W.W. And The Gilman Kids: An Historical Peek At Issaquah
November 16, 1977
by Harriet Fish
Pioneers, as viewed by historians, fall into several categories – settlers, business opportunists, and wheelers and dealers.
One of the early men of Issaquah who fell into the latter category was the third Railroad Station Agent in Gilman Town, Olney Post Office. He was Wilbur W. Sylvester.
Much can be learned about him from an aging Railroad letter copy book which came to light in the archives of the Issaquah Branch of the Seattle First National Bank.
The letters recorded in the first eight pages, from Nov. 22, 1894 to Dec. 20, 1894, were written by him while he served as Station Agent at Wickersham, Wash. His transfer here came early in 1895, since the ninth page is dated at “Gilman Town, Olney Post Office” Feb. 5, 1895.
During the previous six years after the completion of the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railroad line to Gilman, two station agents had come and gone, before W.W. arrived. They had been regularly robbed and apparently left no outstanding accomplishments except to see the coal was shipped, freight and passengers were handled effectively.
This unique book tells of the ups and downs of Sylvester’s many business enterprises, his life, and his Station Agent’s work. Interwoven are his personal happinesses and tragedies, his ideas and proposed projects, his dreams and queries, but none of the answers. Also we know from other records that his capabilities in helping the town led to Issaquah’s first Insurance Agency, real estate business and its pioneer banking facility. These are also recorded in the 1913 booklet “Plain Facts” established then by the Commercial Club of Issaquah, and now reprinted by the Issaquah Historical Society.
Sylvester had been a railroad man for 25 years, with continuing contacts in Cleveland, Ohio, where he had worked for the Nickel Plate Line, and in Wickersham. His immediate family lived in Gilman, but he had several brothers and sisters, as well as a mother living in the Middle West. There were, apparently, several children, two sons and at least one daughter, of whom he speaks. It was the older son who first inquired, through these letters, of the possibility of securing an Insurance Agency for this area.
The first letter, Feb. 1895, in fading ink on orange tissuetype copy-paper, is an order for groceries to be sent to H. Burr at Gilman (01ney Post Office). Right away it becomes obvious, that this discrepancy in names between town and Post Office, is a thorn in the ease of the town.
Also, in letters is documentation of the area’s name change. On May 15, 1895, the red stamp of the town’s name changes from “Gilman, Olney Post Office” to “Issaquah, formerly Gilman.” Unfortunately, among the writings there is no referenee to this change so we don’t know yet why the name was chosen, but we do know that this change was made first by the railroad company. Later the post office name was to follow suit, and in February of 1889, the town council minutes record the formal change in the name of the town itself, ending for years of confusion of what to call our town.
This is a continuation of the human interest stories of Issaquah’s development during 1895 to 1900 as gathered from the fading, hand written letters and records of the third Railroad Station Agent, Mr. Wilbur W. Sylvester.
In the early stage of the establishment of Issaquah’s first Insurance agency, started by W.C. Sylvester, son of W.W., the first policy issued was a hop-risk policy written for a Fall City farmer. Second, came a policy insuring the Old Fellow’s Hall, built in 1886, and still standing on the east side of Front St. North.
Beginning in April of 1896, W.W. and his Insurance Agent son, W.C., both staunch Baptists, began to make efforts to establish a Baptist Church in Issaquah, then still called Gilman.
Their trials at locating land from various sources were unsuccessful, but, in several letters, one of which includes a rough map of the wagon road and railroad intersection, he tells that the name “Rainier”, then applied to a land addition, and still remaining with us today, came from the magnificent view of Mr. Rainier, through the mountain gap, as visible along the railroad tracks north of the depot. It was here he had his eye on land for the church.
Apparently, Baptist Services were held at various spots until May of 1899 when they were suspended “until we have better support and can secure a lot and erect us a church house.” This, in his wife’s letter, showed definite discouragement in their efforts.
But all of W.W.’s endeavors did not turn out thus. For, starting back when he first came, he tried to secure a safe for “the silver and valuable packages” which came into the express agency and depot. In 1898 he borrowed a safe from George W. Tibbetts, one of which was stored in the freight room. During the ensuing months he tried to have it purchased by either the Express Company or the Railroad Line. But it went instead to Fall City for $100.
While he strove to provide a safe keeping place for the growing payroll which arrived totally in silver, there were regular burglaries at Cooper’s Saloon and Gibson’s Drug Store. His recorded letters do not list any such happening at the depot while he lived there.
However, all of these experiences led him to realize more and more that the town needed a banking facility, so, in 1899, he began to purchase furniture and fixtures, including a safe, for his own banking facility.
The safe was located in Alaska and the numerous letters depicting its long travels, devious route and questionable condition when it arrived made for a real suspense thriller. One wondered: will he ever get all the parts’ includjng the key and the combination, for it had both?
By December, he resigned as Railroad Agent, and opened his Issaquah Bank on Jan. 1, 1900 with his sons. It was an enterprise of W.W. Sylvester and Sons, with a $5,000 capital.
It was a frame building which had been the former coal company office on the east side of Front Street between the Odd Fellow’s Hall and the location of the scales for weighing the outgoing loads of coal. This latter piece of equipment rested at the corner where the Wooden Spoon stands today.
