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of History & Folklore
The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit
Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness
Commissioners were a stern-looking
group. They served from 1886 to 1888. Pictured here from left to
right: Patrick Halloran of Edison and the Samish Flats, James Young
of the Skagit River District and J. O. Rudene of Pleasant Ridge and
the Swinomish Flats.
Courtesy Skagit County Museum
Collection
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Noel V. Bourasaw, founder
Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp
Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
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Founding of Skagit County due in part to Power politics
By Bill
Reynolds
It's often said that crime doesn't
take a holiday. Nor does politics, and cynics might say the two aren't mutually
exclusive.
At least that was the likely view of
some Bellingham area lawmakers on Nov. 28, 1883, when Washington Territorial
Governor William A. Newell did the unthinkable, signing a bill lopping off
Whatcom County's "lower half" and designating it as the new Skagit County.
The bold action came just a day
before Thanksgiving, when Whatcom advocates in the territorial legislature had
gone home for the holiday, secure in what they felt was the binding nature of an
earlier 8-4 Washington Council vote defeating a bid to create Skagit County.
Mind you, this took place just seven
years after the so-called "Stolen Election of 1876," which had propelled
Rutherford B. Hayes into the White House amid a contested electoral
count. Neither Washington, in terms of politics, was for the faint of heart in
the Gilded Age.
Perhaps in response, U.S. President
Chester A. Arthur proposed that Nov. 29, 1883---that month's final Thursday---be
recognized as a national day of thanksgiving. His proclamation came just two
days after the Council in Olympia killed the Skagit County bill. But, as events
unfolded, upper Whatcom legislators had counted their turkeys before they
hatched. Skagit proponents were well positioned to overcome their earlier
legislative setback.
Territorial Senator James Power
enjoyed a bully pulpit of sorts as owner of the Puget Sound Mail, in La
Conner, and in all likelihood it was he who circulated the petition that first
called for carving a new county out of southern Whatcom. Judge Power had already
given the Skagit campaign a major boost by having moved his newspaper, formerly
the Bellingham Bay Mail, to La Conner. The La Conner publisher found
ready allies in Amos Bowman's Northwest Enterprise, in Anacortes, and
savvy Territorial Representative Orrin Kincaid.
An editorial war pitting the Puget
Sound Mail and Northwest Enterprise against the Whatcom Reveille
ensued prior to Judge Power introducing his bill to divide Whatcom County.
The Reveille asserted "that if their friends in the southern part of the
county were spoiling for a fight there was no good reason why they should not
have it."
The Puget Sound Mail and
Northwest Enterprise answered in similar vein, opining that the argument for
division was appropriate given the low regard in which the Skagit region was
held by its northern neighbors. They sought greater recognition of and increased
appreciation for the southern portion of Whatcom County, namely the Skagit River
Valley, delta, and tidelands, and Fidalgo, Guemes, and Cypress islands.
The clash came to a head when the
Territorial Legislature met in the fall of 1883. While Power's bill for
separation fell short, he and Kincaid didn't rereat. After a few weeks, Kincaid
simply reintroduced the measure. The timing was crucial. With the so-called
"Lime Kiln Lobby" of Whatcom County having returned home, Kincaid's bill cleared
both houses on Nov. 24---exactly a month after the original legislation had
failed.
"Without the powerful representatives
from Whatcom to help vote it down," explains Skagit County Pioneer Association
Vice-President Dan Royal, "the bill passed." Gov. Newell signed it into law four
days later. The Skagit-Whatcom breach was geographic as well as political,
according to The 1906 Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish County.
"With the beginning of the epoch of
the 1880s," the account notes, "the increasing population about the mouth of
that superb stream of the Skagit, the largest and finest of the rivers of the
sound basin, began to feel that they were paying a disproportionate amount of
money into the treasury and receiving benefit in inverse ratio. The rugged range
of the Chuckanut formed a barrier between the two parts of the county, and along
the line represented by that chain of hills the battle for county division."
At first, according to late Skagit
County Pioneer Association Historian/Memorialist Dick Fallis, the successful
lobbying by Power and Kincaid seemed a Pyrrhic victory. "Except for a few
bruised political egos at Whatcom," Fallis wrote 20 years ago, "the controlling
forces there felt that they carved off a real turkey, one that offered more real
problems than promise, and they were happy to concentrate on their own broad,
open harbors, productive mines and mills, and accessible timber."
The Skagit area, by contrast,
appeared to be a swampy quagmire dominated by a badly log-jammed river and
susceptible to constant flooding. Appearances indeed were deceiving. "By Thanksgiving Day 1883," Fallis
stressed, "the determined citizens of Skagit County were already at work in
solving the problems."
Today, [November 28, 2018] going on 135 Thanksgivings
later, Skagit County is world famous for its extraordinary natural beauty, rich
multi-cultural heritage, diverse, vibrant economy, and vast, unlimited potential
going forward.
Bill Reynolds is current Historian
of Skagit County Pioneer Association
The late Past Historian of Skagit County Pioneer Association, Dick Fallis, loved
celebrating the birthday of Skagit County and for years made sure the county
birthday was honored yearly. This photo from Skagit Valley Herald in 1996
shows a proper 113th birthday cake ready to cut and share with county
commissioners: Ted Anderson, Bob Hart, and Harvey Wolden. Representing the
Pioneer Association is Dick Fallis, Bill Stendal, Jim Nelson watching his
granddaughter Samie helping with the cake. The County birthday is still
celebrated these days but done every five years. The 135th year will be
celebrated this November 27, 2018, 11:45a.m. - at the County Administration
Building with Proclamation and cake once again. |
KINCAID, POWER PROVED
WORTHY COUNTY FATHERS
By Dick Fallis
November 28, 1883, was the birthday of Skagit County,
and this year, 1998, marks the 115th anniversary of that event that started the
corporate existence of all of us who are proud to call ourselves Skagitonians.
[Ed note: Dick wrote variations of this story for what feels like, countless
years. Here is one of many and we will probably post more in the future. Enjoy!]
The beginning was dramatic and has often been
described, but deserves to be choreographed, scripted, scored, staged and filmed
so that each year at this season the event can be seen, experienced, enjoyed and
celebrated again and again in all of its most deserving glory!
Basic plot is that James Power of LaConner was serving
in the upper house of the Territorial Legislature representing “Lower” Whatcom
County. Orrin Kincaid of Mount Vernon and upper reaches of the Skagit River was
serving in the lower house of that same 1883 Legislative session.
Councilman Power presented a well-planned bill to the
upper house, moving to create Skagit County out of Lower Whatcom, and that bill
was defeated by Whatcom County officials and their buddies and paid lobbyists,
all of whom were in cahoots to keep it from happening.
In the meantime, Rep. Kincaid brought up a similar
measure which passed by a comfortable margin in the lower house, and then was
rushed to the upper house for their approval.
The Whatcom officials and their cohorts were still out
celebrating their victory over the would-be Skagit up-starts, and without their
negative influence, the bill passed the upper house and was signed into law that
very day, Nov. 28, 1883, by Washington Territorial Governor William A. Newell.
Councilman, James Power, who was also the editor and
publisher of the Puget Sound Mail newspaper of LaConner, offers the editorial
jab: “Verily, as our Whatcom contemporary has remarked; ‘he laughs best that
laughs last.’ Wherefore do we cachinnate most audibly.”
Thus Skagit County was created with drama, intrigue,
and vindicated laughter.
Orrin Kincaid, the other County “Father,” is of course
recognized through the name of the main street entering the County Seat of
Skagit County, Kincaid Street, leading past the courthouse and what was once the
railroad depot, where people arriving by train got their first impression of the
town.
Though it is a very confusing and congested traffic
terminal now, with cars coming in and going off in too many directions, it was
once a very broad and pleasant boulevard, where people could stroll or promenade
in carriages between the railroad depot and the steamboat landings on the river,
greeting friends and visitors to town.
Power had attempted to get several other papers up and
running in Skagit County, but with limited success. For the most part he retired
to running a very active hop ranch at the corner of Best and Calhoun Road (now
the Bob Rose Farm), escorting the widow Louisa Conner to major social and
political functions, and hiring small boys with sling-shots to shoot birds out
of his cherry trees.
Kincaid, after an attempt at store-keeping and town
building at Lyman and upriver reaches, now rests more peacefully at the Fir Hill
cemetery in Mount Vernon.
Richard E. "Dick" Fallis, Past Historian of Skagit
County Pioneer Association, Argus 25 Nov 1998
Links, background reading and sources
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