History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 104

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134

USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 104
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 104
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 104

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Boats have descended Priest Rapids with no serious trouble and some have even made their way up, but the river can not be considered commercially navigable in its present state. With the proposed dam and locks it will become navigable, and with some improvements at those and a few other points, it can be regularly navigated to Kettle Falls, three hundred and more miles above Kennewick. Canal and locks would be necessary at Kettle Falls. Then with some improvements at Little Dalles, the river might be navigated continuously through the Arrow Lakes, three hundred miles farther, to Revelstoke, nearly a

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thousand miles from the ocean. Sometime this will be accomplished, and one of the grandest waterways in the world will then be open to travelers.

Priest Rapids is but one of a number of great powers in eastern and cen- tral Washington. It has been estimated by the department of engineering of the University of Washington that the possible water power of the state is 13,125,000 H. P. That of the Columbia and its tributaries, not counting the White Salmon, the Klickitat, the Chelan, and the Spokane, is 5,800,000. Those four rivers named, estimated separately, total 1,260,000. Thus, the Columbia with all its tributaries in the state has a total horsepower of over 7,000,000. It has been estimated that the Columbia with all its tributaries in Oregon, Washington and Idaho, has a third of the horsepower of the United States.

The belt of land in which Hanford and White Bluffs are located is there- fore favorably located for the greatest future development. Moreover a vast area extending many miles along the easterly flanks of the Rattlesnake hills can be irrigated from the Sunnyside Extension Canal. Thus the two towns are assured of an ever developing tributary country of great extent and almost lim- itless resources. Both Hanford and White Bluffs are on the branch line of the Milwaukee Railroad. This, with the future possibilities of river transportation, place these two towns upon the list of prospective cities of large population and extensive commerce. The whole region is without question one of the coming regions.

We find Hanford a well-built and well-platted village of 250 inhabitants. It has a library, a park, two churches, and the excellent schools regularly found in this section.

From Prof. W. L. Beaumont we learn that the high school building is valued at $16,000 and the grade school building at $10,000. During the current year there has been an enrollment of twenty-four in the high school and seventy-six in the grades. The high school department was established with a two-year course in 1917, when B. G. Johnson was principal and Mr. Hoover and Miss Lovely were assistants. The present year marked an increase of one year to the high school course, with a faculty consisting of W. L. Beaumont and Mr. Perkins. The grade teachers are Miss Weismiller, Mrs. Evett and Mrs. Clark.

White Bluffs, eight miles up the river from Hanford, has a superb location on a sightly bench fifty or sixty feet above the river level. It has an estimated population of 500. There are excellent water and lighting systems, a bank- First Bank of White Bluffs-a fine system of grade schools, though as yet no high school, and several well-stocked stores.

The splendid tract of land of 15,000 acres adjoining the town is new in- deed and only just coming into productive bearing, but already large quantities of alfalfa hay and fruit are coming into market. There are three churches : Presbyterian, Lutheran and Catholic.

An excellent weekly, the "White Bluffs Spokesman." of which E. J. O'Leary is editor and publisher, supplies news and an advertising medium for the district of which Priest Rapids in Yakima County and White Bluffs and Hanford are the business centers. We find in the "Spokesman" of November 8, 1918, a series of items of value bearing on the agricultural and political con- ditions. We include them at this point.

BUDDING APPLE TREES, VAN HOLDERBEKE NURSERY, KENNEWICK HIGHLANDS

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"The C. A. Whitney hay baler has been running almost steadily for the last two weeks, baling out the hay crop of local ranchers. None of the tonnage to speak of has been purchased so far by sheepmen and unless they get busy pretty soon it is probable that most of the crop will be shipped out. A few cars have already moved to outside markets. Up until recently the price has been around $25 per ton f. o. b. the cars, but it is off a little now and buyers are said to be offering around $23. Unless picked up by stockmen, it is estimated that there will be about fifty cars shipped out of White Bluffs this Fall.

MAY START DAM BY CHRISTMAS

Milton Dam, of Seattle, one of the owners of the Diamond "D" ranch at Priest Rapids, was in the valley this week looking after business interests. Mr. Dam had just returned from Washington, D. C., and says that the water power leasing bill is all ready for passage and will be enacted into law before Decem- ber 1st and that actual construction work on the dam at Priest Rapids will be under way by Christmas. Mr. Dam has extensive real estate holdings around Priest Rapids and has worked incessantly for the last four or five years to secure the passage of some law through Congress liberal enough to tempt the power companies to develop the large power site there. The legislation in Con- gress seems to have developed into a race between a water power leasing bill and one that will permit the government to develop power sites.

The development of the Priest Rapids site by either private capital or the Government would undoubtedly lend tremendous impetus to the settlement of the valley.

ASSOCIATED CHARITIES ASK YOUR SUPPORT

The United War Work Campaign, which begins next Monday and closes the following Saturday, should merit the approval of every good American citi- zen. Never before in the history of the world have differences in creeds been laid so utterly in the background and the efforts of all these great world-wide charitable organizations directed toward the one object-that of providing every possible comfort for OUR BOYS, not only on the battlefield but at the rest billets and training camps as well. These associated charities are: Y. M. C. A., Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, Salvation Army, American Li- brary Association, War Camp Community Service, and Y. W. C. A.

The campaign at White Bluffs is under the direction of Ben Hering and D. S. Wilkinson and of D. C. Priddy at Hanford. The quota for this district is approximately $500 and as apportioned at White Bluffs amounts to about $2.25 per family. Read the big display ad on the back page of the "Spokesman," and by all means send your contribution in and save the committee the neces- sity of a personal canvass.

APPLE HARVEST IS OVER

The apple harvest, which has just come to a close in this valley, has been, weather considered, the most satisfactory in the history of the district. There was scarcely any wind to contend with, and therefore fewer windfalls than ever to be marketed. While the scarcity of help was keenly felt at times, growers as

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a rule were able to get their apples off the trees on schedule. There was some difficulty about getting sufficient color on some of the earlier varieties, but later ones took on a beautiful tint, the Winesaps in particular being the finest ever shipped out of the valley.

Unusually warm weather during the harvesting of the Jonathans was not conducive to the keeping qualities of that variety, or others that were harvested about that time and those growers who made immediate shipment secured the best results.

This is what is known as an "off-year" in apples and the yield on the old trees was not as large, generally, as last year. The younger orchards coming on, however, especially around White Bluffs, made up for much of this defec- tion of the older trees and the tonnage here was nearly as great as last year. At Hanford, the packed out crop was not much more than half last year's tonnage.

Quite a little damage was done this year by the codling moth, particularly to the larger varieties like the Spitz and Romes. This was partly due to the season, which seems to have been exceptionally favorable to the propagation of this pest, and partly to the carelessness of the growers in not spraying a suffi- cient number of times.

Except in a few cases where small lots were shipped to Seattle, no com- plete returns have been received by the growers to date. Some of the growers have stored a part of their Winesaps, in the belief that the price after the first of the year will be considerably better than it is now. The big bulk of the crop, however, has been sold at prices much better than in ordinary years.

Eleven cars of pears were shipped out of Hanford and White Bluffs. The bulk of these were Bartletts and the balance D'Anjous and Winter Nellis. Five of these cars were shipped by the Spokane Fruit Growers' Company and six cars by the Wenatchee Valley Fruit Exchange.

The Spokane Fruit Growers' Association report their apple pack out at Hanford will be approximately 17,000 boxes, or about twenty-three cars; and at White Bluffs 19,000 boxes, or approximately twenty-five cars. The Wenatchee Fruit Exchange reports a shipment of sixteen cars of apples from Hanford and forty from White Bluffs. In addition, there were about twenty- seven cars shipped independently from White Bluffs, making a total of 131 cars of apples for the season from the valley.

BASH WINS IN HARD FIGHT

The election in Benton County last Tuesday, which looked a few days before like a friendly little skirmish, developed into one of the toughest battles of ballots waged in this county for some time, with Bash and McGlothlen, for commissioner of this district, as pivots. All the other contests became secondary considerations. Bash led the hosts from the east side of the county and McGlothlen those from the west side. E. W. R. Taylor and his crew at Prosser had worked out their scheme carefully, with much attention to detail. They had selected as their candidate an old timer in the district with no political tar- nish to his name. They had gotten practically every eligible voter on the west side to register and while holding before the dazzled eyes of the voters the pic-

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ture of an elaborate courthouse at Prosser, spared neither expense nor effort to see that they all got out and voted. Had they not been quite so cock-sure and spilled the beans to one or two that they thought were friends, they might have gotten away with their scheme. It was only in the last few days before the elec- tion that the east side wakened to the possibilities of the impending struggle.

Only a fair proportion of the voters in the Kennewick district were reg- istered but they all got out and voted. Bash received about 90 per cent. of the east side vote and 10 per cent. of the west side vote. White Bluffs gave Bash an even 100 and McGlothlen 25. Hanford gave Bash 115 and McGlothlen 19. The unofficial count in the county, with four small precincts to hear from was: Bash, 1160 and McGlothlen 996.

The entire republican ticket in the county was elected. Summers for Con- gress beat McCroskey 1178 to 831 and had a big lead in the district. Moores for the legislature beat Furgeson 1134 to 960. Starr for treasurer had a big lead over Mrs. Huntington. Main, Mount and Mitchell were elected to the Supreme Court.

LEMCKE BRINGS IN BIG TRACTOR

Shortly after he had secured the last of his oil leases on a large body of land in the Cold Creek country this summer, H. W. Lemcke purchased from the Northern Pacific Railroad the section of land lying directly west of the Archie Brown homestead, paying $2.75 per acre. At that time this was considered a very fair price. Since the discovery of artesian water in the Brown well, how- ever, the value of the land there has been considerably enhanced and Mr. Lemcke is considered now to have a nice little fortune in this land.

He is not content to sit idly by, though, while waiting for the drill in the Brown well to prove whether or not there is oil in that field, and has bought a Ford truck and a tractor and will seed as much as possible of the land to wheat and alfalfa, utilizing the water from the artesian well for irrigation.

He recently secured a lease on the Brown homestead for a term of years and plans to seed part of this place first. Mr. Lemcke says he can sell to sheep- men all the alfalfa he can raise, at the highest market price.

Murray E. Cobb is associated with him in the enterprise and will have active charge of the work. The tractor bought by Mr. Lemcke is the first to be brought into the valley and if it proves practical and economical it is probable they will be used here generally where large tracts of land are farmed."

With this last visit at White Bluffs we complete our journey through the last of the counties and sections of the Yakima Valley. We concluded the pre- ceding chapter with a general summary of production for Yakima and Benton counties. We may conclude this chapter with the statement that Mr. Luke Powell of Prosser, state inspector of orchards for the Kennewick and White Bluffs district of Benton County, estimates the production of fruit, mainly apples and pears, in the district in 1918, at 550 carloads. According to Mr. Powell's judgment the estimates in the preceding chapter for the Yakima and Wenatchee districts are below the actual product. He believes that a conservative estimate for 1918 would be 8,000 carloads of fruit in Yakima Valley, including Yakima, Kittitas and Benton counties, and an equal amount for the Wenatchee district, including Chelan, Okanogan, Douglas and Grant counties.

CHAPTER VIII

THE CAMP-FIRES AND TALK-FESTS OF THE PIONEERS

ORGANIZING PIONEER ASSOCIATION-WOMEN'S CLUBS-OFFICERS OF KITTITAS PIONEERS-RECOLLECTIONS OF O. A. FECHTER-HEADGATES OF CANAL RAISED- FIRST REAL ESTATE BOOM-THE BUBBLE BURSTS-TOWN WAS WIDE OPEN- PIONEERS-THE WOMAN'S CLUB, YAKIMA-MUSICAL CLUB-TWENTIETH CEN- TURY CLUB-PORTIA CLUB-HOME ECONOMICS CLUB-THE COTERIE CLUB-ART COMMITTEE-YAKIMA VALLEY DISTRICT FEDERATION-MOTHER'S CONGRESS -- D. A. R .- CHAPTER P. E. O .- WAR ORGANIZATIONS-MRS. HARRISON'S RECOL-

- LECTIONS OF THE BUILDING OF SUNNYSIDE-TOWN BUILDING-OLD TIMES IN THE YAKIMA VALLEY, AS NARRATED BY MRS. WARNECKE-RETURN TO PENDLE- TON-A FERRY BOAT-THE FIRST GIRL'S RECOLLECTIONS OF KENNEWICK- SAGEBRUSH EVERYWHERE-PREEMPT A CLAIM-FIRST BUSINESS BUILDING- MEADOW LARK'S SONG LINGERS-TWO NOTED CONTEMPORARY INDIAN CHIEFS, AS GIVEN BY L. V. MCWHORTER.

A CHAPTER OF RECOLLECTIONS

This is to be a chapter of recollections. We preserve here special contribu- tions from a number of residents of the Yakima Valley who participated in making the foundations, or who, as children, saw those foundations laid. No one can tell the story from the heart as those can who helped make it. We believe therefore that the records of this chapter will have an exceptional interest to future readers as descendants of the builders.

In each of the chief places, and even in several of the small ones repre- sented in this work, there have been pioneer and historical societies. It will strike the reader as singular, but it is nevertheless a fact, that in the very first number of the first newspaper in Yakima City, the "Weekly Record" of Sep- tember 6, 1879, there is a call for a meeting to organize a Pioneer Association. The call is printed in full in the chapter on the Press, but it is suitable that we reproduce part of it here :

ORGANIZING PIONEER ASSOCIATION

"On Saturday night, October 11, 1879, at the courthouse at Yakima City, there will be a meeting to organize a Pioneer Association for Yakima County, of all persons who resided in said county on the day the first issue of this paper was published. Turn out, all professions and pursuits! Come, ye honest sons of toil! Come, ye who have braved the storms of pioneer life! Come, ye whose matchless valor has never quailed before war-whoops and scalping- knives."

From that day to this there has been more or less of regular organization for preserving the records of "the brave days of old." There has been for many

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years a Yakima Pioneer Society, of which David Longmire is now president and John Lynch is secretary.

There is also a Yakima Historical Society, of which A. E. Larson is presi- dent and W. W. Wiley is secretary. The Sons of the American Revolution, of which Frederic C. Hall is president, have taken an active part in preserving local history. Very fittingly these three presidents are members of the Advis- ory Board of this work.

WOMEN'S CLUBS

There have been also most active Women's Clubs, Daughters of the Ameri- can Revolution, and other patriotic organizations, which have borne a leading part in everything pertaining to preservation of history as well as in the culti- vation of local spirit and in the beautification of the city. These societies have cooperated in erecting monuments and otherwise marking historic spots. A full view of the Women's societies is given in this chapter by Mrs. E. A. Larson. The Pioneer and Historical Societies have united from time to time in regular meetings which may be called their "talk-fests." The latest of these occurred on June 30, 1918, at the farm of Wallace Wiley near Tampico.

The place is known as Kamiakin's Gardens, and the stern old chief, "Last Hero of the Yakimas," was the main theme of discussion. Thousands of peo- ple, whites and Indians, were present. Several of the notable students of his- tory from other regions were present, as well as representatives of all the lead- ing local organizations. For one of the most notable of the visitors this was the last pioneer gathering. This was Gen. Hazard Stevens, known throughout the Northwest and the nation, both for his own qualities and for the fact that he was the son of Governor I. I. Stevens. A few months later he passed away, at the age of seventy-eight.

Addresses were made by a number of visitors and local members. An iron post was placed with imposing ceremonies at a point by the roadside where it was believed that Kamiakin's irrigating canal had passed, the first in the valley. A grand and glorious "feed," even though it were war times and the specter of Herbert C. Hoover loomed above the eastern horizon, in the profuse luxuriance of the Ahtanum farmers, was an essential feature. Though it was a hot sum- mer day some blazing logs recalled the "Camp-fires of the Pioneers."

The addresses of the occasion, with the subjects were these: Chief Stwires, of the Yakimas, a Klickitat Indian by birth, on the Indians of the old times, a really remarkable speech; George H. Himes, of Portland, on the Naches Immi- grant road ; Mrs. A. J. Splawn, of Yakima, on Kamiakin and his garden : Prof. E. S. Meany, of the State University, on the Yakima Treaty: Mr. W. P. Bonney, secretary of the Washington State Historical Society, on the work of that society ; Gen. Hazard Stevens on his personal recollections of Kamiakin and the treaty of 1855 at Walla Walla; Miss Martha Wiley, of Ahtanum, on Pioneer Missionaries ; Prof. W. D. Lyman, of Walla Walla, on Pioneer Patriots; Mr. Talcott, of Olympia, on the historical societies of his part of the state; L. V. McWhorter, of Yakima, on his personal observations of the Yakima Indians; and finally that by Mr. Wallace Wiley, on whose ranch the gathering was held, explaining localities and historical connections.

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That last notable gathering may be considered as a sample of others of earlier date.

Ellensburg is no whit behind her older sister in the activity of her histori- cal students. Those whom we are so fortunate as to name as members of the Advisory Board in Ellensburg, have made invaluable contributions to local his- tory ; Mrs. John B. Davidson, Hon. Austin Mires, Judge Ralph Kauffman, Dr. J. A. Mahan, Oliver Hinman, Prof. Selden Symser and Miss Mary A. Grupe of the Normal School.

In connection with the Normal School, the work of the students and even of the children of the sixth grade in the training school, is worthy of special recognition, and has been used in earlier chapters of this part. Besides those on the Advisory Board at Ellensburg, special mention may be made of Mr. Gerrit d'Ablaing, Mrs. C. P. Cooke, Henry Schnebly and Mr. and Mrs. William Taylor, perfect encyclopedias of pioneer knowledge.

An event of special interest in connection with the Pioneers of Kittitas County was a picnic in Sliger's Grove on August 22, 1901. At that meeting, with its camp-fires and barbecue and other frontier features, a pioneer asso- ciation was organized, composed of all who had come to Kittitas in or prior to 1886. A thousand people or more were present and an eloquent address was given by Edward Whitson, one of the earliest Kittitas boys, later a distin- guished Yakima attorney, and still later a Federal judge.

OFFICERS OF KITTITAS PIONEERS

The officers of that association were: J. F. LeClerc, president ; Tilman Houser, vice-president ; R. A. Turner, secretary ; M. M. Dammon, Matthew Bartholet, A. J. Sliger. J. W. McDonald, W. L. German, J. G. Olding, F. Bos- song, and John Packwood, directors.

The newer towns of the valley, Prosser, Kennewick, Sunnyside, Toppenish, Mabton, Grandview, Richland and others, while having a smaller background in time, have also had their zealous students of local history. To members of the Advisory Board in those places great praise is due. The women's organiza- tions in all those places have led in the work of collecting historical data.

With these prefactory facts, the special contributions may now appear.

The Recollections of O. A. Fechter of Yakima may fittingly begin these contributions. Coming here but little more than a boy just after the comple- tion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Mr. Fechter has been one of the true builders in the business and municipal life of the valley. Aside from his accu- racy of observation and report, Mr. Fechter's literary skill and taste are mani- fest in all that he writes.

Yakima as seen through the eyes of this leading business man, makes a most vivid companion picture of the fair city of the present.

RECOLLECTIONS OF O. A. FECHTER

More than thirty years have passed since on a fourth day of July, the writer, prompted by idle curiosity, stepped from a railway coach on which he was journeying to the coast to seek his fortune, to the station platform at North

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Yakima and looked at a typical western village lying dormant, exhausted and sweltering in a blazing midsummer sun.

Yakima Avenue extended before him, a wide white stretch of gravel and sand from which rose clouds of dust. It was crowded with Indians who, with true western spirit and in true western fashion, were celebrating the Nation's birthday. Dressed in gay, highly colored holiday attire and mounted in twos and even threes on a nondescript lot of ponies, which looked as if they would succumb under their burdens, they presented an unusual sight and were not only guests at the feast but provided a large share of the entertainment.

The town was largely hidden by the dense foliage of young locust and cot- tonwood trees that had made an extraordinarily rapid growth and which at that time were planted on all of the streets, including both sides of Yakima Avenue. What was visible of it consisted almost entirely of rough board buildings with square fronts many of them in a dilapidated state.

These fronts, while anything but attractive themselves, served to conceal what was still less so and to distinguish the buildings as business houses. It is worthy of comment that not one of them is left on the avenue today. The town looked to be old and in a state of decay rather than young and with a vigorous growth before it. Only that and the dense mass of foliage crowning the shade trees on every street saved it from being classed with a large number of other small towns along the line of the railway on which the journey had been made, since entering the new and undeveloped West, towns that showed evidences of haste and were new and crude and characteristic of the open country and vast empty spaces in which they were situated.

The sight, while novel, was not inspiring. It was saved from being com- monplace by the Indians and the canopy of green under which they were gath- ered. The writer wondered whether his coming to this state meant that he would be doomed to spend the remainder of his life in a town like that. His apprehension was not unfounded for three weeks later he again alighted from a train, this time an east-bound, and walked down the avenue under the shade of the trees just as the sun, setting behind the western range painted the nearby hills with purple and gold, and with fading lights and darkening shadows re- touched the old and worn, and made bright the dingy and dull, leaving an im- pression on him of subtle charm and exquisite beauty that has never been effaced.

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History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 104

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920 Publication date: 1919 Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke Number of Pages: 1134

Author: Lyman, William Denison, 1852-1920
Publication date: 1919
Publisher: [Chicago] S.J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 1134