page_title: Henry Yesler
section_title: Personality
hierarchical_section_title: Henry Yesler / Personality
caption_attribution_description: English: Two photos of original "Skid Road" (Mill Street, now Yesler Way) in Seattle, Washington, --- Top image: View looking west to Yesler's Mill at the end of the street (see smokestack) and nearby cookhouse. The tall pole in the road on the right is where the Pioneer Square pergola stands today. --- Bottom image: Yesler's Mill, stores, and taverns on Skid Road
context_page_description: Henry L. Yesler was an entrepreneur and a politician, regarded as a founder of the city of Seattle. Yesler served two non-consecutive terms as Mayor of Seattle, and was the city's wealthiest resident during his lifetime.
context_section_description: In his informative and tongue-in-cheek book, Sons of the Profits, columnist and Seattle historian William C. Speidel pointed out some of Yesler's negative aspects. On numerous occasions, Yesler had lawsuits filed against him. On other occasions, it was Yesler himself doing the suing. "The City of Seattle made him a millionaire," wrote Speidel, "yet he sued it...fought it...plundered it...and on two occasions he brought it to the brink of bankruptcy."  Speidel also recounts how, according to courthouse records, Yesler owed John McLain, an old friend from Ohio, $30,000 for the loan that the latter set up for construction of the mill. Yesler would pay him $12,000 of it over time, and it wasn't until McLain sued him that he was able to collect on the rest.
  Yesler and his wife Sarah were Spiritualists and believed in free love.
caption: Two images of Yesler's Mill and nearby buildings, 1874
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