Historian Thomas Riddle sets the stage for the rise and fall of Populist C.W. Young's political career.

"A political storm swept over Washington during the decade of the 1890s, and to many it seemed to fall from a summer sky. In 1890 most Washington residents optimistically looked forward to a harmonious and prosperous future. Within the last ten years the Pacific Northwest had enjoyed unprecedented economic expansion. The population had increased by over 300 percent. Two transcontinental railways had tied the region to the expanding national economy. Industrial enterprise and urban centers had become firmly established. In 1889 Washington had also entered the Union as a state."

"But in 1891 voices of gloom and protest began to ring out: They intoned that powerful corporations were robbing the producer and undermining democratic government. Many Washingtonians agreed. Some formed the People's party of Washington, and the next year almost one out of every four eligible voters in the state chose its candidates. In 1894 it became the second party in Washington, and two years later it became the first. Populist-backed candidates won every major state office from governor on down. But then, almost as rapidly as it had gathered, the storm broke up. In 1898 the party lost control of the legislature, and in 1900 it failed even to muster a state campaign."

Cyrus Wilbur Young, known as "C.W.," was born in Jan. 1846 in Virginia, probably in the portion that later became West Virginia. He was raised in Missouri. After attending law school in Iowa, C.W. went to Oregon where he was employed as a teacher "for several years," according to historian Gordon B. Ridgeway. By 1879 he had landed in Whitman County, Washington Territory, where he had a 1400 acre farm. He was later involved with the Farmers' and Traders' Bank of Pullman. Riddle describes him as deep-voiced and "a large, heavy-set, ruddy-complexioned farmer with a 'brick-dust' beard."

At the 1892 Populist convention in Ellensburg, Young was chosen as the gubernatorial candidate by acclamation. Fusion with the Democrats and Prohibitionists was rejected. The national Populist "Omaha Platform" was endorsed, i.e.:

"EXPRESSION OF SENTIMENTS

Your Committee on Platform and Resolutions beg leave unanimously to report the following:

Whereas, Other questions have been presented for our consideration, we hereby submit the following, not as a part of the Platform of the People’s Party, but as resolutions expressive of the sentiment of this Convention.

1. RESOLVED, That we demand a free ballot and a fair count in all elections and pledge ourselves to secure it to every legal voter without Federal Intervention, through the adoption by the States of the unperverted Australian or secret ballot system.

2. RESOLVED, That the revenue derived from a graduated income tax should be applied to the reduction of the burden of taxation now levied upon the domestic industries of this country.

3. RESOLVED, That we pledge our support to fair and liberal pensions to ex-Union soldiers and sailors.

4. RESOLVED, That we condemn the fallacy of protecting American labor under the present system, which opens our ports to the pauper and criminal classes of the world and crowds out our wage-earners; and we denounce the present ineffective laws against contract labor, and demand the further restriction of undesirable emigration.

5. RESOLVED, That we cordially sympathize with the efforts of organized workingmen to shorten the hours of labor, and demand a rigid enforcement of the existing eight-hour law on Government work, and ask that a penalty clause be added to the said law.

6. RESOLVED, That we regard the maintenance of a large standing army of mercenaries, known as the Pinkerton system, as a menace to our liberties, and we demand its abolition. . . .

7. RESOLVED, That we commend to the favorable consideration of the people and the reform press the legislative system known as the initiative and referendum.

8. RESOLVED, That we favor a constitutional provision limiting the office of President and Vice-President to one term, and providing for the election of Senators of the United States by a direct vote of the people.

9. RESOLVED, That we oppose any subsidy or national aid to any private corporation for any purpose.

10. RESOLVED, That this convention sympathizes with the Knights of Labor and their righteous contest with the tyrannical combine of clothing manufacturers of Rochester, and declare it to be a duty of all who hate tyranny and oppression to refuse to purchase the goods made by the said manufacturers, or to patronize any merchants who sell such goods.

Source: The World Almanac, 1893 (New York: 1893), 83–85. Reprinted in George Brown Tindall, ed., A Populist Reader, Selections from the Works of American Populist Leaders (New York: Harper & Row, 1966), 90–96."

Cyrus had actually been a delegate at the Omaha convention.

Young left the Lake Washington canal issue alone. The whole two-party mudslinging by the McGraw-Snively forces played right into the Populist hands, who used it as a way of proving how corrupt the political system was. The Populist issues were mostly economic and they appealed to a wide cross section of voters.

When election day was over, even the Populists were surprised. Young won Douglas, Kitsap and Whatcom counties and was runner-up in 10 more. Statewide he placed a very strong third place at 23,750 (26.41%). In Washington he ran ahead of his national ticket.

Four years later Young's name came up again at the Populist convention as a contender for the gubernatorial nomination, as he was a proven vote-getter. But this time there was contest. As the candidates hit gridlock, Young withdrew in favor of John R. Rogers. As a reward, C.W. was nominated as the candidate for State Treasurer.

1896 was a Populist sweep. And Washington State had a Populist State Treasurer for four years. Gordon Newell describes one of Young's early actions in his new position: "The new state treasurer, C.W. Young, withdrew a large deposit of public funds from the First National Bank of Olympia, sparking a run on the bank and the first failure of an Olympia financial institution."

Gov. Rogers appointed Young and others to the Board of Control. But within a short time the Board and Rogers fell into conflict over the distribution of political patronage, so the Governor fired the entire Board and included Henry Snively in the replacement round.

C.W. Young vanishes from the political landscape after 1901. In 1910 his family is living in Seattle, but he is out of the picture, although his wife Nancy Springer Young describes herself as married. By 1932 he is called the "late Cyrus Young" in one source.

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