Keyword(s): Junius Rochester
Daniel Bagley was a Methodist preacher who traveled west in covered wagons with his family in 1852 as part of the Bethel Party. He and his wife Susannah Whipple Bagley (1819-1913) and son Clarence Bag...
David Blaine and Catharine Paine Blaine came to Seattle from Seneca Falls, New York, the site of America's first women's rights convention, in which Catharine Paine participated. The Blaines were Meth...
Thomas Burke, chief justice of the Washington State Supreme Court, arrived in Seattle in 1875 at the age of 25. A lawyer, he began practicing law, and within a couple of years was elected probate judg...
John Edward "Ed" Chilberg, a Seattle merchant and banker, was among the first to promote the idea of a grand world's fair in Washington. He saw the opportunity to celebrate our Far Corner as a player ...
Junius Rochester gave this talk on Southerners resident in the Pacific Northwest during the Civil War on March 1, 2008, at the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild Annual Conference, Museum of History a...
Mary Ann Conklin ran Seattle's first hotel, the Felker House, at Main Street and 1st Avenue S. Her profane vocabulary and fiery temper earned her the moniker "Mother Damnable" which later transmuted i...
The Donation Land Law of 1850, or Oregon Land Law, permitted settlers on unsurveyed lands to select claims of 320 acres per settler (640 acres per married couple) provided they resided there for four ...
In A. D. 458, a Chinese adventurer named Hwui Shan crossed the Pacific to Mexico, and then followed the Japan current north to Alaska. Centuries later, in September 1513, Vasco Nunez de Balboa "discov...
Seattle pioneer Edward Hanford, logger, orchardist, farmer, and a founder of South Seattle, was the brother-in-law of one of the first white men to visit the future King County, John C. Holgate (1828-...
Illinois-raised Dexter Horton arrived in Seattle in 1853 as a member of what was called the "Bethel Party" (or Bethel Company), Seattle's second covered-wagon expedition. Horton worked in Henry Yesler...
The Oregon Territorial Legislature created King County out of Pierce County on December 22, 1852. Colonel Isaac N. Ebey (1819-1857), a delegate to the Oregon Legislature from Whidbey Island, introduce...
In May 1803, the United States purchased Louisiana from France. The doubling of U.S. territory caused President Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) to send Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) on a westward expediti...
The Lighthouse for the Blind was incorporated in Seattle in 1918, with the purpose of advancing the general welfare of the blind. Three of the five men who wrote the articles of incorporation were bli...
David S. "Doc" Maynard was a colorful and influential figure in King County's early history. Historian Bill Speidel anointed him "The Man Who Invented Seattle." On the advice of Chief Seattle, Maynard...