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 43

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 43
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 43

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Among the most important institutions of La Conner and indeed of the entire Skagit country is the Skagit County bank, a private institu- tion, the oldest in Skagit county, established in 1886 by W. E. Schricker. This bank occupies a fine, two-story brick building in the main corner of the town, the first brick building erected in the town. This bank has a paid up capital of fifty thousand dollars and at the present time a surplus of thirty

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thousand dollars. It has its correspondents in Se- attle, Portland. Chicago and New York, and from all points of view it is the most important financial insti- tution in that part of Skagit county. The cashier, W. E. Schricker, and the assistant cashier, L. L. Andrews, have commended themselves in a peculiar degree to all the people of the community for their broad and liberal policy, for their courteous con- duct of business and for the genuine good influence which they have in every phase of the city's life.

La Conner is to be felicitated on her compara- tive freedom from any kind of disasters. But two fires of any account have occurred in the town and even these were not of serious moment. One of these in early years destroyed the old MeGlinn hotel and another on July 5, 1900, destroyed the saw-mill operated by Ezra Brothers. Although there have been several disastrous floods, notably those of 1880, 1881 and 1891, and several high tides, which wrought more or less damage, yet there has been no destruction of property by the elements at any time sufficient to check seriously the march of im- provement.

Of the famous multiplex struggle for the pos- session of the county seat, in which La Conner. Ana- cortes and Mount Vernon bore the leading part. suf- ficient notice has been taken heretofore. Suffice it to say in brief that upon the creation of Skagit county in 1884 La Conner became the county seat and retained that position until Mount Vernon gained it by the vote of the county. But although thus de- prived of the official headship of the county, La Conner has continued to be one of the wealthiest, most substantial and attractive places in western Washington. Its present population is estimated in the recent publication of the state board at seven hundred and fifty, representing a substantial gain over the preceding years.

ANACORTES

None of the Puget sound cities has had more to excite our interest than Anacortes, "The City of Necessity," or the "Magic City." Its history, be- yond that of any other city in the Northwest, is wrought with incidents of romance and excitement almost incredible. It has passed from insignifi- cance to prominence and from one extreme to an- other with singular rapidity.

The geographical location of Anacortes is an excellent one for a large city. Situated as it is on the northern end of Fidalgo island on Guemes channel, it forms the natural outlet for the entire region of country tributary to the Skagit river. It is nearer the entrance of Puget sound than any other port on the sound. The harbor is deep enough for the largest ocean vessels. the depth being from nine to twelve fathoms in the middle and not less than four or five near shore. Con- cerning this channel we give the following extract

from an article in the Northwest Enterprise of January 20, 1883, by Amos Bowman, a civil en- gineer, a government geologist and engineer and one of the first settlers on the island :

"Aside from its central location on the water of the Fuca Mediterranean, on the eastside main- land, or continental shore, and the head of Fuca strait, where all other imaginable approaches by land or sea must either meet or pass, the first feature to impress itself upon the mind of the ob- server is the fact that, standing anywhere you like upon the Fidalgo shore, Ship harbor has the ap- pearance of being, as it really is, for all practical purposes, a perfectly land-locked harbor. The second striking circumstance is the fact that from this sheltered body of water are seen radiating five or six different channels, or water ways, each of them possessing individual merits, either of direction for local commercial traffic or of facility of approach for coasting and sea-going craft from any direction, north, south, east or west. Here a smuggler or a pirate might lurk, if he designed striking in any direction. These peculiarities, com- bining a perfectly land-locked shore with a series of outlets in all desirable directions, make Ship harbor, with its accessory good qualities, the best harbor on Puget sound and rank it among the best in the world. For facility of approach from the open sea it is unequaled for the reason that Fuca strait is itself unequaled as an approach to more sheltered waters from the open sea ; the prevailing direction of the winds in regard to it and the wide unobstructed entrance leaving for it every weather fair to come and go. Coasters from north to south, or from south to north, making use of Fica, Rosario and Johnstone straits, have not a mile to go out of their way to approach a common point, the nearest by any practicable route from the salt water to the great interior valleys of the Columbia and Frazer rivers."

Anacortes, or Ship harbor, as it was named at that time, was in early days practically a dense forest. The earliest settlers came about 1860, and were Messrs. William Munks. Enoch Compton, H. P. O'Bryant, Charles W. Beale and Shadrach and Richard Wooten. Others came in later, in- cluding Orlando Graham and sons, Albert L. and Frank, William Allard, T. Henry Havekost, Alfred Bowen, George M. Johnson and a few others. In 1876 Amos Bowman came. It is to this man above all others, perhaps, that Anacortes owes its existence. He and his wife bought one hundred and sixty-eight acres, built a wharf and a store and established a postoffice and newspaper. His most important and effective work was prob- ably the printing of a map of Puget sound and the region around Anacortes, predicting its rail- road future. This map he scattered broadcast in 1882 and the years following, with noteworthy results. In 1812. upon the establishment of a post-

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anacortes

ANACORTES, WASHINGTON

W YORK PUDER LIBRARY

ASTOR, LENOX TILDEN SOUNDATIONS

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office at this point, as narrated elsewhere, Anacor- tes received its name. It is derived from the maiden name of the Mrs. Anna ( Curtis) Bowman.

Anacortes first came into prominence in the seventies as a prospective railroad terminus, and concerning this the following account is given by Mr. Bowman in the Anacortes Progress of August 14, 1890: "Tacoma came into view as a terminus, as every one knows, from purest accident. The great undertaking of building the Northern Paci- fic railroad encountered the financial storms of 1812 and got shipwrecked; and Tacoma was the port which saved the enterprise. It is also well known by all the older citizens that the Northern Pacific railway graders had already passed Tacoma some six or seven miles across the Puyallup and into the valley of the Stuck river, when 'Skookum (Elijah) Smith and General Sprague were dele- gated to buy up lands at the nearest available point on Puget sound, at which to make the terminal im- provements which were required by the act. in order to hold the land grant. At that time 'Skookum' Smith, General Sprague, General Hazard Stevens, Captain George D. Hill, B. B. Tuttle and Victor Tull, with some others, had already secured the en- tire water front of Ship harbor, and had so far ar- ranged matters that, but for the panic, the Northern Pacific would undoubtedly have built their line and located their terminal works at Anacortes. Other cliques, however, of the Northern Pacific Company had bought up lands all along the route with ter- minal pretensions. Among these were Holmes har- bor, Coveland, Coupeville, all on the inner side of Whidby island, and the northern end of Whidby island fronting on Deception pass. Other persons outside the Northern Pacific Company had bought up Mukilteo. * * *

"It was in 1816 that the Canadian Pacific explor- ations first solved the problem of the Canadian route. I was engaged in geological exploration in connec- tion with the government railway exploration and was then, for a short time, a resident of Seattle. My knowledge of the Northern Pacific approaches to Fuca straits, along with the knowledge of the Vic- toria Hudson's Bay men, of the agricultural impor- tance of this country around the outlet of the Skagit. attracted my attention to this place. On examining the harbor for terminal purposes, which was the first work I did here, I was agreeably surprised to find every condition around the 'Anacortes place' nearly perfect, and in the spring of 1811 1 purchased it from Miss Maud Stevens, of Boston, a sister of General Hazard Stevens, for the sum of one thou- sand dollars. I immediately began making improve- ments in earnest, looking to its final development for railway purposes. My own education and ex- perience as a eivil and mining engineer enabled me to work straight to the mark. Everybody knows how the publication of the 'Northwest Enterprise' and its circulation of the map of Fuca's sea of

Puget sound' accomplished the work of spreading information of the claims of Ship harbor for railway purposes on the sound. The .Enterprise,' now the 'Progress' newspaper, placed that map in the hands of every western railway engineer and railway com- pany and director between New York and San Fran- cisco, including everybody else, who had eyes to see. in Oregon and Washington. Among these people James McNaught and Henry Villard were inter- ested parties, being in a position to know all about the earlier steps taken at this place regarding ter- minal matters.

"Perhaps I have not done full justice to myself. however, in stating that Ship harbor had, at the time of my settlement here, gone completely out of sight and out of memory almost as a terminal prop- osition. Bringing it to the notice of Villard and the McNaughts appeared to most people to be en- tirely de novo-except for the assertions of the 'Enterprise,' rather magnifying the connections of the Jay Cooke regime with Ship harbor in 1810-12. In truth, no official connection nor action of any kind was ever had, going further than the initiatory steps. These were unofficial, but they were genuine ; and to this day it is very confidently asserted by the participants from the spoken words of leading offi- cials that they would surely have landed the ter- minus on these shores had not Jay Cooke failed. It is my belief that neither the MeNaughts nor Villard would have given a thought to Ship harbor in 1882- 88 had its claims not been definitely and prominently brought into notice by the Northwest Enterprise' with its map. It did its work of advertising effect- ually and enconomically. The 'newspaper in the woods' had a history that will bear telling.

"I myself procured, about 1818. the original Northern Pacific map and profile from Fidalgo island by way of Skagit pass and Wenatchee river to the big bend of the Columbia, made about 1813. The surveys were made by engineers Brown, Ward and Til Sheets at different times in the years preced- ing 1812. I found them buried among other North- ern Pacific records in the old Tacoma terminal building, now the freight house, on the dock at Tacoma. They were considered of so little conse- quence that they were given to me, a stranger, with- ont hesitation. Among the numerous parties that visited Anacortes in the first few years after the publication of the 'Enterprise' and its map ( from 1882 to 1886) were M. V. B. Staey, Henry Villard. James and Joseph McNaught and John L. Howard.

"Nearly all of the prominent people who are now identified with Anacortes first appeared upon the scene at that time. About 1885 Villard sent agents here to procure terminal facilities, and who did act- ually procure, quietly and silently, under Mr. Stacy's management. about three thousand acres by pur- chase. The work was done chiefly by Frank Seidell, of Seattle, with the assistance of Orlando Graham. Stacy first came to me and I recommended Graham

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as a valuable coadjutor for acquiring properties in the interest of a railway enterprise. While I dis- tinetly remember this fact along with the proposi- tion to buy me ont for ten thousand dollars (not entertained ). ] had no further knowledge of the enterprise and was not a confidant of the projectors. The MeNaughts figured in it a little, I think. but subordinately. A large number of the most promi- nent men of Puget sound were brought into con- nection with it by Mr. Stacy. Nearly all the oldler Northern Pacific landhoklers had sold out except Captain George D. Hill and Edward 1. Shannon. About that time Villard's financial difficulties inter- vened and again nullified this second land scheme of the Northern Pacific people at Ship harbor.

"In 1888 the present railway buikling was begin : originally by W. H. Holcomb of the Oregon Rail- way and Navigation Company, of Portland, and Milner of the Oregon Improvement Company, of Seattle. I had, for half a dozen years, ceased cx- penditures at Anacortes, though not entirely the circulation of the 'Enterprise' map: leaving it and time to do the work-that of populating the back country before doing anything further. I was engaged on Bancroft's history at San Francisco and afterward was tracing the coal measures in British Columbia when word came to me that these men were in search of me and would initiate rail- road works on condition of receiving a certain land grant. This required grant of about two thousand acres was raised chiefly by myself and wife, assisted by the Rev. Albert Taylor, Orlando Graham and Il. P. O'Bryant. tramping over Fidalgo and Guemes islands for about three weeks, with Messrs. Cal- houn and Hopkins as notaries. The non-resident water front owners at Seattle had been previously trained in line by the MeNaught Brothers and E. 1 .. Shannon. The entire subsidy of abont twenty- five hundred acres of land will have been earned by the Oregon Improvement Company August 15th.

"Almost immediately after the signing of the subsidy contract a revolution took place in the com- pany, or railway building organization, which under- took the contract for building thirty miles. Milner and Holcomb were both shelved, and the Oregon Improvement Company, with Elijah Smith at the head, came to the front. After January 1, 1889. to date. Elijah Smith and the Oregon Improvement Company have carried ont the work and brought us out of the woods to our present flattering status. as the terminus of at least one, and probably two or three transcontinental railroads.

"The business was initiated by Holcomb and Milner as a Union Pacific enterprise. Milner and Harry Tibbals, Jr., represented that they were in- structed by their superiors as managers controlled by the Northern Pacific. The engineers who laid out the road were Messrs. Williams and Temple : they came here from Denver and Omaha, as Northern Pacific engineers, and are now engaged

on the Union Pacific near Olympia. Milner is now superintendent of the Great Northern. They are all personally interested in the success of Anacortes, and, although referred to last in this connection, ought to have been mentioned first."

In 1882 the following establishments were in operation at Anacortes: Amos Bowman & Com- pany, civil and mining engineering, pile driving. scow building, real estate, loans, etc., notary public, general store: E. Hammond, ship builder : J. C. Sullivan, pile driver and builder ; Edward Mc- Taggart, notary public; E. Sibley, justice of the peace, wagon shop and wheelbarrow factory; (). Harolson, boots and shoes : William Allard, black- smith and tinsmith: Mrs. O. Harolson, carpet weaving.

The only means of communication between Ana- cortes and the outside world at that period of her history was by water. Practically every one upon Fidalgo and the other islands of the group had his own row-boat or sail-boat and was comparatively independent in reaching any desired point. But we find as early as April 26, 1819. reference by the Bellingham Bay Mail to the fact that Messrs. Bow- man & Johnson had put up a wharf, which stood between what is now Ocean dock and Q street. From that point the steamers Phantom and Tacoma were gathering a boom of logs bound for the Tacoma mills.

With the establishment of United States mail service there came to be regular steamship routes to Anacortes, and in 1882 we find that the Chehalis. Captain Brownfield, the Welcome, Captain Brannin, and the Dispatch, Captain Monroe, were making regular trips to and from Seattle, Whatcom, Port Townsend and Semiahmoo. The Northwest Enter- prise informs us in April of 1883 that three first- class steamers were stopping at Anacortes four times a week each, two of them carrying mails. The Hope seems to have been the leading steamer of the fleet. In December of the same year a tri- weekly mail service on the Seattle, Anacortes and Whatcom route went into effect. The steamers were the Washington, the Idaho and the Evangel. It is worthy of notice that Captain Beecher was master of the Evangel. The year 1883 witnessed also the completion of the first large wharf at Ana- cortes, a structure a hundred feet long, having a runway the same length, John C. Sullivan being the builder. Wages seem to have been good at that time, as the carpenters on the wharf received five dollars per day.

With the steady increase in business came the demand for a regularly platted town site. This important work was executed by H. B. Gates. assisted by G. Gerhard and a staff of five men. This first town plat was on the island opposite Kelly's Point and occupied a belt of about two miles fronting the Guemes channel and extending back about three-quarters of a mile. The avenues were

VIEW'S TAKEN ON FIDALGO ISLAND

THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

TILDA

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a hundred feet wide and the cross streets eighty feet. The original plan contemplated a grand avenue two hundred feet wide running the whole length of the island.

From the Northwest Enterprise of October 6, 1883, we gather the fact that the town site enter- prise, though promoted directly by Messrs. M. V. B. Stacy. James McNaught, P. H. Lewis, John Collins and others, was in reality under the control of officials of the Northern Pacific Railroad Com- pany. This seems to have been one of the earlier observations upon the designs of that company, which has assumed such gigantic proportions in later years, to secure terminals upon Puget sound. It forecasts, also, the condition which was to result in such boundless expectations, feverish booms and blasted hopes in the history of Anacortes a few years later.

After the first era of development upon Fidalgo island, of which we have been speaking. a compara- tive calm seems to have brooded over the beautiful archipelago, but it was destined to be broken by the tremendous activities which sprung suddenly into existence with the great boom period of 1889 and the years immediately following. The idea had been taking shape in the minds of a number of people that the terminus of the first transcontinental railroad would be upon Fidalgo island and during the year 1889 a sufficient number of people became possessed with the same idea at the same time to precipitate one of the most extraordinary booms known, even in that time, upon Puget sound. That was the heroic age of Anacortes. Those beautiful solitudes extending from Cap Sante to Deception pass, upon which a few farmers, lumbermen, store- keepers and steamboat men had been carrying on a quiet, though substantial trade, became suddenly transformed into one of the most typical of all typical western boom towns, where the boomer boomed, the promoter promoted, the gambler gambled, the grafter grafted, and the sucker sucked. In 1886 a considerable portion of Fidago island was still government land. Even land with title was hell usually at no more than from $2.00 to $10.00 per acre. In the early part of 1889 a price of $90, $100 or $150 per acre began to be the common thing, while within a few months later prices began to soar to $300, $400 or $500, or almost anything that the owner had the nerve to ask. for apparently purchasers were willing to take land with no ques- tions asked and with unmeasured hopes of the future. It was the general impression at that time that the Northern Pacific, the Union Pacific and the Canadian Pacific were going to make a race for Anacortes.

The name, the "Magie City," seems to have been acquired during that period by Anacortes, and indeed the development of the city during a period of about nine months was such as to justify the name. We find it recorded in a contemporary paper

that in January of 1890 there was a population of 40, on February 1st of 500. on March 1st of 2,000 and on March 15th of 3,000. In 1889 there were practically no buildings or street improvements. A year later Anacortes had ? completed wharves and 3 more under construction. 3 miles of graded streets, 2 banks, 3 saw-mills, ? sash and door factories, 4 grocery stores, 3 general merchandise stores, ? drug stores, 3 boot and shoe stores, 8 tobacco stores, 2 stationery and book stores, 3 bakery and confec- tionery stores, a three-story brick printing-house, 12 hotels, a theater. a costly school-house projected, several churches, 21 real estate houses, 2 news- papers, the Daily Progress and the Anacortes American, besides the other customary miscel- laneous lines of business. During a period of less than a year it was estimated that there were ex- pended the following sums: On clearing of land, $250.000; street improvements, $100.000; new buildings, $500,000; water-works and street rail- ways, $300,000; railroad terminals and wharves $270,000 ; or a total of nearly a million and a half dollars.

During the first era of the boom a considerable portion of the population was obliged to live in tents. The Anacortes Progress of February 15. 1890, notes the fact that there were 141 houses and 110 tents, with a population of 2,110, with additional floaters to the number of about 200. That was a palmy period for steamboats running to Ship harbor, they carrying passengers by the hundreds, many of them beyond their lawful capacity.

Lots during that period went up almost to fabulous prices. In the business portion of the city lots thirty by one hundred feet sold as high as three thousand dollars. Acreage tracts on Burrows bay brought twelve hundred dollars per acre. Even Hat island, Burrows island and Cypress island, though merely volcanic rocks rising almost sheer from the water, were eagerly purchased by specu- lators as city property.

Even in that period of excitement and feverish speculation, there were some prophecies of possible "busted" booms. The Skagit News of April 28, 1890, lifts a voice of warning to the effect that the boom was at the point of collapsing. The reporter asserts that he found at that writing a population, aside from railroad laborers, of only five hundred. In spite, however, of the reaction which seems to be indicated, the reporter prophesied a steady and con- tinnal growth in all manner of legitimate improve- ments. One thing which led the observers of that time to anticipate substantial growth was that some of the shrewdest investers in Seattle and elsewhere were largely interested in Anacortes real estate. Among such we find mention of Governor Ferry, John Collins, P. H. Lewis, Judge Hoyt, John Mc- Graw. Jesse George, Kinnear brothers, Governor Squire, General Sprague, Allen C. Mason, Dexter

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Horton, Arthur Deuns, James McNaught, Judge Roger S. Greene and M. A. B. Stacy.

A matter of interest in connection with the growth of Anacortes is the various plats of the original town and the successive additions, which ultimately became piled up to a bewildering extent. I would appear from the records of the auditor's office of Skagit county that the first regular plat was filed about January 1, 1889, by C. H. Shaw, to cover a town known as Ship harbor. This plat comprised the southeast 44 of the southeast 44 of section 21, township 35, range 1, adjoining Guemes passage. A year later a plat was filed in the . auditor's office which contained five acres, divided into two blocks by a street eighty feet wide, each block containing twenty-two lots. thirty by one hundred and twenty-five feet. This plat was filed by C. T. Conover, and is stated by the Skagit News of January 13, 1890, to be the true original plat of the city of Anacortes. However, the railroad company's plat, filed on the ?Ist of January, 1890, contained two hundred blocks and constituted an enormously larger area for city purposes.

Addition followed addition, until by the close of the year 1890 there were sixty-three regularly platted additions filed in the auditor's office.

The great primary impelling ageney of the boom at Anacortes was railroads. It was the expectation that Anacortes would become a transcontinental terminal, which caused the swarms of investors to gather upon Fidalgo island. The Oregon Improve- ment Company entered upon the construction of a railroad from Anacortes to the Skagit coal mines in 1888. The force of nearly one thousand was under the direction of Captain F. A. Hill. The course taken by this pioneer railroad was from the northwestern end of the island, about one mile from Green point, whence it pursued a generally south- eastward direction toward Fidalgo bay. It emerged on the bay shore near Lamb creek, whence it fol- lowed in a southeasterly direction the shore-line to Weaverling's spit, where a trestle four thousand feet in length spanned the bay to Munk's place. Its direction from there was south of east to the Swin- omish slough, across which a drawbridge was con- structed to Telegraph island and thence to the main- land on the Whitney place; from there the road continued directly cast to the Skagit river. This road, the Seattle & Northern, was a standard gauge and extended from Anacortes to Hamilton, a dis- tance of thirty-six miles.

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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 43

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