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Parcels on the Go

On August 28, 1907, two teenage messengers named Jim Casey and Claude Ryan established their own delivery business in Seattle, which they operated out of the basement of a Pioneer Square saloon. Funded with a $100 loan from Casey's uncle, their American Messenger Service proved to be a huge success, and has since grown to become United Parcel Service – the largest package-delivery company in the world.

Casey and Ryan began their business at an opportune time. Seattle in 1907 was a rapidly growing metropolis. Earlier that year, the city had more than doubled in size following annexations of West Seattle, Ballard, South Park, Southeast Seattle, Columbia City, and Ravenna Park. Downtown Seattle was also experiencing a boom, and Pike Place Market opened just days before the messenger service began.

Within five years, Casey and Ryan's company employed 100 messengers and had purchased its first delivery vehicle – a Model T Ford. By 1919 it had expanded to San Francisco under the name UPS, and by 1930 covered the whole West Coast and New York City. The company eventually moved its headquarters to California, then to New York, then to Atlanta, but members of the Casey family became generous philanthropists in their hometown through the creation of Casey Family Programs, a nationally operating foundation based in Seattle that focuses on foster care and child welfare.

Fires Down Below

On August 24, 1894, fire broke out in the Oregon Improvement Co. coal mine at Franklin, a small coal town southeast of Black Diamond. The men working below rushed to the main shaft, desperate to escape the smoke and flames. Some made it out, others didn't. In the end, 37 miners suffocated in King County's worst coal mining disaster, second only in the state to an explosion and fire in the Roslyn mines that killed 45 men two years earlier.

King County's first coal mine was established near Renton in 1853. Ten years later, larger and more accessible deposits were discovered in Newcastle. Soon rail lines were built to transport coal to Seattle and beyond, and by 1872 coal mining had superseded logging as the county's main industry.

Farther inland, more coal was discovered, which led to increased development of towns like Issaquah, Bayne, Durham, Elk Coal, Danville, and a number of communities in east Pierce County.

But the increase in production came with a price. Fires and explosions took the lives of many workers. Four died in Newcastle in 1894. Eleven died in McKay in 1902. Seven died in Black Diamond in 1907. Ten died in Roslyn in 1909. Sixteen died in Black Diamond in 1910. Thirty-one died in Ravensdale in 1915. And countless others died alone in accidents down in the dark depths.