The Fight to Bring the Stubblefield Home to Walla Walla
Legal opinion finds county commissioners are authorized to donate public funds to secure a landmark charitable trust.
At the request of H. H. Turner, president of the Commercial club of Walla Walla, T. P. C. C. Gose have rendered an opinion regarding the legal right of the board of county commissioners to appropriate $10,000 to secure the location of the proposed Stubblefield home in Walla Walla. The opinion is concurred in by Judge William H. Upton. The will of the late Joseph Stubblefield provides that his estate, exceeding $100,000, be used to establish a home for indigent children and elderly widows. A condition of the bequest is that $10,000 must be donated to the trustees within one year of probate. The legal opinion asserts that under state law, commissioners have the exclusive superintendence of the poor and a 'large discretion' in how that duty is carried out, including the authority to build or provide for workhouses or charitable homes. By helping to establish the Stubblefield home, the county would be fulfilling its obligation of 'charity and humanity' while simultaneously securing a valuable institution for the community.
“The board of county commissioners, if it gives for the purpose of establishing this home, they are certainly... discharging an obligation of charity and humanity.”
This 1903 legal debate highlights the intersection of private philanthropy and public welfare, a recurring theme in modern civic planning. The Stubblefield Home became a significant local institution, illustrating the historical role of local government in seeding the social infrastructure that defined early 20th-century Walla Walla.
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