CHAPTER xX.

History of settling of the Walla Walla country.—Report of Government
experts, as to the soil.—Packing to the mines of Idaho.—The market
and opportunities. —The outlook in 1870, when I landed here.—The
country grasped by its throat ; the Government prostituted—1000
miles of river navigation to the sea strangled, and the tribute that
was levied.—The result.—The promised railroad.—First land claim
I located. —Life in the beginning of a home,—Dangers and drawbacks.
-—My first outfit.—Sell my claim.—Hunt for and locate another in a
new wild section.—Description of it and the locality.x—My Indian
neighbors; how they treated the first white men they ever saw.—A
homebuilder’s land rights, and what he must necessarily endure.—
Warned of the perplexities, conspiracies and treason to be planted in
the way.—How we started out to build a good and spacious home.—
Our house, ete.—Travelling, moving and camping in the West.-—25
miles to blacksmith shop, ete.—The ‘‘Egypt” for supplies.—Land
claims located about us and abandoned, are re-located by others
time and again.—My first crop.—Crickets one hundred bushels to
the acre.—So that we are left alone in the ‘‘ France Settlement. '’—
The section surveyed and I ‘‘file my claim.’”’—Raise hogs.—The
result.—Get a band of cattle.—Experience on the range.—Getting
roads opened.—First railroad in Eastern Washington.—-Struggling
for a livelihood and home.—How I managed.—Other new settlements
and people.—How they did.—‘‘Land hunters.’’—Prove up, pay for
and get patent for pre-emption claim, and take a homestead claim ad-
joining.—Copy of U. S. patent.—How we just loped along and ahead
of the country.—It settles up.—New County ; towns, etc., built.—
Settlers swindled, —Build school-house, etc., ete.

THE firzi settlements in the Columbia and Snake river basin
were at, or near Fort Walla Walla—afterwards the town of
Walla Walla; and then on the through-road and pack-trails
leading from Fort Wallula—on the Columbia river—to Walla-
Walla, and thence easterly—by the way of Lewiston—to the
mining camps and military posts in Idaho.

The ferryage for crossing Snake river at Lewiston was six
dollars for wagon and single team, and one dollar each for rid-
ing and pack animals. And during the rush to the mines the
travel was so great, that a single boat could hardly carry it; at
times hundreds had to wait their turn.

These western ferry-boats are propelled by the current of
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the stream, by keeping them diagonally against the current and
in a direct course by guy ropes, attached to pulleys rolling on a
wire cable, stretched high across the river.

This travel, emigration and military operations afforded
the early settlers of the Walla Walla country a home market for
many years, that was perhaps never surpassed in the West.
They also secured the most desirable spots in the country for
permanent homes—-that of wooded streams with prairie bottoms.

Some of these first settlers got their start by digging it out
of the rich placers of Idaho or British Columbia; others, by
working at such, as teaming or packing to the mines, either on
their own account, or by wages, at sixty to one hundred dollars
a month; while others again brought it with them across the
plains, or from Oregon.

Found their farm wagons worth here $200 or $300, cows
$50 to $100, and good horses and mules also very high, and a
good new range.

There being large numbers of Indian horses already here,
such and half-breeds were cheap.

Up to the time I came here (1870), Government land was
offered at private sale to anybody, at $1.25, greenbacks, per
acre, and as much as they wanted and could pay for. On
account of the proximity to and richness of the mines, money
was plenty; a good market was afforded (about one dollar a
pound at the mines), so a settler with a broken leg made a
stake out of an onion patch he tended in a season; wages were
high; all kinds of business applicable to the country and situ-
ation, gave large returns, and the mines did not begin to fail till
1865. And, until it became thickly settled around them, they
had a very healthy climate. Never before, or since, did home
seekers have such splendid opportunities as the Walla Walla
country afforded to its first settlers. Yet, famed and titled,
high-flown Government experts, with big pay and pomp, had
oflicially reported, after expensive examination, that this whole
Columbia river basin was worthless for agriculture.

Whe £ came here, about all the lend that had been taken
up in the Walla Walla country was a tract adjacent to and east
of Walla Walla; that which bordered on the streams, where it
was fertile and otherwise suitable, and the hollows and level

128 BurLoinc A Home.

spots containing springs of water and situated on the road
from Wallula to Lewiston.

There were but two villages—-Wal]~ Walla and Waitsburgh
—-and but four Post Offices in all the region of Washington,
that lies south of the Columbia and Snake rivers, now compris-
ing four quite populous counties, but then all belonging to
Walla Walla county alone. So there was yet plenty of vacant
land to choose from.

But the fruitful neighboring mines were quite worked out,
and valleys near them had been settled and put in cultivation
to supply their wants; so these markets and sources of money
supply were mostly gone; river freights were so high, that no
produce could be shipped down to the sea; the great Columbia
and Snake river basin was without a market, and times were
getting hard when I settled in the country.

This Columbia and Snake river basin is quite barred in
from the sea by the Cascade mountains. But the Columbia
river gorges through it, making a good natural outlet and inlet
to and from the sea, which could have been made available and
almost free to the people at a comparative slight expense,
by Washington or Oregon, or both, in overcoming some rapids
which obstruct navigation.

The available ground by these rapids was soon acquired
by a close company of secret brethren, who—by building
eighteen miles of narrow-gauge railway—were allowed to hold
the whole country between the Rocky and Cascade mountains
by the throat, and levy a tribute of untold millions on its
people. They were thus taxed fifty to one hundred dollars per
ton on all their imports, except what was hauled in over the
mountains on wagons. And a like tribute on all exports to
the full amount each kind of produce could pay, and continue
to be produced.

To own or control the transportation of a country, is to
virtually own the whole business of it; because such owners
can thus reap all of the profits in the production of all of its
produce. What more could they get if they were r.:1de Oounts and
Dukes and sole proprietors of the land and people?

The tribute paid to these brethren by the United States
Government alone, for the passage through their custom house

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gate, of military supplies, etc, would have more than built
these eighteen miles of narrow-gauge railroad, worked a great
saving to the Government, and afforded to the inhabitants of the
country the utility of about 1000 miles of navigable rivers;
which would be better than the same number of miles of rail-
road built and given to the people.

And the money overpaid to this charitable (?) ring in but
a few (of the many) years by the people, would have thus
opened these rivers, and besides have grid-ironed the country
with narrow-gauge railroads to them.

But the people, not being advanced beyond the claptrap-
catchwords of “Democrat” and “Republican” (both meaning
the gang), allowed brethren in the ring to hold office to the
extent that nothing was ever accomplished against its interests
and for the people’s general welfare.

Finally (1876) to hold out false hopes to the people—so
they would not rebel and would continue to vote for the
brethren, and to further fill their pockets—the general Govern-
ment was caused to commence a $5,000,000 or $6,000,000 lock-
canal around the obstructions, which has been used as a blind
for big appropriations by Congress to enrich the gang,—there
being comparatively little work done to open the river.

There has never been an editor in all this upper country,
who dared to give the true secret inwardness of this nefarious
job of clutching by the throat and choking off from the people,
for one or two generations, a thousand miles of navigable
rivers thot drain a fertile grain and mineral producing country,
that in its natural resources is only surpassed by that drained
by the Mississippi and its tributaries. And when the Govern-
tueut freauentiy spent as much money as was needed to utilize
all this ca single wagon roads and trails that were of little use.
And the Washington and Oregon Legislatures (of brethren)
squandered away as much at single sessions.

When the markets of the mines failed to be equal to the
supply, and the natural channel of trade to the sea and the
world being still in the hands and power of a foreign—* mogul
king "—secret government, that had its custom house in the
ouly vass ef the country, and was stabbing our Government
into «» bmission, the settlers had to do as the Indians had done

9

130 Buiipinc A Home.

before—go into stock raising. This demand for stock cattle
kept their price up, until the time I came here, (1870) when,
there being a surplus, they gradually fell to half or one-third
of the former price. A man bought a lot of yearlings at that
time at twenty dollars a head, and sold them three or four
years later for the same price—their growth just equalled their
decline.

The country was on this downward turn when I settled in
it. Though the people were hopeful that they would dislodge
the mystic pirates on the river; that the N. P. railroad, or some
other would be speedily built to Puget Sound, and the people
be permitted te prosper. ‘ Where every prospect pleases and
only man is vile. ‘

The land claim « ..ad located, was a mostly level and fer-
tile one-quarter section of prairie, with a good spring and
building site by it, and it was adjacent to the Walla Walla and
Lewiston road noted before. But it was fourteen miles from
timber and wood ; on which account my means were scant to do
the necessary fencing, building, breaking, etc., to afford a living
without working for others at least fourteen miles away; as
nothing could be raised on the place for a year or two, and
perhaps no profit the third or fourth.

There are many expenses to meet all the time in making a
home, though no help be employed, and accidents will occur.
One little one is enough to break a settler all up, if it throws
him into the hands and power of a lawyer or doctor. It being
secretly fixed with the courts of justice (?), that either can get
or spoil all that the victim has, though known to be guilty of
inhuman deceit and malpractice. Thus do so many blacklegs
thrive and homebuilders fail. And the necessary outfit of
team, wagon, harness, plow, harrow, feed, seed, tools, grub, etc.,
to work with, costs quite a sum.

Of course, one expects to get along for years with the kind
of a house, furniture, out-buildings, etc., that he can build him-
self, by perhaps exchanging work with his neighbor, if he has
any, wherein one cannot work to advantage alone. Nor can he
spend much time in them either, as he has so much other work,
such as breaking, fencing, hauling, etc., ete, that must be

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132 Buripina A Home.

pushed ahead, or he will be overtaken by the hounds, and
never make a living on the place.

The situation must be looked in the face, and fully com-
prehended without blinking, and any regard for fashion or
appearance to others spurned.

My first team was of wild, half-breed Indian horses ; would
have to catch them with a lasso, and they would snort, buck
and kick to a wagon. And such a wagon! It was like those
scattered about to adorn (?) the lawn of a blacksmith shop.
But I built 3000 rails for it all the same; not on account of its
beauty, but to put off the greater expense of two hundred
dollars for a new one,—the secret charitable (?) pirates at the
river charging a tariff of fifty or seventy-five dollars on a
wagon ; and so a plow cost thirty or forty dollars; and on hard
wood, so that an axletree, tongue, etc., cost ten or fifteen dollars
each. A man paid eighty-five dollars to have a common farm
wagon repaired.

Remeniber going to a fourth of July celebration and on
other business, and when I went to hitch up, found the double
and whiffle trees had been used and left at a distance, when
with an ax, piece of a rail and picket rope, I made another set
in a very few minutes for the occasion. Such was the outfit we
went about with to keep ahead of the hounds, when not on
horseback, in building a home and competency, and it took two
packs of ravenous, blood-thirsty bloodhounds, and the prosti-
tution of the Government, to hound, intrigue, stab,and ring us
down.

We would jest and ridicule with those so disposed at our
outfit, or anything of the kind, and hold it to be a new fashion,
soon to be imitated by all; which happened to be about so,
when, having cut the bush of my horses’ tails square off for an
attractive mark I had never seen or heard of, that I would
more surely hear of them when they strayed away; for after-
wards this mark became the fashion of the world, and men
adopted it for its beauty, who had ridiculed it to me as ugly
and detestible.

Not having means enough to go ahead to advantage on a
claim so distant from timber and wood, and hearing of a fertile
prairie and timber country at the head of the Alpowa, about

Tuer “FRANCE SETTLEMENT.” 133

twenty-five miles away, where “there were natural meadows of
clover,” and situated nearer Snake river (the prospective
market) and Lewiston (the best present market), and through
which were Indian trails and a shorter route for a through-road
from Walla Walla to Lewiston and beyond, I went to see
about it.

Passing over an extensive stretch of unsettled, rich, up-
land prairie, bordering on Padet creek to the west and Tu-Can-
yon to the east - striking the Indian trails—then going down
into the big, deep Canyon, crossing its wooded bottom and
stream up towards the mountain; then up and over the brakes
on the trails ; over another stretch of high in altitude, but pro-
mising prairie, reaching south to the mountain, and east and
north to the breaks of the Pataha (Pa-téh-hd prairie). Settle-
ment on both of these up-land sections had lately been com-
menced, and two or three houses built on each.

You see now, that the “sections” and settlements are
separated by canyons and gorges, and the rough, rocky breaks
bordering thereon.

Following the Nez-Percé trails (as did Lewis and Clarke
the same in 1804) down and across the Pataha gorge and creek,
where it forks; then on a ridge, between the Pataha and breaks
of the head of the Alpowa, for four miles, and here lay the spot
I was looking for.

It is likewise high in altitude, but is interspersed with
belts and groves of timber—of pine, intermingled with fir,
tamerack and cottonwood, (giving this tract of country a pleas-
ing, park-like appearance, in striking contrast with the treeless
expanse on three sides, as far as the eye can reach—a view of
fifty miles), with prairies intervening, that are unlike in ex-
tert, evenness and fertility ; they being partly arable, and partly
pasture lands.

Of course, there were no roads across the gulches; it was
as scantily watered as other sections ; the clover meadows were
a delusion; no post-office, school-house, blacksmith shop,
sawmill, grist-mill, or store nearer than twenty-four to thirty
miles by trail, and forty to fifty by wagon road. And there
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134 Burtpina A Home.

river—with its six dollars ferriage to Lewiston. And there
was no grist-mill at Lewiston.

“ Alpowai” is Indian for “Spring Creek.” It empties into
Snake river. Two missionaries—Dr. Whitman and Spaulding
—stopped a short time at the mouth of this stream on their
arrival from the States to this coast, in 1837, when they planted
some apple seeds here for the Indians. From these seeds have
grown some very large, fruitful and famed trees—living monu-
ments of good men, and the oldest mark of civilization in the
Walla Walla country, if not in the North-west. Twenty-five or
thirty Nez-Percé Indians still (1889) live, farm and raise stock
on the lower creek. But the “Old Indian Orchard” is not
theirs anymore. They long ago renounced their tribal relations
and are good citizens.

At one time they loaned some horses to volunteers, to fight
hostile Indians, for which they never got any pay or even the
animals back. And when Colonel Steptoe and his force got
whipped by hostiles beyond the river—in 1858 ~ old Timothy
led them out of a death trap, and, with the other creek Indians,
ferried them across the river in the night—thus saving the
lives of over a hundred men, and for which the cowardly-ingrate
Steptoe never even said “ thank you.”

Timothy’s wife died recently (1889), aged ninety-five years;
she remembered Lewis and Clark quite well, and how well they
were entertained by her people. The oldest Nez-Percés revere
the memory of Lewis and Clark, as the first white men they
ever saw (1804).

At the time of this land hunting trip (1871), when I located
my place, there were five or six white men living on the Asotin
creek, twelve to twenty miles to the south-east,—only one of
whom had a wagon—but there was not a white woman in what
is now Asotin county. Jerry McGuire, Noble Henry and Wm.
Hopwood were the first settlers, I believe. Joseph Harris and
Dan Faver lived on the Alpowai creek, Dudley Strain on the
Alpowa-ridge-prairie (which lies between the Alpowa and Pa-
taha). The latter was soon joined by Mr. Harris, who had a
band of cattle to help them out. They and their families
(eight miles away) were our nearest permanent neighbors for

THE “FRANCE SETTLEMENT.” 135

several years, and, happily, they were good and useful ones in
times of need.

The foregoing, with the fifteen or twenty men living on the
Pataha creek and prairie to the north-west, constituted the po-
pulation of the region between Tu-Canyon, Snake river and the
Oregon line—now forming two quite populous counties.

There was, indeed, a branch Indian trail route—up the Pa-
det creek through this park-like tract (at the head of the Alpo-
wai) - to Lewiston and the Asotin country, and no practical
route across the Alpowu between this and the other one, (that
I travelled sixty miles on when I came to the country and
stopped in the “ Upper Tou-chet” section), and to the south
are the Blue mountains. But to make a wagon road across
Tu-Canyon and the Pataha required a great deal of work, which
could not be done until the country along the route was some-
what settled up. And there was road work to do in crossing
the wooded gulches here.

In one of these gulches, where the trail crossed it, there
flowed, for a quarter of a mile or more, the principal spring,
or springs of water for several miles around, and fertile prairie
land lay more adjacent to this spring, than to any other, that
would afford water for so large a band of stock and for other
business.

Here was “ water, wood and grass,” with a good sheltered
building place, joined to land ready for the plow; which is
joined by enough more land that is destitute of water, so as not
to be valuable to others, on which I could lay my other land
rights, or buy, so as to have enough for a spacious home and
business, to justify the pioneering and toil necessary to under-
go in the building of a home alone in a wilderness.

The Government justly gave to the pioneers of Oregon and
Western Washington claims of 640 acres of rich bottom and
prairie lands, bordering on rivers flowing unfettered to the sea;
and it was death to a jumper. Patents to 8000 such “donation
claims” were issued. Yet, when I had more surely earned, ; 1d
obtained by subsequent and more exacting laws, a less tract of
land in a back wilderness, bottled up and strangled from the
sea by the gang, the grasping, black-leg, midnight, blood-suck-
ing hounds held it to be death-deserving, to hold and enjoy it.

136 Buitpina A Home.

This I will prove in one place and another so plain and posi-
tively, that none but a contemptible, villainous thief will dis-
pute it.

After looking around, I laid the customary “ foundation,”
(four poles in a square) by the big spring of my hopeful desire,
and posted a notice that I hereby claimed it, with a quarter
section of land about it, October, 1871.

This land being then unsurveyed, it could not be designated
and filed on at the Land office, which was at Walla Walla. Nor
could one tell, within forty rods, where his lines would be, till
it was surveyed. As the claim I had located before was also
on unsurveyed land, I therefore had not used, or lost any land-
right in locating and disposing of it. So I had the pre-emption
and homestead rights to use here, and the timber culture and
desert land rights left to use elsewhere, if I so desired.

There were a few other claims taken in this locality about
this time by others, and more the following summer, but they
were all abandoned in a year or two, after more or less work.
For this locality was so far away from supplies, that had to be
hauled by such a round-about way, or packed in by the Indian
trail, and there being no one anywhere near, who was able to
give employment to those short of means, necessary to meet
expenses and go ahead with their improvements; with every-
thing to buy at big prices, and nothing to sell, it was a hard
struggle to get along.

There was a surplus produced on the Pataha creek, along
the road ; but oats, barley and potatoes were two or three cents
a pound; hogs, eight cents gross, and wheat, one dollar a
bushel. And this in the face of a limited and declining
market. Prices got less towards Walla Walla—which was the
Egypt of the new settlements — and greater towards the mines
of Idaho and British Columbia.

A future market depended on a river or rail outlet to the
sea, and on a numerous immigration, that must consume before
they could produce.

The prices of merchandise were between that of a settled
farming country and a mining camp. My store bills for seven
years, after we were married, run from $150 to $350 a year.

However, thinking that what by our ability, industry and

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economy we honestly earned, we could hold and enjoy in
peace, we concluded to go to work and build a good and spacious
home here, and we went at it full of hope and ambition, to
succeed in the face of both ridicule and earnest advice.

One who did not toil or spin, yet gathered in other people’s
barns and things, impressed me with other and easier ways to
get a competency, than such a hard and homely way. “There
are other ways for you to get along, better than by work—
whatever you do, let such work be the very last thing to THINK
of doing,” he said. And he warned me of the tangled meshes
of perplexity, and the treacherous, deadly mire of grim con-
spiracy and treason, that is masked and planted in the way, to
stab, bleed, ravage and murder the homebuilder; examples of
which will be given in other chapters.

True, I had some business ability and experience in the
real and living world, and by linking in with the gang that
prostitutes the courts, could have acquired larger tracts of
land and ready made homes without any toil, as so many
charitable brethren do. There were others with ridicule or
advice, who had not ability enough to make a living for them-
selves.

But no one questioned our right to build, hold and enjoy
a home here if we could; and certainly no one then envied the
prospect or place. Some declared they “ would not settle in that
neck of woods for a deed to a township of land.” But, having
no responsible guardian, I went ahead and laid in a supply of
necessary implements, tools, etc.; grain for feed and seed; a
few hundred feet of lumber; a year’s supply of grub, clothing,
ete.; settled up my accounts ; gathered up my stock—in which
our start thus far mostly consisted; parted from what little
civilization there was, and went to work on the place.

Our house was a log cabin, neither spacious nor elegant,
but being the best we had ever owned, it seemed to us to be
both spacious and elegant. And the furniture would have sold
for not more than $2.50 in a town.

But, “the house and home of every one should be to him

as his castle and fortress, as well for his defense against injury
and violence, as for his repose.” .

138 Burnpina A Home.

“The true test of liberty is in the practical enjoyment o:
protection in the right.

Where the same laws extend to all the citizens of differ-
ent denominations; where the poorest claims obtain redress
against the strongest; where his person and property is secure
from every insult within the limits assigned to him by the
known laws of his country.”

Thus we started out on the rugged road—that not one in
fifty travels over successfully—without pomp or assistance, but
full of love and hope, agreeing in all things, truly in earnest to
succeed, and asking no favors of men.

Nor were we at all dismayed by any such stumbling blocks
as the first, cast in our way at the critical outset—the worse
than stealing of a few hundred paltry dollars in property, that
was an absolute gift and heritage to a child from her grand-
mother, greatly enlarged by her own skillful endeavors.

In travelling in the West, as in moving, etc., one carries
picket-ropes, grain, grub and blankets and camp out, because
money can be more easily saved in this way, than made by
working ; and, except an occasional ranch on a main road
such accommodation, houses of any kind are not often avail
even inastorm. But with a good outfit and agreeable com-
pany, camping out can be made enjoyable.

The plows in the west are of steel, and must be frequently
sharpened by a blacksmith. The nearest one for me during
the first season was twenty-five miles away. He used bark,
not having time to burn coal ; he was a skillful mechanic, and
Sam Miller was a good man. After this there was a black-
smith but eight miles away. When my plow got dull, would
hitch on two more horses— making five or six—to stave off
such trips.

But the hauling of supplies from the eared ‘Keypt,’
over long and often bridgeless and otherwise almost impassable
roads, to a new settlement, is a great drawback. And when
this is prolonged by failure of crops, by insect or other pests,
it is so costly and discouragiug, that many fall back.

The claims about us that had been abandoned were soon
relocated by other men, who added somewhat to the improve-
ments on the same. But in the following spring these settlers

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PAT
Ss

Jy it we,

! yi
Yu lty
pap Laie pias id idceicceahsSrawem a attention 2.
ieacenseriyuiwencneiacntns ten eesnre- niente : ae poe scene

Preece
a che

140 Buitpina A Home.

took spells of gazing intently at the ground. An old prospector
— passing through on the trail for a season’s prospect in Idaho,
with his pack mule following like a dog—inquired of one of
these gazing homebuilders, “have you struck a color, pard?”

But he gets no reply or notice ; and no wonder, the ground
is indeed “lousy.”

The homebuilder from Kansas—as he gazes at, kicks and
stamps the fertile soil—is heard to mutter “ Grasshoppers, by
G—-d!”

His past experience loomed before him like a hideous
dream. Heretofore he could mortgage his home for a little of
something that was portable, and skip to the trackless West.
But there was zobody to invest anything in such a prospect, as
was here, and the trackless West was about run down.

A company of Nez-Percé Indians rode carelessly and
happily by on the trail; they were well-mounted, also well fed
and clothed, and had as good a home as the homebuilder.
They were going to some camas or kowsh ground, where a sort
of wild potatoe grows in abundance and variety, and where
fresh meat could be had for the killing. In a month they
would take a fishing excursion, and it was all a pic-nic.

As they pass along, the Indians, perhaps, discuss the white
man’s boasted civilization, and point out examples to their
children. Be this as it may, the Kansas and Washington
homebuilder looks up at them and wonders why he never had
the common sense of an Indian.

The hoppers turned out to be big, black crickets, though as
destructive as grasshoppers, and often more so, many men
wasting a great deal of time in ditching and otherwise fighting
against them. This was in 1873.

That spring I had twenty acres into grain—on land I had
broke the spring before—and a big garden. My first crop.

Had also a good start of expensive stock-hogs ; 8000 rails
into feace ; and had set out an orchard of about 200 trees ; and
had done a good deal of road work.

I commenced to ditch against the crickets, but finding it
useless, gave up my whole ciop to them without a whimper.
Some people haven’t sense enough to know when they are
whipped. They overcrept the land more or less, for fifty miles

THe “FRANCE SETTLEMENT.” 141

around, taking the gardens, except peas and potatoes, and the
small crops of the new settlers. The large fields of grain of
the old settlers, being more than a supply for them, were only
partially destroyed.

While I went straight to breaking twenty acres more
prairie for a bigger crop next year. I was the only one in this
section that did so; and in a few months was the only man
living on his claim, in the now known as the “ France Settle-
ment.” And nobody yet envied me my possession.

The crickets left us potatoes and peas, that they did not
like, and enough grain to winter the thirty-five head of hogs,
that promised to give us a lift the following year. The pest
was an all summer’s feast to them.

I cradled over all of the twenty acres, and ?:auled and
stacked the grain alone. The same summer and fall this
section of country, 6x12 miles—two townships—was sur-
veyed, as near as essential, into forty acre-square tracts.

So new I could lay my place definitely by the lines, and file
uy claim to it at the land office, after some months, when the
office got ready for it.

A portion of my field curned out to be on a “School
section,” (there being two such in each township) but having
settled. before the survey, could therefore hold my claim as it
was, except that I must draw in or push out to the survey
lines. Could take four forty-acre tracts, but they must be con-
nected and butt square against each other.. Could do this and
form the claim either in a half mile square; a mile long and
one-quarter wide; in the shape of a T, L, or Z: whichever
would take in the most desirable land.

However, as there was a law--that was being generally
availed of in the old settlements—for leasing such school
sections, in whole or in part, at a nominal sum; and as this
tract was entirely destitute of water, so that it would be of
little comparative value to others, I did not file ov any of it,
thinking that hereafter I could lease, and afterwards buy—if it

142 Burtpina A Home.

was sold—such portion as I might need in my business, and
was able to pay for according to present and future laws. I
could get a few acres of land in the garden of California, on a
clam beach on Puget Sound, or in the Sandwich Islands—
enough for a bare living. But, of course, I wanted land
enough for a desirable home and a profitable business and for
my children. What else was I here for? What other induce-
ment was there to pioneer in a back wilderness while it would
produce nothing but big, black, hungry crickets—a hundred
bushels to the acre! Nobody wanted to murder me then for
my possessions! Even the Indians looked on me with com-
passion as I struggled along, and they never did us any harm,
with all their opportunities to do so.

While I was thus earning a competency, members of the
charitable (?) gangs were conspiring tc steal school and other
lands by the section and township, as will hereafter appear.
And that they were held up for admiration by high officials
who conspired to murder me by inches in cold blood!

Not finding it profitable to raise crickets and grain at the
same time, I thought I would try to make something out of
the famous bunch grass range. So that summer (1873) I got a
band of over 100 stock cattle to keep on shares for half the in-
crease. But learned by the following spring that the range
for cattle was greatly over-rated, except for those having secret
influence at court, so they can make their losses good from
other people’s bands with impunity. I had provided feed on
the range where the cattle were running, and fed those that
were unable to rustle. Though it was a moderate winter, and
there was grass in sight all the time, but few of them did well
on the range. So I traded the business off for six good milch
cows with calves, and having two, made eight cows, or sixteen
head of my own.

The man I traded with made nothing out of the band.

Whenever a snow storm set in I straddled a horse and
struck out over the range—five to fifteen miles away—to see to
the cattle.

orowc
ice br
E
winte:
strike
drive
sell o
been |
on his
erty di
tentia
Tl
from
the fol

Tue “FRaNcE SETTLEMENT.” 143

It is a pitiful sight one sees in riding over these western
stock ranges in winter. Cattle gather in on streams and
ravines for shelter and water, where they will stay and starve
for feed rather than strike out and climb for the bare wind-
ward side of the hills, or when they are on the leeward side
of a hill or gorge, where the sun strikes with good effect and
keeps the grass pretty bare of snow, they will stay here and
starve for water, and then go to the, perhaps frozen-up, creek,
where, if the water happens to be oren, they will drink to
excess, and then stop in the brush and trees—if any there be—
and starve for grass. If no water, they moan and die for a
drink. The feed near watering places is always eaten off close
insummer. It is here that cattle largely pine, are cast, and
die ; here they battle the fates and each other like men; half a
dozen big, long-horned steers gore a single crippled, weakly
animal down or fast in a drift of snow or wood, because it does
not belong to their band or clan. I found a cow thus wedged
into a clump of trees and hanging by the hips with her knees
down the bank on the ice, and her calf bleating pitifully near
by. One sees many calves bleating in despair, pining and
dying by their cast, dying and dead mothers, while clans of
wolves are barking and feasting on their quivering misery, like
clans of human kine. Cattle gather in on the Columbia, Snake
and other rivers, inflamed and crazed with burning thirst,
crowd out on the ice for an opening in the stream, when the
ice breaks and they are drowned— whole bands at a time.

Early in the spring, before many owners know what the
winter has left, cattlemen of the clan that rules the court,
strike out and gather up about everything that can travel,
drive them out of the country — often to British Columbia—and
sell out, to do it again and again. But when one, who has
been but a hired hand for these gentry, steals but a few head
on his own account, he is branded as a “ cattle thief,” his prop-
erty divided among the court gang, and he is sent to the peni-
tentiary for five or ten years.

The surv2y plats being received at the local land office,
from Washington, I filed my Pre-emption claim and received
the following receipts :

ian ~~ .— —« m~ -e) ~
o ges" ages
32 > ie
2H | srt)
eo ogo QS EH
asa Soars 2) 2 was
bas

-aagsrbany

Lemnyur ee ee hee buon, 4

BD Siac! © hams is Aj Lelat/, / hep opp ry

ise ce . os a

BEER, A7oKY po fa Pq iD p20 Web - eens iia cid ” 77
“sag 9, tonma22 F, JOWII9 Ye, Pe? 2 ete, Sl ia ;
pot bop op ray

‘ie

Aft IO pare

A
Walla

wards
as bef
to shi}
faciliti

hard y

(144)

Register.

THe “FRANCE SETTLEMENT.” 145

—

I had from six to thirty-three months from date of settle-
ment to pay $200 for this claim and get a patent for it, when I
could take a homestead claim.

It being uncertain as to the time I would need to do this,
my settlement was dated only about a year before I filed. The
word “ Unoffered”” means that the land was not for sale out-
right, as it had been about Walla Walla up to 1870.

I had been working to get a county road laid out from
near Dayton, up Padet creek, through this section to Lewis-
ton. And with the assistance of Messrs. Stringer & Whaley
(then living on Tu-Canyon) it was viewed out, surveyed, mile
posts set and granted—fifty-two and a half miles—October,
1874.

But there was yet much work to do to open it, which cost
me—first and last—much time, labor, and other expense. And
afterwards I likewise secured the cross roads that are in this
section.

The cricket pest was still (1874) in the land, and besides, it
was a dry, hot season.

IT had sown 60 bushels of grain—mostly wheat—that I
had hauled fifty miles; did not make enough out of the forty
acre crop to pay for the seed.

The Mogul pirates, still having control of the rivers of the
country, and the immigration being the wrong way, my ex-
pensive hogs were only worth two and a half cents a pound.
So the crickets were of no more use than the River Clan.

Some of the clan about this time relieved the county
treasury of about $20,000 in cash. Zhen an error (?) was
“discovered” in the security bonds. All the officials were
sworn brethren, so nobody was punished, and the people paid
for the charity !

A man built a wooden and strap-iron railroad from Walla
Walla to the Columbia river, thirty miles. He got $5 and up-
wards per ton for freight, though much was hauled on wagons
as before. But the river tariff was so high that it did not pay
to ship grain anyway. There were not even any grain shipping
facilities on Snake river in 1874. Up to this fall, with all my
hard work and farming and expenses I had had nothing to sell

10

146 Buiutpina A Home.

but some horses and cattle from my little herd, and was
$200 in debt. But had managed to yet have a good start of
horses, cattle, hogs, hens, ete., and had pushed my improve-
ments way ahead: yet, nobody envied the place.

All the places about us were now again either abandoned
for good by the owners, or for an indefinite time, and we were
alone in the settlement.

Even our staid neighbors—Harris and Strain—were
abeut to leave the “damned country.” I was berated and my
sanity questioned—more than usual, and in no uncertain sound
—because I did not join in cursing the country and leave it
when others left. But such rebukes of fortune—as natural
pests or accidental injury—not being due to conspiracy,
treachery, or breaches of trust, caused in me no bitter sorrow
or any loss of sleep, and we were not unhappy.

Moreover, I had quit prospecting for an undiscovered,
ready-made fortune, had settled down to earn at least a liveli-
hood ; did not expect a picnic and had not found any.

And the other new settlements before noted could be
bought entirely by the claim for much less than the costs of
the improvements, and some of them were now deeded land.

Many who had got in debt, and most all had that could,
had to sell their places for what they could get to. other
home-seekers, who were able and willing to take their turn.
Money was very scarce and hard to get. Old settlers left their
families and went 200 or 300 miles away to work for money, to
pay for their land and to meet other expenses.

Those who had bands of cattle, horses or sheep, and were
out of debt, could hold their own and more, with good manage-
ment and no bad luck.

I had made some money by working and hauling for
others, etc., and bought a better wagon, harness, plow, etc.
And now sold all of our cattle except two, also a horse, hogs,
potatoes, chickens and butter; paid up what I owed, bought
seed for another year—still fifty miles away—and laid in a full
year’s supply of provisions, clothing, etc., and some cash in
hand for another siege. Plowed ten acres in December,
when it set in cold, for a very hard winter. And we made a

an
the

the
rect
wer¢
sett
be o

geth
afflic
mer

in to
of th
the c

]
about
My h
charg
trails.
conve
were |

B
team |
to the
worker
improy

THe “FRANCE SETTLEMENT.” 147

visiting tour of six weeks as far as Walla Walla and beyond.
Then I hauled and cut up my regular year’s supply of wood for
stove and fire-place— spring of 1875.

The country between the Snake and Columbia rivers—
known as the “Palouse” and “Spokane” sections—through
which the Northern Pacific railroad had been located, had
been more or less settled up. But on account of the tariff
extorted by the river pirates, and failure of the other charit-
able clan to build the promised railroad, almost all of these
settlers, except those well provided with stock, had starved out
and were now leaving the country for Oregon, California, and
the States. Immigrants came in and took their places.

Others who held their own, or did even better—in spite of
the adverse situation - were set upon and pillaged more di-
rectly by brethren with influence at court, and their places also
were taken by others. Some left the route of the railroad to
settle nearer Snake or the Columbia river, thinking it would
be opened first. But it is still fettered by the sworn clan.

The cricket pest was now past, but the hard winter, to-
gether with the bottled condition of the country and other
afflictions, further discouraged settlers, and during this sum-
mer of 1875, many also left this division. But others came
in to take their places and continue the struggle on both sides
of the river, until their successors should come. And a few of
the claims that had been abandoned about us were re-located.

I spent much valuable and often thankless time in riding
about and otherwise assisting these migratory land hunters.
My house and grain stacks were always open to them without
charge, as well as to all travellers passing through on the
trails. As my place was widely known ‘::' often the only
convenient place to stop at, many availed themselves of it;
were frequently crowded in this way.

Besides farming, in 1875, I worked with my four horse
team in hauling for others, including freight from Walla Walla
to the Lewiston stores. It was five years this fall that I had
worked hard and put it mostly into this place. And having it
improved enough for practical use, I wanted to prove up and

148 BuiLpina A Home.
get a patent for it,so as to add to it an adjoining quarter
section below, that was vacant.

I asked a man to lend me the necessary $200 at one and a
half per cent. a month for the purpose. “ Yes,” he said, “ but
I must have other security besides a mortgage on the place.”
Yet I had done $600 to $700 worth of fencing and breaking,
and $200 or $300 of other work on it.

It is about the usual thing with homebuilders to have to
face a lawyer or doctor's bill of $250 or more—for a week’s
service of mal-practice, backed by the ring courts—at this
stage of the struggle, or before, when it takes $5 worth of hard
earned property to get one dollar in money. Pause and
reflect.

I had escaped this, though I had sacrificed $350 at one
time, and $250 at another to thieves, rather than undertake to
buy justice of the court gang. So was able to borrow $200 (of
anotlier money-lender) to prove up and deed the land, which I
did and filed a homestead claim.

Then, having built a log house, 16x22 feet, corral, sheds,
hen-house, etc., on the best building place, at the lower spring
in the spring gulch before noted, and just on this homestead
claim, we moved there September, 1875.

The 320 acres contain 160 acres of arable land, the rest
being either timber, steep or rocky, but all good for pasture.

What good rail timber was handy had mostly been cut
and hauled many miles away, so I had to go as far as six or
seven miles back in the mountain for my future supply. But
I had good teams now and wagon, was practically free of
debt, had means to employ help, was otherwise so much better
fixed lo get along than at the outset, and there being no more
insect pest, that we just loped right along and ahead of the
country.

Columbia County was formed out of Walla Walla County
this fall. And as there was now about 200 settlers this side of
‘Tu-Canyon, they started a town in it (“Marengo”), made an
effort to build and own a grist-mill, and vote the county seat to
this place. They lacked the votes necessary to get the capital,
but money and work was generally subscribed by these poor

RICA,

(4@—a05,)

STATES OF AME

these presents shalt cow

Zo all to whom

THE UNITED

Homestead Certificate No, Co 5 a

QULtl

ADO IP arias

AIEEE ELLE TE LAL HDL E VOLES IEX AEB LEED. DOE LBL ALOT TE EOL TT TOD E A ONO ee hee ee gent venues tener ar res Mateus ze

Si a gl ll Ne tl tas cme penn nnn hme chee aw uy

"aZIS [VUISLIO 9Y} J[eY 90 0} poonpory
(QVaISHKOH) “INGLVG GNW] SaLVLG aaling

2 0p eae oe ee Fe a7 "00 “03080938
x fg ‘

‘WO PUDT pOssusH “43 fo 4aps09935 ~~

pas oc greaqnesaR ayy AB

é apey ayf Jo pur pepe agabry pire pazpung 11431

2} "NOLONIHSV 44 JO ALI) ayy ye ‘puey fw sapun nInIg)

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‘COLEMIY JO $9787G poeztUy ey} JO JUSpIsedgy gs Ly,

“meT £q peptaoid st payers Aqareq saermaid ayy oasiayur- 30 STITUTE oF punoy aq awes ayy pyroys WosjaTsq] VIO ST sAdUaY POWLPENX of spo] zo

Ulaa v Jo sojatsdoid ayy jo yYySts ayy 0} yDafqns Osye pure ‘sjINo0d jo suoIst9ap put ‘sme ‘swojsn [eI0] any Aq paSpaymouxoe pus’ paziugova1 aq Aeur se ‘s}y3ta sajzem = qj Uornsauu0S

GF pasn sitoarasaa pue sayrztp 0} sjyZis put ‘sasodind s9yj0 40 ‘Bulnjorynuru ‘yemyjnouse ‘Zuiuww 40} syy3iz sayem panssve pure pajsaa Aue 0} yalqns !19aa10} suBtsse pur siay

hd 0} pur Z LP Uy,” By pies ay} OyUN ‘joa1aTy

Seoutuajindde aqy yjim ‘pucy jo ory pres ayy PIOY OF PUES SACY OL ‘paquiasap aavge pur] jo yoer ayy a eee :
—— ee CL, Dy, ban ~ pres ay} OWUN SSIES PSUUL) om Aq pajyueas ‘asojasay; ‘st asayy yeay “fj Mouy MOTE,

sIVUINID YOAIAWAS oy} Aq FIIIO QNVT TVYANAD 24) 0} powsnjas ‘puey pres ayy jo AdaINS ay} JO Lv1g TVIDN144Q 9y} 07) Zurpsods9e

(149)

uv paystqeisa uaoq sty
lule]> 9Y} “ojesayy pryuauajddns sje ayy pue aUulewmogd sqng sui uo S19(316S te
Gsd13u0} JO WV ay} 0} juCNsInd ‘yey) sivadde

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‘ ip rupburypoys, Wey, 7% 4B 30144Q GxV] ay} Jo
wausio7y IHL 40 ZAYED E SHTIS PHT] OY) JO-TILAIO (NVI IVUINGD OM) UI poysodap uaaq sey aay, SHIATY PP 9 ff NOILWINdd¥

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*Gnys31g ‘suros yyeys syraszat asaqyy mayer of ye OF

VOIYANV JO SALVIS GALINA AHL

(sor—)

qo +1
;es 2 BSoBO
2 a2 m mM ea © Oo m2 2
| @8:.m SRAEB alan Bas 26 ° yA oe
| S @weSBPH _~G@BFESE SQOGKS DHS So
e, Saal . ll sa ewe

150 Buritpina A Home.

half-housed, mortgaged settlers to build the costly mill as a
joint stock concern.

Here was a chance for some brethren having secret influ-
ence at court, to get control and engage in a swindle. Of course
they did, and did nothing but manage the business against the
victims, and grasp for money.

The mine was equal to what would be a moderate lawyer
or doctor’s fee for each outside investor.

From THE Press, SEVEN orn E1aHt YEARS FROM THE BEGINNING.

‘‘The Marengo mill difficulty has at last been arranged. The
remaining indebtedness of the concern has been raised among the
unfortunate ones who signed the notes, although it will nearly break
up a number of our best farmers to pay the amount subscribed.”

Also.—‘‘ Mrs. W. S—— is very sick. Itis doubtful if she will
recover. She is destitute, all her means of support having gone to
furnish whiskey and other luxuries for some of the Marengo mill
thieves.”

Some got very indignant at me for refusing to take any
stuck in, and for ridiculing this scheme. One of whom after-
wards skipped across the British line and started a masonic
newspaper with his plunder.

After the hard winter of 1874-5, common stock cows fell
to $10, and the remnants of bands left by the winter were sold
very cheap. Even stock men were breaking up now and leav-
ing the country in disgust. Horses, however, were more re-
garded, so one was no longer laughed at in reply to an offer to
trade them for cattle.

I thought this the time to buy cattle, and in the following
winter bought twelve good milch cows at $20 each, making
15 in all besides their calves, and soon had a fine band of cattle.

In 1876 I threshed 1,000 bushels of wheat and barley (and
had lots of other produce) being the first grain I threshed with
a machine. It was the first time I could get one, or a thresh-
ing crew; and now had to go eight miles to doso after em-
ploying every settler and land hunter in my settlement. And
had to take a ten horse power outfit that took three and a half
days time and pay, all around, to do the one days work, and
leave one-third of the grain in the straw. The ground yielded
thirty to fifty bushels to the acre.

mo:
fou:
a sh.
sacr
to t]
man
taxe,
colla
impc

pens
foun
and |
the
Don’
Jrom
I
outfit
first ¢
T
and a
place
tracks

D
large i
us wer
A
man,”
west o
and no

Tue “France SETTLEMENT.” 151

And for the ensuing six or eight months A-No 1 wheat
and barley would not sell for more than 25 cents a bushel any-
where in the county, or in Walla Walla county either.

‘‘Never before have I heard so much talk about hard times. The
general question now is, is your grain attached ? There having been
several attachments in this part. Cannot the merchants avoid heaping
costs [say $150 each] on the already overburdened farmer until he can
market his wheat ?”

Later.—‘‘It is asserted by some of the inhabitants that there is not
money enough in the county to pay its territorial tax, and we noticed
four deputy sheriffs rustling for county taxes. One of these rustlers, but
a short time since, was loud in his denunciations against having the stock
sacrificed to get tax money, but he struck a happy thought, so he wrote
to the sheriff for a deputyship and obtained the same. About the first
man he struck shamed him off of his place. Property must be sold for
taxes if buyers are to be fonnd, and if not, then the county will have to
collapse. We were told that one of the county commissioners said it was
impossible for him to pay his taxes,”

However, I was fixed to pay my harvest and other ex-
penses without selling my grain for 25 cents a bushel, and
found a market at Lewiston that winter for the wheat at 45
and 50 cents a bushel, and barley at $1.25 per hundred pounds;
the latter delivered at Fort Lapwai, twelve miles beyond.
Don’t know what it cost the Government, which should buy direct
Srom the producer.

I induced the ferryman (Mr. Piercy) to cross my four-horse
outfit over the river for $2 a round trip. I believe this was the
first crop of grain ever ferried across Snake river.

There was no one living on the road at the time from one
and a half miles beyond my place to Lewiston, or between that
place and Fort Lapwai. I had before made the first wagon
tracks from my place to within five or six miles of Lewiston.

During the summer and fall of 1876 there was quite a
large immigration in this country, and the vacated claims about
us were again taken and many new ones located.

And settlement to farm was commenced in the “Dead-
man,” “ Meadow Gulch” and “ New York Gulch” sections, lying
west of the lower Alpowa and south and east of Snake river,
and north of the stage road and the Pataha creek. I believe

a a eae Oe noes es Bee EO US RB

fat

152 Burtpina A Homer.

the first grain raised in this section was in 1878, after which
time it was mainly settled.

Two miners on the way from the Idaho mines had perished
from the cold, or been killed for their dust at the head of
Deadman hollow and creek near the road—hence the name of
“Deadman.” The gulch and stream are about 25 miles long.

And settlement to farm was commenced in the Asotin
country to the south-east. As it was also on the bench or
plateau lands about Lewiston, 1876.

With this immigration and these settlements, a town-site
(“Columbia Centre”) was located four and a half miles west of
my place, on this new road, at the forks of the Pataha, and a
steam saw-mill, grist-mill, store and blacksmith shop set up.
And the towns of Pomeroy and Pataha City on the creek lower
down wero started—-each with a grist-mill, store and blacksmith
shop, 1876-7.

All of these places were between our place and Tu-Canyon,
which up to this time had to be climbed over on the way to the
mills, stores, graneries, etc., of “ Egypt.”

A grist-mill was also built at Lewiston, 1876-7. Asotin
City was laid out at the mouth of Asovin creek on Snake river,
1878; is now the capital of Asotin county.

Sometimes immigrants settle in famil; or little contracted
sectarian groups, each grovelling close within, averse to each
other, the people and the world—as in a strange and foreign
land, so that a full and general neighborhood meeting and
greeting of a Sunday is never seen. While others of a more
travelled and expansive turn, yearn ta encompass broader
fields. The one as insects whose world is but a single leaf.
The other as comprehensive man, whose visions see and com-
prehend the whole tree and forest.

Yet by the sting of an insect, man may die, and bh their
multitude forests be destroyed.

In the spring of 1877 the settlers in this “ ve Settle-
ment” had a schoolhouse meeting, at which we svreed on a
location for the proposed school house ; subscribed the .eces-
sary lumber, other material and work. And afterwards met
from day to day, and built the best school house except one, I
believe, then in the county.

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