Letters to Jarl Augustin (Charley) from his friend and partner W. McCowat

Winona, January 26 1899

Dear friend Charley

I am not going to begin this letter by making excuses for my neglect not answering your letter, which I received four months ago. I don’t know why I have put it off so long. I have said to myself 50 times that I must write to Charlie to night and just so sure as I had decided to, something would occur to prevent me and it has been just so all fall. It seems that I have been kept busier this season than ever before. In the first place in July Mr. Cameron, Mr Kennedy and myself made a trip over the Moscow Branch and they decided to renew all the trusses.

That is to do away with some and renew the others.  Those that are renewed are shortened up to panels, 150 span is reduced to 130, 108 span to 90 feet, so about the first of August the material began to arrive and I had to be in Colfax nearly all the time unloading and checking off and on the 24^th of October I left the gang in charge of Morrison (Billy would not take charge) and came to Colfax and started framing with a picked up gang. I had about 20 men until Christmas when as we were getting pretty well through I reduced the gang to 10 men and finished up the framing on the last day of December. I intended to keep the men about a week longer straighten up the yard and before I got through, the depot at Colfax burned down and I had to fix some kind of temporary quarter to do business in as they could not decide on a location for a permanent building. So I got through and back to the gang last Saturday night having been gone just 3 months and was quite glad to get back. There have not been many changes on the road since you left but they have filled quite a number of the small bridges between Colfax and Rockford and on the Moscow Branch. I sudden has been running an extra gang since about the first of august and is now raising the trusses on the Moscow Branch, then 9 trusses in all so you see they are cutting out quite a number. Fred Tayler is away from the depot and is pumping somewhere about Baker City. C. Irwin has also left and has gone into the grocery business in town. McGuire from Oakesdale is back here as agent at all of the other stations. Everything is just about us when you left.

There are several new men in the gang since you went away. Nels, brother from the Kootnics has been here some time in August.  Al Andrews is away and is working in Fred Tayler´s place at the depot. How long he is going to be able to hold it down I don’t know, but do not believe he will able to stand it. Many pay days without getting on a jamboree. Billy is just the same, he was over at Camas Prairie for a little for work. I thing about the last of August and there are no doubt there will be a railroad in during the next year and every indication that there will be two, as the N.P. is already building from Lewiston up the Valley of the Clear Water and the O.R. has several parties of engineers in the field in that neighbourhood and are purchasing right of way and material for an early start in the spring. The contract is already let and work will under way from Grange City to Wallula following down Snake River avoiding the Alto Hill and reducing the distance between Riparia and Wallula about 30 miles and expect to have it in operation early in summer. When it is expected they will keep right on up to Lewiston for the extension to Camas Prairie, so by the time you get back you may be able to ride right up to the ranch on Pullman. They are also surveying the rail-roads all over the country and a regular railroad was on between the N.P. and O.R.V.N. How many of the projected railroads will be built is a pretty hard matter to tell at present, but there is no doubt that times are going to be livelier in the Northwest this coming season than they have been for a good many years. So you have to get back here early in the spring and take advantage of the good times when they get here. Farmers did not do so well this season as they did last year, neither so large crops or as good prices. A majority of the crop is yet held by the farmers and at present prices are advancing so they may come out on top but everyone seems to be prosperous and money ….

John Shannon is back on the Moscow Section and feels as if he were at home again. You remember little Harry housekeeper, poor little fellow died about a month ago, he took the measles and never got well. We had awful cold weather during the month of December and the early part of this month for 10 days during December, the mercury was below zero Fahrenheit and in the early days of this month it got as low 22 Fahrenheit at Colfax, 33 Fahrenheit at Tekoa and at Oakesdale it was down to 44 below zero Fahrenheit. So you see you missed a whole lot of very cold weather. The ice was thicker and clearer than I ever saw it on the Palouse.

Now Charlie, I have to stop as I have given you all the news that I can think of and I promise you that I will not be as long in answering your next letter. Billy has just got your letter and I was very sorry to hear about your Mothers death. That is a dept we must all sooner or later pay to nature. You will not now have much inducement to stay at home so that I shall expect to see you coming along one of these days and don’t forget to bring a partner with you to help pass the balance of your life with some comfort. Billy old man Tyler and all the boys join me in wishing you a safe return.

Respectfully W. McCowat

 

Colfax, Washington, February 1899

Friend Charley

Your letter of Dec. 28 just received. I was sorry to hear of your Mothers death, but I think you will feel better satisfied you were at home at the time so you could tend to and be with her in her last moments than if you had been way from home. We have been laying off for the last three days, it has been 10 Fahrenheit below zero here for the last week. I think this has been the coldest winter I have seen here. The first week in January we had 32 Fahrenheit below zero. Alex got through with his bridges and is back to the gang but the other four gangs are still on the Moscow branch. I sent money up to the man who has rented the ranch to pay the taxes but have had no returns from him. But I did not hear from him. There is a great deal of talk of a railroad going in there but I don’t know what point they will strike.

Yours respectfully W. McCowat

Spokane, Dec 3rd 1899

Friend Charley

Yours letter of October 30th just received. I would have wrote you long before this but we expected to see you show up almost any day all summer. I was up to the ranch last September and found things looking a little better than they were the year before, all trace of the wagon road was gone but the hay crop was small on account of the heavy rains they had all summer and fall. Our share was about 26 tons. I left the hay with Mr Williams, the renter, to sell and pay the taxes but I did not hear from him yet. I just wrote him today to find out if he had sold the hay, if not, I will write the ?? and find out the amount due and send it up to him. I have rented the place for another year, to Mr Bryant of Pullman. He bought a bunch of cattle and moved up last October.

Mr Bryant wanted to buy the hay but said he wanted to see it before he bought it. I told him Williams had charge of it and would let him have it at the market price, so I don’t know what kind of a deal they have made.

We are moving around with the gang as usual but we have had some changes. Tim Casseley and Frank Shannon are both in the gang, Frank has been in the bullpen all summer and has just got out. You know Franks idea about dynamite, he is a tough one. The Negro soldiers made him to the mark in the ??. We have been here about a week renewing the timbers on the piers of the truss over the river. We have two passenger trains leaving here daily, one goes to Pendleton and one to Wallula Junction. The new cut off the Division point is to be moved from Starbuck to Winona. All construction on the upper snake is shut down but the N.P. still continue to build. They run trains up to a town named Stewart, about 25 miles from Grangeville.

I wish you would let us know when you think you will be back here. I don’t think you took my advise last fall to look out for the fair sex. I expected to see a fair-haired madam with you when you come back.

Yours respectfully W. McCowat

Colfax January 23, 1903

Friend Charley

I have been expecting to see you back here for the last year but I suppose you have got settled down for good now. I was up to the ranch last fall and I found only one stack of hay and the half of that was weed. Now the place has got to be plowed up and no one will plow it renting it for a year at a time. I had an offer last fall to rent the place for two years and the renter would plow it up at a rent of one hundred dollars per year but I did not let him have it, thinking you might be back here and wanting to go on the place. I leased the place to the old renter for one year, he was to pay a cash rent and had Fred?? send up the lease for him to sign. But he has not returned it yet. Next fall I will rent the place for two or more years so that I can get some one who will plow it up and look after the trees and fences better than the old one has down.

I have no idea when we will get a railroad in there, the end of the N.P. track is still down on Clear Water, twenty miles off. There has been some sales of land up there as high as thirty dollars per acre and others very low. The place next to ours at the other end of the lane from the school house was sold for sixteen hundred dollars. I wish I had known it in time I would have bought it. Land in the Palouse has gone away up. Thirty five to fifty dollars per acre now and Alex is till looking for a place yet. His two brothers have sold out their ranch and are in Tekoa now building houses to rent.

We are still fixing and repairing the old bridges. Yet there are four extra gangs on bridges here now and the span over Spokane river is to be renewed next summer with a steel one.

Write soon and let us know how you are getting along.

Your old friend W. McCowat

Oakesdale, February 5, 1904

Friend Charley

I would have wrote you long before this but I was waiting till I got the ranch leased so that I could let you know just how things stand. I have leased the place for two years from March the first, to Mr Adkison (Note 1), the man you stayed with one night the first time you went up there. He is to build a three wire fence on the outside , that is next to the county roads and plow all land that can be plowed the first year. We supply the post and wire, the old rails are so rotten they will not make posts. I got posts at 4 dollars per hundred and wire at 3,75 per hundred. I have funds enough on hand to pay all bills. The second year he is to pay one hundred dollars cash rent. I find it a hard job to get the rent out of the old renter.

I was up to Grangeville last July and some of the farmers told me they were going to have a county road run through the place along side the orchard. It was to come up before the Commissioners two week after I was there. I went and saw Fulton and he said they had no right to a county road there and would have their petition thrown out at the next meeting, which he did for ten dollars. Land is till going up in price, you can’t get any around Grangeville for less than 25 per acre. The last time I saw Fred??, he told me one place next to Grangeville sold for 30 dollar per acre. Alex two brothers have sold their ranch. Tom is running a house gang on the road and Bill is working with us in the gang.

Most of the Howe truss bridges have been renewed with new steel bridges except the Moscow Branch. Our division has been cut down, we don’t go below Settice now Sudden runs from there to Starbuck.

Write soon and let me know how you are getting along.

Yours truly

W. McCowat.

Note 1,  Mr Adkinson is the person that Jarl and Mr McCowat later on sell their land property to.

Garfield Feb 12th 1905

Friend Charley

I was very sorry to hear of the loss of the sight to one of your eyes, it may be just a thin skin growing over the sight, but you will soon find out as soon as you consult an expert.

I have a lot of trouble again with Wilson. That is the man who bought the old mans place down in the corner. He got up a petition last fall and got some of the neighbours to sign it for a road through our place and had it all surveyed. Then I was notified to attend the meeting of the Commissioners in January and defend our rights so I engaged Fulton to defend our rights. I offered to give Wilson 25 feet of a lane on our west line, I thought better to do that than let them have a road through the place, then have to sue them for damages. I just got a letter from Fulton saying the commissioners laid  the petition on the table which  disp?? of the matter and that he thought we would have no more trouble from Wilson.

I don’t know what land is worth up there now, there is some talk of an electric rail-road being put in from Lewiston to Grangeville, if that is put in all land will increase about one third in value.

I find the ranch is too far away to give it the attention it ought to have to make it a paying investment. As far as crops goes all we can expect is the increase in value, so if you have to sell I will sell it as soon as the lease expires, that is one year from March and give you the half of what I get for it. There has been a lot of changes here in the last year, we are working under the Harriman system now. The ORN, N.P., S.P., and Central Pacific are all under the one head, that means all Divisions run independent and Division Engineer with Alex Anderson as general foreman on Bridges and Buildings on the Washington Division with headquarters at Tekoa.

Garfield August 26th, 1906

Friend Charles

You will think I have forgot all together but I was waiting till I made a run up to the ranch to see what I could do about selling the place now. I don’t think it would be advisable for us to sell the place this fall, the N.P. have built twenty miles of track up to the creek from Spalding and expect to build on into Grangeville. Last week when I was in Grangeville I saw the graders start work on the grade a few miles from town. They expect to have the cars running in to town next summer, so if there is to be any raise in the values of land we might just as well have it. You will have to give me power of attorney to act for you so that I can sign your name to a deed of sale. You can file that with the N.S. and Swedish councils.