Near the end of 1859, a year full of stabilizing events in the Pacific Northwest, Charles Darwin's revolutionary book, On the Origin of Species, is released to the book trade in Great Britain. Althou...
On November 30, 1859, amidst the bustling trade of the "Golden Age of Sail," a Schooner called the Black Diamond is apprehended while docking at Port Townsend on return from Vancouver Island. After fa...
On December 7, 1859, a post office is established at Pinkney City (or Pinkneyville), a raw frontier town that has sprung up across Mill Creek from military Fort Colville in what was then Spokane Count...
On December 20, 1859, the Washington Territorial Legislature approves the first charter for an institution of higher educational in the territory. The charter is for Whitman Seminary, a coeducational...
On December 29, 1859, the Washington Territorial Legislature passes an act to create and organize the County of Clickitat. (In 1869 the spelling will be changed to Klickitat.) Only about 15 non-Indi...
On January 4, 1860, the Territorial Auditor submitted to the Washington Territorial Legislative Assembly a report (dated December 31, 1859) on the numbers of white persons, horses, hogs, acres of pota...
In 1860, a government land survey names Mercer's Island for the first time. Later shortened to Mercer Island, the island is named for Thomas Mercer (1813-1898), an early pioneer who suggested the name...
In about 1860, Americans John Utz (b. 1824) and Hiram Francis Smith (1829-1893) settle in the Okanogan Valley near Lake Osoyoos. They are the first white residents of the area and although Utz may hav...
On January 16, 1860, the Washington Territorial Legislature passes an act incorporating the city of Port Townsend. The settlement in Jefferson County at the northeast corner of the Olympic Peninsula b...
The 8th federal census, taken in 1860, is the first to formally include Washington Territory (established in 1853), although the 1850 count had estimated the population north of the Columbia River by ...
In the fall of 1860, the Schwabacher brothers, including Louis (1837-1900), Sigmund (1841-1917), and Abraham (1838-1909), open a store in the small town of Walla Walla on the corner of Main and 3rd st...
On November 22, 1860, news reaches Olympia, Washington, that preliminary returns from the November 6, 1860, election show that Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) is ahead in 18 of 33 states and will most lik...