The
town of South Bend had its beginnings in 1869 when the Riddell
brothers, Valentine and John, built a sawmill on the bend
of the Willapa River.
In April
1890, the South Bend Land Company signed a contract with
the Northern Pacific Railroad, donating half of the property
the company owned to the railroad,. The railroad announced
that South Bend would be the ocean terminus of the Yakima
and Pacific Coast branch line.
The
local chamber of commerce and South Bend Land Company expansively
promoted the town as the future "Baltimore of the Pacific".
Although the railroad was completed in 1892 and South Bend
benefited, the Panic of 1893 ended the "Baltimore"
dream.
The
Pacific County seat since 1855 was Oysterville, a prosperous
settlement located on the Long Beach Peninsula. As South
Bend grew, the town demanded a vote to move the county seat
from Oysterville to South Bend. A vote was taken in 1892
designating South Bend as the county seat, but it resulted
in a lawsuit that temporarily delayed moving day. South
Benders, agitated by the apparent reluctance of County officials,
took two steamers to Oysterville and forcibly moved, or
according to some accounts, "stole" the records
in 1893..
