Seattle's First Pastor Recalls a Fragile Village
Rev. David E. Blaine returns to the First M.E. Church to recount the harsh early days of Seattle, including the Indian war years.
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 First M.E. church was beautifully decorated yesterday for an 'old folks' service' in honor of the older members of the congregation. The oldest minister in Seattle, Rev. David E. Blaine, who was the first pastor of the church in the early days, preached an old-fashioned sermon. Mr. Blaine was born in 1824 and came to Seattle in 1853. At that time, it was a little village having about twenty houses, little square, roughly built, unpainted homes, scattered in a small district bounded by Second street on the east and Madison street on the north, outside of which all was dense forest. There were about one hundred white inhabitants and between 200 and 300 Indians. Mr. Blaine erected the first church building in Seattle, which still exists on Cherry street, between Second and Third streets. During the Indian troubles in the winter of 1855-6, Mrs. Blaine and her husband took refuge on the warship Decatur. Mrs. Blaine vividly recalls the shelling of the woods by the guns of the Decatur.
“Outside of which all was dense forest.”
Rev. Blaine’s memories capture the extreme scarcity of early Seattle, describing a world that has been completely paved over. His reflection on the town's small size reminds us how rapidly the city expanded from a tiny outpost into a major metropolis.
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