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HISTORY OF EVERETT
Reprinted from the History of Snohomish County (page 422)
Pioneer Historical Publishing Company, 1926

Continued from Volume 22, Issue 1

CENSUS FIGURES

               The final figures of the 1900 Federal census arrived in October, 1901, giving Everett a population of 13,933, particularized as follows:

                                                                                   MALES      FEMALES
Native born……………………………….…………..3,519           2,644
Foreign born…………………………………………1,112              565
Native of naturalized parents………………..….. 2,193           1,619
Native of foreign parents…………………………. 1,288            1,003
                                                                                    ______      _______
Totals………………………………………………   8,112            5,821

ELECTION OF 1902

In the 1902 election W. E. TERRELL was elected mayor with a vote of 820, Mayor C. K. GREENE receiving 695. Paul C. MURPHY was elected treasurer over E. C. RAE, 885 to 614, and City Clerk J. H. MITCHELL was reelected without opposition. In 1903 Jacob HUNSAKER, who had served as city treasurer several terms, was chosen mayor for the third time over three opponents, receiving 1,087 votes, J. E. STONE 476, F. B. HAWS 187 and S. O. ROLEAU 41. J. H. MITCHELL was reelected clerk with 1,238 votes. Thomas E. HEADLEE was elected mayor in 1904 with 1,419, against W. J. CRAIGUE 1,063, and three other candidates; J. H. MITCHELL was opposed for clerk and received 1,560 votes, the highest vote any city officer had received up to that time, W. T. BALDEN 897. Mayor HEADLEE was reelected in 1905, polling 1,138 votes to A. A. BRODECK’s 1,077, and two runners-up; Mr. MITCHELL was reelected clerk, 1,805, E. B. McGILL 641. James H. MITCHELL was elected mayor in 1906, receiving 1,113, S. A. BOSTWICK 737, F. B. HAWS 299 and W. E. TIBBITS 127; Oscar D. WILSON, 1,203, won the city clerkship against B. E. HILEN, 707. Newton JONES was elected mayor in 1907, polling 887 votes, F. R. HEDGES 672, J. J. CLARK 431, and two others; primary elections were held November 12, under the provisions of the proposed new charter, qualifying Everett as a city of the first class, having proved a population exceeding 20,000, as required by the state law; the charter was adopted and Everett became a city of the first class in 1908, Newton JONES winning the mayoralty campaign over James E. BELL, 1,740 to 1,043, and he was again elected mayor in 1909.

HARTLEY AS MAYOR OF EVERETT

In 1910 Roland H. HARTLEY, now governor of the state, was elected mayor, and served as mayor during the years 1910 and 1912, with C. C. GILMAN as city comptroller [page 423] and J. Willard SMITH as the mayor’s secretary. In his opening message in November, 1910, Mayor HARTLEY urged the need of comfort stations in the city and recommended immediate preparation for a municipal water system, suggesting a preliminary survey of the city and available water sources with that end in view, regretting the lack of funds to establish the system completely that year; the saloons having been eliminated, the mayor emphasized the need of public comfort stations as well as recreation places, and concluded by declaring that a radical revision of the existing city charter, or an entirely new charter, was imperatively necessary to the city’s welfare—the three last mentioned recommendations being features of Mayor HARTLEY’s message of January 3, 1911.

Thus, former Mayor HARTLEY, next to the last chief executive under the old city council system, initiated the new charter which brought into existence the present system of city government by three commissioners, first taking charge of the city on July 1, 1912. R. B. HASSELL succeeded HARTLEY as mayor in January, 1912, and with Councilmen REARDON, DURHAM, MILLER, CARR, SOLIE, JAXTHEIMER and CARLSON, C. W. DURHAM being elected president of the council, formed the last city government of the old ward councilmanic school. Mayor HASSELL’s inaugural message was impressive and interesting, but was the most voluminous of mayoralty history so far as the records witness, as it covers seven of the great typewritten pages of the city council’s journal book, which is a full-grown tome; the record also demonstrates the fact that Comptroller L. R. KUSTER was an excellent and conscientious recording official. Other city officials of this closing administration were: Chief TILLMAN, Fire Chief W. A. TARO, Police Judge William SHELLER (still in the same position), Electrician Fred C. ROSCOE, Plumbing Inspector T. H. ZIEGLER, and Captain Robert McFARLAND, who is credited with having persuaded the Federal Government to establish the Mukilteo lighthouse while he was port warden of the Port of Everett, harbormaster. The board of public works was composed of Guy C. ALSTON, C. P. SPRIESTERBACH, W. C. HALL and J. C. TAYLOR.

NEW CHARTER ADOPTED

A charter commission compiled an entirely new charter, adopted April 16, 1912, providing for the present commission form of government, and the election June 18, 1912, aroused much popular interest and discussion, not only on the charter proposition, but also relative to three other essential propositions to be voted on, as well as the election of the initial government of three commissioners, one of whom was to be mayor. There were but two candidates for each of the three commissionerships, and the results were the election of Commissioners C. CHRISTENSON, A. A. BRODECK and Alex THOMPSON, by the following vote:

Commissioner of Finance………………C. CHRISTENSON………..2,908           T. E. SKAGGS ……………..2,789
Commissioner of Safety………………..A. A. BRODECK …………..3,500           R. L. OLINGER …………….2,394
Commissioner Public Works………….. Alex THOMPSON………….3,186           Richard B. HASSELL……….2,555

               By a vote of 2,938 to 903 the waterworks purchase ordinance, to buy the plant of the water system from the Everett Railway, Light & Power Company and the Puget Sound International Railway & Power Company, and authorizing [page 424] general city bonds of $200,000 and special utility bonds of $150,000, was emphatically repealed by referendum submission. Proposition 2, authorizing and directing plans to be prepared for the establishment of a municipal city water system, was approved by a vote of 3,338 to 579, while Proposition No. 3, providing for the repeal of Ordinance No. 1407, was adopted by a vote of 2,989 to 854. The friends of T. E. SKAGGS expressed surprise and disappointment over his defeat by Mr. CHRISTENSON, since a resident of Seattle. Mr. SKAGGS had been a resident of Snohomish City from October, 1889, until 1898, when he removed to Everett. Following this formative year of Everett’s new municipal life, he entered the service of the State of Washington, first as state tax commissioner from June 10, 1913, until December 1, 1914, and from the latter date as a member of the state board of control until April 1, 1921, following which he served a year as state director of business control, resigning April 1, 1922, to devote all his time to his growing business in the Snohomish County Abstract Company in Everett. He also served as a member of state commissions having supervision of the construction of the National Guard armories erected by the state at Everett, Aberdeen and Walla Walla.

               Born in Chandlerville, Ill., in 1876, Thomas E. SKAGGS married Lotte SMALL in 1902. He was an active Freemason (Barteau’s Who’s Who in the State of Washington 169, PH III:64, WWII:63).

FIRST COMMISSION

The first meeting of the new city government was held July 1, 1912, following the final meeting of the retiring council on June 29. In his final message Mayor HASSELL expressed regret that the remainder of the bonds authorized at the election of 1911 were a drug on the market; the preceding city council had managed to float $400,000 worth of the issue and the present administration had disposed of $113,000 worth. These bonds were intended to replace warrants which former City Treasurer KEAY had paid off with general fund money and had marked the warrants canceled, the mayor explained. But the bonds were extremely hard to sell, and therefore the city could not at that time be brought to a cash basis. Commissioner CHRISTENSON became mayor of the commission government, the first act of which was to make Capt. Pear PEARSON harbormaster, Jesse H. DAVIS city attorney, C. C. GILMAN city clerk, W. H. L. FORD treasurer and J. W. HOOVER engineer. Civil service commission—Roland H. HARTLEY, John K. HEALY, Percy GARDINER. City park commission—A. A. BRODECK, Dr. W. C. COX, Alex LeGROS, Sr., Mrs. F. J. WALSH, Norman LIND.

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