CHAPTER III

CHAPTER IIIPOLITICAL HISTORY TO TIME OF COUNTY DIVISIONIn previous chapters we have presented the facts in relation to the first attempt at organization of Walla Walla County in 1854, prior to the period of great Indian wars. We took up again the reorganization and development in 1859 with the incoming of permanent population. We also mentioned the first charter and the inauguration of permanent city government. In the chapter dealing with the beginnings of industries we showed the first locations at the different points which have become the centers of population in the four counties.It remains in this chapter to take up the thread with the growing communities and the government over them which composed the old county down to 1875, when Columbia County was created, embracing what are now the three counties of Columbia, Garfield and Asotin, and thus reducing Walla Walla County to its present limits. After that we shall trace the story of the successive subtractions of Garfield from Columbia and then Asotin from Garfield.The authorities to which we have had recourse are first the county records, so far as available; second, the files of the newspapers covering the periods; third, Col. F. F. Gilbert's Historic Sketches, published in 1882, to which frequent reference has been made and which seems in general to be very reliable; and fourth, the memory of pioneers still living or from whom data were secured prior to their death. In respect to the public records it may be said that a destructive fire on August 3, 1865, of which an account is given in theStatesmanof the 4th, destroyed the records, though the more important ordinances and other acts of city and county government had appeared in theStatesmanand from that source were replaced.The most important events in the political history were connected with, first, the county, its legislative and local officers, and the chain of circumstances going on to county divisions; second, the city government and the movement of laws and policies through various reorganizations to the present; and third, the place occupied by the old county in relation to state and national affairs.In the way of a general view of political conditions in the period from the creation of county offices by the Legislature of the Territory on January 19, 1859, through the period of war, it may be said that the prevailing sentiment was at first strongly democratic. The majority of the settlers in Old Oregon, from which had come a large proportion of the earlier comers to Walla Walla, were from Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, with quite a sprinkling from Tennessee and Kentucky and democratic views preponderated in the sections from which the majority came. With that strange inconsistency which has made American political history a chaos for the philosopher and historian, that early democratic element here and elsewhere was in general bitterly opposed to "abolitionists and black republicans."While a great majority of them did not favor slavery and to a considerable extent had left slave states to get rid of it, yet they were mortally afraid of "nigger equality." When the war broke out there was a considerable element that were carried so far by their hatred of abolitionists that they even became rank "Secesh." That, however, was a temporary sentiment. The feeling of union and the preservation of an undivided nation gradually asserted itself, and by the time the war was half through democrats as well as republicans stood firmly on the platform of the maintenance of the Union. One of the best expressions of that sentiment is found in the resolutions of the democratic convention on May 23, 1863, reported in theStatesmanof the 30th. We had these expressions: "That the democracy are unalterably attached to the union of these states." "That the right of secession is not reserved to the States." "That the Federal Government has a right to maintain the constitution and enforce the laws, if need be, by force of arms, and so far as the acts of the present administration tend to these desirable ends, it has our cordial support and no further." Then as an offset, the fourth resolution declares: "That the democracy of Washington Territory view the declared intention of such men as Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner—who desire the prosecution of the present civil war for the abolition of slavery, and who utterly scout the idea of any peace which is not founded on the condition that the social fabric of the insurgent states is to be totally uprooted—with abhorrence."A good evidence of this is the inability of men brought up with certain views and prejudices to grasp the logic of events. Then as since, "there are none so blind as those that won't see." That sentiment was also well shown in the continuance of the campaign of 1863, in which Geo. E. Cole of Walla Walla was democratic candidate for Territorial Delegate. An editorial in theStatesmanof June 5, 1863, commends Mr. Cole as a Union man and a democrat. In the same issue appears the resolutions of the Clarke County Democratic Convention which had been adopted in substance by the territorial convention which nominated Mr. Cole, and to which the democrats of Walla Walla pledged themselves at a ratification meeting on July 11th. As showing the stamp of thought prevailing at that time in the party, it is of interest to read these resolutions:"Resolved, That the democracy (of Clarke County) are for the Union, and the whole Union, and in favor of the vigorous prosecution of the efforts of the Government in crushing the present unholy and wicked rebellion, when such efforts are not actuated by any other motives than a single desire to maintain the honor and dignity of the nation and enforcement of the laws. That we are opposed to the conclusion of any peace involving in its terms the acknowledgment of the so-called Southern Confederacy, and that we hereby pledge ourselves, come weal or woe, in life and death, now and forever, to stand by and defend the flag of our country in its hour of peril."It is indeed one of the most significant evolutions in American history; that of the gradual passing over from a support of slavery by the larger part of the democratic party to a stage where they no longer supported that "sum of all villainies" and yet had a profound hatred of "abolitionists," to the point where they perceived that the maintenance of the Union was the great essential, whether slavery was lost or saved, and yet further to the point, which many reached, of an unflinching support of Abraham Lincoln in his abolition as well as Unionpolicies. It is all an exhibition of the evolution of nationalism, to which free labor is essential. And in that evolution, the West has borne the larger part. The sentiment of state pride, the local prejudices and narrow vision common in the older states and which in the South became intertwined with slavery and produced economic and political deformity and arrested development, was shuffled off when people of East and North and South and Europe all joined to lay the foundations of genuine American states in new regions unhampered and undistorted by caste and prejudice. This state of affairs in the West prepared the way for a new democracy, a national democracy, a genuine democracy for all men. The transformation of Walla Walla politics was simply a sample of a movement taking place all over the country. As a result, during the decades of the sixties and seventies, many former democrats, notably some who had been brought up in Missouri and other slave states, finding the democratic party, as they thought, still a laggard on progressive issues developed by the war and reconstruction, left the party and joined the republicans. Doubtless theStatesmanmay be taken as a good exponent of the prevailing democratic views in Walla Walla. It was strong for the Union, but was horribly afraid of "abolitionists." When W. H. Newell acquired the paper in November, 1865, he adopted the policy of supporting President Johnson against Congress. The republican party steadily gained, and in subsequent decades Walla Walla County, as all other parts of the states of Washington and Oregon, became overwhelmingly republican. By the progress of the same evolution, progressive politics have had a powerful hold upon the people of these states, as well as of the entire Pacific Coast, and the support given to democratic candidates, state and national, in 1916, is a thoroughly logical development. The people have been consistent, though party names have not.One of the interesting facts not generally realized is that Walla Walla County in the sixties contained so large a part of the population of the territory. In theStatesmanof December 30, 1864, we find a report from Edwin Eells, enrolling officer of the county, in which it appears that the draft enrollment in Walla Walla County was 1,133, while in the entire territory it was 4,143.A few figures at various times in the sixties will be found of interest.The vote for Territorial Delegate in 1863 by counties was as follows, as given in theStatesmanof August 22:George E. Cole,DemocratJ. O. Raynor,RepublicanChehalis2221Clallam4527Clarke173100Clickitat2537Cowlitz3957Island7231Jefferson148120King6893Kitsap13099Lewis6377Pacific1190Pierce95106Sawamish3619Skamania4835Snohomish3530Spokane5612Thurston132171Wakiakum. . .12Walla Walla398140Whatcom3256————Total1,6281,333A few figures at various times in the sixties will be found of interest. In the county election of June, 1864, we find the following vote by precincts:PrecinctDemocraticRepublicanWalla Walla287149Lower Touchet1133Upper Touchet4149Snake River27Wallula112Pataha210————Total344260TheStatesmanof September 9, 1864, says that nine-tenths of the immigrants coming in at that time were Democrats.That claim was not quite realized, however, in the election of June 5, 1865, for the republican candidate for Territorial Delegate, Arthur A. Denny, received 336, while the democrat, James Tilton, had 406.Though the population was small and scattered there were many intricacies involving county and city politics. Into those details we cannot go. Doubtless some of them would best rest in oblivion.We incorporate here, as valuable for reference, the list of legislative choices and of the chief county officers beginning with 1863 and extending through all elections prior to county division in 1875.1863Daniel Stewart, joint councilman; S. W. Babcock, F. P. Dugan, L. S. Rogers, representatives; W. S. Gilliam, sheriff; L. J. Rector, auditor; C. Leyde, assessor.1864J. H. Lasater, attorney; Alvin Flanders, joint representative; A. L. Brown, F. P. Dugan, E. L. Bridges, representatives; W. G. Langford, councilman; J. H. Blewett, probate judge; James McAuliff, treasurer; W. H. Patton, assessor; Charles White, surveyor; H. D. O'Bryant, commissioner; A. J. Theboda, coroner.1866B. L. Sharpstein, councilman; D. M. Jessee, R. Jacobs, R. R. Rees, H. D. O'Bryant, T. P. Page, representatives; James McAuliff, treasurer; H. M. Hodgis, assessor; W. G. Langford, superintendent of schools; T. G. Lee and H. A. Livingston, commissioners.1868W. H. Newell, councilman; J. M. Vansycle, joint councilman; W. P. Horton, E. Ping, J. M. Lamb, P. B. Johnson, B. F. Regan, representatives; H. M. Chase, probate judge; A. Seitel, sheriff; J. H. Blewett, auditor; J. D. Cook, treasurer; C. Ireland, assessor; C. Eells, superintendent of schools; S. M. Wait, W. T. Barnes, and A. H. Reynolds, commissioners.1870Daniel Stewart, councilman; N. T. Bryant, joint councilman; D. Ashpaugh, J. H. Lasater, John Scott, A. G. Lloyd, E. Ping, T. W. Whetstone, representatives; N. T. Caton, attorney; R. Guichard, probate judge; James McAuliff, sheriff; H. M. Chase, auditor; A. Kyger, treasurer; A. C. Wellman, assessor; J. L. Reser, superintendent of schools; C. C. Cram, Francis Lowden, I. T. Reese, commissioners.1872Fred Stine, councilman; C. H. Montgomery, joint councilman; N. T. Caton, O. P. Lacy, E. Ping, C. L. Bush, John Bryant, and H. M. Hodgis, representatives; I. Hargrove, probate judge; B. W. Griffin, sheriff; R. Jacobs, auditor; R. R. Rees, treasurer; W. F. Gwynn, assessor; A. W. Sweeney, superintendent of schools; D. M. Jessee, W. P. Bruce, and S. L. King, commissioners.1874E. Ping, councilman; W. W. Boon, joint councilman; R. G. Newland, J. B. Shrum, P. M. Lynch, John Scott, A. G. Lloyd, and H. M. Hodgis, representatives; T. J. Anders, attorney; R. Guichard, probate judge; G. F. Thomas, sheriff; R. Jacobs, auditor; R. R. Rees, treasurer; S. Jacobs, assessor; A. W. Sweeney, superintendent of schools; Charles White, C. S. Bush, C. C. Cram, commissioners.This was the last election prior to county division. The elections after that event will appear in chapter one of part three.In the early times they seem to have had a frank and outspoken and energetic manner of writing about each other, and the inference is plain that they talked in a similar way. Each man had ready access to his hip pocket, and was commonly qualified to support his views by force of arms when necessary. We find as a sample a discussion between Sheriff E. B. Whitman and certain critics in theStatesmanof May 30 and June 13, 1863. It pertains to the arrest of one Bunton. An address signed by sixty-nine residents of the Coppei appears in the earlier issue. In it is charged that a flagrant and wilful murder had been committed byWilliam Bunton on the person of Daniel S. Cogsdill and that Sheriff Whitman made no effort to arrest Bunton, and when, at the instance of citizens, Deputy Hodgis arrested Bunton, and delivered him to Whitman that the latter was too merciful to the prisoner to put him in jail; "but at the request of Bunton put him in charge of a lame or a crippled man, with, as we believe, the intention of his escape." They therefore declare that they have no protection when the high and responsible office of sheriff is filled by the friends of murderers and thieves. They therefore recommend that the commissioners should remove said Whitman and appoint "Deputy Hodgis or some other good man."Sheriff Whitman makes in reply a lengthy and moderate explanation, the main point of which was that the county jail was so insecure that by the advice of Judge Wyche he put Bunton in the hands of J. O. Putman, one of the signers of the above statement, and that after some trouble Bunton got away. In the issue of June 13, the citizens returned to the attack with renewed energy, and this brought from Mr. Whitman a vitriolic response. He begins: "EditorStatesman: As your columns seem to be at the disposal of parties who may wish to belch forth personal slander, persecution, malignity, and falsehood, it is but just that the party vilified should have the opportunity of replying through the same medium. Upon reading the article, dated at Coppei, I thought I would let the matter rest upon its own merits, as the style and manner in which it is written shows that it originated from a vindictive, mischievous, and depraved appetite for notoriety, which at times controls men of depraved tastes." Among the sixty-nine signers of the document were some who were, as also Sheriff Whitman himself was, among the most worthy of the foundation builders, and who now all rest in honored graves. We are giving the incidents here as a historical curiosity, and as showing how men's minds were keyed up in those days of war and vigilantes to a high pitch.EFFORT TO ANNEX WALLA WALLA COUNTY TO OREGONOne of the most exciting political questions of the sixties was that of annexation of Walla Walla County to Oregon. We find in theStatesmanof October 20, 1865, a report of a mass meeting of October 18, at which resolutions were passed advocating the annexation and inviting the people of Oregon, through their Legislature, to unite in the movement, and also calling on the representatives and senators from Oregon and the Territorial Delegate, A. A. Denny, to use all honorable means to induce Congress to take that action. They mention, which is historically interesting, that the people of Oregon in accepting their Constitution had done so with the understanding that the line should follow the natural boundary of the Columbia and Snake rivers. The convention also censured Judge J. E. Wyche, judge of the First Judicial District of Washington Territory, located at Walla Walla. The committee composing the resolutions consisted of J. H. Lasater, A. Kyger, and Drury Davis. J. H. Blewett introduced a resolution calling on President Johnson to remove Judge Wyche. The resolution was lost. A committee consisting of A. J. Cain, A. L. Brown, and H. P. Isaacs was appointed to draft petitions, one to Congress and the other to the Oregon Legislature, looking to the execution of the plan.In the same issue of theStatesmana call appears for a meeting to "take suchsteps as they may deem proper to frustrate the designs of those who would saddle upon the people of this county a proportion of the debt of the bankrupt State of Oregon, with her peculiar institutions."It is asserted that Anderson Cox was the prime mover in the annexation project, though his name does not appear in the report in theStatesman. The Oregon Legislature was nothing loth to add this desirable section to the limits of the mother state and duly memorialized Congress to that effect. Years passed by, and in 1875, just after county division had been effected, Senator J. K. Kelly of Oregon introduced a bill providing for the submission of the question to the people of Walla Walla and Columbia counties. This bill failed, as did also one to the same effect in the House by Representative LaFayette Lane of Oregon. The failure of the annexation plan produced additional activity in projects looking to statehood. There was during that period (and it has not entirely ceased to this day) a good deal of friction between the Walla Walla section and the Puget Sound section. The former had early commercial and political relations with Portland of a far more intimate nature than with the Sound. The majority of the leading business men were from Oregon. The common feeling was that the Sound was very selfish and narrow in its dealings with the eastern section, desiring its connection mainly for taxation purposes. It was largely from that feeling that annexation projects arose. The Sound, on the other hand, had accused the Walla Walla section of being disloyal to the state and seeking local advantage. Opposition in the territory therefore delayed action. According to statements made by Hollon Parker to the author a number of years ago, he himself made a special trip to Washington to head off the movement. At any rate, it was never carried. Walla Walla County had at the time of the presidential election of 1876 a sufficient majority of Democrats to have toppled the slight scale by which Hayes held the presidency over Tilden, and if the county had been in Oregon Tilden would have had a majority and the Electoral Commission would never have been created, and quite a section of national history would have had another version.In 1865 the Territorial Delegate was Arthur Denny of Seattle. The Statesman refers to him as the "Abolition Candidate." Passing on to 1867 we find national, state, and local affairs of a very strenuous nature. Perhaps the insertion here of extracts from a book written by the author sometime ago will convey a clear view of the course of events in the elections of 1867 and 1869.POLITICAL REVIEWA review of the political situation in 1867 shows that there was an extraordinary interest and activity in the ranks of both the democrats and the republicans. The principal point of contest and interest was in the selection of a delegate to Congress, each party having a number of aspirants for the important office. The people east of the Cascades felt that they were entitled to have a candidate selected from their section of the territory, inasmuch as the honor had hitherto gone to a resident of the Sound country. From the eastern section of the territory were five democrats and two republicans whose names were prominently mentioned in this connection, and while the republican convention for Walla Walla County sent an uninstructed delegate to the territorial convention, a vigorouseffort had been made in favor of the candidacy of Judge J. E. Wyche. At the county democratic convention the delegates chosen were instructed to give their support to W. G. Langford, of Walla Walla, so long as seemed expedient. They were also instructed to deny their support to any candidate who endorsed in any degree the project of annexing Walla Walla County to Oregon. In the territorial convention Frank Clark of Pierce County received the nomination of the democracy for the office of congressional delegate, the balloting in the convention having been close and spirited. The republican territorial convention succeeded in running in the proverbial "dark horse," in the person of Alvin Flanders, a Walla Walla merchant, who was made the nominee, defeating three very strong candidates.Owing to the agitation of the Vigilance question, referring to diverging opinions of the citizens as to the proper method of administering justice, the politics of the county were in a peculiarly disrupted and disorganized condition, and the Vigilance issue had an unmistakable influence on the election, as was shown by the many peculiarities which were brought to light when the returns were fully in. The democrats of the county were particularly desirous of electing certain of their county candidates, and it is stated that the republicans were able to divert many democratic votes to their candidate for delegate to Congress by trading votes with democrats and pledging their support to local democratic candidates. The fact that such bartering took place is assured, for while the returns gave a democratic majority of about two hundred and fifty in Walla Walla County for all other officers, the delegate received a majority of only 124. This action on the part of the Walla Walla democrats secured the election of the republican candidate, whose majority in the territory was only ninety-six.The result of the election in the county, held on the 3d of June, was as follows: Frank Clark, the democratic candidate for delegate, received 606 votes, and Alvin Flanders, republican, 482 votes. The other officers elected were as follows: Prosecuting attorney, F. P. Dugan; councilman, W. H. Newell; joint councilman (Walla Walla and Stevens counties), J. M. Vansycle; representatives, W. P. Horton, E. Ping, J. M. Lamb, P. B. Johnson and B. F. Regan; probate judge, H. M. Chase; sheriff, A. Seitel; auditor, J. H. Blewett; treasurer, J. D. Cook; assessor, C. Ireland; surveyor, W. L. Gaston; superintendent of schools, C. Eells; coroner, L. H. Goodwin; county commissioners, S. M. Wait, D. M. Jessee (evidently an error in returns, as W. T. Barnes, a democrat, was elected), and A. H. Reynolds.The sheriff resigned on November 7, 1868, and on the same day James McAuliff was appointed to fill the vacancy. A. H. Reynolds resigned as commissioner, in May, 1869, Dr. D. S. Baker being appointed as his successor. Of the successful candidates noted in the above list, all were democrats except P. B. Johnson, J. D. Cook, C. Eells, S. M. Wait and A. H. Reynolds.Again in this year was there to be chosen a delegate to Congress, and the democracy of Walla Walla County instructed their delegates to the territorial convention to insist upon the nomination of a candidate resident east of the Cascade Range—the same desideratum that had been sought at the last preceding election. In the convention F. P. Dugan, J. D. Mix, B. L. Sharsptein and W. H. Newell, of Walla Walla, were balloted for, but the nomination went to Marshall F. Moore, ex-governor of the territory.The republican nomination was secured by Selucius Garfielde, surveyor-general of the territory. The names of two of Walla Walla County's citizens were presented before the convention, Dr. D. S. Baker and Anderson Cox. The nomination of Garfielde proved unsatisfactory to many of the party adherents and dissention was rampant. The disaffection became so intense in nature that a number of the most prominent men in the party ranks did not hesitate to append their signatures to a circular addressed to the "downfallen republican party," said document bearing fifty signatures in all. On the list appeared the name of the delegate in Congress and the chief justice of the territory. The circular called for a radical reorganization of the party, charged fraudulent action in the convention and made many sweeping assertions. This action provoked a strong protest, and the disaffected contingent did not nominate a ticket of their own, and Mr. Garfielde was elected by a majority of 132. He received in Walla Walla County 384 votes, while his opponent, Mr. Moore, received 740.According to all data available, the political pot boiled furiously throughout the territory as the hour of election approached. Lack of harmony was manifest in both parties, and, as before, the chief interest centered in the election of a delegate to represent the territory in the Federal Congress. Those office-holders who were most vigorously protestant and visibly disaffected were summarily removed from office in January of this year by the President of the United States, this action having been recommended by the congressional delegate, Mr. Garfielde, who thus drew upon himself still greater dislike and opposition. A change in the existing laws made it necessary to elect a delegate again this year, and a strong attempt was made to defeat Mr. Garfielde, who was confident of being returned to office. There could be no reconciliation of the warring elements in the republican party. The republican territorial convention of 1869 had appointed an executive committee, whose personnel was as follows: Edward Eldridge, M. S. Drew, L. Farnsworth, P. D. Moore, B. F. Stone, Henry Cook and J. D. Cook. In February a circular was issued by Messrs. S. D. Howe, A. A. Manning, Ezra Meeker, G. A. Meigs, A. A. Denny and John E. Burns, who claimed to have constituted the executive committee. The convention as called by the regular committee met in April and renominated Mr. Garfielde. The recalcitrant faction presented the name of Marshall Blinn in the convention, the bolters not being strong enough to hold a separate convention, but hoping to gain sufficient votes to prevent the nomination of Garfielde.The democratic convention was far more harmonious, the nomination going to Judge J. D. Mix, one of the most honored citizens of Walla Walla, and one enjoying a wide acquaintance throughout the territory. The campaign developed considerable acrimony between the factions of the republican party, but the results of the election showed that the disaffected wing gained but slight popular endorsement. Six thousand three hundred and fifty-seven votes were cast in this election, representing a gain of 1,300 over the preceding year. Garfielde was elected, securing a majority of 736 over Mix, the total vote for Blinn being only 155. Upon the question of holding a constitutional convention there were 1,109 votes cast in opposition, and 974 in favor.RESIDENCE OF FATHER VAN DE VEN, WALLA WALLAST. MARY'S HOSPITAL, WALLA WALLABy reason of the change in the law the county election also was held a year earlier than usual, occurring June 6, 1870. The democracy was victorious in the county, electing their entire ticket with the exception of superintendent of schools. For delegate James D. Mix received in his home county 670 votes, while Selucius Garfielde had 527. The officers elected in the county were as follows: Prosecuting attorney, N. T. Caton; councilman, Daniel Stewart; joint councilman (Walla Walla, Stevens and Yakima counties), N. T. Bryant; representatives, David Aspaugh, James H. Lasater, John Scott, A. G. Lloyd, Elisha Ping and T. W. Whetstone; probate judge, R. Guichard; sheriff, James McAuliff; auditor, H. M. Chase; treasurer, A. Kyger; assessor, A. C. Wellman; surveyor, A. H. Simmons (he was succeeded by Charles A. White, who was appointed to the office May 1, 1871); school superintendent, J. L. Reser; coroner, L. H. Goodwin; county commissioners, C. C. Cram, F. Louden and I. T. Rees.The officials elected in the county this year did not assume their respective positions until the succeeding year. The officers elected in the preceding year had been chosen for a term of two years, and they contended that the change in the law of the territory which made it necessary to hold the election in 1870, instead of 1871, did not invalidate their right to hold office until the expiration of their regular term. The matter was brought into the courts for adjudication, in a test case, the prosecuting attorney-elect against the incumbent of the office at the time of the last election. In July James W. Kennedy, judge of the first district, rendered a decision in favor of the defendant, holding that officers elected in 1869 retained their positions until 1871, thus reducing the term of the officials last elected to one year.COUNTY COURTHOUSEOne of the burning questions at all times in political life has been the County Courthouse. As the county dedicated its first courthouse in the year 1867, it is incumbent that we make a brief reference to the same at this juncture. As early as 1864, the grand jury had made a report on this matter, and from said document we make the following pertinent extracts: "We, the grand jury, find that it is the duty of the county commissioners to furnish offices for the different county officers. This we find they have not done. Today the offices of the officers are in one place, tomorrow in another, and we hope at the next meeting of the board of county commissioners that they will, for the sake of the integrity of Walla Walla County, furnish the different county officers with good offices." Notwithstanding this merited reproof, no action of a definite character was taken by the board of commissioners until a meeting of March 11, 1867, when it was voted to purchase of S. Linkton a building on the corner of Alder and Third streets, the same to be paid for in thirty monthly installments of $100 each. A further expenditure of $500 was made in fitting up the building for the use of the county, and thus Walla Walla County was able to hold up a dignified head and note with approval her first courthouse. That the structure was altogether unpretentious and devoid of all architectural beauty it is perhaps needless to say. The executives of the county were at least provided with a local habitation.Though the housing of the county was a lame affair a number of years passed before there was any permanent action. During nearly all elections from 1869 on we find a vote on two general questions: a constitutional convention and a courthouse. In 1869 there was a vote of 24 for, and 286 against a constitutional convention.The interval of elections was changed following the election of 1869, so that the next occurred on June 6, 1870. That of 1872 took place on November 5th.In August, 1870, the City Council deeded to the county the block of land on Main Street on which the permanent courthouse was built. In the election of 1872 the vote in favor of building a courthouse was 815 to 603. A vote, as usual, was taken on constitutional convention, with the result of 57 affirmative and 809 negative.Since the majority had expressed their desire for a courthouse the commissioners in February, 1873, set on foot the arrangements for plans, and those presented by T. P. Allen were accepted. These called for a brick structure with stone foundation, two stories, dome, main part with an ell. Meanwhile various schemes for inducing the commissioners to locate farther from the center of town by offering land, with a view to enhancing the values of land adjoining, were under consideration. After having turned down several such plans and pronounced in favor of the block donated by the city, the commissioners rather suddenly changed their decision and accepted four blocks between Second and Fourth streets, a quarter mile north of Main Street. A first-class ruction arose over this decision. Changes were made in the plans also, by which the building was reduced in size and dignity. Finally, as Gilbert says, with some degree of keenness, "the last act, and under the circumstances, the most judicious one, was not to erect the building at all."After this the courthouse plans rested awhile, and no action was taken until after county division. The question of constitutional convention, however, kept pegging away, and in the election of 1874, the result was similar to that of previous elections, 24 for, and 236 against.It will be found of value to incorporate here the list of Territorial Delegates and Governors. Walla Walla was well represented in the list, both before and after county division, as also both before and after statehood.TERRITORIAL DELEGATES1857—I. I. Stevens, democrat.1859—I. I. Stevens, democrat.1861—W. H. Wallace, republican.1863—George E. Cole, democrat—from Walla Walla.1865—A. A. Denny, union.1867—Alvin Flanders, union—from Walla Walla.1869—Selucius Garfielde, republican; J. D. Mix, of Walla Walla, democratic candidate.1870—Selucius Garfielde, republican.1872—O. B. McFadden, democrat.1874—Orange Jacobs, republican; B. L. Sharpstein, democratic candidate, Walla Walla.The next election came in 1876 and there was a considerable falling off in the vote on account of county division in the previous year. It may be worth noting that the total vote of Walla Walla County in each election was as follows: 1857, 39; 1859, 164; 1861, 361; 1863, 590; 1865, 742; 1867, 1,088; 1869, 1,124; 1870, 1,201; 1872, 1,555; 1874, 1,549.In the election of 1876, the total vote was 938. It is also interesting to note that in every single election up to the time of county division and in fact to 1878, when T. H. Brents of Walla Walla was the candidate, the county went democratic, and that, as we shall see later, the republicans carried most elections after that date to the present time.TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS1853-6—I. I. Stevens.1857-8—Fayette McMullan.1859-60—W. H. Wallace.1862-5—William Pickering.1866-7—George E. Cole.1867-8—Marshall F. Moore.1869-70—Alvin Flanders.1870-2—E. S. Salamon.1873-9—E. P. Ferry.Three of the above incumbents of the gubernatorial chair were Walla Walla men: Cole, Flanders, and Salamon.In 1869 Philip Ritz of Walla Walla was United States Marshal. S. C. Wingard, for many years one of the most honored of the citizens of Walla Walla, was United States attorney in 1873, and associate justice in 1875-82. After his long service under the Federal Government he made his home in Walla Walla until his death at an advanced age.WALLA WALLA CITYTurning now from the county and its relations to the territorial and national Government, to Walla Walla City, we may for the sake of topical clearness repeat a little of what was given in earlier chapters.By act of the Legislature of January 11, 1862, Walla Walla became an incorporated city, with the limits of the south half of the southwest quarter of section 20, township 7 north, range 36 east. The charter provided for the election, on the first Tuesday of each April, of a mayor, recorder, five councilmen, marshal, assessor, treasurer and surveyor. All vacancies were to be filled by appointment of councilmen, except mayor and recorder. The council also had the power to appoint a clerk and attorney.The first election under the charter occurred on the first day of April, 1862, at which election the total vote was 422. In theStatesmanof April 5 there is a criticism in rather mild and apologetic terms for the loose and careless manner in which the judges allowed voting. The assertion is made that men who were well known to reside miles out of the city were allowed to vote. Not over three hundred voters, according to the paper, were bona fide residents. A well considered warning is made that such a beginning of city elections will result in a general illegal voting and ballot-box stuffing. In theStatesman of April 12 is a report of the first council meeting on April 4. At this first meeting the votes of the election of the first were canvassed, showing that out of the 422 votes, E. B. Whitman had received 416. The recorder chosen was W. P. Horton, whose votewas 239 against 173 for W. W. Lacy. The councilmen chosen, whose votes ran from 400 to 415, were I. T. Rees, J. F. Abbott, R. Jacobs, B. F. Stone and B. Sheideman.George H. Porter was chosen marshal by a vote of 269, with 136 for A. Seitel and 17 for A. J. Miner. E. E. Kelly was the choice for treasurer by the small margin of 219 to 200 for D. S. Baker. The assessor was L. W. Greenwell by 413 votes. A. L. Chapman was chosen surveyor by 305 against 119 for W. W. Johnson. S. F. Ledyard was appointed clerk by the council, B. F. Stone was chosen president of the council at the meeting of April 10.One of the first questions which the council had to wrestle with, as it has been most of the time since, was revenue and the sources thereof. The saloon business being apparently the most active of any at that time became very naturally the foundation of the revenue system. People supposed then, as many have since, that they could lift themselves by their boot straps and that a traffic which cost a dollar for every dime that it brought into the treasury was essential to the life of the town. However, a "dry town" at that day and age and in a place whose chief business was outfitting for the mines and serving as a home for miners off duty, would have been so amazing that the very thought would have been sufficient to warrant an immediate commitment for lunacy. If the spirits of the city authorities and citizens of that date could return and see the Walla Walla of 1917, with not a legal drop of intoxicating fluid, it is safe to say that "amazement" would but feebly express their mental state. According to the revenue ordinance of that first council, a tax was to produce about a third, and licenses and fines the remainder of the city income. During the first six months the total revenue was $4,283.25, and the licensing of liquor sales and gambling tables amounted to $1,875. Tax amounted to about $1,430. The rest of the revenue was from fines. We may note here by way of comparison that in 1866 the city revenue was $15,358.97, of which $9,135.13 was from licenses.The year of 1862 was one of great activity. A. J. Cain laid out his addition, though the plat was not recorded till the next year. TheStatesmanof October 18th gives a glowing account of the improvements, stating that fifty buildings had been completed during the summer and that thirty more were in progress of construction. Most of these were no doubt flimsy wooden structures, but it is mentioned that the buildings of Schwabacher Brothers and Brown Brothers & Co. had been nearly completed. At the head of Second Street A. J. Miner was erecting a planing mill, and a sash and door factory. Beyond the city limits Mr. Meyer had put up a brewery (this afterwards developed into the Stahl brewery on Second Street). In Cain's addition, where there had been only eight houses, the number was more than doubled. As a matter of fact, though there was much improvement at that time, our fair City of Walla Walla of the present, with its elegant homes and trees and flowers and broad verdant lawns, with paved streets and bountiful water supply, would not recognize the ragged, dusty, dirty, little shack of a town of which theStatesmanwas so proud in 1862. The ease with which the people of that time have adjusted themselves to all the conveniences and elegancies of the present day, shows something of the infinite adaptability of human nature, and still more it shows that the foundation builders of the pioneer days had it in them to create all the improvements of later days. Raw as Walla Walla must have looked in the '60s, the essential conditions were there which have made our later age; rich soil, water, good surrounding country, industry, taste, brains, home spirit, good citizenship—and a certain reasonable amount of time. There we have all the elements that wrought between the Walla Walla of 1862 and that of 1917.Courtesy of F. W. PaineWALLA WALLA IN 1866Early Walla Walla had the usual experience with fires, such occurring on June 11, 1862; May 8, 1864; August 3, 1865; and July 4, 1866. As a result of the first, Joseph Hellmuth undertook to organize a fire department. His public spirit was not very cordially supported, but subscriptions to the amount of $1,600 were received, and by advancing $500 himself, he secured an old Hunneman "tub" engine.The most destructive of these early fires was that of August 3, 1865. TheStatesmanof August 4th gives a full account of it, estimating the loss so far as obtained at that time at $164,500. The paper adds $20,000 for loss not then reported. The heaviest losses were sustained by the Dry Goods Company of S. Elias & Brother, by the store and warehouse of C. Jacobs & Co., and by the Bank Exchange Saloon and dwelling house of W. J. Ferry. The building used for courthouse, with the county and city records, was destroyed. In 1863, a fire company was organized, Fred Stine being the leader in the enterprise.Perhaps the most vital feature of a growing city is pure and abundant water supply. Walla Walla was fortunate in early days in the presence of a number of springs of pure cold water. But though that supply was abundant for a small place, increasing demands made some system of distribution imperative. There was also need for sufficient pressure for fire defense.While the water system was at first a private enterprise, it became public property in due course of time, and hence it is suitable to begin the story in this chapter.In 1866 and 1867 four of the most energetic citizens of the town took the initial steps in providing a system of water distribution. H. P. Isaacs, J. C. Isaacs, A. Kyger and J. D. Cook obtained a charter in 1866 and the next year established at a point near the present Armory Hall a plant consisting of a pump, a large tank, and a supply of wooden pipe. It almost makes one's bones ache in these effete days to think of the amount of labor which the pipes for that pioneer water system demanded. The pipe consisted of logs bored lengthwise with augurs by hand. It would not comport with the dignity of a historical work to suggest that the whole proceeding was a "great bore," but it was duly accomplished and the pipes laid. Water was derived from Mill Creek, but the system seems to have been somewhat unsatisfactory to the projectors, and Mr. Isaacs entered upon a much larger undertaking, that of establishing reservoirs in the upper part of town. It was not until after the date of county division that the reservoir system was fully installed. In 1877 the reservoirs were built on both sides of Mill Creek, one on what is now the property of the Odd Fellows Home and the other in the City Park. These reservoirs were filled from the large springs and for some years supplied the needs of the town. Mr. Isaacs is deserving of great praise for his unflagging energy in endeavoring to meet that primary need of the town. The corporate name of Mr. Isaacs' enterprise was the Walla Walla Water Company. The controlling ownership was ultimately acquired by the interests represented by the Baker-Boyer Bank, and Mr. H. H. Turner became secretaryand manager. That, however, was long subsequent to county division and the further history of the water system belongs to another chapter.We perhaps should interject at this point the explanation that although chapters preceding this have been carried to the present date, we are bringing the political history of the city to the stage of county division only in order to harmonize with that of the county, and that point in case of the county constitutes a natural stage by reason of the marked change in all political connections occasioned by the division.Among miscellaneous events having political connections may be mentioned that omnipresent and usually disturbing question of the fort. We have earlier spoken of its first location at the point now occupied by the American Theater, right in the heart of the city, and its removal in 1857 to the present location. It was maintained at full strength until the close of the Indian wars and then during the period of the Civil war there was a full supply of men and equipment. At times, as already narrated in an earlier chapter, there was much friction between civilians and the military. The merchants and saloon-keepers, however, considered the presence of the Fort very desirable from a pecuniary standpoint. There were in those early days, as there have been more recently, an element in the city that attached an exaggerated importance to the presence of the soldiers as a business matter, while there was also another sentiment which became the most persistent and inherited one in the history of the town; that is, the sentiment that while the officers and their families composed the social elite, the common soldiers were taboo. This was perhaps the nearest to a caste system ever known in the free and unconventional society of Old Walla Walla. Between those two viewpoints, the business and the social, there was the larger body of citizens who shrugged their shoulders over the whole question, deeming it unimportant either way. But when by order of Colonel Curry the Fort was abandoned, save for a small detachment, in the winter of 1865-6, there went up a great protest, and all the machinery, congressional and otherwise, was set in motion, as has been so familiar since down to the present date, to secure orders for the maintenance of the post.No results were attained, however, and the Fort remained abandoned, until 1873.Congress had, in fact, passed a law in 1872, for the sale of the military reservation, authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to cut it up into blocks and lots and dispose of it as his judgment warranted. The tract was surveyed and laid out by instructions from Washington. But as a result of the famous Modoc war in Southern Oregon, the view prevailed at headquarters that the rehabilitation and reoccupation of Fort Walla Walla would be wise. Accordingly, in August, 1873, six companies were established at the Fort, and from that date for nearly forty years the military was a constant factor in the life of this section.The expenditures were very considerable. It is estimated in Gilbert's Historic Sketches of 1882 that the Fort was then purchasing annually about 10,000 bushels of oats, 5,000 bushels of barley, 500 tons of hay, 200 tons of straw, 500 barrels of flour, besides large quantities of meat, wood, and other supplies. Perhaps the most excited and acrimonious discussions, public and private, in newspapers and otherwise, have dealt with the retention of the Fort, or withsome phase of its life. Most of the features of the story came at a date long after county division.Another event of that period, not strictly political, yet belonging to the public life of the community, was the completion on June 1, 1870, of the telegraph line between Portland and Walla Walla, via Wallula. This line was built by the O. S. N. Company. The office was at the southwest corner of Third and Main streets, and James Henderson was first operator. Mayor Stone sent this message to Mayor Goldsmith: "To the Mayor of Portland: Greeting. Allow me to congratulate you upon the completion of the telegraph that places the first city of Washington Territory in direct communication with the first city of Oregon, and to express the hope that it is but the precursor of the iron rail that is to unite us still more indissolubly in the bonds of interest and affection."A prompt response in like spirit came from Mayor Goldsmith of Portland.Another event of importance, which also prepared the way for infinite political maneuvers and back-room deals was the establishment in 1871 of the Walla Walla Land District. As first constituted, the district embraced all of the territory east of the Cascade Mountains. Some appointees came from the East to fill the various positions, though the majority of them were local men, usually of the highest character. In this, as in other departments of government depending to some degree on the favor or otherwise of members of Congress, there has been a certain proportion of pie-counter politicians who have kept up a regular procession toward the land office.William Stephens, registrar, and Anderson Cox, receiver, were the first in the office, opening the doors on July 17, 1871. P. B. Johnson followed Mr. Stephens in 1875 and J. F. Boyer became receiver in 1872. Better men could not have been found in the Inland Empire.Such may be regarded as the essential events to the limits of our space in the history of Walla Walla County and City to the time of county division. We have already given the tabulation of county officials, as well as that of those of the Territorial Delegates and Governors, together with such others as especially belonged to this region. We incorporate here a list of city officials to the same date.CITY OFFICERS AND COUNCIL OF WALLA WALLA1865Mayor—George Thomas.Council—W. A. Ball, I. T. Rees, Fred Stine, B. Sheideman, Wm. Kohlhauff, O. P. Lacy.City Clerk—A. L. Brown.1866Mayor—C. B. Whiteman.Recorder—W. P. Horton.Marshal—W. J. Tompkins.Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.Assessor—O. P. Lacy.Council—Fred Stine, I. W. McKee, Cal P. Winesett, Geo. Baggs, John J. Ryan.1867Mayor—James McAuliff.Recorder—O. P. Lacy.Marshal—E. Delaney.Assessor—M. Leider.Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.Surveyor—W. L. Gaston.Council—C. P. Winesett, I. T. Rees, Wm. Kohlhauff, J. F. Abbott, W. Brown.1868Mayor—James McAuliff.Recorder—Lewis Day.Treasurer—H. M. Chase.Council—J. F. Abbott, Fred Stine, H. Howard, Wm. Kohlhauff, A. Kyger.1869Mayor—Frank Stone.Recorder—O. P. Lacy.Marshal—E. Delaney.Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.Assessor—J. E. Brown.Surveyor—A. H. Simmons.Council—James Jones, W. S. Miner, Thos. Tierney, P. M. Lynch, Thos. Quinn.1870Mayor—Dr. E. Shiel.Recorder—W. P. Horton.Marshal—E. Delaney.Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.Assessor—J. M. Rittenhouse.Surveyor—A. H. Simmons.Council—J. F. Abbott, H. M. Chase, G. P. Foor, Wm. Kohlhauff, N. T. Caton.1871Mayor—E. B. Whitman.Recorder—W. P. Horton.Marshal—E. Delaney.Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.Assessor—M. W. Davis.Surveyor—A. L. Knowlton.Council—R. Jacobs, P. M. Lynch, N. T. Caton, G. P. Foor, Frank Orselli.1872Mayor—E. B. Whitman.Recorder—O. P. Lacy.Marshal—John P. Justice.Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.Assessor—M. W. Davis.Surveyor—A. L. Knowlton.Council—Sig. Schwabacher, N. T. Caton, M. C. Moore, I. H. Foster, John Stahl.Courtesy of W. P. WinansWALLA WALLA IN 18761873Mayor—E. B. Whitman.Recorder—I. D. Sarman.Marshal—John P. Justice.Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.Assessor—M. W. Davis.Surveyor—A. L. Knowlton.Council—M. C. Moore, N. T. Caton, I. H. Foster, Wm. Neal, John Fall.1874Mayor—James McAuliff.Marshal—John P. Justice.Recorder—O. P. Lacy.Treasurer—C. T. Thompson.Assessor—J. B. Thompson.Council—F. G. Allen, Z. K. Straight, Wm. Kohlhauff, Ed C. Ross.1875Mayor—James McAuliff.Marshal—John P. Justice.Recorder—J. D. Laman.Treasurer—F. Kennedy.Assessor—S. Jacobs.Council—O. P. Lacy, Ed C. Ross, M. Belcher, J. D. Laman, Wm. Kohlhauff.1876Mayor—Jas. McAuliff.Marshal—John P. Justice.Treasurer—H. E. Holmes.Assessor—S. Jacobs.Council—G. P. Foor, Wm. Kohlhauff, A. H. Reynolds, O. P. Lacy, M.Belcher.It remains in this chapter to speak of the events leading to the division of Old Walla Walla County. The first movement in that direction originated at Waitsburg. That active place, in the center of one of the fairest and most fertile tracts in all this fertile region, had come into existence in 1865. We find an item in theStatesmanof June 30, 1865, to this effect: "Waitsburg is the name of a town just beginning to grow up at Wait's Mill on the Touchet. The people of that vicinity have resolved to celebrate the coming 4th, and are making arrangements accordingly. W. S. Langford of this city has accepted aninvitations to deliver the oration. "In 1869 a sentiment developed that the large area south of Snake River, 3,420 square miles, was too large for a single county, and that it was only a question of time when there must be another county. Not seeming to realize that if such event occurred the natural center must be farther east than Waitsburg, the citizens of the "Mill Town" pushed vigorously for their project of division, with their own town as the seat of a new county. A petition signed by 150 citizens was conveyed to Olympia by a delegation who presented it to the Legislature. Though their effort failed it served to keep the plan of division alive, and with a rapid flow of immigration into the high region of the Upper Touchet, the movement for a new county constantly grew. We have already spoken of the early locations on the Touchet and Patit. In 1871 and 1872, there became a concentration of interests which made it clear that a town would develop. It became known as Dayton from Jesse N. Day. Here was a location more suitable geographically than Waitsburg, and sentiment rapidly gathered around Dayton as the natural vantage point for a new county. Elisha Ping was chosen to the Territorial Council in 1874 to represent Walla Walla County, and as a citizen and prominent land owner of Dayton he became the center of the movement.The first boundary proposed called for a line running directly south from the Palouse ferry on Snake River to the state line, thus putting Waitsburg just within the new county. This was not acceptable to that place. If it could not be the county seat, it preferred to play second fiddle to Walla Walla rather than to Dayton. Mr. Preston went to Walla Walla to represent the Waitsburg sentiment. As a result a remonstrance against county division was prepared and forwarded to the Legislature. Representatives Hodgis, Lloyd, Lynch and Scott took positions in opposition to division. A. J. Cain and Elisha Ping conducted the campaign from the standpoint of Dayton. It became a three cornered combat in the Legislature. The Walla Walla people, as almost always is the case in a growing county, though it is very poor and selfish policy, opposed any division. The Waitsburg influence was for division provided it could have the county seat but otherwise opposed, and the Dayton influence was entirely for division with the expectation that Dayton would become the county seat. Like most county division and county seat fights, this was based mainly on motives of transient local gain and personal advantage, rather than on broad public policy for the future. But so long as human nature is at such a rudimentary stage of evolution it would be too idealistic to expect otherwise. But whether with large motives or small, the final outcome, as well as the subsequent divisions by which Garfield and Asotin were laid out, was for progress and efficiency. Walla Walla interests were overpowered in the Legislature and a bill creating Ping County was duly passed. This, however, encountered a snag, for Governor Ferry vetoed it. Another bill, avoiding his objections, naming the new county Columbia, was finally passed and on Nov. 11, 1875, Columbia County duly came into existence, embracing about two-thirds of Old Walla Walla County, being bounded by Snake River and the state line on the north, east and south, and by Walla Walla County on the west.The history of the erection of Garfield and Asotin counties will belong properly to a later chapter, and with this final view of old Walla Walla County as it had existed from 1859 to 1878, we pass on.

POLITICAL HISTORY TO TIME OF COUNTY DIVISION

In previous chapters we have presented the facts in relation to the first attempt at organization of Walla Walla County in 1854, prior to the period of great Indian wars. We took up again the reorganization and development in 1859 with the incoming of permanent population. We also mentioned the first charter and the inauguration of permanent city government. In the chapter dealing with the beginnings of industries we showed the first locations at the different points which have become the centers of population in the four counties.

It remains in this chapter to take up the thread with the growing communities and the government over them which composed the old county down to 1875, when Columbia County was created, embracing what are now the three counties of Columbia, Garfield and Asotin, and thus reducing Walla Walla County to its present limits. After that we shall trace the story of the successive subtractions of Garfield from Columbia and then Asotin from Garfield.

The authorities to which we have had recourse are first the county records, so far as available; second, the files of the newspapers covering the periods; third, Col. F. F. Gilbert's Historic Sketches, published in 1882, to which frequent reference has been made and which seems in general to be very reliable; and fourth, the memory of pioneers still living or from whom data were secured prior to their death. In respect to the public records it may be said that a destructive fire on August 3, 1865, of which an account is given in theStatesmanof the 4th, destroyed the records, though the more important ordinances and other acts of city and county government had appeared in theStatesmanand from that source were replaced.

The most important events in the political history were connected with, first, the county, its legislative and local officers, and the chain of circumstances going on to county divisions; second, the city government and the movement of laws and policies through various reorganizations to the present; and third, the place occupied by the old county in relation to state and national affairs.

In the way of a general view of political conditions in the period from the creation of county offices by the Legislature of the Territory on January 19, 1859, through the period of war, it may be said that the prevailing sentiment was at first strongly democratic. The majority of the settlers in Old Oregon, from which had come a large proportion of the earlier comers to Walla Walla, were from Missouri, Illinois, Iowa, with quite a sprinkling from Tennessee and Kentucky and democratic views preponderated in the sections from which the majority came. With that strange inconsistency which has made American political history a chaos for the philosopher and historian, that early democratic element here and elsewhere was in general bitterly opposed to "abolitionists and black republicans."While a great majority of them did not favor slavery and to a considerable extent had left slave states to get rid of it, yet they were mortally afraid of "nigger equality." When the war broke out there was a considerable element that were carried so far by their hatred of abolitionists that they even became rank "Secesh." That, however, was a temporary sentiment. The feeling of union and the preservation of an undivided nation gradually asserted itself, and by the time the war was half through democrats as well as republicans stood firmly on the platform of the maintenance of the Union. One of the best expressions of that sentiment is found in the resolutions of the democratic convention on May 23, 1863, reported in theStatesmanof the 30th. We had these expressions: "That the democracy are unalterably attached to the union of these states." "That the right of secession is not reserved to the States." "That the Federal Government has a right to maintain the constitution and enforce the laws, if need be, by force of arms, and so far as the acts of the present administration tend to these desirable ends, it has our cordial support and no further." Then as an offset, the fourth resolution declares: "That the democracy of Washington Territory view the declared intention of such men as Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner—who desire the prosecution of the present civil war for the abolition of slavery, and who utterly scout the idea of any peace which is not founded on the condition that the social fabric of the insurgent states is to be totally uprooted—with abhorrence."

A good evidence of this is the inability of men brought up with certain views and prejudices to grasp the logic of events. Then as since, "there are none so blind as those that won't see." That sentiment was also well shown in the continuance of the campaign of 1863, in which Geo. E. Cole of Walla Walla was democratic candidate for Territorial Delegate. An editorial in theStatesmanof June 5, 1863, commends Mr. Cole as a Union man and a democrat. In the same issue appears the resolutions of the Clarke County Democratic Convention which had been adopted in substance by the territorial convention which nominated Mr. Cole, and to which the democrats of Walla Walla pledged themselves at a ratification meeting on July 11th. As showing the stamp of thought prevailing at that time in the party, it is of interest to read these resolutions:

"Resolved, That the democracy (of Clarke County) are for the Union, and the whole Union, and in favor of the vigorous prosecution of the efforts of the Government in crushing the present unholy and wicked rebellion, when such efforts are not actuated by any other motives than a single desire to maintain the honor and dignity of the nation and enforcement of the laws. That we are opposed to the conclusion of any peace involving in its terms the acknowledgment of the so-called Southern Confederacy, and that we hereby pledge ourselves, come weal or woe, in life and death, now and forever, to stand by and defend the flag of our country in its hour of peril."

It is indeed one of the most significant evolutions in American history; that of the gradual passing over from a support of slavery by the larger part of the democratic party to a stage where they no longer supported that "sum of all villainies" and yet had a profound hatred of "abolitionists," to the point where they perceived that the maintenance of the Union was the great essential, whether slavery was lost or saved, and yet further to the point, which many reached, of an unflinching support of Abraham Lincoln in his abolition as well as Unionpolicies. It is all an exhibition of the evolution of nationalism, to which free labor is essential. And in that evolution, the West has borne the larger part. The sentiment of state pride, the local prejudices and narrow vision common in the older states and which in the South became intertwined with slavery and produced economic and political deformity and arrested development, was shuffled off when people of East and North and South and Europe all joined to lay the foundations of genuine American states in new regions unhampered and undistorted by caste and prejudice. This state of affairs in the West prepared the way for a new democracy, a national democracy, a genuine democracy for all men. The transformation of Walla Walla politics was simply a sample of a movement taking place all over the country. As a result, during the decades of the sixties and seventies, many former democrats, notably some who had been brought up in Missouri and other slave states, finding the democratic party, as they thought, still a laggard on progressive issues developed by the war and reconstruction, left the party and joined the republicans. Doubtless theStatesmanmay be taken as a good exponent of the prevailing democratic views in Walla Walla. It was strong for the Union, but was horribly afraid of "abolitionists." When W. H. Newell acquired the paper in November, 1865, he adopted the policy of supporting President Johnson against Congress. The republican party steadily gained, and in subsequent decades Walla Walla County, as all other parts of the states of Washington and Oregon, became overwhelmingly republican. By the progress of the same evolution, progressive politics have had a powerful hold upon the people of these states, as well as of the entire Pacific Coast, and the support given to democratic candidates, state and national, in 1916, is a thoroughly logical development. The people have been consistent, though party names have not.

One of the interesting facts not generally realized is that Walla Walla County in the sixties contained so large a part of the population of the territory. In theStatesmanof December 30, 1864, we find a report from Edwin Eells, enrolling officer of the county, in which it appears that the draft enrollment in Walla Walla County was 1,133, while in the entire territory it was 4,143.

A few figures at various times in the sixties will be found of interest.

The vote for Territorial Delegate in 1863 by counties was as follows, as given in theStatesmanof August 22:

A few figures at various times in the sixties will be found of interest. In the county election of June, 1864, we find the following vote by precincts:

TheStatesmanof September 9, 1864, says that nine-tenths of the immigrants coming in at that time were Democrats.

That claim was not quite realized, however, in the election of June 5, 1865, for the republican candidate for Territorial Delegate, Arthur A. Denny, received 336, while the democrat, James Tilton, had 406.

Though the population was small and scattered there were many intricacies involving county and city politics. Into those details we cannot go. Doubtless some of them would best rest in oblivion.

We incorporate here, as valuable for reference, the list of legislative choices and of the chief county officers beginning with 1863 and extending through all elections prior to county division in 1875.

1863

Daniel Stewart, joint councilman; S. W. Babcock, F. P. Dugan, L. S. Rogers, representatives; W. S. Gilliam, sheriff; L. J. Rector, auditor; C. Leyde, assessor.

1864

J. H. Lasater, attorney; Alvin Flanders, joint representative; A. L. Brown, F. P. Dugan, E. L. Bridges, representatives; W. G. Langford, councilman; J. H. Blewett, probate judge; James McAuliff, treasurer; W. H. Patton, assessor; Charles White, surveyor; H. D. O'Bryant, commissioner; A. J. Theboda, coroner.

1866

B. L. Sharpstein, councilman; D. M. Jessee, R. Jacobs, R. R. Rees, H. D. O'Bryant, T. P. Page, representatives; James McAuliff, treasurer; H. M. Hodgis, assessor; W. G. Langford, superintendent of schools; T. G. Lee and H. A. Livingston, commissioners.

1868

W. H. Newell, councilman; J. M. Vansycle, joint councilman; W. P. Horton, E. Ping, J. M. Lamb, P. B. Johnson, B. F. Regan, representatives; H. M. Chase, probate judge; A. Seitel, sheriff; J. H. Blewett, auditor; J. D. Cook, treasurer; C. Ireland, assessor; C. Eells, superintendent of schools; S. M. Wait, W. T. Barnes, and A. H. Reynolds, commissioners.

1870

Daniel Stewart, councilman; N. T. Bryant, joint councilman; D. Ashpaugh, J. H. Lasater, John Scott, A. G. Lloyd, E. Ping, T. W. Whetstone, representatives; N. T. Caton, attorney; R. Guichard, probate judge; James McAuliff, sheriff; H. M. Chase, auditor; A. Kyger, treasurer; A. C. Wellman, assessor; J. L. Reser, superintendent of schools; C. C. Cram, Francis Lowden, I. T. Reese, commissioners.

1872

Fred Stine, councilman; C. H. Montgomery, joint councilman; N. T. Caton, O. P. Lacy, E. Ping, C. L. Bush, John Bryant, and H. M. Hodgis, representatives; I. Hargrove, probate judge; B. W. Griffin, sheriff; R. Jacobs, auditor; R. R. Rees, treasurer; W. F. Gwynn, assessor; A. W. Sweeney, superintendent of schools; D. M. Jessee, W. P. Bruce, and S. L. King, commissioners.

1874

E. Ping, councilman; W. W. Boon, joint councilman; R. G. Newland, J. B. Shrum, P. M. Lynch, John Scott, A. G. Lloyd, and H. M. Hodgis, representatives; T. J. Anders, attorney; R. Guichard, probate judge; G. F. Thomas, sheriff; R. Jacobs, auditor; R. R. Rees, treasurer; S. Jacobs, assessor; A. W. Sweeney, superintendent of schools; Charles White, C. S. Bush, C. C. Cram, commissioners.

This was the last election prior to county division. The elections after that event will appear in chapter one of part three.

In the early times they seem to have had a frank and outspoken and energetic manner of writing about each other, and the inference is plain that they talked in a similar way. Each man had ready access to his hip pocket, and was commonly qualified to support his views by force of arms when necessary. We find as a sample a discussion between Sheriff E. B. Whitman and certain critics in theStatesmanof May 30 and June 13, 1863. It pertains to the arrest of one Bunton. An address signed by sixty-nine residents of the Coppei appears in the earlier issue. In it is charged that a flagrant and wilful murder had been committed byWilliam Bunton on the person of Daniel S. Cogsdill and that Sheriff Whitman made no effort to arrest Bunton, and when, at the instance of citizens, Deputy Hodgis arrested Bunton, and delivered him to Whitman that the latter was too merciful to the prisoner to put him in jail; "but at the request of Bunton put him in charge of a lame or a crippled man, with, as we believe, the intention of his escape." They therefore declare that they have no protection when the high and responsible office of sheriff is filled by the friends of murderers and thieves. They therefore recommend that the commissioners should remove said Whitman and appoint "Deputy Hodgis or some other good man."

Sheriff Whitman makes in reply a lengthy and moderate explanation, the main point of which was that the county jail was so insecure that by the advice of Judge Wyche he put Bunton in the hands of J. O. Putman, one of the signers of the above statement, and that after some trouble Bunton got away. In the issue of June 13, the citizens returned to the attack with renewed energy, and this brought from Mr. Whitman a vitriolic response. He begins: "EditorStatesman: As your columns seem to be at the disposal of parties who may wish to belch forth personal slander, persecution, malignity, and falsehood, it is but just that the party vilified should have the opportunity of replying through the same medium. Upon reading the article, dated at Coppei, I thought I would let the matter rest upon its own merits, as the style and manner in which it is written shows that it originated from a vindictive, mischievous, and depraved appetite for notoriety, which at times controls men of depraved tastes." Among the sixty-nine signers of the document were some who were, as also Sheriff Whitman himself was, among the most worthy of the foundation builders, and who now all rest in honored graves. We are giving the incidents here as a historical curiosity, and as showing how men's minds were keyed up in those days of war and vigilantes to a high pitch.

EFFORT TO ANNEX WALLA WALLA COUNTY TO OREGON

One of the most exciting political questions of the sixties was that of annexation of Walla Walla County to Oregon. We find in theStatesmanof October 20, 1865, a report of a mass meeting of October 18, at which resolutions were passed advocating the annexation and inviting the people of Oregon, through their Legislature, to unite in the movement, and also calling on the representatives and senators from Oregon and the Territorial Delegate, A. A. Denny, to use all honorable means to induce Congress to take that action. They mention, which is historically interesting, that the people of Oregon in accepting their Constitution had done so with the understanding that the line should follow the natural boundary of the Columbia and Snake rivers. The convention also censured Judge J. E. Wyche, judge of the First Judicial District of Washington Territory, located at Walla Walla. The committee composing the resolutions consisted of J. H. Lasater, A. Kyger, and Drury Davis. J. H. Blewett introduced a resolution calling on President Johnson to remove Judge Wyche. The resolution was lost. A committee consisting of A. J. Cain, A. L. Brown, and H. P. Isaacs was appointed to draft petitions, one to Congress and the other to the Oregon Legislature, looking to the execution of the plan.

In the same issue of theStatesmana call appears for a meeting to "take suchsteps as they may deem proper to frustrate the designs of those who would saddle upon the people of this county a proportion of the debt of the bankrupt State of Oregon, with her peculiar institutions."

It is asserted that Anderson Cox was the prime mover in the annexation project, though his name does not appear in the report in theStatesman. The Oregon Legislature was nothing loth to add this desirable section to the limits of the mother state and duly memorialized Congress to that effect. Years passed by, and in 1875, just after county division had been effected, Senator J. K. Kelly of Oregon introduced a bill providing for the submission of the question to the people of Walla Walla and Columbia counties. This bill failed, as did also one to the same effect in the House by Representative LaFayette Lane of Oregon. The failure of the annexation plan produced additional activity in projects looking to statehood. There was during that period (and it has not entirely ceased to this day) a good deal of friction between the Walla Walla section and the Puget Sound section. The former had early commercial and political relations with Portland of a far more intimate nature than with the Sound. The majority of the leading business men were from Oregon. The common feeling was that the Sound was very selfish and narrow in its dealings with the eastern section, desiring its connection mainly for taxation purposes. It was largely from that feeling that annexation projects arose. The Sound, on the other hand, had accused the Walla Walla section of being disloyal to the state and seeking local advantage. Opposition in the territory therefore delayed action. According to statements made by Hollon Parker to the author a number of years ago, he himself made a special trip to Washington to head off the movement. At any rate, it was never carried. Walla Walla County had at the time of the presidential election of 1876 a sufficient majority of Democrats to have toppled the slight scale by which Hayes held the presidency over Tilden, and if the county had been in Oregon Tilden would have had a majority and the Electoral Commission would never have been created, and quite a section of national history would have had another version.

In 1865 the Territorial Delegate was Arthur Denny of Seattle. The Statesman refers to him as the "Abolition Candidate." Passing on to 1867 we find national, state, and local affairs of a very strenuous nature. Perhaps the insertion here of extracts from a book written by the author sometime ago will convey a clear view of the course of events in the elections of 1867 and 1869.

POLITICAL REVIEW

A review of the political situation in 1867 shows that there was an extraordinary interest and activity in the ranks of both the democrats and the republicans. The principal point of contest and interest was in the selection of a delegate to Congress, each party having a number of aspirants for the important office. The people east of the Cascades felt that they were entitled to have a candidate selected from their section of the territory, inasmuch as the honor had hitherto gone to a resident of the Sound country. From the eastern section of the territory were five democrats and two republicans whose names were prominently mentioned in this connection, and while the republican convention for Walla Walla County sent an uninstructed delegate to the territorial convention, a vigorouseffort had been made in favor of the candidacy of Judge J. E. Wyche. At the county democratic convention the delegates chosen were instructed to give their support to W. G. Langford, of Walla Walla, so long as seemed expedient. They were also instructed to deny their support to any candidate who endorsed in any degree the project of annexing Walla Walla County to Oregon. In the territorial convention Frank Clark of Pierce County received the nomination of the democracy for the office of congressional delegate, the balloting in the convention having been close and spirited. The republican territorial convention succeeded in running in the proverbial "dark horse," in the person of Alvin Flanders, a Walla Walla merchant, who was made the nominee, defeating three very strong candidates.

Owing to the agitation of the Vigilance question, referring to diverging opinions of the citizens as to the proper method of administering justice, the politics of the county were in a peculiarly disrupted and disorganized condition, and the Vigilance issue had an unmistakable influence on the election, as was shown by the many peculiarities which were brought to light when the returns were fully in. The democrats of the county were particularly desirous of electing certain of their county candidates, and it is stated that the republicans were able to divert many democratic votes to their candidate for delegate to Congress by trading votes with democrats and pledging their support to local democratic candidates. The fact that such bartering took place is assured, for while the returns gave a democratic majority of about two hundred and fifty in Walla Walla County for all other officers, the delegate received a majority of only 124. This action on the part of the Walla Walla democrats secured the election of the republican candidate, whose majority in the territory was only ninety-six.

The result of the election in the county, held on the 3d of June, was as follows: Frank Clark, the democratic candidate for delegate, received 606 votes, and Alvin Flanders, republican, 482 votes. The other officers elected were as follows: Prosecuting attorney, F. P. Dugan; councilman, W. H. Newell; joint councilman (Walla Walla and Stevens counties), J. M. Vansycle; representatives, W. P. Horton, E. Ping, J. M. Lamb, P. B. Johnson and B. F. Regan; probate judge, H. M. Chase; sheriff, A. Seitel; auditor, J. H. Blewett; treasurer, J. D. Cook; assessor, C. Ireland; surveyor, W. L. Gaston; superintendent of schools, C. Eells; coroner, L. H. Goodwin; county commissioners, S. M. Wait, D. M. Jessee (evidently an error in returns, as W. T. Barnes, a democrat, was elected), and A. H. Reynolds.

The sheriff resigned on November 7, 1868, and on the same day James McAuliff was appointed to fill the vacancy. A. H. Reynolds resigned as commissioner, in May, 1869, Dr. D. S. Baker being appointed as his successor. Of the successful candidates noted in the above list, all were democrats except P. B. Johnson, J. D. Cook, C. Eells, S. M. Wait and A. H. Reynolds.

Again in this year was there to be chosen a delegate to Congress, and the democracy of Walla Walla County instructed their delegates to the territorial convention to insist upon the nomination of a candidate resident east of the Cascade Range—the same desideratum that had been sought at the last preceding election. In the convention F. P. Dugan, J. D. Mix, B. L. Sharsptein and W. H. Newell, of Walla Walla, were balloted for, but the nomination went to Marshall F. Moore, ex-governor of the territory.

The republican nomination was secured by Selucius Garfielde, surveyor-general of the territory. The names of two of Walla Walla County's citizens were presented before the convention, Dr. D. S. Baker and Anderson Cox. The nomination of Garfielde proved unsatisfactory to many of the party adherents and dissention was rampant. The disaffection became so intense in nature that a number of the most prominent men in the party ranks did not hesitate to append their signatures to a circular addressed to the "downfallen republican party," said document bearing fifty signatures in all. On the list appeared the name of the delegate in Congress and the chief justice of the territory. The circular called for a radical reorganization of the party, charged fraudulent action in the convention and made many sweeping assertions. This action provoked a strong protest, and the disaffected contingent did not nominate a ticket of their own, and Mr. Garfielde was elected by a majority of 132. He received in Walla Walla County 384 votes, while his opponent, Mr. Moore, received 740.

According to all data available, the political pot boiled furiously throughout the territory as the hour of election approached. Lack of harmony was manifest in both parties, and, as before, the chief interest centered in the election of a delegate to represent the territory in the Federal Congress. Those office-holders who were most vigorously protestant and visibly disaffected were summarily removed from office in January of this year by the President of the United States, this action having been recommended by the congressional delegate, Mr. Garfielde, who thus drew upon himself still greater dislike and opposition. A change in the existing laws made it necessary to elect a delegate again this year, and a strong attempt was made to defeat Mr. Garfielde, who was confident of being returned to office. There could be no reconciliation of the warring elements in the republican party. The republican territorial convention of 1869 had appointed an executive committee, whose personnel was as follows: Edward Eldridge, M. S. Drew, L. Farnsworth, P. D. Moore, B. F. Stone, Henry Cook and J. D. Cook. In February a circular was issued by Messrs. S. D. Howe, A. A. Manning, Ezra Meeker, G. A. Meigs, A. A. Denny and John E. Burns, who claimed to have constituted the executive committee. The convention as called by the regular committee met in April and renominated Mr. Garfielde. The recalcitrant faction presented the name of Marshall Blinn in the convention, the bolters not being strong enough to hold a separate convention, but hoping to gain sufficient votes to prevent the nomination of Garfielde.

The democratic convention was far more harmonious, the nomination going to Judge J. D. Mix, one of the most honored citizens of Walla Walla, and one enjoying a wide acquaintance throughout the territory. The campaign developed considerable acrimony between the factions of the republican party, but the results of the election showed that the disaffected wing gained but slight popular endorsement. Six thousand three hundred and fifty-seven votes were cast in this election, representing a gain of 1,300 over the preceding year. Garfielde was elected, securing a majority of 736 over Mix, the total vote for Blinn being only 155. Upon the question of holding a constitutional convention there were 1,109 votes cast in opposition, and 974 in favor.

RESIDENCE OF FATHER VAN DE VEN, WALLA WALLA

ST. MARY'S HOSPITAL, WALLA WALLA

By reason of the change in the law the county election also was held a year earlier than usual, occurring June 6, 1870. The democracy was victorious in the county, electing their entire ticket with the exception of superintendent of schools. For delegate James D. Mix received in his home county 670 votes, while Selucius Garfielde had 527. The officers elected in the county were as follows: Prosecuting attorney, N. T. Caton; councilman, Daniel Stewart; joint councilman (Walla Walla, Stevens and Yakima counties), N. T. Bryant; representatives, David Aspaugh, James H. Lasater, John Scott, A. G. Lloyd, Elisha Ping and T. W. Whetstone; probate judge, R. Guichard; sheriff, James McAuliff; auditor, H. M. Chase; treasurer, A. Kyger; assessor, A. C. Wellman; surveyor, A. H. Simmons (he was succeeded by Charles A. White, who was appointed to the office May 1, 1871); school superintendent, J. L. Reser; coroner, L. H. Goodwin; county commissioners, C. C. Cram, F. Louden and I. T. Rees.

The officials elected in the county this year did not assume their respective positions until the succeeding year. The officers elected in the preceding year had been chosen for a term of two years, and they contended that the change in the law of the territory which made it necessary to hold the election in 1870, instead of 1871, did not invalidate their right to hold office until the expiration of their regular term. The matter was brought into the courts for adjudication, in a test case, the prosecuting attorney-elect against the incumbent of the office at the time of the last election. In July James W. Kennedy, judge of the first district, rendered a decision in favor of the defendant, holding that officers elected in 1869 retained their positions until 1871, thus reducing the term of the officials last elected to one year.

COUNTY COURTHOUSE

One of the burning questions at all times in political life has been the County Courthouse. As the county dedicated its first courthouse in the year 1867, it is incumbent that we make a brief reference to the same at this juncture. As early as 1864, the grand jury had made a report on this matter, and from said document we make the following pertinent extracts: "We, the grand jury, find that it is the duty of the county commissioners to furnish offices for the different county officers. This we find they have not done. Today the offices of the officers are in one place, tomorrow in another, and we hope at the next meeting of the board of county commissioners that they will, for the sake of the integrity of Walla Walla County, furnish the different county officers with good offices." Notwithstanding this merited reproof, no action of a definite character was taken by the board of commissioners until a meeting of March 11, 1867, when it was voted to purchase of S. Linkton a building on the corner of Alder and Third streets, the same to be paid for in thirty monthly installments of $100 each. A further expenditure of $500 was made in fitting up the building for the use of the county, and thus Walla Walla County was able to hold up a dignified head and note with approval her first courthouse. That the structure was altogether unpretentious and devoid of all architectural beauty it is perhaps needless to say. The executives of the county were at least provided with a local habitation.

Though the housing of the county was a lame affair a number of years passed before there was any permanent action. During nearly all elections from 1869 on we find a vote on two general questions: a constitutional convention and a courthouse. In 1869 there was a vote of 24 for, and 286 against a constitutional convention.

The interval of elections was changed following the election of 1869, so that the next occurred on June 6, 1870. That of 1872 took place on November 5th.

In August, 1870, the City Council deeded to the county the block of land on Main Street on which the permanent courthouse was built. In the election of 1872 the vote in favor of building a courthouse was 815 to 603. A vote, as usual, was taken on constitutional convention, with the result of 57 affirmative and 809 negative.

Since the majority had expressed their desire for a courthouse the commissioners in February, 1873, set on foot the arrangements for plans, and those presented by T. P. Allen were accepted. These called for a brick structure with stone foundation, two stories, dome, main part with an ell. Meanwhile various schemes for inducing the commissioners to locate farther from the center of town by offering land, with a view to enhancing the values of land adjoining, were under consideration. After having turned down several such plans and pronounced in favor of the block donated by the city, the commissioners rather suddenly changed their decision and accepted four blocks between Second and Fourth streets, a quarter mile north of Main Street. A first-class ruction arose over this decision. Changes were made in the plans also, by which the building was reduced in size and dignity. Finally, as Gilbert says, with some degree of keenness, "the last act, and under the circumstances, the most judicious one, was not to erect the building at all."

After this the courthouse plans rested awhile, and no action was taken until after county division. The question of constitutional convention, however, kept pegging away, and in the election of 1874, the result was similar to that of previous elections, 24 for, and 236 against.

It will be found of value to incorporate here the list of Territorial Delegates and Governors. Walla Walla was well represented in the list, both before and after county division, as also both before and after statehood.

TERRITORIAL DELEGATES

1857—I. I. Stevens, democrat.

1859—I. I. Stevens, democrat.

1861—W. H. Wallace, republican.

1863—George E. Cole, democrat—from Walla Walla.

1865—A. A. Denny, union.

1867—Alvin Flanders, union—from Walla Walla.

1869—Selucius Garfielde, republican; J. D. Mix, of Walla Walla, democratic candidate.

1870—Selucius Garfielde, republican.

1872—O. B. McFadden, democrat.

1874—Orange Jacobs, republican; B. L. Sharpstein, democratic candidate, Walla Walla.

The next election came in 1876 and there was a considerable falling off in the vote on account of county division in the previous year. It may be worth noting that the total vote of Walla Walla County in each election was as follows: 1857, 39; 1859, 164; 1861, 361; 1863, 590; 1865, 742; 1867, 1,088; 1869, 1,124; 1870, 1,201; 1872, 1,555; 1874, 1,549.

In the election of 1876, the total vote was 938. It is also interesting to note that in every single election up to the time of county division and in fact to 1878, when T. H. Brents of Walla Walla was the candidate, the county went democratic, and that, as we shall see later, the republicans carried most elections after that date to the present time.

TERRITORIAL GOVERNORS

1853-6—I. I. Stevens.

1857-8—Fayette McMullan.

1859-60—W. H. Wallace.

1862-5—William Pickering.

1866-7—George E. Cole.

1867-8—Marshall F. Moore.

1869-70—Alvin Flanders.

1870-2—E. S. Salamon.

1873-9—E. P. Ferry.

Three of the above incumbents of the gubernatorial chair were Walla Walla men: Cole, Flanders, and Salamon.

In 1869 Philip Ritz of Walla Walla was United States Marshal. S. C. Wingard, for many years one of the most honored of the citizens of Walla Walla, was United States attorney in 1873, and associate justice in 1875-82. After his long service under the Federal Government he made his home in Walla Walla until his death at an advanced age.

WALLA WALLA CITY

Turning now from the county and its relations to the territorial and national Government, to Walla Walla City, we may for the sake of topical clearness repeat a little of what was given in earlier chapters.

By act of the Legislature of January 11, 1862, Walla Walla became an incorporated city, with the limits of the south half of the southwest quarter of section 20, township 7 north, range 36 east. The charter provided for the election, on the first Tuesday of each April, of a mayor, recorder, five councilmen, marshal, assessor, treasurer and surveyor. All vacancies were to be filled by appointment of councilmen, except mayor and recorder. The council also had the power to appoint a clerk and attorney.

The first election under the charter occurred on the first day of April, 1862, at which election the total vote was 422. In theStatesmanof April 5 there is a criticism in rather mild and apologetic terms for the loose and careless manner in which the judges allowed voting. The assertion is made that men who were well known to reside miles out of the city were allowed to vote. Not over three hundred voters, according to the paper, were bona fide residents. A well considered warning is made that such a beginning of city elections will result in a general illegal voting and ballot-box stuffing. In theStatesman of April 12 is a report of the first council meeting on April 4. At this first meeting the votes of the election of the first were canvassed, showing that out of the 422 votes, E. B. Whitman had received 416. The recorder chosen was W. P. Horton, whose votewas 239 against 173 for W. W. Lacy. The councilmen chosen, whose votes ran from 400 to 415, were I. T. Rees, J. F. Abbott, R. Jacobs, B. F. Stone and B. Sheideman.

George H. Porter was chosen marshal by a vote of 269, with 136 for A. Seitel and 17 for A. J. Miner. E. E. Kelly was the choice for treasurer by the small margin of 219 to 200 for D. S. Baker. The assessor was L. W. Greenwell by 413 votes. A. L. Chapman was chosen surveyor by 305 against 119 for W. W. Johnson. S. F. Ledyard was appointed clerk by the council, B. F. Stone was chosen president of the council at the meeting of April 10.

One of the first questions which the council had to wrestle with, as it has been most of the time since, was revenue and the sources thereof. The saloon business being apparently the most active of any at that time became very naturally the foundation of the revenue system. People supposed then, as many have since, that they could lift themselves by their boot straps and that a traffic which cost a dollar for every dime that it brought into the treasury was essential to the life of the town. However, a "dry town" at that day and age and in a place whose chief business was outfitting for the mines and serving as a home for miners off duty, would have been so amazing that the very thought would have been sufficient to warrant an immediate commitment for lunacy. If the spirits of the city authorities and citizens of that date could return and see the Walla Walla of 1917, with not a legal drop of intoxicating fluid, it is safe to say that "amazement" would but feebly express their mental state. According to the revenue ordinance of that first council, a tax was to produce about a third, and licenses and fines the remainder of the city income. During the first six months the total revenue was $4,283.25, and the licensing of liquor sales and gambling tables amounted to $1,875. Tax amounted to about $1,430. The rest of the revenue was from fines. We may note here by way of comparison that in 1866 the city revenue was $15,358.97, of which $9,135.13 was from licenses.

The year of 1862 was one of great activity. A. J. Cain laid out his addition, though the plat was not recorded till the next year. TheStatesmanof October 18th gives a glowing account of the improvements, stating that fifty buildings had been completed during the summer and that thirty more were in progress of construction. Most of these were no doubt flimsy wooden structures, but it is mentioned that the buildings of Schwabacher Brothers and Brown Brothers & Co. had been nearly completed. At the head of Second Street A. J. Miner was erecting a planing mill, and a sash and door factory. Beyond the city limits Mr. Meyer had put up a brewery (this afterwards developed into the Stahl brewery on Second Street). In Cain's addition, where there had been only eight houses, the number was more than doubled. As a matter of fact, though there was much improvement at that time, our fair City of Walla Walla of the present, with its elegant homes and trees and flowers and broad verdant lawns, with paved streets and bountiful water supply, would not recognize the ragged, dusty, dirty, little shack of a town of which theStatesmanwas so proud in 1862. The ease with which the people of that time have adjusted themselves to all the conveniences and elegancies of the present day, shows something of the infinite adaptability of human nature, and still more it shows that the foundation builders of the pioneer days had it in them to create all the improvements of later days. Raw as Walla Walla must have looked in the '60s, the essential conditions were there which have made our later age; rich soil, water, good surrounding country, industry, taste, brains, home spirit, good citizenship—and a certain reasonable amount of time. There we have all the elements that wrought between the Walla Walla of 1862 and that of 1917.

Courtesy of F. W. PaineWALLA WALLA IN 1866

Courtesy of F. W. Paine

WALLA WALLA IN 1866

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Another event of that period, not strictly political, yet belonging to the public life of the community, was the completion on June 1, 1870, of the telegraph line between Portland and Walla Walla, via Wallula. This line was built by the O. S. N. Company. The office was at the southwest corner of Third and Main streets, and James Henderson was first operator. Mayor Stone sent this message to Mayor Goldsmith: "To the Mayor of Portland: Greeting. Allow me to congratulate you upon the completion of the telegraph that places the first city of Washington Territory in direct communication with the first city of Oregon, and to express the hope that it is but the precursor of the iron rail that is to unite us still more indissolubly in the bonds of interest and affection."

A prompt response in like spirit came from Mayor Goldsmith of Portland.

Another event of importance, which also prepared the way for infinite political maneuvers and back-room deals was the establishment in 1871 of the Walla Walla Land District. As first constituted, the district embraced all of the territory east of the Cascade Mountains. Some appointees came from the East to fill the various positions, though the majority of them were local men, usually of the highest character. In this, as in other departments of government depending to some degree on the favor or otherwise of members of Congress, there has been a certain proportion of pie-counter politicians who have kept up a regular procession toward the land office.

William Stephens, registrar, and Anderson Cox, receiver, were the first in the office, opening the doors on July 17, 1871. P. B. Johnson followed Mr. Stephens in 1875 and J. F. Boyer became receiver in 1872. Better men could not have been found in the Inland Empire.

Such may be regarded as the essential events to the limits of our space in the history of Walla Walla County and City to the time of county division. We have already given the tabulation of county officials, as well as that of those of the Territorial Delegates and Governors, together with such others as especially belonged to this region. We incorporate here a list of city officials to the same date.

CITY OFFICERS AND COUNCIL OF WALLA WALLA

1865

Mayor—George Thomas.

Council—W. A. Ball, I. T. Rees, Fred Stine, B. Sheideman, Wm. Kohlhauff, O. P. Lacy.

City Clerk—A. L. Brown.

1866

Mayor—C. B. Whiteman.

Recorder—W. P. Horton.

Marshal—W. J. Tompkins.

Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.

Assessor—O. P. Lacy.

Council—Fred Stine, I. W. McKee, Cal P. Winesett, Geo. Baggs, John J. Ryan.

1867

Mayor—James McAuliff.

Recorder—O. P. Lacy.

Marshal—E. Delaney.

Assessor—M. Leider.

Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.

Surveyor—W. L. Gaston.

Council—C. P. Winesett, I. T. Rees, Wm. Kohlhauff, J. F. Abbott, W. Brown.

1868

Mayor—James McAuliff.

Recorder—Lewis Day.

Treasurer—H. M. Chase.

Council—J. F. Abbott, Fred Stine, H. Howard, Wm. Kohlhauff, A. Kyger.

1869

Mayor—Frank Stone.

Recorder—O. P. Lacy.

Marshal—E. Delaney.

Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.

Assessor—J. E. Brown.

Surveyor—A. H. Simmons.

Council—James Jones, W. S. Miner, Thos. Tierney, P. M. Lynch, Thos. Quinn.

1870

Mayor—Dr. E. Shiel.

Recorder—W. P. Horton.

Marshal—E. Delaney.

Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.

Assessor—J. M. Rittenhouse.

Surveyor—A. H. Simmons.

Council—J. F. Abbott, H. M. Chase, G. P. Foor, Wm. Kohlhauff, N. T. Caton.

1871

Mayor—E. B. Whitman.

Recorder—W. P. Horton.

Marshal—E. Delaney.

Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.

Assessor—M. W. Davis.

Surveyor—A. L. Knowlton.

Council—R. Jacobs, P. M. Lynch, N. T. Caton, G. P. Foor, Frank Orselli.

1872

Mayor—E. B. Whitman.

Recorder—O. P. Lacy.

Marshal—John P. Justice.

Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.

Assessor—M. W. Davis.

Surveyor—A. L. Knowlton.

Council—Sig. Schwabacher, N. T. Caton, M. C. Moore, I. H. Foster, John Stahl.

Courtesy of W. P. WinansWALLA WALLA IN 1876

Courtesy of W. P. Winans

WALLA WALLA IN 1876

1873

Mayor—E. B. Whitman.

Recorder—I. D. Sarman.

Marshal—John P. Justice.

Treasurer—H. E. Johnson.

Assessor—M. W. Davis.

Surveyor—A. L. Knowlton.

Council—M. C. Moore, N. T. Caton, I. H. Foster, Wm. Neal, John Fall.

1874

Mayor—James McAuliff.

Marshal—John P. Justice.

Recorder—O. P. Lacy.

Treasurer—C. T. Thompson.

Assessor—J. B. Thompson.

Council—F. G. Allen, Z. K. Straight, Wm. Kohlhauff, Ed C. Ross.

1875

Mayor—James McAuliff.

Marshal—John P. Justice.

Recorder—J. D. Laman.

Treasurer—F. Kennedy.

Assessor—S. Jacobs.

Council—O. P. Lacy, Ed C. Ross, M. Belcher, J. D. Laman, Wm. Kohlhauff.

1876

Mayor—Jas. McAuliff.

Marshal—John P. Justice.

Treasurer—H. E. Holmes.

Assessor—S. Jacobs.

Council—G. P. Foor, Wm. Kohlhauff, A. H. Reynolds, O. P. Lacy, M.

Belcher.

It remains in this chapter to speak of the events leading to the division of Old Walla Walla County. The first movement in that direction originated at Waitsburg. That active place, in the center of one of the fairest and most fertile tracts in all this fertile region, had come into existence in 1865. We find an item in theStatesmanof June 30, 1865, to this effect: "Waitsburg is the name of a town just beginning to grow up at Wait's Mill on the Touchet. The people of that vicinity have resolved to celebrate the coming 4th, and are making arrangements accordingly. W. S. Langford of this city has accepted aninvitations to deliver the oration. "In 1869 a sentiment developed that the large area south of Snake River, 3,420 square miles, was too large for a single county, and that it was only a question of time when there must be another county. Not seeming to realize that if such event occurred the natural center must be farther east than Waitsburg, the citizens of the "Mill Town" pushed vigorously for their project of division, with their own town as the seat of a new county. A petition signed by 150 citizens was conveyed to Olympia by a delegation who presented it to the Legislature. Though their effort failed it served to keep the plan of division alive, and with a rapid flow of immigration into the high region of the Upper Touchet, the movement for a new county constantly grew. We have already spoken of the early locations on the Touchet and Patit. In 1871 and 1872, there became a concentration of interests which made it clear that a town would develop. It became known as Dayton from Jesse N. Day. Here was a location more suitable geographically than Waitsburg, and sentiment rapidly gathered around Dayton as the natural vantage point for a new county. Elisha Ping was chosen to the Territorial Council in 1874 to represent Walla Walla County, and as a citizen and prominent land owner of Dayton he became the center of the movement.

The first boundary proposed called for a line running directly south from the Palouse ferry on Snake River to the state line, thus putting Waitsburg just within the new county. This was not acceptable to that place. If it could not be the county seat, it preferred to play second fiddle to Walla Walla rather than to Dayton. Mr. Preston went to Walla Walla to represent the Waitsburg sentiment. As a result a remonstrance against county division was prepared and forwarded to the Legislature. Representatives Hodgis, Lloyd, Lynch and Scott took positions in opposition to division. A. J. Cain and Elisha Ping conducted the campaign from the standpoint of Dayton. It became a three cornered combat in the Legislature. The Walla Walla people, as almost always is the case in a growing county, though it is very poor and selfish policy, opposed any division. The Waitsburg influence was for division provided it could have the county seat but otherwise opposed, and the Dayton influence was entirely for division with the expectation that Dayton would become the county seat. Like most county division and county seat fights, this was based mainly on motives of transient local gain and personal advantage, rather than on broad public policy for the future. But so long as human nature is at such a rudimentary stage of evolution it would be too idealistic to expect otherwise. But whether with large motives or small, the final outcome, as well as the subsequent divisions by which Garfield and Asotin were laid out, was for progress and efficiency. Walla Walla interests were overpowered in the Legislature and a bill creating Ping County was duly passed. This, however, encountered a snag, for Governor Ferry vetoed it. Another bill, avoiding his objections, naming the new county Columbia, was finally passed and on Nov. 11, 1875, Columbia County duly came into existence, embracing about two-thirds of Old Walla Walla County, being bounded by Snake River and the state line on the north, east and south, and by Walla Walla County on the west.

The history of the erection of Garfield and Asotin counties will belong properly to a later chapter, and with this final view of old Walla Walla County as it had existed from 1859 to 1878, we pass on.

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