History Corner

In 1900 the world was in the middle of the Industrial Revolution. More advances were yet to come, but by the late 1800s some mind blowing technology had already entered the lives of the average American.

Cambridge Citizen, June 1, 1900 – “Science has achieved wonderful results within the past half century. The aged man who follows the footsteps of his fathers is lost in the movements of the present. Electricity and steam are making a new world of this old world of ours, and man is demonstrating that he is but a little lower than the angels.”

That summer the Ford Brothers built a road to Black Lake and started freighting in equipment. A shorter route to Council from Landore was created as well, crossing the divide east from Landore to Bear Creek. The Ford Brothers road to Placer Basin and Black Lake forked north from this road, as it still does today.

Weiser Signal, September 6, 1900 – “The Ford Brothers have nearly completed their wagon road to Black Lakes. The work is required 25 men all summer and its construction was necessary in order to get in the cyanide plant now on the way. John Rogers has moved his sawmill to the Black Lakes and altogether there are about 70 men employed there.”

By July, a new town called “Decorah” had been established at the mouth of Garnet Creek, not far down Indian Creek from Landore. The new town already had a general merchandise store, three saloons, a boarding house and several other buildings. The petition asking for a post office had been filed.

Railroad grade was being built between Council and the mining district and between Council and Meadows Valley. Weiser Signal, September 13, 1900 – “The railroad bed is graded and ties are cut for a number of miles above Council. Here the road divides, the main branch heading for some point on the Northern Pacific Road, via Salmon Meadows, the branch already surveyed via Hornet Creek to the Seven Devils, 40 miles to the northwest.”

Weiser Signal, Sept 20, 1900 – “The steamer Mabel, which has been tied up on Snake river for some time past, will be sold at sheriff’s sale September 29th to satisfy a judgment against the Seven Devils Transportation Company for $1300 and costs.—Huntington Herald.”

Weiser Signal, November 8, 1900 – “Last Saturday a large gathering witnessed the first public foot ball game ever played in Weiser. It was a hotly contested affair and resulted in 16 to 0 in favor of Weiser High School.”

In 1900 football was not an uncommon sport in colleges, but for high schools, it was relatively new. The first recorded high school football game was played in 1875 in Connecticut. Other high schools in the eastern U.S. gradually started forming teams over the next decade or two. It was a very rough sport, and it didn’t help that standard apparel included little padding and leather “helmets” with no face protection An article in the Signal in 1903 claimed that 21 young men had been killed playing football, nation-wide. It wasn’t until 1920 that rules were standardized across the country. Council High School (housed in the same building as the elementary grades) formed a football team in 1922.

In 1900, backlash against the excesses of the Golden Age was evident everywhere. The Populist Party stood against the vast wealth inequality, exploitation of workers and government corruption. Art Wilkie was noted as an “avid Populist.” He was the party committeeman for the Council precinct and was running for State Representative. Wilkie blasted both the Democratic and Republican Parties as being “partners in crime.” Younger brother, Fred A. Wilkie, was chairman of the County Central Committee. Hannibal “Seven Devils” Johnson ran on the Populist ticket for a State Senate seat. Both Wilkie and Johnson got only a tiny percentage of the total Washington County vote, as did all the other Populist candidates.

It seems that the P&IN Railway Company tried the same trick on Council as it had so many other places by trying to place a depot outside of the town and forcing businesses to move to railroad-owned land. But apparently the P&IN didn’t fight very hard for its preferred depot location. The Signal simply reported that Council people were not happy, “when our townsmen heard the report that the site of the station house would be one and one-half miles farther north, but an agreement between all parties concerned places the location east of town one quarter of a mile. The R.R. company proposed to donate to the lumber to be used in constructing a sidewalk from the depot to the ‘plaza’ if the town would do the work .”

The depot was placed about where the Dollar Store is today. The depot would be moved to the west side of town in a few years.)

By the end of 1900 the P&IN rails had been laid to a point about eight miles south of Council.