City of Puyallup history

Ezra Meeker, who had emigrated from Ohio in 1852 with his wife, Eliza, and other family members, had tried homesteading in Kalama, on McNeil Island, and at a soil-poor, mosquito-infested farm called Swamp Place, southeast of Tacoma.

The first white settlers were part of the first wagon train to cross the Cascades at Natches Pass in 1853.

During the Native American War of 1855-56, following the signing of the controversial Medicine Creek Treaty, many of these settlers fled to Fort Steilacoom for protection.

The area was resettled by Ezra Meeker in 1859.

Secession and the politics of the Civil War, 1860–65The coming of the warThe political course of the warMoves toward emancipationSectional dissatisfaction

In 1861, the first school was established in the blockhouse officially named Fort Maloney, but better known as Fort Carson because John and Emma Carson were using it as a home.

Sometime in 1862, Jeremiah Stilley sold his squatter claim to Ezra Meeker, who had rejected the Valley as a place to live nearly 10 years before.

Farming was subsistence-level until 1865, when Charles Wood, an Olympia brewer, imported hop roots from England.

In 1874 a growing population needed a new school building.

The Ezra Meeker Mansion (1875) houses artifacts relating to area history.

In 1877, Meeker platted 20 acres of his farm to create a town.

By 1884, over 100 farmers were growing hops.

By 1886, this school had been outgrown and the Central School was built.

Grover Cleveland’s first termThe surplus and the tariffThe public domainThe Interstate Commerce ActThe election of 1888

Hop pickers, Puyallup Valley, 1889

On August 16, 1890, the 1,500 citizens of Puyallup approved a new, legal incorporation and Ezra Meeker was elected mayor.

61). Hops “brought into the State more than $20,000,000, and now gives employment to 15,000 people annually,” according to an 1891 article in The New York Times.

The Benjamin Harrison administrationThe Sherman Antitrust ActThe silver issueThe McKinley tariffThe agrarian revoltThe PopulistsThe election of 1892

When gold was discovered in Canada’s Klondike in 1896, he opened a store in Dawson City and filed a mining claim, but never found gold and went broke again.

"Ezra Meeker Mansion, 1906" by Gale Brian Nickel is in the Public Domain

But in 1911, the city council and mayor changed the street names to numbers in preparation for the coming of free mail delivery to Puyallup homes.

By 1912, the Puyallup and Sumner Fruitgrowers’ Association had 1,300 members and was considered the largest association of fruit growers in the world.

Citizens, including Meeker and the influential Puyallup Women’s Club, objected and the issue simmered until 1914.

-An excerpt from Ezra Meeker's 1927 book, Ox-Team Days on the Oregon Trail

92). Puyallup Valley bulb farmers sponsor their first Daffodil Parade on March 17, 1934, to promote their crop.

World War IIThe road to warThe United States at warWar productionFinancing the warSocial consequences of the warThe 1944 electionThe new United States role in world affairs

The peak Cold War years, 1945–60The Truman Doctrine and containmentPostwar domestic reorganizationThe Red ScareThe Korean WarPeace, growth, and prosperityEisenhower’s second termDomestic issuesWorld affairsAn assessment of the postwar era

Puyallup’s growth had spurted during the war and the 1950 United States Census recorded 9,955 residents.

In 1951, in the midst of these squabbles, the City Council adopted a city manager form of government.

The nouveau-riche farmers built mansions, none more spectacular than Ezra Meeker’s 17-room Italianate Victorian showplace, its design and construction under the guidance of his wife, Eliza. It is now maintained by the Ezra Meeker Historical Society and was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971.

The bulb industry was moving to Skagit County, and by 1974 farmland preservation was becoming a political issue, as it was in neighboring King and other Western Washington counties.

127). Pierce County voters were given an opportunity to vote on taxpayer support of farmland preservation in 1985, but this failed when not enough voters went to polls.

Puyallup Tribal health facility, E 32nd Street, Tacoma, 2006

Puyallup had a brief flirtation with high-tech industry in the early 1980s, when Fairchild Semiconductor obtained a 92-acre property on South Hill. It was sold in October 2007 by Arizona-based Microchip Technology to the Benaroya Company, a well-known Seattle developer of industrial parks, for about $30 million, far below Microchip’s asking price of $93 million.

What is now (2008) the WSU Puyallup Research and Extension Center has evolved into a 360-acre research institute that examines biological, environmental, and social issues far beyond the visions of its founders.