The Spokane press. [volume] (Spokane, Wash.) 1902-1939, 1910-03-13
was the lowest selling price of food
and clothes.
SETTLERS WOULDN'T TRADE
IN NICKLES.


and clothes.
SETTLERS WOULDN'T TRADE
IN NiCkLES.
One man, named Griffin. with
eastern ideas, came in about the lat
ter part e 70 to CIT the prices and
threatened to run the rest of us
clear out of business. He did cut
tie prices and he even shipped in
a key of nickles from the east and
placed them in his window. Those
nickles were quite curiosity, for
many of the westerners had never
seen one before, but poor Griffin
couldn't make a hit with his cut
prices AID he went away from Spo-
kane Falls in financial distress. -
Spokane Falls boosted of two lit
tie hotels then, but they were suf-
ficient to accommodate all the hun
CRY and weary travlers and visitors
who wandered in from across the
rocky hills. One of them was known
as the California House and stood
on the present site of the city hall,
while the other was known as the
Western House, and owned by DR..
Masterson, was at Stevens and
Front.
We'll, sir, the first break made to
build as far uDs as Riverside ave-
nue. was made by merchant named
Hunisucer. He bought the lot now
occupied by the Traders National
bank and moved little store, about
16 feet wide and story and half
tall. from Front avenue up there
and started in business. Everybody
laughed about it. The frail little
building looked like some wild thing
way out there On the rock prairie
stretching its neck up to see the
other part of town.
RIVERSIDE AND HOWARD PROP
ERTY. WORTH BUT LITTLE.
This corner was worth about
$3.50 or $500 at that tine. Hunisu-
Ger later sold it to A. Keats for a
little or nothing and moved to Ash
land, Ore, giving Spokane Falls up
as bad job. Nearly the whole of
the Spokane townsite was then
owned by A. M. Cannon. J. J.
Browne, ]. N. Glover and Mr.. Hav-
ermale on the south side, and Col
onel |. n. Jenkins had 100 acres
across the river. With all the
trouble they were having of getting
a railroad to come this way most
any of them would have sold out
| for the proverbial song.
Everything seemed lost to this
town along in 1880. Northern Pa.
cific surveying crews began picking
out a route over this way from Aims
| worth. Wash. They brought the
| line down to Sprague and then
across toward Deep Creek falls. Be
fore the road ever reached this part
of the country. the Northern Pa.
cific company started the. town OF
Cheney, expecting to make that the
largest city of the Inland Empire
Because of the deep canyons and
other difficulties, that road scarcely
conceded this town chance and
only for the determination of the
TOWNSHIP owners and the Spokane
merchants they would have easily
had it figured rightly.
STRUGGLE BETWEEN SPOKANE
AND CHENEY.
mo sooner had Cheney been
founded than it's merchants began
all sorts of competition schemes for
the business of this entire territory.
and hanged if they didn't get it, and
had it not been for the trade we got
from the Canadian Pacific. whose
crews got nearly all their supplies
down here that year, believe the
Cheney merchants would have run
us clear out of business. Well, they
finally went so near broke that they
had to put the prices back up to
their normal standards and we be.
gan to gain again.
SPOKANE LOSES COUNTY SEAT
STRUGGLE FOLLOWS.
Spokane county extended clear
to the Columbia river and was
made up of the territory now COM
prising Spokane, Lincoln and
Douglas counties. Spokane Falls
was the county seat, but when
things began booming at Cheney
they voted the county seat over
there. Cheney kept that distinction
only till the Spokane men got ses.
sion of legislature, conjured up a
scheme with Lincoln county to have
the county seat given back to Spo.
kane and to make Sprague the seat
of Lincoln county. We won and
we brought the court records all
over to Spokane and placed them
in an upper room over Flies store
at the northwest corner of Howard
and Main, but we couldn't have
kept them had we chained them to
the foundation. Those Cheney fel.
lows were stubborn and they
slipped over here one night, con
fiscated all the records and carried
them back to Cheney. We had a
hard time tracing them up and II
was long time before we finally
got possession of them again.
ENTERING OF THE FIRST
RAILROAD.
"A joyous whOOp went up all
over town one day few months
later. One of the freighters, while
riding down around the bend OF
Hangman creek found a bunch of
Cinnamon shoveling gravel as II
they were working on a bet. He
learned from their "Pidgen Eng.
lish" that they were building the
Northern Pacific roadbed into Spo.
kane and he galloped all the way
back to tell the news. It was but a
short time later that the road build.
ers were shooting a right-ofway
| through the Spokane rocks and