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...
In 1871, John Alden Shoudy (1842-1901) and Mary Ellen Shoudy (1846-1921) purchase the successful trading post known as Robber's Roost from founders Andrew Jackson Splawn and Ben Burch. In time the are...
In the summer of 1871, William Moore (1833-1913) and other farmers commission work to begin building a major portion of a three-mile dike from Stanwood (northeastern Snohomish County) north toward Mil...
On July 10, 1871, Seattle voters elect John T. Jordan, stone mason, as the city's mayor.
For 10 days starting July 21, 1871, Philo Remington (1816-1889) and his associate Philo Osgood purchase from 13 different owners more than $50,000 in Seattle and King County real estate. Remington, fr...
On September 1, 1871, the United States establishes a steamboat inspection office in Seattle. The office inspects steamboat engine boilers and the hulls of boats plying Puget Sound as well as rivers a...
In September 1871, the Woodin family traverses Lake Washington aboard a scow loaded with their belongings to reach land they have claimed on the Squak Slough (later known as the Sammamish River) at th...
On October 19, 1871, Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), national women's rights leader and vice president of the National Woman Suffrage Association, becomes the first woman to address the Washington Terri...
On October 21, 1871, a Mr. Kennedy (probably John Kennedy, age 46) opens a roller skating rink at the Pavilion, located in Seattle at the southeast corner of Front Street (later 1st Avenue) and Cherry...
By 1871, Seattle has become the distribution center of the central Puget Sound area and of the Yakima Valley. It supplies goods and services from Snohomish up the Duwamish Valley and west to the lumbe...
On December 17, 1871, it starts to snow and continues on and off for at least three weeks. During that time there are at least three "disagreeable visitation[s]" of snowfall and apparently for nearly ...
In 1872, the coalmines at Newcastle (King County) produce 75 to 100 tons of coal per day. Sixty men work at the mines and 15 men work at transporting coal from Newcastle to the Pike Street coal bunker...
On February 22, 1872, a letter from an irate citizen appears in the The Weekly Intelligencer concerning "depredations of a gang of worthless boys" who, "not content with making day and night hideous w...