Hill's Hand in the Oregon Improvement Company Fight
A Seattle terminal fight turns on proxies and a railroad magnate, as the ex-president of the company says J. J. Hill's influence decided the election.
W. H. Starbuck, ex-president of the Oregon Improvement Company, was interviewed in St. Paul on his way East, and stated that the election of the Smith ticket was entirely due to the influence of J. J. Hill, of the Great Northern, who will now secure control of the company's Seattle terminals. Mr. Starbuck stated that as soon as he and his friends found out the way the things were going they gave up. They had the Lord Brassey and the Matschopff proxies, and went into the fight confident of victory, but found that a large number of proxies given them originally had been revoked and were in the hands of the Smith men.
“They had the Lord Brassey and the Matschopff proxies, and went into the fight confident of victory, but found that a large number of proxies given them originally had been revoked and were in the hands of the Smith men.”
In 1895 Seattle's waterfront was the prize in a proxy war between railroad magnates. Today the same terminals are container ports and cruise piers, but the question of who controls the land under them — and who profits — is just as contested.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.