History of Bellevue, Washington: 1774

[Early History]-[1774-1860]-[Civil War - 1889]-[1890-1913]
[WWI-1938]-[WWII-1974]-[1975-1990]-[1991-2005]-[2006-2020]

[ 1774 ] - [ 1860]
WA Territory to State

The first European record of a landing on the Washington coast occurred in 1774 by Spaniard Juan José Pérez Hernández, the first European known to sight, examine, name, and record the islands near present-day British Columbia, Canada.

“Seattle” is an Anglicization of the name Si'ahl (born ~1780),

a famous Duwamish (dxʷdəwʔabš) Chief.

(see: Sealth, Seathl, or See-ahth.)

"Seattle's" mother Sholeetsa was dxʷdəwʔabš and

his father Shweabe, was chief of the the Suquamish tribe.

Allegedly "Seattle" was born at his mother's dxʷdəwʔabš village of Stukw

on the Black River, in what is now the city of Kent.

The Lewis and Clark Expedition from August 31, 1803, to September 25, 1806, also known as the Corps of Discovery Expedition, was the United States expedition to cross the newly acquired western portion of the country. President Thomas Jefferson commissioned the expedition after the Louisiana Purchase (1803). The Corps sighted Pacific Ocean for the first time November 1805.

Chief Leschi was born ~1808 into the Mishalpam (″Mashel River people″) or Mica'l Band of Upper (Mountain) Nisqually as son of a Nisqually Chief and a Klickitat (X̣ʷáɬx̣ʷaypam - "Prairie People") woman of the Yakama (Mámachatpam). Their primary village site was Basha'labsh on Mashel River near present La Grande, Washington in what is today southern Pierce County.

By the Treaty of 1818, following from the War of 1812, Great Britain and the United States established the 49th parallel as the border west to the Continental Divide of the Rocky mountains, and agreed to joint control and occupancy of Oregon Country.

When the Hudson's Bay Company established posts in what is now Western Washington in the 1830s, they brought cattle raised on the shrub steppe east of the mountains over Snoqualmie Pass.

With the help of local indigenous people who knew the pass, they drove cattle to Fort Nisqually on Puget Sound. Nisqually House was built in April 1832; In May 1833 began the construction of a permanent fort. Today it is a living history museum located in Tacoma, Washington, USA, within the boundaries of Point Defiance Park.

Around 1844 land began to be settled around Puget Sound by European-Americans,
as settlements had already began in areas around the soon-to-be Washington Territory.

Settlers followed wagon trails into the Northwest that led to the Willamette Valley
in today's Oregon, via the Columbia River Gorge.

As that valley began to fill with farms, some settlers turned north to the Cowlitz Prairie and Puget Sound.
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Settlers at Olympia and Steilacoom pled for the Federal government to develop a road over the Cascades to Puget Sound.

The "District of Vancouver" was created July 27th, 1844 to include all U.S. lands north of the Cowlitz River, including British Columbia and the Olympic Peninsula.

On June 15th, 1846 the United States Senate approved the present boundary
between the U.S. and Canada at the 49th Parallel.
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On July 4th, 1851, complaints were brought by citizens to Olympia.

Settler Hugh Goldsborough read the Declaration of Independence,

and lawyer John Chapman referred to a future state of Columbia.

Chapman instigated an election of delegates to attend a convention at Cowlitz Landing.

The first meeting of settlers began on August 29th, 1851 at Cowlitz Landing
to draft a petition to Congress to create a new territory north of the Columbia River.

Seth Catlin, a former Illinois legislator was elected president of the convention.

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November 13, 1851, 24 Americans - including the Denny, Boren, Terry and Bell families - camp at Alki Point, encountering native people and Hudson's Bay Company employees.

November 25th, 1852 a group of prominent settlers from the Cowlitz and Puget Sound regions met at the "Monticello Convention" in present-day Longview to draft a petition to the United States Congress calling for a separate territory north of the Columbia River.

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On December 22nd, 1852
King County in Washington was formed
out of territory within larger Thurston County
by the Oregon Territory legislature.

(King County, Washington, c.1888)
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King County was named for William Rufus DeVane King,
a Democratic senator from Alabama elected U.S. vice president the year of his death in 1853.
King, pre-civil war, owned slaves and supported a pro-slavery position, arguing that the Constitution protected the institution of slavery in both the Southern states and the federal territories.
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In 1853, several more settlers moved to a site on Elliott Bay to establish a permanent town–
since Chief "Seattle" had proved so friendly and welcoming,
the settlers named the tiny new settlement in his honor.

On January 11th, 1853 Seattle was made the " county seat"; an administrative center,
or "seat" of government (or capital city of a county or civil parish).

On January 25th, 1853, a bill to establish Washington Territory (H.R. 348) was reported in the U.S. House of Representatives during the 32nd United States Congress by Representative Charles E. Stuart from Michigan.

Map of Washington Territory

On March 2nd 1853, signed by President Millard Fillmore,

the Territory of Washington was an organized incorporated territory of the United States.

In 1854, Thomas Mercer, of the 3 Mercer Brothers, was appointed one of King County's first commissioners.

Judge Thomas Mercer

At Seattle's first Fourth of July picnic in 1854 Thomas suggested

the biggest local lake be called Lake Washington after George Washington

to replace the Duwamish tribe's Lushootseed language name, Xacuabš

(hah-choo-AHBSH or hah-chu-AHBSH) ("great-amount-of-water").

The smaller lake, XáXu7cHoo (or 'Ha-AH-Chu') ("small great-amount-of-water") in Lushootseed,

Thomas desired to rename as Lake Union -- with a

proposal for the union of Lake Washington, with Puget Sound -- via an idea for ship canals.

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In 1854, Snoqualmie Chief Patkanim assisted U.S. Army Captain George McClellan (later a Civil War major general) in exploring Snoqualmie Pass as part of the Pacific Railroad Surveys

There were many "treaties" made in Washington Territory:
https://goia.wa.gov/resources/treaties

Quinault Treaty, 1856
Treaty of Medicine Creek, 1854
Treaty of Neah Bay, 1855
Treaty of Point Elliott, 1855
Treaty of Point No Point, 1855
Treaty with Walla Walla 1855
Treaty with the Yakama, 1855

Signed January 22nd 1855 at "Muckl-te-oh" or Point Elliott (now Mukilteo), and ratified March 8th and April 11th 1859, the Treaty of Point Elliot of 1855 is a 15 article settlement treaty signed between the United States government and native leaders of the Puget Sound region.

Signatories to the Treaty of Point Elliot included: