On June 11, 1870, the new Protestant Episcopal Church building in Seattle is consecrated by Bishop Morris and Reverends Edward Hyland and William H. Summers. The church is located at the northwest cor...
On July 11, 1870, Henry A. Atkins, a pile driver who helped build docks and wharves up and down Puget Sound, is elected mayor of the City of Seattle, the first person to hold that office.
About August 2, 1870, immediately after Northern Pacific Railroad surveyors arrive in Seattle, speculators begin a buying-frenzy of Seattle real estate. One Northern Pacific team will survey a route f...
On August 15, 1870, Seattle's first public school house opens. It is located in the "northern portion of town" (now downtown) on 3rd Avenue between Madison and Spring streets in a two-story, two-room ...
On August 22, 1870, the Lodge of Odd Fellows establishes a branch in Seattle called the Olive Branch No. 4. Following lodges formed in Walla Walla, Vancouver, and Olympia, Seattle is the fourth Odd Fe...
On October 22, 1870, it is reported that during the previous year more than 1,200 head of cattle were driven from Yakima Valley to Puget Sound. Most if not all of the cattle went over Snoqualmie Pass.
On October 24, 1870, T. G. Murphy moves his newspaper from Alaska and begins publishing The Alaska Times in Seattle. It joins The Weekly Intelligencer as one of two newspapers being published in Seatt...
In 1871, the schooner Lovett Peacock carries King County products to Honolulu for the first time. The Peacock's cargo includes coal, lumber, and potatoes.
In 1871, Lowell Mason Hidden (1839-1923) opens the Hidden Brick Company in Vancouver, and his timing could not be better. Mother Joseph (1823-1902), head of the Sisters of Providence mission in the Pa...
On March 10, 1871, David Longmire (1844-1925), who as a child in 1853 was a member of the first wagon train of settlers to enter the Yakima Valley, purchases a homestead in the Wenas Valley from Augus...
On April 5, 1871, Christopher P. Higgins purchases 160 acres from the federal government in what would become a portion of the Crown Hill neighborhood of Seattle. Crown Hill is located in northwest Se...
In May 1871, J. J. Downing and S. R. Scranton file claims and build a sawmill at Spokane Falls. It is the first American settlement at what will become downtown Spokane. Both men will sell their claim...