Keyword(s): Michael J. Paulus Jr.
For centuries, the Columbia River has been at the center of trade and transportation in the Pacific Northwest. Before the nineteenth century, trade focused on fishing and hunting, and travel was const...
Roman Catholics were among the earliest explorers to enter the Pacific Northwest in the eighteenth century and they were among the earliest settlers in the region in the nineteenth century. The formal...
Although the history of Judaism in the Far West is largely connected with the development of urban centers, Jews did move to and settle small towns on the frontier. The first wave of Jewish immigratio...
The city of Waitsburg, situated in the Touchet Valley near the eastern border of Walla Walla County, began to form in 1865 around a gristmill built by Sylvester M. Wait (d. 1891). Wait strategically s...
The City of Walla Walla, located in Southeastern Washington, is one of the oldest cities in the state. The area surrounding the city, the Walla Walla Valley, has been the scene of a long and diverse h...
Walla Walla University, located in College Place, Walla Walla County, was founded as Walla Walla College in 1892. The school was established by the Seventh-day Adventist Church to provide regional chu...
Whitman College began as Whitman Seminary, a pre-collegiate academy for pioneer boys and girls. Cushing Eells (1810-1893) obtained the first charter for the school in 1859, to memorialize his missiona...
On Saturday, November 27, 1847, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Walla Walla, Augustin Magliore Alexander Blanchet (1797-1887), and John Baptist Abraham Brouillet (1813-1884) leave Fort Walla Walla and es...
On November 17, 1859, Walla Walla County commissioners name the town that has grown up around the U.S. military Fort Walla Walla. They elect to name the town Walla Walla. The town begins with a rich h...
Near the end of 1859, a year full of stabilizing events in the Pacific Northwest, Charles Darwin's revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species, is released to the book trade in Great Britain. Althou...
On December 20, 1859, the Washington Territorial Legislature approves the first charter for an institution of higher educational in the territory. The charter is for Whitman Seminary, a coeducational...
In the fall of 1860, the Schwabacher brothers, including Louis (1837-1900), Sigmund (1841-1917), and Abraham (1838-1909), open a store in the small town of Walla Walla on the corner of Main and 3rd st...
On February 18, 1864, at the request of John Baptist Abraham Brouillet (1813-1884), who has oversight of Roman Catholic St. Patrick's Church in Walla Walla, three Sisters of Providence arrive to estab...
On January 20, 1865, the Walla Walla Library Association is incorporated and becomes the first library established for the public in the City of Walla Walla. A group of Walla Walla professionals, inte...
In April 1865, William Nesbit Smith begins a school with 24 students in his store, located across the Touchet River from a new mill being set up by Sylvester M. Wait (d. 1891), in the emerging town of...
In May 1865, Sylvester M. Wait (d. 1891) begins operating a flour mill in the midst of farmland clustered around the convergence of the Touchet River and Coppei Creek in Walla Walla County. The previo...
On February 23, 1869, William Perry Bruce files a plat for the town of Waitsburg. The town, which was officially named the previous year, has grown up around a flour mill established by Sylvester M. W...
On November 11, 1875, Columbia County is formed out of Walla Walla County, which had been established on April 25, 1854. The area comprising the new county had been home to a number of diverse native...
On August 3, 1879, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Nisqually Augustin Magliore Alexander Blanchet (1797-1887) blesses the cornerstone of St. Mary's Hospital in Walla Walla. The hospital emerged out of St...
On September 4, 1882, classes begin at Whitman College on the campus of Whitman Seminary in Walla Walla, Washington Territory. Originally chartered in 1859 as a coeducational pre-collegiate academy to...
On May 24, 1892, the post office of College Place is established a few miles west of Walla Walla. Henry Carnahan is appointed the first postmaster and begins operating a post office in the front room ...