USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 24
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 24
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 24
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 24
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
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
Farther up the Touchet, going on to the Patit and beyond in the vicinity of the present Dayton, Henri M. Chase and P. M. La Fontain had located before the great Indian wars, as already related. In the second stage of settlement, beginning in 1859, F. D. Schneble and Richard Learn upon the present location of Dayton, and near by Elisha Ping, J. C. Wells, Thomas and Israel Davis, S. L. Gilbreath (Mrs. Gilbreath was the first white woman to live in Columbia County ), Jesse N. Day, Joseph Ruark, Joseph Boise, G. W. Miller, John and James Fudge, and John and Garrett Long, may be regarded as most distinctively the pioneers in the stock business, proceeding on within a few years to the usual evolution into farming and other branches of growing communities.
The region of what is now Garfield and Asotin counties had an early history similar to that of the Walla Walla, Mill Creek, Touchet, Coppei, and Patit regions, though not so complete. Settlers entered during that same stage of the '60s and sought stations on the creeks from which desirable cattle ranges extended. One of the earliest of all settlers of the old Walla Walla County was Louis Raboin at the point on the Tucanon now known as Marengo. Raboin might justly Vol. 1-12
178
OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
be called a pioneer of the pioneers, not only in stock raising, but in everything. Governor I. I. Stevens, in his report of railroad explorations, mentions him as located with his Indian wife and six children on the Tucanon, and the possessor of fifty horses and many cattle, and as having four acres of land in which potatoes and wheat were growing. The governor calls him Louis "Moragne'." According to Gilbert that name, from which Marengo was derived, had a curious origin. It seems that Raboin had been, like almost all the early French settlers of the Inland Empire, engaged in the trapping business. He was of a lively, active disposition and known by his comrades as "Maringouin" (mosquito). This cognomen became corrupted by the English-speaking people and finally became "Marengo."
Incoming settlers, seeking water courses for homes and bunch-grass hills and prairies for stock ranges after the usual fashion, were not long in discovering the best locations on the Pataha, Tucanon, Alpowa, and Asotin, and small spring branches, and cabins and cattle began to diversify that broad expanse through which Lewis and Clark had wandered in 1806, and with which Bonneville and other fur hunters of the '30s were delighted.
It was fully equal to the Touchet, Walla Walla, and Umatilla, with their tributaries toward the west. The advance guard upon the Pataha and the vicinity where Pomeroy now stands were Thomas Riley, James Rafferty, James Bowers, Parson Quinn, J. M. Pomeroy, from whom the town was named, Daniel Mc- Greevy, and the brothers James and Walter Rigsby, Joseph S. Milan, Henry Owsley, Charles Ward, and Newton Estes.
Among the streams on which early settlements were made was the Alpowa, the pleasant sounding name of which signified in Nez Perce "Spring Creek." H. M. Spalding, the missionary, made a station there among the natives of the band of Red Wolf and in 1837 or 1838 planted apple seeds from which some trees still exist. Timothy, famous in the Steptoe campaign, in which he saved. the command from destruction and was afterwards rewarded after the usual fashion of the white race in dealing with Indians by being deprived of a country, was located on the Alpowa. His daughter was the wife of John Silcott of Lewis- ton, one of the most noted of early settlers.
Asotin Creek, with its tributaries, at the eastern limit of the region of which this history treats, is another section with a distinctive life of its own. It is one of the most beautiful and productive sections of this entire area, but being a little to one side of the sweep of travel and settlement, having no railroads to this day, was later of settlement than the other sections. Jerry McGuire is named as the first permanent settler on the Asotin, though there were several transients whom we will name later.
We will emphasize again that we are not trying here to name all the settlers of these sections, but rather those who from continuity of residence and subse- quent connections become most illustrative of that first stage of settlement.
A great impetus was given to the systematic development of the various branches of the stock business by the entrance of certain firms of dealers during the decade of the '70s. In Colonel Gilbert's history of Walla Walla and other counties he presents valuable data secured from the foremost of these dealers, as also one of the foremost of all the citizens of Walla Walla, William K. Kirk- man. After having been engaged in Idaho and California in the cattle business,
CABIN BUILT BY MR. PETTIOUN IN 1858 Jonathan Pettijohn is the man shown in the picture.
179
OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
in the course of which time he operated more or less in and out of Walla Walla, Mr. Kirkman took up his permanent residence here in 1871. He formed a part- nership with John Dooley and from that time until the lamented death of the two members of the firm they were one of the great forces in the organization of the industry of marketing both livestock and dressed meat. From the valuable data secured by Colonel Gilbert from Mr. Kirkman and from Mr. M. Ryan, Jr., another prominent dealer, we gather the estimate of 259.500 cattle driven out of the Inland Empire during the period from 1875 to 1880. Prices were variable, ranging from $9 to $25 per head, usually $10. W. H. Kirkman, son of W. K., relates this interesting incident. He was, as a boy, riding with his father on the range, when they encountered a number of extra fine fat cattle, and the father, looking over them with delight said, "Look there, my boy, every one of them is a $20 gold piece !" It might be added that those same cattle now would be worth $100 apiece. It is surprising to see from the exhibit given in the figures the large number of dealers operating in the country at that time. There were no less than forty-five firms or individuals engaged in shipping, mainly to Eastern markets, though a considerable amount went to California, Portland, or Puget Sound.
It is of interest to see the enumeration by the assessor of the quantity of stock given at two different dates following 1863, for which the figures have already been given. In 1870 the assessment rolls show the following: Horses, 5.787; mules, 1,727; cattle, 14,114; sheep, 8,767 ; hogs, 5,067. In 1875 a great change occurred of which we shall speak at length, that is the division of the county, by which Walla Walla County was reduced to its present limits. We may, therefore, take that year as the proper one for final figures on the old county. The year 1875, according to the assessor, had the following livestock population : Horses, 8,862 ; mules, 401 ; cattle, 17.756 (there were 22,960 the previous year) ; sheep, 32,986 ; hogs, 8,150.
We find various local items strewn through the files of the Statesman dealing with stock which are worthy of preservation. In issue of January 10, 1862, men- tion is made of a steer handled by Lazarus and brother, which weighed, dressed. 1.700 pounds.
A few weeks later it is stated that a cow and calf were sold for $100. That will be remembered as the winter of the extreme cold weather. There are numer- ous items speaking of suffering and loss of stock. It was well nigh exterminated in some quarters. But it did not take long to change appearances, at least in the cattle that lived through the winter, for an item in the number of June 14 speaks of the fattest cattle and best beef that the editor had ever seen, and of the fact that large herds of cattle were going to the mining regions of Salmon River and South Fork. It is estimated in the issue of October 25, 1862, that 40,000 head of cattle had been brought into the East-of-the-mountain country during the year.
PIONEER RACE TRACK
It appears that during the summer of 1862 a race track was laid out by Mr. Porter at a point on the Wallula Road three miles west of town, known as the Pioneer Race Course. A race is reported in the Statesman of September 27, in which a roan mare won a purse of $100 from a cream horse. That perhaps may be considered the beginning of the Walla Walla Fair.
150
OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
The sheep business seems to have moved on apace during those early years. for in the paper of May 23, 1803, we learn that A Frank & Co. had just shipped 10,000 pounds of wool to Portland, and expected to ship 7,000 more in a short time AAmong the most prominent sheep men whose operations have covered a field in many directions from Walla Walla is Nathamel Webb, one of the honored pioneers In recent times, operating especially in the Snake River region, leading sheep raisers have been Davm Brothers, Adrian Magalion, and Leon Jaussaud. all Frenchmen
THE FARMING INDI -TRV
From stock we turn to farming as the next great fundamental industry to take shape We have already noted the fact that there was little comprehension of the great upland region, rolling prairies and swelling hills, as adapted to raising gram. Yet we know that Doctor Whitman had demonstrated the practicability of producing all standard crops during the ten years of his residence at Wanlatpu. Joseph Drayton of the Wilkes Expedition speaks with surprise of his observations there in 1841, seeing "wheat in the field seven feet high and nearly ripe, and corn nine feet in the tassel." He also saw vegetables and melons in great variety The Hudson's Bay people had fine gardens near Wallula, at the time of the arrival of the Whitmans in 1836, and later on at the Touchet and on Hudson's Bay, as it is now known, southeast of Walla Walla. They had abundant pro- vision also for dairy and poultry purposes.
Hence farming and gardening and fruit raising had been abundantly tested in the more favorably situated locations long prior to the founding of Walla Walla. With the establishment of the Fort at its present location, Capt. W. R. Kirkwood laid out a garden, the success of which showed the utility of that location. The next year Charles Russell, then the wagon master at the fort. tested the land north of the post, afterwards owned by Mr. Drumheller, with eighty acres of barley, securing a yield of fifty bushels to the acre. He raised 100 acres of oats on the place which he afterwards took up on Russell Creek. The location must have been on the land now owned by O. M Richmond, and there is remarkable evidence of the productiveness of that land in that it has produced nearly every year to the present. It is worth relating that after Mr Russell had sowed the oats the Indians were so threatening that he abandoned the place, and cattle ate the growing grain so closely that there seemed no hope of a crop. But in June, the Indians having withdrawn, Mr. Russell went out and fenced the feld, the oats sprung up anew and yielded fifty bushels to the acre. In the same year of 1858, Walter Davis seeded 150 acres to oats at a place on Dry Creek. The Indians warned him to leave, but a squad of soldiers went out and cut the oats for hay. In 1860 Stephen Maxson raised a fine crop of wheat on the place on Russell Creek still owned by his descendants.
Perhaps the operations of Messrs, Russell. Davis, and Maxson may be con- sidered the initiation of the gram production in the Inland Empire. Probably there would have been but a slow development had not the discovery of gold stimulated the demand for all sorts of agricultural products.
In 1803 a few experiments on the higher land began. Milton Evans has told the author that in that year he tried a small piece of wheat a few miles northeast
181
OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
of Walla Walla, but that it was a complete failure, and hence the impression already common was confirmed that the upland was useless, except for grazing. In 1867, however, John Montague raised a crop of oats, over fifty bushels to the acre, on land apparently afterwards part of the Delaney place northeast of town. Even that was not generally accepted as any proof of the use of the uplands. Some of the old-timers have said to the author that they seemed determined that grain should not grow on those lands.
But with the rapid influx of settlers and the flattering returns from the trade in provisions with the mines, the more desirable places in the foothill belt, and then on the benches and plains and then on the hills, were taken up, and by 1875 it was generally understood that a great wheat belt extended along the flanks of the Blue Mountains all the way from Pendleton to Lewiston, with a somewhat variable width upon the plains. Not until another decade was it understood that the grain belt covered the major part of what now composes the four counties of our story.
We find in the valuable history of Colonel Gilbert, to which we have made frequent reference, so good a summary of certain essential data in respect to the development to date of publication in 1882 of that great fundamental business of wheat raising, in which are included also certain allied data of importance, that we insert it at this point in our narrative.
"An agricultural society was organized in July of this year, 1866, by an assemblage of citizens at the courthouse, on the 9th of that month, when laws and regulations were adopted, and the following officers chosen: H. P. Isaacs, president ; A. Cox and W. H. Newell, vice presidents; J. D. Cook, treasurer ; E. E. Rees, secretary ; and Charles Russell, T. G. Lee, A. A. Blanchard, executive committee. For the fair to be held on the 4th , 5th and 6th of the ensuing October, the last three gentlemen became managers, and the following executive committee : H. P. Isaacs, J. D. Cook, J. H. Blewett and W. H. Newell.
In 1867 the grain yield of the Blue Mountain region exceeded the demand, and prices that had been falling for several years left that crop a drug. It was sought to prevent an entire stagnation of agricultural industries, by shipping the surplus down the Columbia River to the seaboard. Freights on flour at that time were : From Wallula per ton to Lewiston, $15; to The Dalles, $6; to Portland, $6; and the following amounts were shipped :
To Portland, between May 27 and June 13, 4,156 barrels ; to The Dalles, be- tween April 19 and June 2, 578 barrels ; to Lewiston, between April 18 and May 14, 577 barrels; total to June 13 by O. S. N. Company, 5,311 barrels.
The same year Frank & Wertheimer shipped from Walla Walla 15,000 bushels of wheat down the Columbia, thus starting the great outflow of bread products from the interior.
In 1868 Philip Ritz shipped fifty barrels of flour from the Phoenix mills in Walla Walla to New York, with the following result: (It was the first of Wash- ington Territory products seen in the East.)
First cost of flour, $187.50; sacks for same, $27.00; transportation to San Francisco, $100.00; freight thence to New York, $107.80; total cost in gold, $422.30 ; profit realized on the transaction, $77.46, or $1.55 per barrel.
Wheat had fallen to 40 cents per bushel in Walla Walla because of the follow- ing scale of expenses of shipping to San Francisco :
182
OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
Freight per ton to Wallula, $6.00; thence to Portland, $6.00; thence to San Francisco, $7.00; drayage, $1.50; commission, $2.00, $3.50; primage and leak- age, $1.00; bagging, $4.50, $5.50; total expense to San Francisco, $28.00.
In 1869 there was a short crop, due to the drought and want of encouragement for farmers to raise grain. June 14, a storm occurred of tropical fierceness, dur- ing which a waterspout burst in the mountains, and sent a flood down Cottonwood Canon that washed away houses in the valley. In consequence of the short crop, wheat rose to 80 cents per bushel in Walla Walla, and flour to $5.50 per barrel. In November hay brought $17 per ton, oats and barley 2 cents per pound, and butter 371/2 cents.
Having traced agricultural development from its start and through its years of encouragement, till quantity exceeding the home demand had rendered it a profitless industry in 1868 and 1869, let us glance at the causes leading to a re- vival of inducements for tilling the soil in the Walla Walla country. It should be borne in mind that the farmers in the valley and along creeks nearer the mines than this locality, were supplying the principal mountain demand, and the only hope left was to send produce to tide water and thus to the world's market. What it cost to do this had been tried with practical failure as a result. This shipping to the seaboard was an experimental enterprise, and there was not suf- ficient assurance of its paying to justify farmers in producing quantities for that purpose, consequently not freight enough of this kind to warrant the Oregon Steam Navigation Company in putting extra steamers or facilities on the river to encourage it. The outlook was, therefore, gloomy. This was a state of things which caused an agitation of the railway question, resulting in the construction of what is more familiarly known as Baker's Railroad, connecting Walla Walla with navigable waters. The building of this road encouraged the farmers to raise a surplus, it encouraged the Oregon Steam Navigation Company to increase the facilities for grain shipment, it caused a reduction of freight tariffs all along the line and made it possible for a farmer to cultivate the soil at a profit. Something of an idea of the result may be gathered from an inspection of the following exhibit of increase from year to year, of freights shipped on Baker's Road to Wallula en route for Portland. Between 1870 and 1874, down freights shipped yearly at Wallula did not exceed 2,500 tons. In 1874 Baker's Road had been com- pleted to the Touchet, and carried freight from that point to Wallula at $1.50 per ton. In 1875 it was completed to Frenchtown and charged $2.50. Walla Walla rates averaged $4.50.
Freight tonnage from Touchet in 1874 to Wallula aggregated 4,021 tons; in back freight, 1,126 tons; from Frenchtown in 1875 to Wallula, 9,155 tons ; back freight, 2,192 tons; from Walla Walla in 1876 to Wallula, 15,266; back freight, 4,043; from Walla Walla in 1877 to Wallula, 28,806 tons ; back freight, 8,368 tons; from Walla Walla in 1878 to Wallula, 35,014 tons; back freight, 10,454." Such are Colonel Gilbert's statements.
The estimated wheat production in the entire upper country in 1866 was half a million bushels, of which half was credited to the Walla Walla Valley. From that time on to the present there has been a steady development of wheat raising throughout the region south of Snake River, as well as north and throughout the Inland Empire.
In the decade of the 'zos there came to Walla Walla a man destined to leave
WHEAT HARVESTING IN WALLA WALLA COUNTY Thirty-two horses. Combined harvesting and threshing. Ground too hilly for tractors.
183
OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
upon the entire region the impress of one of the most remarkable characters in far vision, noble aims, and philanthropic disposition that ever lived within the State of Washington. We refer to Dr. N. G. Blalock. Eminent in his profession, his ceaseless industry and progressive aims did more perhaps than any other single life to broaden and advance all phases of the section in which he lived and wrought. He was the pioneer in wheat raising on a large scale, as well as in many other lines of activity and experiment. Making, though not retaining, sev- eral fortunes, his life work was to mark out the way for others less venturesome, to follow to success not alone in the acquirement of wealth, but in the tobler and more enduring products of education, philanthropy, patriotism, public service, and genuine piety. Coming to Walla Walla in 1872 and entering at once upon an extensive medical practice, Doctor Blalock had a vision of the future as well as the capacity to utilize at once the varied opportunities offered by the soil, the climate, and the location. He saw the splendid wild acres of land by the thousands lying in all directions and determined to make a thorough test of its adaptability to raise wheat on a large scale. He made a bargain for a tract of 2,200 acres six miles south of Walla Walla for a price of ten bushels of wheat per acre, to be paid from the first crop. The expense of breaking so large a body of land was great, but the first crop yielded thirty-one bushels per acre, a sufficient demot- stration of the capacity of the land.
In 1881 the crop on the tract averaged thirty-five and one-fourth bushels, while 1,000 acres of it yielded 51,000 bushels. The acreage and the yield, very carefully ascertained, was reported to the Government and stood then, and prob- ably does yet, as the largest yield from that amount of land ever reported. Even more remarkable yields, but on smaller areas, have been known. Milton Aldrich produced on his Dry Creek ranch, on 400 acres, an average of sixty-six bushels of wheat and the next year there was a volunteer crop of forty bushels. Re- cently in the same vicinity Arthur Cornwell obtained an average of seventy-three bushels per acre. A hundred and ten bushels of barley per acre have been grown on the Gilkerson ranch on Mill Creek.
An item of historic interest may be found in an estimate of cost made for a special number of the Union during the first years of the industry by Joseph Harbert, one of the most prominent pioneers and successful farmers in the valley. The crop was on 400 acres, which yielded 10,000 bushels of blue-stem wheat. At fifty cents per bushel for the crop, this will be seen to represent a profit of about two thousand three hundred dollars from land worth $12,000, or nearly twenty per cent, from which, however, should come wages of management.
The land was summer fallowed in 1894 and valued at thirty dollars per acre. The estimate is in a locality where water and material to work with are reason- ably convenient. The land is not very hilly and comparatively easy to work. The report is as follows :
Mos.
Itemized Expenses
Crop
In. Pd.
Inst. $ 60.00
Total $ 420.00
Planting, goc per acre.
$ 360.00
20
Harrowing, IIc per acre.
44.00
. .
7.83
51.83
Plowing, second time, June, 1894.
360.00
18
54.00
414.00
Harrowing before sowing
44.00
16
5.87
49.87
500 bu. seed wheat, highest market price
250.00
. .
. .
250.00
1-1
( D) WALLA WALLA COUNTY
Mos
Crop
In l'al
letal
Carne Med who.1
15
1012
125 lbs vitriol att ta
7 50
94
8-17
Using vitriol on wheat
8.00
100
Sowing. Detober, 180)44, 15€ per acre
14
* 00
Harrowing atter sowing, ftc ..
5 14
49 1.4
Cutting, Stou per acre.
400 00
13 33
413 33
215.000
7-18
22278
Thirty pounds of twine, 33 1-3c.
10.00
33
10 33
Ihreslung 10,0 0 bushels, 412c.
450.00
15 00
405 00
Hauhng to railroad, 21ge per sack.
110.00
3.66
113 60
Warehouse charges to Jan. 1, 1896
120.00
.. .
120.00
Total cost
$2,492.10
SIN2 40
$2,079.30
It may be added that estimates of cost by a number of prominent farmers in the period of iSoo and thereabouts, indicated that the expense of sowing, seed ing, harvesting, and putting into the warehouse, ran from twenty-one to forty cents a bushel, varying according to locality, yield, and other conditions.
At a usual price of fifty or sixty cents a bushel, there was not a large margin above the interest on investment, maintenance of stock, machinery, improvements. and taxes. Nevertheless the farmers of this section felt every encouragement to continue, unless at were in the evil harvest year of 1803-4, when the price ran about twenty -five to thirty-five cents a bushel, and when rains, floods, strikes, and general calamity threatened to engulf, and did actually engulf some of the best farms. It is a historical fact that had it not been for the hberahty of the banks in the four counties south of Snake River, which held obligations from a large number of the best-known farmers, there would have been widespread dis- aster Thanks to the banks, as well as to the persistence and fortitude of the farmers and the sold resources of the country, these counties emerged from those years of depression with less injury and repaired their losses more quickly than any other section of the entire Northwest, or perhaps of the whole country
It may be added in connection with cost of wheat raising, that within the years since the opening of the present century there has been an enormous outlay by farmers in all kinds of farm machinery, the combines having become the usual means of harvesting, and traction engines for the combines and to some degree for plowing having superseded horse power. But cost of labor and general rise of prices have pushed up expenses, until now the most of farmers would estimate the cost of a bushel of wheat at fifty cents or more, some say even a dollar. As an
offset to this there has come a great advance in price, insomuch that the farmers of Walla Walla and its sister counties have become the lords of the land. One of the most pleasing results of this new order of things is that the farmers, being almost entirely free from delt, have begun to build comfortable and even elegant homes, both on the farms and in the cities and to surround themselves with the conveniences of hie, as automobiles, and to spend money in travel and luxuries which make some of the old-timers, accustomed to the deprivations of pioneer days, open their eyes with wonder, and possibly even disapproval It is not ob
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.