- Washington Territorial Legislature incorporates the City of Steilacoom on April 22, 1854. (historylink.org)
On April 22, 1854, Steilacoom becomes the first town in Washington to be incorporated by the new Washington Territorial Legislature. Originally two separate and competing towns founded in 1851 by Lafayette Balch (1825-1862) and John B. Chapman (1797-1877), they are combined into one by the incorporating legislation. Initially Steilacoom grows rapidly as an industrial and economic center. Despite its promising start, railroad construction in the 1870s will bypass the town, and its growth will slow as Tacoma becomes Pierce County’s main industrial and economic center. Steilacoom will eventually evolve into a commuter town surrounded by encroaching suburban development. Local efforts to preserve historic buildings and sites in Steilacoom beginning in the 1960s will lead to the town being named one of the state’s first designated historic districts.
- Alfred A. Plummer and Charles Bachelder settle on the site of future Port Townsend on April 24, 1851. (historylink.org)
On April 24, 1851, Alfred A. Plummer (1822-1883) and Charles Bachelder land on a beach at the mouth of Port Townsend, an extensive bay at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula in what is now Jefferson County. They immediately file land claims and begin building a cabin. Plummer and Bachelder are the first non-Indians to settle in the area called Kah Tai by the Clallam Indians whose land it is. Six months later they join with two newer arrivals, Loren B. Hastings (1814-1881), and Francis W. Pettygrove (d. 1887) to establish the new town of Port Townsend, which they name for the bay.
- Judge Strong, who was one of the territorial judges, always came to the post on his trips to hold court. He lived on the Columbia. Starling was the Indian agent. Moses was collector of the post, and lived at Olympia. Goldsborough, Mason, Simmons, in fact, all of the first pioneers were seen at the post frequently during the few months of my tour of duty. Steilacoom was the place where the vessels landed, and it was called a city, although there were only a few houses. Dr. Webber had a store and dealt in lumber. Mr. John M. Chapman had taken the best of the ground for the town and Lafayette Balch had taken a claim adjoining to the north, and was in partnership, too, with Webber.