B. B. HORRIGAN
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For a firsthand account of Pasco’s history just after the turn of the century we turn to B.B. Horrigan’s Memoirs which he wrote for the FRANKLIN FLYER and which were published serially in that quarterly commencing with the January, 1970 edition and continuing through the July, 1973 edition. When he arrived in Pasco in 1904, just after having passed the bar examination, the town had a population of only 250, he wrote. He rented space for his law office from a Chinese person named Wong How, paying $10 a month for it.
By the year 1905 there was scarcely a tree in Pasco, no water except that pumped from a well, and the weather was hot beyond conception, he said… There were no electric lights or telephones, and everyone carried lanterns to light the way at night. If we heard someone traveling behind us, we turned and shone the light on his face to see if he was someone we know. If not, we would fall back and try to get him ahead of us, Horrigan concluded.
Horrigan’s law practice included many cases involving early irrigation district financial problems. He stated that previous to his arrival in Pasco there had been a great number of irrigation districts in operation, many of them superbly engineered but financially unsuccessful because of the great construction costs. He was involved in the reorganization of many of them, including Burbank, Attalia and Franklin County Irrigation District Number 1. He was also one of the influential boosters of the long awaited Columbia Basin Irrigation Project.
When he served in the State Legislature in the 1911 – 1913 sessions, Horrigan remembers that one of the major items of importance that he pushed through the legislature was in getting an appropriation to have the Palouse project resurveyed. He stated that he did not seek reelection as he was too busy with irrigation problems and in serving on many community committees. He also served on the Pasco School Board many years, was one of the important organizers of a financial drive to build Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital, and he served many years on the Blue Mountain council of the Boy Scouts.
As an early booster for the so-called “Three Flags Highway,”: along with the help of Larry Havstad, who he extolled as one of the most successful men in this area, Horrigan participated in numerous meetings with persons from Pendleton, Burns and the John Day country in Oregon, and Pasco to push plans for this highway, which was finally completed, and which we know today as U.S. 395, which runs from the Mexican border to Canada, known as the “Three Flags Highway,” in its early days.
When Horrigan arrived in Pasco most of the business establishments were clustered near the railroad tracks, both on the east side as well as the west, but gradually businesses began moving westward toward Fourth and Lewis Streets. He recalls that at first he was among those who opposed this westward movement of the business district, as he had an interest in Horrigan Brothers store located near thee tracks. He recalls that members of the Sylvester family were among those who favored the new location of the business district, and although he opposed it at first, he later came to realize that they were right.
In 1945 Governor Mons C. Wallgren appointed Horrigan as Superior Court Judge for the Benton, Franklin and Adams Counties judicial district. (The judicial district has since been reduced to two counties, Benton and Franklin). Horrigan served twelve years on the bench as a superior court judge. Many honors came to him as a result of his many years of public service. He was honored by the Boy Scouts of America, and the Bureau of Reclamation gave him a plaque for the many years he devoted to the problems of irrigation and for having been a booster for the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project.
Regarding one award he received, Horrigan wrote: “Words cannot express my gratification when the then President of Gonzaga University, the Reverend John P. Leary, S.J., bestowed upon me the DeSmet medal, Gonzaga’s highest award, which is given annually to an individual who has ‘displayed real Christian Community service to the Pacific Northwest.’ To become a member of such a group is an award that I greatly treasure,” Horrigan concluded.
Horrigan and his wife moved into their newly built home on the corner of 7th and Lewis Streets in December, 1907, where they resided until he passed away on August 5, 1970, hailed as a community leader and public benefactor, just a few weeks before he would have reached his 90th birthday. He had married Bernice Crotty, a Pasco first grade schoolteacher in 1906. She died in 1974.
