The Siege of Seattle: A Memory of 1856
On the Fourth of July, 1892, Seattle reflected on the narrow brush with total destruction during the battle of 1856, guided by those who lived through the smoke of the Decatur's cannons.
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.
One of the most interesting floats in the procession yesterday was that of Lowman & Hanford. It consisted of a cylinder on which were several paintings, including the battle of Seattle. The picture is the first accurate representation of the village of Seattle as it was on the day of the memorable combat with the Indians in 1856. The painting was based on suggestions from Clarence Hanford, assisted by Judge C. H. Hanford, A. A. Denny, and Henry L. Yesler. The scene shows the settlement on a small peninsula back of a marsh that has since been filled. Yesler's mill stands at the water's edge, and a wooden stockade stretches between two blockhouses. The Indians in the foreground are positioned on the hillside near Fourth and Cherry. The battle occurred on January 26, 1856, after a thousand Klickitats had gathered on the east side of Lake Washington. The sloop-of-war Decatur, anchored in the harbor, saved the settlement by firing its howitzers at a tannery the Indians were pillaging. The firing lasted until 10 p.m., leaving two settlers, Milton J. Holgate and Robert Wilson, dead. For years afterward, soldiers' spent shells would be dug up by residents while gardening.
“No man who sees the town now could recognize anything in the picture, except perhaps the point on which West Seattle stands.”
The 'marsh' filled in to create the current Pioneer Square district and the downtown waterfront was once a defensive barrier. Today, the area is the city's historic heart, and residents still occasionally uncover artifacts from that era during modern construction—a physical reminder of the violent displacement that paved the way for the city's industrial growth.
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