Walla Walla County, Washington - Chapter 4, 1901

Appoint.Ments Progress Impeded By Indian Outbreak

Reference has already Ijeen incidentally made to the organization of Walla Walla c unty, but it is clearly incumbent that further details be given in regard to the vicissitudes and circumstances which attended the efforts made to erect the county. At the first session of the legislature of the territory after its organization sixteen counties were created, among the number being Walla Walla, whose boundaries were described as follows: "Commencing its line on the north liank of the Columbia river, ojiposite the mouth of the Des Chutes river, and running thence north to the forty-ninth parallel of north latitude;" and it took in all of Washington Territory between this line and the Rocky mountains. Thus it will be seen that the original county included what are now northern Idaho and northern Montana, the greater portion of Klickitat and Yakima counties, and all of the territory comprised within the present counties of Spokane, Stevens. Whitman, Columbia, Garfield and W'alla W'alla. Of the counties of our great state W'alla Walla may be most consistently designated as the "mother of counties."

The ])opulation of this monster county was very small and widely scattered, so that it became expedient to attach it to Skamania county, contiguous on the west, for judicial purposes. The county thus had assignment to the first judicial district, over wliich Judge Obadiah B. Mcl'adden jjresided. The counties of Walla

\\'a!la. Skamania and Clarke were jointly allowed one member in the legislatixe assembly, and the county-seat waa by enactment located on the land claim of Lloyd Brooke, who had, as previously noted, established himself at the old Whitman mission. This first legislature, that of 1854. duly reinforced the political and official dignity of the new county, as is shown in the following extract from the proceedings of the session : "That George C. Bumford, John Owens and A. Dominique Pambrun be, and they are hereby constituted and appointed, the board of county commissioners ; and that Narcises Redmond be. and is hereby appointed sheriff; and that Lloyd Brooke be, and is hereby appointed, judge of probate, and shall have jurisdiction as justice of the peace: all in and for the county of Walla Walla." Of these appointments Gilbert's history speaks somewhat facetiously, as follows: "Some of these officials never knew of the honor that had been cast at their feet: and IMr. Pamljrun, in 18S2. insisted to the writer that hitherto he had been ignorant of this early ap])lication to himself of Shakespeare's fancy, when he wrote that, 'Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.' None of these parties acted officially in the positions to which they were chosen ; and their appointnient. in a region including less than a dozen American citizens, was a legislative absurdity." It will be readily inferred that the Indians yet held practical dominion in the county, and there had as yet been no enactment for the extinguishment of their title to the land within its environments. When this enactment was finally made, it may be said in passing, it gave slight evidence of the application of justice and was a veritable travesty. It must be admitted that there was but-little to attract settlers to this section at that time, for land could be easily secured nearer the centers of cix'ilization, where the hardships to be endured were far less arid where the menace from the Indians was eliminated. Indeed, it is a matter of fact that the federal go\ernment as yet had no right to give title to any claim for lands in the region lying between the Rocky and Cascade mountains. Yet such were the opulent resources but waiting proper development, that the settlement of the Cduntry could not be long deferred.

The next session of the territorial legislature was held in January, 1855, at which time a second attempt was made to bring about a genuine organization of the county. A statute was adopted on the 24th of January, and by the provisions of the same the following officers were chosen: Probate judge, Lloyd Brooke: county auditor. Lloyd Brooke ; county treasurer. Lloyd Brooke : county sheriff. Shirley Ensign : justice of the peace, George C. Bumford; county commissioners. John Owens, George C. Bumford. John F. Noble. The county was further authorized to elect two representatives to the territorial legislature. It is interesting to relate that n(ine of the gentlemen mentioned seemed to desire the honors or emoluments of public office, since none of them cjualified for the duties of the respective jMsitions, thus leaving the county organization one of merely nominal character, as before. Thus it may be seen that AX'alla Walla coimty was born of sore travail and that her infant days were regarded with most apathetic interest. But the day of better things was e\en now dawning, for soon indisputable inducements were offered to the white settlers.

But before the day was fairly to break it was necessary that there should precede, as there has in nearly every .American settlement, that hour of darkness before the dawn, an Inn o C

A few hrief statements, howe\-er, as to the first attempts at settlement may be fittingly connected with this chapter, though in chronology thev carry us somewhat beyond the Indian wars of the succeeding chapters.

Bitgixxing Of Settlement Of Eastern Washington

Subsequent to the Whitman massacre, concerning which special mention has been made on other pages of this volume, the country east of the Cascade mountains, in area the lar-ger portion of the territorj- of Washington, had been without any white settlers, excepting a few here and there. Therefore it had no part in the initiatory steps toward territorial organization. Prior to the '60s it had scarcely any history except that connected with the early explorations, the labors of the early missionaries, the Indians and Indian wars. The first settler in eastern Washington after the missionaries was Henry M. Chase, who entered the W'alla Walla valley in 1851. He was soon followed by Lloyd Brooke, George C. Bum ford and John F. Noble, the three for a time occupying the Whitman mission. They had to leave between 1855 'I'lc^ 1858. After the Indians had been thoroughly subjugated through the vigorous campaign of Colonel George Wright, the interdictof Major-General Wocl against the occupancy of eastern \\'ashington by white people was rescinded by his successor in command. General N. G. Clarke. Accordingly the whole country was thrown open to settlement in 1858. Soon we find a considerable number of families, farmers and stockmen in the Walla Walla valley, and also along and adjacent to the streams flf)wing from the Blue mountains. Thus the development of the Inland Empire became assured. In January, 1859, the territorial legislature organized the county of Walla Walla, and a small village began to grow around Mill creek, about five miles from the Whitman mission. Its first name was Steptoeville, then Waiilatpu. It was selected as the county-seat, and when the commissioners assembled they gave it the name of Walla Walla. The county was so large that one of the commissioners lived only about sixty miles from the present site of Missoula, Montana. It would have taken him six weeks to reach his county-seat on horseback and return. He never qualified.

In i860 the Salmon river gold discovery gave a wonderful impetus to immigration and settlement north of the Snake and by the opening of the year 1861 the mining excitement in that region was at its height. Adventurous mining prospectors flocked in from all directions. It was a verital)le and typical rush for the precious metal, and, as usual in such cases, misfortunes were more in evidence thaiT successes. The winter of 186 1-2 was an exceptionally se\-ere one, and the gold-seekers on their wav to the Salmon river country suffered great hardships, as did, indeed, the settlers of eastern Washington, also. But the influx of population was stopped for but a short time. In the spring of 1862 the people flowed in in a tide, estimated at from five to fifteen thousand, while some say they were twenty thousand strong.

With all the misfortunes concomitant with this almost unparalleled gold excitement, it served as the means of ushering in a new civilization, for it initialed the marvelous development which has taken place in the U]:)per Columbia country, Lewiston, at the confluence of the Snake and Clearwater rivers, was laid out early in 1862. The territorial legislature of 1859 created S])okane county, lying north of Snake river to the British Hue. ^larch 3, 1863, congress passed an act organizing the territory of Idaho out of tlie eastern part of Washington, including nearly all the mining region. There ^verc at that time in eastern Washington the counties of ^^'alla \\'a]la, Klickitat and Spokane. The increase in population north of the Snake river during the next decade was slow. This region had but few scattered settlers, not including the L'nitcd States soldiers. The limits of this work preclude the addition of details with respect to settlements other than those of Walla Walla. It may be sufficient to say here, that ^^'a]la \\'alla contained the only settlement worth mention in what is now Washington for some years after the opening of the country in 1859.