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 42
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Thomas Newlon erossed the plains to Oregon in 1852. He joined the rush to the Orofino mines in 1860, mined there for three years, returned to Walla Walla where he lived until 1865, when he bought a boat and operated a ferry for one year at Riparia. He eame to the Spokane valley in 1866, built a eabin and construeted a ferry above Trent. He then went back to Snake river. but soon returned to his bridge, which he ran until 1868, when he sold out and mined in Montana until 1872, when he returned to the Spokane valley, and followed the earpenter's trade for a while, but later built a ferry boat at Spokane Bridge after M. M. Cowley's bridge had fallen in. In 1876 he homesteaded 160 aeres on Moran prairie.
Eighteen hundred and seventy-two brought many settlers into the territory north of Snake river.
William Spangle eame with his family from Walla Walla and located a squatter's claim on the present site of the town of Spangle. At first he kept a stage station and postoffice, then started a blacksmith shop. then a hardware store, and as the country became more settled he encouraged others to locate in business, and a town was ineorporated in 1878 and named in his honor.
Andrew Lefevre, a California pioneer of 1849 and veteran of the Indian wars of Washington territory. located at Medical lake, bringing a band of horses, eattle and sheep. The Indians, to discourage his settlement there, told him the waters
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were poisonous. but holding to his purpose, he took as a homestead the site of the present town. He served one term as county commissioner ; died January 15, 1900.
M. M. Cowley established this year an Indian trading post at Spokane Bridge. better known in later days as Cowley's Bridge. He went to the Salmon river mines in 1862, and mined and traded there till 1867, when he opened a store and ran a ferry at old Bonner's Ferry on the Kootenai. He became identified with the Trader's National bank in 1885, and in 1889 sold his stock of goods at the Bridge and moved to Spokane to become cashier of the bank. He was elected president in January, 1892.
Thomas Steele, who came in a wagon from Portland to the site of Spangle, claimed to have onee owned the site of Rosalia, and to have built the first house ever created in Spokane.
Philo S. Barnum settled twelve miles north of Sprague, and later moved to Tyler, Spokane county.
Frederick A. Dashich took a preemption claim two and a half miles southeast of Spangle.
George W. Spangle took a preemption near Spangle. His mother. also a pio- neer of 1872. died in Spangle February 25. 1900, aged 87.
Cornelius W. Murphey preempted 160 acres near Medical Lake.
D. F. Percival engaged in stock-raising in the Rock Creek country in 1872. Hle rode horseback from Walla Walla to Colville, and a few years before his death said to the writer that he met in that journey only a single settler in the Palouse country, who was discouraged by frosts and was planning to abandon his claim and return to the Willamette valley. The first settlers in that region naturally chose the valleys, where frost is more prevalent than on the uplands, and had not yet discovered the important fact that the hillsides and elevated benches were admir- ably suited to grain-growing and fruit-raising.
In 1873 the Coplen family took as a homestead the future site of the town of Latah. A. D. Coplen, then eleven years of age, became one of the most enterprising mining men and prospectors this section has developed. He was actively identified with the development of the Coeur d'Alenes, of Rossland camp and the Slocan.
The fossil remains of the largest mastodon known to science were discovered in the spring of 1878 in the southern end of Spokane county. They were uncovered on the Coplen farm in a marshy hollow formed by a spring which oozed out of a bed of black mud. They were exposed by workmen who were entting a ditch to drain the swampy ground. Parts of four adult skelet .... were taken out, and from these the great mammoth was mounted by the Chicago Academy of Science, and later ex- hibited at the Columbian exposition in 1893. This prehistorie monster stands thir- teen feet high ; length of tusk, nine fert ten inches: length of lower teeth. ten inches ; length of lower jaw, twenty-two inches: length of humerus, forty-five inches.
In 1874 Benjamin F. Dashiell came to the site of Waverly, secured a farm of 320 acres, and later platted the townsite from his holdings.
In 1875 John W. Hammond located at Colfax ; after seventeen years' residence there he moved to Rockford in 1892. Montgomery Hardman located at Rosalia and became postmaster. His postoffice and that at Spangle were the only ones between Spokane and Colfax. Herman Linke took employment with Frederick
POSTMASTERS OF SPOKANE, 1872 TO 1912 (PORTRAITS COLLECTED BY POSTMASTER W. P. EDRIS)
Top row, left to right-C. F. Yeaton, appointed September 16, 1873; S. R. Scranton, JJuly 5, 1872; James N. Glover, February 5, 1877.
Serond row, left to right-Sylvester Heath, October 14, 1880; J. J. L. Peel, October 26, 1886; Thomas B. Warren, August 2, 1889; Arthur J. Shaw, July 24, 1590.
Third row, left to right-Howard T. Mallon, May 9, 1894; George W. Temple, July 14, 1898; Millard T. Hartson, February 5, 1902.
Bottom portrait, W. P. Edris, July 26, 1909.
NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
ABTUM LENUX TILLIN FOUNDATIONS
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Post near Rathdrum and two years later took a preemption claim at Saltese lake.
In 1876 James Butler located in Whitman eounty ; Richard Millman near Cheney ; Robert G. Williamson five miles southeast of Spokane; and William K. Griffith near Cheney.
Year of the Nez Peree war, 1877, brought an increased immigration. T. W. Pynn came with the troops, but left the army in 1880 and engaged in the restaur- ant and bakery business in Spokane. He organized, in 1882, the Spokane Falls orass band. the first band in the town.
James P. Campbell took a homestead near Latalı. He was elected eounty com- missioner in 1898 on the republican tieket. His father, Samuel L. Campbell, eame to Latah in 1876.
Elisha C. Thompson located near Latah. He came to Spokane in 1899 as eounty jailer.
Thomas J. MeFeron came to Cheney and filed on the first quarter seetion taken in that township.
Thomas Botham and his two brothers-in-law were the original settlers this year at Rockford.
CHAPTER XXXV
EARLY SETTLEMENTS BY THE FALLS OF THE SPOKANE
ARRIVAL OF DOWNING AND SCRANTON IN 1871-THEIR "MULEY" SAW THE FIRST INDUS- TRY-RECOLLECTIONS OF "BABE" DOWNING-ARRIVAL OF JAMES N. GLOVER IN 1873 -IIE BUYS OUT SCRANTON AND DOWNING PLATS THE FIRST TOWNSITE-GIVES FREDERICK POST FORTY ACRES TO START A FLOUR MILL-ARRIVAL OF A. M. CANNON AND J. J. BROWNE-TROOPS MOVE TO LAKE COEUR D'ALENE-FIRST PHYSICIAN, AND FIRST DRUGSTORE-CANNON STARTS A BANK-SPOKANE'S FIRST GUN PLAY-HOW TIIE PIONEERS LIVED-THE FIRST NEWSPAPER-BUSINESS LOTS GIVEN AWAY-TRADE WITH THE INDIANS.
"The beginnings of all things are small." -Cicero.
T HE names of J. J. Downing and S. R. Seranton will pass down the ages as the first white settlers by the falls of the Spokane. Some confliet of opinion exists regarding the date of their arrival, but the weight of anthority points to 1871.
Mrs. E. R. Bailey, known more familiarly to the first pioneers here as "Babe" Downing, who has the distinetion of having been the first young woman to take up her home in Spokane, has contributed to Mrs. Hathaway, of the Spokane public library, an approved manuscript, narrative of her recollections of the little outpost as it broke upon her girlish eyes, forty years ago. She fixes the date of the arrival here of Downing and Seranton as 1870, but James N. Glover, H. T. Cowley and other pioneers are confident that her recollection errs.
"They were at the Falls when I located at Cowley's Bridge in 1872," says M. M. Cowley.
"They came abont 1870," says James Monaghan, then a resident of Colville. "It might have been 1872. The old records at Colville should throw some light on this question. for Seranton and Downing began to attraet attention very soon after their arrival at the Falls."
John B. Slater, the well known pioneer attorney of Stevens county, obligingly searched the records at Colville. On page 169 of Book 1, county commissioners' proceedings, under date of May 6, 1872, this entry was found: "Spokane Bridge preeinet was formed, and S. P. Seranton* appointed judge of election." And on
*Mr. Glover recalls Seranton's initials as S. R .; Mrs. Bailey as S. B., and the Colville records give them S. P.
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page 186, November 25, 1872: "S. P. Scranton, bill for $1, election judge, ordered paid." Mr. Slater searched back to 1869, but found no earlier references to Seran- ton or Downing.
11. L. Gray of Orofino camped near the mouth of Hangman creek in 1870. "The only person living at Spokane then was a squaw man. There were people living on the California ranch, between the falls and the old Spokane bridge. At old Spokane bridge a man by the name of Kendall owned a store."
G. W. Bassett. a well known pioneer, residing now at Washtuena, who was with Scranton when he located at the Falls, recently said :
"I had known Scranton and Downing for several years in Montana. Down- ing and myself left Helena. Mout., the fall of 1870 and went to Walla Walla to buy cattle, but prices were too high and Downing returned to Montana in mid- winter by snowshoving it part of the way.
"I remained at Walla Walla until the following April and started for Mon- tana with a bunch of horses, and when I reached Moran prairie I found Downing and Scranton had picked claims on Moran prairie.
"I remained with them 10 days waiting for the snow to melt in the mountains, then it was Scranton and I visited the Falls and Scranton located.
"I thought at the time the man was going 'batty.
"I went on to Montana and when I returned in October to Walla Walla I called at the Falls and found Downing and Scranton had nearly completed a saw- mill."
Mr. Glover, who long held to a belief that Seranton and Downing located here in 1872, it now convinced that the date was 1871.
"It was in the spring of the year 1870 that J. J. Downing and wife, and Mr. Downing's partner, S. B. Scranton, who had been stock-raisers in Montana, in look- ing around for a location, came upon the beautiful falls in the Spokane river," says Mrs. Bailey's manuscript. "They immediately recognized the great benefit to be derived from the vast amount of natural water power here, and decided to remain. Accordingly Downing squatted on 160 acres of land on the south side of the river, and Scranton on 160 acres on the north side. the two quarter scetions almost totally embracing the falls."
Here again Mr. Glover's recollection is at variance with that of the manuscript. Nothing was said, when he bought ont Downing and Scranton, about squatter rights on the north side of the river.
"At this time (resuming the manuscript), there were but few settlers in the Spokane country ; some of them, who afterwards played an important part in its development, being Joseph Moran, on Moran prairie: Baptiste Peone, of Peone prairie ; Steve Liberty, near Liberty lake, and Frederick Post, at Rathdrum.
"In a short space of time Downing and Seranton began the erection of a saw- mill at a point on the south side of the river, somewhere near Havermale island. In this mill they installed a 'muley' saw, operated with an overshot wheel, but this was not a success in the sawing of the large logs, and after some use it was torn out and a five foot circular saw and a four foot edger, operated with a turbine wheel, was installed to take its place. With this equipment the daily capacity of the mill was between 35,000 and 10,000 feet, the natural water power being used entirely."
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Here again Mrs. Bailey's recollection wanders: the enlarged mill was installed by Mr. Glover, after Downing and Seranton had left Spokane.
"Only a little over a year after their settlement here," continues Mrs. Bailey's narrative, "Mrs. Bailey, who was more popularly known then as 'Babe' Downing, after graduating from school in the east, started for her new home in this far off western country. At that time Spokane was not the center of the network of subur- ban electric lines and transcontinental steam railroads that it is now, the closest she could get by rail being Kelton, Utah. Here she began a very perilous journey over- land to Walla Walla, where she was met by her father, completing the journey to Spokane with him.
"In that day there was a ravine running from Cannon Hill to the river, a little below the falls, known as Little Wolf ditch. For one approaching the settlement from the southwest, the view of the falls and river valley was almost entirely ob- structed until the opposite side of the ravine was reached. Then there flashed into view, as if by magic, a scene which, for beauty and grandeur, was surpassed no- where. Here lay a broad, fertile valley, completely covered with waving bunch- grass, and surrounded by ranges of lofty mountains whose hooded peaks, towering above the fleecy clouds, seemed to fade away into the serene blue of the heavens. Through the valley the river wound its course, now running smoothly, and now rushing with a roar over boulders and cataracts.
"Mrs. Bailey was the first white girl in this section of the country, so her arrival was of much interest to the Indians, who came from far and near to look upon this new wonder of the palefaces.
"The country at that time afforded many pastimes for the early settlers. One of the most largely indulged in was the salmon fishing, which began in July, at which time the red salmon, coming up the river from the Columbia, began to make their appearance just below the falls. The white salmon did not come up the river until later in the year, in October."
Mrs. Bailey says that her father, "although always conscious of the vast wealth of the waterpower at the falls, greatly underestimated the agricultural possibilities of the region surrounding it, which he thought necessary for the building of an important city," and he was therefore in a ready frame of mind to dispose of his interests. "Accordingly, when a man by the name of Benjamin came to the falls and offered him $5.000 for his rights, he accepted and moved his family to a claim six miles from Hangman creek. While they were living at this place," continues her reminiscence, "this region was visited by the last and most violent of the earth- quakes recorded in the northwest. It was on the night of the 11th of December when it came. The Downings were almost shaken from their beds, and awoke ter- rified by the swaying of the house and the sound of various articles crashing to the floor. They rushed out of doors, only to see large trees shaken to the ground, and to find a large corral battered down, either by the shaking of the earth or the feet of the frightened animals it contained. On this night the region underwent its last great topographieal change, marked by the disappearance of many of the smaller streams and the appearance of new ones. It was also reported that a large point of land on lake Okanogan entirely disappeared from sight.
"Downing had not lived here long when he was forced back into the mill busi- ness by the failure of Benjamin to make his payments. The original owners of the
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mill continued in its operation until 1874, when J. N. Glover, J. N. Matheny and Cyrus F. Yeaton, in looking around for an investment, came to the falls and offered the partners $10,000 for the entire property. This offer was accepted, and Down- ing moved to a ranch on Moran prairie, while Seranton left for California. But the separation of states was not to interfere with the romance which had received so much nourishment at the falls ; so late in the fall of the same year, 'Babe' Down- ing left for a southern clime, where she entered into a life partnership with the man who had formerly been her father's business partner. They lived in California about four years, when they returned to Walla Walla, but the climate of the north did not agree with Mr. Scranton, and he again left for California, where he died. Six children had been born to their union, the four who are still living being Frank S. Scranton of Spokane: Ada V. Sturgiss of Pendleton, Oregon; Earl H. Seranton of Spokane, and Vernie L. Scranton of Pendleton. Twenty-two years ago Mrs. Bailey was married to her present husband, at Dayton, Wash. During this course of time four children have been born. They are Mrs. F. C. Daugherty, of Spokane ; Mrs. Carl Leonard, of Pendleton, Oregon; Hazel R. Bailey and Bill Bailey, of Spokane.
"J. J. Downing died twenty years ago at Dayton, Wash., only slightly realizing the vastness of the fortune he let slip by him at Spokane Falls. His wife followed him nine years afterward. both being buried at Dayton."
Mrs. Bailey's memory is manifestly in error regarding the date of the coming of Glover, Yeaton and Matheny, 1873, not 1874. and the price paid for the townsite and mill, which was $4,000, not $10,000.
To James N. Glover belongs the title of Father of Spokane. While three or four other white men were here before him, they remained but a short time. Mr. Glover has been here continuously since May, 1873, and there is not now in Spokane, nor has there been for many years, a man who located here ahead of him.
Mr. Glover, who had lived in the Willamette Valley of Western Oregon for many years, having learned of the possibilities of the upper country as it then was called, resolved in May of that year to take a prospecting trip over the Inland Em- pire, and to locate, if possible, the site of the future commercial metropolis of this section. He traveled by boat from Portland to Lewiston, and at the latter place purchased a cayuse saddle horse and rode extensively over the country. He was accompanied by J. N. Matheny, a fellow townsman of his in Salem, and the two rode leisurely over the country, consuming eight or nine days on the road between Lewiston and the falls.
"We very rarely saw a white man or a house," says Mr. Glover; "when we reached the falls we found here ahead of us. J. J. Downing. S. R. Seranton, Walter France, Benjamin, and A. C. Swift, who posed as an attorney. Scranton and Down- ing liad set up a little upright sawmill on the site of what is now the Phoenix Mill, near the foot of Mill street. They asserted that by working from sunrise to sunset, they could rip out seven hundred feet, but I doubt if their little outfit really had that capacity. Downing had a wife and a step-daughter. Nellie Downing, or 'Babe.' as everyone familiarly called her. They later lived on the brink of the falls, at what is now the south end of the Post street bridge, in a log building of two large rooms and a cellar beneath, but I found them occupying a little box house adjoining the
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mill, on what is now block 4 of Spokane, roughly constructed of green lumber and withont battens.
"The larger log house was occupied when I arrived by a man named Benjamin, who had a large family. Seranton had no family. He and Downing had come here about a year before and taken squatters' claims, both on the south side of the river. They elaimed nothing on the north side. Benjamin had entered into a deal with Down- ing for his squatter's right in this property. He had agreed to pay $2,000, and had made one eash payment of $400. The next payment was overdue and Benjamin could not raise the money. I found that there was quite a feud between the two men over this transaction.
"Direetly I arrived, Downing eame to me for a deal, and really I was in a good humor for a deal, for I was never so infatuated with a place in all my life. I asked him his priee, and when he gave it I replied that I would take it under consideration, but first wanted to seout around a little and look at the country. I walked up the river a way and found a makeshift of a eanoe, hollowed out of a pine log about ten feet long. In this tippy eraft, I paddled aeross the river at a point near the little island, adjacent to the Division street bridge. I spent the day looking over the north side of the river, and when I returned in the evening, Downing taekled me again.
"'Mr. Downing.' I said, 'you have sold this property onee to Mr. Benjamin and he has paid you $400 down on it.'
"'Yes, that is eorreet.'
"'Well, I'll tell you. Mr. Benjamin has a large family and no means of sup- port. If I purchase your property, the first money would have to be paid to Mr. Benjamin-that $400.'
"I added that if he did not accept this proposition, I'd be off the next morning. Downing and his wife conferred together a little while and he then came out and said :
"'I have come to accept your offer of two thousand dollars.'
"I employed Swift to draw up the papers and had them signed by Downing and wife, Seranton, 'Babe' Downing, and Mr. and Mrs. Benjamin. By this action I made a lasting friend of Benjamin.
"Immediately after buying Downing's squatter's right, I arranged with Seran- ton to look after the property while I returned to Salem. I had little confidence in the man, but he was the only logieal person to leave in charge. Benjamin and his family moved onto a homestead on the head of Rock creek, twenty-five miles south- west of the falls, and Downing and his family then moved into the old log house, vaeating the little box house by the mill.
"Mr. Matheny and I then returned to Oregon, riding cayuses to Lewiston, and taking the stage there for Wallula by way of Walla Walla. At Salem, I contracted for a new sawmill, and had it shipped to Portland and thenee by boat to the mouth of the Palouse river, on the Snake.
"In the meantime I had formed a partnership with C. F. Yeaton and J. N. Matheny and sent them ahead with the machinery, a mill wright, and a few other men to build the mill and install the machinery.
"They arrived here on July 29, 1873, and notified me at onee by letter, that on their arrival. they had found the place here filled with constables. All the white
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men in the Colville valley had been sworn in as constables and were hunting for Seranton, my agent, and my partners urged me to come up as soon as possible. I returned here on the nineteenth of August, and found eight or ten of the constables still here. I had driven from old Wallula junction in a lumber wagon. It was a very hot and dusty drive. and I was pretty well worn out. While I was helping the man unhitch his horses, a man came alongside and said in a low voice:
"'Would you like to see Seranton?'
" "Not especially,' I said. 'I have no business with Seranton.'
"After the team had been put away, I asked this man his name, and he said it was Charlie May.
"'Do you know where Scranton is?'
".I'll take you to him if you want to see him.' he replied.
"'I may want to see him, but don't feel like going very far.'
" 'You won't have to go very far,' he said.
" 'Well. you come to me at one tomorrow and I'll go where Seranton is.'
"At the appointed time he was on hand. and I went with him. We crossed the Spokane in the little log canoe, and as the river was low. the water was still. I found Scranton, where at that time there was a little lake, just east of the present O. R. & N. depot. It was surrounded by a very thick growth of blackthorn so dense that May and I had to crawl in on our hands and knees.
"We found Scranton lying on a buffalo robe with his weapons alongside of him. After a fifteen minutes talk. I arranged for him to come in to the log cabin where Downing and his family still lived, at 11 o'clock that night when I would have papers all ready to buy him out. I realized that I could not do business with him.
"He came in and we bought him out and he disappeared.
"Seranton left the country and I never saw him again. A little later two or three Indians came to me and said that he had crossed the river with eighty-one head of American horses, at a ford where the O. R. & N. bridge now spans the Spokane. They added that they had gone south with Charlie May. I doubted their story for a long time, but later found that the Indians were correct. Seranton and May erossed the Clearwater near Lewiston, were later seen near Boise City, and still later in Nevada, where they had driven the horses. May was never heard of afterwards.
"After disposing of the horses, Seranton moved to Santa Ana, in southern Cali- fornia. While living there he was married to Miss Downing. After residing there a few years, they moved into the Blue mountains above Dayton, in this state. He built a shingle mill and lived there till his death. His widow was in Spokane last year. She telephoned me then and I called on her at her residence on Mallon avenue. She had married again and had several children.
"From Spokane Downing moved to Moran prairie. Later he drifted to the Snake river country and then went to Walla Walla, where he and his wife died.
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