By Luke Ellington
Withrow as seen heading north on Highway 17
(A Town From Wheat)
In 1906, when surveyors for the Great Northern Railway reached the site of present day Withrow, only one man lived there. Jack J. Withrow, a prominent wheat rancher, probably never guessed that letting a crew of surveyors stay in his home would result in having a town named in his honor. The year 1909 brought train tracks and people that would get to see Withrow boom into the prosperous town it was for many years.
Everyday the train passed back and forth through Withrow, between Mansfield to the northeast and Wenatchee to the southwest. Within a couple years, Withrow had a grain elevator, a livery stable and a productive well dug 600 feet deep. Feeling on top of the world, Withrow held a 4th of July celebration in 1913 with a parade that included draft horses, farm equipment and Model T’s decorated with crepe paper and streamers. By 1915, Withrow had its own town band, which played at dances, concerts and other events. In this flourishing time for the town, the streets of Withrow bustled with businessmen and salesmen as they traveled the rails.
1913 4th of July celebration on Withrow’s unpaved streets
During the winter of 1915, Withrow found itself buried under snow and without mail for 17 days. For fear of future isolation, a group of Withrow residents headed by George Turner decided to build an independent telephone system to connect the homes by phone. At a cost of $25 per home, the phone system covered 15 miles and ensured that Withrow would never again be unable to communicate.
By the late 1910s, Withrow was larger than the county seat of Waterville. The rail town boasted a school, a butcher, a bank, a barber, three grocery stores, two hardware stores, a pool hall, a community hall, two blacksmiths, a drug store, a garage and two lumberyards. A gas street light even controlled traffic in the center of town, yet it could not last. The nearly decade long drought between 1919 to 1928 was death for the town. The businesses withered, the bank failed, and the availability of cars in the 20s meant that residents could go elsewhere to shop. As the population dwindled, the school eventually had to be shut down and the street light in the center of town was smashed with rocks. Withrow’s survival seemed to rely upon the railroad that had originally given the town life. Records and remains from this time in Withrow’s history are scarce, yet the town did not disappear. It simply changed.
Over 1 million bushels of wheat were shipped out of Withrow in 1916.
Verel Ewing was the first baby born in the town.
Some of Withrow’s founding family names include Jordan, Ewing, Cordileer, Peterson, Okland, Andrews, Sawyer, Sall, Kane, Ayers, McDonald and of course, Withrow.
In the 1970s, Withrow was rediscovered as a quaint rail and farm community. The total population in the town was in the 30s. At that time, the town had a single center of business. The local general store was more than that for local Withrow residents. It was a grocery store, hardware store, post office and tavern in one. Other than homes, the only other buildings in town included a tractor outlet, three churches and two grain elevators. In the 1980s, however, the Withrow railroad spur was abandoned, the tracks pulled up, and it seemed as if the plug was pulled on the small town.
Old Withrow Tractor Co. building Holy Cross churchThere are no businesses in Withrow today save for the Coleman’s prefabricated fireplace enterprise. The buildings in town have all been torn down or used to house old farm equipment, but the community remains. Those that have lived in Withrow the longest see their town today as not much more than a cheap place to live. And it is true that the land, electricity, and water from the PUD operated well are all relatively cheap. The small family farms are being bought up every year, and there are fewer and fewer farmers. Very little evidence of Withrow’s booming period in time remains, but there is always the story.
(Not Exactly a Bar Fly)
One of the largest remaining buildings in Withrow is the old general store. Owned by the Withrow Trading Company and built in 1918, the store had groceries and hardware goods, housed the Withrow post office and had a tavern downstairs. This 6,400 square foot old hub of activity, however, is now a home for Withrow’s own Billy Schreiner.
The old “everything store” and current owner Billy SchreinerDriving through Withrow’s “downtown,” only an interesting variety of cacti in the old store’s window hints at the life within. Before the store had to close in 1982, “everything you could think of was in here,” said Billy. When he bought the old brick building in 1994 and removed the faded “for sale“ sign from the window, he knew it was the perfect place for all of his toys. After adding a bay door and tearing out a little roofing, Billy was able to fit not only his boat, but his truck and camper inside his home as well.
With the general store converted into a garage/storage area, the cold storage locker converted into a photography dark room, and the upstairs offices converted into a bedroom, the only place left for Billy Schreiner’s living room was the downstairs tavern. “It’s true, I live in a tavern,” laughed Billy. He added, “I could even tap a keg and have beer on tap if I wanted, but 16 gallons is a lot for one guy!” Billy was the superintendent of greens at the Lakewood Golf Course in Bridgeport for some years and even made custom golf clubs. When talking about name brand clubs, Billy said, “My clubs are better, but they don’t say Calloway.” These days, Billy Schreiner spends his days relaxing and growing what vegetables he can. Since it is too windy for corn, Billy focuses on low-growing tomatoes, and the cacti in the window, he says, “are just easy to grow.”
