Seattle Bids Farewell to Its Founding Father
As Henry Yesler, the man who built the city's first sawmill, is laid to rest, Princess Angeline and the city's pioneers reflect on the rapid transformation of their frontier home.
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.
The remains of the late Henry L. Yesler were laid to rest by his family and old pioneer friends yesterday. The Pioneers' Association attended in a body, and many members of the Women's Home Society joined to honor his many benefactions. Of the thousands who mourn, few feel the loss as keenly as Princess Angeline. Despite her age, she expressed deep sorrow, recalling how Yesler and her father, Chief Seattle, were good friends. She noted that the early days, when only a few white men lived here, have long passed, and the newcomers do not share the bonds of the old settlers. Yesler's own recollections, recorded years prior, detail the primitive labor of the early sawmill, where logs were moved by handspike and men struggled against the isolation and the risks of the Indian War. Even in his later years, Yesler remained a local force—a man of strong will, robust health, and legendary generosity, whose death marks the final closing of the city's pioneer chapter.
“The white people who have come here of late years do not know me; they are not like the old settlers.”
Henry Yesler was the titan of early Seattle, and his sawmill essentially created the city's first industrial base. The story of Angeline, the daughter of Chief Seattle, living in a small shanty while the white power structure consolidated its wealth, highlights the profound displacement and unequal power dynamics that defined Seattle's founding era.
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