The Last of the Pioneer Mariners
Captain Edward Harrington, a self-made man who helped forge early Puget Sound maritime routes, dies at Oak Harbor.
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.
Capt. Edward Harrington died at his residence at Oak Harbor, Whidby Island, on Wednesday, Jan. 17th, aged 64 years. He had been partially paralyzed for a long time and had been confined to the house about a year. Capt. Harrington was a native of Cape Breton, P.Q., and left his home while quite young to follow the sea. About the year 1865 he arrived on Puget Sound, and soon after associated himself in business with C.C. Phillips. Together they carried the Government express from Whatcom to Olympia, in a small boat, in the days when steamers were few and far between. They afterward run the same route with the schooner Eclipse, and finally built the schooner Growler, so well known by the old settlers. Harrington & Phillips also carried on a general merchandise business at Oak Harbor and Coupeville for a number of years. In 1867, Capt. Harrington was elected to the Territorial Legislature as joint councilman for the counties of Island, Whatcom and Snohomish. A self-made man who had struggled with adversity, his sympathies were always extended to the unfortunate and afflicted, and his heart and purse were ever open to all who might be in sickness or distress. In the death of our old-time friend we lose one of those who truly merit the name of pioneer, a class who are gradually passing away, leaving us only the memory of their many virtues.
“A self-made man who had struggled with adversity, his sympathies were always extended to the unfortunate and afflicted, and his heart and purse were ever open to all who might be in sickness or distress.”
Oak Harbor and the surrounding Whidbey Island communities look very different today than the days when local pioneers navigated the Sound by schooner. The maritime routes Harrington pioneered were essential to the development of early Seattle and the territory, marking the transition from a wilderness outpost to a settled region.
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