USA > Washington > Spokane County > Spokane > History of the city of Spokane and Spokane County, Washington : from its earliest settlement to the present time, Volume I > Part 36
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The troops were withdrawn from Fort Spokane in 1898, to take part in the Span- ish war, and later the fort was turned over to the Indian department and used as an Indian school.
For the record of changes since 1873 Mr. Winans acknowledges information given by James Monaghan and Edward O'Shea.
CHAPTER XXXI
INLAND EMPIRE HISTORY IN OLD LEGISLATIVE ACTS
DISCOVERY OF GOLD-EARLY FERRIES AND BRIDGES- STEAMBOATS ON COLUMBIA AND SNAKE-MEMORIALS FOR TRANSCONTINENTAL RAILROAD-SCHEME TO TURN PEND D'OREILLE RIVER INTO THE SPOKANE-ARMS SENT TO MINERS-GOLD HUNTERS OVER- RUN NEZ PERCE RESERVATION-TOWN OF LEWISTON LAID OUT-CANADIAN "RECI- PROCITY -MINERS CLAMOR FOR BETTER MAIL SERVICE-FIRST BOOM IN THE INLAND EMPIRE-SPOKANE COUNTY ANNEXED TO STEVENS- DEALING WITH THE CHINESE -WALLA WALLA'S FIRST LITERARY SOCIETY-JAMES MONAGHAN GRANTED BRIDGE FRANCHISE ON THE SPOKANE-COAST MERCHANTS COMPETE WITH ST. LOUIS-ORE- GON TRIES TO ANNEX WALLA WALLA-FAMOUS OLD MULLAN ROAD-PRICES OF WALLA WALLA PRODUCTS.
Trust me, each state must have its policies; Kingdoms have edicts, eities have their charters ; Even the wild outlaw, in his forest walk, Keeps yet some touch of eivil discipline; For not sinee Adam wore his verdant apron, Hath man with man in social union dwelt, But laws were made to draw that union eloser. -Old Play.
A T THE sessions of 1860-1 and 1861-2, the legislature carved, out of the original boundaries of Spokane, the counties of Missoula, Idaho, Nez Perce and Shoshone, that territory having received a large influx of gold miners ; and at the latter session enacted a law constituting these counties. and with them Spokane and Walla Walla, the first judicial district. At the same session acts were passed establishing eourts at the county seats of Idaho, Spokane and Shoshone, that of Spokane to have jurisdiction in Spokane and Missoula counties.
At this time discoveries of gold at various points in the Clearwater and Salmon river region and along the bars of the Columbia river were luring thousands of ad- venturous men into the interior, and ferries were needed at many points where roads and trails erossed deep or turbulent rivers. At its winter sessions of 1860-1 and 1861-2 the legislature at Olympia was besieged by eager applicants for ferry fran- chises. An act passed in January, 1861, authorized "Antoine Plant, his heirs and assigns to establish and keep a ferry across the Spokane river, at or near the point where the military road from Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton crosses said river;" and allowing him to charge the following tolls:
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For each wagon, carriage or vehicle, with two animals attached. . $4.00
For each pleasure wagon, with two horses 3.00
For each additional animal. .50
For each cart, wagon or carriage with one horse. 2.00
For man and horse. 1.50
For each animal packed. 1.50
For each footman. .50
For loose animals, other than sheep or hogs .25
For sheep, goats or hogs, each head. .15
The grantee was required, "within six months from and after the passage of this net. to procure and keep on said ferry a sufficient ferry boat, with the requisite num- ber of hands to work the same, for the transportation of all persons and their prop- erty without unnecessary delay:" and further, to pay "into the county treasury of the county in which said ferry may be located, as an annual tax. a sum not to ex- cred $25 for the use of said county."
At the same session the legislature incorporated the Spokane Bridge company, with W. J. Terry, William Nix "and such others as may become associated with them." as incorporators, with a capital stock of $20,000; "for the purpose of con- structing a bridge across the Spokane river, Spokane county, at or near the govern- ment crossing." Maximum tolls were established :
For each foot passenger. .25
For each man and horse 1.00
For each pack animal and pack. .75
For each cart, chaise. gig with two wheels, or other two-wheeled carriage drawn by one horse. 1.25
The same drawn by two horses or oxen. 1.50
For each four-wheeled wagon, buggy or carriage. with one horse. 1.50
The same with two horses or oxen 1.75
For additional horse or ox. .25
For each pleasure carriage. coach or vehicle for conveyance of persons, with four horses. 2.00
For each horse, mnle or ass. or neat cattle. .25
For each sheep or hog. .10
The president of the company was required, as soon as the bridge was com- pleted and tolls collected thereon. to list under oath the capital stock and other prop- erty of the company, "for taxation as personal property is then listed for taxation by law." And "at any time after ten years from the time the tolls may be first col- lected on said bridge, the county commissioners or proper authorities of Spokane county shall have a right to purchase and manage said bridge in such a manner as may be provided by law."
Mention of Antoine Plant's place on the Spokane river is made in preceding chap- ters. Ben Burgunder, a resident of Colfax since 1879, who came into the Inland Empire in 1862, and a year later went to Marcus, Stevens county, where he en- gaged in business for many years, has given the writer valuable information
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
respecting Antoine's place and other historic crossings of the Spokane. Plant's ferry was at a point a short distance above Trent, but his home, where Governor Stevens repeatedly was sheltered in the '50s, was at the large spring which gushes from the hillside about a mile and a half north of the stream.
The Mullan road crossed the river at Plant's ferry, and ran up the valley to Lake Coeur d'Alene. At Antoine Camille's place. some three miles above Plant's dwelling, it connected with the old Colville road coming down over Peone prairie. Mr. Burgunder recalls that the Mullan road followed the old Colville road from Walla Walla to the crossing of Cow creek, and there took an independent course, and erossed Snake river at the month of the Palouse. McWirek Bros. had the first ferry at that point. They operated under a charter granted in the early '60s. The place is now known as Lyon's Ferry.
Tim Lee and Joe Herrin built the first bridge across the Spokane, in 1864, and sold it to Charley Kendall, who had a store on the cast bank. The store of M. M. Cowley and Tom Ford was on the west side. Kendall was killed about 1875 by Joe Leonard, who fired through Kendall's bedroom window. Leonard was killed in Montana, while serving as a U. S. scout in the Nez Perce war of 1877. At the time Kendall operated his toll bridge across the Spokane, Isaac Kellogg came up from Waitsburg in 1865 and built a free bridge across the stream at Antoine Plant's old ferry. While sitting in his cabin one night, he was killed by a shot fired through the window.
Lieutenant Mullan found Plant "a very worthy halfbreed Flathead Indian, who speaks both French and English; has a small field under cultivation, from which he obtains eorn, wheat and vegetables; these, with the salmon found in the river, form an abundant supply for his Indian family."
Mullan, with a party of 100 men. completed his historie old highway in 1859-60. His main command started from Walla Walla July 1, bridging rivers, ereeks and slonghs on their march, and noting the character of the country. Of the Palouse region Mullan ventured the prediction that "the black loam would doubtless pro- duce vegetables and cereals, and it is not at all improbable that the grazier and agriculturist will find, at no distant day, tracts of land that will amply repay their reelamation."
Under date of July 14 Mullan made this entry in his journal: "We camped this day on the banks of the Nedwhuald, and at the same point where General Wright hung Qualchien, the noted Yakima chief. and several other Indians, from which fact the creek is known to many as Hangman's creek."
Of the Coeur d'Alene Indians Mullan wrote: "They are wily fellows, and great caution is necessary in all intercourse with them."
His great task ended. Mullan's command was disbanded at Walla Walla in August, 1860, and the outfit sold. "Thus ended my work in the field," he reported, "costing seven years of elose and arduous attention, exploring and opening up a road of 621 miles, from the Columbia to the Missouri river. at a cost of $230,000."
At this period all eyes were dazzled by the glitter and glamour of gold. for the rich placers of the Spokane country were yielding princely tribute; fortune smiled on many a poor miner, and the spirit of promotion and exploitation was in the land. Steamboats were needed on the swift waters of the Columbia, the Snake and the Clearwater. to transport passengers and merchandise to the interior. and to meet
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
that need we find J. C. Ainsworth. Daniel F. Bradford, R. R. Thompson and J. S. Ruggle appearing at Olympia for legislative articles to incorporate the historic old Oregon Steam Navigation company. predecessor of the Oregon Railroad & Navi- gation company, or as now known, the Harriman system in Washington and Oregon. At least two of these, were to become steamboat princes, for their boats earned fabulous profits, as wealth came easily when miners were rocking out from $10 to $100 a day to the man at Pierce City, Orofino, Florence and other famous placer camps of fifty years ago.
Even then, and for years before, the people had keen anticipations of the coming of the Northern Pacific railorad and the transformation to be wrought by it in pio- neer conditions of travel, transportation and development. A memorial adopted by the Washington legislature, February 4, 1838, told congress that "the time has ar- rived for the construction of a great national railway across the continent, connect- ing the populous states of the Atlantic with the Pacific shores of the Union, already colonized with our young and vigorous men. . It will bind together this vast republic, and be a chain of union between the Atlantic and Pacific states. It will insure the defense of the country. Armies, seamen, military and naval stores may be transported from ocean to ocean in less time and with less expense than were re- quired between New York and the lakes during the war of 1812. It will give a direct. quick transit to mails. Military reasons call for its construction. Political reasons require that it should be made: and more than all, commercial reasons de- mand it. The trade of the Pacific ocean and eastern Asia will take its track. The trade of India, whose channels have been shifting for hundreds of years, is destined to shift once more, and that is across our continent. The American road to India will become the European track to that region, and the rich commerce of India will flow through our center."
For these and other reasons, it was-
"RESOLVED, As the opinion of the legislative assembly, that the cheapest and shortest route from the great commercial emporiums of the Atlantic to the Pacific. is the route explored and surveyed by Governor Stevens near the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude, connecting Puget Sound, the largest and most commodious harbor in the world, with its inexhaustible beds of coal, with the head of Lake Superior and the three great lakes which connect directly with the Atlantic, thus greatly reducing the cost of transit on heavy merchandise.
"RESOLVED, That the northern line is the most accessible by navigation, passes through the lumber regions of Minnesota and Washington, and has easy access to the vast pine forests of the Red river, and passing through the rich and boundless prai- ries of the northwest.
"RESOLVED, That the construction of this great northern national system can not only be the work of the present century, but it can be made the great work of the present administration, giving it undying fame, binding together this vast empire in bands of iron, and bearing the light of the gospel, of science and civilization across the continent, and making it the great highway between Europe and Asia."
But lamentably the civil war was coming on, and Buchanan's administration, soon to be swept from power, was not to have the "undying fame" held out to it by the legislative assembly of the young territory of Washington. Russian peasants have a saying that "God and the czar are far away," and congress and a trans-
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
continental railroad were far distant from the voice of the legislative assembly that was trying to make itself heard from the baekwoods capital of Olympia.
We have in the Spokane river a pretty fine water power, even as nature bestowed it upon us ; but we should have possessed a far greater power if only the brilliant project of the promoters of the Pend d'Oreille mining company had materialized some fifty years ago. Their objeet, however. was the quest of gold, not to amplify the water power in the Spokane, of which it then seemed there was an abundance and more for all future time.
By an aet passed in January, 1861, this corporation, having as its incorporators W. H. Watson, H. Way, W. Terry, R. Rieord, G. C. Blankenship, William Cardwell and B. F. Yantis, was granted power "to construct and maintain a eanal for the pur- pose of turning the channel of the Pend d'Oreille river into the Spokane river from any point on said Pend d'Oreille river that the said company shall deem most advis- able, and shall have the exclusive right for mining purposes to the bed of said river below low water mark." It further was provided that "any person not a member of said corporation who shall attempt to mine in said river below low water mark, shall be deemed guilty of a trespass, and upon eonvietion thereof, shall forfeit and pay to the said corporation not less than $500 nor more than $1.000, recoverable before any court having jurisdiction, in the name of the corporation."
On the theory that the bed of the Pend d'Oreille was rich in placer gold, it was the intention of the company to divert, through a eanal, the entire flow of that river into the headwaters of the Little Spokane, and thenee into the main Spokane. But the stock proved unsalable, and it appears that the projeet never advanced beyond the "paper" stage.
At the session of 1859-60, John W. Park was granted a franchise for a ferry across the St. Joseph river, "in what is commonly known as Spokane county," at the point "where the territorial or military road leading from post or Fort Walla Walla to Fort Benton, Montana," erossed that stream. The authorized tolls were somewhat higher than the legislature had permitted on other ferries in the interior, ranging from 50 eents for a footman to $5 for each wagon with two animals attached.
William Forman was authorized to establish a ferry across the Coeur d'Alene river. "in what is commonly 'ealled Spokane county," at the point where the Walla Walla-Fort Benton road erossed that stream, with permission to charge the same schedule of tolls as had been granted the ferry across the St. Joseph.
Notwithstanding the paeification of the country by the erushing defeats ad- ministered by Colonel Wright in 1858 upon the turbulent Indian tribes, the settlers were apprehensive of renewed hostilities north of Snake river; and the legislature, by a resolution passed February Ist, 1860, directed the quartermaster general "to forward one-fourth of all the territorial arms now in his possession, to some eon- venient point or points in the counties of Spokane and Walla Walla, or both of them."
Among the important aets passed at this session was one "to establish an insti- tution of learning in Walla Walla county,"-the beginning of the Whitman college of the present day. The act, passed December 20, 1859. provided for "the instrue- tion of persons of both sexes, in science and literature." in an institution "to be ealled the Whitman seminary ;" and named Elkanah Walker, George H. Atkinson, Elisha S. Tanner, Erastus S. Joslyn, W. A. Tenney, II. H. Spalding, John C. Smith, James Craigie and Cushing Eells as trustees. The capital stock was never to exceed
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
$150,000. "nor the income or proceeds of the same be appropriated to any other use than for the benefit of said institution as contemplated by this act."
For the accommodation of gold-hunters passing into the upper Columbia river country and on the way to the Similkameen placers. P. C. Dunlevey was authorized at this session to establish and keep a ferry "across Shalam river in Spokane county, commencing at lake Shalam and extending five miles down Shalam river." Thus they attempted to spell "Chelan" half a century and more ago.
The country cast of the Cascade mountains engrossed a large part of the thought and attention of the legislative session of the winter of 1860-61. Travel was setting in briskly towards the placer mining camps of northern Idaho, and the upper Columbia, and to facilitate it the legislature granted the Walla Walla & Clear- water road company a franchise to construct and maintain a toll road by way of the old Indian trail. Elias D. Pierce, Joseph L. Davis, James Buckley and Lycurgus Jackson were named as incorporators, and empowered to charge tolls at each bridge or ferry ranging from fifty cents for a footman to $5 for each wagon with six mutes, horses or oxen. Daniel Ladoux was authorized to keep a ferry across the Columbia at the mouth of Kettle river.
Congress was memorialized for the appointment of a commissioner to treat with the Nez Perce Indians for a change in their reservation. the memorial point- ing out that "during the past year discoveries have indicated the existence of rich gold fields within the limits of the Nez Perce reservation in this territory :" that "this has caused great excitement among those Indians. as also among our white population, and it is feared that unless some action is taken by the general govern- ment. it may lead to serions difficulty between the whites and the Nez Perces, who have been uniformly friendly to our citizens." It was believed "that the lands upon which the gold is indicated may be peaceably procured of the Indians should a commissioner be appointed to treat with them for a change in the boundaries of the reservation."
The first treaty was made with the Nez Perces in 1855, but was not ratified until 1859, explains Myron Eells, in "History of Indian Missions on the Pacific Coast." The next year the gold mines of Orofino were discovered on their reserva- tion, and the following year those of Florence and other places in western Idaho, to the east of the reservation; but to reach the latter the miners were obliged to travel across the reservation ; and men did rush on to it and across it very much as if it had not been set apart for the Indians. In order to avoid a conflict, a new treaty was made in April. 1861 (which, however, was never ratified), by which that part of the reservation lying north of Snake and Clearwater rivers, the south fork of the Clearwater, and the trail from the south fork by the Wieppe root ground, across the Bitter Root mountains, was opened to the whites in common with the Indians for mining purposes. As long as the United States did not ratify it, it did not become binding on the Indians, and even if it had been. only a part of the reservation was opened, and that only for mining purposes. Yet. in defiance of law, and against the protestations of the Indian agent, the town of Lewiston was laid ont in 1861 on the reservation, and on that part of it which had not been thus opened. The town soon grew to be a place of 1,200 people, and the first capital of Idaho; and the anomaly was seen of the legislature of a territory sitting
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on an Indian reservation, and even making laws, some of which were contrary to the laws of the United States, in regard to intercourse with Indians.
"By the spring of 1863," adds Eells, "it was evident that a new treaty was needed. whereby the reservation should be eurtailed, if possible; and this was made in June of that year; but it was not ratified by the United States until 1867. Lawyer, the head chief, and fifty other sub-chiefs and head men agreed to it, but others did not. among whom were Joseph, White Bird and Looking Glass, who lived on the part surrendered to the United States; and this was the main cause of the war with Joseph in 1877.
"The tribe was thus, in 1863, divided into treaty and non-treaty Indians, and as government failed either to ratify this treaty, or even to pay all the money due under the first treaty. the division between the two parties grew wider and wider. and the non-treaty party grew constantly stronger, while the other side grew weaker. To add to the difficulty, the miners and others. of whom 3.000 or 1,000 were on the reservation, carried a large amount of whiskey with them. a considerable part of which was furnished to the Indians, enough at times to occasion serious trouble. had there been no other eause.
"Lawyer, notwithstanding, stood firm for the whites until June, 1867, more than six years after the miners had entered his reservation, and four years after the last treaty had been made. But by that time he seemed to tire of waiting, and at a eouneil held that month he boldly demanded that justice be done; and suelt was the feeling of the tribe that if he had not done so, wrote the agent. J. O'Neill, "he would not have lived forty-eight hours. I know this to be true." he added: "I know that some of his people would have killed him."
News of the ratifieation of the treaty. however. reached them soon after this: the promises made soon began to be fulfilled, and trouble was avoided.
In another memorial the legislature directed congressional attention to the need of Canadian "reciprocity." It reeited that
"A valuable mineral region lies in the Columbia river basin east of the Caseade mountains which is divided by our northern boundary line, the forty-ninth parallel; that a valuable and quite extensive mining region, in which are now wintering upwards of 400 American miners, lies south of said forty-ninth parallel; that from the topography of the country it is absolutely essential that Americans, who are obliged to travel from point to point, in obtaining ingress or egress from said mines. must traverse a portion of British Columbia; that it is equally essential that British miners and merchants, who desire to loeate in the mines of British Columbia are compelled to pass through an extensive portion of the territory in- cluded in Territory of Washington : that large quantities of British goods are thus necessarily passed through our territory. and a large quantity is supplied to our miners. without paying any duties whatever; that a British custom-house is estab- lished on the route which Americans are compelled, at present. to travel, and a number of revenue offieers are stationed along said route, compelling the payment. not only of duties (although the goods and supplies are not sold or disposed of until they again reach our own territory), but also, in the shape of tonnage dues and road taxes, according to the following schedule:
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Tonnage dues, per ton $ 3.00
Road tax, per ton 10.00
Wagons, each 10.00
Single teams 1.00
Horsemen
1.50
"That. in consequence of British merchants securing importation to American miners free of duty, and our American fellow citizens having to pay the British dnes and the tribute money or toll above referred to, the latter are powerless to compete with the British Columbians."
The memorial closed with the significant statement that while "no dithiculty has yet occurred calculated to mar the peaceful relations existing between the two nations. this state of things cannot long continue."
Still another memorial urged that "a military road is much needed from the headwaters of Puget Sound to Fort Colville, as the postmaster general has adver- tised for bids for carrying the United States mails from Bellingham Bay to that point." It was set forth that "the distance in a straight line between the two points is abont 185 miles," and that the citizens of Bellingham Bay had spent large sums of money and labor in opening a trail between the two said points, and thoroughly tested the practicability of a wagon road on or near the line of said trail which was accessible at all seasons of the year. It was added that-
"The pass through the Caseade mountains known as Park's pass, is the best heretofore discovered, and the Northwestern Boundary commission passed over the same last summer with all their animals and baggage. This is the nearest route to the open country east of the Caseades by at least 150 miles, from the waters of Puget Sound. This road, if established, will open large and fertile tracts of country to settlement, and also give us a post road to Fort Colville and the gold mines.
After fifty years the dream of the pioneers is yet a dream; and the Bellingham Bay & Eastern railroad, on which high hopes were subsequently founded to put the towns of Bellingham Bay in competition with Seattle and Tacoma for the com- merce of the Indian Empire, languishes for want of funds and enterprise.
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