But the hub of activity is Endicott Foods, the surprisingly
large grocery and deli run by Jenny Meyer, who came to Endicott
in 1977. Just about everyone stops by the store sooner or
later, and Meyer knows just about everything that's going
on – even the impending arrival of a curious writer
from Spokane.
"Oh, I heard you were coming," she says with a smile.
She's back from driving her school bus route, planning her
lunch special between customers, and getting ready for the
next round of coffee drinkers. "The men come at about
nine o'clock in the morning, and they sit here and have coffee
for an hour, hour-and-a-half, whatever. Then the ladies come
about ten-thirty, eleven."
The morning coffee klatch is the place to go to meet people
in Endicott. Need a meeting spot after running errands? Looking
for someone to talk to? Taking a break before the kids get
out of school? Well, as preschool teacher Margaret Schmick
says, "All roads lead to the deli."
"We don't dress up, we just come down here," says
Pat Byers, who moved into town after many years of farming
and ranching out on Rock Creek. "There might be someone
here to visit with, to have a cup of coffee with."
Like many small towns, Endicott runs on relationships. The
population hasn't changed much over the past 50 years –
a total of 355 in the last census – and many folks claim
common ancestors among the original homesteaders and the German-Russian
immigrants who settled here. It's important to stay on good
terms with the neighbors and not gossip indiscriminately,
because your confidante may turn out to be a cousin of your
subject.
Although the total numbers haven't changed
much, longtime residents note a gradual increase in newcomers,
people with no family ties to Endicott. As real estate prices
have risen in other parts of Whitman County – specifically
around Pullman – home-buyers are choosing to move further
out from the population centers to smaller and less-expensive
locales like Endicott.
"I think the biggest issue we're having now in Endicott
is that the older people are willing to do stuff to keep the
community going, and our new young couples with kids don't
want to do anything," Meyer asserts. "Some do. I'm
not saying all of them, but it's hard to get people to do
anything."
Town clerk and treasurer Jerine Grey confirms the recent demographic
changes. "We're kind of a bedroom community now for Pullman
and Moscow," she says. "(The new residents) are
not here all day, so they don't know us. And we don't know
them."
In the end, though, where you were born matters less than
active community participation, say the coffee klatch regulars.
"You could join one of the local churches, that'd be
an easy way (to meet people)," says retired farmer Bud
Smick. "We have a community club here that meets once
a month. Go to ballgames at the school. Otherwise –
just come to coffee klatches."
Origins
A sign at the entrance to town says the town was founded in
1878. Local histories note an influx of Civil War veterans
from the South in the 1870s, resulting in the naming of Rebel
Flat Creek. Mayor Jim Hughes recalls hearing a story about
a peddler who stopped to rest in his travels and liked the
place so well that he decided to homestead right there.
Records at WSU indicate that the Oregon Land and Improvement
Co. platted the town in 1882 and named it for William Endicott,
Jr., a prominent Boston banker and shareholder in the railroad.
And state records give the official incorporation date as
1905, following the arrival of many German-Russian families
during the last two decades of the 19th century.
After a hundred years, give or take, there have been a few
changes. Jerine Grey grew up in Endicott but married and left
in 1963; when she returned in 2000, she noticed lots of things
that were different.
"When I first came back, I was sad that we didn't pay
attention earlier and preserve some of our older buildings,"
she says. "We don't have anything left, really, just
(the store building) and the old city hall."
Aileen Johnson, daughter of a farmer and wife of a farmer,
remembers back even earlier.
"Businesses have dwindled, like a lot of small towns,"
she says. "We used to have a shoe repair shop, a big
grocery and dry goods store, a creamery, and even a movie
theater. We had three grocery stores in town when we moved
back out to the farm in 1948. Our pharmacy closed a few years
ago because the pharmacist retired and he couldn't find anyone
to buy the business, so now if you need anything you have
to go out of town. We're grateful for our store, though."
Connections
Most people drive to Colfax for their
major grocery shopping now; to buy clothing, one must venture
to Pullman, Moscow or Spokane. The closest medical services
are in Colfax at the Whitman Hospital and Medical Center,
although the satellite clinic in St. John opens a few days
a week. The old drug store is now an antique shop.
Despite its geographic isolation, Endicott
links to the wider world via cable television and Internet
services, making mail order a convenient option when products
are not available locally. There's still no pizza delivery
in town, but most residents agree that the benefits of life
in Endicott outweigh the inconveniences.
"Whatever you want to do, you can live here and do it,"
Johnson says.
"Children are safe here," Byers adds. "We are
safe."
Setbacks and progress
Farmer and trucker Jim Hughes is in his
third year as mayor of Endicott, and before that, he served
on the town council. The biggest issue he has wrestled with
as a town official is Washington's Initiative 695, the vote
that set annual license tab fees at $30. After the new fees
took affect, Endicott's street fund plummeted from a budget
in the thousands to less than $250 a year, and other budget
areas took equally drastic hits.
"In little towns like this, that really affected city
budgets," he says. "Other towns, those with a bigger
tax base, weren't as affected as we were."
The town struggled to make up the difference, turning to grant
funds to help maintain the infrastructure. Grant money fully
or partially paid for a new bridge, a sewage treatment plant,
and a repaved road in recent years, and the town is seeking
additional funds to update its water system. Endicott has
also just signed a contract with Inland Cellular to build
a cell phone tower on top of the hill south of town.
"Everybody within a few miles will have service,"
Hughes says. "It will be good for safety as well as convenience.
And the company seems to be doing it to help us as well as
themselves, and we're grateful."
Agricultural base
Fewer people now live on the farm as farm
sizes increase and the number of farms drops. Generally, the
ownership remains with local families, but some operations
grow larger as other families get out of farming altogether.
"When you want to buy fertilizer for land, the more you
buy the less you pay," says Hughes. "It seems like
people have to grow to survive."
Agriculture and farm services still drive economic activity
around Endicott; the largest employers in town are two fertilizer
companies and the local wheat growers' association.
But that doesn't mean other businesses can't thrive. Vince
Stolmeier, a master cabinetmaker, moved to Endicott from Seattle,
after a brief stay in Pullman. Through his company, Viikwood,
he creates custom cabinets, staircases and other design elements
for high-end residential and commercial clients primarily
in the Seattle area.
"The houses were cheaper here, so we bought a house,"
he says. "I took to it right away. When we got divorced,
I raised the kids here, and when they got to high school,
they wouldn't let me move – they wanted to stay here."
Stolmeier's business relies on word-of-mouth referrals, and
he says he has no trouble getting business despite the distance
from his client base. He does occasional small jobs for people
around Endicott, and the people of the town take pride in
his success. He serves on the town council, and everyone knows
him as the guy who wears shorts all the time.
"We've got a few farmers who'll come in here in the winter
to see if I'm still wearing shorts," he laughs. "I'm
their weather gauge. They say, ‘If you've got pants
on then we're ordering spring wheat because we know all our
(winter) wheat is dead.'"
Amenities
Just up the road sits the Pleasant Times
tea house and gift shop, another thriving small business.
Set in a pink-and-white 1905 Victorian house, the tea house
attracts customers from as far away as Spokane and the Tri-Cities
to its elegant high teas and luncheons.
Owner Jean Cisneros moved here after many years living in
Germany and expanded the business begun by her daughter back
in 1991. Now, the house holds several rooms of antiques and
fine gifts for sale; Cisneros and her staff welcome dozens
of visitors every Wednesday through Saturday.
"People have a hard time believing that a nice go-out-to-lunch
special-occasion kind of place is way out here," she
says. "We draw people from all over."
Cisneros redid the entire interior of the house, adding wallpaper
and carpeting where there had been none. Each table is set
exquisitely with floral linens and china; tea cups and teapots
adorn the shelves beside the tables.
"I love to entertain, to set a pretty table, to decorate,
so it all came together in the business," she says. "We
want people to feel like the table is theirs for as long as
they want it. The whole atmosphere of the soft music, and
being able to come and stay at your table, no one's rushing
you – that's how it is in Europe."
Threat, promise of tourism
Despite its proximity to the center of
town, Pleasant Times does not seem to pull in many people
from the community. Occasionally, local people will celebrate
birthdays and anniversaries there, but the bulk of the business
comes from elsewhere.
With another antique shop right across the street, the tea
house could be the start of a tourist economy in Endicott
– or, it could remain a single destination, an anomaly.
The folks at the coffee klatch feel ambivalent about future
growth here.
Although all agree they'd like to see more services and more
economic activity in town, they've visited towns like Leavenworth
and Winthrop, and they see reliance on tourism as a double-edged
sword. They wonder if any tourists would ever want to come
to Endicott.
"Endicott is in a spot where you have to want to come
here," Grey points out "We're not on the way to
anyplace."
"Yes," Johnson agrees. "We're off the beaten
path." |
