Short history of Whitman County

              S10HT HISTORY OF WHITMAN COUNTY lJ5% .^-«HNGTO»»
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The Territory of Washington was organized on March 2, 1853. At that time only a few white people were living East of the Cascades, as the massacre of Whitman and his followers had kept the immigration back. The first settler after the missionaries was Mr. H. N, Chase, who settled in Walla Walla in 1851. During the next decade but very few people followed him. In 1861 gold was discovered in what is- now Idaho and soon a stampede started, most of the people going up the Columbia River and the Snake River and to what is now Nez Perce County.
At the first session of the territorial legislation sixteen counties were created, one of them being Walla Walla, which county at that time embraced nearly all of what is now Eastern Washington, east of the Columbia River.
Whitman County was created by a bill which was dated November 29, 1871. Mr. Anderson Cox of Waitsburg, then Receiver of the United States Land Office at Walla Walla, was the main power behind this bill. Whitman County at the start had about 200 people and embraced also what is now Franklin and Adams County. These last two named counties were separated in the year 1883*
The settlement of Whitman County started from the Walla Walla valley and from where the people gradually moved North and began to settle in the Union Flat country. Mr. James Allen Perkins built his log cabin in 1870 on the junction of the North and South branch of the Palouse River and founded thereby Colfax.
During the first years of the County stock raising was the exclusive business, people just raising wheat and grain enough to supply their own demand. In 1876 the first wheat was shipped from Almota down the Columbia River to Portland, and since that time wheat export has been on the steady increase. About the same time fruit raising was attempted on the Snake River and the results were better than the most optimistic had expected.
In 1877 the population had grown to 2,250 people.
In this year Chief Joseph's banH of Nes Persis went on the war-path in Idaho and thereby started an Indian scare that was without foundation, but nevertheless did a great deal of harm and checked the immigration for a while.
In the year 1879 the County experienced the first bad flood, the most damage being done in the county seat at Colfax. The records show that.the County at that time had about 5,000 inhabitants, 600 of which were living in Colfax. Of the 5,000 inhabitants 1,400 were school children. The records further show that 10$ of the Government Land was settled on end the taxable property was valued at One and one-half millions dollars.
The Northern Pacific Railway started their first railtoad in 1883, but the financial troubles of Villard caused a temporary suppression of two years. Work was resumed again in August, 1885.
An attempt was made in 1889 to oreate the new County of Steptoe to comprise the two southern tier s\ or townships of Spokane County and the three northern tiers of Whitman County, The Convention was held at Rosalia which endorsed this project strongly, but when the bill came up to the Legislature it was defeated.