
Part 2 of two parts. You can read part 1 here.
Edmonds’ commercial enterprises in 1908-1909 were located on George (Main) Street, or within one block of it. Beyond that narrow corridor sat small homesteads and vacant lots full of huge stumps. Most people walked to town or occasionally took a horse and wagon if they needed to transport supplies. As a result, a number of the early settlers’ oral histories tell of their trips into town, and in some cases down to the city dock or to the shores of Puget Sound. The following excerpts and paraphrases provide further insights into what Edmonds was like in that time period.
Early Settlers’ Oral History Recollections:
Edith Brackett Cary, the daughter of George Brackett, in her written history recorded the businesses that were in Edmonds in 1908. This list provides us with a more detailed look at the businesses than was mentioned in Part 1, when the 1908 Polk Business Directory was cited.
15 mills and factories on the waterfront
2 hotels
3 boarding houses
6 saloons
1 steam laundry
1 pool & billiard hall
2 blacksmiths (1 on 2nd Avenue and 1 on 5th Avenue)
2 livery barns
1 harness shop
2 hardware stores
3 real estate offices
2 drug stores
2 confectionary stores
1 bakery
2 butcher shops
3 shoemakers
2 jewelers
2 weekly newspapers
3 lawyers
3 doctors or dentists
1 ladies and men’s clothing store
1 furniture store
1 cigar factory
1 photo studio
1 plumbing shop
1 green house and nursery
1 woodworking shop
1 telephone company
1 electric plant
1 custom tailor shop
1 bank
4 churches
1 school that housed all students
3 lodges (Mason, Eagles and Good Fellows)
10-acre cemetery
Author’s note: It appears that Edith recorded the businesses along the waterfront and then up to 2nd Avenue first, as the mills and factories up to and including the harness shop was located in the lower section of town. The exception was one of the blacksmith shops, which was located on 5th Avenue.
While researching the oral histories of some early settlers, I’ve included a few excerpts and paraphrases of their remembrances from this time period.
Lillie Astell: “One of our favorite pastimes on Sunday afternoon was for the family to walk with my father down to the dock and back. The city dock was a long affair extending from the foot of Main Street a considerable way out into the water. It was wide enough for a horse and wagon to go out onto the dock. At the outer end it was large enough to even have a warehouse where freight could be placed out of the weather. “
“Our family home was located near the corner of 6th Ave S. and Walnut Street so our route was down 6th Ave to Main Street, then west on Main Street to the dock. This route was convenient for me as a young child as it went by the drugstore which had a soda fountain. During the ice cream season our main purpose for the walk was to try and persuade my dad to get us a cone, or better still, a dish of ice cream so we could sit at the table.”
Clara Marie Everton Strance:
“Among the first sounds I remember were creaky wagon wheels burdened with heavy loads of cord wood and the loud thud and beat of horse hooves as they thundered across the plank bridge near our house and on down the road to the shingle mills on the waterfront.
Below the bridge on 3rd Avenue was a steep little path bordered with maidenhair and long calypso orchid which led down to a crystal clear stream where tiny fish darted here and there along the swiftly moving water.
But we weren’t allowed to follow the stream down towards the mills. That area was totally taboo for us”.
“When I was older, I remember picking wild blackberries in the logged-off lands in Edmonds, and carrying them down to the noon boat to sell to the boat’s captain. For an extra full ten quart lard pail he paid me 75 cents, when the going rate was 50 cents.”
Edith Brackett Cary:
“My father was a logger and the first to log the Edmonds area and to build a saw mill here. As a child I was around a lot of loggers. They were a crude-lot, with great strength and brawn. Their amusement was wrestling/fighting, telling stories, playing the mouth organ and drinking a lot. Their manners were generally appalling – first come-first served. There weren’t any movies so they had to make their own entertainment, and when they came to town loud revelry and fights was often the result.
Work in and around the mills was really dangerous. There were a number of fatal accidents and men often lost fingers or worse working around the saws. I witnessed a number of the mills and sheds burn town with dried shingles inside. Fire protection was almost non-existent. Bucket brigades would be formed but oftentimes it was too late.”
Eathel Engel:
“When my father had the general merchandise store, we had many of the young loggers coming into the store looking for clothes, shoes and boots. They always looked dirty and often smelled of sweat and goose lard, which they used on the bleeding cracks in their hands. I often felt sorry for them, as many were uneducated and needed help counting money.
Later when we had the restaurant we fed a lot of them. We were supportive of the union and Beeson’s Café was more pro-management. Most of the time they were very polite and appreciative of the hearty meals we served, and the homemade pies mother made every day. We however did not let them come into the restaurant if they smelt of alcohol. We wanted our place to be a family friendly restaurant.”
Author’s note: The Engel’s General Merchantile was located on the corner of 5th and Main. The building was shown in one of the photos in Part I. The restaurant Eathel is referring to was opened much later, in 1934, by her brother Ernest and herself. It was originally named “Engel’s Lunch.” The building is still standing and is the home to Engel’s Tavern on 5th Avenue South, across the alley from the Edmonds Bookshop.
Esther Kingdon Knowles:
“Back in those days we walked a lot, of course weekends were short as almost everyone worked six days a week. On Sundays we went to Sunday School and church. Then with the family we walk down to the beach to the south of the mill area to look for agates or shells.
If my father was available we sometimes walked down to the dock, but we were told not to talk to any of the men and not to look into the saloons.
“We loved going to the dock to watch the “City of Seattle” or the “Greyhound” on its run from Seattle to Everett, stopping in Edmonds and loading cord wood to supply the steam. The waterfront was always exciting – the beach, the dock, the traffic on the water, the Great Northern Railroad trains, the beautiful sunsets and the people arriving on the steamers.”
James Astell (who became the Chief of the Edmonds Volunteer Fire Department in the 1950s-60s):
“I remember several of the old hotels including the Royal. It sat on Main Street. The lower part of Main Street was off-limits to minors as it was really rough, with three or four saloons in every block. When I was growing up, my mother was very strict about my staying away from that part of town.”
Frances Anderson (well known Edmonds teacher/principal):
“I lost my father in 1907 in a railroad accident. Fortunately I had a large circle of friends and a loving mother who helped me get through the grief. I often went down to the beach with friends to canoe, fish, dig for clams and picnic. We always went to the north end of town and then down to the beach, making sure we stayed away from the mill area. It was definitely not a place for young women to be.”
“As school girls we were told by our teachers and parents to stay away from men hanging around Third Avenue and never go below 3rd Avenue. There were a number of known drunks, con-men, gamblers and the like that walked upward from the hotels and we were told not to converse with them.”
Dan Yost:
“My father had worked in and around the lumber industry most of his life and knew how hard it was on the workers. But he was really upset in February of 1908, when buyers were only willing to pay a fraction of the price they had before for shingles. It was a simple matter of ample supply versus lessening demand. Given the low prices, a number of the mills closed, leaving nearly 500 men out of work for six weeks. During that time the amount of public drunkenness, thefts, burglaries and violence in Edmonds soared. Father realized their frustration, but was maddened that the loggers were taking it out on the town.”
Mrytie Rynearson:
“I used to walk down Main Street with my family on Sundays after church and my favorite place to stop was the confectionary store. I often only had a penny or two to spend and there were so many choices contained in the jars and bins that were situated on the west wall of the store. I’m sure my father grew impatient with me at times, as I struggled to make a decision, but I only had a penny or two and I wanted to make the best decision. After purchasing my treat I would slowly eat it on our walk down the street.
Although my father was known as a blacksmith by the loggers and mill workers, I nor my friends were permitted to go anywhere near the mills, as he believed it was extremely dangerous for us to be there unless he was along.”
In the end, the women of Edmonds make a stand.
After the death of Billy Freese and the drunken brawl in front of the IOOF (read more in part 1), a number of women in Edmonds had had enough. The women started a crusade to get rid of the saloons, public drunkenness and lawlessness that they felt plagued the city.
The drinking, gambling and other assorted illicit acts persisted through 1909 but there was constant growing opposition to them.
In early 1910, the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the consistent pressure from the women of Edmonds resulted in the city voting to go “dry,” which forced the saloons to close. The decision was not unanimous by any means. The measure only passed by 37 votes, but as one councilman said, “I’m happy that it passed, as I don’t want to hear my wife “chewing her cud” about this anymore.”
Needless to say, alcohol was still obtainable, but the conditions that led Edmonds to be essentially two cities in one changed forever after 1909.
Author’s final thoughts: Given the written and oral recollections from the 1908-09, I wonder what it was like to travel up to the Edmonds on a steamboat and step off onto its dock with your family in tow. As you approached Edmonds you would have seen a row of smokestacks of the mills bellowing smoke into the air, and you could have possibly seen glimpses of a small town up on the hillside.
Once off the boat you would have had to walk with your possessions down the long walkway to the muddy streets just beyond the dock. For the first two blocks you would have seen a number of saloons, the only hotels and boarding houses in town, and possibly drunken loggers, ladies of the evening and other questionable people.
It would have only been after you had walked up the hill several blocks that you would have seen the local business district and grade school poised on the hillside.
I’m sure some people turned around and left after a short stay but the allure of the huge forests, small farms, beautiful scenery and the potential of making a new life for you and your family was something that made people stay and become a part of our history.
This article was researched and written by Byron Wilkes. Thanks go to the Edmonds Historical Museum and the Sno-Isle Genealogical Society for their assistance in this endeavor.
Great story!
Thanks Byron! I enjoy these stories so much. The descriptions of the town, at that time, make you feel you are there!
Thanks Lucinda. I hope they are both enjoyable and educational.
Byron, another outstanding effort bringing our history alive. Thanks again for your great work.
Fantastic work, Byron. Thank you for fitting more of Edmonds’s historical jigsaw pieces together. I would also like to give a shoutout to Andy Eccleshall’s mural on 4th Ave N, depicting Main Street on a gradual journey back through time. You both just keep on adding depth to this landscape many of us can claim as HOME and many others who recognize it as a real treasure.
Richard, I totally agree with you regarding Andy Eccleshall’s work on multiple fronts. His murals in the alley way just west of the Edmonds Bakery are incredible.
I’m sure that the oral history by Clara Marie Everton Strance, quoted in Part 2 here, is the estate owner that I worked for in the early 60’s which I noted in comments to Part 1. I knew her as Mrs. Clara Strance, and her husband had been a local dentist who passed sometime before I worked for her. She was a most grand and gracious lady who taught me a lot about both landscape gardening maintenance and life in general. She was very active in the Friends of the Library group for years. Thanks for another great article Byron.
Byron, one of your best pieces. The personal stories add an additional dimension. With the sounds of the mills and the smells of horse manure in the muddy streets one begins to appreciate more fully what living in Edmonds really meant. Great work.
My family moved to Edmonds in 1945 and I went to school K through 12 graduating in 1963. Edmonds has definitely changed but it has been a great place to live. My parents purchased a grocery store in Meadowdale in the early 1950’s which was located less than 1 block East of Haines Wharf, lots of interesting folks shopped at the store but not all of them had money. My Dad could not stand to see anyone go hungry so he let them leave without paying. Since my parents were not rich people they didn’t last all that long as store owners. We moved back to the seaview home that they had rented out. I have thoroughly enjoyed reading both part 1 and 2 of the Historical articles.