The Business Academy on the Frontier
A look at the professional aspirations of Snohomish in 1888, where ambitious students flocked to learn the complexities of commerce, bookkeeping, and mercantile law.
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 Snohomish Business College is intended to impart a practical and useful education to young men and ladies who desire to qualify themselves for any walk of life. The necessity for a thorough, practical, and scientific business education is felt and recognized in this mercantile community. The college provides instruction in all branches of commercial activity, including bookkeeping, business ethics, political economy, and commercial geography. The student is taken through the entire routine of business, from single to double-entry bookkeeping, and becomes familiar with the various forms of accounting practiced in our leading commercial houses. A course of education, in fact, is no less important to a mechanic or farmer or manufacturer than to the merchant; it would make farming or manufacturing pay better if the manager were not merely a farmer or manufacturer, but a competent business man. Tuition for the six-month day course is $50.00, payable in advance in U.S. gold coin.
“A course of education is no less important to a mechanic or farmer or manufacturer than to the merchant.”
While Snohomish today is a mix of tech commuters and historic tourism, the 1888 drive for 'practical and scientific' vocational training echoes our modern reliance on specialized trade and business certifications. The emphasis on turning farmers into 'competent business men' highlights the era's transition from an extractive frontier economy to a more formalized, bureaucratic one.
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