Life and Sport at a Puget Sound Mill Town
Dispatch from Port Gamble captures the rhythm of mill life, local politics, and a crushing victory on the baseball diamond.
Port Gamble, Aug. 28, 1876. Sickness still prevails—mostly among the adult population—in the form of cholera morbus. Cyrus Walker, Esq., leaves today for his old home. The great unwashed, invincible, unterrified Democracy of Kitsap meet in conclave today to select delegates to the Vancouver Convention. The base ball organization of Gamble is now complete. Yesterday a match game was played by the 'Five Gang Nine' and the 'Gamble Nine,' resulting in a crushing victory for the former. After the game, the club visited the Teekalet and 'took something.' As I close these items, the mills have shut down, the steam whistles are sounding, and the shipping is gaily decorated as a parting salute to Cyrus Walker and John Seavy on their departure.
“The mills have 'shut down,' the steam whistles are sounding; the shipping is gaily decorated... and the sound of cannon can be heard far off in the forest all of which is a parting salute.”
Port Gamble was a classic company town, and this report illustrates the social ecosystem created by the mill industry. The mention of 'cholera morbus' and local baseball rivalries provides a vivid snapshot of 1870s life on the Kitsap Peninsula before it was fully connected to the rest of the state.
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