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This Day in Olympia History: An Olympia Newspaper Put 'Seattle' in Print for the First Time, Oct. 30, 1852
On Oct. 30, 1852, Olympia's weekly Columbian ran an ad for Doc Maynard's \"Seattle Exchange\" store, the first known use of the name Seattle in print. The village on Elliott Bay was still widely called Duwamps.
The name Seattle appeared in print for the first time on Oct. 30, 1852, in an Olympia newspaper.
That day's issue of The Columbian, a weekly that had published its first issue Sept. 11, 1852, carried an advertisement for the "Seattle Exchange." The ad, signed "D. S. Maynard" and dated "Seattle, Oct. 25, 1852," announced dry goods, groceries, hardware and crockery shipped "direct from London and New York via San Francisco," and "suitable for the wants of immigrants just arriving."
Dr. David S. "Doc" Maynard had moved north from Olympia that summer, according to HistoryLink.org. Settlers on Elliott Bay were still calling their village Duwamps, but Maynard persuaded his neighbors to name it for Chief Seattle.
The same page of the Columbian carried other Maynard notices offering timber, piles and shingles. HistoryLink reports the issue also told of Henry Yesler's steam sawmill, then under construction.
The name became official May 23, 1853, when the first plats for the "Town of Seattle" were filed, HistoryLink reports.
The Columbian's pages from that fall are preserved by the Library of Congress and can be read free online through its Chronicling America collection.
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Sources
- Library of Congress, Chronicling America, The Columbian (Olympia, O.T.), Oct. 30, 1852, page 3
- Library of Congress, The Columbian (Olympia, O.T.) 1852-1853, catalog record
- HistoryLink.org, Essay 1754, Seattle appears in print for the first time on October 30, 1852
- HistoryLink.org, Essay 303, Seattle: A Brief History of Its Founding
- Photo: Dr David S Maynard, Seattle, ca 1868 (MOHAI 95), Wikimedia Commons, public domain
Photo credit: Photo: The Columbian (Olympia), Oct. 30, 1852, page 3. Library of Congress, Chronicling America, public domain
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