Fairhaven Celebrates Its Official Birth

For the last five or six weeks, little else has been talked of except the incorporation of the city. On Friday morning, the welcome news arrived that the county commissioners had granted Fairhaven exactly what she asked for. The fight over the limits had been long and bitter, with Fairhaven arrayed against both Whatcom and Sehome. As soon as the news spread, the Chamber of Commerce organized an enthusiastic celebration. By four o'clock, Fairhaven's first street parade was forming, including a brass band, fifty mounted escorts, the city fire department, wagons loaded with water pipe, and over one hundred laborers from the city water works. Governor Black and other dignitaries were in attendance. At the Prosser House, Nelson Bennett spoke to the crowd, congratulating them and urging them to lay aside personal feelings that might cause discord. He reflected on his own past, saying, 'I recall the time when I, too, carried a dinner pail to and from my daily labor.' Following the parade, bonfires illuminated the horizon, and the air was filled with the roar of anvils and celebratory fire.