Spokane Story: A Colorful Early History of the Capital of the Inland Empire by Lucile Foster Foster

Author:Lucile Foster Foster [Foster, Lucile Foster]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, Military, Wars & Conflicts (Other), United States, 20th Century, Civil War Period (1850-1877)
ISBN: 9781839742927
Google: 5ILUDwAAQBAJ
Publisher: PicklePartners
Published: 2020-03-05T00:00:00+00:00

9 — A Whistle Blows in the County Seat

SPOKANE FALLS had lusty rivals in its earlier years. The lustiest was Cheney, a score of miles away to the southwest. Up to the middle seventies, the place had been but a convenient trading point known as Depot Springs. Then Frederick Billings, busy with one of the perennial reorganizations of the Northern Pacific, laid out a town site, there and Depot Springs graciously changed its name to Billings. Further manipulations in railroad financing and organization followed. Boston capitalist Benjamin P. Cheney came upon the scene as a director of the Northern Pacific and gave the community ten thousand dollars to establish the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy on an eight-acre site presented by the railroad. What more natural than that the town of Billings should now become Cheney and begin angling for designation as county seat of Spokane County?

Unfortunately for Cheney’s ambition, the honor was bestowed upon Spokane Falls when the boundaries of the frequently made-over county were redrawn by legislative enactment in 1879. Apparently Jim Glover had had a finger in that pie, just as in almost everything else of importance to the community. In any case, he had spent a good deal of time in Olympia during the critical session, and there he was frequently observed at Doane’s oyster house reasoning with members of the legislature over pan roasts, liquid refreshments, and cigars. It took considerable reasoning, for the majority of the territorial lawmakers were either abysmally ignorant concerning developments in the interior or frankly not interested. Whatever else may have helped to bring about the desirable result, Jim Glover came home broke, but won the county seat.

A string had been attached to the arrangement, however. The voters of Spokane County were given permission to transfer the seat of government elsewhere at the next election if they so desired. A heated campaign preceded the November, 1880, election. According to a first count, upstart Cheney won by fourteen votes, though Spokane Falls candidates were elected to important offices, including those of treasurer and auditor.

Canvass of the returns (in Spokane Falls, of course) revealed “grave irregularities.”{76} In one precinct the judge of elections had sworn himself in, as the only person on hand for the job. Polling officers had in one case “used longhand where they could have used figures,” and in another they had reversed the operation. After duly pondering these irregularities, the canvassing board announced that, actually, Spokane Falls had, by a margin of two or three votes, won the county seat. It need scarcely be added that the decision was properly celebrated.

The next move was obviously Cheney’s. Promptly it filled the air with anguished cries that fourteen votes had been thrown out unlawfully. Citizens of Spokane Falls returned the outcry with interest. At the instigation of Benjamin P. Cheney, they shouted, contractors for the railroad had quartered one hundred and fifty laborers in the neighborhood of Cheney long enough to give them the right to vote at the general election, and seventy-five were known to have thus qualified.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.