Fraser Cabin

The city of Bellevue is fortunate to have five historic cabins, all located in Bellevue City Parks. They were built between the 1880s and the 1890s:  Fraser Cabin at Kelsey Creek Park; Hans Miller Cabin at Robinswood Park; Sharp Cabin at the Bellevue Botanical Garden; Thode Cabin at Larsen Lake; and the Burrows Cabin at Chism Beach Park. Only the Fraser Cabin is open for viewing.

The Fraser cabin was originally built in 1888 by two Norwegian loggers who were known for their ability to build log bridges across a ravine in one day. The 16 ft. x 16 ft. cabin was located near the present day Northup Way and 124th St. about a ½ mile from the Fraser’s home. It was built for Daniel Fraser’s sister-in-law, Fanny, and her new husband Steven Rathbun. The newlyweds lived there about a year before moving to Massachusetts. 

2014.005.009 - Crowd gathered outside of the Fraser Cabin, Boy Scouts flag on flagpole. Undated.

When the Fraser’s main house was destroyed by fire in 1890, the cabin was moved to the homesite and later converted to a horse barn. In 1947, Daniel’s son, Don, moved the cabin to the corner of 126th NE and NE 7th. The logs were taken down and numbered as to assure accurate reassembly.

Eventually, Brooks Johnston purchased the property and used the former cabin as a horse barn. Johnston donated the cabin to the King County Parks Department in 1966, but there was a lack of funding for moving it to Marymoor Park. In 1974, Siegfried Semrau, Director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Bellevue Parks Department, accepted the cabin and it was moved to Kelsey Creek Park. Thanks to many generous donors, the cabin was reassembled with new walls, floor, roof, door, and windows and in May of 1975, the City of Bellevue held a Bicentennial Community Designation ceremony at Kelsey Creek.

L 88.064.007 - Siegfried Semrau, Verna Schembrie, Brooks Johnston with the refurbished Fraser Cabin at Kelsey Creek Park. Circa 1974.

Because of flood mitigation, the cabin was moved again in 2008 to its present location just south of the barns. Thanks to some creative engineering, the entire structure was moved up the hill and placed on a new foundation. A new ramp was built to make it more accessible to all.

Eastside Heritage Center opens the cabin during major events: Sheep Shearing and the Farm Fair. It is also open to the public one Saturday a month from May through September.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

A Port on the Lake

BY margaret Laliberte, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

Growth on the Eastside during the first half of the 20th century was possible only because of the motley assortment of boats, from small launches to sizeable steamers and double-ended ferries, that serviced numerous docks between Juanita and Newcastle and on Mercer Island. Many may have heard of John Anderson, who built up something of an empire, certainly a monopoly, his little steamers and launches linking Seattle with Eastside landings and wharves.  A story perhaps lesser known is that during that period public entities created public ferry systems on the lake.  Between 1901 and 1950 the relationship between public and private groups ricocheted between bare-knuckle competition and close intertwining rife with conflict of interest, as various arrangements and systems were experimented with. The concept of a ferry system as a public utility was evolving.  It fit in with the Progressive political movement popular in the state in the early 20th century, but its parameters remained unclear.

As early as 1892 John Anderson was running the ‘Winnifred’ between Leschi and Newcastle. (He was not the first or only operator on the lake.)   Over the years he bought and sold vessels and eventually began building them as well.  In 1900 the King County commissioners bought a ferry, the ‘King County of Kent,’  from Moran Brothers shipyards in Seattle. However, rather than operate the boat itself, within a few months the county leased it for three years to Bartsch and Tompkins Transportation Company (which operated a shipyard at Houghton that eventually became the Lake Washington Shipyards.) That decision precipitated a lawsuit; it wasn’t yet at all clear just what public ownership and operation of a ferry system ought to entail.  It might be acceptable for public funds to be used to buy boats, but some groups believed the operation should be left to private enterprise. Eventually the state Supreme Court upheld the county’s contract.  Meanwhile, King County purchased several docks around the lake for ferry use, beginning with those at Madison Park and Kirkland.  Over the next few years it added ones at Mercer Slough, Juanita, Newport, Medina, and Kennydale.

L 75.0106b - Ferry ‘King County’ at the Kirkland dock, about 1910. She was the first double-ended ferry on Lake Washington

In 1906 Anderson incorporated the Anderson Steamboat Co., and in November of that year he merged it with the Bartsch and Tompkins company. As manager of the new company, Anderson inherited the ‘King County‘ lease along with several boats that B&T had built, owned and operated. A year later Anderson bought Bartsch and Tompkins’ Houghton shipyard and renamed it Anderson Shipyard.

In 1908 the ‘King County’ became derelict and sank near Houghton.  However, the county was having a new ferry, the ‘Washington,’ built. Until it could be launched, the county contracted with Anderson to run his own boats, for a monthly “subsidy” of $300, on the ‘King County’s’ route. (This was a significant improvement for Anderson: the county’s lease for the “King County’ had provided a monthly payment of $200.) He was to run three round trips daily between Kirkland and Madison Park and charge “regular fares.”  In future years, whenever the ‘Washington’ was out of service, Anderson would step in with his own boat.  (Controversy continued over how much he ought to be paid. In 1911, for example, when the ‘Washington’ was out of service for repairs, Anderson charged the county $800 for the use of his ‘Dorothy’ and a scow for a month on the Madison Park-Kirkland run.)

The ‘Washington’ was launched in early May.  Meanwhile the county set the new fares.  Foot passengers—and sheep—each paid 10 cents one-way, car and driver 25 cents.  Commuting school children got 20 trips for $1.00. 

By Fall public support for the new ferry and its service appeared in the newspapers.  Writers noted that fares and freight charges had been much reduced and the number of daily runs increased. One writer noted that the county had saved the bonus it would have paid Anderson for “the worst attempt at service it was possible to imagine.”  Meanwhile, Anderson continued to build up his fleet of lake steamers.  The Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition was coming next year, and he would be ready to offer lake excursions on his fleet of 14 boats.  Once the AYPE was over, he was able to buy boats that a competitor, Interlaken Steamship Co., had lost to its creditors.

2013.046.092 - Rubie Sharpe’s ticket on Interlaken SS Co, “Meydenbauer Bay Route”

1911 brought a major development: in March the state legislature enacted the Port District Act. It authorized a county’s voters to establish a local port district to develop and operate waterways, wharves, railroad and water terminals and ferry systems. King County activists, fed up with the stranglehold the railroad companies had over the waterfront on Elliott Bay, rushed to draft legislation for the September election.  It was adopted, the county-wide Port of Seattle was created, the first such port in the state.  Port commissioners were named who set to work to create a plan for projects and financing, to be presented to the voters in March for approval. The final plan proposed included a $150,000 bond issue for a lake ferry.

The public weighed in, pro and con.  The Seattle Times and Seattle Star carried advertisements from the Bellevue Ferry Committee, a pro public ferry group formed to represent the interests of Eastside farmers, who wanted to transport their horse teams across the lake with their produce.  The Taxpayers’ Economy League and John Anderson were opposed.  Some accused supporters of being real estate speculators on the Eastside, just in it to benefit from increased land values.  A public ferry would inevitably be a “ruinous” financial proposition. The Ferry Committee countered that the private ferry business had a death grip on Eastside farmers. It appealed to Seattle Star readers, who it claimed subscribed to the paper because it had always stood for “reasonable public ownership as a relief from private monopoly.”

Proposition 6 passed easily on March 5, 1912.  The Port commissioners, who would run its new ferry system on the lake until 1919 alongside the county’s operation, commissioned a new double-ended vehicle ferry. The ‘Leschi’ was launched December 6, 1913 before a crowd of between 4,000 and 5,000 people. She could carry 2,500 passengers and 50 autos and teams. 

L75.0090 - The venerable ‘Leschi’ ferried vehicles and passengers between 1913 and 1950. She had a brief second act on the route between Seattle and Vashon Island and finally ended her days as a salmon cannery in Alaska

The Port began proceedings to condemn Anderson Steamboat Co.’s dock property at Leschi, for use of the ferry run to Bellevue and Medina.  The matter was finally settled in 1914 with the payment to Anderson of $20,000 for the facility.

Anderson built two ferries in 1914, the ‘Lincoln’ for the Port of Seattle’s Madison Park-Kirkland run and the smaller ‘Issaquah’ for his own route between Leschi and Newport, where cars connected to the Sunset Highway (today’s I-90) heading East.  The ‘Issaquah’ had a hardwood dance floor for the evening cruises she made on the lake after a day ferrying cars.  But Anderson was losing money on the ferry segment of his business.  In 1917 he withdrew his last boat, the ‘Issaquah’ from the lake and, with the opening of the Ballard locks, turned to building large ships in the Houghton shipyard for the looming world war. Eastside residents immediately complained about the loss of ferry service with Anderson’s withdrawal from the scene. The Port Commission contracted with him once again to run the ‘Issaquah’ until the end of the year. Anderson sold her to a Bay Area ferry concern the next year.

By 1918 the whole state of affairs was complicated, and hardly anyone was happy. The Port of Seattle was expanding vigorously and would have been profitable had not its ferry operations run large deficits. On Lake Washington the County and Port ran large vehicle ferries between Madison Park and Kirkland and Leschi and Bellevue/Medina respectively, on the rationale that these routes connected to important public highways and roads in the area. A newspaper article suggested that neither entity wanted to assume control of a consolidated system, even though that would be more efficient. Anderson’s ‘Issaquah’ was gone now. Private interests had to try to make profitable businesses serving the smaller docks on the lake, such as Mercer Island, Juanita, Beaux Arts, etc. The Port competed in these areas as well when it had the launches ‘Mercer’ and ‘Dr. Martin’ built and placed them on runs from Leschi  to Mercer Island and Yarrow Point respectively. It became virtually impossible for private interests to remain on the lake.  Public opinion was divided: Some felt public ferries should be limited to the routes to Kirkland, Medina and Bellevue.  Others believed the entire system ought to be in public hands, which the Seattle Daily Times pointed out would amount to a public Mosquito Fleet.

On August 15, 1918 the port and county commissioners reached an agreement whereby the Port of Seattle would transfer its two ferries and two launches to King County on January 1, 1919. The ferry ‘Robert Bridges’ ran on Puget Sound, the others on Lake Washington.   The position of Superintendent of Transportation was created.  When the man appointed to the post died unexpectedly within a week, the position was given to---John Anderson. Anderson named Harrie Tompkins, his long-time business associate, Assistant Superintendent.

Thus began a long period of intertwining public and private interests.  Anderson as a public official was now in the position of benefiting himself as a private businessman.  Initially the County leased all of his boats; in 1920 it bought them all, for $88,000. Subsequent investigations alleged that between 1919 and 1921 the County, under Anderson’s leadership, spent huge amounts on facilities and boats, repairing and repainting vessels (often in Anderson’s own Houghton shipyard). Repairs on the ‘Leschi’ alone totaled over $70,000.  There was apparently some unusual bookkeeping: costs of improvements such as docks were treated as operating expenses for the current year, rather than being spread out over their lifetimes.  The new waiting room constructed at a new, second Medina dock had a dance floor and was apparently used as a community center as well.   Anderson maintained an office in the Alaska Building rather than in the County’s workaday facility at the Leschi dock. At the same time the seven daily runs to Meydenbauer Bay in Bellevue were terminated; the boat now left just from Medina.  As the years’ operating deficiencies came to the taxpayers’ attention, some suspected that the commissioners might be deliberately creating a financial disaster in order to give them an incentive to offload the system.

1998.02.11 - King County Ferry System. “When Foggy Please Ring Gong.” Schedule lists times for both Seattle-Kirkland route and Seattle-Medina route.

And that is just what happened in December 1921.  The county commissioners leased its entire operation to John Anderson—apparently officially to a corporation called Lake Washington Ferries-- for a period of 10 years. No bids had been called for, and the whole matter was conducted almost surreptitiously. The agreement provided for no lease payments. In exchange for keeping all the system’s revenues, Anderson had to maintain routes and service and keep the boats in top condition at his own expense.  He could not raise fares. But he could return boats whenever he wished.   Finally, in lieu of a cash bonus for taking on the system, he was promised 20,000 barrels of oil, worth (according to some) $30,000.

The question that was in the air was,  How could Anderson make the ferry system profitable when under his watch it so clearly hadn’t been?  The public, particularly a Bellevue group led by Tom Daugherty, pressured the county until a grand jury was convened. Its report, after a nine-week investigation into the situation of the past several years, led to the county prosecutor’s  returning indictments in July 1922 against the three county commissioners, John Anderson, Harry Tompkins, and Johnson’s brother Adolf, for misuse of county funds for three specific vessel repairs and refurbishing and for misappropriating $700 in fuel oil.  Tompkins declared that the charges were “a bunch of bunk originating in Bellevue.” Defense attorney Fulton stated, “The indictments are the work of disgruntled people who have been unable to get personal favors from the commissioners.” A trial of the three commissioners was set for September in view of the November general election.  Tompkin’s and the Andersons’ trials would follow.

But the indictment imbroglio turned out to be something of a house of cards.  On the morning of the commissioners’ September trial, the prosecutor, in the presence of four of the grand jurors, interviewed his witnesses. (Bizarrely, one of the witnesses was John Anderson, who was to testify about the repair contracts’ terms.)  To his dismay, they all either couldn’t remember having given their testimony, couldn’t recall the facts charged, or claimed now that those facts could not possibly be true.  Faced with a total debacle, the prosecutor asked the judge to dismiss the three charges against the commissioners for lack of evidence.  He agreed.  The three still faced two indictments on repairs of the launch ‘Mercer’ and misuse of the fuel oil. 

L 80.028 - The ferry “Washington” of Kirkland on Lake Washington.

While the remaining charges were still pending against all the defendants, the local media kept the affair in the public spotlight.  Beginning in January 1923 the Seattle Star published a series entitled “The Ferry Deal.”  It began with six brief pieces by W.E. Chambers, a former King County commissioner, who explained how the county had gotten into the ferry business and its entanglements with John Anderson.  In mid-March, “in line with [its] policy to publish both sides of any controversy,” the Star had Thomas Daugherty offer his own six-part interpretation of events.

 Two weeks before his own trial at the end of March 1923, John Anderson was called before the county commissioners to explain how in one year he was able to take the ferry system he had run as a county employee and, as the private lessee, turn 1921’s $234,000 deficit into 1922’s $40,000 profit and decrease disbursements by 200%.  He explained quite simply that he could run the system now as a business—cut salaries, employees, unfavorable routes-- free from the constraints he had had as a public official, when “politics interfered.” (Left unmentioned was the fact as Superintendent of Transportation he had front-loaded the huge expenditures for new facilities and refurbished vessels before the commissioners turned the system over to him.)

The rest of the story ended abruptly.  When the Anderson group went to trial at month’s end, the judge, after hearing all the county’s evidence and without waiting for the defense to present its case, issued a directed verdict in favor of the defendants and chided the prosecutor for having brought the indictments on the weak evidence he had.  That ended the matter for the commissioners as well.

The lake ferries were now all being operated privately, although the county owned the boats leased to Anderson. In 1924 Anderson’s Lake Washington Ferries advertised daily excursions on the county’s steamer ‘Atlanta’  between Lake Washington and the Seattle waterfront through the Ship Canal and locks.  Lake cruises and excursions were more lucrative than the ferry routes.  In 1925 Anderson announced that he would turn boats back on the following January 1 (which the lease allowed him to do) unless the county would pay $70,000 to buy and install a new engine on the ‘Lincoln.  ’ Or the county could just give him the boat and he would pay for the engine. As one wag suggested in the newspaper, maybe Anderson could compromise with an Evinrude outboard.

Anderson persevered; in 1927 his lease was extended without fanfare until 1951. But it was becoming clear that the real culprit in the “unprofitability” of ferry service was the automobile.  Paving of the highway encircling the lake was completed in 1923, and the East Channel bridge to Mercer Island’s east shore opened in that year.  A floating bridge between the island and Seattle had been proposed in 1921, but it wasn’t seriously considered until 1930.  After funds became available through the Public Works Administration and serious planning began, one final major showdown over the ferry lease developed.

The Washington Toll Bridge Authority feared  it would be difficult to pay off the bonds, which had financed the bridge,  with bridge tolls  so long as competition in the form of lake ferries continued.  Under this pressure, in December 1938 the county commissioners cancelled Anderson’s lease.  He fought back by filing a claim for anticipated damages.  Negotiations among the three parties finally led to a settlement.  The county would not cancel the lease, and the Toll Authority would pay Anderson $35,000. In exchange, he would terminate the Leschi-Medina route and the runs to Mercer Island once the bridge opened. The run between Madison Park and Kirkland would continue to operate.

There was one final unpleasant chapter to play out.  The floating bridge opened on July 2, 1940 and that month Anderson announced that he was returning the ferry ‘Washington’ and the docks at Medina and Roanoke to the county and planned to return the launch ‘Mercer’ the following month.  When the boats were returned they were found to be in very poor condition. One had had its federal license cancelled because of unseaworthiness. The commissioners ruled that Anderson would have to pay a sum, as yet undetermined, in lieu of repairing the vessels.  Anderson countered that the boats were “just wore out” and that if they had been owned by a private business, they would have been “depreciated off the books long ago.”  The lease, however, provided that he was to return all boats leased in good condition.  Appraisers from each side were unable to agree on the present value of the boats; the county’s property agent was left to salvage what he could from the two boats.

John Anderson died of a heart attack on May 18, 1941.  His widow, Emilie, and his longtime right-hand man, Harrie Tompkins, continued to operate the Kirkland ferry under the lease with the county.  During World War II the ferry ‘Lincoln’ ferried shipyard workers between Madison Park and the  Lake Washington Shipyard at Houghton.  The ‘Leschi’ continued to make the Kirkland-Madison Park run.

In July 1947 Emilie Anderson wrote the county commissioners announcing that Lake Washington Ferries would not continue its lease beyond the end of the year and might suspend ferry service before then. But the enterprise just kept staying afloat.  On January 30, 1950, however, the Seattle Times ran three photos of teary longtime passengers and onlookers—including faithful Harrie Tompkins--saying goodbye to the ‘Leschi’ on what was expected to be its final run.  But no, there was still more.  Members of the union operating the boat attempted to continue to operate it so long as revenues could meet wages.  Their effort could not be sustained, however.  On August 31, 1950 the Leschi made its truly final run on the lake, and vehicle ferry service between the Eastside and Seattle ended.  In November the county commissioners voted to offer to the cities of Kirkland and Seattle the piers and land adjacent to them at their old ferry landings, for use as public parks. And so this colorful and complicated piece of local history finally came to an end. 

1998BHS.027.027 - Leschi’s last trip, leaving Medina

References

Books

The H.W. McCurdy Marine History of the Pacific Northwest, Gordon Newell, ed., Seattle: Superior Publishing Co. 1966

Ely, Arline, Our Foundering Fathers: The Story of Kirkland, Kirkland Public Library, 1975

Faber, Jim, Steamer’s Wake, Seattle: Enetai Press, 1985

McDonald, Lucile, The Lake Washington Story, Seattle: the Superior Publishing Co., 1979

Oldham, et. Al, Rising Tides and Tailwinds: The Story of the Port of Seattle, Seattle: Port of Seattle, 2011

Articles

McCauley, Mattthew, The Era of the Double-ended Ferry on Lake Washington,” Kirkland Reporter, Aug. 31, 2001

HistoryLink Essays #9726 (Port of Seattle Commissioners Meet), #2638 (ferry ‘Leschi’ last run), #2040 (‘Leschi’ launch)

John Anderson, Shipbuilder, en. Wikipedia.org/wiki/John_L._Anderson_(shipbuilder)

Newspaper articles

Seattle Daily Times

Seattle Post-Intelligencer

Seattle Star

Native Americans of Puget Sound and the Eastside Part 3

Stories and Art Works

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

Beaver Lake Park house post

The Native Americans of Puget Sound and the Eastside have enriched this region and the world with the many gifts of their culture. Some of these include:  Art, Dance, Theatre, Science, Philosophy, Life Skills, Technology, Psychology, Education, History, Genealogy, Nomenclature, and Stories. Written, oral and tangible elements remind us of the presence of these people as we explore their heritage and learn from them.

Rivers, mountains, sloughs, lakes, cities, towns and marine vessels with Indian names  are constant reminders of the impact these people have had, and still have, on this region. The Duwamish and The Snoqualmie are two Seattle fireboats that have Indian names.  The former was built in 1890. Together they fought the Grand Trunk Dock fire that erupted in Seattle on July 30,1914.  Snoqualmie Pass carries the name of the  Snoqualmie people living in that area. Places such as Issaquah, Sammamish, Leschi,  Nisqually, Snohomish, Tahoma, Stillaquamish, Seattle (Sealth), Skagit are all Native American names used today. These names are woven into the tangible and geographic fabric of the Lake Washington and Puget Sound regions.

Names, stories and artworks are gifts that spring from the beliefs, creativity and richness of local Native American culture. Women basket makers were respected for their skill and artistry in creating utilitarian and beautiful baskets usually woven from plant materials. Some baskets were so tightly woven they could hold liquids. Others were made with twigs spaced apart. These clam baskets allowed the water, sand and mud to drain out. Loops along the upper rim held ferns in place to cover food items in the basket. Harvesting, preparing and working with the plant materials is a skill in itself. Creating the basket and its design is another skill. It takes many years before a basket maker becomes an accomplished artisan. Some women became weavers making traditional Salish ceremonial blankets with white background and occasional dark lines. The blankets were usually made from mountain goat hair and that of a small dog. The breed of the dog is yet to be determined, but it is thought to have resembled a small white poodle or pomeranian whose hair could be sheared. These women held a respected position in the villages. 

2004.013.004 - Naming Blanket, made by Fran and Bill James.

2004.013.005 - Cedar bark woven with bear grass, made by Yvonne Peterson.

Dudley Carter's carving at Marymoor

Much of the fiber artwork such as baskets and weaving took place in the longhouses, as did the story telling. Local Indians lived in houses made from split cedar wood planks. The roofs were slanted from front to back in order to shed the rain. Large roof beams held up by decorated house posts were carved by skilled craftsmen. These posts, like the ones presently found at Beaver Lake Park in Sammamish, often depict stories, characters and songs. Song Dots on the posts represent songs while the figures represent stories. Stories are teachings that tell about the origin of things in the world, human characteristics and natural features. A Snoqualmie story titled, “Snoqualm, Moon The Transformer”, tells about the origins of the area between North Bend and Snoqualmie. Snoqualmie (English spelling) means “The Transformer’s People”.  A decorative pole depicting the story was carved by non-Native American Dudley Carter. The artwork can be found at Marymoor Park in Redmond. The story tells about how two Indian sisters fell asleep in the Snoqualmie prairie after digging fern roots. During the night the younger sister looked up at the stars above and wished that she could marry the white star and her sister marry the red star. Her wish came true when the star men picked up the girls and took them to the sky world. The elder sister became pregnant and delivered a baby boy who later was named, Moon the Transformer. By this naming time he had become an adult and the sisters had returned to their home by making a rope and sliding down it. Rat later chewed on the rope which fell to Earth from the sky world. The rope turned into a rock presently known as, Quarry Rock. As an adult, Moon transforms the Snoqualmie area by creating the natural features and peoples. He then goes into the sky to shed light by night while his younger brother, Sun, sheds light by day. The original version of the story is long, rich in detail and can be found at the University of Washington libraries.

Salmon Woman sculpture located at Highland Community Center, Bellevue

Native American art works are located in a myriad of places throughout the Eastside and Washington State. One Eastside location is at the front of the Highland Community Center on Bel-Red Road, Bellevue. The sculpture, created by Tom Jay and installed in 1991, is titled “Salmon Woman”. Some art works are local while others travel farther afield. A statue of Nisqually tribal leader and treaty rights activist, Billy Frank Jr. who died in 2014 at the age of 83, is being installed in Statuary Hall in the United States Capitol. A totem pole created by Lummi carvers is being taken to President Biden. It began its cross-country journey from Washington State on May 25, 2021 with an expected return date of June 14, 2021. The sacred journey with many stops along the route is a way of calling attention to the protection of Indigenous sacred places. The pole will be featured in the fall of 2021 at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian --- a fine tribute to the original peoples of this land through the power of their art, stories and culture.

---

Resources

Books:

Puget Sound Maritime Historical Society, Images of America: Maritime Seattle, 2002.

Bohan, Heidi, The People of Cascadia: Pacific Northwest Native American History, 2009.

Pamphlet:

Beaver Lake Park: Totem Pole and House Post Dedication, 12/5/1992.

Newspaper Articles:

Snoqualmie Valley Reporter, “Moon The Transformer” by Kenneth G. “Greg” Watson.

The Seattle Times, “A Sacred Journey” by Linda V. Mapes 4/12/2021.

The Seattle Times, “His voice will speak”: Billy Frank Jr. statue to represent state at U.S. Capitol    4/15/2021.

2021 AKCHO Technology Award

Eastside Heritage Center has been awarded the 2021 AKCHO Technology Award for our Eastside Stories publications. We’re honored to be recognized in this way and want to thank everyone who has read one of our stories or watched one of our videos.

We’d also like to thank our staff and volunteers for their hard work researching, writing, and editing these articles and videos. We look forward to continuing this series and sharing more of these stories with you.

Native Americans of Puget Sound and the Eastside Part 2

European Contact: White Settlers

BY Barb williams, EASTSIDE HERITAGE CENTER VOLUNTEER

Map, Tribal Ceded Areas in Washington State, Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In the early days, 6,000 or more years before White settlers came to Puget Sound and the Eastside, the Duwamish and Snoqualmie peoples were the dominant indigenous groups in the area. Despite intermittent raids and skirmishes between groups, the people were primarily peaceful. Their lives were supported by the bounty of the natural resources in the area, both plant and animal. The salmon returned each year to the creeks, rivers, lakes and saltwater bays. The villages were located close to these waterways which enabled easy transportation and acquisition of food. Duwamish longhouses were mostly located at the only waterway outlet from Lake Washington (originally known as Duwamish Lake) to Puget Sound. In 1849, Isaac Ebey came to the lake. He called it Lake Geneva. Several years later patriotic United States settlers moved into the area and changed the name to Lake Washington. Thus began White settlement that brought permanent changes to the region and to the lives of the indigenous peoples. White/Indian relationships were basically friendly prior to the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty in 1855.  However, following the signing, some Indian peoples became hostile once they realized their lands and traditional harvesting rights were being impacted by the White settlers. The Hudson’s Bay Company had come to trade with the Indians, but the United States had come to settle and take over their lands. 

Many indigenous groups spoke their own language, but all in this area belonged to the Salishan family whose parent language was known as, Chinook.  A new language was developed after 1792 when Captain Vancouver visited the Puget Sound area and the Hudson’s Bay Company began trading goods with the Indian people. The new language called Chinook jargon was created to facilitate communication between Indian peoples, fur traders, explorers and early settlers. Washington was the center of Chinook jargon that dated from about 1810. It consisted of an estimated 200 words of Chinook Indian language, mixed with Nootka, English, French and other languages. Some Native Americans used the new language and learned English, but others did not.

One of those who did not was Chief Sealth who had become the primary chief of the Puget Sound region. He never learned English or Chinook jargon because he felt it was beneath the dignity of the chief (himself) of his people. But he was always a friend of the White people. He wore a Hudson’s Bay blanket and was the first signer of the Point Elliott Treaty. He became a Catholic and held daily prayer meetings for his people. He was born in 1790 on Blake Island, a tribal camping ground, and passed away June 7, 1866. His daughter, Kakisimia, known as Princess Angeline, learned to speak English. It is said that she paddled her canoe through a blinding snowstorm to warn the garrison at Seattle of the impending Indian attack during the Battle of Seattle on January 6, 1856.

Unfulfilled Treaty promises granted to the Indian people in exchange for their lands stirred their discontent which resulted in the attack on Seattle. Hundreds of Indian warriors came to fight for their rights. However, after a day of fighting in which the U.S. Navy warship, the Decatur, fired its cannons killing many warriors, they retreated to the Eastside and over the Cascade Mountains from whence they had come. Leschi, the war-chief of the Nisquallies rallied his warriors for the attack on Seattle at a site on the western shores of Lake Washington. The site remained an Indian village called Fleaburg that was inhabited until the 1880s. Presently a Seattle suburb and a park called Leschi are located at the site. Other Indian warriors had gathered for the attack on Seattle at a large village site located on the eastern shores of Lake Washington near present-day Factoria.

OR/L 79.79.469 - Marie Louie or her sister Julia, Taken on the Lake Sammamish Road near Inglewood in 1914.

As mentioned earlier, the battle was the result of discontent as the Indian people began to experience the true meaning of their leaders signing the Point Elliott Treaty at Mukilteo on January 22, 1855. The Treaty document, hastily presented to many Native American groups by Governor Isaac Stevens, was presented in a language that many Indian leaders, as signers, did not necessarily understand. It gave Indian lands to the United States in return for compensation and rights. However, it was not ratified for four years and the promises had not been fulfilled. Tensions began to build during the summer of 1855. This resulted in the Treaty Wars of 1855-1856. By then the population of lake people Indians had been reduced by 80%, a result of the small pox epidemic in the 1830s. Many of the people had been moved to reservations. Those who remained in their homes, discovered that they were not allowed to hunt and fish at their traditional grounds --- a “right” they thought had been promised to them in exchange for their lands. Some of those who stayed in place were Snoqualmie people. 

Marie Louie, a Snoqualmie Indian princess whose Indian name was Gotshoblo, was one who stayed. She was born at Tolt (Carnation) in 1798 and died in 1917. She was a friend of the White settlers and often helped deliver their babies, such as the Pickerings baby. Bessie Wilson Crane’s birth was facilitated by Marie Louie.  Her family lived in Issaquah. Bessie’s daughter’s birth was assisted by Marie Louie.  Bessie remembered how much “Aunt Louie” loved children and would often sing to them. As a medicinal herbalist for her people, she enjoyed teaching pioneer children about the ways of the woods and streams. She was a well-known figure as she paddled her big canoe from Issaquah on Lake Sammamish, through the Sammamish Slough, south on Lake Washington to the Black River that connected to the Duwamish River, and into Elliott Bay to Seattle. There she sold the rag rugs she made from settlers’ worn out clothing. Her round trip took her almost a month to complete. She was approaching Seattle on June 7, 1889 when 32 blocks of Seattle’s business and commercial district burned. Her friend, Arthur Denny, warned her about the fire and saved her from coming ashore. Always helpful to White settlers, she walked several times in her bare feet to Yakima and back bringing with her new hops plants for the hops farmers on the Eastside.  

Following the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty, many Indian people needed a way to make a living. Some worked in laundry and lumber while providing a valuable workforce that contributed mightily to the successful growth of Seattle. Some came from miles away to work as paid help for the hops farmers in Issaquah, Fall City, and Auburn. These were good jobs for the men, women, and children. Others helped White settlers transport their provisions in their big canoes. It is said that the canoes could carry as much as two tons of goods. Indian guides showed White settlers water and land passageways and how to survive in the new land. In his journal, Reverend R. W. Summers writes that on July 17, 1871 Indian guides took him by canoe to their sacred place, Snoqualmie Falls. The Perrigo family set up a trading post in Redmond. They traded with members of four different Indian tribes and used Indian ponies to expand their business to farms between Redmond, Tolt and Novelty Hill.

L 88.029.003.7 - Snoqualmie Valley Native American hop farmers and workers, 1890.

Some Indians were both hostile and friendly to White people. Chief Patkanim of the Snoqualmie people was one of them. In 1849 he and his warriors attacked the settlers at Fort Nisqually, but during the Indian Wars of 1855-1856, he gathered eighty warriors of his tribe to help the White people. However, the Castro family of Issaquah was not so fortunate when they were murdered by Indian people as revenge for Indians that had been killed by White people. The years following the signing of the Point Elliott Treaty in 1855 resulted in a mixed relationship for both the Indian people and White settlers living in the Puget Sound and Eastside regions.

As more and more White settlers came to the region bringing with them their values and need for wood, coal, farming and industry, the area was greatly changed. In 1916 the Government Locks were built to connect the northern end of Lake Washington to Puget Sound. Because Lake Washington is higher in elevation than Puget Sound, the water levels throughout the Eastside dropped  9 to 12 feet. This greatly impacted the Indian peoples. The Wapato plant they depended on for food disappeared and the Black River all but dried up causing the large village on its banks to be abandoned and the southern water link to Elliott Bay to be blocked. Instead, the Cedar River began to flow into Lake Washington and the lake drained north past the University of Washington through the locks to Puget Sound. By this time many Native Americans were living on reservation lands. Some groups had been recognized by the United States government which entitled them to government programs and aid. Others had set up their own businesses, graduated from schools and universities and had become part of the new way of life.

However, there is one group, the Duwamish, that is still awaiting United States Government Recognition. At present there is a movement towards gaining Recognition and a petition (#StandWithTheDuwamish) circulating asking for support towards that end. The Duwamish people have built a beautiful community center near the mouth of the Duwamish River on the western side. They offer public programs, artworks and a wonderful place in which to connect with their culture.

Let us remember the Indian peoples who first inhabited these lands. They deserve our respect and gratitude for the gifts they have given to this region we all call “home”.  

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For more information about the Indigenous communities of Washington state, please visit the American Library Association at the link below.

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Resources

Books:

Fish, Edwards R. Past at Present at Issaquah Washington, copyright 1967.

Craine, Bessie Wilson Squak Valley, 1983.

McConaghy, Lorraine New Land, North of the Columbia, copyright 2011.

Thrush, Coll Native Seattle, University of Washington Press, 2007.

A Publication of the Seattle Times A Hidden Past articles 12/1997 to 1/2000.

Annotated bibliography of the following books: 

Dupar, Robert W. Meydenbauer History, 1989.

Karolevitz, Robert F. Kemper Freeman, Sr. and the Bellevue Story, 1984.

Eastside Heritage Center collections:

C.T. Conover, three articles that begin with the title, Just Cogitating: Puget Sound Indian Customs, Notes About Puget Sound Indians, Chief Seattle Had Dignified Appearance, Puget Sound Indian Tribes.

David Buerge article, Indian Lake Washington, The Weekly, 8/1 - 8/7 1984.

Frank Lynch article, Seattle is Named after a Slaveholder, Seattle Scene.

Pat Sandbo Salish Traditional Life Skills, based on a presentation by Steve & Dorothy Phillip.

Paul Shukovsky article, Duwamish Tribe Fights for Recognition, Seattle P-I 9/5/2008.

Nancy Way article, Perrigos start first inn and trading post near Redmond, Redmond Sammamish Valley News, August 16, 1995.

Charles W. Smith book chapter, “An Old Quaker Magazine”.

Photograph of Marie Louie inscription

Newspaper articles:

The Seattle Times June 7, 2021, Opinion, Give Duwamish Tribe Overdue Recognition

The Seattle Times June 13, 2021, Paid Advertising, Who Are the Duwamish?

Website:

Treaty history and interpretation. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife. (n.d.). https://wdfw.wa.gov/hunting/management/tribal/history.