Early Victorian Media Star: The Legend of Frances Slocum

Quaker Daughter to Wife of a Miami Indian Chief: Frances Slocum Historic Hoosier Legend

Old Stone fence near the orignal homestead of where Frances Slocum was born and stolen away from.

Source: Wikimedia Commons Generic Share Alike 2.0

Location that Frances Slocum was kidnapped from.

Source: public domain wikicommons

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Historical Significance of Frances Slocum

Frances Slocum is one of Indiana’s more interesting historical legends. She was born at of the birth of a nation and managed to survive the worst nightmare of any post-colonist settler .Frances Slocum was never to really knew the relative peace and tranquility that life in eastern state could afford her .Frances bridged the gap between the world of early white settlement in the the Wabash Valley and the great Indian nations that lived there.

She saw the tragedy brought by the conflict of the two cultures. Frances Slocum saw the rapid downfall of the proud tribal people she had grown to love as her own. It was a that life captured the imagination of whites in the eastren states. Frances helped many liberal minded folks in the Wabash Valley have a better appreciation of their native neighbors.

                                                                           Little Turtle Public Domain

This unfortunately was not enough to unseal the tragic fate that awaited her beloved Miami Indians. Yet, it is through the lens of life of Frances Slocum, that we are inclined to remember the great Delaware and Miami people.The Frances Slocum story like the paintings of George Winters, reminds Hoosiers that this great state, was home for noble civilizations long before the European step stepped foot the soil.

Source: rom John F. Meginness' book, Biography of Frances Slocum, 1891.]

Little Bear Is Born

Frances Slocum was born in 1773 at what at the time was the colonial frontier in Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania. Her parents were Quaker settlers who had s homesteaded in the Wyoming Valley, and Luzerne County.

Jonathan and Ruth Slocum lived everyday in fear of attack by the hostile Delaware Indians. The Delaware Indians were upset by the continued white encroachment into areas they had been assured by authorities would remain in their control. Quaker settlers got along better with the Delaware Indians than others; because of their religious commitment to nonviolence.

Jonathan Slocum, according to legend, broke this tradition by allowing his Quaker son to fight the Indians. The attack by the Delaware Indians on the Slocum’s Homestead was said to been in revenge. This was judgment of the natives' for Jonathan Slocum allowing his son to engage in battles. .

The Slocum’s had 10 children. The Delaware’s intended to kidnap at least one. They selected young Frances, who was only five at the time. When Frances Slocum recalled that night she said ,” I was very tired and lie down on the ground, and cry till I went to sleep.” This was November 2, 1778.

Frances was taken far from her Pennsylvania home to wilds of the Ohio territory. Here the Mo Delaware Indians traded the young girl for some animal pelts.Those who purschased Frances, decided to give the young strong headed girl to a childless Miami couple.. Frances Slocum’s adoptive parents gave her the name Maconaquah. The name reflected the personality of the girl; who was always up to mischief . This name means Little Bear woman. Her adoptive Delaware father was Big Bear. Frances grew to love her adoptive family she was adored only child. Raising a child in the Miami community, was a group effort so the young Frances was never lacking for playmates, or attention.

The new family life Frances Slocum was coming to understand changed quickly.The Continental Army burned the Miami Indian crops in Ohio. The family was forced to move to what is now Fort Wayne. Indiana.The new area was called Kekiong. Young Frances grew to womanhood, in relative peace and happiness.

Ruins of the Peru homestead of the Frances Slocum and her husband .

Source: Rmlucas Wikimedia Commons

A Match the Missed the Mark

Frances was known among her fellow, Delaware peers to be a bit of a tomboy. She was admired for her red hair and pale skin.She had a willingness to play with young braves.Frances many times would beat them at their own games. She was given the name Red Heart by her male peers. Frances Slocum impressed many a young brave with her ability to break wild horses. France was a good choice for a wife for any Miami warrior.

When Frances Slocum was about age 14 to French trader attempted to rape her. Her adoptive father decided the days of carefree running about were over for Frances. It was time for her to marry. Her Miami father had ties to the Delaware people .Big Bear wanted Frances to marry a Delaware brave. Big Bear decided his adopted daughter should marry a 19-year-old Delaware brave named Tuck Horse . Tuck Horse was a renowned hunter and considered handsome. Frances was such a prized potential wife ; that her adopted mother was asked to consent to the marriage.
Frances had to move from her carefree life into a small house with her husband’s entire family. She was very unhappy in in the tight living quarters of her in-laws It appeared that that Tuck Horse was not motivated to start to start a life away from his mother’s watchful eye. Getting the agreement of her mother-in-law, Frances Slocum pushed her young husband into making plans to start their own life and build their own home.

Frances was busy making a home for her future children. This idea really never sat well Tuck Horse. He was often gone from home on fruitless raiding parties. Tuck Horse was spending what little capital they did have, on whiskey. Tuck Horse resented his wife’s insistence at adult behavior. He soon grew tired of her. There were many heated arguments among the young couple, and tribal elders decided it would be best if the couple parted ways and was divorced. Frances Slocum returned home humiliated.

She had given up the joy of carefree girlhood, to be a respectable Indian wife Tuck Hore hu had wished to remain a carefree bachelor. Given the amount of vitriol between the two young married couple, Big Bear was happy to see his daughter return home.. In defense of Tuck Horse, biographers noted that 19 was an extremely young age for braves to marry. Given that both young people were inclined to be wild, it may have been that the parents had decided that the marriage would help them settle into adulthood.The arranged marriage turned out to be a match that missed the mark,

Frances Slocum and her daughters.

Source: Observed 1839; executed ca. 1863-71 Watercolor on paper Intended for inclusion in George Winter's Deaf Man's Village Journal

A Soul-mate Is Found

She was not to be single long. One night Frances heard some commotion outside the family home. Upon further investigation, she found an injured brave in the woods. His name was Shepoconah. This brave was called Deaf Man by the whites, because of his almost complete loss of hearing. Frances and her family looked after his injuries, and in return Shepoconah, took over the role of head of household . Frances adoptive farther, was now in ill health. Big Bear realized death was near . Big Bear decided that Shepoconah had the makings of a good family man. Frances willing married Shepoconah . Big Bear died soon after.

Shepoconah, Frances, and her recently widowed adoptive mother relocated in Shepconah ancestral land near present day Peru Indiana in Miami County. By all accounts it was a happy marriage. Frances noted that Shepconah was not above helping with, ‘women’s work’, when her elderly mother was unable.. Frances had two daughters that lived to adulthood. They were named Kekesequah and Osawshequah. The couple also had two sons, who perished in infancy. Shepoconah eventually was named chief of the Miami Indians in the Peru area. The family stayed in the area for many years.

Frances Slocum Indian name meaning Little Bear on her grave monument.

Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Frances_Slocum%27s_Grave.jpg

A Lost Sister is Found

When Frances Slocum was an elderly women, a local Newspaper editor found she knew had biological family somewhere in Pennsylvania. Frances had no real useful knowledge in which to track them down. The newspaper editor wrote the Post Master in Lancaster County Pennsylvania, and asked him to find the family of a local girl who might have been kidnapped so many years before.

The local Post Master decided the story was a publicity stunt that the Logansport paper was doing to increase readership. He ignored repeated requests for inquiry to be made for two years. Shortly after his death, his widow found the letters of inquiry and they were published in the Pennsylvania papers.

In 1838, Isaac Slocum went to see if Frances was his sister. He visited her in Peru Indiana. He confirmed it was his sister after speaking with her and seeing she had scars on her fingers. The scars resulted from a well remembered accident when Frances was a toddler. Her English was not at all polished, Frances understood enough to learn about her biological family.She spoke well enough to tell readers in papers across the country about her life as a Miami Indian. Many urged Frances Slocum to return east in her old age, to share life with her Quaker relations. Frances had no desire to leave the home that she had shared, with her now departed husband. Frances Slocum never wanted to leave the people, she had shared over 60 years of her life with.

In 1847, Frances Slocum passed from ailments related to old age. She had been distressed in her late years by the fact the Miami Indians were being forced off their ancestral lands by the U.S government. She herself was not considered an Indian, but she worried about her family. She worried about fate of the land that they claimed ownership for. In this matter her Quaker brothers came to her aid.

It was written in her biography,” Her surviving brothers were old men, but they were not unmindful of their unhappy sister, and aided her all they could. It was finally decided to have her appeal to Congress and ask if she could not be exempted from the treaty, and, with her descendents, be allowed to remain on the reservation in Indiana which had been granted to her daughters. A petition was therefore drawn and signed by her children and grandchildren." January 17, 1845. [From John F. Meginness' book, Biography of Frances Slocum, 1891.]

She was buried with a white flag marking her grave. In 1900, a local Judge and family members erected a monument to this unique Hoosier women.

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The Proper Victorian Upbringing

Childhood for those in the lower classes was short. Once a child was old enough to perform a task valued by adults they were put to work.

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A child is just an adult in need of training

Childhood in Victorian society was short and to some degree; did not exist after the first five years of life. Children were expected to labor and contribute to the overall financial security of the family unit.

Wealthy families and families, occupying the newly established middle, gave their children the opportunity to be children. Childhood for children in these classes focused on helping them gain the skills they would need to take their rightful place in society. Males of course would be groomed for leadership position similar to that of the father and women would be trained to be the Victorian ideal of moral standard bearer for the home.

The realities of social class no doubt framed the ways parents and children viewed their core relationship with their parents. In the upper class most of the everyday tasks of raising small children was relegated to a servant. In an upper class household this would mean a nanny . In a middle household usually this job fell to a young unmarried girl. She also did other household tasks. In the middle class household the mother was The)preoccupied with taking care of ill relatives or lying in with another child. Most women of means avoided breast feeding and employed wet nurses. This planned distance between mother and father had very interesting effects on the view of parents for many privileged Victorian children. They became the idealized adults for whom the child was expected to perform. Being seen and not heard was not a matter of banning childish chatter, it was assumed children had no view of the world apart from that the parent's said there was.

In upper class families the arrival home of the bread winner was considered an important event. All the household put his need foremost .

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Passing the muster in the nursery

Children were often presented to their parents at the end of the day. It was if the parents were inspecting their troops. Care givers were judged to be effective or not effective parental substitutes. A result of these rather stilted social interactions .for children a visit to the nursery by the parents or planed social interaction in the parlor made their parents seem to be mysterious and even glamorous. It is not that individual relationships of deep affection did not emerge in the relationship between upper class Victorians and their children at some point. It was delayed and meant to happen when the children were able to present themselves to parents as an individual .The purpose of the separation of parents from children was based on the fact that a larger part of a young Victorian preparation for adulthood was to learn to navigate a very strictly defined social world.

The upper class did value education for its young males. Society eventually assumed that girls needed an education to produce intellectually sound off spring .Typically , boy were sent off to school after a few years in the nurser, This separation meant, the visits with one parents, were aimed at showing what progress to being a proper adult had been accomplished. Young girls were in generally still educated at home .Having leave of the nursery would afford them more contact with their mothers who might teach them needle craft or play an instrument. The most important lesson was that women were the heart of the home. A well run home lead to a well run country. The hearth was the source of all civil life in Victorian society and upholding it was considered sacred.

Child labor was eventually deemed unacceptable. Stories of the deplorable conditions in factories , lead many Americans that the place of the child in society was in the classroom.

Source: Wikimedia

Death was common among the lower classes so there was a strong relationship with the church among parents who believed in infant baptism . Religion gave hope to families that lost many children before adulthood.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Learning the complex management of the social graces.

Mothers in upper class Victorian society had as their main goal for both their male and female children to learn proper social graces. They needed manage the social obligations. Matters of leaving calling cards, keeping the appropriate time of mourning, and even how to address the opposite sex in everyday conversation were skill that children from upper glass homes were expected to know. Girls came out in their early teens as a way of entering polite society. This was all necessary to assure that proper marriages occurred. These were unions that maintained both the boy and the girl’s social position. Marriage was not arranged, but most Victorian adolescents were only socially exposed to acceptable potential mates. Girls especially were at risk of losing any manner of financial support ;if they decided to venture outside the chosen social circle for a mate.

Childhood in rural or urban poor family was definitely short. In farming communities everyone worked except for the youngest infants and toddlers. If the mother toiled in the fields with the father, care of very young children may have fallen on a female sibling only a few years older than herr charges. In urban settings, children as young as eight were sent to work houses to many times do incredibly dangerous labor. The family unit was seen as a whole and every member as needed laborer for the family’s survival.

Of course sometimes lower middle class boys were trained in there trades. Their education would have consisted of indentured and apprentice positions, in the home of another family member or friend. Girls may have been ‘put out’ to help in another household if she was not needed at home. She may have been indentured to learni weaving or care of dairy herds. Many rural communities in the United States gave children in rural communities a basic education; during the months that work had slowed down on the farm.

This like the social events of the upper classes, served as an opportunity for young people of the opposite sex to meet. There was a great deal of more freedom in the lower classes for people to meet a future mate. Even in urban setting parents, especial immigrant parent wanted education for their children. Children might be expected to work an overnight at a factory, so that they could attend a public school or parochial one

Parochial schools played an invaluable role for the children of immigrant’s in the larger city. Usually the church had teaching nuns that could speak the native language of the ethnic area they were serving. The goal of assimilation was stressed in ethinic schools as well as enculturation the of youth to value individualism Many coming from Europe did not have a sense that they could move beyond their natural social lot.

Learning to be Adults and Americans

In mid century child labor became a hot button issue; as the public responded to the gross abuses of children in factories that were reported by the media. Laws were passed and society as a whole felt it better that young people attends school on a regular basis. This was also a way for the government state and federal to assimilate very diverse ethnic groups into the culture. Public schools became the great equalizers it was where a new sense of what it meant to be an American was forged to help create a distinct identity.

All classes of children had access to some recreational activities and time to be children, but compared to the long childhood of today, it was obvious that Victorians considered children to be blank little adults that it was their job to make into proper and productive citizens.

One has to note the role of religion in the process of child rearing. Baptism after birth was taken very seriously by Victorian parents. Infant mortally was high and many felt it was first and foremost that they claim their new souls for Christ. Sunday school movements aimed towards urban children by missionary groups were seen as a great boon to many urban immigrant parents. It was a chance for their children to not only is instilled with morals. The poor lived in a world where women prostituted themselves for bread. Schooling in, any form was a chance for immigrant children to become proficient in English. The success of Sunday school movements and the need for children to be able to read scripture was a main goal of education reform. Schooling was seen as universally beneficial for the country as a whole. Public schools allowed for children with restricted narrow cultural experiences to create new experiences that came to define the American character.

Go West Young Man

The American character was not wide open to interpretation. The protestant values of the colonial north were seen as the founding principals of the nation. After the civil war there was a belief that immigrants and newly freed slaves would only be not be nullified as a cultural and political threat; unless they found and took their proper place in society. A commitment to progressive Protestantism by the powers that be, knew that education was essential to this goal. It was not a matter of improving the lot of poor youth, the goal was as to convince them that their best interest were in taking on the role of worker. . Still with the West being always the way those who wanted to break out of life definition, there were still opportunities for young men and women to broaden their social horizons...

Victorian Children

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The Grave Matter of Victorian Grave Stones

English: Victorian graves A fine selection of ornate Victorian graves and monuments in Church Cemetery (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Wanlockhead Burial Ground The burial ground has gravestones from 1790s to 1880s include stones of miners killed in accidents; the are also 3 war graves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Burial ground. Mixture of old and new graves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Forgotten spot in a church graveyard This is a large grave yard in the centre of Inverness. Graves which were readable dated from 1800 - 1890, there were older graves which were impossible to read. The ones in photo were unreadable. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sooner rather than later, humans began to see graveyards as a source of income. The Normans saw even the church graveyard as a place to promote social status, saving the best spots for those who were wealth. Church yards were a logical choice for most of the dearly departed to be put to rest, because the church usually marked all the significant events in a persons life. The church literally looked after a person spiritual welfare from birth till death. Still even the church was not above only preaching spiritual equality in death, not in its burial practices. Social status was reflected in how one’s graves were marked.

The height of graveyard excess probably came during the Victorian era. Victorians were obsessed with romantic gothic grave markers; with intricate and elaborate designs. Victorian graves were many times made of stark white marble. Cherubs and rose covered crosses marked many respectable Victorian graves. Poetry told something of the person’s life. In the centuries past, skulls adorned graves reminding people of the great equalizer that death was. Now the positive message of life after death within a Christian framework marked the graves of the saints.

It was popular in the late Victorian age to take photographs of the dearly departed in their graves. Isomer displayed pictures on the grave stones. Almost every Victorian of means had some death photography taken, especially if the departed was a child. Children graves were especially inclined to be marked with romantic notions. The Victorians were very sentimental about their loved ones that had passed. Keepsakes such as locks of hair were keeping by Victorians long after the burial of a family member. Visiting graves and even picnicking in the graveyard, were activities that the Victorians did not view as morbid

Most communities of any size out grew church graveyards by the late 19^th century. Graveyards for profit sprang up everywhere. While a certain community might as for free plots for paupers and criminals within the confines of these semi public burial grounds, these places catered to consumers. Families still purchased plots together, and many marked future burial spots with giant statues or mausoleums. Special sections for veterans or religious minor\ties made sure that every one could find an appropriate burial place within the confines of the gates of the community grave yard. Still there were those who because of race or religion still have to provide separate resting places for their dead.

In later Victorian days marble graves were replace by softer granite that weathered faster than marble. Older graves attracted moss and lichen making graveyards appear appropriately dreary. Gravestones were not particularly well cared for. Cemeteries today tend graves much more carefully. This is true as long as the cemetery is still used by the community. In rural area older graveyard are abandoned and the grave stones left to deteriorate. Only those of historical value are restored...

The growing popularity of genealogy research on the internet has led to many finding where their ancestors from the 19^th century were buried. Grave hunters make grave stone rubbings with chalk. charcoal, or oil crayons. They place paper over the gravestone and rub the indentations to get a likeness of the writing and art on the headstone. this further damages weathered and worn sandstone and soft granite  graves.  Rubbing gravestones people are able to better read the engraving on a head stone. I* you can better to consult the grounds keeper of the cemetery and investigate the records of the stone This helps preserve a faded inscription,  Grave rubbing can  cause father damage to the head stone.

Information about ancestor’s graves can many times be found online. Many community groups have extensive projects to document the inhabitants of the older grave yards in their community. The make projects out of returning fallen grave stones to their original resting place and cutting underbrush. Volunteers enter information from burial records from old church graveyard to various genealogy sites. Many sites will also post pictures of graves. You may not have to go any father than your computer to view the graves of your Victorian ancestors.

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Late Victorian Advertising Icons: The Gibson Girls

SUMMARY

The Gibson girl unlike her mother was not a home body. She was out and about and spending time with the boys.

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Many images of the Gibson girl

Gibson girl at the beach.

Source: Dana Charles Gibson-Wikimedia Commons

Gibson girl posing for protrait

Source: Dana Charles Gibson-Wikimedia Commons

Gibson like girl in advertisement

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Gibson girl with friends at the beah

Source: Charles Dana Gibson-Wikimedia Commons

Gibson girl drops her glove.

Source: Charles Dana Gibson -Wikimedia Commons

Our First Pin Up Girl

The Gibson Girl was the first mass marketed ideal American women. Girls everywhere in the 'Gay Nineties" up until World War 1 , tried to perfect their personal look to reflect the varying yet staple Gibson Girl Look. . The Gibson girl was the creation of Charles Dana Gibson. Many consider her the first American Pin Up girl. She appeared in dozens of magazines and was the model the sold everything from Coke Cola to liver pills. The basic Gibson hour glass figure and romanticized felinity was the standard of ideal American beauty until the much more boyish and reckless "Flapper" came on the scene.

The Man Behind The Girl
Charles Dana Gibson was from a lower middle class family. During a long illness as a child his father taught him how to draw silhouettes. Gibson attended art school in for a short time. Gibson's art studies took him to Europe. There he met his mentor and inspiration of future work, the English illustrator George Du Maurier. He began to create sketches of women. Though many social belles claimed to be the original model for the drawings, many believe Gibson was inspired by his wife, Irene Langhorne.
Gibson ran out of money to study and had to drop our of art school. He was eventually hired by Life magazine in the 1880's. He did a number of pen and ink illustrations the publications. In 1890 his popularity as a sketch artist had grown and he found work with a number of weekly magazines throughout New England...

No Shrinking Wall Flowers Here
The Gibson girl portrayed, a well educated female who continued to promote the Victorian ideal of femininity, ,but with a little Vixen added. Not as much as the over the top 'flapper' girl who would overtake the Gibson girl after 20 years of dominating the image of ideal girlish American youth. The Gibson girl was not a corseted belle in need of a fainting couch. She was a curvy red cheeked girl who enjoyed the company of boys and was out in about in the world. She had an hour glass figure clothed in the latest appear, always fashionably dressed in an appreciate outfit for skating, biking, or pin icing in the park. She may have played with the boys, but she was all girls with piles of curls framing her perfect features. She was the new beautiful middle class girl, who could somewhat innocently enjoy her youth until she settled down for a life of domestic bliss.
Susan E. Meyer, in her book America's Great Illustrators described the ideal Gibson girl: "She was taller than the other women currently seen in the pages of magazines... infinitely more spirited and independent, yet altogether feminine. She appeared in a stiff shirtwaist, her soft hair piled into a chignon, topped by a big plumed hat. Her flowing skirt was hiked up in back with just a hint of a bustle. She was poised and patrician. Though always well bred, there often lurked a flash of mischief in her eyes.a

Gibson Girls and Gibson Like Girls sell America on everything!

Gibson Girls and Gibson Like Girls sell America on everything!
The country became obsessed with images of the Gibson Girl. Gibson himself was noted to be one of New York City's most eligible bachelors. This was a short-lived upswing for his social life. During this time many young edible socialites and debutantes from the South went to Gibson's studio to be sketched. Later many of these belles would claim to have been the inspiration for the original, Gibson girl. In 1895 Gibson married Irene Langhorne in 1895 a girl from an old and established Virginia family. Irene was most likely the inspiration for the first Gibson girl who appeared in 1890.
Merchandising of the Gibson Girl on was absolutely not like anything seen before. Collections of Gibson work appeared in art books that were the equivalent of coffee table books. Gibson girls appeared on every household item imaginable like china sets, ashtrays, pillow covers, screens, fans, and tablecloths. There was a wallpaper with Gibson girl faces that was popular in the city apartments of single men. .The image appeared in drawing for books and was the inspiration for popular songs.

Gibson Girl Gets Her Ken
Eventually the playful Gibson girl needed a companion. So Gibson created the ideal Gibson man. Like Barbie, her Ken did not come on the scene with as much hype as she did. The Gibson man of course was fashionably dressed for every occasion and always worshipful of the Gibson girl. Gibson always portrayed women as in some way superior to their mailer companions This did not offend the male audience who were raised to believe that women were morally superior and their admiration of a the ideal late Victorian Gibson girl would lead a wayward lad to mend his ways.
When World War l ended the age of red-cheeked youthful innocence went the way of the corset. John Held 'flapper" sketch's caught the eye of America's more worldly youth. Now the ideal female was really brought to life for every boy in every small town in America via the silver screen.

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The Victorian Millionaires : The Upstart Yesler Family of Seattle

Yesler's post-fire Pioneer Building, depicted here in 1900. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Horse-drawn streetcar at what is now the corner of Occidental and Yesler, 1884 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

"The Public Library Building. / The property belongs to the Yesler Estate, Incorporated," from brochure Seattle and the Orient (1900).This library, the former Henry Yesler home at Third and James, burned soon after this picture was taken, on January 2, 1901. It was replaced by a Carnegie library. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Seattle, Washington pioneer and mill owner Henry Yesler; also 2-time mayor of Seattle (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

My interest in the Yesler family was sparked by accident. I was doing research in to the family of my great Grandfather David Burgert and came across this information about the family of Sarah Burgert Yesler his second daughter. She was the wife of Henry Yesler one of the founding fathers of Seattle.

Henry Yesler is a man considered to be an economic founding father in Seattle and one of  their first millionaires. Henry had headed west in 1849 like many men to find gold . He arrived in Seattle Washington in 1852 and with great foresight built a steam powered saw mill. It provided much needed jobs for local settlers and for members of the Duwarnish tribe. The mill  was located on what is now known as Yesler Way. This area was called ‘Skid Road”, not because of poverty but because of the logs skidded down the embankment towards the mill.

The Yesler family built what was a rather large house at the time on the 1st Avenue and James Street.  It was said to resemble a store. It was not the typical dwelling of your successful Victorian entrepreneur. He waited after the death of his first wife Sarah Burger Yesler to build his Victorian mansion on the between 3rd and 4th St. on James. Here he lived his final days with his second wife who was only in her twenties.

  Henry Yesler also built the city’s first water system in 1854. The original system was described as a series of V shaped open air flumes that were mounted on First Hill and ran past the mill. This system only provided what was dirty water to the town’s people. He later made improvements using log pipes that they buried beneath the ground.

Henry Yesler had a sense of public duty and in his lifetime in Seattle he served as a county auditor, county commissioner, and mayor.

On June 6th I889 the Great Seattle fire burned the wooden buildings in the old business district. It also destroyed his steam powered mill.  The home of his 1st wife which had become known as Yesler Hall was also destroyed. Yesler instead built the Pioneer building where his first home had stood. Yesler died December 16th 1892. His mansion becomes the first Seattle Public Library but it too burned down in 1901.

Sarah Burgert Yesler arrived in Seattle mid summer of 1858. She had come to help her husband with the sawmill and other business enterprises. Sarah Yesler became the first lady of Seattle in her many years there. She was an active in the suffrage movement and worked to establish a free public library system.

Sarah had been separated from her husband for seven years while he had gone out west in search of gold. She stayed with relatives and raised their only child George. When she felt George was old enough to fare well without her, she undertook the dangerous journey west. Unfortunately, her son George succumbed to a local pestilence and died in 1859 while his parents were establishing themselves in Seattle. 

She spent many years there engaged in making the family business a success. She did not use financial success to become a Victorian lady of leisure. Sara’s first job was a cook for the saw mill employees.  She spent her later years involved in the Seattle Library association and many other benevolent ventures to benefit the youth of Seattle.

The Yeslers were not your typical Victorian upper class couples. They did not attend church. They instead hosted the famous Spiritualist W.E. Cheney at their home. They were followers of the concept of free love. They may have been somewhat influenced by relatives by marriage who had been involved in the religious cult that had established themselves in Oneida New York. These folks advocated free love and open marriage. Sarah is known to have had a very pubic romantic relationship with another women. Sara always considered herself loyal to her husband. She accepted his daughter from an affair with a Native American women that occurred before her arrival in Seattle.

Sarah was known for a particular act of kindness towards a Chinese cook before her death in 1887. The Yellers would not take part in the anti Chinese riots that occurred in Seattle in the early 1880’s, she took in a Chinese cook and refused to hand him over to an irate group of white men. This kind of action was not something that would father her husband’s political career. Sara was aware that a great many orphans were part of the Seattle area. She helps found the Seattle Children’s home in 1885 2with the work of the Ladies Relief Society. She died of gastric disease in 1887 at age 65.

"As the news [of her death] swept across Seattle, flags in the city and its harbor were lowered to half-mast as citizens mourned the woman who had given so much to them. Stores and businesses closed their doors out of respect for 'the aged lady' and hundreds poured through the doors of the Yesler mansion and into its north parlor..." (p. 176).

Sources:
Linda Peavey and Ursula Smith, "Sarah Burgert Yesler" in Women in Waiting in the Westward Movement (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1994), 132-178.

Julia Yesler

On June 12, 1855,  a daughter Henry Yesler  was born. Julia (Benson) Intermela (1855-1907) is the child of Susan, the daughter of Curly (Su-quardle) and Henry Yesler. After the death of her mother she was taken in and raised by his wife Sarah Yesler. Julia married Charles L. Intermela in 1880  Elsie was born on January 14, 1892,

The following quote was found in reference to Julia Yesler. . “He was not married to the Indian woman but when his wife came he did not do like many others, drive the girl back to her tribe. He provided for the Indian woman and looked out for her welfare and for that of his daughter by her. He gave the daughter as good an education as circumstances would permit. I had the pleasure of meeting the daughter about two years ago. She is married to a very nice gentleman who is one of the foremost citizens in the city and county where they live. She is a perfect lady and is respected by all who know her. Mrs. Yesler, when she came and found Mr. Yesler the father of the little daughter, took the little one to her home and treated her as her own child" ("A Story of Pioneering,")

SOURCEA Story of Pioneering by Nicholas V. Sheffer (1825-1910)

It should be noted that not everyone approved of the Yesler family. Many people were shocked at their lack of concern for Victorian standards of sexuality. Henry Yesler also had a habit of getting involved in a number of frivolous law suits. He also was known as a bit of a tight wad. He was slow to repay loans made to family members in Ohio , even after he became a millionaire.

Historical Material is available on the Yesler family at http://www.historylink.org Other Material referenced in text.

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