From generating electricity to embalming corpses, this 19th-century Cheney building has had many uses.

Being the first of its kind in a small and rural town in Eastern Washington, the Cheney Electric Light works and Leifer Apartments was a sign of advancement and prosperity. The building itself was three stories and was built at a cost of $15,000, with the basement being a semi-subterranean stone structure. The machinery that produced electricity was located in the basement. The power producing machine used a fuel source that would generate steam and turn two “incandescent dynamos.” To release the carbon/smoke from the burning fuel, the building had a fifty-foot smoke stack behind it.

The main level of the building, was designed as a storage space or commercial use. Since its creation in 1890, the upper level of the building was always used as a multi-unit residential rental space. In 1897, the lower level was occupied by a carpenter shop and used for storage. This continued until 1908.

In 1916, the electrical operation moved and the commercial spaces switched renters, thus it was rented out by an undertakers and picture framing business. The buildings commercial space continued to experience change. In 1939 a soda bottling company and a local telephone company used the space, while the upper level was still used as tenements. In the 1940’s the commercial space was used for laundry until the 1950’s when the whole lower level was converted to into apartments, which it is still used today. The building changed its name and is now known as the Leifer Apartments.

The architecture of the building is both unique and common at the same time. The sides and rear exterior walls of the Liefer building are covered with common red brick. While the front façade is covered with brick, which is also covered with a stucco veneer. The stucco veneer has lines carved into it to create a look of concrete or masonry blocks.

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100 Years Ago, Light Rail Connected Many of the Region's Small Towns to Spokane

Before asphalt roads and automobiles, local travel was very different than today. Light rail, often electrified interurban lines, connected many of the cities and towns of the Inland Northwest.

The Interurban Depot in Cheney was constructed in 1907, as a branch of the Washington Water Power’s interurban electric railroad system. The building was one of many outlying interurban depots that all connected to the hub in Spokane. The reason for its construction was due to the increase in travel between the two cities population and the pain staking planning one had to take if travel between two cities was going to take place. The electric railway increased and boosted the local economy due to its ability to not only transport passengers from Spokane to enjoy the many treats Cheney had to offer, but also provided the ability to transport freight.

The original layout of the depot building contained office space, a freight room for storing materials, and a waiting room for passengers to board the trolleys. The building also contained a basement level, within that space was a fruit storage area for perishable freight items that were either waiting pick up or delivery. Outside the depot were wood loading decks and platforms surrounding the building on three sides, thus providing more economic value and prosperity to the city of Cheney.

What happened to the electric railways and trolley rides? With the increase accessibility and rising dominance of the automobile in the 1920s, the interurban system was abandoned in 1922. The rail line paved over and the trolley cars sold or dismantled. With the abandonment of the interurban system, it gave rise to the passenger bus (transit system) route that began to use the Interurban Depot until 1939.

The building has seen its share of different owners and business ventures, with the current occupants being El Rodeo, a Mexican cuisine restaurant that attracts people of all ages. A big hit in a town full of college students.

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An organization that spread across America and the world like a wildfire, The Independent Order of Odd Fellows is a fraternal organization that was the first of its kind to include women. The Odd Fellows Hall in Gifford is one of the town’s oldest establishments.

Amicitia, amor et veritas. Friendship, love, and truth were the three founding principles of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (IOOF). After its founding in 1842 in Baltimore, Maryland, the fraternal order grew rapidly across the United States and around the world. In the Washington territory, the IOOF had a strong presence, with chapters from Tacoma to Spokane. Even the small town of Gifford, on the edge of the Columbia, boasted a local chapter.

The IOOF promoted “charity and ethical reciprocity” within their communities. In a small town like Gifford, these values promoted a good community standard and strong relationships. The Gifford family itself was active in the local IOOF, and the local chapter was a point of pride to the town’s co-founder James Gifford. When they added the Daughters of Rebekah organization in 1851, the IOOF became the first order of its kind to invite women. In a small town like Gifford, it was a welcome chance to get away from the farms and the ferries.

The men of the town, including James Gifford and his brother, built the IOOF hall just off the main road, near the mercantile shop that the Gifford family owned and operated. When construction on the Grand Coulee Dam began, Gifford sold the land for $15, and the town began work relocating IOOF Hall, the store, post office and service station to higher ground. The IOOF Hall was “consolidated with the Rebekah Lodge and the Rice Lodge after the move.” The IOOF Hall is still standing today, still near the Gifford store.

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Plagued by poor health, John McAdams Webster served in the U.S Army at a time when military conflict was unlikely. But no matter where his career took him, he served with distinction. As a school superintendent and Indian Agent at Ft. Spokane, he earned a rare reputation for service to the local tribes.

It was a long way from West Point to the remote frontier post of Ft. Spokane. John McAdams Webster, from Warrenton, Ohio, began his military career by joining the 197th Ohio Volunteer Infantry in 1865. Though he was only 16 years old, Webster was commissioned as a second lieutenant. In September of 1865 he went to West Point and due to health issues, he remained there for six years. His commission as a second lieutenant was to the 22nd Infantry, which was on frontier duty at the time. Promotions were hard to come by, and Webster would wait until 1879 to become first lieutenant and until 1891 to become captain. All the while, he served with quiet distinction in staff positions at several posts.

An accident in 1895 resulted in a spinal injury that restricted the use of his right leg, causing him to depend on a cane. Unable to participate fully in Army activities, Webster retired in December of 1898 and took up residence in his home state of Ohio. But in 1904, at the request of the commander of the Army, Webster was appointed to the Department of the Interior. This Superintendent appointment put him in charge of the Indian boarding school at Ft. Spokane.

In contrast to his predecessor, Webster is remembered for leading with awareness and sensitivity to the natives’ problems. According to some, Webster always took a “paternalistic posture” towards natives and attempted to “educate” them in the white man’s ways. Webster took over the Colville Indian Agency (August 1, 1904) after an embezzlement scandal ended Agent Anderson’s tenure. Webster aimed to reform the boarding school system, advocating for a day school where families would not have to send their children from far away.

As attendance at the school dwindled, Webster suggested that Ft. Spokane should become a clinic for tuberculosis. He reasoned that the tribes would be better served by a hospital when one out of every four Indians in the area suffered from tuberculosis.

As superintendent, Webster had authority over the Spokane, Colville, and Nez Perce reservations. His responsibilities included their general welfare and their legal relationship with the U.S. government. Webster could appoint tribal judges to oversee the Court of Indian Offenses. One of these judges was William Three Mountains (the younger,) who earned Webster’s admiration as a great leader who wanted the best for the Spokane people.

Webster's advocacy for Native Americans may have cost him his position. The Bureau of Indian Affairs forced his resignation February of 1912, saying that he had put his wards above his normal duties. He would later return to Eastern Washington as an Indian agent for the Spokane Reservation before resigning again. Webster finally returned to his home on Mackinac Island, Michigan, where he lived until his death in 1921.

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Native American scouts were widely used by the US Army beginning with the Revolutionary War. Indian scouts helped the military navigate through unfamiliar terrain and cultures. These native men, however, served for reasons of their own, and often resisted both military discipline and attempts to change their culture.

Like most Army posts on the western frontier, Fort Spokane relied on native scouts. Indian scouts interpreted, guided soldiers through the wilderness of eastern Washington, and brought back vital intelligence to the Army.

At Fort Spokane, being an Indian scout was at first not a permanent military role, but more of an auxiliary unit. From 1884 to 1886, native scouts agreed to serve for six months. Five to ten scouts were on hand at any given time. The men would bring their families to live with them in tents just outside the fort. The scouts wore their traditional attire, as they were not formally enlisted men in the Army.

In 1891, an army inspector reported that there were ten Indian scouts at Fort Spokane, by then wearing regulation uniform. "They were remarkably neat," he observed, "and the saddle requirements and horses were in very good order." Their tents were pitched in "regular order" and "the grounds around are very well policed." He concluded: "I was impressed with the soldierly appearance of these Indians."

Later that year, General John Gibbon decided to professionalize the Indian scouts, who would now be treated as regular soldiers. Natives that did enlist into the Army at Fort Spokane were appointed to Company I (which stood for "Indian"). They received supplies, a salary, schooling from officers’ wives, and uniforms. It was believed that enlisting American Indians as regular soldiers would both ease the chronic manpower shortage of the Army and help "civilize" the native soldiers.

The effort was not a success. By 1893 a mere twelve Spokanes and five Colvilles were enlisted. The natives were disappointed with the lack of military action and the constant drilling and formal parades. They complained that their uniforms were “too tight” and “prevented circulation of air about their persons.” An article in the Spokesman-Review claimed that "one company commander gave the the men permission to remedy this defect as they saw best. The next morning they showed up on parade with the seat of their trousers cut out."

The monotony and rigid discipline of military service in the American West was felt by white officers and enlisted men as well. But unlike the white soldiers, the native soldiers were in their own homeland, and found it easy to desert the post and return to their villages. The officer corps at Fort Spokane disliked the use of natives for this very reason, and also for their continued insistence of bringing their wives and families to live with them at the fort.

On August 2, 1893 by special order, Company I was disbanded due to desertions and poor recruiting efforts. Major General George Crook summed up the failure from the white point of view: “An Indian fighting as an Indian is an effective soldier; as a member of a civilized army he is useless.” The Spokesman was more diplomatic, declaring that "the Indians were as brave as any troops ever enlisted," but "could not be made soldiers of the modern type."

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Two global fur trade companies became one through a forced merger, a deal that would have a lasting effect on the fur trade in the Pacific Northwest.

On March 26, 1821 two giant companies merged. The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC), founded on May 2, 1670, bought out its largest upstart rival in the fur trading business, the North West Company. This merger had lasting effects on the fur trade in the Inland Northwest. The HBC closed the Spokane House, located at the junction of the Spokane and Little Spokane Rivers, and established Fort Colvile in 1825, named after Andrew Colvile, a director of the company.

The new location was chosen by Governor George Simpson for its location near the Columbia River. Simpson wanted to maximize the profits in the region and the new location made it easy to move trade items from the Columbia River to the broad inland northwest. Defense was another advantage, the fort was located on rising land encircled by impregnable forest and the Columbia River above it. The site also offered better farming and fishing, allowing the post to support itself instead of relying on expensive imports of food. According to Governor Simpson, “an excellent farm can be made at this place where as much grain and potatoes may be raised as would feed all the natives of the Columbia and a sufficient number of Cattle and Hogs…”

Fort Colvile was intended to be self-sufficient. John Warren Dease wrote, “Seeds of different kinds were sown in good time in fact as early as the Season would admit of, every thing came up well with the exception of Indian Com and Wheat . . . 24 bushels of Potatoes were planted and were thriving well, but unfortunately a kind of ground mice got among them and had destroyed more than half.”

Fort Colvile became a profitable post. Simpson soon reported "We are glad to learn that Fort Colvile promises to become such a useful Post, both in point of returns and provisions…" By 1837 the company’s farms were producing around 5,000 bushels of grain, the livestock brought from Fort Vancouver continued to prosper, and the fort was a prime agricultural supplier in the interior Pacific Northwest.

In a letter written by John Pitchler describes the prosperity of Fort Colvile in 1829, “A proprietor of the company, a couple of clerks, and about 25 men are stationary at this post. It consisted, when I say it, of log houses for the accommodation of the company, and for storehouses for the merchandise and furs. A stockade was begun before I left there. Some swivels, in addition to common firearms, were all the defenses which I saw. About 60 or 70 acres of ground were under cultivation, and the crops were fine and abundant. Wheat, barley, oats, Indian corn, Irish potatoes, peas and garden vegetables of every description, grow well and were equal in the quality in the product to any in thus country. The wheat was ground at the post on hand mills thought a windmill was erecting, and a plentiful supply of flour obtained. Of domestic animals there were cattle, hogs and horses; the post being well supplied with its own bacon, butter, milk, etc.”

In Sir George Simpson’s notes of his travels during 1841-42, we find that a "grist mill, which is driven by water, is attached to the establishment."

By the 1840s the fur trade was in decline, yet Fort Colvile remained open. Not until the Oregon Treaty of 1846 did the fort finally fall under American jurisdiction, but the fort stayed in business. Only in 1871 did the Hudson’s Bay Company abandon the post.

Angus McDonald, the last chief factor of Fort Colvile, continued to occupy the buildings. McDonald homesteaded the fort for a couple years despite efforts to get rid of him. Angus and his son Donald had farms at the old fort until 1907 when Donald moved to Montana.

The old buildings of the fort were destroyed in a fire in 1910, but the structural outlines and some old farming plots can still be seen today when the waters of Lake Roosevelt fall during the spring draw down.

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