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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Free Home Page Stories & Photos
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

Timeline of Early Lyman

Lyman's Main Street, now under water, in 1888. We are looking east towards the Klement/Minkler store and the Cooper home in the background. Join us at the Lyman Centennial/Car Show on Saturday, July 11. The car show lasts all day. The historical events and grand opening of the Minkler Mansion as Lyman City Hall begin at 1 p.m. Please bring photos and documents about early Lyman if you have them. Read our extensive history of Lyman by following the links from our Upper Skagit River Portal Section: Utopia to Cascades. Scroll down to Lyman for the stories.

1872	A.R. Williamson starts hop farm @ 1 miles west of town where either Robinson Road or Nicholson Road are now, Indian pickers came from BC via Williamson Pass & south Nooksack River. Eldridge Morse of Snohomish visited 1881, said he lived 1 mile north of river. He died Nov. 6, 1883
1877	Valentine Adam (not Adams) files homestead claim containing present Lyman.
1878	Heinrich Holtkamp logs between Williamson and Utopia (1 mile west) before moving down to Sterling and Holtcamp Road
1879	Jan. 14: John Beible opens first saloon in trading post opened by Otto Klement, valley settler who rowed across Puget Sound alone in 1873 (Direct guests to website for "Good Ole Boys & The Pig)
1880	Ruby Creek Gold Rush attracts up to 2,000 miners, many settle or log in Lyman area
1880	Lorenzo Lyman, doctor from Helena, Montana, comes to Ruby Creek, obtains namesake post office for Lyman, Aug. 2, 1880, while living near Shoemaker Jim's Creek, a mile east of town
1881	After Lyman returned to Montana, Klement takes over post office Nov. 9
1880s	The late Bud Meyers: the river started "shouldering" its way from its original channel south of town, moves north & slough becomes main channel in early 20th century after '94, '96, '97 floods
1882	After brief uprising, Colonel Chamber of state militia holds summit with Indians at future Lyman site
1883	After exchanging his Cockreham Island homestead with Val Adam, Henry Cooper builds first home in future town of Lyman, on bluff above Skagit River Slough, near present water's edge. House built for his bride, Clara Augusta Bartlett, from Massachusetts. Cousin Henry Cooper Leggett settles in Utopia 1.5 miles west
1884	John Brownrig and Henry Quinn open Lyman Hotel near Trading Post
1884	July 29: Elizabeth Cooper is first child born on townsite, in parents house
1884	Clothier & English, Mount Vernon founders, log near Lyman, brief partners with Klement
1884	George Savage of Birdsview plats town of Lyman
1886	March 31: Birdsey Minkler buys Klement post/store and lots, after selling Birdsview mill & property to George Savage in 1886
1887	Nov. 26: Hannah B. Minkler, Birdsey's first wife, succeeds Klement as postmaster on Nov. 26
1888	April 15: Lyman Sawmill Co. incorporated by Otto Klement, Henry Quinn, Birdsey Minkler, John M. Roach and Frank Ries
1889	Knights of Pythias Hall built on bluff above the river across the street from Klement/Minkler post
1889	Downtown located on Main Street under water near the north shore of river
1890s	Wooden bridge spans Lyman slough (tell Alf Albertine story)
1891	Seattle & Northern railroad reaches Lyman, starts at Ship Harbor/Anacortes on the west, builds on to Hamilton, then terminus finally located at Rockport, 1900 . . . Minkler builds mansion
Mid-1890s	Austrian immigrants Max and Mary (Albertine) Prevedell move to Prevedell Hill
1906	Feb. 10: J.T. Hightower, C.R. Wilcox, Ed English, Wyman Kirby, Elmer C. Million incorporate Skagit Mill north of town; Highland Timber Co. holding company, future platform for English companies. English & Dempsey Brothers, Michigan, launch Puget Sound & Baker River Railroad. PS&BR closes 1957
1911	Birdsey Minkler dies . . . daughter Maude Vandeford adds pillars to mansion @1920. Lyman xx newspaper begins, ends next year
1911	July 5: "Bud" Meyers born, Henry Cooper's grandson, born to Henrietta and Frank "Curly" Meyers
1917	Jan. 17: John T. Hightower dies, "Aunt Jo" takes over mill with Wyman Kirby
1932	Rail passenger service ends 1932, freight effectively ends 1938
1936	Hightowers close Skagit Mill over workers demand for 5-cent/hour raise
1950	Feb. 9: Lyman Tavern totally gutted by fire

Links, background reading and sources

Biography of Otto Klement and his memoirs. And be sure to check out Hogtied! Good old boys in 1882 Lyman — Boredom, devil rum, hijinks, greed and frontier humor, from Otto Klement's diary. And his arrival in the Skagit Valley in 1873.
Lyman, Part One: earliest settlers and homesteaders, including A.R. Williamson, Valentine Adam and Henry Cooper and town namesake, Lorenzo Lyman. earliest businesses, the Skagit River's effect on the town, the Otto Klement and Birdsey Minkler eras. Two part story; part two has capsule history of the 24 earliest families.
Lorenzo Lyman, country doctor and namesake of Lyman
See the Upriver Portal Section for links to all stories about the pioneers, towns and townships from Utopia to the North Cascades.
The story of Samuel S. Tingley and Happy Valley/Day Creek, the Mercer Girls and country midwives and doctors.
The Lyman Tavern fire of 1950.

Story posted on July 9, 2009 . . . Please report any broken links so we can update them

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