Lyman's History of old Walla Walla County, Vol. 1 / Embracing Walla Walla, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin counties

by William Denison Lyman

J. M. Pomeroy located the land where Pomeroy now stands on December 8, 1864.

The first telegraph was built by the government and ran from Dayton to Lewiston, through Pomeroy, in 1879.

The Catholics built the first church in Pomeroy, 1878. Father Papes was the first pastor.

First grain raised on Deadman was in 1878, E. T. Wilson, grower.

Newton Estes was the first settler on the Deadman, 1870.

James Bowers was the first settler on the land where Pataha now is, 1861. In 1868 Vine Favor bought the land and started the Town of Pataha in 1878.

The first Protestant minister to hold services in Garfield County was Rev. Calaway, then living in Walla Walla, a Cumberland Presbyterian.

It appears from this record that Parson Quinn was the first settler on the Pataha, having located there in 1860. The first house on the Pataha was built by Thomas Riley, who afterwards disposed of it to James Rafferty. One of the first settlers was William McEnery, on the lower Pataha, in 1862.

The next creek after the Pataha to receive settlers was the Deadman. This rather lugubrious name seems to have been derived from the fact that during the hard winter of '61-2, two men perished in the hollow which became known as "Deadman Hollow." They were supposed to have been miners from Orofino or Florence. The bodies were not discovered till spring, and were then suitably interred and the spot marked with a pile of rocks at a point near the old road from Walla Walla to Lewiston. That region is now one of the best farming sections in the Inland Empire. Newton Estes was the first to make a permanent location on the Deadman, and his date was 1871. Within a short time, S. T. Jones, A. E. Lee, W. L. Freeman, Frank Ping, John Lynn, and Archie McBrearty located upon the creek. One event of that stage worthy of special record was the Alpowa "Toll Road." It was built by B. B. Howard and M. Fettis, in 1872-3, and in 1873 became the property of N. A. Wheeler. For twenty-five years it was maintained by Mr. Wheeler and then deeded by him to the county for $1.00. Pataha prairie, south of the Deadman and Alpowa, was settled in the early '70s. Rev. William Calaway located there in 1870; Isaac Coatney in 1871; William Chester, 1871; D. Zemmel, 1871; Robert Storey, 1872.