George F. Cotterill

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Cotterill circa 1912

George Fletcher Cotterill (18 November 1865 – 13 October 1958), born in

public parks.[1]

Youth and early career

Born in Oxford, England, Cotterill was the son of a gardener Robert Cotterill and his wife Alice.[5] The family immigrated to the United States in May 1872, when he was six, arriving in Boston before settling on a farm in Montclair, New Jersey. After graduating from high school in Montclair—at the young age of 15 and as class valedictorian—he worked as a rod man on a railroad survey, while training to be a surveyor and engineer.[1]

In 1883, he travelled to the

mayor.[1]

Cora R. Cotterill in 1902

He was not a bookkeeper for long. The growing town and the

West Seattle (which at that time was not yet part of Seattle proper) and laid out the plan of the city of Sidney (later Port Orchard) in Kitsap County. Most importantly for his future career, though, he worked for City of Seattle Surveyor R. H. Thomson, both as a surveyor and in building the city's first sewers.[1]

He married temperance worker Cora Rowena Gormley on 19 February 1890.[6]

Thomson and Cotterill

Cedar River Dam under construction, circa 1900

Thomson became City Engineer in 1892 and appointed Cotterill as an assistant. They developed the basis of what remains Seattle's main water supply over a century later (see

special election.[1] The Klondike Gold Rush put Seattle on a sound economic footing[7] and the 1901 completion of Cedar River Supply System No. 1 (active from 21 February 1901[9]) gave the city a steady supply of clean water.[10]

Other achievements by Thomson and Cotterill in this era included 25 miles of bicycle trails (later the basis of the city's

Central Waterfront. Each pier is more or less a parallelogram. Most earlier piers, none of which survive, formed a perfect right angle to the shore, and the curvature of the shore meant that each pier was at a slightly different angle, causing potential for collisions. Their uniform northeast-southwest direction was prescribed by Thomson and Cotterill not only solved that problem but also spared freight trains from needing to make a sharp right angle.[11][12]

Politics

An increasingly prominent figure in the city, Cotterill was soon embroiled in matters unrelated to his technical skills (or even his financial skills) Gold Rush money had turned Seattle into a wide open city:

nonpartisan, but effectively as a Democrat. It was not the Democrats' year, and Cotterill lost (as he would also lose a Congressional race two years later). He resigned his city job and resumed private practice.[1]

In 1906, he finally achieved electoral success as one of only three Democrats elected to the

workman's compensation law he helped to write became a national model.[1]

Cotterill was the Democratic candidate for the United States Senate in 1908 and 1910, but lost both races.[5]

Mayor of Seattle

city landmark.[13]

Beacon Hill became home to a 500-room brothel with a 15-year lease from the city.[14] It did not take long for the voters to get fed up, and Gill was recalled from office in 1911, though it would not be his last time as mayor. Dilling finished out Gill's term. Wappenstein eventually went to prison.[1]

Gill ran for mayor again in March 1912, and Cotterill ran against him.

Bull Moose" candidacy carried the state in the presidential election later that year, though Roosevelt did not win the country.[16]

Although in some ways his moment of triumph, Cotterill was by this time, in Roger Sales's words, riding "two horses… moving in different directions". His desire for municipal ownership of utilities and public control of ports allied him with labour and populism; his lifelong Prohibitionist views did not. The Prohibitionist movement was, by this time, aligning itself with issues that wanted small government on most other issues, because they had come to believe that big government inevitably meant corruption. Meanwhile, labour was moving farther left, toward socialism and even anarcho-syndicalism.[17]

Prohibitionism and the

International Order of Good Templars in 1897 and was involved with the Templars for the rest of his life, serving for a time as Grand Secretary of the Washington State division and later as Chief Templar of the national division. He was a member of the Anti-Saloon League and in 1909, was appointed by President Taft to represent the US at the International Congress against Alcoholism; in 1913 he was reappointed to this role by President Wilson.[5]

As mayor, Cotterill instigated an anti-vice campaign that raised civil liberties issues, and he soon became embroiled in other issues, as well. There were thousands of vice-related warrantless arrests, and the crackdown on vice may simply have created new and different modes of police corruption.[1]

At this time, Seattle had a big summer celebration known as

Potlatch Days, the name deriving from the potlatch ceremonies of the indigenous peoples of the region. In summer 1913, during the Golden Potlach celebration, Blethen succeeded in stirring up already hot tempers and sparking a riot that destroyed the local offices of the Industrial Workers of the World and of the Socialist Party. Cotterill shut down the saloons, suspended all street meetings, and attempted to close the Seattle Times. In this last, he was stopped by a judge; he and police chief Claude Bannick nearly found themselves arrested. However, he survived a recall attempt instigated by Blethen.[1][18]

That was hardly the last of the labour troubles Cotterill faced as mayor. Later that year, the

Teamsters struck for union recognition and a closed shop. Cotterill attempted to remain neutral, which the employers viewed as support for the union.[1]

Later career

Rather than seek re-election as mayor, in 1914 Cotterill ran again for the United States Senate. Again, he lost. In 1916, he was appointed Chief Engineer of the state highway department. In 1922, he was elected to the first of four three-year terms on the Seattle Port Commission, after which he worked a variety of jobs, including working for the King County Assessor's Office until retiring at the age of 84.[1][5]

Cotterill seems never to have given up hopes of resuming a career in electoral politics. He ran for governor in 1928 and for at least five various city and state offices between 1932 and 1951. His finances fared poorly in the Great Depression, which was part of the reason he worked into his 80s. Most likely, he would have worked even longer if the state had not adopted a mandatory retirement law for government employees over 70.[5]

His wife Cora died on 26 February 1936, and he remarried to principal Katherine E. Owen on 18 November 1950.[6][19]

Roughly a decade after his retirement, he died in a Seattle nursing home.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Wilma, David (2 October 2000), Cotterill, George Fletcher (1865–1958), Seattle: HistoryLink, retrieved 21 October 2008
  2. ^ "Single Tax Loses, But Mayor Favoring This Reform Is Chosen By a Small Vote Margin". The Milwaukee Journal. 6 March 1912. Retrieved 23 August 2014.[permanent dead link]
  3. ^ Arnesen, Eric. Encyclopedia of U.S. Labor and Working-class History. New York: Routledge, 2007
  4. ^ Johnston, Robert D. The Radical Middle Class: Populist Democracy and the Question of Capitalism in Progressive Era Portland, Oregon. Princeton, N.J: Princeton University Press, 2003
  5. ^ a b c d e University of Washington Libraries (2008), Guide to the George F. Cotterill Papers 1839–1958, Seattle: University of Washington Libraries Special Collections, archived from the original on 13 August 2010, retrieved 21 October 2008
  6. ^ a b "Cora Cotterill Called By Death". The Olympian. Seattle (published 28 February 1936). AP. 27 February 1936. p. 3. Retrieved 3 January 2024 – via Newspapers.com.
  7. ^ a b c Stein, Alan J. (1 January 2000), Seattle voters authorize Cedar River Water Supply system on July 8, 1889, Seattle: HistoryLink, retrieved 6 December 2007.
  8. ^ Fleming, S. E. (1919), Civics (supplement): Seattle King County, Seattle: Seattle Public Schools, pp. 20–21
  9. ^ Peterson, Lorin; Davenport, Noah C. (1950), Living in Seattle, Seattle: Seattle Public Schools
  10. ^ Fleming [1919] p.21
  11. ^ Summary for 1201 Alaskan WAY / Parcel ID 7666202485, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Retrieved 19 October 2008.
  12. ^ Summary for 1301 Alaskan WAY / Parcel ID 7666202435 Archived 16 September 2013 at the Wayback Machine, Seattle Department of Neighborhoods. Retrieved 19 October 2008.
  13. ^ David Wilma, Seattle Landmarks: George F. Cotterill House (1910), HistoryLink, 15 April 2001. Retrieved 21 October 2008.
  14. ^ David Wilma, Gill, Hiram C. (1866–1919), HistoryLink.org Essay 2755, 27 October 2000. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
  15. ^ Patrick McRoberts, Fistfight kicks off Seattle Potlatch riots on July 17, 1913, HistoryLink.org Essay 2540, 13 July 2000. Retrieved 22 January 2007.
  16. ISBN 0295956151
    , p.91
  17. ^ Sale [1978], p. 89–90
  18. ^ Morgan, Murray (1960), George Cotterill, Hiram Gill and the Potlatch Riots, Tacoma, Washington: Tacoma Public Library, archived from the original on 24 July 2008, retrieved 21 October 2008. From the online essay collection Murray's People.
  19. ^ Written at Ramsey, New Jersey. "Katherine E. Owen is Married". The Record. Hackensack, New Jersey. 20 November 1950. p. 27. Retrieved 3 January 2024 – via Newspapers.com.

Further reading


Party political offices
Preceded by
William W. Black
Class 3)
1920
 Succeeded by
A. Scott Bullitt
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Seattle
1912–1914 		Succeeded by
Hiram C. Gill
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