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A government ruling unravels decades of competing claims between the St. James Mission, the U.S. Military, and the heirs of Amos Short over the heart of Vancouver.
“The right to so much land to be laid off by official authority, in the Territory described, passed from the government to him by the execution of the instrument granting it.”
A massive fire has razed the entire business district of Vancouver, Washington Territory, leaving the community in shock and rebuilding efforts underway.
“The entire business portion of Vancouver, W. T., was burned last Friday night.”
A catastrophic fire destroys the business district of Vancouver, Washington, leaving small shopkeepers destitute and the city in shock.
“The loss falls mostly on the small shopkeepers, a number of whom lost their all. Many families are without even a change of clothing.”
In the wake of the 1876 presidential election, a local Democratic paper exposes a brazen scheme by Republican Governor Frederick Ferry and Collector of the Port William Scott to ferry voters from Vancouver, WA, across the river to Portland, OR, to swing the territorial delegate race in favor of Judge Jacobs.
A massive blaze erupts in the early morning hours, causing thousands of dollars in property damage and leaving a man critically injured.
“By pulling down Batoman & Eubank’s saloon the progress of the flames was arrested.”
After being denied a license, a local pioneer targets city officials for illegal self-dealing in Vancouver's municipal government.
“No officer of such city shall be interested, directly or indirectly, in any contract with such city... and any claim or compensation for work done... shall be void.”
A 1885 dispatch from the Vancouver Independent reveals the chilling, unchecked spread of anti-Chinese sentiment as communities across the Washington Territory debated the forced removal of residents.
“All our people, without exception, would like to see the Chinese disappear from our midst.”
Industrial protesters are jailed for trespassing on Capitol grounds, as federal troops mobilize across the West to protect railroad lines.
“Nearly all the troops of this department are now in the field protecting transportation lines in the hands of the United States courts.”
Father De Smet escorts Kamiakin, Skloom, and other chiefs to Vancouver to meet Gen. Harney—but the terms are blunt: the 'ringleaders' must be handed over first.
“The first important condition was that Kamiakin and Skloom, the ringleaders, should be given up into the General's hands. Until this is done there could be no peace.”
After losing the 'overlap' land court battle, the Northern Pacific Railway signals it will let families stay on their homesites.
“The company desires to take up with the settlers the question of the state of the lands occupied.”
Secretary of War Robert Todd Lincoln denies a church petition for land, sparking a debate over the government's military reservation boundaries in Vancouver.
“In one case what appears to have been originally a harmless license, has now been expanded into a claim for a whole military reservation.”
A federal judge declares Washington's prohibition on cigarette sales unconstitutional, setting up a fight between state and federal authority.
“The said law of the state of Washington, prohibiting the sale of cigarettes... is in contravention of article 1 of section 8 of the constitution of the United States.”
A Vancouver tobacco dealer’s arrest triggers a high-stakes legal battle over whether small cigarette packages qualify for interstate commerce protections.
“The contention of the petitioner is that the small package of cigarettes is an original package of the manufacturer, and hence that its sale cannot be abridged by a state law.”
The saloon keepers of Vancouver, Washington, enforce a strict city-wide Sunday closure, leaving the town deserted.
“The city presented a deserted appearance, nearly every one going elsewhere, as there were no places open at home.”
As the local tailors' strike enters its second week with shops shuttered, merchants import labor from abroad to break the union, sparking fears of violent confrontation.
The Roman Catholic Bishop of Nesqually went to the U.S. Supreme Court to secure title to the Vancouver military reservation, setting church, Crown-era permission, and federal ownership against one another.
“By this suit the bishop seeks to secure title to some 430 acres of land, comprising the United States military reservation at Vancouver, Washington.”
A young sawmill worker loses his life in a horrifying industrial accident near Vancouver, Washington.
“He glanced up and perceived to his horror that the timber was descending. He sprang aside to escape what seemed a certain doom. One foot caught and he fell forward.”
A legal ruling uncovers the history of the Catholic mission at Vancouver and its tenuous claim to the land during the transition from Hudson's Bay Company rule to U.S. authority.
“It is entirely optional with them whether they keep a school or not; we exercise no control over them.”
Capt. Richard Steadman sailed off heartbroken to Cuba, came back a brevet major, and married his first sweetheart within a week of learning she was free.
“In less than one week the old feeling sprang up anew and quietly the little romance was brought to its natural end.”
A Walla Walla father challenges the state’s neglect of oral education methods for deaf children.
“The state spends a great deal of money in maintaining the school for the deaf and dumb and the people of the state have the right to expect the best results.”
A Seattle electrician is hospitalized in Vancouver after a suicide attempt follows significant gambling losses.
“James Murphy... lies in a hospital here today with his mouth and throat terribly burned by an ounce of pure carbolic acid, which he swallowed yesterday because he had grown despondent.”
After internal negotiations, the local Populist Party has officially dissolved to merge with the Democratic Party.
“The surrender was complete, and the populist party in this county is now extinct.”
Northern Pacific executives descend upon the region, stoking rumors of a major bridge project and a new push along the Columbia River bank.
“Once again the old dream of Northern Pacific construction down the north bank of the Columbia river is revived.”
While working in the tower of the government water works, an engineer slipped and fell to his death in full view of his son.
“In sight of his son, who was working above him, he fell to the ground.”
After surviving a previous brush with death, a Vancouver man found his final end in a lonely shed—and the town was in no mood to wait for a second resurrection.
“Several years ago Shannon was sick, apparently dead, and some hours after being laid out for burial astonished the hospital attendants by sitting up and skirmishing around for a drink. This time they buried him quick.”
A two-month-old infant survives a twenty-one-foot fall into a Clarke County well in a harrowing ordeal.
“The mother succeeded in getting the well rope down and at the child, and thus prevented it from drowning, though unable to get the child out.”
A political meeting in Vancouver, Washington, sparks a fierce debate over the influence of the liquor trade, the liberty of the press, and the character of local leadership.
“No sensible man can doubt but that behind Chief Woolery's shadow there is a strong backing and sinister influence in the liquor interest.”
Capt. W. P. Goodwin faced a court-martial after his command waited at the Spokane depot while he was missing—and allegedly intoxicated—during the 1894 railroad strike.
“the entire train, soldiers, passengers and all, awaited patiently the arrival of the derelict commanding officer.”
A husband and a local physician are arrested following a death caused by a criminal operation.
“The evidence showed that death resulted from a criminal operation.”
A grim discovery by a U.S. Deputy Marshal sparks an investigation near a local mill.
“The body was stark naked with the exception of the scant costume of a string of beads around its neck.”
A traveling troupe of medicine sellers barely escapes a mob of soldiers and citizens after a guarantee of 'money refunded' turns violent.
“His act so enraged the audience... that they ordered the agents and performers to at once cease operations.”
Commanding the Department of the Pacific, General Wright issues a stern warning to those in Washington and beyond who might support the rebellion.
“To all such persons I say pause and reflect well, before plunging into the yawning abyss of treason.”
A condemned man fought officers for three minutes on the gallows before his execution in Vancouver.
“He fought like a demon to get away from the officers, and created an awful scene on the scaffold.”
In a display of industrial solidarity, Vancouver's saloon keepers shut every business in town to protest the enforcement of Sunday closing laws.
“The saloonmen say that so long as they are compelled to keep their doors shut not a single place of business shall run.”
A group of Vancouver Southern sympathizers attempted to print a campaign paper in Portland, only to have their equipment and their vanity locked away in a safe they couldn't open.
“The six hundred Morning Glorys still repose in their iron coffin.”
A Vermont native traded his old life for 80 acres in Seattle, proving that with one horse and sheer grit, the Pacific Northwest could be tamed.
After the long illness and death of his wife, a grieving man takes his own life in the room where she lay.
“It is the impression of many people that his misfortunes and the sickness in his family had made him partially demented.”
A railroad contractor working on the Canadian Pacific line met a sudden, tragic end while clearing stumps near Vancouver.
“Today a rather larger charge of powder was placed for a large, stubborn-looking tree. He remained where he deemed a safe distance, but a jagged piece of wood flew with such force that it struck him.”
Witnesses at the court-martial disagreed over whether Capt. Goodwin had been drinking—and whether he could still command his company in a riot.
“He believed Capt. Goodwin had been drinking, but he thought he was capable of performing his duties perfectly.”
A master mechanic travels to Vancouver to test the fitness of workers on newly acquired rail lines as wage standards are adjusted.
“The men who can not pass satisfactory examinations under Northern Pacific rules must step down and out.”
A farmer disappears while investigating his dog's barking; his body is discovered the following morning.
“After a while his dog returned to the house covered with blood, and without his master.”
A convention of local political leaders in Vancouver pledges unwavering support for the Union and denounces partisanship during the national crisis.
“Resolved, That adherence to old party ties in this crisis of our country is unpatriotic and mischievous.”
A Vancouver resident files a $1,000 damage suit against a Justice of the Peace who allegedly assaulted him after a dispute over a fine.
“A few days ago Cresap was tried before Justice K. M. Scanlon and fined $1 for assault, the time that he caused Bearhydt's optic to be wreathed in mourning.”
A quick-thinking schoolboy foils a planned escape at the Vancouver county jail.
“The boy picked it up. It read: 'Jail break planned for noon today.'”
Facing mounting debt, the Sisters of Charity turn to the public to keep their doors open for fifty destitute children.
“The Bishop, knowing the good feeling of the people at large for such institutions, has thought it advisable to make an appeal to their generous hearts.”
In a remarkable coincidence of rural life and frontier pragmatism, a Vancouver woman delivers a healthy daughter in a horse stall at the Clarke County Fairgrounds.
Local loggers petition for a branch line through the military garrison to improve access to deep water and mill sites.
“The loggers desire the road finished so that they can have logs hauled to the east of the city and dumped into deep water.”
After relocating to Vancouver, a resourceful publisher faced a printing dilemma and solved it by engineering their own custom press from repurposed timber and discarded iron.
“We have worked in material 'laying about' that was considered useless.”
As city registration closes, the liquor interest and the churches square off over control of the council.
“The saloon element is making a decided effort to win a majority of the council, already claiming two of the three holdovers in that body.”
Rev. M. G. Mann was suspended for slander after questioning a document that put a new missionary in charge of Native church affairs at the Puyallup Reservation. He appealed to the Presbyterian synod, and the case became a local cause of comment.
“It was subsequently reported to Mr. Mann that the application of the Indians for Mr. Parment to take charge was a forgery.”
A new congressional act provides crucial relief for settlers on former Northern Pacific land grants along the Columbia River.
“The time given to settlers under the former law expires January 1, 1894. Mr. Ellis' bill extends the time three years.”
A logger is killed at his work, a grim reminder of the high human cost of the Pacific Northwest’s booming timber industry in 1886.
“Those who saw the occurrence describe it as a horrible sight.”
Heavy rains and mold threaten to compromise Clarke County’s massive prune crop as thousands of workers descend on the orchards.
“This is the natural home of the prune, and eastern people who come here and see the trees with their wealth of beautiful fruit are astonished.”
Frustrated by federal inaction on the Columbia River, Clarke County proposes a local tax to clear a navigational bar.
“Clarke county in particular, as the government has neglected to appropriate money to improve the river adjacent to this city.”
A lifelong invalid, confined to a chair for twenty-two years, found her voice and language only in her final hours.
“Command of language came to her all at once, and she told her mother she was going to die, and seemed not to regret it.”
The Northern Pacific dredger cleared a channel with at least fourteen feet of water over the bar below Vancouver, and citizens who guaranteed the cost now wanted an improvement district—and a federal jetty—to keep it open.
“The total cost of the dredging is about $2,500, which was guaranteed by citizens.”
Veterans of the Grand Army of the Republic meet in Washington Territory to honor General Grant and discuss the future of their department.
“May the clouds roll by, and may you long be spared to receive the gratitude of a grateful nation and the esteem and affection of all old soldiers.”
Speculation mounts in Washington Territory as the appointment for a new Internal Revenue Collector highlights the fierce, often petty nature of regional political influence.
“There is no small number of office-seekers in the state of Washington who will wonder why their much vaunted 'strong pulls' have proved ineffective.”
When the city council of Vancouver, Washington, decided that raucous wedding serenades were 'disgraceful' to the public order, they took a stand against the tradition of the charivari.
“The Council denounced them, at a meeting last week, as 'disgraceful to the city and contrary to the spirit and intent of its ordinances.'”
With fifty children in their care and resources dwindling, the Sisters of Charity face an uncertain future.
“The Bishop, knowing the good feeling of the people at large for such institutions, has thought it advisable to make an appeal to their generous hearts.”
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