The Denny Party is a group of American pioneers credited with founding

Seattle Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...

Washington Washington commonly refers to: * Washington (state), United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A metonym for the federal government of the United States ** Washington metropolitan area, the metropolitan area centered o ...

. They settled at Alki Point on November 13, 1851.

History

A wagon party headed by

Arthur A. Denny Arthur Armstrong Denny (June 20, 1822 – January 9, 1899) was one of the founders of Seattle, Washington,, Special Collections, Washington State Historical Society (WSHS). Accessed online 8 March 2008. the acknowledged leader of the pioneer Den ...

left Cherry Grove, Illinois on April 10, 1851. The party included his father

John Denny John Allen Denny (born November 8, 1952) is an American former professional baseball right-handed pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the St. Louis Cardinals, Cleveland Indians, Philadelphia Phillies, and Cincinnati Reds, from ...

, stepmother, two older brothers who settled in the

Willamette Valley The Willamette Valley ( ) is a long valley in Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. The Willamette River flows the entire length of the valley and is surrounded by mountains on three sides: the Cascade Range to the eas ...

Oregon Oregon () is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. The Columbia River delineates much of Oregon's northern boundary with Washington, while the Snake River delineates much of its eastern boundary with Idaho. T ...

, his younger brother

David Denny David Thomas Denny (March 17, 1832, Part II: Chapter 3, p. 203 – November 25, 1903) was a member of the Denny Party, who are generally collectively credited as the founders of Seattle, Washington, USA. Though he ultimately underwent bank ...

, his wife, Mary Ann Boren, Mary's younger sister Louisa, and their brother

Carson Boren Carson Dobbins Boren (December 12, 1824 – August 19, 1912) was an early founder of Seattle, Washington (see Denny Party). His sister Mary Ann was married to Arthur Denny, and his sister Louisa to David Denny. Boren was the first King County ...

. Mary Ann was Arthur Denny's wife and his stepsister, and was pregnant throughout the journey. Mary's sister Louisa Boren married David Denny in 1861. Arthur Denny was also ill throughout the journey, but remained the group's leader. On July 6, 1851, the party battled Native Americans at American Falls on the Snake River, but escaped unharmed. The following day they met John Low, and he joined the party. Late in July they reached the Burnt River in eastern Oregon where they encountered a man named Brock. He suggested to Denny that

Puget Sound Puget Sound ( ) is a sound of the Pacific Northwest, an inlet of the Pacific Ocean, and part of the Salish Sea. It is located along the northwestern coast of the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected ma ...

would be a good place to create a town. The Denny Party arrived in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the list of cities in Oregon, largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette River, Willamette and Columbia River, Columbia rivers, Portland is ...

on August 22, 1851. Arthur Denny was ill and Mary Ann was about to give birth so the party convalesced in Portland. On September 2, Mary gave birth to a son, Rolland H. Denny. John Low and David Denny headed north to scout the possibilities. Along the way they were joined by Leander "Lee" Terry. In newly founded

Olympia, Washington Olympia is the capital of the U.S. state of Washington and the county seat and largest city of Thurston County. It is southwest of the state's most populous city, Seattle, and is a cultural center of the southern Puget Sound region. Europea ...

, they met Michael Simmons, the wealthy founder of Tumwater. He guided them to Alki as a possible site for a settlement. On September 28, 1851, Terry and Low began building a cabin with help from the local Native Americans, and then staked claims to the land. Low returned to Portland to alert the others, Terry looked for a

froe A froe (or frow), shake axe or paling knife is a tool for cleaving wood by splitting it along the grain. It is an L-shaped tool, used by hammering one edge of its blade into the end of a piece of wood in the direction of the grain, then twistin ...

to make redcedar shake shingles, and David Denny stayed on in the unfinished cabin. Like his brother, he was not in good health, and his situation was not improved by staying in an unroofed cabin. He injured his foot with an axe. In Portland, Arthur Denny recruited

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a state in the Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolitan areas include, Peoria and Rockf ...

farmer

William Nathaniel Bell William Nathaniel Bell (March 6, 1817 – September 6, 1887), originally from Edwardsville, Illinois and later a resident of Portland, Oregon, was a member of the Denny Party, the first group of white settlers in what is now Seattle, Washington. ...

and his wife, and, by coincidence, Charlie Terry, Leander's younger brother. The Terry brothers, from

Waterville, New York Waterville (called ''Ska-na-wis'', "''long swamp''" by the Haudenosaunee) is a village in Oneida County, New York, United States. According to the 2010 census, its population was 1,583. History Long the traditional territory of the Iroquoian-s ...

, had come west as part of the California Gold Rush, but had not liked the rough and tumble of

San Francisco San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...

. On November 5, 1851, the Denny Party left Portland on the schooner ''Exact'', bound for

and

Haida Gwaii Haida Gwaii (; hai, X̱aaydag̱a Gwaay.yaay / , literally "Islands of the Haida people") is an archipelago located between off the northern Pacific coast of Canada. The islands are separated from the mainland to the east by the shallow Heca ...

. The ''Exact'' carried a number of settlers bound for Puget Sound in addition to the Denny Party, including

Daniel Bigelow Daniel Bigelow (24 March 1824 – 15 September 1905) was a American pioneer, pioneer lawyer and politician in Olympia, Washington. Biography Daniel Richardson Bigelow was born March 24, 1824, in Belleville a hamlet in the township of Ellisburg, ...

who settled in Olympia. After a difficult passage, particularly hard on the still-ill Denny, they arrived at Alki on November 13, where David greeted them with the words, "I wish you hadn't come." Denny was bitterly disappointed that Low and Lee Terry had already staked the relevant claims for Alki. However, he had no choice but to pitch in, finish the cabin and settle in for the winter. Denny convinced Bell and Boren that they needed to scout a different location. Once the worst of winter cleared, Denny and other party members explored as far as

Commencement Bay Commencement Bay is a bay of Puget Sound in the U.S. state of Washington. The city of Tacoma is located on the bay, with the Port of Tacoma occupying the southeastern end. A line drawn from Point Defiance in the southwest to Browns Point in ...

(now the site of Tacoma),

Port Orchard Port Orchard, part of Washington state's Puget Sound, is the strait that separates Bainbridge Island on the east from the Kitsap Peninsula on the west. It extends from Liberty Bay and Agate Pass in the north to Sinclair Inlet and Rich Passage ...

, Smith Cove, and up the Duwamish River to the present site of Puyallup, before settling on an island in the mudflats near the east shore of

Elliott Bay Elliott Bay is a part of the Central Basin region of Puget Sound. It is in the U.S. state of Washington, extending southeastward between West Point in the north and Alki Point in the south. Seattle was founded on this body of water in the 1850s ...

, now the site of Pioneer Square.Rich, Ritter, 2015. The Perilous Journey Begins: A Magnificent Epic of Seven Tragically Entangled Lives. Publication Consultants. p. 111. . For the next three years Alki Point and Elliott Bay sites competed as rival townsites. Charlie Terry bought out his brother's and Low's Alki holdings, and led this community. Arthur Denny settled at Elliott Bay and, along with his rival "Doc" Maynard, led the development of Seattle. The

tide Tides are the rise and fall of sea levels caused by the combined effects of the gravitational forces exerted by the Moon (and to a much lesser extent, the Sun) and are also caused by the Earth and Moon orbiting one another. Tide tables ...

s at Alki were so strong that piers could not be built. Terry moved to the community on the east shore of Elliott Bay, which became the nucleus of the city of

Monument

A monument at

Alki Beach Alki Beach Park is a park located in the West Seattle, Seattle, West Seattle neighborhood of Seattle, Washington (state), Washington that consists of the Elliott Bay beach between Alki Point, Seattle, Alki Point and Duwamish Head. It has a of be ...

is inscribed with the names of all members of the Denny Party.

References

* William C. ("Bill") Speidel, ''Sons of the Profits'', Nettle Creek Publishing Company, Seattle, 1967. {{ISBN, 0-914890-06-9 History of Seattle American city founders Washington (state) pioneers 1851 in the United States