Told by the Pioneers - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
On the night of the big wind, when a fierce gale from the Oregon
coast swept through the country, and laid down the timber in a strip
at least twenty miles wide, extending well into Idaho, we had to pile
trunks against the doors of the hotel to keep them from being blown
open. After running the hotel for nine years, Mr. Gray leased it to
S. S. Bailey and Mr. Frees in 1887.
Hotel was Burned .Twice
The following year it was partly destroyed by fire and L. B. Whitten,
o","'ner of the 'Whitten block, was our contractor in rebuilding it.
The hotel was enlarged and renamed the Windsor and again leased
to Bailey and Frees, who were again burned out in the great fire of
August 4, 1889.
After we left the hotel, Mr. Gray bought a large farm in Stevens
County at what is known as Gray's station on the Spokane Falls &
Northerll railroad, between Springdale and Valley. Mr. Gray and I
met so many interesting people and had so many interesting experiences
in running the hotel in early days that to tell all would fill a
book.
Baking Powder Bread
I'm ashamed to tell about this, but while cooking for the men who
were building the California House, just a young bride and inexperienced
in making bread, I mixed up baking powder biscuit dough, put
it in pans and cooked it in loaves like bread.
I am afraid the result was disappointing and the men must have
talked; because one day Mrs. Susan Glover called on me and asked me
what I knew about bread baking.
I told her what I'd been doing and she told me how to make yeast,
but before I got around to following her directions Mrs. Warner, wife
of the storekeeper, paid me a visit. She, too, was inquiring about my
baking.
I told her the same storY and what Mrs. Glover had told me to do.
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Mrs. Warner told me not to worry about it. I'm teaching the Indian
women how to make bread, she said, and I'll furnish you with
all the yeast you need.
Floor Was Luxury
The soldiers had just been moved out of Spokane to J