USA > Washington > King County > History and progress of King County, Washington > Part 6
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Ang. 7, 1872. Gardner Kellogg resigns as County Auditor and D. F. Wheeler appointed to fill vacancy, or his successor is elected.
Ordered that an appropriation of $926 be made for the purpose of purchasing a safe for King County and placed in the Auditor's office.
Nov. 4, 1872. Ordered all bills under the amount of 50c be and the same is hereby repudiated by the Board of County Commissioners and will not be allowed, and the Auditor furnished a certified copy of the order to the Clerk of the District Court.
Resignation of N. S. Bartlet as Justice of Peace of Seattle Precinct accepted.
Bill allowed H. L. Yesler for furnishing money to send John Benson, pauper, to Sandwich Islands.
Nov. 7. D. S. Smith elected as Justice of Peace, Seattle Precinct, vacancy caused by the resignation of N. S. Bartlet.
A. W. Malson resigns as Constable of Seattle Pre- einst, vacaney filled by D. H. Webster.
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HISTORY AND PROGRESS of
Feb. 4, 1873. Hon. W. M. York, Probate Judge, asked for a furnished office in the Dispatch building, rent to be for serip equivalent to $5.00 per month.
Feb. 7, 1873. Ordered that the proposal of T. F Minor. M. D .. for the care and attendance upon the in- digent sick of the county for one year at the rate of $1.00 per day currency for each patient accepted.
Nov. 3, 1873. The report of the County Surveyor, Geo. F. Whitworth, containing notes of the survey of the cemetery on the County Farm was accepted and or- dered recorded in the records of deeds of King County.
(. D. Perkins appointed agent of county to secure quit-claim deed to the lot known as the Seattle Cemetery -about five acres-a place for burying the county poor.
Feb. 4. 1874. In the matter of the location of the site for a county jail and other buildings, it was ordered that A. MacIntosh, Esq., be and is hereby appointed as a committee to receive proposals for the sale to the county of such lands, to report the same with his views at next term of this Court.
S. P. Andrews appointed overseer of the poor with full power and authority to contraet for board, medical attention and all other necessaries for the indigent sick of the county.
R. Robinson resigned as Commissioner to take effeet at the elose of February term of court. S. P. Andrews appointed to fill vacancy.
May 11, 1874. O. C. Shorey resigns as Treasurer. Mr. S. C. Harris elected to fill vacancy. He gave a bond of $10,000.00.
Feb. 5, 1875. Ordered that the stock of the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad and Transportation Co. be ex- empted from taxation for 1875.
May 1. 1876. Carkeek and Doyle awarded the jail contract on their bid of $10.196.
T. MeNatt resigned as Commissioner. D. R. MeMiller appointed to take his plaee.
October 7, 1876. W. W. York, Probate Judge, re- signs. Henry E. Hathaway appointed to fill vacancy.
May 22. 1876. Bond of R. L. Thomas, County Sur- veyor, accepted.
March 7, 1877. Em. Kauten leased the County Farm and was to care for the county poor.
II. B. Bagley appointed medieal and surgical attend- ant for the county poor.
May 7, 1877. The county printing was awarded to David Higgins of the Intelligencer.
May 15. Board ordered the Auditor to purchase a good, substantial book to be used for a road book and that he index in said book all road matter in the old road records in such a manner that easy reference may be made to any matter of any road, of record in said book. The Board hereby agreeing to pay reasonable com- pensation for said indexing.
The Board of County Commissioners leased the Coun-
ty Farm to the "Sisters of the House of Providence," Washington Territory, for five years from the first day of February, 1878, to the first of February, 1883.
A license was granted to C. W. Morse, from Ang, 7. 1877, to Feb. 7, 1878. for two billiard tables.
Feb. 5, 1878. There were twenty-four road districts at this time.
Feb. 13, 1878. Henry Lohse was given exclusive priv. ilege to mining stone from the stone mine situated on the County Farm on the bluff land for the period of three years from the 13th day of February, 1878.
Feb. 15, 1879. "Be it resolved that the Superintend- ent be and is hereby instructed to proceed at once in placing the wagon road in the vicinity of the Ballard track along the beach to the head of Elliott Bay, where said wagon road has been encroached upon by the rail- road, in as good condition as the same was in. prior to the grading of said railroad, and that the contract for billing a fence along said railroad where necessary, to be completed before trains are begun to run over that part of the line."
The first mention of County Hospital was in August. 1879, when James Bracket was admitted as a charge, but afterwards supported by his brother, Geo. Bracket. by an order of the Board of County Commissioners.
May, 1880. New voting precincts were established in the Cedar River and Green River districts.
The Board of County Commissioners issued an order offering a bounty for the scalps with two ears as follows: Cougar or panthar, $3 for each scalp; black or gray wolf, $3 for each sealp; black bear, $3 for each scalp : wildcat, $1 for each sealp.
For the year 1889 Geo. D. Hill was County Treasurer.
May, 1880. "It is ordered by the Board that the Weekly Intelligencer, a newspaper published in the city of Seattle, in King County. Washington Territory, he and the same is hereby designated as the official news- paper of the County of King, for the ensuing year ending April. 1881.
February. 1881. M. V. Mills appointed Constable of Seattle Precinct. Board ordered Commissioner Colman to take charge of the stone quarry on the County Farm, and dispose of the stone to the best possible advantage.
Industrial Association allowed the use of the land adjoining the jail yard outside of the inclosure for any use that it required in connection with the Association on condition that they surrender the use of said ground whenever requested so to do by the Board.
August, 1881. Bounty on the scalps of wild animals revoked.
Feb. 22, 1882. Chas. F. Reitze appointed as overseer of the construction of the additional county buildings, buildings to be constructed by J. J. Shepherd.
May, 1882. New school districts No. 32 and 33 formed.
Sheriff for the year. John McGraw.
KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON
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February, 1883. Contract made with the "Sisters of Charity of the House of Providence in Washington Terri- tory, " for the leasing of the County Farm and care and support of the paupers and indigent sick and poor, to- gether with a bond with securities for the performance thereof.
February, 1884. Sheriff ordered to put all prisoners to work.
August 9. County Surveyor ordered to give an esti- mate of cost of each road surveyed and the bridging of same to the Auditor.
Contract for the County Poor House let to "The Se- attle Mill Co." for the sum of $2,100.
A portion of the County Farm leased to the "House for Orphans and Friendless."
May, 1888. Assessor ordered not to list lands, lots of blocks lying wholly below boundary high tide line as taxable.
March 6, 1889. Salary of the Superintendent of County Farm raised to $100 a month.
King County and Seattle's Beginning-In Paragraphs
In the official journal of Fort Nesqually, there appears this entry: "On Wednesday, October 3, 1849, Kussass and Quallawowt were hanged at Steilaroom, near the barracks." The hanged men were Indians.
This incident clusters closely to the year 1850. Practic- ally the story of King County really begins "when Oregon was about to enter the last half of the nineteenth century." Then Newmarket, or Tumwater, the first, had been the largest Am- erican settlement of white people north of the Columbia river; but Olympia, later in location and settlement, was the only American town on Puget Sound. Fort Nesqually was the only other wbite settlement on its shores. There was no Steila- coom, no Tacoma, no Seattle, no Port Townsend, no Laconner, no Bellingham, no Everett; not a settler dwelt on the shores of this great body of inland water from Fort Nesqually north- ward and westward to Cape Flattery. No log cabin with its humble inhabitant, existed on these shores north of Bolton's shipyard, a short distance this side of the present site of Steilacoom.
Since that first year of the last half century Puget Sound settlements have increased over a thousand fold. Each fav- ored locality has its history; each would furnish a chapter of reminiscences of the early settlement; each has its pioneers, men and hardy women, its just reason for local pride. In 1852, so evident has been the progress of settlement on Puget Sonnd, so promising was an early future, that it was conceded that Oregon, north of the Columbia river, possessed all of the elements that would go to constitute a prosperous state. Con- gress, therefore, on March 3, 1853, set off that part of Oregon north of the Columbia river, established a Territorial govern- ment, and nominated it "Washington." This was a fitting name to perpetuate the record of the geographic discoveries and commercial ventures of the little sloop, consort of the ship Columbia, on the memorable voyage to the l'acitic Ocean and Northwest America, when for the first time, was carried at the masthead of the gallant little fleet the stars and stripes, national emblem of the United States of America, as the cre- dentials of their seamen.
The ship Columbia, on that pioneer voyage, was com- manded by Robert Gray, the immortal discoverer of the Col- umbia river, to which he gave the name of his ship.
Washington should properly be retained as the name of this forest region, if for no other reason that to commemo- rate the little sloop Washington and those discoveries made in the adjacent seas hy Captain John Kendrick, that daring American sailor who commanded her on her voyage of discov- ery, which, from a scientific standpoint were of greater im-
portance than Gray's discovery of the greatest river of the West.
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The establishment of the Territory of Washington was hailed as the harbinger of an early brilliant future. Efforts to invite immigration immediately followed. Parties were sent out to open a road across the Cascade Mountains by the Natchess Pass. Handbills were distributed along the great emigrant route east of Umatilla and Walla Walla to notify the migration of 1853 of the existence of a direct road into the Puget Sound basin. A ferry crossing the Columbia at old Fort Walla Walla, a boat was built and men stationed there to induce immigrants to cross the Columbia River and Cascade Mountains and come directly to Puget Sound, without first going to the Willamette Valley. A trail across the mountains, nothing more, had been blazed. Over the huge logs bridges of small poles had been constructed, passable for horses, but obstarles for wagons. Logs of trees, the growth of centuries laid across the path made dangerous and steep the river cross, ings, as the floods had washed them out. To call it a road was an abuse of language, yet over it, through that pass, a part of the immigration of 1853 found its way to the shores of Puget Sound. With axe in hand the hardy immigrants after the wearisome journey across the continent, hewed out their way through that pass of the Cascade Mountains. Their labor had begun before reaching the summit. From the last cross- ing of the Natchess to their descent, consummated by crossing the Greenwater, it was work. Some days they accomplished three miles. With their wagons they triumphantly crossed the Cascade range by a road built by themselves as they marched, in one-short season of six weeks.
In 1858 Seattle was a small village of not more than 150 whites. In 1800 it had increased to 250; in 1870 it was 1,107: in 1880, 3,533; in 1890, 42,837; in 1900, 80,670. Its pop- ulation, as estimated by the Chamber of Commerce on Jan- uary 1st, 1907, was 221,000; at this date King County prob- ably contains 350,000 people.
Seattle was incorporated as a town in the winter of 1864-5 by act of the Legislature and Charles Terry was chosen president of the board of trustees. It was disincorporated a year later. In 1869 it was incorporated as a city by act of the Legislature, and so continued until the adoption of the free- holders' charter in 1890. Henry A. Atkins was the first mayor and Harry White the first under the new charter.
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The corporate limits of Seattle now include hundreds and probably thousands of acres of land that were bought at pri-
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HISTORY AND PROGRESS of
vate sale years afterwards, for $1.25 per acre. The records of the land office will show this to be true. A large share of the West Seattle lands were so bought in 1870, for currency at 70 cents on the dollar, making the actual cost to purchasers less than 90 cents an acre. In 1890 lands could be bought for $2.50 per acre from the government within the city limits.
An early historian says: "The settlement of King County was substantially the same as of Seattle. The Snoqualmie river, falling into the Snohomish on the north; Cedar river into Lake Washington and Black River into the Duwamish, and this into Elliott Bay, are the principal water courses. All the Eastern shore of the Sound is drained by streams whose meadow lands possess a soil of wonderful productivenes.
Snowden in his History of Washington, says: "The first exploring party was composed of A. A. Denny, Boren and Bell. They set out in a small boat, for which Bell and Boren furn- ished the motive power. As the whole shore of the hay and of the Sound everywhere, seemed to be about equally well cov- ered with timber, their first care was to investigate the depth of the water, particularly near the shore, and the character of the shore itself. They did not yet know that the most strik- ing characteristic of the Sound is its extreme depth, and that the next is that its shores are very abrupt. Mr. Denny made the soundings as they went along, using for the purpose an old horseshoe, or perhaps two or three of them, fastened to a strong clothes line of considerable length, and not long enough, as they soon found to their surprise, to reach hottom in many places. Even close to the shore the water was very deep, and for the most part of the bay seemed to be bottomless. They soon determined that it would be possible to lay a ship close alon gshore almost anywhere.
"They appear to have begun their investigations on the north shore near Smith's Cove. By noon they had coasted along toward the east as far as University Street, and here they went ashore, climbed the steep hank, opened their din- ner pails, and made ready their noonday meal. Mr. Denny was pleased with the situation and then or soon after, de- termined to make his home on the spot where that first meal was eaten, which he subsequently did.
"After lunch the party continued their journey eastward, or sontheastward, finding the shore gradually diminishing in height, until at last for a considerable space it broke down to the level of the tide flats. But before reaching the flats they found a small stream with soft, muddy banks, covered with salt, marsh grass, and near it a curious mound thirty or forty feet high. Beyond it and along the shore southward was a rather inviting meadow, the first they had seen, and as it promised to afford pasture for their cattle, they determined to include it or part of it in one of their claims.
"As yet no survey had been made north of the Columbia River and each settler was therefore entitled to take a claim in any shape he wished. If any part of the shore line pleased him. he might make it the boundary on that side, and then by running lines at any angle he pleased, from either extrem- ity of it, include so much land as he was entitled to take, whether married or single. He was not even required to make his boundaries hy regular lines but might vary them so as to include some particularly choice piece of land, or to exclude a swampy hollow or gravelly hilltop. The members of this party therefore had little difficulty in selecting the land they would include in their three claims. As they would need the little bit of meadow near the head of the bay as a pasture, they resolved to make it their southern boundary; they would
claim a shore line about a mile and a half in length, along the northeast side of the bay, and enough of the hill land back of it in a regular body to make up their three claims. This was a very reasonable selection, for each of them, being mar- ried, was entitled to take a whole section, which is a square mile, and each might have claimed a mile of the waterfront had he so desired. Indeed he might have claimen two or three times that amount had he seen fit to do so, since by making his claim narrow he could have lengthened it in pro- portion. But these claimants evidently preferred to leave something that would attract other settlers, as neighbors were at that day more desirable than waterfront.
"It was then arranged that Boren should take the south- ernmost of the three claims, Denny the middle, which would include the spot where they had eaten their first meal, and on which he desired to build his first home, and Bell should take the northernmost. D. T. Denny was invited to join with them in this selection, the others offering to rearrange their claims so as to accommodate him, but as he was still unmarried he was in no hurry to make his choice, and did not avail himself of their generosity. Later he took a claim north of Bell's.
( Westlake Boulevard now traverses the very center of D. T. Denny's claim. )
On the last day of March the little colony at the point received its first reinforcement. They had been visited in the preceding November by Hastings and Pettygrove, who were on their way down Sound, but now they had a visitor who was to remain and help them to found a city. This was Dr. D. S. Maynard, a Vermonter by birth, who had come to Oregon in 1850, and had just spent a winter in Olympia, where he had acquired such information as he could in regard to the pos- sibilities of the salmon industry, and was now seeking a loca- tion where he might make an attempt to get it successfully started. He was a man of education and some business ex- perience, and also possessed of a temper of his own, as we shall see later, for the plat of Seattle hears permanent evidence of it. In his search for information about the salmon, the doctor had fallen in with an Indian chief of one of the Nis- qually tribes, named Seattle, or Sealth, as the Indians seemed to pronounce it, who had been very helpful to him, and who now accompanid him to this bay, on the shores of which his own band, known as the Duwamish, made their abiding place during a considerable part of each year. He had assured the doctor that salmon were generally abundant here, and had also promised that he and his people would catch as many for him as he might wish. How much he knew of Wyeth's failure to start this business, or the success with which the Hudson Bay people had long carried it on at Fort Langley, on the Fraser, is not now known.
"He found no place on the shore of the bay so well suited to his wishes as that on the southern side of the tract which Denny, Boren and Bell selected and which had been already assigned to Boren, but it was so desirable to get this, the first industry offering, located in the neighborhood, that the three readily agreed to rearrange their claims so as to give Maynard what he wanted, and this was accordingly done, although the doctor at first thought unnecessary, as he only wanted ground enough for his fishing station.
"Dr. D. S. Maynard, whose donation claim included the island, was in 1852, when he settled, an active, experienced man of business, past fifty years of age. He determined that upon his claim should be the town of Seattle. It was chiefly by his efforts that King County was created by the Oregon
KING COUNTY, WASHINGTON
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Legislature, the County seat being located upon his claim and the polling place in his dwelling house. He started the first store, the first fishery, sold the first town lots, was the first em- ployer, was one of the first officials, and generally was the leader among the men of his time and town. In consequence of his activity and prodigality, he had in twenty years dis- posed of all his three hundred and twenty acres, and had upon them the business quarter and a fair proportion of the resi- dence section as it now stands.
"On April 3d, most of the party removed from the first temporary houses they had built for themselves at Alki Point, to their own claims, now covered by the city of Seattle. They had built no houses or even cabins as yet, and so far a consid- erable time lived in camp, as they had done while crossing the plains. Boren fixed his camp on the southerly part of the town- site and Bell on the northern part. Mr. Denny did not remove to his claim until some days later, being still troubled with his old-time enemy, the ague, which indeed still afflicted several other members of the party. Befor he was ready to move over, the other members of the party had built a hut for him on the site he had selected. But here he found difficulty in getting water. He dug a well in a neighborhood gulch, to a depth of more than forty feet, but found a quicksand bottom which discouraged him, and finally he chose another site near what is now First Avenue and Marion Street, and here he built his first home. A satisfactory supply of fresh water was secured here and access to the Sound was also more convenient. This, at that time, was a very desirable consideration.
The settlers spent their first summer in Seattle in building their homes, and making such improvements on their claims as were most necessary. They were visited meantime by two vessels, the brigs Franklin Adams and John Davis, both of which had come to the Sound for piles. From these ships they procured some of the supplies they were in need of, and it was a great convenience to be thus provided for. In the succeed- ing winter so few ships came that there was almost a famine in the land, and for a time all were very much concerned about their food supply. Pork and hutter came around Cape Horn, flour from Chile and sugar from China, and the supply in the country was not large. "That fall," says Mr. Denny, "] paid $90 for two barrels of pork and $20 for a barrel of flour. I left one barrel of the pork on the beach, in front of my claim, as I supposed above high tide, until it was needed. Just about the time to roll it up and open it, there came a high tide and heavy wind at night, and like the house that was built upon he sand, it fell, or anyway it disappeared. It was the last barrel of pork in King County, and the loss of it was felt by the whole community to be a very serious matter."
Just as this hard winter was beginning-in October, 1852 -Henry Yesler arrived. He was a native of Maryland, though after becoming of age he went to Ohio, where he remained for several years, and in 1851, accompanied by his family, crossed the plains to Oregon. After working for a time at his trade as a carpenter and millwright he went to California, where for a short time he engaged in mining. There he learned something of the attractions of the Puget Sound country, and perceiving that California would for a long time to come furnish an ex- cellent market for the timber that the Sound could so abund- antly supply, he returned north to build a mill and engage in the lumber trade. The little colony on Elliott Bay quickly saw the value to them of what he was proposing to do, if he should locate his mill in their neighborhood. It would make a market for the timber of which they had an abundance, and also furnish them constant employment in cutting it.
On the ground thus assigned the first steam sawmill in Washington was soon after built. Either at the beginning, or soon afterwards, its capacity was 15,000 feet per day. Indian laborers were employed for the most part during the earlier years, in and about it, and Mr. Yesler managed these people so successfully as to be able to keep about him all the laborers he required, and to so far win the confidence and esteem of their tribesmen that he was able to go among them without much risk to himself during the troublous times that soon after followed, and he was very useful to Governor Stevens, for this reason, in the negotiations at the close of the Indian war.
Near the mill was a cookhouse that became famous in the early days, and is still remembered by many old settlers who took their meals there in early days. Every wayfaring man got a meal there as he passed, if he required it, and some- times he lodged in or near it. Officers and men from such ships as visited the harbor were often seen there. Occasionally the officers from some war ship, or from the fort at Steilacoom visited it. Around its broad fireplace many stories of adven- ture by land and sea were told. For several years it was the one place on the Sound where news from the world was surest to be obtained. At the outbreak of the Indian war the volun- teers made it their rendezvous. Judge Lander had his office in one corner of it, and the county auditor also had his office there. It served, as Mr. Yesler has said, "for town hall, court house, jail, military headquarters, storehouse, hotel and church. Elections, social parties and religious services were held under its roof. The first sermon preached in King County was de- livered there by Clark, and the first suit at law, which was the case of the mate of the Franklin Adams for selling the ship's stores on his own account, was tried there before Justice Maynard." Many people, not only in Seattle, but in other parts of the territory, were sorry when it was torn down, in 1865, to make room for a larger building.
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