Edward Blewett (July 23, 1848 – July 18, 1929) was a capitalist, who notably owned several mines in the Western U.S. and Canada. He was born in Cornwall, in 1848, to William Blewett and Elizabeth Williams and came to the U.S. as an infant. During his childhood, his father died while copper mining near Lake Superior. He settled in

Fremont, Nebraska Fremont is a city and county seat of Dodge County in the eastern portion of the state of Nebraska in the Midwestern United States. The population was 27,141 at the 2020 census. Fremont is the home of Midland University. History From the 1830 ...

in 1866 and married Miss Carrie Van Anda (born 1849) on April 4, 1870 there.

Career

Edward Blewett's commercial ventures included livestock trading, mining, banking and real estate. In 1885, he was reported to have claimed that, "We have the largest horse ranch on this continent, if not in the world." He expected his company, Oregon Horse and Land, to "brand close on to 11,000 horses" that year. He served as president of the First National Bank of Fremont (1888-1890). With others, in Seattle, Blewett founded the Blewett Gold Mining Company, which acquired the Culver Company in 1892. The new company developed the mine and mill along Peshastin Creek in the

Wenatchee Mountains The Wenatchee Mountains are a range of mountains in central Washington State, United States of America. A major subrange of the Cascade Range, extending east from the Cascade crest, the Wenatchee Mountains separate the drainage basins of the Ya ...

and formed the now-abandoned mining town of

Blewett, Washington Blewett was a town in Chelan County, Washington, United States. The small mining town was established on the west side of Peshastin Creek in the foothills of the Wenatchee Mountains in the mid-1870s. The first mining claims were filed in 1874, ...

, near what is now called

Blewett Pass Blewett Pass (), at an elevation of , is a mountain pass in the Wenatchee Mountains (an eastward extension of the Cascades) of Washington state that is crossed by U.S. Route 97 (US 97). Named for Edward Blewett, a Seattle mining promo ...

. Ownership conflicts of the successful mine were ultimately settled by the Washington State Supreme Court in 1913 in Hadley v. Washington Meteor Mining Company. Edward and Carrie Blewett are also credited with helping to develop the Seattle community of Fremont, named after their hometown. On March 20, 1888, they purchased a parcel of newly cleared land at the northwest corner of Lake Union for $55,000. With the help of their agent, Luther H. Griffith (also from Fremont, Nebraska), the Blewetts' revised plat was recorded by King County on May 8, 1888. Blewett was also president and a trustee of the Van Anda Copper & Gold Company. As of 1897, it was mining on 774 acres of crown-granted land on

Texada Island Texada Island is a large island located in the Strait of Georgia of British Columbia, Canada. With an area of , it is the largest island of the Gulf Islands and the third largest island in the Strait of Georgia after Whidbey Island in Washington a ...

, British Columbia. The associated mining town of Van Anda is still inhabited.

Personal life

In 1904 the Blewetts moved to the Echo Park neighborhood of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, California, living on West Kensington Road until their deaths: Carrie's in 1927 and Edward's in 1929.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Blewett, Edward 1848 births 1929 deaths American businesspeople

Career

Personal life

See also

References