Edward Corliss Kilbourne (1856–1959) was the founder of the

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 ...

public electricity system. Kilbourne was born in

Vermont Vermont () is a state in the northeast New England region of the United States. Vermont is bordered by the states of Massachusetts to the south, New Hampshire to the east, and New York to the west, and the Canadian province of Quebec to ...

in 1856 and was raised in

Aurora, Illinois Aurora is a city in the Chicago metropolitan area located partially in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage, Kane County, Illinois, Kane, Kendall County, Illinois, Kendall, and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. Locat ...

. He lived in

Colorado Colorado (, other variants) is a state in the Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It encompasses most of the Southern Rocky Mountains, as well as the northeastern portion of the Colorado Plateau and the western edge of t ...

before moving out to Seattle where he had been preceded by his uncle Corliss P. Stone. Kilbourne was trained as a dentist but became active in numerous other fields of endeavor. Together with his uncle Corliss P. Stone he was the developer of city of Fremont, annexed in 1891 to become a neighborhood of Seattle. He was a pioneer in urban mass transit having founded a horse trolley line. He was the founder of the first electric railway in Seattle. He and his uncle Corliss Stone were among the founders of the Union Electric Company. After it was acquired by the city Kilbourne became superintendent of the Seattle Lighting Department, a municipal electricity system, later

Seattle City Light Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electricity to Seattle, Washington, in the United States, and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, No ...

. He also supported the

YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It was founded on 6 June 1844 by George Williams in London, originally ...

after the original backer

Dexter Horton Dexter Horton (1825 – 1904) was the founder of the first bank in the city of Seattle. Before his founding of the Bank of Dexter Horton in 1870 financial transactions were conducted by merchants. Dexter Horton was born in 1825 in Seneca Lake, New ...

had withdrawn his support and was involved with the Plymouth Congregational Church of Seattle.

References

External links

Edward Corliss Kilbourne papers - Special Collections, UW Libraries

HistoryLink Essay: Kilbourne, Edward Corliss (1856-1959)HistoryLink Essay: Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) of Greater Seattle -- Part 1: BeginningsHistoryLink Essay: Frank Osgood tests Seattle's first electric streetcars on March 30, 1889.Department of Neighborhoods - Historical Site Green Lake Park
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kilbourne, Edward C. 1856 births 1959 deaths American men centenarians Businesspeople from Seattle American transportation businesspeople Businesspeople in electricity People from Aurora, Illinois YMCA leaders