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 63
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July 3 Traey opened fire on a posse near Seattle, and killed Deputy Sheriff Charles Raymond of Snohomish county, and severely wounded Deputy Sheriff Jack Williams of Seattle. His next appearance was at Fremont, a Seattle suburb, where, in the gathering dusk of the same day, he killed Policeman E. E. Breece and mor- tally wounded Neil Rawley.
Tracy's daring escapades had now become a national sensation. Governor MeBride offered a reward of $2,500 for his capture, dead or alive, and other re- wards brought the total price set upon the outlaw's head to $8,000. Tracy re- treated to the wild defiles of the Cascade mountains, and by taking food from remote settlements or deeply isolated prospectors and timber cruisers, kept the authorities guessing about his whereabouts. All this while he was working his way castward. On the night of July 30 he boldly appeared at a ferry on the Columbia, eighteen miles below Wenatchee, and, as was his custom, frankly revealed his identity. Darkness prevented his immediate crossing, but the morning after, exchanging his jaded horses for two fresh mounts in an adjacent pasture, he re- quired his ferryman host to put him across the Columbia, and mounting one horse and leading the other, he rode up the breaks of the Columbia to the elevated pla- tean of Douglas county. The man-hunt was now feverishly renewed in eastern Washington. Posses rode high on the hills and deep in the ravines of the broken country in Douglas and Lincoln counties, and pursued mmerous false clues which drifted in to the towns from remote ranches.
Meanwhile the outlaw was leisurely working his way eastward, and on August 3 overtook, on a country road, a young man. George E. Goldfinch, on his way to the Eddy ranch, in the Lake Creek country, three miles from Fellowes siding on the Central Washington railroad, and about nine miles from Creston. Announcing his identity, he rode on to the Eddy ranch, and with reckless disregard of conse- (mences, remained there for two days, resting, and occasionally helping the owner in his work of shingling a barn roof. Young Goldfinch slipped away from the ranch, and carried the startling news to Creston. Five brave and determined men of that town promptly declared their purpose to go after the outlaw. Arm- ing themselves, C. A. Straub, Dr. E. C. Leonard, Maurice Smith, J. J. Morrison and Frank Lillengreen, rode out to the Eddy place. Tracy, ever alert and watch- ful. detected their approach in the twilight, and ran for his rifle in the barn. Tak- ing cover behind a large rock, the Creston men prepared for action. A minute later Tracy dashed from the barn and ran for the cover of a nearby haystack, and a moment later made another dash for a large boulder lying at the edge of a wheat field. Obviously his purpose was to win this extended cover of tall wheat, and
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
escape in the darkness, but as he ran the rifles of the Creston men spat fire and the outlaw was seen to fall forward into the tall wheat.
All through the summer night the posse stood guard, realizing the deadly peril of an open attack. In the darkness they heard a revolver shot, and surmised eor- reetly that the quarry had killed himself.
Meanwhile the news had spread over the country, and by morning fifty armed men surrounded the wheat field. They found the outlaw's body, stark and cold, where he had put a violent end to his violent life. A rifle bullet had torn a great wound in his leg, and to staunch the frightful flow of blood the desperado had im- provised a ligature. The trampled wheat showed that after falling Traey had crawled 200 feet, and realizing that further flight was impossible, had turned his own revolver upon his crime-hardened visage.
August was an eventful month in the Big Bend country ; for even while Traey the outlaw was riding to his death, railroad chiefs were gathering from cast and west for their scheduled conference at Davenport, August 4. Never before in the Inland Empire had there been as notable a rally of famous transportation chiefs. Their purpose was to break the gathering storm of publie sentiment against their long-maintained lobby at the state's capital, and mollify the people's elamor for lower rates and better regulation of the common carriers. With fearless vigor Governor MeBride was campaigning the state, denouncing the lobby, condemning the pass evil and urging the people to choose legislators pledged to vote for a state railroad commission.
As herald for these conferences James JJ. Hill could hardly have selected an abler person than Charles P. Chamberlain. Mr. Chamberlain years before had been a conductor in the Palouse country. and his efficient service as receiver of the Central Washington branch of the Northern Pacifie had given him wide ae- quaintanee with the leading men of the Big Bend country, and his carefully worked ont plan of lowered freight rates on that railroad was evidence of his belief that excessive charges were detrimental alike to the producers, to the country's growth and to the railroads themselves. Aided by James Odgers, a pioneer editor of the Big Bend country, Mr. Chamberlain had no difficulty in indneing representative farmers and business men to invite the railroad presidents to conferences at Daven- port and Colfax ; and when Presidents James J. Hill of the Great Northern, C. S. Mellen of the Northern Pacifie, and A. L. Mohler of the O. R. & N., accompanied by their able lieutenants, came into Davenport, August 4, on their special train, they were met by a gathering of many hundred representative farmers and busi- ness men, and given a cordial and hospitable greeting. Successful farmers spoke on the cost of growing wheat, and Mr. Ilill responded with statisties on the eost of moving freight. He was followed by President Mellen, who spoke directly to the point with an announcement that the railroads had decided to reduce grain rates from the interior to the coast, and that the reduction would average about ten per cent. Work would be started immediately on the) Adrian eutoff to connect the Great Northern and the Central Washington, whereby the roads in future would be relieved of the long and expensive haul of grain tonnage along the Cen- tral Washington by way of Marshall Junction and the main line of the Northern Pacific. In his Davenport speech Mr. Hill said:
"You might just as well try to set a broken ankle by statute as to reduce rates Vol. 1-33
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
by statute. You can legislate until the barn door has fallen off its hinges with rust, and you will not succeed."
A similar conference, attended by about 1.000 representative farmers and busi- ness men, was held at Colfax, Angust 5.
An anti-lobby convention at Colfax in June, 1902. was largely attended and addressed by Harold Preston of Seattle, William Goodyear of Whitman county, and a number of legislative candidates. United States Senator Turner wrote from Washington: "I drafted and advocated the provision of our state constitution re- quiring the legislature to pass laws regulating freight rates and fares and estab- lish a railroad commission. I am as strongly impressed today with the necessity for such laws as I have ever been. The next legislature should carry out the im- perative mandate of the constitution. and establish a railway commission with ample powers to control the publie agencies."
State Senator Warren W. Tolman of Spokane. democrat. was also a persistent and aggressive champion of the principle of railway regulation. He was author of the Tolman commission bill.
This issue precipitated a bitter struggle within the republican party in state and county. The county convention instructed its delegation to the state con- vention to support a commission plank in the state platform. but thirteen of the forty-eight delegates from Spokane, bolted the instructions. Notwithstanding this defection, a strong commission plank was adopted. 308 to 262. Francis W. Cush- man of Tacoma, Wesley L. Jones of North Yakima. and W. E. Humphrey of Seattle were nominated for congress.
At the democratic state convention at Tacoma. September 16, George F. Cot- terill of King, O. R. Holeomb of Adams, and James E. Bell of Snohomish were named for congress, and a plank adopted for a railroad commission, to be first ap- pointed by the governor, and subsequently chosen in such manner as the legisla- ture should determine. Senator Turner was named for reelection.
At the November election. 1902, the republicans swept the state and won the legislature by a large majority. But in Spokane county, where the republican con- gressional tieket had majorities of 1,200 to 1,500, democracy won seven of the twelve legislators. For state senate Will Graves and Huber Rasher easily defeated Frank Shaw and Jacob Schiller, while Dana Child. P. F. Quinn. J. J. Fitzgerald. A. J. Reise and John Gray, all democrats. were elected to the house. The republicans elected W. A. Stark. S. A. Wells. E. C. Whitney. J. B. Lindsley and Walker Henry, but Stark, Wells and Whitney were opposed to the senatorial aspirations of John L. Wilson. The county convention in June had declared for Wilson for the senate, but these three refused to stand on the resolution and openly campaigned on that issne. The result on the legislative ticket was generally accepted as a public protest against Mr. Wilson. Excepting George Mudgett for treasurer, the republicans elected their entire county ticket. The election of a republican legislature eliminated Senator Turner. The populist party, onee dominant in Spokane county, had prac- tically disappeared. It polled about 100 votes in the county. and ranked fifth, falling below the prohibition and the socialist vote.
A large excursion of Spokane mining and business men went to Grand Forks and Republie in April. 1902. to attend the driving of the last spike. on the 11th, of the Kettle Valley lines, more widely known as the "Hot Air" line. They were
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
hosiptably entertained at Grand Forks and Republic. The celebration was slightly premature, for unforeseen obstacles had delayed construction, and the visitors had to be conveyed several miles in carriages at the Republie end of the road. In July the Great Northern completed its rival line to Republie.
This year marks the advent of an able and resourceful independent railroad builder, in the person of F. A. Blackwell, a resident of Coeur d'Alene City, where himself and eastern associates had acquired extensive forest areas and milling facilities. Without flourish of trumpets, Mr. Blackwell incorporated in October the Coeur d'Alene & Spokane Railway company, and went quietly but actively about the task of acquiring right of way for the electrie road which conneets Spo- kane and the beautiful and prosperons city on Lake Coeur d'Alene. Mr. Black- well, William Dollar, A. Bettes, C. P. Lindsley and F. S. Robbins were named as dircetors. Large part of Spokane's growth and prosperity must be aseribed to the fine enterprise and keen intelligence of a group of local railway builders, compris- ing D. C. Corbin, Jay P. Graves, Henry M. Richards, Mr. Blackwell and Robert E. Strahorn.
In February, 1902, was organized the Eastern Washington & Idaho Lumber- men's association, with thirty members. President, E. F. Cartier Van Dissel; viee-president, O. M. Field of Hope, Idaho; secretary, George W. Hoag.
In April the Northern Pacifie elosed out the remainder of its timber holdings north of Spokane-225,000 aeres at an average price of $2.50 an aere. The Saw- mill Phoenix took 10,000 aeres, Holland-Horr Mill Co. 15,000, Buckeye Lumber company 46.000, Spokane Lumber company 28,000. Washington Mill company 4,000, Consolidated Lumber company 7,000, Standard Lumber company 5,000, Bradley company of Wisconsin 100,000.
In a mining way the year was signalized by a stampede into the Thunder mountain distriet of eentral Idaho. Attractive discoveries there in 1901 had lured into the country several hundred prospectors. and with the wearing away of the winter of 1891-92 food supplies were exhausted and famine priees were demanded. Flour sold as high as $80 a hundred, and beans, rice and dried fruit brought 60 cents a pound. With the approach of spring desperate efforts were made to con- vey supplies into the snowbound regions, and the arrival of the first paek train measurably relieved the distress, so that flour fell to 20 cents a pound, and bacon, sugar, rice, salt and fruit to 25 cents.
More than 1,000 men were encamped in May, 1902, along the border of the south half of the Colville reservation. awaiting a signal that should announce the opening of that region to mineral location. Many prospectors slipped over the line, but all "sooners" were driven off by Indian police, directed by a deputy United States marshal.
These pages have mentioned the coming of Lord Sholto Douglas. In February his lordship was joined by Lady Sholto, and wearying of the proprietorship of his wet goods emporium on lower Iloward street, Lord Sholto conceived and put to execution the unique idea of inviting in the populace and dispensing free booze so long as it lasted. The event was a howling success, and there gathered around the bar a shouting, swearing mob of hoboes, soldiers from Fort Wright and curi-
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osity seekers. It was the wildest. maddest. merriest Sunday evening Spokane's tenderloin had ever seen.
Two noted Indians died this year Chief Lot of the Spokanes. on the Spokane reservation, and Chief Saltese of the Coeur d'Alenes. at DeSmet mission, where high mass was celebrated by Rev. Father Caruana, the aged Catholic missionary. then in his ninety-second year.
CHAPTER LX
LAST CLOUD FADES FROM THE FINANCIAL SKIES
1903 A YEAR OF STIRRING POLITICAL INTEREST-TITANIC STRUGGLE BETWEEN GOV. MC BRIDE AND THE RAILROADS-LEVI ANKENY ELECTED U. S. SENATOR-DEATH OF JOHN B. ALLEN-SPOKANE ENTERTAINS PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT-DEATH OF H, BOL- STER AND S. S. GLIDDEN-GRANBY PAYS ITS FIRST DIVIDEND-FABULOUS PROFITS FROM MINES.
T HE last cloud had faded from the financial skies and in 1903 city and coun- try were in enjoyment of prosperity at high tide. For the first time in their history the Spokane banks wrested from Portland a large share of the loans on the Inland Empire wheat harvest. For the fiscal year ended Septem- ber 30, bank clearings were $108,000,000-more than seven times as great as the clearings of 1894, and nearly double those of 1900. Clearings for the calendar year of 1903 made a yet better showing, $112,000,000. Like a young green bay tree the youthful city by the falls flourished strong and beautiful. Building per- mits this year totaled $2,569,470, and it was estimated that the actual outlay in new construction was three and three-quarters of a million dollars.
Politically 1903 was of stirring interest. When the legislature convened at Olympia the publie saw a Titanie struggle between Governor MeBride, resolute and meompromising in his grim determination to put under state regulation the common carriers, and an equally resolute opposition from the railway managers and politicians and big business men in sympathy with or in fear of them. On this issue, too, was fought the senatorial contest between Harold Preston of Seattle, an avowed, aggressive and sineere advocate of railroad regulation. and Levi Ankeny of Walla Walla, who candidly declared his opposition to it. The first ballot showed Ankeny in the lead with forty-eight votes. against forty-one for Preston, twelve for John L. Wilson, five for Carroll Graves, an "old guard" vote of three for John B. Allen, and the democratic vote of twenty-three given complimentarily to Turner. Ankeny was elected on the thirteenth ballot. with ninety-nine votes, four- teen republicans going into the last ditch against him.
Casting a somber shadow over the triumph of the contest was the sudden death of John B. Allen, who for the fourth time had struggled unsuccessfully with Ankeny for political control of Walla Walla. The former senator died suddenly. January 28, at his home in Seattle. whither he had moved upon his retirement from the senate. He came to the territory in 1870, and five years later President Grant made him United States district attorney, a position held for ten years and its
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duties performed with fidelity and high legal ability. He was elected delegate to the Fifty-first congress. to the United States senate on admission in 1889, and served to March 1, 1893.
To cap their victory. the railroad forces defeated the commission hill.
At the Spokane city election of 1903 L. Frank Boyd. republican nomince, was. elected mayor by eighty-one plurality over W. H. Acuff, municipal league nominee; P. S. Byrne, independent labor, and Huber Rasher, democrat. Floyd L. Daggett was reelected comptroller. and MI. II. Eggleston treasurer.
For the first time in its history, Spokane entertained a president of the United States. Roosevelt arrived on the morning of May 26. and was received at his spe- cial train by a citizens' committee headed by John A. Finch. Business houses and residences along the line of march were decorated beautifully and profusely. and from a platform erected on vacant ground near the Auditorium he delivered a characteristic address to an enthusiastic audience of 20.000 people. Ex-Senator George Turner delivered the introductory address.
The president this year appointed Mr. Turner a member of the international Alaska boundary commission, with Secretary of War Elihu Root and Senator Henry Cabot Lodge of Massachusetts. Justice Armory of the supreme court of Canada, Justice Jett. retired, and Lord Alverstone, chief justice of England. were the British commissioners. The commission sat in London, and its award. while in the nature of a compromise, was regarded as a victory for the United States.
Notable deaths this year were Il. Bolster. father of the fruit fair and the Interstate exposition, who died July 17, and S. S. Glidden, founder of the Old National bank, who died in March at Los Angeles, whither he had gone in search of health.
Granby paid its first dividend in November. $133.500, and a few days later Charles Sweeny's new Federal company. with properties in the Coeur d'alenes. distributed profits of $183.750.
DIVIDENDS PAID TO AUGUST. 1903
Coeur d'Alene Silver-Lead Mines
Bunker Hill & Sullivan 1.511.000
Coeur d'Alene Dev. Co 200,000
Sierra Nevada 250.000
Milwaukee Mining Co. 505,000
Heela 120,000
Hercules
450,000
Tiger
500.000
Poorman
180,000
Granite
500.000
Mammoth
1.500,000
Morning
500,000
Standard
2.910,000
Empire State- Idaho
1.763.878
Figer-Poorman Co. 20.000
Republic
382.000
HARRY HAYWARD PIONEER THEATRICAL MAN OF SPOKANE
3
FAMOUS ELKS' QUARTETTE
r 3.1 LISKARY
K.
DEIC HARARY
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
Deer Trail 35,000 500.000
Iron Mountain
$12,129,878
Rossland
Le Roi, gold-eopper $ 1,305,000
Le Roi No. 2, gold-eopper
300,000
War Eagle, gold-eopper
187,500
War Eagle Con., gold-eopper
5.45,250
Centre Star, gold-copper
210,000
Sloean
Antoine, silver-lead
$ 10,000
Bosom, silver-lead
12.000
Goodenough, silver-lead
13,185
Idaho Mines, silver-lead
400,000
Jackson, silver-lead
20,000
Last Chance, silver-lead
213,109
Monitor. silver-lead
27,500
Noble Five, silver-lead
50,000
Payne, silver-lead
1,420,000
Queen Bess, silver-lead .
25,000
Rambler Cariboo, silver-lead
220,000
Reeo, silver-lead
287,000
Ruth, silver-lead
125,000
Sloean Star, silver-lead
500,000
Surprise, silver-lead
20,000
Sunset, silver-lead
55,000
Washington, silver-lead
38,000
Whitewater, silver-lead
194,000
East Kootenay
North Star, silver-lead
$ 373,000
St. Eugene, silver-lead
210,000
Camp MeKinley
Cariboo, gold
$ 500,000
Fern, gold
15,000
Nelson
Hail Mines, gold-eopper
$ 160,000
Poorman, gold 25,000
$7,460,544
Or a grand total of $19,590,122.
CHAPTER LXI
RENEWED ACTIVITY IN RAILROAD BUILDING
D. C. CORBIN ANNOUNCES PURPOSE TO BUILD C. P. R. CONNECTION-GRAVES AND. BLACKWELL FINANCE ELECTRIC LINE INTO PALOUSE COUNTRY-ROSSLAND'S OUTPUT PASSES THIE $25,000,000 MARK-PRINCELY PROFITS OF THE COEUR D'ALENES- MC BRIDE DOWNED IN REPUBLICAN STATE CONVENTION-MEAD DEFEATS TURNER FOR GOVERNOR-SWEENY DEVELOPS SENATORIAL ASPIRATIONS-DEATH OF COL. P. 11. WINSTON, B. C. VAN HOUTEN AND REV. S. G. HAVERMALE-DROWNING OF MISS LOUISE HARRIS.
S POKANE'S population, January 1, 1901, as estimated for the director of the United States census by Mayor Boyd, was 59,249. The publisher of Polk's directory, counting Hillyard and outlying additions not within the city limits, gave an estimate of 65,267. Bank clearings rose to $124,168.971, a gain of twenty-seven per cent over 1903. Building permits totaled $1,000,000, an increase of nearly forty per cent. Within the year ten miles of asphalt streets were laid. 125 miles of asphalt and cement sidewalks, thirty-four miles of sewer pipe, fifty- seven miles of water mains, and seventy-four miles of streets were graded and side- walked.
Among the buildings erected were Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic church, $125,- 000; Spokane Amateur Athletic club, $90,000; St. Luke's hospital, $65,000; Masonic temple, $65,000; Gonzaga college buildings, $200,000: Carnegie publie library, $75,000; Central Christian church, $25,000; Universalist church, $15,000: new thea- ter, $75,000; three school buildings, nearly $150,000; and ten apartment houses. $7,000 to $65,000 each. A million, five hundred thousand dollars went into busi- ness buildings of various sorts.
The year 1901 brought renewed activity in railroad construction. D. C. Cor- bin announeed in March his intention to build a railroad from Spokane to a con- neetion with the Canadian Pacific. provided the citizens would donate a right of way and terminals. Later Mr. Corbin voluntarily waived this condition.
The Washington Water Power company announced its plan of building an electric line to Medical Lake.
In October President F. A. Blackwell of the Coeur d'Alene & Spokane electric road returned from the east, where he and Jay P. Graves had sought financial sup- port for an electric road into the Palouse country. "If the citizens of Spokane and citizens along the line and in the towns the line will touch will subscribe for a rea- sonable amount of stock," he said, "the Spokane-Colfax electric line, running through
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
the heart of the Palouse country, will be built. We have practically arranged for the financing of the proposed road."
Suiting the action to the word, Blackwell and Graves incorporated the Spokane & Interurban system in December, and announced a purpose to build to Moseow, Idaho. With them as incorporators were Alfred Coolidge, John Twohy and F. Lewis Clark. Jay P. Graves became president, F. A. Blackwell vice-president, H. B. Ferris treasurer, Will Davidson secretary, and A. M. Lupfer supervising engi- neer. A few weeks later, at an enthusiastic meeting of 250 business men and property holders, Mr. Graves outlined the company's plans, and $39,000 of the stock was taken on the spot. Graves, Coolidge. Twohy. Clark and Thomas L. Greenoughi had previously put $200,000 into the enterprise. The company bought the power site and riparian rights at Nine Mile bridge.
Mines owned or controlled in Spokane were producing enormously. Granby's output in 1904 was nearly $1,000,000, of which $1,719,196 was in copper, $959,360 in gold, and $103,081 silver.
In ten years Rossland camp had yielded more than $25,000,000, with this rec- ord by years:
1894
$ 75,000
1895
702,359
1896
1,213,360
1897
2,007,780
1898
2,470,811
1899
3,211.100
1900
3,500,000
1901
3,700,000
1902
4,271,352
1903
1,631,280
$25.816.349
Prodigious were the product and profits of the Coeur d'Alenes, whose silver- lead mines yielded $11,600,000 in 1903, an increase of thirty-three per cent over 1902. Idaho law required sworn statements of yield and profits to the assessor. and for 1903 and 1904 mine managers made affidavit to the following profits:
1903
Bunker Hill and Sullivan
$ 67.891
Coeur d'Alene Development Co. 113,096
Cleveland
12,607
Empire State Mines 286,701
Hereules
169.527
Mammoth
348,386
Morning
111,054
Hecta
15,048
Standard
271,626
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SPOKANE AND THE INLAND EMPIRE
1904
Standard and Mammoth
$595,038
Last Chance
382,652
Tiger-Poorman 21,036
Hercules
438,476
Morning
3.16,420
Bunker Hill and Sullivan
287,497
Hecla
81,735
The official statement of Charles Sweeny's Federal company, for the year ended August 31, 1904, gave ore shipments of $4,908,926, and net profits of $1,385,725. This company, owned and controlled by Rockefeller, the Goulds and other New York capitalists, now owned and operated the Last Chance, the Tiger-Poorman. the Standard, the Mammoth.
In the summer of 1901 eight Cocur d'Alene mines were paying monthly divi- dends aggregating $272,000. The 1904 output of that distriet aggregated $12 .- 316,375-$8,389,422 in lead. $3,576,962 in silver, $300,000 in copper, and abont $50,000 in gold.
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