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Profiles of Washington Territorial Librarians – Champion B. Mann

Profiles of Washington Territorial Librarians – Champion B. Mann

Champion B, Mann   From the Desks of the Central Library Staff Longtime Olympia political fixture, C.B. Mann was born Nov. 2, 1844 in Crawford County, Pennsylvania. Mann attended Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and graduated from Portland Business College before arriving in Olympia in March 1870. He was assigned to the position of Territorial Librarian and served from Aug. 1 to Nov. 6, 1870. C.B. initially held the occupation of school teacher in Oregon and was chosen school district…

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Profiles of Washington Territorial Librarians – Sylvester Hill Mann, 1870

Profiles of Washington Territorial Librarians – Sylvester Hill Mann, 1870

From the Desks of the Central Library Staff He was born May 6, 1817 in upstate New York. Raised in Pennsylvania, Mann was a soldier in a volunteer unit during the Civil War in 1862-1863. His occupation as a Methodist minister took him all over the Pacific Northwest. The Mann family arrived in Oregon’s Willamette River Valley via the Isthmus route in 1864. By 1870 Rev. Mann was sent to Olympia, where he found himself appointed to fill out the…

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White stuff gets Governor’s son in trouble

White stuff gets Governor’s son in trouble

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library It was a criminal story bound to generate headlines. Federal agents storm a mansion in Seattle, the home of a former Governor’s son. In the course of their search they discover a large amount of a white powdery substance hidden behind a sofa and an arrest is made. It was flour. Around 600 pounds of it. Here’s the report from the Seattle Daily Times, August…

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Profiles of Washington Territorial Librarians – James Clark Head, 1860 – 1861, 1863, 1865

Profiles of Washington Territorial Librarians – James Clark Head, 1860 – 1861, 1863, 1865

From the Desks of the Central Library Staff (Head served three nonconsecutive terms as Territorial Librarian.) J.C. Head was born in Washington County, Ky. in 1810. His family apparently lived in Illinois before their arrival in Olympia, Aug. 18, 1853. A carpenter by trade, Head also was made a Justice of the Peace and in 1856 presided over the case of the accused murderer of Leschi’s brother, Quiemuth. Bion Kendall was the attorney for the defense, Elwood Evans the prosecutor….

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Seattle’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Seattle’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library By day he was a respectable insurance salesman, a churchgoing man. But by night he was one of the most dangerous criminals Seattle police had seen, performing “dark deeds of the wildest type.” Eugene F. Boucke, born around 1865, appears to have surfaced in Seattle around 1900-1901 as a carpenter, but quickly took up the occupation of insurance salesman. His secret activity of “sallying forth…

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Profiles of Washington Territorial Librarians – Urban East Hicks, 1858

Profiles of Washington Territorial Librarians – Urban East Hicks, 1858

From the Desks of the Central Library Staff Urban Hicks, the man with the paradoxical name, was born May 14, 1828 in Missouri where he learned the printing trade in the towns of Paris and Hannibal. Coming to Oregon Territory in 1851 as part of the Ruddell Party, he lived in several places before settling in Olympia. Hicks held a variety of local offices, including County Clerk and Assessor. Served with distinction during the Indian War of 1855-1856, rising to…

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Spirit Telegraphy in Puyallup

Spirit Telegraphy in Puyallup

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library Yes, I would agree that the telegraph operator profiled in the following article didn’t get out much. A very unusual story found in The Tacoma Herald, July 21, 1877: Spirit Telegraphy “PUYALLUP, July 16, 1877.–It was my privilege to visit the office of a telegraph operator a few days ago, and witness some rather novel performances. It was the old story of ‘Spirit manifestation’ repeated….

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Profiles in Washington Territorial Librarians- Bion Freeman Kendall

Profiles in Washington Territorial Librarians- Bion Freeman Kendall

[The Territorial Librarian profiles were compiled by Sean Lanksbury, Mary Schaff, Kim Smeenk, and Steve Willis] Bion (Benjamin) Freeman Kendall, 1853 – 1857 Born Oct. 1827 in Bethel, Maine. Fresh out of Bowdoin College in 1852, Kendall found employment as a government clerk in the Survey Land Office in Washington, D.C. He served as an aide (along with future Territorial Librarian Elwood Evans) on the 1853 Isaac Stevens survey team when the first Territorial Governor made his way to Olympia….

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Water Witches

Water Witches

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library Do you believe in water witchcraft? The following article was found in the October 15, 1891 issue of the Big Bend Empire, from, appropriately enough, Waterville, Washington. A small chunk of the article is missing so I have tried to transcribe this around it. Water Witches “Witches used to be held in fear and abhorrence, in the olden times. People suspected of dealing in the…

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160 celebration: Priest Point Mythbusting

160 celebration: Priest Point Mythbusting

[One bit of folklore concerning the Washington State Library Territorial Collection has to do with the original source of ownership for a dozen books, mostly vellum bound and chiefly dating back to the 1500s. When old catalogers gather around the campfire at night, they tell tales of the ancient books in WSL that were initially part of the library at the Catholic Mission in Priests Point, in north Olympia. And if this is fact, these library books predate all others…

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