Eugene Semple

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

13^th Governor of Washington Territory
Eugene Semple

In office 1887 – 1889
Preceded by	Watson C. Squire
Succeeded by	Miles C. Moore

Born	June 12, 1840 Bogotá, COLUMBIA
Died	August 28, 1908 San Diego, California
Political party	Democrat
Spouse	Ruth A. Lownsdale

This detail from a 1911 map shows the city's Industrial District (after the construction of Harbor Island). A portion of Semple's attempted canal can be seen at lower right, running east-west; north of that can be seen the large city blocks that characterize the former tidelands.

Eugene Semple (1840–1908) was the thirteenth Governor of Washington Territory and the unsuccessful Democratic candidate to be the first governor of Washington State.

In 1893, he successfully pushed a bill through the Washington State legislature to facilitate a means of financing privately owned canals by allowing them to sell reclaimed tidelands. With $500,000 of financing, he himself soon attempted such a canal connecting Elliott Bay to Lake Washington by cutting through Seattle's Beacon Hill: a more southerly route than the Lake Washington Ship Canal that was favored by Judge Thomas Burke and others aligned with the Great Northern Railway, and which was ultimately built.^[1]

Work began July 29, 1895. Within 10 months nearly 100 acres (0.40 km²) of tide flats had been filled. At that point, Burke managed to get a court injunction challenging the constitutionality of the 1893 law. A December 1898 decision went in Semple's favor, but the delay had put his company into financial difficulties. Semple scored some other legal victories and did well with the state government, but Burke ultimately won out. Semple's activities affected railroad lands, giving Burke further opportunities for injunctions; Burke won over the Seattle city government (and ultimately the federal government) to the northern canal route. By May 1904, Semple's incomplete project was dead. The former Elliott Bay tidelands filled in by his attempt at building a canal soon beame the heart of Seattle's Industrial District.^[2]

[edit] Notes

^ Berner 1991, p. 17-18
^ Berner 1991, p. 17–20

[edit] References

Berner, Richard C. (1991), Seattle 1900-1920: From Boomtown, Urban Turbulence, to Restoration, Seattle: Charles Press, ISBN 0962988901 .

[edit] Further reading

Meany, Edmond S. (1915). Governors of Washington : territorial and state. University of Washington,. Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection

v • d • e Governors of Washington Territory

Stevens • McMullen • Gholson • Wallace • Pickering • Cole • Moore • Flanders • Salomon • Ferry • Newell • Squire • Semple • Moore