Henry Yesler

Henry L. Yesler (December 2, 1810 – December 16, 1892) was an entrepreneur considered to be Seattle, Washington's first economic father and first millionaire.

Biography

Yesler arrived in Seattle in 1852 and built a steam-powered sawmill , which provided numerous jobs for those early settlers and Duwamish tribe members. The mill was located right on the Elliott Bay waterfront, at the foot of what is now known as Yesler Way and was then known as Mill Road or the "Skid Road," for the way the logs "skidded" down the steep grade from the ever-receding timber line to the mill. In running the mill, Yesler built the city's first water system, in 1854. The system was made up of a series of open-air, V-shaped flumes perched on stilts that started atop First Hill and ran down past Yesler's home and to the mill. Later on, after complaints of dirty water, Yesler developed a system made up of log pipes and Iron buried beneath the ground.

The house where Henry and his wife Sarah lived, a wooden building that resembled a store, was located near the mill, at the corner of First Avenue and James Street. When Sarah died in 1887, Henry constructed a mansion on the block between Third and Fourth Avenues at James Street, where he spent the final five years of his life.