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 42

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 42
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 42

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

One of the large enterprises of the city is the Mount Vernon creamery. organized April 1, 1904. This is under the management of Jules Fredlund. William Harbert is president of the company and Robert Fredhund vice-president and treasurer. This is the largest creamery in the county, putting out sixteen thousand pounds of butter per month.

We should mention here the Skagit County Fair Association, under whose management is a fine race-course on the southern edge of the city limits. with convenient buildings and grandstand and fine grounds. N. J. Moldstad is president and E. W. Ferris secretary of the association.

The postmaster of Mount Vernon is G. F. Hart- son : assistant. Mrs. Mathilda Hartson. There are five free rural delivery lines.

The following professional men may be named

here : Lawyers : Smith & Brawley, Hurd & Brickey, Shrauger & Barker. Million & Houser, David Ham- mack, McLean & Wakefield, J. C. Waugh, E. W. Ferris ; physicians: Drs. A. C. Lewis, R. J. Cassel, A. J. Osterman, J. W. Alkire; dentists: W. M. King, W. D. Good; civil engineer, John W. Meeham.

The present city government of Mount Vernon consists of the following: Mayor. I. Shrauger ; treasurer, R. G. Hannaford ; clerk. Charles E. Kim- ball; attorney, David Hammack ; marshal, William Zimmerman : council, Benjamin Day. A. G. Young, F. H. Stackpole, E. S. Phipps, W. F. Storie. There is an efficient volunteer fire company, of which John Kauble is chief.

LA CONNER

In the tremendous tide of progress and increase of wealth and population which characterize the present decade we scarcely realize the small and what would seem to us of the present the slow beginnings of the pioneer towns of thirty or forty years ago. Yet those seemingly slow beginnings marked the true heroic age of our history. In the hardships, loneliness, warm-hearted hospitality and pathos of the pioneer communities we find all that is noblest and best in the traits of our common humanity and particularly of typical American life. Therefore not one of the towns, large or small, not even one of the hamlets or isolated farm-houses or lumber canips lacks its record of interest and of value.

Each town of which we here present a sketch has its own peculiar claim to our attention. La Conner, the subject of the present review, is dis- tinguished among the towns of its section for busi- ness stability, the natural outgrowth of its immedi- ate surroundings.

Although many explorers and sailors had looked upon the scenes which now are so fair, no one had deemed it worth while to land and permanently establish himself until 1867.

The first trading post on the Swinomish flats was established in May. 1861, upon the site of the present city of La Conner. by Alonzo Low, now a resident of Snohomish. Low and Woodbury Sin- clair had engaged in the mercantile business at Snohomish City in 1864. and opened the Swinomish branch, as stated, with Low in charge. The enter- prise failed, however, and fourteen months after its institution was abandoned. Low gave the build- ing to a mulatto named Clark, on condition that he would move the goods and a voke of oxen ( taken by Low in payment of a debt) back to Snohomish. This was accomplished by boat.

Thomas Hayes is the next Swinomish trader of whom we have record. The exact time of his appearance is not known, but it must have been very shortly after Low abandoned the region in

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the summer of 1868. It was during his time that Swinomish postoffice was established. Then, in 1869, John S. Conner and his wife, Louisa A. Conner, came from Olympia by boat to the point upon which the town subsequently grew. Mr. Conner purchased the Indian trading post at that point from Mr. Hayes and Swinomish postoffice was either abandoned and La Conner postoffice estab- lished or there was a change of name. The mercan- tile business inaugurated by Mr. Conner at the time of the purchase of this trading post became the foundation of the new town. On the 1st of Jann- ary, 1820, Mr. Conner brought his entire family to the point, Mrs. Conner being the only white woman at that time in that community. and Mr. Conner the first permanent settler. Mr. Conner was born in Ireland in the year 1838, and had acquired an excellent education, being qualified to pursue the varied avocations of lawyer, teacher, farmer and merchant. As he looked abroad at the surround- ings of his new home he saw with prophetic vision the possibilities of the future. The town which he could see in his mind's eye lay along the Swinom- ish slough, just across which stretched the beauti- ful alternating hills and plains of Fidalgo island. Lying immediately between Swinomish slough on the west and Sullivan slough on the east rose a picturesque rocky hill. from which extended an entrancing scene of primitive beauty. Beyond Sullivan slough extended the delta of the Skagit river. green and beautiful with its marsh grass and tangles of brush and occasional strips of timber. yet to all appearance unavailable for farming pur- poses by reason of the overflowing tides and floods. Yet Mr. Conner could anticipate the reclamation of those fertile tracts and could see then as plainly as we can now a beautiful little city chistering about the base of the rocky acropolis to supply the needs of a future great population.

In 1870 La Conner postoffice succeeded the old Swinomish postoffice, Mr. Conner becoming the postmaster. The name was derived from the ini- tials of Mrs. Conner's name as a prefix to the family name of Conner. The land upon which the town was located was taken up by J. J. Conner. a cousin of J. S., in 1822, and in the same year the town itself was laid out by him. Subsequently he sold the town site to his cousin, J. S. Conner, who from that time was the principal proprietor of the place. It may be noted in this connection that J. S. Conner. after having successfully engaged in many enterprises connected with the development of the place and the region adjoining and having accu- mulated an extensive fortune, died in 1885 and was succeeded in the management of his great estate by his son. Herbert S .. now one of the most prom- inent citizens of the place. Mrs. Conner is still living upon the spot which she has seen grow from a wilderness to a flourishing community.

From A. G. Tillinghast, who came to La Conner

in December, 1822. we derive a picture of the condition of the little place at that time. Directly across the Swinomish slough lay the Indian reser- vation in charge of John P. MeGlinn. L. L. An- drews was conducting a trading post at the agency, and on that side there was then a substantial little wharf. On the La Conner side the only buildings in existence were the store and house of Mr. Con- ner. a little hotel kept by Mr. Marsden, a tin shop managed by James O'Laughlin and a blacksmith shop by a man called Abner MeKean. A telegraph office was also located at the agency in charge of James A. Gilliland. the linesman being James Will- iamson. In 1813 there arrived at the little place two men who have been most intimately connected with the business development of the town. These were James and George Gaches. They purchased the store of Mr. Conner and from that time on con- (lucted the leading mercantile establishment of that part of the county. They were in partnership until the year 1900, when George retired from the busi- ness, leaving James in entire control. It early became apparent that the land in the near vicinity of La Conner would, in case diking operations were successful. become very valuable. It is a matter of some surprise to find that within the very next year after Mr. Conner's arrival he had reclaimed a small body of land, from which he began shipping oats and barley in 1874. To illus- trate the immense advance in prices of those Swi- nomish tide lands it may be said that a place of a hundred and twenty acres two miles and a half from La Conner was sold in 18:3 for twelve hun- (red dollars, and that same place could not now be purchased for less than fifteen or twenty thou- sand. In 1814 the Gaches brothers began making shipments of grain on a larger scale than had been known before, the first of a great series of ship- ments which has continued uninterruptedly and increasingly to the present day.

Like other portions of the archipelago the lands adjoining the Swinomish slough were subject to a very great rise and fall of the tide. At flood tide the slough is navigable by vessels of not more than nine feet draught. while at low tide there is water enough for small boats only. This condition of navigation led to efforts from early days to secure congressional appropriations for improving the channel. In 1890 congress appropriated $122.000 for the improvement of the slough and the dredg- ing of the bars at either end. During the present year (1905) Major Millis. United States engineer at Seattle, has asked for an appropriation of $150.000 in order that he may continue the im- provements on a larger scale. Inspector Thomas Huddleson estimates the value of exports passing through the slough in the vear 1903 at $959.000 and the imports at $514.000; for the year 1904. exports $1,330.000 and imports $464.000. The bulk of this great trade is handled at La Conner.

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As we set this fact of the present beside the busi- ness conditions of 1873 we form some conception of the prodigious percentage of increase in the trade of the place.

In taking up again the thread of the narrative in respect to business developments we may note than in 1815 another prominent business man of La Conner, Joseph F. Dwelley, came to the place and opened a furniture store. Throughout the decade of the seventies business and professional men were adding themselves to the population and in 1878 we find the following list derived from the Snohomish Star of March 6th: Hotels, the La Conner, J. J. Conner, proprietor ; the Maryland House, John McGlinn, proprietor ; general merchan- clise stores, Gaches Bros. and L. L. Andrews ; boat builders, Church & Bowman, Potter & Chandler ; drug store, Joseph Alexander; physicians, Drs. T. C. Mackey, I. N. Powers and J. S. Church ; lawyers, W. R. Andrews, A. W. Engle and L. Thomas. The same paper contains an item of a political-social-business nature worthy of a passing notice. It seems that there was an attempt at that time to start a Chinese laundry in the town. Public sentiment was against it and the Washing- ton literary society, which met in the public hall, and to attend which members came from all over the flats when the weather did not forbid, took up for debate the question of the Chinese laundry. After a heated discussion an agreement was signed by which those present pledged themselves to dis- courage by every lawful means the admission of Chinamen to the place and to abstain from employ- ing in their own houses the Chinese in any capacity whatever.

From the nature of its location La Conner is a steamboat town rather than a railroad town. From the time of its founding to the present there have been steamboats and sail boats, canoes, row- boats and scows of every size and order. and at the present time there is daily steamboat commu- nication with all the principal ports of the sound. The town is well provided with wharves and ware- houses and in all respects the shipping interest is of a promising character ; and with the completion of the government improvements heretofore re- ferred to the town will be as accessible as any in the entire sound region. Although there is as yet no railroad to the place, one franchise for a railway has already been granted and another company is about to apply for a franchise.

We may complete this account of the business growth of La Conner from the earliest times by incorporating here the following list of professional and business men and firms of the present time: Physicians: Dr. G. E. Howe, Dr. A. R. Bailey : dentist. Dr. J. N. Harris: lawyer. I. S. Corrigan ; general merchandise: James Gaches, F. A. Livingston & Company: The Fair Depart- ment Store, McGowan & Coddington ; groceries :

L. W. Vaughn & Son. Nelson & Pierson ; meat markets : The West Butchering Com- pany; T. C. Boyd & Company ; hardware and im- plements : Polson Implement and Hardware Com- pany; drug stores: D. B. Hall; La Conner Drug Store; millinery: Mrs. W. H. Parsons; machine shop, blacksmith and repairing: Roseland & Hamburg Bros. ; confectionery stores: Henry Peterson, Frank Brown, Mrs. George Hall; ware- house and storage: La Conner Warehouse Com- pany, owned by the farmers of the region and hav- ing a capacity of one hundred and twenty-five thou- sand sacks of grain: Chilberg Warehouse. D. L. McCormick, R. H. Ball; dry goods and furnish- ings : B. L. Martin; restaurants: W. H. Angel, The Farmers'; jewelry: H. Humphrey; undertak- ing parlors: J. E. Peck ; harness shop and imple- ments: H. W. Rock; blacksmith shop: Blade & Seagren : bicycle and repairing store: Peter Win- gren ; barbers : J. P. Johnston, W. H. Boyce, George Unkhardt : merchant tailors: J. G. Almberg, Mitch Clossen : photographer : O. J. Wingren; storage and commission house: Guy W. Conner, who also acts as agent for the La Conner Trading and Trans- portation Company, running a daily line of boats to Seattle, the Fairhaven being the regular passen- ger steamer ; dry goods and clothing store: C. & S. Goldsmith ; hotels: Hotel MeGlinn, J. P. Mc- Glinn. proprietor : Hotel La Conner, Mrs. J. Gipple, proprietor ; Alma House : Puget sound seed gardens and store: A. G. Tillinghast ; livery stable: R. L. Richardson ; boot and shoe store: G. E. Wersen; junk store : R. A. Coffer.

One of the most important business concerns of La Conner is the La Conner Lumber Company. of which J. C. Foster and N. G. Turner are the proprietors. This consists of a saw-mill with a capacity of twenty thousand feet of lumber a day. with a shingle-mill attachment. This mill has had rather an interesting history in that it was a semi- public enterprise. It was inaugurated in 1889 by a joint stock company known as the Pleasant Ridge Mill and Threshing Company. In 1900 this mill, then having come into possession of Ezra Brothers. was burned. The citizens of La Conner bought the site and remains of the machinery for thirteen hundred dollars and gave a long lease as a subsidy to Foster & Turner, who constructed the present mill.

La Conner is well supplied with electric power. telephone service and water system. The electric power is the property of the La Conner Electric Light and Power Company, of which Peter Win- gren is the manager. The plant was established in 1893 by J. S. Bartholomew, who sold out the same year to Mr. Wingren. The telephone system is ample, consisting of two different plants, one. the Skagit Valley Telephone Company, with eleven separate lines operating out of La Conner. estab- lished in 1902 by Frederick Eyre, who is still acting

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as secretary of the company . the other, the Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company, of which Henry Peterson is the local manager. The water works of La Conner are in the hands of the La Conner Water Works Company, of which the prin- cipal stockhoklers are ex-Governor MeBride and 11. S. Conner, Peter Wingren being the manager. The water supply is derived from springs on the Swinomish reservation and is piped across the slough and pumped to a reservoir upon the hill. The citizens are now actively agitating the question of municipal ownership of their water system. Re- cently J. G. Foster was granted a franchise to establish a new system, taking its water from the Skagit river.

Passing from the business enterprises of La Conner to its municipal history, we find that like several of the towns of the region La Conner has passed through the stages of incorporation, disin- corporation and reincorporation. On November 20, 1883. the legislative act incorporating the city was approved by the governor and became a law. This provided for incorporation with the following limits : ".All of the plat of the town of La Conner, as recorded in the office of the auditor of Whatcom county, together with an addition of six hundred feet on the southern end of said plat of the same width as, and extending in the same general direc- tion as, said plat ; also an addition of sixty rods on the northern end of said plat of the same width as. and extending in the same direction as, said plat ; all of the above-described land being and lying in section 36, township 34 north range 2 east in Whatcom county." The legislative act named as temporary officers : Mayor, L. L. Andrews ; coun- cil. G. V. Calhoun, B. L. Martin, James Gaches, J. S. Church and F. S. Poole ; marshal, Cylon Otis ; clerk and assessor, Sophus Joergensen.

The impression gained ground during the years immediately following incorporation that the town had been a little hasty in assuming cityhood and as the result of a

petition signed by a majority of the citizens the legislature passed an act, approved January, 6, 1886. to repeal the old act. After this repeal the town remained without organization until the close of the year 1888. On December 10th of that year by the direction of the district court incorporation was effected and the following trustees appointed by Judge Boyle: Perry Polson, J. S. Church, B. L. Martin, R. H. Ball and W. E. Schricker. This was but a temporary organization and in 1890 a petition was presented to the trustees of the town to provide for municipal incorporation under the new state law. as a result of which May 2d was designated as the date for an election upon the question of reincorporation. The election was held on the date designated and resulted favorably to incorporation. On May 24th a regular municipal election of officers was held, resulting in the choice

of G. V. Calhoun for mayor, W. E. Schricker, Perry Polson, 11. S. Conner and James Gaches as councilmen ; L. L. Andrews as treasurer. The city officials of La Conner at the date of this publica- tion are as follows : R. HI. Ball, mayor ; J. S. Church, clerk: J. L. Corrigan, attorney; E. R. Anderson, treasurer: 1. F. Savage, marshal; . A. I. Dunlap, J. 11. Chilberg. N. A. Nelson, Ole Wingren and W. E. Schricker, councilmen. In connection with the municipal life of La Conner it may be noted that the city owns a comfortable, two-story frame building for municipal purposes, which stands upon the hill opposite the Catholic church. It was built fourteen years ago. There is also a fraternal hall built in 1890 by the Masons and Odd Fellows at a cost of six thousand dollars, which is used as a place of public gatherings of all sorts.

One of the most important agencies in any city is its newspapers. Few communities in the state of Washington are lacking in that indispensable factor in public influence. La Conner's newspaper is the Puget Sound Mail, one of the best weekly papers in the state, edited by F. L. Carter and published by Carter & Carlson. It is the oldest paper north of Seattle. having been originally estab- lished at Whatcom in 1823 and removed to La Conner in 1819 by its founder, J. W. Power.

Perhaps the one feature of every new Western town in which the general body of citizens takes the greatest interest is the school system. La Con- ner is not behind other towns of her order in the character of her schools. The first public school in the vicinity of La Conner was organized in the fall of 1873, Dr. J. S. Church being the first teacher, and the first location being the old house belonging to Isaac Jennings northeast of the town. The direct- ors of the first school were L. L. Andrews and Rob- ert White. Among the pupils of that earliest school were H. S. Conner, two girls of the Jennings family, four children of the D'Arcy family, two of the Miller family and two children of Robert White.

Mrs. J. F. Dwelley taught a private school in La Conner proper in 1875, and the same year David Culver succeeded her. It is quite probable that J. S. Conner's private school. maintained by him in his own home principally for the use of his own family, preceded both Mrs. Dwelley's and Mr. Culver's schools. J. D. Lowman, who has since become one of Seattle's prominent citizens, was one of Mr. Conner's early tutors. The first pub- lie school within the limits of La Conner was opened by Miss Ida Leamer, now Mrs. E. A. Sisson, of Padilla, in January, 1876, being held in a small building on the site of MeGlinn's hotel. The fol- lowing May she resigned.

The district did not own a school building until 1876. In that vear a building erected the year before by the Grangers was purchased by the district and used thence onward until the erection of the present building. The present commodious

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and well-equipped cdifice was completed in 1903, its total cost having amounted to about six thou- sand two hundred dollars. The present enrollment of pupils in the eight grades of the primary and grammar school departments is a hundred and sev- enty-two. The high school was organized in 1896 and has an enrollment at the present time of fifty. The high school provides a curriculum of four years and stands in the same grade as to work with other high schools of the state, being upon the accredited list of the colleges of the state. The faculty of the high school consists of W. A. Nich- olas, principal and instructor in science and civics ; Zoc Keith, instructor in mathematics and Latin, and Lena Tucker. instructor in history and English. The instructors in the lower grades are May B. Pickett, Anna F. Miller, Helen M. Simpson and Lucy A. Cook.

As is the case with all our Western communi- ties, La Conner has a full quota of churches and other fully organized religious agencies. The first church service ever held in La Conner was in the summer of 18:1. This was conducted by a Presby- terian minister named Thompson. In the following year Rev. B. N. L. Davis, of the Baptist denomina- tion, who had located on a claim near the present site of the Great Northern bridge, and who was actively engaged in ministerial work throughout the Skagit valley, made occasional visits to the La Conner region for the purpose of holding services. The Baptist church building was dedicated in 1884 by Rev. A. B. Banks. A new church was built at a cost of between five and six thousand dollars in 1903, under the pastorate of Rev. Harry Ferguson. The Methodists also were represented soon after by Rev. J. N. Denison, widely known at that time and since as an indefatigable church organizer throughout western Washington. The various church services were held in the town hall or school building at first. or when these were not available some one of the hospitable homes of the early settlers was open without regard to denomina- tion.

In Atwood's "Glimpses of Pioncer Life" we find an interesting reference to the first coming of Mr. Denison to La Conner. The writer relates that Dr. J. S. Church, while passing along a street or what then passed for a street, saw a young man, evidently a newcomer, sitting in front of a store and upon inquiry the young man introduced himself as J. N. Denison, a Methodist preacher. appointed to succeed Rev. M. J. Luark, who had been the first Methodist preacher in that circuit, although it would not appear that Mr. Luark had actually held services in La Conner. According to Atwood's narrative this first visit of Mr. Denison was in 1874. Dr. Church at once took the stranger home with him and the Sunday following he conducted service in the house of Mrs. Conner. The Meth- odist pastors on the Skagit circuit for some years

after that were Revs. C. Derrick, Thomas McGill, B. F. Van Deventer and W. B. McMillin. Mr. Van Deventer entered upon the construction of the pres- ent Methodist church building in 1883. This was completed and dedicated by Rev. J. N. Denison, December 6, 1885. The first church building erected in La Conner was the old Catholic church in 1872 under the direction of Father Prefontaine, of Seattle, and the money for this pioneer church was secured largely by the efforts of Mrs. Louisa A. Conner, who solicited among the farms and log- ging camps on all sides. The old church is aban- doned at the present time. The churches now exist- ent in La Conner are the Catholic, Rev. Matthew Woods, rector : the Bethesda Baptist church, E. B. Pace, pastor ; the Methodist church, George Arney, pastor, and the Swedish Lutheran church, G. A. Anderson, pastor.

Like all our other towns, La Conner is well pro- vided with fraternal organizations. The Masons seem to have been the pioncers in the establishment of lodges, having effected an organization January 6, 1883. This first lodge met in the upper story of Dwelley's furniture store. The name of the lodge was Garfield lodge, from the name of Presi- dent Garfield, who had died the preceding year at the hands of an assassin. The first officers of that lodge were Thomas J. Rawlins, master; J. S. Church, S. W .: W. A. Stevens, J. W .; S. B. Best, S. B .: J. A. Gilliland, J. D .; Sophus Joergensen. treasurer : L. L. Andrews, secretary. Other lodges have grown up in the town with the process of time and there are at the present time the follow- ing, with the chief officers of each: W. of W .. La Conner camp. No. 449. G. H. Lane, C. C .; E. R. Anderson, clerk. I. O. G. T .. Oatland lodge, No. 81. Clara Hughes, C. T .: Glen Otis, secretary. M. WV. A .. La Conner camp. No. 8973. W. A. Carlson. consul: J. P. Johnston, clerk. Royal Neighbors, Howard camp. No. 1409, Mattic Valentine, oracle ; Mrs. Charles Martin, recorder. I. O. O. F., Delta lodge. No. 32. D. B. Hall, N. G .; E. E. Stotler, secretary. Rebekahs, Esther lodge, No. 32, Pearl Bates. N. G .; Mrs. I. A. Dunlap, secretary. Ma- sons, Garfield lodge, No. 41. J. N. Harris. W. N .; L. L. Andrews, secretary. A. O. U. W .. Swinomish lodge, No. 17. Joc Otis, M. W .: J. F. Dwelley, scc- retary. G. A. R., Larabec post, No. 18. Robert Moore. P. C .: J. F. Dwelley, adjutant. W. C. T. U., Mrs. Rhoda Gaches, president : Mrs. G. A. Gwyer, secretary.

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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 42

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