On December 22, 1852, the Oregon Territorial Legislature approves creation of King County and names Seattle as the seat of its government. The legislation is sponsored by Col. Isaac Ebey (1818-1857) t...
On December 22, 1852, the Oregon Territorial legislature in Salem creates Pierce County. It does so by partitioning off a portion of Thurston County. Pierce County, along with Island, Jefferson, Kin...
Manuel Lopes (1812-?), Seattle's first Black citizen, arrives in 1852. Lopes is a barber and his barbershop is the village's first Black-owned business. He plays the snare drum, and is known for his g...
On December 29, 1852, the U.S. Congress allocates $20,000 for construction of a military road between Fort Walla Walla on the Columbia River and Steilacoom on Puget Sound. Settlers around Puget Sound ...
On January 15, 1853, Maine natives Isaiah L. and Lorinda (Hopkins) Scammon settle on a 619-acre Donation Land Claim on the south bank of the Chehalis River opposite the mouth of the Wynoochee. Lorinda...
On January 23, 1853, King County's first Justice of the Peace, Dr. David S. Maynard (1808-1873) issues the new county's first (in a manner of speaking) marriage license and presides at the wedding of ...
On March 2, 1853, U.S. President Millard Fillmore signs a bill creating the Territory of Washington out of the Territory of Oregon. The new territory's boundaries are: north, 49 degree North Latitude;...
In late March 1853, a steam-powered sawmill built by pioneer Henry L. Yesler (1810?-1892) is fired up for the first time, fed by logs taken from the heavily wooded areas surrounding the then-tiny sett...
On April 4, 1853, the first Island County Commissioners' meeting takes place in Coveland, the newly designated county seat, located on Penn's Cove northwest of Coupeville on Whidbey Island's east coas...
On May 23, 1853, Arthur Denny (1822-1899), Carson Boren (1824-1912), and Dr. David S. Maynard (1808-1873) file the first plats for the Town of Seattle and establish the present-day street grid in Pion...
On July 15, 1853, Luther B. Collins (1813-1860), David Maurer, and William Heebner lynch Masachie Jim, a Native American whom they accused of murdering his wife. This occurs in King County, probably b...
In July 1853, Captain William C. Talbot (1816-1881) establishes a steam sawmill as the Puget Mill Co. at Port Gamble. Ten men, mostly from Talbot's hometown of East Machias, Maine, construct a bunkhou...
In the summer of 1853, U.S. Army Private Gustavus Sohon (1825-1903) accompanies the first official American expedition to explore the territory between the Snake and the Spokane rivers. He travels as ...
On August 21, 1853, Theodore Winthrop (1828-1861) finishes a tour of Washington Territory at Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. He has toured the territories of California, Oregon, and British Co...
In late summer or fall of 1853, United States Marshall J. Anderson has the responsibility of taking the first census in Washington Territory. He counts a population of 3,965, of which there are 1,682 ...
On September 20, 1853, a group of Upper Yakama Indians led by Owhi (d. 1858) hosts the Longmire-Byles wagon train at what will become known as as Owhi's (or Ow-Hi's) Gardens. The spot in the Wenas Val...
In September or October, 1853, the first wagon train succeeds in crossing rugged Naches Pass through the Cascade Mountains north of Mount Rainier, near where the borders of present-day Yakima, Kittita...
In the fall of 1853, Peter Judson files a Donation Land Claim to 321 acres on Commencement Bay, just north of the settlement around a sawmill built the year before by Nicholas Delin (1817-1882). Judso...
On October 20, 1853, the Duwamish Coal Company is formed to mine coal near the Black River located just south of Lake Washington. This is the first coal mined and shipped from King County.
On October 26, 1853 George Waunch (1812-1882) files a claim on what will be known as Waunch Prairie, just north of present-day Centralia. He has lived on the prairie intermittently for eight years, bu...
On November 28, 1853, Isaac Stevens (1818-1862), the first governor of Washington Territory, issues a proclamation that names Olympia as the capital of the new territory. Olympia, founded in 1850, is ...
In 1854, Seattle's first school, which is a tuition or "select" school (a private school), opens its doors in a house in the village at the corner of Front Street (1st Avenue) and Madison Street. The ...
In 1854, Arthur Denny (1822-1899), one of the founders of Seattle, proposes an amendment at the first session of the territorial legislature "to allow all white females over the age of 18 years to vot...
On March 6, 1854, Dr. Wesley F. Cherry dies of wounds received as the member of a posse sent to Whidbey Island to arrest the killers of William Young. A Native American member of the posse was killed ...