Sammamish Valley Grange History

Chapter 1 - The Early History of the Valley

The three key elements that lead to the dynamics of an organization are the history of the entity itself, the history of the supporting organization, and the history of the society. It is best to start out with the history of our society, and tell a little bit about the early days of this Grange.
Historians believe that one of the underlying factors driving history is a region’s geography. Geography determines lifestyles by such things like what type of economy will be based there, what kind of crops will grow, the climate of the area, the hours of daylight, and other things. Some non-religious social scientists have even suggested that much of the beliefs of a society’s religion is determined by geography. The lifestyle drives the thought patterns, and the way a society approaches it’s solutions to problems.
The Sammamish Valley is a recent geological phenomenon. It was created out of the arm of what was known as the Vashon Glacier. As this glacier receded, it left behind the Sammamish River, Lake Sammamish, Lake Washington, and Puget Sound. Both Lake Sammamish and the Sammamish River were the main tributaries of Lake Washington (until the ship canal drained it), all eventually draining into the Puget Sound thru the Duwamish. According the late Lucile MacDonald, an Eastside historian, the lake rose and fell as time went along. As the river moved silt, much of the land near the river was thick with silt, as a result of the flooding. According to Helen McMahon, a member of this Grange said that the lower valley looked a lake, and it was very difficult to plough. I read that before the river was straightened in the 1960’s, it was marshy near it’s banks, so water flooded there; some farmers complained of water covering as much as seven feet of land. And the flooding must have been more severe before the lake was drained. As such, the valley floor was more exposed to the floods, there was more area for it to deposit silt. My reading has indicated that some have suggested that the soil here was some of the richest in the state, while the soil of the surrounding hills is very poor. Of course, the floods missed some of the valley, resulting in the normal clay soils found in much of the area.
The first people of whom we have record in the valley were those of the Salish ethnicity. The Sammamish were a very autonomous branch of the Duwamish tribe (remember – Lake Washington used to drain into the Duwamish). The name Sammamish means “hunter,” indicating what the early peoples did. I was unable to locate their exact whereabouts, though the may have lived in different areas of the valley. They probably lived as most non-coastal tribes in the area lived, such as the Snoqualmie, which was off fishing, wild cranberries and roots (like sweet potatoes, which were found in the southern end of the Juanita area), berry gathering, and hunting. If they practiced agriculture, it may have been of a slash and burn variety, which is needed to produce huckleberries. A geography professor of mine at CWU suggested that the natives in the Northwest practiced that, but there is a lack of evidence for it in the Sammamish Valley. It is generally agreed that theirs was a life of abundance – although some legends suggest there was the possibility of famine.
They did not need to develop agriculture, as this is a near-rainforest environment, and it provided everything they needed. There were probably no population pressures – but this is not due to family planning. Rather, it was probably due to such things like the incessant warfare and the destruction of slaves, of which there were a lot. These tribes generally had a lack of respect for human rights.
They did not use a lot of land, as is evidenced by the large swaths of old-growth timber that was harvested here about 100 years ago.
Right before white man came to the area, about 200 years ago, it is believed that several European viruses, especially smallpox, came thru the area, wiping out much of the population. Thus, it was relatively easily to settle the land, and this may explain the lack of Indian wars in Western Washington.
When white man first came to our valley, it was a densely packed forest, as is to be suggested by any rainforest. The first settler in the area was George Wilson, who settled west of Woodinville, around 1870. Eventually, he settled near downtown Bothell. His crops included apple and cherry orchards.
As we know, the family that settled Woodinville was the Ira Woodin family. The Woodin family did not come straight to Woodinville. This family was amongst the founders of Seattle itself. Ira and his father, M.D. Woodin, came to Seattle via wagon train in 1853. Both he and his father build Seattle’s first tannery. However, Ira married, and in 1871, both he and his wife, Susan, came to the Woodinville area and settled. It is believed that they are the third or fourth settler family to the area. As Seattle had much land to still settle, however, this area was ignored for a long time.
It is believed that for some time, they had a subsistence farm. When they wanted to sell something, in Seattle, Susan had to walk the trail to Juanita (probably the Juanita-Woodinville road) and row to Seattle. The current downtown Woodinville arose from their land.Their son, Frank, went into logging.
As Bothell plays a part in our history, it is worth briefly give it’s history. Bothell was founded by the David Bothell family, who came to Bracketts logging camp in the 1880’s. They lived in the downtown Bothell area, and ran a boarding house. The town was named because so many Bothells lived in Bothell. There was a shingle mill there, and a brick factory there, too, at Blythe park. In fact, ten years ago, several discarded pieces of it’s product could still be found there. And, it’s economy was based upon farming. In the first election, a Beardslee (a family who was to play a role in our Grange later on) had a audacity to run for mayor of Bothell against a Bothell; he of course lost.
Logging was the first industry, even before agriculture came to the area. This was because, of course, that the area needed to be logged before anyone could plant anything. It started out that a farmer would lay claim to a piece of property, drag the timbers down to the river by oxen, and haul them away via raft. This was an industry which was best done in April, May, and June,in competition with any agriculture. Later, small railroads hauled the logs away.
Logging was the dominant industry in the area for a long time. For example, one map of Seattle, circa 1893, shows that much of Queen Anne Hill was not yet logged. I have also seen pictures taken about 1915 showing logs being dragged down 15th Avenue in the U-District. More importantly, there were shingle mill operations in the 1930’s around Cottage Lake and logging operations were around Cottage Lake in the 1920’s Even Bothell was dominated by the lumber industry in the 1920’s.
One interesting footnote is that of gold. Gold Creek is so named because there was gold found there.[It was originally known as Wild Cat Creek. However, by 1890, there were a number of mineral claims on it. It is probable that there was never enough found to be taken out commercially. It is rumored that the last gold was panned out during the depression. In the valley itself, the dominant agriculture industry involved cattle. Much of the valley consisted of dairy farms. In the lower reaches of the valley, there were “ranches,” although they must have been very small, given the narrowness of the valley at that point (the Brackett’s landing area).
The Sammamish Valley is a small locale, however, so there is not a lot of agriculture to fit in there. Some of our neighboring areas specialized in other crops. Everyone knows that Bellevue specialized in strawberries (and blueberries). The Snoqualmie Valley, for a time, was the Hop capital of the state (until a blight came thru).
There were some other crops, too. Helen McMahontold me that the Grange basement, when it was in the Hollywood School House, was used to store the potatoes of Japanese farmers. Our minutes indicate that a popular dessert after meetings was strawberries and cream, so the strawberries may have been grown here in some quantity. There were produce stands in Bothell, as Bothell was self-sufficient, but I have been unable to discern what kinds of crops were sold. There were chicken farms in Bothell and WoodinvilleIn the area where the Agricultural Heritage Garden is to be located, there were six families operating truck farms. The Zante family also established a vegetable garden in the same area. The early Grange records show produce committees indicating the importance of various crops.
While not in the Sammamish Valley, some other crops were grown commercially, though a small number of farmers grew them. Toward the end of this period, starting in the 1910’s, grapes were grown. However, it was not known as the “ideal crop,” and during prohibition, they were often sold for winemaking.
Another group of settlers in the Bellevue area, the Aries Brothers, were able to sell things like peas, wax beans, celery, cauliflowers, etc, and in several large sacs. Many of these farms, however, were subsistence farms, to help supplement what income was earned from logging For evidence of my contention, the menu of our first overseer, Elmer Ross, listed the following: grouse, greens, cabbage, strawberries, peas, potatoes, cauliflower, blackberries, currants, plums, corn, venison, pork, tomatoes, pears, cucumbers, apples, pumpkins, carrots, turnips, mutton, gooseberries, beans, beef, cantaloupes, lettuce, raspberries and prunes “without stetting off their own property except to go hunting;” in addition, wild cranberries were gathered.
Nevertheless, this area had one of the shortest time periods involving agriculture ever. It was settled only by the 1880’s, when the cows came. However, it took some time for it to be logged. It was approximately about 20 years ago when the cows left the area. That leaves only one century for which agriculture was an important industry here. After logging, much of the area remained fallow, and less than 50 years after being logged, some of the surrounding hills were developing subdivisions. A map in the Kingsgate library, probably the “Remember When” map, shows that farms never developed on the Kingsgate plateau, about one mile east of here, indicating no agriculture To the east of here, it is heavily wooded, indicating no farms. Norway Hill in Bothell and the Pikes Peak neighborhood in Bellevue are other areas where there is still evidence of logging equipment as well as the stumps left over from one century ago, indicating no agriculture took place over much of the eastside.
The railroad came up the valley starting in the early 1890’s. Both David Gilman and Peter Kirk had dreams of creating another iron belt – on the Eastside. One was in Kirkland, the other was to create a forge on Sallal prairie near North Bend. The hope was to exploit both iron and coal mines, create the final product, and ship it out. However, their hopes were dashed by the crash of 1893. Nonetheless, Woodinville had a railway for which products could be shipped out.
One note about our locale. The name chosen by our founders was “Sammamish Valley Grange.” Today, such a name I not used to describe the locale of it’s residence – it is simply known as “the Valley,” and the river is simply known as “the slough.” Many residents of the Sammamish Valley may not even know it’s name! In fact, in the popular mind, place names of “Sammamish” are today to be found entirely south of Merrymoor park, and nothing north of there has anything by that name – except our Grange. Bothell and Woodinville today are not connected with that name.
In the early part of the century, however, Sammamish Valley was a name for this area. The minutes indicate a “Sammamish Valley Fair” and a “Queen of the Sammamish Valley.” And, “the slough” acted more like a river, so it could be called the “Sammamish River”. Hence, such a name made sense – especially being the fact that we were the first Grange in the area.
Today, the name for this region is either “Northshore” or “The Eastside.” Our Grange certainly serves these two cultural areas. However, this was not used at the time, although the first use of the word “Eastside” has to do with the following. The “Belleview” Grange (apparently there was one in that town) invited all “east side Granges” to a fiesta they were having – apparently we were considered in this geographical area.

posted by EricMatthew @ 10:21 PM