USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 67
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 67
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 67
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[End of Miss Smith's Article]
Now to return to the early experience of Mr. Taylor ; he drove a band of four thousand cattle from The Dalles to British Columbia in 1870. They were obliged to cross the Columbia River twice. The crossing was a great adventure. About nine hundred cattle were driven across at a time, and though there was so much confusion and danger but few were lost. In 1877 Mr. Taylor acquired what became later the Kinney place. He traded for a
DR. JOHN ROBBINS' CABIN, SPRINGFIELD FARM, NORTH ELLENSBURG, CLAIMED IN MAY, 1878
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horse and saddle this place which later was worth $25,000. Subsequently, Mr. Taylor acquired the place later known as the George and Jeff Smith place, seven miles northeast of Ellensburgh. Mrs. Taylor (Mary Grewell) is nearly as old a pioneer as her husband, having come in 1873. Her brother, E. D. Grewell, located in the section known as "Denmark" in 1871. Mrs. Taylor, while still Mary Grewell, taught the first school in the neighborhood, District No. 12, in 1876.
Besides those named above, the following should be recorded as belonging to the honorable company of these earliest builders. Each is worthy of ex- tended notice, but the limits of this chapter forbid further enlargement, and we may only say that most of those here named lived many years in the valley, some of them are still living in honored old age, and their descendants now occupy leading places in all lines of business enterprise and professional life. This list can not in the nature of the case be exhaustive, but we endeavor to give here those who became permanent residents not later than 1872. Thomas Goodwin, Benton Goodwin, W. H. Donald, James McDonald, Fenton McDonald, H. Packwood, J. H. McEwen, M. M. Damman, J. D. Damman, James Fergu- son, Hugh Perry, J. M. Perry, C. A. Sanders, W. A. Stevens, William Dennis, William Lewis, E. E. Erickson, Mr. Reeser, J. E. Bates, David Fisher, J. E. Voice, August Nesselhouse, J. D. Dysert, G. W. Parrish, Elias Messerly, F. M. Frisbie, W. H. Beck, J. D. Olmstead, Jacob Becker, George Wheeler, Daniel Wigle, Robert Wallace, C. B. Walker, George Hull, Charles H. Wheeler, George Robinson, Dr. Robbins.
Most of those named above had families, though a number were bachelors. Some of the earliest settlers were "squaw men."
BEGINNING OF IMPROVEMENTS
The year 1870 may be considered as the central date of beginnings. If we were to select five fundamental agencies of public improvements most essen- tial in the Kittitas Valley they would probably be postoffices, roads and bridges, irrigation, schools and churches, and saw mills. We shall endeavor to give in this stage of our story some view of each of these fundamental agencies in com- munity life.
The first attempt at a postoffice was a private affair started by Charles Splawn in 1868. Upon the arrival the next year of F. M. Thorp into the same neighborhood he joined with Mr. Splawn in the maintenance of that first sys- tem of communication. They employed an Indian to make a weekly trip to Seattle. In 1869 a United States postoffice was established on Mr. Thorp's place on Taneum Creek. W. A. Bull was postmaster at the settlement on Naneum Creek. That office was later moved to the place of J. D. Olmstead. We are informed by Mr. William Taylor that the office on the Naneum preceded that on the Taneum. In 1870 the Taneum office was discontinued and in place of it an office was established at the place of J. L. Vaughn. This is often referred to as the oldest postoffice in the county. That statement is not strictly correct, though it was the first which became permanent.
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The office on the Naneum had only a short life. In 1872 an office was opened in Ellensburgh in Mr. Shoudy's store.
ROADS AND BRIDGES
Practically the only business in Kittitas in that first stage was that of cattle raising. Men pretty nearly lived on horseback. In those conditions roads and bridges were not so likely to be a subject of pressing demand as in regions of other occupations. Furthermore the creeks were all easily crossed in ordinary weather. The Yakima itself did not, except in flood stage, present any in- superable obstacle to cattle or to men accustomed to the life of the range.
The general dry climate and open expanses of the Valley also caused road building to seem less urgent than would have been the case in some pioneer regions. However, with increase of settlement and especially with the be- ginnings of agriculture and the starting of the town, the need of better roads became apparent. The greatest need was manifestly for bridges connecting the settlement on the Taneum and Manashtash with that on the east side of the river. The Manashtash ford was the one most used. The first improvement over the ford was the ferry established there by J. D. Olmstead.
Two bridges were built across the river, one above and one below the ferry. The upper bridge was built by Jacob Durr in 1880. It was designed as a toll bridge, but when the owner undertook to collect tolls he found that the people would rather take the chances of fording in ordinary weather than of paying toll. Being somewhat embarrassed financially by this disappointment, Mr. Durr was obliged to raise money in some way to pay the workmen who had built the bridge. Accordingly he offered to the public yearly passes on the bridge for $25 and life passes for $50. A good many of the farmers, especially those on the west side, perceiving the general benefit of the bridge and recognizing the fact that it was a big undertaking for those times and worthy of support, pur- chased these passes, and thus the enterprising builder was pulled out of the hole. Subsequently this bridge was acquired by the county and became a free bridge. It was known for some years as the Durr bridge, but more recently has been called the upper bridge. The lower bridge was built in 1884 by Fred- erick Leonhard, who was engaged in the lumbering business with his brother- in-law, Geritt d'Ablaing, one of the best known citizens of Ellensburg. The lower bridge was also acquired later by Kittitas County.
The roads throughout the level parts of the Valley, east and west, largely made themselves, but it was a much larger enterprise to make a road to Yakima. From 1855 on there had been a kind of road from Yakima to Kittitas. There had been established also a fairly good road from Yakima to The Dalles. From that steamboat point practically all the freight was brought into the Yakima Valley. It had become clear that the Kittitas must have connection with that main line of freight roads. Mr. Jacob Durr, not content with the achieve- ment of the first bridge, set about a toll road to Yakima. This was a big un- dertaking. The ragged Yakima canyon offered few inducements. In fact, the present state highway avoided that tortuous and rocky way and runs over the high hills of the Umptanum as a more feasible and economical route. Mr. Durr's road was laid over the Umptanum hills on a good deal the general
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course of the present highway. It was a difficult and expensive piece of work. At one point it was necessary to have a "turn-table." A long wagon with a four-horse team was obliged to be backed and turned in order to negotiate the turn at that place.
It is stated that the first loads of freight over the Durr toll road were hauled from The Dalles by Billy Mills and Phil Olmstead. Each outfit had about 2,500 pounds of freight, part of it being for Mr. Shoudy's store at Ellensburg. The road was muddy from recent rains and one of the bridges across a canyon had been washed out. Coming down a steep hill late in the evening one of the wagons became so deeply imbedded in the mud that the teams could not ex- tricate it. The men unhitched and went down to the creek and there they found Durr and some of his men repairing the bridge. They assisted Durr in the repairs and spent the night at his house. In recompense Durr and his work- men assisted in pulling the freight wagon out of the hole and remitted the tolls. We find another statement that Mr. Cooper hauled the first load of goods from The Dalles for Mr. Shoudy.
This Durr road was afterwards acquired by the county and became the regular road connecting Ellensburg and Yakima. In 1880 Mr. Dixon, father of G. E. Dixon and Charles Dixon, inaugurated the first stage line from The Dalles to Ellensburg. The distance was considered 150 miles. The first drive was William Mills.
Of the pioneer schools and churches we shall speak in the chapter on schools and churches.
IRRIGATION
We turn therefore to the beginnings of irrigation as the next public interest. We have given in the general chapter on Irrigation a view of the larger enter- prises in the entire length of the Valley, including the West Side Canal, the "Town" or Ellensburgh Canal, and the Cascade Canal. We gave there also a view of the government work at the lakes at the source of the Yakima, and with that something of the great plans for the High Line Canal. We need not re- peat here those items of that general chapter. There are, however, some de- tails of the early private enterprises not given there which have a place in this local chapter. There seems to be a little difference of opinion as to the order of priority of the early ditches. The author is informed by Mr. William Tay- lor that the earliest irrigating ditch, according to his understanding, was con- structed by W. A. Bull, Tilman Houser and William Taylor in 1871. It appears from the statements of Mitchel Stevens that the Taneum and Manashtash ditches were in process of construction at the same time, though not completed till the following year. Herman Page, J. E. Bates and W. A. Stevens were the chief originators of the Taneum Ditch, entering upon the work in 1871 and continuing it during the ensuing year. It was at first a small local affair, but by successive additions of membership and resulting enlargements of area and water supply it has become quite an enterprise, covering about 4,000 acres at the present time.
The Manashtash Ditch had a similar history and in point of time was just about parallel with the Taneum, 1871-72. The Goodwin Brothers, Thomas and Benton, who had been among the earliest ditch diggers of the Yakima settle-
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ment, were leaders in the Manashtash undertaking. Associated with them were W. H. Beck, George Robinson, B. W. Frisbie and S. R. Geddis. These men associated themselves in a corporation and the management of the business has been and now is in the hands of a board of trustees, with the officers usual in joint stock corporations. Mitchel Stevens has been a trustee for many years, also president, and at the present time is secretary. Adam M. Stevens has also been one of the leading members of the official force to the present time. The area covered by the Manashtash Ditch has also been increased until at present it is 1,700 acres. One interesting fact about the Manashtash Ditch is that by reason of its purely local membership and management and the mutual char- acter of the membership and consequent economical operation, and perhaps also somewhat owing to the natural lay of the land and the location of the water supply, the cost of maintenance is so low that the ordinary maintenance charges, even of the Government canals, seem excessive, almost beyond reason. We are informed that the annual maintenance expenses on the Manashtash Canal have usually run from fifteen to fifty cents per acre. The Government charge (which is actual expense) in the Sunnyside district was for some time seventy-five cents, though now increased. Various private enterprises have maintenance charges of from $1.50 to $5. This great difference leads the student to wonder whether these later enterprises are economically managed, or whether the outside capital invested in them may be making an unreasonable interest.
MILLS
Perhaps the next greatest need in a growing community is the mill, both the saw mill and the grist mill. We have derived from Mr. Gerrit d'Ablaing, in addition to other valuable data, some facts of great interest in regard to the pioneer mills. The first mill was a small whip-saw mill on Naneum Creek, built by J. D. Damman in the early seventies, and run by water power. The first water power right on the Yakima was appropriated on February 21, 1876, by Levi Farnsworth, J. S. Dysart and J. A. Shoudy, to run a saw mill about four miles northwest of Ellensburgh. This mill was acquired in 1882 by Mr. d'Ablaing.
The first steam saw mill was located by Frederick Leonhard in Cooke Creek canyon in 1879. This mill had a very remarkable experience. It was moved by teams from The Dalles over the old stage road a distance of over 150 miles. After having been used for some time in its first location it was moved to Leonhard Mountain, between Naneum and Wilson creeks. The timber supply was mainly pine and the mill had a capacity of 18,000 feet per day. Though a small affair compared with the great mills on the seaboard, that cut, considering time and place, represents quite a mill, and Mr. Leonhard will go down in history with great credit as one of the large builders of the early era. In 1876 a small water power mill was built on the Naneum by Messrs. Damman and Tjossem. In 1879 J. E. Mills located a small water power saw mill at Thorp. There was still another saw mill on the west side, known as the Becker Mill, belonging to the same period of the early eighties.
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
Such may be regarded as the pioneer saw mills of the Kittitas. Of later developments in these lines, as in others, we shall speak in another chapter. One very interesting fact in connection with the early saw mills is that the Leonhard Mill on Naneum Creek was moved to Cle Elum. There it cut a large body of timber for the Stampede Tunnel on the Northern Pacific Railroad. During the period in which that mill was maintained on Naneum Creek, a lumber yard was kept by Leonhard and d'Ablaing in Ellensburg. In 1882 this was moved to land owned by Mr. d'Ablaing, near Ellensburg, where his home is now located. At one time there was over a million feet of lumber in the yard. It was the existence of this lumber in large measure which induced Mr. Leonhard to build the "lower bridge" on the Yakima in 1884.
The flour mills have had an equally interesting and important history. The first mill was built in 1875 by Canaday Brothers at a point on Wilson Creek about five miles northeast of Ellensburg. It was run by water power. A fine brick building of three stories was subsequently erected, equipped with the roller process and having a capacity of seventy-five barrels daily. The property was acquired later by W. T. Morrison, but the mill has stood idle for a num- ber of years. In 1879 J. D. Damman established a flour mill on the west side of the river nearly across from Ellensburg. Burrs were at first employed, but the roller process was introduced in a short time. The location of the Northern Pacific Railroad between the river and Ellensburg seems to have interfered with the Damman Mill and it was discontinued.
At the same time R. P. Tjossem built a grist mill on Wilson Creek, about four miles southeast of Ellensburgh. This began as a burr mill, then was changed to a combination roller and mill process, in the later stage having a capacity of forty barrels a day. At just about the same time a mill was built by Oren Hutchinson at what became the town of Thorp. This also was a water power mill. In 1888 C. A. Sanders established a grist mill on Wilson Creek, two miles northeast of Ellensburg. At first a burr mill like the others, it also followed the prevailing fashion and became a full roller process mill, with a capacity of ninety barrels a day, much the largest mill in the county. In 1889 it fell a victim to fire. In 1887 Messrs. Shoudy and Tjossem built the City Mills in Ellensburg. This was a thoroughly up-to-date mill with a ca- pacity of 100 barrels a day. Part of the machinery of the previous Tjossem Mill was transferred to the City Mills and an abundant supply of the best appliances added. After a partnership of a year the partners separated. Mr. Shoudy took his son with him into the City Mills, and Mr. Tjossem took with him his son Albert into a first-class mill at what is known as Holmes Spur, two and a half miles southeast of Ellensburg. Their mill was burned the very next year of 1890, but it was replaced by a hundred barrel mill with the best existing appliances. This mill, with its mill pond, is a conspicuous feature of the landscape to the traveler approaching Ellensburg from the south on the Northern Pacific Railroad.
Such were the pioneer grist mills of the county. Others were subsequently located of which mention will be made in a later chapter.
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HISTORY OF YAKIMA VALLEY
DEVELOPMENT OF MINERAL RESOURCES
Perhaps next in point of importance and time in the creation of the popu- lation and wealth necessary for a new county was the development of utilizing the minerals, both the precious and the base. Without question Kittitas County is surpassed by no county in the state, possibly equalled by none, in variety of resources. Partaking with other parts of central and eastern Washington in pastoral, agricultural and horticultural capabilities, it has lumbering resources which put it almost within the same category as the counties of the west side of the Cascade Mountains. At the same time it is equalled by none, with the possible exception of Okanogan, in the variety and extent of mineral resources.
We have already in the first chapter of this work given an extended account of the geology and mineralogy of the Yakima Valley. From that exhibition of the mineral wealth of the mountain section of this county the reader can readily infer that the discovery and development of this vast potential wealth of the county have composed a very important section of Kittitas history. While in a way apart from the ordinary life of the county that mining district has offered some of the most important political, economic and social problems of the entire region. Roslyn and Cle Elum, with the regions immediately contiguous to them, have about a third of the population of the county. More than a third of the annual income of the county comes from the mines and timber of the moun- tain area.
Aside from these gross results the population is radically different from that of the Valley section. The latter are almost entirely of straight American ancestry and breeding. The mining district has a population of mingled na- tionalities to a degree not equalled elsewhere in central Washington. A lady of Ellensburg, very familiar with all the conditions of life there, informed the author that at a recent meeting of the County Council of Defense, at which an effort was made to get together the women of Cle Elum and Roslyn, there were present representatives of twenty-six nationalities.
Some. peculiar stories of the early gold discoveries, the "lost mines," have been narrated in an earlier chapter in this book. We have some features of that era, not given before, which are of more especial local interest and may well have a place here.
The discovery of gold in the Swauk region is described thus by some of the old timers. In 1867 a prospecting party, composed of the Goodwins, Thomas and Benton, well known in both Yakima and Kittitas, with several others, was going through the mountain belt at the head of the Yakima tributaries, and while at a point on the Swauk, Benton Goodwin was panning some gravel to see if he could get a "color." He was not an experienced miner, and in fact none of the party was, but when a few yellow particles were seen in the pan, some insisted that it was gold. But they did not follow up the indications and. went on with no thorough investigation. Six years passed by and another party, of which Benton Goodwin was a member, set forth in 1873 to scour the moun- tains again for gold. The party were not succeeding in any mineral discovery, and were again on the Swauk preliminary to returning to civilized life. While. prodding around in a gravel bed, Benton Goodwin discovered a small nugget ..
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Other members of the party immediately plunged into the gravel bed and threw out the sand and stones in an eager quest. After a few minutes' washing they found that they had $5 worth of the precious metal. The next day they re- newed the search and obtained still better results.
They went right on to turn over the rocks and gravel. Their intention was to keep their discovery secret, but being hard up for provisions they had to send out to the settlement and their secret leaked out.
They had, however, by that time secured gold dust and nuggets to the value of $600.
A rush to the Swauk followed. A mining district was organized, of which D. Y. Borden was the recorder. A number of the well known Kittitas pioneers went in the rush. Among names given of those who were in the mines that fall we find J. P. Beck, G. W. Goodwin, A. Churchill, David Munn, Samuel Bates, James Bates and Walter A. Bull.
No great success, however, rewarded the miners during that season and interest declined. A few years later activity was resumed and the mineral treas- ures of the Swauk and Teanaway were disclosed in sufficient extent and value to demonstrate a real mineral district.
There has been steady and profitable mining in that region to this day, though never anything of the spectacular or exciting results of some other parts of the Northwest.
COAL.
From the precious metals we turn to other mineral resources. As the reader will have seen from the first chapter of this volume, almost every species of mineral and variety of stone are found in Kittitas County. The big thing, however, is coal. The Roslyn and Cle Elum coal mines are the most extensive on the Pacific Coast.
This great coal area begins about twenty-nine miles north and a little west of Ellensburg. The Northern Pacific Railroad crosses the southern edge of this field and has a branch line from Cle Elum through the middle of the field to Beekman.
The formation in which the Roslyn coal is found has an area of about 100 square miles and is over 4,000 feet thick.
It is evident that the coal was formed at a time when a great lake covered the whole basin. Apparently a great upheaval of volcanic matter with Mount Stuart as the center occurred after the formation of the coal measures, and after this upheaval a long period of erosion ensued by which two basins were formed, one of eight square miles and the other of about half as much. From an article by J. B. Menzies in "The Coast" of May, 1908, we learn that the chief vein of several in the coal measures is what is called No. 5, which is about five feet four inches thick, and which contains about four feet six inches of good clean coal. This is a coking, bituminous coal, well adapted to steam and gas making, and it is regarded as the best locomotive coal anywhere west of the great Pennsyl- vania and West Virginia fields.
We find varying account as to the time of discovery of this coal bed. It is asserted by Mr. Austin Mires and Mr. Gerrit d'Ablaing, than whom no better
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authority can be found, that in 1882 Nis Jensen made the first discovery at the place where Roslyn now stands. Mr. Menzies in the article quoted above, states that Mr. Baily Willis did the first prospecting in 1881, though coal had been discovered some years before. It is stated that Nis Jensen conveyed some of the first coal mined to Ellensburg in the Fall of 1883 or early the next year. As soon as fairly tested the value of the discovery became manifest and capital was at once interested. Mr. d'Ablaing states that James Imbrie, well known as a stockman in Kittitas, had valuable holdings, and that he and Frederick Leon- hard owned Mine No. 2, which came into possession of the Northern Pacific Railroad and proved to be very valuable. In the Spring of 1886 the railroad company began the work of opening up Mines Nos. I and 2. L. M. Bullock was general manager and Henry Cottle chief engineer in this work. The first regular export of coal from these mines occurred in the latter part of November of that year. Coal from the Roslyn fields is more valuable for furnace and loco- motive purposes than for house use, and has been shipped to many regions on the Pacific Coast and even to the Hawaiian Islands for those special uses. The towns of Roslyn and Cle Elum have been built and have acquired large business and considerable population purely as a result of the coal exports. The North- ern Pacific Railroad draws almost its entire supply of coal from this source and has become the chief owner of the mines. There are, however, several companies operating in the mining and shipping of coal. The chief of these companies is the Northwestern Improvement Company of Roslyn. This com- pany is said to be the largest producer of coal in the state, and this is equivalent to saying the largest on the Pacific Coast. It operates six mines, having an output of 7,000 tons a day. This is estimated by Mr. Menzies to be equivalent to mining an acre and a half of surface per day, and this product is loaded onto 220 railroad cars, making several train loads every day in the year that the mines are worked. About 2,500 men work in these mines, and in the two towns of Cle Elum and Roslyn and the camps adjoining a total population of about 10,000 lives.
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