Urban Hicks

From the Desks of the Central Library Staff

Urban Hicks, the man with the paradoxical name, was born May 14, 1828 in Missouri where he learned the printing trade in the towns of Paris and Hannibal. Coming to Oregon Territory in 1851 as part of the Ruddell Party, he lived in several places before settling in Olympia. Hicks held a variety of local offices, including County Clerk and Assessor. Served with distinction during the Indian War of 1855-1856, rising to the rank of Captain. He was charged with erecting blockhouses for the protection of the settlers during the hostilities. Hicks was a school teacher in what is now Lacey 1856-1857. Appointed as Librarian/Auditor 1858, and later as simply Auditor 1865-1867. During his first term, according to Briahna Taylor, the Library was not Capt. Hicks’ primary concern:

“Financially, Hicks’ tenure as auditor was burdened by a territorial debt from the Indian War. Under the federal Organic Act, counties served as the collector of local and federal taxes. Of those taxes remitted to the federal government, Congress appropriated funds to the territory to finance territorial government operations. But counties faced challenges collecting all taxes owed, thus reducing revenues submitted to the federal government and ultimately allocations to the territory. Hicks faced mounting territorial debt.”

In between his terms as Auditor he published the Vancouver Telegraph, 1861-1862. He returned to Olympia and produced the Washington Democrat, 1864-1865. His editorials bought about accusations from Republicans that he was a Copperhead. Even so, he was sworn in as Territorial Quartermaster General in 1865. After the Civil War he continued to be on the move and working in the newspaper business up and down the Pacific Coast. In later years he lived on Orcas Island and eventually became a resident of the Soldiers Home and Colony in Orting, where he died in March 1905. The family name lives on geographically through Hicks Lake in Thurston County. 

More information can be found in the work Pioneer Reminiscences of Urban E. Hicks.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library

Yes, I would agree that the telegraph operator profiled in the following article didn’t get out much. A very unusual story found in The Tacoma Herald, July 21, 1877:

Spirit Telegraphy

“PUYALLUP, July 16, 1877.–It was my privilege to visit the office of a telegraph operator a few days ago, and witness some rather novel performances. It was the old story of ‘Spirit manifestation’ repeated. The claim was that the operator ‘could hold telegraphic communications with disembodied Spirits, without the use of wire and battery.'”

“Once comfortably seated in the office, the operator, with whom I was well acquainted, and whose honasty [sic] every one admitted, began to perform his mysterious feats. His manner of proceeding was as follows: He took a common comb and rubbed it with his hand. He then took a silver half-dollar and called for a spirit by sounds, in the same manner as he would do in the use of the battery and instruments by striking the back of the comb, the call being made in this way: he placed the back of the comb to his tongue while he held in the other a pencil to write down the answer. Directly the muscles of the tongue twitched in regular order, which was taken for sounds and the twitching being interpreted to indicate an answer he wrote, ‘Old Moore.'”

“He asked again by telegraphic sounds ‘Where are you?’ The answer came, ‘In hell.’ ‘What are you doing there?’ “I am here to learn to do well.’ Feeling that we were a little nearer the infernal regions than was comfortable we concluded to dismiss Old Moore and call again. In fact we felt a little discouraged that after our many efforts to get to heaven we had brought up in speaking distance of the very place above all others that we wished to shun. Ugh!”

“The next answer was from the spirit of a well known and universally beloved Christian lady who had died in the neighborhood only a few months ago. She said she was in heaven. She was asked whether she would like to speak to me. The reply was ‘No.’ ‘Do you desire to come back to this world?’ ‘Ha! ha! ha! I do not care about it.'”

“At this juncture our proceedings were interrupted by a call from the instrument and we had not the opportunity to continue.”

“These peculiar experiences were had by the operator for several days past. Among the Spirit Telegrams received by the same mode as above, was one that ‘the Russians would be defeated by the intervention of England.’ Another, that ‘the Indians would break out in the Puyallup Valley inside of three days; and that they would shoot this operator for the first man.’ These and many more communications were had. It is impossible to give but these few specimens.”

“In trying to account for this curious phenomenon we noted: 1. That the operator was naturally of a nervous temperament to begin with. 2. He remained in his office nearly all day, and slept there at night. 3. His bed and office were charged with electricity, and his system almost bathed in it from day to day. 4. Under these circumstances, he heard of nothing and thought of nothing but the ‘click, click, click’ of the instrument all day long. 5. Anxious to catch the sound and read the messages as they came to or passed through the office, his nerves become interested in telegraphy also. 6. The habit of hearing and reading these sounds became so strong that his nerves were capable of producing them involuntarily. 7. The mind– unconscious to the operator– controlling this nervous twitching, words and even sentences were formed. And so you see that the wondrous mystery and fearfulness which seemed to hang over this office are all dissipated. Overstrained nerves, under the influence of electricity, produced this wonderful phenomenon.”

“In proof of the theory advanced above, we would urge two reasons. The one is that these strange communications would not cease when the question asked was answered. They would continue right along, changing the subject every sentence or two, and talking the while about unheard of things. This shows that it is the twitching of the nerves. The other is that the communications would cease in the middle of a word or sentence, and then begin something else.”

“Whether this thing has been made plain and comprehensible here, I cannot tell. I only wish to show that no spirits had anything to do in the matter. Like many of the ‘spiritual performances,’ it is fully accounted for in my mind by the over excited nerves of the operator. The best thing for him to do is to quit his spirit telegraphy, and stay in his office as little as possible, bathe frequently and take all the outdoor exercise possible; or else he may sustain permanent injury to his health.”

Weird with a beard, man. The telegraph operator’s very original method of communicating with spirits is made more curious by the fact he apparently was not attempting to do this for profit, thus excluding him as a candidate for the frauds of that era as exposed by P.T. Barnum in his book, The Humbugs of the World : an Account of Humbugs, Delusions, Impositions, Quackeries, Deceits and Deceivers Generally, in All Ages (1865). Barnum had a particular dislike for those who claimed to possess some form of spirit communication.

The reporter’s attempt to explain the telegraph operator’s behavior reads like an early try at developing a psychological profile, adding yet another fascinating twist to this story.

The Tacoma Herald, published in “New Tacoma, Wash. Ter.” had a short life, 1877-1880. WSL has a nearly complete run available on microfilm and like the rest of our newspaper titles, can be acquired through interlibrary loan.

Henry R. Crosbie

[The Territorial Librarian profiles were compiled by Sean Lanksbury, Mary Schaff, Kim Smeenk, and Steve Willis]

Born ca. 1825, Pennsylvanian “Harry” Crosbie was elected to the first three territorial legislative sessions (1854-1855) as a member of the House representing Clark County (then known as Clarke County), where he had been District Court Clerk. In his capacity as a House member he was also on the first Commission on Education. In the 2nd Session he served as Speaker of the House. He was “replaced” in the Third Session.

Crosbie held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel during the 1855-1856 Indian War, and at one point served as a scout for Gov. Stevens to investigate rumors of gold discoveries in the Colville area. He was an unsuccessful candidate for the Democratic nomination to Congress in 1856. Also in that year he was made the Washington Territory U.S. Attorney. Crosbie may have been a member of Leschi’s legal defense team in the first trial of the Nisqually leader.

In Jan. 1857 the Legislature appointed him to the newly combined office of Territorial Auditor and Librarian for one year at a salary of $325. Shortly after his stint as Auditor/Librarian, Crosbie was made a Justice of the Peace in Whatcom County (as well as Coroner, according to one source) and was an instrumental American legal presence during the San Juan Islands Pig War of 1859. Historians have recognized Judge Crosbie as being a level-headed figure in the U.S./British boundary controversy. He was assigned to the Utah Territory Supreme Court in Aug. 1860. As late as 1894 he was still filing financial claims with Congress regarding his personal expenses for the Pig War episode.

Bion (Benjamin) Freeman Kendall, 1853 – 1857

[The Territorial Librarian profiles were compiled by Sean Lanksbury, Mary Schaff, Kim Smeenk, and Steve Willis]

Bion (Benjamin) Freeman Kendall, 1853 – 1857

Born Oct. 1827 in Bethel, Maine. Fresh out of Bowdoin College in 1852, Kendall found employment as a government clerk in the Survey Land Office in Washington, D.C. He served as an aide (along with future Territorial Librarian Elwood Evans) on the 1853 Isaac Stevens survey team when the first Territorial Governor made his way to Olympia. Governor Stevens had arranged for the selection of the Territorial Library prior to his departure, and the books arrived by ship in October 1853. The Governor made it to Olympia in November, and Kendall a month later. As Louise Morrison wrote, “Governor Stevens’ first message to the Legislature implied that he considered Kendall the librarian,” but he wasn’t officially elected to the post by the Legislature until April 17, 1854. In that election he defeated attorney Frank Clark on vote of 17-9.

On his qualifications and legacy as Librarian, Maryan Reynolds writes, “Kendall’s political activity and connections were his primary qualifications for the post. Kendall immediately built a small facility at Fourth and Main Streets (now Capitol Way) to house the library. The legislators, holding a proprietary attitude toward the library, bridled at Kendall’s action; they fully expected the Territorial Library to be located under the same roof as themselves …” In his reports to the Legislature, Kendall also provided a listing of the Library’s holdings, the first version of the catalog. He was also appointed as Chief Clerk of the House, February 27, 1854, and was admitted to the bar later that year.  In April 1855 his short and meteoric rise found him in the office of acting U.S. District Attorney, and he was elected Prosecuting Attorney for the 2nd District in 1856. Although he eventually became “bitterly opposed” to Governor Stevens, he successfully prosecuted Leschi in his 2nd trial held in Olympia, going against defense attorney Frank Clark.

Realizing he was not making any friends in Olympia, he visited Washington D.C. in early 1861 to lobby for a new post, and was actually present when Fort Sumter was attacked. He served as a spy at the bequest of General Scott, gathering intelligence for the Union government during a swing through the Southern States. As a reward, Kendall was appointed Washington Territory Superintendent of Indian Affairs for awhile. One writer has observed that “Kendall, though an eloquent orator, able, energetic and industrious, was noted for his unyielding opinions, bitter and juvenile prejudices, high-handed contempt for the views of others and his indiscreet utterances.” He was called Bezaleel Freeman Kendall by his political opponents. His editorship of the Olympia newspaper Overland Press gave him ample opportunity to expand the number of his enemies, and one them shot and killed him in his business office in January 1863. Frank Clark, who had been defeated by Kendall for the post of librarian and was also bested by him at the Leschi trial, was the defense attorney for the man charged with Bion’s murder. The accused man fled, never to be seen again. Some historians have suggested it was Clark’s firearm that was used as the murder weapon and the killer was merely an instrument of broad conspiracy.

Contemporary accounts of Kendall’s murder can be found in the WSL newspapers on microfilm collection or online on our digital historic newspapers site (The Puget Sound Herald of Steilacoom covered the story)

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library

Do you believe in water witchcraft? The following article was found in the October 15, 1891 issue of the Big Bend Empire, from, appropriately enough, Waterville, Washington. A small chunk of the article is missing so I have tried to transcribe this around it.

Water Witches

“Witches used to be held in fear and abhorrence, in the olden times. People suspected of dealing in the supernatural were persecuted and put to death. A familiar test, which was inflicted upon those falling under the ban of suspicion, was the ducking stool, which was a see-saw contrivance, with a chair at one end in which to seat the victim, securely tied. The loaded end projected over a pond, and the chair and its occupant were soused into the water, in order to determine by the cries and struggles of the half-drowned wretch, whether she was witch or not. An ability to take water with composure was the test. What a number of condemned would there be nowadays, were the same tests applied.”

“Perhaps this enforced familiarity with water, may have descended to later generations of dealers in the mysterious. Be that as it may, witches, so called, are not unusual figures in the wonderful country of the Big Bend of the Columbia, and most singular of all, they are in demand. Many honest grangers have dug and dug for water on their claims, in locations of their own choosing, scouting the idea that the efforts of water witches were anything but nonsense. A majority of these unbelievers after sadly depleting their pockets in vain endeavors to strike moisture, at last come reluctantly to the point of trying the water witch.”

“With his cabalistic stick held in both hands, the magnetic individual struts across fields indicating the course of veins and pointing out the proper place to dig. He even tells within a foot or so, just how far down the well must be sunk before water is reached. The witch claims nothing supernatural about his work. He says it is electricity. As he goes over the ground, when passing above a vein of water, his stick visibly turns and points out the location of the underground stream. It is simple enough. He holds the magnetic stick and it does the rest. […]over this phenomenon may be […]d dozens of settlers will tes-[…] finding water through such a […] Some of the so-called water witches have never been known to fail, […] confident of their powers are they, that they contract to pay for the cost of digging, if their location proves a barren one. Often 60 or 70 even 100 feet down do the diggers go, the witch indicating beforehand the depth to which his guarantee runs, and paying for the work in the event of failure. If he succeeds he gets $5.”

Interestingly, 70 years later the periodical Northwest Science pointed out (v. 35, issue 4, 1961): “the number of water witches is greatest where chances are smallest that any one well will be successful. They state that in the Columbia Plateau the ratio of witches to population is the highest in the United States. The reason is not that water is scarce, but rather that the permeability of the Columbia River Basalt is extremely variable. A well that yields large quantities of water can be drilled within a few tens of feet of a well that was a dry hole.”

Adequate water supply was more important than gold to many of the residents in the Columbia Plateau. Some of our readers might recall the post we ran awhile back, also from the Big Bend Empire, regarding the rainmaker Charles Hatfield visiting the area in 1920.

Water witching, also known as dowsing, has been around for a long time but has never been fully accepted as a legitimate tool by the scientific community. The Dewey Decimal classification system places dowsing in 133.323 in the neighborhood of fortune-telling, parapsychology and occultism.

A federal publication entitled The Divining Rod : a History of Water Witching, With a Bibliography / by Arthur J. Ellis for the US Geological Survey,  originally published in 1917, is pretty blunt: “It is doubtful whether so much investigation and discussion have been bestowed on any other subject with such absolute lack of positive results. It is difficult to see how for practical purposes the entire matter could be more thoroughly discredited, and it should be obvious to everyone that further tests by the United States Geological Survey of this so-called ‘witching’ for water, oil, or other minerals would be a misuse of public funds.”

As late as 1977, in the publication Water Dowsing, the Feds would write: “Despite almost unanimous condemnation by geologists and technicians, the practice of water dowsing has spread throughout America. It has been speculated that thousands of dowsers are active in the United States; many are members of the American Society of Dowsers, Inc.”

But a brief walk through Internet will demonstrate that dowsing is as strong as ever, and just as controversial now as it was in 1891.

[One bit of folklore concerning the Washington State Library Territorial Collection has to do with the original source of ownership for a dozen books, mostly vellum bound and chiefly dating back to the 1500s. When old catalogers gather around the campfire at night, they tell tales of the ancient books in WSL that were initially part of the library at the Catholic Mission in Priests Point, in north Olympia. And if this is fact, these library books predate all others in the Territorial Collection for length of Washington residency.

The WSL Manuscripts Collection includes an essay by educator L.M. Dimmitt entitled The Story of Priests’ Point, written in 1932. When WSL Diane Hutchins began to research the history of the Territorial Collection, she felt compelled to include the following note with Dimmitt’s piece. This effort earns her a Mythbusters medal. Here are her notes]

Notes regarding the titles mentioned on pages six and seven of “The Story of Priests’ Point” by L.M. Dimmitt (MS 354)

The Dimmitt article states on page six, “[w]ith the passing of St. Joseph d’Olympia the first spark of the old world culture to reach the Puget Sound country slipped from sight.  In recent years, from some unknown source [emphasis mine], many of the fine old books, some velum [sic] bound, have found their way into the State Library.”  The implication may be that these books had come from the old Mission.  When this article was written (1932), the detailed receipts generated by the purchase by Isaac Stevens of materials for the Territorial Library had not yet been microfilmed.  (This was not done by the National Archives until 1960.  This microfilm, covering book purchases made by Isaac Stevens in 1853, 1854, and 1855, may be found in the WSL collection.  The call number is NW MICRO 027.5797 UNITED 1960.)  Among those receipts is a four-page itemized list compiled by Charles B. Norton on June 8, 1854, and paid (“Voucher no 7”) by Isaac Stevens on August 30, 1854, in New York City.  On one of the margins of this voucher is the statement “I certify on honor that the above account is correct & just, and that I have actually, this thirtieth day of August 1854 paid the amt. thereof.  Isaac I. Stevens, Gov. Wash. Terr.”  Many titles in Latin, French, and Spanish appear in the list.  As demonstrated in the following table, all of the titles mentioned on pages six and seven of the Dimmitt article were included in the 1854 purchase.

Origin of Books Mentioned in “The Story of Priests’ Point” by L.M. Dimmitt

Research and notes by:  Diane Hutchins, Program Manager for Preservation and Access Services, Washington State Library.   11 September 2007.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

Time has rewarded the Dutchman who ran the potato-bug newspaper, while The Argus is now mostly a political footnote in Washington State political history.

The election of 1896 was preceded by one of the most emotionally charged campaigns in the history of the United States. William Jennings Bryan, the Democratic and Populist parties nominee, had excited a large portion of the agrarian and Western population through his charisma and rhetoric. Meanwhile the Republicans stood by an Establishment status-quo man, William McKinley.

The Argus was a weekly Republican organ out of Seattle. The following piece is from their issue of August 8, 1896:

WHO IS A JUDAS?

“The Review, a contemptible little one horse rag with a sworn circulation of 400 copies, which moved from Fremont to Seattle when the Telegraph died with the aim of becoming the democratic ‘orgin,’ worked itself into a frenzy last week because Receiver BAKER, of the Merchants’ National Bank, had refused to support BRYAN and the populistic platform.”

“The Dutchman who presides over the editorial columns of the little potato-bug must have partaken of too much limberger, intermixed with sauerkraut and dunderfunk and the whole heterogenous mass must have resulted in a bad case of infantile colic, thus causing him to work off his anarchistic sentiments all at once, with the hope of wiping Receiver BAKER off the face of the earth with one fell swoop.”

“It is refreshing to hear this fellow whose only aim seems to be to work all of the legal notices possible out of the land office, Call Receiver BAKER, who is to him what a diamond is to a dung-hill, ‘Benedict Arnold or Judas Iscariot,’ simply because that gentleman has too much self respect to stand in with his little play to get the land offices for another four years.”

“A democrat is a funny thing, but this democrat is especially funny.”

Several follow-ups here worth noting:

Bryan did lose the Presidential election, but the Populists won every, and I mean every, statewide elective office in 1896. The closest parallel I can think of in living memory was the widespread election of post-Watergate “outsiders” in 1974 and 1976, including President Jimmy Carter and Governor Dixy Lee Ray. In both historical cases, the bubble was short-lived.

Receiver Baker was Charles H. Baker, who was later the force behind the electrical generating plant at Snoqualmie Falls.

The Seattle Telegraph had a run from 1890 to Feb. 1896.

The Argus changed title to Argus Magazine in the early 1980s but then it died shortly after, ironically in the era of Ronald Reagan.

The Review, mentioned here in such a condescending way, was also known through time as the Fremont Saturday Review and the Seattle Review and the Fremont Herald. Apparently the Fremont Saturday Review had the subtitle: “Fremont First — the World Afterward — Heaven Next.” It is my sad duty as a librarian to inform you that no manifestations of this newspaper exist in any library, according to OCLC. Unless someone out there steps forward, this is yet another newspaper lost to history.

In 1896 the term “Dutchman” was an ethnic slur against German-Americans, a shortening of Deutschmann. The additional references to limberger, sauerkraut and the obscene dunderfunk, not to mention anarchy, reflected a bit of xenophobia on the part of the The Argus. The prejudice against German-Americans was fairly short-lived, since many in that cultural group generally made it a top priority to quickly assimilate and mainstream. Much of this is outlined in Dale R. Wirsing’s Builders, Brewers and Burghers : Germans of Washington State (1977).

The German-American in this particular case was Ambrose Basileus Ernst (1861-1931). He came to America as a child with his family in 1872 and was raised in Wisconsin. In 1890 he migrated to Woolley, Washington and became the publisher of the Skagit County Times.

By 1892 Ambrose was active in the Seattle Democratic Party and running a newspaper out of Fremont. He later became involved with mining interests.

In 1906 Ernst was appointed to the Seattle Park Commission where he earned fame as “The Father of City Playfields.”

Gov. Lister appointed Ernst to the State Industrial Insurance Commission in 1913. A photo of Ernst can be found in the 2nd Annual Report of the Industrial Insurance Department.

Unfortunately for Ernst, a major swindle of the Commission took place under his watch in 1915, and although blameless, he became one of the political victims. He did serve the public in one more position as a member of the Civic Auditorium Commission in 1919. He died in Seattle in 1931.

Ambrose B. Ernst has had the last laugh on the snarky Argus editorialist of 1896. Over a decade ago a Seattle city park was dedicated next to the Fremont Library and it was named A.B. Ernst Park in honor of Ambrose’s significant contributions when he was on the Park Commission. His former home (no longer standing) was almost across the street from the  park. Not a bad tribute for the editor of a potato-bug newspaper.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

In the summer of 2002 I was given an assignment that turned out to be a career highlight for me as a cataloger to use my vast powers for Good. The task was to make the Washington State Library Territorial Collection the subject of a recon project, i.e., adding the 400+ titles (800+ volumes) to the online catalog. Providing bibliographic access to the oldest library collection in Washington State doesn’t happen every day.

The list of titles can be found in one group by using the WSL catalog online author search: Washington State Library. Territorial Collection.

In the course of handling these books, I looked them over and added a ton of local notes to the bibliographic records. As we celebrate the 160th anniversary of this collection, I’d like to share a few of the more interesting bits of trivia I unearthed in the course of cataloging.

Tales of a grandfather : being stories taken from Scottish history humbly inscribed to Hugh Littlejohn, Esq.
Boston : S.H. Parker & B.B. Mussey & Co. ; New York : J.S. Redfield : C.S. Francis & Co. ; Philadelphia : Thomas, Cowperthwait & Co. ; Cincinnati : H.W. Derby & Co., 1852.
Library ed. : from the last revised ed. containing the author’s final corrections, notes, & c.

This work by Sir Walter Scott is one of the few pieces of fiction in the collection. Here’s the local note I added: “WSL copy saved from a WWII paper drive by WSL cataloger, Jeannette Rutledge: ‘During the first Victory book drive Miss Rutledge was examining books donated for the campaign and she recognized among this literary ‘scrap’ one of the Waverley novels bearing the book plate of the territorial library. She restored it to the collection …’–From, ‘State Library’s books date from 1542 to 1944’ by Lucile M’Donald, Seattle times, Aug. 13, 1944″

Oregon missions and travels over the Rocky mountains, in 1845-46 / by P.J. de Smet.
New-York : E. Dunigan, 1847.

Signed by Pierre-Jean de Smet himself: “WSL Territorial Library copy inscribed on 1st prelim. p.: Presented to Colonel Michel, Superintendent of Indian affairs, with profound respect and esteem, P.J. De Smet, S.J. … May 11th 1849.”

Historical sketch of the second war between the United States of America, and Great Britain, declared by act of Congress, the 18th of June, 1812, and concluded by peace, the 15th of February, 1815, by Charles J. Ingersoll …

Philadelphia, Lea and Blanchard, 1845-49.

Northwest book collector and historian Winlock William Miller Jr. (1906-1939) presented, er, returned, several books from the Territorial Collection shortly after his graduation from Yale Law School. Here’s the note on the record for the above title: “WSL copy of v. 1 has inscription, p. [2] of cover: Presented to the State Library of Washington by Winlock W. Miller Jr. Aug. 19, 1931. This set was one of the original sets bought with the first Federal appropriation for the State Library in 1853. Presumably it passed into the hands of Gov. Stevens and was acquired by Gen. W.W. Miller at the sale of his effects in 1863. Gen. Miller was administrator of Gov. Stevens estate.”

“The history of the restoration of monarchy in France. By Alphonse de Lamartine.
New York : Harper & Brothers, 1851-53.

Somewhere, back in time, an anonymous poet left their cryptic mark: “WSL copy of v. 2 has inscribed in back lining p.: In sleep there is a sense no man has felt.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

We are in the upper lefthand corner. We are on the edge. We are an experiment.

Compared to the rest of the Lower 48, Washington State has always been an inviting place to start anew and try out ideas that would not be allowed elsewhere.

The book Utopias on Puget Sound, 1885-1915 by Charles Pierce LeWarne outlines the collective settlements of Freeland, Home, and Equality.

And here on this very blog we have highlighted the history of Burley.

Not all the cooperative colonies turned out so well. The Newell Colony of 1880 didn’t survive very long:

But one colony, very different than all of the others, apparently never broke ground. It was to be a Dry City, the brainchild of a prohibitionist, and to be set in one of the most two-fisted logger counties in Washington State. The following article was found in The Olympia State Capital, Oct. 12, 1906, but was also run in several other regional papers.

CLEAN TOWN IN MASON

 Prohibition Colony to be Established by Wealthy Architect.

 “Tacoma, Oct. 8. — A city without a saloon, brothel, theater or Sunday cigar store is in process of incubation for the state of Washington. William Arthur, an architect, of Omaha, Neb., intends to establish a city in which the prohibitionists will control and he has selected this state for his colony.”

“In a letter to Rev. Mr. Ketchum, of this city, Arthur says he is negotiating for land in Mason county, which he expects to secure, and he will then proceed to organize his colony and city. Every deed for land will contain a clause forever prohibiting its use for any saloon, brewery or distillery. Municipal ownership of all public utilities, including street railways, will be the order and other advanced ideas of government will be incorporated in the new community.”

“Arthur is a man of considerable means and he is enlisting citizens in the project all over the United States.”

The history of prohibition in Washington State is covered in a most excellent manner by my former faculty colleague and acquaintance Norman H. Clark (1925-2004) in his work The Dry Years. But William Arthur came in under Norman’s radar and was not documented in his works. As far as I can ascertain, Arthur’s plan for a Mason County community never went beyond the concept stage.

Most of the Washington State Prohibition Party activists in the late 19th/early 20th century were educators or ministers. August Bernhardt Louis Gellerman, who established Peninsular College in Oysterville, 1895-1897, came the closest to establishing a place to make the dry vision come true.

William Arthur was born in Scotland in 1860. He immigrated to the United States in 1881 and settled in the area of Omaha, where he apparently joined relatives. He earned a living in the building contract trade and wrote books on the subject such as The Building Estimator, The Contractors’ and Builders’ Handbook, Estimating Building Costs, The Home Builders’ Guide, The New Building Estimator, and Appraisers’ and Adjusters’ handbook. Apparently Mr. Arthur was  not really an architect, he was an engineer.

About the time of the news article above, Arthur wrote The Well-Ordered Household, reissued as Our Home City in 1911. These are the works outlining his vision for a new urban way of living through his planned communities. In the early 1920s in the wake of the Great War he issued a couple books promoting English as the world language in the road to international peace. He died in Omaha July 26, 1945.

A city of 5000 prohibitionists deep in Mason County during the early 20th century would have been a major counterbalance in the history of that area if it had actually happened. Mr. William Arthur deserves a whole chapter in the Washington State book of intriguing historical “what ifs.”

Thanks to Mr. Bill Arthur, grandson of William Arthur, for providing valuable background information for this post.

Photo  from Washington, West of the Cascades

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

In the midst of one of the worst economic depressions of the 19th century, thousands of unemployed workers were called upon nationwide to march in protest at Washington D.C. in 1894. They gained the nickname “Coxey’s Army” after their Ohio-based leader, Jacob Coxey. The Coxeyites in the Pacific Northwest were among the most radical followers, and dubbed themselves the Northwest Industrial Army. If you consider they used guerilla tactics and got into several skirmishes involving firearms, they really were an army.

In the spring of 1894 the Seattle and Tacoma units of the Northwestern Industrial Army met in Puyallup, using that town as their springboard for the cross-country journey. They numbered over 1000. In other states some of the government officials were sympathetic to the movement, but Washington Gov. McGraw was no friend to the Army.

Train hijacking in small groups became the main mode of transportation for the industrial soldiers. The following article in the May 11, 1894 issue of the Bellingham Bay Reveille, published out of New Whatcom, not only gives us a case study in the conflict, but also demonstrates a statewide interest in this struggle:

THE BATTLE AT SPRAGUE

The Coxeyites Attempt to Steal a Train and are Driven off by Marshals Who Pour a Volley Into Them — A Mob Starving at the Columbia and Row Probable.

ARE GETTING DISCOURAGED

“SPOKANE, Wash., May 8.–Telegrams from Sprague bring information that a collision occurred at that place between the industrials and United States marshals, arising out of an attempt on the part of the industrials to capture a cattle train. Circumstances of the affray as near as can be learned were as follows:”

“A cattle train passed through Sprague at the rate of 30 miles an hour, backing to Patterson. An industrial who was secreted on the train succeeded in manipulating the brakes and the train came to a standstill at a point about four miles out of Sprague, where some thirty industrials were lying in the grass. A posse of marshals was close at hand, watching the industrials. As the train slowed down and stopped, the industri[als] made a rush for it, when the marshals arose and fired a volley into their ranks. Some twenty shots were fired. It is not known whether any were injured. Before the train started again ten of the industrials succeeded in getting aboard and made their way to Spokane.”

“Excitement over the affair is intense in Spokane and at Sprague United States deputy marshals are holding a large body of industrials in check at the bridge across the Columbia river and will permit no man known to belong to the army to cross. Industrials are in a serious plight, for there is no town for seventy miles on that side of the river at which they can get anything to eat. Starvation is staring them in the face and they are becoming desperate. If they are not permitted to cross the river, there will likely be serious trouble, as the men will be like hungry wolves at bay.”

“At this point a deputy marshal found a man, presumably an industrial, stealing a ride on a brake under a car. He pointed a pistol at the man and ordered him out. A gang of industrials seized the deputy and beat him severely, nearly killing him. There are 300 of the industrial army who have succeeded in reaching Spokane; 200 are still at Sprague, and nearly all the others who left Seattle and Tacoma are scattered at different points along the line of the Northern Pacific in Eastern Washington.”

In Yakima and Montana some battles resulted in death or serious injury. A few soldiers in this tattered Army did reach Washington, D.C. and participated in the protest. Northwest historian Carlos A. Schwantes in his Coxey’s Army : An American Odyssey (1985) includes a nice chapter on the Northwestern Industrial Army and their vainglorious leader Frank “Jumbo” Cantwell, a boxer and bouncer who wore a special gaudy uniform while leading his troops. Cantwell had a long history of conflicts with the law before, during, and after 1894.

Much of the discontent of 1894 served as a prelude to the Populist sweep of 1896.