USA > Washington > History of Washington the evergreen state : from early dawn to daylight with portraits and biographies Vol. II > Part 26
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The final result, so far as its active participants were con- cerned, ended in nothing. Though repeatedly indicted, the cases, strange as it may seem, never came to trial.
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CHAPTER XXXIX.
SOME LESSER CITIES OF WASHINGTON AND TOWNS THAT SOON MAY BECOME METROPOLITAN.
" As the bud sets the fruit, the acorn the oak, So these cities have risen from prairies unbroke, From valleys and hills, where the cedar and pine Saw the sun through their branches infrequently shine ; Or plains where the south wind perfumed its soft wings With blossoms that bloom where the meadow lark sings,
Now fair alien flowers and trees line the street, Where culture and commerce in harmony meet, Where a silence so deep it could almost be felt Reigned supreme, as if Nature had prayerfully knelt. The shriek of the engine, the whir of the mill, And saw grating loudly the scared echoes thrill, With roll of the wagon, each deep loaded wain That hauls for the farmer his harvest of grain- All tell the swift progress a decade has made, Since the axe first invaded the unbroken shade."
-BREWERTON.
WHERE so many places are deserving of attention and even special remark it seems almost invidious to particularize ; we must, therefore, confine ourselves to mere mention, omitting, for want of space to do them justice, many localities whose natural beauties and acquired advantages it would have given us pleas- ure to record. We are met at the very threshold by some forty names of places which we should be delighted to eulogize as they deserve. Their list is a formidable one, for it includes Aberdeen, Anacortes, Bay Centre, Buckley, Colfax, Cle-Elum, Colville, Colton, Dayton, Dixie, Elberton, Everett, Ellensburg, Farmington, Fidalgo, Fairfield, Garfield, Ilwaco, Kettle Falls, Latah, Mount Vernon, Montesano, Ocosta, Orting, Oaksdale, Pasco, Pataha, Pullman, Puyallup, Pomeroy, Rosalia, Ritzville, Rockford, Roslyn, South Bend, Sprague, Stanley, Snohomish, Thorp, Tekoa, Walla Walla, New Whatcom, Wenatchee, Waver- ley, Waitsburg, and Yakima, all thriving towns or chartered cities,
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fast arriving at a civic dignity which may one day prove metro- politan, for, judging from the past, we should be the last to limit the growth of even a mustard seed of civilization, if properly planted and duly encouraged, in the State of Washington. We will, therefore, without following our alphabetical sequence, say a kind word for or indulge in a line or two of description here and there in regard to the places enumerated, giving the greatest attention to those coming more prominently to the front.
Waitsburg, for instance, the oldest town in this section, having been settled in 1870, situated in the pleasant valley of the Touchet (pronounced Tu-shy) River, is both inviting and prosperous. It is surrounded by a fertile farming country of the very best char- acter, boasts a flouring mill of large capacity, and elevators taxed to their utmost to handle the overwhelming influx of grain.
Pomeroy, located on Pataha Creek, has its site upon a flat which widens out beneath hills leading to lofty uplands. It is the centre of an agricultural region noted for its harvests ; has factories, shops, flour and grist mills, all run by water-power ; rejoices in the metropolitan dignity of a board of trade, city water works, and homes replete with every modern convenience for comfort.
Fidalgo, in Skagit County, Ilwaco, in Pacific, and Monte- sano, in Chehalis, though foreign-or, perhaps, we should rather have said native-in nomenclature, are nevertheless pos- sessed of not a few of those thoroughly American qualifications which make them like that most toothsome apple of the old-time New England orchards, " seek-no farthers."
Colfax, the county-seat of Whitman, occupies a plain, having an altitude of 2000 feet, which widens out where the branches of the Palouse converge. Its business portion already covers the whole of this level, while its handsome resi- dences ascend the gentle slopes and add much to the appearance of the town. It is a strikingly pretty place, has a good fire de- partment, artesian wells are being bored, churches find worship- pers, schools furnish ample facilities for instruction. The Masons and Odd Fellows meet in an elegant temple built especially for their accommodation ; a new court-house is being erected, and the G. A. R. have an established post.
Pullman, on the south branch of the Palouse, is a grain ship-
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ping point of no little importance ; it is also an exporter of flax, has two hotels, as many churches, excellent schools, a bank, and, above all, a newspaper. Water is abundantly supplied from an artesian well, flowing fifty gallons per minute.
Farmington is an incorporated village, and, as its name would seem to indicate, is also an agricultural centre. Its quarries are practically inexhaustible ; they produce the finest quality of sandstone, a species of granite. The city itself has an elevation of 2640 feet. Its advantages are equal to any of its sister towns. It has churches, banks, lodges, and hotels, with a school system so perfect that it leaves little to be desired.
Garfield stands on an elevated level 1960 feet above the sea. It is incorporated, and must necessarily progress, being impelled thereto by the business energy and needs of its surroundings. It has a school, loan agency and bank, a live newspaper and an excellent hotel.
Fairfield is beautifully located on a rolling prairie within sight of the lofty Cœur d' Alenes ; it is well laid out, has broad and attractive streets and a handsome railroad station, grain warehouses, and one of the largest " bulk elevators" in use. It is near Cœur d'Alene Lake, and the many mining camps scat- tered through this region, whose occupants find it a convenient point for the purchase of supplies, stimulate its trade.
Colville, the county seat of Stevens, is a flourishing railroad town, and needs only a thorough system of irrigation, the natu- ral rainfall being insufficient, to challenge comparison with any section of the State. The mines of the Colville valley are ex- ceedingly rich. One of the most productive is the Old Domin- ion, lying ten miles from the town of Colville. So rich are these ores that they are hauled nearly one hundred miles to the rail- road and then shipped to Omaha for smelting, a distance of over fifteen hundred miles. This was in 1886, when Colville was credited with a population of only five hundred ; since then it has largely increased. Old Fort Colville, historic as connected with Indian difficulties, is an abandoned military post within three miles of the town. The falls of the Colville River furnish a magnificent water-power not yet fully utilized.
Waterville is the thriving and likely to flourish county-seat of Douglas. It is situated in the northwestern part of the county, and as far back as 1889 had a population of over one
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thousand. The county itself needs more railroad facilities to develop its fine natural advantages ; when these are obtained Waterville will feel the influence of the rising commercial tide and increase a trade which readily responds and is quick to im- prove every new opportunity.
Pasco has its site in the southern portion of Franklin County. If the efforts now being made to obtain water by artesian boring should prove successful she will be enabled to abundantly real- ize her otherwise vast natural advantages-fertility of soil and a delightful climate ; as it is, wheat, corn and oats are raised in considerable quantities on the sage brush land near the town.
North Yakima, the county-seat and the largest city of the county of that name, had in 1889 a population of over two thou- sand. It was then a baby town still, being but four years old, yet a promising child withal, putting on airs of dignity-as pre- cocious cities will-and with good reason, too, if water-works. an electric light plant, churches, schools-both public and aca- demic-the various fraternal societies, newspapers, banks, excel- lent hotels, and a fine natural water-power can excuse them. The mineral resources-iron and coal-near and about the city are alone sufficient to establish its prosperity. Much, of course, remains to be done in the way of development ; but from what has been achieved reasonable expectations may be indulged of still greater and even more satisfactory progress.
Ellensburg, over which, as in too many Western cities, the fire fiend swept disastrously, doing its devastating work, and for a time paralyzing business, is once more on the high road to prosperity. The visitor looks for the relics of that ruin in vain. A new city and a fairer one has risen from its ashes. Thanks to the well-known courage and industry of its citizens, they have plucked victory from this "nettle danger," turned a mighty loss into still larger gain, replaced their old habitations with buildings of greater stability and beauty, and proved most con- clusively the truth of the saying that there is hardly ever a visitation of this kind, especially in the West, however terrible, that does not ultimately show itself to be a blessing in disguise. It was a thriving city of over two thousand inhabitants when the fire laid it low ; the varied interests of the county concentrated there ; it had schools, banks, two newspapers, and all other con-
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veniences of life, both general and personal, yet the present is an improvement upon the past.
Sprague, the county-seat of Lincoln, is the headquarters of the Northern Pacific, whose shops, employing a large number of men, are located here. It has hotels, various stores, a brew- ery, newspaper, a bank, three churches, and a large public school building ; it is within two miles of Lake Colville. Sprague is located on the land of the " coulées," the name given to the old dried-up water-courses, so generally utilized by the railroads running through the upper country, whose tracks find it convenient to follow the banks of their departed streams.
Ritzville, the county seat of Adams, has a newspaper, a hotel, and a sufficiency of stores ; it is, moreover, the point of departure for the farming and stock-raising country of Crab Creek, north of the railroad, and in the Big Bend of the Colum- bia.
Whatcom, to whose importance, both present and constantly increasing, we have alluded elsewhere, is the most northern set- tlement of importance in the Puget Sound country ; it sits in queenly fashion on beautiful Bellingham Bay, and looks out upon the east upon the Gulf of Georgia and the Straits of Juan de Fuca. It is rapidly developing into a place of no inconsider- able commercial importance. It has a fine harbor, abundant depth of water, and good anchorage everywhere. Lake What- com, with an elevation of 318 feet, lies directly in its rear, draw- ing its supply from the numerous streams fed by the never-fail- ing snows of magnificent Mount Baker. This beautiful sheet of water, pure and limpid, has its utilitarian features also, for it not only furnishes a supply for domestic purposes but a water- power also, utilized by the lumber mills, which have a combined capacity of nearly three hundred thousand feet per day. It has three most respectable near neighbors in the towns of Sehome, Bellingham, and Fair Haven, whose growth and general expan- sion bid fair to obliterate their individual limits and merge them into one. To enter into details would simply end in an en- deavor to set the old words to some newer air, the burden of which is ever the same-increase and perpetual improvement.
Goldendale, though a stranger to our alphabetical enumera- tion, is too important a place to be passed without a word of comment. It is the county-seat of Klickitat, lies twenty-six
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miles northeast of the Dalles, has an increasing population, and a market for town lots, which makes the full price of to-day the " snap" of to-morrow.
Starbuck is a small settlement with large possibilities, which must, as the real estate people say, " be seen to be appreciated.".
Dayton, the fair county-seat and commercial centre of Co- lumbia, is situated in the charming valley of the Touchet, at the confluence of Pettit Creek and two mountain streams rich in natural water-power. Dayton is to-day better equipped with the conveniences of living than many an Eastern city ; its water supply, carried into every house, is especially worthy of com- mendation. It is illuminated by electricity, has an organized fire department, fire limits, two planing mills, a large iron foun- dry, a machine shop, two flouring mills, a national bank, various lines of mercantile establishments, schools, newspapers, a public library, no less then ten church organizations, lodges, and a post of the G. A. R. The public schools are graded from primary to classical, and those who desire more may have their educational longings fully satisfied in Washington Seminary, situated but a few miles away. Few places can boast more evidences of almost metropolitan progress than the thriving county seat of Colum- bia.
Walla Walla, conveniently placed at the junction of two lines of railroad, is centrally located in a farming country of such ex- traordinary fertility that we can scarcely wonder at her growth in all that constitutes a city, rapid as it has been. It is generously laid out, with a principal business street of one hundred feet in width, as are all those that lie parallel to it, while its intersecting ones are only twenty feet less. Mill Creek flows with a fall of seventy feet to the mile directly through the town, following the slope of the valley from the foothills. It has a reservoir fed by unfailing springs, which are indeed subterranean streams, which form brooks requiring a twelve-inch pipe to lead off. Its coldness renders ice unnecessary. The city is lighted both by gas and electricity, has a horse railway, a finely drilled volun- teer fire department, fixed fire limits, and no less than three daily papers, edited by able and energetic scribes. The last fact is a sufficient exponent of the culture and social status of its citi- zens.
Orting, separated by a short railroad ride from Tacoma,-
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nestles on a plain once dense with pines ; its presiding spirit, ever working for its improvement, has been its late mayor and present councilman, Dr. F. E. Eldredge, who has labored most anxiously for its advancement. It possesses all the leading characteristics of a flourishing place of much future promise.
Kettle Falls has an altitude of 700 feet less than Spokane City, but is nevertheless 1200 feet above the sea level. It has every natural advantage that climate, soil, and water-power can give to assist its growth. Its scenery might tempt the artist to tarry and fill his sketch-book with her yet virgin beauties, and the tourist may while away his time on a midsummer day by watching the silvery salmon as they leap to the crest of the falls from the depths of the agitated pools below. An observer thus describes it : " Swimming swiftly up the river on the surface of the water, to within a few feet of the descending torrent, the fish will suddenly leap into the air to the top of the waterfall. As many as five or six will often be exposed to view at the same moment. The larger fish frequently fail in making the neces- sary distance and will turn quickly with the descending water to make another trial, which is often repeated a number of times before a successful leap is accomplished. The Indians, by bring- ing their canoes up to the falls between eddies, manage to secure huge baskets under them in such a position that numbers of the fish which fail to make the ascent are caught as they fall. These fish the Indians cure by smoking or drying for winter use."
Rosalia, in Whitman County, lies thirty-five miles south of Spokane Falls, on the railroad ; it is surrounded by a belt of the best agricultural land. Though yet in its infancy, it dces an immense amount of business. It is specially New Englandish in appearance, having withal the wide-awake, prosperous West- ern look-or rather, we should say, the New England style with- out that sleepy, inactive air, into which, in these days of worn-out Eastern farms, too many of the old-time Puritan villages have insensibly fallen. In the fall of 1888, 380,000 bushels of wheat were shipped from Rosalia alone, which the next harvest was expected to double. Putting this at the low price of fifty cents per bushel, and we have a total of $300,000 to reward the labor of the farmer and bring smiles to the faces of the mer- chants of Rosalia, with whom they freely trade; and this for
Eng aby.F.GKernan, NY
W.S. Kindred
Lizzie Hundred
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wheat alone, to say nothing of a vast crop of oats, barley, and potatoes.
Tekoa is another baby town of Whitman County. It was a promising infant at the age of two, but since then has made rapid progress toward recognition as an important commercial centre in the valley of the Palouse. Plotted in August of 1888, up to which time it could only boast a saw mill of very moder- ate capacity, it came rapidly to the front, and owing to its rail- road connections and proximity to valuable agricultural lands, speedily attracted the favorable notice of investors and capital- ists. Its future is well assured, the pay-roll of railroad employés alone aggregatiag $12,000 per month. It has a splendid artesian well, and enjoys advantages, natural and acquired, to describe which would require a separate chapter.
Rockford, situated twenty-five miles south of Spokane Falls, holds its site at the confluence of Mica and Rock creeks, in a narrow basin hemmed in on all sides by hills crested with for- ests of pine. It is considered one of the most fertile and produc- tive regions of Eastern Washington, the ground being a dark rich loam with- a clay subsoil ; it cannot be excelled, and is excellently adapted for farming and stock-raising. No less than ten saw-mills as far back as 1890 were in active operation at Rockford, besides the planing-mill and sash and door factories. It, moreover, enjoys the distinction of possessing the finest clay beds for brick-making west of the Rocky Mountains ; two brick yards having all they can do to keep up with the demand for their superior product. Gold and silver are also found within ten miles of the town.
To disassociate Puyallup from hops would be simply im- possible, and the same is equally true of fruits and vegeta- bles. As one lias a natural dislike to being credited with any possible relationship to the lamented Ananias, we forbear special description, but may confess to having seen potatoes whose weight ran into pounds and whose ivory centres were only rivalled in purity by the satiny softness of their spotless skins, something of which is possibly due to the fact that that foe to the farmer, the ubiquitous and pestiferous potato bug, has yet to find his way across the Rocky Mountains. The town itself is only a repetition of others ; the same elements of energy, patience, and persevering effort bringing about like
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results of large remuneration. Its population, as given in 1890, was 2001.
Ocosta is located on the south side of Gray's Harbor, at the junction of South Bay and the main anchorage. It seems natu- rally fitted for a city site, having about three hundred acres of beautiful prairie fronting on the water, while in the rear rises a tableland from fifteen to thirty feet high. This is compara- tively level and covered with heavy timber, while the prairie below is already cleared by the hand of nature, as if to invite settlement. The views from this higher ridge are magnificent. The town itself is being peopled by an excellent class of citi- zens ; three saw-mills are already erected and others projected ; two hotels are up and another still larger under construction ; one bank is doing business. All that Ocosta needs is the capital to develop her natural advantages and establish those industries for which the raw material lays ready to her hand. An enthusi- astic writer, who seems fully alive to the merits of Ocosta, winds up an eloquent appeal for aid in money and men " to increase her greatness" as follows : " We want dozens of in- telligent young ladies for our bachelor friends, for the town and woods are full of them, like the birds of the forests seeking mates."
Aberdeen, a city of Chehalis County, on the north shore of Gray's Harbor, has five churches, supports two newspapers, and finds employment for workmen in a shipyard and foundry, besides extensive lumber mills. It is a flourishing place, though not yet as large as its evident namesake of " old Scotia," Aber- deen "awa."
Anacortes, which the " Gazetteer" describes as "a post town of Skagit County, situated on tide water," has a population of 1131 ; these figures are quoted from the census of 1890. It is needless to say that the three years which have elapsed since it was taken have added materially to that number. It is a place of growing importance, has four churches, two banks, a news- paper, and iron foundry.
Bay Centre, seven miles from South Bend, is one of Pacific County's thriving villages. It has a church, graded schools, and a salmon factory, and was credited in 1890 with a popula- tion of 250 souls.
Buckley, lying thirty-two miles southeast of Tacoma, has
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three churches, a bank, and one newspaper -- quite enough for a good beginning. The last census accords it 878 inhabitants ; the next will probably increase that number fourfold. It has three churches, a bank, and the inevitable newspaper, without which a town, however small, in Washington would hardly think it had begun to live.
Cle-Elum, in Kittitas, has yet to make its way into Lippin- cott's " Gazetteer," a fact which by no means argues against its standing in a later issue. It is a town never born to die and make no sign.
Colton, Dixie, and Elberton, which deserve something more than mere mention at the hands of the historian, are all making a good showing, and can well afford to bide their time, in the ful- ness of which they will undoubtedly be heard from, and that most favorably.
Last, but never least of this long but most interesting array of towns, so full of interest not only to those who occupy them, but to the growth and general prosperity of the State at large, comes Snohomish, the county-seat of the county, and situated on the river of that name. It is reached by steamboat, being only nine miles by water from Puget Sound and thirty from Seattle. It enjoys the special distinction-rather unusual where the cities of Washington are concerned-of having been quoted in two successive census tables-that of 1880 crediting it with only 149 inhabitants, while 1890, but a decade later, gives 1993 souls. Compare and mark the increase. It is needless to enter into details when the story of Snohomish's prosperity is so thoroughly because arithmetically told, not by figures of speech, but by those units and tens which, unlike the figures aforesaid, are never, or, at least, " hardly ever" known to be wrong ; but though apparently slighted here, they are fully able to speak for themselves, and are directly eloquent in deeds that need no words to prove present progress and give promise of yet more substantial advancement.
Latah had a population of 232 in 1890. Who shall say what six-and-thirty moons may not have added to her score ?
Mount Vernon, a name especially appropriate, and well worthy to find repetition in the State that bears the ap- pellation of him whose honored residence and yet more sacred ashes have made the Mount Vernon of the Potomac hallowed
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ground, is a flourishing town located in Skagit County. It has a record of 770 in the last census tables.
Oaksdale and Pataha are living evidences of energy wisely applied to purposeful ends, and, better still, reaching satisfac- tory results. The former place, situated in Whitman County, had a population of 528 three years ago.
Roslyn, of Kittitas, the county of fertile farms and grand areas for grazing, is, as her population indicates (1484 in 1890), a place of no little importance, a commercial centre where the farmer can obtain his supplies and the cattleman trade to ad- vantage.
South Bend, Stanley, Thorp, and Wenatchee are buds of promise whose full fruition is yet to be assured and recorded, as they will doubtless well deserve.
CHAPTER XL.
THE NORTHERN PACIFIC RAILROAD-ITS INCEPTION, BIRTH, DIF- FICULTIES, PROGRESS, FINANCIAL STRAITS, NATURAL OBSTA- CLES AND FINAL SUCCESSFUL COMPLETION.
"Perchance the world should wonder at pyramidic piles, Egyptian deserts cumber or pillared temple aisles ; Let modern Rome point proudly to Coliseum walls, And boast her ancient story of standing till it falis. What did these do to better the daily life of man, To break a single fetter or bless instead of ban ? Alas, for all the labor, the toil of serf and slave,
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