Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 5.djvu/39

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Spokane and Stevens Counties.
29

no schools and no better way of using the money. Another court jurisdiction act was passed in January, 1868.

In conjunction with other counties Spokane was represented in the legislatures of 1861-62-63-64 by John A. Simms, J. R. Hates, B. F. Yantis, Daniel Stewart, and Isaac L. Tobey. Tobey seemed to have a grievance against his Spokane constituency, for on the 13th of January, 1864, he introduced in the house, bill No. 59, which he pushed with so much vigor that in less than a week it had passed both houses and was the law of the land. This bill declared "that the County of Spokane is hereby annexed to Stevens, and the two counties hereafter shall compose but one county to be known as the county of Stevens." Thus ended for the second time the county of Spokane, the existence of which was uncertain, changeful and troublous from its beginning, or attempted beginning, six years before. By the new law Colville was made the county seat until otherwise ordered by the people of the county. The officers of Spokane County were continued as the officers of Stevens County, and the legislative representation of both counties wax given to the one county of Stevens.

By act of January 20, 1863, Stevens County was created. It was cut off from Walla Walla and included all that portion between the Wenatchee River on the south, the 49th parallel on the north, the Columbia River on the east, and the Cascade Mountains on the west. It was named in honor of Isaac Ingalls Stevens, the first Governor of Washington Territory, 1853 to 1857, and delegate to congress from 1857 to 1861. Stevens entered the Union army at the outbreak of the rebellion, and was successively colonel, brigadier general and major general. On the first of September, 1862, he was killed in battle at Chantilly, Virginia. The honor paid to his memory on this occasion by the legislature was a deserved one which met the hearty approval of all citizens. W. B. Yantis was made sheriff of the new county; Charles H. Campbell, auditor; Richard Longfield, - - Doyle, and - - Hill, commissioners. The seat was located temporarily at the store of H. Young. For judicial purposes Stevens County was attached to Spokane. It may be said that though Stevens has been continued