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 58
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Straight donations of any consequence to the fund were of discouraging infre- queney, although every citizen that could respond. did so. Through their mana- ger, W. S. Norman, the Falls City Land company, and the land department of the Washington Water Power company donated 125 acres of land. Binkley & Taylor contributed $1,000 in cash and $8.000 worth of land. Donations of $500 each were made by Holley, Mason, Marks & Co .. Rosenhaupt Bros., and Doe Brown, who ran the Owl gambling house and who declared he would double the ante if it was necessary. F. Lewis Clark gave $2,000, 11. B. Nichols and A. P. Wolverton $1,000 and $500 respectively, in real estate; J. W. Chapman. 40 acres near the proposed site. and Chamberlin Bros., $500 worth of land. This was good, as far as it went, but it still fell lamentably short of $15,000 cash.
WOMEN START REAL MONEY CAMPAIGN
Then the women began to take a hand and a fort concert was presently an- nouneed, with a home talent program it would be hard to surpass now. It con- tained such numbers as the "Ballade du Roi de Thule et Air Des Bijoux," from "Faust," sung by Mrs. A. H. Otis; Strelezki's "Waltz Song," by Miss Bernadine Sargent : Shelly's "Love's Sorrows." by Miss Mattie Sharpe: Gounod's "La Regina di Saba." by Miss Alice May Harrah, and selections from Mendelssohn's operas, played on the violin by Miss Luella Hoppe. The concert closed with a splendid rendition of classic music by the Mozart club's sixty members. The concert netted $1,200, all clear.
FORT GEORGE WRIGHT, SPOKANE
OLD FORT SPOKANE. AT THE CONFLUENCE OF THE COLUMBIA AND SPOKANE RIVERS
FEW WORK FOLK LIBRARY
AutUR LENOX TO JEN FOUNDATIONS
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This was early in December. The committee worked along through the dreary winter weather and the drearier business prospects with indifferent suecess, al- though something was constantly dribbling in. Army officers and war department officials were constantly urging speedy action. The committee met one noon and decided that it must be personally represented again at Washington, D. C. It asked .Newbery when he could be ready to start. Newbery was at the depot with his grip a couple of hours later.
Meanwhile 400 aeres more land was needed for the fort site. Dan Drumheller, Frank P. Hogan, J. W. Chapman and several others had syndicated to buy this land from the Northern Pacific. They had half paid for it and they cheerfully donated their interests. Newbery stopped at St. Paul long enough to open prolific negotiations for a Northern Pacific contribution on the balance.
But time was dragging on and the needed cash was not coming in. The loca- tion of the fort here meant the expenditure of something like $500.000 by the government for buildings, and the stationing of several hundred men. all drawing steady pay. A soldier's salary was nothing to be scorned in those days. H. M. Richards and A. W. Doland had both had experience with army post towns and they worked neeasingly for it here.
CHRISTMAS TREE TOOK ROOT AND GREW
When it seemed that every means of raising cash had been exhausted somebody suggested the fort Christmas tree. Mrs. Alice Houghton was one of the first pro- moters of it, but nobody was far behind when the plan became understood. Briefly, the scheme was to have everybody donate anything they could, use these donations for presents and give them out according to the numbers corresponding to tickets sold. The distribution was to be made from a huge Christmas tree on the Andi- torium stage.
The list of donated presents that eame pouring in is something to smile over at first, and after that it begins to nearly resemble the family pewter melted up to supply patriots' bullets. One woman. with a desire to do something. and nothing much to do with, finally got together the ingredients of a mince pie and offered that. Somebody with more live stock than cash, offered a colt. Teachers gave music and painting lessons, and so the list ran down through rheumatism medieine, curling irons, harmonica, dental and surgical work, a month's board, a month's shaves, photographic and plumbing work, paint. pickles, cigarette tobacco, . electric baths, skating rink tickets-you could scarcely name a thing on sale that was not to be found listed for the fort Christmas tree. The country districts joined in, one man at Chattaroy sending two-bits and regrets that it was all he had. It wasn't a poverty social affair, by any means, however, for gold watches, a bicycle, expen- sive dishes, furs and a costly shotgun were also contributed. The same spirit prevailed with everybody and everybody gave what they could and more than they could really afford. It was the strangest and most varied Christmas tree assort- ment ever gotten together. Nothing was rejected.
EVERYBODY HAD TICKETS FOR SALE
Tickets of admission to the tree. carrying chanees on the presents, were sold at $1. You couldn't meet a councilman. policeman or any other able-bodied eitizen
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who wouldn't have a bunch of tickets to sell, and who wouldn't sell you one if you had a dollar in your clothes. Men and women who now ride about town in latest model automobiles. walked then and sold Christmas tree tickets along the ronte. The Spokane club set aside Saturdays as days when all members who in- dulged in innocent little games played for tickets. Social circles played euchre for ticket prizes. -
The project grew at such a rate that the committee was unable to prepare the tree before the night of December 31. When the Auditorium doors were opened at 7 o'clock a crowd surged in that taxed Harry Hayward's ingenuity, and Harry never was what might be called a green stripling. Robert Easson, J. W. Went- worth. A. C. Ware. E. M. Shaw and John Leghorn, as floor committee. put in an evening's work that is not yet forgotten.
The crowd was fairly rollicking in the universal sentiment of booster unity. It was the fort now or never. If there wasn't a loose dollar left in town, what was the odds? Everybody was in the same boat.
The curtain rose on "Billy" Wyard costumed as the old year. In a little open- ing sketch he called for the new year, and Miss Virginia Winston responded. She summoned Santa Claus, in the person of W. H. MacFarlan and Santa Claus gave the signal that disclosed the Christmas tree, thirty feet high and gleaming with electric lights. The committee was also up there with two big churns full of cou- pons that called for presents. Judge Blake and John W. Graham were unani- mously selected to draw the tickets. J. R. Taylor sat as judge over the proceed- ings, and the fun began.
GOT A BULL PUP FROM SANTA CLAUS
The first prize pulled out was a pound of tea and it was sent up to a man in the gallery. Later came a bull pup and then a case of beer. The city papers had offered subscriptions for presents and the circulation manager of one drew his own paper for a year. F. Lewis Clark drew a turkey, Herbert Bolster got a pair of spectacles and several subscriptions, while other members of the committees, who had all bought tickets, carried home potatoes and pictures. Postmaster Mallon had bought forty tickets. Out of that he got a woman's hat and two pictures. Miss Bottorff won the $125 shotgun on a ticket that had been given to her, and the 3-year-old son of B. L. Gordon got the $15 kodak. R. D. Westfall took the gold watch : Sid Rosenhaupt drew the $100 bicycle, and an immi- grant who had just got in from Idaho walked off with the $10 dinner set. George Adams, who had dreamed that a certain ticket would win the gold watch and had bribed a schoolboy to part with it for $2, won a 25-cent harmonica. So the list ran, ridiculously amusing in many instances, and yet very likely some of those presents are prized relies in Spokane homes today.
PORT WAS ON THE CHRISTMAS TREE
The cash receipts Christmas tree netted $1.500 in cash and this assured the fort's location so far as Spokane's part of the work was concerned. There was red tape at Washington to be unwound. but Newbery was on the job. The ac- quirement of property still necessary went steadily on and some more cash was
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needed, but it came readily. The uproarious jollity of the Christmas tree had thawed finances theretofore frozen up solidly. The fort came in due time and with it came the prestige of furnishing the eash and land in a time when request for any sort of public contribution assumed the guise of a particularly irritating form of joke. And the finishing touch was put on through a wholesale offering of Christmas presents running from a $125 shotgun down to a 25-eent harmonica and a minee pie.
CHAPTER LI
REVIEW OF HISTORICAL EVENTS OF 1895
JOHN L. WILSON ELECTED UNITED STATES SENATOR-SCHISM IN FIRST M. E. CHURCHI- FUTILE ATTEMPT TO IMPEACH JUDGE ARTHUR-LOCAL TALENT PRODUCES HOME- MADE OPERA-WAR ON BOX-RUSTLING-DEATH OF A. M. CANNON-BELT REELECTED MAYOR-SIMON OPPENHEIMER CUTS A WIDE SWATI-THEODORE CUSHING KILLS THOMAS KING-SUCCESSFUL SOCIETY CIRCUS-COLONEL WINSTON MEETS A HIGII- WAYMAN-COUNCIL THREATENS MAYOR WITH IMPEACHMENT-FRUIT FAIR A BRIL- LIANT SUCCESS-DEATH OF F. ROCKWOOD MOORE-BETTER TIMES FOR SPOKANE.
C ONSPICUOUS in events of 1895 were the development of Rossland camp to the dividend stage; the Wilson-Ankeny senatorial contest, involving for a brief period Judge George Turner, but ending, after a surprising recov- ery from seeming defeat. in the election of John L. Wilson, and the death of A. M. Cannon.
On the opening ballot at Olympia. in January, the republican strength divided between Wilson, with twenty-nine votes, Levi Ankeny, who received twenty-seven and John B. Allen, who found fourteen supporters. The second day came a break in Wilson's support, and the ninth ballot left him with a corporal's guard of seven. At this critical moment nineteen legislative friends and admirers of Turner, who had been voting in various other camps. broke to him, and a determined effort was made to stampede the legislature in his favor, but without suecess, for Wilson rallied next day to twenty-eight. and the Turner following dropped to six. Recog- nizing the futility of further effort, Turner withdrew, and Wilson was elected February 1, the result of a eancus the night before.
Taking the year's happenings in chronological order. we find J. M. Comstock, R. B. Paterson, C. H. Weeks and J. L. Paine filing articles January 2 ineorporat- ing the Spokane Dry Goods company.
Dissatisfaction with the pastor. Rev. David N. MeInturff, of the First Meth- odist Episcopal church, led a large part of the membership to withdraw, and at a meeting at the residence of Henry Brook, the evening of January 14, steps were taken to organize Vincent church. Among those who attended were Mr. and Mrs. S. Heath, Mr. and Mrs. Brook and two daughters. Mr. and Mrs. W. D. Parks. Nelson Clark and family, D. S. Prescott and family. W. S. McCrea. I. S. Kauf- man. Frank Kizer and family. J. H. Bishop and family and Judge R. B. Blake and family. The Rev. M. H. Marvin became the first pastor of the new church.
Increasing dissatisfaction with the conduet, judicial and personal, of Judge
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Jesse Arthur of the superior court, developed in February into an organized move- ment for impeachment. At the request of J. R. Lambly, Representative Tull of Spokane introduced a resolution in the house for an official investigation. Judge Arthur was charged with malfeasance and misconduct in the trial of Herman L. Chase, excessive and habitual use of morphine, falling asleep on the bench while cases were on trial, and wilful absence from his judicial duties. The resolution was adopted and a legislative committee held extended hearings at Spokane and Colville, and submitted majority and minority reports. February 22, by a vote of forty-seven to twenty-one, the house adopted the majority report against impeach- ment, which, though finding Arthur negligent in regard to the Stevens county grand jury, and culpable in permitting instructions to go to the Chase jury that were con- trary to law. nevertheless recommended, in view of "extenuating circumstances." that "the house take no further action."
Property holders, feeling the pinch of taxation in hard times, clamored long and loud for retrenchment at the city hall and courthouse. This discontent took concrete form in the fall of 1891, in the organization of the Taxpayers' League, with A. W. Doland chairman, and B. E. Barinds secretary. This aggressive organization investigated the building of the new courthouse, and took a firm stand for better and more economical government. Yielding to this pressure, the city council reduced the police force in February, 1895, to the chief. one captain, twenty patrolmen and three special officers-a cut of five regular and eight special officers.
Chairman Henry L. Wilson reported. February 26, that excepting two pieces, all the land necessary for the army post had been acquired. The work of closing up the details was carried on by Chairman Wilson, Henry M. Richards. S. Rosen- haupt, Howell Peel, J. P. Carritte and A. P. Sawyer.
This spring vertical writing was adopted in the first three grades of the Spo- kane schools.
The Hehn bill to reduce grain and produce rates had passed the house, sixty to right, but was in danger of defeat by the senate. A mass meeting was held in the council chamber, the evening of March 5. to support it, and favoring speeches were made by Frank Graves and Judge R. B. Blake. W. S. Norman spoke in opposition. The bill was beaten in the senate. twenty-one to thirteen. Ide and Vanllouten of Spokane voting against it.
Prof. Franz Mueller turned his hand this spring to the composition of a light opera, with Reginald F. Mead assisting as librettist. They named it "The White Fawn," a romance of the wide, wild west, with Indians, cowboys and refined young ladies disporting on the stage. and sang it the night of March 29 before an appre- ciative audience at the Auditorium. Mrs. Harl J. Cook took the title role.
The Ministerial Association waged aggressive warfare on the box-rustling variety theaters, and the council passed a prohibitory ordinance which Mayor Belt promptly vetoed, for which he was roundly denounced the following Sunday from many of the Spokane pulpits. Sitting in his pew in Westminster Congregational, the mayor listened to a seathing arraignment from his pastor, the Rev. F. B. Cherington.
In April came news of the death, at a hotel in New York, of the kindly but broken-hearted old pioneer. A. M. Cannon. In a desperate endeavor to retrieve his
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shattered fortunes, Mr. Cannon had traveled through some of the South American countries, looking vainly for an inviting opening. From that journey he returned to New York, despondent and ill. "His history since 1878," said the Chronicle, then owned and conducted by J. J. Browne, "needs no repetition to the people of Spokane. The establishment of the Bank of Spokane Falls in 1879; the starting of a sawmill in the same year; the formation of the Spokane Mill company; the build- ing of the Spokane & Palouse railroad ; the construction of the grand Auditorium, and fifty other enterprises which were originated or assisted by his versatile energy, will bear permanent testimony to the genius of this man."
The body was brought home for its long last rest in Greenwood, and a most solemn and impressive funeral service was conducted by the Rev. T. G. Watson, April 14, in the First Presbyterian church. "He stood erect before the world," said the pioneer preacher, "and with touching courage and a faith divine avowed his purpose of beginning anew the struggle for fortune. It is a noble example, one we may take with us into our homes and daily lives."
In the April municipal campaign three tickets appeared. The republican con- vention, April 13, nominated C. B. Hopkins for mayor, George A. Liebes for comptroller, and A. G. Ansell for treasurer.
A Citizens' convention nominated Walter France for mayor, A. J. Smith for comptroller, and J. L. Smith for treasurer.
Nominees of the populist convention were H. N. Belt for mayor, Charles L. Mckenzie for comptroller, and Hal Gredin for treasurer.
A total of 3,875 votes was polled, and Belt was elected mayor by a plurality of 291 over Hopkins, who received 1,227 votes, Franee coming in third with 1,130. Liebes and Ansell, republicans, were elected comptroller and treasurer. The popu- lists elected C. Bungay and D. K. Oliver to the council, and the republicans Jacob Schiller, W. H. Acuff, and C. B. Dunning.
For several months in 1895 Simon Oppenheimer was quite the "biggest man in Spokane." People pansed in awe of him as he passed along the street, and bank- ers stood deferentially around when he discussed finance and the great achieve- ments he had in store for Spokane. For Simon had accomplished the wonder of going over to Holland and tearing off $300,000 of real money for investment here. He had bonded the property of the old Spokane Mill company and sold the bonds to the Amsterdamsch Trustees Kantoor. With this money he started out to build the present Phoenix sawmill, and a large flouring mill on the north bank of the river. These were properties of the Northwest Milling and Power company. The sawmill was completed in September. and started industry with an elaborate ceremonial. John L. Wilson orated, Mrs. H. Oppenheimer broke a bottle of cham- pagne, the whistles blew and the overjoyed populace cheered.
Simon had another corporation up his sleeve-the Consumers' Light & Power company-that was going to enter into vigorous competiton with the Washington Water Power company, and in July the council fell all over itself in its eagerness to grant him a fifty-year franchise to set poles and string wires in the city streets.
That was about as far as Simon Oppenheimer ever got with his great work of rejuvenating the languid industries of Spokane. Before the year was ended he had expended the $300,000 and borrowed at the local banks besides, and in March fol- lowing, on application of the Exchange National, J. N. Glover was appointed re-
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ceiver of the company. Mr. Glover found a badly tangled mass of books and accounts. Oppenheimer left the country and went to South America.
Theodore Cushing, who built the Cushing block, now occupied by the Spokane & Eastern Trust company, having lost it under foreclosure, retired to a ranch on the Little Spokane. There, on May 11, after an altercation over wages, he shot and killed Thomas King, a farm hand in his service. He pleaded self-defense, but after an extended trial which excited deep public interest, was convicted of mur- der in the second degree and sentenced to a term in the penitentiary.
By midsummer the depths of the financial depression had been sounded, and the city's business and industries were thrilling with the renaissance. By July bank clearings had risen to $325,000 a week, an increase of fifty per cent over the corresponding period in 1894. the largest percentage of increase of all the cities in the United States.
A "society cirens," out at Natatorium park in July, scored a local hit. A. J. Ross, in regulation attire, was ringmaster. and W. S. McCrea. George Reiner, Eddie Kohlhauff and "Bob" and Ed. Quinn made merry as clowns. But quite the chief attraction was a bareback riding aet by the dashing Mrs. S. G. Allen, wife of a prominent member of the local bar.
An enlivening incident that summer was Colonel Patrick Henry Winston's encounter with a highwayman and loss of a silver dollar.
"He asked me," said Mr. Winston, reporting the affair, "if that was all I had, and I assured him, upon my honor, that it was all. Strangely, he took my word for it, so I must conclude that he was a stranger, for who else would take the word of the average citizen of Spokane for truth and veracity? As I was about to part company with the fellow, I suddenly remembered that I had a cigar with me. and asked him to accept it, which he did. I then lighted a match with him and told him to smoke with me. He said, "Well, von take it d=d cool for a man who is being robbed.' I replied that there was nothing to excite a man to be robbed in Spokane in some manner or other. 'Now if I was robbing you, and thought I was about to get something, I would be so d-d excited that I could not stand still.' As I saw there was no prospect of getting anything of value from the fel- low, I politely excused myself and left him."
Fire at Sprague, August 3, burned the Northern Pacific shops and the greater part of the town, and cansed a loss of more than a million dollars. The company decided not to rebuild in Sprague, but to transfer its extensive shops and round- houses to Spokane.
The railroad from Kaslo into the Slocan country was built this year.
John Considine, who subsequently attained eminence in the vaudeville world, was running a box-rustling variety theater on lower Howard street, and while contesting the validity of the state barmaid act was arrested. In the end the courts sustained the law.
The Nez Perce Indians having ceded a part of their reservation, large pay- ments were made to them this summer by the government, and Lewiston bankers and business men profited briskly by Indian trade. The valuable ceded lands were opened to settlement, and by November 3,500 settlers had taken homes.
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The year was notable for sharp elashes of authority between Mayor Belt and the conneil. In September the conneil removed Police Chief Mertz, who publicly attributed his removal to hostile infinenee of the A. P. A. That anti-Catholie organization, he asserted, had six members in the eouneil. The eouneil directed Captain Coverly to assume command of the force, and the mayor ordered William MeKernan to serve as aeting chief. This led to a sharp division in the foree, some of the men reporting to the mayor's man, and others siding with the eouneil's appointee. Taking advantage of a provision of the charter, Mayor Belt deelared an emergeney and assumed command of the police department. The issne was earried to the courts, where the mayor's position was sustained. Meanwhile the eouneil had passed an impeaching ordinanee and shook it over the mayor's head, but seemingly fell short of sufficient courage to make good its threats.
This year brought the first attempt to irrigate the lands of the Spokane valley. In September the Washington & Idaho irrigation company incorporated, with a purpose to take water from Hayden and Newman lakes. George S. Palmer was president of the company ; H. M. Moseley, seeretary, and Charles W. Clark, treas- urer. F. E. Elmendorf was manager.
In June the Spokane Immigration Bureau appointed Howell M. Peel, R. E. M. Strickland and 1. S. Kaufman a committee to assist Seeretary Bolster in planning for another fruit fair. September 30 to October 9 were chosen for the dates, and a large tented structure. 124x156. was ereeted, fronting on Sprague avenue, at the corner of Mill. At the opening exercises speeches were made by J. W. Binkley, Governor W. J. McConnell of Idaho, and Mayor Belt. For musie we had the Fourth cavalry band from Walla Walla. The railroads made special exeursion rates of one eent a mile from all points in the Inland Empire, and these and the fame of the fair drew in unprecedented throngs of visitors. It was conservatively estimated that on the second day the Northern Paeifie brought in 2,500 exeur- sionists on its Spokane & Palouse branch-thirty-five coaches filled to the aisles and platforms, and hundreds were unable to board the trains as they came up through the Palouse country. Three hundred visitors eame from Walla Walla, and the Big Bend country, Stevens county, Lewiston, the Coeur d'Alenes and other northern Idaho towns sent in their thousands. The total paid attendance exceeded 10,000.
In October the new courthonse was nearing completion. The cornerstone of the normal sehool building was laid at Cheney, October 14, with the Masonie ritual. With the autumnal rains eame renewed agitation for the paving of River- side.
F. Roekwood Moore, one of the best known of Spokane's early pioneers, died November 21. He came in 1878, and the next year engaged in railroad contraet- ing and the general merchandise business. At his funeral Lane C. Gilliam, Charles Sweeny, J. N. Glover, Ben Norman. Henry Brook and R. D. Sherwood were pall- bearers. His grave is in Greenwood.
The new water works were nearing completion. The contract was let to Rolla A. Jones at $310,000, but in a statement to the eonneil Comptroller Liebes estimated that the eost would execed that figure by $75,000.
D. B. Fotheringham had the courthonse contraet at $217,600, but extras brought the final cost up to $276,266.
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By the end of 1895 prices had started upward, and in the Palouse country wheat was commanding 10 cents. a price which then seemed to spell prosperity for the farming sections, for the cost of production was lower than ever before or since.
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