Sunnyside, Washington - An Illustrated History of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Counties; Wit

An Illustrated History of Klickitat, Yakima and Kittitas Counties; Wit

The Sunnyside irrigation region of Yakima county enjoys a fame that is widespread and deserved. It has come to be thought of by multitudes as a sort of Utopia, a land of sunshine and warmth and good cheer, the birthplace of fatness and plenty, the home of industry, morality and thrift. The evangels of its fame have been the products of its soil, which, borne by the arteries of commerce, have penetrated all parts of the west and crossed a continent and an ocean. Its succulent alfalfa is in demand in the orient, while the lusciousness of its fruits has appealed most powerfully to the palates of the denizens of the eastern states.

This renowned valley is situated on the northeastern side of the Yakima river between it and the high Columbia divide, and extends from Union Gap to below the town of Prosser. A short distance back from the river, an irregular, long, high basaltic ridge, named Snipes mountain in memory of a pioneer cattle king of the county, gives boundary to the gently rising slope and shuts in the greater part of the valley. The main canal winds along the base of the Columbia river divide, perhaps ten miles north of the river in places, sending forth its hundreds of miles of laterals to water the hillsides and plains constituting the farming section. Wherever the canal's vitalizing fluid has gone, orchard, field and garden have sprung into being, comfortable homes and buildings have taken the place of the sage brush waste, and a prosperous people have expelled the coyote and the jack rabbit. The luxuriant foliage, the bloom of orchard and garden, the emerald hay fields, the comfortable homes are indeed a gladsome sight to the summer visitor - and summer on the Yakima is a long season. Tens of thousands of acres are here in cultivation, generally intensively farmed, producing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year, bringing the blessings of abundance to multitudes of homes and challenging the admiration and wonder of the vsitor from less favored regions.

The city of Sunnyside, the commercial center of the valley, is situated at the eastern end of Snipes mountain. It is surrounded for miles in all directions except toward the ridge by a rich, irrigated region. The townsite forms the center of a circle embracing a solid area of cultivated land, broken only by the projection into it of the narrow end of Snipes mountain. Twelve miles to the north rises the sharp crest of the barren divide separating the watersheds of the Columbia and the Yakima; seven miles south is the Yakima river at Mabton ; while the broad valley stretches eastward and westward at least twenty miles in each direction.

company: "At the instance of friends, in 18S9, I had come from Montana to look over the irrigation project presented by that portion of the lower Yakima valley, locally called the Sunnyside section. So one June morning, accompanied by a guide, I left North Yakima. We soon passed through the gap, Parker bottom and out into the valley. A few miles farther down we ascended Snipes mountain and traveled along its summit, the better to view the country on either side. When we reached the lower end of the bridge, the vast area of practically level land below us plainly indicated that we were in the heart of the region. As I gazed on the scene I then and there resolved that a city should some day be built at the base of the mountain, for the site was ideal. My mind had been made up regarding the feasibility of the canal project, and next day we rode to the nearest telegraph station, where I wired for my crew of engineers. The rest of the story has been told so often that it need not be repeated. "

The canal was built and two townsites laid out in the region to be irrigated, Sunnyside and Zillah. Mr. Granger became the president of each townsite company, the stockholders being canal company officials. True to his resolve, President Granger platted the town of Sunnyside, named after the great canal, on the site he chose that June evening. The land was acquired from the railroad company, being section twentyfive, of township ten north, range twenty-two east. The canal passed the site in 1893, and in December of that year the engineers surveyed the town.

In the meanwhile, through Paul Schultze, the townsite company offered William H. Cline, of Tacoma, a business and a residence lot in Sunnyside if he would open a store there. Mr. Cline accepted the offer, shipped his goods and lumber to Mabton, and during December, 1893, built Sunnyside's pioneer store, on Mayhew street, just west of Sixth, or Main street. The grocery was opened for trade about January 1, 1894. The prospect was not an inviting one, as there were then not a dozen families in the vicinity, the usual troubles of placing a light soil under cultivation were experienced and the hard times were just beginning to be felt.

Perhaps a few words may here be said regarding the early settlement of the region surrounding Sunnyside. The pioneer families in the district were those of Jock Morgan and John Ferrell, who lived five or six miles from Sunnyside toward Mabton. They were not there as farmers or fruit growers, but as cattle and horse raisers, for at one time that vast area was covered with the succulent bunch-grass. The first real settlers as farmers in the vicinity of the town were Joseph Kunz, who located with his family in 1890 on a homestead a mile northeast of town; John Chisholm, Nat Stone, William T.

one or two others. The honor of pioneership belongs to the first mentioned gentleman, who came before work on the canal was begun. To this list may be added the following who settled at an early date in the Outlook district, a few miles west of Sunnyside: W. H. Norman, P. S. Wood, B. H. Nichols, William Finn, A. Croonquist, T. J. Cooper, B. F. Brooks, A. Christenson, Fred Mansfield, Jack Williams and George Clark. These pioneers either settled upon government land or purchased land from the Northern Pacific & Yakima Irrigation Company. The waters reached them in the year 1893.

"During the spring of 1894," says Joseph L. Lannin, who came at that time, "there was a large influx of people who bought land, settled down and began preparing homes for themselves. Of those I may mention G. W. Wentworth, J. J. Brown, James Henderson, Emory Thompson, L. Pace, G. G. Mayenschein, C. E. Johnson, Andrew Green, P. S. Bacon, R. D. Young, M. Webber, F. C. Gorton, D. R. and J. W. McGinnis, E. E. Ferson, I. H. Rhodes, J. W. Day, M. D. Clarke and L. P. Vandermark. When I arrived in Sunnyside there were nine acres of alfalfa all told, of which Mr. Bacon and Mr. Mayenschein had three each. In those early years we had to do something for amusement, so we organized a literary and a dramatic society, both of which met first in the Gillis building and subsequently in the schoolhouse. (Mr. Lannin was elected president of the literary and Mrs. Lannin president of the dramatic society.) We had good times, you may be sure, and derived no little benefit from our associations. The foundation was laid then and there for the good fellowship which is now so characteristic of our people. "

Late in 1S93, Joseph Miller had established a stage to Mabton, and in January, 1894, the town secured a postoffice, D. R. McGinnis becoming postmaster. He was local sales agent of the townsite company. In January, also, Reuben Hatch built a commodious hotel, jocularly known as the "Incubator." A little later a man named Garland established a lumber yard and erected two small frame buildings on Sixth street, now occupied by George's mercantile house. In April, Miles Cannon opened the town's second store in one of these buildings, and about the same time B. M. Brewer occupied the other with a hardware business. D. C. Gillis, also, erected three buildings on Sixth street, which were soon in use by Crabb's restaurant, Gillis & Farrell's real estate firm, and as a schoolhouse and public hall respectively. Before the close of the year 1894, the town had, besides the establishments mentioned, another hotel, the Globe, built by Nathan H. Morris, which is still in operation; a drug store, opened by James Henderson in the fall; a livery stable, put upon Mayhew avenue

Withal, the year 1894, the first year of Sunnyside's existence, was a prosperous one and productive of a rapid growth in the new town. By January 1, 1895, there were probably a hundred people in Sunnyside, but the widespread financial depression was soon severely felt. Scores were obliged during 1S95 to leave their farms in the Sunnyside valley. Many had sold land in the east, and made a payment upon their Washington farms, but being unable now to secure the balance due them, they were obliged to return and take back the old property. The valley was almost deserted for a period. In Sunnyside every business house but one, namely, William H. Cline's store, closed its doors.

But with the return of prosperity late in 1897 times in Sunnyside began to improve. The next spring J. B. George came to the town with another store; old lines of business were reestablished and new ones founded, settlers began flocking into the country and a general industrial revival was experienced. Among the many new buildings of importance that were erected that spring was the Odd Fellows' hall, a two-story structure, of which the lower floor is fitted up as an opera house and public hall. It is a very creditable building to a town of Sunnyside's size.

During the early years of Sunnyside's history travelers crossed the Yakima river at Mabton, the nearest railroad station, on a scow ferry operated by Jock Morgan. At times the old scow was dangerous, and anyway the people desired something better than a ferry of any kind, so in the summer of 1S97 a public meeting was held in Sunnyside for the purpose of taking steps to secure an improvement of conditions at the river crossing, of which meeting Joseph L. Lannin was president. A committee consisting of H. D. Jory, Tobias Beckner and Hugh Gray was appointed to look after the matter of building a bridge across the river. They laid the proposition before the board of county commissioners and secured an appropriation from the county, which, together with the generous donations of labor and money made by farmers and business men. including seven hundred dollars in cash and labor by the residents of Sunnyside, made possible, in 189S, the construction of the present substantial bridge.

About this time what is known as the Christian Co-operative movement was organized by Messrs. S. J. Harrison, Christian Rowland and H. M. Lichty for the purpose of colonizing the Sunnyside region. These three men had been associated for a number of years in church work, as members of the Dunkard, also known as the Brethren and German Baptist, religious sect. The gentlemen named met from year to year in the national conventions of their people. At one of these meetings, Mr. Harrison was chosen editor of the Evangelist, the denominational paper. For several years he and Mr. Lichty had considered the question of colonizing their people in some favored section of the west, and in the course of their investigations, Mr. Harrison spent a year in California. While looking over that section, Mr. Rowland was asked to join them, and did so. The party came very near agreeing on a point in the San Joaquin valley, but Mr. Rowland saw a promising field in Texas, and five or six investigating trips followed.

Mr. Lichty then drew the attention of his associates to the Sunnyside region. He had acted as bookkeeper in the Yakima National Bank for a short period, and by reason of his residence in the county was somewhat acquainted wilh its resources. Albert Saylor, his old friend and a former partner, who had lived ten years at North Yakima, urged Lichty to take advantage of the reduction that was made in 1897 in the price of Sunnyside lands. Messrs. Harrison, Rowland and Lichty looked upon the matter favorably and at once organized to carry out their long cherished project. They were members of the Brethren or Progressive division of the Dunkard church, but had many warm friends in the German Baptist, or Conservative, branch; so had little trouble in securing the enthusiastic indorsement of their scheme by D. L. Miller, a prominent colonizer of the latter branch.

Under the name of the Christian Co-operative Colony, the firm began work in 1897, bringing about twenty people into the district that year. Instead of colonizing their own people exclusively, they determined to embrace all Christian workers and secure, so far as possible, their cooperation in building up a Christian community. In their efforts they have been unusually successful. During the first six years of their work, Mr. Harrison estimates that they brought directly more than three hundred people into the Sunnyside region, besides exerting a powerful and ever increasing indirect influence. The Christian Co-operative Colony has done a great work in the Sunnyside valley. Its influence has ever been exerted for the substantial development of this noted irrigation district and the highest good of its citizens. Largely through the efforts of this firm the Christian Co-operative Telephone Association was organized, and many other public projects have been carried to success. Messrs Harrison, Rowland and Lichty are still engaged in their work of colonizing. Mr. Rowland resides in Lanark, Illinois, the others in Sunnyside.

In the fall of 1899 Messrs. Harrison, Rowland and Lichty purchased the holdings of the Philadelphia Securities Company in the Sunnyside townsite. That corporation had acquired the property from the original owners through a mortgage. They still own about two hundred lots, the remainder having been disposed of to various individuals. The title is in Mr. Harrison's name. All deeds issued contain a forfeiture clause designed to keep out of the city saloons, gambling resorts and houses of ill-fame. At present Sunnyside is without any of these demoralizing institutions, and there is but one saloon in the entire valley.

So rapidly did the town grow after its resurrection in 1898, that by 1902 the citizens were able to incorporate under the state laws as a city of the fourth class. Attorney Henry H. Wende had charge of the matter. The town became a municipal corporation September 2d. Its first officers were: Mayor, James Henderson; councilmen, Joseph L. Lannin, W. B. Cloud, William Hitchcock, C. W. Taylor and George Vetter; treasurer, J. B. George; attorney, Henry H. Wende. Mr. Vetter became the city's second mayor, and Henry H. Wende its third. The latter is serving at present. The remaining city officials at present are: Councilmen, Elza Lean, W. B. Cloud, G. W. Reece, L. C. McDonald, E. J. Young; treasurer, L. E. Johnson; clerk, H. W. Turner; attorney, C. E. Woods; marshal, B. F. James. At the last city election one hundred' and thirty-five votes were polled. Conservative estimates place the population of the city now at not less than seven hundred.

In educational and religious facilities, Sunnyside is especially blest, the development along these lines being abnormal for a young western town. As early as the spring of 1894, Mrs. Anna Williams, subsequently Mrs. Albert Wright, taught a private school in her own home to accommodate the few children then in the community. Later in the summer the pioneer public school was established in the Gillis building with Professor H. G. Rousch as teacher. He instructed between thirty and thirty-five pupils. In the fall the district built what is now known as the Emerson school. This building originally cost twenty-two hundred dollars, but a fifteen hundred-dollar addition was added in 1901. The same year, 1894, another schoolhouse, now known as the Washington school, was erected, under the supervision of P. C. Bacon, two miles east of the village. It cost fifteen hundred dollars.

February 1, 1903, the districts numbered forty-four and forty-eight, embracing sixteensquare miles around Sunnyside, were merged into a union school district for the purpose of building and maintaining a high school. The Washington Irrigation Company donated to this district forty acres of land which netted it fourteen hundred dollars, while S. J. Harrison and H. M. Lichty gave two lots worth five hundred dollars. Then the district issued twenty thousand dollars in five per cent, bonds for the payment of its indebtedness and the erection on a fine five-acre tract in the northwestern part of the town of an eleven-thousand-dollar school- house. The building is a handsome frame structure of modern design, resting on a stone foundation and very prettily located. It will be used this fall for the first time.

The school board of the Sunnyside union district maintaining the Emerson and Washington schools, before mentioned, and the high school, is now composed of Lee A. Johnson, J. B. George and F. W. Noble. More than four hundred and fifty pupils are enrolled in these schools. The corps of teachers in charge is as follows : Superintendent, Miss K. L. Brown; principal high school, Miss Maude M. Corson ; assistant principal high school, J. C. Oliphant; commercial department, Mrs. W. B. Bridgman; Emerson school, eighth grade, E. M. Douglass; seventh grade. Miss Fannie Freeland; sixth grade, J. D. Marsh; fifth grade, Miss A. E. Rodman; fourth grade, Miss G. P. Searle; third grade, Miss M. A. Jacobs, principal Emerson school building; second and first grades, teachers not selected ; Washington school, primary room, Miss H. G* Snyder, principal of the building; grammar room, Miss E. J. Jacobs. The high school courses are broad, including practically everything taught in any high school in the country.

Perhaps no town of like size in the state can boast of more or better churches than Sunnyside. The first church service in the city was held in Gillis' office in February, 1894, by Bishop Wells, of the Episcopal faith, and throughout all the early years the Episcopalians, Methodists and Congregationalists held services alternately, and a union Sunday school was maintained. Now there are ten religous bodies represented. The Sunnyside Sun, in its special issue last February, listed these and their membership as follows: Brethren, 92; Christian, 35; Baptist, 47; Congregational, 45; Episcopal, 40; Free Methodists, 60; German Baptist Brethren, 75; Methodists, 170; Presbyterian, 75, besides a society of Christian Scientists.

The Episcopal, German Baptist and Federated church buildings were all erected in the summer of 1901, and are substantial, handsome edifices. The Free Methodists completed a neat little church last winter. Rev. Edward J. Baird is rector of the Episcopal church. Rev. Rollins E. Blackman has charge of the Presbyterian, Rev. B. J. Hoadley of the Methodist, Rev. Whitmore of the Congregational, Rev. Slosser of the Baptist, Rev. S. P. Westfield of the Free Methodist, S. J. Harrison of the Dunkards, and Rev. S. H. Miller and D. B. Eby of the German Baptist.

The Federated church is so named because it was erected by the Sunnyside Church Federation, an incorporated body consisting of six different denominations, as follows: Baptist, Brethren (Progressive Dunkard), Methodist. Presbyterian, Christian and Congregational. This federated movement has been a grand success, and there is probably not a single denomination in the federation which is not numerically stronger to-day than it would have been if each had undertaken to go it alone. The expense of keeping up five or six separate establishments is obviated. Its growth has been unprecedented and the news of its success has been widely published.

The fraternal spirit is strong in Sunnyside, as is evinced by the presence of nine thriving lodges - Sunnyside Lodge, No. 49, I. O. O. F., and its auxiliary, Rebekah Lodge, Sunnyside Camp, No. 561, Modern Woodmen of America, with its auxiliary, the Royal Neighbors; Edith Lee Lodge, No. 73, A. O. U. W. ; a Masonic lodge just being chartered, and lodges of the Fraternal Brotherhood of America, Order of Washington and Yeomen. The city churches also maintain various organizations for charitable and religious work, including a home-finding society.

Quite recently the city established a public library. To Mrs. Joseph L. Lannin belongs the credit of originating this enterprise and doing more than any other to carry it to a successful issue. Through her individual efforts a subscription of five hundred and fifty dollars was raised in the town, a donation of town lots valued at five hundred dollars secured from the owners of the townsite, and a promise of twelve hundred dollars' worth of land obtained from the Washington Irrigation Company. An organization was effected in October, 1902, with Mrs. Geneva Lannin as president; Rev. Lee Johnson, vicepresident; H. Perin, secretary; S. J. Stewart, Mrs. J. R. Harvey, Henry Wende, J. W. Sanger and E. C. Taylor as trustees. However, before this administration was able to complete all arrangements, a new one was elected with William B. Bridgman as president, and a short time ago the library was purchased. Temporarily it occupies a rented building.

The Sunnyside Bank was organized April 15, 1902, by well-known Yakima county business men, with an authorized capital of twenty-five thousand dollars. A general banking and ex- - change business is transacted. This institution is fortunate in having for its stockholders and directors men of known business ability and experience. The directors and other officers are: S. J. Harrison, president; N. Woodin, vicepresident; L. E. Johnson, cashier; P. J. Lichty, of Sunnyside, George Donald, president of the Yakima National Bank, and Miles Cannon, president of the Yakima Valley Bank.

Sunnyside has two telephone systems, a long distance system whose wires extend all over the Northwest, and a local line. What is now the Christian Co-operative Telephone Association, with its nearly two hundred telephones and its seventy-five miles of main line, connecting Prosser, Belma, Mabton, Outlook, Zillah, Toppenish, Parker and Wapato with each other and Sunnyside - its base and headquarters - was first conceived by Homer L. Brown, its former electri- cian, now deceased, and S. J. Harrison. Mr. Brown furnished the knowledge of the business, and Mr. Harrison and three associates the money to connect their own residences and run a line to Mabton, thus giving them connection with the railroad. This was in April, 1900. The original plan was simply to give a few neighbors and merchants in Sunnyside a telephone connection with the depot, seven miles away, but these gentlemen built better than they knew. They had started what those farmers, who were not neighbors in the strict sense of the word, saw that they wanted and must have. New members were added. New lines had to be built. An exchange had to be put in at Sunnyside. The benefit of the telephone spread from house to house. Mr. S. J. Harrison had up to this time assumed the responsibility of this growth, both financial and otherwise. The present association was incorporated at that time with a capital stock of fifty thousand dollars, one thousand shares at fifty dollars each, with the following officers: S. J. Harrison, president; William LeMay, 'vice-president; R. D. Young, secretary and treasurer. At a recent meeting of the stockholders the price of stock was advanced to seventy-five dollars per share, or twenty-five dollars above the par value.

The city is connected with Mabton and Zillah by stage lines, now owned by Allen & Mathieson Bros. The Zillah stage makes daily trips; the Mabton stage makes three round trips daily except Sundays, when only two round trips are made. This excellent transportation system gives the city as many mails as any town on the railroad possesses. However, the historic stage bids fair to cease soon its labors in the Sunnyside valley, as there is every reason to believe that the Northern Pacific will soon build a belt line from Prosser to Toppenish, via Sunnyside, directly tapping one of the richest sections on its entire route.

One of the important enterprises of the Sunnyside valley and of the town is the Mountain View Creamery, established and owned by E. E. Ferson. For the year ending December 31, 1903, this institution gathered 137,474 pounds of cream. It made last year 39,307 pounds of butter, for which it received an average price of 22J3 cents, and paid out to its patrons the sum of $8,858.82, an average per month of $738.24. The concern is in a highly prosperous condition.

One of the real forces at work in the community - and one of no mean strength - is the Sunnyside Sun, to whose courtesy we are indebted for much information concerning the field in which it circulates. The first issue appeared May 24, 1901, and since that date the paper has steadily improved in every respect until it has become one of central Washington's leading weeklies. The Sun's founder, editor and proprietor is William Hitchcock.

The Sunnyside postoffice, George Vetter, postmaster, was advanced to the presidential class, January 1, 1904. The business of this office increased forty per cent, last year. There are now two rural free deliver)' routes connected with it.

Tributary to the city of Sunnyside is an area of thirty-five thousand acres of tillable land, of which at present nearly twenty thousand are in cultivation. It is estimated that fifteen thousand are in alfalfa, which last year yielded seventyfive thousand tons, selling at an average price of five dollars. One firm of stockmen, Courtney & Wright, bought thirty thousand tons of Sunnyside hay last season. Although there are several hundred acres of orchard and vineyards surrounding the city, this district is surpassed in horticulture by the upper canal district near Zillah. But berries, vegetables, etc., are produced abundantly, and it seems to be the general opinion among those competent to judge that Sunnyside will in the future be famous for its market gardening. Experts claim that the soil is especially adapted to this kind of intensive farming. One gardener last summer raised over five hundred dollars' worth of vegetables on half an acre of land within the corporate limits of the town. He marketed radishes, lettuce, onions, cabbage, cauliflower, beets, parsnips, carrots, turnips, lima beans, bush beans, peas, cucumbers, melons, celery, eggplant and tomatoes. Celery proved to be the best crop raised.

The healthfulness of Sunnyside may truthfully be said to be much greater than that usually found in irrigated districts. Dr. J. R. Harvey, one of Sunnyside's prominent physicians, states that during the past year there have been about fifteen cases of typhoid fever, of which only one proved fatal. Of pneumonia, in this same period, there were only two cases reported, neither of which terminated fatally. Sunnyside has not lost a case of pneumonia during the past three years. Although the people do not desire to advertise their section as a health resort, they feel that much injustice has been done them in the matter of health reports and claim to live in a section whose sanitary conditions are above the average.

In the southeastern part of Yakima county, and eighty-seven miles from its seat of justice and local government, is the thriving town of Kennewick. It enjoys an exceedingly fortunate location, being about midway between Spokane and Puget sound, while its low elevation, three hundred and sixty-five feet above sea level, gives to it and the country immediately surrounding the advantage of a semi-tropical climate. Certainly no town in the state surpasses it in the brevity and mildness of its winter seasons. "Here smiling spring its earliest visit pays," while autumn's delightful charm lingers long after winter has enfolded most of the other towns of the state in its chill embrace.

The advantage of a warm, genial climate to a town depending in large measure upon fruit culture for its support is fully apparent. A high price always rewards the men who can first get their fruit products on the market. The earliest strawberries often command prices several times greater than those which often obtain even a week or two afterwards, and the same is true of other small fruits. Kennewick growers are in a position to outdo practically all competitors in the matter of early berries, for they enjoy a season earlier by two or three weeks than do growers in most other parts of their own county, one of the warmest in the state. Indeed, it is claimed that they can even antedate with their products the horticulturists of the famed Hood River valley of Oregon.

Inasmuch as Kennewick is located in an arid plain of great extent, one would hardly expect it to be favored with an environment specially pleasing to the eye, but the surrounding country is not without scenic beauty. Far to the east, the wondrous Blue mountains rear skyward their lofty crests; on the south the general level finds at length a boundary in the hillsides which form the stairway to the prodigious Horse Heaven wheat plateau ; away to the northward shadowy uplands, clad in the beautiful hue which nature delights to give to all distant objects, stand projected against the paler blue of the sky; while right at one's feet is the great Columbia, worldfamed for its beauty. A trip to the center of the railway bridge which spans at Kennewick this mighty river places one in a position to view its pellucid waters, and soon the beholder is convinced that it needs not the embellishment of verdure-clad banks to give it a divine charm. Though its currents are not of crystal clearness, a greenish blue cast has been imparted to them which, while it takes away transparency, adds a touch which appeals most strongly to the aesthetic eye. At times the Columbia, as seen from the bridge, suggests to one the river of Addison's vision, which appeared to emerge from a deep mist at one end of the valley and to lose itself in a deep mist at the other.

On the Columbia plains contiguous to Kennewick may be observed the exceeding gorgeousness of coloring which is wont to characterize the advent and departure of the sun in desert places - a gorgeousness never equaled in more favored localities - while here and there a wealth of verdure contrasts strongly with the sandy, sage brush plains, and gives earnest of the beauty which shall here develop, when irrigation shall have done its perfect work.

The history of Kennewick for many years is one of long waiting and hope deferred. When the railroad made its way into the country in 1883, and it was known that eventually a bridge would span the great Columbia at this point, the fact that a town would one day be built became apparent to some of the men engaged in construction work. C. J. Beach, who was at that time in the company's employ, filed upon government land in the vicinity, and his homestead is a part of the townsite. The other part was railroad land. The first building in town was Beach's house, which still stands, but the honor of having erected the first structure for business purposes belongs to one Joseph Diamond. It was built in 1884 and filled with a small stock of general merchandise. Mr. Diamond catered to the trade of the railway employees, during the period of

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Toad building, then to the needs of settlers in the vicinity, until about 1890, when he removed to Walla Walla. Several merchants had stores in Kennewick at different times, and blacksmith shops and saloons were opened - perhaps a few other business establishments also, but the growth of the place was slight until 1892, when an attempt was made to irrigate the arid lands contiguous. It was then that the town was regularly platted. Mr. Beach tells us that the village received its rather peculiar name in this way: The railway company, desiring to name the town to be after the first white man to visit its site, aside from those of Lewis and Clarke's party, made some inquiry among the Indians as to who of the pale-face race first came among them. The simple natives tried to say "Chenoweth, " referring to an early trapper, but corrupted the name into something which sounded like "Kennewick," and Kennewick the town was christened.

The Yakima Irrigation and Improvement Company, for such was the name of the aggregation of progressive individuals who first sought to redeem the Kennewick country, did not meet with complete success, though it spent much money in the construction of a lengthy canal from the Horn rapids of the Yakima river, some seven miles below Kiona. The work of this company gave a temporary impetus to Kennewick, and in the years 1892 and 1893 there was a very considerable influx of people. It was then that the magnificent Columbia Hotel building was erected. But the ditch was too small and totally inadequate; the irrigation company was unable to enlarge it, owing to the hard times which began to oppress all classes in 1894; so the town suspended developments and soon relapsed into much the same condition it was in before the quickening resulting from this enterprise.

The return of prosperity brought renewed activity to the Columbia plains, as to other parts of the state and nation, but it was not until 1902 that the work of town building was resumed at Kennewick in good earnest. The ditch, water right and realty holdings of the old irrigation company passed at length into the hands of what is known as the Northern Pacific Irrigation Company, which in February of the year designated began the work of enlarging the ditch. This undertaking was intrusted to Superintendent John Russell, a comptent and careful man, who, supplied with abundant means and instructed to do a good job at all cost, has built what is claimed to be the finest irrigation canal in the state. At Kennewick, twenty-one miles from the head-gate, it is five feet deep, eighteen feet wide on the bottom and twenty-eight on top. The ditch is thirty miles long and so situated that about fifteen thousand acres can be irrigated from it. A perpetual water right costs the farmer or horticulturist about thirty-five dollars

Though the ditch was not completed in time for use in 1902, it has already produced a wonderful effect in the development of Kennewick. The population of the town a year ago last May was fifty. In May, 1903, it was estimated at four hundred, and conservative men now claim for Kennewick a population of five hundred. Almost all the present business houses have been opened in the past eighteen months, so a simple enumeration of them gives a good idea of the 'commercial development wrought in that brief period. They are: Dry goods and furnishings, Scott & Company; general merchandise, Johnson & Fullerton, Robert Geary, Coffin Brothers, L. S. Erley; hardware, Rudow & Schweikert; hardware and furniture, H. A. Bier; Exchange Bank of Kennewick, S H. Amon, president, John Sherman, vice-president, J. R. Amon, cashier; shoe and second-hand store, T. S. Cantrill; drug store, H. R. Haynes; blacksmith shop, Charles E. Reed; carpenter shop, Schroeder & Callahan; real estate, C. J. Beach, C. A. Lundy, Cosgrove & Hanson, C. F. Freithaupt, H. A. Hover; shaving parlors, J. F. Shafer and B. F. Nye; livery and feed stables, H. E. Beach and C. M. Lloyd ; lumber yards, St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company and Frank Emigh; saloons, N. R. Sylvester, Hawkins & Wilkie; hotels, the Antlers, William Keefer, proprietor, the Hotel Hover, H. A. Hover, proprietor, the Hampshire House, C. P. Stanyan, proprietor, and the Hotel Kennewick (the last named of which was built by C. J. Beach in 1892) ; Japanese restaurant; confectionery, etc., W. A. Morain; postmistress, Ida M. Morain ; confectionery and ice-cream, B. F. Nye; wall paper and paint, M. P. Fuller; attorneys, Daniel Boyd and Fay Dean, the latter being also an abstractor; physicians, Drs. William Pallister and J. W. Hewitson: music teacher, Mabel Haney; newspaper, the Columbia Courier, C. A. Anderson, editor.

There are two churches in Kennewick - the Presbyterian and one used by the Congregationalists and Methodists jointly. The Modern Woodmen of America have a flourishing local camp, and a camp of their auxiliary society, the Royal Neighbors of America, has also been established. The Kennewick public school district was organized in 1884. At that time it was twelve miles square and contained fifty-four children of school age. The present schoolhouse, which was erected in 1893, is a two-room structure in which a graded school is maintained during nine months of each year. An addition the importance of which can hardly be estimated has recently been made to the educational facilities of the town by the establishment there of the Academy Emanuel. The superb building* orig- inally erected by the Yakima Irrigation and Improvement Company for hotel purposes has been purchased by Matinas O. and Mrs. Carolina Klitten, and is now being renovated and fitted for the use of the academy at a cost of about seven thousand dollars. The people of Kennewick take great pride in this institution, but as it is described in some detail elsewhere in this volume, extended reference to it here is unnecessary.

An enumeration of the attractive features of Kennewick would surely include notice of the very extensive and superb collection of curios belonging to D. W. Owen. Though it is a strictly private collection, it has attracted not a little notice from government naturalists and curio hunters far and near. Mr. Owen receives many letters of inquiry from persons in all parts of the United Staes, while an occasional communication reaches him from some point in the British Isles. A man of seventy-three summers, he has been an enthusiastic collector from his earliest years, and the result is a miniature museum. It includes mounted animals and birds, petrified objects, fossil remains, rare pottery, heirlooms, buffalo robes and other skins, specimens of Indian handiwork, arrow heads, ancient pottery, pictures of monstrosities, a Buddhist idol, portions of papyrus with Greek characters inscribed thereon, curios from Pompeii, the holy land, the far north and the far south, pieces of wood from the steamer Beaver, the Charter Oak and other historic structures, specimens of the continental and other paper money of two centuries or more ago, ancient American coins, rare foreign coins, shells, beautiful agates, opals and other precious stones and many things rare and interesting. The collection and the kind hospitality of the enthusiastic curio lover who owns it have made a deep and lasting impression upon the mind of the writer.

It is hoped that the foregoing paragraphs of this sketch have conveyed to the reader some idea of the town of Kennewick and the country contiguous to it, past and present. One of the most hopeful portents of its future is the faith and courage of its inhabitants. These are not backward in pointing out to the visitor that the Northern Pacific Railway Company believes in and is partial to their town, and some of them infer that the recent building of a five-thousanddollar passenger depot and the expressed intention of the company to build a freight depot of like cost, together with other unmistakable signs, indicate an intention to build down the north bank of the Columbia at no distant date, thus making Kennewick an important distributing center and railway point. "At any rate," say they, "the state of Oregon will build a portage road around The Dalles, has appropriated money for that purpose already - and soon the cheery whistle of the steamboat will greet our ears."

These people are firm in the belief that the warm, dry, healthful climate of their section, its excellent drainage to the Columbia river, its rich, volcanic soil, the superb system of irrigation with which it is supplied, its early seasons, its splendid location, its excellent railway facilities and its inexhaustible markets must secure for their town and country a high and abundant development.

Mabton, a bustling village on the Northern Pacific railroad thirty-eight miles southeast of North Yakima, lies at the extreme eastern edge of the Yakima Indian reservation in the lower valley of the Yakima. It is the shipping point of the rich Sunnyside district and considerable of the fertile Horse Heaven and Bickleton wheat belt, a fact in itself sufficient to give more than ordinary importance to the station. A few years ago Mabton was but a telegraph point with a side track and a store: to-day it is a lively, rapidly growing place of probably one hundred and fifty people with exceedingly bright prospects for the future.

Thousands of acres of rich, arid sage brush soil surround Mabton on every side. The great stretches of dull gray plains, for the most part practically level or slightly undulating, extend for miles up and down the valley, which winds three or four miles wide between Snipes mountain and the Columbia river divide. Across the river a mile and a half north of Mabton, green fields and foliage mark the beginning of the Sunnyside irrigated district, which extends back many miles, reaching far up the slope of the Rattlesnake range and as far as the eye can see up and down the river. Through a low gap in the high basaltic wall to the north, a glimpse may be had at this writing of a verdant wheat field, betokening the lower edge of Yakima's cereal region, but not one green spot is to be seen on the vast plain below; only the promise of a great future, when irrigation shall have begun its transforming task.

The reason for the present condition of this valley land is that the lower end of the reservation 'is still without water, and the presence of the large reserve makes it almost impossible to carry out any canal project which has for its object the irrigation of the valley below the reservation. It is quite probable that the new government ditch will be extended so as to cover most of the reservation, and some of the Mabton region, but it is though.t that in order to bring water upon all the land in the vicinity of and beyond Mabton, a canal will have to be taken out of the Naches river. This would be an expensive undertaking, but enterprising men have nevertheless applied for permission to build an aqueduct across the reservation, and are now preparing plans for its construction. The open- ing of the reservation which is expected to take place in the near future, will greatly simplify the water problem, and, owing to Mabton's fine natural location, will give a mighty impetus to the life of that town.

When Samuel P. Flower, formerly of Bickleton, erected a warehouse and store building at Mabton in June, 1892, the only other structures there were a section house and a water tank. They stood on the reservation a few yards west of the line. Mr. Flower's building was placed on the company's right of way just west of the section house. His small stock of general merchandise occupied one end of the little warehouse, and his customers were the few homesteaders in the region and those who occasionally came to Mabton siding to ship stock. The next year the railway company built a station and installed T. W. Howell as telegraph operator. That year also Edward F. Flower became the pioneer postmaster of theMabton settlement. In 1S94 Tobias Beckner established his present general store, just off the reservation; in 1895 Frank Martin opened the Hotel Mabton on its present site; school district No. 36 was also organized and a little frame schoolhouse built a mile and a half southeast of Mabton, in which Miss Lima Piatt taught the pioneer school during the winter of 1895-96. The year following a substantial depot building took the place of the telegraph station.

The next business to be established at Mabton was Tilton F. Phillips' general store, which came in 1898. A year later George Miller opened a blacksmith shop; then came J. L. Brewer's harness shop, and in 1901 the Hub Mercantile Company's store, the North Yakima Milling Company's warehouse, the Birk Hotel, built by Ferdinand Selle, and other business concerns. Mabton's greatest development, however, came in 1903, and at the present writing it is rapidly expanding along all lines; nor is its growth unnatural or in any degree the result of an effort to boom the place for purposes of speculation.

The original townsite lies in section one, township eight north, range twenty-two east, being upon railroad land. Of this section, one hundred and eighty-eight acres are within the reservation. So strong was the demand made for a townsite that about the first of the year 1901 the railway company platted eight acres of this section adjoining the depot grounds. The lots were all soon sold, and May 16, 1902, Joseph A. Humphrey and Mrs. Amy M. Flower purchased the remainder of section one - four hundred and fortyfour acres. They incorporated the Mabton Townsite Company, which has platted one hundred acres into town lots, practically all of the property being south of the railroad. Northeast of this and the original townsite and adjoining the reservation, lies Phillips' addition of forty acres, which is a portion of the southeast quarter of section thirty-one, township nine, range twentythree, originally the Dalton Mansfield homestead, filed upon in the early nineties. Fred Phillips subsequently acquired the homestead through relinquishment. The reservation line passes through the center of the town as now built up, those living on Indian land leasing it; but it is quite probable that this condition of affairs will not long continue. The town is as yet unincorporated.

District No. 36 held a special election May 28, 1904, at which, by a vote of fifty-three to five, the taxpayers voted to issue bonds in the sum of four thousand dollars for the purpose of building a new brick schoolhouse. The site selected is on the Mabton Townsite Company's addition south of the tracks; the building will be erected this summer. The old schoolhouse southeast of town was abandoned after the first year's use, the district accepting the offer of the Methodists to use their church at Mabton. This comfortable little building has served as both church and schoolhouse since that time. It was built in 1894. At present the Presbyterian society also uses the building. Rev. H. E. Hoadley conducts the Methodist services. The Mabton school board is composed of Tilton F. Phillips, E. J. Eidemiller and Ewald Selle. Miss Mary McKay and Miss A. M. Cone will have charge of the school next year.

An interesting enterprise is now under way at Mabton, namely, the drilling of an artesian well, the Mabton Townsite Company being engaged in this laudable undertaking. At this writing the drill is down eight hundred and forty feet.

Mabton's business interests are much larger than a casual observer would judge. Last December ( 1904) the freight receipts at this station are reliably reported to have been between thirty thousand and thirty-five thousand dollars, and December was not an unusual business month. Some days as high as twenty cars are loaded with wheat, hay and fruit from the Bickleton, Horse Heaven and Sunnyside districts.

The Mabton Chronicle was established by Bernard J. Pacius, May 12, 1904, and is a creditable weekly, a six-column folio, independent in politics. It occupies a cozy, well-equipped office. A directory of the town's other business men and establishments follows: General stores, Tilton F. Phillips & Company, the Hub Mercantile Company, of which Charles Bilger is manager, and The Spot, owned by N. J. Beckner; lumber, lime, cement, etc.. Samuel P. Flower & Company, St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company, Dean D. Stair, manager, and the Cascade Lumber Company; hotels, The Mabton. Frank Martin, proprietor, East Side Hotel, C. M Christy, proprietor; livery, Cyrus O. Wommack ; restaurants, J. B. Early, Roy Glaze; warehouses, Interior Warehouse Company, Balfour Guthrie & Co., proprietors, Tacoma Grain Company, James Skirving, manager; feed, flour, grain, North Yakima Milling Company, Edward Eidemiller, manager; blacksmith shop, A. Safstrom; drug store, Mabton Drug Company, Alexander Angus, proprietor; barber shop, J. S. McArthur; temperance hall, Herbert Kenyon: boots and shoes, Frank M. Nelson : real estate, Mabton Townsite Company, Samuel P. Flower, manager, Fred Phillips, W. L. Leonard, Fred Selle, J. B. Early; lawyer, George W. Paswater; physician and dentist, Dr. James E. Stephenson; plumber, house-moving, Swald Selle; carpenters and contractors, Ernest A. Colby, A. W. McKinney, N. E. Litherland.

A thrice-day line of stages is operated by Allen & Mathieson between Sunnyside and Mabton, and a tri-weekly line between Mabton and Bickleton by C. O. Wommack. The Pacific States and the Christian Co-operative Telephone Companies have lines extending into the town.