The Auction of a Widow’s Legacy: Seattle’s First Real Estate Sale
In May 1882, the Probate Court ordered the liquidation of Mary A. Smith’s estate, marking one of the earliest recorded public land auctions in Seattle’s history.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Administrator's Sale of Estate.
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that in pursuance of an order of the Probate Court of the county of King and Territory of Washington, made on the twenty-second day of May, A.D. 1882, in the matter of the estate of Mary A. Smith, deceased, the undersigned, the administrator of the said estate, will sell at Public Auction, to the highest bidder for cash of the United States of America, (and subject to continuation by said Probate Court, on Monday, June 3rd, 1882, at the hour of eleven o'clock, a.m., in front of the courthouse of said Probate Court, in the city of Seattle, in said county of King,) all the title and interest and estate of the said Mary A. Smith, deceased, in and to all certain lots, pieces and parcels of land lying and being in said county of King and Territory of Washington, and particularly described as follows, to-wit:
The Edmund Carr Donation Claim Certificate No. 412, notification No. 757, being lots six (6) to ten (10) inclusive in section seven (7) township twenty-five (25) north range three (3) east, except so much (7) acres off the western end of said lot beginning at the northwest corner of said lot and running thence to the southwest corner, thence east for 60 chains to enclose seven (7) acres by running north to Salmon Bay, as described in deed by Mary E. Phelan to Andrew Nelson and the northeast quarter of the northwest quarter and lots No. one (1) and two (2) of section fourteen (14) in township twenty-five (25) north of range three (3) east, and containing 150 acres, more or less.
Terms and conditions of sale, cash, lawful money of the United States, to be paid this day of continuation by the said Probate Court. Deed at the expense of the purchaser.
HENRY A. SMITH, Administrator of the estate of Mary A. Smith, deceased.
SEATTLE, MAY 22, 1882.
The Edmund Carr donation claim is all rich bottom land, easily cleared, well watered, has twenty acres under fence; has a house, barn and bearing orchard, and has three-fourths of a mile frontage on Salmon Bay. It adjoins H. A. Smith's donation claim on the west and is one mile from the water front off Elliott's or Seattle Bay. Parties desiring to see the property can do so at any time by calling on H. A. Smith at Smith's Corp.
This 1882 notice captures Seattle in its territorial infancy, where land ownership was still being formalized through Donation Claims and probate courts. The sale of Mary A. Smith’s 150-acre estate near Salmon Bay highlights how early real estate transactions were often tied to family estates and the rapid privatization of public or communal lands that would later become prime waterfront property.
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