Eugene Semple

Infobox Governor
name =Eugene Semple


order =13^th
office =Governor of Washington Territory
term_start =1887
term_end =1889
birth_date =June 12, 1840
birth_place =Bogotá, Colombia
death_date =August 28, 1908
death_place =San Diego, California
spouse = Ruth A. Lownsdale
party =Democrat
predecessor =Watson C. Squire
successor =Miles C. Moore

Eugene Semple (1840–1908) was the thirteenth Governor of Washington Territory and the unsuccessful Democratic candidate to be the first governor of Washington State.

In 1893, he successfully pushed a bill through the Washington State legislature to facilitate a means of financing privately owned canals by allowing them to sell reclaimed tidelands. With $500,000 of financing, he himself soon attempted such a canal connecting Elliott Bay to Lake Washington by cutting through Seattle's Beacon Hill: a more southerly route than the Lake Washington Ship Canal that was favored by Judge Thomas Burke and others aligned with the Great Northern Railway, and which was ultimately built. [Harvnb|Berner|1991|p=17-18]

Work began July 29, 1895. Within 10 months nearly convert|100|acre|km2 of tide flats had been filled. At that point, Burke managed to get a court injunction challenging the constitutionality of the 1893 law. A December 1898 decision went in Semple's favor, but the delay had put his company into financial difficulties. Semple scored some other legal victories and did well with the state government, but Burke ultimately won out. Semple's activities affected railroad lands, giving Burke further opportunities for injunctions; Burke won over the Seattle city government (and ultimately the federal government) to the northern canal route. By May 1904, Semple's incomplete project was dead. The former Elliott Bay tidelands filled in by his attempt at building a canal soon beame the heart of Seattle's Industrial District. [Harvnb|Berner|1991|p=17–20]

Notes

References

*Citation
last =Berner
first =Richard C.
year =1991
title =Seattle 1900-1920: From Boomtown, Urban Turbulence, to Restoration
place =Seattle
publisher =Charles Press
isbn=0962988901.

Further reading

*cite book|author=Meany, Edmond S.|title=Governors of Washington : territorial and state|publisher=University of Washington,|year=1915 [http://www.secstate.wa.gov/history/publications_detail.aspx?p=30 Available online through the Washington State Library's Classics in Washington History collection]