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The "preceding chapters" referred to at the beginning of the following chapter are PART I, GENERAL HISTORY, which being identical in content to that found in AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE BIG BEND COUNTRY has not been repeated in this section.
At the time this book was written, what is now Pend Oreille County had not been created. Pend Oreille County was the last county created in the State of Washington, comprising the easternmost part of Stevens County until designated a separate county in 1911.
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PART II.
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HISTORY OF STEVENS COUNTY
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CHAPTER I.
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FROM BEAVER PELT TO BALLOT BOX.
Facts supplying the context of preceding chapters lead to one definite conclusion: Had the Hudson's Bay Company retained its power north of the Columbia — an insidious power constantly encroaching on the territory to the south — industrial development in Stevens county would have been greatly retarded. Instead
of being one of the oldest localities in Washington in point of historical interest, it would have lingered in the shadow of primeval wilderness many years longer — steeped in the fatal policy of industrial stagnation — a mere game preserve for the wolf, bear, elk, muskrat and beaver. To that dire destiny it was surely doomed had not international events accumulated an impetus that rolled enterprise into the country on the wheels of Wyeth's and Whitman's wagons; infused life into an otherwise moribund domain. The seacoast of Washington would have been British possessions; civilization in that direction would have been smothered; the enervating reflex of sloth and ignorance would, undoubtedly have exerted a most depressing influence on all contiguous territory, and a powerful opiate would have been administered instead of a tonic. Mining exploitation would have been stopped on the threshold of discovery; agriculture would have been stifled in infancy: personal ambition immolated on the altar of British greed. Such vi^as certainly, the baleful trend
of the Hudson's Bay Company's policy.
True, the claim of England for all territory north of the Columbia river, had it been allowed, would still have left the greater portion of modern Stevens county to the Americans; all but a small triangle bounded by the Columbia and Kettle rivers, and the 49th parallel. But modern Stevens county is only a fraction of the immense district once designated by that name. Let us examine it. Originally its boundary commenced at the mouth of Snake river; along this river to the 46th degree of north latitude; thence east along this parallel to the summit of the Rocky mountains, including the present "panhandle" of Idaho; thence north to the 49th parallel; thence west to the Columbia river, and down the mid-channel of this stream to the place of beginning. This district embraced, aside from the Idaho "panhandle," Franklin, Adams, Whitman, Spokane. Lincoln, Douglas and the major portion of the present Stevens county. To this domain were subsequently added what are now Ferry, Okanogan and a part of Chelan counties; the latter three all originally claimed as British possessions, together with all other territory westward to the coast. One school district in Stevens county embraced all the territory between
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Colville and Spangle, and between Idaho and the Columbia river; not merely a missionary field for Indian tribes, but a legally apportioned school district for white settlers. Mr. Swift, an attorney-at-law, residing near Spokane Falls, was clerk of this Gargantuan district; M. M. Cowley, Yeaton and Poole, directors, and Mrs.
Swift teacher.
Thus, it will be seen, the Stevens county of to-day is the result of a long period of territorial concentration; a gradual narrowing of unwieldy and, at times, indefinite boundaries. Originally the name of Stevens county was Spokane. From the territorial statutes of 1858-9 it is learned that on January 28, 1858, the Washington Territorial legislature passed a bill creating the county of Spokane, the boundaries of which are defined in the act of January 17, 1860, which follows later in this chapter. The county seat was located on the place of Angus McLeod, with Lafayette Alexander, auditor; Patrick McKenzie, sheriff; Robert Douglas, John Owen and William McCreany, commissioners. These officials do not appear to have accomplished anything and, taking note of this fact, the legislature on January 18, 1859, nearly one year later, made a second attempt to organize the county, and revived the bill which had, through the neglect of the officers named, become nugatory. Officers appointed were Robert Douglas, John McDougald and Angus McLeod, commissioners; Thomas Brown, sheriff; Patrick McKenzie, auditor; Thomas Stensgar, probate judge, and Solomon Pelky, justice of the peace. These men were empowered to hold their respective offices until the next regular election, or until their successors were elected and qualified. But the new officers, also, remained inactive, and up to January 17, 1860, Spokane county remained in an inchoate and unorganized condition. On January 11, 1860, the house passed "An act to create and organize the county of Spokane," as follows:
Section 1. Be it enacted by the legislative assembly of the Territory of Washington that all that part of the Walla Walla country embraced within the following boundaries, to-wit: Commencing at the mouth of Snake river, following up said river mid-channel to (46th) forty-sixth parallel of north latitude; thence east along said parallel to the summit of the Rocky mountains; thence north following said summit to the (49th) forty-ninth parallel of north latitude; thence west along said parallel to the Columbia river; thence down mid-channel of said river to the place of beginning: The same is hereby constituted and organized into a separate county to be known and called Spokane county.
Sec. 2. That said territory shall compose a county for civil and military purposes and shall be under the same laws, rules, regulations and restrictions as all other counties in the Territory of Washington, and entitled to elect the same officers as other counties are entitled to elect.
Sec. 3. That the county seat of said county be, and the same is hereby temporarily located on the land
claim of Dr. Bates.
Sec 4. The following named persons are hereby appointed officers for said county, namely: Seaman, James Hoyt, and Jacques Demers, county commissioners; John Winn, sheriff, R. H. Rogers, treasurer, Douglas, auditor, J. R. Bates, justice of the peace, and F. Wolf, coroner, who shall hold their respective offices until the next annual election, and until their successors are elected or appointed and qualified. Before entering upon the discharge of the duties of their offices they shall comply with all existing laws relating to qualifying by giving bond and taking an official oath; said bonds may be approved by the persons named as county commissioners, or a majority of them, and the several persons named herein as officers may administer the oath of office to each other.
Sec. 5. Said county of Spokane shall constitute a part of the first judicial district, but for the purpose of hearing and determining all matters and causes in the district court, except those in which the United States is a party, it shall remain attached to the county of Walla Walla.
Sec. 6. All vacancies which may occur by the nonacceptance, death, removal or resignation of any of the persons above named, may be filled by the board of county commissioners, and they may also appoint such other officers as may be required for said county to hold their offices until the next general election and until their successors are elected or appointed and qualified.
Sec. 7. At the next general election the qualified voters of said county shall elect their county commissioners and all other county officers in the same manner as by law provided for other counties.
Sec. 8. Said county commissioners, when elected, as is in preceding section provided, shall hold their respective offices, one for one year, one for two years and one for three years, as shall at their first meeting after election be determined by lot.
Sec. 9. The persons appointed county commissioners
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may any time after the passage of this act, and before the day appointed for the next general election, upon posting up suitable notices signed by a majority of them, hold a meeting of the board of county commissioners, at which they may transact any business which could be done at a regular meeting of the board.In pursuance of this act the commissioners named were sworn into office at "Pinkney City," three miles northeast of the present county seat of Stevens county, Colville, on May 7, 1860, and individually executed the bonds required by law. To these proceedings the new county auditor attested as follows: "In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and private seal, (there being no official seal provided), this 7th day of May, A. D., 1860. R. H. Rogers, auditor in and for Spokane county, W. T."
Sec. 10. All acts and parts of acts inconsistent herewith are hereby repealed.
Passed the house of representatives January 11, 1860. (Signed) John D. Biles, Speaker of the House
of Representatives.
Passed the Council January 17, 1860. (Signed) H. J. G. Macon, President of the Council.
January 20, 1863, the legislative assembly passed an act subdividing this vast territory and organizing the county of Stevens "for civil and military purposes, to be attached to the county of Spokane for judicial purposes." But one year thereafter, January 19, 1864, an act was passed re-annexing the county of Spokane to Stevens, practically obliterating the former, and providing that the county officers of Spokane should remain the county officers of Stevens until the expiration of their terms; Stevens county to be entitled to representatives and councilmen of the two counties formerly existing. This was in the nature of a political compromise, and thus the original Spokane county was absorbed in Stevens county, which fell heir to all the territory and, also, that of Ferry, Okanogan and a part of Chelan counties. November 21, 1871, Whitman county was established by setting off the southern portion of Stevens county, and in 1879 a new Spokane county was set off from the remaining portion of Stevens. The former then had a population of 4,262. It is not within the province of this history of Stevens, to trace the gradual subdivisions of Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan counties, which subjects will be treated in their proper places. We must now revent to the earlier years of settlement, and lead up from the original trade in peltries to political recognition and the privilege of the elective franchise under purely American government.
The county whose history we are now to consider was named in honor of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, first territorial governor of Washington, appointed by President Franklin Pierce in 1853. Yet the dawn of its historical interest opens thirty-one years before that period, even before Marcus Whitman, the Lees, John Day or Wyeth had fought their way across the continent and made their most sanguine promises to the United States government a certainty. Only seventeen years after Lewis and Clarke had turned their faces eastward on their return trip from the mouth of the Columbia, John McLeod was in charge of what was known as the "Thompson River district," superintending the distribution of supplies for the region between the Rocky mountain's and the Pacific; from the mouth of the Columbia river to the Russian boundary line. April 26, 1826, McLeod found himself at Spokane Falls whither he had arrived from the coast, and he started for Fort Edmonton, arriving two months later, May 17th. During his progress he encountered snow so deep that he was compelled to cut his leathern trousers into strips to make snowshoes. At that period the Hudson's Bay Company had thirty posts, "factories" or forts, within the territory then jointly occupied by Americans and Englishmen, and called "Oregon." One of these was named Fort Colville, near Kettle Falls on the Columbia river. This was not the Fort Colville subsequently established by the United States government at "Pinkney City," three miles northeast from Colville, the present capital of Stevens county. Yet considerable confusion has arisen, even among otherwise
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well-informed people concerning the identity of these two "forts." The older one was a Hudson's Bay Company's trading post; the other was established by the United States in May, 1859. Pinkney City was named after Major Pinkney Lugebeel. With him McLeod had a band of calves which he was transporting from Fort Vancouver to Fort Colville, on the Columbia. Some of these adolescent bovines were killed by the Indians who regarded them only in the light of so much "fresh meat," and McLeod and his force experienced no small difficulty in protecting them. The quickness of James Douglas saved McLeod's life, when the former struck up a gun with which a savage was about to shoot McLeod in the back. According to Bancroft, "Through all these dangers the precious calves nevertheless passed in safety to Fort Colville, (at Kettle Falls), where they fulfilled their mission, multiplying rapidly." This was the initial introduction of "live stock" into Stevens county.
A short time previous to this a Hudson's Bay Company's post, or "fort," had been removed from its location on Spokane river to Kettle Falls, and named Fort Colville in honor of the then governor of the company. Work's Journal says that "the exact time of removal is obscure, but in July, 1826, we find a party embarking at Fort Vancouver with '72 pieces for Fort Colville," which shows that the establishment was then in operation." The "History of Oregon." by Evans, gives the founding of the Kettle Falls Fort Colville as in 1825, while Anderson's "Northwest Coast" places it in 1826. But Wilkes' "Narrative of U. S. Explorations" agrees with Evans, claiming 1825 as the date. It was at the Kettle Falls Fort Colville, a trading post of the Hudson's Bay Company, that the accounts of the other posts in eastern Oregon centered, thereby saving a trip to Vancouver. Other trading posts were at this period located at Walla Walla, Fort Okanogan, a stockade above the mouth of the Okanogan river; one on the Kootenais, one on Lake Pend Oreille and one on the Flathead river. Of these, however. Fort Colville was considered the most important, situated one hundred miles northeast of Fort Okanogan, in the midst of a good agricultural country, and with a fine climate, good fishing and other advantages. Established shortly after the location of Fort Vancouver, with the customary allotment of two cows and a bull, it had, in 1834, like Vancouver, its lowing herds furnishing beef, butter and milk. It had, also, other stock, including fairly bred horses, and a small grist mill. Many varieties of garden produce matured in the climate in abundance.
The zealous fur hunters in the employment of the Hudson's Bay Company were the pioneers of Stevens county. In no sense of the word were they settlers. In habits, characteristics and pursuits they were but few removes from the swarthy savage who shared with them the spoils of the chase and the trap. As the business of the monopolistic British syndicate increased these voyageurs, English, French or half-breeds, multiplied, as a natural sequence, yet for all their efforts the country would have remained as wild and virginal as it was the first day they encroached upon the soil. Actual settlement of the once extensive domain of Stevens county was given its initial impetus by Catholic missionaries.
Of these spiritual pioneers Father De Smet was not the first. In the fall of 1838 F. N. Blanchet and Rev. Modest Demers came into the country in response to reiterated requests from the French Canadians, a large majority of whom were Catholics. Many of them had intermarried with the Indians, and their rude "settlements" assumed much of the barbaric effect of actual Indian camps. Fathers Blanchet and Demers were sent out to these people by the ecclesiastical authorities of eastern Canada. They first came to Fort Colville, and thence down the Columbia river on one of the boats belonging to the Hudson's Bay Company. Subsequently Father Blanchet became the first
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archbishop of Oregon. Fort Colville was revisited by Father Demers in 1839. He was then on his way to New Caledonia. At this period Father De Smet was pursuing his spiritual avocations in the Flathead country of Montana, near what is now the town of Kalispell. From this point, by the aid of Indian couriers, he opened communication with Fathers Blanchet and Demers, and in 1841, he, too, came to Fort Colville, having first laid the foundation of St. Mary's Mission. Montana. It does not appear that Father De Smet went so far south as Spokane Falls. The primary object of his visit was to procure seed, and at that time the vicinity of Colville was the only country agriculturally developed. From Colville (Kettle Falls), Father De Smet returned to Montana with a few bushels of wheat, oats and potatoes with which, it is said, he began the first farming ever prosecuted in that territory. To Father Demers Stevens county owes much for his untiring zeal and industry, not only in spiritual, but in the practical affairs of life. He is more closely identified with the early history of this section, as Father Blanchet's field was farther south, in Oregon. In the "History of Spokane County" the Very Reverend Leopold Van Gorp, General Superior of Indian Missions, Gongaza College, says:
"The Colville Indians, after meeting with the missionaries (in Montana), were accustomed to frequently visit them at their place among the Kalispells. But at the earnest solicitation of their chief, Martin Ilemuxsolix, Father Anthony Ravalli went to visit them in 1845, and built the first chapel in their midst, on the hill between the fishery and the Hudson's Bay Company's fort, on the banks of the Columbia, near Kettle Falls. It may perhaps serve to relieve my dull narrative to insert here a little incident which happened to Father Ravalli while among the Colvilles. News was brought to him one day that an Indian woman had quarreled with her husband, and, driven to desperation by jealousy, had just hanged herself with a lariat to a tree. Father Ravalli hastened to the spot and cutting asunder the lariat, quickly freed the woman's neck, which, upon examination, he found not broken. Although the body was still warm, pulsation at the wrists, as well as the heart, had already ceased, and to all appearances life was extinct. Father Ravalli stretched, what everybody supposed her to be, the dead woman, upon the ground, and commenced now to breathe into her mouth, now to move her arms up and down, so as to impart artificially to her lungs the movement of natural respiration, and thus quicken into action the spark of vitality still there, perhaps, only latent and dormant. He kept working in this manner for about three-quarters of an hour, when all at once a slight change of color appeared on the lips and face of the woman. Encouraged by the sign he continued, and soon after clearer indications of returning life became noticeable. A little while yet and the woman, to the astonishment of all, commenced to breathe, first faintly and at broken intervals, then more freely and more regularly. A while later she opened her eyes, and from a seeming corpse, she was soon after up and moving around, living to be an old woman. This unusual and yet simple occurrence won to Father Ravalli with all the Indians the name of the 'Great Medicine Man.'
"But in 1845 Father Ravalli did no more than erect a little chapel, neither did he remain here for any length of time. Other missionaries, however, frequently visited the chapel and held services for the Indians. In 1847 Father Devos opened a mission here, retaining the name of St. Paul, already given to the chapel. He spent several years among these Indians, and while he had to labor hard and endure many hardships, still his work was lightened by the great success that attended it, as he converted not only the greater part of the Colville Indians, but many of the Sinatchsti tribe as well. However, in 1851, broken in health from his great exertions among the Colville Indians, he was obliged to go to the residence on the
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WiIlamette to recuperate. Another station, that of the Immaculate Conception, was established at Fort Colville, about two miles from the present town of Colville. It was established for the whites and half-breeds in and around the fort. At times this station, like that at the fishery, had a resident priest, while at other times, both places were attended by Fathers from the other missions. Some years later both these places were abandoned, as the fort was no longer used and the fishery had lost its importance, as the Indians no longer gathered here to fish, owing to the fact that large fisheries had been established by the whites at the mouth
of the Columbia, preventing the salmon from making their way up the river. The missionaries then established themselves in the Colville valley, about seven and one-half miles from the town of Colville. Here they opened the residence of St. Francis Regis, which has since grown into the flourishing mission of the same name. Today it has its school for boys, taught by the Jesuits, and a school for girls, taught by the sisters of Providence. It can boast of a splendid farm, of a mill and many modern improvements. The mission is now outside the reservation, though it continues to be the center to which the adjoining Indian tribes come, especially for the great feats. Besides there are quite a number of whites and half-breeds who come to the mission for their religious duties."
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