61

part of the territory from Yakima to Boisé River, and from the 44th to the 49th parallel. The city of Lewiston was incorporated, having become, in the eyes of its founders, a commercial mart of greater promise than others, for the reason that it was at the terminus of river navigation, and centrally located with regard to the whole Snake River country. It had already, like older cities, large mercantile establishments, hotels, mills, gambling-houses, churches, a newspaper, the Golden Age, issued first on the 2d of August by A. S. Gould,62 and a line of four-horse coaches to Walla Walla and Wallula, while along the line of the road farms were being rapidly improved.

In short, eastern Washington had outgrown the Puget Sound region, and was demanding a separate government. Committees were appointed in every mining district to procure signers to a petition asking the legislature to memorialize congress on the subject. But the legislature refused to agree to such a memorial. A bill was introduced, and passed in the council, to submit for ratification by the people the constitution of the state of Idaho, intended to effect the desired organization, which was defeated by the lower house substituting "state of Washington."63 congress, to which the petitioners appealed directly, regarded the matter more favorably for the mining interest, passing an act, approved March 3, 1863, organizing the territory of Idaho out of all that portion of Washington lying east of Oregon and the 117th meridian of west longitude.

But

61 The land was still owned by the Nez Percés. Jagger & Co., Trevitt & Co., and Yates & Lane were the owners of all the wooden buildings. Or. Statesman, May 12, 1862. Its first mayor after incorporation was A. M. Kelly; recorder, R. H. Johns; councilmen, Hill Beachy, D. M. Lessey, F. H. Simmons, William Kaughman, and James McNeil; marshal. Schwatka. As early as Feb. 1862 its citizens had adopted rules for town government, and made provisions for preempting lands and holding town lots. The first councilmen elected under these rules were Joseph Herring, Robert Dyson, and James Bowers. Dyson acted as president of the board and justice of the peace. Portland Oregonian, Feb. 20, 1862.

62 Gould came from Cal. to Portland, and was employed on the Portland Times until he went to Lewiston with a press of his own. He was afterward in Utah, and died in S. F. about 1879.

63 Wash. Jour. Council, 1862-3, 157, 164.

DIVISION OF THE TERRITORY.

263

Although the loss of a large extent of rich mining territory was regarded with disapproval by the remainder of the population, the benefit to the whole of the more rapid development of all the resources of the country was cause for congratulation, both then and later, the mines having given an impetus to the growth of the territory that agriculture alone could not have done in a long period of time. The area left comprised 71,300 square miles, with a population in 1863 of 12,519, which, although small, was nearly double that of 1860.

Owing to delays, I am compelled to make room for one of the pioneers of Wash. on this page.

Charles Biles was born in Warren co., Tenn., in Aug. 1809, and reared on a farm in N. C., removing when 19 years old to Christian co., Ky. In 1832 he married, and in 1835 removed to Ill., soon returning to Hopkins co., Ky, where he resided until 1853, when he emigrated to W. T. in company with his brother James, their families, and C. B. Baker, Elijah Baker, and William Downing, and their families, being a part of the first direct immigration to the territory, via the wagon road through the Nachess pass. Mr Biles settled upon Grand Mound Prairie in Thurston co., farming, and sometimes preaching as a minister of the Cumberland presbyterian church. He died Feb. 26, 1869, leaving two sons (one having died after emigrating) and two daughters, namely, David F., Charles N., Mrs M. Z. Goodell, and Mrs L. B. Ward.

David F. Biles was born in Ky in 1833, coming with his parents to W. T. In 1854 he took a claim in Thurston co., and in 1855 became a deputy U. S. surveyor, but the Indian war coming on interrupted work, and he took to soldiering in defence of the settlements, resuming his surveying when peace was restored. From 1858 to 1862 he resided in Cosmopolis, Chehalis co., but then removed to a homestead claim near Elma, on the line of the Satsop railroad to Gray Harbor, where he owns 400 acres of land. He served many years as county surveyor, and some time as school superintendent. married in 1854 Miss Mary J. Hill, who was a member of the immigration of 1853, and had 5 sons and 1 daughter.

He

Charles N. Biles, born in 1844 in Ky, was educated in Portland, Or. In 1870 he settled in Montesano, Chehalis co., and engaged in surveying, and was county auditor and treasurer several terms. He married Miss E. J.

Medcalf.

Another Chehalis co. pioneer is I. L. Scammon, who was born in Me in 1822, came to Cal. in 1849-50, making the voyage on the 63-ton schooner Little Traveller. In the autumn of 1850 he took passage for the Columbia river, which was passed by mistake, the vessel making Shoalwater bay. Making his way overland to the Columbia, he went to Salem, Or., and to the southern mines, but returning to W. T. took a donation claim on the Chehalis river, where the old town of Montesano, now known as Wynoochee, grew up about him. He married Miss Lorinda Hopkins in 1844, who rejoined him in W. T. in 1859. The first sermon preached in the region of Montesano was delivered by Rev. J. W. Goodell at Seammon's house, and the second school in the county was on his place, in 1859. The children of this pioneer are, Harriet, married Edward Campbell; George, m. Clara Nye; Cornelia Jane, who died; Eva, who m. I. R. Edwards; Edith, who m. P. B. Briscoe; Ella, who m. Charles H. Finmet, county surveyor; Norman, who accidentally shot himself when about 17 years of age.

CHAPTER VIII.

GOVERNMENT AND DEVELOPMENT.

1863-1886.

EFFECT OF TERRITORIAL DIVISION-ELECTION OF DELEGATE-NEGRO SUFFRAGE-PARTY POLITICS-THE LEGISLATURE-PEACE AND PROGRESS-— STEAMBOATING-NAVIGATION COMPANIES-CLEARING RIVERS-PUBLIC BUILDINGS INSANE ASYLUM AND PENITENTIARY-LEGISLATIVE DIVORCES -GOVERNMENT RESERVATIONS-JUDICIAL AFFAIRS-ANOTHER DeleGATE-GOVERNOR FLANDERS-GOVERNOR SALOMON-GOVERNOR FERRY -GOVERNOR NEWELL-ERA OF RAILWAYS-MORE ELECTIONS-POLITICAL PLATFORMS-CONVENTION-WOMAN'S RIGHTS LEGISLATure,

WITH the setting-off of the territory of Idaho from that of Washington came the close of a long period of exciting events, and the beginning of a reign of peace and constant, gradual growth. Some slight temporary inconvenience was occasioned by the amputation from the body politic of several counties between two sessions of the legislature, when no provision could be made for the reapportionment of representatives, the legislature of 1863-4 consisting of but seven councilmen and twenty-four assemblymen.1

George E. Cole, democrat, was elected delegate to congress in 1863.2

1Organization was delayed from Dec. 7th to 22d by the balloting for pres ident of council, O. B. McFadden being at length chosen, and for chief clerk, L. D. Durgin. Or. Statesman, Jan. 3, 1864. Clanrick Crosby was elected speaker by the house, and J. L. McDonald clerk. Wash. Scraps, 149. the session of 1864–5, Frank Clark was president of the council, and James Tilton chief clerk, while F. P. Dugan was chosen clerk.

At

2 Cole was postmaster at Corvallis in 1858. He had been member of the Oregon legislature in 1851-3, but falling out with his party, removed east of the mountains in 1861, and engaged in trade and steamboating, residing at Walla Walla. Deady's Scrap-Book, 41. In 1862 he was in the storage and commission business at Lewiston; but in the following year returned to Walla

He received some votes of union men, although repudiated by the republican party as a peace democrat in war times, or of that class of politicians known as copperheads, who were amiably willing to condone rebellion, but without the nerve openly to oppose the government. However this may have been, Cole was subsequently appointed governor of Washington by a republican administration, and again postmaster of Portland under President Grant.

At the election for delegate in 1865 A. A. Denny of Seattle, republican, was elected by a large majority over James Tilton, who, like Cole, was charged with entertaining sentiments inimical to the course of the government in suppressing secession.

3

There was in Washington a party strongly opposed to the reconstruction acts of congress, which favored the readmission of representatives to congress from the ten excluded states, and demanded for the territory a vote in congress, and the exclusive right to define the elective franchise, or in other words, to exclude negroes from the polls. Among this class were to be found many of Tilton's supporters.

Denny's successor as delegate was Alvan Flanders, of Wallula, an active business man, who left the democratic party before the date of the civil war. Flanders was opposed by Frank Clark of Steilacoom, his

Walla, and ran against L. J. S. Turney and Joseph Raynor. Cole received 1,572 votes, Raynor 1,387, Turney 98. Wash. Scraps, 66. Raynor was a methodist preacher, who was stationed at Oregon City two years before. Walla Walla Statesman, June 20, 1863. Cole was appointed governor in 1866. His wife was a Miss Cardwell of Corvallis.

Garfielde and Evans labored for the election of Denny, who had been a member of the legislature from 1854 to 1861, and register of the land-office at Olympia subsequently until elected delegate. Denny was later member of a banking firm at Seattle. McFadden, A. J. Lawrence, and J. H. Lassater canvassed the territory for Tilton. Wash. Scraps, 156-S; S. F. Alta, May 2, 1867.

*Flanders came to S. F. in 1851, and was zealously interested with Baker in forming the first republican club of that city. In 1858, in connection with C. A. Washburn, he started the S. F. Daily Times, a republican paper. He also represented S. F. in the Cal. legislature, being reelected once or more. He was appointed by President Lincoln to a position in the mint, and afterward to the land-office of the Humboldt district. In March 1863 he removed to Washington and entered into business with Felton of Wallula. Oregonian, in Olympia Pac. Tribune, April 27, 1867.

5

majority over Clark being 153 out of 5,000 votes, so close was the contest."

The last two elections had been carried by undoubted republicans, and a republican executive and secretary had administered affairs for four years, when President Johnson saw fit to remove Pickering, and furnish the late delegate Cole with a commission as governor, dated November 21, 1866, as the Oregonian declared, with "partisan motives." The senate, however, declined to confirm the commission, and Cole, who had qualified and entered upon the duties of his office without waiting to hear from the senate, was compelled to abdicate at the end of two months, and after several nominations by the president,' Marshall F. Moore was confirmed as governor, and E. L. Smith as secretary of the territory. Smith arrived on the 27th of June, and assumed the duties of acting governor until the advent of Moore, late in the summer.

8

5 Frank Clark was born Feb. 10, 1834, at Binghampton, N. Y., and studied law at Lowell, Massachusetts. He came to Washington in 1852, settling in Steilacoom, where he resided until about 1875, when he removed to New Tacoma, where he was a successful lawyer. When Clark first came to Puget Sound he took work in a saw-mill, but having an aptitude for politics, was chosen to the legislature, after which he rose in public life to a candidacy for the delegateship. He died suddenly of paralysis Jan. 8, 1883, while en route to Lewis county to attend court. Clark was twice married, first to a daughter of R. Downey of the early immigration, and second to L. Schofield of Vancouver. Olympia Wash. Standard, Jan. 12, 1883; New Tacoma Ledger, Jan. 12, 1883.

Olympia Pac. Tribune, June 27 and July 6, 1867. In the union territorial convention, held April 16th at Vancouver, 16 votes being necessary to a choice, Holmes, Wyche, Garfielde, Abernethy, and Flanders first received scattering votes; afterward Blinn and Denny were named. In the democratic convention, Clark, Lancaster, Dugan, Langford, Lawrence, McFadden, and Vansyckle appeared as candidates, their platform being the same as in 1865, with the addition of disapproving the exemption of U. S. bonds from taxation. Olympia Wash. Standard, May 4, 1867.

7 Wash. Jour. House, 1866-7, 139.

8 Marshall F. Moore was born at Binghamton, N. Y., Feb. 12, 1829. He graduated at Yale college, studied law, and began practice in New Orleans, where he remained five years, removing at the end of that time to Sioux City, Iowa, where he was elected prosecuting attorney, and subsequently judge of the court of common pleas. He again changed his residence to Ohio, where he married the daughter of P. Van Trump of Lancaster. He served through the civil war, under McClellan in Va, and in the department of the Cumberland, participating in the battles of Rich Mountain, Shiloh, Chickamauga, and most of the battles of Sherman's Georgia campaign. He was promoted to the rank of brevet brigadier-general for gallantry at the battle of Jonesboro'. While leading a brigade at the battle of Missionary Ridge he received severe wounds, from which he was unconscious for five days. His health was much