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| Volume XXXV, Number 4 Winter, 2000 |
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| Col. George W. Bell
Banker J. W. Maxwell Glendonite Rock Mystery |
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| Volume XXXV, Number 4 Winter, 2000 |
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| Col. George W. Bell
Banker J. W. Maxwell Glendonite Rock Mystery |
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| The
Sou'wester |
| ISSN #0038-4984
Copyright, 2000, by the Pacific County Historical Society. No portion of this publication may be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the Society's Editorial Board. The Sou'wester is a quarterly publication of the Pacific
County Historical Society and Museum. The Pacific County Historical
Society is a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization in South Bend, Washington.
In addition to the Sou'wester, the Society publishes a monthly newsletter for its members and operates the Pacific County Historical Society Museum in South Bend, Washington. Annual membership fees include Society membership and
a subscription to the Sou'wester.
Design, electronic page layout, and photo scans by Charles
B. Summers, South Bend, Washington.
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| The
Sou'wester Winter Issue, 2000
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On Vacation in Sydney, Australia Page 3 Pioneer Banker Page 9 South Bend's East End in PhotographsPage 11 A geological Mystery Page 15 |
| Introduction
What could Pacific County possibly have in common with Australia, the land down under? More than you might think! In this issue we will explore a few aspects of the “Australia Connection”. The topics covered are as diverse as politics, commerce, and geology. The Sou’wester is very fortunate to be able to publish a story written by Charles Sturt University professor Robin McLachlan of Sidney, Australia. Professor McLachlan discovered Col. George W. Bell while researching the origins of Australia’s early government. Many dismissed Bell during his lifetime as, at best, an eccentric, and at worst a fraud. The fact that Bell played a role in the South Bend Land Boom before taking ship for a US Consul’s position in Australia might, by itself, qualify him for inclusion in our Journal. Bell’s activities and writings during his time in Australia, which Professor McLachlan can only summarize here, makes him a person of significance on both sides of the Pacific Ocean. I must admit I am catching the “Bell Bug” from Professor McLachlan. Another connection between Australia and Pacific County and Australia can be found in the ground. According to geologist Paul See, a recent speaker at the Society’s annual membership meeting, there is a very unusual type of rock called a glendonite concretion which is only found in two |
Frontpiece from George W. Bell's Mr. Oseba's Last Discovery, published 1904 in Wellington, New Zealand. |
| places on earth, here and the vicinity of
Glendonville, Australia.
To balance out this issue I thought we would profile another person associated with South Bend during its boom period. J.W. Maxwell never, as far as I know, visited Australia, but he did move to another booming city in Washington, Seattle, when opportunity called. Respected in banking circles, and successful in building Washington’s Automobile Club, Maxwell deserves more recognition than just being Bill Gates’ grandfather. This month’s cover photo, taken in Raymond, on the South Fork of the Willapa River during the 1920s, represents another aspect to the Australia connection. Tall ships were rapidly disappearing from the high seas when the Forest Pride was built on Grays Harbor in 1919. Ordered during the WWI shipbuilding boom, the Forest Pride, was born into a post-war shipping glut. Her sailing rig, a barkentine (one square rigged mast forward and the other 4 masts fore-and-aft rigged like a schooner), was very popular for ships engaged in the trans-pacific lumber trade. While steam had replaced sail for most Pacific shipping before 1920, wind was still an economical fuel for bulk commodities, and at 242 feet in length she could profitably carry 1,550,000 board feet of lumber on each voyage. She made several trips to Australia during her relatively short career. Unlike Col. Bell, however, the Forest Pride returned from “down under” to finish her days as a log barge in British Columbia. The Forest Pride was one of two 5-masted barkentines operated in the 1920s by the Grays Harbor Motorship Corporation. Her last trip to Australia was under the command of Capt. Nels F. Anderson in 1927. Thanks to Tom Mattson for making this image available to us. Museum Director, Pacific County Historical Society 2 |
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| George W. Bell:
On Vacation in Sydney Australia "He was a thoroughly educated man and
his
by Robin McLachlan
education was supplemented by extensive travel." Willapa Harbor Pilot, July 12th, 1907 South Bend bid farewell to Captain George W. Bell sometime in mid-1893. The occasion of his departure was to take up his appointment in Sydney, Australia as the United States Consul for the British colony of New South Wales. Bell had lived in South Bend since at least early 1890. In that time, judging from reports in the South Bend Journal, he had been a popular resident, well known for his fine public speeches. Like others living in South Bend in the early 1890s, he had also been an active participant in the town’s boom. As an old newspaperman he contributed to the euphoric optimism of that boom with articles in eastern papers boosting Pacific County. He also traveled back east to work old connections to seek industrial investment in South Bend. There was talk of a brewery from Indiana, a gas plant from Chicago and woolen mills from Iowa. The South Bend Journal (2 December 1892), quoting the Des Moines Leader, wrote: “From a literary dreamer the Captain has become an active and successful speculator....” |
Map drawn circa 1890 by Theodore Rixon showing the distances from South Bend to major points across the Pacific Ocean. Rixon Collection. |
Circular Quay, Sydney Harbor, Circa 1900. George W. Bell helped many returning Americans secure a working passage aboard steamships such as this when they could not afford the ticket price. Photo from the collections of the State Library of New South Wales #CP01-08126. Used with permission. |
| According to the Journal (18
September 1891), Bell was one of South Bend’s “leading capitalists” with
property valued at $22,915, a considerable sum in the context of that time.
Alas poor Bell, by 1893 the bubble had burst and he was busted. In
1906, Bell wrote in his book, The Empire of Business, “I lost a quarter
of a million dollars just about the time I came to Australia. Then
I lost the pace, and despairing of overtaking the procession, I am still
here on vacation.”
His ticket to his Australian “vacation” came with the presidential election of Grover Cleveland in 1892. Bell had been an active campaigner for the Democrats since the early 1880s, if not earlier, while a newspaper publisher and editor in Marion and Hamilton counties, Iowa. He was reported to have given some 132 speeches in support of Cleveland’s 1892 campaign. As a reward, very likely offered to help him out of his financial difficulties, Bell was given the diplomatic appointment in Australia. George Bell arrived in Sydney in October 1893. Bell is unfair to himself to suggest his consular work in Sydney was a mere “vacation”. He worked enthusiastically and consistently on behalf of America’s interests in Australia. His consular reports home suggest an intelligent and attentive, if eccentric, consul. The reports also show him to be a compassionate man but no less canny for that. One anecdote drawn from his reports can be used to provide some insight into his character. Bell could be relied upon to help impoverished American citizens wishing to return home. He did this by finding berths for them as stokers on ships travelling between Sydney and the American West Coast. Bell came to this arrangement through his observation that steamships needed extra stokers for that leg of the voyage because of the practice of bunkering the cheaper Australian coal for both the outward and return voyages. Extra hands were needed on the American leg to shift coal to keep the ship trim. Shipping firms and sea captains soon came to know that they could call on Bell for reliable men wanting to work their homeward passage. Everyone was pleased, none more so than George Bell who was able to repatriate countrymen quickly and at no cost to his consulate. |
| If by “vacation” though, Bell
meant that he enjoyed his life in Sydney then all evidence suggests this
was very true. He very quickly became a popular addition to colonial
society. To quote an admiring article in Cosmos Magazine (December
1895), one of many to be found in the press of the time, Bell “... has
so identified himself with our interests that he is no longer a stranger
in our midst, but an ever-welcome guest at every notable gathering of citizens....”
Public recognition came as well through his oratorical skill. Billed as the “Silver Tongued Orator of the Pacific”, he took the rostrum on many occasions. His speeches, many of which were printed, were on political and economic themes topical of the day, including the advantages of free trade and the benefits of a global union of Anglo-Saxon peoples. These were also themes within which Consul Bell could promote American trade interests. Bell was careful though never to challenge publicly Australian loyalties to the British Empire or to offer gratuitous political advice on the federation process then under way among the six Australian colonies. While unhesitating in his loyalty to the American republican presidential system of government, he never, and wisely so, presumed to recommend this pathway to his Australian friends. To return to Bell’s description of life in Sydney as a “vacation”, this may be an apt description in another way as well. If vacation is meant to involve fantasy, or re-invention of self, then Bell’s choice of word is most appropriate. There is evidence that Bell invented much of his American past. In South Bend, he was Captain George Bell; in Sydney, he became Colonel George Bell. The assumption in Australia was that he had been a colonel in the Union Army in the Civil War. Bell had served as a lieutenant (64th Illinois) and may have acted in the rank of captain but no source can be found for his rank of colonel. Bell was born in Virginia (1838) but he cannot be said to have been of that state’s plantocracy. There is no evidence to show he even lived in Virginia beyond the first years of his life. His formative years were spent in rural Illinois. However, in Australia Colonel Bell presented “a genial Southern courtliness of manner” inherited from “a Virginian ancestry”. The reason for these inventions may have as much to do with British colonial society, where rank and breeding mattered, as with Bell’s personal fantasy about his past. |
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| In Australia at this time, a
courtly Virginian was arguably more acceptable socially than a pushy Yankee.
Given his supposed southern ancestry, to have chosen to serve in the Union
Army argued for a man of principle. To be addressed as Colonel Bell
had a nice ring to it in the knightly drawing rooms of Sydney society.
There may have been less innocence, however, in his invention of his marital status. There is evidence that the colonel may have left his lady in America. In Australia, George Bell acknowledged his first marriage which had ended with his wife’s death in 1879. However, it was not known in Australia that he had remarried in 1880. This wife, who may have been with him in South Bend, did not accompany Bell. In Australia, Bell was described publicly as a widower. It is possible he had divorced, but all evidence found to date suggests the second marriage may have still been in effect when he remarried on 23 December 1898. The American wife outlived her husband. Resident in Iowa, Mary Bell was known as the widow of George Bell, former Minister to Australia. Meanwhile, George’s Australian widow, also named Mary, filed a claim for a Civil War veteran’s widow’s pension. The contents of this claim refer to his first marriage but make no mention of a second, American marriage. It appears highly likely that Colonel George W. Bell committed bigamy in his marriage, at age 60, to Mary O’Sullivan, age 20. Now, that’s a vacation! George Bell returned on leave to the United States in 1896 and 1899, visiting Washington State on both trips. With the 1896 trip undertaken “to attend to private affairs”, Bell started directly for South Bend on his arrival at San Francisco. He appears to have stayed through for only the briefest of visits. His visit three years later to “Puget Sound country” was likewise brief. According to his leave request, the trip was made “for the purpose of visiting my children” and “looking after some private affairs”. Although only recently married, Bell was not accompanied by his Australian wife on this trip. The reader may care to speculate on the character of Bell’s “private affairs’ in Washington. As Bell had gained his consular position through political preference, so too he lost it to another in October 1900. He chose to remain resident in Australia but took the opportunity for extensive travel in Europe, Asia and New Zealand. His marital arrangement may have been an impediment to his returning to the USA. Bell earned a modest living mainly through his public lectures and writings. |
| One new theme in his writing
was the advocacy of a closer relationship between Australia and an emerging
Asia. Bell was well in advance of Australian understanding of the
future importance of Asia and the Pacific generally. There is perhaps
a connection here with his time in South Bend where he was first introduced
to the vitality and opportunities of the Pacific Rim.
Bell died in Sydney on 7 July 1907. News of his death reached Pacific County within days, no doubt by way of the recently laid submarine cable between Australia and Vancouver, and was reported in the Willapa Harbor Pilot (12 July 1907). That his death should be reported, and so soon after the event, suggests Bell had maintained some contact over the years. The article referred to him as Captain Bell and spoke of his marriage to a wealthy widow of Sydney. While this may be a confusion of inventions, the observation offered by the Pilot of Bell’s character is one upon which all his friends, Australian and American would agree. “He was a thoroughly educated man and his education was supplemented by extensive travel. He was a gifted orator and logician and polished gentleman, and it was these accomplishments which made him so popular wherever he resided.” |
| Captain Bell speaks
From the South Bend Journal, July 28th, 1893 Seattle Telegraph, July 25: Captain
George W. Bell, the newly appointed consul at Sydney, NSW, arrived in the
city yesterday afternoon from the East over the Great Northern Railroad.
Today he leaves for South Bend, where he has some lumbering interests to
attend to, and will shortly start for Sydney to assume his consular duties.
Mr. Bell has never held office, save that of a military character, and says that he only accepted the consular office at Sydney because it gave him an opportunity to investigate that country and its commercial possibilities with the United States. He expects to do as much work as he can in strengthening and increasing the commercial intercourse with this country. He has never been there, but has a great interest in the country and thinks NSW one of the coming countries of the world. He will probably go by way of Vancouver and the New Australian steamship line, but is not sure. Mr. Bell’s hobby, like Warner Miller, is the Nicaragua canal on which he has written a pamphlet. He has been for some years a resident of Washington. [Editor’s note: In the following week’s newspaper there appears a court notice for the case of Elizabeth Scott vs. George W. Bell and Evelyn Bell. Bell failed to appear in his defense and the case was decided by default in favor of Scott for $614 and costs and attorneys fee of $60. In the personal section of this same paper is a brief notice, “Capt. George W. Bell left for Portland Thursday.”] |
 Local lumbermen contributed this log for the display. Col. Bell's opinion of this display is not available. PCHS collection. |
Robin McLachlan is a lecturer
at Charles Sturt University in Bathurst NSW Australia. The author
is interested in any additional information readers may be able to provide
on George W. Bell’s activities in Pacific County and may be reached via
e-mail at rmclachlan@csu.edu.au.
He also submits the following acknowledgments in connection with his writing
of this article:
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| J.W. Maxwell:
Pioneer Banker by Bruce Weilepp For its first 40 years Pacific
County had so little money, paper or coin, that most business was transacted
“on the books” in sawmill and store ledgers. Stories of oystermen
walking around with gold coins in their pockets may or may not be true,
but the fact was for a long time there were no institutions in the County
devoted exclusively to the borrowing and lending of money.
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South Bend Banking building, corner of Water St. (now known as Robert Bush Drive or Highway 101) and Memorial. Originally used as a meat market, this structure was remodeled as a bank in 1895, the likely date of this photo. This bank was the successor to Maxwell, Smith and Company. In 1936 another corporate successor, Pacific State Bank, built a new concrete building on the site which stands today and was occupied by Seattle First National Bank until last year. PCHS #6-22-70-1D, donated by Mr. and Mrs. Albert Thompson. |
| to organize the Citizen’s Bank of South Bend in December, 1891. By the time it opened the following year Citizen’s had been renamed the American Exchange Bank. Located in the Pioneer Building on Broadway Street, the American Exchange was closely associated with the Northern Pacific Railroad’s real estate interests. Thomas Cooper, named as Bank President, eventually moved to an executive position with the railroad in Tacoma. Maxwell is listed as the Exchange’s Cashier. | |
The interior of the South Bend Banking Co. building circa 1900. PCHS #10-2-88-1 |
| Maxwell quickly acquired a reputation
for good judgement and conservative management. After the land boom
subsided he stayed on in South Bend, serving two one year terms as Mayor
in 1896 and 1897, as well as on the school board and eventually in the
State Legislature (1899). Late in 1899 Maxwell left South Bend for
good, accepting an appointment as a Federal Bank Examiner. In this
capacity he traveled extensively.
While many local business and financial institutions did not survive the end of the South Bend Land Boom in 1893 (the Northern Pacific Railroad, for example, went bankrupt), Maxwell was able to continue in business with new partners as the private bank Maxwell, Smith and Co. Prior to the reorganization Maxwell had moved his business to the established west end of downtown along Water Street. Maxwell, Smith and Co. was aquired in 1899 by the South Bend Banking Company, located in an old meat market on the corner of Memorial and Water streets. South Bend Banking was, in turn, taken over by the Pacific State Bank in 1905. Even though Maxwell was no longer involved in it management, Pacific State continued his conservative management, eventually allowing it to construct a new concrete building on the same site which stands to this day and was until recently operated by Seattle First National. J.W. Maxwell went on to a successful career in Seattle; first as cashier with the National Bank of Commerce, then Seattle National Bank, and ultimately Chairman of the Board of the National Bank of Commerce. Maxwell was keenly interested in the development and promotion of highways and motoring. He joined the board of the Automobile Club in 1922 and continued to be associated with this organization and the AAA for the rest of his life. J.W. Maxwell died in April, 1951. The financial services we take for granted today were slow to develop in Pacific County. With hindsight it is possible to appreciate the role played by responsible bankers like J.W. Maxwell in our economic development. [Editor’s Note: Thanks to Bob Bailey for sharing his files on early Pacific County Banking. A more extensive history of local financial institutions titled, “Frontier Finance: A Short History of Pacific County Banking”, based Bob’s work, was published by Seattle First National in 1988. Copies of this publication are available at the Society’s museum.] |
| The Tide of Development:
South Bend's East End in Photographs By Bruce Weilepp In April 1890, not long before Maxwell arrived in South Bend, a notice appears in the local newspapers that John W. Tollman would publicly display his recently taken photos of the rapidly growing community of South Bend, Washington. We are fortunate that several of these fine photographs have survived and were donated to the Society by Dhan and Neva Leach. Together these views record the pace and progress of urban development in a coastal marsh. In order to place the images on the following pages in historical context I looked for some information about the photographer. According to Thomas Robinson’s Oregon Photographers Biographical History and Directory, Tollman, who came to the Northwest from Omaha Nebraska, did not stay in one place very long. Tollman worked briefly in Olympia and Aberdeen before coming to South Bend in 1889. In 1891 he moved to Long Beach WA, selling his studio in South Bend to Willis & Morehead. Alex Gylfe, a native of the north of Sweden, took over old Tollman studio about a year later and stayed in business for at least a decade. Meanwhile Tollman and his wife Lulu, also an accomplished photographer, settled in Portland OR and Vancouver WA for a few more years, only to relocate again about 1907 to Klamath Falls OR, and eventually Boise ID. At this point we lose track of John. However, somewhere along the way Lulu divorced John and remarried, becoming Mrs. Ehrhardt. Lulu continued in the photography business in Eugene OR until selling the Tollman studio there and returning to Vancouver WA in about 1917. My point in recounting the Tollman saga above is to illustrate just how itinerant many early photographers were. It is actually remarkable that these photos were taken in the first place, and a minor miracle that they have survived to this day for us to appreciate. Pre-1890 photographs of Pacific County are very rare. |
The Pioneer Building on Broadway Street in the east end of South Bend. Maxwell's first bank in South Bend shared this building with the offices of the Northern Land and Improvement Company, the real estate arm of the Northern Pacific Railroad. Development of the east end of South Bend was just getting started when the boom ended. This building, along with many other Victorian Commercial Structures, disappeared early in the 20th century. PCHS #7-2-71-1(23), donated by Don Cox. |
 South Bend Washington's east end in the spring of 1890. This photo by Tollman was taken from the hill which divides the east and west ends of town. Looking east the most prominent feature is the Bristol and Leonard sawmill under construction where the Louderback boat shop would later be located. The swampy land between the mill and Eklund Park is cut by numerous tidal sloughs. The marsh between the sloughs serves as pasturage for homestead cows. At this point it took the imagination of a man like Capt. Bell to see a thriving community along the Willapa River. The South Bend Land Company would soon trade all the real estate in this photo to the Northern Pacific Railroad for the construction of a rail link to the outside world. PCHS #1999.24.5 donated by Dahn and Neva Leach. |
 One year later and the sawmill is buzzing with activity. Plank streets reach all the way to Alta Vista Hill where the Willapa Hotel is under construction. The two streets leading off into the distance are Broadway on the left, and Water on the right. Dock building and earth moving for the railroad terminal have started. The sloughs served as log storage until they were buried under material dredged from the river and piped across the flats. At this point the land boom ahd about one more year of life in it before an international currency crisis nearly bankrupted the US Government, drying up most investment capital sources. The steam boat reminds us that water transportation would continue to be important in the area for another 30 years. One thing that is notably absent from these early photos is non-native weeds. The Himalayan blackberries came later. PCHS #1999.24.4, donated by Dahn and Neva Leach. |
1905 (after the boom) The streets may still be paved with wood, but South Bend's east end has secured many of the trappings of a permanent community. This view includes the railroad depot, hospital, hotel (closed), county courthouse, and at least two churches. The Kleeb sawmill in the background contributes smokey evidence of returning economic activity. The pioneer Bristol and Leonard, now Pacific Empire mill in the foreground, however, would never turn a wheel again. Very few buildings on "the flats" survived the 1920s as commercial activity consolidated in the west section of town. The courthouse would move west to its permanent concrete palace and even the hospital would eventually move. Reduced land values and liens placed on property by the dredging company for filling forced many property owners to abandon their investments. Local newspapers published papers and pages of foreclosure notices during the late 1890s. PCHS #9-21-92-1. |
| From Glendonville to Pacific County:
A geological Mystery
The collections housed in the Society’s museum include many interesting items. I addition to the historical artifacts the Society maintains a collection of fossils and minerals, mostly from the Southwest Washington area. Among these rocks are some rather strange hollow stones with rectangular holes. Like many mysterious objects in the Society’s care I studied them briefly when |
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| I encountered them while looking for something
else, and then moved on to more pressing matters. As a general rule
it is not a good idea for curators to collect items outside of their expertise,
no matter how interesting they may appear. In this case, however,
we had a number of visitors bring in additional samples of the rocks with
square holes. Most thought they might be Indian artifacts, although
I could not for the life of me figure how (and why) someone would drill
a square hole in such a stone.
The public expects curators to be know-it-alls who have the answers to all questions. Reality, as I can attest after 16 years in the museum business, is different than popular perception. In fact it is not possible to work in a museum without accepting the notion that there will always be more questions than answers. The best I can do much of the time is maintain my own personal list of experts to call on when the mysterious items appear. |
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| In the case of the rocks with
square holes a possible answer arrived one day when my friend Paul See,
a geologist from Seaside Oregon, came to do research on his relatives,
the Lilly family. Paul is an exceptional teacher who has a real knack
for inspiring students and explaining complex geological ideas in laymen’s
terms. Those who attended his lecture on the geology of Pacific County
in Frances earlier last fall can attest to his skill.
Paul brought with him a sample of one of the hollow rocks and proceeded to relate what is known their origin. It seems that even though these rocks are fairly common around Southwest Washington and Northwest Oregon, they are very rare elsewhere. The only other place they are frequently found is in a district of New South Wales, Australia. They are referred to by geologists as glendonite concretions, after the mining town of Glendonville, NSW. Don’t bother looking for Glendonville on the map. It is long abandoned. According to a story in the June, 1975 (Vol 37, No 6) issue of The OreBin published by the Oregon Department of Geology, glendonites are a cast in mudstone formed around a crystal. While the exact chemical composition of this original prismatic crystal is not known with certainty the surrounding sedimentary rocks date to the Miocene Age, 16 million years ago. Similar round concretions found locally sometimes contain fossils such as crabs or clams. There are two conflicting theories about composition of the original crystals around which glendonite concretions formed. The commonly accepted theory is that this crystal was something commonly called glauberite, Na2Ca(SO4)2 for our chemist readers. Also known as calcium sulfate, the problem with this theory is that no one has ever found a glauberite crystal encased in a concretion. A more recent theory is that the original crystal was composed of methane, or methane clathrate. Recent exploration of the deep ocean bottom has proven the existence of crystalline methane under conditions of high pressure and low temperature. Both methane and glauberite can only exist in solid form under these conditions and evaporate when raised to the surface. Thus the hollow rocks. One thing we do know is that the rectangular, double diamond-shaped, calcite crystals sometimes found in Glendonite concretions are certainly pseudomorphs; a cast composed of one form of mineral in the shape of another mineral. Fossils are commonly formed this way. The agatized clams found on Long Island are a good example of such a formation. Under the right conditions calcite crystalizes inside of hollow glendonite concretions, taking the shape of the cavity. Recent discoveries of active hydrothermal vents in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans dramatically prove how geologically active the ocean bottom is. Localized limestone deposits in Pacific County along the Bear and Willapa Rivers have recently been identified as the oldest known hydrothermal vents in the world. These discoveries, along with the strange rocks know as glendonite concretions prove that our area has a very interesting geologic story. Your Historical Society will continue to collect and interpret this story. We may not have all the answers, but will do our best to help with the search. |
 Bend. It was built about 1892 and typical of structures erected during the boom. In the center doorway are Edward S. Alexander (left) and John Russell, with James Storms sitting in the upstairs window, and two unidentified workmen immediately below. The building burned some years later. PCHS #1999.24.1. |