10 Facts About Hiram Gill

In 1889 Gill graduated from the University of Wisconsin Law School and moved to Seattle, where he worked first as a waiter at a waterfront restaurant.

Hiram Gill soon became a stenographer in a law firm, entering practice himself in 1892 and soon entering politics as a Republican.

Hiram Gill was elected to the city council in 1898, reelected in 1900, defeated in 1902, but elected again in 1904, after which he held onto his seat, serving three years as council president before running for mayor in 1910 on an "open town" platform.

One of the most prominent figures on the other side of the debate was Presbyterian minister Mark Matthews, who already in 1905 had faced off against Hiram Gill, accusing him of "condoning vice"; other opponents included other church groups, but progressives, prohibitionists, and women's suffragists.

Hiram Gill opposed municipal ownership of utilities, arguing not only for privatized transit, but for privatized waterworks, and opposing the then-young Seattle City Light electric utility.

Wappenstein promptly established a regime far more "open" than any that Hiram Gill had overtly advocated, and not just south of Yesler Way.

Hiram Gill maintained a more neutral stance toward City Light than before: while still by no means a proponent of public utilities, he no longer actively obstructed the utility, nor did he force it to take on the most unprofitable tasks while leaving all good opportunities to the private sector.

When Washington "went dry" in 1916, Hiram Gill enforced it aggressively, with police raids extending even to the elite Rainier Club.

Hiram Gill took labor's side in several strike actions, and even spoke out on behalf of the IWW after the 1916 Everett Massacre, earning him the wrath of the Times.

Hiram Gill ran for reelection in 1918, but was trounced, and died less than a year later.