Miscreant act leads to disaster for Cheney in 1889.

In 1889 Cheney was a young and fast-growing town, actively competing with nearby Spokane to be the largest city in the region. Cheney’s ambitions were delivered a devastating blow on April 18th of that year.

A fire began in the early morning at O. Butler’s General Store and quickly spread to the businesses and residences around it. The fire department lost time when it was discovered that the hose had been plugged up by a chisel handle. By the time water finally began to spray the fire had advanced and was noted as being a “fiery demon [that] had gained mastery of the situation.” Worse still, the hose soon split under pressure and buckets and volunteers were brought in, but the fire was impossible to control as the flames jumped from building to building with “almost lightning rapidity,” according to one witness.

By the time the sun rose the fire had been defeated, but the city was in ashes and “a scene of ruin and desolation” lay before the citizens. The majority of the business district in the city was destroyed by flames including forty-five businesses and homes starting from the railroads tracks all the way up until 2nd street and from Main to E Street in the West as well as Main to B Street in the East. However, the very next day rebuilding began in the young city with more buildings being composed of brick to prevent the same kind of devastation from reoccurring.

Investigations were launched on both the fire itself, which looked to have been started with some sort of “incendiary device,” and on the plugging of the fire hose. It seems that some troublemakers had "looked well ahead in laying the plans of destruction," according to the report in the Spokane Morning Review. The fire was estimated to have caused at least $150,000 in damage.

This tragedy wouldn’t keep Cheney from thriving. Later that year Washington officially became a state and was granted the ability to operate three “Normal Schools” for the education of teachers within the state and Cheney was chosen as a location for one of those schools. However, Cheney would never again rival Spokane for the leading city of the region.

For more (including 4 images), view the original article.

Download the Spokane Historical app for Android and iPhone
Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube

Both whites and Indians had many names for Cheney, but the opportunity for patronage from a powerful railroad executive finally settled the matter.

Cheney has been a gathering place for thousands of years, and people have come up with different names for this spot. Spokane and Coeur d’Alene Native Americans called this place "Yts'piyits'p", which means “worn out, worn out” in the native language of Salish. They also called it "Sile'" which means “maternal grandfather.”

When surveyors laid out the route of the Northern Pacific Railroad they marked this area as “Section 13” in 1870. To potential white settlers, the railroad promised prosperity to a new settlement. As people moved onto and populated the land they started to refer to the area as Depot Springs both because of the train depot and because of the spring waters that had once drawn Native Americans to the area. At the same time, it was less commonly called Willow Springs by some residents.

The area that would become Cheney was also briefly called Billings, named after the president of the Northern Pacific Railroad, Frederick Billings. All three of these names, Depot Springs, Willow Springs, and Billings, existed in the span of a single year, between June and September of 1880.

It was common in this era that an ambitious new railroad town would name itself after an owner or prominent officer of the railroad, hoping to secure patronage and support. Perhaps discovering that the name of Billings had already been adopted by a Montana town, the residents of this place changed their name one more time in the fall of 1880. General John W. Sprague announced that the town would be called Cheney after director of the railroad, Benjamin Pierce Cheney. This final name would stick and from 1883, when the city was officially established, until now and into the foreseeable future, Cheney, Washington would be the name of the city that lies just a few miles to the southwest of Spokane.

For more (including 4 images), view the original article.

Download the Spokane Historical app for Android and iPhone
Find us on Facebook, Twitter and Youtube