An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 30

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172

USA > Washington > Skagit County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 30
USA > Washington > Snohomish County > An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington > Part 30

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Sec. 5. That the county seat of said Skagit county is hereby temporarily located at La Conner, at which place it shall remain until located permanently elsewhere in said county, by vote of the qualified electors thereof; for which purpose a vote shall be taken at the next general election in 1884, and the officers of clection shall receive said vote and canvass the same and announce the result in like manner as the result of the vote for county officers, and the place receiving the highest number of votes cast shall be declared the permanent county seat of the said county of Skagit : Provided, That until such permanent location of the county seat, the board of county commissioners shall erect no public buildings, but shall rent or lease such rooms for county offices as may be necessary for the public service.

Sec. 6. That all taxes levied and assessed by the board of county commissioners of the county of What- com for the year 1883, upon persons or property within the boundaries of the county of Skagit, shall be collected and paid into the treasury of said Whatcom county for the joint use of the county of Whatcom and Skagit as herein- after provided.

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DEVELOPING THE LUMBER INDUSTRY

PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR. IFNOX TIDENS OPTIONS

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Sec. 7. That the county auditors of Whatcom and Skagit counties are hereby constituted a board of appraisers and adjusters of the real and other property of the county of Whatcom, and for this purpose shall meet at Whatcom on the first Monday of February, 1884. They shall ap- praise the value of the court-house, safes and real estate of the county, and ascertain the balance in the county treasury, over and above the outstanding warrants upon said treasury at that date, and shall award to the county ot Whatcom one-half and to the county of Skagit one-half of such property and funds so appraised and ascertained : Provided, That if both auditors can not agree upon the appraised valuation of such property they shall elect a citizen from an ajoining county as arbitrator to adjust the difference between them. Then the auditor of Whatcom county shall draw a warrant on the treasury of said county 111 favor of the said county of Skagit for the amount so agreed upon as its proportion of the property : Provided further, That all taxes remaining unpaid upon property within the boundaries of Skagit county, at the date of settlement herein provided for, shall be turned over to the auditor of Skagit county to be collected by the proper officer of said county as now provided by law.

Sec. 8. The several county officers, to be elected at the special election provided for in this act, shall qualify by taking the oath of office within ten days after the date of their certificate of election so issued and shall give bond for the faithful performance of their duties, subject to the approval of the board of county commissioners of said Skagit county, as is now provided by law, and shall hold office until their successors are elected and qualified at the next general election.

Sec. 9. The board of county commissioners to be elected under the provisions of this act shall hold their first quarterly meeting on the first Monday in February, A. D. 1884, any two of whom shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business. The said board shall have power to fill all vacancies occurring in said board, or in any county office of said county of Skagit, by reason of failure to qualify or otherwise, in the manner provided by the general laws of the territory: Provided, That the board of county commissioners and other officers of What- com county shall continue to exercise and perform their respective duties, for both Whatcom and Skagit county, the same as if not divided, until their successors for Skagit county shall have been elected and qualified as herein provided : Provided further, That the board of county commissioners of Whatcom county shall have power to fill all vacancies by reason of the resignation or withdrawal of any officer of said county residing within the precincts or boundary of Skagit county herchy set apart.

Sec. 10. The auditor of Skagit county shall have access to the records of Whatcom county for the purpose of transcribing and indexing such portions of the records of property as belong to Skagit county without cost, and his certificate of the correctness thereof shall have the same force and effect as if made by the auditor of What- com county.

Sec. 11. The counties of Whatcom and Skagit shall continue in their relation to the counties of Snohomish, Island and San Juan in the matter of legislative districts until otherwise provided by law.

Sec. 12. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act are hereby repealed.

Sec. 13. This act will take effect and be in force from and after its passage and approval.

Approved November 28, 1883.

One of the most serious disasters of the year 1883 could have been prevented by the exercise of greater care on the part of the boiler inspectors of the steamer Josephine, which ran between Seattle

and the Skagit river. January 16, 1883, just as the passengers were eating dinner the boiler ex- ploded, tearing the vessel in pieces, so that all but the cabin and part of the hull sank. Those who remained on the floating portion were rescued and taken ashore. There were nearly thirty people on board at the time of the accident, including the crew, over half of whom were killed or wounded, and many of the bodies were not recovered for several days. The killed included the following : Captain Robert Bailey, Purser John Turner, Stew- ard Amador Bolina, Assistant Steward David Sparks, Deck Hand Johnson, Fireman Kavenaugh, E. E. Cannon, a commercial traveler for Bates, Reid & Company, of San Francisco, Sam Babbit and A. G. Kelley, who lived a few days after the accident. Another disaster of a similar nature occurred about the same time, resulting in the loss of the steamer Gem. A jury was impaneled to inquire into the loss of these boats, and the decision was that the accident on the Josephine was due to carelessness of the boiler inspector, also to low water in the boiler, and that the destruction of the Gem was likewise due to carelessness.

Another steamboat disaster occurred on the 19th of April, when the Fannie Lake, Captain Hill, ran into a rock in Dead Man's riffle on the Skagit and knocked a hole in her bottom so large that she sank in a few minutes. It does not appear that any one was injured. The boat was subsequently raised, but with much difficulty and at great ex- pense.

While these misfortunes were occurring to the steamers named, other steamers were in process of construction and establishment upon the Skagit route. The W. K. Merwin, named from its builder, was launched at Seattle on March 22d. It is re- corded that during the christening exercises Cap- tain Olney, immediately after breaking the bottle of champagne over the bow of the steamboat, fell overboard. 'Another early river steamer was the James McNaught, Captain Fred Dwyer. After July 1st there was a regular mail route on the Skagit river which included Mukilteo, Tulalip, Ut- salady, Fir, Skagit City and Mount Vernon.

The impetuous torrents of the upper Skagit and especially its chronic habit of going on a flood at frequent intervals had caused enormous accumula- tions of drift and snags around the delta at its mouth, forming quite an impediment to naviga- tion. For the purpose of remedying the difficulty an appropriation of twenty thousand dollars was made by the United States government for build- ing and operating a snag boat, but it is stated that the money was all used up in constructing the boats and that nothing was left for operating them.

While improvements in the line of steamboat navigation were in progress there began to be efforts looking toward proper means of communi- cation up the Skagit river. There was at that time

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a good trail along the north side of the Skagit as far as Baker river, and from that point there was a passable trail to the Sauk river, where it parted, one branch crossing the mountains to the Wenat- chee and the other to the Skagit river gold mines. These trails, though difficult to travel, were in con- stant use. The places with postoffices or stores along the trail were Mount Vernon (on the south side of the river), Ball's Camp, Lyman, Wilburton and Birdsview. The proposed wagon road was to unite those different places and at or near Miller's camp was to be joined by the La Conner wagon road. The densely timbered character of the region made it a difficult country for settlers to attain the comforts and conveniences of life. The North- west Enterprise of May 12, 1883, makes an ener- getic plea in behalf of the incoming homeseekers, pointing out the innumerable trials and vexations to which they were subjected, and urging the estab- lishment of a light draught steamer service. with headquarters at La Conner or Anacortes, to reach places where it was plain there were to be flourish- ing settlements in the near future.

The summer of 1883 seems to have been remark- able for its extraordinary dryness. A pall of smoke from the raging forest fires hung over the land- scapes of Puget sound and the hay and oat crops were for almost the only time in the history of the county seriously shortened. Valuable timber was destroyed and several of the logging camps were put into serious danger and loss. As has usually been the case these fires were mainly due to the carelessness of hunters and campers. An army worm pest, the worms working by night, destroyed half the oat crop on the Samish in 1883, also in- juring numerous gardens on the flats.

The pressure of the incoming immigration led to a demand for the surveying of the country about the river Sauk, but the surveyors were attacked and driven from the region by the Indians living there- abouts. Those Indians claimed that they had never been included in any treaty, had never ceded their lands to the United States and that they would not yield their possessions until satisfied by the proper indemnity from the government.

The year 1883 witnessed also a great advance in the development of the Swinomish tide flats. lands which at the present time are one of the wonders of the world for their enormous produc- tion of oats. The Puget Sound Mail of October 27, 1883, states that the land under cultivation aggregated about ten thousand acres and that the average yield of oats was about sixty thirty-six- pound bushels to the acre. The average price paid by the buyers in 1883 was twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents per ton. The oat harvest was extensive enough to demand a half dozen new steam thresh- ers in addition to the dozen already owned in the neighborhood.

The months of November and December, 1883,

were marked by freshets on the Skagit river, which caused much loss in logs, cattle and houses. The water stood all over the streets of Mount Vernon and in places in the valley reached a depth of seven feet. The flood being the greatest, however, on the south side of the river, which was least developed, the loss was not great in the aggregate.

The drowning of Mr. Walker, a pioneer settler living near Sauk, at the time of this freshet, is worthy of record. Mr. Walker, his wife and three daughters were descending the river and when at a point a mile below Lyman the boat was upset. The father successively swam with his wife and two of the girls to safety and finally returned to the boat for the youngest daughter, whom he proceeded to take to a nearby snag. The tremendous effort ex- hausted him, however, so completely that upon reaching the snag the hero sank to a watery grave, sacrificing himself that his loved ones might live.

From a report prepared by Eldridge Morse, of Snohomish, and issued in 1884 by the federal department of agriculture we learn that of about 65,000 acres of tide lands upon the east side of Puget sound 32,000 were in Skagit county, and of 219 miles of dikes constructed prior to the year 1885, 150 were in the same county. The total cost of these dikes was estimated at $242,000, of which $115,000 was expended in Skagit county. The clearing and diking of these lands was done largely by cooperation among the farmers themselves. One very important work, however, both for navigation and for the diking of the tide lands, was beyond the reach of private enterprise alone and government aid was demanded for its accomplishment, namely, the removing of snags and jams from the mouth of the Skagit river and the channel adjoining. The loggers took the initiative in starting the work. In response to calls published in the Mail and the News a meeting was called of all interested parties at

Skagit City in June, 1884, at which Dr. G. V. Cal- houn was elected chairman, Harrison Clothier secretary, and A. Morrison, James Gilligan, M. Anderson, Michael McNamara and Frank Buck were appointed a committee to solicit subscriptions ; Richard Holyoke, L. Wallen and W. C. Ewing to investigate the cost of removing the jam. It gives the reader something of a conception of the magni- I tude of this undertaking to learn that the area of land which would be affected by the removal was estimated at eighty thousand acres, including the swamp and timber land east of the south fork of the Skagit, together with the delta of that river, the Swinomish flats, the Beaver and Olympia marshes, and the township lying on the Nookachamps creek. At an adjourned meeting held on July 12th, R. Hol- yoke, L. Wallen and John Swenson were appointed an executive committee to take general charge of the work, and D. E. Gage was appointed treasurer. The finance committee reported that over two thou- sand dollars had already been subscribed. The

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investigation committee recommended that the work should include the removal of all drifts from the main river, that a channel be freed from snags and opened into Deep slough and that a sheer boom be placed opposite the head of the slough in order to work all logs down the slough and into deep water.

Although this work upon the jam seems to have been started with judgment and devotion, it was not carried out in full. Resources were scanty and dissensions finally arose which checked the work. The Skagit News of September 30th urged public subscriptions for its continuance, incidentally not- ing the fact that the use of dynamite for blowing out the logs had been found a most economical ex- pedient. The issue of October 14th states that a sudden flood had swept two million feet of logs out of the river and had then formed a new jam a half mile in extent at the head of the old one. It urged a combination of both farmers and loggers to undertake the essential task of coping with the difficulty. Mention is made in a later issue of the same paper of the work of the government snag boat in the removal of snags from the river all the way from Lyman to its mouth, but the work was not completely and thoroughly accomplished.

In spite of the obstacles presented by snags and jams there were three boats plying upon the Skagit river in 1884, the Quincy, the Glide and the Wash- ington, each of which made semi-weekly trips.

The logging business was, as might be supposed, one of very great importance even at that early day. The lumber camps in operation in 1884 were those of William Gage, Thibert & Company, Longfellow, three belonging to Ball at Blarney lake, Nooka- champs and Sterling, respectively, Millet & McKay, Charles F. Jackson, Block & Jackman, Day Brothers, Clothier & English and Oliver Anderson. The great rush to secure farms and mines seems to have somewhat curtailed the lumbering business at that time and during the latter part of the year the lumber market, being somewhat glutted by the enormous output from different portions of the sound, became quite low. As elsewhere noted, this low condition of the lumber trade lasted for some time and in a measure affected the prices of all kinds of produce unfavorably.

An Indian fracas in April, 1884, is perhaps worthy of a passing notice. A well-known Indian named Charley, with a friend known to the whites as Jim Roder, met a certain Indian named Johnnie of the Swinomish tribe, between whom and Indian Jim ill feeling had long existed. Charley endeavored to act as peacemaker between the two enemies and met with the fate which unfortunately often over- takes peacemakers, for the Indian Johnnie fired upon him and he fell apparently mortally wounded. Jim followed the would-be assassin as hie endeavored to escape and attacking him with a knife killed him on the spot. Taking the still breathing Charley to his boat, he carried him to Guemes island, where

as soon as the death of the Swinomish Indian had been discovered the members of his tribe broke forth, demanding either a ransom of two hundred dollars or the life of Jim. The whites upon the island interfered, telling Jim and his friends that they would arm themselves if necessary to resist any attack. The Swinomish Indians, returning to the Samish, left behind them the threat that they woukl make away with any man, Indian or white, who should venture to go to their country from Guemes island. The next day the Guemes Indians, armed and painted, even the women being armed with knives, went to Anacortes, taking the wounded Charley with them. His wounds were very serious, but did not prove fatal. He was considered a re- markably intelligent and reliable Indian and was a great favorite with the whites, who felt much indig- nation at the occurrence, though it does not appear that anything further was done to carry the matter to an issue.

Now that the question of county division was settled in accordance with the wishes of the inhabi- tants of the Skagit, they addressed themselves to the execution of the provision of the act which had provided for the permanent establishment of a county seat, and the inevitable fight for county-seat honors, the next topie in the history of Skagit county, was instituted.

H. P. Downs, who was chosen as the first audi- tor of the county, had his office in the lower floor of the school building at La Conner, which was still the temporary county seat. The office did not at that time own a safe and the auditor used a soap box, nailed on the wall of his eight by twelve room, for the preservation of the county records. Mr. Downs recalls the surprise which was felt by most of the people that Mount Vernon should have ven- tured to enter the fight for the county seat, for La Conner was then a place of some size, while Mount Vernon was but a hamlet buried in the heavy timber along the shore of the river. Mr. Downs says that B. L. Martin, one of the La Conner workers, took a trip to Mount Vernon in the interest of La Conner. Coming back utterly disgusted, Mr. Martin declared that La Conner had no chance. "Why," said he, "all they have to do over there is to shake the bushes and the voters come stringing out of the woods in all directions !"

The Anacortes influence was thrown against Mount Vernon. The Northwest Enterprise of September 27, 1881, sums up the situation by declar- ing that not above five hundred inhabitants could be found on the river above Mount Vernon, including farmers, loggers, trappers and Indians, while at least fifteen hundred actual settlers lived on the delta of the Skagit and the island adjoining. The Enterprise declares, moreover, that the navigation of the Skagit is so obstructed by jams and snags that Mount Vernon is difficult to reach, and that the communities along the shore line of the sound will

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llever consent to the establishment of a county seat at Mount Vernon merely to benefit that town and the straggling inhabitants of the upper Skagit at the expense of every one else. At about the same date the Skagit News gave very forcible reasons for the support of Mount Vernon, declaring in the first place that all the miners, together with the settlers from Ruby creek to the mouth of the river, preferred that town; that Mount Vernon had the best site, being on the south slope of an upland be- vond the reach of floods, with room enough for Seattle with Tacoma at its back, and moreover that there was no place in the county which had so large a list of heavy tax-payers. It claimed that the river was the most important artery of travel in the county and that the general interests of all concerned would be best subserved by a county seat upon its banks.

Other candidates for the county seat entered the field as the campaign proceeded. Avon, Bayview and Atlanta presented reasons satisfactory to the inhabitants of each for their superiority over all other claimants, but the Skagit News continued its very vigorous and skillful fight for Mount Vernon. Its various issues for October contain summaries of the advantages possessed by that town and the in- significant benefits to accrue from any other loca- tion. The campaign practically became Mount Ver- non against the field, and the river people had the advantage of united action, whereas the coast people were divided in their allegiance among several rival places. The result was that at the election, which took place on the 4th day of Novem- ber, 1884, Mount Vernon received two hundred and and fifty majority. The two great features of the election seem to have been the great strength of the combined river interest and vote and the strong sympathy between the Samish country and the river country. Not only was Mount Vernon successful in the struggle for the county seat, but the three county commissioners chosen were all from river precincts.

The county-seat question monopolized the at- tention of the people, but inasmuch as the general election held here was the first in Skagit county it is a matter of interest to record the fact that the vote on the various officers denoted a very indepen- dent class of voters, for there were both Democrats and Republicans elected by somewhat surprising majorities.

Among miscellaneous news items of interest during that time when the interests of the people of the county were so largely absorbed in the county seat election we find note of the fact that the iron ore, outcroppings of bituminous coal, and deposits of lime of fine quality at various points in Skagit county were attracting large attention from capital- ists. C. S. Torkelson of Tacoma was at that time interested with a number of English capitalists in

investigating these mines and in projecting railway connection between them and Ship harbor.

The records of December, 1884, show that the weather was of unprecedented coldness. Snow fell from six to eight inches in depth and the thermom- eter ranged from ten to twenty degrees above zero. People took advantage of the unusual occurrence to extemporize sleighs of every description, and the children and even some of the grown folks spent most of their time in coasting the streets and build- ing winter palaces. The unwonted spectacle ap- peared upon the Swinomish slough of a stranded hay schooner driven ashore by the north wind and high tide. There was much suffering and loss of cattle unprovided with food or shelter. The Skagit river was frozen and all supplies for Mount Vernon and the upper Skagit had to be carried in sleighs, a fact which gave intense satisfaction to the people of La Conner. The cold period was terminated on January 8th by the sudden bursting forth of the characteristic warm winds of the Puget sound country and the snow and ice vanished as suddenly as they had come. Floods followed the break up. but these lacked two feet of reaching the highest water mark and no great damage ensued. As the winter had been conspicuous for severity, the spring following was conspicuous for the prevalence of clear and beautiful weather, there being, according to contemporaneous reports, seventeen cloudless days, and no rain whatsoever at Anacortes.

As the spring and summer of 1885 progressed, the enterprising people of Skagit county turned their attention again to clearing the logs and jams from the river and continuing the work of draining and clearing the marshes. The channel had become clear enough by May of that year to permit the pas- sage of steamers. Much of the money for this pur- pose had been raised by popular subscription, and to Thomas P. Hastie and Jacob Hayton a large share of the credit for securing this fund is attrib- uted, especially to the former who served without recompense. While the river was being made suit- able for the transportation of the products of the country, the farmers were busily engaged in prepar- ing land for the increase of those products. Work on the Olympia marsh was in progress and the Joe Larry slough was cleared out for about two miles. The cost of this work was not so great as might have been expected. The main ditches represented a cost of not to exceed a dollar an acre, while the expense of clearing and breaking the land and cutting the lateral ditches was estimated at not over ten dollars per acre. This marsh, with its sub-divisions, covered an area of about five miles by three miles and a half and, as has been proven since, was of the most pro- ductive nature.

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An illustrated history of Skagit and Snohomish Counties; their people, their commerce and their resources, with an outline of the early history of the state of Washington, Part 30

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.) Publication date: 1906 Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company Number of Pages: 1172

Author: Inter-state Publishing Company (Chicago, Ill.)
Publication date: 1906
Publisher: [Chicago] Interstate Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 1172