The Denny Party is a group of American pioneers credited with founding Seattle, Washington. They settled at Alki Point on November 13, 1851.
The Denny Party is a group of American pioneers credited with founding Seattle, Washington. They settled at Alki Point on November 13, 1851.
On April 10, 1851, a wagon party headed by Arthur A. Denny left Cherry Grove, Illinois and headed west. [1] The party included Arthur Denny's father John Denny, his stepmother, two of his older brothers who ultimately settled in the Willamette Valley of Oregon, his younger brother David Denny, his wife, Mary Ann Boren, Mary's younger sister Louisa, and their brother Carson Boren. [2] Mary Ann Denny and was pregnant throughout the journey and Mary Ann's sister Louisa Boren ultimately married David Denny in 1861.
On July 6, 1851, the party battled Native Americans at American Falls, Idaho on the Snake River, but escaped unharmed. [3] The following day they met John Low, and he joined the party. Late in July 1851 they reached the Burnt River in eastern Oregon where they encountered a man named Brock who suggested to Denny that Puget Sound would be a good place to create a town.
The Denny Party arrived in Portland, Oregon on August 22, 1851. [4] Arthur Denny was ill and Mary Ann was about to give birth so the party convalesced in Portland. On September 2, Mary gave birth to a son, Rolland H. Denny.
John Low and David Denny headed north to scout the possibilities. Along the way they were joined by Leander "Lee" Terry. In newly founded Olympia, Washington, they met Michael Simmons, the wealthy founder of Tumwater. [5] He guided them to Alki to scout as a possible site for a settlement. On September 28, 1851 at Alki, Terry and Low began building a cabin with help from the local Native Americans, and then staked claims to the land. They decided to name their new village New York. [5] Low returned to Portland to alert the others, Terry looked for a froe to make redcedar shake shingles, and David Denny stayed on in the unfinished cabin. David Denny hurt his leg and was unable to complete the roof of the cabin. [4]
In Portland, Arthur Denny recruited Illinois farmer William Nathaniel Bell and his wife, and, by coincidence, Charlie Terry, Leander's younger brother. [6] The Terry brothers, from Waterville, New York, had come west as part of the California Gold Rush, but had not liked the rough and tumble of San Francisco.
On November 5, 1851, the Denny Party left Portland on the schooner Exact, bound for Puget Sound and Haida Gwaii. The Exact carried a number of settlers bound for Puget Sound in addition to the Denny Party, including Daniel Bigelow who settled in Olympia. After a difficult passage, particularly hard on the still-ill Denny, they arrived at Alki on November 13, [2] where David greeted them with the words, "I wish you hadn't come."
Denny was bitterly disappointed that Low and Lee Terry had already staked the relevant claims for Alki. However, he had no choice[ why? ] but to pitch in, finish the cabin and settle in for the winter. Denny convinced Bell and Boren that they needed to scout a different location. Once the worst of winter cleared, Denny and other party members explored as far as Commencement Bay (now the site of Tacoma), Port Orchard, Smith Cove, and up the Duwamish River to the present site of Puyallup, before settling on an island in the mudflats near the east shore of Elliott Bay, now the site of Pioneer Square. [7]
For the next three years Alki Point and Elliott Bay sites competed as rival townsites. Charlie Terry bought out his brother's and Low's Alki holdings, and led this community. Arthur Denny settled at Elliott Bay and, along with his rival D.S. "Doc" Maynard, led the development of Seattle. Terry and Low could not attact settlers to their townsite and people facetiously began calling the smaller village "New York Alki" or "New York bye and bye" in Chinook Jargon. [5]
The Birthplace of Seattle Monument at Alki Beach is inscribed with the names of all members of the Denny Party.
Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s and has since grown to encompass it completely. The waterway it provides to the Pacific Ocean has served as a key element of the city's economy, enabling the Port of Seattle to become one of the busiest ports in the United States.
David Swinson "Doc" Maynard was an American pioneer, doctor, and businessman. He was one of Seattle's primary founders. He was an effective civic booster and, compared to other white settlers, a relative advocate of Native American rights. His friendship with Chief Seattle was important in the formation of the city of Seattle, and it was he who proposed the city be named for this important chief. 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.
Alki Point is a point jutting into Puget Sound, the westernmost landform in the West Seattle district of Seattle, Washington. Alki is the peninsular neighborhood on Alki Point. Alki was the original settlement in what was to become the city of Seattle. It was part of the city of West Seattle from 1902 until that city's annexation by Seattle in 1907.
William Nathaniel Bell, originally from Edwardsville, Illinois and later a resident of Portland, Oregon, was a member of the Denny Party, the first group of white settlers in what is now Seattle, Washington. He lived in Seattle from 1851 to 1856 and then again from 1870 till his death.
West Seattle is a conglomeration of neighborhoods in Seattle, Washington, United States. It comprises two of the thirteen districts, Delridge and Southwest, and encompasses all of Seattle west of the Duwamish River. It was incorporated as an independent town in 1902 before being annexed by Seattle five years later. Among the area's attractions are its saltwater beach parks along Elliott Bay and Puget Sound, including Alki Beach Park and Lincoln Park. The area is also known for its views of the Olympic Mountains to the west and the Cascade Range to the east. One-third of Seattle's green space and urban forest is located in West Seattle, much of it in the West Duwamish Greenbelt.
Lake View Cemetery is a private cemetery located in Seattle, Washington, in the Capitol Hill neighborhood, just north of Volunteer Park. Known as "Seattle's Pioneer Cemetery," it is run by an independent, non-profit association. It was founded in 1872 as the Seattle Masonic Cemetery and later renamed for its view of Lake Washington to the east.
Licton Springs or North College Park is a neighborhood in the informal Northgate district of North Seattle. It is bounded by Interstate 5 to the east, beyond which is Maple Leaf neighborhood and the Northgate Mall; Aurora Avenue N to the west, beyond which is Greenwood; N 85th Street to the south, beyond which is Green Lake, and N Northgate Way to the north, beyond which is Haller Lake.
Arthur Armstrong Denny was one of the founders of Seattle, Washington, the leader of the pioneer Denny Party, and later the city's wealthiest citizen and a 9-term member of the territorial legislature. Seattle's former Denny Hill was named after him; it was flattened in a series of regrading projects and its former site is now known as the Denny Regrade. The city's Denny Way, however, is named not after Arthur Denny, but after his younger brother David Denny.
Carson Dobbins Boren was an early founder of Seattle, Washington. His sister Mary Ann was married to Arthur Denny, and his sister Louisa to David Denny. Boren was the first King County Sheriff. Seattle's Boren Avenue is named in his honor.
Seattle is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2022 population of 749,256 it is the most populous city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest region of North America. The Seattle metropolitan area's population is 4.02 million, making it the 15th-largest in the United States. Its growth rate of 21.1% between 2010 and 2020 made it one of the country's fastest-growing large cities.
Daniel Bigelow was a pioneer lawyer and politician in Olympia, Washington.
David Thomas Denny was a member of the Denny Party, who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle, Washington, USA. 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."
The steamboat Dix operated from 1904 to 1906 as part of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet. She was sunk in a collision which remains one of the most serious transportation accidents in the state of Washington to this day.
Henry Van Asselt was a Dutch immigrant to the US, one of the first to settle the area that is now Seattle, Washington. He came to the area in 1847 and was the longest surviving original settler of King County, Washington, dying at age 85. He married late in life, in December, 1862, to Jane, the daughter of Jacob Maples, and they had four children.
Emily Inez Denny was a painter who drew scenes from Seattle's early history, along with landscapes of the Puget Sound region. Her parents were Seattle pioneers David Denny (1832-1903) and Louisa Boren Denny (1827-1916). Her parents came to Seattle from Cherry Grove, Illinois over the Oregon Trail. Emily had a sister, Abbie Denny Lindsley (1858-1915), and two brothers, D.T. Denny and Victor Denny.
AMLI Arc, also known as Tilt 49, is a mixed-use building complex in Seattle, Washington, United States. It consists of two buildings, both facing Boren Avenue between Stewart and Howell streets: a 41-story, 440-foot-tall (130 m) residential skyscraper with 368 apartments to the south; and an 11-story, 307,296-square-foot (28,548.7 m2) office building with retail space to the north. Tilt 49 shares this block with the Kinects residential tower as well as the cancelled Daola Tower.
The Statue of Liberty, or Lady Liberty, is a replica of the Statue of Liberty installed at Seattle's Alki Beach Park, in the U.S. state of Washington. It was installed in 1952 by the Boy Scouts of America and underwent a significant restoration in 2007 after repeated vandalism had damaged the sculpture.
The schooner Exact was the ship that delivered the Denny Party to Alki Point on November 13, 1851, which marked the founding of the city of Seattle.