Cheney Historical Museum

Be a Part of History

Benjamin P. Cheney, the town’s namesake.  He visited only once, in 1883, but funded the original academy and filled its library.

History of Our District

During the first half of the 19th century, there were scattered white settlements and missionaries in this area of eastern Washington, but the main population was the native people who had long established seasonal hunting, fishing, Camus beds, and camping sites in the district.

In 1847, after the Whitman Incident, those white settlers and missionaries were asked to leave and eastern Washington was closed to settlement until 1858.  In that year there were a number of military clashes.  In our district, the most famous was the September 1, 1958 “Battle of Four Lakes” when General George Wright defeated a confederation of Spokane, Palouse, & Coeur d’Alene fighters near Willow Lake.

One early settler was Thomas Philleo, who in 1869 homesteaded near the lake south of Cheney which bears his name. Early homesteaders raised cattle and horses, and then began raising wheat, barley, oats, and hay. For a time there was also a burgeoning fruit orchard business in the area.

Minnie Marie Bassett is believed to be the first white child born in Spokane County at her family’s homestead near Granite Lake in the Four Lakes district on January 1, 1872.

In 1877 after the Northern Pacific Railway had surveyed its right of way through the area, the first settlers arrived at Section 13, and  by the following year there were a few businesses creating the beginnings of the town of Cheney. Businessmen saw a potential railway junction for the site with its abundant spring water, at the rim of the Columbia Basin and Palouse country, the high point on the railway line between Spokane and Portland. With enthusiasm and industry they began organizing for a bright future.

In 1880, John W. Sprague, Superintendent of the Northern Pacific Railway is quoted in the Palouse Gazette saying that the railroad is locating a town site on Section 13 to be named Cheney, a location formerly known as Billings, which had locally been known as Depot Springs and less commonly as Willow Springs.  Naming towns after railroad company officers was a common practice of the period used by the railroad, and Benjamin Pierce Cheney was a major stockholder and director of the Northern Pacific Railway Company.

In 1880, Cheney won the Spokane County seat in a hotly disputed election. The little town which started that year with a population around 20 ended the year with several hundred residents and the county government.

In 1881 the businessmen of Cheney embarked on one of the most enduring projects for the town, establishing an educational institution for the training of teachers.  They asked Mr. Cheney for support, and flattered by his namesake town, he gave $10,000 and had the railroad give over 8 aces of land to start the Benjamin P. Cheney Academy. It opened April 3, 1882.

Cheney incorporated as a city in 1883, the same year that Mr. & Mrs. Cheney made their only visit to the town and academy.

Spokane won back the County seat in 1886, and Cheney then pinned its dreams on agriculture and education, winning designation as Washington’s first State Normal School in 1890. Those early years of the school were rocky. Twice the school burned to the ground, and three times Washington governors vetoed funding for the school. But each time the citizens, teachers, and students fought back keeping the school going and overcoming government skeptics.

The origins of Tyler, 10 miles southwest of Cheney, are somewhat obscure.  In 1880 the town site was originally named Stephens, then Stevens. Who was Stevens? Some people think it may be Isaac Stevens, first governor of Washington Territory and one of the surveyors of the railroad route. It is just as likely, however, that railroad Superintendent John Sprague named the spot after his friend and co-worker, Stevens, supervisor of the track laying operation. After all, a little further west Mr. Sprague has a town named for himself.

The Northern Pacific Railway station at the town site was named Tyler. There is a story that it was named, as a joke, for a Montana man who had sued the railroad and collected damages. If that is true, then Tyler does indeed have a unique origin. For about a dozen years the little town of Stevens contained the Tyler station, then in 1892, the town’s post office was renamed to Tyler. By 1900 Tyler had a school, grain warehouse, cattle stock yard, a hotel, and a number of other businesses.  Through the years Tyler was also the supply and jumping off point to a number of fishing and hunting spots and resorts.

While there was settlement in the Four Lakes district for many years, the Meadow Lake township formed through the advertising of  Spokane Realty firm, Hanauer-Graves, in anticipation of the Cheney Branch of the Washington Water Power electric train service in 1907.  They advertised the area as great, frost—free, farming and orchard land.  In 1910 the post office was renamed Four Lakes due to confusion with the name of the nearby Medical Lake.

The area which would become Amber near the Mullan Road with the beautiful lake was settled in the 1870s.  Josiah Graves was one of the earliest settlers, along with the Mason, Calvert, Reed, Scroggie, and Miller families. The actual town at Calvert crossing is credited to Louis Houck. He saw possibilities in the area around the Calvert railway station of the Spokane Portland & Seattle Railway adjacent to the beautiful little lake. First named Calvert, at one time it boasted a restaurant, store, blacksmith shop owned by Alva Briner, butcher shop, hotel, post office, and a feed & sale stable owned by Louis H. Houck. The town was renamed from Calvert to Amber because it was sometimes confused with Colbert. Bartley Costello, postmaster, is said to have chosen the name Amber after the “Amber” brand tea he drank.

Today, Cheney is the largest town of the district with Eastern Washington University and its 10,000 students as anchor.  Four Lakes and Tyler have become informal communities with fiercely devoted residents where traces of their larger pasts can still be found.  Amber has reverted to a collection of houses, and a stop on the Columbia Plateau Trail, next to the still beautiful and serene little lake.

The original Cheney Academy and state’s first Normal School.

Students and teacher of the Tyler School, Christmas 1899.

The Amber School 1938.

Four Lakes School.

Cheney Cheese Factory 1906.

Advertisement from 1912.

Bank of Cheney in 1890s. Located where Bank of America is today.