The following quotation from the Northwest Magazine, September 1886, offers a description of what Palouse Junction was like in those days:

"Nobody lives at Palouse Junction, except a few men in the railway service, a family that keeps a sort of hotel for travelers who may have to stay over night on their way up to Colfax or Moscow, and a saloonkeeper, on the watch for a chance to sell a glass of beer. Nobody lives in the surrounding country. There is no reason why anybody should want to live there, for there is neither water nor trees, nor any living thing, except the bunch grass, the sagebrush and coyotes. The people at the junction have a gloomy, taciturn expression. It is almost impossible to have any conversation with them. They answer gruffly in monosyllables, and relapse into their normal condition of hopeless melancholy. The loneliness of the desert and the lack of any variety or interest in life have taken all the cheeriness out of them. A small boy and a dog were the only companionable creatures I found in this desolate place."

The author of the above quotation added that it was a very hot day in July, with the temperature reaching 106 degrees in the shade, and that he was forced to remain at the junction overnight waiting for a train connection. Even so, it is clear that Palouse Junction was a desolate and uninviting place. Because of the railroad junction, there was a certain amount of essential activity. It seems, however, that even this gradually diminished as the O. R. & N. finished its line not only northward to Spokane, but also southward from Lacrosse to Walla Walla. It is not clear exactly when, but probably in the early 1890s, train service from Palouse Junction was discontinued altogether. When settlers arrived after 1900 they found the tracks between Connell and Washtucna abandoned.

Also some time between 1886 and 1900, the name of the town was changed from Palouse Junction to Connell, perhaps because the station was no longer important to the Northern Pacific as a junction. Perhaps the railroad wanted a shorter name. With no definite information, it is generally assumed that the station was named after a Northern Pacific trainman.

During the 1890s, there was considerably more activity in Adams County communities such as Hatton and Washtucna than there was in and around Connell. The Hatton post office and a store had been established in 1890, and George W. Bassett of Washtucna had been appointed the first postmaster in Adams County as early as 1882. The most likely reasons for the early progress of Hatton, as compared to Connell, were that Hatton had water before Connell, and in 1887, a group of farmers from Michigan had settled and prospered a few miles east of the town in a district called Michigan Prairie. Washtucna had been developed by George Bassett because of the springs located there even before there was a railroad, and he had platted the town site as early as 1894. In contrast, Connell did not have a post office until early in 1901, was not platted until sometime in 1902, and was not approved by the County Commissioners until in 1903.

Although the activity around the Northern Pacific station of Connell during the 1890s was minimal, there was at least one other activity in the community. A French immigrant named F. D. Mottet arrived at Kahlotus 1884 and established a homestead there. He saw the possibilities of grazing sheep on the unfenced and unsettled areas around Connell, and he leased the school section where the town of Connell was later located. Also, he discovered water at what was then known as Mottet Springs, near Connell, and which many years later came to be known as "The Snake Ranch". It was there that he established his home and watered his sheep.

Since 1883 and construction of the railroad, all of Franklin County had been surveyed and open to settlers; however, only a few settlers came and these almost all settled in the southern part of the county around Pasco. In fact, it was just 1883, the same year that the railroad was completed, that Franklin County was created out of the western end of Whitman County. Prior to 1883, the land was used only for grazing cattle and horses on the open range.

During the late 1880s, the grazing of sheep became profitable, and for a time, there were conflicts between the sheep ranchers and those raised cattle and horses. These conflicts occurred largely over the few available watering places. One such episode attracted special attention in 1887 because it was referred to the Walla Walla Land Office for adjudication. The conflict arose over the use of Sulphur Lake as a watering place.

Gradually, sheep raising won out over cattle and horses. The Harder Brothers were among the early sheep men who settled around Kahlotus, where Mottet first established a homestead. After finding water near Connell, Mottet gradually built his operation there from a modest flock of 100 sheep to 8000 at the turn of the century.

In 1900, there were only four school districts in Franklin County, with 87 children of school age and 86 enrolled. In 1904, there were 25 school districts, with 687 children of school age and 552 enrolled. Connell's original school district was No. 7, established sometime between 1900 and 1904. In fact, almost all of Connell's growth came after 1900.