Des Moines History Timeline 1850-1869

1700-1849 | 1850-1869 | 1870 | 1880 | 1890 | 1900 | 1910 | 1920 | 1930 | 1940 | 1950 | 1960 | 1970 | 1980 | 1990 | 2000 | 2010 | 2020

December 3 - William H. Brown filed Land Donation Claim #163 for property located approximately between South 176th Street to South 186th Street, and from 6th Avenue SW to 16th Avenue SW. The a final deed was granted on Dec. 23, 1863. He was the first european settler in what became Normandy Park. He sold the property to George and Elizabeth Outlette on Oct. 9, 1875.
December 22 - King County and Pierce County were both created by the Oregon Territorial Legislature, several months before Washington Territory itself was established. They were formed by dividing the enormous original Thurston County, which at that time encompassed most of the Puget Sound region. King County was named for William Rufus King, Vice President-elect of the United States under President Franklin Pierce. In 1986 the King County government rededicated the name to honor Martin Luther King Jr.; the Washington Legislature made that official in 2005. Pierce County was named for President Franklin Pierce, who had been elected President just weeks earlier in November 1852.

March 2 - Congress passed the Act Establishing the Territory of Washington, and President Fillmore signed it into law. The new territory consisted of the portion of Oregon Territory lying north of the lower Columbia River and north of the 46th parallel east of the Columbia.

When settlers north of the Columbia River petitioned Congress for a separate territory, the proposed name was "Territory of Columbia." The name came from the Columbia River and the historic Columbia District. While Congress was considering the bill in January 1853, Representative Richard H. Stanton of Kentucky objected. He argued that the name "Columbia" could be confused with the District of Columbia, the nation's capital. Stanton proposed naming the new territory after George Washington instead. Congress accepted the suggestion.

The first Washington Territorial Legislature authorized a network of territorial roads linking settlements around Puget Sound. One of these roads connected Steilacoom and Seattle, passing through the uplands east of present-day Des Moines and providing the area's first official overland transportation route.

October 28 - Native warriors associated primarily with the White River bands (ancestors of today's Muckleshoot Indian Tribe) attacked scattered settler homesteads along the White River (now the Green River) in King County between Kent and Auburn. The event, known as the White River Massacre, resulted in the deaths of several settlers and prompted the evacuation of many pioneer families to Seattle and other protected locations.

The blockhouse Fort Lone Tree Point (now Three Tree Point), under the command of Captain Charles W. Riley and with the help of about 16 volunteers from Pierce County, was erected during the Puget Sound Indian War of 1855–1856, after attacks on settlers along the White River and growing fears of raids throughout central Puget Sound. It was part of the chain of defensive positions that included Fort Decatur (Seattle), Fort Lander (Sea-Tac), Fort Thomas (Kent), Fort Slaughter (Muckleshoot Prairie), and Fort Steilacoom. Lemuel Bills, age 54, was described in contemporary accounts as a Steilacoom resident and one of the oldest privates serving during the war was stationed at Fort Lone Tree Point. The exact site has never been conclusively identified. Historians generally place it either on the bluff overlooking Three Tree Point, or near the shoreline where Native trails converged on the point.

The U.S. Army constructed the Fort Steilacoom–Fort Bellingham Military Road through present-day South King County. Surveyed in 1857 and completed to Seattle in October 1860, the road passed near the future Des Moines community and became one of the principal overland transportation routes in early Washington Territory. The road was authorized after the Puget Sound Indian War period to: (1)Move troops and military supplies between forts, (2) Improve communication between settlements, and (3) Encourage settlement and commerce in Washington Territory. Ironically, once completed, steamboats remained the preferred means of moving troops on Puget Sound, so the road was used more by settlers, mail carriers, and freight wagons than by the military.

June 7 - At 1 p.m. Chief Seattle (178?-1866), the leader of the Duwamish and Suquamish Tribes in whose honor Seattle was named, dies in north Kitsap County at Old Man House.

John Moore, the first homesteader in Des Moines, arrived probably by boat sometime in the first half of the year. Moore acquired approximately 154 acres of waterfront land in what is now downtown Des Moines and built a cabin. His homestead claim certificate (#285) was not issued until July 2, 1872, which is why some sources mention 1872, but that was the date of the land patent process rather than his arrival.

A major Puget Sound earthquake, estimated at magnitude 6.0–6.8, struck western Washington at about 8 p.m. local time. Felt from Oregon to British Columbia, it was one of the strongest earthquakes experienced by early settlers in the Puget Sound region and was widely reported in territorial newspapers.