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In 1860 the discovery of valuable auriferous deposits at Pierce City, Oro Fino, Oro Grande and other points along the Clearwater, in what is now Idaho, but was then included in Washington Territory, created a stampede which his seldom been equalled in the history of gold discoveries in the territory. At that period a treaty with the Nez Perces existed which, theoretically, estopped travel across the Indian country. Practically it did nothing of the sort. From a few hundred the number of miners increased to thousands. On the Columbia river lines of steamers plied between the western portions of the Territory to old Fort Walla Walla, conveying men and freight as near as possible to these seductive placer mines, where pay dirt was found averaging one hundred dollars a day to the miner. In May the steamer
Colonel Wright came up the Columbia and Clearwater to within forty miles of Pierce City. At this landing was founded the "spasmodic" mining town of Slaterville, with its canvas saloons and rough board shanties. In July five thousand men were prospecting the country, or washing from ten to one hundred and fifty dollars a day from the earth. "Town lot" people and merchants reaped a substantial reward for their industry. It is stated that the weekly receipts of gold dust at Portland from the Clearwater district was $100,000. Deady's "
History of Oregon" says:
The Colville and Oro Fino mines helped Portland greatly; and in 1861 built up the Oregon Steam Navigation Company. Loaded drays used to stand in line half a mile long, unloading at night freight to go in the morning, that involved a fortune.
It was but natural that the steadily increasing tide of immigration to this district should materially affect the political status of the Territory. From west of the Cascades the pendulum of political power swung to the east, to the vicinity of Shoshone and Walla Walla counties. More judges were required east of the mountains. District courts were established at the county seats. It was. however, the destiny of Washington Territory to lose the richest portions of these mining districts. Congress passed an act. which was approved by President Lincoln. March 3, 1863, organizing
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the Territory of Idaho out of all such territory of Washington lying east of Oregon and the 117th meridian of west longitude. The population of the remaining Territory of Washington was then only 12,519. Yet in i860 it had been less than half this number.
Twelve years before the admission of Washington into the union agitation concerning this subject was precipitated. Congressional Delegate Jacobs in December, 1877, introduced a bill for admission, and when it was fully realized that a constitutional convention was to be ordered, the old question of 1852 sprung to the front, "Washington" or "Columbia"? June 11, 1878, the convention assembled at Walla Walla. By the constitution then adopted a new eastern boundary was marked for the proposed state, including the Idaho "Panhandle" and much of the mineral territory lost in 1863. Twenty-four days were passed in "concentrating" and "smelting" the various provisions of this document, and, although no enabling act had been passed by Congress, the constitution was adopted by the people at the succeeding November election for delegates. As the entire proceedings of this convention were void and nugatory, it is needless to devote space to their consideration. As illustrative of patriotic zeal and alert progressiveness, however, the attitude of the people at this period is worthy of record.
The administration of Governor Watson C. Squire was one especially worthy of commendation. He was appointed in 1884, succeeding William A. Newell. Squire was a man of rare executive ability, a veteran of the Civil war, and became one of the most prominent factors in advancing the interests of the Territory and promoting its progress toward statehood. He was born May 18, 1838, at Cape Vincent, New York, and in 1861 enlisted in the 19th New York Infantry as a private, rising to the rank of first lieutenant. He then resigned, was graduated from the Cleveland law school, in 1862, and then recruited a company of sharpshooters of which he was given the command, being assigned to the Army of the Cumberland. He served on the staffs of both Generals Rosecranz and Thomas and was, after the war, agent for the Remington Arms Company. In 1879 he located in Seattle, and ten years thereafter was elected president of the statehood committee, holding its meeting in Ellensburg in January of 1889. In framing memorials afterward presented to congress in behalf of statehood he was most assiduously employed and his efforts met with cordial appreciation from the people of the Territory.
During the administration of Governor Squire occurred the "Chinese Riots," on the coast, opinion of his policy in the Territory being at that time divided. But it is certain that his courageous attitude in behalf of law and order won the approval of a large majority of the most influential and intelligent citizens of the nation at large. It was at this period, 1885, that the first attempts, under auspices of the Knights of Labor, were made to expel Chinamen from the Territory. Riots occurred; Chinese were killed and bloodshed and disorder ensued at Seattle among the coal miners. Governor Squire, November 5, 1885, issued a proclamation commanding the establishment of peace, and to this so little attention was paid that disorder increased rather than subsided, and several Chinese houses were fired and the occupants driven away. Troops were promptly forwarded from Vancouver and, the secretary of war being informed of the conditions, President Cleveland issued a proclamation couched in more drastic terms than had been that of Governor Squire. Its effect was temporary; in February, 1886, other outbreaks took place and in efforts to protect the "celestials" a number of lives were sacrificed and conditions resolved themselves into overt rebellion. Governor Squire declared martial law. Its provisions were carried out with firmness, if not severity. Order was restored, but the executive found himself placed between the hostile
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attacks of the proletariat, and the hearty commendation of President Cleveland, his cabinet and the members of the Territorial legislature.
Squire's administration was marked by healthy progress and steady improvement in the various industries and material welfare of the Territory. During his incumbency the penitentiary was built at Walla Walla, an addition made to the penitentiary at Seatco, and an insane asylum erected at Steilacoom. At the close of 1885 the Territory was free from debt and with a surplus of $100,000. That his best efforts were ever directed to further the interests of Washington is amply proven, not only by gratifying results, but by his carefully prepared and luminously written official reports. The one forwarded to the secretary of the interior in 1884 was a concise and valuable history of the Territory for several years anterior to his administration, embracing much information that had been ignored by preceding executives. In explaining his object in thus voluminously presenting these valuable statistics Governor Squire said:
I have diligently corresponded with the auditors and assessors of all the counties of the Territory, furnishing them with printed blanks to be returned, and with all the managers of various educational and business institutions. Besides drawing on my own knowledge of the Territory, gleaned during a residence here during the past five or six years. I have gathered and compiled a variety of important facts from leading specialists in reference to the geographical, geologic, and climatic characteristics, the coal and iron mining, horticultural, agricultural, and manufacturing interests, the fisheries and the flora and fauna of the Territory. The data thus offered, together with the summary reports of our charitable and penal institutions, and an exhibit of the financial condition of the Territory, if published, will not only be of great service in encouraging and stimulating our people, but will furnish reliable information to the intending immigrant, and will indicate to congress the rightful basis of our claim for admission into the union of states.
In the last paragraph of this quotation may be traced the central thought which appears to have actuated Governor Squire in his untiring efforts. To accomplish the admission of Washington he spared no labor in collecting an array of statistical information that could be molded into powerful arguments for statehood. And to these reports is due largely the great volume of immigration which flowed into the Territory on the wheels of the Northern Pacific railway. From 75,000 in 1880, the population increased to 210,000 in 1886. In the latter year this pioneer railroad company operated four hundred and fifty-five miles of railway within the boundaries of Washington; the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company two hundred and ninety-five miles; the Columbia and Puget Sound Company forty-four miles, and the Olympia and Chehalis Company fifteen miles, which, together with other completed lines, gave to the Territory eight hundred and sixty-six miles of railroad. The effect on all industries may be easily conceived. The building of shipping tonnage was stimulated on the coast; the output of produce eastward increased wonderfully. The wheat market was. at that period, still in the east, and in 1886 the Northern Pacific Company transported 4,161 tons of wheat and 1,600 tons of other grains to the Mississippi river; the Oregon Railroad and Navigation Company took out 250.000 tons of wheat, flour and barley to southeastern points. These appear, at this date, insignificant figures compared with the present volume of grain business, but eighteen years ago they gave indubitable proof to the people of the eastern states of the remarkable fertility of the soil of Washington Territory.
Associated with Governor Squire in the Territorial offices were R. S. Greene, chief justice: J. P. Hoyt, S. C. Wingard and George Turner, associate justices: N. H. Owings,
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secretary. The delegate to congress was Thomas H. Brents. The federal officers were John B. Allen, United States district attorney; Jesse George, United States marshal; C. Bash, customs collector; C. B. Bagley and E. L. Heriff, internal revenue collectors; William McMicken, surveyor-general; John F. Gowley, registrar, and J. R. Hayden, receiver of the United States land office at Olympia; F. W. Sparling, registrar, and A. G. Marsh, receiver, of the Vancouver land office; Joseph Jorgensen, registrar, and James Baden, receiver, at Walla Walla; J. M. Armstrong, registrar, and John L. Wilson, receiver, at Spokane, and R. R. Kinne, registrar, and J. M. Adams, receiver, at Yakima.
Governor Squire was succeeded in 1887 by Eugene Semple. Although a republican, he had won the confidence of a democratic administration at Washington, D. C, and was retained in office long after his place could have been conveniently supplied with a democratic partisan. His attitude during the Chinese riots had done much to establish him in the estimation of President Cleveland. At the time of Semple's accession the questions of statehood and woman suffrage were agitating the people. Affairs were somewhat disquieted. The suffrage question had been defeated by popular vote in 1878, but the legislature of 1883-4 had passed an act conferring this privilege upon women, and the act had been declared unconstitutional by the courts, but not until the women of the Territory had enjoyed the benefits of voting, holding office and serving on juries for two years, were they disfranchised. In 1886 woman suffrage became an exceedingly lively party issue; the republicans favoring, the democrats opposing the same. There had, also, been a "capital removal" scheme injected into the campaign, and strong "North Yakima" and "Ellensburg" factions developed in the "Inland Empire." A large number of those favoring statehood had assumed, upon what logical grounds is rather obscure, that with admission into the union the "panhandle of Idaho, lost in 1863, would be restored to the state. This remote probability was. however, employed as an argument in favor of capital removal, but the strenuous "coasters" of the extreme west stoutly opposed a location of the seat of government east of the Cascades, and the hopes of the Yakima Valley people were doomed to disappointment. During the second term of Governor Semple, Charles S. Voorhees succeeded Congressional Delegate Brents, and James Shields succeeded Hayden in the Olympia land office. N. H. Owings continued as secretary, R. A. Jones was chief justice, Frank Allyn, George Turner and W. G Langford associate justices.
The fight for admission continued bravely. In 1886 the Tacoma board of trade resolved that:
The commercial independence of Washington Territory accompanying the completion of the Northern Pacific railroad to tide-water should be supplemented by its political independence as a state of the American union. Admission can not in decency be delayed many years longer, whatever party influences may sway congress. The census of 1890 will show a population within the present limits of the Territory exceeding 200,000, and a property valuation of at least $200,000,000.
Previously the claims of Washington for admission had been urged by Governor Squire in one of his reports, in forceful language, assigning among other reasons:
the sterling, patriotic, and enterprising character of its citizens; its present and prospective maritime relations with the world: its position as a border state on the confines of the dominion of Canada, the most powerful province of Great Britain; its wealth of natural resources and growing wealth of its people; the efficiency of its educational system, requiring that its school lands should be allotted and utilized ; its riparian rights should be settled, capital and immigration encouraged, and the full management and control of municipal
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and county affairs should be assumed by the legislature, which is not allowed during the
Territorial condition.
According- to the report of Governor Semple for 1888 the population of Washington Territory was 167,982; the taxable property was $84,621,182; the revenue produced by a tax of two and one-half mills. $212,734.92; the amount of coal mined, 1,133.801 tons; the lumber output 320,848,203; the estimated capacity of the combined mills 1,043,796,000 feet; the total railway mileage 1,137.3, broad-gauge,
and 40 miles narrow-gauge. The same year an insane asylum at Steilacoom was completed at a cost of $100,000 and $60,000 appropriated for a hospital for the insane at Medical Lake. The citizens of Vancouver donated land, and the legislature appropriated money for the erection at that point of a school for defective youth. The national guard consisted of two regiments of infantry and one troop of cavalry.
Such, in rough outline, was the material condition of the Territory of Washington on the eve of statehood. On the anniversary of President Washington's birthday, February 22, 1889, congress passed an enabling act proposing the terms on which the Territory might be admitted into the union. By these provisions the governor was. on April 15, 1889, to call for the election of seventy-five delegates on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in May, to meet in constitutional convention at Olympia on July 4, 1889, for organization and formulation of a state constitution. The enabling act by virtue of which Washington Territory was permitted to call a constitutional convention embraced other territories. Its title was as follows:
An act to provide for the division of Dakota into two states and to enable the people of North Dakota. South Dakota, Montana and Washington to form constitutions and state governments, and to be admitted into the union on an equal footing with the original states, and to make donations of public lands to such states.
The land grant to Washington was:
For the establishment and maintenance of a scientific school, one hundred thousand acres; for state normal schools, one hundred thousand acres; for public buildings at the state capital, in addition to the grant herein before made, for that purpose, one hundred thousand acres; for state charitable, educational and reformatory institutions, two hundred thousand acres.
To defray the expenses of the constitutional convention the sum of $20,000 was appropriated by congress. It was further provided that there should be appointed one district judge, United States attorney, and United States marshal; the state to constitute one judicial district to be attached to the ninth judicial district; the regular terms of court to commence in April and November; the clerks of the courts to have their offices at the state capital; the judge to reside in the district and receive a salary of $3,500 per annum, and the courts of the state to become the successors of the territorial courts.
On July 4, 1889, the delegates elected to the constitutional convention proceeded to business at Olympia. Following is the representation of the several counties:
Stevens, S. H. Manley, J. J. Travis; Spokane. C. P. Coey, George Turner, J. Z. Moore. J. J. Browne, T. C. Griffitts, H. F. Suksdor, Hiram E. Allen; Lincoln, H. W. Fairweather, B. B. Glascock, Frank M. Dallam; Kititas. J. A. Shoudy, A. Mires, J. T. McDonald; Whitman, J. P. T. McCloskey, C. H. Warner, E. H. Sullivan, J. M. Reed, James Hungate, George Comegys; Adams, D. Buchanan; Garfield. S. C. Cosgrove; Franklin, W. B. Gray; Columbia. M. M. Goodman, R. F. Sturvedant; Walla Walla, Lewis Neace, D. J. Crowley, B. L. Sharpstein, N. G. Blalock; Yakima. W. F. Prosser; Clarke, Louis Johns, A. A. Lindsley; Skamania, G. H. Stevenson; Pacific. J. A. Burk; Wahiakum, O. A. Bowen; Cowlitz. Jesse Van Name; Mason, Henry Winsor, John McReavy; Chehalis, A. I. West;
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Jefferson, Allen Weir, George H. Jones, H. C. Wilson; Skagit, James Power, Thomas Hayton, H. Clothier; Whatcom, J. J. Weisen-berger, E. Eldridge; Snohomish, A. Schooley; Island, J. C. Kellogg; Kitsap, S. A. Dickey; King, R. Jeffs, T. T. Minor, T. P. Dyer, D. E. Dwrie, John P. Kinnear, John P. Hoyt, M. J. McElroy, Morgan Morgans, George W. Tibbetts, W. L. Newton; Pierce, T. L. Stiles, P. C. Sullivan, Gwin Hicks, H. M. Lillis, C. T. Fay, R. S. Moore, Robert Jamison; Thurston, John T. Gowey, T. M. Reed, Francis Henry; Lewis, O. H. Joy, S. H. Berry.
J. Z. Moore, of Spokane Falls, was elected temporary chairman of the convention, and Allen Weir, of Port Townsend, was chosen temporary secretary. Permanent organization was effected by the election of John P. Hoyt, of Seattle, president, John I. Booge, Spokane Falls, chief clerk, and Clarence M. Bartin, Tacoma, reading clerk. The deliberations of the session occupied fifty days. At the election of October 1, 1889, the constitution framed by these seventy-five delegates, representing twenty-eight counties, was adopted by the people. All in all it was an instrument fairly well adapted to the requirements of the people of Washington. Although not extravagant the salaries allowed state officers were liberal; the corporations were treated impartially; it provided for five supreme judges and ordained superior courts in all the counties; fixed the number of representatives at not less than sixty-three nor more than ninety-nine; and the senate at nor more than half nor less than a third of that number; and claimed all tide-lands except such as had been patented by the United States. The question of woman suffrage, prohibition and capital removal were voted upon separately. Of the votes cast 40,152 were for adoption of the constitution and 11,879 against it. Prohibition was defeated by a vote of 31,487 to 19,546; woman suffrage was again laid aside by 34,513 votes against, and 16,527 for, that question, and for location of the state capital Olympia received 25,490 votes; North Yakima, 14,718; Ellensburg, 12,833; Centralia, 607; Yakima, 314; Pasco, 120; scattering, 1,088.
At this initial state election John L. Wilson was chosen for congressman and Elisha Pyre Ferry for governor. The other state officers elected were Charles E. Laughton, lieutenant governor; Allen Weir, secretary of state; A. A. Lindsley, treasurer; T. M. Reed, auditor; William C. Jones, attorney general ; Robert B. Bryan, superintendent of public instruction; W. T. Forrest, commissioner of public lands. Ralph O. Dunbar, Theodore L. Stiles, John P. Hoyt, Thomas J. Anders and Elman Scott were elected to the supreme bench. All of these successful candidates were republicans. Of the one hundred and five members of the legislature elected one senator and six representatives were democrats. Following is the personnel of the first Washington state senate and house of representatives:
Senate — F. H. Luce, Adams, Franklin and Okanogan; C. G Austin, Asotin and Garfield; C. T. Wooding, Chehalis ; Henry Landes, Clallam, Jefferson and San Juan; L. B. Clough, Clarke; H. H. Wolfe, Columbia; C. E. Forsythe, Cowlitz; J. M. Snow, Douglas and Ya-kima; Thomas Paine, Island and Skagit; W. D. Wood, J. H. Jones, O. D. Gilfoil, John R. Kinnear, W. V. Reinhart, King; W. H. Kneeland, Kitsap and Mason; E. T. Wilson, Kittitas ; Jacob Hunsaker, Klickitat and Skamania ; J. H. Long, Lewis ; H. W. Fairweather, Lincoln; B. A. Seaborg, Pacific and Wahkiakum; John S. Baker, L. F. Thompson, Henry Drum. Pierce; Henry Vestal, Snohomish; Alexander Watt, E. B. Hyde, B. C. Van Houton, Spokane; H. E. Houghton, Spokane and Stevens; N. H. Owings, Thurston; Piatt A. Preston, George T. Thompson, Walla
Walla ; W. J. Parkinson, Whatcom ; John C. Lawrence, J. T. Whaley, A. T. Farris, Whitman.
House — W. K. Kennedy, Adams; William Farrish, Asotin; L. B. Nims, J. D. Medcalf,
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Chehalis; Amos F. Shaw, John D. Geoghegan, S. S. Cook, Clarke; A. B. Luce, Clallam; A. H. Weatherford, H. B. Day, Columbia; Chandler Huntington, Jr., Cowlitz; E. D. Nash, Douglas; C. H. Flummerfell, Franklin; W. S. Oliphant, Garfield; George W. Morse, Island; Joseph Kuhn, Jefferson; J. T.
Blackburn, W. C. Rutter, W. H. Hughes, Alex. Allen, W. J. Shinn, George Bothwell, F. W. Bird, F. B. Grant, King; M. S. Drew, Kitsap; J. N. Power, J. P. Sharp, Kittitas; Bruce F. Purdy, R. H. Blair, Klickitat; S. C. Herren, Charles Gilchrist, Lewis; P. R. Spencer, T. C. Blackfan, Lincoln; John McReavy, Mason; Henry Hamilton, Okanogan; Charles Foster, Pacific; George Browne, A. Hewitt, George B. Kandle, Oliff Peterson, James Knox, Stephen Judson, Pierce; J. E. Tucker, San Juan ; J. E. Edens, B. D- Minkler, Skagit; George H. Stevenson, Skamania; Alexander Robertson, A. H. Eddy, Snohomish; J. W. Feighan, J. E. Gandy, S. C. Grubb, J. S. Brown, A. K. Clarke, E. B. Dean, Spokane; M. A. Randall, Stevens; W. G. Bush, Francis Rotch, Thurston; Joseph G. Megler, Wahkiakum; Joseph Painter, Z. K. Straight, James Cornwall, Walla Walla; R. W. Montray, George Judson, Whatcom; J. C. Turner, E. R. Pickerell, J. T. Peterson, R. H. Hutchinson, B. R. Ostrander, Whitman; John Cleman, Yakima.
On joint ballot the republican majority of the legislature was ninety-six, thus insuring the election of two United States senators. Watson C. Squire and John B. Allen were elected, their respective votes on joint ballot being seventy-six and seventy-one. In the United States senate Mr. Squire drew the short term, expiring March 4, 1891, and Mr. Allen served the long term, expiring March 4, 1893. In January, 1891, Mr. Squire was re-elected for six years. The omission of the signature of Governor Mason to a certificate accompanying a copy of the constitution adopted, caused a delay in the proclamation of President Harrison, and in consequence of this the legislature had assembled before Washington was actually a state. On November 11, 1889, the proclamation was issued by the President, attested by James G. Blaine, secretary of state, and Washington stepped into the ranks of that sisterhood at whom she had long looked with rather envious eyes. During the past fifteen years her course as a state has been one fulfilling the most sanguine expectations of her sponsors. Indeed, a retrospective glance shows scarcely one unwise step taken by the leading factors in her political and industrial history from the first agitation for territorial division until to-day.
At the date of admission into the union Washington had, approximately, a population of 200,000. The census of 1900 accords the state 518,103, and the past four years have materially increased these figures. From twenty-eight counties at the period of admission the state now has thirty-six, and Indian reservations to the number of fourteen. We can not more fittingly close this portion of our history than with the words of the late Julian Ralph, written ten years ago:
Washington is in every material way a grand addition to the sisterhood of states. With the easy and rich fancy of the west, her people say that if you build a Chinese wall around Washington, the state will yield all that her inhabitants need without contributions from the outer world.
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