A Pioneer Stove Merchant Survives Fire, Panic, and a Receivership
Z.C. Miles arrived in 1870, rebuilt after the Great Seattle Fire, and joined forces with a young executive to create a coast-wide jobbing giant in stoves and electric supplies.
This firm takes in the Northwest Fixture Company. The united concern is now the largest jobbing house of stoves and electric supplies on the coast.
In 1869 an ox train crossed the continent with a numerous company of young men for the growing West. At that time little was known of Puget Sound, so Mr. Z. C. Miles, who was one of the party, headed for San Francisco, thinking to make that his home. Arriving there in the fall, he soon learned of the settlements of the North, which seemed to offer especial inducements to young men of energy and grit. He seemed most favorably impressed with the reports from Seattle, which was then a village of about 800 people.
After purchasing a supply of goods he took a sailing vessel — then the only means of transportation — and arrived in Seattle early in 1870. Then a new firm was started, which was destined to become one of the largest and most respected houses in the Northwest. Waddell & Miles was the title, and for many years the faces of these two men were familiar to the "old timers" in Seattle.
Upon the death of Mr. Waddell, Mr. Miles continued the business as the Z. C. Miles Co., and enlarged and extended it up to the time of the great Seattle fire, when he saw the entire stock wiped out in a few hours.
The ruins of his stock were not cold before the company was again doing business, and soon the large corrugated iron building at 78-84 Yesler Way was erected by the late Henry L. Yesler for the company. Here the firm did an immense business and was most prominent in the rebuilding of Seattle.
The panic coming on after the rebuilding caused the failure of many of the firm's best customers. This, with the immense loss in the big fire, caused the company serious financial difficulties and necessitated the appointment of a friendly receivership. The hard times continuing, the difficulty grew worse, and many then expected to see the firm's business wound up. In this condition Mr. Miles called to his assistance a young man somewhat new to the Seattle public, but a man of keen insight and great executive ability, Mr. A. L. Piper.
“The ruins of his stock were not cold before the company was again doing business.”
Seattle's booster narrative has long celebrated resilience after disaster, but this business profile shows the less glamorous side: fire losses, a post-rebuilding panic, and a receivership that required outside management. The story rhymes with today's cycles of downtown recovery and consolidation, when local institutions remake themselves under new leadership.
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