Yakima County, Washington - Chapter 3: Current History, 1904

Chapter 3: Current History

While the stirring events narrated in the last chapter naturally awakened deep interest among the people of the county, they cannot be said to have given pause to the progress of internal development, though they could not fail to check the speed of 'such development in at least a limited degree. It is possible that the Indian troubles of 1877 and 1878, coming as the culmination of a long series of disturbances and annoyances from disaffected Indians, may have frightened away from our territory some who might otherwise have sought homes within it. The same cause, combined with the fact that much damage was done to fruit trees, growing wheat and other crops by heavy frosts in May, 1878, induced a few to remove from the county who had intended to make permanent settlement therein, but forces were at work to more than neutralize these disadvantages and to cause the settlement of the valley at a more rapid rate than ever before. The effect of the Indian war upon some of the oldest residents was rather to confirm them in their determination to commit their fortunes unreservedly and for all time to the section in which they had cast their lot. They perceived that the failure of the Bannock confederacy meant the overthrow of the last Indian hope that the Northwest could be reduced to its primitive condition of barbarism, and they reasoned that the vigorous pursuit and final punishment of the Perkins murderers would tend to put a quietus upon attempts at such depredations in future. Indeed, it was an earnest desire to teach the savages a lesson never to be forgotten that lent energy to their efforts to bring the miscreants to justice. The correctness of their reasoning has been abundantly manifested by their subsequent peaceful and friendly relations with the Indian tribes in their midst.

As we learn from the Spokane Times of November 27, 1879, the hay crop that season was unusually large and the cattlemen were happy in the certainty that, whether the coming winter should be long or short, severe or mild, their herds were secure. The same paper states on the authority of the Yakima paper that there were abundant data upon which to base the statement that the wheat crop of the county would aggregate two hundred and twenty-five thousand bushels. This estimate, if accurate, gives a very fair idea of the progress agriculture had made at the close of the seventies.

An event of the year 1880 of considerable importance was the establishment of the United States land district of Yakima by order of President Hayes. It embraced the counties of Yakima, Klickitat, Okanogan and Douglas, extending from the Columbia river on the south to the British line on the north. It was set off from the Walla Walla district. R. B. Kinne was the first register and J. M. Adams the first receiver. The office opened its doors for business October 18, 1880, in Yakima City, and the first homestead filing recorded is that of John Blomquist, on the north half of the northeast quarter and the southeast quarter of the northeast quarter, section eight, township eighteen north, range nineteen east. Next day Isaac M. Thomas filed a homestead claim, and during the month of October sixteen entries were made, ten of which were later annulled. May 1, 1885, the office was removed from Yakima City to North Yakima, and in that year also Captain J. H. Thomas became register and Luther S. Howlett succeeded to the receivership. The district was later cut down in area by the formation of the Waterville land district, and at present it includes only portions of Yakima, Kittitas and Douglas counties.

The winter of 1880-81 was, next to that of 1861-62, the most severe ever witnessed by white people in Yakima county, and, for the percentage of stock loss, it enjoys a bad eminence over all seasons since settlement began. It is stated that fully eighty per cent, of the cattle perished, while the death rate of horses was between ten and twenty per cent. The severe cold was not confined to the Yakima country, but extended widely over the entire Northwest. William Splawn, who was that year wintering twelve hundred head on the Crab creek range in Douglas county, found himself with only two hundred and fifty extremely weak and thin animals in the spring. The cattle of Snipes & Allen died by thousands, and Wesley C. Jones states that his own loss aggregated twenty thousand dollars. Many stockmen were compelled to go out of business entirely, and of these a large percentage turned their attention to other industries and never again ventured into cattle raising. The official report of Father Wilbur gives us an idea of the effect of the severe cold upon the reservation. Referring to the climatic conditions and their results, he says:

"The unusual severity of the past winter proved a severe blow to our Indians. In obedience to my instructions they have been in the habit of providing forage for the stock during the winter, which has usually proved more than sufficient. But last winter was one of unusual severity. From December 1st till nearly the 31st of March the earth was covered with a depth of from eight to thirty-six inches of snow, with a heavy crust most of the time, so that animals were unable to move outside the beaten paths; consequently, when the supply of forage was exhausted, cattle and horses were unable to reach the creek bottoms, where they might browse on bushes, but for the most part perished where they were. Nor did much success attend the efforts of many of the Indians who tried to save a portion of their stock by breaking roads to the creek bottoms, though some were saved in that way. Probably ninety per cent, of the Indian horses perished and eighty per cent, of their cattle. Many families formerly in comparatively good circumstances were reduced to poverty and the means of all seriously impaired. The effect has been that some have been stimulated to greater effort and now look to the cultivation of the soil for a support instead of depending, as formerly, on the sale of ponies."

"In the Yakima valley," says Wesley C. Jones, "snow commenced falling just before Christmas, and it continued to fall until the entire country had a blanket eighteen inches thick. Then came a chinook. After it had melted part of the snow and caused the rest to pack closely, it ceased and the temperature fell rapidly, resulting in the formation of a hard crust. About Christmas there came another snow storm, which increased the depth of the hoary covering to three feet. Another chinook succeeded, then another freeze; then came another large snow fall, another chinook and more cold weather. The result was that the succulent bunch grass was placed beyond reach of cattle by three hard crusts, the top one being in many places strong enough to bear up the weight of a horse.

"By pawing through the successive crusts wherever they were soft enough, many horses succeeded in getting sufficient grass to preserve their lives, but the cattle, not being gifted with as much intelligence and energy, lay down on the frozen snow and perished in large numbers. The cold was intense at times, the mercury falling to thirty-two degrees below zero."

On the Cowiche, the severe winter caused the loss of one human life. The snow on the north and south fork bottom lands lay four feet deep and was crusted from the six-inch level upward, the top crust being more like ice than snow. The result was that even the horses perished in large numbers. John Polly had about two hundred head on the north and south forks of the Cowiche, half of which were imprisoned among the hills of the north fork and could not get to the camp. In February, Mr. Polly offered to Philander Kelly, a bachelor about thirty-five years old, a reward of five dollars for each animal he would bring in in safety. After a short search Kelly found a band of forty confined to a small sheltered spot by the deep snow of the surrounding hills. As appeared from subsequent observation, he tried many times to drive them out, but was unable to overcome the obstacles to their escape or force the horses to do so.

Perceiving at length that he could accomplish nothing, he started back to the settlements, presumably for assistance. At a point four miles above Mr. Polly's horse camp he abandoned his snow shoes, no one can guess why, and started on. Days and weeks passed and no word of Kelly reached the settlements. At last a search party was organized consisting of William Oneal and three or four others. These set out about the last of February. They patiently trailed Kelly by his camping places to the place on the divide between the north and south forks where the horses were; then back to the abandoned snow shoes and beyond until eventually they discovered his frozen body half buried in the snow. They interred him near the scene of his unhappy fate.

The horses were found in an exceedingly pitiable condition. They had eaten off each others' tails and manes and were in the last extremities of starvation when help reached them, but strange to say, were all alive. They were driven to the camp, where food and shelter could be provided for them.

John Oneal, who is our informant regarding the melancholy fate of the unfortunate Philander Kelly, tells also of a sorrowful sight witnessed in the spring of 1881 by some stockmen who were riding over the range. They found five dead horses near a small stand of scrub brush on the opposite side of the creek from the place where the ill-starred Kelly had discovered the forty. The tails and manes were all eaten off; the bark was gnawed from the rank sage brush and all the surroundings told a plain story of how the animals had suffered from the pangs of hunger and how they had succumbed one by one until the last of the little band had fallen a victim to starvation.

It has been estimated that the loss in cattle and horses in this dread winter aggregated one million five hundred thousand dollars. Snipes & Allen are said to have owned between twenty thousand and thirty thousand head and G. B. Huntington ten thousand, a very large per cent, of which perished. It is interesting to note how the genius of Ben Snipes enabled him to rise superior to misfortune and by taking advantage of the conditions resulting from the general collapse j of the cattle business to lay the foundation for a speedy recovery. When spring at last came, the cattlemen were all depressed and anxious to dispose of their herds. There were many venders and few purchasers, so the price dropped until a steer of large size could be bought for sixteen | dollars and a cow and calf for six. Realizing the opportunity, Mr. Snipes hurried to Portland, laid the situation before W. S. Ladd and negotiated with him for an ample credit. He then returned and bought up all the stock on the market. Now, a hard winter with plenty of snow is sure to be followed by an abundant growth of nutritious grass, so Snipes soon had large herds of fat and thrifty cattle and in a comparatively short time he was again the richest man in central Washington.

At about this period in Yakima county's history an agitation arose for the relief of persons resident in the Kittitas valley. The settlement and development of this region have been reserved for treatment in later chapters. It is sufficient for our present purpose that the country had been settled and its resources pre-empted by a progressive population and that these, in the year 1883, succeeded in getting their territory segregated from the mother county and formed into a new political organization.

March 31, 1882, while the agitation was still in progress, fire destroyed the county buildings and records at Yakima City. Friends of the new county movement charged that the county commissioners acted with undue haste in the matter of erecting a new courthouse and jail and that they did so for the direct purpose of defeating any attempt to move the county seat to Ellensburg, as some advocated, or to delay the erection of the new county. At any rate, the board consisting of David Longmire, J. P. Sharp and A. McDaniel, in special session assembled, passed on the 4th day of April following the fire, the ensuing order:

"Whereas, by reason of the fire of the 31st of March, 1882, the auditor's office of Yakima county and the county records were destroyed ; and whereas, the best interests of the county require a safe and commodious place for the safe keeping of all records and for court and other purposes:

"It is therefore ordered by the board that the county auditor advertise in the Yakima Record, a weekly newspaper published in Yakima City, for sealed proposals to furnish the lumber and material necessary to construct a building suitable for a courthouse, the plans and specifications of which may be seen at the auditor's office on application. Also for proposals to erect the said building, all bids to be presented and filed with the auditor on or before the first Monday in May, the board reserving the right to reject any and all bids."

The erection of the courthouse was delayed somewhat by hostile litigation, but after the creation of Kittitas county there was no further reason for opposition, and by consent of the parties this litigation was dropped.

One of the first acts of the board of county commissioners at its regular session for the year 1882 was to establish toll rates as follows: For crossing the Yakima river, wagon and six-horse team, $1.25; wagon and four-horse team, $1.00; wagon and two-horse team, 75 cents; man and horse, 37^ cents; pack and horse, \2% cents; loose cattle and horses, 12% cents each ; footman, 25 cents; sheep and hogs, 5 cents each; for crossing toll bridges, wagon and six-horse team, $1.25 ; wagon and four-horse team, $1.00; wagon and two-horse team, 75 cents; man and horse, 25 cents; footman, i2l/2 cents; packhorse, 12J2 cents; loose horses and cattle, 10 cents; swine and sheep, 3 cents. At the same session the county was divided into twenty-two road districts; also into the following election precincts: Horn, Parker, Yakima City, Ahtanum, Cowiche, Wenas, West Kittitas, East Kittitas, Alder and Simcoe.

The early eighties were very important years for Yakima and Kittitas counties, as for all other parts of "Washington territory. It was then that the light of another day began to illuminate the horizon, the day of the railway, the telegraph, rapid transportation, rapid communication and modern civilization. The wealth of pasturage of the broad valleys and wide expanse of undulating uplands had drawn the first scattering population to central Washington; experimentation had proved its agricultural possibilities when artificially supplied with water, and it needed now naught but the stimulus which could come only with the railway and its concomitants to inaugurate a period of intensive development; a period in which large things should be attempted and accomplished; a period when, by the magic of well directed industry, the dry ground should be made to blossom as the rose.

The history of the Northern Pacific Railway Company, its inception, organization, its struggles before congress, its financial embarrassments and its operations in the mammoth undertaking of spanning a continent, developing a vast wilderness and securing to itself a mammoth grant of public land - would form the theme for a work of more than one ponderous volume. For more than a quarter of a century this company was conspicuous in the public eye. Though it began its efforts before the close of the Civil war, and though its survivors were making reconnoissances of the Yakima country as early as 1867, not until 1883 was any construction work done within the limits of the territory constituting Yakima county. In the fall of that year, however, the first twenty-five miles of the Cascade division^ were built, extending from the banks of the Columbia to a point about three miles to the westward of Kiona. Late in the year 1884, it had been extended to Yakima City and shortly afterward the steel rails were laid into North Yakima. Here the march of the giant was stayed for nearly two years, owing to difficulties presented by the canyon of the Yakima river and to the still greater difficulties arising out of the Villard crash and the subsequent financial stringency.

The period of railroad building was one of great intellectual as well as industrial activity for the people of the Yakima and Kittitas valleys, in common with other residents of the territory of Washington. Many problems of great moment were engaging the attention of the general public, and certain questions arising out of the land grant had a personal interest for not a few, in addition to the interests which such persons felt as citizens. It is hard to realize at this time the anxiety of men who had settled in good faith upon land which was afterward claimed by the Northern Pacific Company, they of course, being in doubt as to how the company would deal with them in the adjustment of conflicting claims. The members of the United States congress were also perplexed, and on the whole the period was one of uncertainty, political discussion, bitter denunciations and general excitement and unrest. The railroad company was persistent in its protestations of an intention to deal fairly by all bona fide settlers, and it may be asserted with assurance that it was as liberal and just as a corporation could be reasonably expected to be under the circumstances. Early in 1883, President Villard made the following statement regarding the purposes and intentions of his company:

"In cases where in past years a settler has gone on railroad land and in good faith resided on and improved it for a home, the company proposes to allow such actual settler the privilege of purchasing the quarter section of land on which his buildings and improvements have been made at the minimum price of two dollars and sixty cents per acre cash, or four dollars per acre on time. It is intended that the privilege to make purchase at these minimum prices shall so far as practicable be confirmed by the company to the actual settler whether any application for the purchase of the land may have been made by him or not."

It is hardly possible in a reasonable space to adequately represent the spirit of this interesting epoch in local and territorial history. The company was busy not alone in a tremendous effort to conserve its interests in congress and to keep public opinion as favorable toward it as possible, but to overcome its financial difficulties and to solve perplexing problems about the best routes, the means of surmounting natural obstacles and the like. One of the questions at issue was how to get over the Cascade range of mountains. Concerning this problem President Harris, in October, 18S4, said: thought not desirable to file in the Interior Department the map of definite location of that part of the Cascade division from Tacoma eastward, although the road was completed to Wilkeson in November, 1877, because the precise point at which the second section would commence could not be determined until the best mountain pass had been found.

The search for this pass has been one of great difficulty, requiring the highest skill and perseverance. That known as the "Stampede," about midway between Natcheez and Snoqualmie passes, has been adopted by the company as the place for crossing the range.

This selection determined the point of connection with the first section east from Tacoma and the map of definite line of location from Tacoma to South Prairie was filed in the Interior Department and the commissioners appointed by the President of the United States to examine this section have recommended its acceptance.

The line of definite location from South Prairie twentyfive miles to a point in the canyon of the Green river has been determined, and the grading has been let; and on the east side of the Cascade range, from Yakima City to a point twenty-five miles west of the Columbia river has been adopted and maps of the same have been filed in the Interior Department.

Surveys are in progress for the definite location of the rest of the line across the summit of the Cascade mountains, a distance of about seventy-four and one-half miles. A tunnel two miles long will be required. The highest elevation of the tunnel above sea level will be two thousand eight hundred and eighty- five feet. The summit of the pass is three thousand six hundred and ninety-three feet above the sea. The mountain is supposed to be hard basaltic rock, and the construction of the tunnel may require from two to three years.

It was the necessity for this tunnel, the difficulties of the Yakima canyon and the financial stringency which caused the long delay in building westward from Yakima. The company had already exceeded the time in which the road should have been completed in order to secure the benefit of the land grant, and in all parts a considerable proportion of the people were demanding that congress should declare the grant forfeited. There was, however, a large class of people who, while recognizing the fact that the company had failed to comply with the terms of the grant and had no legal rights in the premises, argued that the best interests of the country required that the government should be lenient with the railway company and should allow a reasonable extension of the time limit. In Yakima and Kittitas counties the discussion waxed warm, and bitter personalities were at times made use of. In no way can an idea of the opinions and reasoning of the two parties be better conveyed than by quoting in extenso, resolutions passed by two different popular assem blages within the territory of the counties named

Whereas. By an act of congress in 1864 half of a strip of land eighty miles in width was granted to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company to aid'in the construction of a railroad from Lake Superior to Puget Sound; and

Whereas, The original intent of the granting act was to open up what was then a wild and uniuhabited region of our country - to act as the forerunner of civilization - whilst now thrifty and intelligent communities have sprung up in advance of construction, making the traffic alone highly remunerative for a railroad, consequently the original intent has ceased and become null and void; and

Whereas, By subsidizing newspapers, sending agents out to misrepresent the true sentiments of the people by making a show of work before the assembling of each session of congress ; and

Whereas, By forming the blind pool and buying the Seattle & Walla Walla railroad, with their grant in the way, they have forestalled action on the part of other companies; and

Whereas, By one-half of the land being withdrawn from settlement, the growth of the country has been retarded, immigration checked, business stagnated, lands from which no revenue could be collected and settlers on such lands handicapped; therefore

Resolved, That the lands lying along the Cascade division of the Northern Pacific Railroad have unjustly been withheld from settlement for a period of twenty years, thereby filling the coffers of a predaceous monopoly at the expense of the poor frontiersman.

Resolved, That these lands belong, and of right ought to belong, to the people, and that we most emphatically condemn the policy of congress in taking away the poor man's heritage and giving it to stock gamblers and railroad sharks.

Resolved, That the actions of the several boards of trade of Seattle, Walla Walla and Tacoma, praying for congress to extend the grant, would shine out far more brilliantly had they shown their zeal for their masters in giving something they had a shadow of right to give. These boards of trade have already a railroad and they can well be magnanimous in giving away other people's property.

Resolved, That we are opposed to any further time being extended to the Northern Pacific Railroad or to congress' fixing any price per acre on railroad lands.

Resolved That we, the settlers of Kittitas county, in mass meeting assembled, are in favor of an unconditional and absolute forfeiture of all the lands along the Cascade division of the Northern Pacific Railroad.

Resolved, That we learn from our present delegate in congress that the only knowledge he has of our present situation is through " the action of our late legislative assembly. Therefore, we view with surprise and indignation the action of our late representative, John A. Shoudy, in refusing to memorialize congress to forfeit the land grant of the Cascade division of the Northern Pacific Railroad and in exempting their property from taxation.

Resolved. That we heartily and unequivocally endorse the course of Mr. and Mrs. J. M. Adams, of the Yakima Signal, in advocating and championing the cause of the poor man and in standing by the rights of the people in their fight with a vast corporate power, in refusing all their overtures of place and preferment, and that v% recommend the Signal as the best family paper in our midst and that we will do all in our power to sustain the Signal in its efforts for right.

Resolved, That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the chairman of each committee on public lands of both houses of congress; also Judge Payson, Hons. William S. Holman, Cobb, Slater, Scales and Henley, and be published in both county newspapers, the Yakima Signal and Klickitat Sentinel, the Dalla's Mountaineer and the Post Intelligencer.

Railroad Bridge Across The Columbia At

held at Yakima City, called on account of the fact that certain persons, under the influence of powerful excitement and bitter prejudice, had expressed indignation against their opponents in a too forceful manner. This assemblage adopted (it is claimed with few dissenting votes) resolutions very different from those adopted by the Ellensburg meeting. As reported to the Kittitas Standard by one of its correspondents, they were:

Whereas, congress did grant to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company a certain piece of land along either side of said proposed railway from Duluth to Puget Sound, in aid of the construction of said road, and

Whereas, Said company did in 1869 in good faith commence and prosecute the survey of said road and commence construction thereof in good faith, and with the intent of completing the same at the earliest practicable time, as their work will show as follows: From the year 1869 to 1873 they made continued surveys from the eastern end to the point designated by congress as the western end, through a wilderness and desert entirely unknown to either railway engineers or other intelligent people, but a country given up to savages from whom it was impossible to procure information of a valuable nature. The results of said surveys were compiled at great expense and time, and the maps and profiles filed and the withdrawals made. The company also prior to 1S73 constructed what is known as the Pacific division from Kalama to Tacoma, also about five hundred miles of the eastern end of said road, and were at the time of the great panic of 1873 pushing their work to the utmost, and

Whereas, At or about this time our government did resolve to or agitate the question of a return to specie payment, and by its action threw the country into a financial panic which extended from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast and from Maine to the gulf of Mexico, thereby at once putting an end to the prosecution of all public works, and more particularly the Northern Pacific Railroad, then in its infancy, and

Whereas, It was not until the year 1879 that confidence was so restored in the finances of the country that the railway construction of the country could be resumed, and

Whereas. The said Northern Pacific Railroad did in that year reorganize and get into working condition and did immediately commence work and have prosecuted the same from that time to the present with the greatest energy, at an enormous expense and under the greatest difficulties, working through snow and ice. heat and cold, and have succeeded in giving us a continental line of railroad from a point on the Columbia river to the Atlantic coast, and

Whereas, There remains an uncompleted portion of said road from the Columbia river to Puget sound, the western terminus, which was contemplated by the grant and which is of the greatest importance to Washington territory, and more particularly to the citizens of Yakima county and others settled along the line, as well as to said company, who cannot have a continuous line as intended by the grant unless said line is constructed, and

Whereas, There seem to be rival interests which are favoring the forfeiture of said land grant, to the great detriment of the whole of Washington territory, and more particularly to Yakima county and the sections of country said Cascade division of the Northern Pacific Railroad traverses, be it

Resolved, That we, the citizens of Yakima and vicinity, assembled, do most respectfully petition congress to take such action as will insure to the Northern Pacific Railroad Company their land grant and to the people the speedy completion of said road; and be it further

Resolved. That we cordially endorse the bill introduced by our delegate in congress, the Hon. Thomas H. Brents, in reference to the Cascade division, to-wit: That the time for construction be extended two years from January 1, 1 8S4 ; that the odd sections granted them be sold at the rate of $2.60 per acre ($4 on time), and we earnestly request our delegate to use all means in his power to have said bill passed by congress.

Congress, it appears, was disposed to shape its course in accord with the latter set of resolutions. It bore with the Northern Pacific very patiently in all its delays and failures, showing no disposition to forfeit the grant on technical grounds, and the result was that in the course of a long time, after many tedious and vexatious lapses into comparative inactivity, the company was enabled to complete the Cascade division, tunnel and all. Whether the advantages accruing from the road are or are not sufficient to justify the enormous subsidy which the government bestowed upon the company is a matter of opinion, but certain it is that the Northern Pacific Railroad has been a most potent factor in the development of Washington, and that to its constritction so early in the history of the territory must be largely attributed the phenomena] progress of this now prosperous state.

The tariffs exacted on the uncompleted Cascade division were very high compared with what they are over the same road to-day. From a schedule issued in February, 1885, we learn that the fares then exacted were as follows: Pasco to Melton, 1% miles, 10 cents; Pasco to Kennewick, 2.3 miles, 55 cents: Paso to Badger, 17^ miles, $1.65; Pasco to Kiona, 27 miles, $2.30; Pasco to Prosser, 41 miles, $3.15; Pasco to North Yakima, 86r40- miles, $6.10.

An incident of the construction of the Northern Pacific Railroad through Yakima county was the inception of the important town of North Yakima. Prior to the advent of the steel rails, Yakima City was the metropolis of the valley, but its youthful rival, under the patronage of the railway company, gained prestige very rapidly. Many of the old town residents and' business men, realizing the hopelessness of maintaining two prosperous and thrifty towns so close together, and believing it good policy to accept the liberal offers of the new town's promoters, moved their establishments over. In a very short time North Yakima had a thousand inhabitants. It was laid out on a plan similar to that of Salt Lake City, with wide streets and alleys, artificial streams of water, rows of shade trees, and abundant provision for parks and public buildings. Its promoters were evidently persuaded that it would one day be the capital of the commonwealth and kept the possibility of its securing this honor in mind while making the original plats. By an act approved by Governor Squire January 9, 1886, it was provided that

Central Washington

North Yakima should thenceforth be the county seat instead of Yakima City, and ordered that the county commissioners should remove the courthouse and all other county buildings or property by them considered of sufficient value to justify the expense. The courthouse was moved in due time; a jail was built under it, and all the machinery of local government properly installed in fitting quarters at North Yakima, where it has ever since remained.

During the period that the western terminus of the railway remained at North Yakima, important developments took place in the surrounding country. Naturally, the products of the region found a market to the eastward, that being at the time the path of least resistance. It is stated that during the season of 1885, "from April to October 31st, there were shipped by rail out of the Yakima valley to Montana and Chicago 37,477 head of cattle. There were also in the same period shipped out of the Yakima valley 4,228 head of horses and 29,823 sheep. This necessitated the use for cattle of 1,647 cars; for horses, of 235 cars, and for sheep, of 397 cars. This was bone, muscle, fat, wool and hide of bunch-grass."

But the completion of the Cascade division through to the coast was destined to exert a much more powerful influence upon the course and momentum of development in central Washington. It rendered easily accessible the markets of the sound country and the ocean, and even before the Cascade tunnel was in use there had begun the decline of the cattle industry, which must needs give way before the advance of an army of settlement. A. J. Splawn fixes the date at which the business of stockraising commenced to contract rapidly as the year 1887. It had long been apparent that the higher development for Yakima county must take the direction of canal construction and the irrigation of arid lands. Experiment had proven the practicability of making the desert to bloom and bring forth ; the railway furnished the incentive, and very soon a progressive people was actively engaged in multiplying by this means the productive capability of the central Washington valleys.

Some of the earlier irrigation enterprises have already been mentioned in these chapters. A summary of the later ones undertaken prior to or during 1888 was furnished by the Seattle Post Intelligencer early in 1889 in the following language:

A short account of some of the principal irrigation schemes in Yakima may be of interest, which we attempt, giving them not chronologically, but topographically.

The city of North Yakima is situated at the confluence of the Naches and Yakima rivers. There are several minor irrigation ditches taken out of the Naches. The only extensive one is the canal of the Selah Valley Ditch Company, of which B. F. Young, of Pierce county, is the able superintendent. This company, going up the Naches river some thirty miles, posted their notices of appropriation and took out a canal twenty-four feet on the bottom, carryingthree feet and a half of water in depth. Excavating around the foothills on the north of the Naches valley, they have conducted their canal over into the Selah valley just north of the city of North Yakima. This valley contains about twenty thousand acres of beautiful land, which, now under the impetus given by the Selah company, is being rapidly settled and brought under the dominion of the plow and harrow. This same company, branching off with a side cut, where their main line crosses the divide between the Naches and the Selah by means of flumes and conduits, are conveying a portion of this pure, fresh, ice-cold water to the top of the high bluff just north of the city of North Yakima, and here is being constructed a reservoir forty feet in depth and with a surface of five acres, in the head of a ravine. From this point the company purposes conducting the water down the bluff, across the Naches in iron pipes, to supply their mains in the city, thus affording the inhabitants of that favored place a sufficiency of pure, fresh water under a four-hundred-and-twenty-foot pressure.

Just across the Yakima river from the city are the headgates of the Moxee Company's ditch. This company, of which Gardiner G. Hubbard, of Washington, D. C, and William Ker, Esq , of Moxee, are the principal owners, under the intelligent supervision of President Ker, has carried the science of irrigation to a higher degree of perfection than any other canal company in the country. This company's main ditch is eighteen feet on the bottom and calculated to carry a depth of three feet of water, winds around the foothills of the beautiful Moxee valley, and supplies all of those thousands of broad acres with a sufficiency of water for irrigation, domestic and stock purposes. The Moxee Company uses a portion of this supply on two thousand acres of its own land. * * *

On the west and around North Yakima, the Union, Hubbard, Schanno, City and different Ahtanum ditches, all small, supply the farmers and city with an abundance of water. Just opposite the site of old Yakima is the initial point of the proposed canal of the Sunnyside Ditch Company which will be constructed next spring. The waters will be conducted on to the rich plains back of Prosser. If done, eighty thousand acres of good farming land will thus be thrown open. The Sears Brothers, of Tacoma, and St. Paul capitalists are backing the scheme. Thus far nothing has been done other than the preliminary surveys, which have demonstrated the feasibility of the scheme.

Just above Kiona, still lower down the Yakima, the Yakima Improvement and Irrigation Company are going right ahead constructing a canal for irrigation and commercial purposes. This canal is intended to cover some nineteen thousand acres of the company's own lands and twice as much more open to the pre-emptor and homesteader. The location surveys have been made and the company is going ahead with the construction work. This canal is to be built of sufficient size and depth for canal boats to transfer freight to and from the shipping point at Kiona on the Northern Pacific Railroad, and when completed will be a large addition to the constantly increasing resources of Yakima county.

An idea of the rapidity with which the central Washington country was being appropriated by the settler at this period may be gained from the following from the pen of Luther S. Howlett, receiver of the United States land office:

"During the year 1888, 207,360 acres of land have been filed upon at the United States land office in North Yakima (including Yakima, Kittitas, Douglas and Okanogan counties). This has been taken under the various acts of congress giving away lands, as follows: Pre-emption, 644 entries; homesteads, 305; timber cultures, 290: desert land, 19; coal pre-emptions, 5; coal land purchases, 3; mineral land, 2.

"Besides this showing there have been applications to enter under the desert land act, which are now before the secretary of the interior on the question of price per acre - whether it shall be $1.25, as formerly held, or $2.50, as required under the Sparks ruling. These applications cover some 50,000 acres along the left bank of the Yakima river. One hundred pre-emptors have proven up, fifty-one homesteaders and eleven desert land claimants.

"The best and most extensive agricultural region in the district (and in the territory) lies around the city of North Yakima and is known as the Yakima valley, though it really includes several valleys. Here you will find fruits and vegetables in abundance. The land is too valuable to be given up to grain, which should be left to the Big Bend, Walla Walla and Klickittat regions. The railroads take the garden stuff raised in the Yakima valley to the coast cities in a day, and there is never a time from the middle of June to the end of October when the market is slow. In fact, the sound cities are coming to rely more and more upon the Yakima valley for those fruits and vegetables which formerly came from California. Many of the new-comers prefer to stop in this valley and take land rather than go farther away from the railroads and city schools. Here ten acres will give a family as good support as a market garden near an eastern city, with a surer thing of it year in and year out on account of the irrigation. While all this is true, it is also true that the resources of the valley are not yet onetwentieth part developed. The t6o-acre ranches are gradually subsiding into small farms as the original owners prove up."

The general condition of Yakima county at the close of 1888 was excellent. Its total indebtedness was only one hundred thousand dollars, contracted, it is said, chiefly for the construction of bridges to replace those carried away by the oft-recurring freshets. The total taxation was thirteen and three-fifths mills, claimed to be the lowest from Minnesota to California, both inclusive; not over half the average taxation of Dakota; five mills less than the average of Washington territory, and seven less than that of Montana. The total assessed valuation of the property was two millions, very much less than the real value, and the population was estimated all the way from four thousand eight hundred and fifty to six thousand.

One of the most important movements before the people of Washington territory at this period was that for admission to the Federal Union. It was not a new movement. A Walla Walla student of local history is quoted as stating that "the proposition for calling a convention to frame a state constitution, preliminary to asking for the admission of Washington territory to the Union, was first submitted to the voters by an act of the legislature, session of 1868-9, providing for a ballot upon the question at the June election of 1869. Failing to meet the favorable consideration of the people at that time, it was again submitted at the general elections of 1872 and 1874 and each time defeated. In 1876 the question was again submitted, and, the people declaring in favor of such action, delegates were chosen and the convention met at Walla Walla the second Tuesday of June, 1878. After a session of forty days, a constitution was framed, which received the indorsement of the people at the general election of that year, the vote being 6,462 for and 3,231 against - a total of nearly 3,000 less than the vote cast for delegate."

From the year 1878 until the year 1889 the admission of Washington to the Union never wholly ceased to be a living issue. At one time a bill passed both houses of congress admitting the territory with the northern counties of Idaho added to the federal sisterhood, but it was pocketvetoed by President Cleveland. The measure was insisted upon, however, and on February 22, 18S9, the celebrated omnibus bill, enabling North and South Dakota, Montana andWashington without the North Idaho counties to become states, was signed by the president of the United States.

Among the most important provisions of the enabling act relating to this territory were the following: That the election for the purpose of choosing delegates to a constitutional convention to be held at Olympia should be held on the Tuesday after the second Monday in May, 1889; that seventy-five delegates should be chosen, should meet on the Fourth of July, and having organized and adopted the constitution of the United States, should proceed to form a state government republican in form and to frame a constitution which should make no distinction in civil or political rights on account of race or color, except as to Indians not taxed, and should be in consonance with the constitution of the United States and the principles of the Declaration of Independence. The constitution must also provide for perfect toleration of religious sentiment, disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries of the state and to all Indian tribal lands; provide for the assumption and payment of the debts and liabilities of the territory, also for the establishment and maintenance of a system of public schools open to all children of the state and free from sectarian control. The act also provided that the constitution should be submitted to the qualified electors of said state for their approval or rejection at an election to be held on the first Tuesday in October; that if said constitution should be in compliance with the form provided and be adopted, the same, together with the vote thereon, should be forwarded to the president of the United States, who should issue a proclamation announcing the result of the election and thereupon the said state should be deemed admitted into the Union; that until the next general election, or until otherwise provided by law, the state should be entitled to one representative in the national house of representatives; that the representatives to the fifty-first congress, together with the governor and other officers provided for in the constitution, might be elected on the day of the election for the ratification or rejection of the constitution, and until the said state officers were elected and qualified and the state admitted into the Union the territorial officers should continue to discharge the duties of their respective offices in the said territory; it provided for the customary gift of sections sixteen and thir.ty-six in each township of all unappropriated public lands to the state for common-school purposes; gave fifty sections of unappropriated lands for erecting public buildings at the capital for legislative, executive and judicial purposes; provided that five per centum of the proceeds of the sales of public lands lying within the state, which should be sold by the United States subsequent to the admission of the state into the Union, after deducting all the expenses incident to the same, should be paid to the state for use as a permanent fund, the interest of which only should be expended for the support of the common schools within the state; reserved such quantity of lands authorized by the fourth section of the act of July 17, 1854, for university purposes, as, together with the lands confirmed to the vendees of the territory by the act of March 14, 1S64, should make the full quantity seventytwo entire sections; provided that all lands granted the state for educational purposes should be disposed of only at public sale at a price of not less than ten dollars per acre, the proceeds to constitute a permanent school fund, the interest on which only should be expended in the support of said schools; that said school lands might, ] however, under such regulations as the legisla- | ture might prescribe, be leased for periods of not more than five years in quantities not exceeding one section to any one person or company; granted Washington lands equal in quantity to those granted Dakota, March 2, 1SS1, for penitentiary purposes; gave the state ninety thousand acres for the use and support of agricultural colleges in said state, and in lieu of land grants for internal improvements made to new states by an act passed September 4, 1841, and of swamp and overflowed lands under the act of September 28, 1850, the following grants: for the establishment and maintenance of a scientific school, one hundred thousand acres; state normal school, one hundred thousand acres; for public buildings at the state capital, in addition to the grant hereinbefore made for that purpose, one hundred thousand acres; state charitable, educational, penal and reformatory institutions, two hundred thousand acres; it also provided that all mineral lands should be exempted from grants made by the admission act, mineral school lands to be exchanged for lieu land; allowed the state an appropriation from the national treasury of twenty thousand dollars for defraying the expenses of the constitutional convention; made the state a separate judicial district; arranged for the regular and easy transfer of all territorial judicial matters from the territorial courts into the state courts, etc.

The constitutional convention met as provided by the enabling act. Those chosen to represent Yakima and Klickitat counties were Colonel William F. Prosser, of North Yakima, and R. O. Dunbar, of Goldendale, republicans, arid J. T. Eshelman, of North Yakima, democrat; while the fifth district, consisting of Kittitas and a part of Douglas counties, was represented in the convention by J. A. Shoudy and A. Mires, of Ellensburg, republicans, and J. T. McDonald, of Ellensburg, democrat. These gentlemen and sixty-nine others continued their labors until the 22d of August, by which time they had completed a document of not a little merit and containing a considerable number of progressive features. Two separate articles, one providing for female suffrage and one prohibiting the sale of intoxicating liquors, except for medicinal, sacramental or scientific uses, were submitted to the people to become a part of the state constitution, provided a majority of the male voters should favor them. The election for the adoption or rejection of the constitution was held on the first Tuesday in October, as provided by the enabling act. It resulted in the adoption of the constitution as prepared by the convention, the vote being 38,394 for and 11,895 against. The vote in Yakima county was 845 for and 115 against. Both the separate articles were defeated.

At 5:27 o'clock p. m. , on the nth day of November, 1889, President Harrison signed and issued his proclamation declaring the territory of Washington a state of the Federal Union. His name and that of Secretary James G. Blaine were affixed with a pen of gold from Washington mines in a holder of ebonized laurel, from the same section, both made specially within the limits of Washington, for this purpose. Thus the new ship of state was fairly launched for what we may hope will prove a long and prosperous voyage in the peerless federal fleet.