XXXVI. WASHINGTON TERRITORY. Organized as a Territory, 1853. Capital, Olympia. Area, 176,141 square miles. Population, 1860, 11,578. Estimated population, 1861, 14,249. Valuation of property, 1861, $6,800,003. EDUCATION.-The University of the Territory of Washington was incorporated January 24, 1862, and the Board of Regents under its charter elected. Its site is at Seattle, in King county, and university buildings have already been erected, at a cost of about $30,000. The General Government has granted it an endowment of 46,080 acres of land, which, it is believed, will create a fund of not less than $75,000. Common Schools.-The school lands granted to the Territory by the General Government amount to 10,161,138 acres,-an endowment which must eventually give it ample resources for the support of its schools. The number of children between the ages of 4 and 21 years in the Territory in 1861 was 2141. The number of school-houses was 53, and the cost of instruction, $9,638 22. The office of Territorial Superintendent was abolished by the Legislature in January, 1862. PRINCIPAL TOWNS.-The largest town in the Territory is Florence, in Idaho county, in the new mining-region of Salmon River. Its population is said to be over 3000. Olympia, the territorial capital, Vancouver, the county seat of Clarke county, Lewiston, the county seat of Nez Percé county, also in the mining-region, Walla Walla, county seat of the county of the same name, Steilacoom, the county seat of Pierce county, and Port Angelos, in Clallam county, the present port of entry of the Territory, are the other principal towns. MINING. The eastern portion of Washington Territory has within the past two years attracted great attention from the extensive discoveries of gold made there. The gold-fields are on the headwaters of the Columbia River, which is formed by two principal streams, the Upper Columbia, or main branch, which takes its rise in British Columbia, and the Snake River, which rises in the Rocky Mountains in the southeast portion of Washington Territory, and receives as tributaries the Salmon and Kooskooskie Rivers. The first mines discovered-the Wenatchee, Okanagon, Kettle River, and Colville Mines-were on the tributaries of the Upper Columbia; while the later and, as is alleged, richer deposits of the Nez Percé and Salmon River diggings are on tributaries of the Salmon River and in the new counties of Idaho and Nez Percé. A good wagon-road, 624 miles in length, from Port Benton, the present head of navigation on the Missouri River, to Walla Walla, near the bend of the Columbia River, was completed in August, 1862. XXXVII. NEVADA TERRITORY. Organized March 2, 1861. Capital, Carson City. Estimated Area, 80,000 square miles. Population, 1860, 50,568, of which 16,261 are Indians on reservations, and 7550 tribal Indians, mostly Pah-Utes, Shoshonees, and Bunnocks. A general election for territorial and county members, elected for two years. The House of officers is held annually on the first Wednesday Representatives is composed of twenty-six memof September. The Legislative Assembly of No-bers, elected for one year. Each House chooses all vada consists of a Council and House of Representatives, and convenes annually on the second Tuesday in November. The session is limited to forty days. The Council is composed of thirteen of its own officers. The compensation of the members of the Legislative Assembly is $3 per day, and mileage at the rate of $3 for every twenty miles of travel to and from the Territorial capital. This Territory received, at the second session of the 37th Congress (1861-2), an addition of a strip of land one degree of longitude in width, viz., from the 38th to the 39th degree west from Washington, which was taken from Utah. This addition in creases its area nearly one-fourth. The whole Territory is rich in mineral wealth. Of its nine organized counties, seven have already numerous mines of either gold or silver; and the richest silver-mines in the United States are found in Storey county. That county sent, in October, 1862, a contribution of $20,226 22 to the Sanitary Commission, in eight massive silver bars, five of which weighed 111 pounds each. Quicksilver, lead, and antimony are also found in great abundance. The Ophir mines, in Washoe county, were the first silver mines which attracted attention. They are in the western part of the county, and are to be connected by a railroad with Virginia City, the capital of Storey county. The principal towns of the Territory are Virginia City, having in October, 1862, an estimated population of 3000, and the place of most business in the Territory; Carson City, the Territorial capital, and county seat Sheriff. Geo. W. Brubaker... School Sup't. C. D. Daggett. of Ormsby county, 2500 inhabitants; Silver City, in Lyon county, 1000 inhabitants; Gold Hill, Storey county, 1500 inhabitants; Washoe City and Ophir, Washoe county; Humboldt, Humboldt county; Dayton, county seat of Lyon county; and Genoa, county seat of Douglas county. The flood of January, 1860, which proved so destructive in California and Oregon, extended also to Nevada, and destroyed property variously estimated from $200,000 to $1,000,000; and before the new Territory had had time to rally from so severe a blow to its development, the extraordinary reports which were brought thither of the marvellous richness of the Salmon River gold-mines, in Oregon and Washington, led to an emigration in that direction which threatened to depopulate Nevada; but its mines possessed too much value to be long neglected, and the autumn of 1862 found the population more rapidly increasing than at any former period, and the stocks of its great mining companies enhanced to a value fully double the price at which they were held at the beginning of the year. XXXVIII. UTAH TERRITORY. Organized September 9, 1850. Capital, Great Salt Lake City. Area, 120,000 square miles. Population, 1860, 60,699; of these, 20,426 were Indians. Estimated population, 1862, including Indians, 79,193. All of the above officers but the first three are Territorial Officers. Legislative Assembly. The Legislative Assembly is composed of a Council and House of Representatives, and convenes annually, at Great Salt Lake City, on the second Monday of December. Term of session, forty days. Compensation of members and officers, $3 per day; mileage, $3 for every twenty miles of Fees. travel. The Council is composed of thirteen members, elected for two years. The House of Representatives is composed of twenty-six members, elected annually on the first Monday in August. Each House chooses its own officers. These Judges also preside singly over District | and Beaver counties; and the 3d, Tooele, Great Courts, the Territory being divided into three dis- Salt Lake, Summit, Green River, Cache, Box tricts, the 1st comprising Millard, San Pete, Juab, Elder, Weber, Morgan, and Davis counties. and Wasatch counties; the 2d, Washington, Iron, The Probate Judge and Notary Public of each | joint session. The Assessor is, ex officio, collector county are elected by the Legislative Assembly in of taxes. FINANCES. The receipts from all sources for the year ending Nov. 1, 1862, were..... EDUCATION.-The "University of Deseret," consisting, as yet, only of a Chancellor and Board of Regents, has the supervision of education in the Territory. There are public schools in every ward of Salt Lake City, and schools and academies in most of the towns. SOIL, &c.-The greater part of the Territory is barren, much of it mountainous and scantily watered, and having soil strongly charged with alkalies, which permit no vegetation except the worthless artemisia or wild sage. The lakes, except Utah Lake, are generally saline, the Great Salt Lake being the largest body of salt water, unconnected with the ocean, on this continent. Beaver, Cache, Davis, and portions of Salt Lake, San Pete, Washington, Wasatch, and Weber counties have some arable land. RELIGION.-The greater part of the white inhabitants of Utah-probably not less than 50,000 -are adherents to the Mormon faith, or, as they denominate themselves, the "Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints." Their church organization is composed of a series of hierarchies, the highest being the First Presidency, consisting of their chief prophet Brigham Young, Heber C. Kimball, and Daniel H. Wells; next the Twelve Apostles; then the quorums of Seventies, of which there are said to be 62 organized in the Territories, each having 7 presidents and 63 members; then follow quorums of High-Priests, Elders, Priests, Teachers, and Deacons. A somewhat anomalous office is that of patriarch, which has been conferred on John Smith (son of Hyrum and nephew ....$50,612 10 40,199 31 of their first prophet, Joseph Smith) and on a few others. There is also in each settlement a HighCouncil, composed of 12 members, and a bishop for each ward, the wards containing from 500 to 1000 persons. STATE ORGANIZATION.-In February or March, 1862, in accordance with a joint resolution of the Territorial Legislature, the people elected delegates to form a Constitution for the State of Deseret, and after the formation of the Constitution it was adopted, and State officers and a Legislature elected, the Governor elected being Brigham Young, the Lieutenant-Governor, Heber C. Kimball, and the President of the Convention, Daniel H. Wells. The Legislature elected two Senators and one Representative to Congress, and one of the Senators elected proceeded to Washington to urge the admission of the new State into the Union. The application was, as usual, referred to a committee, and no action was taken upon it during the session. Congress, however, passed a law "to punish and prevent the practice of polygamy in the Territories of the United States and in other places, and disapproving and annulling certain acts of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah" (see Abstract of the Laws, p. 257), and annexed to the new Territory of Nebraska a strip, one degree of longitude in width, of the Territory of Utah. The elected officers of the proposed new State were very much dissatisfied with these measures, and they have manifested their dissatisfaction in very decided terms. Utah has furnished no volunteers for the army of the Union; but a body of California mounted volunteers-three or four companies—and a regiment of infantry were directed to winter there, 1. 7 |