________________________
________________________
158 (continued)
HARRINGTON.
On the main line of the Great Northern railway, fifty-one miles west of Spokane, fifteen miles from Davenport, the capital of Lincoln county, and twenty-five miles from Sprague, is Harrington. It is an important railway point with a population of 650, an increase of 200 within two years. There are in the town six large grain warehouses and one flouring mill, and the combined capacity of these cereal depots is considerably over one million bushels.
On all sides of Harrington the country may be said to be solid wheat land with an occasional pasture tract that is continually in requisition. Although in some places a number of sections are owned by one party the greater number of farmers are located on half and quarter sections, and they find this amount of land adequate to earn them a good livelihood. The town proper is well platted, both as to drainage and eligibility for building operations. On the east is School Hill, a most attractive and desirable residence location. Third street, the main business thoroughfare, runs directly north and south, with a gentle slope northward. Through the town, coursing diagonally, is a small creek the bed of which will, undoubtedly, in the future, become the main line of a sewerage system. Of the many fine business blocks and residences within her limits Harrington is justly proud. The usually conceived idea of the eastern visitor to the west is that its towns are composed of clusters of rude huts thrown hetrogenously together without regard to comfort or attractiveness. But with Harrington this is far from being the case. All the brick blocks are artistic and substantially constructed. The city has been built with an eye to symmetry in its future growth. No buildings now standing in Harrington would look outre, or misplaced in a city of many thousands of inhibants. Harrington is the commercial center of a most extensive wheat belt, and within a short distance of the geographical center of Lincoln county. It lies near the head of Coal Creek Valley, at an elevation of 1900 feet above sea level.
Its early history is replete with interest. In 1879 Adam and Jacob Ludy came to the point immediately adjoining the quarter section where Harrington now stands, and here they homesteaded property. They erected a small building in which to house themselves, the pioneer structure of Harrington, and among the first habitations of Lincoln county. The following extract from a prize essay written by Miss Gertrude Adams, is of historical interest:
"A traveler in the year 1880 who chanced to be wandering through Lincoln county, in the Territory of Washington, would have seen what at first appeared to be a barren tract of land, but on closer observation he would have discovered that the soil was very fertile and would be productive if cultivated. Near the present site of Harrington the first thing that attracted the eye would have been huge masses of rocks, piled up in picturesque attitudes, and a small stream winding its way between them. In the surrounding country might be seen a few shacks, nothing more, where certain cowboys camped and herded their cattle.
"Of course in new countries towns are laid out certain distances apart. There was nothing unusual about the site chosen for this city of Harrington to make it any better than any other. First a few shanties, one of which was
________________________
159
used as a postoffice, while the mail was carried by a mail carrier in what was denominated a 'stage.' And while the town grew quite rapidly, it was all the time growing to stay."It was during the earliest days of Lincoln county's history that the establishment of Harrington was accomplished. In 1882 the firm of Harrington, Furth & Robinson, all residents of Calusa county, California, purchased 1,500 acres of land in what was at that period the most unsettled portion of the Big Bend, and near the present site of the town of Harrington. This company's property was, in 1892, deeded to the California Land & Stock Company. Nearly all of the earlier residents came from Yolo or Calusa counties, California. These pioneers had faith in the country. They began the cultivation of wheat, at first in a small and inconsequential way. The initial movement in the project of building a town was made in 1882. Mrs. Horace L. Cutter secured control of the property, purchasing it from the Northern Pacific Railway Company, and surveyed a townsite which, in honor of W. P. Harrington, was given his name. The townsite plat was not placed on record until May 12, 1883. Of course there was a raison d'etre for this movement in behalf of a townsite project. It was this: In 1882 the Northern Pacific Railway Company ran a survey through one corner of the quarter section of land upon which the town of Harrington is now located. Positive in the belief that the new road would be built on this original survey, Mrs. Cutter purchased from the railway company this quarter section of land. But the project to run the line over this survey was abandoned; Mrs. Cutter did not succeed in disposing of any of the lots.
Although the townsite had been laid out in 1882, it was not until the spring of the year following that the town contained inhabitants. Then Edward Willis and Charles Billings erected a small store building in which they displayed a modest stock of general merchandise and thus launched the first store in the town of Harrington. All of their goods were freighted in from Sprague; consequently the price of them remained rather high. In 1890 they disposed of the business to Fred Graff. In the fall of 1883 a postoffice was established; Edward Willis was postmaster; Harrington was entitled to a place on the map of the state of Washington. As the nearest railway point at this time was Sprague, on the Northern Pacific, twenty-five miles away, it is obvious that settlement should take place slowly. Even had it been discovered at that time that wheat would grow here in luxurious abundance, shipping it to market was not practicable. The few settlers were contented to raise a little stock, thus earning a meagre livelihood. But the following year saw the business enterprises of the youthful town considerably augmented by the establishment of a blacksmith shop and a hotel, although it is candidly confessed that the latter was idle the greater portion of the time. In June of the same year the Lincoln County Times was first thrown to the breeze at Harrington by F. M. Gray. And this was the signal for the ambitious and go-ahead town to enter into competition for county seat honors. This formative period of her history is told in the first chapter of Part II, of this work. But Harrington was never, really, in the race, and Mr. Gray removed his printing plant to Davenport in 1885. There was a saloon in Harrington, doing business a portion of the time, and in 1886 the citizens of the town voted on the prohibition question with the following result:
For prohibition, 22: against prohibition, 32.
Without materially increasing its business enterprises the town continued to exist barren of startling events to mar the even tenor of its way until the construction to this point of the Great Northern railway in 1892. Preceding this momentuous epoch the population of Harrington was quite limited, there being only five or six families residing in the town at the time work was commenced near there on the Great Northern grade. When it became known that
________________________
160
the company had selected the Crab Creek route through Lincoln county, and that the town of Harrington was listed as one of the stations on the new road, the heretofore comatose settlement took on new life and animation. This was early in 1892. Mrs. Cutter, the owner of the townsite, disposed of a portion of her interest to Messrs. Glasscock, Moore and others, who formed the Harrington Townsite Company. F. M. Lighthizer was employed as agent and during the summer of that year a number of lots were sold to those coming to the new town to engage in business. During this period Harrington enjoyed its most exciting, if not most prosperous times. Hundreds of railroad graders made the town headquarters. As is invariably the case there came in their wake all classes of the genus homo, including those who virtuously desired to engage in legitimate business, and those who did not. Boarding and lodging houses, restaurants, saloons, dance halls and gambling hells sprung up in short order to entice from the railroad laborers their hard earned dollars. On November 1. 1892, track-laying was completed to Harrington.
There was, undoubtedly, a "boom" of magnificent proportions in Harrington during this period of railroad excitement. Crowds of prospective settlers flocked to the town: hotels were overrun; beds could not be secured at any price and a "shake-down" on the floor with blankets was at a premium. Several new townsite additions were laid out and platted, and one correspondent writing from Harrington decleared that fortv carpenters were then at work on new buildings. However, the greater portion of these improvements were temporary. With the departure of the railroad laborers a number of the business men closed their stores and went elsewhere. The permanent growth during this year was not large. A number of lots were sold, however, and plans made for extensive improvements the following year. One of the most important factors in the building up of the country around Harrington and one that has resulted in much good to the town was the operations of the California Land & Stock Company, whose headquarters had been established at Harrington. This company was organized in 1892 with a capital of $300,000. Previous to this a number of non-residents owned about 3,000 acres of land in the
vicinity of Harrington. They combined their property at the time' and added to it until it now it controls more than twenty-five sections. The officers of the company are Jacob Furth, of Seattle, president; W. P. Harrington (after whom the town was named), of Calusa, California, vice-president; Luke Robinson, San Francisco, treasurer; John F. Green, Harrington, manager. Many thousands of acres of land in this vicinity are sown to wheat each year, and several hundred head of horses are employed to take care of the crops.
Fire visited Harrington Friday morning, March 2, 1894, causing a loss of about $25,000, nearly all covered by insurance. The principal sufferers were the owners of the Wilson building, valued at $4,000; proprietors of the Great Eastern Clothing Company, $15,000; King & Reeves, druggists. $3,000. These buildings were of brick, and among the best edifices in town. This conflagration was the work of an
incendiary.
Friday, May 11, 1894. the coal sheds of the Great Northern Railroad Company were destroyed by fire, involving a heavy loss.
From the building of the railroad in 1892 until the spring of 1898 the growth of Harrington, while not of "boom" proportions, was steady and sure. The mammoth cereal crop of 1897 produced a reaction from the heavy depression of the preceding five years, and, in common with all the other towns in Lincoln county, Harrington enjoyed the benefits of this revival. In the spring of 1898 there were in town four general merchandise stores, a harness shop, hardware and furniture store, drug store,
________________________
161
two hotels, livery stable, blacksmith shops, meat market, barber shop and two saloons. During the summer and fall of this year the town enjoyed a most substantial growth. Quite a number of new residences and business houses were erected, and Harrington was on the crest of the wave of prosperity.
January 18, 1899, the First Presbyterian Church of Harrington, was dedicated. This was the first church edifice to be erected in the place, and cost $2,600. The initial steps toward holding religious services in Harrington were taken as early as 1884, when the citizens built a public hall to be used for church, school and other assemblies. For ten years this building supplied all the demands in this line in the
village. During the autumn of 1894 the Presbyterian Church Society was organized by Rev. Norman McLeod, with a membership of nineteen. These were Mr. J. Brace, elder, and wife; Mr. and Mrs. Laugtnour; Mr. and Mrs. Gunning; Mr. and Mrs. Hayes; Mr. and Mrs. Ornan; Mr. and Mrs. Durie and two daughters; Mrs. Margarett Plough; Mrs. W. F. Glasscock; Miss Eva Thomas; Mrs. John Harding and Mrs. Thompson. Dr. N. McLeod was pastor at large for the Spokane Presbytery, but served the church at Harrington for more than two years, holding services in the school house, Plough's hall and the German Methodist church building. At the end of that time the work in the Harrington field stopped, no regular preaching services being held for about two years, with the exception of such services as were given by C. A. Phipps and Dr. T. M. Gunn, synodical missionary.January 1, 1899, the business houses of Harrington included three general merchandise stores, a harness shop, live hotels and restaurants, three confectionery stores, two livery stables, two blacksmith shops, two lumber yards, a bank, newspaper, grocery store, butcher shop, and a hardware, implement and furniture store. April 6, 1900, the Harrington Citizen said:
"It is doubtful if any other town in Lincoln county has done s0 much toward material development in the past year as has Harrington. The principal enterprise carried to a successful consummation during the past twelve months was the erection, at a cost of $25,000, of the handsome flouring mill of the Harrington Milling Company. This magnificent manufacturing plant was built almost exclusively by local capital during a dull year, and bespeaks volumes for the enterprise and energy of the people. To illustrate the amount of business done during the years 1898 and 1899, the following table showing receipts and shipments of goods via the Great Northern railroad is given:
The first school in Harrington was organized in a small, one-room building, and the school was taught by one teacher for terms of varying length. The number of pupils increased, but it was not until 1897 that a large, two-room building was erected to meet the increased demands for educational privileges. Two teachers were then employed. In 1900 there were 138 pupils enrolled in the Harrington schools and a third teacher was engaged and another building rented. In 1901a brick school house was erected at a cost of $7,000, containing six rooms.
During the autumn of 1901 the people of
________________________
162
Harrington began taking active steps to incorporate the town. There had been considerable increase in the population during the past two years, and many new buildings were erected. Naturally incorporation was the next thing in line. Harrington, being one of the oldest towns in the county, and having been outstripped in the race for supremacy only because there were not enough county seats to go around, had now come to the front in excellent condition.
November 12, 1901, agitation for incorporation begun in earnest. A mass meeting of citizens was held that evening at which 47 citizens were present and discussed the advisability of having a municipal government. A vote was taken and thirty votes were favorable to the proposition; seventeen against. "A committee consisting of A. C. Billings, Dr. Steters, A. G. Mitchum, S. L. Blumaner and Wallace Crowell were appointed to secure signers to a petition asking the county commissioners to name a date for a special election to vote on the question. To this petition there were sixty-four signers. The election was held Friday, April 4. 1902. A convention for the purpose of nominating candidates for municipal officers had been held Monday, March 31st, with the following result: Mayor, A. C. Billings; treasurer, A. R. Graham; councilmen, Thomas Hansard, W. A. Moore. John A. Chisholm, Dr. M. F. Setters, George Wilson.
One hundred and nine votes were cast at this election: 64 for incorporation and 45 against. The only ticket in the field was the one nominated at the citizens' convention the preceding Monday and the gentlemen named thereon served as Harrington's first municipal officials. The election had actually been anticipated by the convention.
The present church organizations in Harrington are the Presbyterian, Baptist, Evangelical and Catholic. Of fraternal lodges there are five: Harrington Lodge No. 160, I. O. O. F.; Harrington Lodge No. 122, K. of P.; Harrington Court, No. 85, F. of A.; W. O. W. and Women of Woodcraft; Rebekahs; Rathbone Sisters; A. F. & A. M.
The city hall was completed in 1904 at a cost of $9,000. The city is provided with an excellent fire department. The water supply is abundant and of exceeding purity. There are, in fact, two water systems, and cool, crystal well water may be tapped in rock veins at a depth of from twenty to thirty feet.
________________________
________________________
On October 7, 2011, an article, Harington's high hopes, appeared in the Spokesman-Review. It included a picture story. I have also posted a transcript of this story.
____________
No comments:
Post a Comment