NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 1
North Marina Redevelopment Area History
By Larry & Jack O’Donnell
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 2
TABLE OF CONTENTS
PREFACE
GENERAL CHRONOLOGY: 1890 TO 2008
LUMBER AND SHINGLE MILLS
Fourteenth Street Dock
Locations Other Than 14th Street Dock
Significant People
Notable House of NMRA Lumber Personalities
Influence on the Development of Everett
COMMERCIAL FISHING INDUSTRY
Commercial Fishing Industry
Fish Processing
Significant People
Influence on the Development of Everett
BOAT BUILDING
Companies
Influence on the Development of Everett
SPECIAL FEATURES
BIBLIOGRAPHY
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 3
PREFACE
This report traces the 1890 to 2008 history of the North Marina Redevelopment Area
(NMRA), which has been defined as that area east of the Snohomish River channel,
north of 17th Street, west of West Marine View Drive, and south of 10th Street. The area
also is outlined on an aerial photograph that agrees basically, but not exactly, with the
written definition. As authors, we have taken the liberty of using the slightly larger
outlined area as our guide.
Emphasis is on the history of lumber and shingle mills, boat building and commercial
fishing and the influence of those industries on the development of Everett. While we
focus on these three industries, we attempted to examine them within the context of
general Everett history, and other NMRA development.
We are indebted to many for their assistance on this project. First, we must thank the
Port of Everett. We were given access to an enormous amount of records, including all
the Port Commission meetings minutes from 1918 to the current time. Every Port
employee we worked with was helpful, cordial and cooperative. Lisa Lefeber, our main
contact, was exceptional and we can’t thank her enough. Jerry Hiller and Jim Weber are
among the other employees who were especially helpful. Many people involved in the
Everett commercial fishing industry assisted us, but this fishing history would not have
been possible without the help of Barbara and Jim Piercey. They were invaluable to the
project. David Dilgard and Melinda Van Wingen of the Everett Public Library’s
Northwest Room were their usual indispensable selves in locating and sharing
information we might not have found anywhere else.
Many others deserve thanks but we will close with a note of appreciation to our wives,
who were patient, understanding and supportive as we focused on this project.
Jack C. O’Donnell
Lawrence E. O’Donnell
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 4
NORTH MARINA REDEVELOPMENT AREA (NMRA) GENERAL CHRONOLOGY
Everett was launched as a planned city of diversified industries in the early 1890s.
Henry Hewitt, a Tacoma industrialist often called the “Father of Everett,” saw the
potential of the Port Gardner peninsula where the Snohomish River empties into Puget
Sound. His key accomplice in planning a city for the site was East Coast businessman
Charles Colby, who had links to other Eastern capitalists, including the richest of all, John
D. Rockefeller. In 1890, Hewitt and Colby formed the Everett Land Company with the
backing of Rockefeller’s wealth and the city (named for Colby’s son) soon was born.
Lured by rumors of Rockefeller money and knowledge that James J. Hill was bringing his
Great Northern Railway across the West to Puget Sound, people swarmed to Everett.
The peninsula, which may have had three dozen residents in 1890, had a population of
several thousand by the end of 1892. The four major industries were a nail works, a
shipyard, a smelter, and a pulp and paper mill. None of these was located in what is
now called the North Marina Redevelopment Area (West Marine Drive to the
Snohomish River channel between 9th and 18th streets). The only development in that
area was the 14th Street Dock, which became a site for wood products industries.
Croatians and Norwegians who would become Everett pioneer commercial fishermen
were among the early arrivals, but their base for activity would not be in the North
Marina Redevelopment Area (NMRA) until the 1940s, when the construction of a World
War II shipyard would force them out of their previous location. Everett’s early boom
period ended when an 1893 financial panic swept the country and Rockefeller pulled his
resources out of the city. Essentially, Everett would struggle through economic
doldrums the remainder of the decade.
In the early 1900s, Everett re-emerged. Under the leadership of James J. Hill, who
always thought the area’s future was in the wood products business, Everett was
transformed into a mill town. Hill bought the Everett Land Company from Rockefeller
and formed the Everett Improvement Company. Lumber and shingle mills had existed
in the 1890s, but now Everett’s economy shifted to one based almost entirely on the
processing of timber. Soon mills lined the bay front and river front. Everett proudly
hailed itself the “City of Smokestacks.” Thousands migrated to Everett and the city
population grew from 7,838 in 1900 to 24,814 in 1910, a 216 percent increase. In the
NMRA, several mills were added to 14th Street Dock and the huge Clough-Hartley shingle
mill opened at 18th Street on the bay front. Boat building companies operated on the
waterfront at this time but not in the NMRA. Also, fish processing had begun, but no
plant would be in the NMRA until the 1940s. Everett’s lumber industry provided much
of the wood products to rebuild San Francisco after the devastating 1906 earthquake
and fire. Shortly thereafter, Everett suffered with the rest of the nation through a 1907
national fiscal crisis.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 5
Population growth slowed during the 1910-1920 period, but mills continued to be
added in the city. The NMRA saw the addition of three large plants along Norton
Avenue (name later changed to West Marine View Drive). There were the C-B Lumber
and Shingle Company at 9th Street, Jamison Lumber and Shingle Company at 10th Street,
and the Fred K. Baker Lumber Company at 12th Street. The latter would become the
Hulbert Mill Company by the decade’s end. The decade was marked by the 1916
episode known as the Everett Massacre. At least seven were killed and many others
wounded in this City Dock shootout between the Industrial Workers of the World (also
known as the Wobblies) and the Snohomish County sheriff and his citizen deputies.
Although the Massacre did not occur in the NMRA, roots for the conflict can be found in
a shingle weaver’s strike/lockout that included several NMRA shingle mills. The nation
became involved in World War I shortly after the Everett Massacre. That stimulated
production in the wood products industries, including Everett’s mills. In 1918 citizens
voted to form the Port of Everett. This took Everett’s harbor out of the hands of publicspirited bodies and municipal government and placed it clearly under the control of a
governmental agency created specifically for that purpose. The NMRA was in the Port
District from the very beginning and by 2008, the Port of Everett owned most of the
property in the NMRA.
Everett’s mills struggled through the early 1920s and then flourished in mid-decade. A
major Japanese earthquake in 1923 created a huge market for wood products. Much of
the material came out of Everett plants. Many downtown Everett buildings, such as the
Monte Cristo Hotel, Medical Dental Building, and Central Building were erected during
this prosperous time. Everett’s official population did not increase significantly but this
was a bit misleading; several areas to the south that eventually would be in the city
limits were growing. The fishing industry took a major step forward in 1928 when local
fishermen helped organize their Fishermen’s Packing Corporation. But that plant, the
nearby American Packing Plant, and the home base for the fishing vessels themselves
were still located south of the NMRA. The William Hulbert Mill Company built a large
structure for casket manufacturing next to its North Marina Area mill. By the end of the
1920s, the number of shingle mills was beginning a long decline that would see those
plants eventually disappear from the North Marina Area. Obsolete machinery,
competition from composition roofing and difficulty in getting quality red cedar all
contributed to the decline. The once mighty Clough-Hartley shingle mill closed its doors
in 1929.
Everett’s industries suffered along with the rest of the nation during the Great
Depression of the 1930s. The number of shingle mills on 14th Street Dock dwindled to
one by 1937. Other NMRA mills faced difficult times but all survived the decade. Two
new pulp mills were built on the bay front south of the NMRA. These, along with the
huge Everett Pulp and Paper Company in Lowell, gave Everett a new “Pulp City” title.
During this period, the Port of Everett purchased more property along the Everett
waterfront. The Fishermen’s Packing Corporation was relocated to Anacortes in 1938
and the fishing fleet moved to a new location in Tract O, south of the NMRA. This was
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 6
the final relocation before the move to the 14th Street Dock area the next decade.
The NMRA was marked by change in the 1940s. With the onset of World War II, Tract O
was taken over by the U.S. Navy and a huge shipyard was built on the site. This
prompted a move of the commercial fishing fleet to 14th Street Dock. New docks were
created for the boats and a new structure was built for the net sheds. Fish processing
also appeared for the first time in the NMRA, when a building was erected next to the
net sheds for the Bozeman Canning Company. Fisherman’s Boat Shop, an important
support facility to commercial fishing, relocated to the North Marina Area, as well.
During this period, the movement started to shift pleasure boat moorage from the
waters between Piers 1 and 2 to the 14th Street Dock Basin. The Port filled the area
north from the 14th Street Dock to about 12th Street, leaving the old dock the southern
boundary of an earthen fill. The war created a market for the wood products of the
mills, but the mill experienced a labor shortage. The military took much of the potential
work force. The problem was compounded by the fact workers could earn more in
industries like Boeing and the new Everett Naval Shipyard. Finally, the federal
government dealt with the issue by “freezing” people on their jobs - in other words, not
allowing workers to change from one company to another. After the war concluded in
1945, the Port of Everett increased the earth fill in the NMRA. This effort continued
over the next several decades.
The 1950s brought more change. The transformation of the 14 th Street Basin into a
pleasure boat marina, as well as a home for the fishing fleet, progressed. Morris, Inc.,
which built both commercial and pleasure boats, was established in the 14 th Street Dock
area. Bozeman Canning had become the Everett Fish Company by 1957 and had a
booming seafood processing business. The mills, on the other hand, were experiencing
various fates. The Hulbert mill was fatally crippled by a major fire in 1956. C-B Lumber
sold out to the Summit Timber Company in mid-decade. Jamison continued to pump
out prodigious amounts of shingles and Super Shingle (later Super Mill) was the only
remaining mill on the 14th Street Dock site. Meanwhile, the Port of Everett was leasing
out increasing portions of the 14th Street fill to various businesses. By the end of the
decade, the Port had leases with at least 10 different companies in the North Marina
Area. One of these was with Columbia Veneer, which established one of the first
particle board factories in the Pacific Northwest.
The 1960s were momentous years in Everett. The Boeing Company established an
enormous aircraft manufacturing plant in south Everett. Boeing’s arrival occurred at a
time wood products industries were declining. Almost overnight, the city shifted from a
mill town economy to one largely dependent on the aircraft industry. This was the
decade when the lumber and shingle industry virtually disappeared from the NMRA.
The Super Mill plant closed in 1962, bringing a conclusion to 70 years of 14 th Street
shingle mills. Summit Mill Company moved its plant to Darrington. Fires claimed the
old Jamison plant and the closed Pilchuck and Lumber Company in 1967. Columbia
Veneer shut down after just a few years of operation. Hulbert Mill was gone but casket
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 7
manufacturing remained on the site. Morris, Inc. concluded its boat building operation
during the decade. After demolishing the vacant Super Mill plant, which it had
purchased, the Port developed the 14th Street Basin (south of the dock fill) into a large,
modern marina, with around 950 slips for commercial and pleasure craft. The separate
section for the fishing fleet was expanded and improved. The new marina was called
Everett Yacht Basin and it was nearly 100 percent occupied by 1966. The old basin
between Piers 1 and 2 was phased out and the Everett Yacht Club itself moved to the
NMRA in 1968. It was located on the approximate site of what had once been the end
of 14th Street Dock. Everett Fish Company expanded in 1964, and the number of firms
leasing in the NMRA remained about the same.
Improvements continued at the Everett Yacht Basin in the 1970s. By 1972, facilities
existed for 180 commercial fishing boats and 822 pleasure boats. Five years later more
area was being filled to the south of the Everett Yacht Basin. It would be used in a few
years to expand the marina. Meanwhile, the commercial fishing industry was in the
early stages of a downturn that would see the number of vessels decline dramatically
the next few decades. The sale of the Everett Fish Company was the beginning of
ownership changes that would see that fish processing plant cease operations in the
1990s. Tidewater Plywood, the last of the wood products mills, left by the early 1970s.
The casket manufacturing was down to a fraction of its earlier production. Despite the
general decrease in some of the long established industries, the number of businesses in
the NMRA grew sharply during the decade. By 1979, more than 20 firms operated
businesses on the site. One of these was Cruise-A-Home, which bucked the Area’s
decline in boat building by producing a unique fiberglass pleasure craft. Many of the
1979 firms were related to the boat and marine industries and a few like Dunlap
Industrial Hardware and Churchill Brothers Marine Canvas Products are still there in
2008.
Significant changes occurred in the NMRA during the 1980s. By 1982, the Port of
Everett had extended the Everett Yacht Basin to the south. The expanded yacht basin
could accommodate more than 2,000 recreational boats and commercial fishing craft.
The fishermen had their separate floats in the marina’s southeast corner. On the
earthen fill that had been created to form the southern boundary of the yacht basin, a
new Marina Village opened in 1984. This development included a mix of restaurants,
shops - and a year later, a motel. Now, one could enjoy at Anthony’s Homeport a
salmon dinner on very nearly the same site the Clough-Hartley plant had pumped out
millions of shingles. In the northwest corner of the North Marina, a launching facility for
small boats was developed, with ample room for patrons to park their boat trailers.
Along 10th Street and the area where it reaches West Marine View Drive (formerly
Norton Avenue), entrepreneur John Schack developed an industrial complex of six
buildings, which housed several different businesses. By 1989, nearly 40 firms occupied
buildings in the NMRA.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 8
The NMRA got a new neighbor to the south when Naval Station Everett opened in 1994.
The Port of Everett had sold 110 acres to the Navy to provide this new military
installation. The navy station was, undoubtedly, the biggest physical change ever on the
city waterfront. Two long time North Marina Area industries closed in the 1990s, the
casket operation and the Olympic Fish company (the final fish processor). The number
of fishermen and vessels diminished under the pressure of dwindling fish runs,
government regulations and escalating costs of operation. The total number of firms in
the NMRA continued to increase and diversify. By decade end, more than 65 different
companies operated in the NMRA. They covered the gamut from restaurants to
machine shops. A few, like Puget Sound Truck Lines, Fishermen’s Boat Shop, Everett
Engineering, Inc. and American Boiler Works had been there since the 1960s. Many of
the companies, such as Performance Marine and Harbor Marine Maintenance, offered
services and products directly related to recreational and commercial boating
With the arrival of the 21st century, the NMRA had matured into a marina and boat
launching facility surrounded by a variety of businesses, industries and recreational
amenities. Another marina was created in 2007 with the opening of the 12 th Street
Yacht Basin. This new facility accommodates 220 boats, ranging in length from 40 to 70
feet, with end ties for vessels up to 143 feet long. The main yacht basin was now the
largest public marina on the West Coast with a capacity of about 2,300 boats, including
guest moorage. Important changes were underway on the northern portion of the old
14th Street fill. The Port broke ground on Port Gardner Wharf in 2007. The combined
residential and commercial development will usher in an exciting new era for the NMRA.
It’s been quite a ride since the 1890s days of the lonely 14th Street Dock.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 9
LUMBER AND SHINGLE MILLS
Fourteenth Street Dock
Fourteenth Street Dock was the City of Everett’s first man-made structure on the site
defined in the early 21st century as the North Marina Redevelopment Area (NMRA).
Built in 1892 by the Everett Land Company, the wooden wharf extended 2,000 feet due
west from the shoreline over the Port Gardner Bay tidelands. It lined up approximately not exactly - with 14th Street, an east-west road at the top of the bluff above the dock.
The foot of the wharf was next to the Seattle Montana Railroad that had been
completed from Fairhaven (Bellingham) to Seattle in 1891. A Great Northern Railway
enterprise, the Seattle Montana had the important role of giving the Great Northern
access to Puget Sound cities when the latter’s line from St. Paul, Minnesota to Everett
was completed on January 6, 1893. Great Northern president James J. Hill described
Great Northern as the handle and Seattle Montana as the rake. A portion of the rake, in
the form of a railroad spur, was extended out on the 14 th Street Dock. Thus, industries
on the dock would have direct connection with the vast Great Northern network.
Early drawings (including the widely circulated 1893 “Birdseyeview of Everett,
Washington” by the Brown’s Land and Engineering Company) and at least one
photograph show an incline roadway that ran easterly from the dock, crossed high over
the Seattle Montana line and connected with 14th Street at the top of the high bank in
the area. Just east of the bluff’s edge, 14th Street intersects with Grand Avenue, which is
shown on the Brown map as extending north from Everett’s bayside settlement, around
the Port Gardner peninsula and then south again to reach Everett’s riverside section. In
addition, 14th Street is shown as a rudimentary road that meanders southeasterly until it
reaches Broadway in the middle portion of the new community. In other words, the
incline ramp was a connector between the dock and virtually every section of the
fledgling city. The Brown map shows no other way to reach the dock except by rail or
boat. Also, the incline may have served as a route for getting freshly cut timber from
the peninsula to the waterfront. Newspaper accounts from the era relate that loggers
were busily harvesting the estimated 10 million feet of standing timber at the north end
of the peninsula. Newspaper accounts indicate the incline was not an original part of
the dock construction; it was added in late 1892 after the first dock industries had
started.
Jutting nearly a half mile over the tide flats with its steep bridge way to the bluff top, the
dock must have been a striking, albeit strange sight. It was an entity to itself with no
nearby development except the rail line. It is said that localites laughed at the structure,
referring to it and its first mills as the “Light House.” There was rationale, however, for
the dock design. In their 1973 Historical Survey of the Everett Shoreline, David Dilgard
and Margaret Riddle point out “…it was purposely situated a great distance from the
mainland with the intention of creating a bulkhead under the dock as Hewitt’s St. Paul
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 10
and Tacoma Company had done on similar land in Tacoma.”
The first industry appeared at the west end of the dock in September of 1892. It was a
sawmill owned by the Everett Land Company and leased to James E. Bell, who would
become one of Everett’s leading citizens in subsequent years. The mill had the capacity
of producing 25,000 feet of lumber in a 10 hours shift. A few weeks later, the Belloperated plant was joined by the Neff and Mish Shingle Mill. This plant, owned and
operated by S.S. Neff and W.W. Mish, was located on the north side of the wharf
approximately half way out. It employed 30 men and could produce 250,000 shingles
per day. This made it the largest of the four shingle mills in Everett at the time. Neff
and Mish made history on March 23, 1893 when 40 boxcars of shingles rolled out of the
mill on to the main railroad tracks. Pulled by two large locomotives, this train was the
first to travel eastward from Puget Sound the full length of the Great Northern’s new
line to Minneapolis. Each car was decorated with a large canvas sign describing the
cargo. The words “From Everett, Wash.” were painted in two-foot-high letters.
About this same time, reports surfaced in the Everett Herald newspaper about a
cannery and a pulley factory that would be built on or adjacent to the 14 th Street Dock.
An April 6, 1893 article described the cannery as being constructed on the south side of
the dock between the shingle mill and the sawmill. Two weeks later the Herald
reported the cannery building was nearing completion and the pulley factory building,
just west of the sawmill, had been completed. The cannery would process fish and
meat; the latter was to come from nearby “proposed stockyards.” The pulley company
would manufacture their products for use in the mills. The record is sketchy as to
whether either of these plants ever operated or if one or both were early victims of the
financial panic that soon would devastate Everett. In the 1894-95 Polk City Directory for
Everett, there is no reference to the cannery or the pulley factory.
By late 1893, the United States was amidst the worst financial depression it ever had
experienced and the boomtown days of early Everett had ended. Disillusioned by the
flow of millions of dollars from his pockets to a project he now considered ill conceived,
John D. Rockefeller began a long process to extract himself from Everett. Hewitt was
out as the Everett Land Company president as Rockefeller sought to fill local leadership
positions with men in whom he had utmost trust. It would be the end of the decade
before Rockefeller would unload the final remnants of the Land Company. In the
intervening years, Everett struggled through a fiscal morass that had few bright spots.
The Neff and Mish operation was known as the Lebanon Cedar Shingle Company, with
W.W Mesh as president, by the end of 1893. The company was bankrupt in the spring
of 1896 and sold at a sheriff’s auction April 14 of that year to pay off a $9,702.04
mortgage. It was then leased by the Everett National Bank to a firm known as Metcalf
and Wade. At some point near the turn of the century, the mill was taken over by
Tacoman E.J. McNeeley, who also operated a shingle mill farther south on the Everett
bay front. By 1901, the old Neff and Mish site was labeled E.J. McNeeley’s Shingle Mill
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 11
No.1 on that year’s Sanborn Insurance Atlas.
Meanwhile, the Everett Land Company sawmill ceased operation in mid-October of
1895. James Bell, the original lessee, left to build a new mill on the waterfront between
Pacific Avenue and 33rd Street. It was a risky move that eventually paid dividends when
Bell and his partner A.O. Nelson sold the plant to the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company in
1902. It was the first of several Everett Weyerhaeuser mills and set the stage for
Weyerhaeuser being the city’s largest employer for decades. None of the plants was in
the NMRA. There is however, a remnant of the Weyerhaeuser Company in the Area.
Several years ago, the former office building, which had been built to showcase various
types of lumber, was moved from the old Mill B river site to a location at 18 th Street and
West Marine View Drive.
In 1896, M.J. Darling, who had been in the Everett shingle business since 1892, leased
the old Land Company mill. A year later the mill was known as the Gauslin and Garthley
Lumber Company. With J.D. Gauslin and W.T. Garthley as the principal officers, it began
operation in July 1897. By 1900, the plant included a sawmill that could cut 40,000 feet
of lumber per day and a shingle mill with a daily capacity of 100,000. Gauslin and
Garthley met the fate of many early mills when it burned on December 19, 1902.
The Everett Land Company mill and Neff and Mish were precedent-setting in at least
two ways. First, they clearly set the pattern for 14th Street dock as a site for mills.
Virtually every industry on the dock from its inception in 1892 until its demise decades
later was a mill, and almost all were shingle mills. Second, the two plants illustrated the
tumultuous nature of the wood products industry, particularly the shingle business. The
only predictability was unpredictability. Prices for raw material or finished products
could soar one week and plummet the next. Small time shingle operations were
relatively expensive to build; in good times the small operators joined the other firms in
shingle production. The result was a flood on the market and a plunge in prices. In this
fickle feast or famine environment, fortunes could be made or lost in short order. Many
companies came and went. On 14th Street Dock, the turnover of owners and operators
was a way of life. From 1892, until there were just two mills in the 1940s, 31 different
mill names are shown in the Polk City Directories as 14th Street Dock firms. Considering
there were never more than seven mills at any one time, it is indicative of the frequent
ownership changes and volatility of the business.
Everett was jolted out of its economic doldrums in 1900 when James J. Hill, the Great
Northern Empire Builder, purchased from Rockefeller the ebbing assets of the Everett
Land Company. Hill’s agenda was singular. He would transform Everett into a mill town
and he would ship the finished products to markets on his railroad. He replaced the old
Land Company with the Everett Improvement Company and installed his trusted
confidant John T. McChesney as the president. Under McChesney’s leadership, the
Everett transformation was remarkable. Along with Hill, he recruited some of the
Midwest’s leading lumbermen to Everett where they would open and operate mills.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 12
Foremost among these was Frederick Weyerhaeuser, probably the country’s most highly
regarded timber company operator at the time. Although Weyerhaeuser located in
Tacoma, he opened his first mill in Everett and then added several more. Significant
Everett arrivals included David Clough, former governor of Minnesota, and his son-inlaw Roland Hartley. The two would become leaders among the community’s lumber
barons. Mills sprang up along the Everett waterfront. Workers and their families
swarmed in. The city’s population tripled from around 8,000 in 1900 to nearly 25,000 in
1910.
Fourteenth Street Dock was a beneficiary of the new timber-fueled growth. In 1902, the
wharf had its original two mills, now Gauslin and Garthley and E.J. McNeeley, plus two
new ones. The C.E. Russell Shingle Mill was west of McNeeley on the north side of the
dock. The Carpenter Brothers Shingle Mill, which may have been preceded by a firm
named Faulkin and Gray, was on the south side of the dock, about two thirds of the way
out. Peter, John, Matthew, and Chris Carpenter were listed as proprietors. In 1904, the
Mann Shingle Company opened. It was located just west of Russell on the same side of
the dock. Everett wasn’t quite the “greatest shingle producing town in the whole
world”, as touted by the city’s Daily Independent newspaper, but it did rank fourth
among Washington cities as a producer of lumber and shingles by this time.
In 1906, the Carlson Brothers Mill, the Everett Shingle Company, the Cavelero Mill
Company, and the Lundgren-Swanson Mill Company are first noted as 14th Street Dock
operations. The Carlsons had been operating the McNeeley plant. After it was
destroyed by fire, one of the brothers, Olof, bought Mr. McNeeley’s interests and
established a new shingle mill on the site. The Everett Shingle Mill also was on the north
side of the dock, but closer to shore. The Cavelero mill seemed to be a successor to the
Bay Mill Company and the Auld-Cavelero, which appeared to have taken over the
Gauslin and Garthley location after the 1902 fire. Dominic Cavelero was unique in that
he may have been the only person of Italian descent to operate a 14 th Street Dock mill.
Lundgren-Swanson had taken over the former Carpenter Brothers site. In 1906, six of
Everett’s nine shingle mills were on 14th Street Dock. The approximately 175 employees
in these six mills could produce more than one million shingles a day. While this was an
impressive amount, it was only about 10 percent of the nearly 11,000,000 shingles cut
daily in Snohomish County’s 99 shingle mills.
There were more changes in 1907. Lundgren-Swanson became just Lundgren. The
Northwest Manufacturing Company, a shingle mill, opened on the south side of the
dock close to shore. This brought the total mills (all shingle) to seven, a number at
which it stayed the next two years. Records from the Polk City directories indicate this
was the greatest number of mills at any one time. While the numbers remained the
same, there were changes in 1908 and 1909. The Beach Mill Company took over Russell
in 1909 and then disappeared a year later. Neil Jamison bought Lundgren and expanded
the mill’s capacity to 300,000 shingles a day. In his early twenties at the time, Jamison
was on his way to becoming an Everett lumber legend. David Clough opened the
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 13
Hartley Shingle Company, which carried the name of his son-in-law. Maps from that
period era suggest that the Hartley plant was on the old Russell Mill location.
One of the era’s mysteries is the fate of the incline from the dock to the top of the bank.
Maps from the period are inconclusive. A 1901 Sanborn Atlas shows an “Old Inclined
Roadway to Top of Bluff” but it appears to be crossed out. Yet a map in a 1902 Everett
Chamber of commerce publication suggests the incline was still there. Of further
interest and confusion, the Sanborn map references a hog pen, old slaughter house and
feeding stalls under the incline. Could this have been the “proposed stockyards”
mentioned in the 1893 Herald article as supplying meat for the cannery? Frank Platt, a
retired Everett businessman whose memories of the area go back to about 1920, does
not remember any such incline roadway during his lifetime. Platt, in 2008, did recall
Russ Farrington, former shingle mill owner, talking about such a structure. But it
remains a mystery as to when it was removed.
Fire was the scourge of the early mills and the 14th Street Dock plants suffered their
share. In addition to the 1902 Gauslin and Garthley conflagration and the later blaze at
McNeeleys, there were at least two other serious fires from 1900 to 1910. A 1907 blaze
at the Carlson Brothers destroyed two million shingles and prompted the fire
department to ask the city to purchase a larger fire engine. A year later Lundgren lost
four kilns and two and a half million shingles to a major blaze. After this, there was
discussion about acquisition of a fireboat for protection of waterfront mills. On another
occasion a freak accident occurred as Fire Chief Sam Grafton was racing his horse and
buggy to a fire. In his 1992 book The Fire Boys: 100 Years of Everett Firefighting History,
author Charles Henderson explains that a yapping dog startled the horse, resulting in
the chief, horse and buggy careening off the elevated dock roadway and sailing 12 feet
to the tide flats below. The buggy was wrecked; the horse only scratched; and the chief
survived with a sore head and no broken bones. The fire was reportedly extinguished
with a bucket of water.
After peaking at seven mills, 1907 through 1909, the dock maintained between four and
six mills for most of the next decade, with ownership and name changes being the
norm. Some firms, like the Everett Shingle Company (1906-1923), Hartley Shingle
Company (1909-1925), and Everbest Shingle Company (1916-1929) were exceptions.
Other names such as the Mattson Mill Company appeared one year (1910) and
disappeared the next. At least two operators left the dock to relocate on nearby bay
front sites. Carlson Brothers was gone by 1911 but former president Olof Carlson shows
up in 1914 as an officer in the C-B mill located between 9th and 10th streets on the bay
front. In 1913, Neil Jamison organized the Jamison Mill Company, which by 1916 was
located at 10th Street, just south of the C-B. The Cargo Shingle Company, with Jamison
as president, continued to operate on the 14th Street Dock until 1919. There also was
the Everett Mutual Mill Company (1916-1920) but the record is clouded as to its
location. Some companies appear as brief successors to earlier firms and then vanish.
Shull Lumber and Shingle Company, for example, bought Carlson Brothers mill in 1912
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 14
and then was gone in 1914. Another instance of quick change occurred on the
Northwest Manufacturing Company site. It was Northwest from 1907-09, White
Brothers in 1911 and Snohomish Lumber Company from 1913 to 1917. Since the Polk
City Directories list W.B. White and R.H. White as officers in the latter two companies, it
could be the firms were one and the same.
During this period, Everett shingle manufacturing reached new highs, and a substantial
number of those shingles were being cut at 14th Street Dock mills. The 1912 Polk City
Directory stated that Everett produced 6,055,000 shingles each day. The 1916 Directory
heralded Everett as “the leading lumber, logging and shingle center of the Northwest, in
fact, it might be said of the entire world. The daily capacity of the shingles mills is 4.5
million.”
While it took a unique breed of men to run the shingle mills, the same could be said
about the men who worked in them. Jobs in the mills were tough and dangerous. Men
pushed hunks of red cedar through huge circular saws, smaller shingle saws and finally
trimmer saws. The shingle saws could be set to cut nearly a shingle a second and each
had to be cleared over the saw by hand. One slip and a finger, hand, arm - or a life,
could be gone. With the sawyer handling 30,000 shingles in his 10-hour shift, slips were
inevitable.
Once the shingles were trimmed, they were dropped down a chute to be packed into
bundles. A skilled packer worked with such speed, he appeared to be “weaving” the
shingles together. The “shingle weaver” label originated from this activity and became
the generic term for shingle mill workers. In addition to the relentless, hazardous tasks,
the men were exposed constantly to cedar dust that filled the air. The intake of dust
resulted in a cedar asthma that broke the health of many a worker. And, the workers,
like their bosses, were at the mercy of a vacillating business. A slide into an economic
downturn and the job was gone, at least temporarily.
The shingle weavers exhibited a special blend of fearlessness, toughness, manual
dexterity - and pride. A quiet pride in their ability to beat the odds and succeed in a
foreboding environment. They were the top echelon of mill workers and their pay was
frequently double that of saw mill employees. Shingle weavers worked hard and, in
many cases, played hard. There is morbidly humorous tale of the shingle weaver
bursting into the saloon with his buddies, thrusting up his arm, extending the two
remaining fingers on his hand and shouting, “Five beers for us!”
The shingle weavers usually were at odds with the mill owners and the friction between
them was a root of a socio-economic class war that characterized the community.
Clough, Hartley and other lumber kings built mansions on the bluff overlooking their
waterfront empire. Each day, workers trudged by these palatial homes hoping they, the
workers, might someday have enough to afford a small cottage on a 25-foot lot. It was
easy for the shingle weavers to muse that their sweat and blood had given the mill
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 15
owners their millions with little in return. A shingle weavers union was organized in
1901. Everett was a strong union town and the shingle weavers union became the
largest and most militant group in the Trades Council. The shingle weavers union
fought, sometimes successfully, for higher wages, improved working conditions and
shorter workday. The mill owners, aware of their own vulnerability in a violently cyclical
business, generally resisted the union. The owners had taken the capital risk and were
reluctant to enter into labor agreements that might increase their risk and diminish their
control.
The shingle labor and management war reached it zenith in 1916. The shingle weavers
union went on strike when the owners were unwilling to reinstate a higher wage scale.
The union cited a mill owners’ promise to restore the 1914 wage scale when shingle
prices rose again. Prices had risen but David Clough was adamant that the wage
adjustment was not justified. His mills, he claimed, had not made any money in two and
a half years. The strike drug on and became violent after some mill owners brought in
strikebreakers. Hostilities rose to a new level when the Industrial Workers of the World
(IWW), to the dismay of the mill owners and the shingle weavers union, injected
themselves into the fray. Better known as the Wobblies, the IWW men swarmed to
Everett, to preach for a radical worker revolution that far exceeded the shingle weavers
demand for higher wages. On a downtown street corner they called for the laboring
class to rise in opposition to the immoral capitalists who controlled their lives. When
the Wobblies began to be arrested and/or run out of town for their activities, their issue
became “free speech” and the town’s attention turned to the sheriff and his mill owner
citizen deputies battle with the IWW. After a particularly violent episode when a group
of Wobblies was run out of town and beaten by the sheriff and his cohorts, a large
group of Wobblies returned en mass by boat to Everett. They were met at the Everett
City Dock by the sheriff and his deputized crew of mill owner supporters. There was a
verbal confrontation and a shot - from which side was never determined - rang out.
More shots followed from both sides and when they ended at least seven were dead
(two of the dock crew and five Wobblies) and many others were wounded. The most
infamous event in Everett’s history, it would become known as the Everett Massacre.
The community was shattered and a degree of normalcy wasn’t restored until the city,
along with the rest of the nation, turned its attention to America’s entry into the war in
Europe. The Everett Massacre did not occur in the NMRA but there is no question that
seeds for the episode can be traced to the waterfront shingle mills, including those on
the 14th Street Dock. Certainly, the innate conflict between the shingle mill workers and
the mill owners did not end with the Everett Massacre. The tension between the two
would persist until both the mills and the shingle weavers union disappeared decades
later.
The number of mills on 14th Street Dock held steady at five through most of the 1920s
but there were the usual changes of ownership and/or names. Everbest lasted until the
end of the decade. The fact that Walter Mann was an officer first in the Mann Shingle
Company and then Everbest, suggests that Everbest may have been a successor to
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 16
Mann. David Clough died in 1924 and the Hartley Shingle Mill operated for about a year
after that. Interestingly, a Clough Shingle Mill is listed in the 1923 through 1925 City
Directories as a 14th Street Dock mill with David’s nephew H.J. Clough as manager. It is
unclear if these were separate companies or one firm owned by the Clough/Hartley
interests. Other operations, such as the Edwards Mill Company and the Justrite Shingle
Company, arrived and left within two years. They may have been affiliated, or perhaps,
the same company; J.D. Johnson was an officer in both. After the Everett Shingle
Company disappeared in 1923, its president E.L. Bishop emerged as the president of
Monarch Mill company, which lasted from 1929 to 1932. The Everett Lumber and
Shingle Company is first shown in the 1925 City Directory and lasts until 1935. In 1929,
the five dock mills, according to the City Directory, were Everbest Shingle Company,
Everett Lumber and Shingle Company, Justrite Shingle Company, Monarch Mill Company
and the newly arrived Super Shingle company, which was on the old Jamison site. F.R.
Faller is listed as the first Super Shingle president, but a few years later Olof Carlson held
that title.
The end of the 1920s also is marked by the arrival of a business other than a wood
products mill. The Dan Lewis Towing Company relocated from Pier 3 to the west end of
the dock. This tow boat company was operated by L. Daniel Lewis, who with his wife
Goldabell, is shown in the 1928-29 City Directory as residing at the dock. After Mr.
Lewis’ death in the late 1930s, Goldabell is listed as the proprietor of the firm. She may
have been the only female head of a 14th Street Dock company in history. It appears she
later married Alva Walker, who then headed up the towing company. Dan Lewis Towing
disappeared from City Directories after 1944.
Frank Platt, who played in the 14th Street dock area as youngster, remembered the west
end of the Dock for a different reason. A retired Everett businessman in 2008, Platt
recalled the great fishing at the site of Dan Lewis Towing. “That’s where the sewer pipe
emptied into the bay,” stated Platt. “That was rich water. We caught a lot of pogies
there.” Bonner Wilson, who was slightly older than Platt, recalled swimming in a bay
spot he called “14th Street Basin”. Hopefully, it was some distance from Dan Lewis
Towing.
By the end of the 1920s there was no doubt the 14th Street Dock shingle industry was in
a downhill spiral. Most of the plants had obsolete machinery that made competition
with new mills difficult. Additionally, the entire red cedar shingle business was being
challenged by the composition shingle. The composition roofs on some of the shingle
mills were blunt evidence of this reality. If this weren’t enough, then came the Great
Depression of the 1930s, which left but one mill, Super Shingle, on the dock. A firm
called Everett Shake and Shingle emerged in 1944 but was there for just four years.
As the last survivor, Super Shingle, later know as Super Mill Company, set the record for
longevity. M.J. Willett and Fred Tilley, who had been with the mill since its 1929
inception, sold the firm to Russ Farrington about 1948. The mill’s address was still
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 17
shown as 14th Street Dock but, in fact, it was no longer a dock. The area to the north
had been filled by 1944. Super sat on the southern edge of a landfill. One could drive
out 13th Street and see “14th Street Dock’s” one remaining shingle mill. Farrington said
the “shingle business was crazy” but he held on for a decade and a half. On one
occasion, the collapse of the pilings beneath the old dock area made it impossible to get
railroad cars to the mill. The railroad was needed for shipping out shingles so Farrington
prevailed on the Great Northern trainmaster for help. Farrington said about three
hundred workers were there in two days to fix the problem. By 1960, Super was being
criticized by boat owners, fishermen and others because of the cinders created by the
mill’s incinerator. Also, the Port of Everett was eager to remove the mill and expand the
14th Street Yacht Basin. In 1962, Farrington finally gave in. He sold to the Port of
Everett, which soon demolished the old plant and embarked on the marina expansion.
The man who had earned the title “Shingles” and the final shingle mill were gone from
14th Street.
In terms of individual longevity, Charles J. Melby may hold the record. In the period
from 1907 to 1947, he is listed in the City Directories as an officer in three different 14th
Street Dock mills. Melby’s daughter, Myrtle Lowthian, provided insights into the life of a
shingle mill executive and his family in an April 26, 1983 Everett Herald article. Lowthian
said she and her six brothers and sisters “quickly learned that their fortunes were woven
with the forest economy, a series of ‘lumbermen’s depressions’ to sink into, endure and
rise above.” She continued, “We lived high on the hog with every kid having a bicycle or depressed.” During one downturn, the family turned to raising chickens; another
time they made fishing sinkers in the basement and sold them in Seattle. At one point
Melby bought a huge house at 3504 Norton Avenue for his wife and seven children.
Another downturn and he was forced to sell the place, along with the plans for
converting it into four apartments. Eventually, Melby invented and patented a machine
that “scratched” shingles so they could be used as a decorative siding. According to
Russ Farrington, Melby made the machines, leased them out and got royalties. “Finally
U.S. Plywood used the machines to scratch veneer,” said Farrington. He tried to sue
them but found his patent wasn’t worth anything.” Ever resilient, Melby continued to
play golf until he was 83 and lived to the age of 89.
There is little left in 2008 to remind us of the 14 th Street Dock. The area to the south has
been developed into the largest public marina on the West Coast. To the north, a large
residential/commercial complex will soon be under construction. There is, however,
evidence of the past for the astute observer. On 14th Street, about 50 yards west of
West Marine View Drive, there are in the asphalt two parallel lines of bumps, each
about an inch in height and a foot across. The lines each run for about 100 yards and
are about 12 feet apart. From east to west, it is about 15 feet between each of the
bumps. These small raised areas are caused by the pilings that once supported 14 th
Street Dock. The tops of the pilings are below the surface and have become more
noticeable as the asphalt slowly settles. It’s a faint reminder of days gone by. If those
pilings could talk, think of the stories they could tell.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 18
Lumber and Shingle Mills in Locations Other Than 14th Street
NMRA mills were of three types: lumber mills, shingles mills, or combination lumber
and shingle mills. Essentially, the mill employees fell into two categories; they were
either saw mill or shingle mill workers. The sawmills tended to be larger operations with
a greater variety of tasks. In the shingle mill, bolts of cedar were cut into shingles and
then dried. In a sawmill, entire logs entered the plant and then were processed into
lumber of varying sizes and shapes. A mechanized chain pulled the log from a pond
manned by skilled boom men, who nimbly jumped from log to log. Other men debarked
the log, as it started its way through the mill. Another crew controlled the huge saw
that trimmed off the large butt end. Now, the debarked and trimmed timber made its
way on another mechanized chain to a large band saw known as the head rig. The head
sawyer operated this device and in the early days actually moved with the log as it was
guided through the saw. The head sawyer had the critical task of slicing slabs off the
timber to square it up for further cuts. He was responsible for getting the most lumber
possible from the log and often he was the highest paid laborer in the mill. Once the
timber had been shaped into a square sided piece called a cant, men fed it length wise
through gang saws that sliced the cant into boards. Again, conveyed by chains, the
boards came under the careful eye of the trimmer man, who, through mechanical
means, dropped the small circular saws that trimmed the lumber into the desired
lengths. Graders then assessed the quality of the lumber and placed a chalk mark grade
on each piece. Now, the lumber traveled out on an apparatus called the green chain
(because it was green - or un-dried lumber) where a crew of men pulled the pieces off
the chain and onto carts. Each cart held lumber of a specific dimension. Green chain
work was grueling and relentless; many considered it the hardest job in the mill. Once a
cart was full, workmen guided it to at kiln where the lumber was subjected to its final
process, that of being dried for use.
C-B Lumber and Shingle Company
The names of Olof Carlson and George Bergstrom, who eventually became the C and the
B of this waterfront enterprise, first appear in the Everett City Directories about the
same time. Born in Sweden in 1860, Olof Carlson spent time in Portland and Tacoma
before coming to Everett with his brothers August and David to run the E.J. McNeeley
and Company mill on 14th Street Dock. After the mill burned, Olof Carlson purchased
McNeeley’s interest and reopened the plant as Carlson Brothers in 1906. He remained
president until 1912, sold the plant to the Shull Lumber Company and took an extended
trip to Europe. In the meantime, George A. Bergstrom, residence shown as San
Francisco, is listed in the 1907 City Directory as the president of the Mukilteo Shingle
Company and vice-president of Pacific Timber Company. The latter, with offices in
downtown Everett, is described as a “wholesaler of lumber and shingles.” In the 1909
directory Bergstrom is listed as a traveling salesman living in Everett. That same year he
partnered with his brother-in-law W.R. Cunningham, Jr. to open the C-B Shingle
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 19
Company on the Snoqualmie River south of Monroe. Upon his return from Europe, Olof
Carlson joined with Bergstrom and Cunningham to reorganize the company. By 1914
the new C-B was on Everett’s bay front at 9th Street and Norton Avenue. Carlson was
company president, Cunningham was vice-president and Bergstrom was secretarytreasurer and manager. The plant covered 20 acres of tide flats, employed 45 men and
was hailed as the first totally electrically driven shingle mill in the world. The owners
prided themselves in the modern machinery, which even included a blower system for
the dust. By 1922, Cunningham was no longer a company officer, leaving Carlson as the
C with Bergstrom still the B. In 1918 Bergstrom had moved to 1731 Rucker Avenue,
which was across the street from Carlson’s home at 1722 Rucker. Thus, the two were
long time neighbors as well as business partners. Bergstrom was out of the Mukilteo
Shingle Company by 1919, but he remained with Pacific Timber Company, eventually
becoming president. C-B and Pacific Timber names were both painted on the mill.
Carlson appears to have retired from the firm by 1930; he would have been about 70
years old. Bergstrom continued as the president until his death in the early 1940s. His
wife Iva was president for about 10 years with their daughter Charlotte V. Wilde and her
husband Raymond also serving as company officers. Crosby Pendleton eventually
became vice-president and general manager. It was he who announced in 1955 the sale
of C-B Lumber and Shingle Company and Pacific Timber Company to Summit Timber
Company. The firm which had been a mainstay on the Everett bay front for more than
four decades was gone. Unlike many of its contemporaries, however, there is still a
trace of C-B in 2008. The tide water pilings on which the mill once stood are visible at
the northeast boundary of the NMRA.
Clough-Hartley Company
When this giant shingle mill debuted in 1907, it was known as the Clough-Whitney
Company. Within the year, Roland Hartley, an original incorporator, purchased the
stock of another initial incorporator, O.S. Whitney. This put the Clough-Hartley family in
full control by 1908. David M. Clough served as president; his brother O.E. Clough was
treasurer; O.E.’s son H.J. Clough was secretary; Roland Hartley, son-in-law of David,
served as vice-president. Located at the foot of 18th Street, the operation straddled the
southern boundary of the current NMRA. Billed as the world’s largest shingle mill when
it opened, Clough-Hartley included 16 new upright shingle machines from Everett’s
Sumner Iron Works. One source said the plant had the capacity of producing 500,000
shingles daily; another said 800,000. In either case, Clough-Hartley dwarfed any
previous shingle mill in Everett. By 1912, Clough-Hartley also was putting out 80,000
feet of cedar siding lumber per day. With 163 employees and a monthly payroll of
$14,074, the plant had more workers and a larger payroll than all the 14 th Street Dock
mills combined. By 1916, Clough-Hartley’s daily shingle production was reported as 1.5
million. David Clough was still president and Roland Hartley, vice-president; H.J. Clough
became secretary-treasurer after his father’s death in 1915. From 1919 to 1923 there
also was a Bayside Shingle Company at either 18th or 19th Street and Norton Avenue
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 20
with Cloughs and Hartleys as officers. It is unclear as to whether this was simply part of
the Clough-Hartley plant or a separate adjacent facility. Perhaps it was housed in the
building(s) of the Seaside Shingle Company, which was shown previously as being at 19 th
Street and Norton Avenue. When David Clough died in 1924, Roland Hartley became
Clough-Hartley president, H.J. Clough’s name was dropped as a company officer and the
Bayside Shingle name vanished as well. Roland Hartley remained president for the next
several years but it is unlikely he was directly involved in the mill’s operation. He was
elected governor of the state of Washington in 1924 and re-elected in 1928. Most likely
the mill management was in the hands of his sons David M. and Edward W. Hartley.
Everett mills boomed after a devastating 1923 earthquake in Japan. Much of the
lumber to rebuild the country came from Everett. However, by the time Roland Hartley
was elected governor, the family shingle business had already begun to suffer. In 1928
when Edward Hartley stated that he knew of at least four waterfront cedar mills that
had been operating at a loss since 1923, he probably was including Clough-Hartley in
that group. The worn out mill was closed in 1929. City Directories in the mid to late
1930s identify the Clough-Hartley site as a retail lumber yard. A spectacular fire
destroyed the mill on December 29, 1937. A 40-mile an hour gale from the south
whipped the flames through the structure and it took several hours for firemen to
control the blaze. The loss was confined to the building itself. Virtually all machinery
had been removed and the sparks that flew northward landed harmlessly in the log
basin between 12th and 18th streets. In 2008 there is no trace of the Clough-Hartley
empire jewel that once occupied 60 acres of prime bay front property.
Jamison Mill Company
When young Neil E. Jamison bought the 14th Street Dock Lundgren Mill Company in
1909, it was the beginning of nearly six decades of the Jamison name in the NMRA. He
maintained ownership of the 14th Street Dock mill until 1919 but changed the name
from Jamison Lumber and Shingle Company to Cargo Shingle Company after he
organized the Jamison Mill Company in 1913 and built a new Jamison Lumber and
Shingle Company at 10th and Norton. Later, the Cargo name would shift to the 10th and
Norton location and then disappear at the end of the 1920s. About 1913, Neil Jamsion
hired P. Henry Olwell as sales manager. Olwell would become mill manager and a
trusted Jamison administrator for 35 years. In 1917, with his two Everett operations
and a mill in Anacortes, Neil Jamison was identified in Washington West of the Cascades
by Herbert Hunt and Floyd Kaylor as the world’s largest manufacturer of western red
cedar shingles. By 1926, the Jamison Mill Company was reported to be producing
1,250,000 shingles per day. One hundred twenty-five men were employed in the
Everett plant. On May 8, 1928 Jamison was struck by a serious fire. Five dry kilns
burned and several million shingles were lost. Every available Everett fireman battled
the blaze for several hours. Using an apparatus that pumped water from the bay, the
firefighters found their pumps useless when the tide receded. The city water mains
were then used but the supply was woefully inadequate. The episode left city officials
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 21
wrestling with the demand for a larger water line to the bay front industries. The mill
reopened and reestablished its role as Everett’s dominant shingle producer. In 1954,
Jamison was the mainstay of an Everett shingle industry that put out 25 million bundles
of shingles that year. Dennis LeMaster, who later would become a college professor in
resource economics and policy, remembers working at Jamison in the summer of 1955.
“It was a run down mill with many holes in the dock surface, but did the shingles ever
roll out of that place, “ LeMaster recalled in 2008. “I was just a high school junior but I
got a job loading shingles into railroad cars, 14 to 15 bundles high. It was very hard
work and our crew often worked double shifts trying to load those shingles as fast as
they came off the gravity feed. The pay was about $2.27 an hour but with all that
overtime the loading crew made great money for those days.” Neil Jamison died in
September 1958 and for the next few years his wife Grace and daughter Glee J. Bell
(later DeVoe) served as president and vice-president of the company, with Ben A Hanich
as secretary. In 1962, Hanich purchased the mill and operated it until his retirement in
1965. By 1966, the mill was known as the Jamison Division of Saginaw Shingle Company
and was owned by an Aberdeen, Washington based company. The mill had closed for a
year but in mid August, 1967, Saginaw announced the plant would reopen. Dreams for
a new Jamison era vanished, however, on August 31 when an enormous fire engulfed
the plant. One hundred firemen battled the three-alarm blaze for three hours but there
was no way to save the main mill. A large dry kiln, the warehouse and most of the pier
were salvaged, but no shingle or shake mill would operate on the site again.
William Hulbert Mill Company
In 1914, Fred K. Baker, a lumberman who had first come to Everett in 1901, built the
Fred K. Baker Lumber Company mill at the foot of 12th Street on Everett’s bay front.
Three years later William M. Hulbert bought controlling interest. Born in 1858 to a
pioneering family who moved from Kansas to the Pacific Northwest when he was only
two years old, Hulbert had extensive background in the logging and lumber business. By
1918, he was president of the Fred K. Baker Lumber Company. Hulbert died in 1919.
His wife Meda, who had been a teacher before their marriage, became president and
their son William Glen Hulbert became vice-president of the company, which changed
its name to the Hulbert Mill Company in 1920. Later, the name would be expanded to
the William Hulbert Mill Company. Completely electrified in 1916, the mill was enlarged
around 1920 until it covered 31 acres. By the mid 1920s a work force of about 200 was
producing 80,000 feet of cedar lumber and 350,000 shingles per day. The company also
became a pioneer in a pre-paid medical plan for its employees. Hulbert collaborated in
this effort with Dr. Samuel Caldbick, who founded the Everett Clinic in 1924. In 1926,
Hulbert expanded into casket manufacturing. The company built a striking three story
60,000 square-foot wooden building on pilings just south of the mill. The North Coast
Casket Company, with William G. Hulbert as manager, used the building to make
caskets. (See separate section on North Coast and Collins Casket Company.) In the early
1930s, William Hulbert Mill Company took a lead in popularizing the use of cedar as a
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 22
“decay resisting” building material. Sales manager Tom Skalley was instrumental in this
campaign. By the late 1940s, William G. Hulbert was president-manager and his son
William G. Hulbert, Jr., secretary-treasurer of both the William Hulbert Mill Company
and the Hulbert Sales Corporation. At this time Hulbert still had both a lumber and
shingle mill in its waterfront complex plus the casket factory. The mill was hit by a fouralarm fire on August 3, 1956, that long-time Everettites called one of the worst they
could remember. The main mill, the shingle mill and the casket factory were saved, but
the planer mill, a storage building, eight dry kilns filled with lumber and the neighboring
Jamison Mill office building were lost. In July of 1957 the shingle mill, with 60 men
employed, was back in operation. The main saw mill would never reopen and by 1959
the shingle mill was closed, too. By this time William G. Hulbert had retired and his son
William G., Jr. was president of the William Hulbert Mill Company. The company held
on to the property for several years, leasing it to different businesses and finally selling
it to the Port in 1991.
Casket Companies: North Coast/Collins/Cascade
The North Coast Casket Company opened around 1925. It was in downtown Everett at
the corner of Grand Avenue and California Street. The 1925 City Directory shows Fred
Hulbert as manager and Rasmus M. Collins as superintendent. Fred Hulbert was the son
of the late William Marion Hulbert, who a decade earlier had purchased the Fred K.
Baker Mill on the Everett bay front, and the brother of William Glen Hulbert, who had
reorganized the Baker operation into the William Hulbert Mill Company after their
father’s death in 1919. Collins had managed casket companies in Spokane and Seattle
before he came to Everett. In 1926, North Coast Casket Company relocated to a new
three-story 60,000 square foot wooden structure the William Hulbert Mill Company
built just south of its mill at 12th Street and Norton Avenue. The location was strategic;
the casket shells would be built from scrap and end material from the mill. By the late
1920s, William Glen Hulbert was the North Coast Casket manager and Collins was still
superintendent. In the early 1930s, Collins purchased the manufacturing portion of
North Coast Casket and established the Collins Casket Company. Hulbert maintained
ownership of the building. North Coast produced the casket shell on the first floor of
the building. The shell consisted of four side pieces, three bottom pieces the length of
the casket, and two top pieces the width of the casket. The pieces were lifted to the
Collins operation on the second floor by an elevator at the north end of the building.
The pieces were assembled and the casket moved south through the building receiving
a locking gear, fabric, a latch, mattress and liner, and finally emerging as a finished
product. There were 10 to 12 different casket styles. The casket work was done on the
first two floors. The third floor was for storage. While the two companies were
mutually dependent, Collins did buy some shells from other sources and North Coast did
sell some shells to other companies. By 1944, North Coast’s name had changed to
Cascade Casket Company, with former North Coast shipping manager Edwin C. Dams
operating the firm along with Theodore Johnson. Rasmus M. Collins retired from his
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 23
company about 1954. He retained ownership of the company and his son Rasmus C.
“Rasty” Collins became manager. The elder Collins died in 1959. Shortly thereafter
Dent and Lois Maulsby, who had previously owned Sound Casket, came out of
retirement and partnered with Rasty and his wife Jeanne in the ownership of Collins
Casket. Maulsby ran the factory and Collins was the salesperson. About 1961 a
concrete tilt-up building was erected just east of the casket factory for the purpose of
building metal casket shells. These welded shells went to the second floor of the factory
for finishing. Around 1963, Dams and Johnson retired from Cascade Casket and the
company was purchased by the William Hulbert Mill Company. Dent Maulsby retired
from Collins about 1969. William Hulbert Mill Company and Collins merged the casket
firms under the Collins name. Ownership was 50/50 with Rasty Collins serving as
president and William Glen Hulbert, Jr. as vice-president. Shortly after the merger,
Collins acquired a Spokane company, Inland Casket, which didn’t manufacture caskets,
but installed interiors. In 1977, Collins sold its manufacturing operation to Cliff Carlson,
who moved it to Spokane. Hulbert kept the shell plant and continued to run it. The
business was still operating in 1991 when the Hulbert Mill Company Limited Partnership
sold their 35-acre property and the buildings to the Port of Everett. Michael Keys,
former Collins Casket manager, bought the
company and ran it until it closed permanently in 1996. While the business is gone, the
Collins Building in which the casket were manufactured remains. It is a link to the past,
the only significant surviving structure from the NMRA’s heyday as a wood products
industrial center.
Columbia Hardboard Company
The pending arrival of this pioneering particle board company was cause for banner
headlines in the August 12, 1955 Everett Daily Herald. The firm’s parent company,
Columbia Veneer, with Fred L. Johnson as president, leased five and a quarter acres at
921 13th street from the Port of Everett. A 50-year lease demonstrated confidence in
the plant’s success. Cedar waste would be the primary material in the hardboard
product and the site was adjacent to the William Hulbert Mill, which would provide 30
to 50 tons of waste cedar per day. The use of this waste cedar, which previously had
been burned, was hailed as a step in eliminating the long controversial cinder problem
in Everett. Particles from the cedar and lesser amounts of alder, another abundant and
inexpensive resource, would be bonded together with a resin to form a composite
board. First, the wood was shaved into chips which were much smaller than those used
in particle board in 2008. The chips were referred to as flakes and the resulting product
was commonly called flakeboard. Once the flakes had been cut, they were mixed with a
resin and then pressed into four by eight foot sheets that ranged in thickness from onequarter inch to a full inch. The flakeboard was seen as a competitor to plywood. It
would be used as an underlay or for interior finished surfaces. Initial success kept three
crews of approximately 25 men each working around the clock five days a week in a
plant where the airborne dust made it almost impossible to see from one end of the
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 24
building to the other. The flakeboard was shipped to other states as well as being
utilized in local construction projects. There was liberal use of the product for interior
surfaces of Everett’s Evergreen Junior High School when it was built in 1958. There
were, however, production challenges from the beginning. Frequently, sheets would
“blow” - the center would puff up to several inches - as they came out of the sander.
Subsequent research indicated that alder and cedar lacked the necessary fiber
characteristics for particle board. Also, there were concerns with the resin. Production
suffered, too, when the Hulbert Mill, which was to furnish cedar, burned in August of
1956. Whatever the cause or causes, the plant was short lived. By 1961, it was gone.
Columbia Hardboard can be remembered, however, as a forerunner of the particle
board that would come into universal use in following decades.
(Author’s Note: Much of the information here is my recollection from having worked
for Columbia Hardboard in the summer of 1957. - Lawrence E. O’Donnell
Pilchuck Shake and Lumber Company (Pilchuck Shingle Mill)
Pilchuck Shake and Lumber was one of the last wood products mills in the NMRA. City
Directories indicate the plant was located at 9th Street and Norton Avenue (later West
Marine View Drive) and was in operation from about 1957 to 1964. Possibly, it was a
portion of the C-B mill, which was sold to Summit Timber Company in 1955. The 1957
City Directory entry shows John Haubner as the plant superintendent. By 1963, William
J. Moody was president; Virgil D. Fortune, vice president; and Harry W. Lawson, Jr.,
secretary-treasurer. The next year Moody remains as president, Fortune’s name
disappears, Lawson becomes vice president-treasurer, and Anna R. Levitte is listed as
secretary. Mike Whitehead, later a local businessman and realtor, worked at Pilchuck in
the summers 1959-1961, earning money for college expenses. “I remember the place as
strictly a shake factory,” Whitehead recalled in a 2008 interview. “The finished shakes
were loaded on railroad freight cars and headed south - to California and Arizona, I
think.” The plant had been closed for at least three years and was being used to store
about 3,000 tons of paper for Scott Paper Company when it burned down September 2,
1967. A strong westerly wind whipped the flames across Norton, igniting hillside brush
and threatening bluff top Grand Avenue homes. Burke Barker, president of Summit
Timber Company and owner of the mill property said the Pilchuck complex “had no
value at all.” In fact, earlier he had approached the Everett Fire Department about
having them burn the place.
Summit Timber Company
In 1955, the Summit Timber Company, which had a wholesale lumber company at 838
Highway 99 North in Everett, bought the C-B Lumber and Shingle Company. In the 1956
through 1961 City Directories, Summit Timber Company is listed as having the wholesale
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 25
lumber operation at the North Broadway location and a mill at the old C-B address, 9th
Street and Norton Avenue. Burke Barker is identified as president of the firm. Both
Summit listings disappear from the directory in 1962. Presumably this was the time
when Summit shifted its Everett operations to Darrington where Barker had been
involved in the lumber business for a number of years.
Significant People
James E. Bell
The operator of the first industrial plant in the NMRA, James E. Bell had a colorful and
diverse career as a business and civic leader. Born September 8, 1853 in Wataga,
Illinois, he had experience as a farmer, logger, mill worker, mill foreman and mill owner
before he came to Everett in 1892 to manage the Everett Land Company mill on 14 th
Street Dock. He left that position to build another waterfront mill in 1896, which he and
his partner John G. Nelson sold to the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company in 1902. In 1899,
Bell was a key figure in the founding of the Everett Elks Lodge, which was destined to
become the largest fraternal organization in Snohomish County. He served as the
lodge’s first exalted ruler and was affectionately referred to as the lodge ”daddy” by his
fellow Elks. In 1900 he was elected mayor of Everett. A staunch Democrat, he served as
a University of Washington regent when populist John R. Rogers was state governor the
early part of the 20th century. After 1902, Bell was involved in a number of business
ventures, including presidency of the Pacific Coast Lumber Manufacturers’ Association,
construction supervisor of the Washington State building at the 1904 St. Louis World’s
Fair, partner in the Pilchuck Lumber Company, and owner of three mills in North Bend,
Washington and two ranches in eastern Washington. He built Everett’s first apartment
building, Bell’s Court in 1908. One hundred years later, the 21-apartment structure is
still in operation on the southeast corner of 25th Street and Colby Avenue. Also, around
1909 he was a major organizer of the Model Stables Transfer and Storage Company.
Later he founded the Bell Auto and Freight Company, which operated between Everett
and Seattle. Married on March 29, 1894, Bell and his wife Mary (Langans) had two
children, Eva Hale and Jeanetta Elizabeth. Bell also had a son Morris from a previous
marriage. James E. Bell died on June 12, 1919.
James J. Hill
James J. Hill never lived in Everett, rarely visited the city and never owned or operated
an Everett mill, but this captain of industry was more responsible than anyone for the
development of the wood products industries on Everett’s waterfront. When Hill
brought his Great Northern Railway from the Midwest to Puget Sound in 1893, he
realized the future of places like Everett was in the vast stands of timber that lined the
valleys and mountainsides. His moment to capitalize on that potential arrived at the
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 26
turn of the 20th century when he crafted two business deals that would change the
course of Everett’s history. First, he bought from John D. Rockefeller the remaining
assets of the failed Everett Land Company. His intent was clear. He would make Everett
a mill town and he would ship the finished product by rail to market. About the same
time he arranged the sale of 900,000 acres of Northern Pacific Railroad (a company he
largely controlled by this time) prime Pacific Northwest federal land grant timberlands
to his St. Paul, Minnesota next door neighbor Frederick Weyerhaeuser for $5.4 million.
The sale accomplished two things for Everett. First, it influenced other Midwestern
lumbermen, who had highest regard for Weyerhaeuser’s business acumen, to follow his
lead. If he was looking to the Pacific Northwest, perhaps they should too. Second, it put
Weyerhaeuser in a position of looking for a mill site in the Puget Sound area. He found
that site when he bought Everett’s Bell-Nelson Mill in 1902 and renovated it,
establishing the first Weyerhaeuser mill in the Pacific Northwest. Once Hill had the
Everett Improvement Company underway, men like David M. Clough, eminent
lumberman and former governor of Minnesota, were invited to start mills in Everett.
Powerful lumber operatives followed Clough and a flood of individuals arrived to work
in the new plants. While all might not have been personally recruited by Hill, it was
clear that early NMRA lumbermen such as Olof Carlson, George Bergstrom, Fred Baker,
William Hulbert, Roland Hartley and Neil Jamison were there because of James J. Hill’s
vision.
John T. McChesney
Once James J. Hill had formed the Everett Improvement Company, he needed someone
in whom he had the utmost confidence to run it. The man he chose was John T.
McChesney. In his early forties at the time, McChesney had been a bank president and
mayor of Aberdeen, South Dakota and head of the syndicate that organized
Chattanooga, Tennessee before he came to Everett in late 1899. Like his boss,
McChesney never owned or operated an Everett wood products plant, but he was
enormously influential in the development of the city’s industrial base. With Hill, he
recruited leading lumbermen to Everett. Through the Everett Improvement Company,
he offered them sites on Everett Improvement Company property at little or no cost.
The NMRA, like other sections of Everett waterfront, was soon filled with lumber and
shingle mills and Everett flaunted its reputation as the “City of Smokestacks.”
McChesney’s organizational genius was not limited to the lumber industry. Among his
many activities he founded the American National Bank, served as its president, and
constructed a splendid brick structure on the southeast corner of Hewitt and Colby
avenues to house the bank. He also built the Everett Theater next to the bank and the
Improvement Dock on the bay front. Additionally, he was active in organizations such as
the Cascade Club, Rotary Club, Everett Elks, Golf and Country Clubs of both Everett and
Seattle and Seattle’s Rainier Club. When McChesney died in September 1922 he left a
wife, three grown children and 10 grandchildren. On the day of McChesney’s funeral,
Everett’s mayor W.H. Clay asked that all flags be flown at half mast and all businesses
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 27
and industries close their doors for the first five minutes of the service. Clay requested
this as a tribute to a man he described as “our distinguished citizen who has been
foremost in the upbuilding of our city from its very early history and the real leader for
many years in its industrial growth.”
David M. Clough
It is said that David Clough first arrived in Everett via the personal railroad car of James
J. Hill. Former governor of Minnesota and a respected lumberman, Clough had the
credentials Hill was looking for in men who would transform the city into a mill town.
Clough wasted no time in pursuing that goal. In 1900 he was an organizer of the ClarkNickerson Company, which built Everett’s largest mill to date on the bay front south of
the NMRA. After M.J. Clark’s death in 1905, Clough became president of the company.
He was president of the Clough-Whitney Company in 1907 (later Clough-Hartley) when
the firm opened its huge shingle plant at 18th Street and Norton Avenue in the North
Marina Area. Two years later, he would be president of the Hartley Shingle Company
and the Clough Shingle Company, 14th Street Dock mills. In addition to his Everett
holdings, Clough also had mills in Stanwood, Washington and Vancouver, British
Columbia. He was the unofficial leader of the Everett mill owner group Norman Clark
labeled the “sawdust baronage” in his 1970 book Mill Town. Clough was an unabashed
spokesman for the mill owners and their positions. He battled with the unions and was
a central figure in the 1916 shingle weavers strike when he refused to reinstate the 1914
wage scale. When the radical Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) union entered the
fray, Clough opposed them and was a leader in the attempt to run them out of Everett.
The whole scenario climaxed on November 5, 1916 with a deadly City Dock shoot out
between the IWW and the mill owner citizens deputies, led by Sheriff Don McRae.
Clough maintained his lumber baron supremacy before and after that event known as
the Everett Massacre. He and his wife Addie lived in several different north Everett
homes, which overlooked his waterfront empire. He was still president of several firms
when he died on August 27, 1924. He left no sons to carry the mantle but his son-in-law
Roland Hartley, nephew H.J. Clough, and Hartley’s sons would continue the family
businesses for a few more years.
Roland H. Hartley
Son-in-law of David Clough, Roland Hartley was the other key member of the family
lumber and shingle dynasty. Born in Shogomoc, New Brunswick on June 26, 1864,
Hartley was on his own at age 13, working in a northern Minnesota lumber camp. By
the time he was 21, he was a bookkeeper for the Clough Brothers lumber firm of
Minnesota. He married Clough’s daughter Nina in 1888 and later was secretary to his
father-in-law when the latter was Minnesota’s governor. During that period he was a
member of the military forces of Minnesota and the governor designated him a colonel.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 28
It was a title Hartley carried with pride the rest of his life. Hartley came to Everett in
1902. He collaborated with David Clough and also entered into enterprises on his own.
Like his father-in-law, he was an outspoken advocate for the mill owners’ interests and
he frequently clashed with the unions. And like his father-in-law, he ventured into the
world of politics. He was elected mayor of Everett in 1910 and served until January
1912. In 1915 he was elected to the Washington State House of Representatives. After
unsuccessful attempts in 1916 and 1920, he was elected state governor in 1924. David
Clough died shortly before Hartley’s election and Roland Hartley assumed the
presidency of the Clough-Hartley Company. With the pressure of his governorship
duties, it appears he turned the day-to-day operation of the company over to his sons,
David and Edward. A rock-ribbed Republican, Hartley was a straight speaking, but
controversial, governor who preached capitalism, opposed tax increases, and railed
against anything he considered socialistic. He was re-elected governor in 1928 and then
swept out of office in the 1932 Democratic landslide during his third bid for the
governorship. He returned to his magnificent north Rucker Avenue home where he
could view the Everett bay front. Hartley died on September 21, 1952 and was interred
in Everett’s Evergreen Cemetery by David Clough’s grave site. It may be one of the few
places in the United States where two former governors are in the same burial plot.
Olof Carlson
Few immigrants arrived in America more tumultuously than Olof Carlson. Born in
Gottenborg, Sweden on November 30, 1860 to a sea captain and his wife, Carlson was
reportedly a cook on a vessel that was pounded to pieces in 1880 by a violent storm off
the Oregon coast. The crew was rescued and taken to Astoria, where they were paid
$500.00 for a return trip to Europe. Young Olof’s money was stolen so he stayed in the
Pacific Northwest. He lived in Portland for about five years before he and his brothers
got into the lumber business in Tacoma. After a series of successes and failures, they
came to Everett, and eventually established Carlson Brothers on 14 th Street Dock’s old
E.J. McNeeley site. Olof Carlson sold the mill to the Shull Lumber Company in 1912 and
traveled to Europe, visiting his native Sweden and other countries. Upon his return, he
partnered with W.R. Cunningham and George A. Bergstrom in the C-B Lumber and
Shingle Company, which built a new plant at the foot of 9 th Street on the Everett bay
front around 1914. Carlson was president of the firm until the end of the 1920s. During
the late 1920s, he also was vice-president of the Citizens Bank and Trust Company. He
shows up in the 1930s City Directories as president of Super Shingle Company and the
Port Gardner Investment Company. By 1941, he seems to be retired from active
business. Over the years, he was involved in organizations such as the Everett
Commercial Club, Everett Elks, Modern Woodmen of America and Peninsula Lodge, F &
AM. In 1911, he was elected to the Everett City Council but served just a few months
because the city changed to a new commissioner form of government. Carlson and his
wife Ellen built a lovely home at 1722 Rucker Avenue around 1906. The Carlsons had
one son, Edward, and four daughters, Nettie, Esther, Evelyn and Julie, all of whom were
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 29
reported to be noted beauties of early Everett. Esther married Clifford Newton, uncle of
current Everett attorney Henry Newton. Henry remembers that when he was a young
boy, Carlson was the kindly white-haired gentleman who played Santa Claus at the
family Christmas Eve party. Olof Carlson died in July of 1952 at the age of 91. His death
was reported on the front page of the Everett Herald.
Neil C. Jamison
Neil Jamison was born June 1886 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to a prominent family of
that city. His mother was of English descent and had been born in Vermont. His father
was an attorney who became a district court judge. After completing studies at
Amherst College in Massachusetts, Neil Jamison came to the Pacific Northwest. He was
just 21 years old when he began working in an Everett mill. In a short time he had
accumulated enough money to buy a shingle mill of his own on 14th Street Dock. In
1913, he organized the Jamison Mill and soon had two shingle mills in Everett and one in
Anacortes. By 1917, his Jamison Mill Company was hailed in Washington West of the
Cascades as manufacturing more red cedar shingles than anyone in the world. He was a
central figure in the 1916 shingle weavers strike that presaged the Everett Massacre. He
hired strike breakers and guards to keep the pickets away from his mill. On one
occasion he encouraged a particularly merciless beating of pickets by his guards and
strike breakers. In another episode, Jamison paraded his strike breakers and guards
through the city to the Everett Theater for a little rest and relaxation. Their R and R
completed, the Jamison folks came out of the theater to face an angry mob that had
gathered. The resulting fist fights were broken up when the police arrived and fired
guns to disperse the combatants. Jamison’s business enterprises were not confined to
the shingle business. He was on the board of directors for William Butler’s First National
Bank of Everett for several years. He headed up the Sauk River Lumber Company, a
large Washington logging company, and the Nimmo Logging Company, which had
extensive logging operations in British Columbia. In later years he owned and operated
the J-Bar-J cattle ranch in Ellensburg, Washington and the J-Bar-J citrus ranch in
Thousand Palms, California. He belonged to a number of clubs and associations,
including the University Club of Seattle, Seattle Golf Club, Vancouver Club of British
Columbia, Everett Yacht Club, Thunderbird County Club of Palm Springs, California and
the Cascade Club of Everett. He was also said to be a generous supporter of Everett’s
First Congregational Church. Neil Jamison died on September 25, 1958 and his wife
Grace and daughter Glee assumed the titles of president and vice-president,
respectively, of the Jamison enterprises. The Everett Herald reported he had left an
estate that was estimated to be in excess of one million dollars. He left significant
amounts to family, friends and agencies such as the Bishops School of La Jolla,
California; Lakeside School in Seattle; Chi Psi fraternity of Amherst College; American
Cancer Society; and the Muscular Dystrophy Association.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 30
Fred K. Baker
Born in Fleming, New York on January 5, 1861, Fred Baker came to Everett in 1901 and
founded the Ferry-Baker Lumber Company. The Ferry-Baker mill took over the plant of
the former Rice Lumber Company on the Snohomish River. After selling his Ferry-Baker
interest in 1909, he lived in Bellingham. Baker returned to Everett in 1913 to build the
Fred K. Baker Lumber Company mill at the foot of 12th Street on the bay front. In 1916
he sold a controlling interest to William M. Hulbert, who reorganized the firm as the
Hulbert Lumber Company. Baker left Everett in 1920 to operate an Oregon mill. Long
active in the Republican Party, he returned a few years later to serve as Director of the
State Department of Public Works under Governor Roland Hartley of Everett. He
achieved local notoriety in early 1957 by outliving a Manhattan Life Insurance Company
policy he bought in 1899. He received from the company a $5,000 check, the full face
value of the policy. Proud of his American lineage, Baker also could note at this time
that the overlapping lives of his grandfather Dr. Abel Baker, who was born in 1789, and
his own spanned the entire 170-year history of the United States. In fact, he could trace
his American lineage to Rev. Nicholas Baker, who came to Massachusetts from England
in 1635. Fred Baker died in July of 1957 at the age of 96. He was praised by the Everett
Daily Herald as “a vibrant link between this community’s present and its past…and one
of the few pioneers who lived to see the dreams of the early arrivals in this area come
true.
The William Hulberts
William Marion Hulbert was born in Brown County, Kansas in 1858 of Scotch lineage.
The Hulbert name was said to be derived from an ancient Scottish weapon, the whirl
bot, which whirled through the air when it was thrown at the enemy. William Marion
was just two years old when his family, braving an Indian attack along the way, migrated
to the West Coast. They lived in Oregon and California before coming to the territory of
Washington in 1875. Eventually, the Hulberts moved to Snohomish County, where the
father was involved in a number of businesses, including logging. William Marion
followed his father in the business. In 1888 he married Meda Lyons, a Snohomish girl
who could trace her lineage to pioneering families of Snohomish. The Hulberts had five
children: William Glen, Ruth, Aida, Fred and Meda. In 1916, William Marion bought a
controlling interest in the Fred K. Baker Lumber Company on the Everett bay front. He
became president of the firm that later would be called the William Hulbert Mill
company. William Marion died in 1919. His wife Meda became company president and
their son William Glen Hulbert, who married Fred K. Baker’s daughter Katherine, was
secretary-treasurer. Fred Hulbert was also in the family business, becoming a manager
in the North Coast Casket Company. Meda was very active in the Everett Women’s
Book Club, an organization that was founded in 1894. She served as Club president
from 1921 to 1923. Meda died in 1948 and her son William Glen assumed presidency of
the William Hulbert Mill Company. In addition to this mill leadership, he also served on
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 31
the Board of Directors of the First National Bank of Everett, as his father had previously.
He was active in the community, leading Community Chest (predecessor to United Way)
campaigns and belonging to Trinity Episcopal Church, Earl Faulkner Post of American
Legion, Cascade Club, Everett Golf and County Club and Everett Yacht Club. Along with
his only son William Glen, Jr., he underwrote the cost of new cafeteria for General
Hospital in 1957. William Glen retired in 1956 and William Glen Jr. became the William
Hulbert Mill Company president. A devastating fire essentially ended the Hulbert
lumber and shingle operations. William Glen died on his 70th birthday on March 17,
1963. William Glen, Jr. retained his position as the company president but also shifted
into a new role as chief executive of the Snohomish County Public Utility District No. 1.
He served for nearly 20 years and guided the PUD into prominence as the 12 th largest
PUD in the nation. Highly esteemed in the field, he served as president of the American
Public Power Association and was one of the people to whom U.S. Senator Henry M.
Jackson of Everett turned for energy advice. William Glen, Jr. was very active in civic
affairs, serving as president of such organizations as Trinity Episcopal Church Board of
Trustees and Lake Stevens Little League (first president). He was chair of the United
Way, instrumental in the founding of the Snohomish County Boys Club, an Everett
General Hospital Director for 25 years, and a member of Everett Golf and Country Club,
Cascade Club, Everett Yacht Club, and Chamber of Commerce. William Glen Hulbert, Jr.
died at the age of 69 October 12, 1986. He was survived by his wife Clare, three
children, two step-children, and 13 grandchildren.
William C. Butler
William Butler never headed a NMRA mill. As Everett’s all powerful banker, however,
he controlled the destinies of men and mills. Born on January 27, 1866 in Paterson,
New Jersey to a prominent East Coast family, Butler was in his mid-twenties when he
came to Everett during the city’s early boom days. He had a Columbia University mining
degree and arrived here to help build and operate a smelter for the Rockefeller
interests. He began acquiring bank stock and eventually left the smelter to become
president of Everett’s First National Bank in 1901. The First National Bank of Everett
name was retained when the bank merged with American National Bank in 1909.
William Butler remained president of the new First National and Everett Trust and
Savings Company, a fully owned American subsidiary. Now he headed the city’s largest
bank operation with virtually no competition. The Bank of Commerce, Everett’s only
other bank in 1909, had resources that were less than one fourth of Butler’s. Over the
years, he increased his web of control and his domination of Everett’s economy. At one
point he was reported to have a significant interest in at least 65 mills and logging
companies in the city and county. Most certainly, some of those were in the NMRA.
Essentially a recluse, he quietly manipulated Everett’s finances behind the doors of his
First National office and the beautiful home he and his wife Eleanor built at 17 th Street
and Grand Avenue. Reportedly, no news about him went into the local paper without
his approval, and no industries came into the community without his sanction. He was a
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 32
pillar in the Republican Party and, undoubtedly, had a major role in Roland Hartley’s
successful quest for the governorship. Though he never sought recognition, he also was
instrumental in keeping every Snohomish County bank afloat through the Great
Depression of the 1930s and he was a generous supporter of Everett’s General Hospital.
He personally balanced the hospital’s budget during the lean years and left a significant
bequest upon his death. Butler had bowed out of the presidency but was still the bank
board chairman when he died on January 6, 1944. His wife Eleanor died four months
later. Both are buried in the Cedar Lawn Cemetery in Paterson, New Jersey. The Butlers
had lost their only child when he was a teenager so no one was left to carry on a family
legacy. They did leave the Butler Trust Fund, which in 2008 was still supporting
charitable causes in the community.
Ernest P. Marsh
In a demonstration that workers could be just as migratory as managers, Ernest Marsh
was a shingle weaver at three 14th Street Dock shingle mills from 1901 to 1908. In 1909,
he left the dock and soon became a union official. By 1910 he was the editor of the
Labor Journal and secretary-treasurer at the Labor Temple. Though passionate about
his union views, Marsh was a man of measured words and actions. In the words of Mill
Town author Norman Clark, Marsh had the “soul of moderation.” He was an articulate
spokesman for the laboring man but never questioned the mill owners’ right to
reasonable profitability. After the 1915 collapse of the Timber Workers’ Union, of which
he had been a founder, Marsh reorganized the state shingle weavers union. He headed
up the strike committee when the new International Shingles Weavers of America
clashed with the Everett shingle mill owners and he played a central role in the
prolonged 1916 strike/lockout. Marsh did not welcome the Industrial Workers of the
World (IWW) entry into the conflict between the Everett shingle weavers and mill
owners. He respected the IWW’s right to speak but he rejected the radical union as bad
for the wood products industry and a definite threat to his American Federation of
Labor Organization. The shingle weavers strike faded to the background as the mill
owners and IWW battle escalated and finally culminated in the City Dock shoot out
known as the Everett Massacre. Marsh had witnessed the violence from the hill above
the dock and he was dismayed and disgusted by what had seen. Convinced that
conclusion of the shingle weavers strike was critical for community healing, he led
efforts in that direction. However, the strike, with a few interruptions, dragged on until
late 1917. By this time, America was in World War I and federal government
intervention was changing the entire wood products labor and management relations.
Ernest Marsh’s name is not found in the Everett City Directories after 1917. He left
Everett to work for the federal government as a labor moderator. After a quarter
century of governmental service, he concluded his working years in San Francisco as an
advisor to the Crown Zellerbach Corporation. Ernest Marsh died in 1958, more than a
half century after his challenging years in Everett.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 33
Notable Houses of North Marina Redevelopment Area Lumber Personalities
2320 Rucker Avenue - Roland H. Hartley
This magnificent mansion built for Roland Hartley and his wife Nina (Clough) in 1911 is
one of Everett’s most impressive houses. Neo-classical in style, it is strategically
situated on the west side of Rucker Avenue where Hartley could survey his bay front
holdings. There are four levels of living space with a total area of 10,000 square feet. A
ballroom is on the top level. The hipped-roof has gable roof dormers extending from
each plane. The full-width porch has a roof supported by columns with Ionic capitals
and is topped with a railing and turned balusters. Paired columns with Corinthian
capitals support a huge two story flat-roofed portico. A large separate garage, which is
entered from Rucker Avenue, features a turntable so Hartley’s Pierce Arrow wouldn’t
have be backed out into the street. Hartley first came to Everett in the early part of the
twentieth century. His wife Nina was the daughter of former Minnesota governor David
M. Clough, who arrived in Everett just before the Hartleys to enter the lumbering
business. Hartley and Clough both became prominent lumbermen here. Hartley later
served as Everett’s mayor, a state legislator, and then two terms as Washington
governor from 1925-1933. He lived in the house until his death in 1952. Later the
mansion was converted into a nursing home. In 1983, it was purchased by Dr. Sanford
Wright, Jr. He extensively restored the house to its original elegance and in 2008 he was
still using it for his medical practice. The Hartley Mansion is listed on the National
Register of Historic Places.
1010 Hoyt Avenue - Herbert J. Clough
This enormous Colonial Revival home was built around 1921 for Herbert J. and Lenora
Clough. Situated on the southwest corner of Hoyt Avenue and 10th Street, the house
stands on six 25-foot lots in the Bailey Addition, a 1918 plat. In the 1930s, local
businessman Charles C. Chaffee bought the residence. He converted it to apartments
during World War II. By the 1990s, the property had been converted to condominiums,
with eight units in the original house and two in a separate structure. Herb Clough was
the son of O.E. Clough, nephew of David M. Clough and first cousin by marriage to
David’s son-in-law Roland Hartley. All were prominent Everett lumbermen. After the
death of his father and uncle, Herbert J. Clough became the president of the ClarkNickerson Company and the Clough Lumber Company. Born in 1881, he died in 1972.
Other prominent homes occupied by members of the Clough family are 2026 Rucker
Avenue, 2302 Rucker Avenue and 2031 Grand Avenue.
1722 Rucker Avenue - Olof Carlson
Olof and Ellen Carlson had this classic American Foursquare house built in 1906. The
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 34
house features elements that are identified with the Foursquare style, such as
symmetrical design, square floor plan, low pitched hipped roof with hipped roof
dormer, double-hung sash windows and a full width covered porch with an off center
entry. Also, the ornate double-diamond second story window above the porch is
characteristic of the style. There was a second floor back balcony from which Carlson
could view his waterfront enterprises. Over the years, he served as president of three
different NMRA companies: Carlson Brothers Mill, C-B Lumber and Shingle Company
and Super Shingle Company. Carlson died in 1952 at the age of 91 and Ellen continued
living in the house for another 20 years. Robert Fink bought the house in 1992 and
spent several years restoring it to its original grandeur.
1703 Grand Avenue - Butler/Jackson
This two and a half story Colonial Revival home with Federal style features was built for
powerful Everett banker William C. and his wife Eleanor in 1910. Situated on a site
overlooking the waterfront mills in which Butler had so much stake, the house was
designed by noted pioneer Everett architect August F. Heide. With its symmetry, gableroof dormers, side-gable roof and classic front portico supported by paired pillars, the
house has been described as having a refined dignity. For the Butlers it was a retreat, a
place of intense privacy for a couple who avoided Everett’s social whirl. The Butlers
both died in 1944. The house went through two owners before U.S. Senator Henry M.
Jackson and his wife Helen bought it in 1967. Unlike the Butlers, the Jacksons frequently
opened the home for social, civic and political events. The Senator died in 1983 but
Helen remained in the house and resides there in 2008. The home is on the National
Register of Historic Places.
The Working Man’s Cottage
When Everett was platted in the 1890s, most residential building lots were establish at
25 feet wide and approximately 120 feet deep. Middle class or the more affluent
families often would build on two lots and the well-to-do would use three lots or more.
With their meager incomes, mill worker families were relegated to relatively compact
houses on 25-foot lots. Hundreds, if not thousands, of these working men’s cottages
were built in Everett. Frequently, the houses were packed together in neighborhoods
where one could literally reach out the window and touch the house next door.
Invariably, the cottages were oriented to the street so people could relate with each
other. Unlike more recent times, interest in waterfront view potential was non-existent.
That waterfront had no scenic or recreational attraction; it was a dangerous place of
sweat and toil. Many of the cottages were located close to the mill sites. Grand Avenue
from 19th Street to Hewitt Avenue, for example, was a prime location. Over the years
many of the Grand Avenue houses have given way to condominium or apartment
complexes that take advantage of the bay front view. In a few places such as the 2000
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 35
block, one can still find in 2008 a row of cottages on 25-foot lots. The east side of the
2900 block of Nassau Street is particularly notable, with several surviving cottages.
Three adjacent houses; 2917, 2919 and 2921are virtually identical in design. Built in
1901, these 900-square foot houses exemplify Everett working man’s cottages.
Influence of North Marina Redevelopment Area Lumber and Shingles Mill on the
Development of Everett
It would be difficult to overstate the influence of the lumber and shingle industry on the
development of Everett. Hailed as a city of diversified industries when it was founded in
the 1890s, Everett had stumbled out of the nineteenth century as a place of collapsed
dreams. All that changed with the city’s rebirth as a mill town in the early part of the
20th century. By 1910 an almost solid band of waterfront mills symbolized a mill town
economy and the resulting culture that dominated the community for nearly two-thirds
of a century. The NMRA with its seven mills at that time was destined to be part and
parcel of mill town Everett.
In a decade of surging American West population increases - the state of Washington
grew from 518,103 inhabitants in 1900 to 1,141,990 in 1910 - Everett’s remarkable
growth outstripped that of the state and nearly every comparable city. The tripling of
population from less than 8,000 in 1900 to nearly 25,000 in 1910 was fueled almost
entirely by the burgeoning timber processing industries. Leading lumbermen arrived
regularly to build and open new mills and men arrived regularly to work in the mills.
They were accompanied by the bankers, teachers, merchants, tailors, bakers, preachers,
barbers and countless others it takes to make a city. If the man was married with a
family, he frequently came to the city alone. Once he was established, he summoned
the wife and children, who most often traveled by train to their new home. Though the
immigrants came from a variety of backgrounds they shared some common traits.
Industries like timber processing, which are based on extraction of resources from the
environment, typically created jobs that require little education or specialized training.
The people who migrated to Everett to work in the lumber and shingle mills reflected
this phenomena. They were not ignorant; they simply lacked formal education. Many
were foreign born, or first or second generation Americans, who still communicated in
their native languages. If they spoke English at all, it was likely to be a broken variation
with mispronunciations and limited vocabulary. Virtually all of the new arrivals were
white, as had been their Everett predecessors. Everett’s population could trace its roots
to Europe, particularly countries like Norway, Sweden, Germany and England. These
white Everettites exhibited little tolerance for racial and ethnic minorities and few
individuals of other racial/ethnic backgrounds settled in the city. As late as 1940, the
U.S. census showed Everett’s population as 99.3 percent white.
Reborn Everett of the early 20th century wasted little time in defining itself. From the
beginning, Everett had been tabbed the “City of Smokestacks”, but now the title took on
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 36
a special and more vivid meaning. Each mill had its own stack. Plumes bellowing out
from a stack signaled a busy mill, a good sign for the community. The smell of smoke
was the smell of money. Everett was the quintessential blue collar town, where
machines, muscle, sweat - and sometimes blood - were the key ingredients in reducing
huge cedars and firs to lumber and shingles. The community exhibited an almost a “chip
on the shoulder” kind of pride. There was a job to do and Everett did it. Social niceties
and sophistication did not fit in a place that had such a rudimentary purpose and
rudimentary means for accomplishing the purpose. Lunch came out of a black lunch pail
with no need for fine china. The city also proudly viewed itself as a stand alone,
independent entity. Seattle was just 30 miles to the south, but Everett in no way
considered itself a part of that metropolis. The importance of Seattle was relegated
Everett’s need to produce more shingles than Ballard. Bellingham, a similarly sized city
60 miles to the north, was not tough enough to be perceived as a worthy rival. It had
fewer mill jobs, more white collar jobs and a teacher training college. If Everett was
going to compare itself with any other Western city, it might have selected the copper
mining center Butte, Montana, another gritty, single industry community.
As James J. Hill had hoped, lumber and shingles from the NMRA plants and other mills
were being transported eastward on his railroads. The busy Great Northern Railway
company, in fact, employed 836 Everett workers in 1912, more than any other single
industry. Not all of the city’s mill products were going by rail, however. A significant
amount was exported via water, establishing the city’s port status and leading the way
for future shipping terminal development. Early in the century, sailing vessels lined up
at Everett docks to be loaded with wood products. Later, larger engine powered ships
worked the lumber export trade. The shipping business was particularly important
during two of mill town Everett’s boom periods. Everett provided a vast amount of
lumber to help rebuild San Francisco after that city’s horrific 1906 earthquake and fire.
Virtually all of the lumber went to California by sea. This delighted Everett mill owners,
who felt they were being victimized by Hill’s exorbitant railroad freight rates. Another
shipping bonanza occurred in 1923 when Everett lumber was in demand after a
disastrous earthquake in Japan. Mills ran at full capacity and it was not uncommon for
several Japanese lumber ships to be loading at the same time in the Everett harbor.
While lumber exporting eventually declined and disappeared, it was the forerunner of
Everett seaport business that later included trade in goods such as pulp, paper, sulfur
and alumina powder. In fact, raw logs, representing the last of the wood exports, were
being shipped out until 2008.
Shrewd, powerful lumber barons ran Everett‘s mills. They also ran the city and
everybody knew it. If something was good for the mill owners, it tended to get done.
Most local politicians went along with this, knowing they likely would be ousted if they
didn’t. The mill owners’ dominance was best illustrated in the period surrounding the
November, 1916 Everett Massacre. The mill owners and their cohorts were outraged
when the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) appeared in Everett during the shingle
weavers strike of that summer, spewing their brand of radical unionism and anti-
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 37
capitalism. With David Clough as leader, the sawdust baronage determined the IWW,
also known as the Wobblies, would be run out of town. City mayor Dennis Merrill
simply stepped aside as Clough and his accomplices recruited Snohomish County Sheriff
Don McRea to accomplish their goal. Deputies sympathetic to the cause joined with
McRea in arresting, jailing and beating the Wobblies who appeared in Everett to speak
during the shingle weavers strike. In essence the mill owners instituted a form of
martial law in the city - and used the county sheriff, not the city mayor or police chief, to
do it. And, of course, it was McRea and the deputies who faced off with the Wobblies
in the deadly November shoot-out at the City Dock. This ill-fated episode may have
marked the peak of the mill owners’ power, which waned in subsequent decades but
never entirely disappeared. Fortunately, much of the later involvement was more
positive in nature.
NMRA personalities were among the mill operatives who wielded influence and
provided community leadership. Several ran for and were elected to political offices.
James Bell, who operated the first 14th Street Dock mill, served as Everett mayor from
January 1900 to January 1901. A Democrat, Bell ran for the same office again in 1908
but this time he lost to Newton Jones, another NMRA mill executive. Jones was the
superintendent of the Clough-Hartley mill for 14 years. The foremost NMRA politician
was Roland Hartley, who followed Jones as Everett mayor. Later he would serve in the
state legislature and then as state governor from 1925 to 1933. Several NMRA
individuals assumed leaderships roles in other fields such as banking. S.S. Neff was a
director of the early Fidelity Trust and Savings Bank, which folded during the 1893
financial panic. Olof Carlson was vice-president of Citizens Bank and Trust Company for
a few years. Once William Butler had merged his First National Bank with American
National Bank in 1909, David Clough came aboard as a director. Later as the bank
solidified its position as Everett’s premier financial institution, William Marion Hulbert
joined the board and served until his death in 1919. Later, his son William Glen Hulbert
would become a director. By 1923, First National Bank of Everett had 15 directors, five
of whom were local lumber men; three of those - David Clough, Herbert J. Clough, and
Neil Jamison - ran mills in the NMRA. In subsequent years, the decline of the lumber
and shingle industries was reflected in the decline of local lumber men on the bank
board. In the early 1960s when First National Bank of Everett was absorbed by Seattle
First National Bank, Linden Reichmann was the only local lumber man on the old Everett
board, and he had worked for the giant Weyerhaeuser Company.
While the early lumber barons may have run the city, they depended on the work force
that had arrived by the thousands during the first decade of the 20th century. Some
were single men but many were married with families. They came largely from the
Midwest, where the lumber industry was in decline, and Canada and Europe. A
significant number had Scandinavian roots, especially in the countries of Norway and
Sweden. More than 40 percent of Everett’s 1910 foreign born citizenry came from
Scandinavian countries and a similar percentage applied to those whose parents had
been born in a foreign country. In Everett, it was joked, you didn’t keep up with the
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 38
Jones, you kept up with the Johnsons, who in 1910 outnumbered the Jones by more
than three to one. In fact, there were more Andersons, Hansons, Larsons, Nelsons,
Olsons or Petersons than there were Jones. A significant number of the men in these
families were employed by the city’s mills. Some said that if you wanted to work in a
lumber or shingle mill, your last name better end in son. By and large, the sturdy
Scandinavians were good employees. They were dependable, industrious, disciplined and some said - humorless. They had the strength and stamina for the demanding
physical tasks and the temperament to endure the often tedious nature of the work.
There was little argument that the Scandinavians were the backbone of Everett’s wood
products labor force. In the words of one pundit: Everett depends on Butler’s gold,
Clough’s machines and Johnson’s sweat.
Whether the worker was a shingle weaver, or one of the more numerous saw mill
employees, he labored in a hazardous environment over which he had little control.
Hours were long, the work strenuous, pay mediocre at best, and the mill itself might be
shut down at any time for a variety of reasons. Shingle mills, in fact, usually operated
full bore from April to November only. Safety was not a consideration. Industrial
accidents were common and if a worker suffered an injury requiring a long
recuperation, he did not have workmen’s compensation to cover the weeks of lost
income. Work in the mill even robbed him of simple pleasures. If he was a tobacco
user, he couldn’t smoke in the mill because of the fire danger. So, he might turn to
chewing tobacco, stuffing a wad of snoose under his lower lip and periodically expelling
out a stream of amber-colored juice that landed on bundles of shingles or carts of twoby-fours. A small rivulet of the brown liquid might trickle down the chin, but could be
swept away with the back of his gloved hand. On occasion snoose chewing also
provided a bit of levity when a new employee, especially a young one, arrived. The old
timers introduced snoose to the young man and chuckled as he found the snoose as
great a challenge as his new job.
Outside the mill workers settled into life patterns that had common elements. First, if
the mill worker was married, he was the bread winner; the wife was not employed
outside the home but she was busy doing the endless household chores and raising the
children. The family was frugal because it had to be. When the mill was operating - and
that wasn’t always the case - there was enough money for essentials, but not much
more. With special effort, enough money might be saved to build or buy a working
man’s cottage on a typical 25-foot Everett lot. It was not uncommon for a family to
have its own chickens, or even a cow if there was the space, and vegetable gardens and
fruit trees. The wife was the dutiful cook, canner and cleaner. She mended socks,
patched clothes, baked the proverbial apple pie, and prepared the roast that might yield
days of left over meals. If she was a capable seamstress - and most were - she might
sew many of the family clothes. Store bought clothes were a luxury. Clothing for the
children consisted of hand-me-downs that went from the older siblings to the younger
ones. Children helped with chores such as carrying in wood, splitting kindling and
washing dishes. Most of the husbands were handymen who did their own household
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 39
maintenance and repairs. There wasn’t money to hire a plumber, electrician or painter.
For many, the church was the core of family life. By 1910, Everett had more than 45
congregations. There were more Lutheran churches than any other, reflective of the
large Scandinavian population. The Lutherans, however, were organized on the basis of
national origins with separate churches for Swedes, Norwegians, Danes and Germans.
This division demonstrated the tendency for people to cling to native languages and
cultural values and to associate with those of their own ethnic background during the
early years of the 20th century. Most churches had their own guilds, circles, and
societies for members. This was an important aspect of social life as well as religious
life. In addition to the church groups there was a plethora of secret, benevolent and
miscellaneous societies that folks could join. The 1910 Everett City Directory listed
nearly 85 such organizations. The Catholics were the only church denomination to
develop a school system that endured. Most children attended the public schools,
which might have been the crucial “melting pot” for breaking down the cultural and
ethnic barriers. In the schools the Norwegian, Swedish, German, Italian and other
children from all socio-economic levels studied, played and socialized together.
Importantly, they learned or improved their English. Formal education itself was not
particularly valued in the mill worker culture. Boys did not need high school diplomas to
succeed as shingle weavers or green chain pullers. And, high school completion
certainly was not a prerequisite for success as a mill worker’s wife. In subsequent
generations, these values would change as the mill jobs disappeared and the mill
workers’ families set higher aspirations for their children.
The labor union was another cornerstone institution for most mill workers. A strong
union town since its inception, Everett had nearly 30 labor unions by 1910 and an
umbrella Trades Council to coordinate efforts. While individual unions sought to
improve the lot of workers in a specific industry or trade, collectively the union
movement pursued a more expansive role of seeking a better life for the working class.
In addition to pushing for the eight-hour day, better wages, and improved working
conditions, the union actively promoted social causes such as women’s suffrage and
prohibition. The union fought for legislation that led to unemployment insurance, social
security, and insurance programs for the ill, disabled and families of fatally injured
workers. Union members were encouraged to register and then vote for candidates
supportive of labor causes. On the local and national level, the union supported public
schools. Union members addressed each other as “brothers” as a gesture of respect
and recognition of mutual commitment to the movement. They organized social
activities and sponsored baseball, softball and basketball teams. For members in
difficulty, the union often assisted with food, housing and medical care. Frequently,
these acts of benevolence reached out to non-union members of the community. For
many, unionism meant much more than membership in a labor organization. It was a
way of life.
Any discussion of Everett’s blue-collar culture would be incomplete without mention of
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 40
the community’s seamier side of life. From its inception, Everett had been a rough town
with more than its share of saloons, brothels and gambling halls. If anything, this was
accentuated during the early mill town years. By 1910 the town had 39 drinking
establishments, 32 of them on Hewitt Avenue’s saloon row. These bars were essentially
stag hangouts and there were plenty young single men, both mill workers and others, to
keep them busy. It would be over simplification, however, to assume these were the
only saloon patrons. There was the married shingle weaver or sawyer who like to stop
after work to drink with the boys. Life was grueling in the mill. Sometimes it took
several beers - or more - to wash away the cares of the day. On pay day, in particular,
the wife fretted about how much of the irreplaceable pay check would end up in the
saloon keeper’s till and what kind of mood the man of the house might be in when he
finally arrived home. Stories abound of the harried wife sending the eldest son to
retrieve his father from the local bar. Drinking establishments were outlawed in Everett
in 1910 with the decisive vote coming from the mill workers themselves. The ban was
soon lifted when the city coffers suffered from the lack of saloon tax revenue. There
would be the “Great Experiment” of national prohibition during the 1920s when Hewitt
Avenue bars like the Cave, Castle and others became “cafes or confectionaries” and
illegal drinking flourished in establishments known as speakeasys. In 1933, prohibition
was repealed and bars were back as legal entities. As late as 1960, there still were 30
taverns on Hewitt Avenue. It is no coincidence most of these blue-collar establishments
disappeared with the mills.
While the mill worker carved his niche, the lumber elite were living in a largely different
world. There was likely a lovely home, such as those built by David Clough, Roland
Hartley and William Butler. Gardeners, maids and cooks handled mundane tasks. Once
automobiles were available, the lumber barons had some of the best. William Butler
had a driver to wheel him around in his Packard. Hartley’s garage was heated so his
Pierce Arrow would be warm when he climbed in. Like the mill worker’s wife, the
lumber man’s wife was not employed outside the home, but unlike the mill worker’s
wife, she was not overwhelmed with household tasks. She had time for benevolent
activities and social events. She might be an active member of the church women’s
guild or the Everett Woman’s Book Club, the city’s oldest women’s organization. Mrs.
C.W. Miley and Mrs. M.W. Hulbert, wives of NMRA mill executives, served as presidents
of the Book Club in the 1920s. The children most likely attended the public schools,
although a few attended private high schools. More value was placed on education and
it was not uncommon for the mill executives’ sons and daughters to attend college.
Some lumber barons were involved in the governance of the public schools. C.W. Miley
served on the Everett School District Board of Directors form 1910 to 1923. Mrs. C.J.
Melby, wife of another 14th Street Dock shingle mill executive, was an early leader in the
Everett Parents and Teacher Association (PTA).
NMRA mill executives were part of a loosely knit group who shared mutually beneficial
goals. They belonged to many of the same organizations. One of these was the Cascade
Club, an exclusive retreat on the top floor of Butler’s First National Bank Building where,
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 41
in 1916, the lumber men could peer down on the Wobblies ranting at the corner of
Hewitt and Wetmore avenues. Here, men like David Clough, Fred Baker, Herbert
Clough, William Marion Hulbert, William Glen Hulbert, Roland Hartley, Neil C. Jamison
and P. Henry Olwell exchanged thoughts and strategies. Each day Butler himself
lunched at the Cascade Club. With the exception of Democrat James E. Bell, most, if not
all, of the NMRA mill executives were Republicans. Most belonged to the Masons and
the Elks, which had been founded by James E. Bell in 1899. A few, like William Marion
Hulbert, Roland Hartley and Neil C. Jamison belonged to Seattle’s prestigious Rainier
Club. Several were members of lumber related societies; Roland Hartley belonged to
Woodman of the World and Hoo Hoo. E.L. Bishop and Olof Carlson were Modern
Woodmen members. There was involvement in service clubs, also. Roland Hartley was
a charter member when Everett’s Rotary Club started in 1916. P. Henry Olwell served as
the Club president in 1925-26. Olwell also committed himself to leadership in the Boy
Scouts of America. He was president of the Evergreen Area Council of Boy Scouts longer
than anyone in the Council history.
It would be hard to find an organization more influenced by NMRA mill executives than
the Everett Golf and Country Club. Eight of the charter members in 1912 had ties to the
NMRA as did three of the Club’s first seven presidents. For six of its first 12 years,
Everett Golf and Country Club presidents came from the NMRA. Over the years, the
following have served in that position: David Clough (1914-1917), T.J. Hartley (1919),
Neil Jamison (1920-1921), P. Henry Olwell (1929), Burke G. Barker (1959-1961). If
NMRA mill owners had a favorite sport, it must have been golf.
While golf may have captured the lumber baron’s fancy, it was another sport that
brought the mill owners and workers together. Football was made for blue collar
Everett. Bodies colliding, sweat - and sometimes blood - flying, sinewy young men
trying to out run or out hit each other. This was the kind of stuff Everett understood
and liked. The game required qualities the community esteemed: physical and mental
toughness, courage, commitment, aggressiveness, stamina, confidence, pride. When
young Enoch “Baggy” Bagshaw, who possessed those traits himself, arrived as Everett
High School’s football coach in 1909, he landed in a place ready for his brand of football
violence. He produced his first undefeated team in 1911 and for the rest of the decade
compiled an incredible record. A 1915 one point defeat by Hoquiam was the only loss
to another high school during that period; and it was avenged by a 32 to 0 victory the
next year. Bagshaw screeched at his players, berated them, even scrimmaged with
them when they failed to meet expectations. They responded by squashing most
opponents, like the 174 to 0 thrashing of Bellingham in 1913. Everett loved it and
football brought a frequently divided community together. Mill owners and mill
workers might disagree on many issues but they could agree that Everett High football
was simply the best. Bagshaw culminated his Everett stay with mythical national
championship teams in 1919 and 1920. The state governor was among the thousands
of spectators who poured into town for those national championship games. Bagshaw
moved on to be University of Washington head football coach in 1921 and several of his
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 42
Everett High stars followed him. He was the coach who took Washington to the Rose
Bowl for the first time. Later he would become state director of transportation under
none other than Governor Roland Hartley of Everett. When Bagshaw died suddenly in
1930, Everett Port Commission president Nels Weborg eulogized him as “the lodestone
around which civic activities centered. It did not matter whether it was banker or
laborer, the merchant or professional man, they all met on common ground when Baggy
and football matters were under discussion…The rich man would discuss it by the hour
with his poorest neighbor and from this sprang an era of civic solidarity that may never
come again.” There was never the chance for another national football title but there
were several state championships. One of those state championship coaches was fiery
Jim Ennis who bellowed at his players, “Don’t embarrass yourselves. Remember that
Baggy’s bones are buried in this field.” In subsequent decades, Everett High School
became a “cradle of coaches” producing such nationally known football coaches as Jim
Lambright, Jim’s son Terry Ennis, Mike Price and Dennis Erickson. To a man, each would
point to the Bagshaw/Ennis tradition as an inspiration. While the credit is well deserved
it also should be noted that blue-collar mill town Everett had provided the perfect stage
for football success.
Finally, the influence of the NMRA on Everett’s development can be seen in the city’s
built environment. A mill town uses its own products for its structures and that
certainly is the case in Everett. There are literally thousands of houses and other
structures built with local lumber and much of that lumber came out of the North
Marina Area mills. The houses range from small working man cottages to opulent
homes like the Hartley mansion. The lumber was high quality and a substantial number
of the houses survive in 2008. Most of the large wooden buildings are gone but many of
the two-story commercial frame structures are around in 2008. Once, virtually every
house, woodshed and garage in town was protected by a roof of Everett red cedar
shingles. Some live on today covered with composition roofs. It would be a stretch to
find shingle roofs today that could be traced to the NMRA. The last shingle mill went
down over 40 years ago and a roof from that time is not likely to have survived to 2008.
Appreciation for mill town Everett’s structures is quite simple. Just walk or drive the city
streets.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 43
COMMERICAL FISHING INDUSTRY
Everett’s Fishing Heritage
The Everett commercial fishing industry has been a major occupant in the North Marina
Redevelopment Area (NMRA) since the 1940s. However, it is necessary to go back a half
century before that to understand its importance to the area - back to the fishing village
of Komiza on the island of Vis in present-day Croatia, then part of the Hapsburg AustroHungarian Empire.
Vis is an island in Adriatic Sea off the Dalmatian Coast, about a two-hour ferry ride from
the Croatian seaport of Split. Komiza, a small village located on the west side of the
island, was the birthplace of fishing on the east side of the Adriatic. The fishing industry
in Komiza goes back to the fifteenth century. When these fishermen, along with their
families, left their homeland for a better life in America, they brought with them an
outstanding of fishing skills acquired from centuries of fishing around the outlying
islands of the Vis archipelago, but also the perseverance, endurance and courage
needed in a time when fishing boats were driven by wind and human muscles.
First of these Slavs (simplified from Yugoslavia and often pronounced with a short a
rhyming with halves), as the Komiza villagers called themselves, to come to Everett, was
Anton “Old Tony” Mardesich in 1898. He arrived looking for fish, at time when there
were about 45 millions pounds of salmon caught off the West Coast of the United
States. He chose Everett, but there were many cities up and down the coast that were
also destined to become commercial fishing centers.
Paul Martinis came to the United States from Vis in 1913. A hard worker, he was aided
by Old Tony Mardesich and eventually saved enough to bring over three brothers. Paul
went on to become the patriarch of the Everett commercial fishing industry and the
brothers became very successful, each skippering his own purse seiner in Alaskan
waters. (A purse is a fishing boat and described in depth below.)
Another Slavic family that moved to this country for a brighter future was that of Nicola
“Nick” and Mary (Felando) Mardesich. Nicola, a distant cousin of Old Tony, was also
from Komiza on the Isle of Vis, where he had tended a vineyard. Besides being the
fishing masters of the Adriatic, the people of Vis were also expert wine makers. In San
Pedro, California Nick met the woman he would marry. She came from a Slavic fishing
family. They moved to Tacoma where he got into the fishing business. Eventually they
settled in Everett.
Cousins Jay Borovina, Mike Borovina and Vincent “Butch” Barcott (whose mother was a
Borovina) followed in their grandfather‘s footsteps. The Borovinas were still another
family from Vis who came to Everett. Jay broke tradition with his father and
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 44
grandfather who fished off purse seiners. Jay was a gillnetter who often in the False
Pass area of Alaska‘s Aleutian Islands. Jay’s son Joe also fished, making four generations
of Borovinas involved in the Everett commercial fishing industry as of 2008. (A gillnetter
refers to a person or his fishing boat, and is described at length below.)
Also tracing their roots back to Komiza were members of the Zuanich family. Some of
them came to Everett, but an even larger number ended up in Bellingham. Like Everett,
Bellingham had a large population of Slav fishing families, as did Seattle, Tacoma,
Anacortes, Blaine, Gig Harbor, Astoria, Oregon and San Pedro, California. Local fishing
families also came from other islands in Croatia, including Brac and Vela Luca.
The Slav immigrants often sponsored relatives who also came here to fish, resulting in
the birth of an Everett commercial fishing fleet. The Slavs who moved here were a
tightly knit group of families, almost all of whom depended on commercial fishing for a
livelihood. Those in the fishing industries co-existed with the mills on the waterfront,
but had little connection with them. The Slavs tended to keep to themselves in the
early days.
The first generation spoke Slavic all their lives and went about the work living quiet and
private lives. The second generation learned English faster and with greater proficiency.
In 2008 Wini (Joncic) Mardesich, now in her 90s, remembered accompanying her Slavic
father when he went to the bank. She would do the talking because her English was
better. However, it also gave her shrewd father time to think about what the bankers
were saying and make wise financial decisions. The children acclimated to American
culture easily, but also had to know some of the old language. All the Slavs were
Catholic and as one Slav quipped, the good ones went to church. In 2008 Matt Zuanich,
deacon at Immaculate Conception Church, said the Slavs were devout Catholics and
remembered in his fishing days that the boats had a Crucifix and picture of the Sacred
Heart or Last Supper. Most of the Slavs attended the Bayside Catholic church,
Immaculate Conception, because they lived in that part of town. In 2008 Barbara
(Martinis) Piercey remembered her school days. “I have a childhood memory of when I
was attending Immaculate Conception School. St. Nicolas was the patron saint of
Komiza. The village had a celebration on St. Nicolas Day in December each year. Part of
the celebration was a huge bon fire. Typically an old fishing boat would be used for the
bon fire. Anyway, in Everett on St. Nicolas Day at the early weekday mass (which all
pupils were encouraged to attend) in the back of the church would be several pews of
fishermen in their work clothes attending the Mass on St. Nicolas Day.” Perhaps the
fishing families lived on the west side of town to be closer to their boats and their
source of survival. The 2700 block of Grand Avenue was once dubbed “Garlic Alley”
because of the concentration of Slavs living there and their preference of garlic in their
cooking. The Polk Everett City Directories show that between 1932 and 1967 no fewer
than five of the households on the block were occupied by Slavic fishing families, and in
1939 there were 10. Some surnames show up more than once on the block. Families
who resided there were Bacich, Barcott, Borovina, Cupic, Dragovich, Drazich,
Marincovich, Ruljanicich, Separovich, Vlastelica, and Zuanich.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 45
Other Slavic fishing names in the community were Joncich, Barhanovich, Bogdanovich,
Plenkovich, Andrich, Milatich, Bakalich, Domondich, Vitalich, Matich Burich, Makovich
and Radovich. In 2008 Dr. Roland Hublou, a local dentist and a successful fisherman,
quipped that he would’ve had an easier time getting on a fishing crew in his youth had
his surname ended with -ich. Many of the Slavs had the same names, first and last. One
member of the Borovina family said they wanted to keep a good thing going. Slavs from
Komiza had an unspoken protocol for naming their children. They stared with
grandparents’ names, then parents’ names and the names of aunts and uncles. It was a
way to honor family members. What creativity they may have lacked in giving birth
names they made up for assigning nicknames. For example, with as many as seven
individuals named Paul Martinis, nicknames were a way of identifying each. There were
Paul Sr., Paul Jr., Doro Paul (his wife’s name), Freeland Paul (his boat), Seaside Paul (his
home for a period of time), Tall Paul (his height), and so on. An outsider might only
know a nickname and never know a person’s real name. Children palled around with
those of other Slavic fishing families and often went to each other’s homes. Barbara
(Martinis) Piercey remembered that her Aunt Pearl Martinis, wife of Paul Sr., would rent
a summer cabin at Lake Stevens and the kids would go there to swim, row boats and
maybe spend the night. Wives and children would gather there while the men were in
Alaska fishing for the summer. Family was all important and the boys loved going out
on the fishing boats. Many of their children went into the fishing business. When they
first went out on the fishing boats, it was a family affair and any money the kids made
belonged to their fathers. This was true even after they were old enough to earn a
share. August Mardesich, son of Nick Mardesich, recalled that he was 16 before he got
a share.
Since the men were gone fishing so much of the time, it was natural that the women ran
the households. Life was difficult and the work was too, but their mettle and work ethic
paid off. The Slavs were noted for being fiercely competitive at sea, but very close at
home. They had active social lives and often gathered at each other’s homes during the
holidays. They might sing along with Vera Mardesich on the piano or Johnny Joncich on
the accordion. A celebration of Saint Nicholas Day in the early part of January took
place at the impressive home of Nick Mardesich, 1821 Grand Avenue. Other
celebrations were held at other homes. Wini (Joncich) Mardesich recalled that a party
would start at one home and move on to several other homes before ending at the Paul
Martinis home. The same people would be at the open houses. Non-Slavic friends were
welcome too.
Not all of the major fishing families were Slavs. Ferdinand Leese, a man of German
extraction, left Port Hope, Michigan where he fished Lake Huron, looking for a more
moderate climate. He went to Florida and California before arriving in Seattle where he
found too many hills. From there he came to Everett. He liked it and he stayed. He was
accompanied by his sons Bob and August. The year was 1910. They planned to fish
here. Soon more of the Leeses came. August encountered problem when he built his
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 46
first boat here. He was used to fresh water and the plentiful oak of the Midwest. Oak
worked well for planking; it would swell up and not leak. Here, where oak was not
common, he used fir. Fir didn’t swell up, but dried above the water line and
subsequently leaked. August had four sons who followed him in the fishing business.
By the 1940s each of them had his own purse seiner. Albert skippered the Sunset,
Walter the Montague, Wilhelm the Mermaid and Emil the Solta. Several of the next
generation went into fishing too. As a child, William O. “Buddy” Leese knew he’d follow
in his grandfather’s and father’s footsteps. As a young child he’d set the net from his
wagon in his back yard. William’s son William skippered the Intrepid and his daughters
Karen’s and Susan’s husbands, Lonnie Lindemuth and Jim Waltz, respectively, fished out
of Everett. In 2008 the next generation is fishing, making six generations in all. Jim and
Dick, Emil’s sons, who also knew they’d be involved in fishing, also fished out of Everett.
Dick fished on the Solta. Jim bought the Polarland from the Martinis family and fished
with it for 40 years. In 2008 it is now owned by his son Jim. His son Jared is another of
the sixth generation Leeses in the fishing business.
A good number of Everett fishermen came from Scandinavia too, especially Norway.
Norway, a country with an extensive coast, had many who made their living from the
sea. When they came here they mainly fished with gillnetters. Herb Larsen was a long
time purse seiner. Cliff Melling was a gillnetter who fished the False Pass area in the
Aleutian Island chain. Brothers Joe and Mark Ludwig are still gillnetting in 2008. They
are among the Bristol Bay, Alaska fishermen. Some of the other gillnetters were Bob
Lundberg, Ron Erickson, Peter Arnestad and Cliff Thompson, who long shored in
addition to fishing. Oscar Jensen was a gillnetter who was known for his speed and skill
in making nets. Dick Almvig, also from and Everett fishing family, recalled in 2008 that
in the days of cotton nets, nobody could piece them together faster than Jensen. “He
was a tough guy and so quick with his hands,” said Almvig. “It was unbelievable how he
produced nets. There was no one else like him.” Some shared the Slavic and
Scandinavian heritage. Fishermen Guy and Paul Piercey, sons of Jim and Barbara
Piercey, have the blood of Aadnevig (Olsen) from their father and that of the Croatians Martinis, Mardesich and Marincovich - from their mother.
Setting the Scene
And so a thriving Everett waterfront commercial fishing industry became a vital part of
the community. The fleet was moored at the piers and docks south of the North Marina
Area along Port Gardner Bay (currently the Port of Everett’s shipping terminals). The
fleet fished locally and in Alaska. Men at first worked for skippers on other boats. If
they were prudent they could make good money and eventually buy their own boat.
There were plenty of boat builders in the Puget Sound area eager to construct vessels
for them.
There were several methods of catching the fish. Trollers worked with hooks and poles
hanging from the back of the boat with plugs and spoon lures to catch salmon. Long-
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 47
lining employed a line with an anchor at one end and a buoy on the other. On the line
were baited hooks. When the line was dropped to the ocean bottom to soak for maybe
a day, halibut and cod would take the bait. There were also trawlers and draggers.
However, most of the commercial fishing vessels moored on the Everett harbor used
nets; they were purse seiners and gillnetters and they were looking for salmon.
Purse seiners, said to have originated on the Dalmatian coast, were the larger of the
two. A seine is a large fishing net that hangs vertically in water by attaching weights
along the bottom edge and floats, or corks, along the top. The weights pull the net
down, while the corks give control and buoyancy. Boats, about 50 feet long, equipped
for seine fishing are called seiners. Along the bottom of the net, or seine, are bridles.
Rings hang from the bridles. A rope (made of nylon in later years) is passed through the
rings and drawn together similar to a purse with a draw string, thus the name purse
seiner. When it purses it prevents any fish from escaping. Boats equipped with purse
seines are called purse seiners. Once fish are trapped the net is pulled toward the purse
seiner. The fish are then lifted out with small nets, taken out with brailers, or the whole
net is brought in. In modern times the catch might be pumped out. Setting the net is a
short process. It can be done in as little as five minutes, if necessary. Usually it takes 15
to 20 minutes. The early nets were about 250-300 fathoms long. Each purse seiner
carries a smaller flat-bottomed craft, 16 to 18 feet in length, called a skiff or dory. Up
until about 1930 it was rowed by hand. After deciding where the fish are likely to be,
two men in the skiff haul one end of the net out from the seiner. Then the seiner makes
a wide half circle around the fish. When the two vessels meet one man gets back into
the seiner with one end of the net. The skiff then pulls the seiner to keep it out of the
net. Usually the fishermen can see the fish circling in the net. Often the tide would
change, confusing the fish so they didn’t know which way to go. Understanding the
tides is an absolute necessity. If the fish appear to be reaching safety, they are scared
into the net with a plunger. The net is held in position against the current for varying
lengths of time until the purse is tightened. As the purse line is drawn taut the fish are
trapped in the net. The rings are pulled out of the water first and the rest of the net
follows. A power block, or maybe a drum, is used to bring in the net. In the meantime
the skiff pulls back away from the net.
In the early day strips of each net were sewn together by hand with heavy twine using
hand-carved needles and were preserved with oil or tar to protect them from the salt
water. The seiner had a turntable on which the net was folded. As the turntable
rotated it permitted the seine to pay out from either side or stern ensuring it didn’t
tangle. During a set it is necessary to watch out for hazards on the ocean floor.
Anything in the set is part of the catch. Fishermen brought up almost everything
imaginable. In 2008 Frank Zuanich, who had a purse seiner, recalled such an experience
in the late 1960s. He brought up part of a wing from a sunken P-38 aircraft while fishing
off Port Susan on the Camano Island side in about 52 fathoms of water. Full of sand and
mud, it was too heavy to be brought to the surface. The stern was going down, so he
enlisted the help of a couple other fishing boats. They pulled it to the west side of Hat
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 48
Island, cut the net, and unloaded it in three or four fathoms. The P-38 had presumably
crashed a quarter century earlier during World War II while on maneuvers out of Paine
Field.
The brailer brailed, or hauled, the fish from the seine into hull storage. It was a large dip
net with an attached handle that passed through fish scooping them up. Fishermen
used a picaroon (a type of gaff) to get the fish into the brailer. This was extremely hard
work as each fish weighed about five pounds. The men brailed the load into a tender
that carried it to a receiving scow or cannery where prices were predetermined. If the
cannery was close enough the seiner took the fish directly there. They took the fish to a
tender or cannery daily so they would have to ice them. It wasn’t unusual for the crew
to rise at 4a.m. and get in place to set the net by 5a.m. They might fish until 9p.m.
having set the net 10 to 15 times during the day. Then it was necessary to get the catch
to the tender, so they might not bed down until 11p.m. It was indeed exhausting work.
The seine was on the stern deck, piled up on the turntable of the boat. On the rear of
the turntable was a power-driven roller that assisted in pulling the heavy net aboard.
Beyond the seine was the hatch into which the catch was dumped. Forward were tow
bitts, winch, mast and a boom for handling the brail (brailer), or dipper. The deckhouse
included the wheelhouse, while the crews’ quarters, galley and engine room were
below deck. Next to the boat the most important thing to the fisherman was his net. A
full set of gear and many yards of spare material from the previous years’ web were
stowed prior to departure, so the inevitable snag and handling tears could be repaired
and fishing could go on with a minimum of delay.
A purse seiner required about eight crewmen in the early days. If it was smaller, it
might need only six. The shares were divided among the crewmen. There were usually
two shares for the boat and another two for the net. With advances in technology the
number of hands on board necessary to man the boat decreased. The crew worked for
a percentage or share of the catch. There were no hourly wages. The skipper was also
the banker. He kept records and knew how much each crewman had drawn against his
earnings right down to the nickel. He might have the man sign for his draws and he
knew exactly how many pounds of fish had come in and how much they sold for. A
man’s word was as good as his handshake and that’s how business was handled. Later
as purse seiner and gillnetters associations were formed, it was done by contract. At
first many members were relatives and tough strong men 23 to 38 years in age. It was a
coveted job with many applicants. Skippers, or captains could be selective. Once
aboard, the skipper was the boss - period.
A gillnetter is a smaller vessel, usually a one-man operation. The opportunity for the
huge catch doesn‘t exist, but there were plenty of successful gillnetters. Independent
men chose this because it was less expensive and they could be their own boss. And
they were absolutely on their own, unlike purse seining which was a group effort and
done during the day. The gillnetters could go out and come back when they wanted,
without worrying about a crew. Some even had other jobs such as long shoring. Gillnet,
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 49
is the name given to the net used to snare target fish. The fish try to swim through the
net and get stuck in the mesh when their gills keep them from backing up. Larger fish
don’t get stuck and smaller fish swim right through. Different sizes of mesh can be used
for different kinds of fish. The gillnets are typically 1,800 feet long for local fishing,
1,200 feet in Alaska. They are 60 meshes deep, with cork on the top and lead on the
bottom and lanterns on the end. The net trails out behind the boat and can be let out in
20 minutes. Then it’s a matter of watching to see if the corks bob. The net can even be
detached and checked with spotlights to see how many fish are snared. Finally, the net
is pulled in, and the fish are plucked from the net. In the early days it was pulled in by
hand. Later it was pulled in by a mechanized reel with a foot pedal. Reels were illegal in
Alaska so they used a power block. An advantage gillnetters have over purse seiners is
that once the fish are caught, they can’t get away. And while they are being brought in,
still more are being snared. A purse seiner runs the risk of the fish escaping before the
bottom string is pursed. The gillnets were not as heavy, nor was the cork or lead. While
the purse seiners generally fished during the day, gillnetters fished at night. Joe Barcott
Jr., who later became an attorney, fished on his father’s gillnetter. He reflected in 2008
that nothing was as exciting at night in a silent drift to have an orca surface nearby and
spout through its blow holes.
Everett fishermen eventually fished for all kinds of fish from halibut to hake, but initially
it was salmon they were seeking in Puget Sound waters and in Alaska. The most sought
after salmon were the Kings, which included whites and tyees. Also called Chinook, the
smaller immature Chinooks known as blackmouth. They could reach 60 pounds in size.
Equally prized were the Sockeye or red. The immature were called bluebacks. Sockeye
salmon were a prime commercial species. The Coho or silver were fast, acrobatic
fighters reaching 14 to 16 pounds. The Pink salmon, a small species, were sometimes
called humpies because of their humped backs. Finally there were the chum or dog
salmon, so-called because of their teeth. They were found near fresh water and
averaged 10 to 15 pounds. Pacific salmon are anatropous; that is, they are hatched in
fresh water, swim downstream to salt water, attain more of their growth there, and
return to where they were hatched to spawn. Thus, they have very well-developed
homing instincts. This worked to the fishermen’s advantage because they had some
idea where they could expect to find the fish.
While there was much fishing in the Puget Sound area, the fishing that probably drew
the most attention and captured the imagination was that in Alaska. Before the season
seine boats clustered in the Everett harbor, concentrating at Tract M, near Piers 1 and 2
and the Everett Yacht Club. The crews were preparing them for the arduous season’s
work. In March owners and crews began carefully checking over the boats and powerful
diesel motors. Some of the craft were practically rebuilt, planks and stays replaced and
motors overhauled. Making the web of the seine ready for the season’s work was one
of the big pre-sailing jobs for the skipper and his crew. Repairs at the fishing banks were
costly. Materials were far away and time was lost from the season’s fishing. On May 1
the crews were called together and the final work on the boats completed. Nets were
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 50
repaired and new seines assembled. It was hard and heavy work, but it was neither as
hard nor as heavy as that which would be undertaken when the fishing season opened.
But there was a romance the men liked and the thrill of the challenge of the sea.
Get away day in May or June was a major event with flags flying from the mastheads
and air horns blasting as the seiners pulled away from their mooring places alongside
Fishermen’s Packing dock or Pier 1. Families crowded the docks to say goodbye and
wish them a safe and successful trip. Often Ed Taylor in his yacht Faun, Otto Johnson in
his yacht Hobby, and Joe Dragovich in his seiner Congress accompanied the northbound
seiners to Hat Island to help bring back to the mainland those who weren’t going on the
trip. Folks from town headed to Hat Island, dropped the anchor and had a big cookout
on the island. They cooked whole pigs or lambs. Off Hat Island boats might be lashed
together for one big farewell party. At the day’s end the boats pulled away for the
northern waters. As the years passed, get away day wasn’t as elaborate. Some, such as
the Leeses, like to slipped out quietly with a prayer that all would go well.
Seventy-two hours later the fishing boats were in Ketchikan. The inland route through
the rock-ribbed and sharp-reefed passage was frequently fog bound. At Icy Straits they
turned west for the long sail across the open, storm-swept Gulf of Alaska to False Pass.
There they crossed between the mainland and the Aleutian chain into Bristol Bay and
the Bering Sea. In the 1920s it took a month to reach the area. Without any means of
communications or electronic gear, they were on their own, dependent on the stars, a
compass, crude charts and a lead line for sounding.
In the early years from about 1910 to 1930, the men fished with no radar, no radio and
no power rolls or power blocks on board. Until 1930 skiffs were rowed by hand.
For cooking there were wood stoves. There was no refrigeration so the boat’s stores
included a barrel of flour, sides of beef hanging from the rigging and live chickens in the
skiff. In those days the fishing industry consisted almost all Slavs, except for a few
Norwegians. There was a great camaraderie among the fishermen. Original purse
seiners were small, 45 feet long wooden vessels built all around the Sound. They had
one little house on the deck which was the steering house - some had a place where
captain slept. The engine room, living quarters and mess hall were down below open to
each other. August Mardesich remembered after a day’s work his father would bring
his boat into a cluster of Croatian boats that were tied together. This provided a forum
where men told stories, debated, offered advice and shared tales of their day’s
activities. They were fiercely independent, yet showed ethnic loyalty, in this island of
vulnerable fishermen, where a man’s word was his soul and his handshake a contract.
Komiza on the island of Vis, besides being a fishing center, was famous for its wine
making. The fishermen had barrels of wine in the hatch and they tied 50 gallon barrels
on each side of the bow. There was wine with lunch and dinner and they had liquor
aboard, but heavy drinking was not common on the boat. Also aboard were 60 boxes of
raisins. When they ran out of wine they made it out of the raisins in the barrels. They
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 51
stood the barrels on end, took the covers off one of the ends, stuck the raisins in and
filled it with water to make wine. When they drained it they threw the raisins
overboard. They joked that the fish got drunk and were easier to catch. They took
canned food along with sides of beef. The beef was heavily wrapped in coarse cloth and
taken them un-aged so it would age during the trip. The men carved a little off each
day. When it was gone, they’d move on to the smoke hams, smoked lambs etc.
The Alaskan canneries had supplies for the fishermen. They ate fish four evenings a
week, but didn‘t get tired of it since they prepared different dishes: stew, bouillabaisse,
fried, broiled, baked. This included salmon, flounder, sole and cod. Then they washed it
down with the raisin wine. The cook was a crew member who also helped on the nets.
A good cook knew to use a lot of garlic.
The fishermen had to figure out where the fish would be. They had to think like a fish.
so they watched the tide. If several fishing boats came into an area known to have a lot
of fish, there was a gentlemen’s agreement that they would take turns. Sometimes
fishermen would cut it in line instead of waiting their turn. Then it was fair game to
“cork” them; that it, set your net in front of theirs and get the fish. The competition was
real and corking was part of that. It was often accompanied by nasty comments or a
hurled tomato. Sometimes they’d cork in fun if there weren’t any fish.
In August of each year, their work in the northern seas completed, the fleet returned
south for fall fishing with the hundreds of purse seine boats that operated each year in
Washington waters. Whistles sounded again when the boats returned, but there wasn’t
all the commotion of get away day. Fishermen were glad to get off their boats and
spend time with their families. The parties would come later.
After a short rest from their Alaskan trip they worked until November along Cape
Flattery, the fishing banks of Puget Sound, around the San Juan Islands and even in
Everett’s Port Gardner Bay to fill their nets with silvery salmon. While working on the
Sound they often stayed out about a week and sold their catches to the fresh fish
markets and to the canneries of the Northwest. A few fished for sardines off the
California coast during the winter months.
There was the “five-month weekend” between the salmon seasons when they worked
on boats and net repairs. In the old days they used wooden needles to mend the nets.
Boats might have dry rot or other problems and go into dry dock for the repair. Cotton
nets were dipped in tar to preserve them during the season of salt-water fishing.
Fishermen will tell you the smell of tarred nets and corks and lines on a wooden boat
was unforgettable. The later nylon nets, Styrofoam corks and synthetic lines endured
better, but didn’t have the aroma. During the home months men overhauled their
boats and their gear. Almost every small boat mooring in Everett sheltered several of
these small crafts. About 100 were purse seiners. Six were tenders that carried the fish
from the receiving scows and boats to the cannery.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 52
Closely related to the fishing industry (for obvious reasons) was the local canning
industry. In the 1920s Everett Packing Corporation and American Packing Company
were located south of the North Marina Area on the piers near the Tract M home of the
fishing fleet. In 1928 Fishermen’s Packing Corporation was organized by Puget Sound
fishermen so they were guaranteed of having a cannery that would take their catch.
They purchased Everett Packing Company on Pier 1 near the fleet and operated from
that location. Of the 76 purse seiner founders of Fishermen’s Packing, 11 were from
Everett. Tacoma, Bellingham and Seattle all had more. This was very important for the
city to land the cannery. Members in the co-op would grow to 225.
Crabbing
Some individuals found a special niche in catching seafood. Jack Moskovita, also known
as “The Crab King,” was such an example. A familiar figure on the Everett waterfront, he
followed his father’s footsteps in Puget Sound catching Dungeness, the sweetest of all
crabs. He used crab traps, or pots, baited with dogfish livers, herring, cod and pollock.
The traps were lowered to the bottom, marked with buoys and checked daily. It might
take 40 or so mighty pulls with his arms to get them up. (In 2008 a motorized line
hauler is used to bring up crab pots.) He then culled the crabs, sorted them by size and
placed them in containers. Moskovita sold them at sea or out of his panel truck with
“The Crab King” painted on the sides. This was a small operation compared with salmon
fishing, but in October 1958 he came in with a big load of crabs, 35 dozen, the take of
the 100 pots he had operating off Hat Island. The Crab King’s boat was his throne, but
he also had a shop he called “The Building” where he sold engine parts, propellers and
other tools of the trade. At a time when it was not common, his wife Louise worked
side by side with him on their gillnetter, baiting and checking traps. In November 1958
Moskovita towed the 45-foot Sheran, which belong to Ernie Nelson of Marysville, in
from a point near Jetty Island. A deadhead had knocked a hole in its bow. This was just
one of many examples of how fishermen often answered the call of distress by others.
Fish Processing and the 1930s
By the 1930s the commercial fishing industry was well entrenched in Everett and around
Puget Sound. In the summer of 1930 more than 800 men who wrested their living from
the sea and more than 100 purse seiners, tenders and scows operating for Fishermen’s
Packing Corporation, expanded their fishing range ocean ward in a search for even more
fish. Times were getting tougher as the Great Depression took hold. Nick Mardesich
often left part of his catch on Pier 1, so the poor in town could eat. He felt that it was
necessary to give something back to the community, part of the ethic woven into the
fishing culture.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 53
In 1936 those going to Alaska from Everett and their seiners were Tony Mardesich,
Silverland; Vince Martinis, Frostland; Paul Martinis, Iceland; Frank Barcott Jr., Lemes,
and John Mardesich, Tatoosh. Prominent at that time among Everett fishermen were
Lee Makovich, president of Fishermen’s Packing Corporation and Tony Mardesich, first
of the purse seine fishermen to settle in Everett. At that time there might only be a half
dozen boats in the whole of westward Alaska and they were from Everett or Tacoma.
The industry was then congregated below the Great Northern Railway depot at Tract M,
between Piers 1 and 2 near the old Yacht Club. The Port’s storage facilities here were
used more and more by the purse seine fleet for winter storage. Boats were hauled up
to dry and undergo repairs to prepare them for returning to salt water. With the
success of the fishing industry here, the area was crowded. That led Paul Martinis, Nick
Mardesich and others to appear in spring 1937 before the Port Commission with a
proposition for net shed storage. It would provide storage for the seines and other
fishing gear. The Port agreed to move the fishing operation north to Tract O.
A major setback for the Everett fishing industry was Fishermen’s Packing Corporation’s
decision in December 1937 to relocate their operations to Anacortes, which had made a
favorable offer to the corporation. In addition, Anacortes was closer to the fishing
areas. This proximity could mean a savings of $5,000 in getting a tender to the cannery.
Many feared the exodus of the cannery might also mean the loss of the fleet. Others
said it wouldn’t adversely affect those involved in the fishing industry here. The women
- finest in the Northwest - that worked at the cannery could be housed in Anacortes
during the canning season. Also the Port of Everett was making it attractive to moor
here with more space and a new net drying and storage shed at Tract O. The reception
that Everett had accorded the fishermen would justify staying here. Paul Martinis and
Nick Mardesich led a futile fight to keep the cannery in Everett. Early in 1938 the move
was made and Fishermen’s Packing Corporation (previously Everett Packing Company in
the old nail works building) was no longer a presence in Everett. The old building was
dismantled in 1940.
Other action was taking place at the same time farther north on the Everett waterfront
that would positively affect the fishing industry. Congressional funding was to be used
to prevent the silt settling located in the basin south of 14th Street Dock. The sediment
would be pumped over to Jetty Island, thus creating a deep harbor. Also the federal
government let a contract for removal of shoaling in the upper harbor. The Port had
used dredged material from the harbor improvement to fill in the Norton Avenue (West
Marine View Drive) trestle and expected to push this work to ultimate completion
providing the community with a fine waterfront thoroughfare serving existing industries
and attracting others. Dovetailing with the above was the opening on February 1, 1938
of the new $60,000 Norton Avenue (West Marine View Drive) viaduct over the Great
Northern tracks at 22nd Street. The substantial structure would be a boon to waterfront
traffic and fire protection. For several years, vehicles including fire trucks, had been
using a rough detour and a grade crossing, following condemnation and destruction of
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 54
the old timber span at the site. Now there was a new concrete, steel and treated timber
bridge. Later that year the Port secretary was instructed to call on the District Engineer
asking the Public Works Administration for the dredging of the proposed settling basin
at 14th Street Dock.
World War II, the Port of Everett and Commercial Fishing
The local commercial fishing industry changed during the 1940s. Salmon fishing along
the Aleutian Islands was curtailed during World War II because of the Japanese
presence; they were lobbing shells into Dutch Harbor and setting up bases elsewhere in
the Aleutian chain. The War did bring some technological improvements to the fishing
industry. Navigation aids like fathometers, sonar depth-sounders and radar were
improved and compacted. However, the advancements forced fishermen to invest
more into their boats and equipment. Just as the boats, gear and means of operation
had become more functional, the farewell parties changed as well. Now they were held
dockside rather than afloat. The biggest affect the War had on the Everett commercial
fishing industry occurred in 1942 when the War Powers Act claimed Tract O, which
included fishing boat moorage and the new net shed area, for a proposed U.S. Naval
shipyard. (The Navy had control of the land until January 1959. The Port controlled the
land until the Naval Homeport was built in the early 1990s.) In July 1943 mitigation for
the fishermen’s loss was announced. Word was received from U.S. Rep. Henry Jackson
and U.S. Sen. Mon Wallgren that the war production board had approved priority
application of the Everett Port Commission to provide new moorage and net sheds in
the 14th Street area. Contractors were notified at once, the contracts heretofore having
been negotiated. The Puget Sound Bridge and Dredge Co. of Seattle held contract for
the dredging and the bulkhead at the new site at the south of 14th Street and west of
Norton Avenue. This recently acquired Port of Everett property, which had been listed
as tax title lands by the city and county, would require the dredging of an estimated
146,000 cubic yards. The American Pile Driving Co. of Everett would handle actual
construction of the bulkhead for the Puget Sound Co. Carl Tschdin and Associates of
Seattle would move the old Ferry Baker sawmill building from the old mill site to the
new port tract and it would be used as a net shed. Port Commission Secretary Weborg
estimated that the project would cost $90,000 without the mooring installations that
would be done from time to time. The work promised relief to the Everett fishing fleet
in early fall of 1943. The Port was awarded a $233,500 verdict for facilities taken over
by the U.S. Navy at Tract O. Continuing its policy of proceeding with a comprehensive
program of port development as finances permitted, the Port of Everett was expending
$100,000 on its new facilities for the fishing industry just south of the Fourteenth Street
dock. There would rise a net shed, dock, apron and other appurtenances for a modern
moorage. The Port was also acquiring land known as Baxter property lying immediately
north of 14th St. trestle and west of the lands now owned by the Port at the intersection
of Norton and the trestle. The Baxter land would be used for filling of the Norton
Avenue trestle. Timbers from the old trestle would be used for construction of the
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 55
port’s fill north of the 14th Street fill. There was also talk of putting blacktop on Norton
Avenue.
After being shunted from pillar to post since the government took over the old net shed
site on Tract O, by the summer of 1944 the Everett fleet again had a home in which to
store its nets and other gear. It was the commodious new net shed structure on the
new fill at 14th Street. Adjoining it to the east was the new fish processing plant of the
Bozeman Canning Company, which was 58 by 115 feet, two stories high and had
concrete floors. Both of the buildings were mill-type construction with iron roofs and
sidings covered with a combination of asphalt and asbestos coating. The Puget Sound
Bridge and Dredge Company was completing the last of the rock rip-rap and channel
digging necessary. The net shed building, 90 by 320 feet, was called one of the best and
largest of its kind on the Sound and it had every possible facility for easy and quick
storage for nets and fishing gear of purse seine boats. There were 20 stalls in the shed,
each 16 by 90 feet and two stories tall, with provisions for hanging and storing nets plenty big enough to store a lot of equipment, hang long nets and refurnish battered
gear during the off season. The stalls were numbered west to east with no Number 13.
Steel sheets that were later painted by H.O. Seiffert acted as walls. Large doors were
located on the south side facing the dock and water while windows provided light on
the north side. Just a few feet from the docks, it was easy to tie up a fishing boat almost
right next door. The shed was equipped with an automatic sprinkler system, a modern
lighting system and eventually a fire alarm system. The purse seine stalls were first
leased by John Borovina, Vince Bogdanovich, Frank Barcott, John Bacoka, J. Christensen,
Joe Dragovich, Nick Joncich, Nick Koster, Albert Leese, Paul Martinis, Tony Martinis,
Vince Martinis, John Mardesich, Nick Mardesich, Tony Morosevich, Jo Mardesich, W.G.
Stanfield, Roy White and A.A. Zuanich. The Port and Fishermen’s Association agreed on
a rental fee of $80 per year that included moorage for the lessee’s boat. The Port also
charged a dollar a month per shed for electricity. Eventually, the Port furnished a night
watchman, day caretaker services, water, trash removal, insurance, and repairs on the
building, floats and wharves. Although only a young boy at the time, Paul V. Martinis
(Freeland Paul) remembered the move from Tract O to the net sheds. They simply put
everything on his father’s seiner and took it over to put in the net shed. He
remembered the fascination he had growing up at the net sheds - it was “ aTom Sawyer
place to be.” For the two or three weeks leading up to the summer salmon opening, it
was like a carnival with all the sheds open, crews working on nets and other gear, and
painting the boats, and getting groceries and doing everything necessary to prepare for
the season.
The Port’s new dock adjacent to the sheds offered purse seiner moorage for the first
time. Previously they would have to go into dry storage during the off season. The first
use of the dock was made by Nick Mardesich’s Sunset on his return from an annual
fishing trip off False Pass. The dock had more than 500 feet of dock face and the water
was 14 feet deep at low tide.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 56
The Port still needed to dredge the channel south of 14th Street to provide deeper
water for the fishing fleet now operating from the new facilities. In January 1945 the
Port agreed that all parts of the project south of 14th be held for a fishermen’s and small
boat storage and repair site subject to lease.
Each year by May the fishermen’s net shed at 14th Street Dock was a busy place these
days with three crews of three boats rushing work on their seines in preparation for
trips to the Far North and other fishermen keeping their gear in shape for the beam
trolling operations in this area. Within a week, the Martinis brothers, Paul, Vince and
Tony would take their three seiners to Alaskan waters in search of salmon. They were
the only Everett fishermen planning to trip to the Aleutians that summer. Most of the
fishermen were concentrating on local dogfish. The Sunlight, owned by Nick Joncich
and operated by his son, John Joncich, was specializing in bringing in bottom fish with
the extraction of livers. Joncich planned to continue bottom fishing until August when
he would leave for California and sardine fishing operations during the fall and winter
months.
Port goals for 1948 included completion of the 14th Street fill, enlarging the moorage
facilities at 14th Street Terminal, installation of public telephones at 14th Street, and
building a shower and locker room facility for all purse seiner crew members who didn’t
live in town. By 1949, because of the demand for more net sheds, it was decided that
preference be given to owners of boats who lived in the immediate vicinity and moored
their equipment in Everett.
Tragedies at Sea
Fishing was always a dangerous occupation as the sea could suddenly turn on a
fisherman at any given time. Unfortunately, there were accidents and losses. Two such
accidents occurred to Everett families in the 1940s; they involved members of the
extended Mardesich family. On September 13, 1945 the 60.5 by about 15 feet Dorothy
Joan went down about 55 miles off the coast of Yaquina Bay, Oregon. Five of the six
men aboard lost their lives. They were Peter J. Mardesich and John Mardesich, brothers
and co-owners of the purse seiner; John Frank Bakalich, also of Everett, and two
crewmen from Aberdeen. The lone survivor was Henry (Hank) Weborg, whose wife
Barbara was a sister of the Mardesich brothers. Peter and John were the sons of
pioneer Everett fisherman Anton “Old Tony” Mardesich. Years later, Weborg, who
rarely if ever talked about the experience, consented to an oral interview by Tony and
Winnie Martinis and Ellen (Martinis) Stormo about the disaster. At one point he had to
stop it was so emotional. Weborg’s daughter Dorothy later transcribed the tapes.
Weborg always believed the boat sank due to its conversion to a tuna boat. A huge bait
tank on the deck made the lightly loaded boat top heavy. If the boat was caught in a
swell it might roll over. The boat tipped on its starboard side and he heard a big
kathump. His brothers-in-law Johnnie and Pete were sleeping in the pilot house but
must’ve gotten out because the deck lights were on. The skiff they were holding onto
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 57
drifted away from the Dorothy Joan. Weborg was thrown from his bunk onto the
engine room floor. Disoriented, he somehow got up and got out. The boat floated for
awhile but he never did see Johnnie or Pete. Weborg and the other three crewmen
hung onto a little boat from the top. Weborg was the engineer of the pilot house that
had broken loose. Big swells capsized the purse seiner. By this time it was nearly
midnight. The first rescue boat didn’t see the men hanging onto the small boat. One of
the men from Aberdeen tried to swim for help. The other drifted off the skiff and also
disappeared. Frankie Bakalich slipped away and Weborg saved him, but finally he went
under and was gone. By daylight Weborg was spotted and rescued. Underwear given
to him by his rescuers was soaked with blood when they reached Newport. Weborg,
who was sick for a year afterward and had nightmares the rest of his life, died in 2002 at
91.
On June 10, 1949, less than four years after the Dorothy Joan tragedy, the Sunset, sister
ship of the Dorothy Joan and owned by Nick Mardesich and his sons, went down in
Alaska. Lost in the accident were pioneer skipper Nick Mardesich, his oldest son Tony
Mardesich, Vincent Vlastelica of Everett, and two other crewmen. Surviving the disaster
were Nick’s three younger sons August, Nick Jr. and Joseph , and nephew Anton
Mardesich. In a 2000 interview with Sharon Boswell of the Washington State Oral
History Program August Mardesich recounted his memory of the incident. They were
going into the cannery by the Aleutians. It was stormy with wind blowing and getting
worse. They were anchored in a little cove with little protection so they pulled out
bound for a better place and the boat rolled over. Down below the water was pouring
in. The men wore life preservers, but not survival suits. Everything happened so fast
there was no time to prepare. There were no life boats and the skiff was on the other
side of the net. His father was hit, but they were able to drag him from the pilot house.
They also dragged out his brother. The men grabbed onto to things like hatch covers
that would float. Just as boats were coming to rescue them, his brother went down and
drowned. August found a timber off the boat and hung onto it. The water was so cold
that when he was pulled out of the sea his rescuers had to beat him to revive him. First
on the scene was the Johnny B, captained by John Bacoka, formerly of Everett. The
mishap was near False Pass. William Leese remembered seeing crosses marking the site
on this first trip to Alaska aboard John Lucin’s Johnny L in 1951.
New Technology Improves Fishing Safety
The 1950s saw more innovations that made a fisherman’s job a little easier. One such
invention was that of the power block. Envisioned in the 1930s it didn’t come into being
until the 1950s. Mounted on the stern it was like a large pulley with an aluminum shell
and hard rubber sheave. The central rotating part hauled in the heavy purse seines with
their catch. The advent of the power block revolutionized fishing. Prior to this it was
necessary to pull in the nets by hand. Thus, some fishermen were known for their
“Popeye” forearms. Some old timers shunned the power block because having the net
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 58
overhead often dropped water on them, but most boats had one by 1960. Another such
invention was the drum. The net was wrapped around the drum on the stern of the
boat and far more efficient. A set took only two thirds of the time. In Alaska a block had
to be used on boats 58 feet long or less. It was a way to slow down technology and
keep from over fishing the waters. A drum can be used in Puget Sound waters making
even fewer hands necessary. Another advancement was the use of synthetic materials.
Nylon or rayon, which came dyed, made much stronger nets that needed far less
repairs. This eliminated dipping them in hot tar and hanging them from the ceiling to
dry. The boiler at the wharf was no longer needed. Styrofoam and plastic replaced cork
for the floats. All in all the improvements saved time and work. A purse seiner crew
could be decreased from nine men to five or six.
The Port of Everett and the Fishing Community in the 1950s
Fishing continued to be good. In 1950 the Martinis’ Dreamland and Freeland caught
100,000 sockeye in four days. The water and wind blowing in sent all the Bristol Bay fish
along the beach. In May1955 men and ships that departed from Fishermen’s Dock at
14h Street were Paul Martinis, Dreamland; Tony Martinis, Freeland; Matt Martinis,
Iceland; Andy Marincovich, St. Christopher; Matt Marincovich, Wonderland; John
Borovina, Emblem, and Tony Mirosevich, Western Maid. George Gregory’s Vest Pocket,
a 38-foot purse seiner Bunny G. was re-powered with a General Motors Diesel. It had all
the seining equipment usually carried by 55-foot “Alaska limit” seiners. The craft could
go 8.5 knots and carry up to 2,500 averaged-size fish. An Everett Herald article in fall
1956 noted that seven purse seiners that had spent the summer fishing for salmon at
False Pass were back at their 14th Street Dock berths. Paul Martinis Sr. had gone every
year except one during the war. The others were Tony Martinis, Matt Martinis, Andy
Marincovich, Matt Marincovich, Tony Mirosevich and Mike Borovina.
There were constant maintenance issues at the 14th Street Dock basin. Andy
Marincovich and Nick Barhanovich attended a Port meeting in 1953 concerned about
the shifting of the floor in their net sheds. There was concern in 1954 when a rig
collapsed under the weight of a purse seine boat, the Johnny L owned by John Lucin.
Inspection indicated that the stringers were completely eaten by boring shipworms
known as teredos. Later that year two untreated pilings snapped off in a storm. Once
again the damage was caused by teredos. Teredo worms, often called the termites of
the sea, are marine bivalve mollusks. They were a recurring problem on the Everett
waterfront until pilings were treated and more boats were made of steel.
The Port was quick to respond to problems and service at the net shed area. Net shed
rental fees were increased over the years. In 1951 net shed rentals were raised from
$185 to $250 a year. The Port furnished free moorage for one boat, free water and one
light globe. If an occupant wanted more light or power, the Port would install a meter
and the lessee could pay directly to the PUD. They also resurfaced the 13 th Street
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 59
extension. Port offices were moved to the area in 1952. In December 1953 Joe Burrows
appeared in behalf of the Everett members of Puget Sound Gill Netters Association to
express thanks to the Port for two blue stone tanks which had been turned over to the
fishermen and also for the flood lights erected in the parking lot. In 1954 the Port
authorized blacktop on Fishermen’s Dock. The same year major repairs were done to
stop the slipping of the bulkhead under the west end of the net shed building. The net
shed insurable value in 1954 was $105,549.69. In 1955 improvements were made to
the watchman’s shack, toilet, tool warehouse, Fishermen’s Wharf, Morris Wharf which
was immediately adjacent on 14th Street Dock, and the floats and mooring piles. The
Port also planned to redesign and expand he moorage area, and find a place for a boat
house. By 1956 the Port had replaced all of the gillnet moorage facility and had a dock
called a line extending 700 feet with 21 finger docks. It was booked for its full capacity
of 44 gillnet boats. The Port also expanded the small boat moorage area and added a
new float. There was also a proposal to accommodate the trollers. More renovation of
14th Street was accomplished in 1957. The following year Shaffer Construction built new
rest rooms and completed a repair job on the step bulkhead holding the fill beneath the
net sheds. Port workers placed decking over the reconstructed bulkhead. Additional
moorage slips were installed.
Improvements continued in the prosperous 1960s. In 1960 a waterline for washing out
boats and two drinking fountains were installed at Fishermen’s Dock, which was just
west of the net sheds. The pavement improvements on 13th Street had one unexpected
outcome. In October 1961 Everett Chief of Police G.H. Nelson read a letter informing
the Port Commission that the City was making an ordinance prohibiting speed racing on
public or private property. The City asked the Commissioners to post the stretch of 13 th
Street between Norton Avenue (now West Marine View Drive) to H.O. Seiffert in order
to stop the drag races which had been held there. Young men had found the two-lane
quarter mile stretch perfect for testing their powerful bored-out V-8 engines with fourbarrel carburetors. The Manager informed the Commissioners that a sign was being
placed in the area stating that the road was closed at 6p.m. The Commission directed
the Manager to put 20 mile per hour speed limit signs on 13 th Street and to have
watchmen police the area.
Early in the 1960s the Port was looking at additional moorage for purse seiners. Thirty
boats in 16 stalls could be accommodated, but it was desirable to have one stall for each
boat. Work continued on the bulkheads at 14th Street Dock. By the end of 1963 the
Port was ready to undertake it biggest project in history at the 14Street Moorage Basin.
It would increase capacity from 550 to 1,040 boats. Also in the works was transferring
all remaining Pier 1 moorage to 14th Street. In 1965 the Port decided to phase out the
old Everett Yacht Club basin with all of the boats going to 14Street. There was also talk
about building a new Everett Yacht Club building at 14th Street. The new moorage in the
early part of 1965 was generating more than $91,000 a year at the 14th Street Basin,
now called Everett Yacht Basin, and was nearly 100 percent occupied.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 60
Commercial Fishing Prospers in the 1960s
The commercial fishing industry was healthy. In June 1967 it was noted that the forest
of masts that marked the favorite docking place for Everett’s fishing fleet was gone. The
purse seiners tied up on both sides of Fishermen’s Dock were now spread from Puget
Sound to Alaska, the tall-masted trollers were out on the Pacific, and the gill netters
moved in out with the hours of darkness. The dock was a constantly changing scene.
Paul Martinis Sr. hadn’t gone to Alaska since 1960 but most of the other regulars did. By
1969 only Paul Martinis Jr. in the Dreamland was headed to Alaska’s Aleutian chain. It
was the first year Andy Marincovich didn’t go to Alaska. Fishing was slowing down with
fewer bound for Alaska
The 1970s saw more improvements in the Fishermen’s Dock area. A new hoist was
constructed in the gill net area and American Pile Driving Company built a new gillnet
dock. There were 26 new berths for the 85 boats there. The Port installed a new
waterline and electrical system that included metered power for each berth. The gill net
sheds were set up in the Morris boat building, which later became known as the Mall
Building. About half way down the building in the raised portion is where they were
located. They were two feet by four feet areas surrounded with chicken wire and locks.
They didn’t need the space the purse seiners needed. Later they were moved into the
purse seiners net shed building. By this time there were about 40 slots and 15 purse
seiners. The Port spelled out the uses of the net sheds. The purpose of net shed was to
keep maintain and warehouse fishing gear, webbing, netting and equipment used in
pursuit of a commercial fisherman‘s occupation. There was to be no smoking, no
gasoline, no cars, no testing of motors, no solvents, no paint thinners, no glass jugs, no
blow torch use, no fuses over 20 amperes, no junk like paint cans or rags, no storage of
anything flammable, and no parking or storing of equipment on the apron in front.
Lessees were to keep the area clean, and clean up shavings daily. Drums of oil for
soaking wire must be covered. Spilled oil and paint must be cleaned up promptly. The
Port could go into the sheds for regular fire department checks. A stall occupant had to
have a commercial fishing boat moored at the Port.
Everything in the local commercial fishing industry changed with a bolt from the blue in
February 1974 with United States vs. Washington, 384 F. Supp. 312 (W.D. Wash. 1974),
better known as the Boldt Decision for the United States District Court Judge George
Boldt who heard the case. The decision was the final chapter in the definition of tribe
and other citizens’ fishing rights. The federal government sued the state of Washington
to honor the treaties. Judge Boldt ruled that that the tribes of the country and the
state, under treaty rights that dated to the 1850s, had the right to harvest 50 percent of
the fish, and that non-treaty fishermen could take the same amount. The federal
government sued the state to honor the treaties. While members of the tribes felt what
rightfully theirs was finally returned to them, non-native fishermen saw it as unfair and
a give away to the Native Americans. At any rate, it caused a rather small local Native
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 61
American commercial fishing industry to grow and threatened the existing industry to its
very foundations. Fishing was never the same after the Boldt Decision. There hadn’t
been much competition from the Native Americans here or in Alaska before the
decision. After this the tribal fishermen played a significant role in the commercial
fishing industry.
Women in Fishing
By the 1970s women were playing a larger role in the fishing industry. In the early days
fishing was entirely a man’s domain. Eventually, there were exceptions, like Louise
Moskovita who shared crab fishing responsibilities on the boat with her husband Jack.
Occasionally, a wife might accompany her husband to Alaska on his gillnetter and then
fly home. Ruth Larsen often went fishing with her husband Harold. Chris Oldfield fished
alongside her husband Brad on their fishing boat for all of the time they had it. Paul V.
Martinis had three daughters who fished with him. August Mardesich’s daughters often
fished with him. For a few seasons Mary (Barhanovich) Sievers, daughter of Nick
Barhanovich, was a crew member on his purse seiner.
The Beginning of the End
By the mid 1980s the fishing industry was in decline. Matt Marincovich once
commented that every year the boats got more complicated and every year the fish got
scarcer. The downward spiral continued through the 1990s and the turn of the century.
Everett residents owned 32 fishing vessels in 2000. Once a beehive of activity, the
Fishermen’s Dock has little going on in 2008. There are still some purse seiners and
gillnetters at the dock. However, the fleet is but a shadow of itself in its glory days.
There are only a few boats compared to the large fleet from decades gone by. At the
time of the Boldt decision, the tribes didn’t have enough commercial boats to catch all
they were allowed. Today they have a sophisticated fleet and support staff.
While the Boldt decision had a major impact, there are many other factors that have
contributed to the demise of the local commercial fishing industry. First, of course,
were the dwindling fish runs. Everything is scarcer, especially the premium salmon
species. One reason was over fishing. The Department of Fisheries was not a resource
manager; it was managed strictly for the fishing industries. In 2008 the salmon declines
necessitated reducing the number of fishing days each season and the number of fish
that can be kept. Another reason for lower runs is the deterioration of the traditional
spawning grounds. Urban sprawl, clear cut logging and the use of fertilizer are among
the factors that have compromised the streams and rivers to which the salmon return.
The advance in fishing industry technology was a double-edged sword; the job was less
taxing, but it made it easier to over fish. There were too many commercial fishing
licenses and that spurred a governmental program of buying back licenses. Before
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 62
buybacks there were 1,200 purse seiners and 400 gill netters in the state. In 2006 there
were 202 and 75, respectively. Another problem for the industry came from the advent
of farmed salmon. Salmon raised in net pens in British Columbia, Norway and Chile sent
prices in a downhill spiral. In the 1970s and 1980s troll-caught Chinook were selling for
$4 to $5 a pound. By the mid 1990s the same fish sold for only $1.60 a pound. Another
problem was the expense of the industry. Costs continued to rise for food, fuel and
insurance. Everett lacked local processors in later years. The last of these was gone by
the 1990s. Other support businesses for the fleet have moved as well. Treaties with
Canada also reduced the size of the commercial catch. Still another problem is the
difficulty securing reliable crews. Once, crewmen eagerly lined up for a chance to go
fishing, and stood to make a lot money in a good season. Today there is little guarantee
they will make enough money. What used to be a coveted job for college students is
not today. Today crews are paid less as catches are uncertain. Finally the Everett Yacht
Basin, the traditional home of the fishing fleet, is transitioning to a pleasure boat
marina.
A comeback for the Everett commercial fishing industry is clearly a long shot. However,
while fishing is not as economically significant to the economy as it was in the past
fishermen here continue to participate in crab and fish for bottom fish, salmon and
other species. Some, like Everett fisherman Greg Elwood, are seeing a resurgence.
Local gillnetters are making a modest comeback. There’s still the sheer thrill of pulling
in a full net on beautiful Puget Sound or in Alaska. And there’s the good feeling of
knowing you’re feeding people. Today commercial fishermen no longer have to row the
skiff to set nets or haul them in by hand. They have boat computers, Global Positioning
locators and other mechanical devices to make things easier. They have their cell
phones to keep in touch.
The net sheds were a physical sign of a strong fishing industry that had dwindled to
almost nothing 2008. It wasn’t always that way. In the heyday of fishing, before the
1974 Boldt decision, the sheds were a beehive of activity with the doors open wide.
Five or six men were inside working, even in the winter. The skipper was nearby at the
dock working on the boat. Some used the shipyard next door, taking the boats up the
ways, or marine railway. There was so much work and upkeep. There was always
something to work on be it a pump, motor or net problem. The nets were hung and the
entire crew worked on them. They would patch holes. It was expensive keeping a purse
seiner in good working order and any work you could do yourself helped. Some of the
men could do almost anything. Jim Leese was one of them with his welding and
woodworking skills. George Schindler could built almost anything.
By the turn of the century they weren’t the busy places they had been, but the net
sheds still had the unique and colorful culture that had developed during their 50 plus
years of history. Clearly the sheds were a social center - a men’s club for those who
loved the sea to gather. It was where fishermen went on their days off! They would
gather after the season to discuss who caught what and where. If a shed door was open
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 63
they would go in and perhaps help a fellow fisherman with a job. The men reworked
their net sheds to suit their purposes. Some built lofts in them. Tony Martinis Sr.
devised a screen door on his that hung from the rafters; it covered the entire doorway
and promoted air circulation. Paul V. Martinis had a back door on his. That made two
openings if there was a jam in the net. In the summer it provided welcome ventilation.
There was a great deal of camaderie at the net sheds. If newcomers learned how to
joke with the old timers, they earned their respect. Many colorful personalities hung
out there. One of them was Nick Barhanovich. He could be found sitting in his easy
chair in front of his shed Number 5 if no one else was around. As others showed up
they’d sit around a visit about the life and times on the fishing grounds. On a daily basis
you might find Nick playing pinochle with George Schindler, Babe Joncich, Dick Leese
and other fishing old timers. The sheds were a man’s home away from home. Perhaps
Nick might reminisce about coming here from the town of Bol on the island of Brac in
Croatia. Or maybe the time in 1957 when he caught 15,000 sockeye in one set. He used
the money to build his family home on Rucker Avenue. He was an expert at mending
nets and often other fishermen came to him for repair work. When he was done with
the nets, they looked brand new.
When it was announced in 2007 that the net sheds were to be demolished, it was a sad
time for the fishermen. Jim Leese was sorry to hear that the net sheds would be
removed. He and his brother had had net sheds. Ross Utley had to get a trailer to move
everything out of his. Before the sheds were torn down they were full of artifacts.
Some had make shift “net shed sales.” There was a lot of nostalgia during the sales of
artifacts such as corks made of cedar. Jim Leese said that of his three generations worth
of treasures some went to his garage, some went on a free pile and some went to his
sale. The items that sold the fastest were three sets of skiff oars he had used as a kid.
Before the net sheds were razed fisherman Jerry Solie noted the irony of the sign posted
“no fishing.” It was a last sad irony. Demolition began the week of March 31 2008 on
the net sheds. The sheds are gone and Nick Barhanovich has passed away, but his son
Jerry still has the “5” that once hung on the Barhanovich net shed door. It is a prized
possession.
Fishermen’s Tribute Statue Born
The imminent razing of the net sheds was the impetus for a group to form with the goal
of erecting a memorial to the fishermen who had been part of the cultural and
economic development of Everett. The effort was spearheaded by Kay Zuanich and
Barbara (Martinis) Piercey. They worried that in few short years there would nothing
left of the once great fleet and people would forget what an impact it had had on
Everett. They also felt that the history should be recorded while people who could
remember it in its early days were still around. They visited the fishing memorial in
Bellingham and enlisted the help of Port Commissioners, past and present, Jim Shaffer,
Don Hopkins and Phil Bannan, and Port Director John Mohr. Jerry Barhanovich agreed
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 64
to join the committee as a spokesman for group doing a Power Point program to drum
up interest. Margaret (Separovich) Barhanovich, Jerry’s mother, made a sizeable
financial contribution to the project and they were off and running. Others who threw
their support to the project were Mary (Barhanovich) Sievers, John Martinis Sr., Dr.
Roland Hublou, Jim Leese Sr., Augie Mardesich, Paul Martinis, Butch Barcott, Ken Olsen,
Ron Rochon, Mike Benbow and Marci Dehm. Erv and Frauna (Barcott) Hoglund offered
to host a fund raiser by providing a spaghetti feed at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Parish’s
Hensen Hall. The Hoglunds generously donated the meal and their labor to help the
cause. In the meantime local artist Bernie Webber donated a water color of the net
sheds. Titled “The Last Set,” it depicted a purse seiner setting its net in front of the net
sheds. The symbolism was obvious; there were no fish there for a set and soon the
sheds would also be gone. Two hundred prints were made and sold at the fundraiser.
Jerry Barhanovich designed and donated a Fishermen’s Tribute Hat. They too were sold
at the spaghetti dinner. The co-chairs thought that a book on fishing would be
appropriate and another good source of funds. RaeJean Hasenoehrl donated her time
and talent to author the book, which was published by Arcadia Press. Lloyd Weller,
Cheryl Ann Healey, Katy Brekke, Julie Albright, Melissa Holzinger and Margaret Riddle
helped with the book. It was released in time for Christmas 2007 and sales proceeds
went to the Memorial project. The Fishermen’s Tribute, which will be a memorial to all
who fished out of Everett, will be in the plaza outside the new Port office building. It is
expected to be completed in late 2009.
North Marina Redevelopment Area Fish Processing
The fishermen and their boats were the major part of the fishing industry in the NMRA,
but they weren’t the only one. Several ancillary industries existed there too.
Among these were fish processing plants. Though seafood processing had an Everett
history that could be traced to the early years of the 20th century, no plant operated in
the NMRA until 1944. An August 26 Everett Herald article of that year noted that a 58 x
115 feet two-story building was being constructed at a bay front site that eventually
would have the address 1520 Norton Avenue (later West Marine View Drive). The
structure would house the Bozeman Canning Company. In less than two years the
company was known as the Pictsweet Canning Company. On May 5, 1947, Steve Chase
announced that he had purchased Pictsweet’s fish canning plant. Chase had lineage in
the business. His grandfather of the same name had earlier operated fish processing
companies in Maine, Seattle and Everett. Young Steve began the operation as the
Chase Seafood Company. At some point, Nick J. Radovich and Claude Meehan joined
Chase as partners. By 1957, the firm was known as the Everett Fish Company, which
had been the name of Chase’s grandfather’s company. Chase was president; Radovich
was vice-president, and Meehan was secretary-treasurer. Sometime in the 1960s,
Chase and Radovich bought out Meehan and became 50/50 owners of the company.
These were busy days in the fish business. In January 1962, the Everett Fish Company
got its biggest load to date of fish brought in by one boat. The Regina from Seattle
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 65
unloaded 65,000 pounds of black cod, 25,000 pounds of red snapper, 10,000 pounds of
sole and 5,000 pound of mixed cod. The 105,000 pounds of fish came from the
Washington coast waters near Destruction Island. The company took a huge step
forward with the addition of a new 1,300,000 pound capacity cold storage and freezing
unit in early 1964. The Everett Fish Company entered into the business of air freighting
frozen seafood to points around the globe. Delicacies such as salmon, crab and sole
were going from Everett to places like New York, San Francisco, Copenhagen, Hong
Kong, Honolulu and Zurich. In 2008 Otto Chase, Steve’s son, had recollections about
working in the plant as a youngster. In those busy years he remembered the large
freezing area where he was admonished not to damage the salmon’s tail because it
would affect the price that could be asked for the fish. Otto didn’t work on the fillet line
but his brother and sister did. Crab was still being shucked and canned but by this time
very few other products were being canned. Salmon were “dressed” and certain fish
were smoked or kippered. Otto recalls processing a lot of manila clams one summer. “I
took the last two weeks off that summer to go hitchhiking,” he said. “While in the
Phoenix, Arizona area, I went into a Safeway store. There were dozens of bags of
Everett Fish company clams in the frozen fish area. That was cool.” Otto Chase
estimates there were perhaps 60 to 70 employees during those peak years. In
November of 1973, Steve Chase and Nick Radovich sold the Everett Fish Company to
Balfour, Guthrie and Company Ltd. of San Francisco. An additional cold storage area
was constructed in the mid-1970s, but the bottom was falling out of the fishing industry.
Balfour, Guthrie closed the plant and it sat idle for several years until an East Coast
family named Steuart tried to make in work in the 1980s. Steuart Seafoods struggled
along for nearly a decade, finally disappearing around 1992. Olympic Seafoods made a
run and then also folded. Around 1996, the first non-fish processing enterprise,
Scuttlebutt Brewing Company, took over the ground floor of the original facility, but not
the cold storage buildings. In 2008, Scuttlebutt Brewing is still there.
Sheerer Canning Company
Another was the Sheerer Canning Company. This seafood processor had a brief stay in
the NMRA. The company utilized an old wooden ferry boat, the Rosario, which was
moored at 14th Street Dock from the summer of 1954 until late fall that same year. The
vessel, once known for its Everett to Whidbey Island run, housed a cannery and
warehouse on the main level and storage and crew facilities on the upper deck. In
August of 1954, a work force of 20 was canning about 400 cases of salmon a day.
Eugene Sheerer and his son Robert operated the family-owned firm. The plan was to
begin canning shellfish after December 1954, but by that time the Rosario had a new
location. The 156 foot by 40 foot craft was taken up the Snohomish River and placed on
dry land at 3862 Railroad Avenue. City Directories show the cannery at that address
through 1966.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 66
Significant People
Anton Mardesich
Anton Mardesich is considered the father of the Everett commercial fishing industry.
Born February 22, 1879, Old Tony left his hometown of Komiza on the Dalmatian Coast
at the age of 17. He arrived in this country at Ellis Island and then rode the rails across
the country to Puget Sound. Arriving in Everett in 1898, he was the first of the many
Slavs who settled here and became involved in fishing. Tony spent much time on the
waterfront working in the mills, canneries and fish markets. He witnessed the salmon
fishing industry progress from small boats with sails and oars in local waters to diesel
powered boats, including 75-foot vessels that went to Alaska. His purse seiner, the
Tatoosh, renamed the Dorothy Joan by his sons, for years was one that made the annual
trek to Alaska. He was a member of Everett Elks Lodge and of the Jugoslav-American
Citizens’ Club of Everett. He and his wife Jelica, or Helen (Marincovich) had four
daughters and two sons, Winnie (Mrs. Tony Martinis), Barbara (Mrs. Henry Weborg),
Dorothy (Mrs. Don Dawson), Helen (Mrs. Warren Phillips), John and Pete. After Jelica
died, Tony married Lillian. Tony died March 14, 1941. His funeral was at Immaculate
Conception Church. He was only 62 when he died but was spared knowing that both of
his sons would perish with the Dorothy Joan a little more than four years later.
Paul A. Martinis Sr.
Paul A. Martinis Sr. was born December 26, 1893 in Komiza, Yugoslavia. He arrived in
Everett in 1921 and went on to become the patriarch of the Martinis fishing family of
Everett, and arguably the patriarch of the entire Everett purse seiner fleet. Before
reporting to several years of military service in the Austro-Hungarian army he decided to
leave for the United State in 1913. He took with him a few dollars and great fishing
knowledge gained by his father since early childhood. He came to the West Coast,
landing in Astoria, Oregon before moving on to Tacoma. He went on the fish near
Anacortes and eventually built his dream boat the Northland. On the Northland he took
over the role of captain for the first time and sailed to the Bering Sea. It was a risky
venture but he succeeded in opening the way for others to fish in Alaska. Eventually his
younger brothers Vince, Tony and Matt joined him and for years they were known as
the “highliners” of the Everett purse seiner fleet. The Martinis team was highly
competitive. You didn’t dare cork them. Paul was successful because he understood
the tides and currents and how the salmon traveled in different areas. He understood
fish - some said he could even think like a fish. They used to say the fish would not
come into to Puget Sound until Paul Martinis go back from Alaska. The veteran leader
was the acknowledged “King” of the fishing community here. On May 5, 1956, Paul
Martinis, aka “Kingfish,” was honored by the Everett Elks at the club’s annual
Fishermen’s Night celebration. Fishermen came from as far away as Bellingham and
Tacoma to honor Martinis. A telegraph was sent from President Dwight Eisenhower and
letters came from Senator Henry Jackson, Congressman Jack Westland, Governor Arthur
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 67
Langlie and several other dignitaries. Steve Chase was chairman of the committee in
charge of the fete and Harold Walsh made the presentation - a chronometer set. Of
course, the fare was salmon barbecue. The President’ message read, “In many aspects
your life has been truly a typical American story,” while the governor stated, “As one of
the Pacific Coast’s most successful salmon fishermen during the past 40 years, you have
not only brought distinction to your family, but prosperity to all the citizens of Everett
who have been associated with you.” The day was set aside by the city commissioners
as Paul Martinis Day. He was a life member of the Everett Elks and Knights of Columbus,
a board member of Fishermen’s Packing Corporation, and a member of the board of the
Bank of Everett. He and his wife Pearl had six children, Winifred Riecken, Paul Jr.,
Andrew, Vince, John, and Katie Inman. Paul Martinis Sr. died August 24, 1974 and his
Mass of Christian Burial was held at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church. As was the
custom, his son Paul took over the family business and continued to be a successful
fisherman. Andrew became a heart surgeon. John ran a sporting goods store before
becoming a Washington state legislator.
August P. “Augie” Mardesich was born February 11, 1920 to Nicola “Nick” and Mary
(Felando) Mardesich in San Pedro, California. The family settled in Everett in 1928.
Augie had one older brother, Tony, and two younger brothers, Nick Jr. and Joseph.
Augie and his brothers attended schools in Everett and fished in Alaska with their father
in the summers. After high school Augie attended Seattle University, but his education
was interrupted by World War II. He served in the Navy during the war and returned
home to graduate from the University of Washington with a law degree. His older
brotherTony was elected to the Washington state legislature in 1949. That summer all
of the brothers went fishing in Alaska with their father. A sudden storm caused their
purse seiner to capsize. Nick, Tony and three others perished in the mishap. Augie and
his younger brothers survived. Augie was appointed to fill his brother’s seat in the
Washington Legislature in 1950 beginning a 28-year career in the House and later the
Senate. He served as majority leader in both houses and some considered him the most
powerful man in state politics. Augie credited much of his ability to work in Olympia to
his experiences fishing. Part of the fishing experience made him understand the big
picture perhaps. Close to encounters and chance survivals he presented the enduring
characteristic of a man who could manage himself. In 2008 Augie is retired. He and his
wife Rosemary reside in Mill Creek. They have six children, Tony, Megan, Monica,
Meran, John and Catherine.
Influence of North Marina Redevelopment Area Commercial Fishing Industry on the
Development of Everett
Everett profited from the fleet. Fishing was an important part of the economy. Besides
the fishermen, there were the crew members, fish processing plants, the businesses
that sold and serviced the vessels, those that outfitted the fishermen and boats, the
repair shops and the fuel companies. Each boat represented a large cash outlay to the
city in repair work and supplies. The boats were stored on the ways here during the
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 68
winter and most of the materials for the repairs was purchased here. The supplies were
secured in Everett as the boats were laden down with meats and groceries immediately
prior to departure. It was an industry that depended on ancillary support industries and
reached out into the community. Often these companies, too, were located in the
North Marina Area. Entire families were involved in the support industries that
accompany the fleet. Businesses like Wold Hardware furnished material for the boats.
Grocers like Ransics Store and 25th Street Market stocked food for the trips. Butchers
like Hausmann’s provided meat. Everything for the fishing was purchased here in
Everett.
Had there not been a commercial fleet in Everett there might not have been funds to
dredge the fishing channels. It is safe to say that improvements took place in the North
Marina Area because of the presence of the Everett fishing fleet.
Since it involved so many fewer people, the commercial fishing industry didn’t impact
the city the way the lumber and shingle mills did. Fishing did, however, leave its mark
on Everett. Like the lumber and shingle industry, fishing was an extractive industry. The
work certainly required skills, but they could be learned on the job without any college
education. One might think that college would not have seemed important to the
fishing families, but nothing could be farther from the truth. The first generation fishing
families had but a rudimentary education, perhaps not a high school degree. Their
English was broken. The second generation was expected to learn English, the language
of the new land. The first generation saw education as the answer for an easier,
perhaps more successful life, for their children. Many insisted their children go to
college. This was an even higher priority for the third generation.
Everett Herald reporter Mike Benbow wrote several articles on the declining fishing
industry and came away amazed at the Croatian culture and its effect on the city. While
the oldest son might be expected to carry on the fishing business, younger sons were
expected to graduate from college perhaps to be doctors or other professionals.
Daughters likely would graduate with education degrees and become teachers. This
immigrant population cared about education and sent their children to college at a time
when others weren’t. Jerry Barhanovich, second generation, said his father expected
him and his brother and sister to get college degrees. The Slavic fishing people
exemplified Everett‘s culture. They were a hard working people, who like the city in
general, didn’t put on airs or dress fancy. Like the city they were not pretentious. They
continue to have a big effect on this city to this day. Their community is still here and
involved. The fishing may no longer be the driving force in their lives, but they’re the
same kinds of folks. Although they have assimilated themselves into the American
melting pot, a part of the old culture lives on. The Croatians and Norwegians who built
Everett’s fleet were large contributors to the city’s ethnic culture, its church community
and its leadership core. Many of their descendents are today’s bankers, doctors,
lawmakers and teachers. Being a tight-knit proud people, they didn’t complain as the
fishing industry waned, but continued to work hard, perhaps fishing in untried waters.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 69
They helped each other out - a culture that took care of their own asking for help from
outsiders. They were mutually supportive and dependent. When they first came here
they worked hard and sponsored another family member’s arrival and another and
another. Also, they were simply very hard-working, hard-partying, “appreciate the
value of the dollar” kind of people. Families were traditional, where the wife usually did
not work, but ran the household. There were no women on the boats on the fishing
grounds. The men were physically strong, and a traditional stereotype of masculinity.
The Slavs had a great impact on the local Catholic Churches. Serious Catholics, they
donated generously to both of the parishes. If you check the plaque in the Immaculate
Conception Church building, you’ll find that many of Slavs contributed to the new
building erected in 1967.
Many of the fishermen belonged to the Everett Elks Lodge. There were also many in the
Everett Golf and Country Club. They also went into leadership positions. While early
fishermen were not on bank boards like early mill owners were, the situation had
changed by the time the Bank of Everett was chartered in 1962. Mill owners weren’t on
the board, but Paul Martinis was on the founding board. Other board members were
Joe Lucin and Steve Chase. Augie Mardesich, who went to college at his dad’s
insistence, rose to Senator Majority Leader in the Washington State Senate and was one
of the most powerful people in the state government. His two younger brothers
became doctors. John Martinis ran a sports fishing shop and spent 30 years in the
Washington State Legislature. He served five years on the Pacific State Marine Fisheries
Council.
The fishing industry also provided countless summer jobs for the youth in Everett.
Many attributed their fishing experience as something that created a strong foundation
for their future. Ron Rochon, in 2008 an architect, fished on Frank Barcott’s boat the
Lemes and on the Point Defiance with Butch Barcott. He felt there was an easier life
and that he should go to school. His grandfather encouraged him to do so.
Retired commercial airline pilot Erv Hoglund fished on the Lemes too. He did in college
and while working on his masters degree at Seattle University. Erv marveled at his
father-in-law Frank Barcott Sr. when he was fishing. Frank was a mellow personality but
when he was fishing, his concentration and dedication couldn’t be broken. Frank knew
he had to make money to support his family, but also he had to make money for his
crew. Erv recalled in 2008 that Frank often said that it was the farmers and fishermen
who put food on the table. Erv fished with Butch Barcott too. All in all Erv said fishing
was a positive experience. It could be fun even when they didn’t make money.
Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson went fishing the first time at age 13 helping Jack Metcalf
(later a U.S. Representative from the Second Congressional District). He went on the
work summers on Dick Leese’s purse seiner Solta for three years. In 2008 Ray said,
“Fishing taught me how to work and work hard.” He worked long days with little sleep.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 70
He said they’d match wits, skills and knowledge with every other boat out there. The
close quarters made the crew watch out for each other.
The crew jobs provided jobs for young men who weren’t necessarily from fishing
backgrounds. Tom Hoban, a successful Everett businessman in 2008, credits his college
education and his first job to his commercial fishing experience. The summer of 1982
Tom wandered the fishing dock and basically talked his way onto Tony Martinis’ purse
seiner Barbara Jean. He was attending Notre Dame University, which was expensive.
His younger siblings were also starting college soon, so he hoped to make enough
fishing to pay for his education. Without that season, he may not have been able to
cover the next year’s room and board. Tom fished the following summer as well. He
was late to college one fall from a big catch of pink salmon in the San Juans, and still
smelling of fish and diesel. When questioned about his arriving late to school, Tom
talked hard explaining to school administrators that fishing was a job where the fish
decided when you worked. The Notre Dame administration allowed him to continue his
education; Tom figured the money from the late catch paid the tuition. After
graduation Tom applied for a job with a major Seattle bank. During the interview it was
noted that he hadn’t had much business experience. Tom countered that he had
learned enough working his half-share on the purse seiner to pay for the education he
figured would be a ticket to a better life. In 2008 Tom Hoban runs Coast Real Estate
Services with his brother Shawn in downtown Everett. Looking back he reflects, “I’m in
business now and sometimes things can get a little heated in the business world. But
I’ve never experienced anything like the excitement when the fish are running.”
Young men indeed learned much about life while fishing. On purse seiners they found
how to be part of a crew, or team and have communal respect. They had to be
responsible for their part of the work, despite the different personalities involved. They
gained respect for the elements and learned how to take risks in less dangerous
situations. If something broke they had to fix it. Most will tell you they grew up fast
while fishing and returned with a feeling of self sufficiency. They also came home with
some lifelong friends, other members of the crew.
Some families couldn’t separate themselves from fishing; it was part of them. Today
Frank Barcott’s tombstone at Everett’s Evergreen Cemetery has a purse seiner etched
into it. Nearby, his brother Joe’s marker similarly has a gillnetter carved in stone. This
exemplifies the pride that went with the fishing industry. The Barcotts’ brothers were
also in the commercial fishing industry and their sisters married fishermen.
No doubt there is a glamour or romance that accompanies fishing. Everett Herald
reporter Mike Benbow said during his many interviews that the fishing families were
proud of their heritage and their eyes would always light up when they talked about
fishing. It may have been hard work from the boat, but it looked like a real adventure
from the shore. The independent freewheeling, afraid-of-nothing sort of guys had a
persona akin to that of a cowboy.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 71
Perhaps Paul Piercey, a descendent of the Norwegian and Croatian fishing cultures of
Everett, summed it up best when in 1966 he wrote, “With the challenges I have faced
and overcome in fishing I can see why my ancestors would be able to face the challenge
of leaving their homeland for a better life. That’s basically what fishing is; we leave
home to face the uncertain and deal whatever comes up, in our effort to provide a
better life….It is the adrenaline; intoxicating, addicting, adrenaline that keeps us coming
back.” Fishing is his metaphor for life.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 72
BOAT BUILDING
Fishermen’s Boat Shop
Fishermen’s Boat Shop first appears in the Everett City Directory of 1944. It is located
on Tract M, foot of Bond Street and is listed as a boat builder and a facility for boat
repair. Carl S. Anderson and Matt Jokinen are shown as the proprietors. By April of
1947, Fishermen’s Boat Shop had notified the Port of Everett about the need for
enlarged quarters. The firm requested first consideration for space and facilities being
proposed at 14th Street, which was a better strategic location. The commercial fishing
fleet was now moored in the 14th Street basin and in the years to come, the pleasure
boats would move there, as well. By September 1947, a new boat shop for Carl
Anderson was under construction at the 14th Street site near the waterfront. Within a
few months, Fishermen’s Boat Shop was in its new quarters which included the new
building plus the carpenter shop that had been moved from the Bond Street site. Carl S.
Anderson was now listed as the sole operator of the firm. In the new site, Anderson’s
major emphasis was repair work but he also built both pleasure craft and fishing vessels.
The latter were built for local commercial fishing families. Two of the small purse seiners
were the Melvin II and the Dawn. By November 1951, Anderson was doing business as
both Fishermen’s Boat Shop and Anderson Boat Building Company.
In October, 1959 Dick Eitel bought Fishermen’s Boat Shop from Carl Anderson. It had
been basically a repair facility for wooden boats, but that changed in the 1960s, as Eitel
got into steel work, as well. One of the first steel vessels of any size was a 45-foot tug
for Everett’s American Tow Boat Company in 1964. There was still a great deal of
maintenance and repair work on fishing boats, tug boats and pleasure craft. Alaska set
a 58-foot length limit on purse seiners, which meant that many of the boats had to be
shortened to meet the requirement. Fishermen’s Boat Shop was involved in many of
these alterations, which consisted of changes to the bow, stern and rudder. Over the
years the shop was altered and enlarged as the business expanded.
Increasingly, Fishermen’s Boat Shop began to take on larger and more complicated
work. They successfully bid on government contracts with such agencies as the U.S.
Coast Guard, U.S. Navy, University of Washington and the Washington State
Department of Transportation. A $240,000 contract in January 1976 to build sewage
holding systems for two state ferries and an April 1978 contract to construct a $226,000
floating breakwater for the University of Washington’s Friday Harbor research
laboratory were lead-ups to even bigger projects. Later there would be multi-million
dollar contracts such as those for the renovation of Washington State Ferries,
construction of floating bridge segments, the building of barges and the assembly of a
dry dock gate for use at the Bremerton Naval Shipyard. These larger projects required a
great deal more space than that available at the original boat shop site; Fishermen’s
Boat Shop was leasing space at several different Port of Everett locations. At times
there were up to 120 employees working on various projects. Reflective of this
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 73
changing role, the company name was change to Everett Shipyard, Inc. about 2001.
Along the way, there have been some fascinating projects. One of the most challenging
was the construction and delivery of a 120-foot ferry for the Bureau of Indian Affairs in
1981. Named the Columbian Princess, the car ferry would be used on the Colville Indian
Reservation. It would run on Lake Roosevelt between Inchelium and Gifford. In a 2008
interview Dick Eitel still had vivid memories of the Columbia Princess saga.
“What a story,” he recalled. “We got it built, then had to run it out the straits, down the
coast, up the Columbia and then the Snake River. The last stage was getting it across
the wheat fields to the lake. I understand it’s still operating,” he continued. “It’s the
largest vessel we ever built at the shop.”
For nearly a half century, the Eitels, Dick and then his son Nick, operated the company.
In March, 2008, an era ended when the family-owned firm was sold to Todd Shipyard,
Inc. who plans to continue work under a subsidiary named Everett Ship Repair and
Drydock, Inc.
Everett Engineering, Inc.
In the late 1960s, Dick Eitel, president of Fishermen’s boat shop, faced a problem. Both
of the machine shops that offered critical support to this business had closed. “I knew
something had to be done,” Eitel recalled in a 2008 interview. “I contacted Dan Martin
and asked him if he would join with me in starting a new machine shop.” Martin, in
2008, still remembers his response. “I told him I couldn’t build a fire because I couldn’t
afford the matches. But Dick came up with the $10,000. I left Noble engineering to
partner with him.” The pair built a 40 by 60-foot building at 1420 Norton Avenue
adjacent to Fishermen’s Boat Shop. The new firm, called Everett Engineering, Inc.,
opened in the fall of 1968. Martin was president; Eitel, vice president, and Dale White,
secretary-treasurer. The company, offering a variety of machine shop services, became
indispensable not only to Fishermen’s Boat shop, but other firms and individuals as well.
They designed and built winches, propeller shafts, gear boxes and countless other
products. Within two years Martin and Eitel had enlarged the original building by
another 1,600 square feet. To accommodate an ever increasing business, they added a
second building in the early 1980s and then another which they moved to the site from
the Western Gear complex when that company closed. By the 1990s, approximately 35
employees worked in facilities that covered close to 17,000 square feet. In June 2007,
Everett Engineering, Inc. moved to 26 East Marine View Drive, the former
Weyerhaeuser Kraft Mill site on the Snohomish River. In 2008, they continue as a full
service custom design machining a fabrication facility. Martin and Eitel are still the
owners.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 74
The Morris Brothers and Morris Boats
J. Paul and Walter Morris were the only sons of John O. and Almeda Morris. John was
the vice president of Everett Packing Company, a cannery near Pier 1 on the Everett
waterfront. Because of their father’s work, the brothers spent a good deal of time on
the water as boys . Early on, both had a fascination for the sea and for boats. Both
were dreamers and as children, they designed model boats. Paul graduated from
Everett High School in 1924, and Walt in 1929. As young men they continued making
model boats. Eventually both married. Paul and Faith (Kellogg) had three daughters,
Sidne, Gretchen and Julie while Walt and Barbara (Shangle) had two sons, Kelley and
Jack. The brothers’ dream to one day build boats came true in 1947 when they opened
a boat building plant in Bellingham under the name Morris, Inc. They were building
boats for a company named Norseman. After about a year, they decided to move to
Everett. On January 5, 1948, the Port of Everett commissioners approved the transfer of
the lease of the Scholl’s 14th Street Marina building to the Morris brothers. They also
received permission to use a portion of the 14th Street Dock for their operation. Morris,
Inc. then relocated the boat building plant from Bellingham to Everett. They actually
disassembled the buildings in Bellingham and moved them to 14 th Street Dock where
they reassembled them for their boat building enterprise. (In 2008 this is called the Mall
Building.) After the move they were building small wooden pleasure craft under the
Morris name. They were all-plywood boats with those 18 to 21 feet long being the most
popular. The brothers had a good working relationship; Paul conceived the designs and
Walt directed construction. By all standards their boats were of the highest quality. In
time fiberglass was coming into use, so they began to apply some fiberglass to their
designs.
At some point in the mid-1950s, Morris began building pleasure boats for Jerry Bryant,
who had Bryant’s Marina in Seattle. These boats, while manufactured in Everett, carried
the Bryant label. Over the years, Morris produced several different models, which were
then transported to Bryant’s for marketing. They were designed for outboard motor
use and the 12 to 16-foot “Runabouts” were especially popular. Fast and sleek, they
helped popularize small boating in Puget Sound and other areas. The Morris brothers
had a very good relationship with Bryant. All five children have fond memories growing
up down on the dock. In 2008 Kelley reflected that they had all first water skied on salt
water.
In the early 1950s, the ban on power boats for commercial fishing in Alaska’s Bristol Bay
was lifted. Power boats would be allowed but they could not be over 32 feet in length.
Bryant was one of the companies that began building the 32-foot gillnetters but soon
the demand exceeded their manufacturing capabilities. Bryant contracted with Morris,
Inc., who started producing the fishing craft under the Bryant name. Both brothers
were capable craftsmen. Paul had a gift for design and did most of the drafting work.
Walt carried out the construction and technical aspects of the work. The gillnetters were
barebones and built quickly, but had the typical Morris quality. They were the perfect
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 75
boat for the time. Now there was an assembly line production for both the pleasure
and fishing boats under the same roof. Once the boats were built, they went to the
paint shop on the dock west of the factory. The gillnetters went into the water for
engine installation. Both then went to Bryant.
The wooden hulled gillnetters with red cedar planking were designed to operate in as
little as 30 inches of water. They were rugged, fast vessels. With a 290-horse power
Chrysler engine (one of several types of engines used), they could do 20 knots an hour
without a load and had a comfortable cruising speed of 14 knots. A fully loaded Bryant
Super Highliner, a 32-foot gillnetter model, could carry four to five thousand fish, plus
nets. Most of the early gillnetters were built for Alaskan canneries, which then provided
them to the fishermen. In those days, a completed vessel, ready to go, could be
purchased for about $10,000.
While the gillnetters were being built in the east part of the factory, pleasure craft were
being constructed in the building’s west section. They were of plywood, which came
mostly from the nearby Everett Plywood and Door Company. Some of it was a high
quality African mahogany that gave the boats a very rich look.
At peak production, a crew of about 80 men were employed. Depending on the size,
they could produce about three pleasure boats a day. It took about a week to build the
32-foot Bristol Bay gillnetter. Initially, both types of craft were strictly wooden.
Eventually, fiberglass came into use, primarily for cabins and decking. Kenny Kirkland
was indispensable as the plant superintendent for several years before he left to work
for the Port of Everett.
“Bud” Hegeberg, who later started his own boat building and repair shop on the
Snohomish River, was one of the workers on the gillnetter’s production. In 2008, he still
had vivid memories of his days at Morris. “There was a nearby café called Jo’s,”
Hegerberg reminisced recently. “If you ordered in advance they would have a rib eye
steak meal ready for lunch. It cost 90 cents, which was okay because I was making
about $1.70 an hour.” Hegeberg and another co-worker Gene Sharp, also had contact
with the 32-foot gillnetters long after their Morris days. “The Alaska yellow cedar we
used on the keels didn’t hold up very well in the cold Alaskan waters,” said Hegeberg.
“In the 1980s, I repaired many of them with fir, which seemed to do better.” Sharp,
who later fished in Bristol Bay, has seen many of the old gillnetters in recent years.
“Most of them are done now,” said Sharp. “You see them rotting on Alaskan beaches.”
A few survive, including the rebuilt Robbie, which in 2008 is used by Hegeberg’s son for
crabbing.
Around 1963, the era of Morris-built boats for Bryant ended. The brothers went their
separate ways. Morris, Inc. now became Morris Boats, Inc., with Paul Morris as
president and manager. Morris Boats, Inc. produced a variety of craft over the next few
years. These included, among others, 36-foot charter boats for fishing at Westport, and
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 76
20 to 21-foot wooden hulled boats for the Air Force. Paul Morris repaired boats, as
well. He wanted to get into fiberglass construction but the fire department had a
problem with this in the building. The paint shop pier was deteriorating and the paint
shop would have to be demolished. About 1966, J. Paul Morris needed capital for
needed changes, such as new dry storage facilities. He took on partners and Morris
Boats, Inc. ceased its boat building operation. A new company, Boatland U.S.A.,
emerged with J. Paul Morris as a stock owner but not a company officer. Boatland
U.S.A. would use the same space but would not build boats. Emphasis would be on the
marina function and the sales of boats, equipment and other marine supplies. Boatland
U.S.A. continued in operation until about 1971. In 1966, as Morris Boats, Inc. was
winding down, Paul Morris stated he had designed and produced more than 8,00 small
pleasure boats and 250 commercial boats for the Alaska fishing industry. Paul went on
to work for Todd Shipyard in Seattle. He then got a real estate license and finished his
career in that business. He died in 1988.
Walt opened a shop near the Morris Boats location and Fishermen’s Boat Shop on the
corner of 14th Street and Norton Avenue (West Marine View Drive). During the war he
had been an aircraft man and tool and dye maker. He was an inventor as well as a boat
builder. At his shop he invented urethane foam and designed a system to spray it. He
also invented two different rigs, for ships and railroad cars. He finished his career
working for Laz Tool and Dye in Snohomish. Walt died in 1969, the result of pneumonia
and an industrial accident.
The Morris brothers left behind a legacy for quality boat building of which all five
children are proud. Sidne and Kelley still have two-foot models the brothers built in
their youth. Julie recently purchased a 14-foot Morris Brothers boat and all are happy
to have it back in the family.
Cruise-A-Home
The Cruise-A-Home was a unique vessel manufactured at 1028 Norton Avenue (West
Marine View Drive) for more than a decade. It had the comfort of a houseboat, the
seaworthiness of a fishing boat and the speed of a cruiser. When the Cruise-A-Home
was first introduced in 1968, there were those who thought it a strange looking craft
with its one level houseboat super structure mounted on a deep-V hull adapted from a
fishing boat design. But, even the detractors had to admit the vessel was capable of
comfortable, fast cruising in virtually any conditions. Warren Jensen was founder and
president of Cruise-A-Home, Inc. He developed the original drawings and then was
joined by veteran boat builder Ed Reinell, who became vice president of manufacturing.
The first model was a 40-footer (actually 39 feet 11 inches) with a 270 horsepower
Mercruiser engine. There were all the comforts of home, with sleeping
accommodations for up to seven people. The company proudly boasted that the CruiseA-Home 40 was the first cruiser hull “houseboat” to be designed and manufactured in
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 77
the Northwest for Northwest cruising. A new one that first year sold for about $15,000.
In subsequent years, power was increased by adding a second engine. Later two 31-foot
models were introduced. They were the Crusader 31 and the Caprice 31, which had a
slightly narrower cabin. The Corsair 40, however, remained the most popular model. By
1979 Jensen was still president and the firm had built and sold more than 400 Cruise-AHomes since its inception. In a July 16, 1979 Everett Herald article, Jensen said, “We
had a lot of success with our cruising houseboats because they combined a lot of living
space with a powerboat hull that could take the Puget Sound waters.” Everett
businessman Ed Rubatino’s family had two Cruise-A-Homes over the years. In 2008, he
could reflect on good times his family and other Cruise-A-Home owners had enjoyed.
“J.P. Patches (well-known Pacific Northwest TV clown) had one,” said Rubatino. “He
painted the hull blue.” Rubatino also remembered the Cruise-A-Home that was custom
made for Mukilteo businessmen Dick and Ed Taylor. Dick was 6’8” tall and his brother
Ed was almost that height. The cabin height in their craft was increased by six inches to
accommodate the brothers. In 1980, the company had a new name, Polaris Marine
Corporation, and a new $8.25 million contract to build landing craft for the U.S. Navy.
Company president Jensen said the firm would continue its usual lines of boats as well.
However, in March of 1982, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. By 1983
there was no Polaris Marine Corporation listed in the Everett City Directory and 1028
Norton Avenue was shown as vacant.
The Wayward Wind
It would be hard to find a NMRA project that captured public imagination more than the
Wayward Wind. Jack McWilliams, a custom furniture manufacturer, spent nearly a
decade building a two-masted sailing schooner on a cradle next to Fisherman’s Boat
Shop. His labor of love project also became a love affair for the community. Slowly, but
surely, McWilliams pieced together a craft that weighed 56.5 tons, was 65 feet long on
deck, 85 feet long over-all and had a 17.5-foot beam. People kept tabs on the
construction from the beginning, marveling at the exquisite craftsmanship and the
boat’s beauty. The Wayward Wind even had an organ. One veteran boat builder noted
that McWilliams had installed an organ in a hull and then built a boat around it.
McWilliams’ dream was to take the vessel on a year long cruise around the world. Then
he and his wife Ruth would live on the Wayward Wind the rest of their lives. When
launching day arrived on July 11, 1972, a crowd estimated at well over a thousand
braved the rain to watch the event. Workmen struggled to pull the cradle to the
Fishermen’s Boat Shop ways. After two hours the effort was abandoned. The next
evening, when the “skids were greased” (literally), hundreds of spectators watched the
vessel slip into the water. The traditional bottle of champagne was broken on the bow
and the Wayward Wind was afloat. A little more than two months later, about a
hundred well wishers were at the dock to watch the schooner slip out of its berth and
past Everett’s Jetty Island with an escort of pleasure craft. A month later, the
McWilliams were in Long Beach, California thinking they might have to sell the boat
because of Jack’s health concerns. However, in December, they were sailing off again,
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 78
although the world voyage idea had been trimmed to a three to six month cruise to the
east coast of South America. They were still planning to live the rest of their lives on the
Wayward Wind.
Influence of North Marina Redevelopment Area Boat Building on the Development of
Everett
While North Marina Redevelopment Area boat building was never a dominant Everett
industry, it did leave its mark on the community. Fishing is one industry that is indebted
to Fishermen’s Boat Shop (later, Everett Shipyard) for the vessels and services that
company has provided. The racy Bryant runabouts and other boats produced by the
Morris brothers helped launch a post World War II small power boat craze. The boats
were sleek, fast, fun - and best of all, affordable. A whole generation rushed in to buy
them. Morris also impacted the fishing industry with the 32-foot Bristol Bay gillnetter.
At least one of those vessels, the Robbie, is still in use today by an Everett fisherman.
Cruise-A-Home caught the fancy of the recreational boater who wanted comfort, space,
speed, and safety. And how many Everettites were inspired by the Wayward Wind? It
proved that dreams could come true. Everett, in 2008, is known as a city of boat owners
and boat lovers. Fishing boats and pleasure craft occupy a Port of Everett yacht basin
that is the largest public marina on the West Coast. Everett is a boating capital and the
North Marina Redevelopment Area firms are one reason that has happened.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 79
SPECIAL FEATURES IN THE NORTH MARINA REDEVELOPMENT AREA
The Equator
This historic vessel on display at the southwest corner of Craftsman Way and 10 th Street
once carried famous author Robert Louis Stevenson on South Pacific voyages. The
Equator was built as a two-masted schooner by renowned San Francisco boat builder
Mathew Turner in 1888. In 1889 Stevenson sailed from Honolulu to the Gilbert Islands.
While aboard he conceived of and began writing a novel, “The Wreckers”. The Equator
received an engine in 1893 and later served as a tender to an Arctic whaling fleet. She
was completely renovated in 1923 and served until the mid-1950s as a Puget Sound tug.
She was left on Everett’s Jetty Island the week of August 15, 1956 as part of a
breakwater with other discarded vessels. Local dentist Eldon Schalka led an effort,
which finally saw the Equator rescued from its breakwater fate the week of June 26,
1967. He dreamed of once again of seeing the Equator seaworthy. Dick Eitel, one of
Schalka’s comrades in salvaging the craft, stored the boat at his 14th Street Fishermen’s
Boat Shop for several years. The two were centrally involved in the Equator Foundation
that was created to restore the 87-foot vessel. They were encouraged when the
Equator was placed on the National Register of Historic Places on April 14, 1972. It was
the first Everett property to receive this designation. There were starts, stalls, promises
and hope - but the funds necessary for a full restoration were not acquired. The boat,
essentially just a hull, was moved to a location in the new Marina Village in 1980 and
then later placed in its 2008 location near the 10th Street Boat Launch. The Equator
rests under a protective structure provided by Dick Eitel. There is the National Register
plaque, an interpretive sign that tells the craft’s history, and another sign listing the 42
individuals and firms who have contributed materials and service to the Equator
Foundation.
Weyerhaeuser Office Building
The ornate red-roofed structure on the northwest corner of 18th Street and West
Marine View Drive is one of the few reminders that the Weyerhaeuser Company was,
for many years, Everett’s largest employer. Ironically, none of the company’s Everett
mills was in the NMRA, nor was the office building originally. The structure was erected
in 1923 at Everett’s first Weyerhaeuser plant, which was on the bay front about a mile
and a half south of the office building’s current location. It was designed in Gothic style
by noted Northwest architect Carl Gould to showcase the use of local woods,
particularly fir and hemlock. In 1938, after the original plant was converted from a
sawmill to a pulp mill, the office building was barged from its first site up to Mill B,
Weyerhaeuser’s enormous sawmill on the Snohomish River. It served as Weyerhaeuser
office space even after the mill closed in 1979. Finally, in 1983, it was abandoned and
donated by Weyerhaeuser to the Port of Everett. In 1984, the building made its second
voyage, this time down the river channel and across the protected yacht basin to its
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 80
current site, where it would become the headquarters for the Everett Area Chamber of
Commerce. Chamber member Jack Walkley of Cobra Construction spearheaded the allvolunteer move. As it had the first time - the effort captivated public interest. People
marveled at the logistics of transporting a 6,000 square-foot, story and a half cargo that
weighed 350 tons. Once the building was placed on its new foundation, the Chamber
could move in. Through the efforts of people like county preservation planner Brent
Lambert, the Weyerhaeuser Office Building was listed on the National Register of
Historic Places in 1986. Though the structure is vacant in 2008, its beauty is evident to
those who travel West Marine View Drive.
Charles Jordan Marine Park
In 1970, Richard Haag, an internationally known landscape architect, completed the
design for a Marina Park at the 14th Street marina. Located on the south side of 13th
Street near the west end of the 14th Street fill, the park was to be a haven for nonboaters. On November 10, 1970 the Port Commission awarded the construction
contract to Sanford Wright with a total project cost of $59,995.50. The commissioners
accepted the project as complete on May 11, 1971. The park was square in shape with
approximately 300 feet on each side. A concrete stairway ascended a 20-foot high main
mound on the south side that provided a view in all directions. There were smaller
berms on the other three sides. Seating was built around planters. Poplars, magnolias
and rhododendrons were planted around the perimeter. Interestingly, the 48 th Parallel
of Latitude passes through the site. The space was dedicated Charles Jordan Marine
Park during the Salty Sea Days celebration of 1971. Jordan, a beloved citizen activist,
had served as the Port of Everett’s attorney for 25 years. When Jordan died in 1983,
former Port commissioner Paul Kinnune remembered Jordan’s dedication to the port.
“He wanted to see the port prosper,” stated Kinnune. Hailed as a grassy respite in the
middle of industrial area by some, the park was dubbed “Mt. Montezuma” or the
“Missile Silo” by others. In 2008 all that remains of Jordan Park is the aggregate
sidewalk entrance on its east side and a lone magnolia tree. It is part of the area being
transformed into the Port Gardner Wharf.
Surf II
The distinctive steel sculpture, located just south of the 10 th Street Boat Launch docks,
was Everett’s first piece of public art when it was formally dedicated on July 8, 1976.
However, it was not at its 2008 location. Initially, Surf II was on the east side of Colby
Avenue close to California Street in downtown Everett. It was part of a plan to
rejuvenate and beautify the downtown area, particularly Colby Avenue. The sculpture
was designed by Stanley Wanlass of Astoria, Oregon, who was selected for the
commission from about 40 artists. Standing 14 feet at its highest point, the steel piece
features nine fingers that jut upward to create an abstract shape. Sculptor Wanlass said
the design was inspired by his love for water and trees. The sculpture weighs 40,000
pounds and cost $18,900. At the Colby site, it sat in a small pond surrounded by a mini
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 81
amphitheater. Surf II was controversial in its early days. Some defended it as a
downtown focal point that would help Everett strengthen its identity. Other dubbed it
“Big Foot” or “Whale’s Tail” and scoffed at it as a waste of money. One disgruntled
group even hung the mayor in effigy on the sculpture. Around 1983 Surf II was moved
to its NMRA site, where its abstract wave shape seems more compatible with the
marine environment.
Fires and Fire Fighting
The NMRA has had no major fires for more than four decades. In the earlier years,
however, there were truly spectacular blazes. Fires at Jamsion Lumber and Shingle
Company in 1928, Clough-Hartley Shingle Mill in 1937, Pilchuck Shingle and Jamison,
again, in 1967 were among the most damaging. Perhaps the most memorable of all was
the August 2, 1956 fire that destroyed about $500,000 worth of buildings and lumber at
the William Hulbert Mill Company site. A tremendously hot blaze, it buckled railway
tracks and completely consumed the neighboring Jamison Mill office in five minutes.
Firefighters fought the fire for four hours and they also had to protect adjacent
businesses and homes on Grand Avenue. Two Everett firemen, a Lowell volunteer and
two mill employees were injured. Old timers still shake their heads when they talk
about that conflagration . Over the years there have been two fire stations in the North
Marina Area. The first, built in 1927, was at about 1701 Norton Avenue (now West
Marine View Drive). It was built from materials donated by the mills and sat on pilings,
as did Norton Avenue at the time. That station was replaced in 1970 by a new one at
920 13th Street. The old building lives on in 2008 as a private residence on Vashon
Island. The new one was in operation until recently. In 2008, there is no fire station in
the North Marina Area. For a number of years the firefighters also had a museum at
1002 13th Street in an old paint shop across the street from the fire station. The
museum came into being after the Port commissioners, on November 14, 1972,
approved the Everett Fire Fighters Local Union 350 request to use the building as a lookin museum. The annual rent was set $25.00. The museum became a repository for fire
firefighting equipment and historical records and also served as a center for many fund
raising and social events. The building, as well as the second fire station, has gone down
as part of the preparation for Port Gardner Wharf and the and the fire fighting
paraphernalia has been moved to other locations.
The Stairs
The wooden stairs that ran from the bluff top to the bay front were not technically in
the NMRA but they merit mention because of their importance to the Area. There
seems to be no written record as to when the stairs were built, but there is little
question their main function was give bay front industries’ employees a way to get to
and from work. Frank Platt, whose family once had a small grocery store at 1202 Grand
Avenue, recalled in 2008 the ones that led from 12th Street just off Grand down to the
water. “I think they were used mainly by Hulbert workers,” he said. “I know the steps
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 82
were there by 1920, probably a lot earlier. When you got to the bottom, you crossed
over to the mill on a big cedar log that floated in the water. We kids played around the
mills and stairs all the time.” There were other sets of stairs at 14th 19th and 21st streets
just west of Grand Avenue. In addition, there were paths, like an early one at 10 th
Street, that led down to the water. The stairs at 14th and 19th each had over a hundred
steps. In the 1999 booklet Collected Memories: Recollections of Alvin B. Pettersen,
there is a short 1966 article by Pettersen and an old photo with people sitting on one of
the sets of stairs. Pettersen remembered the 19th Street set as being the longest, with
more than a hundred steps. Myrtle Lowthian recalled that as a girl she used to go down
and back up 101 steps taking lunch to her mill executive father but she didn’t say which
set she used. Roland Hublou, retired Everett dentist and fisherman, lived at 1402 Grand
Avenue as a youngster. In 2008 he still could picture the 14th Street stairs. “There were
144 steps. My brother used to run up and down them to get in shape for track when he
was in high school.” To the casual viewer, there is no trace of the stairs in 2008. It is
possible remains are hidden in the brush along the bank, but searching for them would
be quiet an effort.
Jetty Island
The history of this man-made island, also known as Tract Q, can be traced back to 1893,
when the Everett Land Company unveiled an elaborate fresh water harbor plan for the
fledgling city. The scheme consisted of channeling the Snohomish River along the
Everett bay front and installing locks at the river’s mouth and upstream where Union
and Steamboat sloughs break off from the main river. The locks would close as the tide
went, thus leaving the main river channel always filled with water. Protective dikes
would be required on both sides of the bay front river channel for the system to work.
The Land Company submitted the plan to the federal government, which finally agreed
to fund a drastically scaled down version. A protective dike would be built west of the
river channel that would be dredged along the bay front. The work began in 1895 when
nearly 8,000 feet of a primitive dike was built southwest of Smith Island. This marked
the beginning of what is known today as Jetty Island. About a year and a half later, the
dike was extended another 6,5000 feet southward. The river channel was dredged at
that time and the excavated material was dumped on the west side of the dike. Further
work occurred in 1900, including a 2,300-foot extension of the dike - or jetty. Over the
years more material was added as the dredging of the Snohomish River channel
continued. The Port of Everett bought Jetty Island from the Everett Improvement
Company after the Port District voters authorized the proposed purchase on December
1, 1928. The property includes approximately 1,800 acres, much of it tidelands to the
west. Over the years, various concepts for Jetty Island’s use have been proposed,
ranging from industrial parks to vast recreational complexes. In 2008, it is a relatively
peaceful retreat that can only be reached by boat. It is a favorite spot for kite boarders
and those who appreciate the warm water of the extensive tide flats. Wildlife such as
waterfowl, bald eagles, ospreys, crab and juvenile salmon have found a welcoming
environment. And, not accidentally, Jetty Island still serves its original purpose of
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 83
protecting the Snohomish River channel and the harbor.
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 84
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Books, Booklets, Pamphlets, Flyers and Articles
August P. Mardesich An Oral History; Boswell, Sharon; Washington State Oral History,
Program; Office of the Secretary of State; Ralph Munro, Secretary of State; 2000
Baker, Loren, Looking Back, booklet published by First Federal Savings and Loan
Association of Everett, Washington, 1967
Brahnam, Mary Edith and Hansberry, Vera, 1977 Olympic Bank / 1902 Everett Trust: A
Seventy-Five Year Commemorative Issue, published by Olympic Bank, Everett,
Washington, 1978
Cameron, David and others, Snohomish County: An Illustrated History, Kelcema Books
LLC, Index, Washington, 2005
Clark, Norman, Mill Town: A Social History of Everett, Washington from Its Earliest
Beginnings on the Shores of Puget Sound to the Tragic and Infamous Event Known as the
Everett Massacre, University of Washington Press, Seattle and London, 1970
The Coast, Vol. 14, October, 1907, booklet covering Alaska and Greater Northwest,
Everett, Washington, Feature of this Number, The Coast Publishing Company, Seattle,
Washington
Collected Memories: Recollections of Alvin B. Pettersen, published by Snohomish County
Museum and Historical Association, printed by Snohomish Publishing Company, Inc.,
Snohomish, Washington, edited by Elise Sheehan, 1999
“Cruise-A-Home 40”, advertising brochure by Cruise-A-Home, Inc., Everett, Washington,
circa 1970
“Cruise-A-Home”, description in internet’s Wikipedia, retrieved November 23, 2008,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cruise-a-Home
Cruise-A-Home Unofficial Page from internet, site visited on November 22, 2008,
http:www.geocities.com/ctenning/index.html?200822
Dilgard, David, Buildings of Early Everett: A Pictorial Survey of the Architecture of the
Everett Boom, 1891-1894, Lowell Printing and Publishing, Everett, Washington, 1994
Dilgard, David, Everett Chronology, Lowell Printing and Publishing, Everett, Washington,
1992
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 85
Dilgard, David, and Riddle, Margaret, Historical Survey of the Everett Shoreline, prepared
for the Department of Community Development of Everett, Washington, November
1973
Dilgard, David, unpublished chronology of Everett Lumber and Shingle Mills, 1892 to
approximately 1914
Estes, Bill, “Testing the Cruise-A-Home 40”, article in Family House boating magazine, A
trailer Life Publication, April 1975
Everett Elks # 479 Centennial pamphlet, 1999
Everett Mayors flyer published by the City of Everett, Washington as a legend for Bernie
Webber’s paintings of each Everett mayor, 1893 to 2002
Everett Engineering, Inc. website on internet, visited on December 29, 2008
http://www.everettengineering.com/
Everett, Washington: A City of Industries, pamphlet published by the Everett
Commercial Club in 1897
Everett, Washington / Puget Sound, Everett Chamber of Commerce booklet, circa 1902
Everett Yacht Club Centennial: 1907-2007, edited by Mildie Morrow, printed by K & H
Integrated Print Solutions, Everett, Washington, 2007
Hasenoehrl, RaeJean and the Everett Fisherman’s Tribute Committee, Everett
Fishermen: Images of America, Arcadia Publishing, Charleston, SC and other U.S. cities,
2008
Henderson, Charles Z., The Fire Boys: 100 Years of Everett Firefighting History, a project
of the Everett (Washington) Firefighters’ Association, the Donning Company, Virginia
Beach, Virginia, 1992
Historic Everett, brochures for home tours
History of the Everett Clinic, booklet prepared by the Everett Clinic, Everett, Washington,
1999
HistoryLink.org Essay 8384, Bellingham’s Croatian Community and Commercial Fishing:
A Reminiscence by Steve Kirk
Hunt, Herbert and Kaylor, Floyd C., Washington West of the Cascades, S.J. Clarke
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 86
Publishing Company, Chicago, Seattle and Tacoma, 1917
The Island of Vis, Generalturist Ltd., Zagreb, Croatia, 2004
Malstrom, Helmer, Memory Lanes of Old Everett and its East Riverside, published by the
Estate of Helmer Malstrom, Everett, Washington and printed by Packrat Press, 1986
McClain, Owen P., Hooks and Slices: The First Eighty Years at the Everett Golf and
Country Club, published by the Everett Golf and Country Club, Everett, Washington and
printed by K & H Printers, Everett, Washington, 1992
O’Donnell, Jack, Immaculate Conception Parish - One Hundred Years, published by
Immaculate Conception Centennial Committee, 2005
O’Donnell, Jack, unpublished chronology of events in Everett and Snohomish County
O’Donnell, Lawrence E., Celebrating Eighty Years of Service: A History of the Everett
Rotary Club, published by the Rotary Club of Everett, Washington, 1996
O’Donnell, Lawrence E., Everett: Past and Present, A Centennial History of Everett,
Washington, published by Cascade Savings Bank of Everett, Washington, designed and
printed by K & H Printers, Everett, Washington, 1993
O’Donnell, Lawrence E., Everett School District: The First 100 Years, Peanut Butter
Publishing, Seattle, Washington, 1992
O’Donnell, Lawrence E., 75 Years of Serving Youth, A Diamond Anniversary booklet
published by the Evergreen Area Council, Boy Scouts of America, Everett, Washington,
1992
Northwest Fisheries Science Center, National Oceanic Atmosphere Administration
handout, (Pacific States Marine Fisheries commission 2004. West Coast Marine Fishing
community Descriptions.) (F. Jahns, President, Quality Seafood services, Everett)
Poehlman, Elizabeth S., Darrington: Mining Town / Timber Town, Gold Hill Press,
Shoreline, Washington, 1979, 1995
Riverside Remembers, Vol. I, II, III, published by the Greater Riverside Organization of
Everett, Washington, Mary Winspear, project chairperson, 1985, 1986, 1987
Smith, Walker G., The Everett Massacre: A History of the Class Struggle in the Lumber
Industry, I.W.W. Publishing Bureau, Chicago, Illinois, circa 1917 - volume used by
authors is a 1965 facsimile reproduction by The Shorey Book Store, Seattle, Washington
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 87
A Stroll Through History, a Self Guided Walking Tour of the Bayside Neighborhood,
booklet produced by the Bayside Neighborhood Association in cooperation with the City
of Everett, Washington, December 2007
A Survey of Everett’s Historical Properties, booklet prepared by the Everett Public Library
and the City of Everett Department of Planning and community Developmeny, first
printed in 1976, revised and reprinted in 1996
Seventy Years of Service: General Hospital Medical Center,” booklet published by
General Hospital Medical Center, booklet published by General Hospital Medical Center,
Everett Washington, and printed by The Allied Printers, text by Jeanne A. Edwards and
Florence R. Hansen, 1994
Through Their Eyes VII, booklet featuring interviews of Everett High School graduates,
prepared by David Hastings’ 2002 Honors Government / Washington State History Class,
Everett High School, Everett, Washington, interview of Charles Trask, M.D., by Walker
Stanovsky
Voices from Everett’s First Century, published by the Snohomish County Museum and
Historical Association and printed by Valco Graphics, USA, Phyllis Royce, project
committee chair, 1994
Whitfield, William, History of Snohomish County, Washington, Vol. I and II, Pioneer
Historical Publishing Company, Chicago - Seattle, 1926
William A. Gissberg, An Oral History, an interview of William a. Gissberg by Sharon
Boswell, part of Washington State Oral History Program, Office of the Secretary of State,
Ralph Munro, Secretary of State, Olympia, Washington, 1996
Windermere Real Estate Company, flyers on houses for sale: 2917 and 2919 Nassau
Street, December 2008
Interviews and Conversations
Ahmann, Victoria, telephone conversation, January 10, 2009
Almvig, Delbert; Cunningham, Phil; Ericksen Ron; Hublou, Roland; Kast, Bud; Kirkus,
Dick; Solie, Jerry; Zuanich, Frank; group interview, October 24, 2009
Almvig, Dick, personal conversation, December 29, 2008
Bannan, Phil, personal conversation, November 20, 2008
Barcott, Joe Jr., Email interview, November 2008
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 88
Barker, Burke, Jr., telephone conversation, November 24, 2008
Benbow, Mike, telephone interview, December 18, 2008
Borovina, Jay, telephone interview, December 14, 2008
Chase, Otto, November 11, 2008 letter
Chase, Stephen, Jr., November 18, 2008 letter
Cameron, David, Ph.D. (retired) Email, January 2, 2009
Collins, Tom, personal interview, November 20, 2008
Cunningham, Phil, personal interview, December 29, 2008
Dilgard, David, historian, Northwest Room, Everett Public Library, several conversations,
September to December 2008
Eitel, Dick, telephone conversations, December 2008
Elwood, Steve, several conversations and visits to NMRA, September to December 2008
Fitch, Harold and Ella Fitch; Fitch, Vernon; Ingram, Carole Leigh personal group
interview, December 5, 2008
Greig, Norma, personal interview, December 27, 2008
Hasenoehrl, RaeJean, author of Everett Fishermen, Arcadia, lecture, November 9, 2008
at Everett Public Library
Hegeberg, Brian “Bud”, several interviews, November 2008 - January 2009
Hoban, Tom, Email interviews, December 2008
Hoglund, Erv, telephone interview, December 27, 2008
Hulbert, David, Email conversation, November 2008
Hulbert, William G., Email conversation, November 2008
Jackson, Peter, personal interview, December 23, 2008
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 89
Kirkland, Kenneth, telephone conversation, December 2, 2008
Lamb, Sidne (Morris),; Haynes, Gretchen (Morris); Stoddard, Julie (Morris) Dawson;
daughters of J. Paul Morris; Groenhert, Lindsay, granddaughter of J. Paul Morris,
personal interview, December 6, 2008
LeMaster, Dennis, Ph.D. (retired), Email response, December 19, 2008
Leese, William O. and Charlene Leese, personal interview, December 4, 2008
Mardesich, Wini, personal interview, September 23, 2008
Martin, Dan, personal and telephone conversations, December 29, 2008, (Everett
Engineering)
Martinis, Paul V., telephone interview, December 18, 2008
Morris, Kelley, and Morris, Jack, sons of Walter Morris, telephone and Email interviews,
December 2008 to January 2009
Murphy, Thomas W. Ph.D., lecture on The “Nature” of the Jetty: An ethnography on an
uninhabited island, September 21, 2008, Everett Public Library
Newton, Henry, conversation on December 16, 2008
Oldfield, Chris, telephone interview, December 18, 2008
Piercey, Barbara, interview, December 19, 2008, and several telephone and Email
conversations, September to December 2008
Piercey, Jim, interview, December 19, 2008, and several telephone and Email
conversations, September to December 2008
Piercey, Paul, unpublished reflections on fishing, 1996
Platt, Frank, several conversations, October to December, 2008
Ramstad, David, personal interview, October 16, 2008
Rubatino, Ed, personal conversations, November 13 and 20, 2008
Schindler, George Sr. and Schindler, George Jr., personal interview, November 20, 2008
Sharp, Eugene, personal interview, November 21, 2008
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 90
Stephanson, Ray, telephone interview, December 23, 2008
Stuchell, Harry, several conversations in November and December, 2008
Tolnay, Stewart, Ph.D., Department of Sociology, University of Washington, Seattle,
Washington, Email, December 8, 2008
Van Wingen, Melinda, historian, Northwest Room, Everett Public Library, several
conversations, September to December 2008
Weber, Jim, personal conversation, November 20, conversation and visit to NMRA,
December 3, 2008
Whitehead, Michael, personal interview, December 29, 2008
Wright, Deborah, conversations, November 2008
Zuanich, Frank, several conversations, December 2008
Zuanich, Kay, telephone interview, December 23, 2008
Zuanich, Matt, telephone interview, December 21, 2008
Newspapers
“The City of Everett, State of Washington U.S.A., 1900,” a souvenir edition of The Daily
Independent (newspaper) in booklet form, published by The Daily Independent, Everett,
Washington, 1900
Everett Daily Herald, prime newspaper source, many articles used
Everett Morning Tribune
Everett News
Seattle Post Intelligencer
Port of Everett Documents and Publications
Andersen, R.A., special report to State of Washington Committee on Parks and Natural
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 91
Resources from the Port of Everett Manager, May 18, 1972
Everett Port Commission meeting minutes, 1918-2008
Historical Chronology: 14th Street Wharf and Adjacent Areas, 1892-1998, Port of Everett
document compiled by Dennis Gregoire
Port of Everett Annual Reports, several from 1954 to 2007
Port of Everett Financial Reports, several from 1943 to 1961
Port of Everett, various maps and documents identifying Port property
Portside, Port of Everett publication, summer 2008, chronology of Port development,
1892-2008
Welcome to the Port of Everett booklet published by the Port of Everett, September
2008
Reference Documents: Government Reports, Directories, Charts, Maps
Birdseyeview of Everett, Washington, 1893, aerial view artist rendition by Brown’s Land
and Engineering Company of Everett, Washington
City Directories for Everett, Washington, 1893-1999, published by R.L. Polk and
Company
Folders with articles about significant people in Everett (Washington) history, Northwest
Room, Everett Public Library, Everett, Washington
Maps of Everett in Northwest Room of Everett Public Library: Sanborn, Metsker, Corps
of Engineers, Anderson, Everett Improvement Company, Kroll and Manoa maps
NESIKA, official yearbook of Everett High School, Everett, Washington, several used
United States Census Information, for 1900, 1910, 1920, 1930, 1940
NMR – Historians Draft
January 10, 2009
Page | 92