Jacob Furth
Encyclopedia
Jacob Furth was an Austrian Empire
-born American
entrepreneur and prominent Seattle banker. He played a key role in consolidating Seattle's electric power and public transportation infrastructure, and was a member of Ohaveth Sholum Congregation
, Seattle's first synagogue
. Bill Speidel
called him "the city's leading citizen for thirty years," adding that Furth "may even have been the most important citizen Seattle ever had."
Clarence Bagley wrote shortly after Furth's death:
(now Švihov
, Czech Republic
) November 15, 1840, the son of Lazar and Anna (Popper) Furth, Jewish natives of Bohemia. Of their ten sons and two daughters, eight eventually came to America
. He attended school to the age of thirteen years, then began a career as a confectioner in Budapest
. He decided at sixteen (so says Bagley; other sources say 18) to try his fortune in America and made his way to San Francisco, arriving in 1856.
He had with him letters of introduction to the Schwabacher Brothers
, a prominent Jewish pioneer merchant family firm. After his arrival, he used his last ten dollars to get to Nevada City, California
, where the Schwabachers had secured him a position. He clerked mornings and evenings in a clothing store, while attending public schools for about six months to improve his English. When the Schwabachers checked on him after six months, his English was already better than theirs.
He was rapidly promoted, and at the end of three years he was receiving a salary of $US
300 per month. He lived frugally, and invested some of his money in a quicksilver
mine. By the time the Nevada City store burned in 1862, he had saved enough to open his own clothing and dry-goods store in Shingle Springs, California
. Eight years later, in 1870, he moved Colusa, California
, where he bought into a general mercantile store. The Schwabachers offered him financing, but he told them he had already saved enough to do this on his own. Shortly after his arrival in Colusa, he became Freemason and eventually became master of his lodge. (He would remain a Mason in Seattle.) In 1878, he was able to buy out the older partners in the store, which he owned and operated until 1882.
region in Washington. There, in cooperation with the Schwabachers he helped organize the Puget Sound National Bank with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, and took charge as its cashier. Former Seattle mayor Bailey Gatzert
, another Schwabacher associate, was the original bank president. The bank officially opened for business in August 1883. For several months, Furth was the bank's only employee and its only officer in Seattle.
Puget Sound National Bank succeeded and prospered; at all times the earnings of the bank were sufficient to increase the capital stock as needed. In 1893 he became bank president, a role he held until his bank's consolidation with the Seattle National Bank in 1910, after which he became chairman of the board of directors of the latter. Bagley writes, "He became recognized as one of the foremost factors in banking circles in the northwest, thoroughly conversant with every phase of the business and capable of solving many intricate and complex financial problems."
Besides the Puget Sound National Bank, he organized the First National Bank of Snohomish
in 1896 and remained one of its stockholders and directors the rest of his life. He also founded or co-founded several other Washington State banks, including the Kitsap County Bank in Port Orchard, Washington
(1908), still active today as the Kitsap Bank. In 1884 he organized the California Land & Stock Company, owning a 14000 acres (5,665.6 ha) farm in Lincoln County, Washington, one of the state's largest. Most of the farm was used to raise wheat
; it also pastured cattle and horses. This was another company of which Furth would continue as president until his death. He also invested in property, including Seattle real estate and Pacific Northwest
timber lands.
Further, Furth became increasingly involved in the building and management of urban and interurban
electric railway systems. In 1900, backed by Stone & Webster
he became president of the Seattle Electric Company (later Puget Power, merged in 1997 into Puget Sound Energy
), which in 1916 operated more than 100 miles (160.9 km) of track. He aided in organizing and became the president of the Puget Sound Electric Railway
in 1902, controlling the line between Seattle and Tacoma, Washington
and also owning the street railways in Tacoma and most other Puget Sound cities and towns. He was also president of Seattle's Vulcan Iron Works
, which he organized in 1887. One of Seattle's first major industrial operations, it covered an entire Seattle city block at Fifth Avenue and Lane Street in what is now the International District
, Seattle's Chinatown
.
Some seventy years later, Bill Speidel was more succinct: "All Jacob Furth did was take a squalid little village named Seattle and turn it into a world class city. He made good on Doc Maynard's dream."
Shortly after his arrival in Seattle, Furth (along with Gatzert and Seattle Post-Intelligencer
founder John Leary) rescued the Spring Hill Water system from bankruptcy. The privately owned firm supplied the city's water. A new pumping station on Lake Washington
in what is now the Mount Baker neighborhood made the system viable, doubling its previous capacity. Although the deal was initially viewed largely as a matter of public service, Furth's financial acumen resulted in a profit. After the Great Seattle Fire
of June 6, 1889, which the Spring Hill system failed to put out, Furth broke with most of the city's business interests to back city engineer R. H. Thomson
's proposal for a municipally owned gravity-flow system. J.J. McGilvra was the only other member of the Seattle establishment to take this side in the fight.
Furth assembled $150 million in bank loans after the Great Seattle Fire, and promised that his bank would make no effort to profit from the fire. In the Panic of 1893
, he dissuaded the directors of his Seattle National Bank from calling in all loans. "What you propose," he said, "may be good banking, but it is not human." A rapid trip to New York City
secured enough capital to buy control of the bank and weather the crisis.
in acquiring his first vessel, the Fannie Lake (or Fanny Lake); Green would eventually consolidate the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet
and center it at Seattle, a major factor in Seattle's rise to regional preeminence, and later became a banker himself. Furth arranged financing for Green's first shipping firm, the La Conner Trading and Transportation Company
, as well as another successful steamboat line, the Anderson Steamboat Company.
Furth worked with both the E.H. Harriman and James J. Hill interests to bring their respective railroads to Seattle, finally bringing Seattle the transcontinental rail connection it had sought for decades.
lines; all but J.J. McGilvra's line on Madison Street eventually failed financially, most of them in the wake of the Panic of 1893. Most of them survived only by funding operations out of what should have been maintenance capital. Working with Stone & Webster, Furth stitched together a single system, the Seattle Electric Company and—under pressure from the Seattle City Council
, in order to gain the franchise—established a flat fare, initially 5 cents including transfers (previously, a single trip could have cost as much as 40 cents). In 1902, this was expanded with Interurban
s to Tacoma and Renton
.
However, in contrast to the post-Fire investment that had so clearly been for the common good of the city, Seattle Electric was a for-profit, private undertaking, owned largely by East Coast interests. This put Furth in direct conflict with the advocates of local public ownership. Furthermore, the consolidation of the streetcar lines did not solve the maintenance issues, with "overcrowding, erratic service, accidents, [and] open cars even in winter" remaining common.
The City of Seattle had been involved in municipal power generation since the 1890 creation of the Department of Lighting and Water Works. The 1902 election saw strong populist support for public power, leading to the establishment of Seattle City Light
and the city's involvement in hydroelectricity
. For the next half-century, Seattle would be variously served by municipal electricity and by Seattle Electric and its successors, until the city bought out its private competitor in 1951.
was effectively Furth's silent partner from her 1888 arrival in Seattle until her death in 1903. He provided the banking, real estate, and political connections she required to establish the city's leading parlor house; when people came to him seeking a loan, and he thought their idea was good but that he'd never get it past his board of directors, he referred them to Graham for an informal, high-interest loan. She may have been instrumental in saving Puget Sound National Bank from a bank run
during the Panic of 1893, by ostentatiously making a large deposit. When she died, a Puget Sound National Bank employee became administrator of her estate.
, although Furth was posthumously acquitted of all culpability.
W.E. Schricker's private bank
in La Conner failed in 1912 with $378,766.91 in debts and less than $200,000 in assets. Schricker blamed Furth and other officers of Furth's bank; Furth was arrested, lampooned in the press, and convicted by a jury on April 18, 1913, and fined $10,000. Schricker accused Furth of recommending that he continue to take deposits even after he knew his bank was in trouble. The prosecutor amplified this with a charge that Furth had done so to keep Schricker's bank going just long enough to pay notes due to Furth's bank, thereby harming other depositors. However, Furth was unaware that that Schricker had made $348,554.83 in self-dealing loans to the Fidalgo Lumber Company of Anacortes, Washington
, of which Schricker was a partner. In other words, most of the bank's debts could be accounted for by Schricker's failure to collect from himself.
The conviction was completely overturned on appeal, December 18, 1914, but by that time Furth was not alive to see his reputation cleared.
and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce
. He was a two-term president of the Chamber. He served as a Republican on the Seattle City Council
from 1885 until 1891. In 1901 he was the key organizer of Seattle's anti-union Citizens' Alliance.
He also played a key role in fundraising for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
.
from what Lee Micklin characterizes as "an early American family"; they eventually had three daughters: Jane E., Anna F., and Sidonia. In 1884, Lucy Furth, along with Babette Gatzert (wife of Bailey Gatzert
, and herself born a member of the Schwabacher family) founded the Ladies Relief Society (now Seattle Children's Home). It was Seattle's first charity.
Although he married a Gentile
, Furth remained a practicing Jew. He belonged to the "quasi-reform" Ohaveth Sholum Congregation
, Seattle's first synagogue, and later to the Reform
Temple de Hirsch, one of the congregations that merged into the present-day Temple de Hirsch-Sinai.
Furth's daughter Jane married E.L. Terry. Anna married Frederick K. Struve, a Seattle financier and son of Seattle mayor Henry G. Struve
. His daughter Sidonia married a U.S. Army colonel named Wetherill; the Wetherills inherited the Furth family summer estate at Yarrow Point
on the east shore of Lake Washington. The bulk of this estate, 16 acres (6.5 ha) was deeded to the towns of Yarrow Point and Hunts Point
as the Wetherill Nature Preserve on July 4, 1988.
Austrian Empire
The Austrian Empire was a modern era successor empire, which was centered on what is today's Austria and which officially lasted from 1804 to 1867. It was followed by the Empire of Austria-Hungary, whose proclamation was a diplomatic move that elevated Hungary's status within the Austrian Empire...
-born American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
entrepreneur and prominent Seattle banker. He played a key role in consolidating Seattle's electric power and public transportation infrastructure, and was a member of Ohaveth Sholum Congregation
Ohaveth Sholum Congregation
Ohaveth Sholum Congregation was the first synagogue in Seattle, Washington, USA. Described by the Washington State Jewish Historical Society as "a quasi-Reform temple," it was the Seattle's first Jewish congregation...
, Seattle's first synagogue
Synagogue
A synagogue is a Jewish house of prayer. This use of the Greek term synagogue originates in the Septuagint where it sometimes translates the Hebrew word for assembly, kahal...
. Bill Speidel
Bill Speidel
William C Speidel known as Bill Speidel was a columnist for The Seattle Times and a self-made historian who wrote the books Sons of the Profits and Doc Maynard, The Man Who Invented Seattle about the people who settled and built Seattle, Washington.Speidel is also credited with being one of the...
called him "the city's leading citizen for thirty years," adding that Furth "may even have been the most important citizen Seattle ever had."
Clarence Bagley wrote shortly after Furth's death:
Early life
Furth was born in Schwihau, BohemiaBohemia
Bohemia is a historical region in central Europe, occupying the western two-thirds of the traditional Czech Lands. It is located in the contemporary Czech Republic with its capital in Prague...
(now Švihov
Švihov (Klatovy District)
Švihov is a town in west part of the Czech Republic. Gothic Švihov castle is main target of tourism in region.-External links:*...
, Czech Republic
Czech Republic
The Czech Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Poland to the northeast, Slovakia to the east, Austria to the south, and Germany to the west and northwest....
) November 15, 1840, the son of Lazar and Anna (Popper) Furth, Jewish natives of Bohemia. Of their ten sons and two daughters, eight eventually came to America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He attended school to the age of thirteen years, then began a career as a confectioner in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. He decided at sixteen (so says Bagley; other sources say 18) to try his fortune in America and made his way to San Francisco, arriving in 1856.
He had with him letters of introduction to the Schwabacher Brothers
Schwabacher Brothers
The Schwabacher Brothers—Louis Schwabacher , Abraham Schwabacher , and Sigmund Schwabacher —were pioneering Bavarian-born Jewish merchants, important in the economic development of the Washington Territory and later Washington State...
, a prominent Jewish pioneer merchant family firm. After his arrival, he used his last ten dollars to get to Nevada City, California
Nevada City, California
-2010:The 2010 United States Census reported that Nevada City had a population of 3,068. The population density was 1,399.7 people per square mile . The racial makeup of Nevada City was 2,837 White, 26 African American, 28 Native American, 46 Asian, 0 Pacific Islander, 40 from other races,...
, where the Schwabachers had secured him a position. He clerked mornings and evenings in a clothing store, while attending public schools for about six months to improve his English. When the Schwabachers checked on him after six months, his English was already better than theirs.
He was rapidly promoted, and at the end of three years he was receiving a salary of $US
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
300 per month. He lived frugally, and invested some of his money in a quicksilver
Mercury (element)
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver or hydrargyrum...
mine. By the time the Nevada City store burned in 1862, he had saved enough to open his own clothing and dry-goods store in Shingle Springs, California
Shingle Springs, California
Shingle Springs is a census-designated place in El Dorado County, California, United States. The population was 4,432 at the 2010 census, up from 2,643 at the 2000 census. It is located about 40 miles from Sacramento in the historic Gold Country foothills and sits directly on Highway 50...
. Eight years later, in 1870, he moved Colusa, California
Colusa, California
Colusa is the county seat of Colusa County, California. The population was 5,971 at the 2010 census, up from 5,402 at the 2000 census.-Geography:...
, where he bought into a general mercantile store. The Schwabachers offered him financing, but he told them he had already saved enough to do this on his own. Shortly after his arrival in Colusa, he became Freemason and eventually became master of his lodge. (He would remain a Mason in Seattle.) In 1878, he was able to buy out the older partners in the store, which he owned and operated until 1882.
Banking and financial positions
In 1882, health problems took Furth to the Puget SoundPuget Sound
Puget Sound is a sound in the U.S. state of Washington. It is a complex estuarine system of interconnected marine waterways and basins, with one major and one minor connection to the Strait of Juan de Fuca and the Pacific Ocean — Admiralty Inlet being the major connection and...
region in Washington. There, in cooperation with the Schwabachers he helped organize the Puget Sound National Bank with a capital of fifty thousand dollars, and took charge as its cashier. Former Seattle mayor Bailey Gatzert
Bailey Gatzert
Bailey Gatzert was the eighth mayor of Seattle, Washington, serving from 1875 to 1876. He was the first Jewish mayor of Seattle, narrowly missing being the first Jewish mayor of a major American city , and has been the only Jewish mayor of Seattle to date.Gatzert was born in 1829 in Darmstadt,...
, another Schwabacher associate, was the original bank president. The bank officially opened for business in August 1883. For several months, Furth was the bank's only employee and its only officer in Seattle.
Puget Sound National Bank succeeded and prospered; at all times the earnings of the bank were sufficient to increase the capital stock as needed. In 1893 he became bank president, a role he held until his bank's consolidation with the Seattle National Bank in 1910, after which he became chairman of the board of directors of the latter. Bagley writes, "He became recognized as one of the foremost factors in banking circles in the northwest, thoroughly conversant with every phase of the business and capable of solving many intricate and complex financial problems."
Besides the Puget Sound National Bank, he organized the First National Bank of Snohomish
Snohomish, Washington
Snohomish is a city in Snohomish County founded by the british, Washington, United States. The population was 9,098 at the 2010 census. The mayor of Snohomish is Karen Guzak, and the City Manager is Larry Bauman...
in 1896 and remained one of its stockholders and directors the rest of his life. He also founded or co-founded several other Washington State banks, including the Kitsap County Bank in Port Orchard, Washington
Port Orchard, Washington
Port Orchard is a city in and the county seat of Kitsap County, Washington, United States. It is located 13 miles due west of West Seattle and connected to Seattle and Vashon Island via the Washington State Ferries run to Southworth...
(1908), still active today as the Kitsap Bank. In 1884 he organized the California Land & Stock Company, owning a 14000 acres (5,665.6 ha) farm in Lincoln County, Washington, one of the state's largest. Most of the farm was used to raise wheat
Wheat
Wheat is a cereal grain, originally from the Levant region of the Near East, but now cultivated worldwide. In 2007 world production of wheat was 607 million tons, making it the third most-produced cereal after maize and rice...
; it also pastured cattle and horses. This was another company of which Furth would continue as president until his death. He also invested in property, including Seattle real estate and Pacific Northwest
Pacific Northwest
The Pacific Northwest is a region in northwestern North America, bounded by the Pacific Ocean to the west and, loosely, by the Rocky Mountains on the east. Definitions of the region vary and there is no commonly agreed upon boundary, even among Pacific Northwesterners. A common concept of the...
timber lands.
Further, Furth became increasingly involved in the building and management of urban and interurban
Interurban
An interurban, also called a radial railway in parts of Canada, is a type of electric passenger railroad; in short a hybrid between tram and train. Interurbans enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. Until the early 1920s, most roads were...
electric railway systems. In 1900, backed by Stone & Webster
Stone & Webster
Stone & Webster is an American engineering services company based in Stoughton, Massachusetts. Stone & Webster was founded as an electrical testing lab and consulting firm by electrical engineers Charles Stone and Edwin Webster in 1889. It was acquired by The Shaw Group in 2000. The company...
he became president of the Seattle Electric Company (later Puget Power, merged in 1997 into Puget Sound Energy
Puget Sound Energy
Puget Sound Energy is Washington state's oldest local energy utility providing electrical power and natural gas in the Puget Sound region of the northwest United States...
), which in 1916 operated more than 100 miles (160.9 km) of track. He aided in organizing and became the president of the Puget Sound Electric Railway
Puget Sound Electric Railway
The Puget Sound Electric Railway was an interurban railway that ran between Tacoma and Seattle, Washington in the first quarter of the 20th century...
in 1902, controlling the line between Seattle and Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma, Washington
Tacoma is a mid-sized urban port city and the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. The city is on Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, northeast of the state capital, Olympia, and northwest of Mount Rainier National Park. The population was 198,397, according to...
and also owning the street railways in Tacoma and most other Puget Sound cities and towns. He was also president of Seattle's Vulcan Iron Works
Vulcan Iron Works
Since Vulcan was the Roman god of fire and smithery, the name was an obvious choice for an iron foundry or mechanical engineering works in the nineteenth century, both in England, the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, and in the United States.-England:...
, which he organized in 1887. One of Seattle's first major industrial operations, it covered an entire Seattle city block at Fifth Avenue and Lane Street in what is now the International District
International District, Seattle, Washington
The Chinatown-International District of Seattle, Washington is an ethnic enclave neighborhood and is the center of Seattle's Asian American community. The neighborhood is multiethnic, consisting mainly of people who are of Chinese, Japanese, and Filipino ethnicity...
, Seattle's Chinatown
Chinatown
A Chinatown is an ethnic enclave of overseas Chinese people, although it is often generalized to include various Southeast Asian people. Chinatowns exist throughout the world, including East Asia, Southeast Asia, the Americas, Australasia, and Europe. Binondo's Chinatown located in Manila,...
.
Public-minded dealmaker
In eulogizing Furth, Judge Thomas Burke said of him,Some seventy years later, Bill Speidel was more succinct: "All Jacob Furth did was take a squalid little village named Seattle and turn it into a world class city. He made good on Doc Maynard's dream."
Shortly after his arrival in Seattle, Furth (along with Gatzert and Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer is an online newspaper and former print newspaper covering Seattle, Washington, United States, and the surrounding metropolitan area...
founder John Leary) rescued the Spring Hill Water system from bankruptcy. The privately owned firm supplied the city's water. A new pumping station on Lake Washington
Lake Washington
Lake Washington is a large freshwater lake adjacent to the city of Seattle. It is the largest lake in King County and the second largest in the state of Washington, after Lake Chelan. It is bordered by the cities of Seattle on the west, Bellevue and Kirkland on the east, Renton on the south and...
in what is now the Mount Baker neighborhood made the system viable, doubling its previous capacity. Although the deal was initially viewed largely as a matter of public service, Furth's financial acumen resulted in a profit. After the Great Seattle Fire
Great Seattle Fire
The Great Seattle Fire was a fire that destroyed the entire central business district of Seattle, Washington, USA, on June 6, 1889.-Early Seattle:In the fall of 1851, the Denny Party arrived at Alki Point in what is now the state of Washington...
of June 6, 1889, which the Spring Hill system failed to put out, Furth broke with most of the city's business interests to back city engineer R. H. Thomson
Reginald H. Thomson
Reginald Heber Thomson was a self-taught American civil engineer. He worked in Washington state, mainly in Seattle, where he became city engineer in 1892 and held the position for two decades. Alan J...
's proposal for a municipally owned gravity-flow system. J.J. McGilvra was the only other member of the Seattle establishment to take this side in the fight.
Furth assembled $150 million in bank loans after the Great Seattle Fire, and promised that his bank would make no effort to profit from the fire. In the Panic of 1893
Panic of 1893
The Panic of 1893 was a serious economic depression in the United States that began in 1893. Similar to the Panic of 1873, this panic was marked by the collapse of railroad overbuilding and shaky railroad financing which set off a series of bank failures...
, he dissuaded the directors of his Seattle National Bank from calling in all loans. "What you propose," he said, "may be good banking, but it is not human." A rapid trip to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
secured enough capital to buy control of the bank and weather the crisis.
Financing of shipping and railroads
Shortly after the Great Seattle Fire, Furth financed seaman Joshua GreenJoshua Green (seaman and banker)
Joshua Green was an American sternwheeler captain, businessman, and banker. He rose from being a seaman to being the dominant figure of the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet, then sold out his interests and became a banker...
in acquiring his first vessel, the Fannie Lake (or Fanny Lake); Green would eventually consolidate the Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet
Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet
The Puget Sound Mosquito Fleet was a large number of private transportation companies running smaller passenger and freight boats on Puget Sound and nearby waterways and rivers. This large group of steamers and sternwheelers plied the waters of Puget Sound, stopping at every waterfront dock...
and center it at Seattle, a major factor in Seattle's rise to regional preeminence, and later became a banker himself. Furth arranged financing for Green's first shipping firm, the La Conner Trading and Transportation Company
La Conner Trading and Transportation Company
The La Conner Trading and Transportation Company was founded in the early 1900s by Joshua Green and others, to engage in the shipping business on Puget Sound.-Formation:...
, as well as another successful steamboat line, the Anderson Steamboat Company.
Furth worked with both the E.H. Harriman and James J. Hill interests to bring their respective railroads to Seattle, finally bringing Seattle the transcontinental rail connection it had sought for decades.
Stone & Webster
Furth's work with Stone & Webster—to consolidate the city's public transportation system and to consolidate and develop electrical power sources to power them—was more controversial. In the 1890s, Seattle had fourteen independent streetcar and cable carCable car
A cable car is any of a variety of transportation systems relying on cables to pull vehicles along or lower them at a steady rate, or a vehicle on these systems.-Aerial lift:Aerial lifts where the vehicle is suspended in the air from a cable:...
lines; all but J.J. McGilvra's line on Madison Street eventually failed financially, most of them in the wake of the Panic of 1893. Most of them survived only by funding operations out of what should have been maintenance capital. Working with Stone & Webster, Furth stitched together a single system, the Seattle Electric Company and—under pressure from the Seattle City Council
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is committed to ensuring that Seattle, Washington, is safe, livable and sustainable. Nine Councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in nonpartisan elections and represent the entire city, elected by all Seattle voters....
, in order to gain the franchise—established a flat fare, initially 5 cents including transfers (previously, a single trip could have cost as much as 40 cents). In 1902, this was expanded with Interurban
Interurban
An interurban, also called a radial railway in parts of Canada, is a type of electric passenger railroad; in short a hybrid between tram and train. Interurbans enjoyed widespread popularity in the first three decades of the twentieth century in North America. Until the early 1920s, most roads were...
s to Tacoma and Renton
Renton, Washington
Renton is an Eastside edge city in King County, Washington, United States. Situated 11 miles southeast of Seattle, Washington, Renton straddles the southeast shore of Lake Washington. Founded in the 1860s, Renton became a supply town for the Newcastle coal fields...
.
However, in contrast to the post-Fire investment that had so clearly been for the common good of the city, Seattle Electric was a for-profit, private undertaking, owned largely by East Coast interests. This put Furth in direct conflict with the advocates of local public ownership. Furthermore, the consolidation of the streetcar lines did not solve the maintenance issues, with "overcrowding, erratic service, accidents, [and] open cars even in winter" remaining common.
The City of Seattle had been involved in municipal power generation since the 1890 creation of the Department of Lighting and Water Works. The 1902 election saw strong populist support for public power, leading to the establishment of Seattle City Light
Seattle City Light
Seattle City Light is the public utility providing electrical power to Seattle, Washington and parts of its metropolitan area, including all of Shoreline and Lake Forest Park and parts of unincorporated King County, Burien, Normandy Park, Seatac, Renton, and Tukwila...
and the city's involvement in hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity
Hydroelectricity is the term referring to electricity generated by hydropower; the production of electrical power through the use of the gravitational force of falling or flowing water. It is the most widely used form of renewable energy...
. For the next half-century, Seattle would be variously served by municipal electricity and by Seattle Electric and its successors, until the city bought out its private competitor in 1951.
Lou Graham connection
According to Bill Speidel, brothel-owner Lou GrahamLou Graham (Seattle madame)
Lou Graham , born Dorothea Georgine Emile Ohben, was a German-born woman who became famous as the madame of a brothel in what is now the Pioneer Square district of Seattle, Washington, USA...
was effectively Furth's silent partner from her 1888 arrival in Seattle until her death in 1903. He provided the banking, real estate, and political connections she required to establish the city's leading parlor house; when people came to him seeking a loan, and he thought their idea was good but that he'd never get it past his board of directors, he referred them to Graham for an informal, high-interest loan. She may have been instrumental in saving Puget Sound National Bank from a bank run
Bank run
A bank run occurs when a large number of bank customers withdraw their deposits because they believe the bank is, or might become, insolvent...
during the Panic of 1893, by ostentatiously making a large deposit. When she died, a Puget Sound National Bank employee became administrator of her estate.
The Schricker scandal
Toward the end of his life, Furth's reputation was somewhat tarnished by a scandal related to a bank in La Conner, WashingtonLa Conner, Washington
La Conner is a town in Skagit County, Washington, United States with a population of 891 at the 2010 census. It is included in the Mount Vernon–Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area. In the month of April, the town annually hosts the majority of the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival...
, although Furth was posthumously acquitted of all culpability.
W.E. Schricker's private bank
Private bank
Private banks are banks that are not incorporated. A private bank is owned by either an individual or a general partner with limited partner...
in La Conner failed in 1912 with $378,766.91 in debts and less than $200,000 in assets. Schricker blamed Furth and other officers of Furth's bank; Furth was arrested, lampooned in the press, and convicted by a jury on April 18, 1913, and fined $10,000. Schricker accused Furth of recommending that he continue to take deposits even after he knew his bank was in trouble. The prosecutor amplified this with a charge that Furth had done so to keep Schricker's bank going just long enough to pay notes due to Furth's bank, thereby harming other depositors. However, Furth was unaware that that Schricker had made $348,554.83 in self-dealing loans to the Fidalgo Lumber Company of Anacortes, Washington
Anacortes, Washington
Anacortes is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. The name "Anacortes" is a consolidation of the name Anna Curtis, who was the wife of early Fidalgo Island settler Amos Bowman. Anacortes' population was 15,778 at the time of the 2010 census...
, of which Schricker was a partner. In other words, most of the bank's debts could be accounted for by Schricker's failure to collect from himself.
The conviction was completely overturned on appeal, December 18, 1914, but by that time Furth was not alive to see his reputation cleared.
Civic associations and public office
Among other associations, Furth was a member of Seattle's prestigious Rainier ClubRainier Club
The Rainier Club is a private club in Seattle, Washington; Priscilla Long of HistoryLink.org calls it "Seattle's preeminent private club." Its clubhouse building, completed in 1904, is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It was founded in 1888 in what was then the Washington Territory...
and the Seattle Chamber of Commerce
Seattle Chamber of Commerce
The Greater Seattle Chamber of Commerce is a private, membership-based organization that promotes economic prosperity in the metro region of Seattle, Washington, and provides businesses with tools to grow....
. He was a two-term president of the Chamber. He served as a Republican on the Seattle City Council
Seattle City Council
The Seattle City Council is committed to ensuring that Seattle, Washington, is safe, livable and sustainable. Nine Councilmembers are elected to four-year terms in nonpartisan elections and represent the entire city, elected by all Seattle voters....
from 1885 until 1891. In 1901 he was the key organizer of Seattle's anti-union Citizens' Alliance.
He also played a key role in fundraising for the Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition
The Alaska–Yukon–Pacific Exposition was a world's fair held in Seattle in 1909, publicizing the development of the Pacific Northwest.It was originally planned for 1907, to mark the 10th anniversary of the Klondike Gold Rush, but the organizers found out about the Jamestown Exposition being held...
.
Marriage and family
In California, in 1865, Furth married Lucy (or Lucia) A. Dunton, a native of IndianaIndiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
from what Lee Micklin characterizes as "an early American family"; they eventually had three daughters: Jane E., Anna F., and Sidonia. In 1884, Lucy Furth, along with Babette Gatzert (wife of Bailey Gatzert
Bailey Gatzert
Bailey Gatzert was the eighth mayor of Seattle, Washington, serving from 1875 to 1876. He was the first Jewish mayor of Seattle, narrowly missing being the first Jewish mayor of a major American city , and has been the only Jewish mayor of Seattle to date.Gatzert was born in 1829 in Darmstadt,...
, and herself born a member of the Schwabacher family) founded the Ladies Relief Society (now Seattle Children's Home). It was Seattle's first charity.
Although he married a Gentile
Gentile
The term Gentile refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible....
, Furth remained a practicing Jew. He belonged to the "quasi-reform" Ohaveth Sholum Congregation
Ohaveth Sholum Congregation
Ohaveth Sholum Congregation was the first synagogue in Seattle, Washington, USA. Described by the Washington State Jewish Historical Society as "a quasi-Reform temple," it was the Seattle's first Jewish congregation...
, Seattle's first synagogue, and later to the Reform
Reform Judaism
Reform Judaism refers to various beliefs, practices and organizations associated with the Reform Jewish movement in North America, the United Kingdom and elsewhere. In general, it maintains that Judaism and Jewish traditions should be modernized and should be compatible with participation in the...
Temple de Hirsch, one of the congregations that merged into the present-day Temple de Hirsch-Sinai.
Furth's daughter Jane married E.L. Terry. Anna married Frederick K. Struve, a Seattle financier and son of Seattle mayor Henry G. Struve
Henry G. Struve
Henry G. Struve was a prominent lawyer, legislator, historian and banker in Seattle, Washington, during the 19th and early 20th centuries...
. His daughter Sidonia married a U.S. Army colonel named Wetherill; the Wetherills inherited the Furth family summer estate at Yarrow Point
Yarrow Point, Washington
Yarrow Point is a town in King County, Washington, United States. The population was 1,001 at the 2010 census.Based on per capita income, one of the more reliable measures of affluence, Yarrow Point ranks fifth of 522 areas in the state of Washington to be ranked.-Geography:Yarrow Point is located...
on the east shore of Lake Washington. The bulk of this estate, 16 acres (6.5 ha) was deeded to the towns of Yarrow Point and Hunts Point
Hunts Point, Washington
Hunts Point is a town located in the Eastside, a region of King County, Washington, United States, and part of the Seattle metropolitan area. The town is located on a small peninsula surrounded by Lake Washington, and is near the suburbs of Medina , Clyde Hill , Yarrow Point , and Kirkland , as...
as the Wetherill Nature Preserve on July 4, 1988.