Kiona Benton City Historical Society

09/02/2026

Kiona Benton School year begins this week for what may be the start of its 140th school year. Records of the early dates in Yakima County are a little sketchy and some “facts” are derived from oral history rather than records. The first school was in a building excessed from the construction camp of the Northern Pacific Railroad near the Kiona Station. It was later brought across the Yakima River on ice skids during winter. I believe that building is the one recently renovated at the corner of Babs and 1st.

There were other schools of the local Kiona area where children attended on the Horse Heaven and the Rattlesnake such as the school at Iowa Flats. Historically, the 1895 school on Hedger Avenue (now known as Babs) is the most iconic. It was used from 1895 through the 1923-24 school year. It may originally have been planned as a home for the C.S. Prowells when he resigned his position with the Northern Pacific and began new irrigation and building projects in his 1891 Kiona Townsite on the North side of the river. The Prowells donated its use as for a school and after 28 years of use the property reverted back to Anna Prowell. In turn, Anna donated the structure and land for the use of the community and especially for women’s club programs.

Construction of the new brick school seems to have taken several years to complete, but opened partially in 1923. Some elementary classes were held in the old school and high-school classes in Kennedy Brother’s Garage. The newly built brick structure was modern but again used only about 30 years. The Ki-Be School District combined with the Gas Wells district. My thought is that the district outline for Iowa Flats is the same as Gas Wells but district numbers don’t match. The Iowa Settlement School was district 21 and in Iowa Flats which is in the same location as Gas Wells. Gas Wells was District 39 and Kiona was District 27. In 1931, when the two districts merged, Ki-Be was assigned as District 52 as it is still known.

08/28/2026

Raising cattle and horses on undeveloped railroad land was an additional ranch activity of dry-land wheat farmers in Kiona, Kennewick and the surrounding Horse Heaven Hills. With fair week and all its associated activities; 4H, carnival rides, rodeos, produce exhibits; so, I thought I’d talk about Rodeo Royalty.

The Benton County Fair and Rodeo as now organized began in 1948 although many roundup activities and rodeos were held decades before this 78-year tradition. In 1949, the Benton County Mounted Posse sponsored a Rodeo Royalty court with a queen and princesses. The young women were chosen based upon achievements, horsemanship and of course general appearance. In the Rodeo Royalty’s third year, one of the Princesses, Margaret Kerr, was from Benton City.

Margaret’s grandfather and father were sheep and stockmen in early Kiona and Benton City. KBCHS will share their story separately. Although inclined to write a few paragraphs about Margaret and her accomplishments, her story almost writes itself in the following photos (most loaned from her niece) and, newspaper clippings.

08/20/2026

Here's an opportunity that doesn't come around very often.

Join us this Third Thursday for an evening with the Maritime Washington National Heritage Area exploring the communities, cultures, and traditions that have shaped life along Washington’s waterways.

08/07/2026

Early homesteaders in Kiona met challenges learning dryland farming or devising ways to irrigate their claims. Like all settlers of the period, folks faced hardships modern-day residents don’t. Initially there was no doctor, no nearby towns. Your closest neighbors could be a mile or more apart unless you lived on smaller acreages. Such was the lot of one middle-aged couple, William and Elizabeth Paton in the riverside community of Kiona, Washington Territory (WT).
The Paton family was large, a well-established middle-class family from the Upper Midwest. William and Elizabeth were first cousins and first-generation Americans. Their grandparents immigrated from Scotland via Canada, then settled in Michigan. Elizabeth was born in Almont, Michigan in 1853 and William in Canada a year later but raised in Michigan. They married in 1876.
What drew them west in the latter part of their first decade of marriage is unknown. I presume once in the region; they may have been convinced to move to Kiona by another homesteader or a Northern Pacific employee. Just as the Patons did, a number of early Kiona homesteaders had spent time in Walla Walla and Ellensburg prior to settling here.
William was the Singer Sewing Machine agent in Walla, Walla, WT, a job that others seem to have given a bad rep when you read old newspapers, however, William’s name does not show up as one of THOSE guys. It’s unknown when the Patons left Walla Walla, but they spent some time in Kittitas County, WT before homesteading in Kiona.
William filed on a 158-acre plat about 1892. He, his wife Elizabeth, teen-aged daughter Winifred, and 12-year-old son Harold settled into the community. The kids attended school, and William farmed the acreage irrigated by water lifted from the Yakima River by waterwheel. It is not known if the Patons shared an irrigation system with William Neill whose homestead was on land along the Yakima River and shared the east border of Paton’s homestead.
About four years into the venture, William died tragically, drowning in the Yakima River. By this time, Winifred was teaching at schools in the upper Yakima County before going to college in California. After his father’s death, young Harold helped his mother to prove up on the homestead. In early 1899, as Elizabeth began the final paperwork process of proving up, tragedy struck again. Young Herald became ill dying suddenly of a brain abscess.
In October, 1899, Elizabeth was granted the homestead patent. Records show Elizabeth and Winifred returned to Michigan by the spring of 1900. In Michigan, Winifred continued her teaching career and met William Ransom Carpenter, a graduate of University of Michigan. They married in 1906 and had two children. William was very successful moving to Washington DC where he had a noted career in managing government offices. Winifred and William made a permanent home in DC. Elizabeth would visit Winifred and William in Washington DC and passed there in 1916.

07/24/2026

Farm fresh peach prices, 77 and 92 years ago this month.

Perused through the Benton City Billboard Collection and enjoyed reading the articles from 77 years ago (1949). Especially fun was one about the price of peaches. The going price was a dollar per apple box full. However, due to sharing of a "15 years ago...", a selection from Oscar Hanson's Benton City Booster (1934) had readers calling in orders to a local grower for the 50 cents per box of peaches. What would happen if we showed up now at a local orchard and asked for 40 lbs. for 50cents?

04/06/2026

A centennial for Pasco Airport.
https://www.facebook.com/TCAirportPSC

The Tri-Cities Airport (FAA designation of PSC) provides regional, commercial air service to southeas

03/11/2026

We have an issue! An issue that matches this week's date that is. 77 years ago today, the Billboard reports some stuff on the lighter side of things such as second graders visiting the post office. We also have an upgrade happening on the community center. When gifted by Annie Prowell to the community in 1923, the 28-year-old building underwent a renovation adding meeting rooms, a dance floor and kitchen upgrades. It had been 26 years and was now getting similar rehabilitation (see for yourself). And then there's the front page. Read it to believe it, it's a bit macabre.

03/09/2026

https://video.idahoptv.org/video/idahos-sacred-places-owzr4b/

In this episode we explore Idaho’s deep faith through three houses of worship.

03/06/2026

Some 92 years ago this first week of March. Here is a sampling from the Benton City Booster's 1934 newsletters/newspaper. The KBCHS will make all efforts to share from the Billboard (and Booster) collection as timely as possible.

The Benton City Billboard was published on Thursdays. The Billboard ran for about 2.5 years from the month of December 1948 until May of 1951. Who exactly the publisher/editors were is not obvious. Recent conversations identify Frank Haun as involved but KBCHS does not know who wrote the "Gal About Town" column. We know Oscar Hanson fully supported the Billboard and sharing from his Benton City Booster publication.

The "15 -Years-Ago-This-Week column ran for most of the 1949 issues of the publication. Snips shared on this page will be from hardcopies of the Billboard that are not available digitally except here.

In 2025, KBCHS facilitated having the 17 or so issues (from the Kaye Kendall Davis collection) in our possession added to the Washington Digital Newspaper site. At that time, these issues had been safely stored at the old Benton City hall but not retrievable until recently.

Washington State budget and time constraints prohibit having these additional issues microfilmed and digitized to make them available on the state's newspaper platform along with the other issues. The few issues digitized are accessible at the link below.
https://washingtondigitalnewspapers.org/?a=cl&cl=CL1&sp=BENBCB&e=-------en-20--1--txt-txIN-------

03/02/2026

Celebrating some ordinary and not so ordinary Kiona-Benton women this March. Do you have someone you'd like to share? Message KBCHS.

One hundred and 25 years ago, Elizabeth Brant moved to Benton City (it was Kiona at the time). She was born February 28, 1843, in Fulton County, Pennsylvania. Her parents were immigrants from Bavaria, Germany. As a young woman, she married John Brant of the same area. In February of 1875, John moved to Nebraska claiming a 160-acre homestead. Elizabeth did not leave for Nebraska until shortly after the birth of her daughter Dora on February 28th that same year.

The Brants proved up on the homestead in 1882 when Elizabeth was 39. They sold that homestead and moved a little south to Plumb Creek (Lexington) Nebraska where they had a farm and gristmill. John and Elizabeth had a parting of the ways sometime before 1891. She files as a widow (code word for divorce although no evidence of a formal divorce has been found) on her own homestead near Callaway, Nebraska and proves up in 1898 when she was 55. Several years later she sold that homestead and moved to Kiona.

Elizabeth was always a woman who looked out for herself, keeping her own bank accounts and owning a number of properties in her own name from 1882 on. Elizabeth bought a farm from Anna Trout in 1901 (on Kendall RD) and would live there for the remainder of her life, dying of a stroke in June of 1917 and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Descendants still live in the house at the farm.