PART V. HISTORY OF CHELAN. COUNTY CHAPTER I. EARLY HISTORY AND PASSING EVENTS. To write a history of Chelan county from man could trace them. Rock bluffs rise abrupt• the time it was'organized from portions of Kit::• ly and frequently along the Columbia, sheer titas and Okanogan counties would be a com• from the water's edge, from one to five hun• paratively easy task. At present it is the new• dred feet in places. These must be conquered est county commonwealth in the state,· but it and oft times this could only be accomplished has traditionary and authentic histories dating by a wi11ding tortuous trail, so steep that even nearly as far hack as any other distinct section the cure-footed cayuse cottld hardly nl.aster it. in Washington. Among the earliest to come to this country The name of the county is derived from were Chinese. Placer mining was the object the famous lake . in its northern part. The of their most sanguine hopes. Up and down word "Chelan" is, doubtless; a contraction of the Columbia and its numerous tributaries they Chelanic, the name of a tribe of Indians, but wandered and panned and rocked a satisfying, the meaning of the term Chelan is still wrapped if not an enormous volume of auriferous de• in ambiguity. Many years ago the fur traders posits fro1J1 the various bars and creeks. A following up, or down, the great natural high• majority of these Celestials came from Califor• way of the state of Washington, the Columbia nia, following the trails of Indians, fur dealers river, frequented these parts, hovered awhile and miners. And thus it chanced that all along and traded witlr the Indians at times, and then the banks of this big, roaring, treacherous plunged again into the wilderness stretching stream, wherever wash soil could be found, on away to the northward, far up through the which water could be obtained, or to which it Okanogan country, and even into British Col• could be carried, one finds today the abandoned umbia.. Then came the prospectors, tho:e zeal prospect holes of the original Chinese placer ous and tireless searchers after mineralized miner. It developed a fruitful field; for many rock or the more accessible placer mine. The years it was worked industriously; frequently Indians found their winding trails along the with astonishing profit. Opposite the mouth Columbia execllent paths to the ocean. These of the Chelan river, where it debouches into trails would be far froin satisfactory to the the Columbia, from the west, are the ruins of members of a "good roads commission." They a Chinese village in what is now Douglas coun• were not even on a level. Only a skilled woods- ty. The remains of this early settlement may HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON. be seen from Chelan Falls, across the river, or how death had come to him. Some of his half a mile away. It was built mainly of cedar comrades spoke of a broken heart, and then boards split from the log, like shakes, pegged they buried him in the little patch he had so against upright posts, and roofed with logs and assiduously attended. When the village was brush. At present nothing but the shells of deserted no vandal hand disturbed the garden; these huts remain. In this early settlement Nearly fifteen years ago this settlement was there was a store. It was the first business en• abandoned. The finances of the old Chinese terprise in the country; the proprietor was a merchant were running low, for.he had "grub• Chinese merchant. To the Chinese workers staked" too many of his countrymen in their along the river he supplied goods, and he made search for gold. In a big mine up on the Okan• considerable money. A pack train of forty ogan river he had an interest, and there he horses he owned with which he brought in his moved, taking his lares and penates, his goods, miscellaneous assortment of English, Ameri• his horses and even the number of his store can and Chinese merchandise. It is stated that with him. One by one others followed him, no stranger ever appeared at this store who was and wandered away, up or down the trail. The not made welcome by the old Chinese mer• "diggings" are deserted; the village is a ruin; chant. the cabins the abode of snakes and rodents. A tragedy tinged with romance is connect• VVith the progress of civilization in the Colum• ed with this oriental settlement. On one side bia Valley these old ·placer marks will disap• of the site there was a garden, now overgrown pear ; the cabins will be torn clown and real with mustard plants and weeds. It was en• prosperity will sweep grandly over the scene. closed by a low picket fence and a gate led in• All this was in r875. It was, practically, ward. It was a token of advanced civilization. an Indian war against the Chinese that drove The proprietor of this little kitchen garden was them away, but at the ti111e this was not gen• a moon-eyed youth with a voice like a muffled erally known. Along the Methow river the bell. He was in love with a dusky maiden who savages began attacking the Chinese of whom lived across the Columbia, on the banks of they killed several. The news rapidly circu• Lake Chelan. But this Celestial had made a lated among their comrades. When the Siwa• peculiar vow never to declare his love. · And shes came to the settlement intent on its demol• this vow had been registered before the great ishment, they found nobody save a few strag• joss of the little Chinese community. Hence glers. · There were several sharp skirmishes in he was moody and g-rew "queer," unsocial, mel• which some were killed on both sides. A cor• ancholy and distrait. While others flocked to respondent of the Spokesman-Review says: the gaming house he remained solitary and "\i\Then thIndians reached a point on the alone in his garden. Until quite late in the even• Columbia a few miles below where Chelan ing he would sit there and brood over his un• Falls now stands they discovered a number of spoken love, when, Chinamen at work on the benches three hun• "Night hung her sable curtain out, and dred feet above. The savages advanced cau• pinned it with a star." tiously ·and surrounded the Celestials on three So he sighed anci dreamed way his life. sides, leaving only the steep bluffs unguarded. Everyone sympathized with him in accordance Then began an uneven fight. The Chineman with the old, old adage, "All the world loves were unprotected and unable to escape, and a lover." But his friends could do him no they proved an easy prey to their savage an• farther good. One morning he was found dead tagonists. How many were massacred was in the little kitchen garden. No one knew when never known, but it is positive that not one was HISTORY OF NORTH WASHINGTON.- left to tell the tale. It was an awful fig-ht, that the town "New Mission.'' Here the first steps sent 'terror into the-·hearts of the other Chinese toward irrigation were taken. Father Grassi along the river. After that there was little turned a small stream of water flowing to the placer mining- done for months, then one· by river from the mountain, over a small garden one the Celestials returned, but never could one patch ai1d planted a few seeds which he had _ of them be induced to g-o on the bench where brought with him into the country. The soil the massacre occurred and open up the dig• yielded bountifully. To the Indians he taug-ht gings again. Today they are in exactly the the elementary principles of agriculture. In same condition as that in which they were when the temporal as well as the spiritual welfare of the workers were slaug-htered by the Indians. the Indians Father Grassi interested himself. "Now the placer fields of the past are own• Within a brief time the log church was found ed by settlers, and are fast becoming- beautiful too small to accommodate the congregation and fruit orchards. Occasionally a townsite spring-s a larger one was erected .one and one-half miles up and some envious fellows, anxious to secure to the eastward. For five years he held stated control, file, or attempt to file, placer claims on services here, and then the natives were left the land, but such work is considered as dis• without a regular pastor, being supplied at in• reputable among the settlers as claim-jumping tervals from other missions. It is undoubted that and the intruders usually receive a cold recep- Father Grassi's influence upon the IndiaBs tion." rnade for their best good. They became peace- The oldest settled portion of Chelan county . ful, law-abiding and sent their children to is Mission Valley. Authentic reports of white school. men visiting this portion of the Columbia Then came the white settlers into the valley. valley date back to about 1863. But it is well The productive gardens of the Indians taught known that the nomadic tq.ppers connected them what irrigation could accomplish in this with the Astoria enterpi·ise explored the Wena• country. Among the first to settle in Mission tchee river long before that period. These men, Valley was Mr. D. S. Farrar. At that period however, were adventurers, not settlers.· They he was the only one in the valley who had hay brought nothing into the country; they carried to sell, and t[1e Indians called him "Hayman." nothing out save their bundle of peltries.