An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 29

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 29

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of them legitimately elaiming to be cities, had sprung up among the firs and cedars of the Puget Sound country, and out on the treeless prairies of Eastern Washington, almost in a night. All that goes to make up the civiliza- tion of our day had appeared almost in a moment. Commeree came flying on white wings into the harbors of Puget Sound. Mann- factures thundered their forges and whirred their engines on river and stream. Banks counted their discounts over mahogany counters amidst piles of gold. Churches and school- houses fit to adorn a metropolis were built almost before the shades of the great cedars had faded from the ground where they stood. A

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very delirium of progress thrilled the land.

But all this did not come without a cause, nor was its canse hard or far to find. It was in the construction and operation of great lines of railroads within the borders of the Territory. At the opening of 1886, the Northern Pacific Company had 455 miles; the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company, 295; the Puget Sound & Columbia, 44; the Puget Sound Shore, 23; and the Olympia & Chehalis Company, 15; in all 866 miles, where only a few years before there were but a few miles in the entire Ter- ritory. This was cause to the effect of the wonderful growth of Washington by which it so suddenly reached its resplendent place as a State. As so much of it all turned on the con- struction of the great Northern Pacific line, it is fitting that we give a somewhat extended notice of the inception and progress of that great national work. Our notice is taken from the authorized account given by the State of Washington itself at the great Columbian Ex- position in Chicago in 1893, and is without doubt a fair smnmation of the facts attending the progress of that great work.

" At the very birth of Washington, its future development and greatness were believed to de- pend upon the building of the Northern Pacific railroad, and the location of its terminal port upon Puget Sound. It was the route and road earliest proposed for transit of the continent. Its friends and propagandists crystallized such a public sentiment before even California had become United States territory, that rendered probable the building of a transcontinental rail- way. For over half a century the agitation of a Northern Pacific railroad had been continned.

" In 1853, Congress appropriated $150,000 for surveys to ascertain the most practicable railroad ronte from the Mississippi river to the Pacific ocean. The Secretary of War deter- mined upon the lines to be examined, and selected those who were to conduct the explora- tions. On the 18th of April, 1853, Isaac I. Stevens, Governor of the Territory of Wash- ington, was assigned to the charge of the north-

ern ronte, with instructions to explore and survey a ronte from the sources of the Missis- sippi river to Puget Sound. George B. Mc- Clellan, then brevet Captain of Engineers, United States Army, proceeded direct to Puget Sound, and with a party explored the Cascade range of mountains, thence eastward until he met the main party under Governor Stevens, marching westward from St. Paul, Minnesota. The decisive points determined were the practi- cability of the Rocky mountains and Cascade range, and thic eligibility of the approaches. Governor Stevens recommended that from the vicinity of the mouth of Snake river, there should be two branches, one to Puget Sound across the Cascade mountains, and the other down the Columbia river on the northern side. Governor Stevens in his message, addresses and personal efforts; the Legislature by memorials and legislations; the press and the prominent citizens of the Territory,-kept alive the agita- tion of the 'Northern ronte' from the time that the successful results of the Stevens survey had been published.

" On the 28th of Jannary, 1857, the Legisla- ture of the Territory passed ' An act to incor- porate the Northern Pacific Railroad Company.' That earliest charter named as corporators, Gov- ernor Stevens and numerons citizens of Wash- ington, Oregon, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, lowa, California, Maine and New York. That act prescribed lines of road almost identi- cal with the present Northern Pacific railroad system. On July 2, 1864, Congress granted the charter of the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. Josiah Perham, of Boston, was its first president. The title defines the franchise: ' An act granting lands to aid in the construc- tion of a railroad and telegraph line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound on the Pacific coast, by the northern route.' The company were to accept in writing the conditions imposed, and notify the President of the United States. On the 15th of December, 1864, the acceptance was made. As the charter prohibited the issne of bonds, the company were handicapped in

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raising funds. Perham and his associates, dis- heartened, transferred the charter to Governor J. Gregory Smith and associates.

" In 1866 Congress was petitioned to extend aid. The company asked no money, but simply a guarantee of interest on a portion of its stock for a term of years, but were denied. In 1867 two parties were engaged in examining the passes of the Cascade range for a direct line to Puget Sound and in locating a line castward from Portland, Oregon, np the valley of the Co- lumbia.

" Congress, on May 31, 1870, authorized the issuance of bonds for the construction of the road, with authority to secure the same by mortgage on all property of the company, in- cluding the franchise.

" A mortgage to secure those bonds was executed on the 1st of July, 1870, to Jay Cooke and J. Edgar Thompson, trustees. Those amendments to the charter could not have been secured but by the influence of the Oregon United States Senators. Naturally from thence- forth the policy of the Northern Pacifie was to forward the interest, growth and development of Portland. The line across the Cascade moun- tains, transposed from the main line to branch, was to be indefinitely postponed. With $5,000,- 000 advanced by Jay Cooke & Co., the bnikling of the road commenced in February, 1870, at Duluth, and within that year work progressed westward 114 miles to Brainard. On the Pacific slope work was initiated in 1870. The amenda- tory act required the construction of twenty- five miles between Portland and Puget Sound prior to July 2, 1871; and so the company built, from the town they named Kalama on the Co- lumbia river, northward that distance. During 1872 forty miles had been built northward and were in running operation. On the 1st of January, 1873, General John W. Sprague and Governor John N. Goodwin, agents for the Northern Pacific Railroad Compuny, formally announced the selection of the city of Olympia as the terminus on Puget Sound of that road. A few months later, July, 1873, the company

at New York declared its western terminns at Tacoma. The failure of Jay Cooke & Co., in September, 1873, greatly embarrassed opera- tions; but the road reached its terminus on Puget Sound the day preceding the date pre- seribed in the charter and its amendments. A reorganization of the company, on a different financial basis, followed, with Charles B. Wright as president."

Rich coal fields had been discovered east of Tacoma. General George Stark, vice-president, made an examination of those coal fields with reference to building a sufficient portion of the "branch" to connect them with Tacoma. Says he: "The building of this Cascade brauch for the development of our coal resources seems now to be the one wheel which, if started, will put the whole train in motion; and I trust that ways and means to accomplish it will be devised at an early day." During 1877, the first portion of the Caseade branch road was built connecting Tacoma with Wilkeson.

Frederick Billings had become, 1880, presi- dent of the company. Ile favored the comple- tion of the entire work; the surveys of the Cascade mountain passes were resumed with increased vigor. After a careful instrumental survey a line was located by way of the Naches Pass.

In the fall of 1880 a loan of $40,000,000 had been successfully negotiated, but the method of taking the bonds and furnishing funds contin- gent upon securities upon accepted sections of road and the land grant rendered it impossible to grade the nucompleted line or to advance track-laying and build the Rocky mountain tunnels.

Such was the condition of the Northern Pacific when Henry Villard assumed the presidency. The Oregon Railway & Navigation Company had succeeded the Oregon Steam Navigation Company; and he was also its president. A railroad along the south side of the Columnbia to throw ont branches to secure the great wheat- growing wealth of Eastern Washington and Oregon was at once projected.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON.

As the Northern Pacific advanced westward under the management of President Billings, in 1880 and the spring of 1881, the hope had been engendered that the building of the Cascade division was near at hand. Indeed the Northern Pacific was about provided to push its inain line down the north side of the Columbia, or to build the Cascade branch, or both. The road could not stop in the interior of the continent. It had to advance when it reached the month of Snake river.

President Villard visited Puget Sound in the fall of 1881. He did not disguise his motive that Portland should continue " the focus, the center, the very heart, so to speak, of a local system of transportation lines aggregating fully 2,000 miles of standard-gauge road." Of the policy of the Northern Pacific inaugurated by his predecessor, he said: "There was a deter- mined effort resolved upon by the former management of the Northern Pacific to disre- gard the commerce of this great city, and to make direct for Puget Sound in pursuit of the old unsuccessful policy of building up a city there. I do not believe that any effort to build up a rival city on Puget Sound can ever sneceed. I mean that Portland will always remain the commercial emporium of the Northwest." Presi- dent Villard, however, continued the surveys of the Cascade mountains, and the Stampede Pass was selected.

Overland railroad communication was fully consummated via Portland and the road connect- ing it with Tacoma. The last spike was driven on September 7, 1883, sixty miles west of HIelena. A few days later Oregon and Wash- ington celebrated the great consummation. On Monday, the 5th day of July, 1887, the people of Washington commemorated the arrival on Sunday, the 4th of July, of the first overland train direct from Duluth to Tacoma. A year later was commemorated the completion of the tunnel through the Cascade mountains. The great work of the century had been finished.

It would be easy to occupy chapters in treat- ing of the minntia, and giving the statistics, of

this wonderful advance, but, to the general reader, whose impressions of history are always taken in the concrete rather than the abstract- there would be no compensating advantage, We hasten, therefore, to the closing of the chap- ters of the Territorial history of Oregon, and the opening of the brief one of her history as a State of the Federal Union.

From time to time, for more than a decade, in one form or another, the question of State- hood was discussed in the papers and acted on in the legislative assembly of the Territory.

In November, 1869, a law was enacted for the submission of the questions of calling a conven- tion for the purpose of framing a constitution and applying for admission into the Union as a State. If a majority voted in favor, the next legislature was to provide for the election of the delegates to sueli convention. At the election in 1870 the project met with little favor. In 1871 a precisely similar act passed and met with a like result. In 1875 the legislative assembly passed an act to provide for the formation of a constitution and State government for the Terri- tory of Washington. It direeted the submission of the proposition. If a majority were in favor the legislature was " to provide for the calling of . a convention to frame a State constitution, and to do all other aets proper and necessary to give effect to the popular will."

At the election of 1876, a large majority favored the proposition. The legislature passed an act, approved November 9, 1877, "to pro- vide for calling a convention to frame a con- stitution for the State of Washington, and sub- mitting such constitution to the people for ratification or rejection." That act provided that a convention of fifteen delegates, three of whom were to be elected by the Territory at large, should assemble.

Alexander S. Abernethy, of Cowlitz county, was its president. The counties of North Idaho participated, a large majority of the citizens of that portion of the Territory having favored an- nexation to Washington, A 'constitution was duly framed, and ratified at the general election

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of 1878, by a vote of 6,462 to 3,231. Year after year the admission of the State of Waslı- ington continued to receive increasing considera- tion.

The admission of Washington as a State had been discussed in Congress before the meeting of the constitutional convention of 1878. The first bill introduced by Thomas II. Brents, in the Forty-fifth Congress, was an aet to provide for the admission of the "State of Washington" under the constitution of the convention of 1878. Objections were made to certain features of that constitution; and in the Forty-seventh Congress (1881-'83) Delegate Brents introduced a second bill for the admission of Washington, drawn in accordance with the legislative memorial. It authorized the people of Washington Territory and the northern part of Idaho Territory to hold a convention to frame a State constitution and to form a State government. In advoeating its passage, Mr. Brents eited from the United States census of 1880, to prove that the Territory of Washington, exclusive of the northern counties of Idaho, had the requisite population to entitle it to admission. By the census of 1880 that population was 75,116, and taking the ratio of increase, at that time, June, 1882, it was not less than 125,000. On account of this small population, objection was urged against Wash- ington's admission.

Session after session Washington continued to memorialize Congress for Statehood. In the spring of 1886 the subject was again fully before Congress. The bill was for a convention to frame a State constitution preparatory to ad- mission. The boundaries ineluded eertain north- ern counties of Idaho. Another bill traveled hand in hand, providing for the annexation of those three Northern Idaho counties to Wash- ington. Memorials had passed both legislatures favoring such annexation. The question had been submitted to the people of North Idaho at a general election, and 1,216 votes were polled for annexation and seven against it. The an- nexation bill passed both honses, but was vetoed by President Cleveland. Later separate bills

had passed the Senate for the division of Dakota, and to enable the people of North and South Dakota, Washington and Montana to form con- stitutions and State governments.

Mr. Springer, of Illinois, proposed a substi- tute, an omnibus bill, obnoxious to the friends of the applying Territories; the prospect of admission by the Fiftieth Congress seemed hopeless. Already there was talk of an extra session to do this act of simple jnstiee. On the 15th of January, 1889, the House having under consideration the bill for the admission of Dakota, Samnel S. Cox, of New York, addressed the Ilouse thns: "I favor the substitute pro- prosed by the gentleman from Illinois and his committee. If these Territories cannot be brought in within a reasonable time, I propose to help any conference between the two bodies looking to the Statehood of Dakota and the other Territories. What concerns ns immedi- ately is the admission as States, with proper boundaries and suitable numbers, of five Terri- tories-the two Dakotas, Montana, Washington and New Mexico."

On the 16th of January the Senate bill for the admission of South Dakota was called up. The Ilouse committee favored the division of Dakota, and reported the omnibus bill, which included New Mexico. Many amend- ments were offered and voted down. On the 18th of January the omnibus bill passed the Ilonse.

The bill went to the Senate. It was dis- agreed to by that body. On the 14th of Febru- ary the report of the disagreement of the two Houses was ealled up. The House instructed its conferences to recede so as to allow, first, the exclusion of New Mexico from the bill; and second, the admission of South Dakota under the Sioux Falls constitution; and third, the re- submission of that constitution to the people with provisions for the election of State officers only, and without a new vote on the question of "division," and for the admission of North Dakota, Montana and Washington by the pro- clamation of the president,

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The bill thus amended passed. It was en- titled "An act to provide for the division of Dakota, and to enable the people of North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana and Washing- ton to form constitutions and State goveru- ments, and to be admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States, and to make donations of public lands to such States," and was approved by President Cleveland, ou the anniversary of Washington's birthday, February 22, 1889. It provided for an elec- tion of delegates, seventy-five in number, who were to meet at Olympia on the 4th day of July, 1889. That convention met; it remained in session until August 22, 1889. The consti- tution it framed was ratified at an election held October 1, 1889, by the vote of 40,152 for the constitution, and 11,789 against.

The president's proclamation of admission was issued November 11, 1889.

Washington thus admitted into the Union as a State, the great political parties marshaled their forces for the election of State officers and representatives, and the decision of several other questions that were to go to the voters of the State at the same time. The result showed that Elisha Pyre Ferry, who had been one of the best of the governors of the Territory, was elected governor; Charles E. Langhton, former- ly lieutenant-governor of Nevada, lieutenant- governor; Allen Weir, secretary of State; A. A. Lindsley, treasurer ; T. M. Reed, anditor; Robert B. Bryan, superintendent of publie instruction; W. T. Forest, commissioner of public lands. The supreme judges elected were R. O. Dunbar, T. L. Stiles, J. P. Iloyt, T. J. Anders and Elmer Scott. John L. Wilson, of Spokane, was elected Congressman. Every officer elected was a Republican, the average majority being abont 8,000.

The vote on the other questions submitted to the people stood as follows: For woman suffrage 16.527, against 34,515; for prohibi- tion 19,546, against 31,487; for the State capital Olympia had 25,490; North Yakima 14,718: Ellensburg 12,883; with 1,088 votes

scattering,-leaving the seat of government yet remaining at Olympia, where it had been dur- ing the whole course of Territorial history. At the following general election that question was again voted on, and Olympia was chosen by a considerable majority for the future capital of the State.

The State officers thus chosen were inangur- ated November 18, 1889, with inspiring cere- monies, the newly elected legislature, which was almost unanimously Republican, being in session at the same time. On the 19th of November the legislature elected John B. Allen and Watson C. Squire the first United States senators for the State of Washington. The former drew the term expiring March 3, 1883, and the latter that expiring March 3, 1891. At the biennial election held in Novem- ber, 1890, the legislature was again carried by the Republicans, and Mr. Squire was again elected United States senator for six years from March 4, 1891. A general election for State officers occurred again in November, 1893, at which John Il. McGraw, of Seattle, was elected governor. The legislature elected at the same time commenced balloting for a successor to United States Senator John B. Allen on the day fixed by law, and continued balloting, tak- ing two votes each day, until the final adjourn- ment. One hundred and seven ballots without a choice were taken, and, the legislature having adjourned, Governor McGraw appointed John B. Allen United States senator. At this elec- tion John L. Wilson and W. II. Doolittle were chosen to represent the State in Congress.

Since this date the history of the State has been only a continnance of the prosperity that marked it during the closing years of its Terri- torial existence. The results will appear in a compendions form in our chapters relating to its mining, lumbering and other industrial interests, and in those relating to its cities and towns. We need now to take our readers back, chronologieally, and trace the story of the Indian wars of Washington,

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CHAPTER XXV.

INDIAN WARS OF WASHINGTON.

CHARACTER OF THE INDIANS-EASTERN AND WESTERN TRIBES - NORTHERN TRIBES - JEALOUSIES AWAKENED -OPENING OF THE WARS - MURDER OF DR. WHITMAN - WAIILETPU - CAUSES ()PERATING-PROTESTANT VS. CATHOLIC-SICKNESS AMONG INDIANS-THE MURDER-CAPTIVES -RESCUED BY MR. OGDEN GENERAL ALARM-CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS-ACTION OF LEGIS- LATURE-REGIMENT ORGANIZED-ROSTER OF COMPANIES-TROOPS MOVE TOWARDS WANILETPU -BATTLE OF SAND HOLLOW-INDIANS FALL BACK - DEATH OF COLONEL GILLIAM - NEGO- TIATIONS - MR. OGDEN - DEPUTATION OF INDIANS TO OREGON CITY - INDIANS TAKEN AND EXECUTED .- INTELLIGENCE OF THE MURDER OF DR. WHITMAN REACHES GOVERNOR ABERNETHY - A CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS-OREGON RIFLES ORGANIZED-ROSTER OF OFFICERS-TROOPS PROCEED TO THE DALLES-EXPEDITION OF MAJOR LEE-TROOPS MARCH FOR WALLETPU- BATTLE OF SAND HOLLOW -- INDIANS FALL BACK TOWARD SNAKE RIVER -- BATTLE ON THE TOUCHET -- DEATH OF COLONEL GILLIAM-PEACE NEGOTIATED -- INDIANS EXECUTED AT OREGON CITY.

I NSTEAD of weaving the story of the Indian wars of Washington as a crimson thread through all the fabric of our history we think it better to give that story its own separ- ate place. In this way it will be better under- stood, and its logical relations more clearly ap- prehended.

The region of country embraced in Washing- ton Territory by the act of Congress of 1853 was the home of the most numerous and most warlike of all the Indian tribes west of the Rocky mountains. With the exception of the Cayuses, whose country was mostly in Oregon, all the strong tribes between the Rocky and Cascade mountains had their habitats in Wash- ington. The Blackfoot, the Spokane, the Pal- onse, the Nez Perce, the Pend d'Oreille, the Yakima, all powerful tribes, together with many smaller tribes, all resided east of the Cas- cade mountains. It would be impossible to give any accurate census of these tribes at that time, but it is not unlikely that they could have brought into the field, all told, from six to ten thousand warriors. The white settlement had not yet encroached upon their territory, and as they were generally well armed and plentifully supplied with ammunition, they were a foe not only to be dreaded but which actually was dreaded by the white inhabitants of the Terri-

tory. They were equestrian tribes, abundantly supplied with excellent horses, and were the most accomplished and daring horsemen in the world. Their country was one vast pastnrage, its very mountains being full of nutritious grasses, while its almost limitless plains were covered with the richest bunch grass, affording the very best feed for horses on the continent. When Washington was constituted a Territory they were at the very zenith of their power, and roamed unlet and unhindered over the more than 100,000 square miles they inhabited.

Between Eastern Washington, where these tribes dwelt, and Western Washington, was the great Cascade range of mountains, rugged, heavily timbered, impassable, except by a few trails, and nearly 100 miles in width. West of this range, in the country sweeping around Puget Sound and extending southiward to the Columbia River and northward to the Straits of Fuca, were a large number of tribes, no one of which was as strong as some of the tribes east of the mountains, but probably aggregating about the same number of warriors. Dwelling upon the water courses and upon the shores of the great Sound and in a densely timbered region, these Indians were as thoroughly train- ed to water-craft as were those east of the moun- tains to equestrianism. No people rivaled them

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in the use of the canoe. They were conrageons, daring, brave.

To the north of Puget Sound there were many tribes of great prowess along the coast as far north as Queen Charlotte Island, and even np to Fort Simpson, who possessed large and strong war canoes in which they were accus- tomed to make long predatory voyages, passing down through the inlets and passages that separate the island of the great northern archipelago, crossing the Straits of Juan de Fuca, and penetrating even to the very head of Puget Sound, 120 miles south of the straits. They came unheralded, struck their blow of murder or committed their robbery, and disap- peared as suddenly as they came. Their incur- sions were hardly war, but their work was sim- pły that of the savage assassin, smiting the defenceless and killing the unarmed. Besides the direct loss of life and properly cansed by them, they had the further evil effect of keep- ing the tribes on the Sound excited with the news of tragedy and bloodshed, for when an Indian scents blood all his savage nature is excited, and he himself is athirst for it. "Dead or alive he will have some." But the recital of these inroads of the northern Indians and the story of the cruel murders they perpetrated would enlarge our work unduly, and hence they can be mentioned only as illustrating the unusual perils and hardships attending the settlement of this part of the Territory.

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An illustrated history of the state of Washington, containing biographical mention of its pioneers and prominent citizens, Part 29

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