10 Facts About Henry Yesler

Henry Leiter Yesler was an American entrepreneur and a politician, regarded as a founder of the city of Seattle.

Henry Yesler arrived in Seattle from Ohio in 1852 and built a steam-powered sawmill, which provided numerous jobs for those early settlers and Duwamish tribe members.

In running the mill, Henry Yesler built the city's first water system in 1854.

Later on, after complaints of dirty water, Henry Yesler developed a system made up of log pipes and iron buried beneath the ground.

Henry Yesler rebuilt on most of his properties, including 3 corners of Pioneer Square with substantial brick and stone buildings, including the Metropole Building, the Mutual Life Building, and the Bank of Commerce Building, all still standing though altered.

In 1892, Henry Yesler completed his grandest project the Pioneer Building on the same plot of land where his first home stood, now the heart of Seattle's Pioneer Square.

Sarah Henry Yesler had died in 1887, but Henry Yesler built a large new mansion and shared his mansion with a younger female relative, whom he married five months later.

Henry Yesler died on December 16,1892, at the age of 82.

On other occasions, it was Henry Yesler himself doing the suing.

Henry Yesler would pay him $12,000 of it over time, and it wasn't until McLain sued him that he was able to collect on the rest.