Washington Territory

Washington Territory, established on March 2, 1853, by the United States Congress, was formed from part of the Oregon Territory, which encompassed the present-day states of Washington, Idaho, and parts of Montana and Wyoming. This division was prompted by the increasing population of American settlers north of the Columbia River, who sought a separate territorial government due to the logistical challenges of governing a large and geographically diverse area from Oregon City, the capital of the Oregon Territory. Named after George Washington, the first President of the United States, the territory’s formation was integral to the westward expansion and settlement policies of the mid-19th century United States. The territorial capital was initially located at Olympia, a choice that reflected the significance of the Puget Sound area as a center for trade, politics, and settlement. During its existence, Washington Territory was a focal point for significant economic development, including the timber industry, mining, and the establishment of trade routes and settlements that laid the groundwork for the state’s future growth. Washington Territory became the 42nd state of the United States on November 11, 1889, marking the culmination of a 36-year period of territorial governance that shaped the region’s political, economic, and social landscape.

Cowles, Ada – Obituary

Baker City, Baker County, Oregon Ada M. Cowles, 83, a former Baker City resident, died January 9, 1999, at St. Louis, Mo. Private vault interment will be at Mount Hope Cemetery. Mrs. Cowles was born Feb. 13, 1915, at High Valley to Frank Leslie and Elva Virgie Ross Burford. She married Charles C. Cowles in Cove on December 31, 1936, and moved to Baker City in 1949. Mrs. Cowles was a homemaker and had lived in Missouri for the past 15 years. She was preceded in death by her parents, her husband and a son. Survivors include her niece, Margaret … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Gilmore Hays

Gilmore Hays was a native of Kentucky, but resided in Missouri, where he was district judge, when the gold discovery drew him to California. Returning to Missouri, he led a train of immigrants to Oregon in 1852, and in 1833 settled on Des Chutes River near the head of Budd Inlet. The year 1852 was the time of the cholera on the plains, and Hays lost his wife and two children, who were buried near Salmon Falls of Snake River, together with the wife of B. F. Yantis. There remained to him three sons, James H., Charles, and Robert, and … Read more

Biography of Edward Thomas Young

EDWARD THOMAS YOUNG. – Young’s Hotel, at the capital of Washington Territory, is a conspicuous building, well known to the traveling public and to the members of the legislature, and is the pride of the city. Its proprietor, whose name it bears, is a native of London, England. He was born in 1846. At an early age he crossed the water and lived with his parents at Newcastle, Canada. Subsequently he went to Bruce county, near Lake Huron, where he worked at the carpenter’s trade and general building, and acquired the means to cross the continent. He came with a … Read more

Biography of Edgar J. Webster

EDGAR J. WEBSTER. – Mr. Webster not only has a claim upon our interests as a citizen of Washington Territory, but also as a veteran of the war. Born in Michigan in 1847, he was of an age, at the commencement of hostilities, to enter the army, whither his father and three brothers had already gone. At the battle of Cold Harbor, he was shot through both legs, and after a year’s confinement in the hospital returned home and pursued the legal and special literary course at the State University. During the last year of his course, he was appointed … Read more

Biography of Charles Biles

Charles Biles was born in Warren County, Tennessee, in Aug. 1809, and reared on a farm in North Carolina, removing when 19 years old to Christian County, Kentucky. In 1832 he married, and in 1835 removed to Illinois, soon returning to Hopkins County, Kentucky, where he resided until 1853, when he emigrated to Washington Territory in company with his brother James, their families, and C. B. Baker, Elijah Baker, and William Downing, and their families, being a part of the first direct immigration to the territory, via the wagon road through the Nachess pass. Mr Biles settled upon Grand Mound … Read more

Our 1938 Mission in Alaska

We have undertaken to establish a mission school among the Arctic Eskimo Indians of Alaska. The location is to be at Point Prince of Wales at Behrings Strait, the westernmost point of the mainland of America and nearest to Asia. Its distance from the North Pole has not yet been ascertained. The inhabitants are described by Capt. Charles H. Stockton, of the United States Navy, as “the boldest and most aggressive people of all the Arctic coast. They are such a turbulent crowd that the whalers are afraid to visit them and consequently give them a wide berth. It is … Read more

Biography of William H. Peterson

WILLIAM H. PETERSON. – Mr. Peterson, an excellent portrait of whom is placed in this history, was born in West Virginia, August 31, 1836, and removed to Missouri in 1868. He became a teacher of schools and a collector of taxes in the latter state, and was so efficient in the position last-named as to remain in office three terms. In 1876 he put behind him the vast plains of the Mississippi, and even the more expanded region of the Rocky Mountains, and made his home by the Western sea in California. Over the northern part of that state he … Read more

Indian Grievances and Camp Stevens Treaty

Long before the Indian buried his tomahawk and ceased to make war upon the white man, the government adopted the policy of inquiring into the causes of his grievances and in cases where such grievances could be conciliated without jeopardizing the interests of the government or of bonafide citizens, that step was usually attempted. In the investigation of these matters it was found that in some instances the difficulty grew out of some act of the government itself, interpreted by the Indians to be detrimental to their interests; in some, from the wanton encroachment of irresponsible citizens; and yet in … Read more

Biography of Hon. Amos F. Tullis

HON. AMOS F. TULLIS. – Amos F. Tullis was born January 6, 1830, at Carthage, Rush county, Indiana. Both of his parents were natives of Ohio, and, having migrated to Indiana, followed farming. At the age of five years his mother died; and five years later his father followed her to the great silent majority, leaving a family of four sons and two daughters, of whom Amos was the fourth child. He lived on the farm of his parents until 1846, when he accompanied an older sister with her husband to Iowa. He resided at Mount Pleasant, Burlington and Ottumwa … Read more

Biography of Hon. D. F. Percival

HON. D.F. PERCIVAL. – It is a source of pleasure to write a biographical sketch of a man like Mr. Percival, or, in fact, any of the argonauts of the Pacific slope, as their lives were so fraught with diversity, their careers so different and so much more interesting than the monotonous, humdrum life of the average individual. Among the men who came West in “early days” as it is called, there are many who can look back to the times when, in a comparatively few years, they had been miners, mechanics, ranchers, teamsters, merchants, law-givers, office-holders, and turned their … Read more