Showing 1 - 20 of 74 results
Admiralty Head Lighthouse
The Admiralty Head Lighthouse, built in 1903 by the Army Corps of Engineers, is located in Fort Casey State Park near Coupeville on Whidbey Island. The beacon, high on a bluff, 127 feet above sea level, was an important navigational aid, especially for sailing ships entering Admiralty Inlet from the Strait of Juan de Fuca. It replaced the Red Bluff Lighthouse, a wooden Cape Cod style structure built in 1861. Although decommissioned in 1922, the Admiralty Head Lighthouse received national recognition in 1990 when the U.S. Postal Service selected it for a collection of five commemorative lighthouse stamps honoring the U. S. Coast Guard's bicentennial.
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Arai, Kichio Allen (1901-1986)
Kichio Allen Arai was Seattle's first Asian American architect to design buildings under his own name. Arai's approach to design integrated Japanese aesthetics with American conventions. Arai's career was unfortunately brief, for the Great Depression and then his forced relocation and incarceration along with others of Japanese ancestry during World War II stymied his potentially fruitful professional life in architecture. He is best known for Buddhist temples in Seattle, Auburn, and Wapato, Washington.
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Artists of Washington State During World War II
In 1935, a group of artists in New York City formed the American Artists Congress as a response to the growth of Fascism throughout the world. Three Washington state artists signed the original Call of the organization: Kenneth Callahan (1905-1986), Thomas Handforth (1897-1948), and Barney Nestor (1903-1974). Several other regional artists would eventually align themselves with the organization and participated in their exhibitions. Like their contemporaries, some Washington state artists addressed themes of war in their work, either in support of the effort or through anti-war and pacifist imagery.
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Bainbridge Island: A Close-Knit Community's Tragedy and Triumph by Washington State History Day winner Jack Hanley
Jack Hanley, a Junior at Seattle Prep, won first place in the Senior Division of the 2007 History Day competition with this essay on Bainbridge Island's Japanese American internment.
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Blethen, Alden J. (1845-1915)
Alden J. Blethen purchased The Seattle Daily Times, a newspaper with a minuscule circulation, in 1896. Moving from Minneapolis to Seattle, Blethen then built the paper's circulation by introducing large display typefaces for headlines, many photographs, more dramatic (and highly partisan) news coverage, and a color comic Sunday supplement. Blethen's Times supported William Jennings Bryan (1860-1925) for president in 1896, in opposition to the Republican Seattle Post-Intelligencer's candidate, William McKinley (1843-1901). (McKinley won the election to become the 25th president of the United States.) Blethen's Times passionately supported Cuban independence from Spain, leading up to the Spanish American War. Blethen's descendants continue (in 1999) to publish The Seattle Times.
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Boeing B-29 Superfortress Bomber
Famed for its World War II exploits, Boeing's Superfortress was conceived before the war. The B-29 was born near the war's midpoint, flying on September 21, 1942, built and employed in large numbers during the conflict. It successfully performed several roles during 15 months of combat, including bomber, minelayer, photoreconnaissance, search and rescue, and electronic warfare. B-29s fought in the Pacific theater, flying mostly from small islands with the world's largest airbases, over vast stretches of ocean, to enemy targets that could be more than 2,000 miles distant. Known as the only aircraft to drop atomic bombs in war, the B-29 contributed a major share to the Allied victory over Japan with its firebomb attacks and mine laying missions in the waters surrounding the home islands.
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Boeing B-47 Stratojet Bomber
Sleek. Rakish. Seemingly poised to thunder into the wild blue yonder sits an Air Force Boeing B-47 Stratojet bomber, guarding the south entrance to the Seattle Museum of Flight. Contemporary in appearance and perhaps the best-looking Boeing aircraft, the Stratojet flew for the first time on December 17, 1947. Swift and lethal, the B-47 introduced to production aircraft the sweptback wing with under-wing, pylon-mounted turbojet engines. This basic airplane configuration is now the accepted standard worldwide for all large turbojet powered airliners and transports. Just over five years separated the initial flights (in 1942) of the B-29 Superfortress, a very advanced propeller-driven bomber, and the B-47, its turbojet driven, nearly twice as fast, younger brother.
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Camp Harmony (Puyallup Assembly Center), 1942
The Puyallup Assembly Center, better known by the euphemism Camp Harmony, a name coined by an Army public-relations officer during construction in 1942, was situated at the Western Washington fairgrounds in the heart of Puyallup, located in Pierce County. The assembly center was a temporary facility into which Japanese Americans, known as Nikkei, were forced to gather beginning in March 1942, following U.S. President Franklin Roosevelt's (1882-1945) Executive Order 9066, which set into motion the expulsion of 110,000 Japanese Americans from the West Coast. The mass expulsion forced some 7,500 people from Seattle and the rural areas around Tacoma into Camp Harmony, where they stayed in crowded conditions until their transfer to permanent "relocation centers" (inland prison camps). A key figure in these events was James Sakamoto (1903-1955), a newspaper publisher and a founder of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL).
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Chief Seattle (Seattle, Chief Noah [born si?al, 178?-1866])
Chief Seattle, or si?al in his native Lushootseed language, led the Duwamish and Suquamish tribes as the first Euro-American settlers arrived in the greater Seattle area in the 1850s. Baptized Noah by Catholic missionaries, Seattle was regarded as a "firm friend of the Whites," who named the region's future central city in his honor. He was a respected leader among Salish tribes, signing the Point Elliott (Mukilteo) Treaty of 1855, which relinquished tribal claims to most of the area, and opposing Native American attempts to dislodge settlers during the "Indian Wars" of 1855-1856. Chief Seattle retired to the Suquamish Reservation at Port Madison, and died there on June 7, 1866. This essay includes a sound recording of the correct pronunciation of Chief Seattle's name, provided by Skagit elder Vi Hilbert (1918-2008).
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Civic Unity Committee in Seattle
In January 1944, Mayor William F. Devin (Seattle mayor, 1942-1952) formed Seattle's Civic Unity Committee to manage and assuage growing fears of racial violence. Riots in Detroit, Harlem, and Los Angeles snatched away Seattle's false security blanket, forcing a close examination of race relations. The Civic Unity Committee, modeled after similar committees in Detroit and New York, was a multiracial citizen task force. The committee advised the mayor, conducted consciousness-raising programs on racism, and produced a monthly newsletter, Fair Play, to celebrate positive civic actions.
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Clark, General Mark Wayne (1896-1984)
On July 27, 1937 Major Mark Wayne Clark received an assignment to the Third Division, Fort Lewis, Washington, as Assistant Chief of Staff. This would be the start of an association with the state, including consideration of retirement to Camano Island. During World War II he would become a famous general. After the war in 1949 Washington honored him by naming the new bridge from Stanwood to Camano Island, Washington, the General Mark Clark Bridge.
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Des Moines Memorial Way South, Women's Memorial
Following World War I, the Seattle Garden Club worked with veterans organizations to plant some 1,400 elm trees along Des Moines Memorial Way S, dedicating each one to a fallen veteran. In a separate ceremony, Seattle's Ex-Service Women's Club planted elms to memorialize female war dead. An engraved monument took their place in the 1960s, with the names of more than 1,000 veterans. But the war dead commemorated by the Ex-Service Women's Club are missing.
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Fort Lawton to Discovery Park
During the 1890s Seattle, to boast its economy, actively sought an army post. The War Department also desired an army presence and encouraged the City to provide free land. The land was conveyed in 1898, construction began, and the new post was named in honor of General Henry Lawton (d. 1899), recently killed in action in the Philippines. Seattle expected it to be a major installation, but it remained a small post. The post is best known for events other than military accomplishments: a 1944 soldier raid on Italian prisoner camp, a court martial with injustices corrected more than 60 years later, a 1970 Indian demonstration and occupation, and struggles to convert the fort into Discovery Park.
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Fort Lewis Prisoners of War (World War II)
During World War II, Fort Lewis in Pierce County held about 4,000 German prisoners of war. The POWs were confined there between 1942 and 1946. A few died from illness or from their war wounds, but most enjoyed food and living conditions far better than they had in the deserts of North Africa or in the battlefields of Europe. International Red Cross inspectors judged their prison conditions strict but fair.
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Fort Lewis, Part 1, 1917-1927
In 1916 Tacoma civic leaders promoted the development of a United States Army camp on the Nisqually Plain, located in Pierce County south of Tacoma. They succeeded in gaining War Department support and in January 1917 Pierce County voters overwhelming approved a bond to purchase about 70,000 acres and donate the land to the federal government for a military camp. In May 1917, Captain David L. Stone (b. 1876), Quartermaster Corps, arrived at the American Lake site to supervise camp construction. Hurley-Mason Construction of Tacoma started work on June 15. They erected 1,757 major buildings with a troop capacity of 44,685. On July 18, 1917, the camp was named in honor of Meriwether Lewis (1774-1809) of the Lewis and Clark expedition, and it opened on September 1, 1917. The Ninety-First Division, Major General Henry A. Greene commanding, arrived and launched into rigorous training. The Ninety-First Division served with honor in France and as they fought, the Thirteenth Division trained at Camp Lewis, but then World War I ended and the division dissolved. Camp Lewis demobilized soldiers and then went into dramatic decline. Pierce County became concerned over lack of use and some even argued that the county should take back the land. However, the camp recovered and in 1927 a large building program made the post permanent and in recognition of that status became Fort Lewis. This is Part 1 of a two-part history of Fort Lewis, located in Pierce County, south of Tacoma.
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Fort Lewis, Part 2, 1927-2008
Located in Pierce County south of Tacoma, the permanent Fort Lewis went up between 1927 and 1939 with the construction of stately brick buildings in an attractive layout. In 1939 the permanent construction program ended and temporary wood buildings then became commonplace.
During World War II new compounds were erected at North Fort Lewis, Northeast Fort Lewis, and South Fort Lewis and within the main cantonment area. Training and preparedness intensified leading up to and throughout World War II. Colonel Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890-1969), the future general and president, served at Fort Lewis from 1940 to 1941. The post functioned to train soldiers for other wars, Korea, Vietnam, and the Global War on Terrorism. Since World War II, the fort has modernized, but retains it historic core of the original permanent buildings.
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Fort Lewis: Gray Army Airfield
Aviation came early to Camp Lewis with flights in October 1921 from Sand Point, Seattle, to the camp's sod runway. In 1922 the first hangar went up. Soon after that a dirigible Mooring Mast was erected and a dirigible landed. The first major construction occurred in 1938. Also, that year the field was named Gray Army Airfield (GAAF) in honor of balloon pilot Captain Lawrence Gray (1889-1927) . Gray Field served observation squadrons, first balloon and later aircraft units. During World War II patrol planes flew from here. In 1949 a most unusual event happened, an accidental pilotless plane flight to Ellensburg. Gray Field played an important role in helicopter operations in Vietnam and helicopter missile operations. This airfield continues to train and provide air support as well as search and rescue missions on Mount Rainier.
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Grand Army of the Republic Cemetery -- Seattle
The Grand Army of the Republic (G.A.R.) was a fraternal organization of Union Army veterans formed after the Civil War (1861-1865) for the "defense of the late soldiery of the United States, morally, socially, and politically." By 1890, membership numbered 400,000, including a chapter in Seattle. In Seattle the land for the cemetery -- 2.3 acres at the corner of 12th Avenue E and E Howe Street, just north of the present Lake View Cemetery -- was donated in 1895 by Huldah and David Kaufman, who came to Seattle in 1869 and were among the first Jewish families in Seattle. Approximately 219 Union veterans and their wives are interred there.
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Hirabayashi, Gordon K. (b. 1918)
In a remarkable show of personal courage, Seattle native Gordon Hirabayashi (b. 1918) was one of handful of Japanese Americans nationwide to defy U.S. government curfew and "evacuation" orders in the spring of 1942. He was arrested, convicted and imprisoned, and eventually appealed his case to the U.S. Supreme Court. Although that bid was unsuccessful, the fight to overturn his conviction resumed in the 1980s, culminating in his judicial vindication.
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Jackson, Henry M. "Scoop" (1912-1983)
Henry M. (Scoop) Jackson was one of the most successful and powerful politicians in the history of Washington state. Jackson was born and died in Everett, Snohomish County, the rough-edged industrial port on Puget Sound north of Seattle, where he lived in the house where he was born for much of his life (when Congress was not in session). At 28, Jackson entered the United States Congress as its youngest member. He remained there the rest of his life, serving under nine presidents. Jackson never lost an election in Washington, winning six terms in the House of Representatives and six in the Senate, often by record margins. Jackson was the quintessential "Cold War liberal." He was an outspoken and influential advocate of increased military spending and a hard line against the Soviet Union, while supporting social welfare programs, civil rights, and the labor movement. Together with Warren G. Magnuson (1905-1989), with whom he served in the Senate for 28 years, Jackson used his legislative skill and seniority to win the state unprecedented influence in the nation's capital. He guided key environmental legislation that greatly expanded wilderness areas and national parks in Washington and across the country, managed the bills that granted statehood to Alaska and Hawaii, and sponsored the law that turned surplus military bases into parks in Seattle and elsewhere.
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Showing 1 - 20 of 247 results
Spain and Great Britain sign the Nootka Convention on October 28, 1790.
On October 28, 1790, Spain and Great Britain sign the Nootka Convention, which ends Spanish claims to a monopoly of settlement and trade in the Pacific Northwest. Nootka Sound, an inlet of the sea on the west coast of present-day Vancouver Island, will later become part of Canada.
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Native Americans set a huge forest fire in about 1800.
In about the year 1800, oral tradition holds that Native Americans set a huge forest fire that consumed as much as 250,000 acres in the area between Mount Rainier, Mount Saint Helens, and present-day Centralia.
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John Jacob Astor's Pacific Fur Company establishes Fort Spokane in 1812.
In 1812, the Pacific Fur Company of John Jacob Astor (1763-1848), a New York merchant active in the fur trade with China, establishes a trading post called Fort Spokane near the current site of the city of Spokane in Eastern Washington. Astor's American company builds its post where the Little Spokane River joins the Spokane River, next door to Spokane House, a post established two years earlier by Astor's Canadian rival, the North West Company. After two years of trade rivalry, Astor's representatives sell all his Northwest posts to the North West Company, and Fort Spokane merges with Spokane House.
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Great Britain and the United States sign the Treaty of Joint Occupation of Oregon on October 20, 1818.
On October 20, 1818, in order to improve relations in the wake of the War of 1812, Great Britain and the United States agree to peaceful coexistence in the Pacific Northwest by signing the Convention of 1818 (commonly known as the Treaty of Joint Occupation) in London.
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Kitsap of the Suquamish defeats Cowichan raiders at Dungeness Spit in 1825.
In 1825, Suquamish Chief Kitsap (d. 1860) defeats a force of Cowichan raiders on Dungeness Spit. The Cowichans as well as other tribes of Vancouver Island and the Northwest Coast routinely attack Native American settlements to the south to capture slaves and to kill. These incursions will continue through the 1850s. This and other battles establish Kitsap as a major leader among the Suquamish.
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American settlers in Oregon declare a provisional government on May 2, 1843.
On May 2, 1843, following the first major influx of settlers, American citizens in "Oregon Country" meet to organize a provisional government for self-rule. The act challenges the Hudson's Bay Company and defacto British administration of the region under the 1818 Treaty of Joint Occupation.
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Britain cedes its claims to the Pacific Northwest by signing the Treaty of Oregon on June 15, 1846.
On June 15, 1846, after 28 years of peaceful "joint occupancy" with the United States, Britain surrenders its claims to the "Oregon Country" south of the 49th parallel by signing the Treaty of Oregon.
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Cayuse attack mission in what becomes known as the Whitman Massacre on November 29, 1847.
On November 29, 1847, Cayuse tribal members attack white settlers and missionaries at Waiilatpu in what will become known as the Whitman Massacre. Thirteen whites are killed during three days of bloodshed, most of them on the first day; another escapes but is killed several days later.
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Indians and Oregon Volunteers battle in the future Columbia County on March 14 and 15, 1848.
On March 14 and 15, 1848, a notable battle between Oregon Volunteers and members of the Palouse Tribe takes place in present-day Columbia County during the Cayuse War. The fighting continues for 30 hours. The Oregon Volunteers are greatly outnumbered, but eventually fight their way across the Touchet River and to safety, though with casualties.
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United States Army establishes Camp Columbia at the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver on May 13, 1849.
On May 13, 1849, Companies L and M of the United States Army First Artillery arrive at the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver and establish an army post that they initially name Camp Columbia. The post, later called Columbia Barracks, Fort Vancouver Military Reservation, and Vancouver Barracks, is located on a bluff above the north bank of the Columbia River on the future site of the city of Vancouver, Clark County. The Army maintains a major presence at the base for nearly 100 years, until after the end of World War II.
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Saint Joseph's Mission at Ahtanum Creek is founded in the Yakima Valley on April 3, 1852.
On April 3, 1852, Father Louis Joseph D'herbomez and Father Charles M. Pandosy found a mission on Ahtanum Creek in what will become known as the Yakima Valley. They call the mission Saint Joseph (not Sainte Croix as some sources erroneously state). The Mission is burned down during the Yakima Indian War of 1855.
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Captain Ulysses S. Grant arrives at Columbia (later Vancouver) Barracks on September 20, 1852.
On September 20, 1852, Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), then a 30-year-old Brevet Captain, later a famed Civil War general and United States President, arrives with the 4th Infantry regiment at Columbia Barracks, a U.S. Army base on the Columbia River. The base, later called Fort Vancouver and then Vancouver Barracks, is located next to the Hudson's Bay Company's Fort Vancouver trading post, within the present-day city of Vancouver, Clark County. Grant spends the next 15 months as regimental quartermaster at the base.
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Native American tribal leaders and Territorial Gov. Stevens sign treaty at Medicine Creek on December 26, 1854.
On December 26, 1854, at a meeting at Medicine Creek in present-day Thurston County, 62 leaders of major Western Washington tribes, including the Nisqually and Puyallup, sign a treaty with Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862). The tribes cede most of their lands in exchange for $32,500, designated reservations, and the permanent right of access to traditional hunting and fishing grounds.
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Native American tribes sign Point Elliott Treaty at Mukilteo on January 22, 1855.
On January 22, 1855, Chief Seattle joins 81 other leaders of Puget Sound tribes in signing a treaty with Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) at Point Elliott (now Mukilteo). Tribes including the Duwamish and Suquamish surrender their lands for cash, relocation to reservations, and access to traditional fishing and hunting grounds. Four days later, tribal leaders from Hood Canal and the upper Puget Sound sign a similar agreement at Point-No-Point (near Hansville on the Kitsap Peninsula).
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Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens convenes the First Walla Walla Council with Native American tribes on May 29, 1855.
On May 29, 1855, Washington Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens (1818-1862) convenes the First Walla Walla Council with Native American tribes of the Columbia River basin. Stevens' orders are to extinguish the tribes' title to lands in the territory in order to open it for settlement. Stevens offers the tribes reservations, cash, and especially, retaining their traditional hunting and fishing grounds.
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Yakama tribesmen slay Indian Subagent Andrew J. Bolon near Toppenish Creek on September 23, 1855.
On September 23, 1855, three Yakima tribesmen slay U.S. Indian Subagent Andrew Jackson Bolon in what will become Klickitat County. Bolon is investigating the killing of white miners by Yakima tribesmen. (Note: In 1994 the then-named Yakima Tribe changed the spelling of its name back to the original form, the Yakama Tribe.) The slain miners were among the prospectors for gold who had flooded through the Yakima Reservation on their way to goldfields on the Upper Columbia. The killing of Bolan will help trigger war between Native American tribes and white settlers and the U.S. government.
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Yakama Indian War begins on October 5, 1855.
On the afternoon of October 5, 1855, gunfire erupts between Yakama Chief Kamiakin's 300 warriors and Major Granville O. Haller's 84-man troop of soldiers. The two groups have been at a standoff across the ford at Toppenish Creek. Haller and his men are forced into retreat, but tensions continue to rise between the Indians and settlers from Southern Oregon up to the Puget Sound region.
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Nisquallys and Klickitats battle Territorial Volunteers in Pierce County beginning October 27, 1855.
On October 27, 1855, Nisqually and Klickitat tribesmen battle Territorial Volunteers sent to seize Nisqually chiefs Leschi (1808-1985) and Quiemuth in Pierce County. Two volunteers die on the 29th (some sources say the 27th) and two more die on the 31st. These fights and the killing of white settlers on October 28 on the White River will trigger the Indian War of 1855-1856 on the west side of the Cascade Mountains.
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Muckleshoots attack settlers along White River between Kent and Auburn on October 28, 1855.
On Sunday morning, October 28, 1855, Indians of the Muckleshoot and Klickitat tribes under Nelson and Kanasket raid farms between present-day Kent and Auburn and kill nine settlers. The survivors retreat to Seattle, which is itself attacked two months later.
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Major Gabriel Rains and 700 soldiers and volunteers skirmish with Yakama warriors under Kamiakin at Union Gap on November 9, 1855.
On November 9, 1855, U.S. Army Major Gabriel J. Rains (1803-1881), U.S. Army soldiers, and Oregon and Washington volunteers skirmish with warriors of the Yakama and other tribes under Chief Kamiakin (ca. 1800-1877) at Union Gap (sometimes called Twin Buttes) on the Yakima River. The Yakamas skillfully evacuate the women and children across the icy Columbia. Major Rains fails in his mission to suppress the Indians, who are resisting American incursions into their land. (Note: In 1994 the then-named Yakima Tribe changed the spelling of its name back to the original form, the Yakama Tribe.)
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"Good Things Grow From Horse Manure": a Speech to the Seattle Rotary Club by Sam Mitsui
Sam Mitsui gave this speech to the Rotary Club of Seattle at the 5th Avenue Theatre on November 9, 2005. Mitsui is a member of the Nisei Veterans Committee of Seattle, Washington. His speech begins, "My name is Sam Mitsui and I am a Nisei, a second generation Japanese American, and my parents were called Issei, the first generation of immigrants from Japan."
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A Story of Pioneering by Nicholas V. Sheffer (1825-1910), Part 2: Indian Wars
In 1909, Nicholas Sheffer (1825-1910) was Whatcom County’s oldest pioneer. He prepared his reminiscences for The Lynden Tribune, which ran them in three parts in August of that year as “A Story of Pioneering: Being a Personal Narrative of Early Days in Northwest Washington, told to the Tribune by N. V. Sheffer, of 1854.” HistoryLink.org was made aware of this account by Whatcom County family historian Susan Nahas who connected Sheffer’s information with the HistoryLink.org story of Julia Benson Intermelia (1855-1907), the half-Duwamish daughter of Seattle pioneer Henry Yesler (1810-1892). In Part 2 Sheffer serves in the Territorial militia and meets a number of Seattle pioneers.
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Boeing B-17 Tail Gun Turret: A Story from the War Years by Vern Nordstrand
Vern Nordstrand (1918-2009) worked at Boeing for 40 years, retiring in 1979. In this story he recalls how during World War II he helped to build a tail gun turret for the B-17, and how he gradually realized what a vital piece of equipment this was for American flyers.
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Bryant, Alice Franklin (1899-1977)
Alice Bryant was a life-long peace activist and advocate for justice, based in Seattle. She was a world traveler, a prolific writer of letters to the editor, a lecturer, poet, essayist, and an author of books for children and adults. This biography is written by her granddaughter, Ruth Williams.
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Campbell, Bertha Pitts: An Oral History
Bertha Pitts Campbell (1889-1990), an early Seattle civil rights worker, was a founder of the Christian Friends for Racial Equality and an early board member of the Seattle Urban League. This is an excerpt of an oral history interview of Bertha Pitts Campbell done by Esther Mumford on April 23, 1975, as part of the Washington State Oral History Project. The interview contains reflections on discrimination against African Americans in Seattle as well as an account of the internment of Japanese Americans at the beginning of World War II.
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Captain Aaron Bert, Washington National Guard, writes home from Iraq
Aaron Bert worked in the finance department of the City of Seattle until his Washington Army National Guard unit was activated for service in Iraq in 2004. In this email, he relates the death of SGT Damien Ficek on December 30, 2004. SGT Ficek grew up in Oregon and after active service in the U.S. Army, he went to work for Washington State University in Pullman and joined the National Guard.
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Freeway Protest in Seattle on May 5, 1970: A Policeman's View
From a police officer's vantage point, former UW police officer David Wilma recounts the anti-war protests of May 5, 1970, a response to the United States invasion of Cambodia during the Vietnam War. The movement of demonstrators from jurisdiction to jurisdiction could be traced on the faces of the assembled authorities.
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Friedrich, Jerzy M. (b. 1920)
Jerzy Friedrich is a Seattle resident who arrived in the Pacific Northwest in 1959. He was born in Lwow, Poland, in 1920, and his life intersected with the ravages and traumas of World War II in Europe. In 1939 Germany and then the Soviet Union invaded his country. In 1940 Friedrich was deported to the Soviet Union, where he worked on a collective farm. In 1941 Germany invaded the Soviet Union, and subsequently Poles in the Soviet Union were allowed to fight the Germans. Friedrich joined that army and eventually became an officer. He left the Soviet Union in 1942, fought in Italy for a year, and after the war remained in Italy. He married and started a family, moved to Argentina in 1948, and to Seattle in 1959. In 2008, HistoryLink.org historian Phil Dougherty interviewed Mr. Friedrich at length. This People's History is presented as the life and long journey of one Seattleite from Poland to the Pacific Northwest.
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Guiang, Mariano (1904-1992) Filipino Boxer
Mariano Guiang (1904-1992), a Filipino boxer, emigrated from the Philippines to live in Seattle, arriving at the age of 19 on June 12, 1924. This is a reminiscence excerpted from a longer interview conducted by Carolina Koslosky on September 24, 1976, as part of the Washington State Oral History Project.
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HistoryLink.org This Week commentary on the events of September 11, 2001
The commentary below was published on HistoryLink.org's "This Week in History" front page on September 11, 2001.
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Irene Wilson Remembers Waitressing at the Igloo during World War II in Seattle
Irene (Borlaug) Wilson recounts her memories of the Igloo Restaurant and World War II in Seattle.
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Kirk, Priscilla Maunder: An Oral History
Priscilla Maunder Kirk (1898-1992), an African American Seattleite, was born on August 9, 1898, in Seattle. In 1919 she moved to Montana with her husband, where she lived until 1929. She also lived in Minnesota before returning to Seattle in 1955. This is an excerpt of an oral history interview of Priscilla Kirk Maunder done by Esther Mumford on June 18, 1975, as part of the Washington State Oral History Project. Priscilla Maunder Kirk died on November 14, 1992.
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Life in Seattle and Environs in the 1930s, 1940s and beyond -- as told by Margaret Reed
This People's History is an interview with Margaret Reed conducted by Jyl Leininger on April 7, 1999, in Seattle, Washington. Margaret Reed describes herself as an every-day individual. "Believe me, I am just an ordinary person that has lived an ordinary life -- having gone through school here, worked a little, then eventually married and raised a family." Her story is packed with the little nuggets that suggest the flavor of growing up in Seattle during the 1930s and 1940s.
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Lost and Found -- A Japanese Flag's 65-year Journey Home
When Morey Skaret, resident of Fauntleroy (King County), now 95 years old, returned to Seattle after serving in the U.S. Coast Guard during World War II, he brought with him a Japanese banzai flag he had come across in the South Pacific. These flags were carried into battle by Japanese soldiers. Over the years the feeling grew in Morey that the flag should be returned to the family of the soldier to whom it had belonged. This People's History, written by Morey Skaret's friend and neighbor Ron Richardson, recounts the inspiring story of how total strangers from Seattle, the Aleutian Islands, Japan, and even Toledo, Ohio, worked together to help Morey complete what he considered an act of reconciliation. When they started, the name of the Japanese soldier was unknown, and the only clues were markings on the flag written in a form of Japanese that was no longer in use. But through perseverance, kindness, and the power of the Internet, this band of allies was able to determine the soldier's home village, and this led to his two surviving children. Finally, after 65 years, the flag made its way home, and Morey's act of reconciliation was complete.
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Magnesite Mining in Stevens County (1916-1968) by J. E. (Jess) Buchanan
J. E. Buchanan (1904-1986) wrote this account for The Pacific Northwesterner where it appeared in Vol. 25, No. 3 (Summer 1981). It is reprinted here with kind permission. Born in Iowa, Buchanan was brought to Spokane at age 2 and lived there until 1921. At the University of Idaho he was a civil engineering student, 1923-1927; teacher and materials testing engineer, 1927-1936; engineering dean, 1938-1942; and university president, 1946-1954. As an engineer, his practice included engineering materials, roads, bridges, airports, and administration. From 1954 until retirement, 1969, he was president of the Asphalt institute, College Park, Maryland.
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Mainstream or Menace: Confederates and Yankees in the Pacific Northwest, 1861-1865: A Talk by Junius Rochester
Junius Rochester gave this talk on Southerners resident in the Pacific Northwest during the Civil War on March 1, 2008, at the Pacific Northwest Historians Guild Annual Conference, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle.
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Masters, Clarence William "Molly" (1897-1975): A Coal Miner's Life and His Reminiscence of World War I
Clarence Masters, known to everyone as "Molly," was a coal miner who worked in east King County mines for his whole life. As a boy he had lived with his family in Port Blakely, but was made an orphan by the disaster of the steamer Dix, which collided with another vessel and sank on November 18, 1906, with a loss of at least 39 lives, including the mother, father, and stepbrother of Clarence Masters. Clarence went to his older brother in the coal town of Wilkeson, and eventually became part of the George Morris family, first as an orphaned child and helper, and then, after growing up, by marrying his "sister," Marian Mae Morris (1902-1978). This People's History contains four parts: A short biography of Clarence "Molly" Masters by Betty (Morris) Falk (1920-2006), the story of how Clarence Masters came to be called "Molly" by Evan Morris Sr. (1922-2006), Masters' own reminiscence of his life as a soldier in World War I, and a poem composed by Molly Masters. Molly Masters retired from coal mining in 1964 and died in Enumclaw in 1975. This People's History was contributed by William Kombol, Manager of the Palmer Coking Coal Company, in Black Diamond.
File 8858: Full Text >
May 17, 1858: The Ordeal of the Steptoe Command
Randall A. Johnson (1915-2007) served as Sheriff of Spokane Corral of The Westerners, the group that published The Pacific Northwesterner quarterly magazine for many years. Johnson born in LaCrosse, Washington, in 1915, moved with his family to Washtucna at the age of 3, and to Walla Walla at the age of 8. He graduated from Pullman High School and from Washington State University in Pullman, where he is renowned for designing the Cougar logo while a student. His account of the defeat of Lieutenant Colonel Edward J. Steptoe (1816-1865) at the hands of Native Americans near Rosalia in 1858 first appeared in The Pacific Northwesterner Vol. 17, No. 1 (Winter 1973). It is here reprinted with the kind permission of The Westerners.
File 8123: Full Text >
Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Interview with Bjarne Andvik
This interview with Bjarne Andvik, (b. 1923) is part of The Vanishing Generation Oral History Project in the Nordic Heritage Museum. Interviewed by Olaf Kvamme on October 18, 2000, Bjarne Andvik is a Norwegian born Seattleite. He talks about his parents' immigration and their early days living in the Greenwood area, his father's job as a streetcar conductor with the Seattle Municipal Street Railway, his days in the band at Ballard High School, and his World War II service and shipyard work at The Ballard Marine Railway. This interview describes the Norwegian congregational community at the First Norwegian Lutheran Church, the Lutheran Brethren Church, and the Emmanuel Tabernacle, and delves into the communities' theological dissension.
File 5772: Full Text >
Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Interview with John Boitano
John Boitano (b. 1922) is a first generation Italian American from Ballard interviewed on August 4, 2000. In this Nordic Heritage Museum Vanishing Generation Oral History Project Interview by Richard Piscitello, he describes day-to-day life in the multi-ethnic Ballard community of the 1920s through the 1940s. Whether working in the Arctic Vodle Cannery, the Ballard Ice House or in one of the 23 shingle mills in the area, he illuminates how the Italians, Greeks, Irish, Swedes, Norwegians, and Germans lived and labored together through the Depression, Prohibition and World War II.
File 5770: Full Text >
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