With his lavish hotel atop
Steptoe Butte, celebrity homesteader Cashup Davis elevated the Palouse
experience
Story
by Jeff Burnside, special to Pacific NW Magazine of the Seattle Times 8/5/2022
CUTLINE: At the grand opening of Cashup Davis’ hotel, on July
4, 1888, guests lined the ground-level porch and the roof’s viewing platform.
From Steptoe Butte, one of the highest points in the Palouse, guests were
treated to vistas of rolling hills and farmland, plus a rare look inside a
telescope that was considered one of the most powerful in the state at that
time. (Courtesy Whitman County Historical Society, Perkins House,
Colfax) #
Editor’s Note: The following is an
edited excerpt from “Cashup Davis: The Inspiring Life of a Secret Mentor,” by
Jeff Burnside and Gordon W. Davis (Basalt Books, Aug. 15, 2022, $18.95
paperback; available at basaltbooks.wsu.edu and at Pacific
Northwest booksellers; see cashupdavis.com).
“The mountain became a motto to the
man.”
— New York Evening Post article about Cashup Davis
CASHUP DAVIS STOOD on the 14-by-14-foot cupola atop his new
hotel, perched on one of the highest points in all of the Palouse — Steptoe
Butte, which he now owned — and looked out over every homestead and every town
from horizon to horizon: “a land of peace and plenty.”
Davis’ lavish hotel was
ready to open with great fanfare on July 4, 1888, honoring the birthday of his
adopted nation.
At that very moment, he had a lifetime on which to reflect.
The confident, short, charismatic British kid who came to the United States
with an obsession for the American West now was standing over a region that was
the very definition of the western edge of settlement. He had beaten the odds.
He had proved his doubters wrong. He had stuck to his vision. His heart was
full. Davis would be forgiven for feeling like a king.
CUTLINE: The story of
Washington homesteader and celebrated hotel owner James S. “Cashup” Davis is
examined in “Cashup Davis: The Inspiring Life of a Secret Mentor,” by Jeff
Burnside and Gordon W. Davis. (Courtesy Basalt Books)#
Indeed, the castles that surrounded him during his childhood
in southern England plausibly did inspire him to build his own castle, in
sparking his vision, in imagining this hotel.
Residents all around the Palouse and newspapers across the
nation were talking about his hotel. “balloon ascension and fireworks will be
features of the occasion, while the evening will be devoted to dancing,”
reported The Lewiston Teller and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “Within a
short time, Steptoe will be the most attractive place for a visitor in the
whole inland country,” reported the Spokane Falls Review.
CUTLINE: This 1888 news clipping from
The Lewiston Teller reprints a story from the Colfax Gazette touting the
upcoming grand opening of Cashup Davis’ new hotel on Steptoe Butte. For the
event, Davis arranged for a balloon ascension, fireworks, music and dancing.
Admission was 25 cents and included a peep through Davis’ vaunted telescope,
“the second largest” in the Washington Territory. (newspapers.com) #
Davis, so determined, spent much of his fortune on it.
Pioneers must have looked on in envy that someone could complete such a project.
As one newspaper put it, “He was known as the money king of the Palouse
country.”
DAVIS’ GUESTS began arriving.
The first sight they encountered upon entering the front
doors was a large, ornate ballroom 60 feet long and 44 feet wide, dominating
the main floor, with a kitchen, and a stage that held performances of all kinds
to dazzle his guests: orchestras; singing; a recital; Chautauqua features;
“Punch and Judy” shows of the era; and a “magic lantern” box with viewfinders
using smoke, mirrors and focused sources of light (two years before electricity
came to nearby Farmington).
CUTLINES
1 of 2: The hotel’s grand ballroom featured an exhibit that displayed and
celebrated the crops of the Palouse. In this photograph, taken around 1890,
Reverend Todd and Reverend Sproat relax in the... (Courtesy the collection of
Jim Martin, restored)#
2 of 2: The hotel’s grand ballroom featured an alcove near the front entrance
that displayed and celebrated the crops of the Palouse. (From the collection of
Jim Martin, restored)+
In an alcove near the entrance, they saw Davis’ display of
the crops of the Palouse: “beautifully decorated with all the grains, fruits
and cereals that are available in this country.” He was a one-man Chamber of
Commerce. On the walls in this display room were
framed sketches of world-famous people, bridges, boulevards, steamships and
cities, including a scene of New York Harbor near Pier 15, where Davis had
arrived from England.
It all seemed to applaud grandeur and the immense possibility
of industry. And that the Palouse was right up there with the big boys. It was
so Cashup.
GUESTS RINGED THE ballroom from a balcony, looking down at
the dancing and hubbub below. The second floor also had a dining room for 50
people. From that balcony, guests accessed their rooms, “fitted up in
comfortable style and every convenience and attraction … to make time pass in
this great Northwestern pleasure resort like a happy dream,” the Spokane Falls
Review wrote.
As the guests filed throughout the hotel, they saw
hand-carved wood trim — an elegance that evoked the finest quarters of Paris or
New York. Davis’ hotel was not by any means as ornate as the world’s great
hotels. But it made these tough pioneers feel pretty special.
CUTLINE: Cashup Davis invited his more important guests to his private lounge —
his “VIP Room.” The lounge contained scientific instruments, his famous
telescope and other prized possessions. In the lower left of this photo, taken
in 1888, is an ornate “modern” heating stove. (Courtesy Jim Martin)#
The most important guests were invited into a lounge that
served as Davis’ private quarters — a VIP room, of sorts, where he could hold
conversations. It was a showcase of his life. A photograph
of Davis in this room shows him sporting his trimmed white beard,
sitting upright in an armchair wearing a full suit, vest, white shirt and tie.
His fingers are holding his place in the open book resting on his knee.
On the walls, he had hung sketches important to him. His
lounge also included a rare microscope, a stereoscope photo viewer, an
elaborate heating stove (a new product in America) and Davis’ prized
possessions: his top hat, his telescope and the sword he carried by hand when
immigrating to the United States from England in 1841.
THIS DAY, JULY 4, 1888, Davis worked the crowd, “beguiling
his visitors,” to make them feel welcome, as he had
done so successfully at his famous stagecoach stop just down the road. “In all that time of stress,” wrote S.C. Roberts, who was close to Davis
and his family and who wrote pioneer essays for local newspapers, “he met every
guest as though he were a notable dignitary, and entertained him
royally.”
CUTLINES
1 of 2: One of the
best surviving portraits of Cashup Davis was taken by a studio photographer in
Oakesdale, near Steptoe Butte, around 1888. (Courtesy Davis Family Collection)#
2 of 2: Another
surviving portraits of Cashup Davis, taken about 1882. (Courtesy Davis Family
Collection)#
Davis brought in a 10-piece horn section with a
percussionist, likely led by Cy and Andy Privett of Colfax, who had been so
popular at his stage stop. The guests celebrated under those fireworks and that
hot-air balloon ascension and kept dancing until dawn.
His first day was a smashing success. And it made for a future
of near-certain popularity. To help ensure that, Davis wisely coordinated an
1888 horse-and-buggy version of a shuttle van for his guests to get up to the
summit and navigate the sometimes-harrowing, winding road carved into the steep
slope. It wrapped around the butte several times and switched back and forth as
it snaked upward to the summit, where guests were dropped off at the front door
like royalty.
CUTLINE: An artist’s rendering of Cashup Davis’ lavish hotel on Steptoe Butte
shows just how grand it was at a time when only a few thousand settlers lived
in the region, many in rudimentary housing. It opened in 1888, closed in about
1904 and burned down in 1911. (Illustration by Noah Kroese)#
As only he could do, Davis, a celebrity in his own right,
hired a celebrity stage driver to run the shuttle. His name was Miles Kelly
Hill. Everyone knew him by his nickname: Shorty. He had driven stage for the
legendary Felix Warren and had stopped many times at Davis’ stage stop. Shorty
had a reputation as the best bronco rider and stagecoach driver around. And he
was, like Davis, entertaining, on the short side and full of
charisma.
“It’s pretty darn steep at the top and pretty narrow,” says
Dave Wahl, a cowboy poet in his 80s living in Genesee, Idaho, who, as a young
boy, grew up listening to Shorty’s extraordinary stories, including about
Davis’ hotel. “In those days, it was all gravel, and it was more narrow and
steeper and more windy,” says Wahl. He described Shorty thus: “He was bowlegged
as a wish bone you could walk a pony through.”
CUTLINES
1 of 2: This is the only known photo of the entire James S. “Cashup”
Davis family, taken in Wisconsin in 1860. Cashup and wife Mary Ann are in the
back row, fourth and fifth from the left. Mary Ann holds their child Amy in her
lap. Amy became the family storyteller into the 1960s. (Davis Family
Collection, restored by Jim Martin)#
2 of 2: This is the only known
photograph of Cashup and his wife, Mary Ann, on Steptoe Butte. Reportedly, Mary
Ann did not like living on Steptoe and spent most of her time at the family
farm near the base of the butte. (Courtesy Davis Family Collection)#
PHOTOGRAPHY WAS STILL uncommon in 1880s Palouse,
but Davis gathered 114 guests, family members and friends to pose for a
photo outside the hotel one day early on.
There are conflicting dates attributed to the photo.
Scribbled in white on the photograph, as was normal back then, it says inside a
hand-drawn scroll: “STEPTOE BUTTE 3800 FEET HIGH. THE BEST PLACE IN WASHINGTON
TO GET A GOOD VIEW OF THE COUNTRY.” Then to the right, the same scribbler
wrote, “WE ARE WAITING FOR THE CAR.” To the far left is a surrey without a
horse. Perhaps it was Shorty’s, waiting to take guests back down the butte that
day.
In the foreground, a ladder and stone rubble affirm the
photo might indeed have been taken on the day of the grand opening. The people
stand shoulder to shoulder in front of the hotel, and still more are lining the
cupola on the third floor. There is a 10-piece horn band with a drummer. People
are wearing their finest clothes: men in dark suits with white shirts and dark
bowler hats, women in long full dresses tightly fitted around the torso, their
heads festooned with big flailing hats.
Sitting in front is Davis, flagged in a sea of dark suits by
his cloud-white hair and beard.
CUTLINE: An 1866
tintype portrait of James S. “Cashup” Davis. (Courtesy John Rupp and Linda
Banken)#
THE MAIN ATTRACTION of the hotel was Davis. But the
second bill was perched at the top inside that observatory and reading room:
the large brass telescope. In 1888, people had never seen anything like it. The
Lewiston Teller and Seattle Post-Intelligencer pronounced: “A peep through the
big telescope is worth the 25 cents charge for admission.”
Just after the grand opening, an authoritative book
reported about the telescope. “With
its aid, a view, scarcely to be paralleled in the country, is spread out like a
map. A foreground of vast rolling plains checkered with grain fields; a
background of towering mountains, rising, tier on tier, till they break at last
against the barriers of eternal frost — such is the outlook which daily greets
the vision of this brave old pioneer of the Palouse.” “Cashup’s Pride,”
it was called by some.
“When Mr. Davis purchased this historical hill, many of his
friends thought he was out of his head, but those who have visited the place
have changed their minds wonderfully,” gushed the Spokane Falls Review. “Cash
Up cannot be other than voted an enterprising and progressive man. His
advertising the butte as he is not only benefits himself, but the entire
country and community.”
CUTLINES:
1 of 2: In 1879, James S. “Cashup” Davis had plans drawn up
to expand his Whitman County home into a store and dance hall that quickly became
one of the Northwest’s most famous stagecoach stops. (Courtesy Jim Martin)#
2 of 2: James S. “Cashup” Davis
expanded his home into a thriving store and stagecoach stop. This is where he
earned his nickname “Cashup” and became one of Washington’s early celebrity
pioneers. (Courtesy Jim Martin)#
DAVIS KNEW HE had a good thing going. And he sought to
invest in his hotel and his Steptoe Butte operations with improvements and
events. In about 1890, he added a covered porch around the entire hotel that
was 10 feet deep, creating more floor space for large crowds and allowing
people to relax outside while taking in that view.
He planned a convention at the hotel to bring together
Native American leaders and American historians to clarify that, contrary to
popular belief at the time, the Battle of Pine Creek had not taken place on
Steptoe Butte. He knew he no longer could claim that his hotel was the site of
this battle, but it surely could be the site of that discussion.
In May 1891, Davis hosted a “temperance ball”
at the hotel, celebrating the era’s push against alcohol. The period was called
“the second wave of temperance.” Alcohol was a problem in many areas of the
United States, including the pioneer west, where saloons were plentiful.
Fundamentalist religion was quite prevalent on the Palouse, and local churches
worked toward temperance.
Davis’ hotel, and his stage stop before that, was known for
parties and good times, so he was eager to demonstrate to the community
that they could have fun without alcohol.
CUTLINES
1 of 2: Mary Ann Shoemaker Davis, the
wife of James S. “Cashup” Davis, circa 1885. (Courtesy John Rupp and Linda
Banken)#
2 of 2: A sketch portrait of Mary Ann Shoemaker Davis, the
wife of James S. “Cashup” Davis. (Courtesy Linda Bakken, John Rupp and Heather
Forseth)#
DAVIS’ APPLE TREES, planted along the slopes of the butte,
were mature and in full production now. As a result of his wise varietal
planting, he provided his hotel guests with fresh apples many months of the
harvest season. The apple trees, while now partly covered in overgrowth, still
produce delicious and rare varieties of apples, left to the deer and other
wildlife.
The success of the hotel paralleled the expansion and
productivity of the Palouse. Electricity lines gradually were built.
Cars were still more than a decade away, but new railroad lines continued to
slice the region and, with them, boost commerce and bring more people to the
area. The Territory of Washington became the State of Washington just 17 months
after the hotel opened.
One newspaper account said Davis was
considering building a monument to pioneers at the top. And he told people that
he wanted to be buried at the summit; he even had a shovel with which he
himself someday would dig his own grave.
CUTLINES:
1 of 2: An elaborate horse- drawn hearse carrying the body of James S. “Cashup”
Davis leads his funeral procession in 1896 to the Bethel Cemetery, where his
large tombstone stands to this day in the shadow of Steptoe Butte. (Washington
State Archives)#
2 of 2: The
Spokesman-Review published the most succinct headline of Cashup Davis’ death on
June 24, 1896. Davis returned early from a morning squirrel hunt with a hired
man, and seemed out of breath. He lay down to rest and died shortly after.
(newspapers.com)
Davis had achieved such prominence that, according to the
Garfield Enterprise, there “has been considerable discussion on the various
local papers concerning the name of a noted landmark”
renaming Steptoe Butte to “Cashup’s Butte” or something similar.
BUT, AS ALMOST anyone who achieves great success can attest,
Davis had detractors. And things got a little ugly. The ugliest might have come
from The Spangle Record, which wrote a scathing, personal
attack on Davis, saying, “Mr. Davis was high cockalorum in the Palouse
country,” an old phrase that means a little man who incorrectly has a very high
opinion of himself; low-level and unimportant.
Ouch. It got worse. The newspaper writer accused Davis of
taking advantage of farmers desperate for cash, claiming he famously offered to
pay in cash but then would use that offer to get a low price, then haggle the
price further downward, make the deal — but pay half in cash and half “in a few
days, when the Portland mail comes.” Without attribution, the article reported,
“One settler says men have grown old and died of old age waiting for the
‘balance’ on the ‘Cash-Up’ trade.”
Given Davis’ abundant self-confidence — and some arrogance —
he likely drew energy from his detractors and pushed even harder.
A New York newspaper reporter put it this
way: “I think in some way, ‘Cashup’ and Steptoe drew little by little nearer together, because
they are so similar. Both are sturdy, upright, downright individuals,
maintaining the dignity of higher plateaus amid the lower range by which they
are surrounded. The subtle air or the swift wind could not affect the integrity
of either. I think somehow the mountain became a motto to the man, and he
demanded from and gave to his neighbors its sheer and undeviating honesty.”
The Spokane Falls Review wrote of Davis and his successful
hotel, “There he has built an imperishable monument to himself in the form of
his observatory and other buildings [overlooking] the fertile land at the foot
of his castle.”
What made the hotel so special was that it perched on top of
one of the greatest heights on the Palouse. Yet that great height also would be
its greatest downfall, as Cashup Davis was about to learn.
Jeff Burnside is an
investigative reporter born and raised in the Seattle area. He's the recipient
of numerous journalism awards including 10 regional TV news Emmys, former
president of the Society of Environmental Journalists and a judge for both the
Meeman and Oakes journalism awards. Reach him
at jeffburnside@outlook.com or jeffburnside.com
Also see ‘In the hills of
the Palouse, and in his life, pioneer Cashup Davis aimed high, no matter the
risks’
https://pullman-cupofpalouse.blogspot.com/2022/08/in-hills-of-palouse-and-in-his-life.html
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