Seattle's Canal Boosters Passed the Hat—and the City's Elite Wrote Checks
A subscription drive for the Lake Washington waterway reported $9,305 in a day, with $1,000 gifts from Haller and the Cards and $500 from Minnie Yesler and Judge Hoyt.
Subscriptions to the subsidy of the Seattle and Lake Washington Waterway Company continued to come in yesterday. The new contributions included: Col. Granville O. Haller, $1,000; J. C. and Mary S. Card, $1,000; Mrs. Minnie L. Yesler, $500; Judge John P. Hoyt, $500; W. W. Wardell, $250; Nordhoff & Co. of the Bon Marché, $250; and the employees of the G. A. Newhall Company—eleven in number, with W. D. McCarthy as manager—$300. The day's total was $9,305, bringing the grand total to $133,305. There were also numerous smaller subscriptions, ranging from $10 to $200, from business houses and individuals.
As an indication of the work of the 'missionaries,' it may be noted that Dr. A. W. Sifton has brought in $1,700; T. F. Roberts, $1,200; William Copestick of Latona, $500; and S. L. Bowman, $300. M. M. Teater is working energetically, and A. Armstrong is doing good service, having secured quite a number of notes at different times.
The committee has issued a supplemental list of subscribers with about 500 additional names. Copies can be had by calling at the waterway company's office.
“The subsidy yesterday made a bound of $9,305 and brought the grand total to $133,305.”
The Lake Washington Ship Canal is now part of Seattle's map, but in 1895 it was a private subscription campaign backed by prominent names and employees' small pledges. The drive shows how infrastructure often arrived through a mix of private capital, civic boosterism and public subsidy—a recipe still recognizable in Seattle's big projects.
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