Fort Walla Walla

“ Clothing for the men is much needed as the winter approaches. Tomorrow we will remove to a more suitable point, where grass can be obtained in greater abundance for our worn-out horses. A place has been selected about two miles above Whitman's Station, on the same (north) side of the Walla Walla; consequently I will abandon this fort, named in honor of Captain Bennett of Company F, who now sleeps beneath its stockade, and whose career of usefulness and bravery was here so sadly but nobly closed. ”

“ But Colonel Steptoe established a rude stockade fort on Mill Creek in what is now the heart of the present Walla Walla City, and went into winter quarters there in 1856-57. Governor Stevens returned to Olympia and launched forth a bitter arraignment against Wool. The latter, however, was in a position of vantage and issued a proclamation commanding all [104] whites in the upper country to go down the river and leave the Cascade Mountains as the eastern limit of the white settlement. ”

“ Thus the larger part of the command reached Fort Walla Walla alive.
With the defeat of Steptoe, the Indians may well have felt that they were invincible. But their exultation was short-lived. As already noted, Garnett crushed the Yakimas at one blow, and Wright a little later repeated Steptoe's march to Spokane, but did not repeat his retreat. For in the battle of Four Lakes, on September 1st, and that of Spokane Plains on September 5th, Wright broke forever the power and spirits of the northern Indians. ”

“ Consider the population of the lands upon the river and its affluents, nearly a million people, where during the days of old Fort Walla Walla the only white people were the officers and trappers of the Hudson's Bay Company. ”

“ The escape of the whole command now depended entirely upon a successful flight. The dead were hastily interred, and with the best horses, and a small supply of provisions, the force which had set out to show volunteers how to treat Indians, and to impress upon Indians the great superiority of the regular troops over civilians, crept silently away at ten o'clock at night, reaching Snake river on the morning of the ninteenth, and returning to Fort Walla Walla. ”

“ By Courtesy of Major Lee Moorehouse. miles above the present location of Walla Walla. On September 5th, Colonel E. J. Steptoe, with four companies of regulars, arrived at the same place and made camp on the site of the present fort. And now came on the second great Walla Walla council. The tribes were gathered as before, and were aligned as before. ”

“ Walker and Eells; they are still at home, though in suspense and fear."
On the twenty-eighth the troops encamped on the Walla Walla river, and the commissioners had an interview with McBean and the Catholic clergymen 18 at the fort, learning that much alarm had been felt on account of the combi nation between the Cayuses and the Columbia river Indians; but the Walla Walla chief, Peu-peu-mox-mox, being in favor of peace, was regarded as a hopeful sign. ”

“ Shortly afterwards his company was moved to Newport, Kentucky, and then to New York; then, by the isthmus of Panama route to San Francisco and from the last named place to Astoria. Astoria at that time had but few buildings. Soon after he was stationed at Vancouver and a little later at the Cascades. With his company he walked to the upper Cascades and took the boat to The Dalles and from there he marched with his troop to Fort Walla Walla. He was five years in the army and during his enlistment he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant. In the army he saw much real fighting. ”

“ Steeped in historical associations is this valley, from Wallula, the site of the first Hudson's Bay fort, to the city of Walla Walla. When once seen, no words are needed to tell why these lovely plains, all ready for the planting and moistened with sufficient rainfall annually, were so attractive to the early settlers, and inspired the first serious efforts at colonization. ”

“ The memory of Frank Singleton, however, harks back to the period when this was a frontier fort and the work of progress and civilization had scarcely been begun in all this section of the country. The Indians were more numerous than the white settlers and only here and there had some venturesome spirit penetrated into the western wilderness to plant the seeds of civilization. Frank Singleton, who is now extensively interested in mining and is engaged in the real estate business in Walla Walla, was but six years of age at the time of his arrival in Washington. ”

“ For some time he worked in a sash and door factory in that state and later removed to Kansas City, Missouri, whence in 1857 he went to Oregon, crossing the plains by ox team. After remaining in Oregon for one winter he went to California and a few months later went to Fort Benton. In the latter part of 1859 he came to Waitsburg, Washington, and turned his attention to stock raising, as Walla Walla county was then chiefly devoted to that business. He owned a large tract of land and was very successful in the management of his affairs, gaining financial independence. ”

“ Some have asserted that he was the first to drive a wagon from the Missouri to the Columbia. This is only partly true. Ashley, Smith, Sublette, Bonneville, and other trappers, had driven wagons to the Black Hills, and to other points, but none of them had gone so far west as Whitman, with a wagon. But when he reached "Snake Fort," near Boise, generally known as Fort Boise, he left his wagon. In 1840 Robert Newell went clear through the Blue Mountains and reached Walla Walla. ”

“ This is a safe country ; Indians friendly. Snakes and Bonnocks. From this fort northwest to Walla Walla, at the junction of Colum- bia and Walla Walla rivers Lat. 40 degrees 10 minutes Long. 119 degrees 15 minutes. This fort was built 19 years ago by the Hudson Bay Co. Much good land up the Walla Walla river some 50 miles; timber plenty near the mountains, some 90 or 100 miles ; none within 60 miles of the fort, except flood wood down the Columbia ”

“ Every thing but the perils of war and the chase are beneath their attention. When at home and not occupied in preparing their arms, or in feats of horsemanship, they are gambling, lounging in groups on the mounds of the prairie, or listening to some story-teller, who recounts the exploits of the old warriors of the tribe.
The Walla-Wallas, another of the principal tribes present, is one much reduced in numbers and in importance since the pioneer trappers first came among them. ”

“ Colonel Wright soon came up from The Dalles with a thousand men, and being thus reenforced, the troops began an active campaign against the Indians. In a short time the American army had scattered, captured or killed the entire tribe. Some were hanged in the mountains but the most noted leaders were brought to Walla Walla, where seven of them were hanged in the public square in the rear of the garrison. ”

“ During this Indian war no fighting was done in Columbia County and I will not mention it further than to say that on December 9, 1855, the battle of the Walla Walla was fought, in which Peupeumoxmox was killed by the guards while held as a hostage. Some 1,500 Indians were engaged in this battle against 350 volunteers. The results were twenty volunteers killed and wounded and 100 dead Indians. ”

“ But the long haul from Wallula made better lumber almost prohibitive, and the church was built from lumber cut in this vicinity and planed at Touchet.
Even at this date, forty years ago, Walla Walla was little more than a frontier town. The Joseph wars broke out as result of the white man's raid on their land. A few years previous to this the Government had sent out men to see what could be done for the Indians. The white men were open in their statements that they intended to get the Indians' lands. The Joseph war was followed by the Bannock war. ”

“ The heaviest losses were sustained by the Dry Goods Company of S. Elias & Brother, by the store and warehouse of C. Jacobs & Co., and by the Bank Exchange Saloon and dwelling house of W. J. Ferry. The building used for courthouse, with the county and city records, was destroyed. In 1863, a fire company was organized, Fred Stine being the leader in the enterprise.
Perhaps the most vital feature of a growing city is pure and abundant water supply. Walla Walla was fortunate in early days in the presence of a number of springs of pure cold water. ”

“ Walla Walla in the early '60s was a town of about two thousand inhabitants and the only town between The Dalles and Lewiston. Now this region is filled with cities and towns and villages, dotted all over with the happy homes of a brave, enterprising, peace-loving, law-abiding people. ”

“ On the spot where we stand the past, the present and the future join hands. Here passed unknown generations of aborigines on the way from the Walla Walla Valley to ascend or descend the Great River, to pass in to the Yakima country, or to move in either direction to the berry patches or hunting grounds of the great mountains; here the exploring expedition of Lewis and Clark paused to view the vast expanse of prairie before committing themselves to what they supposed to be the lower river ”

“ Every feature of equipment had to be secured by personal contribution, and the services of the men were purely voluntary. It was a characteristic American frontiersmen's army and movement. Several men well known in Walla Walla and vicinity took part in this campaign. The commander of the force was Cornelius Gilliam, an immigrant of 1845 from Missouri. His son, W. S. Gilliam, was one of the best known and noblest of the pioneers of Walla Walla County. He was truly one of the builders of this region. ”

“ After all, people are very much the same from generation to generation and we can readily infer that what the people of Walla Walla were in the '60s, their children and grandchildren are largely the same in this year of grace, 1917.
In the early history of the territory before government was organized to protect life and punish criminals, the miners organized courts of their own to try those who committed any crime within the camp, but there were no courts to try the criminals whose work was outside of the miner's camp. ”

“ By his efforts to cause another war at Walla Walla, he induced Looking Glass, the great war chief of the Nez Percés, a numerous and powerful tribe, to favor Kamiakin of the Yakimas, who has a few followers. He, however, has informed Colonel Wright that he is friendly to the whites and does not want to fight. The Walla Wallas and Cayuses say that they do not desire to fight, but want to be paid for their lands before any more talk is had about taking them away for the whites to settle upon, and prescribing them to certain limits. ”

“ Each age that followed, the mining period, the cowboy period, the farming period, entered or left the Walla Walla Valley at this very point. Here the first steamboats blew their jubilant blasts to echo from these basaltic ramparts, and here the toot of the first railway in the Inland Empire started the coyotes and jackrabbits from their coverts of sagebrush. Wheresoever we turn history sits enthroned. ”

“ Yet it must be said that the character of population that flowed into Walla Walla after the gold discoveries and the establishment of the town as the leading outfitting place for the mines was a suitable seed-bed for the growth of conditions which at sundry times and places in the West have produced vigilance committees. This peaceful and law-abiding "Garden City" of 1917, a center of homes and educational institutions, conspicuous for morality, intelligence, and comfort, was in the '60s about as "tough" a collection of human beings as could be found. ”

“ Gold had been discovered in Eastern Washington. Vast possibilities of cattle raising were evident on those endless bunch-grass hills. Although there was as yet little conception of the future developments of the Inland Empire in agriculture and gardening, yet the keen-eyed immigrants and volunteers had scanned the pleasant vales and abounding streams of the Walla Walla and Umatilla and Palouse, and had decided in their own minds that, Wool or no Wool, this land most be opened. ”

“ Meanwhile development in the mines and on the stock ranges and farms and even in horticulture was going on apace. But the railroad enterprise hung fire and several years passed by without results. The community seems to have been waiting for the man with the brains, nerve, resolution, and resources to lead and take the risk. The man was there and he had all the requisites from his first entrance to Walla Walla in 1839 except the resources. ”

“ Very few came to locate with a view of establishing a home here, their purpose being to graze stock for a few years and then abandon the country, raising some grain in the meantime for their own use, and possibly a little to sell, if anybody should wish to buy. Had the military post been abandoned in 1860, but few whites would have remained east of the Cascades, and stock raising would have been the only inducement for any one to remain there."
Perhaps in no other way can we give so perfect a view of the Walla Walla of 1861 as by extracts from the first issue of the Washington Statesman. ”

“ Guernsey joined the Light Guards and was with that command at the inauguration of Governor Fairchilds at Madison in January, 1869. After spending a few months as an officer in the reform school in Waukesha, Wisconsin, he again went to Janesville, where he accepted a position with a hardware firm as bookkeeper. The lure of the west, however, was upon him and on the 14th of October, 1871, he turned his face toward the setting sun and on the 9th of November reached Walla Walla, having traveled by rail as far as Keton, Utah, and thence through Boise, Baker, LaGrande to Walla Walla by stage. ”