Creative Retirement Institute
Ready For A Sampling of Snohomish County Trivia?
By John Nadeau
In the 1860s the economy ran largely on barter and good faith. Locally produced, hand-split shingles were a form of currency.
In 1881 George Brackett petitioned the government for a post office in the community he founded. He requested the name Edmunds, after a politician he admired, but documents came back with an "o" instead. The town has remained Edmonds since.
Henry Hewitt was the link to a group of eastern capitalists who financed his new city. In 1890 he called it "Everett" after the young son of Charles Colby, who was connected to Rockefeller money. A consummate brown-noser, Hewitt named the principal streets after the other investors, including Hoyt and Rucker. The main east-west thoroughfare was, however, Hewitt Ave.
Around the turn of the century, men held all the positions of power in business and government. The state constitution in 1889 allowed women to vote only in school elections. Full suffrage did not come until 1910. Even so, it preceded national suffrage by 10 years.
The earliest documented picture show took place in an Everett theater in April, 1901. The program of short films featured the funeral of Queen Victoria and an unusual montage depicting a baby smoking a cigar.
Snohomish County's Henry Martin Jackson (1912-1983) had a congressional career spanning 43 years and became one of the country's most important politicians. It was his sister Gertrude who nicknamed him "Scoop" as a child, after a comic strip character.
These firecrackers, as the great New Yorker editor Harold Ross used to term them, are from a new book, "Snohomish County: an Illustrated History."
Its principal authors are five local historians: David A, Cameron, Charles P. LeWarne, M. Allan May, Jack C. O'Donnell, and Lawrence E. O'Donnell. About 20 other writers on special topics and an illustrator, Bernie Walker, collaborated to produce the volume, published in 2005.
The book is the foundation for a course, Snohomish County: the Path to the Present, to be offered by the Creative Retirement Institute (CRI) at Edmonds Community College next month. Classes will meet Thursdays, March 8, 15, and 22 from 9:30 a.m. to noon and Tuesday, March 20 from 9:30 a.m. to noon.
The four presenters, Cameron, LeWarne, and the two O'Donnells, will discuss subjects of particular interest to them.
All are well-known Snohomish County historians who have retired from teaching careers. Active in local heritage and preservation organizations, they frequently speak at events for both scholarly and general audiences.
The impetus for this new publication came from David Cameron, who observed there hadn't been a county history published since 1926. His wife, Louise Lindgren, who worked for the county’s planning and development department, provided inspiration through her tales of visitors to the department seeking historical information and occasionally providing it.
Cameron got the ball rolling and became the book's editor. Inception to publication was about a 10-year process.
Want to learn more about the place you call home? This CRI course will provide a few more "firecrackers" and many more topics of greater substance.
For more information about this and other CRI offerings, phone 425-640-1243 or access the web site. Creative Retirement Institute courses are open to all adults over age 50, regardless of educational background.
