The Price of a Home: How Seattle’s Real Estate Market Was Built on Death and Debt
In June 1876, the probate courts of King County were awash with estate sales. As families grieved, their homes—like that of C.C. Teery—were auctioned off to pay debts, revealing a housing market where survival depended on liquidating one's past.
PROBATE NOTICE.
IN THE PROBATE COURT OF KING COUNTY, Washington Territory. In the matter of the estate of Mrs. Mary Jane Gilliam, deceased.
Notice is hereby given that by virtue of an order of the Probate Court of King County, Washington Territory, made and entered of record on the 3d day of June, 1876, directing the sale of the following described real estate of said deceased;
I will sell at Public Auction to the highest bidder for cash, gold coin of the United States, to be paid day of sale, the premises situated in the city of Seattle, known as the residence of the late C. C. Teery, said premises being more particularly described as Lots Five, Six, Seven and Eight (5, 6, 7 & 8) in Block Thirty-two (32) of C. D. Burns's addition to the town [now city] of Seattle.
Sale to take place on Friday of the 14th day of July, at the hour of ten o'clock A.M., said sale to be subject to confirmation by the said Probate Court.
C. H. HANFORD, Administrator de bonis non, estate of Mrs. M. J. Gilliam, deceased. Dated June 6th, 1876.
Probate Notice.
IN THE PROBATE COURT OF KING COUNTY, Washington Territory. In the matter of the estate of George A. King, deceased.
C. C. Lewis, the administrator of the said estate having this day filed in said Court his petition that his final accounts as such administrator have been settled in said Court, and there remains a balance of said estate in his hands for distribution among the heirs of the deceased, and praying that an order be made distributing said estate among the heirs of deceased;
Now, therefore, it is ordered by the Court that all persons interested in the said estate be and appear in this Court, in the office of this Court in Seattle, in said county, on Saturday, the fifteenth day July, A. D. 1876, then and there to show cause why a decree distributing said estate should not be made, and why the whole of the residue of said estate should not be given by such decree to Emma G. King, widow of deceased.
Ordered further that a copy of this order be published for five successive weeks before said time of hearing in the WEEKLY INTELLIGENCER, a weekly newspaper published in said Seattle, and served on the County Auditor of the county of King.
Dated June 3d, 1876. W. M. YORKE, Judge.
This page from 1876 captures the brutal intersection of grief and real estate in early Seattle. The probate notices for C.C. Teery and George A. King show that homeownership was precarious; death often triggered immediate liquidation to settle debts, turning family homes into auction lots within months. This mirrors modern anxieties about housing stability, where economic shocks can quickly turn a home from an asset into a liability.
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