USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 23
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 23
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 23
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 23
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The pioneer chapter of railroading in Walla Walla was ended. Whatever the personal idiosyncracies of Doctor Baker and whatever may have been thought as to his aggressiveness in business, it becomes evident with the retrospect of history that he was a far seeing, sagacious, energetic, and successful business man and that his career in Walla Walla was one of its greatest constructive forces.
NEW ERA OF WATER TRANSPORTATION
It remains in this chapter only to take a glance at the next great stage in trans- portation. We have spoken of the old steamer lines as composing the first of those stages, the stage lines the second, and the railroads the third. The fourth may be called the new era of water transportation. This era is as yet only dawn- ing, but it is obvious that the opening of the Columbia and Snake rivers to traffic by means of canals and locks and improvement of channels will create a new development of production and commerce. As far back as 1872 Senator Mitchell of Oregon brought before Congress the subject of canal and locks at the Cas- cades. The matter was urged in Congress and in the press, and as a result of ceaseless efforts the people of the Northwest were rewarded in 1896 with the completion of the canal at the Cascades. While that was indeed a great work, it did not, after all, affect the greater part of the Inland Empire.
Its benefits were felt only as far as The Dalles. The much greater obstruc- tions between that city and the upper river forbade continuous traffic above The Dalles. Hence the next great endeavor was to secure a canal between navigable water at Big Eddy, four miles above The Dalles, and Celilo, eight and a half miles above Big Eddy. It is of great historic interest to call up in this connection the unceasing efforts of Dr. N. G. Blalock of Walla Walla to promote public interest in this vast undertaking and to so focalize that interest backed by insist- ent demands of the people upon Congress as to secure appropriations and to direct the speedy accomplishment of the engineering work necessary to the result. Like all such important public matters, this had its alternating advances and re- treats, its encouragements and its reverses, but patience and perseverance and the strong force of genuine public benefit triumphed at last over all obstacles. It is indeed melancholy to remember that Doctor Blalock, of whose good deeds and public benefactions this was but one, passed on before the improvements were completed. But it is a satisfaction to remember, too, that before his death, in April, 1913, he knew that the appropriations and instructions necessary to insure the work had been made. In fact, the work continued from that time with no pause or loss.
The Celilo Canal was completed and thrown open to navigation in April. 1915. In the early part of May the entire river region joined in a week's demonstration which began at Lewiston, Idaho, and ended at Astoria, Oregon.
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Nearly all the senators, representatives and governors in the northwest attended. Schools and colleges had a holiday, business was largely suspended, and the entire river region joined a great jubilee. A fleet of steamers traversed the entire course from Lewiston down, 500 miles. Lewiston, Asotin, and Clarkston were hostesses on May 3; Pasco, Kenewick, Wallula and Umatilla on May 4; Celilo, where the formal ceremonies of dedication occurred, and The Dalles, May 5; Vancouver and Portland May 6; Kalama and Kelso May 7; and Astoria May 8, and there the pageant ended with a great excursion to the Ocean Beach.
As expressing better in the judgment of the author than he could otherwise do, the profound significance of that great step in the history of the commercial development of this section and as giving a view of the historic sequences of old Walla Walla County, he is venturing to incorporate here an address delivered by himself on May 4 at Wallula in connection with that celebration :
Officials and Representatives of the National and State Governments, and Fellow Citizens of the Northwest:
It is my honor to welcome you to this historic spot in the name of the people of the Walla Walla Valley; the valley of many waters, the location of the first American home west of the Rocky Mountains and the mother of all the com- munities of the Inland Empire. On the spot where we stand the past, the present and the future join hands. Here passed unknown generations of aborigines on the way from the Walla Walla Valley to ascend or descend the Great River, to pass in to the Yakima country, or to move in either direction to the berry patches or hunting grounds of the great mountains; here the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clark paused to view the vast expanse of prairie before committing themselves to what they supposed to be the lower river ; here flotillas of trappers made their rendezvous for scattering into their trapping fields and for making up their bateau loads of furs for sending down the river. On this very spot was built the old Hudson's Bay fort, first known as Nez Perce, then as Walla WValla; here immigrants of '43 gathered to build their rude boats on which a part of them cast themselves loose upon the impetuous current of the Columbia, while others re-equipped their wagon trains to drive along the banks to The Dalles. Each age that followed, the mining period, the cowboy period, the farm- ing period, entered or left the Walla Walla Valley at this very point. Here the first steamboats blew their jubilant blasts to echo from these basaltic ramparts, and here the toot of the first railway in the Inland Empire started the coyotes and jackrabbits from their coverts of sagebrush. Wheresoever we turn history sits enthroned. Every piece of rock from yonder cliffs to the pebbles on the beach, fairly quivers with the breath of the past, and even the sagebrush moved by the gentle Wallula zephyr, exhales the fragrance of the dead leaves of history.
But if the past is in evidence here, much more the present stalks triumphant. Look at the cities by which this series of celebrations will be marshalled and the welcome that will be given to the flotilla of steamers all the way from Lewiston to Astoria. Consider the population of the lands upon the river and its affluents, nearly a million people, where during the days of old Fort Walla Walla the only white people were the officers and trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company.
But if the present reigns here proudly triumphant over the past, what must we say of the future? How does that future tower! Where now are the hun-
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dreds, there will be thousands. Where now are the villages, will be stately cities. We would not for a moment speak disrespectfully of the splendid steamers that will compose this fleet by the time it reaches Portland; but we may expect that after all they will be a mere bunch of scows in comparison with the floating palaces that will move in the future up and down the majestic stream.
Therefore, fellow citizens of the Northwest and representatives of the Na- tional Government, I bid you a threefold welcome in the name of the past, present and future. And I welcome you also in the name of the commingling of waters now passing by us. While this is indeed Washington land on cither side of the river, this is not Washington's river. This shore on which we stand is washed by the turbid water of Snake River, rising in Wyoming and flowing hundreds of miles through Idaho and then forming the boundary between Idaho and Oregon before it surrenders itself to the State of Washington. And, as many of you have seen, half way across this flood of waters we pass from the turbid coloring of the Snake to the clear blue of the great northern branch, issuing from the glaciers of the Selkirks and the Canadian Rockies nearly a thousand miles away, augmented by the torrents of the Kootenai, the Pend Oreille, the Coeur d'Alene and Spokane, draining the lakes, the snow banks, the valleys and the mountains of Montana and Idaho. And two or three miles below us this edge of river touches the soil of Oregon, to follow it henceforth to the Pacific. This is surely a joint ownership proposition. And, moreover, this very occasion which draws us together, this great event of the opening of the Celilo Canal, is made possible because Uncle Sam devoted five millions of dollars to blasting a channel through those rocky barriers down there on the river bank. It is a national, not simply a Northwest affair.
But while we are thus welcoming and celebrating and felicitating and an- ticipating we may well ask ourselves what is, after all, the large and permanent significance of this event. I find two special meanings in it : one commercial and industrial, the other patriotic and political. First, it is the establishment of water transportation and water power in the Columbia Basin on a scale never before known. Do we yet comprehend what this may mean to us and our descend- ants in this vast and productive land? It has been proved over and over again in both Europe and the United States that the cost of freightage by water is but a fraction, a fifth, a tenth, or sometimes even a fifteenth of that by land-but, note this is under certain conditions. What are those conditions? They are that the waterways be deep enough for a large boat and long enough for continuous long runs. The average freight rate by rail in the United States is 7.32 mills per ton mile. By the Great Lakes or the Mississippi River it is but one-tenth as much. Freight has in fact been transported from Pittsburgh to New Orleans for half a mill a ton a mile, or only a fifteenth. Hitherto, on account of the break in continuity in the Columbia at Celilo, we have not been able to realize the benefits of waterway transportation. The great event which we are now celebrating con- fers upon us at one stroke those benefits. Not only are the possibilities of trans- portation tremendous upon our river, but parallel with them run the possibilities of water power. It has been estimated that a fourth of all the water power of the United States is found upon the Columbia and its tributaries. By one stroke the canalization of rivers creates the potentialities of navigation, irrigation and mechanical power to a degree beyond computation. Our next great step must be
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the canalization of Snake River, and that process at another great stroke will open the river to continuous navigation from a point a hundred miles above Lewiston to the ocean, over five hundred miles away. Then in logical sequence will follow the opening of the Columbia to the British line, and the Canadian Government stands ready to complete that work above the boundary until we may anticipate a thousand miles of unbroken navigation down our "Achilles of rivers" to the Pacific. Until this great work at Celilo was accomplished we could not feel confidence that the ultimate end of continuous navigation was in sight. Now we feel that it is assured, the most necessary stage is accomplished. It is only a question of time now till the river will be completely opened from Windemere to the ocean. We welcome you, therefore, again on this occasion in the name of an assured accomplishment.
The second phase of this great accomplishment which especially appeals to me now is the character of nationality which belongs to it. While this is a work that peculiarly interests us of the Northwestern States, yet it has been performed by the National Government. Uncle Sam is the owner of the Celilo Canal. It belongs to the American people. Each of us owns about a ninety millionth of it and has the same right to use it that every other has. This suggests the unity, the interstate sympathy and interdependence, which is one of the great growing facts of our American system. In this time of crime and insanity in Europe, due primarily to the mutual petty jealousies of races and boundaries, it is con- solation to sce vision and rationality enough in our own country to disregard petty lines and join in enterprises which encourage us in the hope of a rational future for humanity. It is a lesson in the get-together spirit. Every farm, every community, every town, every city from the top of the Rocky Mountains and from the northern boundary to Astoria shakes hands with every other this day. And not only so but every state in the Union joins in the glad tribute to something of common national interest. But while we recognize the significance of this event in connection with interstate unity we must note also that the Columbia is an international river. It is, in fact, the only river of large size which we possess in common with our sister country, Canada. About half of it is in each country. Its navigability through the Canadian section has already been taken up energet- ically by the Canadian Government. Think of the unique and splendid scenic route that will sometime be offered when great steamboats go from Revelstoke to Astoria, a thousand miles. Scenically and commercially our river will be in a class by itself.
Such are some of the glowing visions which rise before our eyes in the wel- come with which we of the Walla Walla Valley greet you. I began by a three- fold welcome in the name of the past, present and future. I venture to close in the name of the native sons and daughters of Old Oregon. There are many of these within the sound of my voice. Perhaps to such sons and daughters a few lines of "Our Mother Oregon" may come with the touch of sacred memory. Let me explain that Old Oregon includes Washington and Idaho, and in com- posing these lines I used the name "Our Mother Oregon" to include our entire Northwest :
Where is the land of rivers and fountains,
Of deep-shadowed valleys and sky-scaling mountains ? 'Tis Oregon, our Oregon.
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Where is the home of the apple and rose,
Where the wild currant blooms and the hazel-nut grows? 'Tis Oregon, bright Oregon. Where are the crags whence the glaciers flow,
And the forests of fir where the south winds blow? In Oregon, grand Oregon.
Where sleep the old heroes who liberty sought,
And where live their free sons whom they liberty taught ? In Oregon, free Oregon.
What is the lure of this far western land,
When she beckons to all with her welcoming hand ? It is the hand of Oregon.
Oh, Oregon, blest Oregon, Dear Mother of the heart ;
At touch of thee all troubles flee
And tears of gladness start.
Take thou thy children to thy breast,
True keeper of our ways,
And let thy starry eyes still shine
On all our coming days. Our Mother Oregon.
ERA OF GOOD ROADS
In closing this chapter we may express the conviction that while this fourth era of transportation -- a new period of steamboat traffic-is surely coming, though yet but in its dawn, there is now taking shape still a fifth era of transportation. This is to be nothing less than an era of good roads and transportation by auto trucks as feeders to steamboat lines. The most conspicuous fact at the time of publication of this work in this section as in the country at large is the movement in the direction of good roads as the logical sequence of the development of auto- mobiles. This movement will inevitably become coupled with that of improvement of rivers as a means of cheap water transportation. With this improvement of rivers will be another sequence, that is, the creation of cheap electric power.
We are at the dawn of a day in which the two most vital needs of mankind, after production, that is, transportation and power, are to be provided at a low degree of cost not hitherto conceived of. As a backward glance in our own section it is well nigh incredible to call up that the cost of transporting a ton of freight by steamer with portages at certain points from Portland to Wallula has run from $10.00 to $60.00, and from Wallula to Walla Walla, by wagon, from $8.00 to $20.00 or $30.00, and by the first railroad from $4.00 to $5.50, while at the present time the railroad rate (which we think is high) on wheat from Walla Walla to Portland is $2.85 per ton, and only $1.65 by stcamer from Wallula to Portland. Our imaginations are strained almost to the breaking point when we recall that experience on improved rivers in Europe and the older America shows that by continuous improved rivers, supplemented by good roads, it may cost not to exceed a dollar, possibly not more than half a dollar from Walla Walla to Portland. That new era is near at hand.
1
GARDENING IN OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
CHAPTER V
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY IN OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY TO THE PERIOD OF COUNTY DIVISION AND AFTERWARDS IN THE PRESENT WALLA WALLA
We have given in the first chapter of this volume a view of the physical features, geological formation, and climate of this region. It was obvious from that description that the Walla Walla country, like most of Eastern Washing- ton, Northeastern Oregon, and even Northwestern Idaho, would be thought of at first inspection as a stock country. The army of early immigrants that passed through on their way to the Willamette Valley saw the upper country only at the end of the long, hot, dry summers, when everything was parched and wilted. It did not seem to them that any part would be adapted to agricul- ture except the small creek bottoms. They could, however, see in the oceans of bunch grass, withered though it was by drought, ample indications that stock to almost limitless extent could find subsistence.
Hence with the opening of the country in 1859 the first thought of incoming settlers was to find locations along the creeks where a few acres for garden and home purposes might be found, and then a wide expanse of grazing land adjoin- ing where the real business might be conducted. The first locations from 1859 and until about 1870 denote the dominance of that idea. We have already noted the beginnings of stock raising during the Hudson's Bay Company regime and the period of the Whitman mission. We have seen that Messrs. Brooke, Bum- ford and Noble started the same industry at Waiilatpu in 1851 and later on the Touchet and maintained it until expelled by Indians in 1855. H. M. Chase laid the foundations of the same on the Umatilla in 1851 in conjunction with W. C. Mckay, and later upon the Touchet near where Dayton is now located. J. C. Smith on Dry Creek in 1857 had the same plans.
The incoming of settlers in 1859 and 1860 and the location of the Fort in- duced a mercantile class to gather in the vicinity of that market. When gold discoveries set every one agog with excitement, the first effect was to create a line of business almost entirely adapted to supply miners' needs. The second effect speedily following was to lead thoughtful men to consider the region as a suitable location for producing first hand the objects of demand. Stock was foremost among those demands. The Indians already had immense droves of "cayuse" horses, and considerable herds of cattle. Many cattle were driven in in 1861. The hard winter of 1861-2 caused severe loss to cattle raisers, but so well were the losses repaired that it was reported in 1863 that there were in the valley, including the Touchet region, 1,455 horses, 438 mules, 1,864 sheep, 3,957 cattle, and 712 hogs. According to the Statesman 15,000 pounds of wool were shipped out in that year. Sheep increased with extraordi-
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nary rapidity. The valley became a winter feeding ground and the sheep were driven in from the entire Inland Empire. The Statesman asserts that in the winter of 1855-6 there were 200,000 head in the valley. They were worth at that time only a dollar a head. From that time on the stock business in its various branches became more definitely organized and shipments to the East and to California went on apace. It was not, however, for some years that the importation of blooded stock for scientific betterment was carried on to any considerable degree. It would be impossible within our limits to give any com- plete view of the leading promoters in the different lines. Practically every settler in the country had some stock. Those who may be said to have been leaders during the decade of the 'Gos in introducing stock into the various pivotal points of the old county may be grouped under some half dozen ter- ritories, which have later become the centers of farming sections and in several instances the sites of the existing towns.
This list cannot in the nature of the case be exhaustive, for, as already noted, every settler had more or less stock. In naming some rather than others, we would not wish to be making any invidious comparisons, but rather selecting a few in each pivotal place, who came in earliest and had the greatest continuity of residence and the most constructive connection with the business. Naturally first in order may be named the vicinity of Walla Walla City as it has become, and the region adjoining it on the south into Oregon.
Perhaps typical of the larger stockmen of the earliest period were Jesse Drumheller and Daniel M. Drumheller. The former of the brothers came first to Walla Walla from The Dalles with the United States troops in the War of 1855-6, as manager of transportation. When the wars were ended he settled on the place now owned by Charles Whitney. Subsequently he made his home for many years on the place west of town known to all inhabitants of the region. The younger brother came to the region in 1861 and located at what is still known as Hudson's Bay, and from that time on the two were among the fore- most in driving stock in from the Willamette Valley and in extending their ranges in all directions. Like so many others they were wiped out in the hard winter of 1861-2, but nothing daunted, recognizing the superior adaptability of the region they renewed their drives and within a few years had stock, at first horses and cattle and then sheep, ranging from Couse Creek in Umatilla County to the Snake River. One of their greatest ranges was just north of the present Freewater and westward to the present Umapine and Hudson's Bay. Besides the Drumhellers some of the most prominent stockmen in that region ranging along the state line were John Bigham, W. S. Goodman, the Fruits, Girards, Shumways, Ingalls, and Fords. Ninevah Ford was one of the most noted of early Oregon pioneers and coming in that early day into the upper country became one of the permanent builders of Umatilla County. The Berry and Cummings families were a little farther north. Among the leaders in intro- ducing a high grade of horses and cattle and later on in farming on a large scale, as well as connected with every public interest of importance, were the Resers, of whom the second and third generations are present-day leaders in all phases of the life of their communities. Their places were in the fertile foothill belt southeast of Walla Walla. In the same general section were many others whose main dependence at first was cattle, but who entered into the raising of grain
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earlier than those in other sections, by reason of the manifest advantages in soil and rainfall. Among such may be named Daniel Stewart, Christian Meier, Stephen Maxson, Thomas McCoy, S. W. Swezea, Orley Hull, Philip Yenney, Brewster Ferrel, James M. Dewar, the McGuires, Sheltons, Copelands, Barnetts, and Fergusons. Two of the prominent business men living in town might be mentioned as interested in stock raising and doing much to promote it, Dr. D. S. Baker and John Green. Among the most prominent pioneers in the section on Mill Creek, who afterwards were leaders in grain raising, but like all others turned their first attention to stock, were Robert Kennedy, W. S. Gilliam, James Cornwell, J. M. Lamb, Joseph Harbert, E. G. Riffle, W. J. Cantonwine, David Wooten, Thomas Gilkerson, J. Kibler and a little later several leading families, those of Evans, Thomas, Kershaw, Lyons, and Aldrich.
Another great section of the cattle ranges was on Dry Creek and northward over the hills to and beyond the Touchet. Among the earliest settlers in that region whose first business was stock raising, but who afterward became pioneers a second time by entering into grain raising were Jonathan Pettyjohn, W. W. Walter, John Marion, J. C. Smith, S. H. Erwin, A. A. Blanchard and the Lamars. At a somewhat later date, but among the most important of all the cattle men of the valley, now known and honored by all in his advanced age, is Francis Lowden, whose ranges were in the middle and lower valley, and whose son, Francis, Jr., has become one of the leading meat market men in the Inland Empire. Mr. Lowden imported the first high-grade cattle, Shorthorns, and that was in 1864. Another growing center, at first for stock, then for farming, then for fruit, and finally for towns, was the upper Touchet, of which Waitsburg, Dayton, and Huntsville have become centers. As we have stated earlier, some of the first locations were made on the Touchet. The first settler at the junction of the Touchet and Coppei was Robert Kennedy in 1859, but the next year he moved to liis permanent place near Walla Walla. During 1859 and the few years following there were located, at first engaged in cattle raising, but soon to branch out into farming, A. T. Lloyd, J. C. Lloyd, A. G. Lloyd, G. W. Loundagin, George Pollard, James Woodruff, Isaac Levens, Joseph Starr, Luke Henshaw, Martin Hober, Jefferson Paine, Philip Cox, W. P. Bruce and Dennis Willard.
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