Bagley, Clarence, 1843-1932

Charles Booth Bagley (1843-1932), the son of a prominent Washington State pioneer, is best remembered for his influential work as an author and historian, which includes the groundbreaking books, History of Seattle from the Earliest Settlement to the Present Time (1916) and History of King County, Washington (1929), both of which were informed by the unique combination of meticulous research and firsthand experience Bagley brought to his writing.

Born in Troy Grove, Illinois, Clarence Bagley made the westward trip by covered wagon to the Oregon Territory with his parents, Daniel Bagley (a Methodist preacher) and Susannah Rogers Bagley, in 1852. After establishing several churches in the Willamette Valley region, Daniel Bagley brought his family to Seattle in 1860, where they also became heavily involved in the civic affairs of the developing city. Clarence Bagley would go on to have an extremely long and varied career. He was Territorial printer (1873-1884), newspaper publisher (1868-1889), member of Seattle City Council, (1890), and he also served a long stint as secretary of the Seattle Board of Public Works (1900-1929). Bagley's most lasting legacy, however, would be the many articles and other publications he produced on the early history of white settlement in Seattle and King County.

From the description of Clarence Bagley papers, 1864-1931. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 123949120

From his arrival in Seattle in 1860 until his death in 1932 at the age of eighty-eight, Clarence Bagley was concerned with the growth of Washington as a Territory and State in general, and Seattle's growth as a city in particular. Soon after their arrival and his father's appointment as University Commissioner, Bagley became a clerk in the Surveyor General's office in 1866, shortly after his marriage to Alice Mercer.

This move brought him directly into politics and into the printing trade as well. While working in the Surveyor General's office in Olympia, Bagley came under the tutelage of Randall Hewitt, owner of the Territorial Republican and the Temperance Echo . With L. G. Abbott he bought the Echo in 1868 but sold his interest shortly thereafter and took employment with the Commercial Age, organ of the Republican Party. When this newspaper was discontinued in 1870, he returned to Seattle, remaining until May 1871, when he became deputy in the internal revenue office, holding the position until 1873. While in this office he worked with the Puget Sound Courier, finally buying it in 1873, and emerging as Territorial Printer for the next ten years. He sold the Courier and the printing office in 1884, returning to Seattle to stay in 1885 after a brief interval in Portland as a deputy collector of internal revenue.

By now a confirmed publisher, Clarence Bagley joined with others and purchased the Post-Intelligencer in 1886, which he managed until L. S. J. Hunt took it over that same year. Other ephemeral ventures followed, one in banking and one again in newspapers, joining with Homer Hill for two years in publishing the Daily Press.

In 1890 he was elected to the House of Delegates of the City Council from where he fought open gambling and Seattle's "open town" policy with the result that doors were barred on many of the "gambling hells. " Following upon this experience in elective office he acted as an adviser in writing the 1893 city charter, contributing clauses affecting assessments for local improvements.

From 1893 until his appointment as Secretary of the Board of Public Works in 1900, he worked in the City Comptroller's office. He continued as Secretary of the Board until his retirement in 1929. These experiences in city government and his ever-present concern for governmental efficiency led him to become candidate in 1909 for the Republican nomination for councilman from the Eighth Ward. He announced his candidacy in letters to friends, but did not actively canvass his ward for votes. He stressed his alarm with what, in his opinion, was a growing trend toward mismanagement and extravagance in city affairs. Promising a "square deal, " Bagley felt this could be changed with a business-like economy and management terminating in better, cleaner government.

The election itself, with its many side issues, was unsettling for him as he associated political reporting with what he considered to be honestly partisan, and took exception to the methods used by 1910 newspapermen, not only in his own case but on behalf of all the candidates. He lost the election to Elbert F. Blaine, and explained that the loss was due to his association with the "City Hall Gang, " whom the voters had rejected completely.

Until this point in his career, he appears to have been a public servant first and a historian second. Now his interest in historical writing resurfaced. He had begun two years previously to edit the manuscripts of William I. Marshall's Acquisition of Oregon. Marshall, whom Bagley had met in 1905, had devoted twenty years to disproving the "Whitman Saved Oregon" myth, and after his death in 1906, Bagley and Thompson Coit Elliott, both interested in seeing the work published, joined to edit the manuscript and to assist the widow financially.

Despite feeling that his position with the Board of Public Works took too much time away from historical study, he stayed on as Secretary, editing Marshall's work for publication in his spare time; it appeared in 1911. This was followed by publication of articles in historical quarterlies and journals, and in 1916, The History of Seattle appeared, culminating more than two years of research.

With publication of this work, Clarence Bagley's often-expressed dream of writing the history of his region was becoming a reality. He had little sympathy for writers who romanticized the facts of history into fiction that bore little or no resemblance to actuality. However, his view of "actuality" was restricted by rigid adherence to the "pioneer code" on the one hand and self-imposed limitations on the other, as he illustrated in a letter to Edmond S. Meany in 1911:

"Sometime I shall write a history of Seattle, and while what I shall say will be the truth I shall not give all the truth. I shall rake up no old stories of evil. "

His activities were not confined to writing. He gave his time freely in efforts to organize pioneer societies and similar groups, frequently being called upon for speeches and public appearances in connection with pioneer-inspired celebrations.

In 1905 he had become deeply involved in a dispute between the historical societies of Seattle and Tacoma. Consolidation of effort and location under the aegis of the State was suggested by the Seattle group when its members (including Meany, Cornelius Hanford, Thomas Burke, Roger S. Greene and John P. Hoyt) decided that the Tacoma society was "dead. " Most of the members of the Seattle group had aided in founding the Washington State Historical Society in 1891. But the early years turned into a struggle for mere existence which Bagley et al regarded as a hindrance to accomplishment of the Society's original purposes of collection and preservation of historical source materials. This suggestion revitalized the slumbering rivalry of the two cities and the battle was joined. Bagley became the unofficial spokesman for the Washington University State Historical Society which had been newly founded. In a letter to Professor J.N. Bowman of the State Normal School in Bellingham, he explained:

"Experience had proved that the Societies thus allied with State Universities have done the best work, and that this will be true here."

Proposals of merger were not accepted by Tacoma, and the Washington State Historical Society remained a separate body. Unallied with the Tacoma group in either effort or ideals, Bagley was elected president of the Washington University State Historical Society, and under his leadership the work of collecting and preserving original data was begun. His vision of a central repository for historical research materials was challenged once again in 1915, when the King County Historical Society sought allocation of land on University-owned property.

In a letter to Winlock W. Miller of Seattle, Bagley called for a "concert of action in historical efforts, " insisting that "I have seen so many similar efforts live a precarious existence and finally die from slow decay that I may be permitted to express doubts as to the long life or active work of the present one."

In the public mind Bagley symbolized Pacific Northwest history in many ways. The post-office delivered letters to him addressed merely "Historian, Seattle, Washington;" newspapers of the city began to refer to him affectionately as "Pop, " and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce directed all of its inquiries on historical matters to his desk in City Hall.

In 1929 he brought out his History of King County . With retirement, articles and pamphlets began to appear with regularity. Indian Myths of the Northwest, "compiled, annotated and expurgated" as he wrote to a friend, was published in 1930.

Plans for future publications simmered. Clarence Bagley began 1932 with letters to friends expressing enthusiasm for his many historical projects, and often a small boast regarding his health. He was proud of the two-mile walk he took each day from his home on Seattle's Queen Anne hill "to town, rain or shine. " But a lingering cold developed into pneumonia, and on February 17, 1932, "Pop" Bagley died.

From the guide to the Clarence Bagley papers, 1864-1931, (University of Washington Libraries Special Collections)