The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1917-02-02
LOOKING BACKWARD.
openings When the Land Was
Young and Sparsely Settled.
From the Loomis Prospector, Feb
Try 4, 1881

S .Stansbury Is building bridge
toss the Okanogan at Oroville. Now
Bomebody would bridge the Similka-
lection would be considerably i'm
bved. Qn those days as in the recent
esent the north part of the county
pealed very slightly to the commits
bners when 1t came to appropriating
bile funds for public improvements.
ossing the Similkameen to and from
oville was confined to a ford, that
hs not entirely safe, in low water,
Id ferry when the ford was impas-
bile. Shortly after the item appeared,
Is. Forde touched the community for
fficent contributions in cash, labor
hd material to build bridge across
e Similkameen river. The bridge
lilt by Mr.. Stansbury Is still in use
nd Mr.. Stansbury still lives to use
be bridge as a crossing to and from
Is pleasant suburban home on the
hst side of the river.)
r. r. Hargrove expects to commence
hipping ore from his Conconully
lain early in the spring. 1t has pro-
uced some very high grade mineral,
Ind there is plenty more that can be
xtracted (The shipping never got be-
fond expectations, and Mr.. Hargrove
crossed the great divide before realiz-
ing anything out of the claims that he
held and developed for many, many
Fears. Mr.. Hargrove was among the
hrst prospectors attracted to the Okla
hogan country after the discovery of
mineral. He was in business In Spo-
kane Falls in the very early SOS. and
eelling out he went to Ruby about 1886.
fIe spent the balance of his life in
Ruby, Conconully and Loomis, dying
some four years ago.
The 1st Of February 10 years ago
&opened bright, clear and pleasant"
Ebut the spring like weather did not
mean the presence of that season, for
winter fingered for some time.
Bert Hawthorne, who has driven
stage between Conconully and Bridge
port for several years, was In town on
brief visit for several days this week.
(Mr. Hawthorne subsequently took up
his residence in Oroville and is still,
living here)
Jake Niederauer was in town Mon
day from his Blue Lake ranch for the
first time in several months. He In
formed us that he had an offer to trade
his property in this vicinity for inter-
ests in the Klondike Indeed. we read
the letter containing the proposition.
But there is no man having so much
faith in any country as Mr.. Niederauer
has in this. He laughed gaily at what
he considered an absurd proposition,
and declared that he would not trade
his holdings, outside of his interests in
the @. S., for the best property yet dis
covered in the Klondike. He said. in
deed, for all the claims in that luch
vaunted country. (Alas and alack!
that one with such confidence should
live to be disappointed Mr.. Niederauer,
better known as Dutch jake" put In
years of his life in this upper country
delving for the wealth that has as yet,
never come to him, and yet he still
nurses the faith. He loft here and re-
sided in Spokane for number of years
yet he is back in the county at the
present time, or was only fe months
ago, residing at Conconully. Klondike
has yielded it's millions, its hundreds OF
millions, to add to the golden store OF
the world, and the claims that Jake
would not trade for the whole country
still retain the secret of their wealth,
II the wealth Is there. Mr.. Niederauer
was not the only person In those days
who had the idea that Okanogan coun-
ty contained more mineral wealth than
any other section of the United States.)
Ed. Hicks who came In Wednesday
from Eureka, brings the particulars of
another shooting scrape at Eureka,
that occurred during the early part of
the week. A person named Dick Persell
came into a room, where there were
several people, with couple of halters
over his shoulder. A half breed whose
name was not learned, entered into
conversation with Persell, and while
talking In a bantering way, Whips
walked in. Suddenly the report of g
pistol was heard and the half breed
fell seriously wounded with bullet in
his groin. Persell at once declared the
shooting was purely accidental, as he
was endeavoring to draw his revolver
from side pocket with which to shoot
Whips, when the hammer caught and
the gun was unintentionally discharged
vrhara to M douht hut fhof thio woa g
fact as Persell and his victim were
on good terms and some grudge existed
between the other two men. Botf
Whips and Persell were formerly resi-
dents of this place and are well known
in Loomis (This was merely an in
land where enforcement of law and or
der was known to them as only an in
fringement of personal liberty in civili
zed communities, and the quick han(
and steady nerve usually adjusted diff
ferences of opinion. The parties to thi'
ory long ago.
The weather report for the month o
January was as follows: The coldes
day was the 25th, when 1t was de
grees above zero. The highest tempera
ture was on the 7th, "a degrees above
Four and one half inches of snow fel
during the month.
So far this winter the mail has no
missed single day getting in on time