History of King County, Washington
By Clarence B. Bagley in 1929. Now in Public Domain
PREFACE
The settlement of Alki Point in the fall of the year 1851, was the beginning of the real history of King County, though an occasional earlier visitor left interesting notes of its waterways and mountain streams.
Its development is one of the marvels of American civilization and western enterprise.
In all of its vast area there were only three hundred white men, women and children when the writer came here. Within two or three years he knew every voter in the county by name and sight, and nearly all of the women and children in village and county.
Much of the happenings of which he has written was part of his daily life, but human memory is fallible. For this reason every worth-while book has been consulted to verify the accuracy of this narrative. Of pioneer Oregon and Washington, Elwood Evans has been accepted as the original author to whom all later historians have of necessity appealed; of local matters, Arthur A. Denny, Thomas W. Prosch, Ezra Meeker, Fred Grant, Inez Denny, Orange Jacobs, Charles T. Conover and Cornelius H. Hanford have afforded much valuable aid.
Facts, facts, facts have been at all times the author's aim and it is his earnest hope that the reader may here find its confirmation.
At best, a history of this kind can be little more than an index for the reader, pointing the pathway for further investigation.
Those who expect a work of much literary excellence will be disappointed.
In the fullness of time some inspired writer will tell of the romance and tragedies, of the labor and privations, of the fortitude and sacrifices of the gallant men and heroic women who laid the foundation of this great commonwealth. To them this book is lovingly dedicated.
CLARENCE B. BAGLEY.
Seattle, Washington, June 1, 1929.
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By Clarence B. Bagley in 1929. Now in Public Domain