DANVILLE PAGE
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Another very prominent Franklin county pioneer was Danville Page, who in November 1888 was elected county commissioner, along with W.P. Gray and Max Harder. In 1904, after moving into Pasco he served as mayor of the city. He homesteaded on the banks of the Snake River in what was to become Franklin County. Page assisted in the log drives down the Yakima River in 1879 and 1880. The logs had been cut from forests at the headwaters of the Yakima for use by the Northern Pacific construction crews at Ainsworth, where the logs were cut up into usable timbers at the sawmill.
The small community on the Snake River near Page’s homestead was given the name Page, and in the early years of Franklin County’s existence it was one of only three voting precincts in the county. He was considered one of the leading stockmen in the county, owning as many as 1,000 horses at one time, as well as cattle. Ted Van Arsdol, writing in the COLUMBIA BASIN NEWS, stated that considerable stock losses were suffered by Page and all other stockmen in the terrible winter of 1889-1890. Page stated that another big blow to his business of raising horses was the bicycle craze that swept the country in the middle 1890’s. In the following news item out of the weekly NEWS-RECORDER published in Pasco on October 22, 1897 we read:
“Dan Page, Gib Savage and I.J. Davis shipped 240 head of beef horses to Portland this week to the cannery. The horses were as fine a lot as could be seen anywhere and would grace any vehicle if they were the fad. But they have seen their day and their race has been run. The disposers of these horses will perhaps realize two or three cents a pound for them. It’s very consoling to know that these beasts of burden can be used for food and in this way save their owners the expense of carting them off to the boneyard after investing their money and many years of lives breeding and raising a high grade of the American horse for the markets which they would have had had it not been for the advent of the bike.”
Page’s homestead, conforming to the bend of the Snake River, was known as Fish Hook, and in 1900 he received permission from the county commissioners to operate Fish Hook Ferry across the Snake River at that point. He and a partner, C.W. Hannigan had previously operated the Fish Hook Ferry, commencing in 1893, charging $1.50 for a wagon and one span of horses to cross the river. The cost for each additional span of horses was 50 cents; man and horse, 50 cents; individual horses and cattle, 10 cents per head; sheep, 1 cent each; hogs, 5 cents; footman, 25 cents.
Page and Hannigan promoted the building of a road from Eureka Junction seven miles to Fish Hook Ferry, which gave Walla Walla a direct route into the Okanogan country, and to the British Columbia mining areas. The Walla Walla STATESMAN’S July 12, 1894 edition told of the importance of the Fish Hook Ferry:
“On Wednesday 16 teams and wagons loaded with freight… passed over the ferry… Speaking of business transacted at the ferry, Mr. Hannigan stated that during the past week the receipts were over $400. Stock is the main source of revenue… An idea of the stock business being done between Oregon and Washington may be realized by the fact that on Tuesday Messrs, Page and Hannigan received a dispatch that during this week 10,000 head of cattle would be due at the ferry during the fore part of the week. The cattle were started from southern Oregon and consigned to British Columbia. On Tuesday last week, 3,400 head of cattle, 300 head of horses and a large number of teams crossed the ferry. It may be an important item to state that the horses were shipped by Walker Brothers, from their Pasco range, to the John Day country in Oregon.”
Jacob Klundt, another pioneer, bought out Page’s interest on the Snake River in 1893, after which Klundt operated the ferry. Page’s house on the banks of the Snake River stood until 1961, at which time the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers burned it in preparation for flooding the site with the backwaters behind Ice Harbor Dan, which obliterated the site under many feet of water.
When Page passed away in 1912, the PASCO EXPRESS wrote:
“During his long residence in this county he became as well
known as any man in this section of the country, and his friends are numbered by the hundreds… He was the squarest man I ever
knew.”
