Seattle Then - Karl Chronicles - Post #192

Dear reader, do you remember the Karl Chronicle about the “great fire” in Chicago on October 8, 1871? The fire allegedly started in Mrs. O’Leary’s barn and rapidly spread through the city. In 24 hours, it burned through 4 square miles, leaving 300 dead, 100,000 people homeless, and 17,500 buildings destroyed. 

The response to the Great Chicago Fire was to rebuild a new urban center with bigger businesses and bold, innovative buildings. All just in time for Chicago to showcase its new architecture as the host of the 1893 World Fair. Although Mrs. O’Leary and her cow were officially exonerated in 1997, the fire catapulted Chicago into a city with renowned, world-class architecture.

The “Great Fire” wasn’t unique to Chicago; it occurred in other urban centers in America around the same time– Boston (1872), Seattle (1889), Baltimore (1904), and San Francisco (1906).

Similar to the blame placed on Mrs. O’Leary and her cow, the cause of the Seattle fire was allegedly a woodworking assistant who overheated a glue pot in a carpentry shop on June 6, 1889. The glue boiled over and ignited the floor covered in turpentine and wood chips. Many businesses were below grade, and the streets were planked with wood, making it difficult to extinguish the fire, which burned for 12 hours.

Twenty-five city blocks, a total of 120 acres, were destroyed, including the wharves. While no human lives were lost, 5,000 men lost their jobs, and the city estimated its losses to be $8 million, equivalent to around $697 million today. Oh, and as many as 1 million rats perished!

Seattle lies on a narrow strip of land between the salt waters of Puget Sound and Lake Washington, with the Olympic Mountains to the west and the Cascades to the east. The town's population soared in the late 1880s, with lumber and coal being the primary industries. However, it was pretty disorderly, with significant documented sewage problems. The fire initiated Seattle's transformation; the day after, the town decided to rebuild immediately.

Like Chicago, new buildings and fire codes were introduced to prevent another massive fire, requiring masonry walls at least a foot thick. Within thirty days, eighty-eight brick buildings were either underway or projected to be built. Seattle’s economic expansion grew through its wholesale trade, shipbuilding, and shipping industries. In 1897, the Klondike Gold Rush further propelled Seattle’s growth, cementing its role as the premier outfitting point for prospectors.

Karl arrived on his Red Bird bicycle in Seattle in October 1899. Before the mid-1890s, there were fewer than 25 bicycles in Seattle. But by 1899, the biking craze that led Karl to travel the world was evident in America, too, with approximately 10,000 bicyclists in Seattle. As Karl biked through the city, he headed to the wharves, searching for passage to the Philippines. He wrote: “The army officials at Seattle were shipping mules to Manila when I was there, and quartermasters told me I could work my passage to Manila if I wished, but the transport was due to leave before I could get here and go back again, so I will sail from here as soon as possible.”

The mules were sent to Manila to support U.S. troops fighting in the Philippine-American War, which began in February 1899 and lasted until 1902.

The Philippine rebel army initiated the conflict after the Americans defeated the Spanish in a war that ended Spanish colonial rule in the Americas. Following the Spanish-American War, a treaty signed in Paris transferred the sovereignty of the Philippines to the United States for $20 million. Many Filipino soldiers had fought alongside U.S. forces to be liberated from Spain, only to find themselves under American control, leading to a new conflict. The war transitioned from conventional battles to guerrilla tactics, lasting about three years. Over 4,200 U.S. service members and 20,000 Filipino combatants died, along with more than 200,000 Filipino civilians who succumbed to violence, famine, or disease.

The United States ruled the Philippines from 1898 to 1946 (with a brief interruption during the Japanese occupation from 1942 to 1945). In 1946, the Philippines finally gained independence.

It’s a good thing the timing of the passage to Manila didn’t suit Karl’s itinerary, or he may have inadvertently landed amid the Philippine-American War. For the record, he never did make it to the Philippines.

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