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Community Corner

William H. Schumacher, Edmonds Renaissance Man

William H. Schumacher, a man of diverse talents, many interests, and boundless energy, was a major player in Edmonds' formative years.

Best remembered today for the historic downtown building bearing his name, William H. Schumacher was a major player in the cast of characters who shaped the young city of Edmonds in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

He and his brother, Roy W. Schumacher, first appear in the historic records of Edmonds as the builders and owners of Edmonds first commercial building. Built in 1890 on the south side of Main Street between Third and Fourth Avenues, the Schumacher Building originally housed the Schumacher general store. (see the July 2010 Preservationist from the Edmonds Historic Preservation Commission).

His first involvement in the public sector came in 1894. William Schumacher was particularly adept at finance and accounting, and that year the city council appointed him Edmonds City Treasurer. He held this position for several years while continuing to run the general store with his brother. But Edmonds was growing rapidly, and this created new opportunities for a man of Schumacher's talents.

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By 1904, Edmonds was home to a number of businesses, with more opening every month. The logging and shingle industries were booming, new mills were opening, and existing ones were expanding and adding equipment. The town's population was increasing, home construction was soaring, and payrolls were growing. All this meant increased financial activity, and the need for a local bank was clear.

That year, two Seattle lawyers and a Port Angeles businessman joined forces to open the first bank in Edmonds. They actively recruited participants from the local community, and City Treasurer Schumacher was high on their short list. He was approached, and agreed to have his name listed as a director of the new bank, which opened in December 1904. In order to devote his full energies to this new position, he and his brother Roy sold their general store in late 1904.

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Schumacher was a scrupulous accountant, and it didn’t take long for him to discover some fatal problems with the new bank’s finances. Specifically, the three principals had invested no cash in the project, leaving the bank operating as a shell with no capital backing. Taking matters into his own hands, Schumacher used the list of contacts he’d developed over a decade as City Treasurer to find backers and raise capital. In short order he raised the necessary money, bought out the original three principals, and set the bank on a solid financial basis with $12,000 cash capital. 

In 1907, the bank moved to its newly constructed quarters on the corner of Fourth and Main, two doors east of the Schumacher Building, and became the State Bank of Edmonds. William Schumacher was listed as cashier, and his brother Roy W. Schumacher as assistant cashier. The Edmonds Bank Building still stands today, and is listed on the Edmonds Register of Historic Places (see the press release).

Restless by nature, William Schumacher was always seeking new horizons. On October 1, 1908, he plunged into the newspaper business when he purchased the Edmonds Tribune from T.A.A. Seigfiedt, Edmonds lawyer and real estate developer. Siegfriedt was the second owner of the Tribune, having bought it the year before from Will Taylor, who had established it in 1907 (see Patch article ). At that time, the Tribune was housed at Fourth and Main in a building owned by .

A month after taking over the paper, Schumacher inadvertently set off a firestorm by publishing a letter from former Tribune owner Siegfriedt. Siegfriedt was a member of the Edmonds Law and Order League, a group of citizens opposed to what they saw as corruption and cronyism in Edmonds local government. Seigfriedt’s letter blasted a “citizen’s committee,” whose membership included Mayor James Brady, accusing it of being a front for Edmonds political insiders.

The morning after his letter ran, an effigy of Siegfriedt appeared suspended over Main Street. For several days the “hanging” was the talk of the town, providing amusement to many and consternation to some. The town marshall allowed it to remain (allegedly at Mayor Brady’s order), and it was finally cut down by Seigfriedt’s supporters.

But the story doesn’t end there. With Siegfriedt’s effigy still twisting in the wind, a messenger served Tribune publisher William Schumacher with a legal document from his landlord, Mayor James Brady. Upon reading it, Schumacher was shocked to learn that the Tribune was being summarily evicted from the building. He was given three days to move everything out or pay a drastically increased rent. Take-home lesson in Edmonds Politics 101: Don’t cross Big Jim Brady.

Undaunted, Schumacher obtained a building site across the street adjacent to the Schumacher Building and enlisted several friends to build a new home for the Tribune. The press was moved to the back of Heberlein’s Hardware Store (current tenant of the Schumacher Building), and after a frenzied week of sawing and hammering, the new building was ready. The Tribune never missed an issue.

Under Schumacher’s leadership, the Tribune merged with the Edmonds Review, published by , and in 1910 became The Edmonds Tribune-Review. But by then Schumacher had had enough. After two contentious years at the helm, he leased the entire operation to George and Alice Boomer.

Never content to sit in one place, in July 1909 he joined Allen Yost and two other local entrepreneurs to form the Automatic Broom Sprinkler Manufacturing Company, becoming company secretary. In October 1910, he helped form the Edmonds Choral Society and became its first president.

After two years of singing in the chorus and using his accounting skills at Automatic Broom, he was ready once again to stick his toe in the local political waters. He was elected to the city council in 1912, one of a large group of freshman council members swept into office by an electorate ready for change.

Mayor Brady’s murder earlier that year had radically altered the local political landscape, and for the first time voters elected a council dominated by socialists. Debate on even small issues was often heated and steeped in ideology, and Schumacher, accustomed to the precise world of accounting and balance sheets, had no stomach or inclination for such protracted debate and governmental process. He resigned that same year and returned to the bank as assistant cashier.

But within a few months, Schumacher’s restless nature again came to the surface. He and his brother Roy left Edmonds in 1913 and moved to the newly incorporated city of Sequim, where William had been offered the position of city clerk. He was elected mayor of Sequim in 1915, and in 1923 was named Sequim town treasurer. He died in Sequim on April 17, 1931.

His brother, Roy W. Schumacher, remained in Sequim and stayed active in the community. He was appointed to fill the term of a deceased city councilmember in 1934.  In 1938, he took over his brother’s former role as town treasurer. He was also appointed police judge in 1944. He served as treasurer until 1949, stepping down due to ill health. He died shortly thereafter.

The Schumacher brothers were lifetime companions and partners in business and the affairs of the community. Their lasting legacy in Edmonds, the historic Schumacher Building, has housed an array of businesses over the years from hardware stores to restaurants. Today it is home to the landmark , which first opened in 1986 and has had three separate owners. Since 1997, it's been owned and operated by the husband-wife team of Randy and Brooke Baker.

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