thirty years had known Mr. Lincoln, enjoying his per- sonal friendship. Mr. Pickering gave the Terri- tory an acceptable administration, though to- ward its elose there was considerable disagree- ment between him and a faction of the legisla- ture over the reconstruction measures of Presi-

dent Johnson. Mr. Evans, the secretary of the Territory at this time, was a very competent man, and faithful executive officer. He came to the Territory in the company of Mr. Stevens, in which he served as journalist of the expedition, and had taken up his residence at the capital, where he had been engaged in the practice of law. He had brilliant literary ability, and as a writer, especially on historic themes, has won the high- est place. During 1865 Mr. Evans was acting governor and discharged the duties of that office acceptably to the Republican party, and what was better still to the advantage of the Territory. Fairly reckoned among the pioneers, no man has been more faithful to the interests of his adopted State than he, and none have done more to call the attention of intending immigrants to the greatness of its resources and the excellence of its climate. He is now an honored citizen of the city of Tacoma, engaged in his profession as a lawyer, and in literary pursuits, of which he is extremely fond and in which he is a master.

CHAPTER XX.

SETTLEMENT OF EASTERN WASHINGTON.'

FIRST SETTLERS-COUNTRY THROWN OPEN TO SETTLEMENT-FIRST TOWN-DISCOVERY OF GOLD STORY OF ITS DISCOVERY-RHODES CREEK AND ELK CITY-SALMON RIVER-SEVERE WINTER- HIGH PRICES-GREAT INFLUX OF PEOPLE-STRANGE MINGLING TOWNS MAPPED OUT -- COUN- TIES ORGANIZED- POLITICAL AGITATION-DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY --- IDAHO CONSTITUTED.

W HILE we have been attending to the course of history in the Territory at large, and especially in that portion of it lying west of the Cascade mountains, we have not forgotten that, in area, the larger part of Washington was east of that range. Upto the early sixties that part of the territory had no history except that which was involved in the story of the Indian tribes and the Indian wars. But abont that time the course of history changed, and it is necessary for ns to follow that change. In our chapter on the topography of

the State we have given our readers so full a description of it that it is not necessary for ns to dwell upon its physical characteristics in this place. Up to the early fifties it had no per- manent white residents after the missionaries abandoned the country on the Whitman mas- sacre and the Caynse war following it. Perhaps from this statement a few names of white men consorted with Indian women should be excepted, and most prominent among them, Mr. William Craig, whose wife was a Nez Perce woman, and who resided at Lapwai among that tribe from

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1845 until his death in October, 1869. We do not inelnde in these statements the people con- nected with the Hudson's Bay Company, most of whom were French Canadians with Indian wives, but remained in that region after that company withdrew from the field, and thus be- came permanent settlers. Probably Mr. H. M. Chase is fairly entitled to be called the first American who went into that region as an in- tending settler, as he entered it in 1851, and made his home in the Walla Walla valley for fifty years. Soon after him came Lloyd Brooke, who, with Bamford and Noble occupied the site of the Whitman mission in 1853. but none of them remained permanently there, Mr. Brooke removing to Portland, Oregon, and dying there on the 29th day of May, 1893. Mr. Brooke was a man of many genial and sterling quali- ties, and held a high place in the regards of the pioneers of Washington and Oregon.

These few people made a gallant attempt to occupy the beautiful region watered by the Walla Walla river, but the Indian wars of 1855 to 1858, which are treated of in another place, came on, and they were compelled to suspend their operations, though they mostly returned to them at the earliest possible date.

In the antumn of 1858 the Walla Walla country was thrown open to settlement. The campaigns of Colonel Wright had completely subjugated the Indians, and there was now no danger to the settlers. Such a beautiful region could not long escape the acquisitive eye of the adventurous Americans, and so quite a large number of families soon located on the streams that flow down from the west side of the Blue mountains, and within a year their numbers were so greatly increased that the valleys of all the streams sonth of Snake river had their in- habitants, and families also began to seatter over the mountain slopes. During the summer of 1859 the population so increased that the Legislature of the Territory passed an act on January 19 organizing the county of Walla Walla and appointing a board of county officers.

By this time there was a small gathering of

buildings on what was known as " Mill creek," about four miles from the old mission station of Dr. Whitman at Waiiletpu, to which the name of "Steptoeville" had been given, which was afterward changed to " Wailetpa," and which had been selected as the county seat; but when the county commissioners came together at it in November they gave the little village the name of Walla Walla and gave to it a town govern- mient. Thus sprang into being what has proved to be the chief city of the great Walla Walla country, and which is doubtless destined to re- tain that distinction.

But up to 1860 nothing had occurred to call any general public attention to the country itself as an exeeptionally fine location for homes, or to its remarkable agricultural eapabilities. The great body of immigrants had really not seen it in their passage through the country on their way to the Willamette valley and Puget Sound, as the main emigrant road passed twenty miles to the south down the valley of the Uma- tilla, and through a region of more sterile aspect. In 1860, however, the discovery of gold in the mountains of Salmon river, 200 miles northeast of Walla Walla and beyond Snake river, brought a rush of adventurers, as well as of the most solid and substantial people of the whole Paeifie coast, through the country. To their eyes the beauty and excellence of the country were patent, and though they passed on through it to the distant mountain El Dorado where they expected to gather untold sums of gold, yet they could not but carry its visions of beauty and verdure and restfulness with them into their rugged and self-denying toil. It is proper, as this is a most important era in the history of the now great State of Washington, that we relate somewhat circumstantially its events.

A visionary story, related by a Nez Perce In- dian in the mines of California, in the ears of visionary miners who are always apt to believe the impossible and be strongly influenced by it, is said to have inspired the search that resulted in uncovering to the eyes of the world the golden

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treasures locked in these pinnacled ranges. The story told by this Indian, in half-anglicized speech, was that among his native mountains far to the north, where himself and two com- panions were encamped at night in a dark de- file, a brilliant star had blazed ont upon them from the face of an opposite cliff, and on search- ing the place in the morning they had discovered a glittering ball that looked like glass imbedded in the solid rock. They could not remove it from its place, however, and though they be- lieved it to be a "great medicine" they were obliged to leave it there.

This story was listened to by a man as vis- ionary and susceptible as the Indians them- selves. Dreams of Kohinoors without rival or computation floated through his mind, sleeping or waking, and under their spell he left the mines of California and became a resident of Walla Walla. He scouted through the mount- ains beyond Snake river, sometimes alone, and sometimes with companions, the latter search- ing for gold, his eyes ranging every cliff for the enriching flash of his mythical diamond.

The Nez Perces, who feared the result of these incursions of parties of white men, ordered his party out of the country and they obeyed their order. In leaving the country, however, they decided to turn to the northeast and pass ont over the Lolo trail, the same traveled by Lewis and Clarke in their explorations in 1806. They procured an Indian squaw for their pilot, and passed over to the North Fork of the Clear- water river, and entered the rugged, cedared monntains beyond. In a mountain meadow embowered among the pinnacles they resolved to stop and rest for a time and let their jaded horses recruit. Pierce was still dreaming of diamonds, but the remainder of the party was searching for the baser and less poetical gold. While there Mr. W. F. Barrett went to a stream that flowed through the meadow, and with the ready appliance of a simple miner's pan tried the soil for gold, finding about 3 cents in his first panful of dirt. All were now elated with their new "prospect." Constructing a rude

"slnice" out of cedar bark, they had soon taken out about $80 in gold, and thus certified the reality of their discovery.

Turning back from the place where their dis- covery was made, they returned down the Clear- water and along the great Nez Perce trail to Walla Walla. They sneceeded in interesting in their purposes Mr. J. (. Smith, who had been connected with the military service and hence was known as "Sergeant Smith," who fitted ont a company of fifteen and returned with them to the newly discovered mines in November, 1860. Sending their horses out of the timbered mountains to be wintered on Pat- aha creek, this company of men permitted themselves to be snowed in among the stormy heights of this most rugged chain of mountains for the winter. They built log cabins, sawed lumber with a whipsaw, and dug under the snow for gold for their winter pastime. In March Mr. Smith made his way out of the mountains on snow shoes, carrying 8800 in gold dust which they had dug from beneath the snow. This was shipped to Portland, Oregon, and the news of the discovery of "placer dig- gings" among the mountains of Eastern Wash- ington soon kindled a blaze of excitement all over the coast. "Oro Fino," the name given to the new mines, was on every tongue. The counters of the stores, the bars of the hotels, the aisles of the church, the firesides of the homes were all vocal with disenssions and flaming with visions of "fine gold." Thus 1860 closed np in Eastern Washington.

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An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 25

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902 Publication date: 1893 Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company Number of Pages: 1056

Author: Hines, Harvey K., 1828-1902
Publication date: 1893
Publisher: Chicago, The Lewis publishing company
Number of Pages: 1056