The passing of Edward Eldridge, a Whatcom pioneer
A sailor-turned-settler who played a pivotal role in the early development of Bellingham and Whatcom County dies at 73.
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.
Hon. Edward Eldridge died of paresis this afternoon at 3 o'clock, aged 73. Eldridge was born in St. Andrews, Scotland, in 1819. As a lad of 13, he went to sea, following the life of a sailor until the discovery of gold in California in 1850. Landing in San Francisco from the ship Tonquin, he joined the gold rush to Yreka. In May 1852, he moved to Puget Sound with Capt. Renton, who was bringing up machinery to establish a sawmill at Bellingham Bay. He located at Whatcom, where the population consisted of only twelve men. His wife, Theresa Lappin, was the first white female to settle in Whatcom County. Eldridge took up a donation claim of a half-section of land, served in the Indian War, and commanded a company guarding the local coal mines. A prominent public servant, he served in the legislature and presided over conventions nominating territorial candidates for Congress. He leaves an estate worth $500,000.
“His foresightedness did not forsake him in business and everything that he took hold of prospered.”
Eldridge's life mirrors the rapid transformation of the Pacific Northwest from a rugged resource frontier to a settled territory. His donation land claim, like many early settlement properties in Bellingham, became the foundation for massive private wealth in the subsequent decades of urban growth.
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