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 46
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"Thirty-one years ago lots in Spokane Falls, in the vicinity of what is now known as Riverside Avenue and Howard Street, were valued at $50 each, with only
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one purchaser in the early spring of 1878, and the acceptance of this offer was in the nature of a trade.
"In those early days a few lot stakes in the prairie grass indicated what was mapped out as South street, with no buildings or fences and not even a wagon road to mark it's east or west corners. The lots on the south side of South street extended to the section line and were 214 feet in length. As it's name would indi- cate, this street suggested the extreme southern limits of the town.
"The business interests of Spokane Falls at the time mentioned were repre- sented by a little store at Front and Howard and a shack for boarding wood- choppers at the corner of Front avenue and Stevens street. All lands north of the Spokane river and, with the single exceptions of the Havermale claim on the cast, all lands south, east and west that the eye could rest upon had no particular valne.
"With the exceptions of the sections which were claimed by the Northern Pacific Railroad company, the lands mentioned were without owners.
"Whitman county was an extreme frontier and Columbia county the regular mecca for prospective settlers, while Walla Walla county was so far advanced as to be a suitable field for sewing machine and organ agents. Colfax was a typi- cal frontier, Dayton, a neat little village and Walla Walla, the well ordered busi- ness center of the bunch-grass country.
"Colville was the far-away relic of the fur gathering days of the Hudson's Bay company, with many miles of wild and unsettled country between it and civilization. No man could keep his eyes on l'asco in those days, for the site of the present prosperous little city was a sagebrush pasture. Ritzville, Sprague and Cheney were not yet located and stray herds grazed over the future site of Daven- port. Luxuriant bunch-grass waved over the unbroken sod where Waterville now stands and Coeur d'Alene was only a quiet lake where the aborigines alone launched their light canoes.
"Rosalia and Spangle each had a farm house, and Rockford, Latah and Waverly were similarly favored. Deer Park was only what it's name describes and Post Falls was a wild and unharnessed cataract without habitation; in fact, this whole 'upper country' was a land of long distances with a questionable future.
"In order to reach the Spokane country one generally touched at Portland, Walla Walla, Dayton and Colfax, and was given to understand at the latter places that all realty values had abont reached the zero point soon after leaving the last named town going north.
"The first organized boosting for Spokane and the great Spokane country began in March, 1878, and publicity has kept this growing section in the public eye ever since.
"The people of Spokane Falls in the spring of 1879 had increased to about seventy-five- persons, with several small business houses, mostly one-story shacks, occupying each a lot or part of a lot on Howard Street, between Front and Main, or near by.
"Many people now look wise and say, 'If I had been here in those early days I would have gotten many good lots and held them, and now I would be rich.' Bless their souls, they would have done nothing of the sort; the town proprietors were long in lots and the whole population was short in money. If anyone had
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more lots than he required for his business or home he was looking for suckers, for he wanted to sell. He knew that a walk of ten or fifteen minutes out upon the prairie would bring him to eighty or 160 broad acres that he could have in ex- change for the trouble of living upon them. Spokane Falls had no capitalists, and every man was struggling manfully to make the business he was engaged in earn his family a living.
"There were several reasons why Spokane Falls lots were not in demand in 1878. First, the adjacent lands were not considered good for farming. Second, the main routes of travel were the Walla Walla and Colville wagon road, fifteen miles west, and the old Mullan road tive miles south. Third, rival towns sprang up which claimed all the advantages necessary for the metropolis of the great Spokane country.
"Cowley and Ford of Cowley's Bridge, eighteen miles cast, were the only capitalists in this part of the country with a rival store. Colonel G. H. Morgan located what he claimed would be the future great eity, Four Lakes, at the cross roads where Meadow Lake Station is now situated, fifteen miles west. The most formidable and for some years the most successful. rival of Spokane Falls was located eighteen miles southwest, and was first named Section Thirteen, then Depot Springs and lastly Cheney, after a Boston director of the Northern Pacific Railroad. The rivalry extended over a period of several years, with the officials of the Railroad working strenuously against Spokane Falls. Sneh was the case even after the company had joined the huge railroad addition to the outer limits of the latter town.
"Among the early speculative buyers of lots in Spokane Falls were Captains Hunter and Symonds, the former purchasing on Riverside and the latter on Sprague. Colonel H. C. Merriam, also an officer of the United States Army, was dining with the family of the writer shortly after Railroad addition had been laid out, when the conversation turned on town lots. We told the colonel that the block lying west of Howard street, south of First avenue, east of Mill street, and north of the railroad, could be purchased for $625.00, and that we considered it a good buy. Ile said he had just about that sum to his credit in one of the Portland banks, and he believed he would buy the block. We looked up the agent and after an introduction the trade was made. A conservative estimate of that block now would be placed at something away up among the three sets of figures. Those officers are now ranking high, but they have held on to their lots until they have brought them wealth.
"FRANCIS II. COOK."
Harvey Brace, a former Spokane pioneer of 1879. but since a resident of Cash- mere. Wash., recalls that when he arrived here abont April 6th, 1879, the town had. not to exceed seventy-five inhabitants.
"Bill Gray was then running the California hotel on the present site of the City Hall. It was the only hotel in Spokane, consisting of about eight rooms and a corral upstairs, a big room where the boys could bunk down with their blankets when the rooms were full. Bill was a great favorite with all the boys.
"I. W. Rima ran a small jewelry store on the east side of Howard near the present site of the Coeur d'Alene hotel. Just across the street Jack Squier ran a
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saloon and just baek of that was the local jail. A. M. Cannon had a store on the northwest corner of the square opposite the California hotel. S. Heath was his elerk at $75 a month. J. N. Glover had a small frame house surrounded by a pieket fence where the Coeur d'Alene hotel now stands and just east of this was another small house, in which, later, was organized Spokane's Masonic Lodge, No. 34, during the winter of 1879 and 1880, of which I was a charter member. Louis Ziegler was elected worshipful master; Colonel Smith, of Medieal Lake, senior warden; L. W. Warren, treasurer, and I don't remember our seeretary's name. The first member initiated by our new lodge, which was the second organ- ization north of the Snake river, was John Blalock.
"Cannon's sawmill was in operation at the time on the present site of the Phoenix mill. I was a sawyer and millwright and during the winter of 1879- 1880, remodeled the mill. At that time the Post grist mill was located above the lower falls where the Medieal Lake eleetrie depot later stood. At the time I was op- erating the mill for Cannon, Bill Shannon was jaeking logs and operating the bull wheel. We had a big wind storm that spring and the big pine which stood south of Jim Glover's house, had it's top blown off. The wind carried the broken portion completely over Cannon's store which saved the building from being demolished. Five men had to sit on a trunk, which was placed on the inside of the front door of the California hotel, to keep the wind from forcing the door and demolishing the hotel.
"I helped set out two of the first six apple trees which came to Spokane from Ritz's nursery at Walla Walla. The two I planted were near the old Pedieord hotel and I believe one of the original trees still stands. ] witnessed the first deed drawn up by J. J. Browne, conveying a lot from Mr. Havermale to a woman from Walla Walla, who built upon this lot the first frame house on Riverside avenue east of Howard street."
SPOKANE IN 1880
Major E. A. Ronthe has recorded a graphie pen pieture of the little town by the falls as it broke upon the stranger's eye in 1880: "A little eluster of houses, some fifty or more, upon the south side of the river near the falls, comprised all there was of the town. A little rope ferry and a couple of eanoes offered the only means of passing over the swift stream as it rushed among the little islands and tumbled over a series of preeipiees in its adamantine bed in unrestrained freedom, save at one point where a noisy little dam reached across a quiet arm of the river to furnish power for a busy sawmill. A missionary, a merchant. a miller, a distriet clerk, a sturdy smith and a tavern-keeper constituted the representative element of the little hamlet. . . Indian tepees dotted the hillsides and pleas- ant places along the river, and blanketed braves loafed and stalked majestically in the shade of the silent pines, and their ponies browsed at will over the grounds of the future eity. The paekhorse and freighter's wagon afforded the only means of transportation for goods. The merchant's supplies and the iron for the smith were brought from Walla Walla. then the great supply center of the inland north- west."
Walla Walla, as shown by the United States census of 1880, was the largest town in the territory.
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FIRST TOWN GOVERNMENT
The city was incorporated in 1881, with Robert W. Forrest as its first mayor, and a council of seven-S. G. Havermale, A. M. Canon, Dr. L. H. Whitehouse, 1. W. Rima, F. R. Moore, George A. Davis and W. C. Gray. These held office by legislative appointment. The incorporating act was approved November 29, 1881. It vested the city government in a mayor and common council of seven members, with a city treasurer, city marshal and city clerk to be elected by the council with the approval of the mayor "(the city treasurer may be one of the council), and who shall hold their offices during the pleasure of the council, and the council may ap- point and dismiss at its pleasure such other offices and agents as may be deemed necessary. Provided there shall be no officer appointed under this section ex- cept those herein named, unless the office is established by ordinance."
The city was empowered to "purchase, acquire, receive and hold property. real. personal and mixed, for the use of the city; may lease, sell and dispose of the same for the benefit of the city ; may purchase, acquire, receive and hold prop- erty beyond the limits of the city to be used for burial purposes, also for the estab- lishment of hospitals for the reception of persons affected with contagious diseases. also for workhouses or houses of correction, also for the erection of waterworks to supply the city with water; and may sell, lease or dispose of the same for the benefit of the city."
Elections were to be annual, on the first Monday in April. All vacancies to be filled by the council.
The usual powers were conferred on the council, but it was expressly pro- vided that the city tax levy should not exceed five mills, and that no tax should be levied "on the value of articles the growth and produce of the territory which are brought into such city and sold."
As a further safeguard against extravagance, it was provided that "when the city's indebtedness amounts to $1.500 no further debts shall be created except for the ordinary current expenses of the city, and debts created in violation of this provision shall be void."
It was provided that the mayor and couneihnen should serve without pay, and that "all other officers provided for in this act, or to be created, shall receive such compensation as shall be provided for by ordinance."
Violations of ordinances could be punished by fines not exceeding $100, and by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days. All moneys received for licenses or from fines was to be paid into the city treasury and constitute a general municipal fund, "including two-thirds of all county license for liquor, assessed or collected within the corporate limits of the said city of Spokan Falls."
An act of the legislature of 1883 extended the city limits to two miles square and divided the city into four wards, with Riverside and Howard the cornering point. Election day was changed from the first Monday to the first Tuesday in April, treasurer, attorney, marshal and clerk to be elected by the people; and the mayor was made the presiding officer of the council. The charter of 1883 was still further amended by the legislature of 1886.
S. G. Havermale served as president of the first council; A. M. Cannon was treasurer, and J. S. Gray city clerk. At the first election, in April, 1882, the legis-
SPOKANE'S FIRST CARRIAGE, 1882
MRS. E. R. BAILEY FIRST WHITE GIRL IN SPOKANE
INDIAN ENCAMPMENT IN PEACEFUL VALLEY, IN 1994 This was their favorite camping place in early days
I+ NEV JURK PUBLIC LIBRARY
AJION LEIVA TIGELA roundATIONS
DIETERARY
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lative appointees were elected with only one change: S. T. Arthur was substituted for A. M. Cannon, but he moved to Missoula shortly after his election and Mr. Cannon was chosen to fill his place.
At the elcetion in 1883 J. N. Glover was elected mayor, and A. M. Cannon, R. W. Forrest, F. R. Moore, J. F. Lockhart, J. M. Grimmer, L. H. Whitehouse, and 1 .. W. Rima. councilnen. J. Kennedy Stout was chosen as city attorney.
FIRST FIRE DEPARTMENT
To an editorial article in a semi-humorous, semi-serious weekly paper called the Mule, and printed from the Review press by one of the printers of Mr. Dallam's journal, pioneers attribute the organization of the first volunteer fire department in the town.
"Through negligence of the powers that be, our rapidly growing city is com- pletely at the mercy of that ruthless destroyer of cities, fire. 'Lock the stable door after the horse is stolen,' as did our sister city Colfax last year. Will not at least a few of our enterprising business men take the matter in hand and organ- ize some means of defense against this dreadful element, be it only the forming of a bucket brigade? There are, to our certain knowledge, nearly 100 old and experienced firemen at present in the city, many of whom own not a single dol- lar's worth of property here. but who are ready and willing to enter an organiza- tion and contribute their mite toward the purchase of equipment for the same. Bab- cock fire extinguishers would be better than nothing. Let us hear from Mr. Charles Abel on the subject, and any other gentleman who realizes the immediate danger of our beautiful city at the hands of the lurid leveler."
Mayor Glover and other active citizens took the matter under discussion, and in the autumn of 1881 R. J. Anderson, then in the jewelry business, with B. H. Bennett and Grover Simpson, organized a company that was the nucleus of the present large fire department of Spokane-"Rescue Hose Company No. 1." A small hose cart, to be drawn through the streets by hand, was bought. Rescue company's meetings were held in a building on the south side of Main avenue, east of Howard street. The Spokane Falls fire department was organized, with George W. Wooster as president of the board. and R. J. Anderson secretary. Members of the hose company included Frank Dallam, the editor; B. H. Bennett, A. M. Cannon's son-in-law ; Harry Gordon, the town's amateur poet; W. R. New- port. R. J. Anderson. one of the Brickell boys; E. B. Hyde, later state senator and register of the United States land office; Cal. Duncan: llal J. Cole, later Indian agent on the Colville reservation and receiver of the United States land office ; William Wilson; W. W. Witherspoon, who subsequently filled the offices of city commissioner and chief of police: Grover Simpson, Wylie Glover, George W. Wooster, A. MI. Orchard, William Edwards, E. J. Pitman, Alva Summers and Ralph Clark, another of Mr. Cannon's sons-in-law.
FIRST BRICK AND FIRST BRICK BUILDINGS
I think I shall credit J. T. Davie with burning the first brick in Spokane, Mr. Davie himself says that he did, and then again he didn't. Another had come
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before him and fired a little kiln, but the product was so poor that it could not fairly be termed brick.
Mr. Davic came to castern Washington from Napa. California, and arrived at Walla Walla November 6. 1879. Lacking $10 of the stage fare to Spokane, there was nothing left for him but to walk. "as many other good fellows had done and were doing."
"On arriving at Colfax." he writes. "I found that brick were being manufae- tured and sold there by James Bleeker for $12.00 per 1,000 at the kiln. Having worked in brickyards in New England and California, I came to the conclusion that if there was no brickyard in Spokane Falls I would supply the want.
"When I arrived at Spangle I struck out west as far as Cottonwood Springs near the present site of Davenport. Lincoln county. for the sole purpose of exploring the country which was little more than an uninhabited wilderness. I got caught in a snowstorm out there and traveled through it for three or four hours. when at a certain point of the inevitable circle I was describing I bumped into a German settler coming From the woods with a load of fuel. His next neighbor. he told me, was a Norwegian whose homestead was exactly five miles cast. They visited each other at their respective homes every alternate Sunday. I stayed with my Ger- man friend over night. passed the Norwegian next day on my way to the Falls and reported the Dutchman alive and well.
"I walked into Spokane Falls just before noon. November 15th, and made my quarters at Sam Arthur's hotel and restaurant near Howard and Front. I dined sumptuously and then commeneed asking questions, the only one of which I now remember was, 'Is there ere a brickyard here?' to which I got two replies, there was, and there wasn't. Some one had been trying to make brick but was not sue- cessful in some essential particulars. I said that I would go and see for myself and would report on my return. I found the yard on the homestead of the Rev. H. T. Cowley. It was somewhere about where the .Lincoln schoolhouse now stands. My report was that the briekyard and kiln were not gems of the first water, that the brick in the kiln had been jammed close together, no spaces being left be- tween them for the flames to travel through and consequently the burning was a failure. A very small portion of the briek next the fires being burned, but very imperfectly.
"A few days afterwards I ran across the proprietor of the yard. 'a man by the name of Roberts, a bricklayer by trade. He told me that he had a chance to build some flues and fireplaces, but there was not any brick to be got nearer than Colfax, and he had undertaken to make brick himself nearer the seat of his operations. Ile had worked at his trade on the construction of the Napa Insane Asylum, Cali- fornia, and I had worked for two seasons in the brickyard at the same job. We agreed that I would make the brick and he would lay them as of yore in our new home. When I reported our interview to the boys down in the village they all with one accord commenced examining me for cuts, bruises and broken bones. The brickman had threatened to paralyze the new man for criticizing his kiln.
"I took up a homestead in February. '80, and the loention was about eight miles west of Medical Lake. I commuted and paid for it in '83 and held possession of it till 1895 one of the years in this country that tried men's souls. I fortunately
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got a chance to sell it that year, and small as the price 'was, it helped very mate- rially to keep me on earth and our brickyard on the map.
"At the time that I took up that homestead I might have taken anything in Spokane north of the river except Jenkins' addition. The north side, however, did not look good to me at that time.
"I secured permission from Wentzel Grant to locate my yard on his ranch on Ilangman creek and broke ground on it April 12th, 1880. I built my pug mill, constructed moulds and wheelbarrows, also built a shack out of slabs and the only iron in the whole outfit was a few pounds of nails which eost 15 eents per pound. I bought a cuitan for $15.00 and went to work with a erew of three men besides myself. We put up a small kiln, containing about 30,000 briek, when the funds ran out. I burned the kiln myself and got a very fair burn, but a trifle soft.
"After the kiln was burned nobody appeared to want brick very badly, and while I was waiting a la Macawber somebody stole my little horse. I did not have the wherewithal to induce a Siwash to let me have another. I borrowed one, however, and went to work again constituting the whole brickyard gang myself. I moulded, carried out, set and filled the pit myself, and so kept everything in the family. I turned out from 1.000 to 1,200 brick a day.
"The second kiln I put up on the homestead of R. R. Pynor, about half a mile from my first location. Grant noticed that it made a hole in the ground where the clay was taken out of and he would not stand for that.
"By and by my first kil began to move a little. The first load I sold was to a freighter by the name of Harris, who was hauling freight from Ritzville, at that time the nearest or most advanced point on the Northern Pacific Railway. He claimed that he lacked $2.00 of having enough to pay for them, but he agreed to bring it to me when he returned with another load of freight, but he never came hack.
"Roberts, the bricklayer, left town in the spring of '80 and I. T. Benham, a contractor and builder, still well remembered among the old-timers. came in. Benham was thoroughly up in his business and built quite a number of the best business bloeks that went up before the big fire of '89.
"The first brick building constructed in town was built this year. It was a storage warehouse, put np by I. T. Benham for J. N. Squier, the pioneer saloon- keeper. The first story was of rock and the second of brick. The brick were laid herring-bone fashion, as Benham phrased it. The brick were laid on edge with a header, so constructing a hollow wall.
"I burned my second kiln of brick containing 50,000 late in the fall. Alto- gether in 1880 F sold about 30,000 brick and carried about 30,000 over till next spring. About half of them were used in town and the rest were sold to farmers and to the county scat to be. Cheney. Cheney captured the county seat in Novem- ber. '80. at the polls, and a few weeks later by strategy and arms that were not brought into action. The first year I sold brick at the kiln for $10.00 'per 1.000. raising them in the latter part of the season to $12.00.
"In 1881 I made about 200.000 brick and I. T. Benham built out of them the first Wolverton block (the first all-brick block) for W. M. Wolverton, at the cor- ner of Mill and Riverside. There was a brickyard started at Cheney this year by a man named Carew. I think he ran his yard there two or three years, but was
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not very successful. Cheney in its palmy days would have done considerable brick building if the brick there had only been of passable quality. Better late than never, there is a first-class brickyard there now under able management.
"In 1882 I made 100,000 brick, having my brother William as partner in the first part of the season, and a young man by the name of N. H. Wright in the latter part. In August. J. N. Glover bargained for 250.000 brick for the con- struction of the First National Bank building. corner of Front and Howard. He paid me in advance for 100,000 of them at $9.00 per 1,000 delivered, and I had never felt so rich before nor have I since. and I never expect to feel half as rich again. H. Preusse, architect, arrived in town this summer and his first work was drawing plans for the First National Bank block. Henry Brook also came to town about the same time and next year superintended the brick work on the bank.
"1883 was a stirring year in the manufacture of brick and the construction of buildings. Wright and I made about 850,000 during the season. A man by the name of Taylor started a large yard southeast of town on the Moran prairie road and went broke about the middle of summer. Charles Sweeny took over his yard to satisfy a claim for groceries and supplies furnished and ran it for the rest of the season. We bought our stuff from Sweeny, but paid for it sooner or later. It was not in that brickyard that Sweeny made his mil- lions.
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