History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 33

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 33
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 33
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 33

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

273

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

Nason, located near the Thorps. One of them, Nason, took a place in the Moxee near the present location of the Riverside schoolhouse. Broshea established himself on the river bottom in the place now reached by East Yakima Avenue. He was thus the first settler on land now actually in the city of Yakima. Doshea was also on the west side of the river just below Broshea. Nason sold out to McAllister in 1865. He went to the Kittitas in 1869, becoming one of the first settlers in that part of the Yakima. In November, 1863, William Parker and Fred White established themselves with a large band of cattle on the upper Satus Creek. In the next year Mr. Parker and John Allen drove their cattle into the fertile flats on the north side of the Yakima south of the ridge, and it is known as Parker bottom to this day, one of the most productive regions of the whole fertile valley. In the same year came Gilbert Pell, who settled on the north side of the Yakima River near the mouth of the Satus. He afterwards became the first settler in Fruitvale. In the Spring of the same year of 1864 the first settler on the Ahtanum made a permanent location. This was Andrew Gervais, permanently and honorably identified with the growth of Yakima. At the same time came one of the most prominent of the makers of early Yakima, J. B. Nelson. He with his family first located near the mouth of the Yakima, the first family in all that region. He had come to be there by reason of the fact that horse thieves had run off horses from his herds and in following them he had become temporarily the first settler on the lower Yakima. During the following Winter he went to a point on the other side of the Yakima a little ways south of the present Sunnyside, later the Jock Morgan ranch. The next year the Nelsons went to a point near the mouth of the Naches, now the Lesh orchard. Having been flooded out in 1867, the family moved again, this time to what became the first claim on the Naches. In the Fall of 1864 one of the most prominent men in the country at that time came to Yakima, Nathan Olney. He was the second settler on the Ahtanum. His loca- tion was near the present Wiley City. He was a member of the immigration of 1843, had taken a prominent part in all the Indian wars, was an Indian sub- agent for a number of years and as such had exercised a large influence in the settlement of Indian troubles. His wife was an Indian woman, and his children and grandchildren, living mainly at Toppenish, Wapato, and the regions ad- joining, are known throughout Yakima as possessed of wealth, intelligence, and force of character. Mr. Olney died the very next year after locating on the Ahtanum.

In the fall of 1864 there arrived also a notable group of cattlemen, L. F. Mosier, Captain James Barnes, and Mr. Warbass. They had driven a herd of cattle from southern Oregon past Klamath Lake and The Dalles, and thence across the Klickitat and Simcoe to the Selah and Wenas. These cattle were the first on that range.

The year 1865 was notable for incoming settlers. The first location on the Wenas was made that year by Augustan Cleman. His location was that subsequently acquired by David Longmire. It is stated that the first sheep in Yakima were driven in by Mr. Cleman. From him the high mountain between the Naches and Wenas received its name. His descendants have taken a prom-

(18)

274

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

inent part in the development of both the Yakima and Kittitas regions. This same year saw the entrance of the largest drove of cattle yet coming to Yakima, nine hundred head, driven in by the McDaniels, Elisha and Andy. Their loca- tion was on the Yakima River at the west end of Snipes Mountain. Their cattle were ultimately acquired by Ben Snipes. As already noted, Mr. Snipes began driving stock into the Yakima as early as 1859, but he did not take up a residence till a number of years later. In 1865 came another notable addition to the growing community. This was an immigration led by Dr. L. H. Good- win, whose first design was to go to Puget Sound. They decided to locate near the mouth of the Cowiche, and became the first settlers in that region. With this company, in addition to the Goodwins, there were Walter Lindsay and family and John Rozelle and family and William Harrington, whose wife was a daughter of Rozelle. These families had a number of sons and daughters and constituted the largest addition yet made to the different Yakima settle- ments. L. H. Goodwin finally took a place just above the subsequent Yakima City. Thomas Goodwin located in the river bottom about a mile above the present Moxee bridge. Walter Lindsay made his house yet a little higher up, John Lindsay and William Harrington located on the Ahtanum. The Rozelles went to the Kittitas and thus became the first settlers in that part of Yakima. But they were not permanent settlers. For during their first Winter they fell into such distress that Mortimer Thorp, learning of their condition, sent Andy Gervais to bring them down to Moxee. This he did and as a result Mr. Rozelle took up a place which became the site of the north part of the city of Yakima. These claims, with those earlier taken by Doshea and Broshea embraced most of what is now the city, east of the railroad. In 1863 Mr. Moore and William Connell built a cabin in Parker bottom, now on the Sawyer place, the oldest house in Yakima, of which a picture appears in this volume.

The year 1866 saw a steady, though not a large increase in the little settle- ment. James W. Allen located on the Ahtanum about two miles below the sub- sequent Woodcock Academy, and a few years later his son-in-law, H. M. Ben- ton, became established adjoining. David Heaton settled on the Ahtanum a little above the Allen place in the same year of 1866. In the same year the first settler located in the Selah Valley on the east side of the Yakima River. This was George Taylor. In that year came E. Bird, with cattle which he turned out on the plains just below the mouth of the Satus. A few years later he drove his stock into the lower Yakima between "the Horn" and the present Richland. Apparently he was the first in that region for anything more than a transient stay, and even he made no permanent residence there. William Hickenbottom and Thomas Connell acquired the Moore interests in Parker Bottom and became residents in the Moore cabin already referred to as the oldest existing house in Yakima Valley. This same year also was marked by the erection of the first cabin on the site of Ellensburg, by William Wilson.

A number of permanent additions were made in 1867. Egbert French went to Parker Bottom, having a very bright Indian wife, and started the first store. He was on the place now owned by Dan McDonald. Purdy Flint and wife, Lucy Burch, settled in Moxee, and began their influential part in laying foundations

OLDEST EXISTING HOUSE IN YAKIMA VALLEY, BUILT BY J. P. MATTOON IN 1864 ON LAND NOW OWNED BY W. P. SAWYER OF WAPATO

275

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

in the valley. They are still living in a beautiful home in Yakima. A begin- ning was made this year in the region on the north side of the Yakima along the foot of Snipes Mountains. This location was made by Samuel Chappelle. Within a few years he moved to the subsequent site of Zillah, the first in that place. C. P. Cooke came to Moxee in 1867, and three years later went to the Kittitas, where he and his family bore an honorable part in the upbuildings of that section. The Lyen family followed almost the same course as the Cookes, going to Kittitas in 1871. In 1867 also came one of the noteworthy char- acters of Yakima history. This was Col. H. D. Cock. In the Chapter on Indian Wars we have related an instance of his nerve. He first settled on the river a little below the present Mabton, and there he established the first ferry in that section. Later he became the first to take up land on the dry liill west of Yakima, then usually thought worthless, now the Nob Hill section. Colonel Cock became the first marshal of North Yakima. Several important additions were made to the Ahtanum settlement in 1867. Among these may be named Thomas Chambers, Charles Stewart, and Joseph Bunting. According to A. J. Splawn, Bunting was the man who murdered Quiemuth the Indian in Olympia under the impression that it was Quiemuth who killed the McAllisters on the White River in 1855. Bunting was a son-in-law of McAllister. Thomas Pierce settled in the Selah Valley in 1867. In the same year there was another valuable addi- tion to the Ahtanum in the person of Hugh Wiley and family, who have been among the largest contributors to the substantial moral and business growth of the Ahtanum section. Their location was at the place where Wiley City now stands. J. W. Coplen settled adjoining Wiley, but in 1870 sold out to Alonzo Durgon and moved to Walla Walla, subsequently becoming one of the first settlers in the Hangman Creek country. J. W. Goodwin located on the Cowiche in that year, selling in 1870 to J. W. Stevenson who still lives at the place. The same year of 1867 marked the first actual settlers in the Kittitas, though, as already seen there were sporadic locations there at an earlier date. A Switzer named Frederick Ludi, and a German, John Goller, commonly called "Dutch John," located that year in Kittitas. They were advised to seek that spot by Mortimer Thorp to whom they had gone for advice. The splendid beauty of the valley visible from the Umptanum ridge so appealed to them that they made a location a mile above the mouth of the Manashtash. The Indians said, "Snow fall Injun deep ; awful cold ; white man can't stand it." And in fact they had a severe Winter and the next Spring went eastward and took a claim on what is now the southern part of Ellensburg. They found William Wilson living there with the Indians, the same who is said to have put up the first cabin on the site of Ellensburg. It appears that Wilson was drowned in Snake River the next year while trying to run off some stolen horses.

In 1868 several of the best known families of the Yakima Valley became permanently located. Among them may be mentioned William and Edward Henderson and Charles Carpenter who settled on the Alitanum. Above the Wileys, Daniel Lynch made a location. Alfred Miller located in the Wenas. In 1868 the scanty settlement in Kittitas was augmented by two notable arrivals. Tilman Houser from Renton, Washington, took up a preëmption claim on Cole-

276

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

man Creek ten miles northeast of Ellensburg. In the same year Charles Splawn, as already narrated, settled on the Taneum Creek on what later became known as the Thorp ranch. With 1868 there were therefore two families and three bachelors in the Kittitas. Mrs. Splawn and Mrs. Houser were the first white women living in that region.

The year 1869 was a great year in the beginnings of settlement. In that year the father of Yakima, Mortimer Thorp, made yet another move. To the historian it would seem as though he would be content to stay settled and enjoy the fruits of his energy on the spot which will always be known as the nucleus of Yakima settlements. But no! He was a genuine frontiersman, and such he remained till the last. So he forsook the Moxee and moved to the Taneum Creek in the upper Kittitas, near the present town of Thorp. There he lived out the remainder of his restless, ambitious and useful life. One of the noblest contributions to the Ahtanum of 1869 was Elisha Tanner. Having known him from childhood the author can testify to the affectionate regard in which he and his family were held by all who knew them in their former homes in Oregon and at White Salmon, and later in Yakima. Like all the early settlers he engaged in the stock business, but was one of those who foresaw the capability of the Yakima Valley to sustain a large population with varied industries. In 1870 Mr. Tanner moved his family to the place which he had taken on the Ahtanum, and for ten years was one of the leaders in every good word and work. In 1880 his life was prematurely ended by a distressing accident on the Naches River. He was crossing the river on the ferry, and through the almost crim- inal carelessness of the ferryman in having no rear guard, the team becoming frightened, backed off the boat into the water. In the struggle in the water Mr. Tanner was struck by the horses and drowned. To the Ahtanum in 1869 also came W. P. Crosno and his family, and they must be counted among the leaders to this day in laying the foundations. The Flynns, the Blands, the Tigards, and the La Chappelles also came in that year. Yet another arrival of high standing was James W. Beek. Perhaps the most notable event of 1869 was the establishment of a store at what soon became Yakima City by Sumner Barker, joined a year later by his brother, O. D. Barker. Another event worthy to be chronicled was the marriage in that year of Leonard Thorp and Philena Henson. Soon after their marriage they took up a homestead in Selah Valley and there they lived many years. The first settlement in the region of the pres- ent Granger was made in 1869 by Martin Holbrook.

After 1869 settlers came so thick and fast that it will exceed our limits to tabulate them. We may perhaps consider the year 1870 as the dividing line between the beginnings of settlement and the larger growth. Several events of special importance may be named as marking the transition. In 1870 George Goodwin, one of the settlers of 1865, opened a store near that of Barker Broth- ers. With a second store the name of Yakima City began to be used for the little cluster of houses. At about the same time Charles Schanno and his brother Josephi took up claims on the sagebrush flat, and the main part of Yakima City grew up on those claims. The Schanno brothers established the third store, a good deal more extensive than either of the others, and began to

277

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

do business in almost the modern manner. More significant even than the stores was the fact of the beginnings of irrigation. For the destiny of Yakima is practically interwoven with the irrigating systems. To Thomas and Benton Goodwin must be accorded the honor of the first irrigating canal. It was laid out in 1866, and conducted water to land about a mile south of the present city of Yakima. By means of this the Goodwins raised a small crop of wheat, the first in the Valley, forty bushels to the acre. In 1869 Captain Simmons and Mr. Vaughn with others made a short canal under a sort of cooperative system, con- veying water from the Naches River to lands below the junction of the rivers. It was the ancestor of the Union Canal. The Schannos undertook a much more extensive enterprise in 1870. They dug a canal from a point on the Ahtanum near the Carpenter place to Yakima City. That is often supposed to be the first real ditch for irrigating purposes in the Yakima, but it was antedated by the two described. Even their canals, it should be remembered, were preceded by one dug by Indians. That Indian ditch was on the place near Tampico, now owned by Wallace Wiley, and conveyed water for "Kamiakin's Gardens." It was made as early, probably, as 1852 or 1853. Among many matters of general interest in that period of the sixties, we should mention the beginning of schools. We have already named Mrs. Letitia Flett Haines as the first teacher and the date as 1862. But that school was a private one for the children of Mortimer Thorp. The first county commissioners appointed in February, 1868, the first county superintendent of schools. We shall have much more to say of this in the chapter dealing with schools, but suffice it to say here that the settlers on the Yakima, true to American ideals, saw to it that schools were started at once. A schoolhouse was built between Yakima City and the present Yakima. The pioneer teachers in that building, according to the recollections of Mr. Thorp and other old-timers, were Joe Lawrence, Martha Beck and Doctor Clark.

As will readily be seen by the reader, we have not undertaken to give a complete list of settlers in those earliest years. We have undertaken to name those who were first in the leading regions, and especially those who by reason of permanent residence and subsequent connection with the growth of their respective localities may be said to have had the closest connection with the history. In later chapters we shall have occasion to bring out further facts in regard to some of the pioneers named, as well as other facts about other pioneers.

It may be noted that while we have named first locations in the vicinity of Yakima, and other points in the upper and central valleys, we have given practically nothing of the beginnings in the lower Valley. From Mabton down there was no permanent settlement till many years later. The first settlers of Prosser, Kiona, Kennewick, and Richland, belonged to a later vintage. It was not till about 1879 and two or three years later that C. J. Beach at Kennewick, Ben Rosencrantz, Jack Roberts, and Joe Baxter at Richland, and Nelson Rich, W. F. Prosser and the Taylors near Prosser, began to lay the first foundations. The above statement should be qualified by adding that Smith Barnum was living at the mouth of the Yakima River in 1875, and that by a memorial of the

278

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

Territorial Legislature, the postmaster-general was requested to establish a mail route through the Yakima Valley, with Smith Barnum as postmaster at the mouth of the river. Yet the general body of the lower Valley settlers and their followers belong properly to the period coming in with the railroad in the eigh- ties. We are here giving rather a panoramic than an encyclopedic view.

MINING IN YAKIMA VALLEY

During the period of beginnings at those pivotal points of the valley which at first were stock ranges but were destined to become gardens, orchards, and cities, there was running along parallel with them another sort of a period, equally inevitable with that of the cowboy. This was the era of the prospector and the miner. The pick and the gold pan were as active as the shaps and the quirt. Every new opening in the west had a rainbow hanging somewhere on a gold mine, and the Yakima Valley was no exception. And it was no wonder. Take into account the California goldfields, Idaho, British Columbia, Colville, and he would have been a slow immigrant indeed who did not have dazzling visions of floods of yellow dust at every turn of the landscape. As a matter of fact, as we have learned by quotations from Government reports in our first chapter, portions of the mountains in which the Yakima and itse tributaries rise have the geological formation and history from which the precious metals are to be expected. Confidence was not entirely misplaced, then, by those eager prospectors who in the fifties and sixties took their lives in their hands and threaded the defiles and burrowed in the canon walls and lost themselves in the declivities with which the great wall of the Cascade Mountains fronts the sun- rise. Nor were they entirely unsuccessful. Considerable gold has actually been found in central Washington, and there is reason to believe that there may yet be paying mines. But largely the prospector and miner have faded away into the mists of the earlier age.

There are two fine stories so characteristic of that time of feverish expec- tations that we deem it worth while to relate them here. They are given in the "History of Central Washington" as received by the author of that work from Charles Splawn. It seems that a certain Captain Ingalls, who had dis- covered gold in the Coos Bay section, came to the Columbia River in the time of the Indian wars of 1855-56, and served as a scout. In company with a friendly Indian named Colowash he found upon the Wenatchee River several nuggets and an appearance that denoted good placer diggings. Fearful of being discovered by the hostiles they did not linger, but left, with all plans of return- ing at a more favorable time. When the war was over Ingalls hastened back to the "lost mine." It was lost, sure enough. He found never a trace of the nugget bearing drift. He then went to Klickitat where Colowash lived, to re- ënlist him. But no! Nothing would induce Colowash to go again. Ingalls made another effort. He organized a small party to make a thorough search. But misfortune seemed to dog their steps. One of the party accidentally shot and killed the one on whom they were chiefly depending for guidance. The next effort to find the lost mine was made by Charles Splawn. In 1860 he planned a trip to the Similkameen mines. Before going he sought information

279

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

from Colowash about the "lost mine." While the Indian refused to go, he was willing to describe the place and made a map of it. He stated that it was on the Peshastin Creek and this is in the group of mountains of which Mount Stuart is the dominating summit, so magnificant from the Kittitas Valley. On his return from Similkameen Mr. Splawn induced four other returning miners to join him in the search for the Ingalls discovery. With an Indian guide they made their way up the Peshastin, and in a narrow canon Mr. Splawn found a good prospect. Meeting still another prospector named Russell they showed him the gold and allowed him to take it to Seattle. As a result of his exhibition of the treasure, quite an excitement arose and a number of miners hastened to Peshastin. Though a number of nuggets, some of the value of twelve dollars, were found, those Peshastin mines did not prove of great extent, and the dizzy expectations set afloat by Ingalls and Colowash are still in the air.

In 1862 an old Indian named Zokeseye took some silver-bearing ore to Fort Simcoe. The secretary at the agency, whose name was Walker, took the speci- men with him to The Dalles. Having become overly confidential while under the influence of some of the stalwart liquids which abounded at that city, Walker exhibited the ore freely. An experienced California miner named Blachley, seeing the ore and realizing its value, assayed it, and found it nearly two-thirds silver. Being eager to hunt the source of the wondrously rich rock, Blachley sought information of Walker, by whom he was referred to Mortimer Thorp, already so prominent in our history. Meanwhile old Zokeseye had been so disobliging as to die, so that Mr. Thorp was compelled to secure other Indian guides. But for that trip the quest was hopeless. Blachley made another effort the next year. In company with Charles Splawn, he went al! through the upper Yakima, the Wenatchee, and the Mount Baker regions. But all in vain. The "lost mine" remained lost, and has not been found to this day.

Quite a gold discovery was made in 1864 at Ringold bar on the Columbia. Leonard Thorp among others, went from Moxee to seek his fortune in the sands of the river. Though he found nothing of value, quite a good deal of gold was found there by others. The white miners cleaned up $30,000 or $40,000 while Chinese took out an amount not known. The Chinese have always been fond of mining on the bars of the Columbia and Snake rivers. It is well known that there is almost boundless wealth in gold dust on those bars, but it is so fine that no profitable method of mining has yet been discovered. The existence of such quantities of gold dust along the big rivers denotes, in the minds of some miners, the location at the sources of those rivers of some vast "mother lodes," which, if found, may yield the fabulous returns of treasure once imagined.

SOME CHARACTERISTIC STORIES OF OLD TIMES

In concluding this chapter we will give two stories from A. J. Splawn's "Kamiakin, the Last Hero of the Yakimas," which will illustrate the serio- comic character of some of the events in "the brave days of old." Readers from the older states may ask us just how old those brave days are, when middle aged people now living can remember them. We are obliged to confess that it is rather stretching a point to call them old. But it is the best we can do. Nothing and nobody is really old in Yakima.

280

HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY

The first of these entertaining tales is about the administration of justice at a certain time in Yakima City :

"In those early days there wandered into Yakima City one J. W. Hamble- ton, a man far above the average in brains and education, but who, like many of his kind, had only two useful organs in his body-his mouth and his throat. He had the gift of gab, and his throat was the canal for conveying the large quantities of firewater necessary to keep his stomach going. He claimed to be a lawyer. At any rate, he was prosecuting attorney for Yakima County for one term.

"At the time, two border ruffians, Ingraham and McBride, kept an Indian trading post at the mouth of the Wenatchee, where a Mr. Warren was em- ployed as the handy man, an important position in the line of business con- ducted by Ingraham and McBride. In traveling through that country I often found in the Indian villages, kegs of whisky with tin cups near by where all, big, little, old and young, could help themselves. I was told the Indians bought it of this firm.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I, Part 33

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