Quilts of the Eastside

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Eastside Stories

The Eastside Heritage Center has a large collection of quilts which date from the mid-1800s to modern day. Patchwork quilting is an American tradition used mainly by women to create useful blankets, preserve family trees and memories, and demonstrate a wide range of skills related the textile arts. A quilt is made by joining a patchwork top layer to a solid or also patched backing, although they are warmer with a cotton sheet or batting layer in the middle this is not always a part of the quilters creation as it can be expensive or hard to find at certain periods of the past.

Photo above: Detail of quilt made of hexagon patches shoeing hand stitching.

Quilting is a very time-consuming task and one can imagine how much more so before sewing machines were readily available. The smaller the patches the longer the quilt would take to make with the hexagon flower pattern above. Each hexagon is only about an 1 ½ inch tall and the top layer for this is completely handsewn. It’s no wonder the quilter didn’t finish stretching and sewing this quilt to the backing. Still, this quilter’s labor is preserved in the EHC collection.

Some quilt designs are the result of fads like the Victorian era crazy quilt while many quilts are made from necessity. Quilters will often utilize any material they can find from fine ribbons and lace to worn clothes and flour sacks. Historically some companies have even catered to this by printing designs on their sacks or providing small slips of silk in cigar boxes which could then be used to make quilts. In the Eastside Heritage Center’s Collection there are quilts which still bare the logos of the mills which produced the flour backing some of the quilts.

Photo (above): Red, white, and blue patchwork quilt using the pattern known as "Job's Troubles".

Many quilt patterns were developed from stories in the Bible such as the quilt above showing a pattern called “Job’s Troubles”. The character Job in the Bible faced many hardships but kept his faith in God and may have been an inspiration for women who traveled west and faced many hardships themselves as they made a new life for their families. Often the creator of a pattern goes unknown. Just like today, quilters learn from each other and emulate what they see through skill. The four patches at each corner create a star and the four stars coming together create an almost circular shape. This quilter plays with the negative space by keeping all the larger patches white so together they emphasize the stars and the stars complement the shape back.  

Quilts take so long to make that sometimes quilters start them and work on them for years or set their work aside and come back to it after a long period of time. There are two quilts in our collection which were started and finished about forty years apart. We know this because the quilters themselves documented the years they worked on each.  In the back-left corner of a sunbonnet quilt, in a hard-to-read red thread over blue, white, and red flowers, are the words “Made by Georgia and Essa Smith 1938-1979”. Another quilt made by the sisters, featuring 25 stunningly hand-embroidered flower panels, reads “Made by Georgia & Essa Smith”/”Started 1930”/”Finished 1979”. Sometimes hand-stitched records like this are all we have to tell us who, what, when, and where regarding the quilts and other textiles in our collection.

Still, many things can be learned based simply on the patterns chosen, the cloth utilized, and the pictures, shapes, and stiches used to create each quilt. Quilts can be used to document communities, like one quilt in our collection showing the “5 Points Neighborhood” which existed on an intersection with five points that no longer exists. Their matching patches document the shape of the streets and show the creativity of each group who created them. Quilting can be an individual or a community activity and either way gives a unique glimpse into moments and times throughout east King County’s history. To see more patterns and learn about the history of quilts, download our new Basic Quilt Coloring Book and look out for more information on our quilt collection.

Photo (above): Quilt showing the use of printed bags from milling companies as backing for a crazy quilt.

A History of Snoqualmie: Finding Funds for a Road by Lobbying, Taxing, and Swindling

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Eastside Stories

Much of the construction of the road through Snoqualmie Pass was driven by money. Originally a desire of local citizens, the project would eventually attract federal funding. Economic opportunities convinced private citizens early on of the need for an easily traveled road, but the US government’s reasons hinged on military defense.

As early settlers sought to attract both travelers and those hoping to set up residence, finding funds for the project was of utmost importance. The Seattle area settlers hoped to attract more people to the region and capitalize on those traveling to other parts of the west. Still, finding funds required creative thinking and patience as the project experienced several setbacks.

After Governor Steven’s two exploratory parties, The Puget Sound War of 1855 both halted construction and encouraged further exploration of the region. Although the war interrupted its construction, in the end it would be a driving force for federal funding. Major J.J.H. Van Bokkelen felt that to deter attacks from Native American groups to the east of the Seattle area on the growing population of the Seattle area a military highway was needed. He documented topographical information himself to locate strategic sites for the establishment of military encampments.

After the war military desires and a new economic opportunity further encouraged the Snoqualmie Pass project. In 1859 the Gold Rush inspired many to come west seeking fortune and the construction of a road by Snohomish county settlers across Cady pass just a little north of Stevens Pass. This is also the year that Seattle used $1,050 to appoint a superintendent of roads and started again on their project to build a road across Snoqualmie Pass. Fortunately for them soon after this Bokkelen’s ideas made it to Washington. Congress secured funds in 1860-1861 to build a road through the Cascades for military movements. They gave $75,000 for the project, but the Civil War soon interrupted the construction yet again.

Photo (above) :Snoqualmie Pass Road - planked or corduroy road through the woods. Photographed by King County Public Works.

Still desiring a road that would route settlers towards Seattle, in 1875 Seattle businessmen lobbied for legislature to allow them to hold a “grand lottery”. The group would sell 5-dollar tickets to raffle off Henry Yesler’s $100,000 sawmill. Unable to sell their goal of 60,000 tickets the lottery dragged on until it was declared illegal by the courts. It is thought the promoters of the lottery profited more than the road and construction remained slow.

Finally, citizens collected $2,500 to start again and construct a 25 mile road. W. W. Perkings worked from July till November with 20 men to open road. Workers labored manually and were constantly foiled by falling trees and other obstacles. Cutting brush and other debris by hand, bridges were also constructed by brute force with cedar planks. The first party that built the road with hard labor named Rattlesnake Prairie for the Camas seed pods that rattled there in the wind. They were also the first to report seeing chunks of coal in the pass which would inspire later entrepreneurs. The early work done by these 20 men would allow travel time to be cut from days to minutes as the road progressed to what it is today. From beginning to end the construction of Snoqualmie pass roads and eventually highway has been fueled by economic concerns.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

Archaeology Around Japanese American Communities at Barnestown

Edited by David R. Carlson

Around 1898 to 1924 a small town existed in southeastern King County known as Barnestown. This town was created for sawmill and lumber workers recruited to work in the area. Building towns like this allowed workers and their families to live in a community and enjoy some comforts in between hard labor. The needs of workers and their relations is why a store, bathhouse, and school were all built. The buildings have since been taken down by the Kent Lumber Company and the lumber sold, but remnants of Barnestown’s occupants, can still be found today. The material objects left behind are clues about how Japanese Americans there spent their days and the kind of changes and pressures they faced living in a new land.

 Recently, University of Washington PhD student David R. Carlson has conducted archaeological research into the site focusing on Issei (first generation) and Nissei (second generation) Japanese Americans who lived and worked at Barnestown. By first conducting a surface survey and then excavation, Carlson and his team explored what material culture was left behind to tell about the Japanese American laborers lives and some of their experiences around adapting the life in the USA, labor relations, and racial discrimination. From documented histories about our region we know that adjusting to life in the USA was not easy for many immigrant groups, mainly because of the discrimination they often faced. For Japanese American laborers bigotry took the form of pay inequality, legal exclusion from settlement, and even outright violence. By looking at written records and the layout of the town of Barnestown, Carlson was able to create a workplan that could potentially shed light on the day to day experiences of Japanese Americans in sawmill towns like this. Carlson hopes to discover this and more about how the pressures of discrimination affected their daily lives.

Although issues such as adjusting to cultural changes and racial discrimination are not always directly evidenced in excavated material or blatantly obvious in styles of living, research into history creates an understanding of the context which typically guides archaeological research. For example, one of Carlson’s research questions is to figure out the patterns and activities related to alcohol consumption in the community. This requires him to understand what kinds of alcohol were consumed and where, and to contrast the different kinds of alcohol consumed in public versus private areas. These patterns might not seem significant, but with an understanding of existing pressures at the time, these patterns can be given more meaning. Well-documented bigotry was prevalent among many more established immigrants of European descent towards newer Japanese American immigrants. Because of this, influential members of the Japanese American community often discouraged drinking in order to help avoid dangerous situations for their fellow community members. This kind of information, can help archaeologists like Carlson imagine how certain patterns of alcohol consumption—such as a community avoiding high-proof, hard alcohol consumption—can point to larger ideas of socially acceptable alcohol consumption and racial discrimination.

This is just one example of how a more holistic view of history and material evidence can lead to important connections. The above example indicates why this is so important to put material evidence into a larger context. Archeologists rely on the physical materials and chemical evidence discovered during excavation to give clues about the reality of people’s lives in the past. Trained archaeologists have the skills not only to apply a historical context from researching paper records, they also learn to document findings during excavations in a way that tells much more than any one object could. Without this kind of information even the most interesting artifact can become useless in learning about the past. Unfortunately for this particular project, much of the analysis of physical objects had been delayed by the global Covid-19 outbreak, but David R. Carlson shared his preliminary work with us this July, and we look forward to hearing more when he is able to continue his work.

 Special thanks to University of Washington PhD. candidate David R. Carlson (pictured left) for sharing his work with us and providing the information for this article.

David R. Carlson’s research was funded by a UW Department of Anthropology Pilot Study grant and a National Science Foundation Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant (ID # 1743498). It was conducted with the permission and support of Seattle Public Utilities and the Cedar River Watershed Management District. This project further relies on assistance and/or material from the Cedar River Watershed Education Center, the DENSHO Encyclopedia, the Northwest Nikkei Museum, the Hoover Institution Archives, the Seattle Municipal Archives, and the University of Washington Special Collections Library, as well as a large number of incredible and dedicated volunteers! Special thanks to these organizations and Mr. Carlson for bringing this research to the Eastside Heritage Center.

A History of Snoqualmie Part 3: Conceiving the First Roads Through the Cascades

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Eastside Stories

The pressures which created the first road through Snoqualmie Pass hinged on the increase in population seen as the Seattle area’s population grew. Even as the project was beginning though, some maintained that it was too dangerous to travel by land. Explorers, fur traders and the eventual colonial settlers that arrived on the Eastside avoided the Cascades for a long time because of the danger posed by terrain and weather. Early arrivals traveled by water and through Oregon to avoid the formidable Cascade Range. The first road was proposed to bring more settlers quickly through the mountains.

The first route, Naches Pass to the south of Snoqualmie Pass, was one of the routes shown to European explores by Native Americans. White settlers took advantage of this indigenous knowledge as they carved out the first wagon road there. One of the first parties to cross through Naches Pass is said to have lowered its wagons by leather ropes down a 1,000-foot drop above Pyramid Creek. This party, known as the James Longmire and James Biles party, comprised over 100 people and came through the mountains short of food and bedraggled. In order to limit the hardship and endangerment of people traveling to the region, territorial leaders made building a better road a priority.

In 1853 Territorial Governor Issac Stevens was appointed by President Pierce to survey potential transcontinental railroad routes between the Great Lakes and Puget Sound. Stevens sent Captain George McClellan to find a route through the Cascades. McClellan traveled the native people’s horse route over Yakima Pass west of Lake Keechelus and just south of the pass we know today as Snoqualmie Pass. (It took a while for the newcomers to the region to figure out that the native people used two routes over the mountains. The one across what we know as Snoqualmie Pass was a foot path, the route over Yakima Pass a horse trail.) He reported that too much snow and geographic barriers made the route unusable. Not taking no for an answer, Stevens sent Lieutenant Abiel Tinkham two years later to survey a route. Tinkham set out in September with several native guides and struggled through deep snow over Yakima Pass. Not until 1856 did a party under the command of Major J. H. H. VanBokkelen successfully travel east through Snoqualmie Pass as part of an expedition to scout possible locations for forts during the so-called Indian Wars (1855-56). [article continues below]

Photo (above) :Snoqualmie Pass Wagon Road photographed in 1910.

The conflicts between colonizing groups who had settled in the Seattle area and the indigenous population had originally caused these settlers to stick close to their towns and take routes over water rather than land. It wasn’t until these conflicts escalated to include the US military in the Puget Sound War of 1855-56 that the land to the east seemed to open for European settlers.

The Puget Sound War encouraged the US federal government to look for funding to create a military highway as defense of the region proved difficult. Although a bill was passed into Congress for funding not much came of it. The Civil War interrupted Federal attempts to build a road as the focus of the nation moved elsewhere.

New laws in the 1850s and 60s encouraged people to migrate to the Puget Sound region and may have inspired the cutting of roads through the Cascades. The original wagon road was built over Snoqualmie Pass in 1868, proving a path less formidable than Naches Pass. It seems the geography of the Cascade Mountains can both help and hinder roads through the range. High peaks and sometimes uneven terrain are offset by flat bottom valleys created by Ice Age glaciers which made making a road through Snoqualmie pass much easier than it could have been.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

“Snoqualmie Pass: From Indian Trail to Interstate” by Yvonne Prater

Cold War Defense on the Eastside Part 2: Kenmore and Bothell’s Repurposed Missile Launch Site

Eastside Stories - Check out the previous article here

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

The last Cold War Defense article discussed one of eleven bases established to house and launch missiles on the eastside. Bases like the one that existed in Redmond were designed for defense against attacks from Soviet aircraft and warheads. These missiles were a part of the Nike Project which designed state-of-the art warheads to stop enemy aircraft, eliminate missiles, and lead us to victory. Although the Redmond base was abandoned and soon became a place for urban explorers, ghost stories, and nefarious activities another near-by base remains active today, in a way, continuing to aid in national safety. This base was known as S-03.

The S-03 base located nearly between Kenmore and Bothell at 130 228th SW Street is still active as the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) headquarters of the Pacific Northwest. The unassuming group of one-story buildings masks a large underground complex, although it is hard to say what was built for the Nike Missile Defense System and what has been added since then. Missile launch systems have been removed from the surface, but the space occupied remains the same. S-03 had a control center as well where administrative work and missile guidance took place. This space did not continue to be used by the government though. The control and administrative center of the Kenmore/Bothell base is now Horizon View Park, located on 47th Avenue. All of the original buildings and structures have been removed so nothing of the original Nike control site remains.

Opening in 1956 and closing its doors in 1964, the base had a short lifespan which doesn’t quite line up with any one major political event making the reason for its short existence up for debate. Opening before Sputnik makes it unlikely, that this advance triggered the base’s creation. Sputnik is the Russian word for satellite and also, the common name given the first satellite ever, launched by the USSR in 1957. Sputnik caused panic and anxiety as Westerners feared that the USSR had surpassed them in technological advancement and some even believed that the satellite would allow for attacks or surveillance across the globe. Of course, neither of these scenarios ended up being true and the satellite only remained aloft for about three weeks.

The S-03 site had eight missile launchers located at the facility, where they existed on the surface is now used by FEMA, replaced by more relevant structures and equipment. There were eleven sites like this across the Puget Sound area, but eight bases were chosen not to be converted to the from Zeus style missiles to Hercules Nike Missiles which may explain the closing of the site. Quick development of superior missiles meant that technology was always changing but where there was money to develop there may not have been money to upgrade existing sites. Either way, the Seattle Area Defense system, designed to protect financial, industrial, and transportation centers of the American Northwest was built and done away with fairly quickly overall due to changes in the political climate.

Within a few years of their opening the USA and USSR were already aware that de-escalation was necessary if each county wanted to have an economy that wasn’t fully war-based. The S-03 Nike Missile Base shut down before official talks known as the Strategic Arms Limitations Talks (SALT) were proposed by the United States in 1966, let alone begun in 1969. These talks were successful overtime, with the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM Treaty) being signed by Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev in May 1972. By this time though, most of the Nike Missile Bases had already been decommissioned including S-03.

The Cold War was a time when people’s fears and anxieties got the best of them and often escalated situations like nuclear production without cause. The Seattle Area Defense System may have been a part of this or, its anti-ballistic missiles were said to be the only thing stopping an imminent attack. In the end the USA and the USSR both produced enough nuclear warheads to destroy the world many times over. Most of the sites, like the Kenmore/Bothell site at S-03, were short lived and constructed to last for less than a decade. At least S-03 found a new life as a center for FEMA, giving us a different kind of safety net, and perhaps one more useful in a place with the highest concentration of active volcanoes in the USA. The FEMA headquarters here is prepared to react to volcanoes, earthquakes, and other man-made or natural disasters which seem much more imminent than a Soviet attack on American soil ever was.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/nike-nuclear-missile-site-s1314

http://warbirdsnews.com/warbird-articles/abandoned-nike-missile-bases-united-states.html

https://www.historylink.org/File/9711

http://choosewashingtonstate.com/research-resources/about-washington/brief-state-history/

http://ed-thelen.org/MMTravis.html

https://www.nwnews.com/news/bothell-s-nike-hill-home-to-regional-fema-headquarters/article_bdc1b216-7eb5-534e-857a-987eab0976f4.html

https://www.californiademocrat.com/news/news/story/2020/aug/24/army-veteran-recognized-thwarting-threat-against-president-nixon/838731/

https://www.britannica.com/technology/Nike-missile

https://www.britannica.com/event/Anti-Ballistic-Missile-Treaty

The Story of One Quilt: Rosanna Miller Shiach’s Crazy Quilt (1886-1896)

Eastside Stories

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Article by Angeline Nesbit

Within the Eastside Heritage Center’s collection there are many quilts. These quilts come in different patterns which utilize small pieces of cloth to create designs, tell stories, and create a testimonial to the skills of their creators. One truly unique type of patchwork is seen in a style known as “crazy quilting”, the quilt we will discuss today exhibits this style perfectly and was made by Rosanna Miller Shiach in 1886.

When you look at the quilt features in this article it may seem obvious that the name “crazy quilt” refers to the odd-shapes, overly embellished, and sometimes chaotic style of the crazy quilt, but the name actually has more meaning than this. Crazy quilt style is believed to have been inspired by the American’s World Fair in Philadelphia, held in 1876. At the fair, Japanese art of many different styles was featured including a type of pottery glaze known as “crazing” which gave the glaze a fractured look. This style became increasingly popular over the next few years alongside the development of the uniquely Victorian aesthetic of overly embellished organized clutter.

photo (above): this photo shows about one half of the crazy quilt which Rosanna Miller Shiach created between 1886 and 1889.

Originally a type of design only accessible by wealthy women, manufacturers of textiles began to produce ready-made patterns and even cigarette and cigar companies caught onto the craze over time, including silk pieces for men to give to the women in their lives with every purchase. It seems that by 1886, crazy quilts had already reached California and Rosanna Miller Shiach. She started the piece in Petaluma, California where she worked as a schoolteacher and created one of the Eastside Heritage Center’s finest examples of the style. Some of the history of her life is recorded in this quilt.

In 1889 Rosanna married David James Shiach and moved to the eastside that same year, ending up in Kirkland where she and her husband are buried today. Bringing her needlework with her, the story of this quilt and her new life can be seen in the details of the piece. It took Rosanna ten years to complete and over that time she added letters, dates, and images. It is difficult to decipher today without Rosanna to explain some of the choices she made, but the embroidered elements have the potential to make this extremely decorative work both beautiful and a record of some of the things in Rosanna’s life.

Photo (above): This photo shows the recording of the beginning of this quilt as well as an applique star.

Although her granddaughter believed the quilt to have been started the year of Rosanna’s marriage in 1889, the embroidered year 1886 on this quilt indicates otherwise. Both the beginning year and the end month are recorded along with Rosanna’s name where she stitched “Mrs. D.J. Shiach Mar 1896”. Initials and acronyms including H.B., LEM., and R.M. are seen included although it is hard to definitively say who these letters represent. Still, the variety of fabric and the use of imagery gives us some idea of Rosanna’s life during the creation of this quilt. Rosanna’s daughter, Ethel Rose, was born during this time and they lived close to her husband’s brother William, his wife, and their six children.

This quilt has nine square panels, each one featuring intricate stitching, applique, and embroidery. They were created separately and then sewn together with a three-inch red flower border surrounding the quilt. Decorative images such as an owl alongside a crescent moon, birds, fruit, and stars show her skill with drawing while the complex embroidery stitches used to join sometimes delicate fabric only further display her skill with needlework.

Photo (above):This detail photo of Shiach's quilt shows some of the imagery and letters she included in her designs as well as the complex embroidery stitches used to hold the cloth together in this style of quilt making.

Images of nature seem appropriate when some more information is revealed about what kind of a life Rosanna moved to with her new husband. David had bought their home, a 160 acre homestead in 1888 and grew his own menagerie of animals among the well-stocked forests of the Pacific Northwest. They were reported to have been gifted two fawns from which David raised his own herd of deer. In 1918 the Lake Washington Reflector reported David to be raising “bareneck” chickens from Transylvania and many pets which included foxes, a mink, raccoons, and rabbits.

Since the development of textiles, women have played a large role in their production, creating both decorative and utilitarian objects. Through their handicraft’s women have made a record of their own lives through woven or sewn objects. Women like Rosanna Miller Shiach have recorded their personal story as well as the lives of others for thousands of years. Not only preserving some of her own experience, this crazy quilt’s aesthetic also shows the style of the time that Rosanna lived in as crazy quilts’ popularity has a distinct timeline. The Eastside Heritage Center is proud to keep preserving this quilt and many other textiles that represent the history of our region.

Resources

The Eastside Heritage Center Archives and Donor information

https://24blocks.com/quilting-history-american-crazy-quilts/

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/crazy.htm

https://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quilt-patterns/history-of-the-crazy-quilt

A History of Snoqualmie Part 2: Early European Explorers and Entrepreneurs

Eastside Stories

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Before modern building and development most of the Eastside was covered in dense forests. Much of the Pacific Northwest was the same. The difficulties of traveling and settling in such forests was only complicated by the mountainous regions to the east, known as the Cascades.

Those bold enough to travel into the forests and mountains of our region including Snoqualmie Pass went for the sake of opening new territory, searching for resources to exploit for monetary gain, and adventure. The famous Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled across the Cascades via the Colombia river to the south of us. The motivations for their travel was much the same as many to come before and after them a search for resources and mapping of a new territory. Others would come searching for new territory and resources to the west, either for their nation or personal gain.

An example of one of these entrepreneurs is Samuel Hancock who gives one of the first written records of the area around Snoqualmie. In search of coal with Native Americans who were knowledgeable of the area as guides, Hancock learned of Snoqualmie Falls. Intrigued by what he was told about the waterfall Hancock asked to be led to the falls where he recorded the following information in 1851; “We went right alongside the cataract* in our canoe and beheld a most imposing spectacle, though the roar was almost deafening. The river has a perpendicular fall of about 170 feet, with a surface at the present stage of the water not more than 30 feet broad. The banks upon either side of the basin, where the cataract deposits itself, are perhaps 200 feet high, and so steep that it is impossible to climb them.” This imposing and impassible picture of the Snoqualmie region shows the attitudes of European colonizers moving to the area during early settlement.

This imposing view however did not keep those traveling in and to the United States from eventually making their way into the Cascades to look for resources and potential money-making opportunities. 20 men hacked out the first road through Snoqualmie Pass in the late 1800s and although Hancock visited nearly 40 years before they were the first to report seeing chunks of coal in the pass. As the road reopened after the Puget Sound War of 1855, colonizing settlers went looking for coal, finding it in Newcastle, and Issaquah. As far away as Denny Creek, A.A. Denny and Jeremiah Borst found iron ore in 1862. Tipped off by Native Americans who obtained red pigments for paint there, Denny and Borst staked their claim on indigenous land.

Many people moving into the Cascade Mountains and traveling through during the second half of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s were looking for opportunities to strike it rich like this. Even after they were settled communities did not miss a chance to enhance their opportunities to make money. When the Gold Rush proved to be profitable it encouraged the creation of the roads through the mountains that would funnel travelers with money to spend through preexisting communities in the mountains and valleys to the west. These roads are passageways through the mountains we still have today including Steven’s Pass, and of course Snoqualmie Pass.

* A cataract waterfall is created when a large amount of water moving very quickly drops off a cliff to form the falls. It is determined based on the size and power of the waterfall.

Photo (above) :The 1930s postcard shows the Snoqualmie Falls and tells us the fall is 268 feet high.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

https://www.britannica.com/event/Lewis-and-Clark-Expedition

The Story of Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Eastside Stories

Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa were both Japanese citizens married in Japan. Hailing from Niigata Prefecture their first son was born there and remained in Japan all his life even though his parents would travel through Seattle to settle on the Eastside. Shichiro first made his way to the United States and arrived alone in 1906 while Shin remained in Japan with their child until they could afford for her to follow her husband later. They would live separate for at least two years as the events of their lives kept them from being reunited.

Although being lucky enough to have studied at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo like most Japanese immigrants to our region Shichiro found work on farms. His first job on the Eastside was at a Snoqualmie dairy farm where he was injured by a bull soon after arrival. His second son, Joe, recounted the story of his father’s injury during an oral history interview with Densho. It seems Shichiro was knocked down by the bull while working with the farm’s cattle and his chest stepped on, crushing several ribs and badly injuring Shichiro. He avoided being trampled and managed to escape by grabbing the bull by the ring in its nose and pulling it off himself.

Sources in the Eastside Heritage Center archive say Shichiro contracted tuberculosis at this time, probably from the nature of this injury which would have weakened his lungs. Seeking better medical attention, he decided to return to Japan. Unfortunately, at the same time Shin was already traveling to Seattle to be reunited with her husband. When she arrived and could not find him, she sought work and strove to learn English. Finding employment as a housemaid in Yarrow Point, Shin also enrolled in night school. Working very hard she learned to read and write in English and prepared for when her husband Shichiro would eventually return.

Shin and Shichiro were reunited in Seattle in 1908 while their first son once again remained in Japan. After about two years apart they could finally begin to build a life here in America. Settling near where Shin already worked in Yarrow Point their second son, Joe, was born in 1913. The Matsuzawa family are a part of the first (Issei) and second (Nisei) generation of Japanese-Americans who helped to clear the land on the Eastside and farmed there until World War II led to the mass incarceration of people of Japanese descent, including the Matsuzawas.

This photo shows Schichiro & Shin Matsuzawa and was taken in 1908 when the couple was reunited in Seattle.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1000-23-1/

https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-densho-1000/ddr-densho-1000-23-transcript-a0c507f300.htm

Eastside Stories: The Bellevue Fire Department

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Article by Barb Williams

From small beginnings, the Bellevue Fire Department has grown over time to become  internationally recognized for its innovation and quality of service. Before Bellevue became an incorporated City (1953), it was part of unincorporated King County. Area residents were on their own to put out fires. However, as more people moved to the Eastside, there was a greater need for better fire protection. A group of volunteers provided an informal fire department that began in the 1920s. In 1941 a group of businessmen borrowed a fire truck from the county and parked it in the backyard of one of the volunteers. Calls for help came into the Medina switchboard operators, who relayed calls to the volunteers. “The first man at the truck rang the old school bell and wrote the address on the bulletin board. Men clambered on the truck. The fourth man operated the gauges and water pressure. They were off. More men raced after the truck in their cars and helped put out the fire.” (1) From this volunteer force, King County Fire District No.14 (KCFD 14) was created in Bellevue on July 27,1942 with the approval of Bellevue, Medina, Enatai and Wilburton residents.  A meeting was held at Henry Schierman’s Barber Shop on August 25,1942. Ten charter firefighter members attended. They elected George W. Sheets, a dry cleaner owner, as Fire Chief. The calls came into his service, he sounded the alarm, gathered the firefighters and off they went. In 1946, the alarm was moved to Bill Crooker’s grocery store. The group rented a building for a fire station in Old Bellevue behind Eastside Glass and Paint Company. They installed an air raid siren purchased from the Lake Washington Shipyard and bought a 1935 fire truck with pump from the U.S. Forest Service. Their primary function was to put out fires such as the outside wall fire at the Minish residence caused by an overheated stove. Or Ruth M. Bancroft’s fire in 1947 that started at Killarney Circle when she was clearing and burning Scotch-Broom on her lot.  “Never before or since have I been so glad to see men, Men, MEN!” She was speaking of the volunteer firefighters of the KCFD 14. 

Photo (above): Bellevue Fire Department photo of (Left to Right) Bill Crooker, ?, Len Schaal, Frank Gass (Fire Chief)

Over the years, the volunteers were integrated with paid staff. In 1947, Frank Gass was elected to be the new Volunteer Fire Chief and later became the first paid member of the KCFD 14. By 1964 there were 14 full-time paid firefighters who worked Monday-Friday (8am-4pm) and 83 volunteer firefighters. (Volunteers were phased out in 1980.)

The KCFD 14 was growing and evolved into its own city unit when the Bellevue Fire Department (BFD) was formed at midnight on January 1, 1965. Captain Leo Wenner managed 14 firefighters. Jeanette Woldseth Washington State’s first career female firefighter in 1977 later became BFD’s first female fire captain. The department became known for its creativity; it developed innovative programs such as fire prevention, training, and the establishment of Medic 1(1972), Eastside Hazardous Materials Consortium (1984) and the “Light Force Company”(1994) in which an engine and a ladder truck work in tandem.  In 1998 BFD received Accredited Agency status from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International becoming the eighth fire department in the world to receive this status. The increase in high-rise buildings required appropriate training and equipment. Medical emergencies out-numbered all others which prompted the department to have trained medics and equipment on many trucks. A City of Bellevue 2018 website report shows 78% of 20,000+ incidents were medical in nature. By 2019, the Bellevue Fire Department consisted of: 253 employees, including 9 chief officers, 167 firefighters - EMT, 37 firefighters - paramedics, 40 civilian employees, 9 fire stations and multiple vehicles. At this time the Bellevue Fire Department served the following communities; Bellevue, Medina, Clyde Hill, Beaux Arts, The Three Points communities, Newcastle, support to Mercer Island and medical units to Issaquah and North Bend.

Skillfully, members of the Bellevue Fire Department saved our home from burning in 1984. The Department deserves our respect, praise and thanks for their service to our Eastside communities over time. 

Photo (above): This photo shows a crowd or citizens with fire fighters and fire truck. Taken May 1965 during and Open House celebrating the first Bellevue City Fire Department this was snapped on Main Street and shows Leo Wenner (Bellevue’s first Fire Chief in white hat) riding on the fire truck Segraves purchased in 1961.

Sources:

1)   City of Bellevue website:  Bellevue Fire Department 2019 Annual Report

2)   Book: Bellevue Fire Department, 50th Anniversary   1965 - 2015

3)   Pamphlet:  50 Years  Bellevue Fire   1965 - 2015: A Guide to Our History  1942-2015

4)   Article by Ruth M. Bancroft “Lack of fire protection ignites volunteer spirit”, Bellevue  American, Thursday, March 11, 1976  page D2, footnote (1)

5)   Article  Eastside Heritage Corner, “The formative years of the Bellevue Fire Department”,  Bellevue Reporter,  April 8, 2016

6)  Article by Allison Deangelis “Laurie Lamp becomes Bellevue Fire’s third female captain”,  Bellevue Reporter,  May 13, 2016

7)  Article by David Wilma “Bellevue Emergency and Police Services” 

8)  Fire Report:  Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department  12-3-50

9)  Meeting Report:  Charter Members of Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department  August 25, 1942

A History of Snoqualmie Pass Part 1: Crossing the Northern Cascades Before Roads

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Eastside Stories

To the east of Lake Washington lay the Cascade mountains, a range of peaks which reaches over 700 miles from Northern California to Canada. This stretch of rugged topography posed a formidable barrier to those traveling on foot to the Pacific before the creation of a road. Both creating a barrier and a life-source, water flows down from multiple rivers and lakes in the Cascades, increasing as snow melts in the summer. This water flows all the way to Lake Washington via winding rivers, creeks, and other bodies of water throughout King County.

Water is the reason the geography that we know today exists. Glaciers and the water flows associated with them have helped to form much of Washington State’s geography. In the Pleistocene (about 20,000 years ago), the Cordilleran Ice Sheet reached its’ farthest extent, covering much of Canada and the United States. 14,000 to 11,000 years ago it began to recede. As it moved north past the Canadian border, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet created many mountain valleys including the route we call Snoqualmie Pass today.

Human activity is recorded along this route as early as 6,000 years ago and indigenous groups lived in the area long before this, during the time of the glaciers. Native Americans used the route on foot for thousands of years and taught it to European explorers and trappers who came to Washington State in the 18th and 19th century. Indigenous groups from both sides of the Cascade Range traveled back and forth to trade game, plants, and other goods, a practice that continued for some tribes until the 1940s or later when military action in the middle of the state interrupted traditional hunting and foraging as well as routes of travel. 

The arrival of the horse in the 1740s encouraged this kind of trade, allowing groups like the Snoqualmie who occupied the Cascades to trade with those from the interior plains. Past encampments of indigenous groups have been found by archaeologists near food sources including berry patches and rivers where fish were readily available. By the 1840s and 50s, when a formal road was being discussed, Native Americans had already been influenced by European colonizers and goods which transformed styles of dress and economic patterns. Early Europeans also introduced smallpox, reducing the population greatly during early excursions to the region.

In the first half of the 1800s several European visitors to the region recorded being guided by indigenous populations through Snoqualmie Pass and on other routes. Although today hundreds of people pass through the Cascades in an hour or less, until the project to build a road was formally undertaken by state and federal government only about a dozen people passed through each year. Although many thought it safest to travel by water, the effects of war and Manifest Destiny on the region led to the desire for a quicker route for people to travel from east to west.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

http://glaciers.us/jhbretz.html

“Snoqualmie Pass: From Indian Trail to Interstate” by Yvonne Prater