Women win the right to vote in the state, and the Women's Christian Temperance Union is the most active group in Anacortes, with a visit by
national leader Carrie Nation, "noted saloon smasher."
A tabernacle at Fifth and Q is the site of weeks of nightly evangelistic meetings by the "Drummer Evangelist Osborn."
Three hundred "go forward for prayer."
"Busiest and best city on Puget Sound" describes Anacortes, with its big Rhododendron Day and July 4 events.
Anacortes Lumber &
Box builds a new dock and Anacortes Glass Co. opens to produce jars. Vincent Shingle Mill cuts 1.5 million shingles a day. And mills endure frequent fires.
Apex, Porter, Alaska Packers fish
companies process huge quantities of salmon.
Several convicts escape from the state quarry at Deception Pass.
Census shows Anacortes still leading center of population with 4,168 residents.
Mount Vernon had population of only 2,517.
1911
Anacortes Lumber & Box touted as the largest box factory on the Pacific Coast. "Eleven lines of hose and a favorable
wind" save the plant from a loss of $10,000 resulting from fire.
Old Oregon Mill ships 6 million board feet to foreign ports.
University of Washington Professor Meany talks about
Indian lore at the formal opening of public library, which issues 701 cards in its first year.
The new Great Northern Railroad Depot, built at a cost of $25,000, opens for business June 28.
1912
Dr. Samuel Gordon Brooks opens an office over the candy store.
Salmon cannery production leads all in Puget Sound region, from Blaine to Seattle. Companies include Fidalgo
Island, Alaska Packers, Porter Fish, Coast Fish and Apex Fish.
Robinson Fish builds new codfish curing plant. A grand ball raises money to buy new books for public library.
A British
steamer loads 600,000 feet of lumber headed for Melbourne, Australia.
A railroad record is set in June with 8.5 million pounds of freight shipped in 30 days. A train wreck a mile from town
injures 16.
Robert Johnson is acquitted of manslaughter in the death of his New Wilson Hotel cafe partner, Alexander Austin. They got into a fight at the hotel.
In the election of 1912, W.
H. Taft wins in Skagit County, but in the first precinct of Anacortes, the winner isn't the future president Woodrow Wilson, but socialist Eugene V. Debs.
1913
Panama Canal opens and
Anacortes joins the celebratory "Big Noise" heard up and down the Pacific Coast. At 11 a.m. Oct. 10, all the mills blow their whistles.
Morrison Bros. buys Fidalgo Lumber Mill for
$20,000 and will employ 160 men. Fred Wood plans to build a mill at Burrows Bay and employ 250 men.
Corbett Shingle Mill burns for the second time in three months. It costs $46,620 to run City
Hall for a year.
The forerunner of Washington Park, 181 acres, is purchased for the city.
The Havekost monument is erected.
The codfish schooner Alice
returns from the Bering Sea with 137,000 fish weighing 400 tons.
School enrollment is 850 students.
Empire Theater opens at Seventh and Commercial to a crowd of 1,400 people on Dec. 22.
Deception Pass ferry takes 150 people on its first run.
The high school football team wins county championship, then goes on to beat Whatcom county champ, Ferndale.
1914
The
cultural highlight of the year (and for many years) is the summer arts celebration, the Chautauqua. Eagles buy the site for a lodge at Seventh and Q.
Guemes Island dedicates its community
center.
Telephone cable laid to Guemes. Thornburg's store opens at Fifth and Commercial.
Between the tides, Walter Britt swims across Deception Pass. It takes him five minutes to swim the
500 feet.
Water system debates begin (and last years.) Whistle, Heart and Cranberry lakes are all part of the system.
1915
Nine lumber and shingle plants are operating in
Anacortes.
Elks dedicate new lodge at Sixth and Q.
More than 1,500 people show up to inspect. High School class of 1915 numbers 15.
Walter Britt swims the Guemes Channel in one hour.
Cannery workers numbering 300 gather at City Hall to protest the employment of Japanese (for lower wages) by local companies.
A race riot nearly ensues. Assistant postmaster F.G. Abby talks
gunman out of plot to rob the post office at Sixth and Q.
High school basketball team wins Northwest championship.
1917
U.S. enters World War I and a crowd of 2,500 Anacortesans
gather downtown to hear soul-stirring speeches in support of President Wilson's declaration of War.
Sloan Shipbuilding opens on Guemes Island. Cap Sante waterway project funding request is
before Congress.
Canneries ready for the "silver hordes."
New motorbus ready for a South Anacortes-Fidalgo route. city to build landing for Guemes Ferry at the foot of Commercial
or O.
"China men" and Filipinos fight at canneries. Anacortes American reports of these skirmishes include lots of racist, derogatory language.
Lumber mill workers strike
for shorter days. Mill owners say plants run better on 10-hour shifts.
Schooners Alice and Wawona bring home big loads of codfish from Alaska.
1918
The war ends in armistice.
The Old Oregon lumber plant is sold to the Morrison Mill Co. Lack of railroad cars because of war effort means that shingle mills close.
Water system fight heats
up between city and Northwest Electric, Power and Water.
Westminster Presbyterian Church dedicated July 1.
Elks sponsor big street dance (Cricket Hop and Molasses Drag) attended by soldiers
stationed at Fort Casey.
At a cost of $135,000, the city votes to own its water system and a bond issue pays for the purchase of 1,850 acres of watershed.
1919
W. A. Lowman gets
the first airmail letter delivered to Anacortes. W. E. Boeing carries the letter to Lowman in a postal bag he flies from Vancouver, B.C. to Seattle.
Orator William Jennings Bryan, known later
for the Scopes Monkey Trial, speaks in Anacortes.
Thousands endorse the establishment of the Roosevelt Highway, the forerunner of Highway 20.
Shingle mill workers strike to be paid 17 cents
per thousand for packing and 24 cents per thousand for cutting shingles
The skipper of the schooner Alice is robbed, killed and thrown in the bay for his $1,000 paycheck.
Note:
Issues from 1916 were not available. -- G.F.M
