The Dalles times-mountaineer. [volume] (The Dalles, Or.) 1882-1904, 1898-01-01


granted to o. Hummason.
Granted license I. S. Henderson keep grocery
The Dales for six months the of $50 per annum
commencing the list day of April, 1854
Appointed place of voting at the home of Mr.. Fore
sythe."
These give idea of the
ing county business those primitive days; also
them conceive the extent the territory covered
by Wasco county when established Jurisdiction
extended to the Utah line 500 miles from the county
The first election for county officers held June 6,
1854 and the recorded the commissioners
journal follows
cat general election held a The Dalles, Wasco
county, Oregon territory June 1854 Rcnard A. Mar
shall, Charles Evelyn l. L. Henderson were duly
elected and qualified according to law, commissioners in
and for said county of Wasco.
I'm witness whereof 1 hereunto set my hand
seal this 10th day June, 1854
81 A SIMMONS, Auditor"
The further show July Sd the board of
commissioners met and appointed Benjamin NJ Reynolds
sheriff O. Hummason sheriffs clerk, office embrac
the duties of clerk recorder and deputy sheriff
LOSS OF TERRITORY.
Thus Wasco county, then the largest county in the
United States organized oicered 1t maintained it's
dimensions until the territory of Idaho establish
ed when at least onethrd the county was eliminated Fol
lowing this loss, Baker county cut off September
o. 1862 September q of the year Umatlla
county created Union county set apart in Sep
tembe 1864 By the establishing of these three counties
Wasco lost all territory east of the Blue mountains
part north of the 45h degree of latitude and
of the John Day river Its next loss occurred in Sep
tember 1870 when the legislature established Grant
ty embracing the territory comprising Grant, Har-
ney Lake and klamath counties Again, on October a.
1882 another county carved out of Wasco, Crook
county, territory of 5000 miles, being cut
the southern part by act of the legislature. The
last division of Wasco county made February %
1885, when of the legislature Sherman county
and by this Wasco lost 6S4 miles of
territory embracing the best agricultural land in
the northwest
miles, has divided until to-day it embraces
only S44 square miles, 324 square miles of which
in Warm Springs Indian Seven counties in
Idaho and thirteen Oregon have been created out OF It's
original territor.
EARLY SETTLEMENT.
sketch of the early history of Wasco county would
incomplete without reference to those sturdy po
neers by whose heroic deeds the wilderness OF half cen
tury ago subdued.
probably the Catholic mission at The Daes but the
first homesteader of whom have any record to esab
lish permanent residence French trapper named
Joseph Levendure who staked out land claim on what
attracted California by the discovery Of
gold, and abandoned his possessions here
known as the John irvine farm but he too went to
fornia when the discovery of gold was made
The next permanent settlement was made by william
c. Laughln, He located claim and built house
point but abandoned the following and
located donation claim on Hood river The same year
Justice Chenoweth settled piece of land three miles
Daes erecting large house, and making other
Improvements.
the pioneer fruit raiser of this section put
his first orchard he still Mill creek
in 1854. year D. Bolton located Fifteen Mile,
where he beagn farming quite extensive SCALE and
Is said been the first farmer to raise crop Of
wheat in Oregon east of the Cascade mountains.
These the pioneer agrcultrasts of Wasco county,
them the credit of having developed the
cutura what later years has become
greatest producing sections of the northwest
THE FIRST INDUSTRIES
When the whites first settled in this section the entire
country covered with uXuriant growth of native
which suggested the husbandman its adapta
,ity stock raising. AS result little attention
,ven other branhes of agriculture and until 1870
Vasco county cattle only much land
eng cultivated to supply home demand
With flour and hay nothing being raised for export From
time of it's early settlement 1870 WaScO county
he home of the cowboy but gradually cattle ranches
wheat farms, and the hills covered with
unchgrass converted into fields of waving grain
A PIONEER WEDDING.
In the pioneer days of the sos weddings of nfr
In fact WaScO county hau been eStab
shed than and one-half years before marriage
solemnzed within it's borders. Still suscep
bile to the charms of and doubtless others would
fallen vtm Cupis wieS had the fairer been
plenty Nevertheless fair madenS led to the
ltar the first marriage in WaSco