John Jacob Astor, at the point where the Okanogan River joins the Columbia. The Spokane House, probably at Spokane Falls, had been built some time before 1811. Spokane Garry, an educated Indian, conducted a school there for some years about that time. Fort Col ville at Kettle Falls was established by Americans in 1826. It was a strategic post for military and fur-trading purposes. At a later time, 1855, gold and other minerals were discovered, which gave the present Colville its beginnings and considerable importance.

Old Fort Walla Walla, early called Wallula, as it is now, was a most important trading post. It is at the confluence of the Walla Walla River with the Columbia. Many emigrant trains from the East took passage here down the Columbia. Traffic from the lower Columbia was frequently unloaded here for transshipment by pack train to the Walla Walla, Spokane, Okanogan, and Coeur d'Alene regions. A military post was established at the present site of Walla Walla in 1856. It immediately became the great distributing center for sup plies from the East and from down the Columbia to the mining regions in what is now northeastern Washington, Idaho, and eastern Oregon. Schafer says:

The trails radiated in all directions from the little town, and during the packing season long lines of horses and mules were ever coming and going. In the winter of 1866-67 between five hundred and six hundred were kept within seven miles of Wallula. During ten days in the month of July 1869, when times were dull, trains aggregating five hundred fifty-nine packs were fitted out at Walla Walla.20

Gradually the fertile, level plain and rolling hills stretching for miles in every direction came to be rich in agricultural lands. Some of the most productive wheat ranches in the world have been developed in that region. The agricultural college was located in Whitman County, which has a world's record in wheat raising. In the wheat-growing district northeast of Walla Walla the towns of Dayton and Waitsburg were founded early.

Spokane very early became a center for mining operations in the Okanogan, Coeur d'Alene, Kootenai, and Colville regions. It also was the point of radiation to the great wheat fields to the south in the region of the present cities of Cheney, Sprague, Harrington, Ritzville, Colfax, Palouse, Garfield, and Pullman. To the north and west lay the "Big Bend" country along the Columbia where great wheat fields eventually displaced the sagebrush and bunch grass. The towns of Davenport, Creston, and Waterville have all grown up as accessory centers for that rich agricultural belt.

10 Schafer, op. cit., p. 224.

Walla Walla was the outfitting point for the Oro Fino mines of Idaho, then a part of Washington, and in 1860 and 1861 thousands of men rushed to those fields. Their way led up the Snake River to the mouth of the Clearwater, and then along that stream and on into the diggings. At the mouth of the Clearwater a town developed with marvelous rapidity. It was named Lewiston in honor of Captain Meriwether Lewis. The later organization of Idaho Territory cut Lewiston out of Washington, but it is a pleasure to observe that just across the Snake River, on the Washington side, has recently developed a city which has received the name of Clarkston, in honor of Captain William Clark. Thus Lewiston and Clarkston, though in different States, are now smiling at each other across a river discovered and explored by Captains Lewis and Clark.21

Irrigation coming after statehood made possible large areas watered by the Yakima and Wenatchee Rivers. Thousands of acres formerly inhabited by the jackrabbit and sage hen have become garden spots now shipping fruit, especially apples, to all parts of the world.

5. Independence North of the Columbia

In 1851 a definite movement was made by the settlers north of the Columbia to secure separation from that part of Oregon south of the Columbia. R. D. Bigelow, who enters so prominently into later educational history, made a Fourth of July oration at Olympia that launched the plan in all seriousness. A newspaper, the Columbian, the first in Washington, was started in Olympia on September 11, 1852. This paper immediately began agitation for the legal establishment of the new territory. As a result of this, a convention was called to meet on October 25 of that year at the house of H. D. (Uncle Darb) Huntington at Monticello. This was near the mouth of the Cowlitz River not far from the present site of Longview. (Longview's con spicuous hotel, is named the Monticello.) A memorial was addressed to Congress praying that the territory of Columbia be set off as an independent political unit.

Ezra Meeker says that the new region had a scant 4,000 white population when admitted as a territory. He estimated that there were probably 15,000 Indians. The new territory at the outset included all of the region north of a line east of the lower Columbia River and extending east to the Rocky Mountains. Idaho and a part of Montana were later carved out of eastern Washington and Oregon. According to The Pioneer and Democrat of Olympia a census of the new counties

21 Meany, Edmond S. History of the State of Washington. P. 234.

formed in the new Washington Territory contained the following numbers of white people:

TABLE 3.-Population of Washington Territory, 1853

The influx of population was slow. Until the advent of railroads few towns of any importance were developed. Some of the centers of population were villages at rural crossroad centers where farmers traded at the village store, which contained the post office. Here they found a blacksmith shop and sometimes a grist mill. Other centers were fishing villages on the coast or on the rivers; and still others were the lumber camps. In any case they were all small. Transportation was such as not to permit long journeys. Later marine shipping ports, of course, brought together considerable aggregations. Even there it takes the railroad to augment and supplement the watercraft. Ocean shipping must be distributed to interior land communities and a hinterland is necessary to provide goods for ocean ports. Consequently the large increase in population and graded schools followed the opening up of railroads, discussed in another place.

The conferring of statehood also acted as a stimulus to attract settlers. The term "territory" suggests primitive conditions and backwoods' hardships deterring prospective settlers from seeking that region. With statehood a settled reality it seemed as if stability, pros perity, and a comfortable existence were assured.

TABLE 4.-Population of chief cities of Washington at successive dates

Chapter III

Pioneer Schools in Northern Oregon (Washington)

1. The First School in the Northwest

Location at Vancouver.-The first school in the Oregon country was at Fort Vancouver, which was located in what is now Washington, and was taught by John Ball, a young man who came out with the Nathaniel Wyeth party. John Ball possibly had no idea that he would assume the role of educator shortly after his arrival at Fort Vancouver. He was then 38 years of age, having been born in New Hampshire in 1794; and was a graduate of Dartmouth of the class of 1820.

The party arrived at Vancouver October 29, 1832. Ball was not content to remain at the fort, as he did not consider that he really had crossed the continent. Therefore, a few days later, he and four others took an Indian canoe and paddled down the Columbia, passed the mouth of the Willamette River, to the place where the river meets the sea. Having reached Clatsop Point, he, being the only one of the party desirous of going ahead, tramped 3 miles around the point to look at the ocean.

Here I stood alone, as entranced, felt that now I had gone as far as feet could carry me west, and really to the end of my proposed journey.

There to stand on the brink of the great Pacific, with the rolling waves washing its sands and seaweeds to my feet! And there I stood on the shore of the Pacific enjoying the happiest hour of all my journey, till the sun sank beneath its waters, and then by a beautiful moonlight returned on the beach to camp, feeling that I had crossed the continent.1

He relates that Mr. Wyeth and he were invited by Dr. McLough lin, upon his return to the fort, to his own table and given rooms in the fort, and the others had quarters outside the grounds.

And I soon gave him and Mr. Wyeth to understand I was there on my own hook, and that I had no further connection with the others, than that for the making of the journey. We were received at the fort as guests without talk of pay or the like, and it was acceptable, or else we should have had to hunt for subsistence.2

The return to Vancouver was on November 16. On the following day he dissolved all connection with the N. J. Wyeth party. He wrote of this experience:

But not liking to live gratis, I asked the doctor, as he was always called, being a physician, for some employment. He at first told me I was a guest and did not expect to set me to work. But after further urging, he said if I was willing he would like to have me teach his son and other boys about the fort. I, of course, gladly accepted the offer. So he sent the boys to my room to be instructed, all half-breed boys of course, for there was not then a white woman in Oregon. The doctor's wife was a Chippewa woman from Lake Superior, and the lightest woman, a Mrs. Douglas, a half-breed woman from Hudson Bay. Well, I found the boys docile and attentive and making good progress, for they are precocious and generally better boys than men. And the old doctor used to come in to see the school and seemed much pleased and well satis fied, and one time he said, "Ball, anyway you will have the reputation of teaching the first academy in Oregon." And so I passed the winter. The gentlemen in the fort were pleasant and intelligent, a circle of a dozen or more usually at the wellprovided table, where there was much formality. They consisted of partners, clerks, captains of vessels, and the like-men to wait on the table and probably cook, for we saw nothing or little of their women, except perhaps sometimes on Sundays out on horse-back ride, at which they excelled.'

Date of establishment.-There seems to be some confusion as to the date upon which the school was started, some placing it in November 1832, while others put it on January 1, 1833. Facts seem to point toward the former date rather than the latter, and it is more probable that the school was inaugurated soon after November 17. A number of sources which have been consulted to straighten this matter reveal that the most authentic, no doubt is the daughter of John Ball, Miss Lucy Ball, who is one of the compilers of his autobiography. Her communication, which has much historical significance bearing on this point, states:

Letter of Lucy Ball

GRANVILLE, MICH.,
Aug. 7, 1927.

MY DEAR MR. BIBB: I have just received your communication of August 1st and have been looking at the original journal kept on this trip. There is no entry after November 17 until the next year in September. The last two entries are as follows: Nov. 16. I land on place 3 miles below Ft. Vancouver. (He was returning from his trip to the Pacific.)

Nov. 17. Dissolve all connection with N. J. Wyeth, etc.

I am inclined to think that his school began soon after this date. According to the "Autobiography" on page 93, Doctor McLoughlin did not at first accept his offer to be put to work, but after some urging suggested the school. As father was always a man of action, there is no doubt in my mind that the school began but a few days after November 17, 1832. I am sorry I can give no more definite date.

Sincerely yours,

* Ibid., p. 93.

(Signed) LUCY BALL.