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 52

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 52
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 52

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).

263

CURRENT EVENTS, 1810-89

they had enjoyed a lucrative trade with California. Through a variety of causes, much of the demand from all these countries was cut off, except such as came from China and the Sandwich islands. The result was that in the early months of 1877 there was almost no sale for logs at any price, and the consequence was a paralysis of industry of all kinds. The physical difficulties encountered by loggers were fewer than usual, hardly any of the product being lost through floods and the like, but the market was so badly demoralized that in June many of the loggers were talking seriously of suspending opera- tions. For several months not a dollar came onto the Snohomish river from the sale of logs; the farmers were in no better circumstances than the woodsmen, as they must wait for the price of products sold by them to logging camps until returns could be secured from the mill men. In the good times just past, all classes had forged ahead confidently, contracting debts ad libitum, and the outstanding obligations greatly increased the seriousness of the situation. Before the day dawned, practically the entire timber product of Snohomish river was involved in litigation and millions of feet of logs at Priest's Point were in the hands of the sheriff, with thousands of dollars of costs against them. Late in November there came a marked improvement in conditions. The price of logs rose to five dollars a thousand, and before the end of the year the great booms of logs at Priest's Point were disposed of for cash, the debts against them were paid and there was joy again for a brief season among the residents on the Snohomish. Times, however, continned dull for a few years afterward.

From the governor's message to the legislature in the fall of 1877. it would seem that conditions throughout the territory generally were not so bad as on the Snohomish. He said :

No event of an extraordinary character has transpired within our territory since the adjournment of the legisla- tive assembly. Our people have enjoyed uninterrupted health. Our progress in wealth and population has been as rapid as could have been expected, and under the circum- stances must be regarded as eminently satisfactory. Our isolated position and the great distance to be traveled, and the large expense incurred by immigrants, will necessarily operate to retard our advancement until a continuous line of railroad to the Eastern states is secured. Our agri- cultural, manufacturing and mining industries have been unusually prosperous, and when we contrast our financial condition and business prosperity with that of other localities, we can realize how highly we are favored. Here the laborer has received remunerative wages; capital has been profitably employed ; manufactures have increased : the earth has yielded abundant harvests and all depart- ments of business have heen successfully prosecuted, while in other portions of our country wide-spread financial trouble, embarrassment and distress bave prevailed. Man- ufacturers have ceased operations, capital has been with- drawn from usual avenues of investment and has lain idle: the laboring classes have been unemployed or engaged at diminished wages, and thousands have been reduced to destitution. Capital and labor which should be

joined in the closest bonds of union have been arrayed against each other in deadly hostility. A conflict which recently occurred between these forces, extending over many states, reaching almost to the proportions of a civil war, requiring the combined power of the national and state governments to suppress it, occasioned the loss of many valuable lives and the destruction of millions of dollars of property. From like calamities we have been happily exempted: for which we should be profoundly grateful to Ilim who governs and controls the destinies of nations and individuals.

It will be remembered that 1811 was the year of the celebrated Nez Perce war in Northern Idaho. when the disaffected Nez Perce and Salmon river Indians, with renegades from other tribes. went on the rampage, massacring a number of men. women and children on Salmon river and Camas prairie, defeating Colonel Perry at White Bird, and after suffering defeat at the hands of General O. O. Howard on the Clearwater, leading him a long and memorable chase through the Lolo pass into Mon- tana and Wyoming and to Bear Paw mountain. where they were captured by General Miles. It was feared that the number of hostiles would be swelled by reinforcements from other tribes, until they would far out-number any force that Howard could muster, hence Governor Terry, of Washington terri- tory, offered to raise, organize, clothe, subsist, arm, equip and transport to his assistance five hundred volunteers. whenever he should call for them.

Upon learning of this act of the governor, the following calls were at once issued by citizens of Snohomish county :

Whereas, Governor Terry has tendered the services of five hundred volunteer militia to General O. O. Howard, now in the field, to assist him, whenever he may require their services; In behalf of great numbers who have offered to volunteer for this war, we request all so dis- posed to meet at the lower Atheneum hall on Sunday evening, July 8, 1877, at six o'clock for the purpose of organizing a volunteer militia company, elect their officers, and he subject to the order of the governor for immediate service in the field. whenever called upon by him.

LOU BEACH. J. H. PLASKETT,

JAS. 1100D, JOHN D. MORGAN.

Whereas, an Indian outbreak is threatened by the Klickitat and other Indians near the Snoqualmie pass, and if such an event should take place, this valley would be defenseless. We call on our fellow citizens to meet at the lower hall of the Atheneum on Sunday, July 8th at six p. m. for the purpose of organizing a militia company, electing officers, etc., and take the necessary steps to secure arms, etc., for home protection.

A. C. FOLSOM. F. C. FERGUSON, R. HASKELL.,

HENRY JACKSON, H. A. GREGORY. M. W. PACKARD, 11. W. LIGIT.

W. M. TIRTLOT, W'M. WHITFIELD.

Pursuant to the calls above quoted, a meeting was held, of which E. C. Ferguson was elected chairman and Dr. A. C. Folsom secretary. Two documents were drawn up, one for the signatures

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SNOHOMISH COUNTY

of those wishing to volunteer for service in the Idaho Indian war and one for those willing to join, support and maintain a home organization of a permanent character. The former document re- ceived twenty-one signatures; the latter quite a number, and a committee was appointed to secure further signatures to each. It is stated that two strong companies were organized, but fortunately the active services of neither were demanded by the exigencies of the war.

While the logging industry was not very vig- orous in the year 1828, and times were relatively dull, there was no cessation of activities on the farms of the county, which were slowly increasing in size, number and importance. On the Skykom- ish were a number of good farms, some of them including prairies of small size, the principal ones, perhaps, being the farm of Salem Woods, on Wood's prairie, and those of J. Cochran, S. Peter- son and George Richardson. At Park Place a new town had recently been started by Salem A. Woods.

Though there was but one new settler added to the Pillchuck settlement between Snohomish and Dubuque's during the year ( William White who purchased the improvements of Ed S. Gregory), considerable progress was made in the develop- ment of the farms already located. About this time or not many years afterward settlement began in the Granite Falls and Hartford regions. On the Snohomish, the farmers were also busy in extending their improvements, while the Stilla- guamish pioneers continued earnestly the work of subduing and turning to the uses of man the natural resources of their section. Perhaps one of the most important achievements in this section was the opening of the Stillaguamish jam, about six miles, by the river channel, from D. O. Pearson's store in Stanwood. Work was begun in removing this obstruction to navigation April 11, 1877, by Frank Ledger, J. H. Matthews and Jesse Jones. There were no saw logs in the jam, hence they had to depend for remuneration for their labor entirely upon the subscriptions of those interested, which aggregated only four hundred and twenty-two dol- lars. As the jam was a quarter of a mile in length and very deep, cedar and spruce trees being piled on top of each other in almost every conceivable way. it was the opinion of good engineers that the open- ing of the river would be the work of several years. However, by cutting and removing the logs from one side only, and allowing the rest a chance to work loose and float away. the task was accom- plished in a few months. In November, 1877. the main jam went out and early in January following the work was completed so that it was thought there was no danger that another jam would form. Very soon after this obstruction was removed, there were about twenty-five settlers above its site.

For the purpose of comparison, as well as to preserve the facts themselves, an abstract of the

assessor's census for the year 1877, and that for the year 1878, may here be given. The former shows: Number of dwellings, 219 ; number of white males, 635; number of white females, 328; of col- ored males, 25 ; of colored females, 13 ; of males for- eign born, 190 : females, 32 ; number of persons mar- ried, 299; unmarried, 342 ; number born within the year, 18; married within the year, 12; attended school within the year, 150; illiterate, 30; total pop- ulation, 1,001 ; number of male citizens of the United States, twenty-one years old and over, 414; total value of real estate belonging to residents, $134,- 455; to non-residents. $90,124 ; personal property, $106,494.

The assessor's census for 1878 shows: Number of dwellings, 271; increase over the previous year, 52 ; number of families, 162; of white males, 677; gain in the year, 42 ; of white females. 341 ; gain, 13; number of Chinese, 17: of colored males. 3 ; of col- ored females, 4; of citizens, 448: of males foreign born, 210 ; of females foreign born, 57 : total popula- tion, 1,042 ; gain in the year, 41. The total popula- tion of the county in 1880, according to the United States census was 1,387.

In May, 1879, the Northern Star suspended pub- lication. This may be considered a great misfor- tune to Snohomish county, as the paper was tireless in its efforts to make the county's resources and those of the whole sound country widely known throughout the American union. To acquire a knowledge of the region for this purpose, its editor traveled thousands of miles in steamboats, canoes. sailboats and on foot, writing descriptions of what- ever he saw for publication, and compiling statistics at first hand of the redeeming of tide marsh lands, the extension of agriculture, the results of experi- ments in farming. the productiveness of different soils, etc. He also noted everything which might shed light upon the geology of the region and made himself the possessor of such information as en- abled him to contribute in 1883 an exhaustive article on the Puget sound region, to a government publica- tion on the tide marshes of the United States. This report has been referred to heretofore in these pages in connection with Skagit county, but a few statis- ties from it touching the tide lands of Snohomish county are essential to the completeness of this nar- rative.

The report states that the tide marsh lands in Snohomish county south of the Snohomish river consist principally of a tract of nearly a hundred acres at Twelve Mile Point. near the King county line, a marsh of similar area at Ten Mile Point and one of fifty acres on Point Elliott, the aggregate amount diked being about fifty acres.

"On the Snohomish." continues the report, "is the greatest amount of unreclaimed tide land to be found at any one place on Puget sound. The log- ging industry has carried settlements up the river. and hundreds of farms have been cleared out of

NORTH FORK

CHANGING THE CHANNEL .STILLAGUAMISH RWV.

IN SNOHOMISH COUNTY

267

CURRENT EVENTS, 1870-89

heavy timber, while the tide marshes have been al- lowed to lie unimproved or to fall into the hands of speculators. The Snohomish, near its mouth, di- vides into crooked channels, forming islands in the delta. The main channels converge but do not meet, some flowing into Priest Point bay, which opens toward the south or southwest. Ebey slough, the first channel to branch off from the main river, is twenty-five miles long, while a straight line from its head to its outlet is only six miles. On the main river, one mile below the head of Ebey slough, is the town of Lowell. From Lowell, a fresh water marsh extends eight miles in a southeasterly direc- tion. The main portion of this marsh is south of Snohomish City and on the opposite side of the river. In some places it approaches to within a few rods of the river, while at others it is a half mile or more back. This marsh contains ten thousand acres and is nearly all held by settlers. Some ten miles of ditches and canals have been dug, but none of it will be diked.

"On the south side of the main river are tide marshes amounting to one thousand acres, equally divided between open and spruce marsh. At Pres- ton's Point. at the mouth of the river, a tract of fifty acres has been perfectly diked. The tide lands of the delta additional to the above are about five thou- sand two hundred acres open and one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five acres spruce. The timber on one thousand acres of this spruce marsh will not seriously increase the cost of reclaiming. We have a total, then, in round numbers, of eight thousand acres of open and spruce tide marsh in the delta of the Snohomish and on the south side of the main river. % *

"Dr. H. A. Smith settled on Smith's island in the delta in 1864. In that year and the following he enclosed sixty-five acres by a dike of ten feet base, four feet high, two feet wide on top and abont a mile and a half long. * *

* In the spring of 1865, he began cultivating the ground, set out an orchard, sowed grass seed. etc. The trees were free from moss and bore abundantly. Rutabagas, mangel wurzels, turnips, cabbage, canliflowers, car- rots. parsnips, rhubarb, asparagus, etc .. all flour- ished. Potatoes planted in drills and covered only with straw and barnyard refuse yielded an excellent crop. Everything went forward successfully as long as Dr. Smith remained on the place. but in 1870 other engagements took him away and he never re- turned. The tide gates became choked and the land flooded. Grass and trees were soon ruined, and finally in 1877, the dike burst.

"Between the main river and Union slough. above the cut-off which connects them, a tract of forty acres has been diked. The dike is three hun- dred and twenty rods long, seven feet wide at the

base and three feet high, and cost. including slough dams, two dollars and a half per rod. Within eighteen months nearly all the vacant land in that vicinity has been located by settlers.

"Between Union slough and Steamboat slough are two tracts of diked land, amounting to one hun- dred and thirty acres. In 1883 twenty acres on one of these tracts produced eighty tons of oat hay and eight acres gave thirty tons of timothy hay. The other tract, containing about seventy acres, was (liked eight years ago. The dike is three and one- half feet high, eight feet at the base, a mile and a half in length, and cost one thousand five hundred ciollars. For several years this place was well cared for and yielded abundant crops of oats, wheat and hay. Now no one lives on it, the tide gates and boxes are choked, and salt water has killed most of the tame grass.

"Between Steamboat slough and the main river two hundred and thirty-five acres, in different tracts, are enclosed by dikes five and one-half miles long, which cost four thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars. It would require two thousand five hun- dred dollars to put all these dikes in good condi- tion. On Mr. McAllister's island most of the tide land contains peat, with more sand and less clay than the Stillaguamish flats. About two thousand five hundred acres of this island are open prairie. on which a red-top grass grows from three to seven feet high. ** * On McAllister's island three lots amounting to thirty-one acres are protected * by five hundred and thirty rods of dike, which cost one thousand eight hundred and forty dollars.

-X

"The Snohomish delta, between the main river channel and Ebey slough, contains about seven thou- sand acres of the tide marsh, of which all but one thousand acres is nearly free from timber. To re- claim two hundred and sixty-six acres of this delta, in small parcels, over seven miles of dikes have been constructed. at a cost of six thousand seven hun- dred dollars. An additional expenditure of two thousand dollars would be required to put all these dikes in good repair. The seven thousand acres of tide lands in the delta would require for their pro- tection. under one management. forty miles of dikes. which would cost fifty thousand dollars. Without concerted action the length of dikes would be dou- bled, and their cost increased in a much greater ratio.

"Ebey slough is so crooked that tide lands on the right bank are found south, east and north of the slough. From its head to Priest's Point. on the right bank, is a total of about three thousand five hundred acres of tide marsh, of which two thou- sand acres are free from timber or nearly so. Out of this whole body fifty-two acres are enclosed by dikes one and a half miles long, which cost nine hundred and fifty dollars. The total area of tide marsh in

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SNOHOMISH COUNTY .

the Snohomish valley is abont eleven thousand five hundred acres. Not over three thousand acres of this is encumbered with sufficient timber to increase materially the cost of reclaiming. To protect all this land seventy miles of dikes would be required.

"The tide marshes of the Snohomish, in compar- ison with others, have the following advantages : No part of them is more than two miles from navi- gable tide water, and steamboats can receive and dis- charge freight at every farm. Much of the land re- quires but little dike, and drainage would never be expensive. Nearly all of it is sheltered from the waves. so there is no surf to destroy the dikes. It is nearly all fresh water marsh and ready for cultiva- tion as soon as diked.

"The Stillaguamish marshes are next northward. Hatt's slough ents across from the Stillaguamish, six miles above its mouth, to Port Susan bay, a dis- tance of three miles. On the south side of this slough is a marsh of six hundred acres, bounded on the west of Port Susan bay, south and east by high- land, and north by the slough, except when tim- ber lands above tidal overflow intervene. * * * * The tract south of Hatt's slough is sedimentary clay, mixed with vegetable matter. There is no peat in it. The grass which grows wild here is like that north of the Nisqually and on the Samish flats ; a hardy grass, which grows some eighteen inches high, seeds very thiekly, and looks like blue grass. Each summer about one hundred cattle and as many sheep get most of their living from this tract.

"The highest storm tide during the last nine- teen years was in January, 1868, when it rose from fourteen to twenty-six inches above Mr. Adam's marsh. The marsh along the shores of Port Susan bay is from six to twelve inches lower.

"Of the marsh land in the Stillaguamish delta. that is between Hatt's slough and the Stillaguamish river, that on the north bank of the slough will aver- age from eight to twelve inches higher than that near the mouth of the main river and toward Stan- wood. * *

* * The Stillaguamish delta comprises all lands between the main river and Hatt's slough, amounting to two thousand and ninety-five and three-quarters acres by the United States land sur- veys. Of this over one thousand six hundred acres may he classed as tide marsh, including four hun- dred acres of brush and spruce marsh. There are three grades of land running across the delta-river bottom at the upper end, spruce marsh across the middle, and open tide marsh prairie on the front. The diking of the tide marsh prairie shuts off all salt water and leaves nothing but river overflow to contend with. This comes in from back of the tide marsh through the timber. It does not occur while crops are growing, and will not. for some time at least. be excluded : but. as will be seen, it has a

strong claim for recognition in all plans for the re- clamation of delta marshes. The tide marsh prairie of the delta is divided into two nearly equal parts by a slough which at times of high freshets in the Stillaguamish discharges a volume of water into Port Susan bay nearly equal to that carried by the main channel. In 1829 and 1880 a dan was built across the slough, at a cost of one thousand four Imindred dollars, which, in connection with a dike a mile and a half long, costing two dollars and seventy-five cents per rod, was intended to protect a large tract from salt water overflow. About three thousand dollars were invested in dike, dam and preparation for the first erop, when a freshet carried the dam out and the attempt was abandoned.

* "At Stanwood the Stillaguamish river divides, one channel flowing nearly due south into Port Susan bay, the other northwest into Skagit bay. These channels and Davis' slough constitute the boundaries of Leque's, sometimes called Iverson's island, which contains about four hundred acres, all of it open tide marsh prairie. Being situated at the mouth of the river it received so much drift on the lower portion that nearly one hundred acres are unfit to be diked. The drift is not only on the surface, but extends down indefinitely like a jam.

"The improved portion, one hundred and twenty- five acres, is enclosed by a dike six hundred rods long, eight feet wide at the base, three and a half feet high and three feet wide on top, which cost one thousand three hundred and forty dollars, be- sides about two hundred and eighty dollars for clams in eight sloughs. These sloughs were from three to eight feet deep below level of tide marsh and are from six to twenty feet wide. The total cost of dikes, dams and repairs has been about one thousand nine hundred dollars for one hundred and twenty-one acres. When most of this dike was built, in 1878 and 1879, average wages for diking were about one dollar and fifty cents per day and board.

"The tide lands between the Stillaguamish and the Skagit in Snohomish and Skagit counties form one continuons traet. In two townships north of the Stillaguamish there are about three thousand five hundred and twenty-five aeres of tide marsh, of which three thousand acres are free from timber and high enough to dike, and three hundred aeres are covered with spruce or brush. The remainder is too low for profitable diking. East of the town of Stanwood is Record's slough, which extends to the highland, and into which many million feet of saw logs have been hauled. On each side of this slough is spruce tide marsh. None of the marsh between Record's slough and the main river is diked. West of Stanwood. Stillaguamish slough, about fifty feet wide, runs nearly due north towards the Skagit. Between it and the main river is an island contain-

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CURRENT EVENTS, 1870-89

ing six hundred acres, of which one hundred and fifty are diked and two hundred and fifty more are suitable for diking. The Stillaguamish flats include all the lands from Stanwood to the Skagit river, a distance of some five miles ; but the lands north of the Snohomish county line will be separately de- seribed. It is about four miles from Stanwood north to the county line. The tract inchides about two thousand five hundred acres of tide marsh, most of which is under dike and nearly all free from brush or timber. *

* % * The southernmost channel of Skagit river is called 'Tom Moore's Steamboat slough.' From this a slough deepened and ex- tended southward to the highland is called 'Tom Moore's Logging slough.' All tide lands south and west of Tom Moore's Logging slough are usu- ally considered a part of the Stillaguamish flats. The greater part of this land has been but recently diked and much of it is still uncultivated."

The report gives a large number of statistics of erop yields secured by different individuals in different years, but only the general summaries are of special interest at this date. The total number of acres of tide marsh in Snohomish county is esti- mated at eighteen thousand, the number of miles of dike at thirty-seven and the cost at fifty thousand dollars. The following table of grain and hay raised on the Stillaguamish tide lands from 1878 to 1883 is of special interest :

GRAIN.

HAY.

Year.

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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 52

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