USA > Washington > Benton County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 71
USA > Washington > Kittitas County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 71
USA > Washington > Yakima County > History of the Yakima Valley, Washington; comprising Yakima, Kittitas, and Benton Counties, Vol. I > Part 71
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A special election for 1889 was provided in the constitution, not, however, including county officers. One of the most important features of this election was the vote for state capital. Of this we have already written, but it may be proper to record here the results of that election.
Three cities contested for the position. Olympia secured 25,488 votes; North Yakima, 14,707 ; and Ellenburgh, 12,833. Much bitterness was felt between the two central Washington candidates, for each felt that with the support of the other it would have secured the coveted honor. The law provided for a majority vote and though Olympia had a large plurality, it had not a majority, and hence there had to be another election.
That occurred in 1890 and Olympia had a decisive majority and the hope of locating the capital in central Washington disappeared forever.
At the special election of 1889, there were chosen members of the first legislature of the new state. By the provisions of the constitution Kittitas County was the tenth senatorial district. E. T. Wilson, a republican, was chosen to fill this position.
The constitution also assigned two representatives for Kittitas County in that first legislature. The two chosen were J. N. Power and J. P. Sharp, both republicans. C. B. Graves of Ellensburgh, a republican, was chosen judge in the district, this district including also Yakima, Klickitat, Skamania, and Clarke counties.
Thus the state of Washington was duly inducted into membership in the Union.
This election of 1889 was the first election in which the people of Wash- ington had ever voted for a congressman or a governor and other state officers. John L. Wilson was the first congressman, chosen over Thomas Griffits. Elisha P. Ferry, honored as one of the Territorial governors and as one of the best of citizens and men, became first governor of the new state, realizing one of his laudable ambitions. Engene Semple was the democratic candidate for chief executive.
The election of 1890 shows these results. For congressman a total vote of
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1669, of which John L. Wilson received a majority of 87 over his democratic competitor, Thomas Carroll. John Davis, democrat, and J. M. Ready, republican, were the successful candidates for the legislature, having 940 and 878 votes respectively over their opponents, W. H. Hare, republican, with 762 votes, and A. L. Slemmons democrat, with 736. D. H. McFalls was chosen prosecuting attorney by 974 votes to 829 for the democratic candidate, C. V. Warner. T. B. Wright, republican, had 1,009 votes for clerk to 813 for E. J. Matthews, Demo- crat. For auditor, J. E. Frost, republican, had 1,050 to 781 for Martin Maloney, democrat. For sheriff, Anthony Meade, democrat, had 990 to 868 for J. L. Brown, republican. Another democrat, J. F. Travers, was the successful candi- date for treasurer, having 947 to 839 for the republican, O. Peterson. For com- missioners, Mr. Haran, a republican, was chosen in the first district, J. W. Richards, a republican, in the second, and J. C. Goodwin, also republican in the third. P. M. Morrison, republican, defeated John Foster, democrat, for sheep commissioner by 897 to 828. J. H. Morgan, democrat, was elected superintendent of schools by 959 to 817 for W. T. Haley, republican. For surveyor, the repub- lican, E. I. Anderson, had 918 to 890 for A. F. York. J. H. Lyons, republican, was chosen coroner over A. F. Fox by 950 to 816. Thus it appears that of the legislative and county officials chosen four were democrats, the rest republicans. In Kittitas County, as in practically all parts of the Northwest, voters are inde- pendent, and scratching is common-a most wholesome sign in a Democracy, and obnoxious only to bosses, or would-be cattle of that breed.
A special election on February 7, 1891, to fill a vacancy in the legislative body caused by the death of John Davis, resulted in the choice of W. H. Peterson, also a Democrat. Mr. Davis had been deservedly popular in Kittitas County, as shown by the fact that in a republican district, he, a democrat, had been chosen to the legislature.
His death left a serious gap in the ranks of the builders of Kittitas County.
Now we come to the election of 1892. This was a Presidential year. More- over it was an especially exciting Presidential year. It was the first election in which the citizenship of Washington participated. It excited therefore a special interest in the state. Aside from the particular local interest, the national situation was one of intense interest. The "boom" times, so intense and specu- lative during the decade of the eighties, had broken down with a crash during Harrison's administration. Whether this was due to the substitution of repub- lican high tariff principles for supposed democratic free trade preferences, or whether the uneasy money situation, the silver issue, the question of Chinese admission, or whatever it may have been, the people seemed as ready for a change as in 1888. The politicians of both parties were striving desperately to accom- plish what Ben Butler described about that time as the aim on the tariff plank. He said that it reminded him of the fellow who was hunting and saw an animal so far off that he couldn't tell whether it was an elk or a cow. So he decided to shoot at it in such a way that if it were a cow he would miss it and if it were an elk he would hit it. The election of 1892, moreover, was the year of the great populist movement. The "Third Party" is one of the most significant factors in our political history.
Such an element is the sign and badge of an active and growing democracy.
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It is sort of a safety valve of free institutions. This great populistic movement resulted from the sudden coalescing of progressive elements with the dissatisfied and discontented. Its vital forces were largely of the broader-minded and more patriotic citizens who saw that special interests and underground schemes and lobbies of all sorts were sheltered behind the "regular" party organizations.
Hence they believed that there should be a general break-up of the political machine. With them were associated many crack-brained enthusiasts and bank- rupt politicians. As in all such movements the wise and the unwise, the prac- tical and the visionary, jostled each other in the marching lines. But whether for good or ill, whether to be condemned or praised, the populist movement of the nineties was a great movement. It was more than a political incident. It was a sign of the "growing pains" of a juvenile body politic. Besides all the other causes of political agitation the gubernatorial election of 1892 was one of peculiar intensity. The adherents of J. H. McGraw, republican candidate, and H. J. Snively, democrat, went gunning for each other and for the opposing candi- dates with somewhat special acrimony.
Yet again a senatorial election was to turn on the results of the legislative election. As an Irishman might express it, "there was lovely fighting all along the line." Three county conventions met in Ellensburgh, the populist on June 8th, the republican on July 30th, and the democratic on August 20th. Also Ellensburgh was hostess to the state convention of the populists on July 25th.
The following were the results of the election of November, 1892. The republican Presidential electors received 855 votes, the democratic 789, and the populist (technically, people's party) 569. John L. Wilson and W. H. Doolittle, republicans, were chosen to Congress, with votes of 873 and 828, to 771 for Thomas Carroll and 719 for J. A. Munday, democrats, and 593 for M. F. Knox and 586 for J. C. Van Patten, populists. For governor, H. J. Snively democrat, received 783 to 774 for J. H. McGraw, republican, and 724 for C. W. Young, populist. These comparative figures give an accurate view of the general strength of the parties in the county, and they would not be far astray from the average results in the state.
The election for the legislature resulted in the selection of C. I. Helm for state senator, as republican candidate, by the close vote of 807 to 803 for W. H. Peterson, democrat, and 582 for J. T. Greenwood, populist. J. H. Smithson, republican, and George W. Kline, democrat, were chosen to the lower house of the legislature. Anthony A. Meade, democrat, was chosen sheriff over P. M. Morrison, republican, and W. M. Stinson, populist. J. E. Frost, republican, had the very large vote of 1,067 for auditor, the democrat, E. E. Saladay, having but 672 and the populist, C. W. Dibble, having 505. Martin Cameron, republican, was elected clerk : J. F. Travers, democrat, treasurer : E. E. Wager, democrat, attorney ; G. M. Jenkins, republican, superintendent ; W. A. Stevens, republican, assessor : E. I. Anderson, republican, surveyor : I. N. Power, republican, coroner ; Alexander Pitcher, republican, commissioner first district; Peter McCallum, democrat, commissioner second district : Adam Stevens, democrat, commissioner third district, by the very close vote of 748 to 746 for Herman Page, republican candidate. Thus it appears that the election might be considered a republican victory in the triangular combat, but in each case by a plurality, and even then
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in most cases with a small margin. That condition forecast a possible adverse result in the succeeding election, if the opposition could get together. The result foreshadowed was measurably realized in the election of 1894.
And thus the course of events brings us to the election of 1894.
The striking event of this election was the rapid growth of the people's party. This growth was attained mainly at the expense of the democrats. The congressional vote in the county resulted in the choice of W. H. Doolittle and S. C. Hyde, republicans, with 851 and 820 votes respectively, to 794 and 780 for W. P. C. Adams and J. C. Van Patten, populists, and 383 and 394 for N. T. Caton and B. F. Heuston, democrats.
There was no election for state senator that year. The votes for repre- sentatives were 882 and 801 for B. F. Barge and F. M. Scheble, republicans, to 820 and 656 for John Catlin and J. J. Leavis, populists, and 395 and 600 for J. J. Jones and Clyde V. Warner, democrats. Of the county offices we find the fol- lowing: for sheriff, W. M. Stinson, populist; for treasurer, Dexter Shoudy republican ; for auditor, J. M. Baird, republican ; for clerk, Martin Cameron, republican ; for attorney, E. E. Wager, democrat ; for superintendent, G. M. Jenkins, republican: for surveyor, A. F. York, republican : for commissioner second district, J. F. Brown, populist ; for commissioner third district, J. C. Good- win, republican ; for coroner, Theron Stafford, populist. It will be seen from the above that the populists secured one legislative seat and three county offices, while the democrats were third in every instance.
We now reach the election of 1896.
This notable election occurred in the very hardest of the hard times, the bluest of the blue times. It seemed that the prognostications of evil of all the Cassandras of gloom had been fulfilled, all the croaking of the birds of evil omen the country over had been realized. 1894, 1895 and 1896 lad certainly been try- ing years. The election of 1896 was a great election the nation over, perhaps as exciting an election as ever occurred in the state of Washington unless it were that of 1916. In those two elections only did the state of Washington jump the republican track, the first time for Bryan, the second time for Wilson. Kittitas was gathered in, offices, body, soul and breeches, by the populists, known in the election as the fusionists, officially named people's party. The fusion consisted of the Democrats, the Silver republicans and the populists, the great "three-ring circus", as it was facetiously styled.
The republicans held their usual state and county conventions. Then came the fusionist convention, notable not only politically, but of special local interest, since it met at Ellensburg. That was a most conspicnous convention, not alone for the principles of action evolved and the subsequent results of the election, but for the personnel of the convention. There were present the dramatic James Hamilton Lewis, he of the pink whiskers, multifarious trousers, and neckties of many colors, a flame of oratory and a main-push in all the engineering. There was the brilliant "Wheat Chart" Jones, with his persuasive tongue and hypnotic handshake. There was Colonel Blethen of the "Seattle Times", a veritable "steam engine in breeches," as was once said of a greater man. There was Steve Judson, of Seattle, with the thunderous voice, and Judge Netever with the quiet tone of the jurist and one of the best presiding officers that could be seen.
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There was Tom Vance with the polished speech but with a biting wit that some- times entertained and sometimes stung. In all there were over 1,200 delegates of the three parties.
The populists made a stubborn fight to preserve their lead in the convention, regarding themselves, perhaps justly, as the significant factor in the combination. The upshot of it was that in the apportionment of nominations, they received eight, including the governor, while the democrats had five, including one con- gressman and the Silver republicans had two, one of which was the other con- gressman.
This famous election of 1896 resulted in a sweeping triumph of the fusionists in the state of Washington as well as the county of Kittitas. The Bryan electors in the state received 50,643 votes to 38,573. Both the people's party candidates for Congress, James Hamilton Lewis and W. C. Jones, received similar majorities in the state.
In the Kittitas, the Presidential electors on the fusionist ticket received 1,296 votes to 1,044 for the republican. Lewis and Jones for Congress received 1,304 and 1,280 respectively, while S. C. Hyde and W. H. Doolittle could muster but 1,003 and 1012. John R. Rogers, fusionist candidate for governor, triumphed with a vote of 1,287, while P. C. Sullivan, republican, had to be content with 988.
The other state offices ran about the same, every contest being a fusionist victory.
In the legislative contest Daniel Paul, fusionist, had a vote of 1278, while H. L. Stowell had 1,036, for state senator. At that time Kittitas and Douglas con- stituted the eleventh senatorial district. For representative for the eighteenth district (Kittitas County) B. C. Scott and Theron Stafford, fusionists, with 1,270 and 1,294 votes respectively, defeated J. P. Sharp and C. B. Reed, with 1,041 and 964.
For Superior judge of the three counties of Yakima, Kittitas and Franklin, John B. Davidson of Ellensburg was the choice, receiving in his home county 1,284 to 1,033 for the republican, C. B. Graves.
The local officers chosen by essentially the same majorities, were all fusion- ists, as follows: sheriff, W. M. Stinson; clerk, E. L. Evans; auditor, S. T. Sterling ; treasurer, C. H. Flummerfelt ; attorney, Kirk Whited; assessor, J. C. Ellison ; superintendent, W. A. Thomas; surveyor, Andrew Flodine ; coroner, William Edwards; commissioner in first district, R. S. McClemmans ; commis- sioner in second district, J. M. Newman. The only close contest was in the case of the vote for auditor. Mr. Sterling had 1,166 to 1,163 for his opponent, J. M. Baird. A contest was filed on the ground of a miscount in certain precincts. The court found, however, that the fusionist candidate still had a majority. Three vacancies, two by death, and one by removal, occurred in the county offices.
Sheriff Stinson died in 1899 and L. C. Wynegar was appointed to complete the term. Assessor Ellison died in 1898 and the place was supplied by the appointment of G. C. Poland. Commissioner Brown-chosen in 1894-went to the Klondyke in 1898, and John Surrell of Cle Elum was appointed in his stead.
In the election of 1898 the pendulum swung the other way entirely and the republicans gained complete control of state and county. The fusionists held (39)
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their state convention in Ellensburg on September 7th and apportioned their nominees along lines similar to those of the preceding election. The republican state convention was held in Tacoma on September 23. The Ellensburg fusion- ist convention of 1898 involved much the same forces and line-up as that of 1896, though the results reversed the campaign.
As giving first-hand impressions of this convention, with some pen sketches of the political leaders, some correspondence by the author for the "Walla Walla Statesman" may interest our readers :
The convention! The "three-ringed circus!" The "political mongrel with- out pride of ancestry or hope of posterity !" Such were some of the characteri- zations made by some of the gold-bug bystanders, whose eager desire that fusion should fail was surpassed only by their ill-concealed fear that it would succeed, and whose mountain of exaggeration of every disagreement was matched by a gulf of concealment of every harmony. But what of the spirit of the convention? The details have already been given to the readers of the "Statesman." Our aim is to present only some few flavoring extracts from its spirit.
First of all, be it observed, the convention was a triumphant success, a prodigious success, in its platform, in its nominations, in its spirit, in its prom- ise of triumph at the polls, in its portentious forecast of defeat to that agglom- eration of bossism and corruption miscalled the republican party of the state of Washington. Each of the three days had its special history and its special spirit. The first was a day of rather tedious and cautious tentativeness, each member of each convention sizing up his associates and pushing out into his environment, and each convention taking the measure of the others and en- deavoring to discover the hard and soft places in their circumference.
The night of the first day and the second day was a time of active positive demands, of bold bluffs, of excited controversy, of almost, at times, bitter re- criminations.
The third day was one of calm and generous mutual forbearance, and consequent harmony. The result was a fusion of the democratic, populist and silver republican forces, which is deemed by all a far stronger alliance than that of two years ago ; a fusion under platforms substantially identical and states- manlike in their terseness, comprehensiveness and conservative progressive- ness ; a fusion whose nominees, Lewis and Jones for congress and Godman and Heuston for judges of the supreme court, will sweep the state like a cyclone.
The countenances of republicans during the evolution of these three days formed an instructive commentary on the course of events. Wednesday those physiogomies aforesaid were underlyingly anxious with a kind of external lather of attempted facetiousness. Thursday they were crinkled and wrinkled with joy an inch deep.
Friday they had changed. And what a change! A ghastly pie-crust pallor told of the goneness within. Some of the republicans are frank enough to admit that the fusion effected is strong, dangerous to them, substantially sure of suc- cess at the polls.
Another marked feature is the general and genuine satisfaction felt by members of the fusion forces over the result.
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It is not a pretense either. In spite of the intense earnestness which char- acterized both populist and democratic conventions in the prosecution of what they deemed their dues, an earnestness which spilled over somewhat into the camp of the silver republicans, although they were the logical and necessary peacemakers, yet when the result was finally attained, it was felt by all except a few extremists (and even they are coming around all right) that any other conclusion would have been a tremendous blunder and would have imperiled success at the next election and perhaps permanently. Especially was it felt that the final concessions by the populists to the democrats of the naming of one judge (even though many populists deemed it was their due to name both) was statesmanship of a high order and was the cap-stone of the whole conven- tion. Nothing could have had a healthier and happier effect. Nothing will be more sure to cement all forces, and to prove to conservative and prejudiced people that the "pops" are capable of generous forbearance and patriotic states- manship.
It is due them to place great emphasis upon this fact. Then to cap the happy result, Judge Godman became the democratic nominee and this was a final stroke of statesmanship or inspiration peculiarly acceptable to the populists and to the people of all parties in this portion of the state.
One other feature of the Ellensburg convention, noticeable to all present, was the exceedingly high average of general intelligence manifest in all branches of the convention. Could those conservative critics, who view all sub- jects through the blue glasses of prejudice, and who are accustomed to assume that all culture and brains are within the republican fold, could they have seen the cultivated and polished gentlemen who composed the main part of the fusion forces, and could they have heard the liberal and enlarged sentiments, couched in cultured and forceful language and spoken with the clear and earnest accents that mark the scholar and thinker, they would have sat in dumbfounded amaze- ment and shame, and a part of the scales would have fallen from their eyes. There were many marked characters in the convention and many powerful speeches made. First of all were the three members of the congressional dele- gation belonging to the fusion party, Senator Turner, cool, dignified and judi- cial; Congressman Jones, eloquent, magnetic and attractive; Congressman Lewis, elegant, polished, witty and unique.
The members of the silver republican convention will not soon forget the profound impression created by the brief but vivid speech of Congressman Jones, in accepting the nomination by the convention, in which he massed to- gether the salient points of the coming campaign.
Among the most striking personalities of the convention, the man who be- yond all others contributed to the triumph of the convention, was Colonel Blethen of the "Seattle Daily Times." With him should be named Colonel Lyon, keen, intellectual and scholarly.
We from this side of the mountains who had not before seen many of our people from the other side, had our eyes at once fixed upon the somewhat desic- cated form and spectral countenance of State Senator Taylor and listened to his pithy wit and hard common-sense-about the shrewdest politician of the whole combination.
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Among the populists, Chairman Hart, Farmer Todd, Horatio Alling, Cline, Westcott and Cotterell, were men who at once impressed their force and ability upon those with whom they came in contact.
Of all men in the convention, the most surprising character was Vance of Yakima. While his bodily presence is not like that of the apostle to the Gen- tiles, "contemptible," it is, nevertheless, somewhat scanty, and his general "get up" is somewhat inadequate, not to say "kiddish."
When he rises to speak a stranger wonders why the chair does not sup- press that "boy." As soon as the "boy" begins to speak the stranger wonders why the chairman doesn't have him speak all the time, such a torrent of wit, sense, good humor, framed in such cultured language and spoken with such ex- quisites modulation, pours forth without apparent effort.
Another marked democrat was Judson of Tacoma, with stentorian voice, surpassed in that respect only by our own Mays.
But it would be impossible to name more of the striking personalities of the convention. Suffice it to say that the cream of the three parties was there.
The results of the election of November 8, 1898, showed that whatever larger influence may have remained permanently, the organization produced by the union of populists, silver republicans, and democrats, did not possess staying qualities and did not commend itself to the judgment of the voters of the state or of the nation. The great tidal wave of 1896 receded as fast as it rose.
In this election of 1898 Francis W. Cushman and Wesley L. Jones en- tered upon their distinguished careers as members of the Federal Congress, the relation to be terminated only by the death of the former, while the latter is still a member of the Senate, now in his twentieth year of continuous service in Congress.
They received 1,037 and 983 votes respectively to 943 and 848 for J. H. Lewis and W. C. Jones, the former incumbents.
For representatives to the state legislature from the eighteenth district, J. P. Sharp and R. B. Wilson were chosen over R. P. Edgington and J. F. LeClerc, the fusionist candidates, by 1,092 and 1,047 respectively to 806 and 813. The votes for local officers were just about the same as for legislature though with close votes on attorney and assessor. Those chosen were: Sheriff, Isaac Brown; clerk, Harry Hale; auditor, S. B. Fogarty ; treasurer, C. H. Flummerfelt ; at- torney, C. R. Hovey ; assessor, J. W. Richards ; superintendent, C. H. Hinman ; surveyor, E. I. Anderson ; coroner, J. C. McCauley ; commissioner first district, Dennis Strong ; commissioner second district, William Mack.
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