USA > Washington > History of Washington; the rise and progress of an American state, Vol. IV > Part 22
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Wheat growing, under these secure and convenient condi- tions, was so profitable that diversified farming was not encouraged. The farmers gave but little attention to their orchards and gardens. Many of them even bought their butter, eggs, poultry and bacon from their grocers, as well as many other articles that they could easily have produced themselves.
But one rainy harvest season in the early nineties changed all this. The farmers lost one crop, but they gained an experience that was worth far more than its value. There- after, while still continuing to grow wheat in ever increasing
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quantity, they gave more attention to their orchards and gardens, their flocks and their herds, and all the other forms of industry that tend to make farming profitable. The result is that the Walla Walla Valley is rapidly becoming a vast garden, while Spokane has established an annual fruit exhibit that is already a thing of international interest. Both towns have become notable as milling centers, while the whole surrounding country, comprising all of the eastern counties of the state, are thickly studded with thriving towns, that mark it to the eye of the traveler, as one of the richest argicul- tural regions of the world.
While track laying on the Northern Pacific was thus pro- gressing eastward toward Pen d'Oreille, and westward from the Missouri, those then in authority in the company's affairs were laying plans to build the Cascade Division as originally intended, westward from the Columbia across the mountains to the Sound the main terminus. This, President Villard of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, desired to prevent if possible, as it was to the interest of this company to have its tracks used as the western extension of the trans- continental line.
As the surest means of accomplishing what he desired, he laid plans to get control of the Northern Pacific itself. In order to do this, he organized a syndicate of capitalists, which was at the time and has been since known as the "blind pool." There were then $31,000,000 of stock in the company out- standing and $18,000,000 in the treasury of the company. In order to gain control, about $20,000,000 in ready cash were required. This he procured from a comparatively small number of people, who knew that they were joining in the organization of a new company to be called the Oregon and Transcontinental, and that its object was to acquire
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control of the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company, and do something more, the nature of which was not then imparted to them. But so confident were they at the time, of the ability of Villard, to carry through any undertaking in which he engaged, that they were willing to contribute several times the amount asked if he would receive it, and some of them complained rather of the small amount they were permitted to subscribe, than if the sum had been much greater.
With the money thus provided, Villard purchased a majority of the stock, and was elected president of the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1881. The Oregon and Trans- continental Company was then organized, as an Oregon corporation, with a capital stock of $50,000,000, and there- after its function was to furnish capital to the Northern Pacific, the Oregon Improvement Company and other col- lateral corporations organized by Villard, as they should require it.
During 1882 and 1883 the main tracks of the Northern Pacific were pushed rapidly, both from the east and west, toward the point where they were to unite, and about five hundred miles of branch lines in Minnesota, Dakota, Mon- tana and Washington, as well as a steel bridge 1,426 feet long, with an approach of two miles on the west, and more than one mile on its eastern side, across the Missouri River, were built. The tunnels through the mountains at Bozeman and Mullan were begun, but as they could not be completed by the time the rails reached them, the track was carried over the mountain at both places by a system of switchbacks.
While the road building was thus going forward, more rapidly than it had ever been prosecuted on any other line, and at a cost of from two to three million dollars a month on either extension, Mr. Villard made two trips to the coast'
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both of which were of special interest to the residents of Portland and the Sound towns. His power in the financial world now seemed to be greater than that of any other figure that had ever appeared in it. No other magnate had ever produced money in such abundance, or built railroads so rapidly. It was a matter of immense importance therefore, to the residents everywhere along the lines which he control- led, and particularly in the cities in Washington and Oregon, to discover what his intentions were and persuade him, as far as possible, to center as much of the business which he controlled in their several towns, as they could.
During the second of these visits, which was made in April 1883, public meetings were held, both in Tacoma and Seattle, which were largely attended by their citizens, and at which committees presented him with addresses, in which they expressed their hopes, and invited his attention to the advan- tages which their towns possessed, both for developing busi- ness for the road when completed, and for easily and cheaply attending to the transfer of freight between land and water carriers. In both places, the citizens were particularly anxious to know when the Cascade branch would be begun and finished, and by which of the several passes it would cross the mountains, for with this information they would be able to judge with more certainty which of the two towns would be most conveniently reached, and which would com- mand the larger share of the advantages which the road would bring when completed. In both places questions of im- portance were publicly asked, and as fully answered as cir- cumstances would permit. Tacoma people wanted to know whether Mr. Villard really intended to remove the terminus to Seattle as had been hinted, and they also wished him to build a depot, a hotel and a grain elevator. Seattle people
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wanted to know whether, if they should contribute $1 50,000 for the purpose of building a standard gauge railroad up the Cedar River Valley, to connect the Green River coal deposits with Seattle, and also to connect with the Cascade Division when complete, if Mr. Villard would agree to build the road at once. All these inquiries were so favorably answered as to give general satisfaction to both towns.
By this time Mr. Villard, through his Oregon Improve- ment Company, had acquired the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and all its allied interests, paying $350,000 for the road and the Company's land holdings, and $750,000 for the coal mines reached by it, and for the ships and vessels of various sorts which were at the time engaged in carrying the product of the mines to San Francisco and other Cailfornia ports. The purchase of these interests had given the people of Seattle great cause to hope, and those of Tacoma a corre- sponding cause to fear, that his own and his companies' interests in the neighborhood of Seattle, would in the near future lead him to transfer at least a part of the terminal business of the railroad, if not the whole of it, from Tacoma to Seattle. There was in fact, much ground for expectation that this would be done. The Oregon and Transcontinental Company, through the Oregon Improvement Company, was not only extending the lines of the narrow gauge coal road, now known as the Columbia and Puget Sound, to the several coal mines nearest its present terminus, but it was beginning, or soon would begin to build the Puget Sound Shore line south from Black River Junction to Stuck, to connect there with a spur seven miles in length which the Northern was building, and this would give Seattle direct connection with the main line. This seemed to promise to put it on an equal footing with Tacoma, so far as facilities
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were concerned, and made the situation, as between the two towns extremely interesting.
The eastern and western divisions of the main line were brought together at a point on the north bank of Deer Lodge River in Montana, on the 8th of September 1883. Mr. Villard had invited a distinguished company to witness the driving of the last spike, and the final ceremony of com- pleting the line. Among his guests were many members of the cabinet and of the House and Senate, the whole diplo- matic corps, many well known financiers from both sides of the Atlantic, and several members of the nobility from various countries in Europe, particularly Germany and England, together with the governors of all the states through which the railroad lay. These were brought to the point of union in five special trains, two from the Atlantic Coast, one from Chicago, one from Minneapolis and St. Paul, and one from the western terminus. Fully two thousand people were present. Mr. William M. Evarts of New York was the orator of the occasion, and speeches were also made by Ex-president Grant, Henry M. Teller, Secretary of the In- terior in President Arthur's cabinet, Carl Schurz, one of his predecessors in that office, Ex-president Billings of the rail- road company-who had twice saved it from financial disaster -and several others, and then at half past five o'clock in the afternoon, Mr. Villard himself drove the last spike-which was represented to be also the first spike driven when the building of the road had been begun nearly fourteen years earlier-and the rails were thus united to make one continu- ous line from Lake Superior to Puget Sound, for before the ceremony was completed, Mr. Villard had received a dispatch from the contractor, saying that the section of track between Portland and Kalama had been completed that very day.
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Mr. Villard and his guests now continued their journey westward, and were received everywhere with a most gener- ous welcome. Buildings were decorated in all the cities; the streets were spanned by arches; cannon were fired, and the arrival of the excursion trains was greeted by large delegations of citizens. Only a hurried visit was made to the Sound cities, to which most of the guests were brought by steamer from Portland, as the great transfer boat Tacoma, by which trains were to be ferried across the Columbia at Kalama, was not yet completed.
Both cities were found to be in a thoroughly prosperous condition. The certainty that the railroad would soon be completed had not only given their people new courage, but it had brought large additions to their numbers. Every- where about them the visitors saw evidences of a thrifty and permanent growth. Building was active, and many of the new buildings were of a substantial and creditable character. Streets were being graded, wharves built, and fleets of small steamers were beginning to connect both towns with the villages and settlements on both shores of the Sound.
Both towns had received considerable impulses during the preceeding year from the proceeds of an unusually large hop crop, which had been sold at a price unexpectedly large. Hop growing had by this time become a very considerable and profitable industry in many of the valleys of western Washington, particularly in those of Pierce and King Counties. In the spring of 1866, Charles Wood, owner of a small brewery in Olympia, had given Jacob R. Meeker about half a bushel of hop roots, which he had carried on foot to the Puyallup Valley where he had planted them. They throve encouragingly, and the first harvest, gathered in the fall of that year, yielded 185 pounds, for which Mr. Wood
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paid 85 cents a pound. This encouraging return led to a rapid extension of the industry, and by 1883 no less than 2,355 acres had been planted in the two counties. The average yield from these was over 1,600 pounds per acre, and some growers claimed to have raised more than 3,000 pounds per acre. The crop of 1882 had been sold for $1.00 per pound, and some growers had received even a higher figure. Most hop-growers had more money that year than they had ever had before in all their lives, and they had invested it liberally in Tacoma and Seattle. As a result, prices of real estate in both cities had advanced sharply, and money was every- where abundant.
But the situation was entirely different in the east. There business conditions were again unsatisfactory, and the stock market was very unsettled. While Mr. Villard and his guests were still on the coast his enterprises were attacked, and the price of stocks in all the companies in which he was interested, were so far depressed as to thoroughly imperil the confidence which he had formerly enjoyed. It had been discovered that some parts of the road he had just built, particularly the section between Pen d'Oreille and Missoula, had cost far more than had been expected, and that new bonds must be issued to cover this increased expenditure. It was already doubtful whether these could be sold. Mr. Villard's resignation therefore, became inevitable, and he retired from the presidency on January 4, 1884.
During the whole time in which he had been in control, there had been two parties in the Northern Pacific directory. One of these had supported him in all his undertakings, and the other had opposed. One was interested in the Oregon Improvement Company which now owned the King County coal mines, or many of them, and was therefore favorable
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to Seattle; the other was interested in the Tacoma Land Company, and was favorable to Tacoma. Seattle people had realized when they sold their railroad and coal mines to Mr. Villard, that they were staking all on his success, as well as on his fidelity. They now felt that their situation was extremely perilous, as it indeed was. The people of Tacoma were correspondingly encouraged by the return of their friends to power, and now felt confident that the Cascade Division would not only soon be built, but that it would cross the mountains in such a way as to be of the greatest advantage to their city. In this expectation they were not disappointed.
The building of this Division was begun in 1884, but as the money necessary for it was raised only with difficulty, owing to the prevailing financial conditions, it advanced but slowly. It early became known that it would cross the mountains by the Stampede Pass, and not by the Snoqual- mie, the Nachess or the Cowlitz, each of which had been favored for a time by the engineers, and then abandoned. This crossing was more favorable to Tacoma than to Seattle, and yet much depended on which of the river courses the road should follow after it crossed the divide. If one of the northern streams was chosen, it would lead as directly to Seattle as Tacoma. If a more southerly route were taken, and particularly if connection should be made with the road already built to the coal mines at Wilkeson, Tacoma would alone be benefitted, for Seattle would get only a branch line if any.
So probable did it seem at first, and so certain did it soon appear that this was to be done, that the people of Seattle took up arms again, and renewed the battle where they had left it off soon after Villard had come into power, only in a far more vigorous and determined manner. Formerly
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they had contended only to have so much of the lands with- drawn from sale or entry, for the company's benefit, restored to settlement as would not be acquired by building the Cascade branch. Now they demanded that so much of the grant as would have been acquired by building that branch, should be declared to have become forfeited, because the branch had not been built within the time specified. And they did not stop with mere declarations. They sent Judge William H. White to Washington to assist Delegate Brents in urging forfeiture, and the grant was attacked both in the Interior department and in Congress. Judge Thomas H. Brents of Walla Walla had represented the territory in Washington for nearly three terms-having succeeded Judge Jacobs in 1878-during which time he had done what could be done by a delegate, to hasten the building of the Cascade branch. His home people had been particularly interested in it, and had pressed it upon Mr. Villard's attention when he had visited them on different occasions after he came into power, but while he had assured them of his favorable inten- tions with regard to it, he had found too many other matters pressing for attention, and for money, to permit him to under- take it. But it soon became apparent that something must be done. Congress was not less unfriendly than the people. Judge Brents had prepared a bill confirming to the com- pany all the lands covered by its original grant, except those to be earned by building the proposed line along the north bank of the Columbia, provided the construction of the Cas- cade Division should be begun at once, and at least one hundred miles of track laid each year until completed, but the bill was rejected by the committee, and never reached the house at all. While there was no question perhaps, that the lands along the lines already built were secured to
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the company, the house was manifestly unwilling to extend the powers by which it might increase its holdings.
Forfeiture early became the one topic of absorbing interest among the people of the territory. It was the slogan of both parties in the contest for delegate in the campaign of 1884. The newspapers, both in Washington and Oregon, discussed it daily, and with increasing vigor and vehemence as time progressed. It was the principal, if not the only subject of interest at political meetings, and although both parties and all the candidates favored it, and were equally earnest in discussing it, Mr. Voorhees, the democratic candidate for delegate was elected over Armstrong the republican, by a majority of 148 votes in a total of 41,824. The vote was more than double that cast at the election two years earlier, when Judge Brents had defeated Judge Burke by a majority of 3,008 in a total of 19,496 votes .*
Admonished by the opposition thus manifested by the people and in Congress, the railroad company put forth its most vigorous efforts to extend its tracks to the Sound. But the depression in business circles continued, and money was still raised with difficulty. During 1884 grading was pushed from Pasco westward, but did not reach Yakima that year. In the year following work was begun on the western end, and was for a time pushed from both directions toward the pass, but so difficult did the directors find it to provide means, that at one time, the contractor, Nelson Bennett, was ordered to suspend work, and was left to raise money on his own credit to pay his men. By the end of the year Governor Squire reported that there was still a gap of eighty miles between the ends of the track, and by the
* Women voted for the first time in the territory this year, under the act of 1883.
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close of 1886 the eastern extension had only reached Ellensburg.
While the people in the Yakima and Kittitas Valleys were glad to have the road built, they gave it no very hearty wel- come. Some of them had settled there when they would have gone elsewhere had they not seen, or thought they saw, that the road would be built much earlier. There had been a notable increase in their number in 1884, when work on the division had begun at the Columbia, but it had progressed so slowly that they were getting discouraged and impatient. Many of them had constructed small irrigating ditches, which were already showing the wonderful results that were to follow the application of water to that fruitful soil. It seemed to them that the railroad was now coming to claim the lion's share of the wealth they had discovered or were creating, and was not disposed to help them very much with their work.
The Sound country and its cities were prosperous, al- though the prevailing depression in financial circles had in some degree lessened speculation and retarded building. The farmers in the valleys were rejoicing in bountiful crops, particularly of hops, although prices had not been as high as in 1882. Tacoma and Seattle had both grown prosperously. In the former a large hotel had been built, and the people were boasting that they had already shipped a cargo of wheat, the first from the Sound direct to Europe. Sub- stantial buildings were going up along its principal streets, and its population was increasing steadily. Seattle had built its first street car line, and its people started another new railroad, the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern, in 1885, in which they had already interested enough eastern capital, with which, added to their
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own, they were making promising progress in railroad building.
But Seattle was still without a railroad connection. The Puget Sound Shore line, although finished, was not operated. The rails extended in a continuous line from Seattle to their union with the short line built by the Northern Pacific to Stuck Junction, but the road had only been operated for one month after it was completed, and then trains had ceased to be run for some mysterious reason. People called it "the Orphan Road." The Northern Pacific officials gave various reasons for not using it, the principal one being that their charter gave no authority to operate a road they did not own. Farmers along the line began to be exasperated, because it furnished them no accommodation, and threatened to build their fences across the right of way, and even to tear up the tracks. To appease them a train was put on, but at the end of thirty days it was discontinued, and the tracks were again left to rust in idleness. But in 1885 the Canadian Pacific was nearing completion, and it was evident that the Northern must begin to look out for Seattle and the country north of it, or in the near future contend for business in that region with a strong competitor, and perhaps lose it. It was apparent too, that it must soon begin to operate the road in good faith or else lose it. People living along the line and beyond it were not disposed to be trifled with much longer. A public meeting was called at Kent, at which it was announced, some definite plan of action would be agreed upon. So serious did the situation seem that James McNaught, then general counsel of the Company, and some other of its prominent local officials were present. Several residents of Seattle who had taken an active part in the fight to get railroad connection for that city also attended.
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McNaught made a conciliatory address, explaining in some detail, the difficulties the company had been contending with, but giving no definite assurance that anything better would be done than had been done. The other railroad officials said something, but nothing more definite or satisfactory, and then Judge Hanford took the floor and pointed out that the builders of the road whoever they were, had acquired the right of way for a certain purpose which they were not fulfiling. They had condemned part of it under the law which gave them a right to take property for a quasi public use. They had built a road on this right of way and now refused to use it. If they persisted in this refusal the law authorizing condemation still remained on the statute book, and in his opinion, the original owners could again condemn it, and the rails and ties with it, for their own use, or the use of some other company, corporation or individual who would operate it according to the original intention.
This suggestion was received with so much favor by most of those present as to greatly alarm the railroad party apparently, and before the meeting adjourned a messenger appeared with a telegram, promising that the road would be put in operation as soon as arrangements could possibly be made for that purpose. This promise was kept, the opera- tions of the road was soon resumed and never again discon- tinued.
But Seattle merchants still had reason to complain bitterly of the treatment they received. Goods could be shipped to them over the line only in carload lots. Vexatious delays were frequent, and still more vexatious extra charges were made upon various pretexts. The trains never made con- nections with those on the main line. It was always neces- sary for passengers to wait an hour or two in Tacoma,
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whichever way they were going, and this was very irksome to Seattle people. As the railroad still controlled the boats on the Sound, they were equally dissatisfied with the way they were served by water, and at one time the merchants and other patrons of the line talked seriously of making an iron- bound agreement with the Canadian Pacific to turn all their business to it, as soon as it could be received.
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