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HISTORY OF THE BARRY AREA
The Barry Area is the country which lies north and northwest of Grand Coulee. The name Barry came from the post office which was established in this neighborhood in 1887. The post office itself had been in a number of places. At one time it was on the bank of Sanderson Creek near Emmett Shaffer's home. Another and last location was on the Sam Stevenson place, where the Steveson Ferry was established in 1903.
Out in this area a number of stories and experiences of many people came to light. Some are humorous, some tragic, and others quite thrilling to those who experienced them. This outline contains only a few.
The Barry Post Office was established in 1887. It was first run by Alba J. Barry, next by Lysander Speegle in 1890, then by Mrs. Emma A. Grant in 1891, next Mrs. Armina E. Barry, also in 1891, and last by Mrs. Rebecca C. Steveson in 1892. She ran it until it was discontinued in 1940.
This post office was supplied from Wilbur three times weekly until the Steveson Ferry was started. The supplies and mail were carried by saddle horse and buck board. In bad weather it was sometimes days late. It was carried by Cole, and then by Lull, at first. When the ferry was installed the mail line was extended to Nespelem. Before the ferry Nespelem was supplied by a separate contract from Barry. The stage came from Wilbur to Nespelem and later was changed to come from Almira across the Steveson Ferry to Nespelem.
The Barry School District No. 41 covered a large part of northeast Douglas County. During the years of 1898 or 1899 the school was held in a little log cabin on the land now owned by Bob Pendell. A John Park and his family lived there at that time. Mrs. Park was the teacher. The two Park children, Lical and Quiuas, Waite Steveson and his sister were the first pupils. Then Barry School house was built and school was held there. This school was discontinued in 1935. Later the district was put in with the Rock Lake School District. At times there were thirty and forty children attending this school. Slowly the families left, sold out or moved away until there were just three pupils and one of them graduated from the eighth grade. The other children had to go to the town school.
The Steveson Ferry, which was established in 1903, carried people, cattle, sheep, horses, and freight across to the Nespelem side of the Columbia River and brought the exchange back. It was an opening for trade from the country to the west. Before this ferry, there was a river crossing at Barry. The Indians swam their horses across and used canoes to get their other effects across.
Some of the stories of the early settlers of this section follow. They have been assembled from books, newspaper clippings, and personal interviews.
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FIDDLE CREEK GANG
Among those who settled on Fiddle Creek was the Myrtle family. George Myrtle, a resident of Wenatchee for several years, tells the story of the earlier days in the following words:
"Our family lived around Wenatchee for several years and then we located on a homestead on Fiddle Creek, just above the Grand Coulee damsite in 1908. This was during the time the so-called Fiddle Creek Gang was operating at its best. Fiddle Creek was named for the settlers there, four of whom played the fiddle. So we had our dances and other gatherings at the schoolhouse. This was about one and a half miles above Grand Coulee Dam.
My father. S. G. Myrtle, was a veterinarian and looked after the horses in the community. He had his suspicions about some of these horses, so he refused to have them on his place. He believed there was trouble ahead for the boys. Most of the Fiddle Creek Gank were young men. Some were married.
They stole cattle and a number of horses from all ovr the country. Their last cattle raid was right at home. Several of them came and played cards with Earl Walton. I was working for Walton at the time. They had a good old fashioned poker game going. Earl kept his barrel of whiskey handy, so while they played cards they had plenty to drink. Walton did not have much money but it was lost in the poker game. He was out of business for two days. When I went to round up the cattle I missed them. Earl and i trailed them to Spokane. There were four men in that group. Two had gone into Spokane to sell the cattle, two of the others remained with the stock. A battle ensued. One of the cattle rustlers was killed. The other got away, but later surrendered to the authorities at Wilbur. Three got sentences of two years each. The rest of the gang headed for Canada." (Wenatchee Daily World - date not given).
"BIG BAR" OR "WASHINGTON FLATS"
Bushrod Corbin Washington and his wife Emma migrated to Washington in 1905 from Charlestown, West Virginia. They settled first in Spokane where Mr. Washington conducted a real estate business for a short time. Mr. Washington, hearing tales of the fortunes being made in apples came down to Grand Coulee and purchased a homestead from a Negro settler. Here he put out hundreds of young apple trees. That winter weather and jack rabbits were hard on his young orchard. The next spring they were replanted, but these also met a similar winter. In summer the hardier trees began to perish from the drought.
The flat was eventually turned into a cattle and hay ranch. Sultry summers and frigid winters made cattle raising an uncertain business. However, the "Big Bar" Ranch, with its plentiful table garden and bounteous small orchard, ran on a paying basis for a number of years.
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The Washington land holdings were increased when James and Peachy, Bushrod's son and daughter homesteaded some land. A school section and homesteads of numerous discouraged neighbors were added as the years went by.
Then times began to get hard. Cattle prices went down, dust storms increased. It never seemed to rain anymore.
In July, 1918, another son, Nathaniel, carried a new story of hope and encouragement to the folks on the ranch. The story originated in his town, Ephrata. People had begun to talk about the possibility of irrigating the Columbia Basin land by building a dam across the Columbia, at the mouth of the Grand Coulee, hardly a mile up river from the Washington place.
Then in February, 1919, a few months after the signing of the World War Armistice, Bushrod Washington died at the age of 79. He was buried in the cemetery at Almira.
After their father's death, James, Nathaniel, and Peachy sold the cattle and purchased a band of sheep. Much of the land was steep and rocky and was better adapted to sheep than cattle raising.
In 1921 Nathaniel Washington was instrumental in securing the core drilling of the damsite. A great deal of enthusiasm resulted, but by 1926 hope of securing the Grand Coulee Project had virtually been abandoned.
In the summer of 1926 the three Washingtons, Nathanial, James, and Peachy, and their sister and her daughter visiting from the East, were swimming in the Columbia by the big sand bar which gave the ranch its name. James became caught in an eddy between the bar and a huge rock at the river's edge. Nathaniel and Peachy attempted to rescue him. All were swept downstream by the strong river current and were drowned. The are all buried at Almira.
The stock and fixtures of the ranch were sold. The land was rented to a neighboring rancher for cattle range. The log cabin is empty.
Bushrod Washington did not live to see his apple "plantation" become a reality. Nevertheless, today in Ephrata, Spokane, and Seattle, there are grandchildren, one of whom is Washington's Senatro from Ephrata, who may live to enjoy the plantation that was Grandfather Washington's cherished dream. (West Virginian, a kin of George Washington, brought family west and launched enterprise - tragedy, stark and sinister, hounded them. By Janet F. Wallace--Spokesman-Review.)
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Washington Family Index
Neighbors on the Patomac, Neighbors on the Columbia: for the Bushrod/Nathaniel line of the descendents of John Washington and additional information.
Two obituaries of Former State Sen. Nathanial "Nat" Washington (1914-2007), as well as cemetery and other records on the this branch of theWashington Family.
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WAITE STEVESON
"My folks, the Sam Stevesons, came to this area, Barry, in 1887. The folks wintered the first year on the Hubbard Creek, near the Marvin Whiteley place, or school section there.
On January 7, 1888, my father bought the old home place at Barry, Washington. At that time there was only a trail out Barry way.
The homes I remember, beginning at Wallace Canyon, are Tom Park on the Frank Sanford Sr. place, John Park on the Willow Point Dairy, Mert Smith on the Alex Sanderson place (this is where Donald Sanderson lives), Al Armbruster on the Jim Sanderson place, Cub Shaffer on the Shaffer place, Buckley down by the river at the Bar, King on the Alling place, Cook on the Stenard place, Strahl in Strahl Canyon, and Thompson, Osborne, and Dougherty in the coulee."
FLORENCE ARMBRUSTER PEASLEY
"I came to Washington from California in 1887. My folks settled on the place now owned by Bob Pendell. Sam Steveson family were at Barry. Mert Smith was on the Alex Xanderson place. Jim Hollingshead ran horses on his ranch.
The nearest trading post was Sprague. It took a week to make the trip from home out there. Later there was a post office at Tipso, not far across the coulee. We left here in 1893 or 1894. By that time Wilbur and Coulee City had come into being. We settled in Wilbur for the good schools."
Florence Armbruster Peasley was an interesting woman. Whe had the honor of rowing a boat across the Columbia. She was courageous with horses. One day while hunting cows in the hills she hit an obstinate horse with its bridle reins. It returned the insult by kicking her over. Because she had been told to be careful, she never dared to tell her parents and suffered in silence with those broken ribs.
Her horse was "Old Dolly", a dark sorrel. Her mother had traded a pan of cookies to some Indians for the colt. As a child she played with the colt, making her own harness and hitching it to her toy wagon.
She recalls the long trips to Sprague after supplies. It took a week for the round trip. It was necessary only twice a year. Home made butter was stored in coal-oil cans. These big tins were also used to can tomatoes and sealed tight. When orders were sent to mail order houses, the goods came in large wooden boxes. It was a joy for the children to unpack a years supply of clothes from them.
Mrs. Peasley is the mother of Retta Pendell of Rex.
Winnie Sanderson
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