On June 20, 1859, Captain (Brevet Major) Pinkney Lugenbeel (also spelled Lougenbeel) (1819-1886) arrives in the Colville Valley and selects a site near the present town of Colville, Spokane County (la...
On July 27, 1859, U.S. Army sutler Edward Warbass (1825-1906) accompanies Captain George Pickett (1825-1875) and 45 soldiers from Fort Bellingham when they disembark at the wharf at San Juan Town on S...
In 1859, cowboy Ben Snipes (1835-1906) drives his first herd of cattle north from the Columbia River through Washington Territory to the gold mining camps along the Fraser River in British Columbia. S...
On November 17, 1859, Walla Walla County commissioners name the town that has grown up around the U.S. military Fort Walla Walla. They elect to name the town Walla Walla. The town begins with a rich h...
Near the end of 1859, a year full of stabilizing events in the Pacific Northwest, Charles Darwin's revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species, is released to the book trade in Great Britain. Althou...
On November 30, 1859, amidst the bustling trade of the "Golden Age of Sail," a Schooner called the Black Diamond is apprehended while docking at Port Townsend on return from Vancouver Island. After fa...
On December 7, 1859, a post office is established at Pinkney City (or Pinkneyville), a raw frontier town that has sprung up across Mill Creek from military Fort Colville in what was then Spokane Count...
On December 20, 1859, the Washington Territorial Legislature approves the first charter for an institution of higher educational in the territory. The charter is for Whitman Seminary, a coeducational...
On December 29, 1859, the Washington Territorial Legislature passes an act to create and organize the County of Clickitat. (In 1869 the spelling will be changed to Klickitat.) Only about 15 non-Indi...
On January 4, 1860, the Territorial Auditor submitted to the Washington Territorial Legislative Assembly a report (dated December 31, 1859) on the numbers of white persons, horses, hogs, acres of pota...
In 1860, a government land survey names Mercer's Island for the first time. Later shortened to Mercer Island, the island is named for Thomas Mercer (1813-1898), an early pioneer who suggested the name...
In about 1860, Americans John Utz (b. 1824) and Hiram Francis Smith (1829-1893) settle in the Okanogan Valley near Lake Osoyoos. They are the first white residents of the area and although Utz may hav...
On January 16, 1860, the Washington Territorial Legislature passes an act incorporating the city of Port Townsend. The settlement in Jefferson County at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula b...
The 8th federal census, taken in 1860, is the first to formally include Washington Territory (established in 1853), although the 1850 count had estimated the population north of the Columbia River by ...
In the fall of 1860, the Schwabacher brothers, including Louis (1837-1900), Sigmund (1841-1917), and Abraham (1838-1909), open a store in the small town of Walla Walla on the corner of Main and 3rd st...
On November 22, 1860, news reaches Olympia, Washington, that preliminary returns from the November 6, 1860, election show that Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is ahead in 18 of 33 states and will most lik...
The opening of a post office is an important marker of the beginning of a community. D'wamish Post Office is established December 7, 1860. David A. Neely is appointed postmaster. The post office was l...
In 1861, William Grose (1835-1898), African American pioneer, arrives in Seattle and becomes a successful businessman.
In 1861, John Pinnell (or Pennell, in some sources), the proprietor of several lucrative brothels in San Francisco, arrives in Seattle, Washington Territory, and establishes a brothel. He builds it ju...
The winter of 1861-1862 is by far the worst in Washington Territory's short history since the arrival of the first non-Native settlers. In November and December of 1861 heavy rains cause extreme flood...
On January 14, 1861, the Washington Territorial Legislature creates Snohomish County out of Island County and designates Mukilteo as the temporary county seat. The background is as follows. In Novembe...
On January 14, 1861, the Washington Territorial Legislature creates Snohomish County from the only remaining mainland portion of Island County. When first established by the Oregon Territorial Legisla...
On April 12, 1861, former Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862), the delegate to the U.S. Congress for Washington Territory, returns to the Northwest after an absence of 19 months spent attending Congres...
On April 12, 1861, forces of the Confederate States of America shell the Union Army-held Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, South Carolina, setting off the bloody Civil War that will not end until almo...