page_title: Everett, Washington
section_title: Incorporation and early years
hierarchical_section_title: Everett, Washington / History / Incorporation and early years
caption_attribution_description: The town plat of Everett, Washington, filed by the Everett Land Company.
context_page_description: Everett is the county seat of and the largest city in Snohomish County, Washington, United States. It is 25 miles north of Seattle and is one of the main cities in the metropolitan area and the Puget Sound region. Everett is the seventh-largest city in the state by population, with 103,019 residents at the 2010 census. The city is primarily situated on a peninsula at the mouth of the Snohomish River along Port Gardner Bay, an inlet of Possession Sound, and extends to the south and west.
  The Port Gardner Peninsula was historically inhabited by the Snohomish people, who had a winter village named Hibulb near the mouth of the river. Modern settlement in the area began with loggers and homesteaders arriving in the 1860s, but plans to build a city were not conceived until 1890. A consortium of East Coast investors seeking to build a major industrial city acquired land in the area and filed a plat for "Everett", which they named in honor of Everett Colby, the son of investor Charles L. Colby. The city was incorporated in 1893, shortly after the arrival of the Great Northern Railway, and prospered as a major lumber center with several large sawmills.
context_section_description: Following the acquisition of tidelands on the waterfront, which had been in dispute, the Everett Land Company allowed for a municipal government to be formed. The initial city boundaries were set by the company to avoid taxing the industrial areas and exclude the town of Lowell, which predated Everett. On April 27, 1893, the citizens of Everett voted 670–99 in favor of incorporating as a city, and elected Thomas Dwyer as mayor. The incorporation was certified by the Snohomish County government on May 4, 1893. The city's privately owned streetcar system launched on July 3, 1893, with lines connecting the Hewitt Avenue commercial district to mills, smelters, and areas as far as Lowell.
  The Everett Land Company ran into financial trouble within months of the city's incorporation as the impact of the Panic of 1893 was felt in the region. The company's investment in the Monte Cristo area yielded ore of poorer quality than expected and it was unable to meet the promises in the "Remarkable Document", which was amended several times with the Rucker Brothers, by then junior partners in the company. Rockefeller called his investment into question and appointed Frederick Gates to begin divestment while Colby and Hoyt remained as the leaders of the company. Several of the major businesses in Everett closed or failed during the three-year peak of the economic depression, but work on Alexander McDougall's Whaleback was finished with the launch of SS City of Everett in October 1894, the largest to be built on Puget Sound at the time. The Everett Women's Book Club was established in 1894 and opened the city's first hospital and public library, which would later expand into the Everett Public Library system.
  Despite the economic turmoil, Everett continued to grow with the addition of new businesses as the area's lumber activities increased. Other industries also expanded in Everett, including a local cannery, a brick factory, and several ore smelters. The discovery of new mineral deposits in Monte Cristo fueled a population boom, along with the completion of the Everett and Monte Cristo Railway under the ownership of Rockefeller. The city also benefited from the Klondike Gold Rush, building several steamboats to transport prospectors and entrepreneurs.
  In its early years, Everett launched a campaign to become county seat by replacing Snohomish, which had waned in importance following the completion of several railroads serving other cities in the county. An election to determine which city would be named county seat was scheduled for November 6, 1894, beginning a heated debate by citizens and newspapers. The initial count by the commissioners was announced on December 19 in Everett's favor, amid accusations of fraud and bought votes from both sides. Following an appeal from Snohomish, the Washington Supreme Court declared the result to be invalid and blocked the move, but a recount by the commissioners in October 1895 remained in Everett's favor. A long legal battle was fought between the two cities and was decided in October 1895 by the Supreme Court, who ruled that Everett would become county seat per the legal and binding recount. In January 1897, the county government's records were moved by wagons from Snohomish to Everett, where a three-story courthouse was opened on February 1, 1898.
caption: The town plat filed by the Everett Land Company in 1892
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