Mercer

"Previous to opening the school I spent 3 weeks, hiring 2 Indians with a canoe, and traveled about 4 hundred miles visiting every logging camp on the east side of Puget Sound from Bellingham Bay to Olympia, trying to induce any young men whom I might find engaged in the logging camps to come to Seattle and enter the school; succeeded in getting about one dozen, varying in age from 20 to 25 years. In order to secure them, I agreed to pay them $1.50 a cord for chopping wood from the down timber in front of the University grounds, which had been donated to me for that purpose by Arthur A. Denny. I contracted with the captain of the steamboat Eliza Anderson, the only steamboat at that time plying upon Puget Sound, to supply him with wood, getting $2.50 per cord. H. L. Yesler, who owned the wharf and usually charged 25 cents per cord wharfage, donated or gave me the free use of the wharf, thus saving 25 cents per cord. This enabled me to pay the boys $1.50 per cord -- an extra high price. There were but 2 horse teams in the country at that time, and teamster's prices were high. I paid $1 per cord for having the wood hauled to the wharf. These young men, being expert handlers of the axe, averaged 2 cords each Saturday, thus earning $3 per week." -- A. S. Mercer
Mercer
Full-size image: 48.2 kB | View imageView Download imageDownload