Fields of Wheat
This week, HistoryLink looks at the history of two small towns in Lincoln County, one of which has an anniversary. On April 4, 1903, Reardan residents voted for city incorporation. Located 23 miles west of Spokane, the town was founded in 1889 when the Central Washington Railway arrived. Reardan became an important grain-shipping and flour-milling center for the surrounding wheat fields.
Like many Washington communities, the town suffered through two major fires in its early years, but quickly rebuilt. Reardan's notable residents include Joe E. Mann, who was posthumously awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor in 1945, and award-winning author Sherman Alexie. Reardan occupies a crucial place in the plot of Alexie's novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
Next, we look at Wilbur, which is located 42 miles west of Reardan. Platted and named for Samuel Wilbur Condit (also known as Wild Goose Bill), the town's history has a similar trajectory to Reardan. Its early growth is attributed to the arrival of trains, which helped out the community's wheat farmers. The town also dealt with two devastating fires, in 1891 and 1901, and rose from the ashes each time. Wilbur's most famous resident is Marion E. Hay, the state's seventh governor.
Feel the Beat
April is Jazz Appreciation Month, so let's get into the groove with a look back at Washington's jazz history. Seattle's first documented jazz concert was held at Washington Hall in 1918, but the Jazz Age truly hit its stride during the Roaring Twenties and was enjoyed all the way from Seattle to Spokane. Seattle's early jazz scene was centered around Jackson Street and 12th Avenue and jazz clubs later opened downtown as well as in Belltown and other neighborhoods.
But as the largely African American art form grew in popularity, so did the backlash against it. Deemed a menace of civilization by some, and an indicator of moral degradation by others, the crusade against jazz carried into the 1930s, when a "Jazz Intoxication" bill was introduced in the Washington legislature to combat the imaginary threat of this popular musical form. The bill never came to a vote. People danced on.
Many early jazz concerts were performed by members of American Federation of Musicians (AFM) Local 493, the "Negro Musicians' Union," which formed in 1918, when Black musicians found themselves excluded from AFM Local 76, a musicians' union that dated back to the 1890s. By the 1950s, Local 493 was representing many of Seattle's rising African American stars, including Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Overton Berry, Dave Lewis, and Oscar, Dave and Grace Holden. The era also saw conciliation between the two musicians' locals, which merged in 1958.
By this time, jazz was accepted and enjoyed by a broad cross-section of American society, and continues to attract new generations of music aficionados. After losing the jazz wars, cultural scolds set their sights on the perceived threat of rock and roll music, and later, rap and hip-hop. Those efforts failed too.
