Mukilteo, Washington - History

History

"Mukilteo - Pop. 800. A town named on Sound charts as Port Elliott, on Port Gardner Bay, also known as South Everett, situated on Puget Sound and G. N. Ry, 5 ms of Everett, Co. seat and nearest banking pt. Has large lumber mill, also shingle mill. Lumber, fruit and dairy products are chief industries. Three mails daily. Stage daily to Everett."

The above, quoted from the latest county directory, is all the descriptive matter that volume contains concerning the most interesting and historic spot in Snohomish County. Looking down today from its beautiful wooded heights, with the waters of the Sound lapping lazily at their feet, with the low-lying islands fading from vivid green to dim outlines that are mingled and are lost in the gray of the sea; with the slopes of Tulalip Reservation, that last refuge of the original owners of the soil, facing them across the Bay, along the mighty curve of which lies Everett, young giant of flame and smoke and energy and industry - Mukilteo seems to call with a thousand voices of the past; dim, echoing voices that whisper of the strange rites of an almost unknown race, of the virile deeds of robust pioneers, and of the buried hopes of many years and many men.

Mukilteo is the home of "Firsts" in Snohomish County. It was the scene of the Indian treaty which Governor Stevens signed with the assembled tribes of

Puget Sound in 1855, and this is one of the first authentic dates in Snohomish County history. It was the first mainland voting precinct of Island County before Snohomish County was born. In the organic act it was named as the first county seat, and, before this, it was the location of the first trading post in the county. The first meeting of the county commissioners was held there; the first notary public lived there; the first designated county road started from there. The first salmon cannery on Puget Sound was established at Mukilteo. It was the first, and for many years the only landing place for larger steamers and sailing vessels in Snohomish County; it received the first mails and was the location of the first post office and the first telegraph station. As the home of a cannery and of a brewery. it was the first manufacturing town in the county for other products than lumber. It was the first pleasure resort, and it also contained the first saloon. Two things it never had, a bank, and a newspaper, and financiers and publishers will doubtless find in this the reason that other and much younger cities have outstripped it in size and importance. But even now the fingers of Everett are reaching out towards it, the beautiful home sites are being taken; arrow markers bearing the imposing names of avenues point prophetically into the woods, and one continuous city from Mukilteo to the mouth of the Snohomish River seems not an improbable dream.

Together with the historical facts concerning Mukilteo there have grown up many legends that are without foundation. Men speak of the "courthouse" at Mukilteo and of sessions of the court held there. Mukilteo was never the permanent county seat; but two sessions of the board of commissioners were held there, both in the Frost and Fowler store; and no term of court higher than that of the probate judge was ever held in Snohomish County until 1877, fifteen years after the county seat was permanently located at Snohomish City. At a recent meeting of pioneers it was related that the victory of Snohomish in the first county seat election, held in 1861, was due to the cleverness of I. C. Ferguson in securing the hooks of the county and thus throwing the onus of securing a three-fifths vote upon Mukilteo to remove the county seat. There can be no foundation of fact in this narrative, for the organic act creating Snohomish County, distinctly established Mukilteo as the temporary county seat, leaving the question of permanent location to the vote of the people. While it is well to keep history straight, if possible, these facts do not lessen the importance of Mukilteo in the county's history.

Scene Of Indian Treaty

The known history of Mukilteo begins with the signing of the great Indian treaty, the story of which and the text of the treaty being given in other chapters of this volume. It was then known only as Port Elliott, the name given it by Vancouver in 1792. It must have been known as a favorite and convenient meeting place of the Indians or it would not have been selected for this important conference; so Mukilteo has the background, not only of having been sighted and named by the great explorer more than a century ago, but as a place of prominence among the original Americans. This treaty was not ratified until 1859, and prior to that time the Indians roamed the county at will as the reservation had been promised but not allotted to them. .

The first white settlement came about through Morris H. Frost, who was collector of customs at Port Townsend, and was designed primarily as an Indian trading post. His business took him about the Sound and he became convinced that Port Elliott was the logical point for a trading station. J. D. Fowler was located at Ebey's Landing on Whidby Island where he was running a saloon and hotel, and Frost persuaded him to join him as a partner in establishing a store. They took claims covering the present townsite of Mukilteo; Frost securing what is now the main part of the village, with the Fowler claim just to the north. Lumber was secured and the store and saloon building was erected, Fowler taking charge of the business. Fowler was a typical woodsman, forceful and energetic but crude as compared to Frost who was a man of education and some political importance, as his official position would indicate. When established at the place which Fowler named Mukilteo, which is the Indian name for a "good camping ground," it was the only trading post between Seattle and Penn's Cove on Whidby Island. No white trade was expected when this post was opened and this accounts for the fact that no hotel or lodging house was built, this coming as an afterthought when the loggers made their appearance at the mouth of the river. The business was evidently successful, for Frost later took personal interest in its management, but Fowler was the man chiefly identified with the concern which grew in importance as a trading point for the settlers even as its business with the Indians decreased after the promulgation of the treaty. Fowler was named as county auditor in the act creating the county.

Fowler did not retain this office long, E. C. Ferguson securing it and the county seat at the same election. Both being Democrats, and the county being Republican through the greater part of its history, neither Fowler nor Frost figured prominently in county affairs in later years. Fowler was appointed postmaster, June 24, 1862, at the same time that the post office at Mukilteo was created, and thus was the first postmaster in Snohomish County as well as the first notary public. Frost was a county commissioner and a member of the territorial legislature.

M. H. Frost

M. H. Frost was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1804, and died at Mukilteo January 7, 1882. He lived in Chicago when that place was but a village and came to the coast in the '50s as Collector of Customs at Port Townsend. He was known among the settlers as "Squire Frost" and he was the Nestor of the early Democrats of the county, who were said to have regarded him with an almost filial respect. He was in many ways the political, social and business rival of E. C. Ferguson, who nearly always worsted him. It is quite possible that had Ferguson lived at Mukilteo and Frost at Snohomish the entire history of the county would have been vastly different.

Logging was the only industry of importance in the early '60s and it centered more and more about the Snohomish River. The Preston store at the mouth of the Snohomish and Snohomish City both drew trade from Mukilteo, but the hotel and bar flourished and became the favorite resort of the loggers during seasons of enforced idleness. With its deep water harbor, Mukilteo early became a port of call for ships passing up and down the Sound and it was the great junction point ; settlers reaching Mukilteo by skiff or canoe and there taking steamers either up the river or to ports along the Sound. This was an important source of revenue for the hotel. It was also a fuel station and the point at which much freight was transferred. Such craft as the U. S. cutters, Lincoln and Shubrick, and the sloop Restless, visited Mukilteo in 1867 and the schooner Bee made regular trips between that place and Port Townsend. In 1864 it became a station on the first telegraph line up the coast of Puget Sound, and thus had communication with the outside world denied to any other part of the county, the next operator being located at La Conner, in Skagit County. This line was intended to reach the Orient via Alaska and the Behring Straits, was extended into British Columbia and abandoned when the Atlantic cable was successfully laid in 1867. The name of the first Mukilteo operator was Shorey. E. D. Kromer, operator at Port Elliott for eighteen years, died in September, 1885, and was buried at Snohomish.

Boom Efforts Fail

The first of the many attempts to "boom" Mukilteo was made in 1871 when it was thought that a transcontinental railroad would soon reach Puget Sound making some point then unknown its terminus. In April, C. P. and Annie P. Ferry filed the plat of what was called South Mukilteo, in section 9-28-4, in one-acre tracts, all of which were sold to George P. Ihrie of San Francisco for $400, except two lots which were sold to M. E. Mawry and to A. E. Wait. A few weeks later W. S. Ladd and C. A. Ladd, his wife, of Portland, dedicated what was designated as North Mukilteo, ten streets being laid out running back from the water front. Later the plat of an addition was also filed. A number of twenty-acre tracts changed hands in September, 1871, at prices ranging from $5 to $10 per acre. Some of the prominent speculators and business men of Seattle, San Francisco and Portland were interested, and among the names found on the old record are those of Harold H. Pitts, Erastus Bartlett, Spooner R. Howell, Silas Galligher, Edward Sikes, D. T. Wheeler, W. H. Cushman, Henry J. Wortz, S. P. Warner, and Adam F. Bender, of Pierce County. This was in the days when Jay Cooke was the wizard of the Northern Pacific, but his plans, whatever they may have been, were killed by the panic of 1873, and an echo was heard at Mukilteo when the Ladd plat of North Mukilteo was vacated, May 5, 1873. That Ladd planned to be a winner, no matter where the terminal lightning struck, is shown by the power of attorney which he gave to Alfred E. Tilton of New York City, November 7, 1871, to sell lots in plats at Holmes Harbor, Port Susan, East Coupville, McElroy's addition to 'Olympia, Central addition to Puget City, North Tacoma addition to Seattle, North Mukilteo, Port Townsend and South Whatcom.

Mukilteo, itself, seems to have taken little interest in this speculative flurry and M. H. Frost was one of the commissioners who granted the petition to vacate, and the settlement showed but little signs of growth, although it gathered a few families round about it. Louisa Fowler was the first white child born at Mukilteo, in 1862, and Niel Spithill was the second.

By 1875 Mukilteo had taken its first steps as a manufacturing point. The beginning was humble. H.C. Vining and Mr. Rheinbruner went into the business of salting salmon. Captain Wright, of the Zephyr, visited the east, and on his return, in February, 1876, proudly told that at Philadelphia he had seen forty barrels of salmon for sale, bearing the brand "Rheinbruner & Vining, Mukilteo, Washington Territory." And thus to Mukilteo's score must be added the credit for manufacturing the first Snohomish County products sold in an eastern market. The salmon sold, in Philadelphia, at $12.50 for a half barrel. The Eagle Brewery was also founded, by Joseph Butterfield, in 1875, and sold in July, 1876, to Frost & Fowler for $600. Tt was in operation until it was destroyed by fire in July, 1882, and Mukilteo beer was sold all over the Sound. Vining continued the fishery business alone, in 1876, paying the Indians from 'one to two bits" for salmon weighing from eight to ten pounds,

First Salmon Cannery

It was in June, 1877, that George T. Myers came from the Columbia River to Mukilteo to establish the first salmon cannery in Washington Territory. An item in the Snohomish Star, telling of his coming, said: '""George T. Myers is on the road to Mukilteo to establish his salmon canning establishment there. He expects to have a store so as to supply employes and other customers. He also will engage tn canning berries, fruits and vegetables." There is no record that the firm of Jackson, Ayers & Company canned any save fish products but the project was successful at the start, mention being made, the latter part of July, that the cannery was doing finely and had put up 1,000 fish a day since starting. Another Mukilteo item was a fish story to the effect that a salmon weighing 2814 pounds had been caught and that the Zephyr "'took 200 barrels of salmon from Mukilteo on her last trip."" These barreled fish were "'mild-cured'' not canned, but the cannery was so prosperous as to arouse some jealousy as to where credit for its coming should be placed and M. H. Frost wrote to the Star, September 9, 1877, saying: 'In your issue of September 8, credit 1s given H. C. Vining for bringing the Jackson, Myers & Company cannery; whereas I received the letter from George T. Myers as to salmon fishery and I answered it in detail and invited a visit. Mr. Farrell came and was shown the premises by J. D. Fowler, and this resulted in the establishment of the cannery.' The Star insisted, however, that Vining deserved much credit, as he had urged a cannery for a long time and had written articles favoring it, for publication in the Star. The coming of the cannery evidently helped the town, for P. Trana, a Snohomish carpenter, moved to Mukilteo in 1878 and built a rather pretentious nineroom, story and a half house for Alexander Spithill and a smaller residence for Tsaac Arthur; but the Frost and Fowler firm was not so prosperous and it was obliged to place its affairs in the hands of a receiver, V. B. Stacey. Under the regime of Stacey, Mukilteo took on new life, in 1878. Jackson, Myers & Company leased the fishery and the grounds for the canning establishment for ten years, beginning January 1, 1879, and planned to improve the wharf and enlarge the cannery; the Eagle Krewery was sold to Cantenia, Bohen and Klausman; Wendel & Grandel came from the Columbia River district and bought ground for a cooper shop: T. G. Wilson, produce dealer of Seattle, bought a business site; P. Trana also invested in real estate and negotiations were opened for the purchase of the Livingston mill site of forty-four acres from the townsite company which Stacey had organized. Steamers called more frequently, at least a dozen new families were predicted before the close of the year and five of the twenty strips of land offered by the townsite owners were sold. The old Frost and Fowler hotel, which had been closed was reopened in February, 1879, by P. Trana. It is hard to tell just what became of this boom, but the years 1879 and 1880 were among the very deadest experienced in the early history of Puget Sound, Snohomish being reduced to a mere handful of people and the old town of Whatcom getting down to one store, so it is not surprising that the Mukilteo boom collapsed along with the others. There were some signs of life in 1882 when S. S. Hassard (Hassard was the general merchant. He died in 1890.) started to put up barreled salmon and F. V. Snyder rebuilt the brewery which had just burned down, but the next ambitious enterprise for Mukilteo came in 1886.

Long Branch Resort

Walter Keyes bought water-front property and announced his modest purpose of making it the "Long Branch of Puget Sound." This resort was "dedicated" in May, 1887, with two bands, a picnic by the First Regiment of the National Guard and excursions from Seattle and Snohomish. Its second year was also opened in royal style with music by the Pacific band and a crowd from Snohomish. The Eye, of June 23, 1888, contained the announcement that the Bay View Hotel had just been leased and remodeled by Mrs. L. Thomas to be run as a summer resort with dance pavilion, croquet grounds, swings, sailing boats and fishing as attractions. "Rates $2 per day. Special rates by week or month." Under the management of Mrs. Thomas the resort prospered and she became one of the leading spirits of the town. The townsite was surveyed in the fall of 1889 and in December it was announced that several eastern men had bonded J. D. Fowler's farm, that Spithill, Fowler, Foster and Gravelle had gone together on a mysterious business trip and that Mrs. Thomas and others were planning to build a woodenware factory and mill. Mrs. Thomas sold three lots to Dr. D. B. Shepard, of Butte, Mont., for $4,000, and ten Seattle capitalists negotiated for fifty-five acres of the Deselle tract for summer resort purposes and planned a daily fast steamer from Seattle. Mrs. Thomas and Alexander Spithill were members of the school board at this time and the school, too, was booming. Everett was now getting its start, and the excitement carried over to Mukilteo. Peter Gravelle, a French- Canadian trapper who first came to Snohomish County in 1867, although he did not settle in Mukilteo until 1877, platted an addition and sold fifteen lots in Snohomish within a week. Gov. L. K. Church became interested and bonded the Deselle waterfront property in the south part of the town for $4,500. Church filed a plat covering a large part of Mukilteo, reserving a strip along the water-front, but containing eighty-seven blocks and 2,300 lots, on June 9, 1890. Portions of this plat have since been vacated, but the larger part remains as platted. James Southerland also filed a plat of an addition, August 2, 1890. Real estate sales were brisk in the spring of 1890, the largest sale being twenty-four lots sold by W. R. Hassard to

P. P. Cummings, for $2,850. H. A. Pratt and Lot Wilbur were among the other purchasers and it was thought that Mukilteo was about to become the great play geround for those who expected to grow suddenly rich at Everett. In -\ugust, 1890, Mukilteo had four steamers daily from Seattle, but this was largely ['verett business as Mukilteo offered the best landing place. It also had a good hotel, and a new sawmill, while the work on the Great Northern grade kept a large force at work. Peter Gravelle was one of the most enthusiastic boomers, building a two-story restaurant and hotel. F. A. Pease, also, erected a store and real estate office and the town once more became a telegraph office when the new Postal coast line reached it in November, 1890. A spur of this line was built to Snohomish by Heiser and Smith, being completed in January, 1891. The crest of this wave of prosperity mounted until the fall of 1891 when J. H. Davis paid $5,500 for two lots and reached its topmost height when the city bonded itself for the erection of a $10,000 schoolhouse, which was ready for occupancy in February, 1893. This was one of the finest school buildings in the county at that time and was later used for city hall, lodge and church purposes as well, but it involved a heavy indebtedness for a town which had never numbered more than seventy-five white inhabitants prior to that date. One rather startling event took place in May, 1890, when J. D. Fowler, postmaster since 1862, was succeeded by F. Hayward; the office again reverted to the Fowler family, however, on April 5, 1898, when Mrs. Louisa Fowler Sinclair (the first white child born at Mukilteo) became postmistress.

Industrial Progress

While all this booming and summer resort planning was going on the fish and lumber industries were maintained and expanded. Myers continued in the fishery business with varying success. In 1886 the run was very heavy and it was told that his seine No. 2 brought in one haul of 5,391 salmon averaging eight pounds, or over 2114 tons, while seine No. 1 broke under the weight of its catch and but 3,900 were secured. The fishermen received four cents per fish. A new cannery and wharf were installed by Coleman in 1887, Chinese labor being employed and it was said at the time of the anti-Chinese agitation that the only coolies employed in the county were at this cannery. F. L. Tuttle was at the head of this institution during the season of 1888 and he overhauled the plant, added a patent can filler, built several traps and had a large fleet ready for the run, which was at first disappointing but which later improved. The run in 1889 was reported as unusually large and the Mukilteo cannery was kept busy and in 1891 it was stated that Myers' cannery was handling from 4,000 to 5,000 fish daily. There was great remonstrance from Mukilteo in 1892, when the new law prohibited the catching of salmon along Puget Sound from March 5 to June 1, and it was maintained that this law had been passed in the interest of Columbia River canneries. Wiuth the hard times of the '90s these canneries went out of business and Mukilteo was all but extinct until the coming of the Mukilteo Lumber Company in 1903. The mill was one of the largest on the Sound, with a capacity of 200,000 feet of lumber in a ten-hour day, and was finely equipped. The officers were M. J. Clark, president; E. A. Nickerson, vice president and manager, and O. B. Whitney, secretary. With its coming Mukilteo again became a busy place; its population being estimated in 1905 as 200 whites and 150 Japanese. The business houses at that time included the general stores run by Gilkey & Runkel, and N. J. Smith, and there were three hotels and a number of lesser business houses.

Mukilteo Today

The Mukilteo of today is a picturesque, busy little city with good community spirit and important industries which furnish employment to its people. The chief manufacturing enterprise is the Crown Lumber Company, which employs some 300 men in a modern and well equipped plant. The deep water harbor enables this concern to load ships direct from the mill and many vessels are loaded each year for Pacific coast and foreign ports. A. A. Scott is manager of this plant which has a capacity of 225,000 feet of lumber daily. It is owned by the Charles Nelson interests of California, one of the largest factors in the lumber business on the coast.

H. W. Jackson is president, and B. E. Lane secretary-treasurer. The plant occupies a large portion of the townsite and is the dominant factor in the life of the town. The Superior Shingle Mill also affords employment to a number. It is owned and controlled by Everett capital. The Puget Sound & Alaska Powder Company is the largest concern of its kind on Puget Sound and is the only competitor of the Du Pont Powder on the west coast. It was organized in 1909 and has thus been in successful operation for seventeen years. Its monthly capacity is about 400,000 pounds and its production is a good index of the progress of the county for its dynamite is used chiefly for clearing land, railroad work and logging, while its gelatin dynamite is used in mining, being shipped to Idaho, Montana, California, Canada and Alaska. Peter David, of Seattle, is president; Roy Hobart vice president; W. H. Kirsey, secretary-treasurer, and F. G. Tegtmeier, who is also president of the Port of Everett commission, sales manager. The plant is safely located some distance from Mukilteo and gives employment to about thirty men. The Central Ferry which makes almost hourly trips between the mainland and Clinton on Whidby Island, also attracts business to the town. The chief retail establishments are the Crown Lumber Company's store, the Chandler drug store, picture theatre, garage, grocery, meat market. A second ferry to Whidby Island is now being planned as this is the shortest water passage between Everett and the island.

Mukilteo church life is represented by four organizations. Rev. H. M. Course is pastor of the Presbyterian, the senior among the churches, built in 1908. Rev. August Ernst now heads the Christian Alliance Church, erected in 1915. The Nazarene Church, built in 1916, is led by Rev. Roy Nolt, while the Catholic Church, constructed in 1919, is in charge of Rev. Father Leo Hansen. The schools under the superintendence of Prof. Erwin S. Black, have an enviable reputation; 225 pupils receiving instruction up to the ninth grade. Dr. E. C. Chandler is secretary of the school board. |

There have been but few changes in the Mukilteo post office since its first establishment; J. D. Fowler, and later, his daughter, Mrs. Sinclair, having held the office many years. Mrs. H. L. Hadenfelt, the present postmistress, succeeded Mrs. Sinclair in 1912.

The Royal Neighbors lodge is the only one in Mukilteo, but it 1s a very active force and is now at work raising the necessary funds for a Community Hall to cost $5,000. Mrs. Anna Brown is Oracle and Mrs. May Shearer, recorder of this enterprising organization,

A unique feature at Mukilteo is the government light house. The appropriation for this was made in 1905. Col. S. W. Rasseler of the Engineer Corps had the construction in charge, the service then being under the 13th Naval District, U. S. Navy. It is now under the 17th Light House District, Department of Commerce. The first light keeper was P. N. Christiansen, who served from March, 1906, when the light was first lighted, until his death, October 5, 1925. The present keeper is E. A. Brooks, with H. A. Dusenberry as assistant. The first visitor to register, on March 16, 1906, was Mrs. Hattie J. Smith, who is still a resident of Mukilteo. The bathing beach in front of Mukilteo is as great an attraction now as it was in the early days and on nearly every pleasant afternoon and evening the merry bathers and the sparkling driftwood fires give Mukilteo the air of a delightful pleasure resort, and this it may again become, just as it was some forty years ago.