tion. Actual service in the field showed the men to be poorly armed and equipped. This, together with the fact that armory rent in some of the cities was allowed to remain unpaid, had discouraged the men and recruiting was out of the question. While these things were being discussed trouble developed between Colonel Haines and Adjutant-General O'Brien. They met in Olympia, sharp words passed and a fist fight was narrowly averted. Haines was president of an association of guard officers. The association held a meeting in Tacoma and adopted resolutions stating "it is the sense of this organization that Adjutant-General O'Brien is principally responsible for this condition of affairs, therefore be it resolved that it is for the best interests of the service that the position be filled by someone who has the interest of the National Guard at heart." A court martial trial was the result of this resolution. It did not add any luster to the reputations of the officers concerned.

John C. Haines was born in Hainesville, Ill., February 14, 1849, and died in Seattle January 1, 1892. His family was prominent in Illinois affairs and the boy was given a good education. Following his graduation from the Lake Forest Military Academy he entered the law department of Williams College from which he graduated in 1871. Early in the '80s he came to Seattle from Chicago and joined the law firm of Struve, Haines and Leary. Possessed of brilliant oratorical ability he was soon in demand as a public speaker and rapidly established a territorial-wide reputation and acquaintanceship. The military training which he received at the Lake Forest Academy gave him rapid advancement in National Guard affairs and when the First Regiment was organized, in April, 1887, he became its first colonel. In politics Haines was a republican, and following the organization of the state, became a candidate for United States Senator. The King County delegation went into the convention backing Watson G. Squire and Haines was refused the nomination. At the convention of 1890, held in Tacoma, he was more successful in "picking a winner" and in a brilliant speech started John L. Wilson on his way to the United States Senate, by nominating him for Representative in Congress.

As a lawyer Haines was ever a deep student. With him, to be retained as attorney in a case meant the thorough mastery of all its details. So completely did he do this that on one occasion, being retained in some cases involving a knowledge of admiralty law, he made a study of navigation and later passed the examination for masters and pilots receiving certificates entitling him to serve as either. His connection with the Oregon Improvement Company brought him prominently before other corporations and at the time of his death he was counsel for many of the state's leading business organizations. He was the author of the military law adopted by the state when it laid away its territorial rule.

CHAPTER XLI

NAVY YARD INCEPTION IN 1867-LIEUTENANT WYCKOFF'S PLAN OF BUILDING A

SELF-SUPPORTING STATION-MAHAN-STOCKTON REPORT BRINGS BITTER FIGHT BEFORE CONGRESS-SECOND REPORT MADE BY NAVAL EXPERTS MEETS DETERMINED HOSTILITY BUT FINALLY IS ACCEPTED LIEUTENANT WYCKOFF ORDERED

WEST TO BUY LANDS—TACOMA FIRM GETS CONTRACT AT $461,465—OPENING of

GREAT TRAP A NOTABLE SUCCESS.

PUGET SOUND NAVY YARD

The Puget Sound Navy Yard had its inception in the year 1867, when a board of army engineers recommended that a United States naval station and dry dock be established. An examination of the waters of Puget Sound was made at that time, also in 1870. Lieut. A. B. Wyckoff, in 1877, began surveying the waters of the Sound above Seattle and during the next three years wrote many letters to Eastern friends urging them to advocate the establishment of a great naval station in these waters. The Federal Government owned extensive tracts of timber lands along the shores of the Sound and Wyckoff's plan was for the government to create a naval reservation of 200,000 acres, urging that with constantly advancing prices these lands would form a perpetual endowment that would make the station self-supporting. So well did Wyckoff present his plan that prominent naval officers soon adopted it and a bill embodying the idea was introduced in Congress in the session of 1879-80. Before the measure could be acted upon, Wyckoff was ordered to the China station and the bill died in a congressional committee room.

Seven years passed before Congress again took up the matter and, in 1888, passed an act authorizing the secretary of the navy to appoint a commission of three naval officers to examine the coast of Oregon, Washington and Alaska for a suitable site for a naval station and dry dock. There was appropriated for the work $5,000, and Secretary of the Navy W. C. Whitney appointed Capt. A. T. Mahan, Commander C. M. Chester and Lieut.-Commander C. H. Stockton as his commissioners. After carefully examining the waters north of the forty-second parallel to the Canadian border, they selected 1,800 acres of land lying on a point between Dye's and Sinclair's inlets, across the Sound from Seattle, and recommended it as a site for the station.

Captain Mahan, the historian of the commission, and one of the ablest men the navy has produced, prepared a very able report which was presented to Congress and brought forth a bitter fight from the Eastern representatives and senators. They fought, not only the purchase of the land, but the whole project of a North Pacific naval station. The Northwest had not become

strong enough to get its fingers into the "pork barrel." Senator Allen finally obtained an amendment to the naval appropriation bill of June 30, 1890, under which a new commission was appointed to select a site "for a dry dock at some point on the shores of the Pacific Ocean, or on the waters connected therewith, north of the parallel of latitude marking the northern boundary of California, including the waters of Puget Sound, and also Lakes Washington and Union in the State of Washington. The commission, it will be seen, was restricted to a site for a dry dock alone.

Ex-Secretary of the Navy Richard W. Thompson, Ex-Senator T. C. Platt, of New York; Col. George H. Mendell, U. S. A.; Capt. T. O. Selfridge, U. S. N.; and Lieut. A. B. Wyckoff, U. S. N., were appointed as this committee and went over practically the same ground as had been gone over by preceding committees. It even selected the same site, and made its report so promptly that it was sent to Congress December 23, 1890, by President Harrison. The House of Representatives refused to take any action towards making an appropriation, but Senator Allen offered an amendment to the naval appropriation bill authorizing the secretary of the navy to buy not to exceed 200 acres of land on Puget Sound at Port Orchard and appropriating $25,000 for its purchase and the construction thereon "for naval and commercial purposes, a dry dock, to be not less than 600 feet in length, not less than 70 feet width at bottom of entrance, and capable of admitting vessels drawing thirty feet of water; the cost not to exceed $700,000, of which the sum of $200,000 is hereby appropriated for use during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1892." Senators Dolph and Mitchell, of Oregon, joined Eastern senators in opposing this bill, they wishing to have the selection of the site left to the secretary of the navy. Two days were spent in discussing the amendment, which was finally adopted, the purchase price being reduced to $10,000.

The conference committee's report was sent to the house, where it met with determined opposition and would, perhaps, have been laid away indefinitely had it not been for the assistance given by the leading members of the naval committee, Lodge and Boutelle, who carried it through just before the close of the session. Lieutenant Wyckoff was, at this time, assistant chief of the bureau of docks and yards, navy department, at Washington. To him Secretary of the Navy B. F. Tracy sent the following order:

"Sir: You will proceed to Seattle, Washington, and then to Port Orchard, in the County of Kitsap, on Puget Sound, where you will select a tract of land, not exceeding 200 acres in extent, suitable for the purposes of a dry dock. You will furnish the department with a plan of the site you may select, and report the lowest price per acre for which it can be purchased."

Wyckoff, within two weeks, was on his way, purchased the lands upon which the first dry dock was built, and September 16, 1891, assumed command of the Puget Sound Naval Station upon orders issued by Secretary Tracy. Miss Selah Wyckoff hoisted the Stars and Stripes and the station, after more than twenty years of effort upon the part of its friends, both within and without the state, was a reality.

After making a great many borings, Lieutenant Wyckoff selected a site for the dry dock and awarded the contract for its construction to Byron Barlow & Co. of Tacoma, the original contract price being $461,465. The Tacoma