USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 15
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 15
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 15
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 15
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Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
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But the lost rear-guard saved the rest. For they managed to hold back the swarm of foes until nightfall, when they reached a somewhat defensible position a few miles from the towering cone of what is now known as Steptoe Butte. There they spent part of a dark, rainy, and dismal night, anticipating a savage attack. But the Indians, sure of their prey, waited till morning. Surely the first light would have revealed a massacre equal to the Custer massacre of later date, had not the unexpected happened. And the unexpected was that old Timothy, the Nez Perce guide, knew a trail through a rough canon, the only possible exit without discovery. In the darkness of midnight the shattered command mounted and followed at a gallop the faithful Timothy, on whose keen eyes and mind their salvation rested. The wounded and a few footmen were dropped at intervals along the trail. After an eighty-mile gallop during the day and night following, the yellow flood of Snake River suddenly broke before them between its desolate banks. Saved! The unwearied Timothy threw out his own warriors as a screen against the pursuing foe, and set his women to ferrying the soldiers across the turbulent stream.
Thus the larger part of the command reached Fort Walla Walla alive.
With the defeat of Steptoe, the Indians may well have felt that they were in- vincible. But their exultation was short-lived. As already noted, Garnett crushed the Yakimas at one blow, and Wright a little later repeated Steptoe's march to Spokane, but did not repeat his retreat. For in the battle of Four Lakes, on September Ist, and that of Spokane Plains on September 5th, Wright broke forever the power and spirits of the northern Indians.
The treaties were thus established at last by war. The reservations, embracing the finest parts of the Umatilla, Yakima, Clearwater, and Coeur d'Alene regions, were set apart, and to them after considerable delay and difficulty the tribes were gathered.
With the end of this third great Indian war and the public announcement by General Clarke that the country might now be considered open to settlement, immigration began to pour in, and on ranch and river, in mine and forest, the well-known labors of the American state-builders and home-builders were dis- played. The ever-new West was repeating itself. Almost immediately upon the tidings of General Clarke's proclamation, a motley throng of prospective miners, cowboys, pioneer merchants, promoters and adventurers of all kinds began to pour into the "Upper Country." The fur-traders, foreign missionaries, scouts, and advance guard of pioneers were passing off the stage and the modern build- ers were coming. The varied activities and enterprises of these builders of the foundations during the decades of the '60s and 'zos, which may be styled the first division of the era of modern times will compose Part Two of this volume.
PART II SETTLEMENT AND DEVELOPMENT
CHAPTER I
THE PERMANENT ORGANIZATION OF WALLA WALLA COUNTY AND FOUNDING OF THE CITY
In an earlier chapter we have narrated the first attempts by the first Legis- lature of Washington Territory, in 1854, to establish Walla Walla County. It consisted of the entire territory east of a line running north from a point on the Columbia River opposite the mouth of the Des Chutes River, practically at the present Fallbridge. Thus the county included all of the present Eastern Wash- ington, with the entire present State of Idaho and about a fourth of Montana. The only settlement in that vast area was around Waiilatpu and Frenchtown. Though officers for the proposed county were appointed, they did not qualify and the proposed county never completed its organization. Then came on the Indian wars, lasting till Colonel Wright's decisive victory at Spokane in August and September, 1858, closed that era. Following that event General Clarke's proclamation opened the "Upper Country" to settlement. Not till the spring of 1859, however, did Congress ratify the treaties for the three reservations, Nez Perce, Umatilla, and Yakima. But almost immediately upon General Clarke's proclamation the impatient immigration began to enter the Walla Walla Valley. We may consider the immigrants of 1858 and 1859 as the vanguard of permanent settlement. Yet, it should not be forgotten that several names of permanent im- portance are found in the annals of 1851-55, during the period between the Cayuse war and the Great War of 1855-58. Those names appeared in the chap- ter on the Indian Wars.
A number of the pioneers of 1858-59 had been connected with those wars, either as members of the United States army or as volunteers. Others came from Oregon and California, full of the restless spirit of the country and time, eager for the possibilities of a new land. Those first locations were mainly in the near vicinity of the present City of Walla Walla, with a few on the Touchet. While it is hardly possible to avoid some omissions, we will endeavor to present a list of those who, most of them with families, settled in the years named, a few com- ing even prior to 1858. Some of them, it may be stated, came and "looked" and then returned for family or equipment and came back in a year for a permanence. A few here given left the country after a few years, and others were simply transients. But in general they with their families became essential factors in the upbuilding life of the region. Among them were business men and profes- sional men, but the majority were stockmen. It was not realized that the gen- eral body of upland was adapted to grain production. The first settlers generally sought locations convenient to water, with bottom land where they thought grain and vegetables might flourish, but with the range of luxuriant bunch-grass as the essential consideration. Apparently the first to become actually established
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OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
in permanent locations were Thomas Page, James Foster, Charles Russell, J. C. Smith, Christian Maier, John Singleton, and Joseph McEvoy, all in the near vicinity of Fort Walla Walla. That fort, it should be understood, was the one of the present location, laid out in 1857, following the first American fort of the name in the city limits of Walla Walla on Mill Creek near the American Theater of today. Among the pioneer business men of the same time were three worthy of special note whose coming inaugurated the business history of Walla Walla. These were Dorsey S. Baker, Almos H. Reynolds, and William Stephens. Worthy of special mention in this connection is Mrs. Almos H. Reynolds, the first white woman to reside in the Walla Walla Valley, after the period of the Whitman Mission. Mrs. Reynolds, nee Lettice Millican, was a member of the immigration of 1843, lived during childhood and youth in Oregon, was married to Ransom Clark and came with him in 1855 to a donation land claim on Yellow- hawk Creek. Driven from their home by the Indian War of 1855, Mr. and Mrs. Clark returned to Oregon, and there Mr. Clark died in 1859. With remarkable fortitude and courage, Mrs. Clark returned at once to complete residence and make proof on the valuable claim, the Government having cancelled the lapse of time covered by the wars. In 1861 Mrs. Clark was married to Mr. Reynolds and the remainder of the lives of both was spent in the city which they did so much to advance.
In connection with the reference to the Ransom Clark donation land claim, it is of interest to record the fact that there were five such claims established in the Walla Walla Valley. To those not familiar with the early history of Oregon it may be well to explain that the Provisional Government in 1843 provided that each AAmerican citizen in Oregon might locate 320 acres of land, or each married couple might have double that amount. That offer was one of the great in- centives to immigration, though it would, of course, have been nugatory if the United States had not got the country. When Oregon was acquired by the United States that law was confirmed by Congress. The law lasted but ten years after the acquisition of Oregon, and almost all the locations under it were in the Willamette and Umpqua valleys. There were a few, however, in the Cowlitz Valley and on the north side of the Columbia and on streams entering Puget Sound. Mr. and Mrs. Clark were the only locators who came here from the Willamette Valley purposely to locate a donation claim. There were, however, three former mem- bers of the Hudson's Bay Company who located donation claims in the vicinity of Frenchtown. These were Louis Dauney, Narcisse Remond (or Raymond it ap- pears on the Land Office map), and William McBean. In addition to those four donation claims, the United States Government allowed the American Foreign Missionary Society a square mile of land at the Whitman Mission, and in 1859 Cushing Eells purchased their right and established himself upon the claim. The St. Rose Mission also had a filing at Frenchtown, but did not complete proof.
A number of names of the "advance guard" will be found in this chapter under the heads of county and city officials. In order, however, to present all in one view, we are giving here as complete a list as possible of the settlers of 1857- 58-59. It is derived in part from the record in "Historic Sketches" by Col. F. F. Gilbert, and in part from the records of the Inland Empire Pioneer Association, supplemented by personal inquiry by the author. It is inevitable that a name here
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THE ORIGINAL RANSOM CLARK CABIN
Built in 1859, and occupied by Mrs. Clark, then a widow, and her three children, who are now living in Walla Walla and who appear in the picture; Charles W. Clark, Lizzie Clark (Mrs. B. L. Baker), and William S. Clark
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and there should be omitted and the author and publishers will appreciate any further information from pioneer sources.
PIONEERS PRIOR TO 1860
Jolın F. Abbott
R. A. Eddy
M. C. McBride Robert MIcCool
H. C. Actor
Cushing Eells
Charles Albright
W. L. Elroy Thomas McCoy
Milton Aldrich
S. H. Erwin Joseph McEvoy
Newton Aldrich
Edward Evarts
J. W. McGhee
C. R. Allen
J. H. Fairchild
Neil McGlinchy
F. M. Archer
Wm. Fink
Wm. Mckinney
WVm. H. Babcock
J. Foresythe
Lewis McMorris
Chester N. Babcock
James W. Foster
Wm. McWhirk
D. S. Baker
J. Freedman
Christian Maier
S. D. Baldwin
James Fudge
John Mahan
IV. A. Ball
James Galbreath
John Makin
Joseph Bauer
S. S. Gilbreatlı
John Manion
Charles Bellman
Thomas Gilkerson
Pat Markey
WVm. Bingham
W. S. Gilliam
S. R. Maxson
A. A. Blanchard
Braziel Grounds
John May
Mrs. Elizabeth J. Blanch- ard
WV. R. Hammond
R. G. Moffit
P. J. Boltrie
Joseph W. Harbert
Louis A. Mullan
E. Bonner
Solomon Hardman
. Lewis Neace James O'Donnell
E. H. Brown
Daniel Hayes
Jolın O'Donnell
HI. N. Bruning
Samuel E. Hearn
Robert Oldham
James Buckley
Joseph Hellmuth
Frank Orselli
John Bush
H. H. Hill
Thomas P. Page A. D. Pambrun
J. M. Canaday
Thomas Hughes
Edward D. Pearce
C. H. Case
Lycurgus Jackson
Jonathan Pettyjohn
J. Clark
Samuel Johnson
Jolin Picard
Ranson Clark and sons Charles and William
Wm. B. Kelly
George T. Pollard
Mrs. Ransom Clark
Robert Kennedy
P. Powel
George E. Cole
Michael Kenny
I. T. Reese
J. M. Craigie
James Kibler
Mrs. C. Regan
Louis Dauney
L. L. Kinney
R. H. Reighart
George Delaney
Wm. Kohlhauff
A. H. Reynolds
W. S. Davis
J. M. Lamb
R. A. Rice
N. B. Denny
Samuel Legart
Thomas Riley
J. M. Dewar
A. G. Lloyd
A. B. Roberts
James Dobson
J. C. Lloyd
A. H. Robie
Jesse Drumheller
Francis F. Loehr
J. J. Rohn
N. B. Dutro
James McAuliffe
Charles Russell
N. Eastman
Wm. McBean
Mrs. Louisa Saunders
Ralph Guichard
WVm. Millican
D. D. Brannan
Martin H. Hauber
John Cain
Henry Howard
James Johnston
Francis Pierrie
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Louis Scholl
S. D. Smith
W. W. Walter
Mrs. Elizabeth Fulton
H. H. Spalding
A. G. P. Wardle
Scholl
Win. Stephens
R. Warmack
Marshall Seeke
B. F. Stone
John Welch
J. M. Sickler
Frank Stone
E. B. Whitman
John M. Silcott
Christian Sturm
Jonas Whitney
J. A. Sims
T. J. Sweazea
Mrs. M. A. Wightman
Charles Silverman
WV. J. Terry
W. W. Wiseman
John Singleton
John Tempany
Thomas Wolf
J. C. Smith
Augustus Von Hinkle F. L. Worden
As it was becoming evident that Walla Walla possessed the resources and attractions for drawing and sustaining a large population of the best American citizenship, the Legislature of the territory passed an act on January 19, 1859, to provide a government for Walla Walla County. Meanwhile, however, the limits of the county had been greatly reduced, for in 1858 Spokane County had been laid out and this embraced the larger part of the vast area covered by the first Walla Walla County. In 1859, Klickitat County (spelled Clikatat in the Act), embracing the area between the Columbia River and the Cascades, was erected. By these two acts Walla Walla County was reduced to the area south of Snake River and east of the Columbia. Or it would have been so reduced, if the organization of Spokane County had been practically accomplished. But it was not, and in 1863, the new Territory of Idaho was established by act of Congress, and at about the same time Stevens County in Washington was laid out, covering Eastern Washington east of the Columbia and north of Snake River, and includ- ing the abortive County of Spokane. Not till 1879 did Spokane become a sep- arate county. It is interesting to note also that with Stevens the County of Ferguson was created, including what now composes the counties of Kittitas, Yakima, and Benton. In the general shuffle of time and fate the name of Fergu- son has disappeared, but Stevens still remains to perpetuate geographically (there is little need historically) the name of the doughty and invincible first Governor of Washington Territory, though the land area covered by the name has been greatly reduced by the successive subtractions of Whitman, Spokane, Adams, Franklin, Grant, Lincoln, Okanogan, Chelan, and Ferry counties.
By the act of 1859 referred to, the necessary officers of Old Walla Walla County were established as follows : County Commissioners, John Mahan, Walter R. Davis, and John C. Smith (better known as Sergeant Smith) ; Sheriff, Edward D. Pearce; Auditor, R. H. Reighart; Probate Judge, Samuel D. Smith; Justice of the Peace, J. A. Sims. Commissioners Mahan and Davis met at Walla Walla on March 15, 1859, and to fill vacancies left by the non-acceptance of the auditor and sheriff, appointed James Galbreath for the former and Lycurgus Jackson for the latter position. At a meeting of the commissioners on March 26, 1859, they found it necessary to make changes again in the personnel of county officers. As a result the following assumed office in their respective places : F. H. Brown, probate judge; Lycurgus Jackson, assessor; Neil McGlinchy county treasurer; and William B. Kelly, superintendent of schools.
The next stage in the political evolution of the county was the appointment of a date for general election. This was set for the following July. The county
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was divided into two voting precincts, Steptoeville, and Dry Creek. The former seems to have included the region centering around the United States Fort Walla Walla, and thence down Mill Creek to the Walla Walla. There was a general habit of designating the region around the fort as Steptoeville, a clumsy and illogical name, for it is not euphonious nor would it seem that it would have been popular, for certainly the officer who met such disastrous defeat at the hands of the Spokane Indians did not bring great glory to the Stars and Stripes nor great security to possible settlement. Fortunately the name was not preserved. The election place in "Steptoeville" was appointed at the house of W. J. Terry but that was subsequently changed to "The Church at Steptoeville." The only church here at that time seems to have been a Catholic church built at some time in 1859 on the location of the subsequent McGillivray house, afterward occupied by Jacob Betz, near the present home of George Welch. The "church," we may say in passing, consisted of poles stuck in the ground and covered with shakes. It had no floor and its only seating facilities consisted of one bench. J. A. Sims, Wm. B. Kelly, and Wm. McWhirk were the judges and Thomas Hughes the clerk for the election in "Steptoeville" precinct. In Dry Creek precinct, which seems to have included all the rest of the county to the east and north, the elec- tion board consisted of E. Bonner, J. M. Craigie, and Wm. Fink. The clerk was W. W. Wiseman. The polling place was at the residence of J. C. Smith. That was the first real election in Walla Walla County or anywhere in Eastern Wash- ington, though there had been "kind of" an election in 1855 among the few settlers around Waiilatpu and Frenchtown. It is worth noting that the retiring board of commissioners had two meetings prior to the election. One of these was on June 6th, and at that meeting it was voted to pay $20.00 per month for the rent of a building for a courthouse and to impose a tax of seven mills. At a meeting on July 2d the resignation of James Galbreath was presented and Augustus Von Hinkle was appointed for the vacancy. At the same meeting the name of Waiilatpu was substituted for Steptoeville.
The election of July seems to have duly occurred, but apparently the records have been lost. That officers were duly chosen appears from the fact that on September 5th the new board of commissioners met and determined their terms of service: Charles Russell, one year; John Mahan two years and Wm. McWhirk three years. The following incumbents of county offices were elected : I. T. Reese, auditor; Lycurgus Jackson, sheriff; Neil McGlinchy, treasurer ; Thomas P. Page, assessor; C. H. Case, surveyor ; J. M. Canaday, justice of the peace. I. T. Reese was granted $40.00 per month for the building used as the courthouse, and that building was nearly opposite the present courthouse. The county hired the upper story, the lower being a saloon. On November 17, 1859, the board of commissioners voted to locate the county seat at the point first named "Steptoeville," then Waiilatpu, but now by their vote duly christened Walla Walla. Thus, on November 17, 1859, the "Garden City" officially entered the world under the name by which the Indians at the junction of the Big Rivers introduced themselves to Lewis and Clark, the first white explorers, and pre- served, though with many changes of spelling, through the era of the Hudson's Bay Company, and by that company applied to the fort on the Columbia. Now by the action of the first elected board of county commissioners the musical name was attached to the newly established town of 1859. It is worthy of notice Vol. 1-8
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that the name is commonly supposed to mean the "Valley of Waters," referring to the numerous springs in the vicinity of the city. The author has been told by "Old Bones," an Indian of the Cayuse tribe who lived for many years near Lyons' Ferry on Snake River and was known to all old-timers, that the name was understood by the natives to signify that section of country below Waiilatpu, "where the four creeks meet :" viz., the Walla Walla, Touchet, Mill Creek, and Dry Creek. The Walla Walla above that point was commonly known to the Indians as "Tum-a-Jum." The sound "Wall" is common in Indian words all over the Northwest as Willamette, Wallula, Wallowa, Waiilatpu, or, as some got it, Wallatpu. Many poetical and some prosaic accounts have been given of the origin of the name. Among others, Joaquin Miller, "Poet of the Sierras," insisted that when the French voyageurs first looked down from the Blue Mountains ("Les Montagnes Bleues" in their Gallic speech ) upon the fair fertile valley, they ex- claimed : "Voila, Voila !" (Behold, behold !) and thus the name became fixed. This fantastic idea is, however, easily disproved by the fact that Lewis and Clark, who entered the country by Snake River, got the name from the Indians on the Columbia near the mouth of the Walla Walla. In the same connection, while speaking of the local names used by the aborigines, it is of interest to observe that the commonplace appellation of Mill Creek for the beautiful stream which flows through Walla Walla City has supplanted a far more fit and attractive native name. It is somewhat variously pronounced and hence spelled. Rev. Henry Spalding gives it as Pasha. Thomas Beall of Lewiston gives it as Pashki. Others have gotten the sound as Paskau, or Pashkee. It seems to signify "sunflower." Mr. Beall regards the name as applying rather to the tract of land extending a mile or two above Walla Walla where the sunflower is very frequent than to the creek itself. Another mellifluous name said to be used by some of the natives is "Imchaha." It is truly regrettable that so common a name as Mill Creek should have become fastened upon so attractive a feature of the city.
As indicated above, the location of the United States Fort Walla Walla was largely determinative of the location of the city. The first business of the region arose for the purpose of providing supplies for the fort. Several of those whom we have named in the "Advance Guard" were directly connected with that busi- ness. An example is found in Charles Russell who was connected with the quartermaster's department of the fort, and seeing the heavy burden of trans- porting supplies from the Willamette Valley determined to test the valley land. Accordingly he sowed eighty acres to barley at a point north of the fort on what later became the Drumheller place. It yielded fifty bushels to the acre. In the same season Mr. Russell raised a hundred acres of oats on the place which he soon after took up on the creek which bears his name. That might be regarded as the inauguration of agriculture in this vicinity though it should be remembered that Dr. Whitman twenty years before had raised prolific crops of all kinds at Waiilatpu. Wm. McWhirk was the first merchant in Walla Walla. He erected a tent for a store in the spring of 1857 at a point near what is now the corner of Main and Second streets. During the fall of the same year, Charles Bellman set up another tent store at the point occupied by the Jack Daniels saloon for many years at the site of the present "Togs." Apparently the old-timers are at variance as to the builder and location of the first actual building. Some have as- serted that Wm. McWhirk erected, in the summer of 1857. a cabin on the north
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OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
side of Main Street, nearly where the Farmers' Savings Bank now stands, and that in the fall of the same year Charles Bellman put up a structure a little east of that at about the point of the Young and Lester florist location. In April, 1858, Lewis McMorris erected a slab and shakes structure for Neil McGlinchy on about the present southwest corner of Main and Third. Various rude buildings appeared in 1858, some for residences, some for saloons (which we regret to record seems to have been a very active line of business at that time). These were constructed by James Galbreath, W. A. Ball, Harry Howard, Michael Kenny, William Terry, John Mahan, James Buckley, and Thomas Riley. The first building with floor, doors, and glass windows was erected by Ralph Guichard and Wm. Kohlhauff at the point now occupied by the White House Clothing Store at the northwest corner of Main and Third.
At that time there were two rival locations : one at the point started by Mc- Whirk, McGlinchy, and Bellman, and the other at a cabin built by Henry Howard, known as the "half-way house ;" i. e., half-way to the fort. Spirituous refreshment seems to have been much appreciated by the gallant defenders of their country at the Fort Walla Walla of that time, and a half-way house was quite a desirable accessory of a trip to "town." As we have already noted, there was a difference of opinion as to the name of the town, but that of Walla Walla finally prevailed over all rivals. On November 17, 1859, the commissioners laid out the town with the following boundaries: Commencing in the center of Main Street at Mill Creek, thence running north 440 yards, thence running west one-half mile to a stake, thence running south one-half mile to a stake, thence running east one-half mile to a stake, thence running north to the place of commencement; 160 acres in all.
The town government was organized by the appointment of a recorder, I. T. Reese, and three trustees, F. C. Worden, Samuel Baldwin, and Neil McGlinchy. The town was surveyed by C. H. Case, providing streets eighty feet wide running north and south, and one hundred feet wide running east and west. The lots were laid out with a sixty-foot front and a depth of 120 feet. They were to be sold for $5.00 each, with the addition of $1.00 for recording, and no one person could buy more than two of them. Ten acres also were set aside for a town square and the erection of public buildings, but this was reduced to one acre.
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