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 31

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 31
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 31

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Some records derived from the auditor's office of the year 1885 in respect to population and valua- tion of property are worthy of permanent preser- vation. The total population of Skagit county was

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX BILDE) - UNDATIONS

VIEWS TAKEN IN THE SKAGIT FORESTS

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given as 2,816, of which 2,618 were white, 170 half- breeds, 26 Chinamen, and 2 negroes. There were 1,835 males and 1,081 females. The voting popula- tion was 1,509, and in this number were #28 women, for it must be remembered that at that time woman suffrage prevailed under territorial laws. The number of married people was 825, while the worthy scribe facctiously records that the number that wanted to be married was 1,991. Even then the Puget sound country was beginning to show some- thing of the extraordinary rapidity of increase in population which has so characterized it in later years. We find that the per cent. of increase in population for the two years prior to 1885 in the fifteen counties then forming western Washington was 47.8, while the rate of increase in Whatcom and Skagit counties was 61.1 per cent. The valuation of property for the county was given in 1885 at $950,130, and the number of names on the roll was over one thousand.

Probably there has never been a summer in the history of Puget sound in which destructive forest fires have not raged, and the summer of 1885 was certainly no exception to the rule. Fires on Guemes and Fidalgo islands swept through some of the mag- nificent fir trees two or three hundred feet in height, destroying not only standing timber but wood, rails, fences and buildings. At the same time the Samish country was ravaged by destructive fires. Over a thousand acres of land in that vicinity were swept clean of all improvements, loggers were driven out and all their operations interrupted for that year. Clothier & English and McElroy were the greatest sufferers. These fires continued their destructive work and the entire sound country was wrapped in a pall of smoke until September 26th, when drench- ing rains and southerly gales put out the fires, cleared the smoke, brought back the sun and stars, released the smoke-beleaguered ships and steamers and ministered consolation to all the inhabitants of the sound country.

The reports which are gathered from the Skagit News of the harvest season of 1885 indicate that the crops of hay, fruit and oats for that year were fine in quality and large in amount. The oat yield was from eighty-five to a hundred bushels to the acre, in a few instances much exceeding even the latter figure, and there was also a very heavy crop of hops, but the price of the latter commodity was so low that they scarcely paid for picking.

We find in the Skagit News of October 6th a summary of the logging business for the year 1885, which gives a total output of 204,000 feet of logs per day, divided among the following camps: Jack- son & Duncan, 10,000 feet: Day Bros., 18,000; McElroy & O'Brien, 8,000; L. B. Roe, 20,000 ; Ball & Barlow, 35,000; A. H. Lindstedt, 10,000; C. F. Jackson, 25,000; Millett & McKay, 25,000; Long- fellow Brothers, 25,000 ; Clothier & English, 18,000; sundry smaller camps, 10,000.

Although Skagit county did not take any special part in the anti-Chinese demonstrations which marked the sound history in 1885, yet as both Skagit and Snohomish counties, together with all the re- gions contiguous to Seattle and Tacoma where the chief agitation occurred, were directly or indirectly affected, it is fitting that the records of this year should embrace a brief view of that event. The following account is condensed from that of Elwood Evans, in his history of the Northwest.

In 1885 there were 3,216 Chinese in the territory of Washington, the large majority being in the chief cities upon the sound. They were almost exclusively men and were employed as domestic servants and laborers in mines, railroads and public works of all kinds. A great prejudice arose against these Chinese laborers among white laborers, on account of the supposed clannishiness of the Chinese race, their refusal to abandon their national peculiarities and their inability to adapt themselves to American ideas and methods. A clamor arose that this country should be settled by free American laborers and that these should not be brought into competi- tion with Chinese cheap labor. The Knights of Labor largely took the initiative in this movement and organized meetings, chiefly of working men, which passed denunciatory resolutions and advocat- ed forcible means, if necessary, to rid the country of Chinamen. Supporting this outcry were many politicians and prominent citizens who thought that they could please the organized working men by joining in the struggle against the Chinese. The congressional law prohibiting the coming of Chinese to this country was at that time in force and the agitators declared not only that no more Chinamen should come to the country but that even those here should go.

The first actual outbreak against the Chinese oc- curred at Squak valley in King county on the night of September 5, 1885. There were thirty-seven Chinese hop-pickers employed by Wold Brothers on their ranch. A certain number of white men and Indians, some being armed, went to the ranch and threatened the Chinese with injury if they attempted to labor. Wold Brothers very naturally protested against this interference with their help and the party retired, declaring, however, that if they found the Chinamen there after a day or two they would drive them out. Two days later a party of thirty Chinamen on their way to the Wold ranch were intercepted and so intimidated that they turned back and left the valley. That same night a party of whites and Indians went onto the Chinese quar- ters on the Wold ranch and in response to what they claimed was a shot from the Chinese camp began firing upon the closely huddled tents of the China- men. Three Chinamen were killed in this foray and the others left the place. Those who participated in the riot and murder were subsequently indicted and tried, but acquitted. On the night of the 11th

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of September a building occupied by Chinamen working for the Oregon Improvement Company in the Coal creek mine was burned and about fifty Chinamen were driven from the place

Throughout the months of August, September and October there had been a continuous series of largely attended public meetings at the opera-house in Tacoma and torchlight processions bearing ban- ners which displayed anti-Chinese opinions worked up a continual public excitement. On September 25th an anti-Chinese congress met at Seattle, which declared that the Chinese must be expelled from the country. A mass meeting held at Tacoma on the 3d day of October took similar action and a committee of fifteen was appointed to expel the Chinese from that city. Notices were served on the Chinese, warning them to leave within thirty days. The sheriff of Pierce county announced to the gov- ernor at that time that he would be able to preserve the peace and would be supported by the citizens in general, but in spite of these assurances the major- ity of the people of Tacoma were in sympathy with the anti-Chinese movement. Even the mayor had been an active propagandist of the crusade against the Chinamen. Few people in Tacoma, however, supposed that the threats made would actually be executed, but on the morning of November 3d, upon a signal given by the blowing of steam whistles in the car shops and foundry, several hundred men assembled and marched in line through the city. These men went to the Chinese quarters, packed up the goods of the Orientals and escorted them to Lake View on the Northern Pacific railroad, whence they were sent to Portland. Neither the sheriff nor his deputies nor the city officials made the slightest effort to prevent this proceeding. It is, however, worthy of remembrance that no one was injured, nor did the participants in the riot seem to have any other purpose than the peaceful and quiet removal of the members of the obnoxious race without injury to their persons or property. After that popular exclusion of Chinamen from Tacoma none lived in that city or even in Pierce county for many years. A number of citizens were indicted for conspiracy to intimidate, under what is known as the Ku-klux act, but although the matter was paraded in the courts for several terms, none of the cases was ever tried. On the 4th and 6th of No- vember a number of Chinese shanties, together with stores and residences from which they had been removed, were destroyed by fire.

The history of the proceedings in Seattle, where an anti-Chinese meeting was held November 2th, was very different from that at Tacoma. Those who favored the enforcement of law were warned by the experience of the latter city, and took steps to prevent, if possible, its repetition. Sheriff John H. McGraw, subsequently governor of the state. sum- moned his deputies to meet at the court-house under arms, and companies under Captains Green and

Haines were made subject to his call. President Cleveland issued a proclamation declaring that an emergency had arisen which justified the employ- ment of military force to suppress domestic violence and enforce the execution of the laws of the United States, and accordingly ten companies of troops were despatched from Vancouver to Seattle. By order of General John Gibbon, commander of the department, several of these companies were sub- sequently ordered to Tacoma, where they took into custody, to be escorted to Vancouver, several citi- zens who had been arrested by the United States marshal for participation in the Tacoma riot. At the direction of General Gibbon, Sheriff McGraw organized his volunteer deputies into three military companies. Fifteen persons were indicted for con- spiracy to deprive the Chinese of equal protection of the laws but their trial, which was concluded January 16, 1886, resulted in the acquittal of all parties. The 6th of February a mass meeting was held at which plans were formed which eventuated on the next day in the movement of a large number of men to the Chinese quarters and the issuance of an order to them that they must leave Seattle. Their goods were packed and they were marched in little squads to the wharf of the steamship Queen of the Pacific to be transported to San Francisco. The leaders of the movement were attempting to raise money to procure tickets for paying the fare of the Chinamen, but during the afternoon a writ of habeas corpus was issued requiring Captain Alexander of the steamship to produce the China- men before the court. He responded that he could not in consequence of the mob in the streets, but the next morning the Chinamen were brought before the court where most of them expressed their pref- erence to go to San Francisco, hence were re- turned to the ship. About a hundred, however, pre- ferred to remain in Seattle and started to return to their former houses, whereupon the crowd attempt- ed to drive them toward the railroad station. Captain George Kinnear's company of deputies defended the Chinese and in the struggle with the mob which ensued one of the latter was killed and two were wounded. The crowd then ceased their efforts and the Chinese were taken back to their homes. As a result of this fracas both Governor Squire and President Cleveland issued proclama- tions declaring the city to be in a state of insurrec- tion and under martial law. General Gibbon ar- rested a number of persons who had participated in the Seattle riot, which therefore failed of its purpose.

A similar attempt was made in Olympia, where five arrests were made. The trial of these at the June term of court resulted in the conviction of all and the sentence of each to pay a fine of five hun- dred dollars, with the costs of proceedings, and to be subjected to six months' imprisonment. Thus ended the acute stage of anti-Chinese agitation upon

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Puget sound, but for a number of years the general sentiment of the region was strongly opposed to any increase in the Chinese population, or even in the privileges of the members of that race.

The year 1886 seems to have been comparatively unproductive of special events or changes in Skagit county, but there was a rapid ongoing in all the various industries. As has happened probably every year in the history of Puget sound, there were high tides and floods such as people are wont to think the most remarkable of all time but it would seem from the reports that on January 24th the really highest tide known up to that time since records have been kept swept the coast-line of the county. It overtopped the dikes by several inches, destroyed a great deal of property and greatly damaged the crop prospects for the ensuing year. The damage was especially felt in the vicinity of Padilla. Im- mediately following this remarkable tide occurred a spell of severe cold, during which the Skagit river was blockaded with ice and a large part of the country having been inundated by the high tide and ice having been formed upon this flooded area, the farmers, especially on the tide flats, were subjected to very serious inconvenience.

Among the valuable undertakings of the early part of the year 1886 was that of the Skagit River Telephone Company, incorporated with a capital stock of five thousand dollars, for the purpose of building and operating a telephone line between the mouth of the Skagit river and the settlements on the junction of the Sauk river with the main stream. Unfortunately, however, it failed of realization. More successful was the establishment of the Pacific Postal Telegraph Company's line, built through Mount Vernon to Whateom, and ultimately connect- ing Seattle with New Westminster. The first operator upon this line was Thomas Payne, and the first telegraph office at Mount Vernon was in Hart- son's printing office.

The following outline of the mail contracts in Skagit county will give the reader a clearer concep- tion of the gradual establishment of centers of business and communication in the ever-growing regions which compose the county: Route 43,091, from Seattle via Tulalip, Fir, Stanwood, Utsalady, and Skagit City to Mount Vernon, a distance of seventy-five miles and baek, three times weekly, awarded to George W. Gore for $2,500; route 43,104, from Skagit City to La Conner, ten miles and back once a week, awarded to Henry A. Wright for $148; route 43,105, from Mount Vernon via Bay- view and Padilla to La Conner, twelve and a half iniles and back twice a week, awarded to W. J. McKenna for $185; route 43,107, from Mount Vernon via Avon, Sterling, Lyman and Hamilton to Birdsview, forty-two miles and back, twice a week, granted to Adolph Behrens for $690; route 43,108, from Samish to Edison, seven miles and back, three times a week, granted to E. C.

Brown for $135; route 43,109, from Edison to Prairie, fourteen miles and back, once a week, granted to J. M. Estes for $129 ; route 43,098, from Seattle via Coupeville, Phinney, Oak Harbor, De- ception, La Conner, Fidalgo, Anacortes, Guemes, Samish, Bellingham, and Sehome to Whatcom, a hundred and forty-three miles and back, three times a week, granted to the O. R. & N. Company for $5,000.

As indicating something of the accumulation of wealth in the county and also preserving the names of those who especially were concerned with the large property interests at that time a list of all who paid taxes on $5,000 or over is given a place here : Mrs. L. A. Conner, $60,563 ; Ball & Barlow, $36,- 073 ; J. & G. Gaches, $20,231 ; Puget Mill Company, $12,600 ; Samish Company, $16,421 ; B. N. L. Davis. $16,389; W. S. Jameson, $16,206; Hansen & Jen- sen, $16,050; Clothier & English, $13,202; R. L. Kelley, $13,131; S. S. Bailey, $12.920; Washington Mill Company, $12,600; R. E. Whitney, $11,350; Mortimer Cook, $11,038; Jackson & Walker, $10,- 130; Blakely Mill Company, $9,250; Richard Hol- yoke, $8,486; B. L. Martin, $8,050; Russell A. Alger, $1,600; James A. Gilliland, $7,005; J. (). Rudene, $6,993; Daniel Sullivan, $6,784; R. H. Ball, $6,588 ; Mrs. M. H. Haller, $6,450; John Mil- ler, $6,185; G. V. Calhoun, $5,995; Olof Polson, $5.611; William Gilmore, $5,393; E. G. Amens, $5,340; Malcolm MeDougall, $5,280; L. L. An- drews, $5,160; Michael Sullivan, $5,012.

In summing up the industrial conditions for the year now under consideration mention may be made of the immense production of oats upon the three great oat-producing districts, the Stillaguamish, the Swinomish and the Samish. Their combined pro- duetion amounted to two hundred and thirty-two thousand sacks of oats, over half of which was shipped to San Francisco. The price ranged from nineteen dollars to twenty-two dollars per ton.

Skagit county partook with the other portions of the Puget sound country in the railroad plans and excitement which marked the closing portion of the decade of the eighties. The Skagit News of November 30, 1886, sets forth the fact that Skagit valley will surely have direct communication with Seattle at some early period. Doubt was expressed as to the building of the Canfield road, of which so much was said at that time, the reason assigned being that the Canadian Pacific road would not allow any road to connect with it which it could not control. It was pointed out that the survey of the Canfield party crossed the Skagit near Sterling and followed up the valley of the Nookachamps, and the opinion was expressed in the paper that the comple- tion of that road would make an important city out of Sterling, as well as mark an epoch in the history of the county in general.

It seems to have become apparent with the prog- ress of the new year of 1887 that the Canfield road

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would not be built, and this fact gave rise to some sparring between the Skagit News and its old enemy, the Whatcom Reveille, in which the former paper quoted the confession of the latter to the effect that the Canfield road would never be built. The Reveille pointed out the fact that all the Seattle influences would oppose such a building up of the Bellingham bay country as would follow the con- summation of Mr. Canfield's aims, and that there- fore it must be expected that Seattle will support the Seattle & West Coast Railway Company. It seems to be agreed by both papers commenting upon the subject that Canfield would sell his fran- chise to the Seattle & West Coast. A surveying party at work for the latter road, under direction of C. E. Perry, was operating in the Skagit valley in the summer of 1882, with headquarters at Big lake, near Mount Vernon, from which point par- ties were sent out toward the Stillaguamish and Skagit for a preliminary reconnoisance. As to the vexed question as to whether Whatcom would be on the line of this road, there seemed then no means of forecasting, but it was prophesied in the News that the tiltimate connection with the Canadian ·Pacific would be at New Westminster instead of at Fort Hope. In its issue of September 6, 1887, is record of the fact that there was much hope of another railroad extending from Seattle to the Skagit river, the basis of which hope was the pur- chase by Mr. Bowles of the Oregon Improvement Company, of sixteen hundred acres of coal land near Sedro. The analysis of the coal from this vicinity showed that it was probably the best that had yet been found in western Washington.

A new and important enterprise in the lumber- ing line during the year 1887 was the establishment of the Skagit Saw-Mill and Manufacturing Com- pany, of which the officers were as follows: Presi- dent, E. G. English ; vice-president, Otto Klement ; secretary, G. E. Hartson ; treasurer. H. P. Downs. This concern materialized into one of the pioneer saw-mills of the county. In this connection also it is interesting to note that in the fall of 1886 MIor- timer Cook established at Sedro, the county's first shingle mill.

Perhaps a little sketch of the remarkable crea- tion of productive land upon Whitney island at the lower end of Padilla bay is apropos at this point. During the winter of 1887 Rienzi E. Whitney, of Padilla, purchased this tract of salt marsh covering seven hundred acres, very favorably located but difficult to subdue, for the sum of twenty-two thou- sand five hundred dollars. Ile spent ten thousand dollars in reclaiming it. It was generally consid- ered by his friends as a very risky undertaking, espe- cially in view of the fact that he was compelled to borrow all the money for both the land and the im- provements, but being a man of tremendous energy as well as undaunted courage, he succeeded in in- augurating a system of reclamation of the land by

diking and clearing and transformed it into a beau- tiful and highly productive area. By a most lamentable accident Mr. Whitney was fatally in- jured three years after entering upon this great undertaking. In 1893 the island was divided up into seven farms and sold for about seventy thou- sand dollars, and it is now one of the garden spots of the region.

The summer of 1882 was marked by a remark- able freshet, the result of the sudden melting of unusual snows in the Cascade mountains about the headwaters of the river. It was so late in the summer that the crops were already approaching maturity and great damage resulted.

One tragedy marred the records of the year 1887, namely, the killing of Frank Benn by a man named Thompson at La Conner in a saloon. Thompson and a man named Miller had had a street quarrel just previously during which the for- mer had slit the latter's coat with a knife. For some reason, upon Thompson's entering the saloon, Frank Benn, a bystander, picked up first a brick and then a cuspidor, both of which he hurled at Thompson. In the fight which resulted Thompson drew his knife and stabbed Benn. In the excite- ment of the moment the crowd turned upon Thompson and nearly beat him to death before the officers could get control. Benn having died soon after, Thompson was indicted for murder, and was given a trial, at which, contrary to what were at first supposed to be the facts in the case, the testimony proved that Thompson had acted in self-defense and he was acquitted of the charge.

In 1887 the legislature passed a bill providing that all courts of record should be held at the county seat. This caused the removal of the district court from La Conner to Mount Vernon, a very grati- fying thing to the people of the latter place and a correspondingly bitter pill to the inhabitants of the original county scat.

The legislative session of 1881-8 took under consideration a bill which revived the old struggle between Whatcom and Skagit, one providing for taking the north tier of townships in Skagit county and restoring them to Whatcom. The Skagit News denounces this as an attempted robbery and attributes it either to a desire on the part of the town of Whatcom to smother the aspirations for county-seat honors on the part of Lynden, or to the burden of taxation upon Whatcom county (which it states was then twenty-three and one-half mills on the dollar ) and their consequent desire to secure the assistance of the rich Samish valley and other parts of the disputed territory in bearing their bur- den.

The Whatcom Reveille notes with satisfaction the fact that all the inhabitants of the islands of Cypress and Sinclair had forwarded a petition to the legislature asking annexation to Whatcom county, attributing this state of mind to the removal

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of the county seat and district court to Mount Vernon. It also declares that Guemes island will join the request for annexation. To these com- ments of the Whatcom paper the Skagit News re- sponds with characteristic energy, and it seemed that another conflict was brewing, but to the great satisfaction of the people of Skagit the bill was de- feated in the house by a vote of fourteen to seven.

One of the numerous steamboat accidents which seem to have characterized the history of the sound occurred on the 1st of April, 1888. The boilers of the steamer Bob Irving exploded at a point called Ball's riffle in the Skagit river one mile be- low Sterling. Hiram J. Olney, the captain, and Herman Haroklson, the fireman, were instantly killed, while a deck hand named Andrew Johnson and the Chinese cook were severely injured. The engineer was the only person to escape entirely and even he was severely shaken up. Fortunately there were no passengers upon the boat. an unusual occurrence, but she was heavily loaded with hay and grain, which, together with the steamer itself, was a total loss. Captain Olney was well known and highly esteemed upon the sound, where he had been engaged in steamboating for a number of vears.

There was a rapid development in the upper part of the county during the summer of 1888. The little town of Lyman had become the center of a very active population of both loggers and farm- ers, and between it and Mount Vernon there were seventeen logging camps, employing two hundred and forty-three men. Another region which started then upon a career of development which has rendered it one of the attractive and productive regions of the Skagit country was Walker's val- ley, which was settled by Hugh Walker in 1888. He and some of the settlers who came later spent eighty-seven days in cutting a road to Mount Ver- non.

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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 31

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