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

by William Denison Lyman

Early Walla Walla had the usual experience with fires, such occurring on June 11, 1862; May 8, 1864; August 3, 1865; and July 4, 1866. As a result of the first, Joseph Hellmuth undertook to organize a fire department. His public spirit was not very cordially supported, but subscriptions to the amount of $1,600 were received, and by advancing $500 himself, he secured an old Hunneman "tub" engine.

The most destructive of these early fires was that of August 3, 1865. The Statesman of August 4th gives a full account of it, estimating the loss so far as obtained at that time at $164,500. The paper adds $20,000 for loss not then reported. The heaviest losses were sustained by the Dry Goods Company of S. Elias & Brother, by the store and warehouse of C. Jacobs & Co., and by the Bank Exchange Saloon and dwelling house of W. J. Ferry. The building used for courthouse, with the county and city records, was destroyed. In 1863, a fire company was organized, Fred Stine being the leader in the enterprise.

Perhaps the most vital feature of a growing city is pure and abundant water supply. Walla Walla was fortunate in early days in the presence of a number of springs of pure cold water. But though that supply was abundant for a small place, increasing demands made some system of distribution imperative. There was also need for sufficient pressure for fire defense.

While the water system was at first a private enterprise, it became public property in due course of time, and hence it is suitable to begin the story in this chapter.

In 1866 and 1867 four of the most energetic citizens of the town took the initial steps in providing a system of water distribution. H. P. Isaacs, J. C. Isaacs, A. Kyger and J. D. Cook obtained a charter in 1866 and the next year established at a point near the present Armory Hall a plant consisting of a pump, a large tank, and a supply of wooden pipe. It almost makes one's bones ache in these effete days to think of the amount of labor which the pipes for that pioneer water system demanded. The pipe consisted of logs bored lengthwise with augurs by hand. It would not comport with the dignity of a historical work to suggest that the whole proceeding was a "great bore," but it was duly accomplished and the pipes laid. Water was derived from Mill Creek, but the system seems to have been somewhat unsatisfactory to the projectors, and Mr. Isaacs entered upon a much larger undertaking, that of establishing reservoirs in the upper part of town. It was not until after the date of county division that the reservoir system was fully installed. In 1877 the reservoirs were built on both sides of Mill Creek, one on what is now the property of the Odd Fellows Home and the other in the City Park. These reservoirs were filled from the large springs and for some years supplied the needs of the town. Mr. Isaacs is deserving of great praise for his unflagging energy in endeavoring to meet that primary need of the town. The corporate name of Mr. Isaacs' enterprise was the Walla Walla Water Company. The controlling ownership was ultimately acquired by the interests represented by the Baker-Boyer Bank, and Mr. H. H. Turner became secretary and manager. That, however, was long subsequent to county division and the further history of the water system belongs to another chapter.

We perhaps should interject at this point the explanation that although chapters preceding this have been carried to the present date, we are bringing the political history of the city to the stage of county division only in order to harmonize with that of the county, and that point in case of the county constitutes a natural stage by reason of the marked change in all political connections occasioned by the division.

Among miscellaneous events having political connections may be mentioned that omnipresent and usually disturbing question of the fort. We have earlier spoken of its first location at the point now occupied by the American Theater, right in the heart of the city, and its removal in 1857 to the present location. It was maintained at full strength until the close of the Indian wars and then during the period of the Civil war there was a full supply of men and equipment. At times, as already narrated in an earlier chapter, there was much friction between civilians and the military. The merchants and saloon-keepers, however, considered the presence of the Fort very desirable from a pecuniary standpoint. There were in those early days, as there have been more recently, an element in the city that attached an exaggerated importance to the presence of the soldiers as a business matter, while there was also another sentiment which became the most persistent and inherited one in the history of the town; that is, the sentiment that while the officers and their families composed the social elite, the common soldiers were taboo. This was perhaps the nearest to a caste system ever known in the free and unconventional society of Old Walla Walla. Between those two viewpoints, the business and the social, there was the larger body of citizens who shrugged their shoulders over the whole question, deeming it unimportant either way. But when by order of Colonel Curry the Fort was abandoned, save for a small detachment, in the winter of 1865-6, there went up a great protest, and all the machinery, congressional and otherwise, was set in motion, as has been so familiar since down to the present date, to secure orders for the maintenance of the post.

No results were attained, however, and the Fort remained abandoned, until 1873.

Congress had, in fact, passed a law in 1872, for the sale of the military reservation, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to cut it up into blocks and lots and dispose of it as his judgment warranted. The tract was surveyed and laid out by instructions from Washington. But as a result of the famous Modoc war in Southern Oregon, the view prevailed at headquarters that the rehabilitation and reoccupation of Fort Walla Walla would be wise. Accordingly, in August, 1873, six companies were established at the Fort, and from that date for nearly forty years the military was a constant factor in the life of this section.

The expenditures were very considerable. It is estimated in Gilbert's Historic Sketches of 1882 that the Fort was then purchasing annually about 10,000 bushels of oats, 5,000 bushels of barley, 500 tons of hay, 200 tons of straw, 500 barrels of flour, besides large quantities of meat, wood, and other supplies. Perhaps the most excited and acrimonious discussions, public and private, in newspapers and otherwise, have dealt with the retention of the Fort, or with some phase of its life. Most of the features of the story came at a date long after county division.