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Everett - by Jeremy Nickolas Allen
Everett was originally envisioned by Henry Hewitt and
intended to be an industrial juggernaut. It was dubbed
"the city of smokestacks," and while today
this title conjures up images of charcoal skies and
acid rain, at the time it was seen as a beacon for human
productivity. The forest of smokestacks, thankfully,
didn't stay, but the productivity did.
The Everett Land Company built the town from scratch,
and both were results of Hewitt's guiding dream. Hewitt
had recently come to the Northwest from Wisconsin, carrying
$300,000, and hoped to build a lumber empire off of
the region's plentiful Douglas Fir trees. After finding
his spot on the unoccupied Port Gardner Bay, he brought
Charles Colby and Colgate Hoyt in on the deal, and three
founded the company together in 1892.
Everett was named after Charles Colby's son. Hewitt
was attending a party at Colby's housing and, noticing
the boy reach for a second piece of dessert, remarked,
"That's it. We should name our city Everett. This
boy wants only the best and so do we." From the
very beginning, Everett was a city of ambition.
Charles Colby was a prominent New York gentleman who
brought valuable connections to the company. The company
had a vision so grand that they needed additional investment
money, and after discovering evidence of potential mineral
wealth nearby, they used Colby's networks to find their
backer-John D. Rockefeller. Everett showed strong potential
to Rockefeller, and he entrusted the group with a large
sum of money to realize that potential.
Rockefeller was, and still remains, a legend. Word
of his investment in Everett brought on the town a swarm
of prospectors and capitalists: all hoping to cash in
on Rockefeller's Midas touch. A boomtown was born. Only
two years after the incorporation of the Everett Land
Company, the town teemed with developments: shipyards,
street railroads, hotels, a paper mill, a nail factory,
and a smelter to process the minerals that were, hopefully,
on the way.
The legendary Monte Cristo hotel was also founded in
this era. The hotel was named after the neighboring
Monte Cristo mines, believed to be stuffed with gold,
and would serve as the social nexus for the Everett
Elite. However, while the rich dined like royalty above,
the real life of the town streamed from the rows of
brothels and saloons below.
The Great Northern Railroad came to Everett in 1893,
and with it came Jim Hill-the rail line's master mind.
Hill would build hopes in Everett of its becoming his
terminus station, but eventually he decided otherwise.
This disappointment and The Great Panic of 1893, which
dropped timber prices through the floor, shook the town's
foundations. However, it was when Rockefeller discovered
no minerals in Monte Cristo and felt duped by Hewitt,
that he pulled out of Everett. The sky came crashing
down around the town.
Everett suffered a ghastly depression: three out of
its five banks closed, schools shut, mills were abandoned,
the smelter was destroyed, and the price of timber remained
in the gutter. Where people could find jobs, wages were
cut by sixty percent. The Everett Land Company's assets
were auctioned off on the courthouse steps for a paltry
sum ($15,000 cash and $750,000 in worthless bonds).
However, it was Jim Hill that bought the town, and while
he once brought disappointment here, he now had a plan
for Everett.
Hill envisioned Everett as a booming mill town adding
profit to his rail lines, and he brought in his most
trusted friends from Minnesota to make the scheme come
to life. The Weyerhaeuser family came and got one of
the best real estate deals in Northwest history: 900,000
acres of land for a mere six dollars an acre. Hill also
brought in respected timber man, and former Minnesota
governor, David Clough.
The town was revived by the rhythm of the mill whistle.
Weyerhaeuser's and Clough's mills would soon become
two of the largest mills of their kind in the world.
In 1910, at a population of 35,000, Everett was back
on track, but it was not past its last challenge yet.
Mill work was dangerous and mill owners were often
harsh, forcing obscure rules and demands on the workers.
In some instances, employees were not even allowed to
talk during breaks. Shingle weavers had the most dangerous
jobs of all; men would feed timber into a circular saw,
50" in diameter, at break neck speeds while drowning
in sawdust. Up to 50% of weavers had suffered serious
injuries, missing fingers were the norm, and 36 mill
workers were killed in 1909 alone. Complaining of fluctuating
market prices, owners never made good on promises to
raise wages. The stage was set for the infamous Everett
Massacre.
The shingle weavers went on strike in May of 1916.
The owners hired scabs, and violence built between the
strikers and the scabs. Problems compounded when the
controversially socialist Industrial Workers of the
World (Wobblies for short) came from Seattle, and the
Sheriff began deputizations en masse to form a personal
army. Citizens were so disconcerted by the mayhem and
the Sheriff's army that a town meeting was called for
November 5th.
400 Seattle Wobblies boarded a steamboat in Seattle
to take them to the meeting, but upon arriving were
told by the Sheriff and his 500 deputies not to dock.
The Wobblies replied with "the hell we won't,"
and no one knows who fired the first shot, but by the
end of it 7 men were killed, up to a 12 were drowned,
51 were wounded, and the National Guard had to break
the fight up.
No official blame has been given to one group over
the other, but eventually tensions were eased in the
town. Owners gave raises, however small, and conceded
to an 8-hour day. Workers promised to 'give their best
efforts,' and Everett was over its last major bump in
the road to success.
Over time, Everett has developed into the cozy city
we now know it as. A prosperous U.S. Navy homeport resides
here, lumber and shingle industries have converted to
paper industries, and several high-tech and aerospace
companies have moved in as well. Boeing has been good
to Everett and continues to do so, as it recently selected
Everett to build its luxurious 7E7 jetliners.
Along with building jobs, Everett has retained a stellar
historic district. Many classic homes are lived in here,
and tours of the old lumber baron's mansions are also
available. The Monte Cristo Hotel has recently been
refurbished and reopened to provide affordable housing
as well as a first floor cultural center, and hockey's
Everett Silvertips now play in $71.5 million dollar
events center recently opened here. Hewitt's industrial
megalith may have never came to full fruition, but that
is thankfully so. Everett citizens have developed something
far more precious-a home in which to raise their families
and to live their dreams.
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