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

by William Denison Lyman

The annals of the county were marked in August, 1896, with the lynching of a half-breed, Viles, for a sexual outrage, and the same kind of punishment for a similar offense with murder was meted out to a boy named Hamilton in the same month of 1903. The old timers in discussing those events express the opinion that though lynch law is to be deplored, and though in the second case the criminal was a half-witted degenerate, yet the proof was clear in both cases (for both confessed), and the condign punishment well-merited.

Turning from the miscellaneous events to the constructive industries of the county, we may say that there has been a steady and substantial, though not rapid increase in population, production, and property valuation, year by year from the date of county organization. The original stock industry gave way to grain farming, and in that Asotin County has been, for its area, one of the most productive in the state. It is asserted that Asotin warehouses and platforms along the Snake River from which the steamboats gather up the wheat, constitute the greatest initial grain shipping point or series of points on the O. W. R. and N. R. R. system.

ORCHARDS AND GARDENS

But though the wheat and barley of the prairies constitute already a great production and will in the future constitute a still larger source of revenue, the most interesting and important industry is horticulture and fruit raising. In the area of land devoted to intensive farming under irrigation, Asotin has nearly as much as the other three counties of old Walla Walla put together. This very important productive area, which comprises the most distinctive feature of the county, centers at Clarkston. The history of this industry and this place constitutes a chapter by itself, unique in the history of the Northwest.

The Clarkston project has been practically the work of one of the most noted historic families of the United States, that of the Adams family of Boston. Charles Francis Adams the second, when president of the Union Pacific R. R., formed the conception of an irrigated tract under ideal conditions upon land which he could see had superior advantages of location, soil, and climate, that is to say the broad flat, with successive benches, on the west side of the junction of the Snake and Clearwater. That location was first called Lewiston. Then in remembrance of the historic name of Concord, Mass., dear to the New Englanders who were founding the enterprise, the name Concord was used. Objections on the part of local residents arose, and on April 6, 1900, the name of the voting precinct was changed by the county commissioners to Clarkston, as the fitting mate to Lewiston, recalling the two leaders of the first expedition of discovery. By special petition to the Federal authorities the name of Clarkston was adapted for the name of the town.

The enterprise at Clarkston was in reality, it should be observed, a second thought on the part of Mr. Adams, for his first plan was the development of what is now known as the Indian Cache Ranch, formerly known as the Adams Ranch, on the north side of the Clearwater, a short distance above Lewiston. That splendid property was the first undertaking of Mr. Adams.

The first organization of the project at Clarkston was effected in 1896 under the name of the Lewiston Water and Power Co., of which Henry Adams the Second, son of Charles Francis Adams, became the head. This company ultimately had a capital of $2,000,000. In 1900 the company acquired the property of the Lewiston Light Company which had been formed in 1899 to provide electric light and power for the City of Lewiston. In 1904 the Asotin Land and Water Company's holdings were acquired and the projects were all blended in the Lewiston-Clarkston Company, and that in turn was reorganized in 1910 as the Lewiston-Clarkston Improvement Company. Henry Adams, with members of his family, retained the majority of the stock. At the present time, the properties are segregated into two distinct divisions. The Lewiston-Clarkston Improvement Company conducts the land business, while the utility work, the light and power business, is conducted under the name of the Washington-Idaho Water, Light and Power Co. Such is a bare outline of the general plan and changes effected by reorganization of this remarkable enterprise. Entering a little more into detail, it is of interest to note that the initial incorporators of the Lewiston Water and Power Company were E. H. Libby, formerly of Yakima, C. C. Van Arsdil and Dr. J. B. Morris of Lewiston, and G. W. Bailey and Wm. Farrish of Asotin. This incorporation acquired 2,500 acres at low figures, ranging from ten to twenty-five dollars per acre, largely from the original entrymen, Edward Pearcy, E. J. Warner, Wm. Caldwell, S. Wildenthaler, Joseph Alexander, Chris Weisenberger, D. S. Dent, John Aubin, together with a tract that had been secured by the New England Mortgage Security Company. E. H. Libby became president of the company. Land secured, water was the next requisite. The Asotin Creek had already been filed on and in 1896, July 18th, water actually reached Vineland. Mr. Libby acted as manager, with intermissions, until April 7, 1911. Mr. Libby, with W. G. Clark, engineered the reorganization of the Lewiston-Clarkston Company, which in 1910 became the Lewiston-Clarkston Improvement Company. At that time Spencer Trask & Company of New York, took $600,000 bonds of the new company and acquired an interest in the common stock. H. L. Powers, now of Lewiston, became vice president and manager in 1911, with Henry Adams as president, and retained the position till 1912, when he removed to Lewiston. He continued to act as vice president of the Lewiston Land & Water Company. Robert A. Foster, who had come in 1910 as engineer, became in 1912 the vice president and general manager of the Improvement Company, and in 1914, its president.

Land and water secured, the next necessity was a bridge across Snake River. Clarkston was so logically connected with Lewiston, though in another state, that a direct connection by a bridge was vital. The City of Lewiston granted to Mr. Libby a charter for the construction of a bridge in May, 1896. It was completed and opened for traffic June 24, 1899. This was a great bridge, 1,450 feet long, lifted so high above the river as to allow steamers to pass under. The first articles of incorporation of the bridge first known as the Lewiston-Concord Bridge, were dated November 26, 1897, and the incorporators were E. H. Libby and George W. Bailey. The incorporation was practically identical with the Lewiston Water and Power Company. Being across a navigable river the plans had to be approved by the secretary of war, and a permit granted by Congress. These necessities were duly accomplished in 1898. The contract for the construction called for $110,000. In 1914 the bridge became the joint property of the two states, for $80,000.

Asotin Creek has a mean annual discharge of 39,410 acre feet. The system makes provision for a domestic and municipal consumption for 10,000 people, and irrigation supply for 6,000 acres. The main pipe line is eleven miles long, and is from thirty-two to forty-eight inches in diameter, made of wooden staves, except where it crosses Maguire Gulch, a very high pressure steel pipe, four feet in diameter is used.