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

by William Denison Lyman

By the act of 1859 referred to, the necessary officers of Old Walla Walla County were established as follows: County Commissioners, John Mahan, Walter R. Davis, and John C. Smith (better known as Sergeant Smith); Sheriff, Edward D. Pearce; Auditor, R. H. Reighart; Probate Judge, Samuel D. Smith; Justice of the Peace, J. A. Sims. Commissioners Mahan and Davis met at Walla Walla on March 15, 1859, and to fill vacancies left by the non-acceptance of the auditor and sheriff, appointed James Galbreath for the former and Lycurgus Jackson for the latter position. At a meeting of the commissioners on March 26, 1859, they found it necessary to make changes again in the personnel of county officers. As a result the following assumed office in their respective places: E. H. Brown, probate judge; Lycurgus Jackson, assessor; Neil McGlinchy county treasurer; and William B. Kelly, superintendent of schools.

The next stage in the political evolution of the county was the appointment of a date for general election. This was set for the following July. The county was divided into two voting precincts, Steptoeville, and Dry Creek. The former seems to have included the region centering around the United States Fort Walla Walla, and thence down Mill Creek to the Walla Walla. There was a general habit of designating the region around the fort as Steptoeville, a clumsy and illogical name, for it is not euphonious nor would it seem that it would have been popular, for certainly the officer who met such disastrous defeat at the hands of the Spokane Indians did not bring great glory to the Stars and Stripes nor great security to possible settlement. Fortunately the name was not preserved. The election place in "Steptoeville" was appointed at the house of W. J. Terry but that was subsequently changed to "The Church at Steptoeville." The only church here at that time seems to have been a Catholic church built at some time in 1859 on the location of the subsequent McGillivray house, afterward occupied by Jacob Betz, near the present home of George Welch. The "church," we may say in passing, consisted of poles stuck in the ground and covered with shakes. It had no floor and its only seating facilities consisted of one bench. J. A. Sims, Wm. B. Kelly, and Wm. McWhirk were the judges and Thomas Hughes the clerk for the election in "Steptoeville" precinct. In Dry Creek precinct, which seems to have included all the rest of the county to the east and north, the election board consisted of E. Bonner, J. M. Craigie, and Wm. Fink. The clerk was W. W. Wiseman. The polling place was at the residence of J. C. Smith. That was the first real election in Walla Walla County or anywhere in Eastern Washington, though there had been "kind of" an election in 1855 among the few settlers around Waiilatpu and Frenchtown. It is worth noting that the retiring board of commissioners had two meetings prior to the election. One of these was on June 6th, and at that meeting it was voted to pay $20.00 per month for the rent of a building for a courthouse and to impose a tax of seven mills. At a meeting on July 2d the resignation of James Galbreath was presented and Augustus Von Hinkle was appointed for the vacancy. At the same meeting the name of Waiilatpu was substituted for Steptoeville.

The election of July seems to have duly occurred, but apparently the records have been lost. That officers were duly chosen appears from the fact that on September 5th the new board of commissioners met and determined their terms of service: Charles Russell, one year; John Mahan two years and Wm. McWhirk three years. The following incumbents of county offices were elected: I. T. Reese, auditor; Lycurgus Jackson, sheriff; Neil McGlinchy, treasurer; Thomas P. Page, assessor; C. H. Case, surveyor; J. M. Canaday, justice of the peace. I. T. Reese was granted $40.00 per month for the building used as the courthouse, and that building was nearly opposite the present courthouse. The county hired the upper story, the lower being a saloon. On November 17, 1859, the board of commissioners voted to locate the county seat at the point first named "Steptoeville," then Waiilatpu, but now by their vote duly christened Walla Walla. Thus, on November 17, 1859, the "Garden City" officially entered the world under the name by which the Indians at the junction of the Big Rivers introduced themselves to Lewis and Clark, the first white explorers, and preserved, though with many changes of spelling, through the era of the Hudson's Bay Company, and by that company applied to the fort on the Columbia. Now by the action of the first elected board of county commissioners the musical name was attached to the newly established town of 1859. It is worthy of notice that the name is commonly supposed to mean the "Valley of Waters," referring to the numerous springs in the vicinity of the city. The author has been told by "Old Bones," an Indian of the Cayuse tribe who lived for many years near Lyons' Ferry on Snake River and was known to all old-timers, that the name was understood by the natives to signify that section of country below Waiilatpu, "where the four creeks meet;" viz., the Walla Walla, Touchet, Mill Creek, and Dry Creek. The Walla Walla above that point was commonly known to the Indians as "Tum-a-lum." The sound "Wall" is common in Indian words all over the Northwest as Willamette, Wallula, Wallowa, Waiilatpu, or, as some got it, Wallatpu. Many poetical and some prosaic accounts have been given of the origin of the name. Among others, Joaquin Miller, "Poet of the Sierras," insisted that when the French voyageurs first looked down from the Blue Mountains ("Les Montagnes Bleues" in their Gallic speech) upon the fair fertile valley, they exclaimed: "Voila, Voila!" (Behold, behold!) and thus the name became fixed. This fantastic idea is, however, easily disproved by the fact that Lewis and Clark, who entered the country by Snake River, got the name from the Indians on the Columbia near the mouth of the Walla Walla. In the same connection, while speaking of the local names used by the aborigines, it is of interest to observe that the commonplace appellation of Mill Creek for the beautiful stream which flows through Walla Walla City has supplanted a far more fit and attractive native name. It is somewhat variously pronounced and hence spelled. Rev. Henry Spalding gives it as Pasha. Thomas Beall of Lewiston gives it as Pashki. Others have gotten the sound as Paskau, or Pashkee. It seems to signify "sunflower." Mr. Beall regards the name as applying rather to the tract of land extending a mile or two above Walla Walla where the sunflower is very frequent than to the creek itself. Another mellifluous name said to be used by some of the natives is "Imchaha." It is truly regrettable that so common a name as Mill Creek should have become fastened upon so attractive a feature of the city.

As indicated above, the location of the United States Fort Walla Walla was largely determinative of the location of the city. The first business of the region arose for the purpose of providing supplies for the fort. Several of those whom we have named in the "Advance Guard" were directly connected with that business. An example is found in Charles Russell who was connected with the quartermaster's department of the fort, and seeing the heavy burden of transporting supplies from the Willamette Valley determined to test the valley land. Accordingly he sowed eighty acres to barley at a point north of the fort on what later became the Drumheller place. It yielded fifty bushels to the acre. In the same season Mr. Russell raised a hundred acres of oats on the place which he soon after took up on the creek which bears his name. That might be regarded as the inauguration of agriculture in this vicinity though it should be remembered that Dr. Whitman twenty years before had raised prolific crops of all kinds at Waiilatpu. Wm. McWhirk was the first merchant in Walla Walla. He erected a tent for a store in the spring of 1857 at a point near what is now the corner of Main and Second streets. During the fall of the same year, Charles Bellman set up another tent store at the point occupied by the Jack Daniels saloon for many years at the site of the present "Togs." Apparently the old-timers are at variance as to the builder and location of the first actual building. Some have asserted that Wm. McWhirk erected, in the summer of 1857, a cabin on the north side of Main Street, nearly where the Farmers' Savings Bank now stands, and that in the fall of the same year Charles Bellman put up a structure a little east of that at about the point of the Young and Lester florist location. In April, 1858, Lewis McMorris erected a slab and shakes structure for Neil McGlinchy on about the present southwest corner of Main and Third. Various rude buildings appeared in 1858, some for residences, some for saloons (which we regret to record seems to have been a very active line of business at that time). These were constructed by James Galbreath, W. A. Ball, Harry Howard, Michael Kenny, William Terry, John Mahan, James Buckley, and Thomas Riley. The first building with floor, doors, and glass windows was erected by Ralph Guichard and Wm. Kohlhauff at the point now occupied by the White House Clothing Store at the northwest corner of Main and Third.

At that time there were two rival locations: one at the point started by McWhirk, McGlinchy, and Bellman, and the other at a cabin built by Henry Howard, known as the "half-way house;" i.e., half-way to the fort. Spirituous refreshment seems to have been much appreciated by the gallant defenders of their country at the Fort Walla Walla of that time, and a half-way house was quite a desirable accessory of a trip to "town." As we have already noted, there was a difference of opinion as to the name of the town, but that of Walla Walla finally prevailed over all rivals. On November 17, 1859, the commissioners laid out the town with the following boundaries: Commencing in the center of Main Street at Mill Creek, thence running north 440 yards, thence running west one-half mile to a stake, thence running south one-half mile to a stake, thence running east one-half mile to a stake, thence running north to the place of commencement; 160 acres in all.

The town government was organized by the appointment of a recorder, I. T. Reese, and three trustees, F. C. Worden, Samuel Baldwin, and Neil McGlinchy. The town was surveyed by C. H. Case, providing streets eighty feet wide running north and south, and one hundred feet wide running east and west. The lots were laid out with a sixty-foot front and a depth of 120 feet. They were to be sold for $5.00 each, with the addition of $1.00 for recording, and no one person could buy more than two of them. Ten acres also were set aside for a town square and the erection of public buildings, but this was reduced to one acre.

The first lots sold were those taken by I. T. Reese and Edward Evarts, both in block 13, the sale being recorded November 30, 1859. On December 22d, of the same year, 150 acres of land was surveyed into town property for Thomas Wolf and L. C. Kinney, the former soon selling his interest to the latter.

The original plat of the town is not now in existence, having been destroyed, probably by the fire of 1865. The earliest survey on record is a plat made in October, 1861, by W. W. Johnson, which purports to be a correction of the work of C. H. Case.

On November 5, 1861, the board declared the survey made by W. W. Johnson to be official, and W. A. George was employed as an attorney to secure for the county a preemption title to the land on which Walla Walla was built. W. W. Johnson was appointed to take steps to secure the title at the Vancouver land office, but he did not do so, and thus the effort of the county to secure the site failed. This ended what might be called the embryonic stage in the municipal life of Walla Walla, and we find the next stage to be actual incorporation.