The newly-elected city government immediately after election qualified and went to work. The first meeting of the city council was held in the Clark Building at the southeast corner of Hewitt and Wetmore, now occupied by the Citizens Bank—the very first brick block erected in the present central business district of Everett, 1892, amidst the smoking stumps and debris of a partly cleared neighborhood, and built by perhaps the most enthusiastic and constructive Everettite of the period, the late J. J. CLARK. At a later meeting the council contracted with Mr. CLARK for the use of the apartment at $90 a month as a temporary city hall until the projected first city hall, still used as such, be completed, which was in the following year, 1894, when the city government removed to the then new frame city hall on Broadway between Hewitt and Wall, to which ten years later the present brick and cement additions were added, completing the edifice as it stands today.

          The first city council meeting took place on Monday evening, May 8, 1893, it being a special meeting called by Mayor Thomas DWYER, who delivered one of the briefest and most generalizing of opening messages. S. E. THAYER acted as city clerk pro tempore. The council devoted its time at this meeting to the discussion of the more urgent problems, such as fire and police protection, as suggested by the mayor, who also at this session appointed standing committees. Late that night the council adjourned, to meet again the following evening, May 9, especially to continue and complete the organization of the police and other departments of the city government. At this second meeting an ordinance creating and providing for the police and city engineer departments was adopted, and the council then elected officers and patrolmen of the police department as follows:

Police captain, Geo. A. SHEA; police lieutenant, H. H. WABERS; policemen, Philip KEATING, John MAHONEY, Patrick SHEA, H. E. HERREN, Frank P. BREWER, J. W. SMITH, Fred CHRISTIANSON, Geo. E. KAINE, the last named being designated as patrolman.

          The city had acquired a satisfactory city hall site and late in October the city council accepted the bid of Slaydon & Company, $5,690, for the construction of a two-story frame city hall and jail, but the building was not ready for use until March 1, 1894, when all the north part of the main floor was assigned for use by [page 419] the fire department, and the south side to the police and police justice. The offices of the mayor, city clerk, treasurer and engineer were upstairs. The council room, extending the full length of the building, was equipped with new desks for the councilmen, and vaults were installed on both floors. T. E. HEADLEE, the present vice president of the city commission, safety commissioner and head of the police department, was mayor of the city in 1903 and 1904 when the brick and cement extensions of the city hall were built. The dean of the Everett police department at this time is Desk Sergeant David DANIELS, who has served the city as a police officer continuously since December 22, 1906. At this time the personnel of the Everett police department numbers twenty-four persons.

          The second city election was a three-cornered political partisan contest that provided plenty of active interest for the 892 registered voters. Primary conventions or caucuses were held and three full tickets were nominated. The republicans frankly came out with a republican ticket, but the populists and democrats discarded the partisan identity and were represented in the Independent and Citizens tickets, although the populists had nominated a strictly populist set of candidates. Norton D. WALLING was elected mayor by a margin of four votes, H. D. COOLEY reelected city attorney, S. E. FAIR city treasurer, C. P. CLARK clerk, Doctor LYTLE health officer, and T. B. SUMMER, Dr. W. C. COX, W. W. MISH, L. R. HILLEARY, F. O. COE, F. W. CLARK and C. A. SWEINFURTH councilmen. On December 6 the Protestant churches of the city issued a call for a convention of “the pure in heart,” proposing to interview all aspirants for office regarding their views relative to gambling, saloon and vice generally, and if not satisfactory threatening to put a new ticket in the field. The republicans elected their candidate for mayor, WALLING, but the populist city marshal, Dennis CROWE, was reelected, and Sam H. NICHOLS was defeated.

          The last act of the old council was to adopt an ordinance providing for the purchase of the private company waterworks for $140,000, by a vote of 6 to 1, but the last act of Mayor DWYER with the first city council was to veto that measure, killing it. Mayor WALLING at the first meeting of the new council urged that the proposition to buy the waterworks be submitted to a vote of the people. He also strongly favored immediate preparations for a city park system, but early in 1894 the city was short of ready money and city warrants were discounted. At the special waterworks election the first Tuesday in April, 1894, the proposition to bond the city for $140,000 for the purchase of the original Everett Land Company water system was rejected by the people by a vote of 397 to 92. In view of this squelching result, the council in September rejected the prayer of petitioners suggesting a proposition to bond the city for a sewer system. Early in November, City Marshal Dennis CROWE died, and the council appointed John BORLAND to serve as marshal during the remainder of the term.

          Jacob HUNSAKER was chosen mayor at the city election in December, 1894, and one of the first acts of his administration was to offer the board of county commissioners the use of suitable temporary offices for the county government without cost [page 420] to the county, which the commissioners accepted and selected apartments in the Craddock Block, Everett having won the county seat at the polls. In March the city council ordered a survey of the city by the city engineer’s department for the purpose of establishing and installing a complete sewer system, but within two months the work was suspended indefinitely when it was found that the city’s indebtedness of $114,060 was already $2,140 in excess of the legal limit. A statement relative to city finances issued in July, 1895, claimed that the city’s debt of $57,000 in October, 1894, had already exceeded the limit by $12,000, and it was charged that Peter S. SMOUT was demanding an order to stop the issuance of bonds voted by the people June 15 to take up the city warrant debt and to provide $30,000 “for park purposes,” which latter it was claimed was to provide funds to pay for the new county courthouse, Everett’s gift to the county. It was further charged that all warrants issued after March 6, 1894, when the limit of indebtedness was reached, were legally void, including warrants to the amount of $15,000 to W. G. TANNER, W. W. GETCHELL, T. G. COLLINS and the Everett Land Company, as payment for roads, outside city limits, $4,000 and $11,000 expense of the election, and that the total debt as of that date, July 15, 1895, was $118,893.

          In the midst of the financial frenzy, the mayor and council were having serious trouble with the police department, probably mainly due to the city’s poverty. At its third meeting in June Councilman CRAIGUE, supported by SUMNER, COLLINS and McRAE, put through a resolution, effective July 1, suspending five policemen, MISH and HILLEARY voting no, but at the first meeting in July the council was deadlocked on the appointment of successors to the suspended officers. At the same time a row in the fire department almost disrupted that establishment, and was with difficulty compromised to a working basis. At the first meeting in October, the council enacted a sweeping reduction of salaries of city officers, effective at the beginning of the 1896 term, the city clerk from $90 to $75 a month, attorney $150 to $75, treasurer $75 to $60, health officer $90 to $25. At an early meeting in October, 1895, the council directed the issuance of the new city bonds in the sum of $81,900 to be delivered to the firm of Morris & Whitehead in exchange for Everett city warrants in that amount held by that company. At the city election the first Tuesday in December, with two tickets in the field, republican and citizens, Dr. W. C. COX, heading the citizens ticket, was elected mayor; C. P. CLARK was reelected clerk; W. F. GRAY and C. H. BOYNDON councilmen, and A. H. GRIFFIN councilman-at-large, all of the citizens ticket; the republicans elected Treasurer W. E. SHERFEY, Attorney H. L. STROBRIDGE, and Councilman C. S. KNAPP. It was a most bitter campaign, and when the results were known the citizens party jubilated elaborately.

          One of the first acts of the administration of Mayor COX was the adoption of a resolution by the council authorizing the mayor to tender to the United States Government a full section of land, 640 acres, in Sections 7, 8, 17 and 18, township 29, north range 5, the north side of Everett peninsula, as a military reserve for a proposed United States Army post. In May a sensation developed when City Marshal GETCHELL was charged in papers filed at the city council with malfeasance in office, liberating prisoners unlawfully, appropriating money, etc., taken from men under arrest, ill-treating prisoners. A long trial of GETCHELL followed, which resulted in his exoneration, July 14, 1896, and he continued to serve as city marshal. In the [page 421] December election the republicans again elected Jacob HUNSAKER mayor, as well as all the other elective officers except clerk, C. P. CLARK. Marshal GETCHELL at the end of his term refused to surrender his office to his successor, BREWER, but was finally compelled to abdicate.

          In December, 1897, J. A. FALCONER defeated W. J. CRAIGUE for mayor, 443 to 363, and C. G. SMYTH was elected city clerk. In the December election of 1898 the democrats and populists had fused and nominated Dwight DARLING for mayor, against J. O. WHITMARSH, republican nominee, the latter being elected by a vote of 459 to 314. This was the year of the organization of the Everett Improvement Company, which took over the properties of the Everett Land Co., and the people were so pleased that the city’s bulwark properties were henceforth to be managed and controlled by local people that in June the city voted $60,000 bonds for the construction of a modern city sewer system. In December, 1900, James E. BELL was elected mayor over J. O. WHITMARSH, republican, 510 to 338, and former Mayor J. HUNSAKER was elected city treasurer, E. C. RAE city clerk. This administration discussed the advisability of qualifying for a city of the second class, but took the advice of Judge DENNEY that it would be too expensive, as the laws affecting cities of that class in this state were untried and unadjudicated. The office of City Engineer MAJORS was declared vacant, and J. J. SHEEHAN was appointed city engineer, in February, 1901.

          In March, N. J. CHAPMAN was awarded a contract to plank Hewitt Avenue from the Great Northern right-of-way to Broadway. In May, W. G. SWALWELL offered as a gift to the city an elevated city park site comprising twenty-five acres, and from which all the surrounding prominent natural features are in full view, including Mounts Baker and Rainier, the Cascades and towns as far east as Granite Falls, as well as north beyond Marysville; the conditions were that this was to be used as a public park and that the city expend on improvements thereon $500 a year for five years. Police Judge WHITNEY was removed from office “for cause,” but Mayor BELL stated that there was no complaint affecting his integrity, nor the manner in which he performed his duties. In June, 1901, the Snohomish River bridge built by the Everett Land Company in 1891 was out of service; the draw refused to open, one pier was sunk and many of the timbers were rotten. In August the Great Northern announced plans for the construction of eight bridges in Everett, and a steel viaduct overhead across the foot of Hewitt Avenue, and work was actually under way before the close of that month.

          The year 1901 witnessed much constructive activity, and efforts were made to have the Fourteenth Street trestle repaired and strengthened, W. T. GARTHLEY heading this movement, but County Commissioner STRETCH notified him that the county would not help to do the work. At the same time the mill owners and operators who provided the principal payrolls of the city were clamoring for a waterfront highway to facilitate operation of the industries. In September Socialist agitators were busy with inflammatory meetings in the business streets, and on September 13, Chief of Police COLLINS dispersed such a meeting which was being harangued by J. M. CAMERON of Seattle at the corner of Hewitt and Wetmore, blocking traffic on those thoroughfares; the meeting was continued, however, CAMERON and W. P. [page 422] WHARTENBY using the latter’s back porch as a rostrum, and at the city election later the socialists came forward with a complete city ticket, headed by John GRAYBILL for mayor, replaced later in the campaign by W. P. WHARTENBY. The December election, however, wrestled with three tickets, Charles K. GREENE, republican, being elected mayor with 628 votes, F. R. PENDLETON receiving 610, and WHARTENBY only 25; HUNSAKER was reelected treasurer with 653, over E. C. RAE 549. J. H. MITCHELL was elected city clerk. The socialist platform opposed all franchises to private parties, favored municipal ownership of waterworks, lighting, power and street railways, all profits thereof to be returned in wages and shorter hours of labor, and declared an eight-hour day on all public work with $2.25 a day for common labor.

(Continued next issue… )

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