The Mayor's Private Mill: A Conflict of Interest in Old Seattle
Mayor Henry Yesler, facing accusations of professional misconduct, attempts to lease city-owned facilities to his own timber business under the guise of municipal efficiency.
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.
In relation to the burning of Slaton & Wood, Mayor Henry Yesler, principal owner of the Seattle mill, tendered the use of that establishment to the Slaton firm at a very low rental, to facilitate the taking out of lumber then engaged to by Slaton & Wood. The municipal council has since been requested to act, as high as 15,000 feet of lumber a day is hauled from the mill and wharf, loaded into rafts, and taken to Slaton & Wood's wharf, where it is loaded into the vessels, while lumber is placed on scows and towed to the vessels. All the rafts are moored at the mill and wharf. The Council and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company have not yet agreed to terms. Mr. Day was short in his accounts while acting for eighteen months in charge of the old steam dredger. A warrant was out for his arrest, and Mr. Day gave $2,000 bonds for a few days, for the case to be tried in court, in order that the matter can be settled up so he can get through with it.
“The municipal council has since been requested to act, as high as 15,000 feet of lumber a day is hauled from the mill and wharf.”
This 1885 story of Mayor Henry Yesler leveraging city infrastructure for his private timber business echoes modern-day concerns regarding the influence of corporate power in Seattle's civic affairs. The blurred lines between private industrial interests and public municipal duties remain a persistent theme in the city's political history.
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