CHAPTER V

THE DEVELOPMENT OF INDUSTRY IN OLD WALLA WALLA COUNTY TO THE PERIOD OF COUNTY DIVISION AND

AFTERWARDS IN THE PRESENT WALLA WALLA

We have given in the first chapter of this volume a view of the physical features, geological formation, and climate of this region. It was obvious from that description that the Walla Walla country, like most of Eastern Washington, Northeastern Oregon, and even Northwestern Idaho, would be thought of at first inspection as a stock country. The army of early immigrants that passed through on their way to the Willamette Valley saw the upper country only at the end of the long, hot, dry summers, when everything was parched and wilted. It did not seem to them that any part would be adapted to agriculture except the small creek bottoms. They could, however, see in the oceans of bunch grass, withered though it was by drought, ample indications that stock to almost limitless extent could find subsistence.

Hence with the opening of the country in 1859 the first thought of incoming settlers was to find locations along the creeks where a few acres for garden and home purposes might be found, and then a wide expanse of grazing land adjoining where the real business might be conducted. The first locations from 1859 and until about 1870 denote the dominance of that idea. We have already noted. the beginnings of stock raising during the Hudson's Bay Company regime and the period of the Whitman mission. We have seen that Messrs. Brooke, Bumford and Noble started the same industry at Waiilatpu in 1851 and later on the Touchet and maintained it until expelled by Indians in 1855. H. M. Chase laid the foundations of the same on the Umatilla in 1851 in conjunction with W. C. McKay, and later upon the Touchet near where Dayton is now located. J. C. Smith on Dry Creek in 1857 had the same plans.

The incoming of settlers in 1859 and 1860 and the location of the Fort induced a mercantile class to gather in the vicinity of that market. When gold discoveries set every one agog with excitement, the first effect was to create a line of business almost entirely adapted to supply miners' needs. The second effect speedily following was to lead thoughtful men to consider the region as a suitable location for producing first hand the objects of demand. Stock was foremost among those demands. The Indians already had immense. droves of "cayuse" horses, and considerable herds of cattle. Many cattle were driven in in 1861. The hard winter of 1861-2 caused severe loss to cattle raisers, but so well were the losses repaired that it was reported in 1863 that there were in the valley, including the Touchet region, 1,455 horses, 438 mules, 1,864 sheep, 3.957 cattle, and 712 hogs. According to the Statesman 15,000 pounds of wool were shipped out in that year. Sheep increased with extraordi

nary rapidity. The valley became a winter feeding ground and the sheep were driven in from the entire Inland Empire. The Statesman asserts that in the winter of 1855-6 there were 200,000 head in the valley. They were worth at that time only a dollar a head. From that time on the stock business in its various branches became more definitely organized and shipments to the East and to California went on apace. It was not, however, for some years that the importation of blooded stock for scientific betterment was carried on to any considerable degree. It would be impossible within our limits to give any complete view of the leading promoters in the different lines. Practically every settler in the country had some stock. Those who may be said to have been leaders during the decade of the '60s in introducing stock into the various pivotal points of the old county may be grouped under some half dozen territories, which have later become the centers of farming sections and in several instances the sites of the existing towns.

This list cannot in the nature of the case be exhaustive, for, as already noted, every settler had more or less stock. In naming some rather than others, we would not wish to be making any invidious comparisons, but rather selecting a few in each pivotal place, who came in earliest and had the greatest continuity of residence and the most constructive connection with the business. Naturally first in order may be named the vicinity of Walla Walla City as it has become, and the region adjoining it on the south into Oregon.

Perhaps typical of the larger stockmen of the earliest period were Jesse Drumheller and Daniel M. Drumheller. The former of the brothers came first to Walla Walla from The Dalles with the United States troops in the War of 1855-6, as manager of transportation. When the wars were ended he settled on the place now owned by Charles Whitney. Subsequently he made his home for many years on the place west of town known to all inhabitants of the region. The younger brother came to the region in 1861 and located at what is still known as Hudson's Bay, and from that time on the two were among the foremost in driving stock in from the Willamette Valley and in extending their ranges in all directions. Like so many others they were wiped out in the hard winter of 1861-2, but nothing daunted, recognizing the superior adaptability of the region they renewed their drives and within a few years had stock, at first horses and cattle and then sheep, ranging from Couse Creek in Umatilla County to the Snake River. One of their greatest ranges was just north of the present Freewater and westward to the present Umapine and Hudson's Bay. Besides the Drumhellers some of the most prominent stockmen in that region ranging along the state line were John Bigham, W. S. Goodman, the Fruits, Girards, Shumways, Ingalls, and Fords. Ninevah Ford was one of the most noted of early Oregon pioneers and coming in that early day into the upper country became one of the permanent builders of Umatilla County. The Berry and Cummings families were a little farther north. Among the leaders in introducing a high grade of horses and cattle and later on in farming on a large scale, as well as connected with every public interest of importance, were the Resers, of whom the second and third generations are present-day leaders in all phases of the life of their communities. Their places were in the fertile foothill belt southeast of Walla Walla. In the same general section were many others whose main dependence at first was cattle, but who entered into the raising of grain

earlier than those in other sections, by reason of the manifest advantages in soil and rainfall. Among such may be named Daniel Stewart, Christian Meier, Stephen Maxson, Thomas McCoy, S. W. Swezea, Orley Hull, Philip Yenney, Brewster Ferrel, James M. Dewar, the McGuires, Sheltons, Copelands, Barnetts, and Fergusons. Two of the prominent business men living in town might be mentioned as interested in stock raising and doing much to promote it, Dr. D. S. Baker and John Green. Among the most prominent pioneers in the section on Mill Creek, who afterwards were leaders in grain raising, but like all others turned their first attention to stock, were Robert Kennedy, W. S. Gilliam, James Cornwell, J. M. Lamb, Joseph Harbert, E. G. Riffle, W. J. Cantonwine, David Wooten, Thomas Gilkerson, J. Kibler and a little later several leading families, those of Evans, Thomas, Kershaw, Lyons, and Aldrich.

Another great section of the cattle ranges was on Dry Creek and northward over the hills to and beyond the Touchet. Among the earliest settlers in that region whose first business was stock raising, but who afterward became pioneers a second time by entering into grain raising were Jonathan Pettyjohn, W. W. Walter, John Marion, J. C. Smith, S. H. Erwin, A. A. Blanchard and the Lamars. At a somewhat later date, but among the most important of all the cattle men of the valley, now known and honored by all in his advanced age, is Francis Lowden, whose ranges were in the middle and lower valley, and whose son, Francis, Jr., has become one of the leading meat market men in the Inland Empire. Mr. Lowden imported the first high-grade cattle, Shorthorns, and that was in 1864. Another growing center, at first for stock, then for farming, then for fruit, and finally for towns, was the upper Touchet, of which Waitsburg, Dayton, and Huntsville have become centers. As we have stated earlier, some of the first locations were made on the Touchet. The first settler at the junction of the Touchet and Coppei was Robert Kennedy in 1859, but the next year he moved to his permanent place near Walla Walla. During 1859 and the few years. following there were located, at first engaged in cattle raising, but soon to branch out into farming, A. T. Lloyd, J. C. Lloyd, A. G. Lloyd, G. W. Loundagin, George Pollard, James Woodruff, Isaac Levens, Joseph Starr, Luke Henshaw, Martin Hober, Jefferson Paine, Philip Cox, W. P. Bruce and Dennis Willard.

Farther up the Touchet, going on to the Patit and beyond in the vicinity of the present Dayton, Henri M. Chase and P. M. La Fontain had located before the great Indian wars, as already related. In the second stage of settlement, beginning in 1859, F. D. Schneble and Richard Learn upon the present location of Dayton, and near by Elisha Ping, J. C. Wells, Thomas and Israel Davis, S. L. Gilbreath (Mrs. Gilbreath was the first white woman to live in Columbia County), Jesse N. Day, Joseph Ruark, Joseph Boise, G. W. Miller, John and James Fudge, and John and Garrett Long, may be regarded as most distinctively the pioneers in the stock business, proceeding on within a few years to the usual evolution into farming and other branches of growing communities.

The region of what is now Garfield and Asotin counties had an early history similar to that of the Walla Walla, Mill Creek, Touchet, Coppei, and Patit regions, though not so complete. Settlers entered during that same stage of the '60s and sought stations on the creeks from which desirable cattle ranges extended. One of the earliest of all settlers of the old Walla Walla County was Louis Raboin at the point on the Tucanon now known as Marengo. Raboin might justly

Vol. I-12