Baldwin Brothers were about between Second and Third. Frank Worden was located just about where the Third National Bank now is. Guichard and Kohlhauff had a store on the same corner where the White House Clothing Store now is. John F. Abbott had a stable right in what is now Second Street, just about what would be between the Jaycox Store and the Jones Building. There was no order or system to the streets for many years, and, as we know, they are very irregular now, having followed convenient trails or breakings through the cottonwoods and birches which grew on the creek.
The creek at that time ran right on the top of the ground and in high water ran out in many places. Quite a stream at high water ran through just about where Senator Ankeny's house is, over through the present high school grounds and thence joining Garrison Creek.
During the long, cold nights of winter in 1860-61 we lived alone in our cabin. Mother and I would grind our flour in the big coffee-mill. One regular job we had, and often we were up till midnight working at it, and that was to make sacks for the flour-mill which A. H. Reynolds, in partnership with J. A. Sims and Capt. F. F. Dent, put up in 1859 on what is now the Whitney place.
But my mother was anxious that I should have some schooling, and having become married to Mr. Reynolds, she sent me to Portland Academy for two years, and two years more to LaFayette where I lived with my grandparents.
When I returned in 1865 I was a man. Walla Walla was growing. That was right in the midst of the mining times and the Vigilantes, when they had "a man for breakfast" nearly every morning. It was a wild, exciting time, but through it all Walla Walla has grown to be the beautiful city of which we are now so proud.
We have devoted considerable space in the early part of this volume to Indians and Indian wars. The narrative of W. W. Walter gave a view of the Cayuse war from the standpoint of a participant. Other wars with the natives followed. The most spectacular and in many ways most remarkable of all was that of 1877, with the Joseph band of Nez Percés.
We incorporate here an account of the personal experiences of W. S. Clark, one of the leading pioneers of Walla Walla, and one of the best informed students of early history.
THE NEZ PERCÉ WAR
On the morning of June 19, 1877, a courier reached the City of Walla Walla bringing the sad news of the engagement on Camas Prairie between the Nez Percé Indians and Colonel Perry's troop of cavalry in which one-half of Perry's troop had been killed. The news caused a great deal of excitement. Word also came that the citizens of Lewiston were in danger of a raid by the Indians and that the settlers were pouring into town from all sides and help was much needed.
Thomas P. Page, county auditor of Walla Walla County, started to work raising a volunteer company. At 1 o'clock in the afternoon a meeting was called at the courthouse where the facts were presented and resolutions were passed promising aid to the people of the Lewiston District. One hundred names were soon down on the roll and all who could get horses were to start that night. The quartermaster at the fort here gave us rifles and sixty rounds of cartridges apiece. At 6 o'clock that evening the following party left Walla Walla en route to Lewiston: A. Reeves Ayres, John Agu, Ike Abbott, A. L. Bird, Chas. Blewett, W. S. Clark, Lane Gilliam, H. E. Holmes, Albert Hall, Jake Holbrook, Frank Jackson, John Keeney, J. H. Lister, Henry Lacy, Wm. McKearn:, S. H. Maxon, Aleck O'Dell, C. S. Robinson, J. S. Stott, Ben Scott, Albert Small, Frank Waldrip, T. P. Page, L. K. Grimm and J. F. McLean.