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Guide to the John J. McGilvra Papers
1861-1926

Engraving of John McGilvra. Special Collections, UW Libraries, UW3281

Physical/Technical Access

The pages of the letterpress books are wrinkled and many are blurred.

Biographical Note

John Jay McGilvra was born in Livingston County, New York, in 1827 and moved with his family to Illinois in 1844. After teaching school for several years, he began reading law, was admitted to the Illinois bar in 1853, and entered private practice in Chicago. In 1861, McGilvra was appointed U.S. attorney for Washington Territory, a post he held until 1865, when he returned to private pratice and politics. McGilvra was elected to the territorial legislature in 1866 as a Republican. The most notable accomplishment of his single term was the passage of enabling legislation for a wagon road over Snoqualmie Pass, the first trans-Cascade connection between eastern and western Washington. Following the Northern Pacific Railway's announcement in 1873 that Tacoma would be its West Coast terminus, he joined with other prominent Seattleites in organizing the Seattle & Walla Walla Railroad Company. Even after the failure of his railroad venture, McGilvra lobbied and litigated against the Northern Pacific and remained one of its most vocal critics.

McGilvra, one of the first attorneys in Seattle, spent most of his career in private practice but served a short time as city attorney. In addition to practicing law (he would eventually earn the title of "Judge" as a tribute to his longevity), McGilvra speculated in real estate. He and his wife, Elizabeth, purchased a large tract of land bordering Lake Washington, becoming the first white settlers in what is now the Madison Park neighborhood in Seattle. He built what became Madison Street to link his property with downtown Seattle and organized the Madison Street Cable Railway Company. McGilvra was also an advocate of municipal improvement and civic reform in Seattle, remaining active in civic affairs even after his retirement in 1893. He was a primary backer of the Lake Washington Ship Canal and promoted the concept of bringing Cedar River water to Seattle. He and other community leaders established a Municipal League in 1894, although it was soon disbanded. Oliver McGilvra, known to his family as Max, followed his father into the legal profession. McGilvra's elder daughter, Caroline, married his former law partner, Thomas Burke. John McGilvra died in 1903.

Scope and Content

The John J. McGilvra Papers document the career of the lawyer, elected official, businessman, and civic activist.

The general correspondence is arranged chronologically and spans the years 1861-1907. The contents relate to both personal and business topics. Letters from the early 1860s discuss matters arising from McGilvra's duties as U.S. attorney. They include the investigation of suspected embezzlement by the customs collector in Port Townsend, Washington, settlement of land claims, and enforcement of the Indian Intercourse Act. Letters from the 1870s and 1880s address McGilvra's legal battles with the Northern Pacific Railroad as well as his general legal business. Much of the correspondence from the 1890s until his death in 1903 deals with civic matters, including the Lake Washington Ship Canal and Cedar River water line, and Republican politics. Major correspondents include Caroline McGilvra Burke, George Goss, and Oliver McGilvra. The outgoing letters are in the form of five letterpress books, 1873 to 1890, from McGilvra's law practice. They include correspondence from McGilvra and Burke (1875-1876); McGilvra and Blaine (1885-1889); and McGilvra, Blaine, and DeVries (1889-1890), law partnerships McGilvra formed during the course of his career. They constitute a daily record of economic conditions, legal practice, and politics in the Puget Sound region.

Court papers, largely legal briefs and notes, are grouped by subject, with the balance being catagorized as miscellaneous. The materials in this series represent the full range of McGilvra's law practice and include materials from his years practicing in Illinois. Legal documents include various contracts, article of incorporation, and affidavits. Also included are his reports as U.S. attorney for Washington Territory. The speeches and writings date largely from the 1870s and beyond and are grouped by topic, including the Lake Washington Ship Canal, Republican politics and Seattle municipal affairs, and the Northern Pacific Railroad Company. The series includes notes as well as complete speeches and writings.

The collection also contains several subgroups representing the papers of the McGilvra estate and several family members. There are also small subgroups containing the correspondence of McGilvra and Baxter, another of his law partnerships, and law partner Elbert F. Blaine. Blaine has been called the "father of the Seattle park system." Included in the Blaine subgroup is the 1903 report from the Olmsted Brothers of Brookline, Mass., to Blaine (in his capacity as chairman of the Seattle Board of Park Commissioners) outlining a comprehensive parks plan for the city.

The McGilvra collection also includes two 4-reel sets of positive microfilm which contain McGilvra's general correspondence and outgoing letters. The microfilm targets misidentify a few dates. The terminal date for reel 1 should be May 29, not June 2, and the starting date for reel 4 should be 1896 rather than 1895.

Alternate Forms Available

Portions of the John J. McGilvra Papers are available on microfilm, which may be borrowed through interlibrary loan.

Restrictions on Access

The collection is open to all users.

Access to archival recordings: Due to the fragility of archival tape recordings, potential users may be required to arrange for transfer to digital format before the material can be accessed. Please contact Special Collections for further information.

Restrictions on Use

The creator's literary rights were not transferred to the University of Washington Libraries.

Acquisition Info

The John J. McGilvra Papers were a gift of the Thomas Burke estate in 1935.

Processing Info

The McGilvra Papers were part of a gift from the Thomas Burke estate which included the Thomas Burke Papers and Daniel H. Gilman Papers. The McGilvra Papers and the Gilman Papers were made separate collections. In 1965 each correspondence series was rearranged into a simple chronological sequence.

The microfilm in this accession was filmed from the originals in 1965 at the University of Washington under a grant from the National Historical Publications Commission.

Twenty photographic prints were transferred to the McGilvra Family Photograph Collection, PH. Coll. 487, in the division.

Two scrapbooks were relocated to the division's scrapbook collections in 1981. One is political; the other belonged to McGilvra's wife, Elizabeth, and contains clippings about her family, recipes, stories, jokes, and pressed flowers.

Bibliography

King County Bar Association, Addresses upon the Life and Character of John J. McGilvra (Seattle : Lowman & Hanford, 1904).

Doig, Ivan C., "John J. McGilvra: the Life and Times of an Urban Frontiersman, 1827-1903" (Ph.D. diss., University of Washington, 1969).

Doig, Ivan C., "John J. McGilvra and Timber Tresspass: Seeking a Puget Sound Timber Policy," Forest History, 12 Jan. 1970 (6-17).

Other Finding Aids

A published microfilm guide prepared under a grant from the National Historical Publications Commission in 1965, is available in the repository.

The visual materials that form part of this collection are described and indexed in A Guide to the McGilvra Family Photograph Collection.

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