- When Henry Yesler (1810?-1892) arrived in Seattle in October 1852, the tiny settlement had very little going for it other than the aspirations of the few men and women who had arrived about nine months earlier. Yesler would bring them all that was needed to forge a viable community – jobs, income, commerce, and hope. Starting in March 1853, his steam sawmill on the waterfront employed almost all of Seattle’s white settlers and a number of Native Americans. Many settlers also sold Yesler logs, taken from their claims or from land yet unclaimed. The following year, Yesler brought commerce to Seattle by building its first wharf. He enlarged and strengthened it over the years, and the wharf remained a major hub of the town’s maritime commerce into the late 1880s. It was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1889, but Yesler quickly rebuilt a large section of it. He sold the wharf in 1890, and in 1901 it was demolished and replaced by two large wharves with warehouses, later designated Piers 50 and 51, which for decades were used by the Alaska Steamship Company. Those endured until 1982, when they were removed for the convenience of the state’s ferry system.