Skagit River Journal

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Noel V. Bourasaw, editor 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284 Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
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Earliest settlers in Whatcom and Skagit counties
Portal section

Skagit City was located on the South fork side of the Skagit River, less than a mile southeast of where the river forks north and south. Tom Robinson drove me to the very spot a couple of years ago and the bank is now covered with ferns and brambles where these buildings stood circa 1890-1900. The town began near where Barker's Trading Post opened in 1869. Within ten years, most of these buildings cropped up as Skagit City became the major crossroads for trading in the area that became Skagit County in 1883. During the 1870s, hotels, stores, saloons, a school, church, the Good Templars and Masonic lodges and other businesses were built to accommodate those who were claiming land above the river's log jams located where Mount Vernon is today.
When those jams were cleared in the late 1870s, the town declined as other villages formed along the upper stretches of the river and sternwheelers ascended the river as high as Sterling and Hamilton, depending on the depth of the river. By 1906, only one building remained — the general store of Daniel E. Gage, the building at the far left. John G. Kamb Jr., a descendant of two pioneer families on Fir Island, showed us a faded copy of this photograph at the Skagit City School that does not have a date but the old handwriting on it indicates that it was from the 1920s or 1930s. It noted that the Gage store was the only one still standing at the time of the notation. Besides the store, the note indicated that the church at the far right was Baptist in affiliation and that the large white house in the center was the home and office of Dr. Thompson.

We are creating this special portal section so that readers can find records of the earliest settlers and compare memories between the various pioneers. Here is one such letter that early pioneer David E. Kimble wrote to the new Skagit News newspaper in Mount Vernon, in its first year of publication. Below that you will find links to all such stories in the Journal. And here you will find some introductory snippets to a few of the features:

Early times on the Skagit river By David E. Kimble, Skagit News, Mount Vernon,
Dec. 30, 1884 (first year of publication)
It may be interesting to the readers of the News to know something of the first settling of the Skagit. The first white woman came to the river in 1854. Two ladies from Whiidby island came to live on the river. They spent one night under a spruce tree near about where E. McAlpine's house now stands, near Skagit City. The Indian war broke out in 1855 and they did not again visit this land.
The next ladies that came to the Skagit were Mrs. A. Hartson, Mrs. Laning [actually Lanning] and Mrs. Washburn, all remaining here. The first family that came was Mrs. Gage and her two daughters, now Mrs. Keen and Mrs. Narl. Mrs. Bartl, Mrs. Jasper Gates and Mrs. M.J. Kimble all came at one time. We chartered the steamer Linny [actually the Linnie] to bring us up. This was the first steamer that ever came to the jam near Mount Vernon. Mrs. Sam Tingley and Mrs. [Thomas P.] Jones soon followed the above-named and Mrs. Thomas Moore was next. It is too tedious to mention all that came after. [Read the rest of the story at this Journal site.]

Sartwell's first cabin built next to the Skagit in 1863 William H. Sartwell (1820-1884) is one of the most important of the earliest Skagit Valley pioneers because he is the first permanent settler who was recorded as living on the river. By most accounts he came to the valley in 1863, but an obituary of his neighbor, Orrin Kincaid, suggests that he could have arrived in 1862, as we will explain later. To fully appreciate Sartwell's introduction to what was then wilderness, you can read an account by his future neighbor, George E. Hartson, in The Coast [Endnote 1] magazine, December 1908:

It is scarcely possible to conceive the great changes that have taken place from the time the first settler located his humble cabin in the heart of a great jungle, until the present time. Then were great forests of alder, spruce and fir trees. Now there are wide stretches of rich alluvial lands, on which are found the beautiful mansions of wealthy farmers. Many of these farmers are the original first settlers, while others are their successors, and are reaping the harvest sown by the old timers of forty years ago.
The writer well remembers that at this time not even a blind trail existed over which it was possible to travel. All transportation was by canoes and boats. The first of the early settlers was careful to have his cabin located on the bank of the river in order to have some means to reach the outside world and renew his supply of provisions when they became exhausted.

[Read the rest of the story at this Journal site.]

William Robert "Blanket Bill" Jarman, William "Blanket Bill" Jarman was one of those frontier characters who became famous by inventing and reinventing themselves several times over. That reinvention and redemption has become almost a cliche about the famous Western historical figures, but Bill made an art of it. His nickname is derived from one of the tall tales he loved to spin, a legacy from being a sailor in both the Atlantic and Pacific who deserted from the British Navy at least once and covered his tracks with more than one conflicting scenario. Born an Englishmen at Grave's End on the Thames River near London, probably in 1820, he would make his mark by being one of the very first European settlers in northwestern Washington Territory and the first to live among Indians for a sustained period.
His lasting physical legacy is Jarman Prairie, about four miles north of Burlington and east of Old Hwy 99, Bow Hill and the Friday Creek Fish Hatchery. It is still named for him but for many decades it was misspelled as German Prairie. For a few decades, the phonetic German Prairie replaced the original name on the map, but Skagit County restored Jarman's surname because of demands by old-timer neighbors. As charming and convincing as the man could be, researchers are forewarned that the record on Jarman up through the 1950s was based more on folklore than well-researched history.
Lelah Jackson Edson pretty much accepted the details of Jarman's life that he claimed in an 1897 interview when she published her The Fourth Corner book about Whatcom history in 1951. But Percival R. Jeffcott actually sought out original sources as he researched Jarman's claims on at least three continents and found that many events either could not have happened or at least not in the time frame that Jarman presented. Jeffcott's 1958 book, Blanket Bill Jarman, is generally considered the most complete picture of the man. Jarman is a most difficult pioneer to measure because he left comparatively little public record, much of which is contradictory.
We still do not know when Jarman began telling the most famous and fantastic of his tall tales; we wish the earliest pioneers had kept track of how the tales evolved. Did he tell the earliest settlers the story of his ransom for blankets or was the story a defensive explanation for his lifestyle that seemed strange and unorthodox to traditional settlers? After all, newcomers were already wary of Indians and apprehensive about their families' security. At least one aspect of his oral memoir makes sense. Jarman came to Puget Sound because the captain of the English ship sought valuable furs for the fashion conscious upper classes of the British Isles. We also know that the stocks of beaver and other fur-bearing animals had been thinned almost to extinction after several decades of unrestricted trapping on ponds, streams and rivers. [Read the rest of the story at this Journal site.]

Links to early settlers of future Skagit county and the Skagit river valley The earliest settlers in the 1860s

Blanket Bill Jarman claimed at various times that he "settled" first at future Whatcom county in 1848. None of us have found evidence for that, but the consensus is that he did indeed settle at Samish bay in 1852, making him the first settler in Whatcom and in Skagit. See ourfive-part Jarman section.
William Sartwell, first permanent settler on the Skagit River and his 1863 South fork cabin, and his connection with Magnus Anderson and other pioneers.
Introduction to the 1906 book, Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties, with facts about the book that you may not have learned before, and background on its creators, along with a caveat for readers. Find at that portal the links to the chapters about the earliest settlers.

Others from very early on, 1860s and 1870s Skagit river folk and earliest towns

Where was Skagit City, and why did settlement of the Skagit River region really begin there? And read about the Skagit City Community Club and how they are restoring and protecting the 1902 Skagit City School on Fir Island. Would you like to help preserve the school?
Eldridge Morse's first tour of the Skagit river settlements from his The Northern Star newspaper in Snohomish, in the April 29, 1876 issue. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
A subsequent tour from the April 9, 1877 issue, noting the growth of Skagit City, settlement on the north fork of the Skagit and how Mount Vernon was born that year, early LaConner and Fir Island and northern Snohomish County and Hatt's Slough. Links also to our exclusive biography of this great man. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
History of town of Fir and Fir island by settler descendant Mamie Johnson Moen, written in the 1940s. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.

The river pioneers

Our exclusive profile of 1869 Pleasant Ridge and Fir island pioneer, Magnus Anderson, his famous cabin and a brief history of the town of Fir and the South fork of the Skagit river. Updated 2011 with a full biography of Anderson and his fellow pioneer, William H. Sartwell.
David Everett Kimble, first settler to homestead in 1869 near future Mount Vernon. With links to five other stories about him and his family and the settlers of 1869-71, plus we unravel the mystery of the Kimble/Kimball name confusion. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Jasper Gates, who homesteaded the land that became present downtown Mount Vernon in 1870. Joseph Dwelley homesteaded adjacent land and David E. Kimble homesteaded what is now southern Mount Vernon. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
We will soon share a serialized version of the autobiography of Joseph Dwelley, one of the Whidbey Island settlers who staked claims at future Mount Vernon. One of the discoveries of the decade as you will learn in issues 59-61.

Other early histories of the river towns and people

A 1940 history of the settlement of the Mount Vernon area from 1870 on and the beginning of the town. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Mike Aiken shares a November 1878 issues of C.B. Bagley's Puget Sound Weekly Courier, and the story of how the Upper Skagit was opened to settlement and logging that year as the log jams were conquered and our most important upriver pioneers staked their claims, including Mike's great-grandfather, Birdsey Minkler. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Introducing our new County Histories Portal Section with links to nearly a dozen more transcriptions by noted pioneers and historians over a century's time

Pioneers in other county locations LaConner and southwestern county

The considerably restored 1869 Magnus Anderson cabin in LaConner. Read our exclusive Anderson profile for all the details.

Profile of the first (brief) settler of the future LaConner area in 1863, A.R. Underwood, the bona fides that he had settled, however temporarily, in the area of future LaConner in 1865. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
We have studied for 12 years the lives of the two men who first settled the area that became mainland Skagit county: Sam Calhoun and Michael Sullivan, who came to the Swinomish flats in 1863, plus the Calhoun brothers, Dr. George, Tom and Rufus. We are updating this major story; can you help?
The Cornelius and Rudene families of Pleasant Ridge, and the Wallace, Mounts, Moa and Browning families they were related to. And Ruthinda Mounts Browning Wallace, the matriarch. Part 1 of 3 parts.

Genealogy of the early families

The introduction of our major continuing genealogy series. Profile of the late John Flood Conrad, memorialist of the Skagit County Historical Society from 1949-73, who wrote obituary notes for the annual Pioneer Picnic, staged annually on the first Thursday in August. And the story of his father, Charles, an orphaned Swedish immigrant who farmed near Pleasant Ridge. The notes were in handwritten form, courtesy of Maurice Erickson, his nephew and you will find links in this intro section to every year as we post them.

Fidalgo island

Introduction to Amos Bowman's writing: Before and After — the Anacortes founder publishes an 1879 letter predicting the boom and follows up with an 1890 article answering his own predictions. Includes brief profile and timeline for Amos and his wife, Annie (Curtis), namesake of the town. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.
Capsule profiles of Anacortes and Fidalgo Island pioneers, businesses and place names, Part 1: A-L. This story will soon be changed to this address. If neither file connects, please email us.

Samish bay and northwestern county

Read the Journal profile of John Henry Fravel, Whatcom pioneer from the 1858 Fraser river gold rush, lineman for the original Puget sound telegraph line in 1864 and founder of the town of Fravel in 1871. After sharing the names of Fravel and Blanchard and various times, residents chose the name of Blanchard in 1913.

Upriver earliest pioneers

A brief biography of Otto Klement, who paddled across Puget Sound in 1873 and became one of the Skagit Valley's first permanent settlers, before becoming the Lord of Lyman. This portal section has been updated with more Klement stories, including excerpts from his 1926 diary, and it is now updated with the first known Klement photos, through the kindness of Bud Meyers.
Amasa Peg-Leg Everett and the full background story on the discovery of coal in 1874. He went on to homestead the land on the east shore of the Baker River, part of which became Baker City, and he found the ledges of limestone that spawned the cement industry of Concrete.
Lafayette Stevens, the Skagit pioneer from 1873 who used his Nevada mining skills to prospect for coal near Hamilton, find the coal fields that led to Cokedale and became the most noted mining speculator on the Skagit river.
William Hamilton, namesake and earliest permanent settler at Hamilton, which he and his wife created, on the northern shore of the Skagit across from Coal Mountain, in the 1870s. With links to the area history before their arrival and after her death and William's abandonment of his first family, only to start another in Oklahoma.

Whatcom county portal section The settlers linked from this portal chose the Skagit county portion of the mother county, Whatcom. Click above to find the profiles of key pioneers north of Chuckanut Mountain in the half that remained Whatcom after November 1883.

Story posted on Dec. 6, 2011
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Earliest settlers in Whatcom and Skagit counties Portal section

Earliest settlers in Whatcom and Skagit counties
Portal section