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 Washington, 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 agriculture 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 adjoining 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, Bumford 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 induced 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 extraordinary 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 complete 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 '60s in introducing stock into the various pivotal points of the old county may be grouped under some half dozen territories, 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 foremost 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. Nineveh 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 introducing 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 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 his 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.
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 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 McGreevy, 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 Percé "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 Lewiston, 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 subsequent connections become most illustrative of that first stage of settlement.
CABIN BUILT BY M. PETTIJOHN IN 1858
Jonathan Pettijohn is the man shown in the picture.
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. Kirkman. After having been engaged in Idaho and California in the cattle business, 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 partnership 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, mention 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 numerous 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.
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. Among the most prominent sheep men whose operations have covered a field in many directions from Walla Walla is Nathaniel Webb, one of the honored pioneers. In recent times, operating especially in the Snake River region, leading sheep raisers have been Davin Brothers, Adrian Magallon, and Leon Jaussaud, all Frenchmen.
THE FARMING INDUSTRY
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 grain. Yet we know that Doctor Whitman had demonstrated the practicability of producing all standard crops during the ten years of his residence at Waiilatpu. 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 provision 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 field, 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 considered the initiation of the grain 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 1863 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 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, between 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 Washington 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 following scale of expenses of shipping to San Francisco:
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 leakage, $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, during which a waterspout burst in the mountains, and sent a flood down Cottonwood Cañon 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 37½ 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 revival 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 sufficient 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 completed 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.
WHEAT HARVESTING IN WALLA WALLA COUNTY
Thirty-two horses. Combined harvesting and threshing. Ground too hilly for tractors.
In the decade of the '70s there came to Walla Walla a man destined to leave 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 large scale, as well as in many other lines of activity and experiment. Making, though not retaining, several 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 nobler 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 demonstration 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 probably 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. Recently 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 reasonably convenient. The land is not very hilly and comparatively easy to work. The report is as follows:
It may be added that estimates of cost by a number of prominent farmers in the period of 1890 and thereabouts, indicated that the expense of sowing, seeding, 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 it were in the evil harvest year of 1893-4, 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 liberality 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 disaster. Thanks to the banks, as well as to the persistence and fortitude of the farmers and the solid 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 debt, 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 life, 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 observable, however, that the young folks on the farms have any backwardness in utilizing the good things of life which are the logical consummation of the foresight and industry of parents and grandparents. It is probable that no people in the United States have more reliable and steady incomes and greater sources for all the needs and enjoyments of life than do the farmers of old Walla Walla County.
The experience of other sections was similar to that of the region immediately around Walla Walla. The first thought was of stock ranges, with such small patches of farming land adjacent to the creeks as might supply the family needs. It is stated that Elisha Ping and G. W. Miller raised crops of wheat and oats on the present site of Dayton in 1860. For the oats they received seven cents a pound and for the wheat two dollars a bushel. The location of the subsequent Dayton became a regular station on the stage line from Walla Walla to Lewiston, and that fact led J. M. Pomeroy, a little later the founder of the town named for him, to raise a crop of barley for horse feed. That was in 1863. As time passed on, and especially after the founding of flouring mills by S. M. Wait, there came a general movement to raise grain crops on the hills and plains and it was discovered, as a little earlier around Walla Walla, that the entire region was the very home land for grain. Within a few years it was found that barley of especially fine quality and heavy yield was one of the best crops, and Columbia County has become the center of barley production. Almost the entire county, with the exception of the timbered mountain belt, has become a grain field. Within recent years the region around and particularly east of Dayton has become the leading center of corn production.
Garfield and Asotin counties repeated the experience of Walla Walla and Columbia; first stock ranges, then a few acres along the creeks as an experiment, soon the breaking up of the rich sod on the high plains and flats; and within a few years, a perfect ocean of waving grain over the greater part of the area. The first settlers already named in the section of this chapter on stock raising were the pioneers also in the wheat business, as the Rigsby brothers, J. M. Pomeroy, James Bowers, Parson Quinn, and others. Garfield and Asotin counties are in general more elevated than Walla Walla and Columbia, and their frontage on Snake River is more abrupt. This has given rise, first to a margin of ideal fruit and garden land between the river and the bluffs, which in case of Asotin is of considerable breadth, and in case of both of them has raised the question of conveying grain from the high plateaus to the river. In some places this has given rise to contrivances which are a great curiosity to strangers, the "grain-chutes" and "bucket lines," as devices to lower the grain from warehouses on the precipitous bank, sometimes eighteen hundred feet above the steamer landing. There is not yet a railroad on the south bank of Snake River, and water transportation is the only available means of getting the vast quantities of grain from those high prairies near the river to market.
Items appear in the various issues of the Statesman during the first years of its existence in regard to grain raising which possess great historical interest. An editorial appears in the issue of February 1, 1862, urging farmers to go into grain raising extensively and declaring that all the indications point to a demand from the mines for all kinds of farm products.
An advertisement for supplies at the Fort on July 19 calls for 375 tons of oats, 100 tons of oat straw, and 1,200 cords of wood. Mention is also made in the paper of the farm of J. W. Shoemaker a short distance below the garrison, where grain to the value of $3,000, and garden produce to the value of $1,500, was raised.
FLOUR MILLING
One of the most important features of industry allied to grain production was flour milling. The first flour mill was erected in 1859 by A. H. Reynolds in partnership with J. A. Sims and Capt. F. T. Dent, the latter being a brother of Mrs. U. S. Grant. It was located on the land then owned by Jesse Drumheller, now part of the Whitney place. In the issue of March 29, 1862, is an advertisement of the Pasca Mills by Sims and Mix, which must have been the same mill built by Mr. Reynolds. In 1862 Mr. Reynolds built another mill, known as the Star Mill, on the Yellowhawk, near the present residence of his son, H. A. Reynolds. This was subsequently acquired by W. H. Gilbert. Mention is made in the Statesman of August 2, 1862, of the flour mill of J. C. Isaacs. Apparently this is a confusion in name of the brothers, as the author is credibly informed that the mill opened at that time was the Excelsior mill built by H. P. Isaacs, subsequently the leading mill man of the Walla Walla country and one of the leaders in all forms of enterprise. The name Excelsior was later replaced by North Pacific. It was located on the mill race, whose remains still cross Division Street and was actively employed until about 1895. There is an advertisement in the Statesman of March 21, 1863, to the effect that Graham flour and corn meal were being turned out at Mr. Reynolds' mill. In the number of March 31, 1865, is the announcement that Kyger and Reese, who were among the most extensive general merchants in Walla Walla, had leased the water power and site of E. H. Barron just below town on Mill Creek and were making ready to install a first-class mill, having three run of four-foot burrs and a capacity of 150 barrels a day. The firm were also establishing a distillery. It would seem that the latter manufactory was in larger demand than the former, for it was completed sooner. The mill, however, began grinding in October of that year. That mill became the property of Andrew McCalley in 1873, and after his death in 1891 was maintained by his sons until the property was lost by fire in 1897. One of the most important mills of the valley was that built by Messrs. Ritz and Schnebly about a quarter of a mile below the McCalley mill, known first as the Agate and then as the Eureka, conducted for some time by W. C. Painter, then sold to Welch and Schwabacher, and in turn disposed of by them in 1880 to Dement Brothers, and managed up to the present time by F. S. Dement. The mill is now known as Dement Brothers' mill and is one of the most extensive in the Inland Empire, making a specialty of choice breakfast cereals and through them as well as its high-grade flour carrying the name of Walla Walla, Wash., around the globe.
The mills on the Touchet speedily followed those on Mill Creek. S. M. Wait, from whom the beautiful little city at the junction of the Touchet and the Coppei took its name, was the pioneer mill man as well as the founder of the town. The Statesman of June 2, 1865, mentions the fact that Mr. Wait's mill was just open and that it was one of the best equipped in the country and produced a grade of flour equal to the best from Oregon. A town soon began to grow at the location of the mill. Mr. Wait sold the mill to Preston Brothers and the stock to Paine Brothers and Moore of Walla Walla. The latter firm acquired an interest in the mill, but subsequently disposed of all their holdings to Preston Brothers, under whom the mill became one of the largest mill properties in the Northwest, being connected with large mills at Athena, Ore., and elsewhere, and under the more recent management of Messrs. Shaffer, Harper, and Leonard, conducting one of the most extensive milling lines in the country.
NORTH PACIFIC MILLS (ISAAC'S MILL) WALLA WALLA
First rolling mill on the Pacific coast. Erected in 1862. Capacity two hundred and fifty barrels. Many mills were erected before this, but this was the first to introduce rollers instead of the old mill stone.
Mr. Wait inaugurated also the milling business in what is now Columbia County. Going to that region in 1871 where Jesse N. Day, from whom Dayton was named, had been endeavoring since 1864 to launch a town with but scanty success, Mr. Wait proposed to build a mill, provided inducements were offered. Mr. Day accordingly agreed to give five acres of land as a site, with a block of land for residences, and upon that Mr. Wait and William Metzger proceeded to launch the milling business at Dayton. In building that mill, with a brick building for a store and a planing mill, Messrs. Wait and Metzger laid out about $25,000, a large amount for those days. At the same time the Dayton Woolen Mill was undertaken, A. H. Reynolds being chief owner, F. S. Frary the secretary and manager and Mr. Wait the president of the company. The woolen mill had a land site of seven acres donated by John Mustard and a building was erected at a cost of $40,000. The new town of Dayton was booming in consequence of these investments. The flour mill proved a great success and with various changes of ownership is now one of the great mill properties of the country, but the woolen mill, from which so much was expected, did not prove a financial success and was closed in 1880. It is rather a curious fact that no one of the woolen enterprises in the Inland Empire has met with large success except that at Pendleton, Ore., the success of which has been so great that it is a puzzle that others have mainly failed.
The great development of wheat raising in what is now Garfield County led, as elsewhere in the region, to flouring mills. The pioneer mill at Pomeroy was started in 1877 by W. C. Potter and completed the following year by Mr. Pomeroy.
Three miles above Pomeroy and for some years a rival to the lower town was Pataha City. It was on land taken up at first by James Bowers in 1861 and acquired in 1868 by A. J. Favor, who undertook a few years later to start a town. In pursuance of his plans he offered land for mill sites, and as a result J. N. Bowman and George Snyder constructed a mill in 1878. Subsequently John Houser became the great mill man of that entire section and his mill became one of the most widely known in the Inland Empire. He made a specialty of shipping flour to San Francisco for the manufacture of macaroni, the large percentage of gluten in the wheat of that region fitting it especially for that use. The son of Mr. Houser, Max Houser, going to Portland in about 1908, has become known the world over as the most daring and extensive wheat buyer on the Pacific Coast and has acquired a fortune estimated at six millions. The pioneer flouring mill of Asotin was built in 1881 at the town of that name by Frank Curtis and L. A. Stimson. The town itself upon one of the most beautiful of locations on Snake River, with the magnificent wheat fields of the Anatone flats on the high lands to the south and west, and a superb belt of fruit land extending down the river and broadening out at Clarkston, was laid out in 1878.
Other mills were established at later dates, of which the most extensive were the mill at Prescott, erected by H. P. Isaacs in 1883, the City mill on Palouse Street in Walla Walla, built in 1898 by Scholl Brothers; Long's mill, a few miles below Dayton; the Corbett mill at Huntsville.
In summarizing grain raising as the leading industry of old Walla Walla County it may be said that for several years past the total production for the four counties has been about 12,000,000 bushels per year. The value has, of course, varied much according to price. It is conservatively estimated that the value of the grain crops, including flour and feed in various manufactured forms for 1916, was approximately $15,000,000.
GARDENS AND ORCHARDS
As grain raising put a finer point upon industry than its predecessor, stock raising, so in turn the gardens and orchards have yet more refined and differentiated the forms of industry and the developments of life in the growing communities of our story. As already related these lines of production had been tested by the Hudson's Bay Company and by the missionaries, Whitman and Spalding. It was, therefore, to be expected that even in the first years of settlement some attempts would be made to start orchards and gardens. The first nursery in Walla Walla seems to have been laid out in 1859 on the Ransom Clark donation claim on the Yellowhawk. In 1859 trees were set out on the J. W. Foster place. It is said that Mr. Foster brought his trees here on muleback over the Cascade Mountains. We are informed by Charles Clark of Walla Walla that most of Mr. Foster's trees were secured from Ransom Clark. In 1860 A. B. Roberts set out an orchard within the present city limits of Walla Walla on what later became the Ward place. In 1861 a notable step in fruit raising was taken by the coming of one of the most important of all the great pioneers of the Inland Empire. This was Philip Ritz. We find in the Statesman of December 5, 1861, announcement that Mr. Ritz had arrived with a supply of trees from his nursery at Glen Dale near Corvallis, Ore., and that the trees were for sale at the store of John Wright. Subsequent items in the Statesman furnish an interesting exposition of the progress of both gardens and orchards. The Statesman was wide awake as usual to the needs of the country and did not fail to exhort the citizens of Walla Walla to prepare for the demand which it was sure would come. On March 29, 1862, mention was made of the fact that green fruit, presumably apples, from the Willamette Valley, was selling for from twenty to fifty cents per pound. The paper expresses surprise that farmers are so slow about setting out trees. On June 21, 1862, it was announced with much satisfaction that scarcely had the snow from that extremely cold winter melted before there were radishes, lettuce, onions, and rutabagas brought in from foot hill gardens, and that there were new potatoes in the market by June 14th. The issue of July 26th notes the fact of green corn in abundance and that of August 2d declares that the corn was equal to that of the Middle Western States, and that fine watermelons were in the market. August 16th is marked by thanks to G. W. Shoemaker for a fine watermelon and the statement that there were others to come that would weigh forty pounds. In the number of August 30th it appears that Mr. Shoemaker brought to the office a muskmelon weighing eighteen pounds, and in the same issue is an item about a 103-pound squash raised by S. D. Smith. John Hancock is credited on September 6th with a watermelon of thirty-three pounds. Complaint is made, however, in the same number, of the fact that there is a meager supply of apples, plums and pears from the Willamette, and that the apples sell for twenty-five cents apiece, or fifty cents a pound. The Statesman of September 27th has the story of Walter Davis of Dry Creek sending a squash of a weight of 134½ pounds and twelve potatoes of a weight of twenty-nine pounds to the Oregon State Fair at Salem. Lamentable to narrate it appears later that these specimens of Walla Walla gardening disappeared. The Statesman indulges in some bitter scorn over the kind of people on the other side who would steal such objects. In an October number mention is made that James Fudge of Touchet had brought in three potatoes weighing eight pounds. In the Statesman of December 20th is an item to the effect that Philip Ritz has a large assortment of trees and shrubs at the late residence of J. S. Sparks. It is also stated that Mr. Ritz is going to try sweet potatoes. In the issue of January 17, 1863, is the statement that Mr. Ritz had purchased land of Mr. Roberts for a nursery. In successive numbers, beginning February 28th, is Mr. Ritz's advertisement of the Columbia Valley nursery, the value of the stock of which is stated at $10,000. It seems to have been an extraordinary stock for the times, and the enterprise and industry of Mr. Ritz became a great factor in the development of the fruit business as well as many other things. There are several interesting items later on in 1863, showing that gardening, particularly the raising of onions, was advancing rapidly. In the spring of 1865 A. Frank & Co. shipped 40,000 pounds of onions to Portland. In the Statesman of July 4, 1863, it is stated that John Hancock had corn fifteen feet high. During 1863 and 1864 there was much experimenting with sorghum. T. P. Denny is mentioned as having brought a bottle of fine sorghum syrup, and it is stated that Mr. Ritz was experimenting with Chinese and Imphee sugar cane. Mr. Ritz was succeeding well with sweet potatoes, and a fine quality of tobacco was being produced. The biggest potato story was of a Mechannock potato from Mr. Kimball's garden on Dry Creek, which weighed four and one-half pounds. In several numbers in September, 1863, mention is made of delicious peaches brought in by A. H. Reynolds.
In short, it was well demonstrated that conditions were such that it might be expected that Walla Walla would become, and it has for some years been known as, the "Garden City."
In the '60s and '70s a considerable amount of land south and west of Walla Walla was brought into use for gardening, and in various directions orchards were set out. One of the finest was that of W. S. Gilliam on Dry Creek. Everything looked encouraging for fruit raising at that early day, but in 1883 there came a bitter cold day, twenty-nine degrees below zero, far colder than ever known at any other time in Walla Walla, a most disastrous dispensation of nature, for many orchards, especially peaches and apricots, perished.
FIVE REGIONS
Broadly speaking, it may be said that there are five regions in Old Walla Walla County which have become important centers of fruit raising and intensive farming in general, since fruit raising, gardening, dairying, and poultry raising have to varying degrees gone right along together. The first in age and extent is the region immediately around Walla Walla; the second that of Clarkston and down the Snake River to Burbank; the third that on the Touchet from Dayton to Prescott; the fourth the long narrow valley of the Tucanon; and the fifth that on the lower Walla Walla from Touchet and Gardena to the Columbia and thence through Attalia and Two Rivers to Burbank at the mouth of Snake River. There are, of course, some excellent orchards and gardens in portions not covered in this enumeration, and it is also proper to say that the most productive and compact single body of country is that portion of the Walla Walla Valley south of the state line extending to Milton, Ore.
It is impossible within our limits to describe these different areas in detail. Each has some distinctive features. The youngest and least developed is that of the lower Walla Walla and the Columbia River. By reason of great heat and aridity and long growing season, that region is peculiarly adapted to grape culture and melon raising. Alfalfa produces four and five cuttings and the prospect for successful dairying is flattering. The expense of reclaiming the land and maintaining irrigating systems is high, but when fairly established it may be expected to be one of the most attractive and productive sections.
The Walla Walla section has had the advantage of time and population and in the nature of the case has become most highly developed. In garden products Walla Walla asparagus, onions, and rhubarb may be said to be champions in the markets of the country. One of the important features of Walla Walla gardening is the Walla Walla hothouse vegetable enterprise on the river, five miles west of the city, conducted by F. E. Mojonnier. This is the largest hothouse in the Inland Empire and, with one exception, in the entire Northwest. It has two and a half acres under glass and does a business of thousands of dollars with the chief markets north and east.
In orchards Walla Walla, while not in general in the same class for quantity with Yakima and Wenatchee, has the distinction of possessing two of the largest and perhaps most scientifically planted and cultivated orchards in the entire state; the Blalock and the Baker-Langdon orchards. The latter contains 680 acres of apples, is on sub-irrigated land of the best quality, and may be considered the last word in orchard culture. The manager, John Langdon, reports for 1917, 200,000 boxes, or about three hundred car loads, worth on cars at Walla Walla, at present prices, about three hundred thousand dollars. It is anticipated that when in full bearing at the age of twelve to fourteen years, the yield will be 1,000,000 boxes. Doctor Blalock was the great pioneer in fruit raising, as in grain-raising, on a large scale. The story of his carrying on the gigantic enterprise with inadequate resources to a triumphant conclusion, though not himself being able to retain possession, is one of the greatest stories in the Inland Empire.
The Touchet belt may be said to be distinguished by its special adaptability to high grade apples of the Rome Beauty and Spitzenberg varieties as well as by the extraordinary and profitable production. In that belt are two orchards which while not remarkable for size have had about the most remarkable history of any in the state. These are the Pomona orchard of J. L. Dumas and that of J. D. Taggard between Waitsburg and Dayton. There are a number of other orchards of high grade in the Touchet Valley, and it may be anticipated that within a few years that rich and beautiful expanse will be a continuous orchard. Conditions of soil and climate make it ideal for apple-raising.
VIEW OF A WALLA WALLA COUNTY ORCHARD
PICKING FRUIT IN OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY
The valley of the Tucanon, a ribbon of fertile soil deep down in the timbered heights of the Blue Mountains and lower down its course surrounded by the wide flats and benches of Garfield and Columbia counties, is the natural home for berries and "truck" of all sorts. The strawberries and melons are of the finest. The sparkling stream—one of the finest fishing streams by the way affords limitless opportunity for easy and economical irrigating and the soil is of the best, even in a region where good soil is no curiosity.
The Snake River section, extending down the western and southern bank of the river from Asotin, with frequent breaks on account of the bluffy shores, its largest expansion being at Clarkston, with considerable areas at Alpowa, Kelly's Bar, Ilia and other points, is a unique region. We shall speak at greater length of the Clarkston and Asotin regions, but it may be said in general terms that the long narrow belt of land bordering the river, having its counterpart on the opposite side in Whitman County, has long been recognized as the very homeland of the peach, apricot, nectarine, grape, berries of all sorts, and melons. It is of low elevation, from seven hundred and fifty feet at Asotin to about four hundred at Page. It is almost semi-tropical in climate, its products getting into market nearly as early as those from Central California. Injurious frosts in blossom time are almost unknown. The soil is a soft warm friable volcanic ash with loam surface. Though there is no railroad and not even continuous wagon roads on the river bank, there are numerous points of approach down the valleys and coulees entering the river, and the stream itself affords water navigation for large steamers about half the year, and for small boats at all times. With the system of canalization now in contemplation by the Government the river will become continuously navigable throughout the year and will possess infinite possibilities both for power and navigation. It should also be stated here that Asotin County has a larger acreage in fruit trees than any other of the four counties.
SUMMARY OF RECENT PRODUCTION
While we shall speak of certain special features of each section in our descriptive chapter covering the present time, we may properly give here a summary of recent production for the four counties.
The reader is asked to recall the earlier figures in order that he may form a proper conception of the change wrought. We present here the figures preserved in the office of the Commercial Club of Walla Walla for the year 1916. They are given in round numbers, but may be considered reliable and conservative.
The United Staten census report for 1910 gives a population for the four counties of 49,003. H we allow for 10 per cent increase in 1916, we shall have approximately fifty-four thousand people in Old Walla Walla County. The year 1916 represents, therefore, a gross income of nearly $468 for each man, woman, and child in the area. This, it most of course be observed, is the income from the soil, and takes no account of the earnings of the manufacturing, mercantile, professional, and laboring classes. It is safe to say that few regions in the United States or the world can match such an income representing the absolute increase in wealth taken right from the earth. It is no wonder that the farmers of our four counties have automobiles and household luxuries galore, and when harvest time is over take trips to California, Honolulu, or "back East," or, before the war, to Europe. It is of interest to add here the approximate areas in cultivation in the four counties. It was reported in 1916 as follows:
| Grain lands, in hearing and in summer-fallow— | |
| Walla Walla County | 500,000 acres |
| The other counties | 500,000 acres |
| Fruit lands— | |
| Asotin County | 3,500 acres |
| (Note: An underestimate of Asotin County.) | |
| Walla Walla County | 2,690 acres |
| Columbia County | 1,045 acres |
| Garfield County | 525 acres |
MANUFACTURING
We have confined our attention thus far to what might be regarded as the natural fundamental industries of stock raising, farming, and horticulture.
But along with those essential industries to which the country was naturally adapted, there went of necessity some mercantile and manufacturing enterprises. Later on the professional classes became interrelated to all the others. While the region covered by our four counties is not naturally a manufacturing country, yet from the first there have been those whose tastes and interests have lead them to mechanical pursuits. In a growing community where the foundation products are those of the soil and yet where the building arts are in constant demand there must necessarily be some manufacturing. Most of the enterprises of that nature in this section have been connected either with building materials or with agricultural implements. Saw-mills came in almost with the dawn of civilized life. Hence we are not surprised to find that the first pioneer in Walla Walla, Dr. Marcus Whitman, built a sawmill. That mill was on Mill Creek, apparently nearly where the present Shemwell place is located. As is not known to many there was a small saw-mill on the grounds of the United States Fort. The flume ran nearly along the present course of Main Street and the mill was on the northern edge of the military reservation opposite Jesse Drumheller's residence. Doubtless it was those mills which gave our beautiful creek its unfortunate name, in place of the more attractive native name of Pasca or Pashki, "sunflower."
The Statesman of December 13, 1861, notices the building of a saw-mill on the Coppei by Anderson Cox, one of the foremost of the early citizens of Walla Walla, who also had large interests in and around Waitsburg. Another prominent old-timer, W. H. Babcock, is reported in the issue of June 2, 1865, as having purchased a saw-mill on the Walla Walla. One of the earliest sawmills, built at the close of 1862, was on Mill Creek in Asotin. There were various little mills in the timber land of the Blue Mountains. In the '80s Dr. N. G. Blalock and a little later Dr. D. S. Baker inaugurated the business of fluming from the mountains to Walla Walla. In the case of the former this was a calamitous business venture, but the latter with his usual sound judgment made a great success of the enterprise.
The most extensive lumbering business of Walla Walla in the earlier days was that still known by the corporate name of the Whitehouse-Crawford Co. This company was founded in 1880 by Messrs. Cooper and Smuck. In 1888 G. W. Whitehouse and D. J. Crimmins became chief owners, though Mr. Cooper retained his connection with the business. In 1905 J. M. Crawford acquired the business, being joined by his brother J. T. Crawford, in 1909. The business has become very extensive, having numerous branches, with the general name Tum-a-Lum Lumbering Co. There have been established in more recent years the Walla Walla Lumber Co., the Oregon Lumber Co., and the Bridal Veil Lumber Co., all doing large lines of business.
A large amount of capital has been invested in the manufacturing of agricultural machinery. The most extensive establishment in these lines in Walla Walla was the Hunt Threshing Factory founded in 1888 by Gilbert Hunt and Christopher Ennis, who purchased the machine shop of Byron Jackson, which became the property of Mr. Hunt in 1891. The special output of the factory was the "Pride of Washington Separator," but subsequently iron work and belting and wind mills and other lines were added. Owing to financial difficulties precipitated by the hard times beginning in 1907 this great establishment, which employed from seventy-five to a hundred men, was obliged to close its doors.
For a number of years the northwestern branch of the Holt Harvester Works, of which Benjamin Holt was manager, was located in Walla Walla. It conducted an immense business, particularly in the "side-hill" harvester and in tractors. The main northern house is now located in Spokane, while the Walla Walla branch is managed by E. L. Smith and Co.
Among the other manufacturing enterprises worthy of larger notice than our space permits may be named the Brown-Lewis Corporation, the Ringhoffer Brothers Saddle-tree Factory, the Webber Tannery, the Washington Weeder Works, the Walla Walla Iron Works, and the Cox-Bailey Manufacturing Co., now succeeded by separate enterprises of the two partners. From a historical point of view the iron foundry conducted by J. L. Roberts during the decade of the '90s was one of the most conspicuous industries. The foundry business was later conducted by the Hunt Company.
It will give a view of the distribution of business houses and industries to insert here the tabulation of these on file in the Commercial Club office.
TRADES, PROFESSIONS AND MISCELLANEOUS CALLINGS
| Accountants (public) | 4 |
| Apartment houses | 8 |
| Architects | 3 |
| Banks | 5 |
| Bakeries | 6 |
| Barber shops | 20 |
| Bowling alleys | 2 |
| Blacksmith shops | 10 |
| Bottling works | 2 |
| Coal and wood yards | 7 |
| Contractors and builders (all kinds) | 33 |
| Dentists | 20 |
| Doctors—a—physicians and surgeons | 27 |
| b—Osteopaths | 6 |
| c—Chiropractors | 3 |
| Dressmakers and fitters | 24 |
| Electricians | 5 |
| Electric light plants | 1 |
| Garages | 14 |
| Gas plants | 1 |
| Hospitals and sanatoriums | 3 |
| Hotels | 4 |
| Lawyers | 24 |
| Liveries—a—horse | 3 |
| b—Auto | 3 |
| Machine shops | 5 |
| Moving picture theaters | 4 |
| Newspapers | 4 |
| Painter and paper hangers | 4 |
| Plumbing shops | 4 |
| Pool and billiard halls | 6 |
| Photograph galleries | 4 |
| Printing offices | 4 |
| Real estate dealers | 31 |
| Restaurants | 22 |
| Rooming houses | |
| Shoe repair shops | 6 |
| Tailor shops | 12 |
| Tin shops | 3 |
| Undertakers | 3 |
| Veterinarians | 4 |
KING DAVID TREES, THREE YEARS OLD, TRAVIS
WHOLESALE HOUSES
| Commission (fruit and produce) | 4 |
| Grain dealers | 19 |
| Groceries | 2 |
| Alfalfa mills | 2 |
| Brick yards | 1 |
| Broom factories | 1 |
| Candy factories | 4 |
| Cement or concrete stone manufacturing | 1 |
| Cereal mills | 2 |
| Cigar factories | 4 |
| Cold storage plants | 1 |
| Creameries | 2 |
| Cheese factories | 2 |
| Feed mills | 2 |
| Flour mills | 3 |
| Foundries | 3 |
| Fruit drying plants | 2 |
| Ice manufacturers | 1 |
| Laundries | 3 |
| Lumber yards | 9 |
| Monument manufacturers | 2 |
| Green houses | 3 |
| Packing Houses—Meat | 1 |
| Fruit | 3 |
| Pickle works | 1 |
| Sash and door factories and planing mills | 3 |
| Stone quarries | 1 |
| Tile factories | 1 |
| Vinegar manufacturers | 2 |
| Wagon and vehicle manufacturers | 2 |
| Warehouses (grain) | 4 |
| Saddle tree factory | 1 |
| Self Oiling Wheel & Bearing Co. | 1 |
RETAIL STORES
Perhaps no one business fact is so good a commentary on the financial condition of a community as the bank deposits.
The banks of Walla Walla have had during the year 1917 an average of seven million dollars deposits. On January 1, 1918, deposits exceeded eight millions.
As we shall see, the banks of the other cities of the district have similar or even greater amounts in proportion to population. It would doubtless be safe to estimate the bank deposits of the four counties at eleven million dollars, or over two hundred dollars per capita.
As a means of indicating the financial status of Walla Walla, with Garfield and Columbia counties, the following clipping from a local paper of October 16, 1917, will be of permanent value:
"Announcement of the official allotment of Liberty loan bonds to each bank in the Walla Walla district comprising Garfield, Columbia and Walla Walla counties, was made for the first time last evening by P. M. Winans, chairman of the executive committee, following receipt of a telegram from the Federal Reserve Bank at San Francisco, giving the total minimum and maximum allotments for this district. As soon as these figures were learned the allotments for each of the fourteen banks in the district were figured on a basis of deposits at the last federal call.
"The minimum allotment for the district was placed by the Federal Reserve Bank at $1,483,000 and the maximum allotment at $2,457,842. From the way the campaign has been going it will require every energy to raise the minimum, which is 50 per cent more than the allotment for the district for the first Liberty bond issue.
"This time Walla Walla County alone must subscribe $1,044,000 or as much as the entire district subscribed for the first loan. The City of Walla Walla must subscribe $874,000 to report the minimum desired. Columbia County must subscribe $240,000 and Garfield County $199,000."
BANK ALLOTMENTS
The official allotment which each of the fourteen banks of the district was expected to subscribe among its customers, follows:
| Walla Walla— | |
| First National Bank | $235,000 |
| Baker-Boyer National Bank | 243,000 |
| Third National Bank | 109,000 |
| Peoples State Bank | 135,000 |
| Farmers Savings Bank | 152,000 |
| Touchet State Bank, Touchet | 7,000 |
| First State Bank, Prescott | 12,000 |
| First National Bank, Waitsburg | 121,000 |
| Exchange Bank, Waitsburg | 30,000 |
| Columbia National Bank, Dayton | 146,000 |
| Broughton National Bank, Dayton | 85,000 |
| Bank of Starbuck, Starbuck | 9,000 |
| Pomeroy State Bank, Pomeroy | 132,000 |
| Knettle State Bank, Pomeroy | 67,000 |
| ———— | |
| $1,483,000 |
It may be added that the amount actually subscribed exceeded the maximum, being $2,647,000.
ANNUAL COUNTY FAIR
One feature of constant interest in any growing American community is the annual county fair. As a yearly jubilee, a display of products, and a general "get-together" agency, this characteristic feature of American rural life is entitled to a large place. It co-ordinates industries, creates enterprise, kindles ambition, and promotes the spirit of mutual helpfulness in pre-eminent degree. The Walla Walla fairs have had essentially the familiar features of all such institutions; i. e., the exposition of agricultural, horticultural, and other products. Since the fairs have been held at the present grounds south of the city, the exhibition of livestock and the horse racing features, and in the three prior years to the date of this work, the "Pioneer Days," have become leading events and have drawn thousands of visitors from all parts of the country.
The first fairs were somewhat broken and irregular.
Apparently the germ of our county fairs was the establishment of a race course on the flat west of town running around the hill adjoining what is now the Coyle place, by George H. Porter. In the Statesman of October 18, 1862, is quite a flaming advertisement of the races. They were to last four days, October 30th to November 2d. There were to be purses of $100, $50 and $150 for winners, with 20 per cent for entries. Buckley's Saloon was to be headquarters for making entries. Admission was to be 50 cents. The proprietor seems to have been somewhat on the order of a "bad man," as he later became involved in a murder case.
On July 9, 1866, an agricultural society was organized, of which the officers were: President, H. P. Isaacs; vice presidents, Anderson Cox, and W. H. Newell; treasurer, J. D. Cook; secretary, R. R. Rees; executive committee, Charles Russell, T. S. Lee and A. A. Blanchard. Under the management of this society the first county fair was held on October 4, 5 and 6, 1866.
Another organization, known as the Washington Territory Agricultural, Mining, and Art Fostering Society, undertook the maintenance of fairs in 1870. In September of that year the first of a series was held until 1873. Finding that the grounds were too far from the city they were sold and the fairs discontinued.
In 1875 C. S. Bush laid out a racetrack at the place where Watertown now exists, and there a fair was held in October of that year. That place was for many years the location of races and fairs and public gatherings of all sorts.
During that same year of 1875 the first definite organization looking to promoting immigration was organized, and a thirty-page pamphlet was published setting forth the attractions of the Walla Walla Valley for business and residence.
As years passed increasing interest in the annual meets led to an attempt to give them a permanent character, and in 1897 the Fruit Growers Association, of which Dr. N. G. Blalock was president, undertook to finance and manage the fairs with a degree of system which had not hitherto prevailed. The first fair under the auspices of the Fruit Growers was held in the courthouse. The two succeeding were held in Armory hall. In 1900 a pavilion was erected on Second Street and for several years the annual fairs were held at that place. As an illustration of the character of the fairs of that stage of history we are incorporating here an account of the fair of 1900, taken from the October number of the Inland Empire magazine:
"The Fourth Annual Fruit Fair of the Walla Walla Valley was held in the City of Walla Walla October 1 to 7 inclusive, and was in every way the most successful and satisfactory exposition ever attempted in Southeastern Washington. This was true as to the financial aspect of the fair, as to the attendance and as to the quality of fruit on display.
"Nature was responsible for the latter feature of the success of the fair, as she is responsible for much that goes to make up the category of the virtues of the Walla Walla Valley. Give our agriculturists and horticulturists a year with a well regulated rainfall, and frost which considerately stays away when not wanted, and they will with diligence and careful culture produce grapes, pears, apples and most every kind of fruits and vegetables of such quality and size as are seen in no other part of the Union.
"In 1899 the fair continued six days, but this year a full week was given, and the attendance exceeded that of previous years by over three thousand paid admissions. The visitors were not restricted to Walla Walla and the immediate vicinity; fully one thousand came from Waitsburg, Dayton and other neighboring towns, and 500 from Pendleton, Milton, Athena, and various points in our sister state. The scope of the fruit fair is broadening and exhibits are received from an ever increasing extent of territory.
"From a financial point of view, the officers of the exposition have every reason to be congratulated. The gross proceeds of the fair were something over seven thousand dollars, and about eleven hundred dollars of this is profit, and is deposited as a nest egg for the fair of 1901. This is the first year in the history of the fairs that any material profit has resulted in dollars and cents. Last year $80 was taken in over and above expenses, and the year before nothing. Better management is responsible for this result, and a more thorough appreciation of the requirements of the fair.
HEAVILY LOADED LIMB OF JONATHAN APPLES, CLARKSTON
APPLE TREE ON THE PROPERTY OF WHITE BROTHERS AND CRUM, WAWAWAI, SNAKE RIVER
"T. H. Wagner's military band, of Seattle, furnished music for the fair, giving concerts every afternoon and evening.
"Mrs. Jennie Houghton Edmunds was the vocal soloist, and Herr Rodenkirchen, who is known to fame in the East and West, was their cornet soloist.
"One of the special features of the programme of the fair was an Indian war dance. A score of bucks and half dozen squaws from the Umatilla Reservation were the performers, and their presence recalled to many of the visitors the days when the proximity of redskins was a consummation devoutly to be dreaded.
"The woman's department was this year under the direction of Mrs. John B. Catron, and formed the most interesting and tasteful display at the fair. A part was devoted to collections of Indian curios and relics, and this department was always crowded with visitors. Lee Moorehouse of Pendleton has on exhibition many of his photographs of Indians and scenes on the Umatilla Reservation, pictures which even now are of interest, and which fifty years hence, when the development of the country has crowded the redskins further to the wall, will be of great historical value.
"More than ever before have the people of this valley appreciated the value of fruit fairs and industrial expositions. Here the farmers and those interested in the various lines of agriculture and horticulture have an opportunity to see the results of each others' labors and profit by their experience. They are encouraged by the success of others, and obtain suggestions which are invaluable in their work. They learn in what direction the efforts of their neighbors are being exerted, and keep in touch with the development of the various agricultural pursuits.
"The Belgian hare exhibit, prepared by S. C. Wingard and E. A. Coull, was a feature not before seen at these fairs. This exhibition, with its hundreds of dollars' worth of valuable imported specimens of Belgian hares and fancy stock, was perhaps the most valuable at the fair, and of the greatest interest because of its novelty. Belgian hare culture is yet in its infancy, and the gentle long-eared creature was the center of attraction for those who wished to know more of these animals which are monopolizing so much attention among breeders of pet stock.
"The railroads doing business in Walla Walla took a most active interest in the fair. Two pretty and unique booths were erected and they proved among the attractive features of the event.
"The Northern Pacific and Washington & Columbia River railways took the cue of the Boxers and a pretty pagoda was designed. The structure was erected near the band pavilion and was provided with seats and accommodations for the ladies and children. The pagoda was built of native woods and finished with moss brought from Tacoma for the purpose. The work was artistically done. At night a number of colored electric lights gave a finishing touch to the scene. The design was largely the idea of Manager McCabe and Passenger Agent Calderhead, of the Washington & Columbia River Railway.
"The booth of the Oregon Railway & Navigation Company was located near the main entrance and it was neatly planned. A commodious square booth was finished and trimmed with grains and fruits taken from the company's experimental farm near the city. The ceiling was made of a variety of handsomely colored wools in the unwoven state, blended together with artistic effect. The walls of the booth were hung with pictures, and chairs and reading offered rest and entertainment to all. The booth was in charge of General Agent Burns and C. F. Van De Water."
The officers of the association for 1900 were as follows: W. A. Ritz, president; C. F. Van De Water, secretary; O. R. Ballou, superintendent; Mrs. J. B. Catron, superintendent of the woman's department.
VARIED ASPECTS OF THE FAIR
The Fair assumed different aspects in different years, sometimes taking on as the predominant interest the exhibition of fruit and vegetables, and at other times stock and machinery. At still other times the "horse race" was the dominant feature.
In 1903 a new organization was effected known as the Walla Walla Race Track Association. At a meeting of a number of the leading men of the city and county, of which Judge T. H. Brents was chairman, the following were elected trustees of the association: W. S. Offner, Joseph McCabe, R. B. Caswell, James Kidwell, Wm. Hogoboom, John McFeeley, Chris Ennis, W. G. Preston and Frank Singleton. Under the auspices of the association the first of a new series of fairs was held in the autumn of 1903 at the present location upon the land known as the "Henderson" tract, purchased by the association. The name of the association became changed to the Walla Walla County Fair Association. In 1906 the pavilion still used was erected. In 1907 the dominant interest was the "Harvest Festival," the chief features of which were carried out within the city. This will be remembered as quite a gorgeous pageant. J. J. Kauffman was duly crowned as King Rex, and Hattie Stine became queen of the carnival as Queen Harriet. Both coronations were signalized by spectacular parades and general hilarity which made that celebration the most memorable of the series. In 1908, August 8th, a greet disaster occurred at the Race Track, the destruction by fire of the barns, together with several valuable horses, entailing severe loss both to the association and to several individuals, especially Wm. Hogoboom. In the same year the street railway line was extended from the city to the grounds. As indicating the personnel of the association of that period, it will be valuable to present here the names of the officers and trustees: T. H. Brents, president; Grant Copeland, vice president; R. E. Guichard, secretary; trustees, E. Tausick, M. Toner, W. A. Ritz, Sam Drumheller, Mordo McDonald, J. H. Morrow, J. G. Kidwell, Frank Singleton, Wm. Hogoboom, C. L. Whitney, B. F. Simpson, Ben C. Holt, J. P. Kent, J. Smith, and Wm. Kirkman. Throughout the period to the present the association has been an incorporated organization, with the stock distributed widely among the farmers and business men of the community. Judge Brents continued as president until 1914, when bodily infirmity forbade further continuance, and his lamented death soon followed. Robert Johnson became secretary in 1907 and in 1909 W. A. Ritz became manager, being chosen president in 1914 upon retirement of Judge Brents. Messrs. Ritz and Johnson became so closely identified from that time on as to be associated with every feature of the history of the Fair. The woman's department was conducted with equal efficiency during the same period by Mesdames J. B. Catron, W. A. Ritz, and W. D. Lyman.
FRONTIER DAYS
In 1913, feeling that the common routine had rather palled, the managers decided to inaugurate a new order of things, and as a result the "Frontier Days" came into existence, with its spectacular displays of "bulldogging," relay races, stage-coach races, cowboys, cow-girls, Indians, etc., one of the last stands of the Wild West. In spite of the great success of these exhibitions as a means of drawing crowds and creating interest, the frontier days were not a financial success. After the meeting of 1915, the Fair Association decided not to continue, and hence there was no fair of any kind upon the grounds in 1916. There was conducted, however, a Merchants' Carnival upon the streets which while perhaps tame in comparison with its predecessors served to signalize the autumn season and to create a period of good fellowship and community enjoyment. During 1915 and 1916 the question of purchase of the Fair Grounds by the county became one of the especial subjects of local politics. A general spirit of caution and economy prevailed, and the proposition failed of a sufficient vote in the election of 1916. The grounds remain, therefore, in possession of the County Fair Association, and it is just to the members of the association to say that the thanks of the entire community are due them for their patriotism and genuine life in maintaining at a financial loss this important feature of community progress.
With the cessation of the regular Fair there was a lively demand in every direction for something that would keep the Queen Mother of the Inland Empire upon the map as an autumn amusement center. In response to this public call, George Drumheller, the greatest wheat farmer of the Inland Empire (and for that matter doubtless the greatest individual wheat farmer in the world, having about twenty thousand acres of wheat land), rose to the occasion and prepared a program for a new exhibition, "The Pioneer Pow-wow." The personnel of the management was as follows: George Drumheller, managing director; O. C. Soots, secretary; Tom Drumheller, arena director; Bill Switzler, assistant arena director; John Neace, Jim McManamon, and George Marckum, judges; A. G. Busbee, chief announcer; Ben Corbett, assistant announcer.
As a permanent record of the Pow-wow we are incorporating here the summary of it as given in the Walla Walla Bulletin at the close of the events:
"After three days of some of the finest riding, roping and feature cowboy work ever in the West, the first annual Pioneer Pow-wow came to a close last night. The Pow-wow was a success from every standpoint; so successful, in fact, that plans will be made for a second and greater Pow-wow next year, probably to be put on under management of a new county fair association, for which the event this year was a benefit.
"Yesterday's great show in the arena and on the track at the fair grounds eclipsed, if possible the performances of the two preceding days, and the large crowd which filled the grand stand until there was not a reserved seat left and overflowed the north bleachers was brought to its feet time and again with excitement.
"All in all the Pow-wow program for the three days was voted by nearly all who saw it the finest Wild West show ever staged here, and the success of the enterprise reflects great credit upon George Drumheller, well known farmer and stockraiser of the valley, who managed the show, and upon Sec. O. C. Soots, secretary of the Commercial Club, who acted as secretary for the enterprise, as well as upon each one of the other officials.
"A feature of the program yesterday afternoon was the cowboys' relay race, in which the crowd was probably more interested than in any other event. Nep Lynch was the winner and by defeating Drumheller can lay claim to the championship of the world in this event.
"When Drumheller's horse got away from him for an instant on the second change yesterday the race was changed from a neck and neck contest between Drumheller and Lynch to an easy victory for the latter. On Friday Lynch was also victor, while on Thursday Drumheller came in ahead by a length.
"The cowboys' bucking contest for the Pow-wow went to Yakima Canute, and the choice of the judges after the finals yesterday proved popular with the crowd who gave the clever rider a big hand. The prize $250 saddle and $2.50 cash goes to the winner of this event.
"The three riders who were chosen for the finals yesterday were Leonard Stroud, Yakima Canute and Dave White, and they drew as mounts for the final bucking events Sundance, Culdesac and Speedball, respectively. The three animals are probably the toughest buckers in the world. Sundance tossed a rider over his head Thursday, while Culdesac had a record of two down for the Pow-wow. Speedball also had proved one of the hardest to ride. All three riders showed great skill, although White was forced to pull leather when the halter rope was jerked out of his hand.
"Another relay feature that was popular with the crowd during the entire Pow-wow was the cow-girls' relay race. Mabel De Long was the winner, with Donna Card and Josephine Sherry second and third. Miss De Long proved unusually skillful on the change and frequently jumped from one horse to another without touching the ground.
"Both the steer-roping and bulldogging was the greatest ever seen here. Tommy Grimes was the first with a total time of 63¾ seconds for two throws, while Jim Lynch took the bulldogging contest with a total time of 63¾ seconds for two throws. Lynch's time yesterday afternoon, twenty-one seconds, is one of the fastest records ever made for this event.
"One pleasing feature of the Pow-wow this year was that not a single cowboy or animal was seriously hurt during the entire three days. This was not because the show was more tame than before, because such was not the case, but was due partly to good fortune and more to the skillful management throughout.
W. P. WINANS AND THE IMMIGRANT WAGON, SHOWN AT THE FRONTIER DAYS OF 1915
"A feature of yesterday's program was the drill given by Maj. Paul H. Weyrauch's battalion of field artillery. The battalion, about three hundred strong, executed a review in the arena, passing in front of Major Weyrauch, reviewing officer. The boys made a great showing for the short time that they have been in training, going through their maneuvers like clock work. Major Weyrauch and his men were given a great hand by the audience and the most impressive moment of the day came during the drill, when the band played "The Star Spangled Banner," the soldiers stood at attention, and the great crowd rose to its feet as one man, with the men standing bare-headed until the last strains of the national anthem had died away.
"A. G. Busbee, who had been the efficient chief announcer at the Pow-wow for the three days, gave the spectators yesterday a thrilling exhibition of bulldogging at the close of yesterday afternoon's bulldogging contest. Busbee, clad in his full Indian regalia, downed one of the steers in front of the grandstand. He declared afterwards that he could have won the event if he had been allowed to enter. Officials of the Pow-wow needed Busbee as announcer and refused to run any risks of his being laid out.
"George Drumheller, managing director of the Pow-wow, said last night that he was not yet in a position to say how successful the Pow-wow had been financially, but that he hoped to at least break even, and possibly clear a little for the benefit of the fair association.
"'It's play with us.' he said. 'The boys like it and it gives them something to talk about during the winter. The people supported the show well, and I hope something of the kind can he arranged again next year.'"
We therefore take from the columns of the Walla Walla Union the report, as follows:
"These pioneer meetings are significant events; they afford opportunity for meeting old friends. They are occasions for retrospection and reminiscence. We live over again in memory, 'the brave days of old.' We recount the courage, the lofty purpose, the sacrifices of the early settlers, not only of those still living, but of those who have crossed the Great Divide."
These words, taken from the speech of ex-Governor Miles C. Moore, delivered at the Pioneers' barbecue meeting at the fair grounds yesterday noon, explain the significance of the Pioneer Pow-wow to the early settlers of this country, to whose memory the big fall celebration is dedicated. That the sturdy old plainsmen appreciated the honor was evident by their numbers and the hearty manner in which they participated in this event. Hundreds of them were present and all pronounced the juicy beefsteaks served by the Royal Chef Harry Kidwell, to be near-perfect.
The pioneers' program was short but filled with interest and the social time that followed was hugely enjoyed. Judge E. C. Mills made a short address and vocal solos were rendered by Mrs. F. B. Thompson and A. R. Slimmons and a reading by Mrs. Thomas Duff. Mrs. A. G. Baumeister was chairman of the committees in charge.
Ex-Governor Moore's address, coming from one of the most prominent northwest pioneers, was the feature of the program, and was most interesting to the early settlers. It is given in full as follows:
"Walla Walla is proud to act as host today to the pioneers and feels she is entertaining old friends.
"Many of you came here long years ago and saw the city in its earliest beginnings; saw it when it was only a frontier trading post—an outfitting point for miners bound to the mines of Pierce City, Orofino and Florence in Northern Idaho and to Boise in Southern Idaho—all new camps. A little later Kootenai in British Columbia, and the mining camps of Western Montana became the Mecca of the gold seeker.
"Many of them outfitted here and were followed by pack trains laden with supplies. Many of you will remember the tinkle of the mule bell which the pack mules followed in blind obedience.
"All day long these pack trains filed in constant procession through the streets of the busy little city, bound on long journeys through the mountains to the various mining camps.
"Indians, gaudy with paint and feathers, rode their spotted, picturesque cayuse in gay cavalcades along the trails leading to town to trade for fire water and other less important articles of barter.
"Covered ox wagons laden with dust begrimed children and household goods 'all the way from old Missouri,' ranchmen, and cowboys in all their pristine swagger and splendor helped to make up the motley throng that filled the streets. The cow-girl who rides a horse astride had not then materialized.
"The packers and many of the miners came here to 'winter' as they expressed it in those days. They spent their money prodigally and unstintingly in the saloons, in the gambling and hurdy-gurdy houses, and in the spring would return to the source for fresh supplies of gold.
"Some of the more successful would return to the States and all expected to when they had 'made their pile.' None of us had any idea of making this a permanent place of residence or of being found here fifty years later. As youngsters we sang with lusty voices:
'We'll all go home in the spring, boys,
We'll all go home in the spring.'
Later as the years went by and we did not go, there was added by the unsentimental, this refrain:
'Yes, in a horn;
Yes, in a horn.'
"This describes conditions existing in old Walla Walla fifty years ago, or in the decade between 1860 and 1870, and are some of the moving pictures painted on the film of my brain when in the fall of 1863 I wandered, a forlorn and homesick lad, into this beautiful valley. Friends and acquaintances I had none, except the two young men who came with me from Montana.
"My resources were exceedingly slender, and the question of how meal tickets were to be obtained was much on my mind. That was fifty-four years ago—and like many of you present here today I watched the years go by with gradually increasing faith in the country's resources; a faith that ripened into love for the beautiful valley, its people and its magnificent surroundings. Walla Walla all these years has been my home, her people became my people, her interests were my interests. It is hoped you will pardon these personal allusions but after all history is defined as 'the essence of innumerable biographies.'
"It is a goodly land—a fit abode for a superior race of people, a race to match its mountains, worthy of its magnificent surroundings.
"Along in the early '60s, stockmen from the Willamette Valley, attracted by the bunch grass that grew in wild luxuriance over all the hills and valleys of this inter-mountain region, brought horses and cattle and established stock ranches along the streams. Later it was discovered that grain would grow on the foothills, and that the yield was surprisingly large. The wheat area was gradually widened and land supposed worthless grew enormous crops. Now wheat has everywhere supplanted the bunch grass and the Inland Empire sends annually about sixty-five million bushels to feed a hungry world.
"Walla Walla in the early '60s was a town of about two thousand inhabitants and the only town between The Dalles and Lewiston. Now this region is filled with cities and towns and villages, dotted all over with the happy homes of a brave, enterprising, peace-loving, law-abiding people.
"Many of us have seen the country in its making, have helped to lay the foundations of the commonwealth, have seen the territory 'put on the robes of state sovereignty,' have seen it become an important unit in the great federation of states, have recently seen its young men pour forth by thousands to engage in a war not of our making but in the language of President Wilson, 'that the world may be made safe for democracy.'
"These pioneer meetings are significant events; they afford opportunity for meeting old friends. They are occasions for retrospection and reminiscence. We live over again in memory 'the brave days of old.' We recount the courage, the lofty purpose, the sacrifices of the early settlers not only of those still living, but of those who have crossed the Great Divide.
"They were a sturdy race; they braved the perils of pioneer life, and 'pushed back the frontiers in the teeth of savage foes.' We are old enough now to begin to have a history. In fact, this Walla Walla country is rich in historic interest, and inspiring history it is. Lewis and Clark passed through it on their way to and from the coast. Whitman established his mission here in 1836 and eleven years later gave up his life as the last full measure of his devotion to the cause he loved so well. Other missionaries and explorers saw it and were impressed with its fertility and the mildness of its climate. Indian wars raged here, and it was here, almost on this spot, that Governor Stevens held the council and made treaties with 5,500 Indians.
"No other part of the northwest has such a historic background. All this will continue to be an inspiration to the people who are to reside here.
"Wherever the early settler built his cabin, or took his claim, he left the impress of his personality. These personal experiences should be woven into history and it is hoped that Professor Lyman in his forthcoming history of old Walla Walla County will include many of these personal memorials.
"The restless impulse, the wanderlust implanted in the race, the impulse that carried the first wave of emigration over Cumberland Gap in the Alleghenies and down the Ohio to Kentucky, 'the dark and bloody ground,' swept over the prairies of Illinois and Iowa, across the Mississippi and Missouri. Here it halted on the edge of the Great American Desert, until the gold discovery in California in '49 gave it new impetus and it swept on again. These indefatigable Americans crossed the Great Plains, they climbed the Rocky Mountains, they opened mines, they felled forests, tilled the land, developed water powers, built mills and manufactories, filling all the wide domain with 'the shining towers of civilization.'
"The liberal land laws of the Government—giving a homestead to each man brave enough and enterprising enough to go out and occupy it, the mines it offered to the prospectors were the powerful factors that gave us population and led to the development of the country.
'All honor to the pioneers—
'They have made this beautiful land of ours
To blossom in grain and fruit and flowers.'
"Many of them have passed to a well earned rest. May the living long remain to enjoy the fruit of their labors.
"Walla Walla has been pleased to have you here today and hopes to see you all again at future Pow-wows. Her good wishes go with you wherever you may be."
There have been various interesting and valuable exhibitions in Walla Walla in recent years which are entitled to extended mention, but the limits of our space compel us to forego details. One of the most conspicuous of these has been the "corn-show," maintained by the O.-W. R. R. management. "Farmer" Smith has been conspicuous in these shows, other experts in corn production, as well as in the allied arts of the use of corn in cookery and otherwise, have been in attendance, banquets have been held attended by some of the chief officials of the railroad company, and a public interest has been created already bearing fruit, and sure to be a great factor in agriculture in the future. A hearty tribute is due the O.-W. R. R. for the broad and intelligent policy which has led to this contribution to the productive energies of this region.
WALLA WALLA PAGEANT
To those who were in Walla Walla at the "Pageant of May" in 1914, that spectacle must ever remain as incomparably the most beautiful and poetical exhibition ever given in Walla Walla. Indeed it may well claim precedence over any spectacle ever presented in the Inland Empire. It was in all respects in a class by itself. It was conducted under the auspices of the Woman's Park Club. The Pageant consisted of two movements, diverse in their origin and nature and yet interwoven with such artistic skill as to demonstrate rare poetical ability and inventive genius on the part of the author, Mr. Porter Garnett of Berkeley, Cal.
GATHERING TOKAY GRAPES, CLARKSTON
PICKING PEACHES, ADAMS' PLACE, CLARKSTON
This event was of such entirely exceptional character and so well set a pattern for possible future occasions and created such interest in the minds of all who witnessed its beautiful scenes in the park, that the author feels confident that the readers of this volume will be glad to read the Foreword and the Introduction as given in the book prepared by Mr. Garnett and inscribed by him with this graceful dedication:
TO THE WOMEN OF
THE WOMAN'S PARK CLUB
WHOSE
CIVIC PRIDE
AND
CONSTRUCTIVE IDEALISM
HAVE ENABLED THEM
TO DARE AND TO ACHIEVE
The foreword is as follows:
FOREWORD
The history of "A Pageant of May" is briefly told.
In November, 1913, the Woman's Park Club, which, in 1911, inaugurated an annual May Festival, conceived the idea of holding a pageant in our city.
Correspondence with the American Pageant Association led to the inviting of Mr. Porter Garnett of Berkeley, California (one of the directors of the association), to come to Walla Walla for a conference. Mr. Garnett arrived on March 26th. On the 30th, having in the meantime selected City Park as the most suitable site, he submitted the outline of "A Pageant of May." It was officially approved on March 31st, and the work of preparation was begun.
Since the construction of a pageant is usually a matter of many months it seems proper, in this case, to call attention to the fact that within a period of seven weeks Mr. Garnett has written the text of "A Pageant of May," designed the costumes and properties, invented the dances, selected the music and rehearsed a cast of over three hundred.
Grateful acknowledgment is made of the assistance of the Commercial Club and of the many citizens of Walla Walla who have given so generously of their time and talent, insuring the success of the "introduction of pageantry in the Northwest."
Grace G. Isaacs,
Mabel Baker Anderson,
Lydia P. Sutherland,
Mary Shipman Penrose,
Marie A. Catron,
Executive Committee for the Pageant,
Woman's Park Club.
Mr. Garnett's Introduction, interpreting the Pageant, is presented in these words:
INTRODUCTION
Although May festivals are held in almost every community, it is in the agricultural community, such as this of Walla Walla with its vicinage of fertile acres, that the celebration of spring—the season of renewal—is most appropriate.
A Pageant of May is a May festival and something more. In it, instead of restricting the ceremonies of the more or less hackneyed forms, an effort has been made to utilize the traditional material and to import into it certain elements of freshness and fancy.
The intention has been not so much to give an exhibition as to afford the community an opportunity for self-expression. The real purpose of the pageant is to remind the people of Walla Walla that since they owe their existence to the soil, spring should be for them a season of sincere and spontaneous rejoicing. It should not be necessary to cajole them into celebrating this season which brings in bud and blossom an earnest of the harvest to come. They should not only be willing but eager to make merry on the Green and to dance around the May-poles. They should remember that the earth which gives them sustenance is not their servant but their mistress and that without her generous gifts they would be poor indeed. A pageant of May offers them an opportunity to pay their homage to Earth the Giver whom the Greeks personified and worshipped as the goddess Demeter (Ceres).
In the Masque of Proserpine, which forms the first part of the pageant, the return of spring is treated symbolically. The myth upon which the masque is built has, on account of its peculiar appropriateness, been used at various times and in various ways to celebrate the season of rebirth, but the present adaptation with its free use of comedy is entirely original. It has been necessary, of course, to take many liberties with the accepted versions, notably the excision of that part of the myth which deals with Ceres' wanderings in search of Proserpine. Those who may be desirous of reading the myth in its most charming form are referred to the translation of an Homeric hymn which Walter Pater incorporated in his essay, Demeter and Persephone, contained in his volume "The Greek Spirit."
The second part of the pageant is based upon the traditional English May Day celebrations. The traditions, however, are by no means strictly followed for there seems to be no justification for a rigid adherence in America to customs which are essentially English. I have used Robin Hood and his Merrie Men because, through literature, they have been made the heritage of all English-speaking people; I have, however, omitted the Morris-dance because, in America, it has no significance whatever.
Since it is hoped that the pageant will be interpreted throughout in a spirit of gaiety; since the participants will be expected to forget (as far as possible) that there are any spectators, the spontaneity which is difficult to attain rather than the expertness which is comparatively easy, will be looked for in the May-pole and other dances. To Mrs. E. R. Ormsbee's able direction is due whatever measure of success may be achieved in this regard. The Dance of the Seeds and the Dance of the Fruits and Flowers owe the charm of their form and detail to the inventive fancy and skill of Miss Rachel Drum.
In both the Masque and the Revels realism has been scrupulously avoided because in the author's opinion realism on the stage is inartistic and futile. There is no reason why a pageant—whether of the historical or festival type—should not be consistently expressed in terms of beauty.
To this end the masque feature has been employed as affording the best possible means by which the note of beauty may be introduced. I believe that the introduction of the masque feature in all pageants, by increasing the gap which already exists between formal and creative pageantry and the familiar tawdriness of the street-fair and carnival, would do more to raise the standard of pageantry than any other single thing.
The text of A Pageant of May has been reduced to the simplest possible terms. It contains no were lines than were necessary to unfold the plot and deliver the message. The lines, moreover, have been uniformly written with the fact in view that they were to be delivered and delivered in the open air. Syllables that open the mouth have been more important therefore than poetic embellishments. As far as possible pantomime has been used to reveal the story. A Pageant of May is not intended for closet reading, and if the reader who did not see its realizement in action on the four-acre stage in Walla Walla's city park finds it somewhat jejune he is asked to bear that fact in mind.
I cannot leave unexpressed my grateful acknowledgments to the members of the Costume Committee who have worked most efficiently under the direction of Mrs. A. J. Gillis, the designing of the children's costumes being admirably done by Miss Helen Burr and Mrs. W. E. Most. To the chairman and members of the other committees, and to the organizers and chaperones of the various groups I am indebted for the invaluable assistance which they have rendered. Finally, I would take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the women of the Executive Committee who, putting aside every consideration of personal convenience, have labored indefatigably for the success of the pageant and the benefit of the community.
P. G.
Walla Walla, Washington.
May 14, 1914.