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 56

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 56
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 56

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That the citizens of Snohomish county were alive to their business interests and appreciated the necessity of keeping up with the procession is evinced by a public meeting held April 8th for the purpose of furthering the advancement of the place. The personnel of the meeting included many since and now prominent in the affairs of the county. The meeting was attended by men from the entire county, and in a very short time the organization

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numbered nearly two hundred members. At this meeting the following officers were elected: Presi- dent, M. S. Swinnerton, of Marysville; vice-presi- dent E. C. Ferguson, of Snohomish ; secretary, M. J. Hartnett, of Snohomish : treasurer, W. P. King- ston, of Edmonds. The executive was to consist of one member from each county precinct, elected by the residents of that precinct. The members who were chosen at the first meeting were: L. V. Stew- art of Edmonds, A. B. Palmer of Arlington, W. B. Shaw of Marysville, C. B. Hyson of Fernwood, J. W. Currie of Allen, J. F. Stretch of Wallace, A. H. Eddy of Hartford, Alexander Robertson of Florence, Il. M. Shaw of Sultan. Robert Allen, H. C. Comegys and Councilman Spurrell of Sno- homish. The objects of the organization, as stated in the constitution, were to acquire, preserve and disseminate valuable statistics and information con- cerning, and to foster and advance the commercial, manufacturing, agricultural and other public inter- ests of. the county of Snohomish.

Among other enterprises of the summer of 1891 was what may be called the formal opening of navi- gation on the rivers above Snohomish. This was celebrated by an excursion on May 24th from Snohomish to Sultan, given by the Sultan Improve- ment Company. A little after twelve o'clock the little steamer Minnie M., with her load of enthusi- astic guests, swung into the river and seven hours later reached the town of Sultan, at the confluence of the Sultan and Skykomish rivers, where they were warmly welcomed. This event was not only interesting as a pleasure excursion, but important as commemorating another step in the progress of the county.

Mining occupied a great share of the attention of Snohomish people during the busy and important year of 1891. The most important mining districts were the Silver Creek and Monte Cristo, similar in formation and the nature of deposits, being separa- ted only by a narrow mountain chain. This sepa- ration, however, necessitated the shipping out of products by different routes, that of the Monte Cristo to the north and that of the Silver Creek mines to the south. The two districts comprised nearly two hundred and fifty square miles. The entire region was filled with most promising silver and gold prospects and mines, the richest in the entire district. apparently, being the Vandalia. specimens of which assayed as high as two hundred and eighty dollars in silver and forty dollars in gold. The cost of opening the mines was compara- tively slight, probably nowhere exceeding ten dol- lars a foot. and in many cases being considerable less. Facilities for development were plentiful and close at hand, such as timber, water power. etc .. but the greatest difficulty was in reaching the mines. The trails were very bad and the mountains very rugged, so that they were practically inaccessible to any but the most sturdy mountaineers. The

county commissioners of Snohomish county agreed to make an appropriation of several thousand dol- lars for buikling new roads and improving the old ones, but they were very slow about doing so. Fi- nally the Ewing-Williams Company built a road almost entirely at their own expense from Sauk City to the Monte Cristo district. When good roads were finally completed there was great activity in both the Monte Cristo and the Silver Creek mines. hundreds of miners and prospectors entering them every week from Seattle and other points.

The regions around Granite Falls and east of there on the south fork of the Stillaguamish were also beginning to attract considerable attention. At Granite Falls a new mining district was organized, comprising all the territory about that place. The ex- citement of the mining discoveries had transformed Granite Falls into an active and bustling town, and the general store there was doing a rushing business in fitting out miners and prospectors. A town site had been platted, a saw mill was in operation and an immense electric light and power plant was in process of construction.

At Silver Gulch, twenty-five miles cast, appear- ances were very promising, for while there were no mines there, a number of prospects had been par- tially developed with excellent results. The Eye, of September 12th, in describing this region, said : "It is safe to assert-and this is the unanimous ex- pression of old time Nevada, Colorado and Cali- fornia miners-that in no district yet discovered have there been found such surface indications, so much ore in sight." There were a number of claims on Mineral Hill, between the Stillaguamish and Sultan rivers, which were very promising. Ore from one of them, the Little Chief, in Boulder Can- on, assayed three hundred and thirty dollars in gold and fifty-five dollars in silver. This region was very easy of access, being only about forty-five miles from Marysville, with a good trail about to be put through. It is a region of great beauty and grandeur. The mountains are rugged and pre- cipitous, and in the heart of them is Green lake, or Copper lake, as it was also named. its color is a deep green, caused by copper ooze from the sur- rounding mountains.

In the latter part of July Snohomish county was visited by a party of Easterners, including Philip Armour, of Chicago, H. Armour, of New York, of the great Armour Packing Company, WI. .. Armour, of Kansas City, of the same company, 1. Kincaid, of New York, and a number of other cap- italists, who were shown around by Henry Hewitt. Jr., of Tacoma, president of the Everett Land Com- pany. They were very favorably impressed with the great possibilities of Snohomish county and an- nounced their intention of establishing a number of manufactories on Port Gardner Bay. As a result of this visit and on the advice of the capitalists, the "Three S" railroad company decided to extend im-

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mediately their line to Galena, so as to reach the Silver Creek mining district.

So much activity in railroading and mining could not but be followed by similar energy in other directions, and we find a host of undertakings in progress during the summer of the year 1891. One of the most important of these was the paper mill at Lowell, a huge structure, 86x540 feet and three stories high. It was being erected by the New York & Pennsylvania Company, the largest paper company in the United States, and was to manu- facture paper of all kinds and grades. When in full operation from one hundred and fifty to two hun- dred men would be employed. The capital stock was four hundred thousand dollars and the directors of the enterprise were H. Hewitt, L. D. Armstrong, Gardner Colby, C. W. Wetmore, H. H. Hewitt and Walter Oakes.

Of other manufacturing enterprises accon- plished and projected, one of the largest was the Granite Falls Electric Power Company, which was incorporated on June 23d. It was the purpose of this company to build a large plant at Granite Falls on the Stillaguamish and furnish power by cables to Snohomish, Port Gardner and other surrounding towns for lighting and other purposes, and also to furnish power to run the Snohomish and Port Gard- ner Electric railway, as well as the manufacturing establishments along the Snohomish river.

The town on Port Gardner Bay was rapidly assuming large proportions, and it was confidently expected that it would become the metropolis of the Northwest. A number of weighty capitalists were interested in developing it and hundreds of thou- sands of dollars were being spent in clearing and other preparations for business operations. Huge clocks also were built; indeed all operations there seemed to be on a vast scale. There were several large manufacturing enterprises projected at or near Port Gardner, besides the paper mill already men- tioned, among them a huge saw-mill with a capacity of two hundred thousand feet per day and em- ploying two hundred men in the mill alone, Nail and Steel works, which would employ from four hundred and fifty to seven hundred men, a beet- sugar factory. three large brick yards, a smelter, and the Whale-back Steel Barge works, whose purpose was to build a line of steel freighters. and operate them in the Oriental trade and Pacific Coast commerce generally. The works would employ, when ready for operation, about seven hundred men. Besides these enterprises there were many others of less magnitude, such as hotels, stores. boarding houses. etc.

Not only was private capital in process of in- vestment and private promoters, speculators, inves- tors and managers in every line hurrying with eager quest to seize the golden opportunities lying open on all sides, but the city and the county of Snoho- mish were acting in their social and official capac-

ities to promote the general interests. On Septem- ber 5th an election was held in Snohomish City to consider the proposition of bonding the city for the purpose of raising money for new water works. The result was almost unanimous in the affirma- tive. The works were to be constructed on the Pillchuck creek, from which the water supply would be drawn. They would be large enough to supply about twenty-eight thousand five hundred people. The estimated cost was fifty-two thousand dollars.

Considering the general rush and activity of the year 1891 and the great influx of people of all kinds from all sorts of regions and with all sorts of aims, the volume of criminal records is remarkably small. We discover, however, some comment in the press of the time upon the case of David Montgomery, who, on the 4th of January, was accused of the murder of Oscar Trask. The two men had met on a road near Snohomish and the former had shot the latter a number of times, inflicting fatal wounds. The evidence in the case showed that Montgomery had previously had an excellent reputation while that of Trask was quite the reverse. Trask had held a grudge against Montgomery for some time on account of some petty grievances, and he had continually abused him and treated him to all man- ner of indignities, and had done his best to pro- voke a fight with him. The jury held that Mont- gomery was justified and on June 10th he was acquitted.

We also find that the unsavory case of Reverend Father F. X. Guay occurred at this time. He was the pastor of the Catholic church of Snohomish City and was guilty of "unspeakable indecencies." About sixty people, including many of his own church, captured him and decorated him with a coat of tar and feathers, and some hours later a large crowd saw him off on the train.

The progress of Snohomish county since early days is summarized in a special edition of the Sun as follows: In 18:0 no real estate was owned in the county except a little near Mukilteo. The entire valuation of all property, real and personal, was not over one hundred thousand dollars. In 1880, it was about ten times that and in 1890 about forty times. In 1880 the number of acres of land assessed was 80,210, in 1890, 252,415. The amount of land as- sessed as town lots in 1891 was about ten times what it was ten years before. Practically all the real estate was held in the western part of the county, the eastern part being rocky and mountain- ous. In these mountains, however, was vast wealth in the nature of mines, which were very extensively (leveloped in 1891 and the succeeding years.

The year 1891 was perhaps the most active in the history of Snohomish county prior to the break- ing of the hard times and the consequent arresting of a good many of the great enterprises launched in the first era of railroad development. The "boom" which had raged with such energy, burst

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in the next succeeding two years and the shores of Puget sound were strewn with the wreckage; yet in spite of financial disasters and disappointments the entire region went on to the logical evolution of its destiny. It was obvious that the superb re- sources of Snohomish county would not long lie idle

It was very remarkable and indeed a great mani- festation of the managing ability of James J. Hill that the Great Northern railroad went right on with its development. And this too without a cent of subsidy from the United States government, which the other transcontinental lines had had in great measure.

The year 1892 was a quiet one in most lines, but work on the Great Northern railroad continued through the summer of that year and in the autumn the gap between the eastern and western divisions was rapidly closing in at the summit of the Cas- cades. Though there was from one to three feet of snow in the mountains, the work of tracklaying was uninterrupted. Chief Engineer E. H. Beckler and his assistant, John W. Stevens, were in charge of the work. In November Vice-president Clough, of St. Paul, made a tour of inspection of the road.

The Everett & Monte Cristo road was also in active progress. Rails were laid from Hartford to Granite Falls and the bridge across the Stillagua- mish at that point was rapidly nearing completion, but higher in the mountains floods had washed out a large part of the grading and had delayed con- struction for nearly three months. Above the snow line it was impossible to continue during the winter, but below that point work was pushed on without delay. The division between Everett and Snohomish was nearly completed and it was ex- pected that a regular train service would soon be established.

Among the general enterprises of Snohomish county, mining made some advances in spite of the depression. One large corporation in parti- cular was formed known as the Stillaguamish and Sultan Mining Company, with a capital stock of three million dollars, of which a large part was taken by English capitalists, represented by Richard Sykes, of Manchester. The president of the com- pany was James Sheehan, of Seattle, and the secre- tary Alexander H. Morrison, of Snohomish. The mines which they controlled were the Hoodoo and the Little Chief group in the Stillaguamish district between the Silver Creek and Monte Cristo regions. They were supposed to be very valuable mines. there being. it was claimed, three million tons of ore in sight, according to the estimates. The plans of the company inchided the construction of branch railroads from the Great Northern and Monte Cristo lines to the mines, the establishment of a concentrator and other appliances by which they could be worked to their fullest extent.

Among the miscellaneous happenings of the year

1892 was one which exhibited the capacity of the people of Snohomish to apply the spirit of their own laws in dealing with some of the low dives which grew up along the shores of the sound during its period of most active growth. From the Tribune of September 6th we glean an account of such an occurrence just prior to that date. On the line of the Everett & Monte Cristo railroad, just north of Granite Falls, a man named Monnohan had been running a disreputable saloon and dance hall. The people of the neighborhood had lost all patience with him and his den and one day a large number of men, many of them armed, entered and forcibly ejected him from it and advised him to seek other climes. Then they proceeded to demolish the win- dows, furniture and everything breakable on the premises. After satisfying themselves in this way, they inserted a charge of dynamite and blew up the entire building, leaving not a wrack behind; then they went to another in the vicinity and notified the proprietor to leave inside of twenty-four hours or his place would also be blown up.

In the latter part of November there were extra- ordinary and disastrous freshets, extending through- out the county. The Snohomishi river rose in some places over twenty feet. Old inhabitants claimed that it rose higher than at any time since 1812. The entire flat south and west of Snohomish City was flooded to a depth of several feet, the Great North- ern track was completely submerged and the rail- road bridge was in imminent danger of being swept away by several million feet of logs and other deb- ris which pressed against it. Fortunately, however, it bore the strain. The bridge across the Stillagua- mish at Granite Falls was less fortunate, being swept away by the flood, as was every bridge on the line of the Everett & Monte Cristo railroad between Granite Falls and Silverton. Besides that considerable damage was done to the road bed. At the town of Stanwood, near the mouth of the Still- aguamish, the water rose in the streets to a height of several feet. A number of houses near Snoho- mish were washed away and many had to be aban- doned. being filled with water. Altogether the amount of damage throughout the county was very considerable, but the loss of human life was slight, only one man. George Meader, being drowned.

To add to the various troubles of the times an epidemie of smallpox invaded the region. The disease was specially prevalent in the railroad camps, but precautionary measures were taken to prevent its spread and it did not become very serious.

Almost with the coming in of the new year of 1893 the great event-great for the Pacific Coast and even for the world in general, but especially so for the state of Washington and most of all for the county of Snohomish-of completing the Great Northern railroad occurred. This road, under the extraordinary administration of "Jim" Hill, took such a place at once in the commercial world and

SNOHOMISH COUNTY

its various operations since have attracted so much attention in both politics and transportation that its completion and the inauguration of its transcon- tinental business may well be set down as marking

low zero. This, with the hard times, made things rather dreary. The Tribune of April 20th laments in the following terms: "Hard times! HJard times! There is scarcely a town on the Pacific one of those epochs of which we have many in the f coast but what is crowded with idle men, men of all history of our state.

The last spike was driven on January 6th, thir- teen miles west of Stevens pass, on the summit of the Cascades. There were no imposing ceremonies held on that occasion, and the only officials of the company present were General Superintendent Shields and Superintendent Farrell. Jim Hill and others had been expected but were unable to be present. Merely with the shrieks of the engines and the shouts of the two hundred workmen was the great work finished. It had been begun at Havre on October 20, 1890, and was finished in the Cascades on the 6th of January, 1893.

During the spring other enterprises connected in a general way with railroads were started, one of them being the Stillaguamish Construction Com- pany, of which the incorporators were G. L. Man- ning. A. D. Schultz, J. B. Thurston, J. S. Houghton, Anna C. Schultz and E. J. Thurston. The objects of the company were numerous and varied ; namely, to construct and operate railways in Snohomish and Skagit counties, to establish electric power plants, and to construct residences, water works and simi- lar enterprises.

Turning from the industrial to the various mis- cellaneous happenings, we find that the small-pox season, which had opened quite brilliantly during the last months of the previous year, was still continuing and in its progress involved a steamboat man in a manner worth recording. This steamboat man was the captain of the steamer Cascade. He had brought a small-pox patient from Everett to Snohomish a few days before and consequently the authorities of the latter place instructed the officers to pre- vent his landing on his next trip. As soon as the Cascade hove in sight the captain was informed that he might as well not attempt to make a landing. He thought differently, however ; but as often as his rope was thrown onto the wharf it was knocked off by the officers. This continued for some time with hard words on both sides until finally the captain gave up and backed down the river about a third of a mile, where he landed and went on shore. He was promptly arrested and was about to be placed in jail when he protested that his boat was not safe where it was and begged to be allowed to return, saying he would not attempt to land again. He was accordingly sent back and in a very short time made his departure for Everett and was not seen again.

Hard times and hard weather seem to have drawn a wail from the people of the sound in gen- eral, and we find those of Snohomish to have joined the general chorus. In February the ground was covered with two and a half feet of snow and the mercury dropped as low as twelve and fourteen be-

trades willing and ready to take any kind of employ- ment they can get and at almost any kind of wages. There are to-day in Snohomish almost two men for every job of work there is to do, and all other towns in this vicinity are crowded with idle men, and still there are advertising schemers all over the country who are continually getting men to come here from the East."

The criminal classes seem to have been quite ac- tive during this year. In the spring quite a ripple of excitement was caused by the escape of four pris- oners from the county jail. when no one was around except a son of the janitor at the court house. One of the prisoners, Jack Mears, who was in for for- gery, had escaped the previous summer but had been recaptured. Hle had been tried, but through an er- ror of the court, was not yet sentenced. The others were still awaiting trial for various crimes : James Richardson for robbery, Charles Terry for grand larceny and John Ilandy for assault and robbery.

But the most notable court proceedings of this entire time were in connection with the celebrated case of Jolin White and four other men for the mur- der of George Schultz and Frederick Smith. This is probably the most cold-blooded and dastardly crime in the annals of Snohomish county. Its story in brief is as follows :

A few years previous George Schultz and his sister, Helen Schultz, were living with their parents in Cleveland, Ohio. Here the girl married a well known musician of the city whose name was John Kuntz. In a short time they decided to come West, so the three. Mr. and Mrs. Kuntz and George Schultz, emigrated to Seattle. They soon became dissatisfied with the life of the city, however, and moved to a "home in the forest" on Woods' creek, about ten miles northeast of Snohomish. Some two years later Mr. Kuntz met a German friend in Seattle named Frederick Smith, who finally went to live with the Kuntzes.

About the time that Mr. Kuntz settled on Woods' creek there also settled in the vicinity an English sailor of the name of John White, also a family of the name of Robinson. All these people with others living near got together and decided to build a road from Mr. Kuntz's place, past White's place, to the main road to Snohomish, on which the Robinsons lived. After the road was completed White conceived the idea of exacting toll from those who traveled on his part of the road. Naturally everyone refused to submit to this, and White, with the assistance of the Robinsons, who took his part, commenced to obstruct the road by felling trees across it. The land in that neighborhood was tin- surveyed and no one had any title to it.

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It was the custom of Mr. Kuntz to pass over this road twice each week on his way to and from Machias, where he took the train for Seattle. After his departure John White and the Robinsons would obstruct the road so as to make it impassable, but just before his return Schultz and Smith would clear it again, so that he could get home. They kept this up without making any particular com- plaint, for two years. Finally White and the Rob- insons became exasperated and resolved to end the matter.

On December 22, 1892, Schultz and Smith cleared the road as usual and in the afternoon re- turned to it to see that Kuntz got through all right. They had not been gone more than ten minutes when Mrs. Kuntz heard two shots. She immediately ran after them, following their tracks in the snow, and found them about half a mile from the house lying dead. The snow in which they lay gave no evidence of a struggle. They had evidently been shot from ambush. The presence of the snow was a very unfortunate circumstance for the murderers, as it contradicted their story of a struggle and the ulti- mate killing of the unfortunate men in self defense. It is probable that the murder of Kuntz was also planned but not carried out.

After the crime the murderers went to town and delivered themselves up. They depended on William Robinson, one of the family, who had been in the plot but had not taken part in the crime, to prepare the people to regard the killing as the re- sult of a quarrel brought on by Kuntz and Smith, and to intimidate any witnesses who might offer to testify against them. But for the snow-fall and the skill of the prosecution this plan might have succeeded.

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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 56

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