Eugene Semple
Eugene Semple | |
|---|---|
 | |
| 13th Governor of Washington Territory | |
| In office April 9, 1887 – April 9, 1889 | |
| Appointed by | Grover Cleveland |
| Preceded by | Watson C. Squire |
| Succeeded by | Miles Conway Moore |
| Personal details | |
| Born | June 12, 1840 Bogotá, Colombia |
| Died | August 28, 1908 (aged 68) San Diego, California, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic |
| Spouse | Ruth A. Lownsdale |
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Eugene Semple (June 12, 1840 – August 28, 1908) was an American politician who served as the 13th Governor of
Early life
Eugene Semple was born in
Washington
President Grover Cleveland appointed Semple as the Governor of Washington Territory in 1887, where he served for one term until April 1889. After Washington became a state in November of that year, Semple ran as the Democratic candidate to be the first Governor of the State of Washington, however he lost to the Republican Elisha P. Ferry.
In 1893, he successfully pushed a bill through the Washington State legislature to facilitate a means of financing privately owned canals by allowing them to sell reclaimed
Work began July 29, 1895.
Some opponents of the project considered Semple's canal project a complete boondoggle. The Seattle Mail and Herald wrote in an unsigned article published June 8, 1904, "It is named the Seattle and Lake Washington Waterway Company, but its promoters never for a moment intended to create a waterway between Seattle's harbor and Lake Washington. The very name of it is a fraud and was created with intent to deceive. Under the guise of building a canal, it only aimed to fool the land owners into letting it disfigure the landscape, while it took dirt enough from them at condemnation prices to fill in the tide lands, for which service it is allowed over 18 cents per square yard and is secured by a preferred lien upon the land it fills."[5]
References
- ^ Binfords & Mort Publishing. p. 219.
- ^ Berner 1991, pp. 17–18
- ^ Williams, David B. (February 5, 2017). "Lake Washington Ship Canal (Seattle)". HistoryLink.org. Retrieved August 19, 2023.
- ^ Berner 1991, pp. 17–20
- ^ "Editorial Notes". Seattle Mail and Herald. No. v.7, no. 32. June 18, 1904. p. 2.
Further reading
- Berner, Richard C. (1991). Seattle 1900–1920: From Boomtown, Urban Turbulence, to Restoration. Seattle: Charles Press. ISBN 0-9629889-0-1..
- Eugene Semple papers. 1858–1908. 7.2 cubic feet (18 boxes). At the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections.
External links
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
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