The officers of Columbia County for the period up to the setting off from it of Garfield County in 1881, may properly be inserted at this point.
Those of the first election in 1875 have already been given. The results of the election of 1876 were: County commissioners, John Sanders, N. C. Williams and W. E. Ayers; probate judge, C. M. McLeran; sheriff, R. P. Steen; auditor, Oliver C. White; treasurer, D. C. Guernsey; assessor, Alonzo L. Sanford; surveyor, Charles E. Truax; coroner, J. H. Kennedy; superintendent of schools, J. E. Edmiston. Surveyor Truax and Probate Judge McLeran resigned, and the vacancies were filled by Alfred T. Beall and Thomas H. Crawford, respectively.
The election of 1878 resulted in the choice of the following: For the Legislature, Councilman L. M. Ringer (joint with Whitman and Stevens counties), and for representatives, T. C. Frary and D. C. Guernsey; county commissioners, E. Oliver, W. W. Sherry and D. B. Pettyjohn; sheriff, R. P. Steen; auditor, Oliver C. White; probate judge, J. A. Starner; treasurer, H. H. Wolfe; assessor, T. J. Mewhinney; surveyor, E. D. Miner; coroner, W. W. Day; superintendent of schools, F. M. McCully. For Constitution, 426; against Constitution, 513.
The officers chosen in 1880 were: Joint councilman, A. H. Butler; councilman for Columbia County, George Hunter; representatives, William Clark, R. P. Steen, W. L. Freeman; county commissioners, W. W. Sherry, Casper Plummer, Allen Embree; probate judge, tie again on J. A. Starner and Walter F. Jones, with 357 votes each, decided by lot in favor of the former; sheriff, John Mustard; auditor, J. W. Jessee; attorney, J. K. Rutherford; treasurer, F. C. Miller; assessor, T. J. Mewhinney; surveyor, E. D. Miner; superintendent of schools, F. M. McCully; coroner, J. Clark; sheep commissioner (a new office created by the preceding Legislature), Charles McCable. There seems to have been in the four elections in Columbia County prior to the subtraction of Garfield, a remarkably even distribution of the two parties. In 1880 there were ten republicans and nine democrats.
A slight change in the county line was made by the Legislature in 1879, by which township 8 north, range 38 east, was subtracted from Columbia and added to Walla Walla.
Most of the events concerned with the industries, newspapers and politics of the Columbia County region, while it was still part of Walla Walla, have been treated of in preceding chapters. We did not, however, trace the organization of the pioneer schools or pioneer churches or give any data in respect to those now existing in Columbia County.
THE FIRST SCHOOL IN THE COUNTY
was organized in 1865 in what was called District No. 15 of Walla Walla County. The house was located on the old Lewiston Road, a mile and a half east of Dayton, near the subsequent residence of John Rowe, lately destroyed by fire. Like most of the pioneer schoolhouses, it was built of logs, with oiled paper windows, big rock fireplace, puncheons for seats and desks with pegs for legs. W. H. Elliott was the teacher in that initial school. At the time of county organization in 1875 there were but few schools, but the number rapidly increased, and a report of January, 1879, gives statistics from thirty-eight districts. A report of November, 1881, shows sixty-two districts. That number was, however, nearly cut in half by the erection of Garfield County, for only thirty-four districts were left in the diminished Columbia.
A report of the superintendent for the year closing August 31, 1882, shows some interesting figures for comparison with others that are to follow: