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 73
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John A. Finch contributed the site, and the building labor unions came to the front with promises of a day's labor per man on the buildings, which promises have been since made good ; the laborers, stone-masons, bricklayers, eement workers and plumbers donated much free labor. The lathers and plasterers and Mosso-Berry. electricians, did all their work entirely gratis. The carpenter's union donated $1.000 from their treasury, and many other unions donated varying amounts.
The 150,000 Club appointed a building committee, consisting of F. Wallace King, chairman. H. M. Stephens, J. M. Corbet, Geo. Mackie and Mr. Rogers, with W. D. Vincent, as treasurer, and in charge of the collection of the fund. The services of R. C. Sweatt, as architect, were secured, and to these gentlemen, who for several months gave freely their time, is due much of the credit for the splendid home opened for the orphan children of Spokane.
Including the labor donations, the building is worth at least $75,000.
V. II. BROWN TELLS OF FIRST PIANOS IN SPOKANE
Going to Portland, Ore., in November. 1879, to reside. I began, in March, 1881, making regular semiannual trips as far east as Lewiston, Idaho to tune pianos, and when in Walla Walla in October, 1882, I received a letter from Geo. Brandt in which he said there were several pianos in Spokane much in need of tuning, and he would like to know what I would charge to come up and tune them. I replied that I would make the trip for $75.00 and tune all the pianos there. He informed me they could not pay that much.
When I was in Walla Walla in April, 1883, Mr. Brandt wrote me he had ten pianos for me to tune at $10.00 each and I soon came here, arriving April 26th or 27th. I can now recall only five of the names of the owners whose pianos I tuned at that first trip. They are J. J. Browne, A. M. Cannon. B. B. Bravender, Warner, and Hotel Sprague.
I am reasonably certain this was the first piano tuning done in Spokane.
I came to Spokane again in October, 1883, and continued making semiannual trips until I came here to reside, which was January 19th, 1888.
The first pianos sold in Spokane were freighted here with teams from Walla Walla in the summer of 1881 by A. L. Davis & Son and placed in a small frame building on the ground now occupied by the Orpheum Theater on Howard street.
Soon after the Northern Pacific railroad was completed to Spokane from the west. making shipping easy from Portland. Davis & Son occupied a part of the W. 1 .. Turner Drug Store on Howard street near Front avenue with some ten or twelve
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pianos. They moved to Mill street into the rear store in the old Jamieson Building, corner of Riverside avenue and Mill street, about the beginning of 1885 and put in a general stock of pianos, organs, small musical instruments and sheet music.
Snyder & Dorsey bought out A. I .. Davis & Son late in 1888 or carly in 1889 and continued the business in the Jamieson Building until the big fire in August 1889. As soon as new stoek could be shipped in they opened up in one room in E. C. Dorsey's residence, corner of Main avenue and Washington street, where they remained until new business bloeks could be oeeupied when they moved to the Eagle Block into the room now occupied by the Spokane Cab Co.
E. C. Dorsey sueeeeded to the business of Snyder & Dorsey in 1892 and moved to the corner of Sprague avenue and Stevens street where he continued until he closed out in 1893.
Mrs. Geo. Brandt, who was probably the first piano teacher here, had two or three pianos on sale when I came here in April 1883 and continued as agent for a piano house in San Franscisco until the latter part of 1887 when Mr. Brandt opened a store in the Falls City Block, corner of Riverside avenue and Post street.
I had charge of this store in February and March, 1888, while Mr. Brandt was in California and he sold it to Frank Bracht about May Ist, 1888.
Mr. Bracht moved to the Cascade Block, Riverside avenue, between Post and Monroe streets, a few days before the big fire in 1889, then to the Bracht Block, on Howard street, between Riverside and Sprague avenues where he continued until he elosed out in May 1901.
Hemmings & Joslyn opened a piano store on Monroe street near Broadway avenue, about September 1st, 1889, and were succeeded by the D. C. Josyln Music Co. abont September 1st, 1890.
The Chant Musie Co. bought out the D. C. Joslyn Co. about April Ist, 1894.
About October 15th, 1895, D. S. Johnston came to Spokane with two or three ear loads of pianos for a "rush sale" and opened out in the corner store of the Jamieson Block, corner of Riverside avenue and Mill street.
He came again in January, 1896, for the same kind of a sale occupying the store at the corner of Riverside avenue and Post street. April Ist, 1896, he opened a permanent store on Riverside avenue, between Post and Lineoln streets, and con- tinned business until the latter part of 1898 when he sold to the Eilers Piano House.
August Myers opened a piano store about 1901 or 1902 and sold to the Spokane Piano House in 1905. They continued business until about July, 1909.
In September of 1891, Geo. H. Kimball & Co. (Geo. H. Kimball and H. N. Coek- rell) opened a piano store on the second floor of the Temple Court Building. In November of the same year Mr. Cockrell bought out Mr. Kimball and continued the business under the name of H. N. Cockrell & Co. In the spring of 1892 Cockrell & Co. bought out E. H. Beals & Co., who had been in business but a few months, and moved to No. 9 Mill street where they remained about eighteen months, when they moved to the corner of Mill and Sprague. In the fall of 1895 they moved to No. 7 Post street, Whitten Block, and remained there. doing a very successful business until they elosed out in 1901.
V. H. BROWN.
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HISTORY OF THE SPOKESMAN-REVIEW
The Spokane Falls Review was established as a weekly. May 15, 1883, and the first number was printed on a Washington hand press at Cheney. It continued a weekly to June 16, 1884, when it was advaneed to an afternoon daily. A year later it became a morning paper.
On July 1, 1886, Horace T. Brown acquired an interest from Dallam, a "pony" Associated Press service was taken on, and the paper was enlarged. A few days later H. W. Greenberg, a pioneer printer, was added to the partnership. Under their control, the paper was enlarged or contraeted from time to time, as exigeneies demanded.
In the summer of 1887 Brown and Greenberg bought the remaining interest of Dallam, and on April 1, 1888, they disposed of the property to Patrick Henry Winston, James Monaghan, C. B. King and Willis Sweet, who formed a joint stock company. On April 12, 1888, they incorporated the Review Publishing company.
October 1, 1888, the property was again sold. this time to Harvey W. Seott and Henry L. Pittoek, editor and manager, respectively, of the Portland Oregonian, and A. M. Cannon. At that time there were only eleven names on the payroll.
October 12, 1889, N. W. Durham, coming from the editorial staff of the Oregon- ian, took editorial control.
In 1893 the Review and its morning rival, the Spokesman, were merged, and on February 23 of that year W. H. Cowles became publisher and proprietor. Durham continued as editorial director of the consolidated property until May, 1910. W. 11. Cowles, under whose talented and high-minded direction the Spokesman-Review has won rank as one of the most successful, able and fearless journals in the United States, was drawn to Spokane in the early '90s by a comparatively minor investment in the Morning Spokesman. Mr. Cowles' father had been one of the chief owners of the Chieago Tribune, and the young man was given thorough train- ing in that notably efficient school of American journalism. It soon developed that the opposition venture of the Morning Spokesman was a losing investment, but Cowles hung to the task with great tenacity, acquired from time to time the inter- ests of his disappointed associates, and carried on the opposition with unflagging vigor.
Unfortunately, the financial depression that followed fast upon the rebuilding of the burned city told heavily on the incomes of the rival morning dailies, and both suffered severe and increasing monthly losses. At that juneture, in the dull winter of 1892-93, the conviction eame clear to the writer of this volume that for many years to come the town could not be expected to support two morning journals, and since both papers had the financial backing of powerful and wealthy interests, there seemed every prospect that the losses in the Spokane field would continue in- definitely, or at least until the combatants, grown weary of their unprofitable proper- ties, might reach a taeit agreement to eut down expenses and find bottom. where- ever bottom might be. In that event it was elear that Spokane would suffer the mis- fortune that has been thrust upon many other young cities, of having to endure two poor and uninfluential dailies, struggling for a starving support in a field barely capable of maintaining one that would be a eredit to the town.
Under that conviction, the writer, sought an interview with Mr. Cowles in the
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Spokesman offiee, then published in Carson's Hazel block. on the east side of Howard, between Riverside and Sprague, and without preliminary feneing stated the apparent advisability of bringing about, if possible, a consolidation of the two newspapers. With equal candor Mr. Cowles assented to this view of the situation. The writer then sent Mr. Seott and Mr. Pittoek a statement of his eonelusions and a report of the interview with Mr. Cowles, and volunteered, if they wished it, to endeavor to arrange a meeting for them with Mr. Cowles. This received their ready approval and the meeting was held in the Review editorial rooms, Mr. Seott and Mr. Pittoek coming up from Portland. After several weeks of negotiation the merger was completed, having also the approval of Mr. Cannon, who held a third interest with the Portland owners. A few months later Mr. Cowles acquired Mr. Cannon's interest. and a little later, the panie of 1893 having broken upon the land. Mr. Pittock and Mr. Seott sold out their entire interest to Mr. Cowles, who thus became sole owner of the consolidated properties.
Remembrance of the part he thus played in helping to bring order out of Spo- kane's journalistie chaos has been a source of gratifieation to the writer of this history. For the results were beneficial alike to the eity, the former owners and Mr. Cowles. Relieved of the burden of a losing daily in a distant town, Mr. Pit- tock and Mr. Seott rode out more easily the storm that tossed the financial and industrial craft of the United States. Having the concentrated support of the town, Mr. Cowles was able to press steadily forward with his ambitious plans, and print a daily journal that Spokane eould offer in sueeessful competition in the surrounding country with the competing papers to the east and the west.
In 1890-91 the present Review building was ereeted, and formally opened by a publie reception in October, 1891.
WOMEN VOTED IN TERRITORAL DAYS
The legislature of Washington territory enfranchised women in 1883 and the bill was approved by Governor W. A. Newell November 23 of that year.
One of the first women to serve in the territory still lives in the Inland Empire, she is Mrs. Luey A. R. Switzer of Cheney. Speaking of her experiences nearly three decades ago Mrs. Switzer said:
"The first women jurors to serve in Spokane county were doubtless Mrs. Martha Bluett, Mrs. L. M. Kellogg and Miss Mary R. Bybie, who, as well as I ean reeol- leet, served in the justice court of John W. Still in Cheney. I think it was in the latter part of winter. In the ease of Heifflebower versus Heifflebower these women were called upon to serve and they did so. I know them all. The Northwest Trib- une of October 3, 1881, then published at Cheney, stated: "The district court will eonvene at Cheney Monday, October 6, Judge S. C. Wingard presiding.'
"There was a long list. of eases, nearly 70. Five women served on the jury that term: Mrs. J. C. Davenport, Mrs. Jennie M. Mount, Mrs. H. A. Range, Miss Mary R. Bybie and myself. The fall term lasted 10 days and a half, I think. The same five women served at the adjourned term of over 10 days the following February. Three of them were chosen a elerk of the jury in different eases, one, myself, acting as foreman in two eases. and one was appointed bailiff. Mrs. Dav- enport and Mrs. Mount are now dead, Mrs. Range lives in Seattle and Miss Bybie in Portland."
CHAPTER LXXVIII
D. C. CORBIN'S CAREER IN SPOKANE COUNTRY
VISITS THE COEUR D'ALENES IN 1886-MEETS JIM WARDNER, PHIL. O'ROURKE AND HARRY BAER-ALARMING MIXTURE OF ORE SAMPLES AND DYNAMITE-BUILDS A RAILROAD AND SELLS IT TO THE NORTHERN PACIFIC-COMES TO SPOKANE AND BUILDS THE SPOKANE FALLS & NORTHERN-TRYING TIMES AFTER PANIC OF 1893-LOYALTY OF HIS EMPLOVES-BUILDS THE SPOKANE INTERNATIONAL-ESTABLISHES THE SUGAR BEET INDUSTRY.
BV D. C. CORBIN
N THE spring of 1886, having some leisure time on my hands, I came from New York to the Coeur d'Alenes and the state of Washington, with no other purpose than to see something of the extreme northwest. I was familiar with nearly all the states and territories west of the Missouri river, having come out to the west when a very young man, and had spent most of my life on the frontier west of the Mississippi river. I
I had crossed the plains to Denver and Salt Lake, on mule back and by over- land stage, several times before the Union Pacific was built. I had enjoyed the exciting sport of chasing buffalo and being chased by Indians, and had contracted a love for the west which will last as long as I live.
By invitation of Henry Villard and T. F. Oakes, I had been present at the driving of the last spike, near Gold Creck, Montana, that completed the construc- tion of the Northern Pacific railroad, and had not then, nor until my visit in 1886, been further west on the northern route than that point. I knew something of Washington, especially the Puget Sound country, a little about Spokane and the Inland Empire, and had a desire to see it.
I stopped shert of Spokane on my way west, leaving the Northern Pacific at Rathdrum, and taking the stage from there to Coeur d'Alene City-city by courtesy, for it was then a very small place. its principal feature being the military post. After spending a day there, I took the steamer Coeur d'Alene, owned by James Monaghan, Clem King and Captain Sanborn, for Old Mission at the head of navi- gation on the Coeur d'Alene river, and upon arriving at that point changed con- veyance to a mud wagon stage that ran between Old Mission and Wardner. It was in April, and the roads were at their worst, and that, as anybody will testify who traveled them at that time, either on foot, horseback, or by stage, meant about the worst that anybody ever saw. It was not like the old time roads on the Illinois prairies, that had no bottom, when stage passengers were required to walk and
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carry rails on their shoulders to pry the coaches out of the mud; there was bottom to the road between Old Mission and Wardner, but it was from two to three feet below the surface.
At the town of Wardner I found James Wardner, Phil. O'Rourke, Con Sullivan, Harry Baer and Kellogg, who owned the donkey that discovered the Bunker Hill mine. The gentlemen named, excepting Jim Wardner, were the owners of the Bunker Hill and Sullivan mines, at that time nothing more than exceedingly good prospects, and they very courteously invited me to inspect what little there was to be seen, and afterwards to have dinner with them at the miners' boarding house, both of which invitations I accepted and enjoyed.
In our examination of the prospects, Jim Wardner had secured a gunny sack, in which he deposited various samples of the ore, and upon our return to his cabin, dumped them in a pile upon the floor. Among the samples was one that would not have assayed much in silver and lead, but which would have given exceedingly high values in dynamite. In other words. Jim had picked up an empty sack-appar- ently empty- in which to deposit his samples, and had been dropping occasional chunks of lead ore on a stick of dynamite during the day. We were both speechless for a moment, and then some brief remarks were made which are not necessary to repeat here.
From Wardner I proceeded to the town of Wallace, which then consisted of three log houses, occupied by Colonel Wallace and his wife, another man and wife, and a single man. Mr. S. S. Glidden, who then owned the Tiger mine at what is now the town of Burke, had accompanied me from Wardner, for the purpose of showing me the mines, but we were obliged to lie over two days at Wallace, while men were clearing fallen trees from the trail-there was no wagon road between Wallace and Burke at that time-when we proceeded to the Tiger camp. There was not much development on the Tiger and Poorman mines at that time, but what there was looked good. and after a day there I returned to Wardner for a further examination of that camp, and to gain what information I could respecting other discoveries.
It all impressed me so forcibly that I conelnded a transportation line, connecting the district with the Northern Pacific. the only railroad then in sight, would pay, and within a short time had arranged to build a branch from that road to Coeur d'Alene City, had purchased the transportation line on the lake and river, and commenced the construction of a road from Old Mission to Wardner, and during the following winter was transporting ore, merchandise and passengers over it. The business grew rapidly and proved very profitable, becoming so attractive that two years later the Oregon Railway & Navigation company, then under the man- agement of Elijah Smith. commenced to look that way with longing eyes. This did not suit Mr. T. F. Oakes, then president of the Northern Pacific, who claimed that the territory belonged to his company, and he proposed to buy me out. Our negotiations were short, but satisfactory to both parties, and I sold the line to the Northern Pacific company in the fall of 1888.
The following winter I spent in New York, but early in the spring of 1889, at the invitation of James Monaghan, James Glover. Frank Moore and others, who had some time previously organized the Spokane Falls & Northern Railway company, I came to Spokane, and after a short time arranged to take the company over,
DE SMIET, IDAHO, ON COEUR D'ALENE INDIAN RESERVATION
SURVIVORS OF INDIAN WAR OF ISS OX STEPTOE BATTLEFIELD AT ROSALIA, WASHINGTON
From left to right: Thomas Beall, Michael Kenny. J. J. Rohn
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finance it, and build the road ; and in October of the same season was running trains to Colville, ninety miles north of Spokane. During the following three years I extended the road to Northport and the international boundary line, and early in the spring of 1893, having obtained a charter from the Canadian government, com- meneed the construction of the Nelson & Fort Sheppard railway, from the interna- tional boundary line to Nelson on Kootenai lake.
Later during that season, with the road half completed, the great panie of 1893 broke upon the country, like a thunderelap out of a elear sky, and within a few months nearly half the railroads in the west, including the Northern Pacifie, were in the hands of receivers.
The following year of 1891 brought the great flood in the Columbia river, which washed out some miles of my road between Mareus and the boundary line, eausing very heavy damage. However, it was not a time to give up, and I went on with the determination to see it through, but with many misgivings as to what would happen next. and feeling a little like the old man who fired off a gun containing thirteen loads, and was knocked over by the concussion, when his son called out: "Lay still, dad, there are twelve more loads in her." It was a time when a man had either to braee up and fight for his life, or lie down and be wiped out. I was for- tunate in having associates in the enterprise who had known me long, and who trusted me, and in the loyalty of my employes who refused, at the order of the Anarehist Eugene Debs, and his Spokane lieutenants, to go out on a strike, along with the employes of the Great Northern and Northern Pacifie roads; and so, after a long and anxions spirit. I managed to sail my ship into ealm waters, out of the reach of receivers.
A year or two afterwards I had the road on a paying basis, and in June, 1898, through negotiations with Mr. C. S. Mellen, then president of the Northern Paeifie Railway company, sold it. to that company.
I had no thought at that time of engaging in further railroad construction, but in 1904 I was strongly impressed with the belief that a connection with the Cana- dian Paeifie railroad system would be of very great benefit to Spokane and the Inland Empire, and proceeded with a few friends to finance the enterprise (the Spokane International), having the friendly cooperation, through its very able presi- dent, Sir Thomas G. Shaughnessy, of the Canadian Pacific company.
This may complete my railroad construction-and it may not. I am on the sunset side of life, but still vigorous, and willing to be of nse to the community in which I live. and work agrees with me. I have always felt great interest in the development of the country, and have unlimited faith in it. Washington has great possibilities, and will be one of the great, rich states of the Union .- D. C. CORBIN.
When Mr. Corbin, in 1890, extended the Spokane Falls & Northern to the inter- national boundary, he established a line of boats to Revelstoke, connecting there with the Canadian Pacific. Subsequently he bridged the Columbia river at North- port and built the Red Mountain railway to the Rossland mines. This railroad system, when sold to the Northern Paeifie (it passed later to the Great Northern), comprised 220 miles of road. It has been one of the chief foundations of Spokane's greatness and prosperity. Development of the rich mines of the Rossland district, the Sloean, of Republic and the Granby and other properties along the international boundary, would, in all probability, have been impossible if the Corbin system had
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never been constructed. Beyond all question that development would have been many years retarded.
Mr. Corbin organized in 1900 the Washington State Sugar company and built the beet sugar factory at Waverly, in the southern end of Spokane county. He purchased, in 1905, the property of the Spokane Valley Land & Water Company, then badly involved, raised money to lift its debts, developed its irrigating system, and purchased several thousand acres of land in the Spokane valley, at an outlay of $850,000.
In 1910 he built branch lines of the Spokane International to Lakes Coeur d'Alene and Pend d'Oreille.
CHAPTER LXXIX
CITY OFFICIALS OF SPOKANE, FROM 1881 TO DATE. COMPILED BY CITY CLERK C. A. FLEMING.
M AYOR R. W. FORREST, appointed by special act of legislature ineorporat- ing the City of Spokane Falls. November 25th, 1881. Mayor J. N. Glover, April 7th, 1884, to April 15, 1885. City Clerk Chas. E. Crellin April 7th, 1884 to July 16th, 1884.
City Clerk George Brandt, July 16th, 1884 to April 15th, 1885. City Marshal Eugene Hyde.
Mayor A. M. Cannon, April 15th, 1885 to April 18th, 1887.
City Clerk J. C. Hanna, April 15th, 1885 to April 6th, 1887.
City Clerk J. F. Piggott, April 6th, 1887 to April 18th, 1887.
Chief of Police James Glispin, April 15th, 1885 to January 11th, 1887. Acting Chief of Police S. B. Leininger, January 11th, 1887 to April 5th, 1887. Mayor W. H. Taylor. April 18th, 1887 to April 13th, 1888.
City Clerk W. F. Edwards, April 18th, 1887 to April 18th, 1888.
Chief of Poliee J. F. Warren, April 5th, 1887 to April 15th, 1890.
Mayor Jacob Hoover, April 13th, 1888 to Mareh 7th, 1889. Resigned on ae- count of moving out of the city limits.
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