[Sidenote: Denny, of Denny Mines.]
[Sidenote: Causes of delay in settlement.]
The first white man who ever settled near the site of Seattle (Mr.
Arthur A. Denny) now lives in that city, and can scarcely be called an
old man. The country remained unsettled so long, partly because of its
inaccessibility from the East, and partly because it was disputed
territory between the United States and Great Britain. It became a
separate Territory only in 1853. No transcontinental line of railroad
touched any part of Washington Territory until four years ago, when the
Northern Pacific passed across the eastern part of the Territory, and
united with the road along the Columbia River, which had been built by
the Oregon Railway and Navigation Company, and which had barely entered
this Territory. Following this line to Portland, Oregon, and then
completing the road from Portland, northward, the railroad reached Puget
Sound at Tacoma by this circuitous route in 1883.
The Northern Pacific Railroad has, during the present year (1887),
succeeded in reaching Tacoma by a more direct, though still angular,
line, crossing the Cascade Mountains at Stampede Pass.
[Illustration: MAP OF ASIA AND PACIFIC OCEAN.]
Whilst thus comparatively unknown and inaccessible, it is not surprising
that population should at first come in slowly. Those who came to
Western Washington were chiefly lumbermen. Since that time farmers have
settled large tracts of country, commerce has become large, and now
every interest is going forward with great rapidity.
[Sidenote: Population of Washington Territory.]
The population in 1880 was 67,000. Governor Semple, in his report for
1887, puts the population at 143,669, which shows a gain in seven years
of over 100 per cent. But the Governor himself declares that the
enumerations made since 1880 are unreliable, and it is claimed by
intelligent gentlemen in Seattle that the present population exceeds
175,000. It is increasing rapidly day by day. The fact seems suddenly to
have burst upon the country at large that here, in this neglected
corner, is a wide region offering perhaps the richest inducements to
immigration of any part of the United States.