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 57
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Prices ruled low in the fall of 1893: Wheat in bulk at the city mills. 36 cents;
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flour, $3 per barrel; breakfast bacon, 10 to 11 eents; hams, 11 to 18; creamery but- ter, 33 to 34; Cheney full cream cheese 12 1-2; potatoes, 50 to 55 cents per hun- dred; dressed turkey, 15; young chiekens, per dozen, $2.50 to $3; venison, retail, 10 to 12; pheasants, 35; wild geese, 65 to 70.
Notwithstanding the hard times, the city showed some growth in 1893. A num- ber of new homes were built, and attendance in the city schools December 1 was 3,326, as against 2,880 on the corresponding date in 1892. And the holidays brought a better spirit all around-a more hopeful and even cheery view. At Christmas time Mayor Powell issued an informal proclamation, inviting citizens to subscribe to a pledge to patronize home industry, "and in the employment of labor and the purchase of merchandise always to give the preference to resident citizens." To Mayor Powell. I believe, belongs the distinction and the credit of sounding a keynote in a growing campaign that was to help immensely in the rehabilitation of the depressed industries of Spokane and its neighboring country.
CHAPTER XLIX
YEAR OF COXEY ARMY AND GREAT A. R. U. STRIKE
COXEVITES ASTIR IN SPOKANE COUNTRY- NIGHT TIME ORATORY AT THE HAYMARKET- HEADQUARTERS IN OLD M. E. CHURCH-"COLONEL" DOLPHIN IN DISGRACE-GREAT STRIKE PARALYZES TRAFFIC ON RAILROADS-RIOT AT NORTHERN PACIFIC STATION- DEPUTIES FIRE OVER CROWD-FIVE HUNDRED CITIZENS SWORN IN TO PRESERVE OR- DER-DISORDERS AT SPRAGUE-RISE OF THE "SHOTGUN LEAGUE - POPULISTS ELECT MAYOR-STORMV REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION-SPOKANE'S FIRST FRUIT FAIR- FIRST CARLOAD OF APPLES SHIPPED-TWO MORE BANK FAILURES-CITY IN DARK- NESS -- LOW COST OF LIVING-AMATEURS SING LIGHT OPER.A.
A S AFTERMATH of the panic year of 1893, with its long train of financial rnin, industrial depression and lamentable distress among the country's wage-earners-Spokane wrestled in 1894 with the Coxey army evanescence and the more tragie disorders of the country-wide strike of the American Railway Union, under leadership of Eugene V. Debs.
The Coxeyites were early astir in the Spokane country. By middle of April their motley elans had gathered here in number. For forum they appropriated the old "Haymarket" on Sprague and some vacant lots on North Monroe, and for head- quarters and barracks, contrived to gain possession of the old Methodist church at Sprague and Bernard, left vaeant when the postoffice moved to new quarters in the Granite block. At nightly meetings impassioned orators of the "proletariat" rang changes on the Coxey slogan, "On to Washington." For most part they were an inoffensive mixture of wandering workingmen down on their luek, with a liberal sprinkling of the genus hoho, and for inspiration they had a good deal of rugged native oratory from a class that dearly loves to mount an express wagon or a large dry goods box, and by the flare of the night-blooming gasoline flambeau turn loose a high-keyed voice on the vesper air. A parade through the business streets preceded the "feast of oratory and flow of sonl," and on their oriflamme the "army" bore high aloft the motto, "Going to Washington to See Grover."
A commissary committee went daily from store to store and house to house, to gather up contributions of edibles from generous sympathizers or indulgent citizens. At headquarters quite a show of military organization was maintained. Men were brought in as "recruits." enlisted and fed. Rollcall came daily at 9 a. m., fol- lowed by ninety minutes of drill work-keeping step, facing, dressing ranks and saluting. A second rolleall was held at 4 in the afternoon. By April 20 about 150 men were fed in the old brick church, with "Colonel" Dolphin in command.
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Aside from repeated attempts to seize trains, in their effort to speed on to Washington, the "army" gave the authorities little trouble. To guard the prop- erty of the railroads in Spokane, fifty-three deputies were sworn in by the United States marshal. Flint-hearted city and county officials refused to provide transpor- tation. April 30 four companies of United States troops came from Fort Sherman and went into camp in the eastern outskirts.
The army put it up to "Colonel" Dolphin to provide transportation. and after a month of inaction and failure, with repeated promises that were never fulfilled, the ranks grew discontented. In his desperation Dolphin announced on the morn- ing of May 7. that a train had been provided over the Great Northern, and gave orders for the men to roll their blankets and march out to Hillyard. As they filed out of the old church. 125 "Commonwealers" from Seattle filed in and appro- priated their abandoned quarters. Instead of the expected train at Hillyard, the Coxeyites found sixty sheriff's deputies, guarding the shops and roundhouses with Winchesters. Sullen and disappointed, they went into camp in a cold. drenching rainstorm. Three days later "Colonel" Dolphin and "Major" Stevenson were tried by a committee from the trades council and deposed from command. It was alleged that Dolphin, with all the funds in the seanty treasury. had bought a ticket for himself and tried to leave the country. He was seized as he emerged from the ticket office and put under a protecting guard, as threats had been made to lyneh him.
By this time the "army" was strung along the Northern Pacific, all the way from Seattle to the Montana border. Sixty-five Coxcyites, arrested at Yakima for assaulting deputies and interfering with the movement of trains. were run into Spokane in three box cars, and then taken back to Seattle for trial before the United States court. The Spokane companies were now scattered cast- ward, but to take their places 350 "Commonwealers" had drifted in from Seattle, and 100 more from Tacoma. Sympathizers here gave public entertainments for their benefit. Unsuccessful attempts were made to seize trains at Tekoa and Hill- yard. They gradually drifted away, and Spokane shed no tears when the last "soldier" vanished on the eastern horizon.
Their purpose was to march in forceful demonstration on Washington, and there demand the free and unlimited coinage of silver, an issue of $1,000.000.000 in greenbacks, and large appropriations for government irrigation.
In the closing days of June came the great strike of the American Railway Union, paralyzing traffic on western railroads. July 5 the first train in ten days on the Northern Pacific came in from the west with a non-union crew-sixteen coaches under heavy guard of armed deputies. A crowd of 3,000 gathered at the Northern Pacific station, held back from the right of way by rope lines and a police detachment. As the train drew in the crowd surged over the lines, and the more disorderly members began to push cars on the side-tracks. Mayor Belt made a speech, counselling order and advising the men to go to their homes, and with a squad of policemen Chief Mertz pushed the pressing crowd back from the right of way. United States Marshal Vinson and thirty deputies took possession of the roundhouse, and the crowd rushed in on them with curses and excerations. Stones began to fly, and the deputies fired over the heads of the mob, wounding a bystander. Yelling "Kill the deputies!" "Hang them!" "Lynch them!" the en-
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raged crowd fell baek. At this critical moment Chief of Police Mertz effected a compromise, the erowd and the deputies to retire and the police to guard the round- house.
Company G of Spokane, at Tacoma July 7, was disarmed and placed under arrest for refusal to ride on a train manned by a non-union erew. Subsequently a court of inquiry was held in Spokane, and on its report Governor MeGraw dis- charged First Lieutenant Arthur R. Brooks, Second Lieutenant E. T. Brown, and thirty-four privates, leaving only fifteen members in the company, with no officers.
Under the leadership of a committee composed of George Turner, Dr. N. Fred. Essig, Adolph Munter, Col. N. E. Linsley. C. B. Dunning, J. W. Binkley, S. T. Arthur, Thomas C. Griffitts and George M. Forster, 250 representative citi- zens of Spokane volunteered their aid to Sheriff Pugh to preserve law and order, and were sworn in as sheriff's deputies. Their number grew within a few days to 500.
The night of July 8 brought violent disorder at Sprague. A special train from the west, bearing several companies of militia, crashed into some box cars derailed across the track by rioters. At the same time rioters had fired a long trestle east of Sprague, and they ran an oil ear to a trestle west of town, which they fired, cutting off the approaches east and west. Federal troops, brought in the next day from the west, restored order.
In Spokane eleven men were arrested for complicity in the riot at the Northern Pacific depot, and taken to Seattle for trial before Judge Hanford. Seven were convicted and sentenced to eight months' imprisonment in jail at Seattle and Tacoma.
Before the first of Angust the great strike collapsed, and the disheartened men came back on terms dictated by the railroads.
This year a secret political organization called the "Freemen's Silver Protec- tive Association" gained a strong foothold throughout the farming distriets of the Inland Empire. Some called it the "Shotgun League," and charged it with dark and mysterious deeds. About that time a farmer named Gloystein, in the Palouse country, disappeared from his family and his home. He had been known to criticise the "League," and it was suspected of his murder or abduction, a sus- pieion without foundation in fact, for Sheriff Pugh found the man several months later working on an Oregon ranch.
Politically, 1891 brought much that was of interest. The Republican Union, a secret Spokane society better known as "Little Tammany," waxed strong and exerted much influence in city and county affairs.
On the evening of April 16 the first populist municipal convention in Spokane nominated H. N. Belt for mayor, George Mudgett for treasurer, Howard L. Weed for comptroller, and a full council ticket.
The republican convention. April 18, nominated A. J. Shaw, the Wilson eandi- date for mayor, over E. Dempsie, the Turner candidate. The ticket was completed by nominating M. D. Smith for comptroller and W. H. Wiseombe for treasurer. Belt was elected Mayor over Shaw by 178 majority; Weed. comptroller, by 738. and Wiscombe, treasurer, by 136.
Perhaps the stormiest convention ever held by the republicans of Washington state was that which convened in the Spokane Auditorium, September 19. A
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battle royal was fought out there between King county and Spokane, and when it was over. victory was written on the banner of Spokane. The contest was over the financial plank in the platform. The committee, unable to agree, and closely divided, decided to toss the issue before the whole convention for settlement. King county, with an almost solid delegation led by Andrew F. Burleigh, C. F. Fishback and Sam. Piles, proposed the resolution following:
"The republican party of Washington believes in sound and honest money, and to the end that we may have a sound and stable currency, we declare ourselves in favor of bimetallism. We commend the wise and patriotic utterances of the republican national convention of 1892 in the national platform. We believe that platform means just what it says upon this question; and we instruct our sena- tors and representatives in congress to favor such legislation as shall secure the absolute equality in debt-paying power of every dollar of the money of the conn- try, whether of gold, silver or currency."
Judge R. B. Blake of the Spokane delegation offered the following:
"The republican party. from tradition and interest. favors bimetallism. and we believe that true bimetallism can be accomplished only through the free coinage of silver at the ratio of sixteen to one. We further favor discriminating tariffs against all countries maintaining the single gold standard."
After several hours of impassioned debate, the resolution offered by King county was adopted late in the afternoon, 271 to 210. But at the night session, before an audience that filled the large theater to standing room capacity, Spokane moved and won a reconsideration, and brought forward a substitute resolution:
"Resolved. That we are in favor of the free and unlimited coinage of silver produced by mines of the United States, at the ratio of sixteen to one."
Fishback. Burleigh and Piles led the speaking against the substitute. Judge Turner closed For the silver forees, before an audience that was on its feet. wildly cheering his impassioned protest against the "erack of the ringmaster's whip from Seattle." In tense excitement the vote was taken. and when it was seen that the Spokane substitute had prevailed, 266 to 219, the cheering was heard many blocks away.
For representatives in congress the convention nominated S. C. Hyde of Spo- kane (John L. Wilson having announced his candidacy for the senate) and W. H. Doolittle of Tacoma.
The democratic state convention at North Yakima nominated B. F. Heuston of Tacoma and Judge N. T. Caton of Lincoln county for congress, and expressed an unqualified demand for the free and unlimited coinage of silver, sixteen to one.
The republicans carried the state in November. In Spokane county the result was divided, the populists taking sheriff, treasurer. two commissioners. school superintendent, a state senator and three representatives, and the republicans, anditor, prosecuting attorney, assessor, elerk, surveyor and five representatives in the legislature.
The school election. November 3. brought out a vote of 1,000. D. H1. Dwight and Dr. G. T. Penn were elected. Other candidates were George W. Belt, Mrs. A. V. Wilson, HI. L. Kennan and Col. Patrick Henry Winston.
Spokane's first fruit fair was held October 21 to 27. in a vacant agricultural implement warehouse on east Riverside avenue. and revealed a display of fine
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fruits and other products of the farm that surprised, delighted and encouraged the thousands who attended. One hundred and fifty exhibitors competed for prizes offered by a committee comprising Dr. J. E. Gandy, O. B. Nelson, R. S. Oakley, J. L. Smith, John R. Reavis, E. P. Gilbert and H. Bolster. At the opening exer- cises J. W. Binkley, president of the Board of Immigration, under whose auspiees the fair was held, introduced Mayor Belt, who formally deelared the fair open to the publie of Spokane and surrounding country. Musie was provided by the Borchert Ladies' orehestra of five players. Admission was a dime, and 2,527 paid admissions were recorded the opening day.
"The magnifieenee, beauty and superiority of the exhibits are remarkable," commented the Evening Chronicle. "No one thought that it would be such a big show. People who have lived in this country all their lives, and who thought they knew the capabilities of the soil in every way, have received a new education, and will go home with greater faith than ever in the latent richness of Washing- ton."
The fame and beauty of the exhibition were spread abroad by the first day visi- tors, and greater throngs followed. Total paid admissions in the four days ex- ceeded 14,000. Whitman county donated its entire exhibit to the Board of Immi- gration for advertising purposes, and the exhibitors returned to their homes greatly pleased by the enthusiasm of the crowds and the hospitable spirit of Spokane.
In January, 1894, loeal mills engaged in a priee war, and some brands of flour went as low as $2.25 a barrel, or 65 eents a hundred.
Judge J. M. Kinnaird disappeared the evening of February 13. Later it was learned that in a fit of despondeney he had leaped to his death from one of the eity bridges.
Attendanee at the high school this year had grown to 220, as compared with twelve in 1888.
The first earload of apples ever shipped from Spokane to an eastern market went out over the Union Pacifie, March 31. They were of the Ben Davis variety, from W'm. Hunter's orchard on Moran prairie.
A report by the finance committee of the couneil showed that within the pre- ceding two years $177,000 had been paid out on the Monroe street bridge, $30,000 at Howard street, $+7,000 at Division street, $61,000 for the city hall site, and $90,000 for the city hall building.
May brought unprecedented high water in the Spokane, passing the previous high water mark of 1890. Peaceful Valley was flooded, parts of Dennis and Brad- ley's addition resembled a lake, and eight bridges were washed away or severely damaged. By June 1 the only erossings left for wagon traffie between the western city limits and Lake Coeur d'Alene were at Post and Monroe streets.
This year brought the building of the new courthouse.
All Saints Episcopal parish was merged in June in a cathedral system. A new corporation, the Bishop and Chapter of All Saints, was formed with ten trus- tees-Bishop Lemuel H. Wells, the Rev. W. M. Lane, Jacob Hoover. Eugene Klein. Frederick Phair, R. M. Russell, J. J. Graham, C. L. Springer, W. D. Vineent, A. H. Posten-and the property of the parish was deeded to it. Reetor Lane beeame dean. and the vestry was changed for a chapter of seven-four chosen by
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the bishop and three by the congregation. Women communicants were given the right to vote for chaptermen.
Operation of the Monroe street cable line was suspended July 22. Lack of patronage and loss of money were given in explanation.
A light opera called "Arlone," music by F. E. Hoppe, libretto by John J. Rea- gan, was sung at the Auditorium on the evening of October 19 by home talent.
Arlone
Miss Bernadine Sargent
Leona Miss Margaret Stewart
Clarence Charles T. Vajen
Algernon A. Y. Crowell
Dr. Forbes
Herbert Moore
Jennie Miss Grace Ewing
Marie Miss Lulu Johnson
It was tuneful and bright and the company were enthusiastically applauded.
Adolph Solheim, a well known pioneer character who then owned Selheim springs ranch on the Little Spokane, which afterwards became the property of Jay P. Graves, shot and fatally wounded Win. Smith in a saloon on Front avenue.
In November came the end of the bank failures. The Citizens National, which had been allowed to reopen the previous year, again closed its doors on the 22d, and the same day the Browne National suspended payments, with liabilities of $101,000. President J. J. Browne had liquidated nearly all the deposits, and the institution was in such excellent condition that he was allowed to administer the trust himself, and subsequently paid out all obligations in full.
At midnight. November 30, the electric light company turned off the current from all the street lights, and the city was plunged into darkness. The contract had expired, and the council and company could not agree on conditions for re- newal. The city had maintained 200 are lights, but ont of regard for economy decided to ent the number to fifty. After a few nights of Stygian darkness, an agreement was reached on a basis of $475 monthly for fifty ares.
A movement was under way in November to secure a United States army post for Spokane. At a special session the council decided to offer free water, and to raise a fund for preliminary expenses, local talent gave a concert at the Andi- torium which was attended by 1,500 enthusiastic "boosters." Committees were hard at work raising the needed $40,000 for the site.
Near the close of 1891 loyal citizens derived much gratification from the fact that the real estate record for cleven months totaled $1,175,919, while that of Port- land, for the same period, was but $1,298,161, although Portland claimed to have a population more than twice as great as Spokane's.
We had low cost of living then. By December, 1894, prices had fallen to bedrock: Flour, $1.90 to $2 per barrel; timothy hay, $8; bacon, 9 to 11 cents; hams, 11 to 13 cents; dairy butter. 15 cents: creamery, 26 to 28 cents; potatoes, 10 to 50 cents per hundred ; spring chickens, $2 to $2.25 per dozen ; dressed chick- ens, 10 cents per pound ; dressed turkeys. 10 to 1216 cents: prairie chickens. $1.50 per dozen : grouse, 25 cents ; venison, 8 cents; pheasants, 15 to 18 cents.
Gilbert and Sullivan's light opera "Patience" was sung the night of Deeem-
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ber 13 by the Mozart elub: Miss Alice May Harrah as Patience; Mrs. D. C. Joslyn, Lady Saphyr; Miss Mattie Sharpe, Lady Argela; Mrs. John H. Stone, Lady Jane; Miss Mabel Kester, Lady Ella; Dr. C. S. Penfield, as Bunthorne and E. K. Erwin, George J. Reiner, LaRue Perrine and A. B. Keeler in other roles.
To "purify polities, get a better class of citizens into office, and secure the passage and enforcement of good laws," a Good Government elub was organized December 27. President, Rev. W'm. Davies; vice-president, J. A. Williams; seere- tary, Adolph Nelson; treasurer, Dr. C. S. Kalb, and the following trustees: J. Grier Long, Charles L. MaeKenzie, W. A. Huneke, Henry E. Miller and W. W. Belden.
CHAPTER L
HOW SPOKANE WON THE ARMY POST
BY E. E. PERRY
S
POKANE had a Christmas tree on the last night of 1894, a Christmas tree that all of the city's population that could crowd into the Auditorium theater attended. The story of this affair tells the story of the Spokane of today better than any other incident. From that Christmas tree the eity plucked Fort Wright, national prestige and renewed faith in its own enterprise and resources that has steadily increased since.
Midsummer of 1894 was the midwinter of hard times in the northwest. Com- ing here and getting started in a new home had put a heavy strain on the finances of most of the city's population at that time. The people were unacquainted with each other and the country. Local conditions were as shifty and unstable then as they are now fixed and reliable. Upon that situation had fallen the frost of na- tional panic, and the bread and butter issue became vital for the magnate and mor- tar mixer alike.
But there were men in Spokane then, as now, who had the faculty of sitting tight through a pinch and always looking forward. These men maintained a Spokane bureau of immigration, although most of the immigration of that day traveled by freight train and beseeehed somebody for a bite to eat as soon as it struek town. Looking out beyond the sluggish uncertainty of their time the bureau noted that the goverment was considering the project of establishing another army post in the northwest. The bureau learned that the consideration for the post would amount to 1,000 acres of suitable land and free water. That much ascertained the bureau put A. A. Newbery on the train for Washington, D. C., with instructions to capture the prospective fort. The bureau chipped in out of its individual pockets-and it required numerous pockets-to pay the expenses of the trip.
SPOKANE RESOLVES TO POSSESS THE FORT
Newbery put in six weeks on the expedition and a mass meeting in the Audi- torium heard his report when he returned. He brought assurance that the new fort could be located in Spokane if the city would donate 1,000 acres and water. A matter of quick but correct arithmetic brought the question down to the raising of $40,000, of which $15.000 must be in eash and the balance in land that could be negotiated. This was based on the theory that the bulk of the fort site would be donated, a theory which proved entirely reliable. Of several locations offered Vol. 1-30
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the present fort grounds. or Twickenham park, as it was then called, was favored by General Otis, who had made an inspection trip previously.
The problem of land donations was not complex-there was plenty of it un- occupied then-but the realization of $15,000 cash, when the majority of Spokane citizens were highly appreciative of 15 cents, was another matter entirely. Yet that mass meeting accepted the proposition with no more hesitation than it was in the habit of accepting whatever it could get to cat. voted to produce the cash, and then walked home. because the street car company displayed a persistent desire to collect fare.
The campaign was placed in the hands of a general committee, consisting of A. A. Newbery. J. W. Binkley. F. Lewis Clark, J. P. Carritte, Herbert Bolster, Judge J. 7. Moore, Charles F. Clough, E. J. Webster. J. C. Byrd, W. R. Newport, H. B. Nichols, J. F. Sloan. Robert Easson, W. S. Norman, A. J. Shaw, A. P. Sawyer. Howard Peel, Jacob Schiller. S. Rosenhaupt. A. J. Ross. Frank P. Hogan, J. W. Chapman and Cyrus Happy. They named an auditing committee and the Spokane & Eastern Trust company was made trustee of the fund to come. exactly as if everybody thought there was still any money in the country.
EVERYTHING IN SIGHT EXCEPT HARD CASH
The preliminaries had been financed out of private contributions by individuals, but the limit to this had been reached dismally sudden. Right here is where Spo- kane was finally welded into compaet progressiveness. The town became earnestly eager to give anything it could to secure the fort, and from this willingness evolved the novelty of a booster Christmas tree.
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