Washington

Historic Schools of Washington

A school was opened in Olympia, Nov. 22, 1852, by A. W. Moore, first teacher and postmaster on Puget Sound after its settlement by American colonists. Moore died in 1875, aged 55 years, having always labored for the best interests of society. The first schoolhouse, it is claimed, was on the Kindred farm, on Bush prairie, and was erected by the Kindred family and their neighbors. Phillips first taught in this place. During the winter of 1852-3 a tax was levied on the Olympia precinct, and money collected to erect a public schoolhouse, which was demolished by the heavy snow … Read more

Gold Discoveries and Town Making in Washington State

I have related in Oregon II how Colonel Wright was left in command of the department of Oregon when General Harney was invited to Washington upon a pretence of being needed to testify in the Oregon and Washington Indian war debt claims, in order to pacify the British minister and Governor Douglas by removing him from proximity to the San Juan island boundary-war ground; and also that General Scott recommended merging the military department of Oregon in that of the Pacific, with headquarters in San Francisco. In the latter part of 1860 this idea was carried out, and General E. … Read more

Lumber Industry in Washington

The chief article of export since 1851 has been lumber. The piles and squared timbers constituting the earliest shipments were cut by settlers and ship crews and dragged by hand to the water’s edge. The skippers paid eight cents a foot for piles delivered alongside the vessel, and sold them in S. F. for a dollar a foot. Among the first vessels after the Orbit and the George Emory to load with timber was the G. W. Kendall. She was sent to Puget Sound toward spring in 1851 to get a cargo of ice by her owner, Samuel Merritt of … Read more

Lumber and Ship Building in Washington

Map of Puget Sound

The manufactured products exported are: first, lumber, the chief article of commerce; lime, a valuable product on account of its almost entire absence over a great extent of Oregon and California; barrels, staves, wooden pipe, the proper trees for which manufactures abound in the small valleys about the Sound; canned fish, and coal-if that may be named with manufactures. The other products exported are wheat and other grains, flour, wool, hides, livestock, potatoes, and hops. Puget Sound, from its position, extent, depth of water, and its contiguity to the materials required, should be one of the greatest shipbuilding stations in … Read more

Governor Stevens, Washington Legislature, Building a New State

Washington State Seal

Isaac Ingalls Stevens, the man who had been sent to organize the government of Washington, was one fitted by nature and education to impress himself upon the history of the country in a remarkable degree. He was born at Andover, Massachusetts, and educated in the military school of West Point, from which he graduated, in 1839, with the highest honors. He had charge for a few years of fortifications on the New England coast. He had been on the staff of General Scott in Mexico, and for four years previous to his appointment as governor of Washington had been an … Read more

Fish and Fish Products of Washington

One of the great natural resources of western Washington which has been turned to account is the fish product, although as yet imperfectly understood or developed. The whale fishery is prosecuted only by the Indians of Cape Flattery and the gulf of Georgia. Among the species taken on the coast are the sperm whale, California gray, right whale, and sulphur-bottom. Up the strait of Fuca and in the gulf of Georgia humpbacks are numerous. Formerly the Indians took more whales than now, their attention being at present turned to seal hunting. With only their canoes and rude appliances the Makahs … Read more

Growth of Washington Territory, Constitution Ratified

From 1880 to 1888 the progress made in Washington was phenomenal, and was felt in every direction in commerce, manufacture, banks, corporations, schools, growth of towns, improved styles of building, construction of railroads, mining, agriculture, and society. New towns had sprung up among the firs and cedars, the Puget Sound country, and out of the treeless prairies almost in a night; and hitherto unimportant villages had become cities with corporate governments, grand hotels, churches, colleges, and opera-houses. The board of trade of Tacoma in 1886 declared that “the commercial independence of Washington territory accompanying the completion of the direct line … Read more

Farming in Washington

Map of Eastern Washington

The total amount of land surveyed in Washington down to June was 15,959,17 out of the 44,796,160 acres constituting the area of the state. For many years the fortunate combination of soil and climate in eastern Washington, whereby all the cereals can be produced in the greatest abundance and of the highest excellence, was not understood. The first settlers in the Walla Walla Valley went there to raise cattle on the nutritious bunch grass, which gave their stock so round an appearance with such glossy hides and gold crusade carried thither merchants and settlers of another sort, arid it war … Read more

First Settlements of Washington State

Attitude of The Hudson’s Bay Company-Michael T. Simmons and Associates Proceed Northward-Settle At Budd Inlet-Puget Sound-Highlands-Tumwater-Bush Prairie-Chambers Prairie -Neah Bay – Marriages and Births-The Indians Pronounce Against The White Man-Effect of California Gold Discovery -The Timber Trade-Towns Laid Oct-Whidbey Island Settled- Occupation of the Coast Country

Building the New Territory, Washington

In the previous chapter I have made the reader acquainted with the earliest American residents of the territory north of the Columbia, and the methods by which they secured themselves homes and laid the foundations of fortunes by courage, hardihood, foresight, by making shingles, bricks, and cradling-machines, by building mills, loading vessels with timber, laying out towns, establishing fisheries, exploring for coal, and mining for gold. But these were private enterprises concerning only individuals, or small groups of men at most, and I come now to consider them as a body politic, with relations to the government of Oregon and … Read more

Cattle, Sheep and Horses in Washington

To what an extent the people of the Puget Sound country and the Cowlitz and Chehalis valleys depended upon their cattle for support was illustrated in 1863, when the government prohibited for a time the exportation of livestock. The order was in consequence of Canada being made a field of operations for the leaders of the rebellion, and the danger that supplies might be shipped to them from the British provinces. It was not intended to affect Washington. S. P. Alta, July 30, 1863; Portland Oregonian, Sept. 3, 1863; Or. Argos, Aug. 17, 1803. Exports into V. I. from the … Read more

Historic Churches of Washington

When the first American immigrants to Puget Sound arrived in 1845 at the head of Budd Inlet, they found the Methodist Mission at American Lake, near Nisqually, abandoned. The Catholics, however, still held their ground among the natives and H. B. Co.’s servants; and there was the mission church of St Francis Xavier at Cowlitz farm, and what was claimed, for preemption purposes, to be a chapel, on Whidbey Island. At Vancouver in 1840 the church of St James, begun the year previous, was completed, by which the Catholic Church subsequently endeavored to hold the town site of Vancouver, and … Read more

Washington Census Records

Washington Census online research should begin with what is available online for free. If this proves fruitful then congratulations! If not, then I would suggest signing up for the online census images (links to the right) where you can access all the available online Washington census information directly from your computer at home. 1849 Lewis County Washington Territorial (hosted at USGenWeb Archives) Pacific County Washington Territorial (hosted at USGenWeb Archives) Pierce County Washington Territorial (hosted at USGenWeb Archives) Thurston County Washington Territorial (hosted at USGenWeb Archives) Wahkiakum County Washington Territorial (hosted at USGenWeb Archives) See Census Images Online for ALL … Read more

Thurston County, Washington Cemetery Records

Most of these are complete indices at the time of transcription, however, in some cases we list the listing when it is only a partial listing. Following Cemeteries (hosted At Thurston County, Washington Tombstone Transcription Project) Calvary Cemetery, Tumwater P art 1 A-K P art 2 L-Z Calvary Cemetery, Tumwater Cogdil Cemetery , Bucoda Delphi (Stoney Creek) Cemetery Deschutes Cemetery , Deschutes Falls Forest Grove Cemetery, Tenino P art 1 A-L P art 2 M-Z Forest Memorial (Mt. Tabor) Cemetery , Olympia Grand Mound Cemetery , Rochester Johns Indian Cemetery , Elizan Beach Laramie Cemetery , Vail Linklater Cemetery Masonic … Read more

Wahkiakum County, Washington Cemetery Records

Most of these are complete indices at the time of transcription, however, in some cases we list the listing when it is only a partial listing. Following Cemetery hosted at Access Genealogy Seal River Cemetery Following Cemeteries (hosted At Wahkiakum County, Washington Tombstone Transcription Project) Eden Valley (Buskala Family) Cemetery Fern Hill Cemetery , Skamokawa Grasseth Cemetery , Oak Point Grays River Grange Cemetery Greenwood Cemetery , Cathlamet Pioneer Cemetery , Cathlamet Rosburg Cemetery Seal River Cemetery  

Walla Walla County, Washington Cemetery Records

Most of these are complete indices at the time of transcription, however, in some cases we list the listing when it is only a partial listing. Following Cemeteries (hosted At Walla Walla County, Washington Tombstone Transcription Project) Burbank Cemetery Clyde Cemetery Dixie Cemetery Dry Creek Cemetery Fort Walla Walla Cemetery Foster Cemetery Ivy Cemetery Keiser Cemetery Knight Cemetery Lansdale Cemetery Waitsburg Lyons Creek Cemetery Rosehill Cemetery Stubblefield Cemetery Touchet Cemetery Valley Chapel Cemetery Whitman Mission Baby Grave Whitman Mission Great Grave Whitman Mission Pioneer Cemetery Following Cemeteries (hosted at Interment) Blue Mountain Memorial Garden Burbank Cemetery Clyde Cemetery Dixie Cemetery … Read more

Whatcom County, Washington Cemetery Records

Below is a complete listing of all available online Whatcom County Washington cemeteries, with links to multiple cemetery transcriptions, gravestone photos, tombstone photos, official records, etc. Most of these are complete indices at the time of transcription, however, in some cases we list the listing when it is only a partial listing. Bayview Cemetery, Bellingham Blaine Cemetery USGenWeb Archives Bethany Chapel Cemetery Beth Israel Cemetery Blaine City (IOOF) Cemetery Cannon Cemetery Columbia Valley Cemetery Deming Catholic Cemetery Greenwood Cemetery Haynie Cemetery Hillsdale Methodist (California Creek) Cemetery Lawrence Cemetery Lummi Island Cemetery Lummi Island Congregational (Beach, Grange) Cemetery Old Maple Falls … Read more

Whitman County, Washington Cemetery Records

A complete listing of all available online Whitman County Washington cemeteries, with links to multiple cemetery transcriptions, gravestone photos, tombstone photos, official records, etc.

Yakima County, Washington Cemetery Records

Most of these are complete indices at the time of transcription, however, in some cases we list the listing when it is only a partial listing. Following Cemeteries (hosted At Yakima County, Washington Tombstone Transcription Project) A. J. Hembree Memorial (Picture) Anderson Family Black Rock Cemetery (Meeker, Meeboer) Cowiche-Nache Cemetery Meystre Family Cemetery Nelson Cemetery Nile Cemetery Outlook Cemetery Pioneer Cemetery Selah’s 1st Cemetery Selah Pioneer Cemetery Simmons Cemetery Sunnyside Cemetery A – C D – F G – I J – M Sunnyside Cemetery Blocks 3 and 4 Blocks 5 and 6 Blocks 7 and 8 Blocks 9 through … Read more