A GENERAL ACCOUNT OF WASHINGTON TERRITORY.
HISTORICAL.
Denny, of Denny Mines.The first white man who ever settled near the site of Seattle (Mr. Arthur A. Denny) now lives in that city, and can scarcely be called an old man. The country remained unsettled so long, partly because of its inaccessibility from the East, and partly because it was disputed territory between the United States and Great Britain. It became a separate Territory only in 1853.Causes of delay in settlement. No transcontinental line of railroad touched any part of Washington Territory until four years ago, when the Northern Pacific passed across the eastern part of the Territory, and united with the road along the Columbia River, which had been built by the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and which had barely entered this Territory. Following this line to Portland, Oregon, and then completing the road from Portland, northward, the railroad reached Puget Sound at Tacoma by this circuitous route in 1883.
The Northern Pacific Railroad has, during the present year (1887), succeeded in reaching Tacoma by a more direct, though still angular, line, crossing the Cascade Mountains at Stampede Pass.
Whilst thus comparatively unknown and inaccessible, it is not surprising that population should at first come in slowly. Those who came to Western Washington were chiefly lumbermen. Since that time farmers have settled large tracts of country, commerce has become large, and now every interest is going forward with great rapidity.
The population in 1880 was 67,000.Population of Washington Territory. Governor Semple, in his report for 1887, puts the population at 143,669, which shows a gain in seven years of over 100 per cent. But the Governor himself declares that the enumerations made since 1880 are unreliable, and it is claimed by intelligent gentlemen in Seattle that the present population exceeds 175,000. It is increasing rapidly day by day. The fact seems suddenly to have burst upon the country at large that here, in this neglected corner, is a wide region offering perhaps the richest inducements to immigration of any part of the United States.
