Editing History of Seattle (section)

==Early history of Seattle==
{{refimprove section|date=February 2024}}
[[Image:seattle 1870.jpg|thumb|400px|Seattle, engraving from ''Harper's New Monthly Magazine'' (September 1870)]]
{{main article|History of Seattle before 1900}}
[[File:Second Ave. and Marion St., Seattle, Wash., July 1889.jpg|thumb|Second Ave. and Marion St., Seattle, Wash., July 1889]]
What is now Seattle has been inhabited since the end of the last [[Ice age#Glaciation in North America|glacial period]] (c. 8,000 B.C.&mdash;10,000 years ago), for at least 4,000 years.  In the mid-1850s the [[Coast Salish people]] of what is now called the [[Duwamish tribe|Duwamish Tribe]] and [[Suquamish tribe|Suquamish]], as well as other associated groups and tribes, were living in some 13 villages within the present-day city limits of Seattle. Evidence of continuous human habitation of a village site within the current city limits of the city of Seattle dating back to the 6th century C.E. exists on the Port of Seattle Terminal 107 site, located on the Western bank of the Duwamish River.<ref name="Jermann et al 1977">{{cite book
  | last = Jermann, Lorenz and Thomas
  | title = Continued Archeological Testing at the Duwamish No. 1 Site
  | publisher = Office of Public Archaeology, Institute for Environmental Studies, university of Washington
  | year = 1977
  | location = Seattle
| ol = 13584841M
 }}</ref>  The site was abandoned in approximately 1800, for unknown reasons. Other notable village sites include the birthplace of [[Chief Seattle]], which was located near the current footprint of the King Street Station.

[[George Vancouver]] was the first [[Europe]]an to visit the Seattle area in May 1792 during his [[Vancouver Expedition|1791-95 expedition]] to chart the [[Pacific Northwest]].<ref name=Vancouver1801>{{cite book
  | last = Vancouver
  | first = George, and John Vancouver
  | title = A voyage of discovery to the North Pacific ocean, and round the world
  | publisher = J. Stockdale
  | year = 1801
  | location = London
| url = https://archive.org/details/avoyagediscover00vancgoog}}</ref>

The founding of Seattle is usually dated from the arrival of the [[Denny Party]] scouts on September 25, 1851. However, Luther Collins, Henry Van Asselt, and the Maple family founded a farming settlement on what is currently the Seattle neighborhood of Georgetown on September 27, 1851.<ref>(1) Jermann et al (1977), pp. 21</ref> The Denny party's original site was an unfinished cabin, without roof, and a camp site, located at Alki Point, in West Seattle. The Collins party settlement was improved with permanent structures, and was soon producing produce and meat for sale and barter. In April, 1852, [[Arthur A. Denny]] abandoned the original site at [[Alki Point, Seattle|Alki]] in favor of a better protected site on [[Elliott Bay]] that is now part of [[Downtown, Seattle, Washington|downtown Seattle]]. [[Arthur A. Denny]] and [[Luther Collins]] were the first commissioners of King County after its creation in 1852. Around the same time, [[David Swinson Maynard|David Swinson "Doc" Maynard]] began settling the land immediately south of Denny's.

Seattle in its early decades relied on the timber industry, shipping logs (and later, milled timber) to [[San Francisco]]. A climax forest of trees up to 1,000&ndash;2,000 years old and towering as high as nearly 400&nbsp;ft (122 m) covered much of what is now Seattle. Today, none of that size remain anywhere in the world.<ref>(1) Dolan & True (2003), pp. 142, 144  <br/>(3) Van Pelt (2001) pp. xxii, 181&ndash;185, 187&ndash;191</ref>

When [[Henry Yesler]] brought the first steam sawmill to the region, he chose a location on the waterfront where Maynard and Denny's plats met. Thereafter Seattle would dominate the lumber industry.

[[Charlie Terry]] sold out Alki (which, after his departure barely held on as a settlement), moved to Seattle and began acquiring land. He either owned or partially owned Seattle's first timber ships. He eventually gave a land grant to the University of the Territory of Washington (later [[University of Washington]]), and was instrumental in the politics to establish an urban infrastructure.

The logging town developed rapidly over decades into a small city. Despite being officially founded by the [[Methodist]]s of the Denny Party, Seattle quickly developed a reputation as a wide-open town, a haven for [[prostitution]], [[liquor]], and [[gambling]]. Some{{Who|date=February 2024}} attribute this, at least in part, to Maynard who realized that something was needed to bring the loggers and sailors, who formed the majority of the surrounding population, to town.

[[Real estate]] records show that nearly all of the city's first 60 businesses were on, or immediately adjacent to, Maynard's plat.

All of this occurred against a background of sometimes rocky relations with the local [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] population, including a nominally pitched battle, the [[Battle of Seattle (1856)|Battle of Seattle]], January 25, 1856.

Seattle was incorporated as a town January 14, 1865.  That charter was voided January 18, 1867, in response to questionable activities of the town's elected leaders.  Seattle was re-incorporated December 2, 1869.  At the times of incorporations, the population was approximately 350 and 1,000, respectively.<ref>Clarence B. Bagley, ''History of Seattle from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time'', Vol. 2 (Chicago: S.J. Publishing Co., 1916), p. 698.  <br/>NB:  Per
{{cite web
 | date =18 February 2003
 | url =http://www.nps.gov/klse/hrs/hrs1a.htm
 | title =CHAPTER ONE 'By-and-By': The Early History Of Seattle
 | work =Hard Drive to the Klondike: Promoting Seattle During the Gold Rush
 | publisher =Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Seattle Unit
 | access-date =2006-07-16
}}  <br/>'''Original source not checked'''</ref>

In 1867, a young [[French Canadian]] [[Roman Catholic|Catholic]] priest named [[Francis X. Prefontaine]] arrived in Seattle and decided to establish a [[parish]] there. At that time, Seattle had no Catholic church and few parishioners. Fr. Prefontaine counted only ten Catholics in the town and only three attended the first mass that he conducted. His bishop, [[Augustin-Magloire Blanchet]], whose [[cathedra]] was in [[Vancouver, Washington]], gave Fr. Prefontaine permission to build a church there, as long as the priest could raise the funds himself and it would cost the [[diocese]] nothing. Prefontaine raised the money by holding fairs around the Puget Sound area. During 1868–69 he built the church, doing much of the work himself, and in 1869 he opened Seattle's first Catholic church at Third Avenue and Washington Street, on the site where the present-day Prefontaine Building stands.{{coord|47.601375|-122.329498|format=dms|display=inline|type:landmark}}
<ref name="HistoryLink1">{{cite encyclopedia
 |url         = http://www.historylink.org/index.cfm?DisplayPage=output.cfm&file_id=3633
 |title       = Prefontaine, Father Francis Xavier (1838-1909)
 |access-date  = 2010-02-15
 |encyclopedia        = The Free Online Encyclopedia of Washington State History
 |publisher   = HistoryLink
}}</ref><ref name="CathedralHeroes1">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.stjames-cathedral.org/history/kidsheroes.htm 
 |title=Father Francis X. Prefontaine 
 |access-date=2010-02-15 
 |publisher=St. James Cathedral, Seattle 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100829081644/http://www.stjames-cathedral.org/history/kidsheroes.htm 
 |archive-date=2010-08-29 
}}</ref><ref name="Diocese2">{{Cite web
 |url=http://www.seattlearch.org/ArchdioceseWorking/ArchivesandRecords/History/OurLadyofGoodHelp.htm.htm 
 |title=1867: Our Lady of Good Help Church 
 |access-date=2010-02-15 
 |work=Archives and Records, Archdiocese of Seattle 
 |publisher=Archdiocese of Seattle, Washington 
 |url-status=dead 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091208033324/http://www.seattlearch.org/ArchdioceseWorking/ArchivesandRecords/History/OurLadyofGoodHelp.htm.htm 
 |archive-date=2009-12-08 
}}</ref>

===Railroad rivalry and encroaching civilization===
[[Image:1st Ave Seattle 1900.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Looking up 1st Ave. from Pioneer Square, 1900]]

On July 14, 1873, the [[Northern Pacific Railway]] announced that they had chosen the then-village of [[Tacoma, Washington|Tacoma]] over Seattle as the Western terminus of their transcontinental [[railroad]]. The railroad barons appear to have been gambling on the advantage they could gain from being able to buy up the land around their terminus cheaply instead of bringing the railroad into a more established Pacific port town.

Seattle made several attempts to build a railroad of its own or to leverage one to come.  The [[Great Northern Railway (U.S.)|Great Northern Railway]] finally came to Seattle in 1884, winning Seattle a place in competition for freight, though it would be 1906 before Seattle finally acquired a major rail passenger terminal.

Seattle in this era was a freebooting and often relatively lawless town. Although it boasted [[newspaper]]s  and [[telephone]]s, [[lynch law]] often prevailed (there were at least four deaths by [[lynching]] in 1882), [[school]]s barely operated, and indoor [[plumbing]] was a rare novelty.  In the low [[mudflat]]s where much of the city was built, [[sewage]] was almost as likely to come in on the [[tide]] as to flow away. 

[[Trade union|Union]] organizing first arrived in the form of a skilled craft union. In 1882, Seattle printers formed the Seattle Typographical Union Local 202. Dockworkers followed in 1886, [[cigar]]makers in 1887, tailors in 1889, and both brewers and musicians in 1890. Even the newsboys unionized in 1892, followed by more organizing, mostly of craft unions.

The history of labor in the American West in this period is inseparable from the issue of anti-Chinese vigilantism. In 1883 [[Chinese Americans|Chinese]] laborers played a key role in the first effort at digging the [[Montlake Cut]] to connect [[Lake Union]]'s [[Portage Bay]] to [[Lake Washington]]'s [[Union Bay (Seattle, Washington)|Union Bay]]. In 1885–1886, whites—sometimes in combination with Indians—complaining of overly cheap labor competition, drove the Chinese settlers from Seattle, Tacoma, and other Northwest cities.

In an era during which the Washington Territory was one of the first parts of the U.S. to (briefly) allow [[women's suffrage]], women played a significant part in "civilizing" Seattle.

The first bathtub with plumbing was in 1870.  In the 1880s, Seattle got its first [[streetcar]] and [[cable car (railway)|cable car]], [[ferry]] service, a [[YMCA]] gymnasium, and the exclusive [[Rainier Club]], and passed an ordinance requiring attached [[sanitary sewer|sewer]] lines for all new residences. It also began to develop a road system.

The relative fortunes of Seattle and Tacoma clearly show the nature of Seattle's growth. Though both Seattle and Tacoma grew at a rapid rate from 1880 to 1890, based on the strength of their timber industries, Seattle's growth as an exporter of services and manufactured goods continued for another two decades, while Tacoma's growth dropped almost to zero. The reason for this lies in Tacoma's nature as a [[company town]] and Seattle's successful avoidance of that condition.

===The Great Fire===
[[Image:Great seattle fire.jpg|250px|right|thumb|Start of the Great Seattle Fire, looking south on 1st Avenue near Madison Street]]
{{main article|Great Seattle Fire}}
The early Seattle era came to a stunning halt with the Great Seattle Fire of June 6, 1889. Started by a glue pot, the fire burned 29 city blocks (almost entirely wooden buildings; about 10 [[brick]] buildings also burned). It destroyed nearly the entire business district, all of the railroad terminals, and all but four of the [[wharf|wharves]]. Major fires like this were common in Washington that summer: the center of [[Ellensburg, Washington|Ellensburg]] was destroyed by fire on July 4 and downtown [[Spokane, Washington|Spokane]] burned on August 4.

Thanks in part to credit arranged by [[Jacob Furth]], Seattle rebuilt from the ashes with astounding rapidity. A new [[zoning]] code resulted in a downtown of brick and [[Rock (geology)|stone]] buildings, rather than [[wood]]. In the single year after the fire, the city grew from 25,000 to 40,000 inhabitants, largely because of the enormous number of [[construction]] jobs suddenly created.

Still, south of Yesler Way, the open city atmosphere remained.

===The Klondike Gold Rush===
[[File:Early annexations to Seattle (2405863305).jpg|thumb|right|upright|Early annexations to Seattle.]]
The greatest boom period for Seattle occurred during the [[Klondike gold rush]]. Seattle, as well as the rest of the nation, was suffering from the economic [[panic of 1893]], and to a lesser extent, the [[panic of 1896]]. Gold was discovered in August 1896 in the Klondike region of Canada.  Almost one year later, on July 17, 1897, the steamer ''Portland'' arrived at [[Schwabacher Brothers#Seattle|Schwabacher's Wharf]] in Seattle. A publicity campaign engineered largely by [[Erastus Brainerd]] told the world of the ''Portland's'' "ton of gold," started the Klondike gold rush, and established Seattle as its supply center and the jumping-off point for transportation to and from Alaska and the gold fields of the Yukon. The rush ended the depression overnight for Seattle.<ref>
{{cite web
 | date =18 February 2003
 | url =http://www.nps.gov/klse/hrs/hrs5b.htm
 | title =Chapter 5: Interpreting the Klondike Gold Rush
 | work =Hard Drive to the Klondike: Promoting Seattle During the Gold Rush
 | publisher =Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park, Seattle Unit
 | access-date =2006-07-16
}}
</ref>