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 60
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Prosperity's banners were now well advaneed, and the year brought much con- struction. In October, buildings completed this year or under construction aggre- gated $1,280,000. Fine residences were started by D. C. and Austin Corbin,
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John A. Finch, A. B. Campbell and many others; and the Jesuits expended $100,000 on their new Gonzaga college, and built besides twenty-four rental cottages on their tract, at a cost of $50,000.
The new directory in June indicated a ten per cent increase in population.
At a meeting in October of the Spokane Lumber association the fact developed that for the first time in seven years the supply of dry lumber was exhausted in the territory between Montana and the Cascades, and Oregon and the Canadian Pacific railroad. Priccs were accordingly advanced.
The death in August of Horace E. Houghton deprived Spokane of one of its brightest and ablest minds. Mr. Houghton was a pioneer of 1881. He served three terms as city attorney, and was elected to the state senate in 1889 and again in 1896.
CHAPTER LIV
SALE OF LE ROI MINE TO BRITISH COMPANY
WHITTAKER WRIGHT, LONDON PROMOTER, OVERREACHES HIMSELF-PEYTON INTERESTS SELL CONTROL-TURNER INTERESTS OBJECT-CONTESTS CARRIED TO THE COURTS- JAY P. GRAVES MAKES A FORTUNE- TRAGEDY OF THE GREAT EASTERN FIRE- DEATII OF FRANK GANAHL, FAMOUS PIONEER LAWYER-W. L. JONES AND F. C. CUSHMAN ELECTED TO CONGRESS-FIFTH ANNUAL FRUIT FAIR-NORTHERN PACIFIC SELLS LOW PRICED LANDS.
T HE town overbuilt after the fire of 1889, and many owners of large busi- ness blocks having lost their properties under mortgage foreclosure, a wary spirit lingered far into the '90s. In 1898 the business district stood sub- stantially as it had risen from the ashes and debris eight years before, and the Auditorium, Review, Granite, First National (now the Exchange National), Hyde, Rookery, Fernwell, Lindell, Van Valkenberg, Great Eastern, Traders, Ziegler, Jam- ieson, Holley-Mason-Marks and Hotel Spokane buildings were still the chief business structures of the town. Spokane could exhibit then eleven five-story buildings, seven of four stories, and thirty-four three-story. But eommeree had grown, and twenty-three firms were engaged in the jobbing business. Bank clearings had risen from the low mark of $15,000,000 in 1894 to $33,000,000 in 1897, and for 1898 were near the $10,000,000 mark. Postoffice receipts had advanced from $41,000 in the year ending June 30. 1895, to $70,000 for the year ended June 30. 1898.
A summary taken that year showed forty-two miles of street railway, fifty-six church bodies, and a ereditable array of social organizations, ineluding the Spokane elub, the Country club, with fifty members and grounds at Liberty Park, the Spo- kane Wheel elub, the Spokane Amateur Athletie club, with more than 100 members. Sorosis and Cultus elubs for women, Gonzaga Athletic association, Spokane Junior Athletic elub, German Turnverein, Spokane Rod and Gun club, a Ladies' Riding and Fencing elub, and the Matinee Musical.
Among the buildings started or completed this year were Gonzaga college, $100,000; Fourth avenue school. $46,000; Liberty park school, $12,000; Peyton building (the burned Great Eastern restored), $46,000; Creseent store, $30,000; Buckley building, Riverside and Post, $22,000; Blake building, Riverside between Post and Lineoln, $12,000; Jones & Dillingham building on First, $20,000; Frank- fort bloek, Howard and Main, $15,000.
Many fine residences were constrneted in 1898, the list inelnding Austin Cor-
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bin's at a cost of $33,000; A. B. Campbell's, $30,000; Patrick Clark's, $10,000; D. C. Corbin's, $17,000; J. D. Sherwood's, $10,000; W. E. Cullen's, $9,000; and F. T. Post's, $8,000. In building, a dollar then went nearly as far as two dollars will go today.
Riverside avenue was paved this year, though not without great effort. for many property-holders were over-cautious.
After a spectacular contest, the Le Roi mine passed to the control of a British company. Early in January the British America corporation. a London company organized by Whittaker Wright, an American who had gone across the water a few years before and hypnotized a large part of the British investing publie, put out a prospectus which asserted that the company had cither bought or taken option on ten British Columbia mines, and featured the Le Roi as "the premier mine of British Columbia." Local officers of the Le Roi promptly challenged that asser- tion. They said the British company had no option on their mine: that they had merely quoted Wright a price, the negotiations bound neither side, and the Le Roi company was free to sell to another bidder, or to retain the property itself. For his directors Wright had a number of the great names of England, including Lord Loch and the Marquis of Dufferin, who thus found themselves involved in a shady transaction-in permitting the use of their names for solicitation of stock subserip- tions upon what appeared to be false representations, a thing British law and British publie sentiment hold in sharp condemnation. It looked as though Whit- taker Wright had overreached himself and brought about conditions which placed him at the merey of a little group of astute gentlemen in Spokane.
The Peyton interests wanted to sell to the B. A. C., at $6 a share. $3,000,000 for mine and smelter. This offer George Turner and W. M. Ridpath resisted with vigor, but at a meeting in May of five of the nine directors, all favorable to the transfer, they voted to accept the London offer. At a meeting attended by all nine directors, these five voted to ratify the preliminary agreement. Stockholders who assented to this deal, with the number of shares held by each were:
I. N. Peyton 70,000
J. G. English 21,524
W. A. Peyton 16,500
C. L. English 12,311
L. D. Glass
1,000
J. T. English 2,198
L. F. Williams 12,000
J. M. Armstrong 17.000
D. W. Henley 20,000
Valentine Peyton 71.086
These, with a number of minor holdings, constituted a majority of the capital stock.
Under Canadian law it was necessary for the directors to meet in Rossland and ratify the Spokane action, but before that meeting could be held the contest- ants carried the issue into the British Columbia courts. After several months of litigation, an agreement was reached with the Turner-Ridpath minority on a basis of abont $8 a share; and thereupon the Peyton majority interest. that had sold
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for $6, set up a demand for the difference, holding that the British buyers had promised them as much additional as might be paid for the Turner interests. This demand the B. A. C. successfully resisted in the British Columbia courts.
In December, '98, Jay P. Graves organized a company at Montreal to build a smelter for treatment of ores from the Old Ironsides and Knob Hill mines in the Boundary Creek distriet. On the Montreal market Old Ironsides was selling at $1.40, Knob Hill at 75 cents. Eighteen months previously Old Ironsides was hawked around Spokane at five cents. Mr. Graves owned a quarter in each mine, and his interests were then rated at $500,000. His good fortune was the sensa- tion of the Spokane mining world, for four years before, the panie and resulting depression had stripped him bare and left him worse than "broke," with a heavy inenbus of overhanging debts.
In January, this year, occurred the Great Eastern fire, most disastrous in loss of life in the city's history. Flames broke out about midnight, apparently in the basement of John W. Graham & Co.'s store, and quickly the hallways above were filled with suffocating elouds of smoke. The upper floors were occupied as apart- ments, and a number of the roomers fell suffocated in the balls in a vain effort to escape. Within a few minutes the elevator was disabled, escape was cut off from the stairways, and persons remaining in the building gathered at windows and on the fire eseapes. Many were carried down ladders by the firemen. One man, four women and three little girls perished in the smoke and flame: W. B. Gordon, mining engineer; Mrs. H. B. Davies. Miss Alice Wilson, Maud Wilson, Mrs. Mand Smith. Mrs. Cora Peters, Ethel and Alma Peters. A property loss of $240,000 was suffered. Col. I. N. Peyton bought the ruins and the ground, and erected there the following summer the present Peyton bloek.
A famous pioneer lawyer, with a reputation for eloquence and biting sarcasm that extended from Mexico to Alaska, was Frank Ganahl, who died in July, this year. Anecdotes of his wit and invective will long be told in eabin and office in the Coeur d'Alenes, where he dwelt for several years and figured in many of the noted mining eases of the times. Ganahl was one of the most eloquent publie speakers who ever mounted stage or forum in the Inland Empire ; in the judgment of many. he had no peer. Particularly I recall an address he gave, some twenty years ago, before the Irish-American citizens of Spokane, a flight of oratory I have seldom heard surpassed. To his old-time friend and admirer, W. T. Stoll, 1 am indebted for faets regarding his career and fame. He came to the Pacific coast in the early '50s. a graduate of Harvard and Harvard's law school, and at once took rank as one of the foremost lawyers, and perhaps as the foremost advocate and jury orator on the Pacific coast.
On the night of the great fire, August 1, 1889. Ganahl was a guest in "Bill" Osborn's hotel at Wardner. and when news came of the conflagration, Osborn went to Ganahl's room, woke him and said. "Frank, Spokane is burning up." Ganahl sat up in bed, rubbed his eyes a bit and said, "Bill, give me a drink."
A big mining case was being tried in the Idaho courts. Ganahl on one side, Senator W. B. Heyburn on the other. It was a hot day in August ; the ease had been dragging for a long time, and every one was fatigued and pretty well worn out. Ganahl asked for a paper, and the judge said that it was on the table, pointing to it. Mr. Heyburn, himself a very corpulent man, though not so corpulent as Mr. Ganahl,
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arose and politely, though humorously, remarked, "Mr. Ganahl, I will get it for you, as I am able to get around better than you, on account of not being quite so fat." Like an explosion of dynamite, Ganahl jumped to his feet, the clarion notes from his voice electrifying every one, and shouted: "Fat, am I? Ah, yes, my mas- ter: I must admit the soft impeachment; but mark the distinction: I carry my fat under my belly band, where a gentleman should, and not under my hat band, where my friend does."
Ganahl, concludes his old friend and panegyrist, "was the central figure in many of the great dramas enacted in the wilderness and on the frontier. He sleeps in an unmarked grave in Greenwood cemetery. but his fame will endure long after this generation has passed away."
In state convention at Ellensburg, the fusion party renominated W. C. Jones and James Hamilton Lewis for congress. The republicans nominated W. L. Jones of Yakima, and F. C. Cushman of Tacoma. The November election brought a sharp reversal of the publie judgment of '96, and state and county were easily carried by the republicans. Cushman carried Spokane county by 400 majority, and the republicans elected their entire county ticket. Spokane sent to Olympia the follow- ing legislative delegation: Senate- W. Il. Plummer and W. E. Runner, people's party, holdovers; Herman D. Crow, republican. Representatives, all republicans : Iliram E. Allen, Wallace Mount, Joseph Scott, Harry Rosenhaupt. R. N. Mclean, J. F. Sexton, F. P. Witter. A. Harrison.
The fifth annual fruit fair opened October 1, with a parade, Miss Katherine Hogan appearing in a chariot as goddess of plenty. Grand Marshal Lane C. Gilliam was assisted by J. C. Williams, F. Il. Mccullough, Sidney Rosenhaupt, Oskar Iluber, J. L. MeAtre, R. E. M. Strickland, Sidney Norman, R. Insinger and N. R. Sibley. At the large tented building adjoining the Auditorium, Miss Hogan recited a fruit fair ode from the pen of Mrs. Sara F. Archer:
"Another year of garnered hopes, Of bending boughs on orchard slopes. Of stubble-fields where Ceres reigns, Of bursting barns and stagg'ring wains: The tardy sun seeks southern skies, And Hesperus is quick to rise."
President John A. Finch delivered an address of welcome. Attendance l'or twelve days, 72,250.
MINOR EVENTS IN 1898
Attendance in the public schools in November showed an increase of more than 100 over November the year before.
To stimulate more rapid settlement of the open places, the Northern Pacific adopted a policy of greatly lowering its land prices in Washington. Its remaining agricultural lands it sold at from $2 to $t an acre: grazing lands. from fifty cents to a dollar ; but large part of these "grazing" areas were afterwards found to be excel- Ient grain lands. From the rapid advance in these land values, many fortunes were made in rastern Washington.
July 1 the president signed the bill to open to mineral entry the south half of the Colville reservation.
CHAPTER LV
INLAND EMPIRE SOLDIERS IN THE PHILIPPINES
SEVEN-TWELFTHS OF WASHINGTON'S REGIMENT COME FROM THE EAST SIDE-SPOKANE'S GREETING TO TIIE SIXTEENTH INFANTRY-REGULARS DEPART FOR CUBA AND VOLUN- TEERS FOR MANILA-COMPANIES A AND L ON THE FIRING LINE-GENERAL KING PRAISES THE SOLDIER BOYS FROM WASHINGTON AND IDAHO-SEVERE LOSSES IN ACTION -- DEATIIS FROM WOUNDS AND DISEASE-SPOKANE RED CROSS SOCIETY CHARTERS A TRAIN AND BRINGS OUR BOYS HOME IN COMFORT AND STATE-CHEERING THOUSANDS WELCOME THE YOUNG VETERANS-MEMBERS OF THE SPOKANE COMPANIES.
And, though the warrior's sun has set. Its light shall linger round us yet, Bright, radiant, blest.
-Coplas De Manrique.
P RESIDENT MCKINLEY'S eall of April 25, 1898, for 125,000 volunteers to follow the flag in the war with Spain, stirred deeply the martial spirit of the young manhood of the west. Washington, Idaho, Oregon and Montana sent each a regiment of volunteers, and a large part of these organizations came out of the Inland Empire. In the stern task of suppressing the Filipino insurrection and the more trying duty of paeifieation of the island after the erushing of the main revolt, our western soldiers bore a gallant part. Out of 35 military organizations participating in the campaigns in the Philippines, but four sustained greater losses in action than were suffered by the First Washington Volunteers with its fifteen men killed in battle. The Nebraska regiment lost 23, South Dakota 20, Kansas 17. and the Third U. S. artillery 18.
Besides its loss of fifteen in action, Washington lost nine who died from wounds and twelve from disease, a total of 36. Idaho lost six in action, three from wounds and thirteen from disease. Oregon twelve in action, three from wounds and 31 from disease; and Montana gave ten in action, thirteen from wounds and 13 from disease.
With one third of the state's population, eastern Washington contributed seven of the twelve companies of the Washington regiment. Spokane sent two companies. and Walla Walla. Waitsburg, Dayton, North Yakima and Ellensburg one each. Wm. H. Luhn of Spokane beeame adjutant of the regiment, John Carr, of Dayton, major, and Win. MeVan Patten of Walla Walla, assistant surgeon. George MI. Dreher of Spokane served as first lieutenant of the company from Centralia.
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Spokane had the honor of sending to the flag two bodies of soldiers that gallantly distinguished themselves in the Spanish-American war and on battle-fields in the Philippines.
On a bright day in April. 1898, when blue skies bent above them and the prairie grasses rippled in the warm west wind. the boys of the Sixteenth regular infantry marched out from their barracks at Fort Sherman, gave a farewell look upon the forest girded waters of Coeur d'Alene, and were carried over the railroad, 35 miles to Spokane. Here a cheering welcome awaited them. With many a smile and many a flower, Spokane was out to give them royal greeting: presented them a silken fag, and bade them God-speed in the cause of human freedom. On Santiago field the Sixteenth led the charge. and suffered greater losses there than fell to any other regiment. Many a brave fellow fell in that memorable battle, nevermore to see the sunlight gleaming on the forest slopes of Idaho.
Nine days later the town had tears and cheers for its departing volunteers, when companies A and L bade goodbye to friends and kindred and began the long service which carried them to distant isles of the sea, and placed them in the post of honor in the fierce battle of Manila. In that engagement our Washington and Idaho soldiers fought with distinguished courage, and the Washington men sus- tained severer losses than fell on any other regiment in action.
April 21 five companies of the Sixteenth arrived here, en route to the front. Business houses decorated with the colors, and the public schools were dismissed to let the children view the patriotic parade. For mascot the regiment hore a live eagle, and nearly 600 men were in line, with Colonel Thaker in command.
Impending war confronted the Union. Congress had declared the independence of the Cuban republic, demanded that Spain take down her yellow flag and leave the island, and to enforce its deerce placed the entire land and naval forces at the president's command. Thereupon MeKinley called for 125,000 troops, and Wash- ington's quota was 1,178.
To the stirring strains of "Yankee Doodle." "Dixie," and "The Girl I Left Be- hind Me," Spokane's two companies, L and battery A, light artillery, converted into an infantry company, left the city Saturday, April 30, for the concentration camp near Tacoma. As they marched up Riverside, the avenue was a blaze of red. white and blue. At the Northern Pacific they took position before a platform and heard farewell speeches by Mayor Olmsted and J. M. Comstock, president of the city council. The great throng cheered the presentation of flags, and there was continuous cheering as the train drew ont at 2:15.
May t the twelve companies assembled at Camp Rogers near Tacoma, so named in honor of Governor John R. Rogers. Companies A and L of Spokane were mus- tered in May 9; and on the same day Company E of North Yakima, with Marshall S. Scudder as captain. Fred. T. Briggs first lieutenant, and Wm. L. Lemon second lieutenant. Company Hof Walla Walla followed the next day with Wm. B. Buffum as captain, Morrow C. Gustin first lientenant, and Thomas D. S. Hart second lieu- tenant. The same day saw the mustering in of Company F of Dayton, with Chester F. Miller captain, Charles A. Booker first lieutenant, and George B. Dorr second lieutenant. Company HI of Ellensburg was mustered in May 11. with Alfred C. Steinman captain, Sammel C. Davidson first lieutenant, and Edward G. Southern second lieutenant. Company K of Waitsburg was mustered in the next day, with
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WASHINGTON SCOUTS, TAKEN AT PASIGO, PHILIPPINES
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WASHINGTON TROOPS EMBARKING ON THE VALENCIA AT SAN FRANCISCO
THE NEW YORK PUBLI IBRARY 1
TILDEN IJUNUAT ONS
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY
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Charles T. Smith captain, Jesse K. Arnold first lieutenant, and John B. Caldwell seeond lieutenant.
We need not trace here the minute details of the weeks of active preparation, the movement of the regiment to San Francisco, and the busy, interesting days passed there awaiting orders to sail to the Philippines. These eame in October, to the intense delight of every man in the regiment, and November, 1898, found our soldier boys in Manila.
From an account of the field operations of the regiment, compiled by Adjutant Luhn and published in "Campaigning in the Philippines," we take an interesting excerpt :
"The regiment was assigned to the 2d brigade, Ist division, 8th army corps, but shortly after was assigned to the 1st brigade. Ist division, with General King as brigade commander and General Anderson division commander. Our duty com- menced on December 8th, six days after landing, by furnishing the guard for ont- post duty at blockhouse No. 11, where the post of our sentinel was on one side of the Concordia bridge, while that of the insurgent sentinel was on the other.
"Concordia bridge is so-called because it spans the small ereek of Concordia. The insurgents at this place had concentrated a strong support of their advanced line. The delimitation between the American and insurgent forees had been thoroughly defined and assented to by the two commanders, and the stations of the two sentries at the bridge were on these lines, and any advance by either would be an encroachment which justified forcible resistance. Notwithstanding this, the sentry was not only in the habit of invading the neutral ground, but taunting and daring our sentry to molest him. At times so threatening was the situation because of this that the command was called under arms.
"As a matter of fact, the Washington regiment was put to the front, where it had its full share of outpost and other duty from the start. First Lieutenant David- son, who was left at Angel Island, California, on account of physical disability, was discharged, and on December 9 Second Lieutenant Southern was promoted to be first lieutenant, and Regimental Sergeant Major Joe Smith was commissioned a second lieutenant to succeed Lieutenant Southern. Private Thomas W. Lemon, com- pany A, was appointed regimental sergeant-major to succeed Joe Smith."
For three months the American and insurgent forces confronted each other, with the tension growing constantly more acnte. Our forces were under constant admonition to avoid a conflict. and this policy of forbearance was misconstrued by the Filipinos as cowardice. The break came on the night of February 4, 1899, when four armed Filipino soldiers tried to pass the American line near block house 6. and refusing to halt, were fired upon by private Grayson of the Nebraska regi- ment. Almost instantly volleys came from the Filipino earthworks. The war had come.
As the day wore away ( February 5) the firing on General King's line became heavier, and the Washington and Idaho regiments were put on the firing line on the Paco front. In his report, speaking of the action of the Washington regiment when the advance order was given, General King said:
"At that moment the First Washington had six companies at our front, support- ing block house No. 11. This gallant regiment had been the delight of the brigade commander for weeks past. It was so soldierly. so well drilled, and so thorough in
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every duty. Now it had to lie down in the rice fields and answer as best it could a rasping fire coming in three directions from across the stream, a narrow estuary of the Pasig, that formed the dividing line between Manila limits and the territory of the insurgents. Then at last the order eame-and then the result.
"I have seen the hounds loosed from their leash, and racers from the best states given the drum-tap and the word "go," but in all my life I have seen no moment, known no exhilaration like that that came when, launching the Washington state volunteers across the stream and letting the Idahos follow close, I rode into the attack. . The Washingtons took the plunge into the narrow little estuary and clambered the opposite bank, mud up to their middles, but in an instant their Springfields were blazing across the fields, and Johnny Filipino streaked it for his entrenchments, dived into them like so many prairie dogs, and then, turning, Jet drive with Mauser and Remington on the steadily advancing lines.
"The sight of the Idaho regiment coming up from Paco with colors flying (they wouldn't leave them behind) seemed to set fire to every wall and hedgerow, and the bullets buzzed like wasps in a fury, sweeping Santa Ana bridge diagonally, smashing lamps into flinders, and sending chips flying from the stone parapets . Something had to be done to at least quell that infernal fire from the left front, and looking about me for available infantry. I could for an instant see noth- ing but the dead and wounded of the Washington still lying on the original battle line, where we had so long been held in cheek by orders from the rear.
"I think I never knew a sensation quite as thrilling as when from just behind the slowly advancing firing line at the center on the Santa Ana road, I heard the crash of MeConville's ( Idaho) and Fortson's (Washington) volleys at the left rear, and saw them leap out of their cover on its left, and. obedient to the chief. swing upon the enemy and head for the Pasig-the right and center going square into and through Santa Ana, and the center sharing in the glory of the left in the capture of the Krupps and the carrying of the redoubts. Hean still hear the glorious bursts of cheers with which the center went over to the enemy's works, and the echoing hurrahs where, just a fourth of a mile away, Fortson with his Washington battalion, and MeConville with two Idaho battalions, were making mincemeat of the west redoubt.
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