Thomas Burke (Seattle)

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Thomas Burke Thomas Burke (judge).jpg
Thomas Burke

Thomas Burke (December 22, 1849 – December 4, 1925) [1] was an American lawyer, railroad builder, and judge who made his career in Seattle, Washington. [2] He served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Washington Territory from 1888 to 1889. [3] He was the main representative of railroad magnate James J. Hill in Seattle. [2] Burke Avenue, The Burke-Gilman Trail [4] and the Burke Museum are named in his honor. [5]

United States federal republic in North America

The United States of America (USA), commonly known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, and various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is slightly smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U.S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D.C., and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico. The State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U.S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The extremely diverse geography, climate, and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.

The Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from March 2, 1853, until November 11, 1889, when the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Washington. It was created from the portion of the Oregon Territory north of the lower Columbia River and north of the 46th parallel east of the Columbia. At its largest extent, it also included the entirety of modern Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming, before attaining its final boundaries in 1863.

James J. Hill United States railroad promoter and financier

James Jerome Hill, was a Canadian-American railroad executive. He was the chief executive officer of a family of lines headed by the Great Northern Railway, which served a substantial area of the Upper Midwest, the northern Great Plains, and Pacific Northwest. Because of the size of this region and the economic dominance exerted by the Hill lines, Hill became known during his lifetime as "The Empire Builder".

Contents

Burke frequently organized subscription drives to raise money for Seattle projects, to the point that he often described himself as a "professional beggar." His would often be the first name on the petition, pledging the first dollar—or, later, the first thousand dollars. [6]

Early career

Burke arrived in Seattle in 1875 and formed a law partnership with John J. McGilvra; he soon married McGilvra's daughter Caroline. [2] He established himself as a civic activist: one of his first projects was to raise funds for a planked walkway from roughly the corner of First and Pike (now site of Pike Place Market) through Belltown to Lake Union. [7]

John J. McGilvra American judge

John J. McGilvra was a prominent lawyer and judge in late 19th century Seattle, Washington. Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D. in An Illustrated History of the State of Washington (1893) described him as "the oldest member of the legal profession in Seattle, Washington, both in years and practice" and "the father of the Seattle bar."

Pike Place Market public market and historic district in Seattle, Washington, U.S.

Pike Place Market is a public market overlooking the Elliott Bay waterfront in Seattle, Washington, United States. The Market opened August 17, 1907, and is one of the oldest continuously operated public farmers' markets in the United States. It is a place of business for many small farmers, craftspeople and merchants. Named after the central street, Pike Place runs northwest from Pike Street to Virginia Street. With more than 10 million visitors annually, Pike Place Market is Seattle's most popular tourist destination and is the 33rd most visited tourist attraction in the world.

Lake Union Lake in King County, Washington, USA

Lake Union is a freshwater lake entirely within the Seattle, Washington city limits and a major portion of the Lake Washington Ship Canal. Its easternmost point is the Ship Canal Bridge, which carries Interstate 5 over the eastern arm of the lake and separates Lake Union from Portage Bay. Lake Union is the namesake of the neighborhoods located on its east and west shores: Eastlake and Westlake, respectively. The northern shore of the lake is home to Gas Works Park. Notable features of the southern portion of the lake—collectively known as the South Lake Union district—include Lake Union Park, Museum of History & Industry (MOHAI), and the Center for Wooden Boats.

He served as probate judge 1876-1880 [8] and as chief justice of the Washington Territorial Supreme Court in 1888. [3]

"Irish as a clay pipe," [9] and well liked by early Seattle's largely Irish working class, as a lawyer Burke was well known for collecting large fees from his wealthy clients and providing free legal services for the poor. Therefore, many were surprised when he opposed the working-class anti-Chinese agitation in 1885–86, allying instead with George Kinnear and his Home Guard in providing armed defense for the Chinese against vigilantism. In this, he was a defender not so much of the Chinese themselves as of the rule of law. [10] When one of the anti-Chinese rioters died of a gunshot incurred during the violence of February 7, 1886, Burke was among those charged with shooting with intent to kill; none were ever actually brought to trial. [11]

George Kinnear American businessman

George Kinnear was an early Seattle, Washington real estate developer, responsible for some of the early residential development of Queen Anne Hill. He also had a brief military career.

Railwayman

The Burke Building, downtown Seattle, built 1890, photographed 1900. On the site of today's Henry M. Jackson Federal Building. Seattle - Burke Building, 1900.jpg
The Burke Building, downtown Seattle, built 1890, photographed 1900. On the site of today's Henry M. Jackson Federal Building.

Two years before Burke's arrival in Seattle, the Northern Pacific Railway had chosen nearby Tacoma as its western terminus. Many thought that this would condemn Seattle to, at best, a secondary role on Puget Sound. Burke would rise to prominence as a leader in Seattle's effort to avoid that fate. [12]

Northern Pacific Railway transport company

The Northern Pacific Railway was a transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest. It was approved by Congress in 1864 and given nearly forty million acres of land grants, which it used to raise money in Europe for construction.

Tacoma, Washington City in Washington, United States

Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, 32 miles (51 km) southwest of Seattle, 31 miles (50 km) northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and 58 miles (93 km) northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to the 2010 census. Tacoma is the second-largest city in the Puget Sound area and the third largest in the state. Tacoma also serves as the center of business activity for the South Sound region, which has a population of around 1 million.

Puget Sound sound along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington

Puget Sound is a sound along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and two minor connections to the open Pacific Ocean via the Strait of Juan de Fuca—Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and Deception Pass and Swinomish Channel being the minor.

Seattle's first attempt to build its way into the national rail network—the Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad—never got out of King County, although it did make a decent profit for its investors when Henry Villard bought it out in 1883 during his brief tenure at the head of Northern Pacific. However, Villard's successors operate the line intermittently at best, leaving the city little benefit from its support for the venture. [13]

Burke raised money to send Daniel Hunt Gilman back east to seek investment for another railroad, the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway (SLS&E). (Others involved in the founding of the railroad included David Denny, Thomas T. Minor, and George Kinnear.) In the event, Burke ended up accompanying Gilman on the trip. It became clear that any eastern investment would be dependent upon at least 10% of the investment coming from Seattle-area locals. The investment was found, and Burke became a railway attorney. [14]

The building of the SLS&E was a combination of hard-headed business and frontier disregard for law. On at least one occasion, Burke convinced the Snohomish County sheriff to head off to the wilderness with all of his deputies to prevent a representative of a rival railway scheme from serving a writ that would have prevented the construction of a bridge across the Snohomish River. Exploits like this helped to bring him to the attention of James J. Hill of the Great Northern Railway. [15]

Along with Judge Cornelius H. Hanford, Burke convinced the Seattle City Council to establish the 120-foot (37 m) Railroad Avenue (now Alaskan Way) along the downtown waterfront. The SLS&E got first choice of a right-of-way. [16]

The Northern Pacific eventually gained control of SLS&E by purchasing a majority of its stock. By this time, Seattle had established itself well enough as a city that Northern Pacific chose actually to operate the line (though the city did not get a major passenger terminal until 1905). [17]

Burke was a partner with Bostonian Frank Osgood and Seattle pioneer David Denny in the city's first horse-drawn streetcars (1884); only five years later, the three built one of the country's first electric streetcar lines. [18]

James J. Hill hired Burke in 1890 as the local counsel for the Great Northern, virtually guaranteeing Seattle's role as that line's western terminus. However, city engineer R. H. Thomson opposed adding yet another railroad to the crowded waterfront. When the Great Northern ran its first train to Seattle June 20, 1893, the end of the line was at Smith Cove in Interbay, a bit north of downtown. Eventually, Hill, Burke, and the city engineer's office reached a mutually satisfactory solution to the problem: the Great Northern Tunnel, a railway tunnel under downtown Seattle, built 1903–1906. [19] [20]

Burke died on December 4, 1925. He is buried at the Burke family monument at Evergreen Washelli Memorial Park.[ citation needed ]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ Junius Rochester, Burke, Judge Thomas (1849-1925), HistoryLink, January 30, 1999. Accessed 26 January 2008.
  2. 1 2 3 Berner 1991 , p. 14
  3. 1 2 Meany 1926 , p. 51
  4. ↑ Burke-Gilman History Archived 2006-05-27 at the Wayback Machine ., Seattle Department of Transportation. Accessed 26 January 2008.
  5. ↑ History, Burke Museum. Accessed 26 January 2008.
  6. ↑ Jones 1972 , pp. 115, 126
  7. ↑ Jones 1972 , p. 115
  8. ↑ Index to Politicians: Burke, The Political Graveyard. Accessed 21 May 2008.
  9. ↑ Morgan 1960 , p. 86
  10. ↑ Morgan 1960 , pp. 86–87
  11. ↑ Morgan 1960 , pp. 90, 95–96
  12. ↑ Jones 1972 , pp. 107–130
  13. ↑ Jones 1972 , pp. 110–114
  14. ↑ Jones 1972 , pp. 115–117
  15. ↑ Jones 1972 , pp. 117–119
  16. ↑ Jones 1972 , p. 119
  17. ↑ Jones 1972 , pp. 119–120, 127
  18. ↑ Newell 1956 , pp. 73–74
  19. ↑ Heather M. MacIntosh and Walt Crowley, Railroad Development in the Seattle/Puget Sound Region, 1872-1906, HistoryLink, September 22, 1999. Accessed online 23 May 2008.
  20. ↑ Daryl C. McClary (November 27, 2002). "Great Northern Tunnel — Seattle". historylink.org. Retrieved 2008-05-23.

Related Research Articles

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.

Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad

The Seattle and Walla Walla Railroad was a 3 ft narrow gauge railroad and was the first railroad in Seattle, Washington. 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.

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Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture Natural History Museum in Washington, United States

The Burke Museum of Natural History and Culture is a natural history museum in Seattle, Washington, in the United States. Established in 1899 as the Washington State Museum, it traces its origins to a high school naturalist club formed in 1879. The museum is the oldest in Washington state and boasts a collection of more than 16 million artifacts, including the world's largest collection of spread bird wings. Located on the campus of the University of Washington, the Burke Museum is the official state museum of Washington.

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The Burke-Gilman Trail is a rail trail in King County, Washington. The 27-mile (43 km) multi-use recreational trail is part of the King County Regional Trail System and occupies an abandoned Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway corridor.

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The Ballard Terminal Railroad Company LLC operates three Class III short line terminal railroads in western Washington, United States. Founded in 1997 to operate a three-mile spur through Seattle's Ballard neighborhood, the Ballard Terminal Railroad has expanded to operate two additional lines in the Puget Sound area, including Eastside Freight Railroad from Snohomish to Woodinville, Washington, and Meeker Southern Railroad, a 5 mi (8.0 km) segment from East Puyallup ("Meeker") to McMillin, Washington.

Robert Stetson Macfarlane was president of Northern Pacific Railway 1951-1966.

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References

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