On March 22, 1872, the Seattle Coal & Transportation Company begins operating Seattle's first railroad. Established by founders of the Seattle Coal Company, it is used to carry coal from a dock on...
In 1872 (some sources state 1869) Charles Carpenter brings hop root cuttings to the Yakima Valley and grows them on his homestead at Ahtanum near Moxee. The climate and soil prove perfect for the crop...
On May 9, 1872, the "Ladies of the Congregational Church" put on an Apron Festival at the Pavilion (located in Seattle at the southeast corner of Front Street [renamed 1st Avenue] and Cherry). The wom...
On May 11, 1872, in Seattle, the Marshall & Co.'s Great Tycoon Troupe of Japanese performs to record crowds at the Pavilion. The troupe of eight men and two women includes "balancers, jugglers, to...
On about May 13, 1872, the Puget Sound Ice Company begins selling imported ice at three cents a pound in Seattle and in Olympia, adding Victoria the following month. Captain Marshall Blinn imports the...
In 1872, the Northern Pacific Railroad establishes a rail junction at Seatco 15 miles south of Olympia and calls it Tenino. The name derives from a Chinook word meaning junction, referring to the junc...
On May 18, 1872, ice cream is sold for the first time in Seattle and King County. It is an immediate hit. Two Seattle "ice cream saloons" are established and the whole town seems to be consuming this ...
On the evening of June 10, 1872, a "fine mare" owned by David Graham fights with a cougar to protect her colt. Graham's farm is located at Seattle's present-day south boundary just east of the Duwamis...
The opening of a post office is an important marker of the beginning of a community. On June 10, 1872, the Fall City Post Office opens. George W. Bohain is appointed postmaster. Fall City is located i...
On June 28, 1872, William Knight purchases 159 acres from the federal government in what will become a part of the Greenwood retail district of Seattle. The future Greenwood district is located in nor...
In July 1872, the first baseball club forms in Seattle. The club is called Dolly Varden, after either a colorful North Pacific fish or a Dickens character, or both.
On July 5, 1872, the first post office in Spokane opens. The post office of the place called Spokane (or Spokan) Falls is housed in one of the shacks clustered near the falls of the Spokane River. Spo...
On July 8, 1872, Seattle voters elect Corliss P. Stone as mayor of the City of Seattle.
From September 18-20, 1872, a Teacher's Institute for King County, sponsored by County School Superintendent Edmund Carr, is held. More than 32 teachers attend lectures and discuss school discipline, ...
On about October 24, 1872, Seattle's first brick building, constructed by Schwabacher Bros. & Company is completed. It stands on the west side of Commercial Street (1st Avenue S) just south of Mil...
On December 14, 1872, at 9:40 p.m. an earthquake is felt throughout Washington Territory, especially in Western Washington. There are four shocks over an eight-minute period. In Seattle "frame buildin...
On February 23, 1873, Corliss P. Stone, Mayor of Seattle and partner of the firm Stone and Burnett, reportedly embezzles $15,000 from his firm and leaves for San Francisco with a woman who is married ...
On the evening of March 13, 1873, David Swinson "Doc" Maynard (1808-1873) dies at his Seattle residence. "Doc" Maynard was proprietor of Seattle's first store, a physician and surgeon, realtor, justic...
On May 11, 1873, James Nettle Glover first encounters the wild cataracts of Spokane Falls. Already a man of considerable wealth at age 36, he is touring the Palouse region of Washington Territory in s...
On June 3, 1873, the Seattle Library Association elects officers. Thirty three of the 169 members of the organization hold their election in the association’s Reading Room, located ...
On June 22, 1873, Mr. G. Proctor, who lives on "an island in Lake Washington," sights a bear near his premises and gives chase. The bear "took to the lake." Proctor follows in a skiff, kills the anima...
On a Friday morning in early July 1873, Mary Montgomery (1846-1942) leaves a Northern Pacific Railroad construction camp in present-day Thurston County on horseback, the beginning of a two-day dash to...
On July 14, 1873, voters elect Democrat John Collins as mayor of the City of Seattle. He was a businessmen and industrialist whose interests included coal mining, real estate, public utilities, and pu...
On July 14, 1873, an expectant crowd gathers at Yesler Mill in Seattle to hear Arthur Denny (1822-1899) read a telegram from Northern Pacific Railroad executives R. D. Rice and J. C. Ainsworth announc...