This is the history of Midland, Washington. Its evidence is given to us through historical maps, books, photographs, and documents, that are factual and truthful in content, gathered from reliable sources such as the Library of Congress, Washington State Archives, Bureau of Land Management, Puyallup Tribe of Indians, and Pierce County Auditor.
In 1888, Ezra Meeker was one of the wealthiest men in Washington Territory, making a fortune growing hops in the Puyallup Valley, and then selling those hops to breweries around the world. Hops grown in the Puyallup Valley were considered the finest grown anywhere, and would command the highest prices at market.
How Meeker and the other hop growers would get their hops to market was by rail, and at the time, the only company providing rail service in the area was the Northern Pacific Railroad. A lot of people living in the valley, including Ezra Meeker, were not happy with the rail service provided, it was unreliable, and becoming more expensive. Thinking he could provide better service than the Northern Pacific, Ezra Meeker decided to build a railroad of his own.
On March 28, 1888, the Puyallup Valley Railway Company was incorporated with Ezra Meeker as president, Levant Thompson, vice president, and George W. McAllister, secretary. Other corporate officers included Charles Ross, Frank Spinning, Clearance Bean, Frank Meeker, and John V. Meeker. According to their Articles of Incorporation, the company intended to build and operate a railroad from the town of Sumner, to the town of Puyallup, thence to the city of Tacoma.
The first order of business was to obtain rights-of-way from property owners along the line they intend build. From the town of Puyallup to the city of Tacoma the most practical route was through the Puyallup Indian Reservation, seven straight miles over flat terrain with little or no forested areas to build through. To build the railroad through the reservation however, a right-of-way must be granted by an Act of Congress and signed into law by the President of the United States. During the second week of April 1888 Ezra Meeker travelled to Washington D. C. to petition Congress for a right-of-way.
Senator Henry L. Dawes
After arriving in Washington D. C. Ezra Meeker met with the delegate from Washington Territory, Mr. Charles Voorhees, and with Senator Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts, one of the most powerful and influential senators in the country at the time. Senator Dawes was Chairman of Committee on Indian Affairs and one year earlier in 1887 authored legislation enacted by Congress and named for him entitled “The Dawes Act”.
The Dawes Act allowed the president to break up tribal land into smaller 160-acre allotments and distribute those allotments to tribal members who were heads of household. Any remaining land was considered as surplus and made available for white settlers to homestead and railroad companies to develop. Under the Dawes Act tribal governments were eliminated, families were separated, and more than 90 million acres of tribal land was taken, making it the most destructive piece of legislation ever enacted by Congress against the Indians.
Legislation
On April 30, 1888, Senator Dawes introduced a bill by request (S.2807) entitled “To grant to the Puyallup Valley Railway Company a right of way through the Puyallup Indian reservation in Washington Territory, and for other purposes”. After the bill was read, it was referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs which Senator Dawes was chairman. The term “by request” is used when a bill is introduced at the request of a corporation, private citizen, or the executive branch of government. In this instance, the bill introduced was at the request of Ezra Meeker.
The following day, May 1, 1888, the delegate from Washington Territory, Mr. Charles Voorhees, introduced a companion bill in the House of Representatives entitled, “To grant to the Puyallup Valley Railway Company a right of way through the Puyallup Indian reservation, and for other purposes”. It is common practice to introduce a companion bill to help speed-up passage in both Houses of Congress.
In Tacoma on May 5, 1888, Tacoma City Councilman George Kelly, introduced an ordinance to the Tacoma City Council, to grant Ezra Meeker a street railway franchise along Puyallup Avenue from the city limits at the Puyallup Indian Reservation. To build and operate a street railway or trolley line in the city of Tacoma, the city council must first grant a franchise by passage of a city ordinance.
On May 17, 1888, Senator Dawes reported back to the senate that he would be introducing an amendment to the bill he introduced on April 30th (S. 2807), but did not state when.
Then, on May 22, 1888, the Puyallup Valley Railway Company filed Supplemental Articles of Incorporation with the Secretary of Washington Territory with major changes made to Article II, the object for which the company was formed and incorporated.
Article II originally stated “The object for which this corporation is formed is to build, construct, equip, own, and operate a railroad from some point in the city of Tacoma, in said county of Pierce, to a point in or near the town of Sumner, in the Stuck Valley, in said county, through the town of Puyallup, in the Puyallup Valley, in said county, and to buy, own, sell, and convey real estate in the said Territory”.
The amended Article II added the following
Ninth. To build, lease, purchase, sell, operate, and maintain steam-boats and steamships, and sailing and other vessels and boats, and navigate the waters of Puget Sound, and all other navigable waters in the Territory of Washington, or the States of Oregon and California, or the Province of British Columbia and the North Pacific Ocean
Tenth. To build, purchase, hold, own, lease, rent, maintain, operate, mortgage, sell, convey, and dispose of grain elevators, warehouses, docks, wharves, or other buildings for the storing and forwarding of grain, hops, and other commodities along any of said railroad lines, or at ports to and from which said boats or vessels may or may be about to transport passengers and freight,
Twelfth. To do all other things necessary, convenient, and proper for the accomplishment of the objects above specified
The corporate officers who signed the original articles of incorporation also signed the amended articles of incorporation except for Ezra Meeker, who was still in Washington D.C.
The following day, May 23, 1888, Senator Dawes submitted his amendment to the senate as a replacement to the original bill.
On July 24, 1888, by an Act of Congress Ezra Meeker’s Puyallup Valley Railway Company was granted a right-of-way through the Puyallup Indian Reservation. It took Senator Dawes less than ninety days to accomplish this feat for Ezra Meeker when it took other railroad companies years to have legislation passed like this on their behalf.
July 24, 1888: CHAP. 718.-An act to grant to the Puyallup Valley Railway Company a right of way through the Puyallup Indian Reservation in Washington Territory, and for other purposes.
The Right of Way
The right of way begins at the northwestern boundary of the reservation at the city limits of Tacoma, through the reservation to its southeastern boundary using the most practical route possible, thence to the town of Sumner. In addition to the right-of-way, a strip of land one hundred and thirty-three feet in width, with a length of two thousand feet, and the right to construct turn-outs, sidings, junctions, and stations for the proper and convenient use of the railroad was also included in the right of way. Nowhere in the act was it specified where the strip of land was to be located, how many junctions, turnouts, or sidings could be constructed, the length of those turnouts and sidings, or where they could be built.
There was also an important provision in section two of the act which required consent to the right of way must be obtained from the Puyallup Indians in a manner to be decided by the President before any rights under the act can accrue to the company. Any work on the railroad through the Puyallup Indian Reservation cannot begin until the Puyallup Indians give their consent.
Provided further, That the consent of the Indians to said right of way upon the said Puyallup Indian Reservation shall be obtained in such manner as the President of the United States may prescribe, before any right under this act shall accrue to said company
July 24, 1888: CHAP. 718.-An act to grant to the Puyallup Valley Railway Company a right of way through the Puyallup Indian Reservation in Washington Territory, and for other purposes.
August, September, October, and November pass with no word from President Grover Cleveland as to how the Puyallup Indians will decide their consent to the right of way. What took the United States Congress just 3 months to pass legislation is taking President Grover Cleveland forever to make decision and Ezra Meeker’s patience has worn out.
In November 1888, without permission or consent of the Puyallup Indians, Ezra Meeker has the entire road he intends to build on the Puyallup Indian Reservation surveyed. In addition to the survey on December 16, 1888, Ezra Meeker filed a land claim with the Land Office for a strip of land one hundred and thirty-three feet in width, with a length of two thousand feet, located at Browns Point in T21N R3E S17, on the Puyallup Indian Reservation. It is where Ezra Meeker plans to build docks, wharves, grain elevators, silos, warehouses, and shipping facilities to ship his hops to customers around the world.
At the southeastern boundary of the reservation Ezra Meeker’s Puyallup Valley Railway Company intends to construct seven miles of railroad through the reservation to its northwestern boundary at the city limits of Tacoma at Puyallup Avenue, thence along Puyallup Avenue to Pacific Avenue, providing passenger rail service to people living in the Puyallup Valley to downtown Tacoma. A junction will be constructed along the line where the Puyallup River empties into Commencement Bay on the reservation, and from that junction, continue an additional eight miles along the shore of Commencement Bay in a northerly direction to Browns Point on the Puyallup Indian Reservation.
Finally, on February 2, 1889, seven months after Congress granted the right of way, President Grover Cleveland issued a presidential order prescribing the manner in which the Puyallup Indians will decide whether or not to give their consent to the right of way. They will vote. The agent in charge of the Puyallup Indian Reservation, Edwin Eells, presented the president’s decision to the Puyallup Indians on March 12, 1889 in open council. They will return in two weeks on March 20, 1888 to vote on the right of way in open council.
Bribery and Corruption
On page one of the March 21, 1889 edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, appeared the following
The Puyallup Indians voted on the question yesterday whether they would grant a right-of-way through the reservation to the Puyallup Valley railroad and decided in the negative. It was shown that a number of the Indians had been bribed to vote to grant the right-of-way.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer. March 21, 1889. Vol. XV. Page 1. Column 4.
By a vote of seventy-three against to forty-one in favor, on March 20, 1889, the Puyallup Indians refused consent to the right-of-way through the Puyallup Indian Reservation.
An investigation began on March 23, 1889 into charges of bribery committed by members of the Puyallup Valley Railway Company. Mr. Dougherty, a representative of the company admitted to giving forty-seven Puyallup Indians money for their vote to give their consent, and promised more money when the company was given consent to the right of way.
When asked by investigators if the money given to the Indians was to induce them for their vote to give consent to the right of way, Mr. Dougherty replied “yes it was”. Mr. Dougherty also told investigators that the money was given to him by Ezra Meeker with instructions to give the money to Puyallup Indians for their “troubles”.
Chief Tommy Lane testified he was offered all the money he could ever ask by Mr. Dougherty if he would work for the railroad and help induce his people into giving their consent to the right of way. He declined.
Ezra Meeker admitted to giving certain Puyallup Indians money for their help in getting other Indians to give their consent to the right of way but that it wasn’t a bribe. In a letter to the editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer published on March 26, 1889, Ezra Meeker stated the following.
What was alleged by Mr. Eells as bribery was the fact that the company had agreed to pay Indians for their time in helping to get others to give their consent… we have a spectacle here of a thriving community of 1,000 inhabitants striving to build a suburban road to Tacoma with only seven miles of road through the reservation intervening
Ezra Meeker, March 23, 1889, Letter to the Editor, Seattle Post Intelligencer
What Ezra Meeker failed to mention in his letter was the additional eight miles of railroad to Browns Point, and the two-thousand foot strip of land he would use to build his wharves, docks, warehouses, and shipping facilities.
Resources
- The Hop Metropolis Rivaling the City of Destination, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, November 9, 1889, Page 2, Column 1;
- Letter From Secretary of Interior, Articles of incorporation of the Puyallup Valley Railway Company, p. 4.
- Letter from Ezra Meeker to Post-Intelligencer, Washington Standard, May 11, 1888, Volume XXVIII-Number 24, page 1, column 7
- Henry L. Dawes (MA), Bills Introduced S. 2807, Congressional Record 19 (1888) p. 3498
- Henry L. Dawes (MA), Right of way through Puyallup Reservation S. 2807, Congressional Record 19 (1888) p. 4536
- July 24, 1888. 25 Stat., 350, An act to grant to the Puyallup Valley Railway Company a right of way through the Puyallup Indian Reservation in Washington Territory, and for other purposes
- Wholesale Bribery of Puyallup Red Men, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 23, 1889, page 4, column1
- Puyallup Bribery Case, Mr. Meeker Makes a Statement, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, page 2, March 26, 1889
- Reservation Right of Way Decided, Pullman Herald, page 1, March 29, 1889
- Reports of Committees S.2807, Henry L. Dawes (MA), Congressional Record 19 (1888) p. 4299
- Henry L. Dawes (MA), Right of way through Puyallup Reservation S. 2807, Congressional Record 19 (1888) p. 4743
- Letter From Secretary of Interior, Supplemental Articles of incorporation of the Puyallup Valley Railway Company, p. 5
- Department of the Interior, History & Culture in the Badlands. The Dawes Act
- Fifty-Eighth Report of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to the Secretary of the Interior, 1889, Washington Government Printing Office, Puyallup Reservation, p. 40;
- Bureau of Land Management, Serial Number WAOR 050508, Puyallup Valley Railway Company, Case Established: December 16, 1888;