The Northwest enterprise. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1931-1952, 1937-11-26
OUT OF THE NORTHWEST
BY TED BROWNE


10 record of pioneer washington
IS complete without litz mention rs rs
of william Cross. called the largest
man IN the state, because he tipped
the scales at four hundred pounds
No man in Americas history had a
more eoiorful career. Born in
washington D. c. IN 1884, Big
Biil.n ar he was niek-named, served
in the 6. S. war sloop Vincent, was
with this sloop IN her artic expedi-
ton, the Indian Ocean, the sea of
Japn,l. he was with Commander
Perry when the treaty was made,
and after serving three years was
honorably discharged at San Fran
cisco. A number OF years Of his
life were spent in the mining dis
trict around Montezuma, lee ing
there when the whites, most Of
whom were Southerners, because
inoensed over Californias being
admitted to the union as a free
state, and by threatened violence,
ran all the Negroes. Mexicans, and
cinnamon out of that section. Gross
came to the Sound IN 1858. For a
long time he served as steward on
the old steamer Constitution,
permanently settling in Seattle in
the early sixties, where he entered
the restaurant business. He owned
and operated the second hotel in
the city Of Seattle. The hotel was
known as sOur House." His son,
George Gross, became pound
master for the city. having served
as clerk in the office of the county
treasurer.
Such were the early beginnings
OF black pioneer stock in Washing
ton state. They have long passed
on. these pioneers. but the rich.
exciting stories which their de-
scendants tell about them would
fill pages and pages of Americas
unwritten history. These brave,
dusky souls not only lived but they
actually made history Like their
Nordic comrades, they took theirs
and their country's destiny and
moulded 1t.
The LGtter-day Pioneers
At the turn of the century there
were approximately four-hundred
and six Negroes residing in the
city Of Seattle alone. Sy 1910, the
number had sweIlsd to two-thou-,
sand-two-hundred and ninty-six.
Spokane could boast of two-hun-
bred colored voters and two colored
policemen.
Those who came during the first
decade of the goth century were
adventures, not in any corrupt
sense, but itinerant workers who
had migrated west where labor
power was demanding and getting
an attractive price. The North
west, then, was in a frenzied, self
conscious stage of development,
materially and culturally, and sent
out alarm signals all over the
country for any kind of labor,
skilled or unskilled. She needed
workers for her mines, mills, fac
tories, hotels, steamship lines, log
ging camps, barber shops and so
on. So there was plenty opportun-
ity for black labor, and black labor
answered the call, quitting the
crowded East and the penniless
South.
Scattered among the horde were
railroad porters, BARRIERS, walters,
bellhops, cooks domestic servants
and bootblacks. In most Of these
fields of labor Negroes hat little
or no competition from the whites.
Many Of the 'old-timers' facetiously
relate how the white folks were
literally begging Negroes on the
stress to work for them" Labor
was at a preium. The influx be-
tween 1908-10 principally drift
wood from the sporting class of
the big eastern cities like Chicago
and New York: gamblers, sports,
and prostitutes, who drew unbe-
lievably large profits from their
exploits, because times were good
A few of their clan had come
earlier, following at the heels of
the Alaskan prospectors in '98.
Here and there, as in Seattle.
not a small percentage of the more
reputable latter-day pioneers, were
heading an interesting variety of
business enterprises. Starting out
with a team of horses, one Negro
managed to work up lucrative
delivery business. Similarity, an
other, starting with team and
scoop, was able to secure worth
while contracts for excavation jobs,
eventually furnishing employment
for more than twenty men. Then,
there were Peoples Taxi Service,
Stones Catering establishments
Collins Saloon, Cragwells Tom
serial Parlor, to mention several