rojjgolden.html

The Oregonian, Portland, OR., June 2, 1907, magazine section, page 4
Includes portrait

THE FOUNDER OF GOLDENDALE, WASHINGTON
Reminiscences of John J. Golden, Prospector, Indian Fighter, Pioneer Cattle Man and Town Builder
By J.G. Maddock

JOHN J. Golden, octogenarian at the time of his death; born of Puritan stock back in the Keystone state; his father a soldier under Washington in the Revolutionary War; pioneer of 52; prospector; Indian fighter; merchant; founder; philanthropist; and resident of Klickitat county for half a century. He was the first actual settler in the Klickitat valley who remained from first location. He survived to see the town he had platted transformed from an Indian village of teepees to an up-to-date type of modern cities. This rugged miner from California was one of the most unique pioneers of Washington. Previous to his advent in Klickitat, he had mined in the Golden State and British Columbia, and also in the former mines conducted a general store.
Mr. Golden was married in Polk County, Oregon in 1859, to Miss Jane Parrott, daughter of that sturdy Oregon pioneer of 1847, Lewis S. Parrott, a native of Tennessee. To this union were born eleven children and eight are living. His daughter, Dora Dale, now Mrs. Ira Clark Richards has the distinction of being the first white child born at Goldendale. This spot had been an Indian village, as far back as that ancient race, dare to recall past history, which they consider sacred with the dead.
July 9, 1859 John J. Golden while at the Dalles, Oregon, was told of the marvelous fertility of the valley north of the range of hills that rise so boldly just across the Columbia River. The late Ben E. Snipes, a brother-in-law, said, "by all means, John, go to Klickitat." The Goldens soon found themselves in the valley, where the Snipe brand and mark was carried by cattle that numbered into the hundreds. Mr. Golden later drove in a find brand of Durham cattle, part of which were imported from California at great expense. They were turned loose to graze on the wonderful grass, which was over their backs in that portion of the country known as "The Swale." Now daily may be seen a locomotive with a train of loaded cars dashing across the identical grounds planted to wheat.
The winter of '61, '62 caused the first dark clouds to hover over the pathway of the Goldens. At that time three feet of snow fell on the level throughout the valley and lay for weeks; result, the entire drove up thoroughbred cattle died and by chance one yoke of oxen pulled through. The loss in cattle at that time was estimated at $20,000. Quoting Golden, "We are mighty nigh starved out; everybody had left but two or three families besides ourselves. I had always had luck as a prospectors and this little incident did not daunt my courage, and I struck a pay streak when I went into a contract with the O.S.N. Co. in the summer of 1862, to deliver 1000 cords of wood at Columbus landing, for which they paid me $10 per cord." Later on he started the first sawmill in Klickitat, in partnership with his brother Thomas. For a time most of the lumber was marketed at the then thriving city of Umatilla, Oregon, with the Golden Brothers conducted a lumber yard for three years.
Golden often recited to the writer an incident of the late Frank Maddock, the first sheriff of Umatilla County, paying him $100 per thousand in Auburn gold dust for lumber to build a residence. Several years before he had met Maddock in the mines of California. In July, 1872 the late James H. Wilbur, Indian agent at Fort Simcoe, who became known as "Father" Wilbur by the Indian appellation; (originally an appointee of President Lincoln), with 200 Christianized men and women of the Klickitats and Yakimas, made camp on the beautiful stream of Little Klickitat and arranged for a Methodist revival among the Indians. Father Wilbur decided at this time the location among the wild flowers should be named. John J. Golden and the handful of settlers of the valley came out, as Golden expressed it, "to see what Wilbur's Indians were goin' to do." After the 200 Indian voices had joined Father Wilbur in song and the rendering of a familiar gospel hymn, the pioneer spectators present responded by clamping hands and showing approval. They were assisting on that memorial occasion Deacon Lewis S. Parrott, H.K. Hines and Wilson Pittenger (all deceased). Mr. Pittenger suggested that the place about the revival tent be named. There was a revival in Honeydale, a road house a few miles up the stream. Noting the beautiful willows in provision, someone suggested the name "Willowdale." At this juncture, in fun, Golden said: "What's the matter with Goldendale?" Father Wilbur at once put the motion that the name be "Goldendale," and by a Christianized warwhoop the future capital city of Klickitat was named, with the dissenting vote of Golden, who said he had spoken in fun.
Golden relates that Father Wilbur's Indians held revivals every summer for years afterwards, many times in their native tongues, and their exulations often converted whites. Strange to relate, Golden had fought some of these Christianized Indians back in 1858 upon the Wenatchee, when he was en route to the Fraser River mines.
The Golden townsite was surveyed in 1872. The founder gave many generous donations of blocks to the first business men on the ground. Churches and schools were started by his generosity. After the town was fairly launched in the howling wilderness, Golden then came forward with eight lots and $200 for a city jail. The late Hon. William R. Dunbar, Oregon pioneer of 1846, played no small part in aiding Golden to subdue the reckless cowboy element of the town at that time. When the C.R. & N. Railway entered Goldendale, in 1903, Golden presented the company with 52 lots for depot and yard. The old California prospector was too big-hearted and others reaped the reward from the sale of realty that should have been his, after frontier trials in Klickitat of nearly 50 years.
The first abode of white habitation in Klickitat Valley was that of soldiers at Blockhouse, a point overlooking the valley, seven miles northwest of the present Goldendale. The late General Phil Sheridan established this fort, in the early '50s. Sheridan and regulars camped in the Summer of 1857 on the land where now is Goldendale. The following day he engaged in battle with hostile Klickitat, two miles east, at Norris Butte. A hard fight ensued and Sheridan drove them to the mountains on the north. Golden relates the incident as told him by an Indian who was in the fight. In broken English he said: "We Indians fired the first shots and, to our surprise, the distance between us was out of range of the guns we had procured from the old Hudson Bay Company, and Sheridan and his soldiers were unharmed. In response General Sheridan ordered the mortar, stationed on the back of a mule fired, and the ball rolled by. Not knowing what it was, some of our braves ran to pick it up. Soon it exploded and killed many of our warriors, and we hastened away." In concluding, the old Indian said: "Ever afterwards we feared as death General Sheridan's mule gun."
The Cayuse War of 1878 found Golden a volunteer scout and he relates that one day, while at Columbus, on the Columbia River, he witnessed the passing down the river of many dead ponies that had been shot by the soldiers aboard the gunboat Spokane, up at Long Island, where the Indians were trying to cross to Washington. Golden believed the death-dealing Spokane saved Eastern Klickitat from pillage and ruin.
Golden was brave when pressed, as illustrated by an incident where a neighbor had repeatedly said Golden was a coward, would not fight and wore a coat of Methodism. One day he met face to face the only enemy he knew in Klickitat. Golden pulled off his coat and threw it to the ground and shook his clenched fist at the garment and said: "Lie there, Methodist, until I lick this fellow who says I am a coward." Needless to say, Golden licked this man.
Mount Adams, 60 miles away, seems but two miles distant, buried in the Cascade Range, clothed with eternal snows, and when not curtained by clouds is in bold view of Goldendale. Golden loved this mountain as he loved his town and friends. Every hot summer in years gone by would find Golden and party prospecting, hunting and fishing at Mount Adams, and he said he often gazed with naked eye through the heat at harvesters in the valley below. Golden died in the belief that Mount Adams holds some hidden wealth of mineral.