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Edmonds Before George Brackett

Contrary to popular legend, the story of Edmonds does not begin with George Brackett. In 1866, fourteen years before Brackett's famous landing, Missouri-born Pleasant H. Ewell filed the first claim to the land that would become Edmonds.

The story of Edmonds traditionally begins with George Brackett and his purchase of 147 acres of land that would become the town. But from whom did he purchase this land? Someone else was clearly here first.

George Vancouver passed Edmonds on his journeys through Puget Sound in the 1790s, but there is nothing to indicate that he stopped here. In 1841 the United States Exploring Expedition under the command of Lieutenant Charles Wilkes observed and named Point Edmund (today’s Point Edwards), but again, did not make a landing. There is, however, some inconclusive evidence of Native American activity in the Edmonds area significantly predating Vancouver’s explorations.

The first inhabitant of record was a man named Pleasant H. Ewell. Originally from Ray, MO, Ewell was listed in the 1862 Snohomish County census as a resident of Mukilteo. Interestingly, the 1862 census listed the population of Snohomish County as 44. There were no women or children; the names of the inhabitants at that time were all men.

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Established by two businessmen, Morris Frost and Jacob Fowler, Mukilteo had been in existence for several years before Snohomish County was created in 1861. While a resident of Mukilteo, Ewell served the community as an election judge and as a commissioner for the newly formed Snohomish County. 

In 1866 Ewell, then 27, filed a pre-emption claim for 140 acres of land where the town of Edmonds now stands (reference the Pre-emption Act of 1841 and the Homestead Act). The land was included in the area bounded by today’s ferry dock, east up to the edge of the bowl (roughly Maplewood Drive), and extending north and south between the present Puget Drive and Walnut Street, respectively. One condition of this claim was that he had to occupy and improve the land for at least four years. 

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He cleared some trees and brush and built a log cabin. He supported himself by making and selling shingles. He sold these locally, and after mapping out a road that would eventually become State Route 104, transported them to markets in the nascent community of Bothell.

Ewell remained on his claim for the required four years, and in 1870 sold his 140 acres for $200 to the same Frost and Fowler who had established Mukilteo a decade earlier. Two hundred dollars in 1870 had the purchasing power of $3,500 today, and was a considerable sum at that time. Ewell eventually moved to Jefferson, OR, where he died in 1901.

The same year that Ewell sold his claim to Frost and Fowler, George Brackett made his famous entrance into Edmonds and saw what used to be Ewell’s claim. But Brackett was not looking to homestead.  Brackett was the archetype of a 19th-century man, harboring an almost religous fervor for territorial expansion of Manifest Destiny and its call to subdue and tame nature. He saw the land with the eyes of a professional logger, and Edmonds' easily accessible cedars and firs must have made dollar signs swim in his head.

Heavily involved in logging operations in Ballard at the time, he did not act on this find immediately. He returned two years later however and in 1872 purchased 147 acres from Frost and Fowler. The records of the purchase price are conflicting, but he either paid $650 or $800 for this land. Either way, Frost and Fowler turned a nice profit on their $200 initial investment.

When the Ballard logging was completed in 1876, Brackett returned to Edmonds with his family and commenced energetic logging of the area (see Patch article ""). That same year, he also opened a logging camp on the Sammamish River near today’s downtown Bothell. Ewell’s road connecting Edmonds to Bothell no doubt facilitated this.

While no records can be found of actual inhabitants of Edmonds prior to Pleasant Ewell, there is some evidence of Native Americans passing through the area. More research is needed to verify this. Look to future articles for more on the role of Native Americans in shaping the area we know today as Edmonds.  

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