USA > Washington > Asotin County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 45
USA > Washington > Columbia County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 45
USA > Washington > Garfield County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 45
USA > Washington > Walla Walla County > Lyman's history of old Walla Walla County, embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties, Volume I > Part 45
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The first sawmill erected in this county was put up by Henry Sharpnack, in 1874, just above Columbia Center. It was not successful.
James F. Rose was the first settler next the mountains above Pataha Prairie, 1869.
Joseph Clary built the first residence in Pomeroy after the original Sunder- land log cabin. It was the residence of B. B. Day and still stands, the first house west of A Street on Main.
The first women's votes were cast at an election to fill a vacancy of justice of the peace, January 29, 1884.
The first settlers were in many instances men with Indian women. John Fogarty lived on the Rafferty place with a Nez Perce. half-Indian woman. She was born at the crossing of the Touchet about where Dayton now is. Fogarty was drowned in the Clearwater. Thomas Reynolds lived a mile below Margeno, on the Tucanon, with an Indian woman who had before lived with two different white men. They had two daughters named Clydena and Agatha. After the latter the Town of Agatha, Idaho, was named. Clydena died at Marengo when about fourteen years old. Agatha married James Evans, son of Berry Evans.
Coleman, for whom Coleman Gulch was named, lived on the Tucanon, a mile above Marengo, and had a California Indian wife. James Turner lived on the Alpowa with an Indian woman. Two men named Bailey, with Indian wives, in 1859, lived on the Touchet, near Dayton.
The first minister to hold services in Garfield County was the Rev. Father Cataldo, who preached at Rafferty's and McBrearty's.
The first school on the Patahia Creek was taught by W. W. McCauley in 1873. The schoolhouse was located at Owsley's.
J. M. Pomeroy located the land where Pomeroy now stands on December 8, 1864.
The first telegraph was built by the government and ran from Dayton to Lewiston, through Pomeroy, in 1879.
The Catholics built the first church in Pomeroy, 1878. Father Papes was the first pastor.
First grain raised on Deadman was in 1878, E. T. Wilson, grower.
Newton Estes was the first settler on the Deadman, 1870.
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James Bowers was the first settler on the land where Pataha now is, 1861. In 1868 Vine Favor bought the land and started the Town of Pataha in 1878.
The first Protestant minister to hold services in Garfield County was Rev. Calaway, then living in Walla Walla, a Cumberland Presbyterian.
It appears from this record that Parson Quinn was the first settler on the Pataha, having located there in 1860. The first house on the Pataha was built by Thomas Riley, who afterwards disposed of it to James Rafferty. One of the first settlers was William McEnery, on the lower Pataha, in 1862.
The next creek after the Pataha to receive settlers was the Deadman. This rather lugubrious name seems to have been derived from the fact that during the hard winter of '61-2, two men perished in the hollow which became known as "Deadman Hollow." They were supposed to have been miners from Oro Fino or Florence. The bodies were not discovered till spring, and were then suitably interred and the spot marked with a pile of rocks at a point near the old road from Walla Walla to Lewiston. That region is now one of the best farming sections in the Inland Empire. Newton Estes was the first to make a permanent location on the Deadman, and his date was 1871. Within a short time, S. T. Jones, A. E Lee, W. L. Freeman, Frank Ping, John Lynn, and Archie McBrearty located upon the creek. One event of that stage worthy of special record was the Alpowa "Toll Road." It was built by B. B. Howard and M. Fettis, in 1872-3, and in 1873 became the property of N. A. Wheeler. For twenty-five years it was main- tained by Mr. Wheeler and then deeded by him to the county for $1.00. Pataha prairie, south of the Deadman and Alpowa, was settled in the early '70s. Rev. William Calaway located there in 1870; Isaac Coatney in 1871; William Chester, 1871; D. Zemmel, 1871; Robert Storey, 1872.
From these centers of settlement, Pataha Creek, Deadman Creek and Hollow, Pataha prairie, together with the still earlier Tucanon (spoken of in connection with Columbia County), and Alpowa (the lower part of which was early historic ground as the home of Red Wolf and Timothy, the Nez Perces, associated with the Missionary Spalding), the growth proceeded during the period prior to county division, following the familiar lines from sheep and cattle and horses to agricul- ture.
The most constructive event was the founding of Pomeroy. This thriving city, the capital and metropolis of Garfield County, was established by J. M. Pomeroy in 1877. Mrs. Pomeroy, now Mrs. St. George, is living at the date of this publication, a woman of great vigor of mind and body, the best authority on the early days in the place of which she told the author she might be called "the Mother." Mr. Pomeroy came from Oregon to the territory in 1863, and for a few months took charge of the stage station at the present site of Dayton. There the youngest child of the family, now Mrs. Peter McClung of Pomeroy, was born. In the spring of 1864, Mr. Pomeroy moved with his family to the location of the town which became his namesake. There in the last part of the year he pur- chased of a transient settler, Walter Sunderland, the right to the claim on which the town now stands. For a dozen years he devoted his main attention to cattle raising and to the conducting of the stage station. The author wishes that his readers could enjoy the privilege, as he has, of hearing Mrs. St. George describe in her vivid and entertaining way the times of the stage station and the express
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boxes with thousands of dollars' worth of gold dust, when "road agents" were figuring on breaking in and seizing them, when horse thieves ran off their horses, and when the Vigilantes would occasionally decorate a tree with the remains of a horse thief as a suggestion for moderation in becoming attached to other men's stock. As the next best thing we are going to let Mrs. St. George tell the story in the following sketch which appeared in the pioneer number of the East Wash- ingtonian.
"Pomeroy, Wash., April 5, 1914 .- 1 came from Salem, Ore., where I had lived with my people for eighteen years, being four years old when my folks crossed the plains, among the early pioneers of Oregon.
"I was married at the age of fifteen years, and, for a while, lived in Salen with my husband and two small children.
"I came up the Columbia River by steamer to Wallula, took the stage for Walla Walla, with twelve other passengers, on April 6, 1864.
"At Wallula I found a great rush of travel, many on their way to the reported gold strike at Orofino, Idaho.
"I had two pairs of fine blooded pigs in a small box, two dozen fine chickens, but no baggage except a suitcase with a few things for my children. My trunks had been left at Portland and came the next day.
"My husband was coming overland with a band of fine Shorthorn cattle and about twenty head of horses. He had been driving stock for about four weeks, and I had remained with my mother for awhile, so we would arrive at Walla Walla about the same time. Arriving there with my little ones, a stranger in a strange land, with very little money, and board and lodgings at the City Hotel twenty-five dollars a week, and no letter from my husband awaiting me, I did not feel very much at home.
"But .soon a man with whom Mr. Pomeroy had made arrangements for the place where we were to live until we could look about and select a piece of land for our homestead. We were to stay that summer on the ranch two miles east of Dayton, belonging to Mr. William Rexford, in a small log house with a fireplace, and there, in September, Mrs. McClung was born.
"We were as poor and hard up for money as any one that ever came to this country. In the month of July Mr. King, who at that time carried the mail, ex- press and passengers from Walla Walla to Lewiston, made me a proposition to keep a stage stand and feed his hungry passengers every day, and very soon I was giving two dinners each day to the coming and going travelers.
"I had told Mr. King that I had nothing to work with, no stove, table or dishes ; nothing to cook and I did not see how I could accommodate him. I had been helping to break some of the young heifers to milk, and made some butter to sell, having no other way to make a dollar. I sold all the butter I could spare for one dollar a pound ; but soon winter would come on and then what would we do with no money, no sale for what little stock we had? Something had to be done. We had made a garden soon after we settled and by this time we had some nice vegetables, which were a great treat to the travelers coming out of the mines.
"Mr. King told me to make a list of what I needed for my house so I could feed his passengers, and, finally, after much urging, I did so. He took my list to Walla Walla, had the bill filled, put on a freight team the next day and brought
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me a big, nice cookstove with all the things belonging to it; lots of dishes and linen, and said I could pay him when I made the money and could spare it.
"The very next day I gave a dinner to ten passengers, and, oli, didn't they brag on that dinner. I never will forget all the nice things they said.
"I kept the stage stand there until December 10th, when we bought this place, where Pomeroy now stands, or rather the improvements on it, consisting of a large house, a log barn and corral.
"Then the daily stage service was discontinued to once a week, with this station as a night stopping place, where all that traveled the road always got their meals. Our house became the famous stopping place between Walla Walla, Wash., and Lewiston, Idaho.
"When the travel was heavy we made some money, and when the travel was light 1 had to work out doors milking cows, making garden and all kinds of hard work. My little children almost raised themselves, taking care of the baby, and helping me in many ways. Work, always thinking of how to make nice things to eat for the traveling public, and how to keep expenses paid.
"Walla Walla was our trading place, for everything was high at Lewiston. But if I had anything to sell I sent it to the latter place.
"There was one family living on the Pataha besides us, two or three squaw men and some bachelors living where the King boys now live, and for a little while a family was located on the Alpowa Creek. There were some Indian ranches on that creek at that time. No one lived below on the Pataha, till you came to the old 'Parson' Quinn place, eleven miles down, then farther on were two or three cattle ranches-Rice and Montgomery, Platters, and later Archey McBrearty. There was no settlement on Snake River except at Almota, no one living on the Deadman, nor anywhere over there, and no settlers between the Pataha and the mountains.
"I helped my husband to stake the roads to the mountains. There had been a road up the Benjamin Gulch, which was so badly washed out it could not be traveled. We staked a road across 'Dutch Flat' for our own use, as wood and fencing had to come from that direction.
"There was scarcely enough brush along the Pataha to make a camp fire. The Indians would burn the grass every year along Pataha, thus killing the tender willows.
"In those early days the Indians were very plentiful. I have seen as many as 100 or more pass by our place in one day, their destination being the Camas and Kouse districts, as Camas Prairie was then called. Then, later in the season, they would go to a lake at the head of the Yakima River, high up in the mountains, where the squaws would fish, and the men hunt deer, which were plentiful.
"During these camping periods, horse racing was the principal amusement ; the Indians had many fine, fast horses, and the several tribes wagered many dollars and trinkets on the merits of their race stock. During this racing season many unscrupulous white men, or 'renegades,' would arrive, camping close by, winning the money of the Indians and selling them liquor.
"The Alpowa Indians were very friendly, and the squaws would work for me; I would hire them to work in the garden. They would take potatoes for their pay and pack them on their ponies. If not watched, they would steal some
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of the vegetables, but most of them did an honest day's work and were satisfied with what I gave them for their labor.
"Sometimes I could buy huckleberries from the Indians and dried antelope hams during the first few years we lived here. There was an old Indian called 'Squally John,' who would catch salmon on the Snake River and bring them to us. They would catch hundreds of them and dry them for the winter and would also get plenty of venison in our mountains.
"I was afraid of the Indians for a few years, but got over that feeling. It was slow work for one or two men to make a farm. Not a furrow had ever been plowed when we came, no fencing. Barbed wire was not known then, and Mr. Pomeroy had to haul feed for his team, and seed grain from the Touchet; and that, with the timber hauling from the mountains, kept him busy, which left the cows and the chores and all kinds of outdoor work for me to do with one hired man and the help of the children.
"I was a very busy woman, although I did find time to teach the children to read and write, and the first lessons were learned at home. There was a school taught at Dayton the summer of 1869, and we sent Clara and Ned there. This was a four months' term. The next year we sent Clara to the sisters at Walla Walla, then, in 1872, Bishop Wells started the St. Paul School, and Clara was one of the pupils there, until she finished her schooling and was married to Eugene T. Wilson, on Christmas Day, 1877.
"In the meantime we had opened a school at the Owsley place, and our two children attended school there, going five miles in a buggy. There were ten pupils the first year. The country was settling up everywhere by this time ; many had settled on the Pataha Prairie, and Alpowa, and over in the Deadman country and along the Pataha Creek.
"When the flour mill was built, a man wanted to put in a stock of goods ; then others came, and a town was laid out.
"Then there was no more frontier."
That Mrs. St. George succeeded at the stage station and in that vital and fundamental requisite of the traveler in the days of the stage, viz., good eatables, well cooked and served, was abundantly proven. A writer in the Walla Walla Union in 1894 drew a toothsome picture of the gastronomic attractions at Pom- eroy and Alpowa, as follows :
"A quarter of a century or more ago there were two famous eating houses on the stage road between Walla Walla and Lewiston, houses which were the occa- sion of many heated arguments between those who had been over the road as to which was the better, houses at either of which the traveler, tired and sore from the lurching of the stage, was sure of a substantial meal, the memory of which, as it flitted through the brain, lingered and made the mouth water. These were the houses which the familiar, all-pervading, time-serving drummer contracted into 'Pum's' and 'Freeman's.' The former was located near what is now the center of the thriving City of Pomeroy; the latter was on the Alpowa, about half-way between 'Pum's' and Lewiston. Coming passengers dined at Pomeroy's ; going took breakfast at Freeman's. Possibly stage passengers have eaten better cooked meals and sat down to more attractive tables than those found at Free- man's and Pomeroy's, but they never said so while at either place, or elsewhere. Delicious bread, fresh from the oven, that which was properly seasoned by age,
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sweet butter, thick cream in genuine coffee, meats done to a turn, chicken fried or stewed, vegetables in their season, fruits, pastry, cach and all 'fit to set before a king,' were provided in profusion in both places. In winter huge fires in equally huge fireplaces thawed out the frozen traveler. In summer cold buttermilk cooled his heated blood and washed the alkali dust out of his throat."
As an interesting record of the early days, we find an account in the Columbia Chronicle of Dayton of the first Fourth of July celebration in the present Gar- field County held in 1878 at the edge of the Blue Mountains just beyond Pataha flat. The reporter for the Chronicle declares that the celebration was a great success ; a near arbor for the speaker and musicians, plenty of seats, abundant catables, and great enthusiasm in spite of the mountain chill prevailing.
THE NEW COUNTY OF GARFIELD
Being obliged to content ourselves with these hurried glimpses at the. pre- county history we turn to the important stage of the creation of the new county. As the reader will recall, the County of Columbia was set up in 1875. We discover from files of the Columbia Chronicle that agitation in favor of a new county began in 1880. By that year considerable settlement had been made in the Pataha, Deadman, Alpowa and Asotin regions and a common subject of dis- cussion was the inconvenient distance from Dayton as the county seat.
The Chronicle of October 9, 1880, thus views the situation :
"A talk with many of the leading men from various parts of the county reveals the fact that the people are in no great hurry for a division. It is generally con- ceded that the county is too large when the immense canyons and peculiar lay of the country are taken into consideration, but it is also conceded that the eastern portion of the county is not at the present time prepared to support a county organization. All talk of a division is, therefore, at this time, premature. The people of the western portion of the county are in favor of forming a new county when the eastern portion demands it."
One of the features of the case was the number of possible county seats which began to sprout forth as candidates for the official crown. One was laid out on Snake River at the mouth of the Alpowa, and that would be a fine site for a city, too, now the location of several hundred acres of magnificent orchard. Another was Mentor, on the Pataha, six miles above Pomeroy. It was at the foot of the "grade" on the Rafferty place and was first named Belfast. The claims of Mentor, named from the home of the President whose name was to become that of the county, are set forth thus in some correspondence from that ambitious place for the Columbia Chronicle of December 17, 1881 :
"The Town of Mentor desires to have a fair chance in the contest. We stand on our own merits. We have a good townsite on the Pataha Creek ; good roads running to the place. The greatest wheat growing country in the territory trib- utary to it. The Pataha and Lewiston survey runs to this place; the road will, no doubt, be built in time to take away next year's crop. We are very sorry we did not ask for the capital of the territory instead of the county seat, but will try that next time. This place is well known, and is as near the center of the county as it is possible to locate a town. Lumber is being hauled for buildings, and the proprietor, Mr. Rafferty, is very liberal in his donations of land for
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county purposes. Mentor is the place for the people. You will hear this place called Dublin, Limerick, and Ireland."
Melancholy was the fate of Mentor. A sarcastic correspondent in the Chronicle writes, under date of February II, 1882:
"The lumber pile, which constituted the Town of Mentor, has been pur- chased by Mr. Scott and will be brought to Pomeroy. Like Mahomet and the mountain: If the county seat would not go to Mentor, Mentor will go to the county seat."
Besides Alpowa and Mentor, the prospective towns of Asotin, Assotin City, Columbia Center, Pataha City, and Pomeroy were all aspirants. The last named, laid out, as already noted, in 1877, soon forged to the front and became the center of an active propaganda. for the removal of the county seat of Columbia or for the erection of a new county. The former proposition seems to have been at first the prevailing plan. It excited much opposition on the part of Dayton. An editorial extract from the Chronicle of October 8, 1881, indicates the turn which sentiment at Dayton was taking :
"An earnest effort is being made by the citizens of Pomeroy and vicinity to move the county seat to that town. We object. The county is large enough for two good counties, and the valley or canyon of the Tucanon throughout its greater portion affords a natural boundary. The people of this section are willing to allow the eastern portion a county organization whenever they wish it, as the division must come sooner or later. It is reported that two of our representatives in the Legislature are pledged to the removal and also to give several more town- ships to Walla Walla County to buy its influence. They do not propose to give the people an opportunity to vote on the question, as they fear the result, but aim to have the change made by the Legislature without consulting the wishes of the voters of the whole county. We agree with our Pomeroy correspondent that it is unjust to compel people east of the Tucanon to come here to transact business, but it would be equally unjust to compel people on this side to go to Pomeroy. The only just and equitable way out of the difficulty is to divide the county on the line indicated and allow the citizens of the new county to locate their county seat. But with the county seat of Columbia County beyond the Tucanon, nine- teen-twentieths of the people of this vicinity would petition to be attached to Walla Walla County, as with the present facilities for travel it would be most convenient, to say nothing of the great advantage of joining a wealthy county with public buildings erected and paid for and a brilliant future before it. This, however, only as a last resort. We trust the Legislature will take no hasty action in this matter, but will give all parts of the county ample opportunity to be heard."
As a logical outcome of the situation the Legislature passed an act, approved by Gov. W. A. Newell, on November 29, 1881, providing for the new county. As a matter of history this act is valuable for permanent record and we insert it here :
"An Act to organize the County of Garfield :
"Section I. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Washington; That all that portion of Columbia County situated within Wash- ington Territory and included within the following limits, be, and the same shall be known as the County of Garfield, in honor of James A. Garfield, late President of the United States, viz .: Commencing at a point in the midchannel of Snake
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River on township line between ranges 39 and 40; thence on said line south to the southwest corner of township twelve (12), range forty (40) ; thence cast on township line six (6) miles; thence south to the southwest corner of section seven (7); township eleven (11), north of range forty-one (41) east; thence east one ( I) mile ; thence south three (3) miles ; thence east one ( 1) mile ; thence south one (1) mile; thence cast one (1) mile; thence south three (3) miles ; thence east three (3) miles; thence south on township line to the Oregon line ; thence due east on said line to the division line between Territories of Washing- ton and Idaho; thence north on said dividing line to a point where it intersects the midchannel of the Snake River; thence down the midchannel of the Snake River to the point of beginning.
"Section 2. That E. Oliver, Joseph Harris and N. C. Williams are hereby appointed a board of commissioners to call a special election of county officers for said Garfield County, and to appoint the necessary judges and inspectors thereof ; notice of which election shall be given and the said election conducted and returns made as is now provided by law: Provided, That the returns shall be made to the commissioners aforesaid, who shall canvass the returns and de- clare the result, and issue certificates to the persons elected.
"Section 3. That the justices of the peace and constables who are now elected as such in precincts of the County of Garfield, be, and the same are hereby de- clared justices of the peace and constables of said County of Garfield.
"Section 4. That the county seat of the said County of Garfield is hereby located at Pataha City until the next election, which is to be held on the second Monday in January. A. D. 1882, at which time the highest number of legal votes of said county, given for any one place, may permanently locate the same.
"Section 5. The County of Garfield is hereby united to the County of Columbia for judicial purposes.
"Section 6. That all laws applicable to the County of Columbia shall be ap- plicable to the County of Garfield.
"Section 7. That all taxes levied and assessed by the Board of County Com- missioners of the County of Columbia for the year A. D. 1881, upon persons or property within the boundaries of the said County of Garfield, shall be collected and paid into the treasury of said Columbia County for the use of said County of Columbia : Provided, however, That the said County of Columbia shall pay all the just indebtedness of said Columbia County, and that when such indebtedness shall be wholly paid and discharged all moneys remaining in the treasury of said Columbia County, and all credits due and to become due said County of Columbia on the assessment roll of said year shall be divided between said counties of Columbia and Garfield according to the assessed valuation of said property of the same year. Provided further, That nothing in this act be so construed as to deprive the County of Garfield of its proportion of the tax levied for common school purposes for the above-named year.
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