Our historic image this month is of the Hensel House at 422 Avenue B, just a few doors north of last month’s subject, the Stevens House; but the Hensel home is seven years older, built-in 1890 by L. W. Hensell, as his name was spelled in a Special Edition of the Snohomish County Tribune dated January 1891. No one knows what happen to the extra “l” over the years, but Whitfield moved the “l” to the middle of the name to replace the “n” to end up with “Helsel” on page 248 of his still perpetually useful History of Snohomish County published in 1926.
While I got the book open, let me give you the exciting headlines from 1890, since as Whitfield writes, “For the first time in its history Snohomish enjoyed all the thrills of city politics.” It seems that the city’s incorporation of 1888 was declared invalid by the Supreme Court, sending the city back to square one. A new petition was signed by 101 citizens, a required new census counted 2,012 Snohomish souls, and elections were scheduled for June 26, 1890. At a caucus meeting to determine a candidate for mayor, H. Blackman received 64 votes to Ferguson’s 59, and the Ferguson boosters stormed out of the hall in protest, carrying their fight to the polls when he got only 164 votes to Blackman’s 218. This is why our Historical Society can boast that the occupant of our house museum was Snohomish’s first mayor. The vote for incorporation passed overwhelmingly by 380 to 21.
That was in June, by August the new city government reorganized the fire department and that’s where our home builder and businessman L. W. Hensell enters the picture as an elected board member of the “Snohomish Engine Company No. 1” -- which successfully requested funds from the council for a fire engine. Since Blackman and the council members were elected at a special election, come November a general election was held and this time Ferguson won the mayor’s chair, and first thing in January 1891, he proposed to upgrade the water system, telling the council that without a more dependable way to deliver water throughout the city, the new fire engine was useless.
Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, November 21, 2007.