CHAPTER VIII.

A comprehensive description of the Walla Walla country; soil, climate
and productions, and the lay of the land.—Hire out on a farm for two
months.--The secret of success and failure in government and corpo-
ration contracts.—Secret intrigue at military posts, ete.—Experience
in work in the mountain.—Locate a land claim and get married.—
A year’s experience.

ARRIVED in Lewiston about the middle of September, 1870.
Crossed the river into Weshington Territory, and travelled
north-west for eight miles over a somewhat sterile grazing
country near the river ; when I came onto a wooded creek with
narrow bottom (the Alpowa), inhabited and farmed somewhat
by Indians, for a few miles, and by an old Yankee bachelor who
kept a hotel and stage station, and raised cattle. Said, he had
found it to be the best economy to provide flour, instead of
other feed, for his stock, when the weather was such that they
needed feeding. (It was at the head of this creek, to the south-
west, that I afterwards built my home). Leaving this creek by
a big hill, and riding for ten miles over a level bunch-grass
prairie (destitute of water and wood, but a belt of timber was
plainly to be seen twelve to fifteen miles to the south), when I
went down another big hill on to another creek (the Pataha),
having a bottom quite destitute of wood, and about a quarter
of a mile wide for twenty-five miles to Snake river.

The upper portion, reaching back into the Blue mountain
about thirty miles, being still more contracted and more
wooded. All of it, from its source to its mouth, is quite fenced
in by high, abrupt hills on either side, and so is the Alpowa.

From the top of these hills, vast, thickly-planted bunch
grass prairies extend north to Snake river some fifteen miles,
and south to the timber of the Blue mountains about the same
distance away. These prairies, however, are more or less cut
up with ravines and gulches, are scantily watered and com-
pletely destitute of wood. I found this creek bottom, or the
most of it that was fit for cultivation (the lower portion),
settled up and farmed, but the adjoining prairies were entirely
unoccupied, except by a few bands of cattle and horses belong-

(108)

woode
these
A
men w
Cr
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On
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that of t
made so
Nea
by ravir

‘limate
for two
corpo-
erience
ried. —

, 1870.

ivelled

azine
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. south-
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e same
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pntirely
belong-

LocaTE A LanD CLAIM AND GET MarRIED. 109
ing to the creek settlers. The farmers here were threshing
their grain with a ten or twelve horse power machine. They
had to collect and change work with each other for a distance
of ten or fifteen miles to form a threshing crew. They being
short of help, and TI having but a few dollars left, stopped and
worked for them a few days, at two dollars a day, which seemed
very small wages to me then.

The yield of wheat, oats and barley was thirty to sixty
bushels to the acre, and the up-prairie land appeared equally
as fertile. The nights being always cool, this is not a good
corn country.

Following this creek for eleven miles, it changed its course
to the north, while the road and old Indian and pack trails left
it by winding up a hill 700 or 800 feet high, thence over a
level prairie for a mile, when I looked down into a Canyon
(Tu-Canyon) 1200 to 1500 feet deep, having a stream with
wooded bottom, a few hundred yards wide. The wood on
these streams is mostly cotton-wood, birch, alder and pine.

A few spots on this stream were being farmed for hay, by
men with stock, as a safe winter retreat.

Crossing this Canyon, I found, spread out as far as I could
see, another similar vast rolling fertile prairie country, with
richer hollows, coves or bottoms, and blessed with an occasion-
al spring or stream of good water; but wood still to be seen only
in the one direction—many miles away to the south. After
about eight miles of unbroken prairie, I found the hollows and
choice spots by the road settled, and more or less farmed,
according to the time, means and energy of the settler in haul-
ing fencing and other wood, fifteen to twenty miles—there
being no barbed wire then.

On approaching Walla Walla, the country was more
thickly settled and improved, there being streams with more
extensive bottoms, bordered by less abrupt hills, and wooded
sufficient for immediate fencing and domestic use. Though
much of the soil along these streams was not as productive as
that of the hollows, or even the extreme upland prairies, until
made so by irrigation.

Near Walla Walla the lay of the land becomes less broken
by ravines; but to speak of this Walla Walla country as a

110 THe WALLA WALLA Country.

valley, is misleading. The stream Walla Walla has a little
narrow valley to be sure, but it don’t amount to much, except
in rare spots. The same is true of even the Columbia, Snake
and other rivers at a distance from the coast. They might
have had broad fertile valleys or bottoms, like the Sacramento,
Mississippi, Ohio and the Mohawk, but they hav’nt. I mean
to give a true and comprehensive, though brief description of
Eastern Washington, and the settling thereof, such as may
also give an accurate idea of that north of the Columbia and
Snake, as well as of that portion of Idaho adjoining, as these
sections are similar. With their fertile soil, each has its deeply
embedded streams, narrow vales and ravines, steep and long
hills and sections of rocky waste land, or suited only for graz-
ing. Each having its mountain range, for timber and wood
supply, to tap the rain clouds and giving variety of climate
and scenery.

Singular though it may seem, during the most severe
winters the mercury sinks lowest in the lowest altitudes, and
snow falls there quite as deep at such times as elsewhere.
Stock have wintered with less loss in hard winters, on some
opening back in the mountains, than others on the Columbia
and Snake rivers. The best lands are usually found near the
mountain ranges, and the lighter, dryer and poorer soil as the
Columbia and Snake rivers are approached, though irrigation
would, and sometimes does, where practicable, make this the
best, and the springs are 4 month or more earlier here than at
the higher altitudes, and less snow usually falls. But it gets
ten to fifteen degrees hitter than on the upland prairies; it
being sometimes one h ndred degrees and more. And it is
covered with a bank of « 11d fog for several weeks in the winter,
while the sun is shining right and warm on the high prairies.

Every four or five yi +s there is a hard winter, when the
mercury sinks to twenty r thirty degrees below zero for a few
weeks. But where there is an open range that has not been
over-stocked, horses that are not worked will winter all right
without feeding ; and cattle need to be fed but a month or two,
and some winters not any.

The warm trade or “chinook” winds from the South-
Pacific are a great blessing to this country in winter; they

seen
excep

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My
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Locate A LAND CLAIM AND GET MARRIED. 111

come with black clouds—as a thunder shower comes, and
sometimes bare the ground of a foot of snow in a day or night;
but they cannot be counted on. The winter winds from the
opposite direction are stinging cold.

I continued my journey from Lewiston for about sixty
miles, to near where Dayton was afterwards built and become
the county seat of a new county (Columbia), composed of a
part of Walla Walla county, which »efore embraced all the
region between the Columbia and Snake rivers and the Oregon
line. Since, Garfield and Asotin counties have been formed
out of Columbia. Dayton is on the Tou-Chet (Tu-she) stream,
and this section was then known as the “Upper Tou-Chet.”

I hired to work for a farmer for two months, at $35.00 a
month.—This was the first and only good farming country I had
seen since leaving Eastern Nebraska, over four years before,
except that in Salt Lake valley and in Southern California.

Here I found improved farms with orchards, barns, colts,
calves, lambs, geese, chickens, women, children and girls in
their teens, with an occasional buggy or side-saddle to be seen.
So considering me having been raised on a farm and at home,
and then having been for about five years roving about—a
homeless wanderer, in wild, unsettled desert regions, unblessed
with the innocent prattle of children or the voice of women--
is it any wonder that having become tired of such a life, I was
impressed, as the plains-tired traveller is on reaching Salt
Lake and Los Angeles, with their fruitful trees and vines, mead-
ows, flowers, singing birds and flowing streams, and as
Mohammed was when he beheld Damascus and exclaimed, that
“man can enter but ene paradise.”

I worked with a threshing machine, as it changed about
for the man I hired to, fer a couple of weeks, and was impressed
with the bountiful yield of grain, the ground being new and
only the choice spots in cultivation. I then put in the most of
the remainder of the two months in hauling rails and wood
from the mountain for him.

My employer was related to one who had recently been a
Governmert Indian agent, and himself had been engaged at an
agency and military post; and I having before and since be-
come intimately acquainted with Government contractors, etc.,

112 TRE WALLA WaLLA Country.

and also with intelligent agency Indians (one of whom wrote
for me the story of his life, which I may give), together with
my personal observations, enabled me to become informed con-
cerning affairs at such places and the mode by which ring
favorites get fortunes and outsiders are crushed in dealing with
Government secret ring agents or officers. I will give a few
points for the information of those who are curious to know
how it is, that one man can take a Government contract for
supplies and make money out of it, while his neighbor, possess-
ing superior business abilities, would lose money.

For example, will consider the grain, hay, wood and horse
supply. The allowance of these, as with other supplies also,
is usually greater than is necessary for the service. Proposals
are duly advertised for a certain quantity or amount of either,
(it being the full amount allowed or to be suffered for a certain
time), the same to be of “the best quality,” or “per sample,”
and to be delivered by or during a stated time, or at the
pleasure of the Grand Master, as the case may be. Now this
time may be while the roads are almost impassable, and while
the outsider will be required to fulfill the contract to the exact
letter, the secret brother, who can be relied on as to “division
and secrecy,” under the obligations and penalties of the ring,
knows that the time will be modified to suit his (their) inter-
ests, and that the quantity, with him, need only be such as is
barely necessary for the service ; though the full amount allow-
ed is receipted, booked and paid for. Thus are favorite con-
tractors and their gangs enriched by government and corpora-
tion contracts, even when the figures are below the market price.

In the West but comparatively little forage is necessary or
really used, as the stock usually runs out to grass on the ranges
all the year. In buying horses and mules, none but those fully
up to the standard will be received from a full-fledged citizen
of the Government, while from some one who is a sworn subject
of a lurking, foreign, pagan-government, most anything in horse
or mule shape is often taken.

I have known several men whowere badly bitten by count-
ing on some of the concessions always accorded to secret sub-
jects. ‘Tne difference in the cost between a favorite and out-
sider in filling a contract is often twenty-five to fifty per cent.

rote
vith
con-
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with

few
now
; for
3e8S-

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also,
osals
ther,
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t the
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ision
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as is
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8 (113)

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p Woop AND Rails FROM THE BLUE MovuntTaAtn.”

.
4

“T Haut

114 Tue WALLA WaLta Country.

An example given me by the party who furnished the wood,
and who had occasion to procure full proof of the following ex-
amples of loyalty: For the post, and the year alluded to, the
Government allowed and paid for 575 cords of wood, at $5.50
per cord, equal to $3,162.50 ; while all that was really bought
or paid for was 350 cords, at $2.50 per cord, equal to $875.00.
What per cent. of loyalty is that?

They also received from the Government, that is not good
enough for them, pay for 500 rations at a time, supposed to be
issued to the Indians, when the highest number was really but
forty-five, and this of condemned stores. What per cent. of
loyalty is this ?

Now take the annual appropriations of Congress, and see
what sworn secrecy-under-horrible-penalties in office is costing
Uncle Sam in money alone !

My informant as to these mere examples, said, he reported
these facts, with the indisputable proof’ thereof, to two city
editors, but they, being subjects of the same secret government,
would not publish them. That he also reported the same to
the Government at Washington, to find that the influence of
their secret government extended there also and was supreme.

And jobs were put up against his life, and the courts were
prostituted to get him out of the way, so he could not make
any more trouble with their “ mysteries.”

When extra transportation and supplies are required, as in
case of an Indian outbreak—which is often purposely induced by
the lurking subjects themselves—they get contracts to supply
it at fourteen prices, and then sub-let it to others, who do the
work and furnish the supplies for small pay.

After a gang has made such a raid against the Government
in the name of the Indians, and has the plunder divided up and
secured, tien a few journals, as a cloak for their servility, come
out of the dark as follows, but they dare not strike at the root
and secrecy of the evil; and they are brazen in the assumption,
that the cfficials at Washington do not know the “ true inward-
ness ” of these jobs in advance, a/ter forty years’ experience with
the same game.

“The Government has finally begun to see the ‘true inward-
ness’ of the Arizona ‘Indian war,’ and peace may be looked for

and
be tl
sults
poor
the “
eight
had s
mean
away,
whicl
Had ;

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ood
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rard-
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1 for

Locate A LAND CLAIM AND GET MArnrIeD. 115

now any day. Not a solitary Indian was killed, not a single
pioneer, miner, or any other man who minded his own business,
was molested, but several enterprising [?] men made a million, or
so, a piece, out of the scare; and it was started for no other pur-
pose. Crook broke the Apaches’ backbone years ago; the poor
wretches haven’t vim enough left to fight a coyote.”

When my two months’ job expired, the most profitable
work I had learned of was that of making rails and clap-boards
in the mountain for the farmers living out on the streams and
hollows. Rails were worth twenty dollars, and clap-boards
fifteen dollars per thousand at the stump, and the timber—
tamerack, fir and pine—split well.

There was a small company of men thus engaged, who
tried to discourage me, saying, that on account of the scarcity
of money there was only a small cash demand for such work.
I, however, found that it could be readily traded for stock,
especially horses, which was good enough pay for me. Sol
bought an outfit and six months’ supply of grub and went to
work in the timber, where I split my first rail and clap-board.
Shingles were also being made there, by hand, at four dollars
and fifty cents per thousand.

I worked here the most of the ensuing ten months, and
though not very rugged, and unable to do as much hard work
as other men, I made 8000 rails and 55,000 clap-boards, which
was more than was done by any other man abont me or whom
I knew of, though to hear many of them talk, they could do
and did more work in one day, than I could in three; and may
be they could, but, somehow, they had not much to show in re-
sults for their superior ability, and those who had farms had
poor fences, and their shelter was like that noted in song by
the “Arkansan traveller.” I cleared by that ten months’ work
eight hundred dollars worth of horses and other property, and
had spent more in living than any of them. Besides this, I
meanwhile located a land claim on the prairie, fourteen miles
away, and built on it a twelve by fourteen feet lumber cabin,
which claim I sold for a hundred dollar mule and fifty dollars.
Had also spent many pleasant Sundays and other days with
hospitable farmer friends living in the valleys, and in riding

THE WaLtaA WALLA Country.

116

over the prairies and in shaded vales in yet more congenial
company.

I kept a saddle horse with me in summer, and as I put on
a clean shirt once in a while, rode about more than my timber
companions; did not boast of fabulous amounts of work that I
had not and could not do, or even what I did, and asked so
many fool questions in friendly satire, and as though I hardly
knew what timber, land, and work really was; was therefore
looked upon by some of the innocent settlers with an air of sus-
picion, or of ridicule, that was amusing in its crude simplicity
in judging human character.

Having been out and about in company with a timber com-
panion, he came to me one day in great trouble and vexation of
spirit, saying there was a “terrible story out about us.” “Why !”
says he, “they take me for a highwayman and call you the gentle-
man rail-maker,” and he felt that we were fatally slandered and
should weep and wail, or else curse and fight together in
putting the stigma down.

Once I had 4000 clap-boards to make in a trade for a
horse, when one of the boys told me that it would please my
customer to make them very thick ; so I made them very thick.
Then he reported to him that I “had made a lot of wide staves
for him, instead of thin clap-boards, the kind he wanted.” So
he spent a day in coming to see about it, but was satisfied
when I promised to suit him entirely ; which I did by simply
splitting each one into two in a little while, which he himself
could have done at home, making twenty dollars a day in doing
it. While I afforded some amusement to my generous com-
panions in toil, I (being incompetent, an orphan and stranger
in a strange land)—was also a subject of anxiety and care to
some, who kindly made my business and social genial welfare
their ardent concern. This brings my story to the fall of 1871.

The prospect of the early building of the N. P. railroad
had waned, as it was not to be built until other railroads were
built without any subsidy and the country was settled up, so
it woulda be a paying investment at once; thus having the great
land grant as a clear gift, if, through secret intrigue with
brethren in office, they could hold it against the law.

Fire had destroyed the manufacturing business of my

rial

;on
ber
it I
| so
rdly

fore

sus-
icity

eom-
on of
hy !”
entle-
l and
er in

for a
e my
hick.
staves
> So
isfied
imply
mself
doing
com-
anger
bre to
elfare
1871.
lroad
were
hp, 80
great
with

{ my

mation

eect

HACddTUccereerAAGAY™
UT tvisseerwertcaniee

CUeCaRU (CAULEY

AINA)

Making Chap-Boatps (SHAKES).

118 Toe WattA Watts Country.

father, and he and my mother had died, so the scenes of my
boyhood, thus saddened, had les« attraction for me than when I

left them; and finding here apparently as favorable an opportun-.

ity to settle down and prosper, as would be afforded elsewhere,
I concluded to remain, get married, make as good a home as I
was able to carve out of the wilderness, and grow up with the
country.

Was married the same fall, a year after wy arrival in the
country.