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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
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The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit
Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness

Noel V. Bourasaw, editor

810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp

Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

Mount Vernon Record

October 7, 1897 . . . Volume 4, Issue 48 [Published on Thursdays]
Publisher: Al Sebring

"Al Sebring, Editor and Proprietor. Subscription $1/year. Subscribe to five papers at once for $2.05/year. Seattle Weekly Times, the Record and Thrice Weekly World of New York." He claimed the largest circulation of any paper in the county, but that is debatable since the Skagit News is generally recognized as the biggest seller in those early days.
In the late 1880s and early '90s, Al Sebring was assistant editor for the Skagit News in Mount Vernon. He then rode the Populist tide and on Nov. 2, 1893, he launched the Record, initially using the plant and resources of the James Power's Avon Record, which had failed in the first days of "Hard Times." The nationwide Financial Panic of 1893 killed off many banks and newspapers. He rode out hard times for almost exactly four years until he joined the Mount Vernon Argus organization in the late fall of 1897, just weeks after this issue.
Five years later, Sebring rose again when he launched the Sebring's Skagit County Illustrated magazine, a boon for we historians. It was used as a promotional piece back then to attract investment in Skagit county. Unfortunately the magazine only survived its inaugural issue of December 1902. You can look in used book stores for the reprint that the Washington State Genealogical and Historical Review published in 1983 with a cover price of $4. You can read a comprehensive history of Skagit County — which Sebring wrote in 1902 in his short-lived magazine, Sebring's Skagit County Illustrated — in Issue 21 in the archives of our optional Subscribers Edition.
In this issue of the Record, we separate the stories by the city or area to which they pertained. Our supplement notes or explanations are enclosed within brackets [ ].

Mount Vernon

3 legal notices. Sheriff's sale, State of WA and First National Bank of Mount Vernon vs. various combinations of Harrison Clothier and Ed English, E.W. Pollock, Paul Polson, George Gaches, William Brownrigg, Gilbert Hansen, William Harbert, E.C. Million and Eilla Million, his wife Alice Aschcraft, administratrix of estate of Frank Ashcraft, deceased. John Isaacson. Ira Foreman and Ora Foreman, partners as Foreman Brosthers. Dunam, Corrigan Hyaden Inc., Seattle National Bank of Seattle. Puget Sound National Bank. Suit of Sept. 2, sale Oct. 9, 1897. Judgement 1: $10,200 interest 7% vs. Clothier & English. Judgment 2: $1,700 vs. Clothier 7%. Judgment 3: Daniel E. Gage and John Fislar, executors of R.L. Kelley estate. Judgment 4: vs. English $1,200, by Gage et al.
The Financial Panic of 1893 caught many speculators with their pants down and interest rates up. These legal notices show the results, even four years later. Those who remember how Harrison Clothier foreclosed on Capt. L.A. Boyd's Nookachamps homestead back in 1891, for a mere $100 judgment, may find it difficult, however to shed a tear about the above. Clothier began a decline in business fortunes. English wound up being the most famous logging man in Skagit and Snohomish counties.
Attorneys in town: E.C. Million, attorney and counselor-at-law. Sinclair & Smith in Vaughn building near Court House. I.E. Shrauger, MV near Court House.
Electric Light Co. A new floor has been put in place in the electric light station. Since H.A. Bradner resigned as superintendent, Elmer has taken his place
Lighting. Five arc lights have been placed upon the streets since our last issue. This is indeed a good thing as the long winter nights are approaching and the lights will aid pedestrians to seek their way more easily on the streets.
Grand Army of the Republic. G.A.R. intends to open up a general hospital in this city soon. Have negotiated for a very large building in a pleasant part of town.
Salvation Army. The present mendicant and alleged captain of the Salvation Army spouts for the last time in Mt. Vernon next Saturday night. The people of this city will rejoice when he leaves, as he is very distasteful to our citizens.
Gold. Bill Patterson, Joseph Snodgrass, Chaney Patterson and Fred Slack have all returned from the Mount Baker diggings. Judging from his talk we don't believe he will tackle it again this station.

Mount Vernon advertisements

Cream Bakery. Restaurant. Mrs. J.L. Caldwell, owner. Conducted on short order plan. Regular dinner 25 cents. Commutation ticket. $5.50 for $4. Best meats in Mt. Vernon. Story: under new management this week.
Cash Grocery. Edward Branchflower
Anable & Stephens. Manufacturers and dealer in all kinds of building material, such as brackets, moldings, turning. A full line of the very latest designs of picture molding in stock. Frames. Undertaking supplies. Jobbing shop. East end of wagon bridge.
[We are not certain which Anable brother this was and we hope that a reader can advise. Charles Anable had an ice cream shop at the corner of First and Gates street, across from Capt. McCall's brick building and the First National Bank. In 1897, John L. Anable was the secretary of the Skagit County Fair Association and was also the police judge of Mount Vernon. A Democrat, he also held the patronage position of postmaster of the town during the second term of President Grover Cleveland. Niles Anable later bought the Mount Vernon Opera House in 1901. Built in 1892, it stood at the southeast corner of Washington and First streets, where the Lido theater later replaced it.]
Olbrich, John. Tailoring. Took over the old C.R. Rings, store, Second street, near Post office. Heavy clay worsteds, scotch tweeds, fancy cheviots.
Moldstad clothing. Nelson J. Moldstad. $30,000 in goods! "A very rich strike. Clondyke? Not in it!" Men's womens, dry goods and blankets.
[Mr. Moldstad came to Mount Vernon in 1891 with Louis Foss, presumably after the July 13 fire that leveled the early town. The two men opened a clothing store at the corner of First and Gates streets. In 1894, Moldstad bought out Foss, who built a brick block across the street and started another store. Moldstad bought Moss's building and became the "terrible destroyer of high prices" in his advertsing. Moss continued in business in The Fair store. Moldstad took on the title of Colonel, became the president of the Skagit County Fair Association and then was elected on the Republican ticket to the state legislature in 1902.]
Fair, The store. Fall and winter clothing. Louis Foss
Tilley, E.W.. Jewelry for the masses. Line of watches, silverware, sterling silver novelties, complete line of fashionable jewelry
Emil the Tailor.
Davis Hardware Co.. Harvest supplies. Harpoon and hand hay forks, rope, pulley, scythes, cradles, all grades of machine oils. Pure manilla binder twine, supplies and sack twine. We keep camping outfits. Hardware, tinware, pain line. Brick block. [This hardware store began as a partnership between E.D. "Eli" Davis and Otto Klement sometime in the late 1880s. In the Dec. 16, 1889, Skagit News, they advertise together at a store on Second street. In the March 4, 1892, edition of the Mount Vernon Chronicle, they advertise a hardware store on First street. Klement, who paddled across Puget sound to the Skagit valley in 1873, was most known for his trading post in Lyman, but he was involved with the founding of Mount Vernon in 1877 and claimed that he was the go-between for Clothier and English making a deal with Jasper Gates for the ten acres that became a nucleus of the town. Klement moved back upriver sometime in the late 1890s. [See the Klement section with four stories at our Klement introduction website and see a new Klement story in Issue 21 of our Subscribers Edition about logging in 1873.] Meanwhile, Davis retained the hardware store and in 1902 took on as a partner, his cousin, W.B. Davis. We are working with a Davis descendant, Theron Davis, on a story about this interesting family of brothers and cousins. Eli was elected county sheriff in 1890 for a term. W.B. was a teacher, first in Bay View and later in Mount Vernon, before being elected as a Republican to be county superintendent of schools in 1894, beating a member of the rising People's Party that year. When Republicans came back into power after the turn of the century, he was elected as county clerk in 1902. Meanwhile, W.B. had become enamored with the Klondike miners in 1898 and had assembled the necessary ton of supplies, a sled and dogs to join the miners up north in 1902. But Eli went down to Seattle and talked W.B. out of going and offered him a partnership instead. Eli married Margaret "Maggie" Hastie, daughter of the famed early Whidbey island pioneer, Thomas Hastie [see our Hastie family story website]. In 1905, Eli and W.B. bought out the Stanwood Hardware store and W.B. moved there to manage it. He was later joined there by his younger brother, Augustus. This summer we will feature the whole family in a series. Meanwhile, you can read the letters of W.B. Davis and family in this issue, number 21.]
Stephenson, Dr. Wanted. Farm produce in exchange for dental work
Northern Pacific Railway. Pullman sleeping cars, elegant dining cars, tourists sleeping cars. To St. Paul with through tickets for Chicago, New York, etc. Through tickets for Japan and China via Northern Pacific steamship Co. I.A. Nadeau, general agent, Seattle. I.D. Miller, Ticket agent, MV. Office in Grand Central Hotel
[Nadeau was the NP agent credited for working with Sedro founder Mortimer Cook to create the Western red cedar shingle industry, as he worked out a way to ship those superior Washington shingles back East and all around the country by a combination of steamships and Northern Pacific trains years before a rail line reached Sedro. See our Cook story website]
Canadian Pacific Railway. Daily to St. Paul. Wednesdays to Boston and Sundays to Toronto. Paul S. Hogan, local agent, MV
Sumner, B.R.. Carpenter and builder. Stackpole shop on Myrtle St., near depot, MV
Petzelberger, Julius. Manufacturing jeweler and watch repairing
Hotel Brooklyn. Only first-class hotel in the city. Good clean rooms, 25 cents, 50 cents, $1. Official hotel L.A.W. Half rates to visiting members of the league. Frank L. Crampton, Prop.
[The original Hotel Brooklyn, which burned in the 1891 fire, was built by John and Blanche Lorensey (also spelled Lorenzy), who were pioneers of Mount Vernon when it began in 1877. John shinnied up a cedar to fly the American flag and Blanche helped sew it.]
Washington restaurant. Opposite Hotel Brooklyn, best 15 cent meal in the city. Mrs. J.H. Barrington
W. McNicol. Repairing, machine work, engines, boilers and mill work. Saws gummed, hammered, fitted and straightened. Guns, sewing machines and bicycles repaired at lowest prices. Opposite post office
Wollheim's I.X.L. store. First National Bank building (Capt. McCall's brick block). Men's, women's, infants clothes. Logging shoes
George Hightower. Second-hand dealer returns from North Yakima, four weeks there with his phonograph. Ad. South of Court House

Greater Mount Vernon area

B.N.L. Davis's famous barn near the Great Northern trestle over the Skagit river in the old Riverside District. Seattle Times painting

Riverside [north Mount Vernon]. T.L. Harmon. Bridge tender for the Great Northern at the [Rev. B.N.L] Davis place.
[Near the trestle across the Skagit river at Riverside — then a separate community — on what later became known as Hoag road]
.McMurray [the lake area south of Mount Vernon and Big Lake]. M.E. Berridge store. Temporarily in old Evergreen Saloon building after fire at his store, will build new store.

Rexville [Pleasant Ridge]

George St. Clere. New blacksmith from Maine, replaces Mr. Hopkins who quit business here and moved to claim near Coupevill [Coupeville].
Rexville school. Has opened up with a good attendance, teacher John Z. Nelson.
School. Students left to attend at other places: Walter Hastie, Carol Talberg, Fred Watkins and the misses Annie and Millie Watkins. Annie Christenson and Alfred Nelson to Seattle.

Burlington

The Childs Brothers. have purchased the interest in the mill of the Burlington Manufacturing Co. Tom Shorter moved from the Hurley residence to the Shumway {hotel?), secured contract to supply Childs Bros. mill. He also has a contract with J.C. Waugh of MV. George Childs of Montana is visiting his brother J.A. Childs. Will probably stay over the winter.
[George Childs stayed in Skagit county while brother Joseph returned to their home state of Michigan. Sometime around the turn of the century, George moved to Sedro where he started the Casey-Childs mill on the north bank of the Skagit river just west of old Sedro. He died in 1944 and his wife Edith died in 1943.] McRea, Taylor*Fixing the road near here. [note: later affiliated with Grand Central Hotel of Woolley
A fine hoop cedar pail with $1 worth of soap at the Klondike store. Also sells stoves. Another note same issue calls it the Klondyke grocery.]
World's Fair hotel. Tom Shaughenessy, owner. [xxPhoto in file]

LaConner [Ed. note: Please note that we spell LaConner without a space for consistency throughout our web pages. It was spelled both ways by both newspapers and authors back in those days. Angry adherents for both ways still rave on today. In this issue, Mount Vernon, our preferred spelling, was not used. Instead, Mt. Vernon was the preferred spelling then.]

Mr. Wingren, LaConner photographer, photographed party at the Chessler home in Rexville.
J.P. Millett returned for business
[Millett was a very colorful character who began as a logger and then was elected sheriff on the People's Party ticket in 1896, but lost in his run for the same office in the elections of 1898 and 1900 as a Populist.]
Electric light plant proprietor [unnamed] agreed to furnish all night lights to the city for $80 per month.

West Skagit county rural

Belfast Shingle Co. [in the town of the same name on the Great Northern line north of Burlington] is in receivorship. Failed before July 1897
Bayview. W.W. Killam. "King logger of Skagit county" bought supplies in LaConner for his camp.
Olympia Marsh. Owen Fulk, farmer at Olympia Marsh [a peat bog area north of Burlington that was drained and tiled and produced prodigious crops of corn and other vegetables and grains].
Olympia Marsh. Phelps post office. There is talk of discontinuing the post office at Phelps. If this is done, residents of the Olympia marsh will attempt to get an office established near Johnnie Morrison's place.
[We have never heard of this township. Maybe a reader knows of it?]

Sterling [first upriver town in 1878, began as Ball's Landing]

Eunice Smithson. Will leave for California soon. Consequently, a unique little "at home" was given in her honor at the residence of Mr. and Mrs. Batey, my Misses Estelle Milhollin and Susie Batey. Susie and Kittie Clyton sang duet, "Sweet Bunch of Daisies." [Note: father was S.M. Smithson, school board clerk at Sterling in 1890]
Dwight M. Brosseau and wife visiting Mrs. Priest in Mount Vernon.

Woolley and Sedro

Woolley. Fritsch Bros. Hardware. Fritsch Bros. new store building is about completed. These enterprising gentlemen will have one of the nicest buildings in the county.
Darius Kinsey. Mr. Kinsey, photographer, was in the city this week delivering photos. He anticipates making Woolley his place of residence.
[See the Darius Kinsey profile by Ray Jordan elsewhere in Issue 21]
Woolley. IOOF. District Lodge meeting here.
Woolley. Good Templar Lodge [Prohibitionists]. Meets every Saturday night, boom in membership, average of three weekly. 19 initiations this quarter.
Woolley. Seattle & International Railway. Snohomish, Monte Cristo, Woolley, Sumas, New Whatcom. Woolley time card. Northbound arrives 12:49 p.m., leaves same time. Southbound. Arrives and leaves 1:49 p.m.
Woolley. Seattle & Northern Railway. Schedule changed completely 10/3/1897. Anacortes to Hamilton daily except Sunday, stops at Fidalgo, Whitney, Fredonia, Avon, Burlington, Woolley, Lyman. Eastbound leaves Anacortes 8:55 a.m., Woolley 10:55 a.m., Hamilton 11:35 a.m. Westbound leaves Hamilton 12:45 p.m., Woolley 1:55 p.m., Anacortes 3:30 p.m. Sunday schedule 1 hour 20 minutes later
Woolley. Bradsberry, Frank. Logging company owner
Sedro. Polson's General Store. Mr. Polson [Paul?], who has recently brought a stock of general merchandise to the old Helmick store here, has gained a lively trade within a few days' residence. We are glad he has left Whatcom and returned to our city.
[Paul Polson was one of the investors in the Skagit River Railway & Lumber Co., which was the paper front company that was created when Northern Pacific interests considered a rail line along the north shore of the Skagit river. Instead, the Seattle & Northern Railroad, a product of a group of Union Pacific Railroad investors, extended east from Ship Harbor (later Anacortes) to Sedro in April 1890 and eventually terminated in Rockport in 1890.]
Sedro-Woolley. Name used as column header. "times are improving" there. Sedro and Woolley merged on Dec. 19, 1898, with the hyphen

Upriver

Utopia. Henry Cooper. Leggett. Mr. Leggett of Lyman was in the Twin Cities [Sedro and Woolley] a few days ago. He informs us that he has under course of construction a new residence. Mr. L. is one of the most prosperous ranchers on the Skagit river.
Lyman. Mr. and Mrs. David Ross, *Ranch near Lyman. S-W section. Dave Ross reports his prune crop very heavy this year and is having most of them taken to the dry house of Fred Kintz (Kiens, pioneer who homesteaded in 1884 just north of what is now Hwy. 20 in Sedro-Woolley). We notice a great deal of surplus fruit has received the same treatment in this county.
Lyman. Knights of Pythias. Miss Maude Winkler (Minkler?) and Mrs. Truman (Trueman?) delegates to district lodge, guests of Estelle Milhollin and Susie Batey.

Puget sound

Grain shipments. During the month just passed, three vessels left Puget sound with grain for ports of Europe valued at $2.4 million.

Alaska-Klondike

Very little gold is expected on the Portland steamship when she arrives from St. Michaels, the Klondike, in Alaska.
[The Portland was the ship that arrived in Seattle with a million dollars in gold dust and nuggets three months earlier on July 17, 1897, ushering in the heaviest part of the gold boom that revived the Washington economy and cemented Seattle as the major city in the Northwest, ahead of Portland, Oregon.]
A mammoth hotel, costing up into the thousands of dollars, is to be erected at Dawson City next spring.
[You'll find in both this newspaper and newspapers all over during that period that the Klondike went by many spellings, including Klondyke, Clondyke and Throndiuck, an early favorite. The Klondike region was in southeast Alaska at the confluence of the Klondike and Yukon rivers, south of the Ogilvie mountain range. When gold was discovered on Bonanza creek in August 1896, Dawson City grew like a mushroom in moose pasture and a marshy swamp where the rivers merged. Joe Ladue was formerly a prospector himself but he quickly learned that gold-camp merchants got better odds. He originally owned a sawmill at a mining camp in a little burg called Sixtymile but he became an outfitter and decided to start a town. In just two years, as the gold rush boomed, his Dawson City became the largest Canadian city west of Winnipeg, with 30,000 people, much larger than either Victoria or Vancouver, down the coast of British Columbia. Why did Joe Ladue name it Dawson City? He needed a surveyor and the one who would do it cheap was William Ogilvie, who was an assistant to the deformed surveying genius, George Mercer Dawson. Ogilvie's fee for doing Ladue's survey was that the town be named for Dawson. We have not yet discovered the name of the hotel referenced in the Record story.]

National news

Gold. On account of the immense pile of gold accumulating in the treasury department, there is talk of issuing gold certificates.
Currency. $1 million silver dollars were turned out by the U.S. last month. Secretary of Treasury admits badly needed in west and south
California. Central Pacific Railroad. C.P. Huntington has resigned his position as director
Lily Langtry. Mrs. Lily Langtry will marry a prince at her California home in November. [Journal ed. note: Mrs. Langtry was a British expatriate who left the isles after a notorious affair with Prince Bertie and settled near Calistoga in the Lakes country of northern California after performing on stages across the U.S. A winery there honors her time in the area.]

Links, background reading and sources

Transcriptions of old newspapers
Our favorite history books and suggestions for further reading, including an index to all our reviews. Completely updated and expanded in May 2009 with dozens of reviews, mini-reviews and links to full-length features about Journal book features.

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