University of Washington graduates first person, a woman, in July 1876.

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In the summer of 1876, Clara McCarty (1858-1929) is the first person to graduate from the University of Washington in Seattle. McCarty becomes a teacher and the first superintendent of the Tacoma school system.

Clara McCarty's parents arrived in Washington by wagon through Naches Pass and settled in Sumner, but fled to Steilacoom during the Indian War. Clara was born in Steilacoom. She received a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Washington in July 1876.

The historian of King County Clarence Bagley lists a Miss McCarty as one of two teachers at South School in September 1876. The South school was one of the three public schools in Seattle. This was undoubtedly Clara McCarty. She married John H. Wilt, and ultimately became the first superintendent of the Tacoma School System. University of Washington student dormitory McCarty Hall is named after her.

Clara McCarty's graduation took place 15 years after the University opened. It took another four years for the second person to graduate. By 1886, 25 years after the University opened, 15 students had graduated.

The University was located in downtown Seattle at the southeast corner of 4th Avenue and University Street. In the early years it served as a primary and secondary school as well as a college. It moved to its present (2000) campus in northeast Seattle in 1894.

Sources:
Thomas Prosch, "A Chronological History of Seattle from 1850 to 1897" (typescript, dated 1900-1901, Special Collections, University of Washington Library), 241; University of Washington Alumni Association, Three-Quarters of a Century at Washington (Seattle: University of Washington Alumni Association, 1941), 9; The Seattle Times, January 31, 1929; Clarence Bagley, History of Seattle Vol. 1 (Chicago: The S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1916), 166; Charles M. Gates, The First Century at the University of Washington, 1861-1961 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1961), 36. Also see the McCarty family listed as Seattle residents in 1870 U.S. Census and 1871 Territorial Census for King County, Washington Territory ed. by Marjorie Rhodes (Seattle: Marjorie Rhodes, 1993), 30.

By Greg Lange, November 05, 1998

Clara McCarty (1858-1929)