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

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

Situated about the center of a large, fertile valley on the main line of the Northern Pacific Railway, nineteen miles southeast of North Yakima, is Toppenish, the principal trading and shipping point on the Yakima Indian reservation. At present it has perhaps a hundred inhabitants, but the volume of its business transactions would do credit to a place of much larger population.

Toppenish is an Indian word, applied also to a creek whose source is in the Simcoe mountains, the valley's western boundary. In the Yakima tongue, "toppenish" is said to mean "sloping," and in the Klickitat, "the main or highest trail."

The valley in which Toppenish lies is similar in shape, except that it is longer, to the valley surrounding North Yakima. It is bounded on the north by the Columbia river divide, on the south by the Simcoe range, and on the east and by low hills pierced by the river. The Toppenish and Satus creeks, whose sources are in the Simcoe range, flow through the reservation. As the valley reaches the foothills, the lands become very broken and rough, except in these creek valleys, where the principal Indian settlements are.

When the Northern Pacific Railway was built through the reservation, in the middle eighties, a section house, water tank and telegraph station were established there. The point was designated Toppenish. Some years later stock yards were built by the company, side tracks were put in and a station agent was appointed. W. J. Jordan in 1888 became the station's second agent, and with his advent the shipping business began at once to increase materially.

Thomas Stalen, late in the eighties, opened a trading post on the reservation about three miles below Toppenish, but conducted it only a short time. In 1890 N. H. Lillie secured a post-trader's license from the government and opened the first business house in Toppenish, his building

George Harvey in 1895 succeeded Lillie as posttrader at Toppenish, but in the fall of 1896 sold out his business to J. B. George, who erected the building now forming the rear portion of the Hotel Toppenish. This same year William L. Shearer became station agent, relieving Mr. Jordan. Two years later, in August, 1898, another mercantile establishment entered the community, the Toppenish Trading Company, of which F. A. Williams was the manager and principal owner. This concern soon became the official trading post, which resulted in its becoming master of the business situation. In the meantime Mrs. Carrie Staten secured George's old building and opened a hotel, but she soon after sold to Mrs. S. E. Stone, who leased the place to her son, Harry Stone. The station also had a blacksmith shop at this time, established by Lillie, for whom John Palmer conducted it at first.

About 1898, also, white men began leasing large areas of the reservation, inaugurating the present universal method of farming the valley lands. The first government canal on the reservation was built during 1896-7, covering an area of twenty thousand acres. This aqueduct diverts water from the Yakima river near Wapato, flows for twelve miles in an easterly direction across the valley and empties into Toppenish creek. From the first, the agricultural experiments on the reservation proved highly successful, with the result that white settlers flocked into the region by the score, rapidly placing the Indian lands under cultivation. This year more than five thousand acres of this area will be farmed. A larger area would be cultivated if leasing conditions were more favorable.

From the inception of the leasing regime and the revival of the Sunnyside canal region after the hard times, Toppenish has grown steadily and rapidly, especially as a shipping and receiving point. One by one new business houses have been established, large warehouses erected, old businesses enlarged and trade facilities increased and improved. Among the new institutions may be particularly mentioned the Hotel Toppenish, begun two years ago by Ira Pearsoll, and completed by the present owners, Charles H. Newell and A. N. Sarjent; they opened it for business June 3, 1902. This hotel is three stories high, built of wood, and is quite a pretentious structure for a small town. Another business institution of especial importance is the Washington nursery, established two years ago by former residents of Salem, Oregon. This nursery is one of the best in central Washington and is doing a rapidly increasing business. J. P. McDonald is manager.

Central Washington

thirteen hundred and fourteen hundred cars were required to ship the immense quantities of hay, fruits, potatoes, hops and live stock raised in the tributary region. To dispose of the 1904 crop a much greater number of cars will be required. Five miles of the new government canal, which is designed to irrigate fully fifty thousand acres, have already been completed, and by the utilization of its magic life-giving power, more than three thousand acres are thisyear being converted from sage brush prairie into thrifty farms. Work on the canal was begun last fall. Each year the government will appropriate money for its extension until the proposed twenty miles are finished. The project is of gigantic importance to the county. The government's two canals will place practically all the valley under irrigation, f tarnishing homes for thousands of people, although a general settlement will not be effected so long as the present Indian department rules remain in force. Five commission houses handle the shipping interests.

One of the signs of progressiveness at once noticed in this thrifty community is its excellent educational advantages. The fact that every white inhabitant of the district, with the exception of those living upon the railroad's right of way, is there purely by Indian sufferance has not in the least prevented Toppenish from having one of the best schools in the county. Mrs. Powell taught the pioneer school in 1898. In 1901 district No. 49 leased a small tract of land from T. P. Robbins for ten years and erected thereon a two-room building. Last year the capacity of the building was doubled, bringing the aggregate cost up to forty-two hundred dollars, which was raised by special tax. The schoolhouse is supplied with the most approved equipment of all kinds, and has been so built that if necessary it may be moved at small cost. The district has purchased a library valued at two hundred and fifty dollars, to which it is constantly adding, and owns two organs. Two high school grades are maintained, and next year a drawing and music teacher will be added to the corps. Last year the one hundred and sixty pupils enrolled were under the instruction of Principal Halbert Lawrence, Miss Alice Clark and Miss Kate Hitz. The school board of this unusually progressive district is composed of William L. Shearer, William McAuliff and W. R. Laidler.

The town has one church (the Methodist), of which Rev. J. J. CaHaway is resident pastor. This society erected its cozy, substantial house of worship in 1898 upon a tract of leased land which the society has the prior privilege of purchasing when offered for sale.

Toppenish labors under one unfortunate disadvantage in that it occupies leased land, with the exception of a strip five hundred and ninety feet wide owned by the railroad company. The remainder of the site east of the track is land leased to the whites by Mrs. S. E. Stone, of Indian and white parentage. Lancaster Spencer, an Indian, owns the rest of the site lying west of the railroad. This land, under the law, cannot be sold at the present time. Should serious trouble arise between lessees and lessors, it is possible that the town would be removed to an eighty-acre tract adjoining the eastern side of the railway grant half a mile above the station, as F. A. Williams purchased this land from the government last December at a price of one hundred and one dollars and fifty cents an acre. Mr. Williams is the principal stockholder of the Toppenish Trading Company.

However, despite the unfortunate condition of the townsite, the inhabitants of Toppenish appear to regard the matter as merely an impediment and not a menace to their town's growth. Substantial buildings are constantly going up, including the new stone warehouse of Richey & Gilbert. When finished, this structure will have a total length of two hundred and fifty feet and a width of eighty feet. A directory of the town's business houses would include the following:

General merchandise, Toppenish Trading Company, Coffin Brothers; lumber, the St. Paul & Tacoma Lumber Company, carrying approximately nine hundred thousand feet of lumber, besides lime, cement, laths, shingles, etc., W. H. Holt, manager; commission firms, Richey & Gilbert, Coffin Brothers, Toppenish Trading Company, John L. Craib, J. M. Perry & Company; hotels, The Toppenish, Charles H. Newell and A. M. Sarjent, proprietors, The Staten, Frank Snipes, proprietor; nursery, Washington Nursery Company, J. D. McDonald, manager; bakery, confectionery, Adolphus Gaunt; blacksmith shops, Cantrell & Gibson, Lancaster Spencer; meat markets, T. P. Robbins (established in 1901), Casey & Bond; barber shop, Adolphus Gaunt; cigars and confectionery, Stephenson Brothers; station agent, express agent and postmaster, W. L. Shearer.

Toppenish is well located and is fortunate in possessing broad-minded, progressive business men who will make the most of the advantages which their town possesses in situation and natural resources.

The town that bears this pretty name lies on the high northern bluff of the Yakima river four miles northeast of Toppenish, the nearest railway point, in the very heart of the fruit-growing section of the Yakima valley irrigated by the Sunnyside canal. Fully one hundred and fifty people make their homes in the village.

Nature has dealt most generously with the region surrounding and tributary to Zillah. Its beauty is truly surpassing. The swift waters of the Yakima course noisily through their woodfringed channels eighty feet below the level of the town, then wind prettily down the valley, presenting an entrancing water scene. Off to the south and west, across the Indian reservation, the horizon is converted into a broken line by the Cascade and Simcoe ranges, from which the whitened dome of Mount Adams and the sharp peaksof Mount Ranier rise into conspicuous prominence. To the north lies the high rocky divide separating the Columbia and Yakima watersheds; but by far the most fascinating sight, for many reasons, is that of the country reclaimed by the great life-giving canal and its hundreds of miles of small arteries. The course of the Sunnyside canal is plainly marked upon the dull gray landscape by a wide strip of verdant hay and grain fields, innumerable orchard tracts, pretty farm buildings and rows of stately, waving poplars. Dale and hillside alike have responded to the efforts of the husbandman. The verdure and luxuriance of their new life are fairly dazzling. The object-lesson of irrigation is here overwhelming in its vividness and force. If ever the desert has "blossomed as the rose," it is in the region around Zillah. What is of probably greater importance in this commercial age, this quondam desert is now producing the necessities and luxuries of life in quantities that are rapidly enriching the fortunate owners of the land.

The head-gates of the canal are twelve miles above the town, but, owing to the topography of the country, the cultivated strip between the aqueduct and river is quite narrow for the entire distance, and even a few miles farther; but the region is all intensively farmed and supports a large population, most of whom are engaged in fruit-growing. The soil consists of decomposed lava, volcanic ash and alluvial wash from the surrounding mountains, from twenty-five to one hundred and twenty-five feet in depth and wonderfully rich in all the elements of fertility. The rolling topography of the region watered by the upper portion of the canal adapts it particularly to horticulture; hence it is that we find that industry the principal one, apples being the chief fruit raised. The next crop of importance is alfalfa. Just what amount the Zillah region produces it is impossible to estimate with any degree of accuracy, but the region furnished most of the twelve hundred cars of produce shipped from Toppenish last year. The climate is very favorable, and an altitude of eight hundred feet and good drainage contribute to the healthfulness of the locality. With such a region from which to draw its support, Zillah can hardly fail to prove a permanent commercial center, and when the Yakima reservation, embracing the rich lowlands across the river, is placed under cultivation, the town will draw support from it also.

As might be supposed, Zillah came into being with the construction of the Sunnyside canal in the early nineties, and its growth has been contemporaneous with that of the surrounding country. Walter N. Granger, the promoter of the great canal and its only general superintendent, selected the townsite in the spring of 1892, acting for the Zillah Townsite Company. Of this corporation he was president, while Paul Schultze, Thomas F. Oakes, William Hamilton Hall and C. A. Spofford, the last named acting for Henry Villard, were trustees. Seventy acres of railroad and state land were platted for the new town.

Some time in April, shortly after the selection of the townsite, a party of railroad and canal officials, including President Oakes, his wife and daughter, visited the place in charge of Mr. Granger. The question of naming the town arose, and, after some discussion, Mr. Schultze suggested Zillah, in honor of Miss Zillah Oakes. Then and there the party adopted this pleasing and rather striking name, and by it the town has ever since been known.

The next step in the town's growth was the establishment some weeks later of its first business house, the Zillah Hotel, built by Reuben Hatch. This commodious building is still in use. At the same time the Northern Pacific & Yakima Irrigation Company erected its present handsome, substantial offices. A little later E. J. Jaeger and George Harvey, partners, opened a general store opposite the irrigation company's building, and Col. R. C. Walker was appointed postmaster. Then came the Puyallup Drug Company's store, in charge of C. H. Williams; a hardware store, owned by the present stockholders of the Yakima Hardware Company, and managed by Arthur Knowles, and Blagdon's blacksmith shop. By the first of the year 1893 Zillah had a population of perhaps fifty people.

The year 1S93 was an important one in the town's history. The mercantile firm of Jaeger & Harvey was dissolved and a new one formed by Jaeger and J. B. George. J. P. Fox succeeded Blagdon in the blacksmith shop; C. S. Hale opened a livery barn and a meat market; Dr. Andrew McCracken and Harry Armitage purchased the drug store, and a few new business enterprises were started. An unusually heavy spring flood of the river washed out fully ten acres of the townsite, resulting, however, only in the loss of the land. The town has suffered one further loss of this kind, the spring flood of 1904 having been attended by similar consequences; but it is thought that the channel is now permanently fixed, as it is straight. In 1893 also the hardware and drug stores were burned. Both were rebuilt. E. W. Dooley opened a saloon about this time which was subsequently destroyed by fire.

School district No. 32 was organized in 1894 and a comfortable frame schoolhouse built. With improvements since added, this building has cost twenty-two hundred dollars. It is indeed one in which the district has reason to take pride. Edna Haines taught the first two terms in it.

Zillah has grown steadily, though slowly, since its establishment, always keeping pace with the surrounding country, but never experiencing a convulsive boom. It is now on a more substantial basis than ever before. Until a railroad reaches it, Zillah cannot excel as a business point, but as a residence town and country commercial center, it stands high.

The Episcopal, Christian and Methodist churches have organized in Zillah, and three years ago the first named society erected a fine stone church, costing twenty-five hundred dollars. Rev. E. J. Baird is the present rector. The two other societies occupy the Modern Woodmen hall, a substantial frame building erected by Zillah Lodge, No 5577, M. W. A., which has a large membership. The lodge also has. a thriving auxiliary, the local organization of the Royal Neighbors. The community has three other lodges - Zillah Lodge, No. 175, I. O. O. F., and its auxiliary, and a lodge of the Order of Washington.

The most important business institution of the place is the headquarters of the Washington Irrigation Company, in charge of Superintendent Walter N. Granger and a large staff of other canal company officials The offices are in a handsome frame building, erected upon a beautiful site and so situated as to at once attract the attention of the passing visitor.

Two stage lines and two telephone (local and long distance) lines give Zillah intimate connection with the outside world. A twice-a-day stage is operated by C. H. Furman between Zillah and Toppenish, while Allen & Mathieson run a daily stage between Zillah and Sunnyside.

Zillah's other business men and establishments are: The Zillah Hotel, Cornelius H. Furman, proprietor; general store, Edward J. Jaeger; hardware, groceries, undertaking, Edward L. Lawrence; meats and groceries, Henry Randolph; bakery and feed store, Mrs. M. Jennie McCleery; drug stores, Dr. Andrew McCracken and Dr. James H. Barthley. the proprietors being general practitioners of medicine; jewelry, John Bergman; blacksmiths, Archie J. Elliott, W. R. Newell & Bro. (David A. ) ; millinery. Mrs Ida E. Clute; real estate, Dell A. Fox, C. H. Furman; postmaster, John P. Fox; barber shop, Frank J. Sprague; a saloon.