Erasmus M. Smithers (February 17,1830 –November 20,1905) was one of the European pioneers of the Pacific coast and the founder of the city of Renton,King County,Washington. His wife and her first husband had settled on the land where the town is now located in 1853,fifteen miles (24 km) from what is now Seattle. At the time there were no white settlers at a point nearer than Seattle,which was then a frontier settlement.
Smithers was born in Virginia on February 17,1830,to a family being of English origin and which had been among the early settlers in Virginia and North Carolina. His father,Samuel Smithers,a farmer,was born in Virginia,and married a Miss Hale,also a member of one of the old families of that state.
He was raised in Virginia,and his early education was very limited in scope. At age 19,he left Virginia and set out for the west. A friend had informed him that two young ladies were about to leave for Oregon with a company,and that one of the members of the party,Green Olds,desired to secure the services of a young man to aid him during the journey across the plains.
He paid $50 to join the company. On May 8,1852,the company embarked with twenty wagons drawn by ox teams. 15 miles (24 km) west of Omaha,Nebraska,a large band of Indians met them at a bridge and demanded a payment of one dollar a wagon before they passed on,but the settlers were able to fight them off.
The trip Iowa City,Iowa to The Dalles,Oregon took six months,and they then continued to Portland,Oregon where Smithers found a job assisting in the construction of a mill. In April 1853,he went to Seattle,selling timber to ships bound to San Francisco,California. He brought with him from Portland three yoke of cattle and hauled logs to build the Fort Madison,Washington mill. When the Indian war of 1855 broke out,he volunteered for service,and continued a member of the volunteer militia until 1856.
In November 1857,he married Diana B. Gilman (born 1824,Orono,Maine),the widow of Henry H. Tobin. Diana and Henry had married in Lincoln,Maine in March 1851,and had been the first settlers of the Renton area in 1853,where they had built a timber mill in 1854. During the Puget Sound war with the Duwamish natives in 1855,the mill burnt down and the settlers were driven away. [1] Soon after their wedding Erasmus and Diana moved to Tobin's 320 acres (1.3 km2) claim and claimed another neighboring 160 acres (0.65 km2),which were wilderness at the time. A Duwamish Indian village stood on the claim site. The Smithers built a small home,where they lived initially and where their children,Ada (1858),Edwin M. (1862),and Fred G. (1866),were born. They built a larger house in 1875.
Smithers platted the town of Renton from land he owned and placed the lots on the market. With several others,he established the Renton Coal Company,selling his interest soon after. The coal seam had been discovered in Renton in 1853 or 1854 by Henry Tobin's first neighbor,Dr. R.M. Bigelow. [2]
A lifelong member of the Democratic Party,his first vote having been cast in support of Isaac I. Stevens for governor of the territory. He was a member of the Washington Pioneer Society and during the American Civil War he was initiated into the Freemasonry,being one of the first members of St. John's Lodge of Seattle,one of the first lodges instituted in the territory.
He was on board of trustees of the South Prairie Coal Mining Company. He was appointed by Governor Edward Selig Salomon and once by Governor Elisha Peyre Ferry a trustee of University of Washington and was elected president of the board of regents.
King County is a county located in the U.S. state of Washington. The population was 2,269,675 in the 2020 census,making it the most populous county in Washington,and the 12th-most populous in the United States. The county seat is Seattle,also the state's most populous city.
Renton is a city in King County,Washington,United States,and an inner-ring suburb of Seattle. Situated 11 miles (18 km) southeast of downtown Seattle,Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington,at the mouth of the Cedar River. As of the 2020 census,the population of Renton was 106,785,up from 90,927 at the 2010 census. The city is currently the 6th most populous municipality in greater Seattle and the 8th most populous city in Washington.
Seattle was a leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish peoples. A leading figure among his people,he pursued a path of accommodation to white settlers,forming a personal relationship with Doc Maynard. The city of Seattle,in the U.S. state of Washington,was named after him. A widely publicized speech arguing in favor of ecological responsibility and respect for Native Americans' land rights had been attributed to him.
The Duwamish are a Lushootseed-speaking Southern Coast Salish people in western Washington,and the Indigenous people of metropolitan Seattle.
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard was an American doctor and businessman. He was one of Seattle's primary founders. Maynard was Seattle's first doctor,merchant prince,second lawyer,Sub-Indian Agent,Justice of the Peace,and architect of the Point Elliott Treaty of 1855.
Two conflicting perspectives exist for the early history of Seattle. There is the "establishment" view,which favors the centrality of the Denny Party,and Henry Yesler. A second,less didactic view,advanced particularly by historian Bill Speidel and others such as Murray Morgan,sees David Swinson "Doc" Maynard as a key figure,perhaps the key figure. In the late nineteenth century,when Seattle had become a thriving town,several members of the Denny Party still survived;they and many of their descendants were in local positions of power and influence. Maynard was about ten years older and died relatively young,so he was not around to make his own case. The Denny Party were generally conservative Methodists,teetotalers,Whigs and Republicans,while Maynard was a drinker and a Democrat. He felt that well-run prostitution could be a healthy part of a city's economy. He was also on friendly terms with the region's Native Americans,while many of the Denny Party were not. Thus Maynard was not on the best of terms with what became the Seattle Establishment,especially after the Puget Sound War. He was nearly written out of the city's history until Morgan's 1951 book Skid Road and Speidel's research in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad and was the first proper railroad to serve Seattle,Washington,preceded only by horse-drawn rail vehicles and by a coal train making the very short haul from Lake Union to Pike Street. Despite its ambitious name,actual construction never went beyond King County,the county of which Seattle itself is the seat. After being sold to Henry Villard's Oregon Improvement Company in 1880 it was renamed the Columbia and Puget Sound Railroad. In 1916,that became the Pacific Coast Railroad Company.
Georgetown is a neighborhood in Seattle,Washington,United States. It is bounded on the north by the mainlines of the BNSF Railway and Union Pacific Railroad,beyond which is the Industrial District;on the west by the Duwamish River,across which is South Park;on the east by Interstate 5,beyond which is Beacon Hill;and on the south by Boeing Field.
Port Gamble is an unincorporated community on the northwestern shore of the Kitsap Peninsula in Kitsap County,Washington,United States. It is also a small,eponymous bay,along which the community lies,near the entrance to Hood Canal. The unincorporated communities of Port Gamble and Little Boston,part of Kitsap County,lie on the west and the east side,respectively,of the mouth of this bay. The Port Gamble Historic District,a U.S. National Historic Landmark,covers one of the nation's best-preserved western lumber towns.
The Treaty of Point Elliott of 1855,or the Point Elliott Treaty,—also known as the Treaty of Point Elliot / Point Elliot Treaty—is the lands settlement treaty between the United States government and the Native American tribes of the greater Puget Sound region in the recently formed Washington Territory,one of about thirteen treaties between the U.S. and Native Nations in what is now Washington. The treaty was signed on January 22,1855,at Muckl-te-oh or Point Elliott,now Mukilteo,Washington,and ratified 8 March and 11 April 1859. Between the signing of the treaty and the ratification,fighting continued throughout the region. Lands were being occupied by European-Americans since settlement in what became Washington Territory began in earnest from about 1845.
Peter Grant Stewart was a jeweler and pioneer of the Oregon Country in what later became the U.S. states of Oregon and Washington. A native of New York state,he traveled the Oregon Trail to the Willamette Valley and settled first in Oregon City and later in what became Washington. He was served on the Second Executive Committee of the Provisional Government of Oregon,and his homesite became part of Fort Canby at the mouth of the Columbia River.
The history of Olympia,Washington,includes long-term habitation by Native Americans,charting by a famous English explorer,settlement of the town in the 1840s,the controversial siting of a state college in the 1960s and the ongoing development of arts and culture from a variety of influences.
Henry A. Smith was a physician,poet,legislator and early settler of Seattle,best known today for his flowery translation of a speech by Chief Seattle that is still in print.
David Thomas Denny was a member of the Denny Party,who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle,Washington,United States. Though he ultimately underwent bankruptcy,he was a significant contributor to the shape of the city. Roger Sale,in his book Seattle,Past to Present,described him as having been "the pioneer to turn to if one had a plan that would be 'good for Seattle',and one needed a respectable tone and a willing investor."
Renton High School is a public secondary school in downtown Renton,Washington,U.S.,about 10 miles southeast of downtown Seattle. Founded in 1911,it is the oldest high school in the Renton School District.
Charles Hiram Burnett was an American politician and commission merchant who was the first Treasurer of the City of Seattle 1869-1872,and the General Superintendent of various coal mines in King and Pierce Counties on Puget Sound in the state of Washington.
The history of Bellingham,Washington,as it is now known,begins with the settling of Whatcom County in the mid-to-late 19th century.
Wenat was a stern-wheel steamboat that,under the name Swan,was built and operated,briefly,on the Tualatin River,in the state of Oregon. In 1858,Swan was sold,moved to the lower Willamette River,renamed Cowlitz,and placed on a route between Portland,Oregon the Cowlitz River.
Denny-Renton Clay and Coal Company,founded in 1892 as Denny Clay Company,was the largest producer of brick pavers in the world by 1905. An industry journal said in 1909 "The clay products of this company have long been a standard for general excellence in Seattle and the entire northwest" and described its products:
"Four great factories are operated by this big Seattle concern,one being devoted exclusively to the manufacture of sewer pipe,with a capacity of two miles of sewer pipe daily;one devoted exclusively to the manufacture of terra cotta;another,the Renton factory,manufactures paving brick of high quality,while the Taylor plant embraces the new sewer-pipe and hollow-ware,as well as the dry-press and fire-brick factories."
William Henry Mitchell was a pioneer of the Washington Territory and Olympia who made big contributions to the city's industrial and business development. He was a member of the Washington State Legislature and the Pioneer's Association of the State of Washington,an Olympian Town Trustee and a joint councilman for Thurston and Lewis counties.