Barton, C. M. (Clarence M.)

Clarence M. Barton (1841-1893), newspaper writer and editor, was born in New Jersey, and served in the Civil War from 1865-1869. After the war, he lived in Washington, D.C. with his wife Virginia before settling in Tacoma, in what was then Washington Territory, around 1886. In Washington, he wrote articles for many local papers and magazines on a variety of topics, but mainly about the Pacific Northwest, including the great Seattle fire of 1889 and Washington's transition to statehood in that same year. Barton, who had been the city desk editor for the Tacoma Ledger for several years, was made managing editor of the Olympia Tribune in 1891. As secretary of the first state senate, he also created a handbook for the State of Washington, which chronicled the very first session of the legislature.