100 years ago today in Spokane: WSU saved from getting swallowed by University of Washington

Washington State College in Pullman was on the “verge of big victory,” and this had nothing to do with sports.

This was a legislative victory, which would allow the college to “retain its present position as a separate unit in the state’s system of higher educational institutions.”

Washington State had been in danger of being swallowed up by the University of Washington, but a series of “peace proposals” and compromises appeared to have saved it.

The ongoing rancor in this dispute was reflected on the editorial page, where editors accused the University of Washington of being essentially a “Seattle institution” and giving students from Seattle “higher education at the expense of all of the other counties in the state.”

From the pioneer beat: Hiram Thomas Cowley, one of earliest settlers in the town of Spokane Falls, died at age 79 in San Diego.

Cowley was a Protestant missionary who came out to work with the Nez Perce in 1871. In 1874, he moved up to Spokane to do missionary work with H.H. Spalding. No town existed at the time, yet Cowley would soon become one of the founding fathers of Spokane Falls.

He homesteaded land east of what became Division Street. His original residence was at what is now Sixth Avenue and Division Street.

Today it is called Cowley Park. His name also lives on two blocks east, in South Cowley Street.