USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 22
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 22
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 22
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 22
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Growing out of the abundant agitation going on for twenty years after the start given it by Governor Stevens, the movement for a Northern Pacific Railroad focalized in 1870 by a contract made between the promoters and Jay Cooke & Company to sell bonds. It is interesting to recall that Philip Ritz of Walla Walla, one of the noblest of men and most useful of pioneers, was one of the strong forces in conveying information about the field and inducing the promoters to turn their attention to it. In fact Messrs. Ogden and Cass, two of the strongest men connected with the enterprise, afterwards stated that it was a letter from Mr. Ritz that drew their favorable attention to the possibilities of this country. Work was begun on the section of the Northern Pacific Railroad between Kalama on the Columbia and Puget Sound in 1870, but the financial panic of 1873 crippled and even ruined many great business houses, among others Jay Cooke & Co., and for several years construction was at a stand still. In 1879 the Northern Pacific Railroad Co. was reorganized, work was resumed and never ceased till the iron horse had drunk both out of Lake Superior and the Columbia River.
One of the most spectacular chapters in the history of railroading in the Northwest was that of the "blind pool" by which Henry Villard, president of the Oregon Railway and Navigation Co., obtained in 1881 the control of a majority of the stock of the N. P. and became its president. The essential aim of this series of occult finances was to divert the northern road from its proposed terminus on Puget Sound and annex it to the interests centering in Portland.
In 1883 the road was pushed on from Duluth to Wallula and thence by union with the O. R. & N. was carried on down the Columbia. The feverish haste, reckless outlay, and in places dangerous construction of that section along the crags and through shaded glens and in front of the waterfalls on the banks of the great river, constitute one of the dramas of building. Even more spectacularly came the gorgeous pageantry of the Villard excursion in October, 1883, in which Grant, Evarts, and others of the most distinguished of Americans participated, and in which Oregon and the Northwest in general were entertained in Portland with lavish hospitality, and in which Villard rode upon the crest of the greatest wave of power and popularity that had been seen in the history of the North- west. But in the very moment of his triumph he fell with a "dull, sickening thud." In fact even while being lauded and feted as the great railroad builder he must have known of the impending crash. For skillful manipulations of the stock market by the Wright interests had dispossessed Villard of his majority control, a general collapse in Portland followed, and the Puget Sound terminal was established at the "City of Destiny," Tacoma. Not till 1888, however. was the great tunnel at Stampede pass completed and the Northern Pacific fairly established upon its great route.
Since the completion of the main line of the N. P. R. R. it has sprouted out feeders in many directions. The most interesting and important of these to the Walla Walla Valley is the Washington and Columbia River Railroad, commonly known in earlier times as the Hunt Road. That road was started as the Oregon and Washington Territory R. R. by Pendleton interests in 1887. Mr. G. W. Hunt, a man of great energy and ability, and possessed of many peculiar and original views on religion and social conditions as well as railroads, came to the Inland Empire at that time and perceiving the great possibilities in this region, made a contract to construct the line. Finding within a year that the projectors
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were not succeeding in raising funds Mr. Hunt took over the enterprise. In 1888-90 he carried out a series of lines from llunt's Junction, a short distance from Wallula, to Ilclix and Athena and finally to Pendleton in Umatilla County, Ore., and to Walla Walla, Waitsburg and Dayton, with a separate branch up Eureka Flat, that great wheat belt of Northern Walla Walla County. The hard times of the next year so affected Mr. Hunt's resources that he felt obliged to place his fine enterprise in the hands of N. P. R. R. interests. But it still retained the name of Washington and Columbia River Railroad and was operated as a distinct road. The first president following Mr. Hunt was W. D. Tyler, a man of so genial nature and brilliant mind as to be one of the conspicuous figures in Walla Walla circles during his residence in this region and to be remembered with warm friendship by people in all sorts of connections, afterward living in Tacoma until his lamented death. He was followed by Joseph McCabe who was a railroad builder and manager of conspicuous ability and who continued at the head of the line until he was drawn to important railroad work in New England. The third president of the road was J. G. Cutler who ably continued the work so well begun. In 1907 the line was absorbed by the Northern Pacific and has since that date been managed as a section of that line. Mr. Cutler continued for a time as the general manager until failing health compelled his retirement and to the deep regret of a large circle of friends and business associates he died within a few months of his retirement. S. B. Calderhead, who had been during the presidencies of Mr. McCabe and Mr. Cutler the traffic manager of the original road, became the general freight and passenger agent of the division in 1907 and continues to hold the position at this time. The road has been extended to Turner in the heart of the barley belt of Columbia County. It does an extraordinary business for the amount of mileage and population. Within the year of the com- pletion of the lines to Dayton, Pendleton, and the Eureka Flat branch, a total mileage of 162.73 miles and with a scanty population at that date of 1890, the road conveyed about forty thousand tons of freight into the regions covered and carried out about a hundred and thirty thousand tons of grain and 20,000 tons of other freight.
The other transcontinental line in which the Walla Walla country is especially interested is the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company's line. This acquired the Walla Walla and Columbia River line in 1878 and the property of the O. S. N. Co. in 1879. Henry Villard was the great organizer of the O. R. and N. line, which was a portion of the Union Pacific system, covering the territory between Huntington and Portland. Of Villard's operations in this connection with the N. P. R. R. we have already spoken. Although the attempt to divert that system down the Columbia proved a failure, the O. R. and N. R. R. has become one of the great systems of the United States, and as a part of the present Oregon and Washington system it performs a vast commercial service in the regions covered by its lines. By the acquisition of the Walla Walla and Columbia River R. R. (Dr. Baker's road) and the O. S. N. Co. lines and steamboats (for that was mainly a river system) the O. R. and N. R. R. succeeded practically to the whole pioneer system of steamboats and stage lines of the previous era. It has become a vast factor in the commercial life of the Columbia River region and by its branches north and west has become a competitor with the Northern Pacific and Great Northern systems throughout the state. Its chief lines in the
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counties covered by this work are that from Pendleton to Spokane, going right through the heart of the region, with branches from Bolles Junction to Dayton and Starbuck to Pomeroy. It joins with the N. P. R. R. in a line from Riparia on the north side of the Snake River to Lewiston, by which the splendid country centering around that city is reached and by which the equally beautiful and productive region of Asotin and Garfield counties on the west and south of Snake River are indirectly touched. To reach that highly productive region the company maintains several steamers which ply during the proper stage of water and convey millions of bushels of grain from Asotin and other points down the river to railroad connections. One of the important developments of the line is the Yakima branch, extending from Walla Walla to that city and projected, as is supposed, to ultimate connections on Puget Sound and possibly through the Klickitat country about the base of Mount Adams to Portland, tapping an entirely new country of great and varied resources. In 1914 the main line between Portland and Spokane was constructed down the Snake from Riparia to Wallula.
The Northern Pacific and Oregon-Washington railroads have not far from the same mileage in these counties, the latter somewhat larger, and do approxi- mately the same amount of local business. A general estimate by one of the best informed railroad men of Walla Walla is that the combined receipts for freight in Walla Walla County alone-the present county-for the last year was about one million dollars for outgoing and about six hundred thousand dollars for incoming freight.
WALLA WALLA AND COLUMBIA RIVER RAILROAD
We have reserved for special consideration the most interesting and from the historical standpoint the most important of all the railroads of Walla Walla, the Walla Walla and Columbia River, Doctor Baker's road. The history of this enterprise is most intimately connected with the development of this region. It is not only a rare example of the growth of a local demand and need, but con- stitutes a tribute to the genius of its builder, one of the most unique and power- ful of all the capable and original builders of the "Upper Country."
To trace the movements leading to the creation of this vital step in the com- mercial evolution of Walla Walla, we must turn to the files of the Washington Statesman. In the issue of May 3, 1862, we find the leading editorial devoted to urging the need of a railroad. It notes the fact that Lewiston and Wallula are endeavoring to divert the trade from Walla Walla and that with $500,000 invested in the city, as much more in the country, and with crops yielding $250,000, besides stock, the people of Walla Walla cannot rest content with the exorbitant expense of freighting by teams to and from the river. It says bitterly that those engaged in freighting have thought it a fine thing to get from twenty dollars to one hundred dollars per ton for carrying freight in from Wallula. It urges people to bestir themselves and provide a railroad, which, it declares, if it cost $750,000 or even $1,000,000 to build, will save that amount in the next ten years.
The issue of June 7 returns to the charge, dealing in more specific figures, estimating the probable expense of the thirty miles of road not to exceed
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$000,000. It appeared from this article that the Legislature of the previous year had granted a charter for the purpose, and as the editor urges, the people have but to take advantage of the opportunity open to them to secure the results.
The Statesman of August 23, 1862, gives the provisions of that charter with the list of those named in it. The names of these men are worthy of preserva- tion, as showing the personnel of the most active business forces of that date. They are as follows: . A. J. Cain, E. B. Whitman, L. A. Mullan, W. J. Terry, C. H. Armstrong, J. F. Abbott, I. T. Reese, S. M. Baldwin, E. L. Bonner, W. A. Mix, Charles Russell, J. A. Sims, Jesse Drumheller, James Reynolds, D. S. Baker, G. E. Cole, S. D. Smith, J. J. Goodwin, Neil McGlinchy, J. S. Sparks, W. A. George, J. M. Vansycle, W. W. DeLacy, A. Seitel, W. A. Ball, B. F. Stone, J. Schwabacher, B. P. Standifer, S. W. Tatem, W. W. Johnson and "such others as they shall associate with them in the project."
It is worth noting that in the issue of September 6th, an item is made of the fact that fares to The Dalles have been lowered, being $to to The Dalles and only 50 cents from there to Portland. It is declared in the item that that is a scherne of the Navigation Company to crush out opposition. The opposition line of that year was in control of Doctor Baker, who was associated in the enter- prise with Captain Ankeny, H. W. Corbett, and Captain Baughman. Their steamer on the lower river was the E. D. Baker and on the upper river the Spray. Doctor Baker had previously undertaken a portage railroad at the Cascades, but had been compelled to retire before the O. S. N. Co. So for the new undertaking they were obliged to use stages over the five miles of portage between the lower and the upper Cascades. The Spray and the Baker, it may be said, carried on a lively opposition but in the Statesman of March 21, 1863. we find that the O. S. N. Co. had bought out the line and once more monopolized the traffic. Affairs and time were both moving on and we find valuable data in three successive issues of the Statesman, December 20 and 27. 1862, and January 3, 1863. That of December 20th repeats the names given in the charter and some further provisions of that document. Among other requirements was that forbidding the railroad to charge passengers over 10 cents per mile or over 40 cents per ton per mile for freight. Comparison shows how the world has changed. Railroads in this state at present cannot charge more than three cents a mile for passengers, and as for freight, when we remember how we "kick" now at exorbitant freight rates, and yet remind ourselves that the rate on wheat from Walla Walla to Portland is $2.85 per ton, or less than twelve mills per ton mile, we realize the change. But it must be remembered that building a railroad in 1863 in the Walla Walla country was a very different proposition from the present. The Statesman figures that even if traffic did not increase there would be a weekly income for the road of $2,400 or about one hundred and thirty thousand dollars a year. Allowing the cost to be $700,000, with interest at 10 per cent or $70,000 a year, there would be a margin of $65,000 per annum for operating and contingencies. "Who is there," demands the Statesman, "amongst our settled residents that cannot afford to subscribe for from one to ten shares of stock at $100 per share?"
In the paper of December 27th, another editorial urges citizens to attend a meeting the next week to consider the vital subject.
The meeting duly occurred on the last day of December, 1862, and is reported
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in the Statesman of January 3, 1863. The meeting was called to order by E. B. Whitman and W. W. Johnson acted as secretary. Mention is made of a letter from Capt. John Mullan stating that there was a prospect of securing from two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to three hundred thousand dollars worth of stock in New York. A group of men at money centers was appointed to act as commissioners for receiving subscriptions for stock. A committee consisting of W. W. Johnson, W. A. Mix, and R. R. Rees was appointed to draw up articles of association and by-laws for the company. On March 14th a meeting was held to listen to the report of the committee.
It appears from the issue of April 11, 1863, that a new opposition steamer, the Kius, had made her first trip from Celilo to Wallula, beating the Spray by an hour. Fares had been cut again, being only $3.50 from Celilo to Wallula. The following number of the Statesman notes the interesting item that the Kius had made a trip the previous week to the mouth of the Salmon River on the Snake, and proposed to continue investigations with a view to determining the prac- ticability of a regular route. In the paper of April 25th is an editorial deprecat- ing the "cut-throat competition" on the river, pointing out the fact that heavy stocks of goods had been imported under previous rates and that the carrying in of freight at ruinous rates will embarrass the regular merchants under the old rates. In the same issue announcement is made of the important fact that the railroad portages of the O. S. N. Co. at both the Cascades and The Dalles had just come into operation. By May 9th, it appeared that another rapid change in freight rates had taken place, both lines receipting freight from Portland to Lewiston at $25 per ton. For some time the rate from The Dalles to Wallula had been $3 per ton. But a little time passed and the omnipresent O. S. N. Co. bought out the opposition boats Iris and Kius, and up the rates went with another jump. The figures were :
Freight-Portland to The Dalles $15.00 per ton
Portland to Wallula. 50.00 per ton
Portland to Lewiston. 90.00 per ton Passage-Portland to The Dalles 6.00
Portland to Wallula 18.00
Portland to Lewiston. 28.00
Meanwhile development in the mines and on the stock ranges and farms and even in horticulture was going on apace. But the railroad enterprise hung fire and several years passed by without results. The community seems to have been waiting for the man with the brains, nerve, resolution, and resources to lead and take the risk. The man was there and he had all the requisites from his first entrance to Walla Walla in 1839 except the resources. This was no less a man than Dr. D. S. Baker. During the years of agitation he had been prospering in business and by 1868 was coming into a position where he could see his way to take the initiative in what he had recognized all the time as the great next step in the growth of the Walla Walla country, as well as one in the advancement of his own personal fortunes. The thought of a sort of community ownership had never left the minds of the original promoters although they had failed to come to a focus. On March 23, 1868, there was a meeting which was the outcome of
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a second era of popular discussion. That meeting eventuated in the actual incor- poration of the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad. The incorporators were D. S. Baker, A. H. Reynolds, I. T. Reese, A. Kyger, J. H. Lasater, J. D. Mix, B. Scheideman, and W. H. Newell. They planned to place $50,000 of stock in the city, $200,000 in the county, and $100,000 with the O. S. N. Co. An act of Congress of March 3, 1869, granted a right of way and authorized the county commissioners to grant $300,000 in aid of the road, subject to approval of the people by special election. The election was set for June 21, 1871. Expressions of public opinion made it so clear that the proposal would be defeated at the polls that the order for election was revoked. The incorporators of the road now made a proposition that in case the people of the county would authorize an issue of $300,000 in bonds, they would build a strap-iron road within a year, would place the money from down freights in the hands of the county com- missioners as a sinking fund, allow the commissioners to fix freight rates, pro- vided they were not less than $2 per ton nor so high as to discourage shipping, and secure the county by first mortgage on the road. An election was held on September 18, 1871. A two-thirds majority was required out of a total vote of 935, and the proposition was lost by eighteen. Thus the second attempt at a publicly promoted railroad for Walla Walla went glimmering.
Doctor Baker now felt that the time had arrived for pushing the enterprise to a conclusion by private capital. A new organization with the same name was effected, of which the directors were D. S. Baker, Wm. Stephens, I. T. Reese, Lewis McMorris, H. M. Chase, H. P. Isaacs, B. L. Sharpstein, Orley Hull, and J. F. Boyer. Grading was begun at Wallula in March, 1872.
Meanwhile many rumors and proposals as to railroad building were in the air. In 1872 the Grande Ronde and Walla Walla R. R. Co. was incorporated, and a survey made thirty-six miles to the Umatilla River. But there the movement ceased. A very interesting project came into existence in 1873 for the Seattle and Walla Walla R. R., and in the prosecution of plans for this, A. A. Denny and J. J. McGilvra visited this region and held publie meetings in Walla Walla, Waitsburg, and Dayton. Five directors, S. Schwabacher, W. F. Kimball, Jesse N. Day, W. P. Bruce, and W. M. Shelton were appointed to represent this sec- tion. Great enthusiasm was created, but the project, feasible though it seemed and backed though it was by reliable men, never got beyond the stage of agita- tion. Another enterprise which occasioned great public interest was the Port- land, Dalles, and Salt Lake R. R. designed as a rival to the O. R. & N. system. That never got beyond the promotion era. The most interesting locally of these incipient railroads was the Dayton and Columbia River R. R. incorporated in August, 1874. Its proposal was to build a narrow gauge front Dayton to Wallula via Waitsburg and Walla Walla. The plans contemplated a boat line to Astoria with railroad portages at Celilo and the Cascades. That would have been a great enterprise, but it was beyond the resources of its promoters, and it died "a-bornin'."
While these gauzy visions were flitting before the minds of the people of old Walla Walla County, Doctor Baker was going right on with his own road, in the peculiarly taciturn, quiet and unremitting manner characteristic of him. In March, 1874, the road was completed from Wallula to the Touchet, the first eight miles with wooden rails, capped with strap-iron. Maj. Sewall Truax was
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the engineer in charge. Strap-iron rails were laid on the "straightaway" sec- tions as far as Touchet, with T-iron on the curves and heavier grades. The expense of getting ties and iron was very great and the execution of the work was costly and harassing. Nothing but Doctor Baker's pertinacity in the face of many obstacles carried the work to a successful conclusion. An attempt to run tie timber down the Grande Ronde River to the Snake and thence to Wallula proving unsuccessful, the doctor turned to the Yakima. That effort proved the winning card, but the cost was great. The ties cost over a dollar apiece at Wallula.
But from the first the road justified its cost and demonstrated its utility. In the year that it was completed to Touchet over four thousand tons of wheat was carried out and 1,126 tons of merchandise was brought in. In January, 1875, Doctor Baker proposed to the people of the county that he would com- plete the road to the city if $75,000 were subscribed to the capital stock. A meeting was held at which it was decided impossible to raise that sum. The company returned with another proposition; i. e., that they would complete the road if the people would secure a tract of three acres for depot grounds and right of way for nine miles west of town, and subscribe $25,000 as a subsidy. After much wrestling and striving this proposal was accepted. On October 23, 1875, the rails were laid into Walla Walla and during the remainder of that year 9,155 tons of wheat were hauled over them to the river.
Thus that monumental work (monumental considering the times and resources available, though of course of small extent compared with the railways of the present) was brought to a triumphant conclusion.
A peculiar condition arose in the next year after completion which has his- torical bearings of much interest. According to the account as given by Col. F. T. Gilbert the advance of rates from $5 per ton to Wallula to $5.50 caused a revolt on the part of shippers, although the haul by team before was more than twice as much. Shippers urged the county commissioners to put the wagon road in good condition as a weapon to curb railway monopoly. As the directors of the road did not reduce rates, a movement ensued in the Grange Council looking to boycotting the railroad. The feasibility of a canal from Waiilatpu to Wallula was considered. Some wheat and some merchandise were transported by teams at $5 per ton. A movement was started at Dayton to haul freight to the mouth of the Tucanon, where the O. S. N. steamers might pick it up and carry to Portland for $8 per ton. It cost $4.50 to reach the boats. That was the state of affairs which produced Grange City at the point where the Walla Walla-Pendleton branch of the O. W. R. R. now leaves the main line betweeen Spokane and Portland. It was thought at one time that Grange City might become quite a place. One interesting feature of that period was the con- struction of a steamer named the Northwest at Columbus by the firm of Paine Brothers and Moore and its operation on the Snake River for about two years. The Northwest did a fine business, but like its predecessors was absorbed by the O. S. N. Co.
It was discovered after sufficient experience that teams could not compete with the railroad and the attempts at that method of transportation were aban- doned.
In the year 1876, the O. S. N. Co. received at Wallula 16,766 tons of freight,
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of which 15,266 came by rail and 1.500 by teams. It delivered for conveyance to Walla Walla 4,054 tons, of which all but 513 was conveyed by rail. Doctor Baker's ownership and management of the Walla Walla and Columbia River R. R. was brief but profitable, for in 1878 he sold out a six-seventh interest to the O. R. & N. Co. The remaining seventh was sold to Villard when he bought the O. R. and N. properties.
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