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 64

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 64
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 64

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upon ships which are confined to salt water. With this is the equally important fact that piles driven in fresh water are not subject to the devastations of the teredo, which has made necessary the ex- penditure of enormous sums to maintain wharves upon salt water fronts. The Snohomish river has a delta consisting of several channels entering the bay through strips of low lands and upon the first in- spection of the proposed site by the founders it became apparent that proper work could result in the creation here of a magnificent fresh water har- bor. Lieutenant Symons, of the United Coast and Harbor service, was detailed by the government to examine and report upon the propriety of govern- ment appropriation for this purpose. His report was adverse to making an appropriation at first, on the ground that traffic did not yet justify it and that it was essentially a matter of local interest. But the people of Everett were persistent in their de- mands upon government for attention to this pro- posed great work, and on November 4, 1893, the Secretary of War granted permission to the Everett Land Company to construct works designed to produce a fresh water basin at the mouth of the Snohomish river. As time passed on and as the im- portance of Everett as a shipping center increased an interest in it was elicited which finally resulted in a definite plan of harbor improvement under the government and appropriations have been made systematically and work carried on right down to the present time.

In 1901 congress made an appropriation of three hundred and ninety-two thousand dollars to continue the work already begun. The harbor as now in proc- ess of excavation is to be four and a half miles in length and five hundred feet wide. At the salt water entrance there is a pond fifteen hundred feet square. The harbor is built after the pattern of the harbor at Kingstown, Ireland. For commercial ad- vantage, completeness of equipment, beauty of appearance and general interest in every feature of its development, this is one of the most notable improvements anywhere undertaken within the United States.

An event of great moment in the business of Everett was the organization of the Everett Im- provement Company in January, 1900, and its acquisition of all the landed interests formerly con- trolled by the Everett Land Company. That great company, after having borne such an important part in the founding and upbuilding of the city, operating its various industries throughout the hard times, at last succumbed to the pressure, passed into the hands of a receiver, and finally reverted to its original founder, John D. Rockefeller. Its holdings were purchased after long but successful negotia- tions, in December, 1899 by W. J. Rucker acting as the agent of the James J. Ilill interests, and almost immediately the Everett Improvement Com- pany was incorporated by the purchasers. In 1901

the Improvement Company acquired the Everett Railway & Electric Company's plant and later the property of the water company. In the spring of 1905 these two properties were consolidated under the title, the Everett Railway, Light & Water Com- pany.

The first three years of the present decade have been characterized by a tremendous growth in every feature of the industrial life of Everett. Not only has its manufacturing output and its commercial activity increased by leaps and bounds, but the business of agriculture and horticulture in the parts of Snohomish county accessible to it has increased to correspond. It has been discovered that the soil in the valley of the Snohomish and even the log- ged-off uplands, which were thought formerly not to be productive, are the natural habitat of berries, vegetables, fruits and grasses. The tre- mendous disaster which was brought upon the mi- ning business by the great flood of 1897, which obliterated the Everett & Monte Cristo railway, and as a result of which the mining business lay dormant for a time, has been overcome and the work of mining and of smelting has developed not a little. The lumber and shingle business of the city has attained enormous proportions, for Everett is un- surpassed among all the towns on Puget sound in the timber resources within its reach and in facili- ties for handling and shipping the manufactured products.

While these great essential productive enter- prises of the city are adding their millions yearly to its accumulated wealth, the citizens have been in the forefront in the use which they have made of their swiftly increasing resources. Magnificent business blocks, fine public buildings, beautiful private residences, attractive church buiklings, commodious and elegant school buildings, and am- ple and well kept streets attest the general high standard of aspiration and achievement among the citizens of Everett.

A general outline of the public school system of the city may be given as follows: The city super- intendent is Professor D. A. Thornburg. The schools, with the principals and the number of teachers in each are as follows: High school, Ellis H. Rogers and eight teachers: Monroe. J. E. Van Allsburg and eight teachers; Jefferson, J. F. Knight and eleven teachers; Lincoln, L. J. Camp- bell and sixteen teachers: Garfield, A. H. Sherwood and thirteen teachers; Jackson, W. N. Whitelaw and ten teachers. Besides these principal school- houses there are three small ones known as the Thirty-seventh street, the Smelter school and the Eighteenth street school. The buildings have an ag- gregate value of $270,712. During the past year there was a total enrollment of 3,124 children. though the school census footed up a total of 4,145. The number of teachers employed was seventy- three. The members of the school board at the

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present time are, president John C. Curran ; vice- president, W. R. Stockbridge; E. N. Metzger, M. M. Smith, F. M. Kennedy, and as secretary, Charles K. Green. The present school system is in mar- velous contrast with the rough wooden structure with its one teacher and ten pupils which con- stituted the public school system of Everett in the first part of 1891.

An equally striking contrast woukl be afforded by a comparison of the present churches of the city with the church facilities of fourteen years ago. According to Atwood's "Glimpses of Pioneer Life" the first preaching service in Everett was held in the real estate office of Mr. Swalwell by A. 11. Marsh, pastor of the Methodist Episcopal church at Marysville, and that was in the year 1891. The churches of the present time are as follows : Cath- olic Bayside church, H. P. Saindon, rector ; Church of our Lady of Perpetual Help, Rev. Charles Clae- sens ; First Baptist, Rev. J. A. Bessiguic; Evangel- ical Association, Rev. E. D. Hornschouch ; United Brethren. Rev. E. D. Burton ; First Methodist, Rev. A. B. Chapin; First German Methodist, Rev. H. B. Mann; Congregational, Rev. J. R. Knodell ; German Baptist, Rev. Adolph Guenther ; Swedish Baptist, Rev. C. D. Scott; Christian, Rev. O. W. McGaughey ; Zionist, Rev. Earnst ; Unitarian, Rev. WV. G. Elliott ; Trinity Episcopal, Rev. John Brann ; First Presbyterian, Rev. Herbert Thompson : United Presbyterian, Rev. R. L. Lanning ; Zion Norwegian, Rev. Benjamin A. Sand ; Swedish Lutheran, Rev. B. N. Thoren; Norwegian Lutheran, Rev. P. O. Laurhammer; German Lutheran, Rev. H. G. Schmelzer ; the Norwegian, Rev. L. C. Foss ; Uni- tarian, Rev. O. G. Nelson, pastor.

There are at the present time four banks: the American National, of which the president is J. T. McChesney ; Bank of Commerce. W. R. Stock- bridge, president; Everett Trust & Savings Bank W. J. Rucker, president ; First National, W. C. Butler, president. Their last statements show them to be in an unusually healthy financial con- dition.

Everett abounds in chibs, and of these four are of the gentler sex; namely, the Anoka, the Lowell Book club, the Woman's Book club and the Ever- ett Ladies' club. Of other clubs we may mention the Cascade, the Everett Baseball club, the Everett Lacrosse club, Everett Tennis club, Snohomish County Rod and Gun club.

There is a strong Y. M. C. A., with an elegant building and regularly organized classes. There is also a new city library, costing $25,000, which bears the name of the great library donor, Andrew Carnegie. Among the city's miscellaneous schools, are the Acme Business College, School of Elocu- tion and Physical Culture, Everett Commercial College, Everett School of Music, and a kindergar- ten in charge of Miss Caroline Saunders.

Naturally one of the most important lines of

business in Everett is the system of wharves and docks. These are as follows: Ocean dock, at the foot of Pacific avenue; City dock, at the foot of JJewitt avenue ; Fourteenth street dock, Merchant's dock, at the foot of Hewitt; Weyerhauser Timber Company's dock, Railroad avenue; Riverside Mill Company's wharf, foot of Everett avenue; Spithill wharf, foot of California; Washington Produce Company's dock, foot of Hewitt on the river side.

Everett abounds in societies and fraternities. There are two lodges of Good Templars and three W. C. T. U. organizations. Of the secret orders we may mention Everett Lodge, No. 52, United Work- men; the Degree of Honor, No. 48; B. P. O. E., No. 479; Brotherhood of American Yeomen, No. 493 : Catholic Order of Foresters, No. 522 and No. 1.220; Danish Brotherhood of America, No. 131; Foresters of America, No. 57; Fraternal Brother- hood, No. 233; Order of Eagles, No. 13; G. A. R. John Buford Post, No. 84; W. R. C., No. 10; Ladies of the G. A. R. ; Red Men. Pillchuck Tribe, No. 42; Degree of Pocahontas, No. 11; Indepen- cent Order of Foresters, No. 3.111 ; Order of Lions, No. 142; five lodges of Odd Fellows ; three of Re- bekahs; Knights of Columbus, No. 763; three lodges of Knights of Pythias; Rathbone Sisters, No. 26; K. O. T. M. tent No. 4; L. O. T. M. hive No. 2 ; Knights and Ladies of Securities, No. 1,103 ; two lodges of Masons ; R. A. M. No. 24 ; Royal and Select Masters, No. 8; Knights Templar ; Order Eastern Star, No. 33; Modern Brotherhood of America, No. 958; Modern Maccabees, No. 1,161; M. W. A., No. 5,385 ; two lodges of Royal Neigh- bors; Order of Railway Conductors, No. 456; Order of Washington ; Royal Arcanum, No. 1,798 ; Royal Highlanders, No. 320; Royal Tribe of Joseph, No. 5; Sons of Herman, No. 7; Tribe of Ben Hur, No. 20; three lodges of Woodmen of the World and two of the Women of Woodcraft. The city also has six well organized and prosperous musical societies. It possesses in the Everett theater on Colby avenue one of the most beautiful, substantial and well-equipped play-houses in the state.

As is perhaps almost needless to state. Everett · has practically limitless shipping connections and has also at her own doors the Great Northern rail- road and by means of a short connecting line the Northern Pacific and through the latter connection with the Canadian Pacific.

As might be expected from a city whose inhabi- tants are principally industrial, Everett has a large number of well organized trades unions. There are twenty-five of these, representing every leading oc- cupation.

Everett has three strong newspapers. The Daily Herald, issued evenings, is under the management of J. B. Best, with F. E. Wyman as editor-in-chief. The Morning Tribune, successor to the Everett Evening Record, is under the business management

MULCONDOS NAOTIL. XON29 SOISY PUBLIC LIBRARY THE NEW YORK

EVEREST

Kirk

YIS Atpamet Marguerite and Bridge.

VIEWS AT EVERETT AND AT SNOHOMISH

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of W. R. Connor and is edited by S. E. Wharton. The Labor Journal is published weekly by the News Publishing Company, A. J. Morrow, proprietor, M. WV. Sills editor.

So rapid a summary of the history and resources of this remarkable city has of necessity omitted many things worthy of record. We may only say, as Edmund Burke said of the American colonies, "Such is the strength with which population shoots in that part of the world, that, state the numbers as high as we will, while the dispute continues the exaggeration ends. While we are discussing any given magnitude they are grown to it."

With vital and essential resources of the most ample sort, with commercial connections which bring the world to her very doors, with both out- ward appearance and inward worth of which she may well be proud, with sons and daughters whose ambition and industry may well make them worthy successors of the fathers and mothers who have transformed the wilderness in these few years into the habitations which we now behold, the city of Everett sits like a queen upon her stately throne, expecting each year to add more wealth to her cof- fers and more jewels to her crown.

SNOHOMISH

As the beginnings of Snohomish City were prac- tically identical with the beginnings of Snohomish county, they have already been adverted to in these pages. When E. C. Ferguson came in March, 1860, he brought with him a small stock of goods to be sold to the few white settlers who were already on the river and those who might come, as well as to the Indians. He kept store for a year or so, but his finances were greatly depleted in building trails and in making his expensive and fruitless trip to the Kettle river mining country, and he was forced to retire from the mercantile business. The next store was started by W. B. Sinclair, who came in December, 1864, in which month and year also came Isaac Ellis, foreman for the Port Ludlow Mill Company, who shortly afterward gave inception to the logging industries at Snohomish. Mr. Sinclair continued in the mercantile business for a number of years, but eventually Mr. Ferguson, the pioneer merchant, again started up and Sinclair soon after retired.

As the first settlers of the town and county were all bachelors, and as but few families came during the sixties, there was no occasion for the organi- zation of a school until 1869. In that year, however, Miss Robie Willard taught for one short term the very few children then resident in Snohomish City.

The slowness of the development of Snohomish and vicinity is evident from the fact that although Cady, Barnes and Tucker were sent out by the Fort Steilacoom parties for the express purpose of found- ing a town, and though Mr. Ferguson never gave

up the project, and though the county seat was located at Snohomish by vote of the people in 1861, it was not thought worth while to lay out a town site until 1821. In that year, however, E. C. Ferguson and W. B. Sinclair platted portions of their home- steads, aggregating a little over fifty acres in all, into streets, alleys and town lots. Five years later the village consisted of two general merchandise stores, two hotels, a saloon, a postoffice, a shoe shop. a barber shop, about thirty dwelling houses and perhaps one hundred and fifty people. In January, 18:3, a literary society had been organized, known as the Atheneum, which proved to be quite a factor in the social and intellectual life of the town. It prospered wonderfully under the nurturing care of Eldridge Morse and others and in 1876 was said to possess one of the best scientific libraries and the finest museum in the territory. The corner stone of the Snohomish Atheneum building was laid on the 5th of June of the year mentioned, and the hopes and purposes of its founders were thus glow- ingly set forth in the Northern Star of the time:

"If I mistake not," said the editor, "the character of the settlers of the Snohomish, and I have devoted years to the study of their character, they represent the pioneers of civilization and of thought more fully, and have cut loose from the shackles of bigotry and intolerance to a degree scarce ever equaled in a community of similar size. They take a leading position in representing the most advanced thought and culture of our day; and the work we now have in hand is to erect this edifice as a temple of science, of literature and of art, as a means of carrying out more fully the work of this our repre- sentative society, the Snohomish Atheneum. * * *

"Undoubtedly the expenditure required in com- pleting this our cherished enterprise will be a severe tax upon all of us, yet will be cheerfully borne, and no portion of its beneficial work will be left un- accomplished. Let the work of our Atheneum continue as in the past, only with manifold increased powers for usefulness, to instruct, to improve and elevate the human mind, to form enlarged concep- tions, and true and noble ideas. It will wage unceas- ing war upon ignorance and its allies ; it will make itself as well as its generous supporters known, and their influence felt afar off. It will shape the thoughts and actions of our whole people so that though this building may become dust and ashes ; though the treasures of literature, art and science we may here accumulate may be scattered by the hands of time, and this place where we are about to erect this noble building may be forgotten or even the existence of the Atheneum may be lost in the progress of time, yet its effect in moulding, elevat- ing and improving the minds of those subject to its influence will be felt through all coming time."

Other institutions which had become established in the town prior to 1876 were the Union Presby- terian church, whose quaint old edifice stood until

SNOHOMISH COUNTY

very recently beside the splendid new one, the Sno- homish Free Religious Association, the Snohomish County Agricultural Society, the Snohomish Tele- graph Company, the Snohomish Cemetery Associa- tion, and last but by no means least the Northern Star, which, though then in its first year was a large, five-column, eight-page weekly paper, all home print, with an overflowing ambition to be truly representative not alone of Snohomish and vicinity, but of the entire sound country.

At this period in the development of Snohomish county, agriculture was in its infancy, and practi- cally the only industry was logging. Snohomish was little more than a well developed logging camp. and it was in perfect sympathy with the logging interests. When logs sold readily at a good price, times were lively and everybody happy and hopeful, but when logs were a drug on the market, there was a local panic with all the stagnation and retro- gression that the word implies. While logs were quot- ed at from five to five and a half dollars per thousand in 1817, a price which, with cheaper feed for oxen and better facilities, would have been fairly good, not a single log was marketed from the Snohomish river from spring to December, and the effect on the town may be imagined. Before the year closed. however, a demand came for logs and the pressure was relieved. Yet the population of Snohomish remained at a standstill numerically for the four years following 1816. if the Star's estimate of popu- lation at the beginning of that period was correct. for according to the United States census of 1880. Snohomish had just one hundred and forty-nine people.

Times were quiet throughout the years 1880 and 1881, yet it is but fair to assume that the town made some advancement during that period, though there is a great dearth of extant records, and details of the period are lacking.

An important acquisition of the year 1882 for Snohomish was the Eye newspaper, whose initial number appeared January 11th. The proprietors of the unpretentious little sheet were H. F. Jackson and C. H. Packard, the first to embark in journalism in the town since Eldridge Morse's more ambitious paper, the Star. had made its valedictory how in 1879. The Eve was only a four-page, four-column paper at first, somewhat smaller, as its salutatory editorial admitted, than the New York Herald or the London Times, but destined to increase in size and power as the growth of the town justified, and continue a potent advocate of political purity and material progressiveness for many years.

It was in 1882 also that Blackman Brothers, who subsequently did so much for the manufacturing interests of the town, began the erection of their first saw-mill, which was to be operated by steam power and to have a capacity of fifteen thousand feet or more per diem. Completed in 1883, it was improved in the spring of 1884, by the addition of

machinery and appliances for the manufacture of sash, doors, mouldlings, etc.

With the dawn of the eighties the old "logging camp," as Snohomish was later styled, entered upon an era of prosperity and substantial development, though to one looking backward, the increase in population of these years seems small enough. The Eye of February 28, 1883, gives us an insight into the condition of things at that early period. It says : "During the past week, seventeen lots were sold in Snohomish City, western part, by the town site proprietor's attorney, and the demand is still good. It is confidently asserted by those who are in a position to know that every lot in the original plat will be disposed of before the present year has run one half its course. We hope the suggestions of the Eye, in regard to buildings to let, will be put into effect. and that new buildings will be erected on each of these lots. Dwellings are in demand. In several houses there are three or four families living. Fifteen or twenty houses could be rented at the present time, and before fall twice that number. Mr. Ferguson informs us that in a few weeks he will lay off an addition to Snohomish City, north of the east end, on the flat, which con- tains forty acres. He will also lay off in five-acre lots a tract containing sixty acres, lying north of the new addition and also on the flat. * * * He further informs us that he will probably plat, this fall, an addition to the west end of about forty acres, which will give Snohomish an area of about two hundred and twenty acres."

By 1885 the place had grown to a town of six hundred inhabitants and was the possessor of two fine church edifices, the Presbyterian and Methodist, a good public school, two hotels, two restaurants with bakery and confectionery stores attached, a good theater building, two public halls, four general merchandise stores, one dry goods store, one tin and hardware store, a grocery store, two meat markets, a millinery store, a jewelry store, two boot and shoe establishments, two blacksmith shops, a steam saw-mill with a capacity of twenty thousand feet daily, a furniture, sash and door factory, a real estate office. express and telegraph offices, five saloons, a Chinese laundry and a number of good private residences.

Throughout 1886, building operations progressed steadily, and the structures were mostly of a per- manent character, though the advance was not quite so marked as in the preceding twelvemonth. In 1887 the growth of Snohomish was greater in pro- portion to population than that of any other town , on the sound, the cost of improvements being forty- five thousand dollars. It was during this year that the first system of water works was instituted in the town and it was during this year also that Snolo- mish City began seriously to wrestle with railroad problems, though the railway situation had been watched with interest for years. About the middle

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of December a mass railway meeting was held in Odd Fellows' hall "to discuss railroad and other questions relating to the future prosperity of the town." Of this meeting H. S. Spurrell was elected chairman and C. H. Packard, secretary, whereupon E. C. Ferguson stated the specific objects of the convocation. He told the story of a conversation with President Canfield, of the Bellingham Bay and British Columbia Railroad Company, in which that worthy informed him that a good location for his proposed road had been found passing through the country via Marysville and Lowell. Mr. Fer- guson argued the superior advantages of a road further back from the sound. passing through Snohomish City, and the outcome of the con- versation was a proposition by President Can- field to build through Snohomish provided a bonus of twenty-five per cent. of the town lots should be given. Later, Mr. Ferguson and two other leading Snohomishites met the Seattle. Lake Shore & Eastern officials, who offered to build a branch to Snohomish if the right of way and depot grounds were furnished. Mr. Ferguson and his associates secured the right of way from all but three persons along the line, by the payment from their private purses of fifteen hundred dollars, and they were now asking that others interested in the town should furnish funds to complete the purchase. Clark Ferguson and H. Blackman were appointed to circulate a subscription list among the business men and others, that the needed funds might be secured.

The prospect of a railroad had a decidedly stim- ulating effect upon business enterprises and speculation in town and county. "At Snohomish." said the Seattle Press in September. 1881, "every- thing betokens prosperity. The foundations of a new brick bank have been laid, and the building. when finished. will be a credit to the builder and the city. All kinds of business are in a flourishing condition, everyone is busy. The merchants are thriving and consequently happy."

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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 64

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