Snyder-Newell Inc. history

In the spring of 1833, the company sent Archibald McDonald to establish a trading post at Nisqually, and when this fortress-store was occupied, the old circuitous route to the Columbia River by way of Black Lake, the Chehalis River and Grays Harbor fell into disuse.

In 1836, it was in Upper California, stamping out San Francisco’s first newspaper, the Star.

The present city of Olympia was really born in 1846, but under a temporary and almost forgotten name.

The year 1849 was a dark one for the Puget Sound country as the bright flame of California gold eclipsed the northern coast.

On July 11, 1851, A. B. Rabbeson took over the first mail contract to deliver mail between Olympia and Cowlitz Landing over a trail that could be traversed by horseback.

With a new county on the map, an election was in order, so in June, 1852, the citizens went to the polls and elected A. J. Simmons as Thurston County’s first sheriff; A. M. Poe, county clerk; D. R. Bigelow treasurer; R. S. Bailey, assessor, and Edmund Sylvester, coroner.

By the following year, young McElroy was beginning to feel the separation from his bride more and more, and on September 4, 1853, wrote:

The city’s most ardent boosters of today will seldom claim that Olympia is at its best in December, and in 1854 it was definitely on the bleak side.

By December, 1855, most of the hostile Indians were scattered and hungry and Governor Stevens, back from his treaty making, decided the war was over.

In October, 1856, the following advertisement appeared in the Pioneer and Democrat:

At a second trial, the sub-chief of the Nisquallys was sentenced to hang on January 22, 1858, at Fort Steilacoom.

The first meeting of the town trustees was held on February 17, 1859, with T. F. McElroy, James Tilton, Joseph Cushman and Elwood Evans present.

In 1860, the historic Washington Standard was established by John Miller Murphy, who had come to Olympia as a small boy in the early ’50s.

The Indian War seriously retarded the territory’s development and the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861 almost halted the westward flood of immigration.

When its publisher was shot, the Overland Press became the Pacific Tribune in 1864, and the little Ramage hand press was sold and moved to Seattle.

The Washington Standard, published at Olympia, in 1867, reproduced an inventory of Smith’s former holdings, made by Sylvester on a torn leaf from a ship’s log book.

The first Olympia city library and the first city hall were built in 1869.

By 1871 Governor Stevens’ vision of a northern transcontinental railway was nearing reality.

The year 1872 saw the end of Olympia’s dream of becoming the great city of Washington.

At the legislature of 1874, Sheriff Billings of Thurston County and Sheriff Smith of Pierce County got a bill passed turning the territorial prisoners over to them for contract labor.

On the southwest corner of Chestnut and Twelfth Street is the old square-roofed house which was built by a John Slisby, a native of Maine who came to Olympia in 1878.

Clem Johnston’s house was built in 1879, and it is still there.

In 1880, the post office was located where the Knights of Pythias Hall now stands and then it moved again to a building on the site where the Old Capitol Building now stands.

Tenino achieved commercial importance in 1888 when its magnificent sandstone quarries were discovered.

The Sunset Telephone and Telegraph Company put in the first telephone lines in 1889.

On the northeast corner of Eighth and Franklin is the site of the old First Christian Church, organized in 1890; this building was torn down.

Still later, it was for a time located in the west wing of the Old Capitol Building until the spring of 1891 when it occupied quarters in the Reed Building which had just been opened.

The Olympia High School News, predecessor of the present Olympus, began publication in 1893.

The Olympia Brewing Company, the oldest of the city’s larger industries, was established in 1896 at Tumwater where, fittingly enough, the first Washington industry had been begun 50 years before by Michael Simmons.

The Anderson was wrecked while on her way to join the Alaska gold rush in 1897, but legend has it that she “earned her weight in gold” for her owners during her long career.

Finally, in 1901, the Thurston County Court House was purchased by the state and enlarged for a capitol building.

In 1903, the N. P. bought the 15-mile Port Townsend Southern, and the historic little railway soon passed into oblivion.

He prospered with the city in which he had faith and died at his adopted home in 1904.

And people who didn’t have enough money to pay the big prices of cars in 1905 began to “arrange terms” installment buying which was soon a common practice that became big business for banks.

By 1910, there were 4,192 automobiles registered in the United States, and the state of New York became the first to receive revenue from registering. and licensing cars.

Ten years later, in 1916, the first Washington license plates were issued to 70,032 car owners.

There the court remained until 1920 when it moved into its present beautiful building, the first of the capitol group to be completed.

In 1927, the morning and evening editions became the morning and evening Olympian, while the Evening Recorder discontinued.

According to Postmaster J. F. Leverich, who was appointed September 13, 1940, the Olympia post office now keeps an average of 75 civil service employees busy receiving and delivering mail here.

The Mizpah sank once and burned to the water’s edge, but she is still in service (1950) in Olympia harbor as a diesel tug, owned by her first skipper, Captain Volney C. P. Young of the Capitol City Tug Company.

Launched in 2002, Crocs, Inc. made a lightweight clog-style plastic shoe in several appealing colors.

At $30 a pair, the shoes began selling steadily across the United States in specialty retailers, and in 2003, 76,000 pairs were sold to the tune of $1.2 million.

Ron Snyder came out of retirement to run Crocs, Inc., maker of the popular rainbow-colored resin shoes that began turning up everywhere in 2005.