On June 1, 1891, Cosmopolis in Chehalis County (later Grays Harbor County) is incorporated by the Board of County Commissioners after a favorable vote of 34 to 8 cast by voting-age male residents of the town. In the same election, George Stetson, manager of the town's only industry, a Pope & Talbot-owned sawmill and related operations, is elected mayor, gathering 30 votes; five other candidates receive one vote each. A treasurer and the first five members of the town council are also elected by similarly wide margins. It appears to be a rare and possibly unique instance of a town dominated by a single company voting for legal incorporation under state law. Although the record is far from clear, it seems likely that Cosmopolis earlier had been incorporated under territorial law and again in 1890, shortly after Washington attained statehood, although this attempt may not have been successfully completed.
Cosmopolis – City of the World
In 1852 James Pilkington took a Donation Land Act claim on land long occupied by the Lower Chehalis Tribe along the south bank of the Chehalis River, about 4 miles east of the river's entry into Grays Harbor. His presence was resented by the tribespeople, and in 1858 he sold his claim for $1,500 to David F. Byles (1833-1897) and Austin E. Young (1830-1909). On June 5, 1861, Byles, Young, and their spouses recorded a plat of a town, dedicating the property to the public "in consideration that a town to be called Cosmopolis is to be laid out on our lands …" (The River Pioneers, 101). At the time, Cosmopolis was in Chehalis County (which in 1915 was renamed Grays Harbor County, largely to remedy the confusion caused by the city of Chehalis being the county seat of nearby Lewis County.)
Cosmopolis is the oldest town in the Grays Harbor region, the first to be formally organized. Its name was derived from the Greek words "kosmos" for world and "polis" for city. Despite the early start and aspirational appellation, it would be the early 1880s before an actual town began to develop. After the failure of a brickyard and a tannery, the flooding and burning of a warehouse, and an unsuccessful attempt to establish a gristmill, a sawmill was erected on the site in 1881 and prospered. Some of the mill's initial output was used to build the first three permanent houses on the site (not counting Pilkington's original cabin). Soon after that the mill produced the first lumber to be shipped out of Grays Harbor by ship. For good and for ill, and with stretches of idleness, Cosmopolis would be dominated by the lumber and pulp industries for the next 125 years.
A Muddle
In the Washington State Legislature's inaugural 1889-1890 session, a comprehensive set of laws titled "An act providing for the organization, classification, incorporation and government of municipal corporations, and declaring an emergency" (1889-1890 Laws, Chapter VII, Title) was enacted. The "emergency" in large part was the confusion caused by several incorporation laws passed by the territorial legislative assembly. Those earlier statutes, enacted between 1871 and 1888, had made a bit of a hash of municipal incorporation law:
- In 1871 the assembly enacted "An Act for the Incorporation of Towns" (1871 Laws, p. 51).
- On November 9,1877, the assembly enacted "An Act To Provide for the Incorporation of Cities" (1877 Laws p. 173).
- In 1879 the assembly enacted "An Act Supplemental to, and Explanatory of Chapter 2, of an Act Entitled "An Act To Provide For the Incorporation of Cities, Approved, November 9, 1877, and to Declare Certain Incorporations Thereunder, Valid' (1879 Laws p. 127). One of its provisions, Section 2, read: That the word "city," contained in the act herein supplemented, shall be construed to mean, include, and be synonymous with the word "town."
- In 1881 came "An Act to Repeal an Act Entitled "An Act To Provide For The Incorporation Of Towns," Approved Nov. 29, 1871. (1881 Laws, p. 22), and in that same session,
- "An Act to Repeal an Act Entitled "An Act To Provide For The Incorporation Of Cities," Approved Nov. 9, 1877 (1881 Laws, p. 23).
- In 1887-1888 we find, "An Act for the Incorporation of Towns and Villages in the Territory of Washington" (1887 Laws Chapter CXXVI (approved Feb. 2, 1888).
Cornelius Holgate Hanford (1849-1926), the last Chief Justice of Washington Territory, delivered the coup de grâce. Shortly before statehood was gained, he rejected a petition for incorporation submitted by Mount Vernon voters pursuant to the 1888 statute, ruling that the entire territorial law on the establishment of municipal corporations was unconstitutional. He could have added, without exaggeration, that it was also largely incomprehensible. One is reminded of a quote attributed to Mark Twain: "Those that respect the law and love sausage should watch neither being made."
One problem for historians and legal scholars is that the keeping of detailed accounts of legislative history in Washington is a relatively recent development. Their earlier absence makes tracing the origins and birth pangs of territorial laws, in all but the rarest cases, impossible. Debates and speeches were not written down and preserved, rejected amendments were not noted, bill sponsors were left unidentified, and votes on bills were not disclosed in the public record. Every one or two years, hundreds of pages of new enactments were added to the territory's statute books with not a word written about how they actually got there.
Trying to Make Sense of It All
Although documentation is incomplete or absent, it appears that the town of Cosmopolis was initially incorporated under the laws of Washington Territory, then attempted incorporation twice more, in 1890 and 1891, after Washington was granted statehood.
The remaining record indicates that the 1890 attempt, characterized as both a reincorporation and a reorganization, was never completed. On May 6, 1890, "under the general law for the incorporation of Cities and Towns as passed by Legislative session of 1890" (1889-1890 Laws, Chapter VII, Sec. 1) a "special election" was held "for the reincorporation" of Cosmopolis ("Certificate"). The vote was 34 to 0 in favor, and the count was verified by the signatures of two judges, two clerks, and someone designated as Inspector. The use of the word "reincorporation" indicates that Cosmopolis had previously been incorporated, and given that the 1890 election was held barely five months after statehood, the earlier incorporation almost certainly had been done under territorial law – the very law that Judge Hanford found wanting.
In fact, if Cosmopolis had not been previously incorporated, it would not have qualified for incorporation under the new (and first) state incorporation law. The opening sentence of that statute, which became effective on March 27, 1890, reads in relevant part: "Any portion of a county containing not less than three hundred inhabitants, and not incorporated as a municipal corporation, may become incorporated under the provisions of this act …" [italics added] (1889-1890 Laws, Chapter VII, Sec. 1). The 1890 census counted 287 residents in Cosmopolis. With fewer than 300 inhabitants, the settlement did not qualify for incorporation, unless it had already been "incorporated as a municipal corporation." This is made clear in the same paragraph of the state law:
"Provided, That nothing herein contained shall prevent the re-incorporation of towns and villages under the provisions of this act, whatever their population, heretofore incorporated or intended so to be, under the provision of the act approved February 2, 1888, entitled 'An act for the incorporation of towns and villages in the Territory of Washington'…" [italics added] (1889-1890 Laws, Chapter VII, Sec. 1).
The procedures for reincorporating a previously incorporated municipality under the 1890 law were straightforward, set out under the heading HOW INCORPORATED CITY OR TOWN MAY INCORPORATE UNDER THIS LAW. Under the 1888 territorial law, the signatures of at least "one-fifth of qualified electors" (1887 Laws Chapter CXXVI (approved Feb. 2, 1888) were sufficient. Since the census-determined population of Cosmopolis in 1890 was 287, and that women, men under voting age, and children would not be counted as qualified electors, the 34 men who did vote were likely more than the necessary one-fifth. Thus the 1890 vote was valid, and the result memorialized in a poll book and properly certified.
But what is lacking from the 1890 effort is any evidence or record showing that the city council or other legislative body followed the next required step, which was to timely "call a special election for the election of the officers required by law to be elected in corporations of the class to which such city or town shall belong, which election shall be held within six weeks thereafter" (1889-1890 Laws, Chapter VII, Sec. 4). If that step was completed, and without futher ado, "such corporation shall be deemed to be organized under such general laws, under the name and style of the city (or town, as the case may be) of (naming it), with the powers conferred, or that may hereafter be conferred, by law upon municipal corporations of the class to which the same may belong" (1890 Laws, Chapter VII, Sec. 4). No special election, no incorporation.
A Clean Slate
The records of Cosmopolis's 1891 incorporation are relatively complete and coherent. The Chehalis County Board of Commissioners ordered an election to be held on the 28th day of May 1891 within the proposed area to be incorporated. It would be a vote on both incorporation, and if that was approved, on the election of officers. This took place on the specified date, and the commissioners met on June 1 to canvas the votes and fulfil the other formalities. The proceedings were memorialized in a lengthy, hand-written order. After describing in metes and bounds the territory to be incorporated, it was recorded: "And upon the canvas it appeared that the following vote was had to wit: For Incorporation thirty four (34) votes. Against Incorporation eight (8) votes" ("Order").
The commissioners then moved on to count the votes for the various officers of the incorporated town, as required by law. George W. Stetson, manager of the Pope & Talbot mill and related businesses at Cosmopolis, was elected mayor. The other five highest vote getters – W. J. Thompson (33 votes), M. M. Ruhl (37), John Harker (36), Reuel Nims (36), C. Cooper (35) – formed the first town council, and Stanley W. Smith was elected city treasurer, garnering 32 votes to his opponent's 1. After the recitation of the vote results, the commissioners made the necessary declaration:
"And it appearing to the Board that there was a majority of all the votes cast for incorporation … now therefore it is by the Board declared that the following described Territory is duly incorporated as a municipal corporation of the fourth class under the name and style of "The Town of Cosmopolis" (Record of Meeting of June 1, 1891).
The legal description of the territory was repeated, the election of the officers affirmed, and the order concludes "done at the Court House in the City of Montesano, County of Chehalis, State of Washington, this 1st day of June, Anno Domini 1891. By the Board of County Commissioners of Chehalis County, Washington" (Record of Meeting of June 1, 1891).
A Lingering Question
From the late 1880s to the end of Pope & Talbot's operations there in 1931, Cosmopolis was widely regarded as a company town, reputed to be owned lock, stock, and barrel by the subsidiary Grays Harbor Commercial Company. And it was infamous, known to the horde of itinerant lumber workers as the Western Penitentiary, a place that would hire any man with a heartbeat, use him up, and, if still living, throw him out. Cosmopolis was essentially free of government regulation or the threat of organized labor. One historian wrote of the early days:
"Wages were low and they were kept that way … Labor was recruited steadily from Seattle, and the turnover was great … It was a low-wage heaven for skid-row down-and-outers and was known as such in every hobo jungle of the day … Cheap labor was needed, and Cosmopolis was organized to use it profitably, and that was all. Most of the work was unskilled, and all of it was dangerous. The food was the plainest, and low-paid Chinese cooks prepared it. Conditions were the poorest, and no money was spent by the company to improve them ...
"Every second that men worked and every ounce of labor expended had to pay handsomely; it was drive, drive, drive, every minute of every working day. The pressure in sawmills anywhere was severe; in the mills of Cosmopolis it was almost unendurable. It was designed to squeeze out of every man the utmost that he could give, then cast him out, often badly wounded in body and spirit. Few mill workers could stand it at Cosmopolis for very long" (Weinstein, 21-22).
Cosmopolis was intentionally and unusually insular:
"[U]nlike Aberdeen, Hoquiam, and Montesano – who offered investors liberal inducements of land and credit, encouraging competition – Pope & Talbot did not offer any sort of advantages to manufacturers. They were not interested in sharing their business interests in Cosmopolis where they owned everything – stores, messhouses, bunkhouses. Competition was neither encouraged nor allowed" [italics in orignal] (Weinstein, 21).
If in fact Pope & Talbot had unfettered ownership and control of all of Cosmopolis, why would the company have allowed the creation of a municipal corporation that could threaten its independence? As one legal scholar explained, there are very real legal ramifications to a town or city being declared a municipal corporation:
"a municipal corporation, being but a creature of the state, derives its existence, powers, and duties from the legislative body of the state. The legislature may create and dissolve municipal corporations without the consent of the inhabitants; municipal officers have only such powers as are conferred upon them expressly or by implication by the applicable statutes; the legislature may manage the business thereof and alter or amend at will by general law any general or local law or regulation of a municipal corporation" (Trautmann, 744).
In this regard, it's instructive to note that only one other timber-industry company town among the many that existed in Washington ever became an incorporated municipality. That was McCleary, almost equally infamous for poor conditions. But McCleary was not incorporated until 1942, after the mills had closed and the houses and buildings sold to individuals. McCleary incorporated at the end of its industrial existence; Cosmopolis incorporated when it was just getting started. It is difficult to conceive of any reasons Pope & Talbot would have allowed it, much less encouraged it. But the fact that George Stetson, the company's first manager at Cosmopolis, was elected the town's first mayor indicates that there may have been a mutually agreeable compromise. If so, the nature of that compromise is unknown, and at this late date almost certainly unknowable.
The most likely explanation is that Cosmopolis was never really a company-owned town, and it is not identified as one in the leading texts about timber-industry company towns. Pope & Talbot no doubt owned the sawmills and other industrial installations and the land they were on, and probably the town's commercial core and waterfront, and perhaps the utilities. But maybe not the houses or the property of permanent residents who lived beyond the company's ownership realm and control. Well over a century has passed, however, and in the absence of additional documentation, the question will remain unanswered.
Cosmopolis grew through annexation in 1912, 1957, 1966, and 1969. Today (2025), with a population of nearly 1,700, it is classified as a code city, a category created by the legislature in 1967. Its most recent sustaining industry, a pulp mill, closed in 2022, and has yet to reopen. For a variety of reasons, including obsolete equipment, unpaid fines and penalties and ecological issues, it will be very difficult to resuscitate. This leaves Cosmopolis in the same boat with many other former one-industry towns, simply surviving while it struggles to diversify a moribund economy.
