In the first election of United States senators November, 1889, John B. Allen of Walla Walla, and Watson C. Squire were chosen, the former drawing the four-year term, which entitled him to the place until March 4, 1893. The senatorial election of 1893 was one of the most extraordinary in the history of such elections and involved a number of distinguished men in this section of the state. The fundamental struggle was between the adherents of John B. Allen of Walla Walla and George Turner of Spokane, both republicans. It became a factional fight of the bitterest type. One hundred and one ballots were taken unavailingly and then the Legislature adjourned sine die, with no choice. The last ballot records the names of two citizens of Walla Walla, one of Dayton, and one now, although not then, a citizen of Walla Walla. The Walla Walla candidates were John B. Allen with fifty votes, lacking seven of a majority, and Judge B. L. Sharpstein. The Dayton name was that of J. C. Van Patten, and the name of the present citizen of Walla Walla was Henry Drum, now warden of the penitentiary.
Upon the failure of the Legislature to elect, Governor McGraw appointed John B. Allen to fill the vacancy. Proceeding to Washington Mr. Allen presented his case to the Senate, but in that case, as in others, that body decided and very properly, that the state must go unrepresented until the Legislature could perform its constitutional duties. It is safe to say that that experience, with similar ones in other states, was one of the great influences in causing the amendment to the Constitution providing for direct election by the people. The spectacle of the Legislature neglecting its law-making functions to wrangle over the opposing ambitions of senatorial aspirants, fatally impaired the confidence of the people in the wisdom of the old method of choice. That amendment may be regarded also as one of the striking manifestations of American political evolution, in which there has come a recognition of the danger of legislative bodies, chosen by popular suffrage, becoming the tools of personal or corporate interests instead of the servants of the people who chose them, and by which, in consequence, the evils of popular government are being remedied by being made more popular.
Two other citizens of Walla Walla have represented the state in the National Congress, and several others have been willing to. These are Levi Ankeny and Miles Poindexter, the latter having begun his political career at Walla Walla, but having removed to Spokane and become superior judge there before entering upon his term as congressman in 1909 and senator in 1911, to be re-elected in 1916. Senator Ankeny, one of the most prominent of the permanent citizens of Walla Walla, and one of the greatest bankers in the Northwest, being president of eleven banks in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, was elected senator in 1903 and served until 1909. He was deservedly popular throughout the section in which he lived, for his broad and generous business methods as well as for his general character. During the hard times of the '90s, in which many of the farmers of Walla Walla and Columbia counties were next door to ruin, it is remembered that Mr. Ankeny could have acquired by foreclosure of his immense loans lands whose value is now tenfold the amount of the mortgages of those hard times. But by aiding and encouraging the struggling farmers of that time and neglecting the advantage which he himself might have gained he kept them upon their feet and thus conferred an immeasurable benefit not only upon individuals, but upon the country as a whole. During Mr. Ankeny's term in the Senate extensive improvements were made in the buildings at Fort Walla Walla.
THE PENITENTIARY
Another of the leading political connections of Walla Walla County with the state was the penitentiary. This institution was removed from Seatco to Walla Walla in 1887. The county commissioners at that time were F. W. Paine, Francis Lowden, and Platt Preston. These men, and particularly Mr. Paine, felt that not only from the standpoint of the state, for desirability of location and economy of subsistence, but from the fact that constructive works might be operated which could be of benefit to the farmers of the region, this change of place would be wise. The most distinctive features of labor have been the brick yards, which did a very large and profitable work for many years and were discontinued in 1900 to allow the management to put the main force upon the jute mills, for the making of grain bags and rugs and other fabrics. This system of constructive labor by the inmates of the penitentiary is to be attributed largely to the intelligent business conceptions as well as philanthropic interest in the men by Mr. F. W. Paine and Mr. W. K. Kirkman. They had formed the impression that for the sake of health of mind and body in the prisoners systematic labor was a necessity, and also that the products of that labor might go for to lighten the burdens of tax payers. Their theory has been triumphantly vindicated by the history of the penitentiary. Not at all times in the thirty years of its existence has the institution been conducted in the interest either of reclamation of criminals or of saving expense to the state. As in all such cases there have been times when the main aims were political rather than penal or economic, and there have been still more times when the other party said they were, even when governors, boards, and wardens were doing their best in the public interest.
| Warden's Residence | Work Shops |
| Administration Building | |
| The Hospital | The Jute Mill |
| BUILDINGS OF THE WASHINGTON STATE PENITENTIARY | |
The wardens in order of service, several of them being citizens of Walla Walla, and about an equal number coming from other parts of the state, have been John Justice, F. L. Edmiston, John McClees, J. H. Coblentz, Thomas Mosgrove, J. B. Catron, Frank Kees, F. A. Dryden, Charles Reed and Henry Drum.
There have been a number of tragic events in the history of the penitentiary of which perhaps the most thrilling was the attempted escape of a large number of prisoners during the wardenship of Mr. McClees in 1891. At that time it was the practice to run a train of flat cars to Dixie to get clay for the brick yards. Two desperadoes conceived the idea of capturing a train as it went through the gate, loading a number of prisoners on it, running to Dixie, there turning loose on the farms, getting horses and provisions, and striking out for the mountains. It was a bold, well-conceived project and came near execution. A number of prisoners were "in" on the scheme, and at the given signal, several who were experienced engineers and firemen performed their part of the plot by seizing the locomotive. At the same instant the two ringleaders by a bold dash seized Warden McClees and walked him toward the gate, commanding him on pain of instant death to order the opening of the gates and the clearing of the track for the passage of the train. The warden preserved most extraordinary nerve, even while the two ruffians were holding over his head knives which they had snatched up from the kitchen. In the instant he called out to Phil Berry, one of the guards on the wall, whom he knew to be a dead shot, "Be cool, Phil, take your time!" Even while the two knives were in the very act to strike, Berry's rifle cracked twice in succession, and the leaders fell on either side of the warden, each with a bullet in his heart. About the quickest work of the kind ever known here or elsewhere. The fall of the leaders disconcerted the whole program, and after a few moments of intense excitement the guards got control of the situation, and the affair was all over.