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The Klickitat County News, Goldendale, WA., May 14, 1936, page 4

INTERESTING PIONEER INFORMATION
Goldendale History

EDITOR'S NOTE - The following condensed historical sketch of Goldendale and early Klickitat county was compiled from data embodied in a directory and guide published by John T. Harsell, owner of a printing plant and office in Goldendale at that time. The data and incidents will be recalled by the few remaining pioneers of that early date and will be remembered by their sons and daughters as a portion of their home training during those early pioneer periods. The guide was a portion of the vast collection of such data owned by W.J. Story, recently retired publisher of the Klickitat County Agriculturist.

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With the great tide of emigration that set forward the Pacific coast between the years of 1847 and 1860, Washington Territory received its share. Even at that early date, attention had been directed to the magnificent valleys that may spread out in all their beauty, and the swelling hills upon which browsed the Indian ponies undisturbed by any paleface.
The pioneers of Klickitat county were those whose names were, and always will be, identified with the early settlement. J.J. Golden, the founder of Goldendale, in company with the Burgens, arrived in 1853, and being fully satisfied with the aspect of the country, determined to make this section their future home, they were soon followed by the Thorpes, Nelsons, Jenkens and others, numbering about 20 families, all of a high type and influential.
That part of the valley known at that time, and yet, as the "swale"was settled first and in the course of a few years farms began to be nearer together as the natural industry of the people made itself known.
No trouble was experienced at the hands of hostile Indians, the redskins seeming to realize that the pale-faces wanted to harm them in no ways and that they sought the pursuit of peaceful living in a cooperative of fashion.
The pioneer's judgment in selecting Klickitat county, and more especially the Klickitat valley, as a home was justified then as it is today, as the territory offered all of the natural advantages of agriculture and eliminated many of the drawbacks. But the surrounding country being largely unsettled, and there being but little demand for farm produce, as well as no means sufficient to transport the same to a suitable market, the pioneers first turned their attention to stock raising, and no one could have possibly conceived a better territory for such industry, as there was an abundance of feed even in winter unless extraordinarily severe. The stock raising industry was especially profitable as large bands of cattle could be raised at almost nominal expense to their respective owners, and all engaged in it without hindrance as the valley was sparsely settled, and the cattle, left to roam at large, interfered with no one. This occupation was consistently followed until the winter of 1863, which some of the more recent date will remember in historical recounts, as an especially severe season. Deep snow fell during the winter, together with visitations of severe frost, causing considerable damage among flocks and herds, and for a short period discouraging the raising of stock as a livelihood.
The Swale settlement at that time had already lost several of its members due to the Indian scare of 1860, but their fears had been unfounded, has no hostility was manifest at that, or later period. Minor depradations, such as stealing of stock and some property damage, constituted the bulk of the Indian trouble with the pioneers.
After the cold winner of 1860 the settlers turned their attention to the wood and lumber trade, as an abundance of material was at hand, the mountains been covered with a dense blanket of timber. For a period of two years about 40 large teams and about the same number of small ones, were engaged in hauling and furnishing cord word to the O.S.N. Company at Columbus. Columbus at that time (1861-62-63) consisted of a hotel, store, butcher shop and several other small business houses. The superior quality of the Klickitat lumber soon created a demand for it, and it began to receive considerable attention, saw mills springing up all over the valley, and since that early date, lumbering has proved a major industry in the entire county.
In the early day; the Klickitat pine had no equal for one particular purpose, that of pattern making for foundries. Having no hard grains in the body, and being uniformly soft, it was peculiarly adapted to this purpose.
At that time, when lumbering, cattle raising and fuel business was the three major industries, no one dreamed that wheat raising was to eclipsed the three. In order to successfully raise and market grain, it was believed, a transportation line was necessary out of the valley to a large market. However, it was soon to be learned that The Dalles was to furnish a fair market and the grain was hauled overland by horse drawn wagons.
In 1871-2, no one had taken much interest in general farming, with the possible exception of the raising of small produce for local consumption.
John Bergen has been accorded the Klickitat Valley Farmer No. 1. It was Mr. Bergen who first saw the need and successfully raised produce of several varieties and who foresaw the grain raising opportunity. In 1873 the first real, progressive steps were taken toward the raising of grain as a livelihood. The average gradually increased until the territory hereabouts now enjoys as its major crop, wheat.
The faith in the Klickitat valley and surrounding territory was not strong, history records. This fact is borne out in the efforts of M.V. Harper, T.J. Harper, J.F. Alexander, Egbert French, John Bergen and John Graham to promote, through private subscription, the funds for construction and establishment of a grist mill. The men, all thoroughly "sold" on the proposition, were turned down by practically all residents of means and told that the mill would prove a losing investment. The development of the territory was so rapid, however, that a grist mill was found to be a necessity, and Messrs. Chatfield, Smith, Marble and Nelson built the Goldendale Mills.
Prior to the establishment of the mill and the start of its operation, Goldendale first came into being as a town, at least in name. It was in the fall of 1873 that the John J. Golden first conceived the picture of a community in the center of the picturesque Klickitat valley. He had been a resident of the territory since 1859. There was nothing with which to mark the site for some two years except a pile of fence rails, stacked in a jumbled pile at a spot said to now exist near the Troost planing mill.
A year 1874, however, the site took quite a start towards its ultimate growth. An M.E. parsonage was constructed by Rev. Turner and by the end of the year the city contained some seven homes.
During the next few years, the growth of Goldendale was rapid and it came to be known as an important transportation center and was the mecca of travelers covering the territory between Yakima valley points and The Dalles and Portland.
In 1873, the mail reached the settlement but once each week. By 1889 the mail was coming into the city three times each week via stage from The Dalles and Yakima points as well as from Columbus.
The city of Goldendale was incorporated in the fall of 1879. Its founding was so long opposed by stock raising interest that its progress for the first five years was substantially retarded. The Legislature of the Territory of Washington was even induced to refuse to submit the question of moving the county seat from Rockland (near the present Northdalles) to Goldendale to the populace. However, Mr. Whitney finally succeeded in introducing and passing a bill allowing three-fifths vote to settle the question and at the election 500 out of 600 voters in the county acquiesced in the removal of the county seat.
The historical item, unearthed by The News, and from which the material herein contained was culled was called, ends with the following statement: "The rapidity with which Goldendale has developed inside of the past two years has far exceeded the expectations of the worst sanguine. Goldendale, at that time, has sprung from a score of houses and less than a hundred inhabitants to the proportions of a city. Its natural prosperity is the wonder and astonishment of the stranger. The question is: "What is the cause?." We have no mines that people are expecting to make fortunes out of, and for the present, we do not expect to have railroad communications nearer than 10 miles (Columbus at that time, now Maryhill). The only answer is that the country demands it. The public spirit and enterprise of the citizens are such that a good substantial courthouse (1878), second to none in the Territory, has been built without cost to the county. A jail has been built with two cells. The title of both buildings are now vested in Klickitat county. As regards for schools, they are surpassed by none in the Territory. The teachers are persons of great ability and practice. The school at the academy opened on the 26th day of January, 1880, with 160 scholars, and is under the management of Captain W.A. Wash, a gentleman of questionable ability and years of practical experience."