An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 26

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

USA > Washington > An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens > Part 26

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By the opening of 1861 the news of this discovery of gold had reached every mining camp on the l'acific coast, and individuals and small companies of men were facing from every di- rection toward that golden center of attraction. They were mostly prospectors, for the extent and richness of the mines had not yet become sufficiently assured to move the multitudes thitherward. These prospectors, during the summer of that year, spread over all the mount- ains and plains of the regions within two or three hundred miles of "Oro Fino." Between

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Salmon river and the Clearwater every gulch and hillside was honey-combed with "prospect holes." Almost everywhere "the color" was found, and, as the season advanced, many "pay- ing diggings" were located. Rhodes Creek, Elk City, and, later on, the Salmon River mines were discovered. The latter particularly were really of fabulous richness. They were located on the very summit of the Salmon River mount- ains, one of the most rugged parts of the great Rocky mountain system, in a singular swampy depression where some small creeks have their rise, and in a general geological formation of soft of decayed granite, which both overlaid and nnderlaid the "pay dirt" from which the gold was washed. These discoveries came too late in the season to permit a great influx of miners into these snowy regions in 1861, bnt they were not too late to be published far abroad, hued with a golden drapery of descrip- tion, and to excite such a fever of adventure all over the United States as to insure a very tidal- wave of gold-seekers in 1861.

The winter of 1861-'62 was the most severe ever known on the Pacific coast. It was intro- dnced by an autumn as singularly mild as it was singularly severe. November was as balmy as an ordinary May. Late in the month warm rains of unnsnal copionsness eame over the val- leys, while the temperature on the mountain ridges was just low enough to turn the copious waterfall to snow, which covered these ridges to a remarkable depth. The very last days of the month the temperature rose almost to snm- mer heat, and while the rains continned to pour over the valleys the snows on the mountains were dissolved in a day, and the floods came pouring down every gorge, swelling rills into torrents and torrents into rivers. The valleys were innundated from Sacramento to British Columbia, and 1862 came in on a scene of deso- lation without former parallel.

With January the heat changed to cold, deep snows covered the country; the thermometer went down to zero west of the Caseade mount- ains and many degrees below east of them.

For three months a hyperborean winter held all the land in chains of ice. The scattered popu- lation of Eastern Washington suffered especial hardships and deprivations. Hardly one escaped impoverishment. Nearly all the stock on the ranges died. Many travelers were frozen to death on the open prairie-hills. It was not until late in March that the snow began to disappear from the hillsides. The severity and depriva- tion of the season are best attested by the prices that were charged and paid for food for man and beast. Flour was $25 per cwt .; bacon, 50 eents per lb .; butter, $1 per lb. ; sugar, 50 cents; beans, 30 cents; tobacco, $1.50, at Walla Walla, and everything else in proportion. In the mines of Salmon river these prices were multi- plied by three or four.

Still these very calamities only increased the number of those who hastened into the mining regions of Eastern Washington in the spring of 1862. Men who had already lost all could lose no more by the venture of a summer in the mines. By the 1st of March, long before the ice in Columbia river would permit the re- snmption of navigation by the steamboats upon it, four or five thousand men from California and the Willamette valley had congregated in Portland. Before the 1st of May not less than 20,000 men were urging their way up the Co- lumbia and over the great interior plains into the mountains of Snake and Salmon rivers. But these were not all who joined the human movement thitherward. They came from the East as well as the West. As soon as the spring advanced far enough to permit it, the tide of emigration from east of the Missouri began to sweep up the plains of the Platte river. and by late July they were straggling ont the defiles of the Rocky mountains into the agri- cultural valleys and into the mining camps of all that region. Not less than 10,000 were in this immigration. Not a few of these people, wearied with their long journey when they reached Grand Ronde valley in Eastern Oregon, were glad to piteh their tents beside its beauti- ful streams, but by far the larger number fol.

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lowed the lure of their golden hopes and kept on toward their dreamed-of El Dorado, and passed over the Blue mountains and northward to Oro Fino, Florence, and the other mining centers of that region.

The story of this year in its relation to East- ern Washington has in it elements of weirdness and wildness that carry us back to the centuries of the cavaliers, and revive the memories of the old gold-seekers on the plains of Mexico or in the mountains of Peru. With space and time enough an Irving might weave out of it a story as full of the witchery of romance as any that his genius ever wrought. But our sober history cannot stop to dally and play with such a romance, albeit all of it the writer saw and part of it he was. It is enough that we say that it was this wide tramp of swarming feet, this loud ringing of the piek and shovel against the flinty sides of the mountains, this rush and roar of adventure, this strange mingling of the best of the good and the worst of the bad in camp and mine, this uncouth blending of pro- fanity and prayer, of drunken revel and peace- ful piety, that had streamed into this "witches' cauldron" of human agitation in 1862, that awakened Eastern Washington ont of its nn- historied sleep of barbaric life and made it a commonwealth of a strangely promising civili- zation.

Of course the opening of the mines which brought such a vast influx of population into this region, served also to draw attention to the agricultural capabilities of the country. It was seen that it was not only a country for the gold- digger, but that it even promised more to the wheat-raiser than to the miner. So farms be- gan to be located, towns platted, roads surveyed, schoolhonses erected, churches built, and almost in a single season rude external forms of civil- ization began to be developed. The town of Walla Walla, as we have seen, had been laid ont in the preceding year. March of 1862 had not passed before Lewiston, at the confluence of Snake and Clearwater rivers, was laid out, and in April, Wallula, at the site of the old Hud-

son's Bay Fort Walla Walla, was located. Neither of these were mining towns, but both were cen- ters of trade on the navigable waters of the Ter- ritory, and, besides two or three mining camps, there were the first organized towns of the vast country east of the Cascade mountains in Wash- ington Territory.

Parenthetically it is proper to say here that the Territorial legislature of 1858 had passed an aet creating Spokane county lying north of Snake river, and thus divided this vast inland empire into two county jurisdictions. Pinkney City-a name soon changed to Colville-was the county seat of Spokane. It drew little public attention at this time, as the great min- ing region absorbed general interest, and besides it lay far north of the general lines of travel into and through the country. Still its name and the date of its organization is a way-mark of the course of history in this region and at this time.

With the opening of this great mining region, and the impression now becoming prevalent that Eastern Washington would prove a great farm- ing region as well, there was such an influx of population into it that it was evident it would soon overbalance the western part of the Terri- tory politically. This fact produced antagonisms sometimes almost rising into personal enmities, and resulted finally in a movement looking to the division of territory and the organization of a new one east of the Cascade mountains. So strong did this movement become that com- mittees were appointed in every mining district to circulate petitions requesting the Territorial legislature to memorialize Congress asking for such a measure, but the legislature refused to comply with this request. However, a bill was introduced and passed the council at the session of 1862 and '63 to submit a constitution of the State of Idaho to the people, but when it came up for action in the lower house it was defeated by the substitution of the words " the State of Washington" for the words " the State of Idaho." Defeated here, the petitioners appealed directly to Congress, and that body passed an act which

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was approved March 3, 1863, organizing the Territory of Idaho out of all that part of Wash- ington lying east of Oregon and also that part lying east of the 117th meridian of west longi- tnde. This put nearly all the mining region of Washington, and some of the best of its agricultural lands, together with all of the great. upper valley of Snake river, into the new Terri- tory, but it still left the area of Eastern Wash-

ington much greater than that of Western. Thus, ten years after the organization of Wash- ington Territory, the population had so increased in its intermontane region that a new Territory was required to meet the civil requirements of the people. There remained in Washington, Walla Walla, Stevens and Klickitat counties east of the Cascade mountains.

mar2 # 22000 CHAPTER XXI.

TERRITORIAL HISTORY, CONTINUED.

CHANGE OF POLITICAL MORALE-CAUSES -- SLOW PROGRESS DELEGATE TO ( 'ONGRESS ELECTED --

GEORGE E. COLE-LOW-WATER MARK-DEMOCRATIC LEGISLATURE -- CHANGES IN POLITICAL AFFILIATIONS-CAUSES-PARTY CONVENTIONS NOMINATIONS FOR CONGRESS- A. A. DENNY AND JAMES SITTON -- MR. DENNY ELECTED-SKETCH OF HIS LIFE.

W ITH the changes in territorial arca re- corded in the last chapter there came a change in the political morale of Wash- ington. This was largely from the fact that the occupations and business of the people were now more homogeneons. The classes of people that gather about a mining region are unlike those that select agriculture and commerce as their modes of life. This is not saying they are worse-only they are different. Doubtless for keenness of intellect, nervous restlessness of purpose, and personal independence of action there is not a class of men in the world to be compared with those who have ranged the min- ing regions of California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Montana from 1848 to the present time. Many of them have been men of the purest morality and the broadest humanity. Of course with these have mingled many of the most reckless and hardened adventurers of the land, not a few of these, however, being men of great ability, but who, for one canse or another, had fallen into vicions and depraved methods of life. These men were, many of them, leaders in the political agitations that kept Washington in a ferment during the period of the civil war, |

say from 1860 to 1866, and were almost without exception bitterly and blatantly on the side of the rebellion. In the sentiment they represented, if not in the life they lived, their ranks were strongly recruited from 1862 onward by hun- dreds and thousands of men from the rebel armies of the Southwest who brought with them all the bitterness which had inspired them at first to take up arms against the government, and who sought every occasion to traduce that govern- ment and insult the flag that represented it. This alliance was strong enough to control the politics of that part of Eastern Washington that included the mining country, and generally, through that, of the Territory itself. While, therefore, the organization of the counties of Idaho, Nez Perces, Shoshone, Boise and Mis- souli, with their population of 20,000, and their vast mineral and agricultural resources from Washington, seemed to have that Territory shorn of half its proportions and strength, it neverthe- less gave it a homogeneonsness of character and life that it never could have had without. In this respect its great loss was its greater gain.

With the separation of this mining region from Washington her history settled back into

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the old routine of a slow and struggling growth materially. It was really a season of growth, but of that character that leaves little for the page of history. The great war was going on, from two to three thousand miles away it is true, and yet it absorbed public thought and interest, and besides it absorbed the young and vigorous manhood of the whole country, leaving little for emigration and adventure in the en- ticing fields of national construction. They must save a country first and build it up after- ward. So our Pacific empire had to wait. But while waiting election times came regularly on. The American never forgets them.

In 1863 the Democratic convention for the Territory named George E. Cole as its candidate for delegate to Congress. Against him the Re- publicans put forth J. O. Rayner. These nomi- nations indicated the unsettled and doubtful condition of politics in the Territory. Both parties passed by their leaders and selected candidates comparatively little known, and but slightly identified with either the history or the prosperity of the Territory- At this time many of the ablest men of the Territory were halting between two opinions. Under the long Demo- eratic rule in the nation that preceded the elec- tion of Mr. Lincoln they had come to the Ter- ritory as Democratic office-holders, and the traditions of their old faith were strong upon them still. The issues of the war were yet in doubt, and so they were in doubt also. Under this atmosphere of uncertainty the nominations of the two conventions were made. When the count was had it was found that Mr. Cole was elected by a small majority. The aggregate of the vote showed that the voters numbered over 400 less than two years before in the same counties that voted then,-an indication of the great draft that the mining exodus had made on the population of the Puget Sound and Columbia river regions. It is interesting to note that King county, where Seattle is situated, now for several years the strongest in the State, polled bnt 173 votes, while Walla Walla polled 590, which was the largest of any county.

Spokane gave but ninety, and one, Wahkiakum, but twelve. The entire vote of the Territory was 3,233. This date was doubtless near the low-water mark of the prosperity of Washing- ton Territory.

The separation of Idaho from Washington left the legislative assembly with but seven councilmen and twenty-four assemblymen. Its color was Democratic, but at the same time not of the " most straightest sect," for it required more than half a month for it to complete its organization, which it finally did by the election of Democratic officers.

There was little in course of legislation dur- ing this session that requires special mention. Indeed, with a population remaining in the Territory of less than 13,000, and they hard- handed toilers in the forests and fields of a region large enough for as many hundreds of thousands, it could not be expected that there would be. No great enterprise could be under- taken, for there was no wealth to carry them forward. The people were rich, it is true, but it was in the possession of a great though unde- veloped country, of a salubrious and healthful climate, and of an unbounded faith in the future. So still their service was that of wait- ing

Nor was mneh attempted by Congress for the small Territory lying against the Western sea. The resources of the whole land were taxed to their utinost to "keep the jewel of liberty in the family of freedom," and not much could be done for those whose claims were in their por- erty and indigenee mostly, and especially when their sympathy with the struggles of the nation had been so doubtfully expressed as had been the case in the last election. With the excep- tion therefore of the pro forma legislation neces- sary to keep the government of the Territory going nothing was done in or for the Territory by Congressional action. And so the two years of the Congressional career of Mr. Cole passed away and the time for a new election came round.

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Politically the two years had wrought a great change in Washington; the result of the now nearing issue of the civil war. The beginning of the end of the great struggle was elearly in view. The effect of this was very obvious among a certain elass of politieians whose where- abouts politically no weather-vane could deter- mine up to this time. Now that the cause of the Union was clearly in the ascendant they be- gan to see that duty lay in the way the flags were pointing. So they hastened for pelf where the common people had gone for principle. Under such conditions the conventions of the two parties came on.

The Republican convention named as its nominee for Congress A. A. Denny, of Seattle, while the Democrats named James Titton, of Olympia.

In many respects these contestants were well matched, and well represented the elements in the conflict. There was no doubt as to their potitical sentiments. One represented repub- licanism, the other democracy pure and simple. What these taught and fought for they em- bodied. And so the issne was joined at the polls. The result of it was that Mr. Denny secured the election by a majority of 1,138 in a total ballot of 3,564.

Mr. Denny was, par excellence, a pioneer, and while being entitled to special consideration as such, this election lifted him into a more general relation to the history of the Territory than many of the pioneers were fortunate enough to secure. Hence this is as good a place as any to give our readers an account of that part of the history of Washington Territory that was embodied and exemplified in his life; for the best part of history is the story of the life of the men who make history; and no man in the State is better entitled than he to the distinetion of being a history-maker.

The Dennys are a very ancient family of En- gland, Ireland and Seotland. The present branch traces its aneestry from Ireland to America through great-grandparents, David and Mar- garet Denny, who settled in Berks county,

Pennsylvania, previous to the Revolutionary war. There Robert Denny, the grandfather of our subject, was born in 1753. In early life he removed to Frederick county, Virginia, where in 1778 he married Rachel Thomas; and about 1790 removed to and settled in Mercer county, Kentucky. There John Denny, the father of our subjeet, was born, May 4, 1793, and was married August 25, 1814, to Sarah Wilson, daughter of Bassel and Ann (Seott) Wilson, who was born in the old town of Bladensburg, near Washington city, February 3, 1797. IIer par- ents came to America at an early day. The maternal and paternal grandfathers of our sub- ject served in the Revolutionary war. The former belonged to Washington's command at the time of General Braddock's defeat. John Denny was a soldier of the war of 1812, being in Colonel Richard M. Johnson's regiment of Kentucky volunteers. He was also an ensign in Captain MeFee's company, and was with General Harrison at the battle of the Thames, when Proctor was defeated and the noted Te- cumseh was killed. He was a member of the Illinois Legislature in 1840 and '41, with Lin- coln, Yates, Bates and others, who afterward became renowned in national affairs. In poli- tics, he was first a Whig and afterward a Re- publican. For many years he was a Justice of the Peace, and it was his custom to induce liti- gants, if possible, to settle without resorting to law. Ile died July 28, 1875, in his eighty- third year. His wife died March 25, 1841, in her forty-fifth year. " For her," says her son, "I had the greatest reverence, and, as I now look back and contemplate her character, it seems to me that she was as near perfect as it is pos- sible to find any in this world."

About 1816, John Denny and his wife re- moved to Washington county, Indiana, and settled near Salem, where Arthur, the subject of this sketch, was born June 20, 1822. One year later they removed to Putnam county, six miles east of Greencastle, where they remained twelve years, and from there went to Knox county, II- linois. Speaking of his boyhood, Mr. Denny says;

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" My education began in the log schoolhouse so familiar to the early settler in the West. The teachers were paid by subscription, so much per pupil, and the schools rarely lasted more than half the year, and often but three months. Among the earliest of my recollections is that of my father's hewing out a farm in the beech woods of Indiana; and I well remember that the first school I attended was two and a half miles from my home. When I became older it was often necessary for me to attend to home duties half of the day before going to school, a mile distant; but by close application I was able to keep up with my class. My opportunities to some extent improved as time advanced. I spent my vacations with an older brother at carpenter and joiner work to obtain the means to pay my expenses during term time."

Mr. Denny was married November 23, 1843, to Mary Ann Boren, to whom he feels indebted for any snecess he has achieved in life. Of her he says: " She has been kind and indulgent to all my faults, and in cases of doubt and ditti- eulty in the long voyage we have made together she has always been, without the least disposition to dictate, a safe and prudent adviser."

In 1843 Mr. Denny was elected County Sur- veyor of Knox county, and after serving eight years resigned to come to the Pacific coast. On April 10, 1851, be started with his family aeross the plains, reached The Dalles Angust 11, ar- rived in Portland Angust 22, and on the 5th of November sailed for Puget Sound on the schooner Exact, arriving at their destination on Elliott's Bay November 13, 1851. The place where they landed they called Alki Point, at that time as wild a spot as any on earth. They were landed in the ship's boat when the tide was well out; and, while the men of the party were all busily engaged in removing their goods to a point above high tide, the women and children crawled into the brush, made a fire and spread a eloth to shelter them from the rain. In speak- ing of their landing here, Mr. Denny says:

" When the goods were secured 1 went to look after the women and found on my approach

that their faces were concealed. On a closer inspection, I discovered that they were in tears, having already discerned the gravity of the situation; but I did not for some time discover that I had gone too far; in fact, it was not until I became aware that my wife and helpless chil- dren were exposed to the murderous attacks of hostile savages that it dawned upon me that I had made a desperate venture. My motto in life has been ' Never go backward;' and, in fact, if I had wished to retrace my steps it was about as nearly impossible to do so as if I had taken the bridge up behind me. I had brought my family from a good home, surrounded with com- forts and luxuries, and landed them iu a wilder- ness; and I do not now think it was at all strange that a woman, who had, without complaint, endured all the dangers and hardships of a trip across the plains, should be found shedding tears when contemplating the hard prospects then so plainly in view. Now, in looking back to the experience of those times, it seems to me that it is not boasting to say that it required quite an amount of energy and some little courage to contend with and overcome the difficulties and dangers we had to meet. For myself, I was for several weeks after landing so thoroughly ocen- pied in building a cabin to shelter my family from the winter that I had not much time to think of the future." About the time their houses were completed, the little settlement was fortunately visited by Captain Daniel S. Howard, of the brig Loenesa, seeking a cargo of piles, which they had contracted to furnish. This gave them profitable employment, and although the labor was severe, as they did it mostly withont teams, they were cheered on with the thought that they were providing food for their families.

In February, 1852, in company with William N. Bell and C. D. Boren, they made soundings of Elliott's Bay along the eastern shore and toward the foot of the tide flats to determine the character of the harbor, using for that pur- pose a elothes-line and a bunch of horse shoes. After the survey of the harbor they next ex- amined the land and timber around the bay, and

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after three days of careful investigation they located claims, with a view of lumbering, and ultimately laying off a town. Mr. Denny came to this coast impressed with the belief that a railroad would be built across the continent to some point on the northern .coast within the next fifteen or twenty years, and located on the Sound with that expectation. lIe believed that Oregon would receive large annual aeeessions to its population, but in this he was mistaken, mainly because of the opening of Kansas to set- tlement. The bitter contest which arose there over the slavery question had the effect to at- tract and absorb the moving population to such an extent that very few, for several years, found their way through these territories; and a large portion of those who did pass through were gold-seekers bound for California. Then came the Indian war which well nigh depopulated Washington Territory. This was followed by the great rebellion, all of which retarded the growth of the Territory, and for a long time pre- vented the construction of the railroad upon which he had based large hopes.

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An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 26

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