Government structure unchanged since 1852

Commissioners' issues have become more complicated

LORRINE THOMPSON, THE OLYMPIAN

Originally published Saturday, January 12, 2002

Fittingly enough, the first leaders of the newly-created county of Thurston, territory of Oregon, stepped up to take their oaths of office on July 5, 1852.

Almost exactly a year before, on July 4, 1851, a community gathering had turned into a determined campaign for countyhood when resident John B. Chapman stepped up to inspire his fellow settlers with a speech for independence.

A year of meetings, conventions and petitions to the Oregon territorial legislature succeeded in creating Thurston County. By July 5, 1852, it was time for governance to begin.

On that Monday morning, the county spread from the current Lewis County border to Canada, from the Pacific Ocean to the Cascade mountains.

Fewer than 900 settlers lived within the area of today's Thurston County boundaries, about 500 lived in what is now Pierce County, and fewer than 170 settlers populated what is now King County.

The county treasury consisted of $2,837.29. The majority of the budget that first year was spent on schools, roads and judge salaries.

Beef cost 13 cents a pound, chickens were $7 a dozen, flour cost $15 per 100 pounds, blankets were $8 a pair, and gin cost about $3 per gallon.

Thirty-eight schooners, steamers and brigantines had arrived at the bustling Olympia port in the year before, bringing more settlers and supplies.

And on the day before new county leaders took office, in another Fourth of July speech for independence, Olympia resident Daniel Bigelow had delivered an impassioned speech for creation of a new territory north of the Columbia River.

As South Sound residents began to plan for a territorial push, the new county's government would take its first steps.

For the past 150 years, the structure of Thurston County government has remained unchanged -- three elected commissioners and seven elected leaders watching over such community issues as law, property value, finances, death.

But the county government has also evolved from one in which commissioners set bounties on cougar pelts and voted to allow a resident's cow to graze on county land (for $10 a year in 1885), to a government that juggles $300 million a year and stacks of state, federal and local regulations.

"I really think it must have been simpler, when they worried about where a cow was going to graze," said Winnifred Olsen, 85, born in Thurston County and a history enthusiast for most of her life.

In 1992 and 1993, Olsen spent days pouring through minutes of county commission meetings as far back as the first one and compiled them into a small history.

Her impressions, after reading more than 140 years worth of minutes?

"Amazing, the travel difficulties" in the early years, she said.

It could take a day or more of travel for a commissioner to get to Olympia for a meeting, particularly with the county so enormous. One of the first commissioners, Arthur A. Denny, lived in the tiny village of Seattle.

Early meeting minutes often encompassed a few paragraphs of fairly simple settler problems. Later minutes -- typing of them began in 1908 -- began to stretch on for pages and grew increasingly complex with interactions of other jurisdictions, state and federal regulations, and more.

Some things don't change.

Commissioners in 1881 argued for four days about raising taxes for schools and never made a decision, and all three commissioners were voted out of office in 1893 after an unpopular decision to spend $100,000 in bonds to build the historic county courthouse (later used as the state Capitol building).

Winnifred Olsen

Winnifred Olsen's family came to Thurston County in 1891, when her grandfather, Thomas E. Castle, arrived with his brother, George. Her father, Lewis Castle, operated the City Dye Works at Fourth and Water streets, and worked as a "water witcher," locating wells using a willow stick throughout Thurston and Mason counties.

The Olympian Copyright 2002

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