HON. EUGENE D. SMITH. – This pioneer of the logging business of the Snohomish river, a portrait of whom is placed in this history, is a representative man of the Puget Sound country, and almost a typical American. Of large and fine proportions physically, self-reliant, capable of taking a hand at any business, even at politics or war, or, with a little brushing up, at almost any profession, he at present contents himself with being proprietor and patron of the handsome town of Lowell, Washington, and conducting large logging operations, on his own estate of four thousand acres in Snohomish county. He was born in Maine on April 30, 1837.
While but a child of eight he suffered the loss of his father at Marshfield, Maine, and two years later began the battle of life for himself. Six years a sailor on the high seas, at the age of twenty-one he was commander of a brig. In 1858 he left that situation and came via the Isthmus to San Francisco, sailing on the well-known old steamer Oriflamme and Golden Gate; and by the autumn of that year he had drifted up to the haven of all Maine men, Puget Sound. At Port Gamble he found employment in a logging camp, but in 1862 tried his luck in the Caribou mines. This venture was quickly found non-productive; and in 1863 he began logging on the Snohomish. His original claim was on the site of Lowell. There he has since remained with but few breaks, such as going to Idaho for a time to repair his health in the sixties, and in 1869 to San Francisco to meet his bride, Miss Margaret B. Getchell, whom he had known long before at Marshfield.
Coming back to the Sound with a home in his mind, he bought back his old claim at Lowell and began securing lots and pre-empting, homesteading and purchasing ,until he owns a baronial estate. he has been active in improving his home, in creating a mercantile business, building a hotel, in securing the growth of the town about him, and in bringing in all the comforts and advantages that can be obtained for his family. He has three children living; and one has passed beyond. Not a politician, he nevertheless has pronounced political views, and has held such offices as postmaster, justice of the peace and county commissioner.