This is the first in a series of Washington State gubernatorial might-have-beens.

The first Governor of Washington was actually elected during the twilight of Washington's territorial days, Oct. 1, 1889 in preparation for Washington's statehood status, granted on the following month, Nov. 11. The election pitted two former territorial governors against each other: Elisha Ferry (Republican) and Eugene Semple (Democrat). The campaign lasted less than a month and there was never any doubt who the victor would be. It was a Republican year.

Eugene Semple was born in Colombia while his father served there as a diplomat. According to An Illustrated History of the State of Washington (1893), Semple was born "June 12, 1840, a son of James and Mary S. (Mizner) Semple, of Illinois. The father served as Attorney General, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Senator in Congress and Colonel in the Black Hawk war in his adopted State. But at the time of his son's birth he was United States Minister to New Grenada. He served two terms in that position, first under Van Buren, and then under Tyler. The Semple family have long been prominently connected with the affairs of the Pacific coast. James Semple, father of our subject, made speeches in the Mississippi Valley, as early as 1842, in favor of the claim of the United States to the line of 54† 40' north latitude. January 8, 1844, he introduced into the United States Senate a resolution requesting the President to give notice to his Britannic Majesty of the desire of the Government of the United States to abrogate the treaty of joint occupancy of the Oregon country. His brother, Robert Semple, was editor of the first American newspaper printed in California; was president of the Constitutional Convention of that State; and founded the city of Benicia. A half brother of our subject, Hon. Lansing B. Mizner, was a California pioneer of 1849, held many official positions, including that of Collector of' the Port of San Francisco; President of State Senate, and Presidential Elector and Minister to Central America. A cousin of the subject of this sketch, Will Semple Green, was one of the founders of the city of Colusa, California, and for thirty-five years has been editor of the Colusa Sun, in which capacity he has yielded a potent influence in public affairs. Another uncle, Colonel Charles Donald Semple, of Colusa, was one of the most prominent members of the California bar."

So Eugene was genetically predisposed to politics and journalism. In 1863, with a law degree in hand, he headed West. His biographer, Alan Hynding, writes, "His reasons for leaving are not known, but there at least two possible explanations. Like thousands of young men during the war, he may have been trying to avoid military service. Or, more likely, as he later said, his restless nature may have prevailed over sounder instincts and propelled him toward the sunset."

Semple made his home in Portland, where he practiced law, ran a newspaper, and became involved in the politics of the Democratic Party. He married in 1870 and had a promising future, but the Panic of 1873 wiped out his finances. The bankrupt Semples moved to eastern Oregon in 1875. Within a few years he was divorced (his 1893 biography claims he was a widower) and had custody of four children.

This synopsis provided by the University of Washington as an introduction to the Semple archives in their library describes Eugene's tenure as Territorial Governor:

"Semple quickly rebounded from the divorce and decided to re-enter politics. Seeking President Grover Cleveland’s nomination as Washington Territorial Governor in 1885, Semple mobilized the help of his influential family in the East and his own political connections in the West. The contest for the appointment consumed more than two years, as various political factions deluged Cleveland with petitions supporting Semple or his rivals. The President eventually chose Semple in 1887 to replace Republican Governor Watson Squire."

"Semple’s two-year term as governor coincided with a period of turbulence and expansive growth in the territory. The population of Washington almost doubled during these two years, reaching more than 250,000 people. Many of the immigrants were miners whose demands for better working conditions and union recognition led to violence in the coal mines of the Cascades. Semple deplored the use of company strikebreakers, but refused to intervene forcefully on the workers’ behalf when called upon. He made a sharp distinction, however, between the interests of white workingmen and those of Chinese laborers. Semple thought of the Chinese as members of “a non-assimilating race.” During his gubernatorial campaign and his administration, he refused to condemn anti-Chinese rioters in Tacoma and Seattle even though he asserted that the Chinese had a right to remain in Washington if they so desired."

"In addition to labor unrest, Governor Semple had to deal with a host of other problems caused by Washington’s exploding population. He convinced the United States Congress and Interior Department to fund an expansion of the territory’s elementary school system, as well as the construction of a new penitentiary, insane asylum, and school for delinquent youth. Semple also pressed Congress and the territorial legislature to pass laws regulating Washington’s overfished waters, but to no avail."

"Women’s enfranchisement was another major issue during Semple’s administration. In 1887, to the chagrin of conservatives, Semple signed a women’s suffrage bill passed by the territorial legislature. The Washington Supreme Court, however, declared the law unconstitutional. Washington women did not earn the ballot again until 1909."

Semple's refusal to use public militia in the service of private coporations to subdue labor activity was an anomaly in a Territory dominated by Republicans. So, as Robert Ficken has pointed out, "Employers certainly lost no time in securing Semple's removal from office" once they reclaimed the White House in March 1889.

In early Sept. 1889 the Democrats met in Ellensburg to nominate a gubernatorial candidate (primary elections did not take place until 1908). Sensing defeat, no one really wanted the job, and Semple won the nod more or less by default. The Party was not enthusiastic and one headline declared, "Intense Nausea Produced by the Nomimations -- They Can't Stand Semple."

Semple was not a great speaker and didn't have an issue that excited the electorate. As Hynding describes the campaign, "He concentrated most of his fire on the corporations of the territory for their unauthorized use of imported guards as deputy marshals and their intimidation of unions. In the way of constructive reform proposals, however, he had little to offer ..." One Seattle paper dismissed Semple's speeches as "The twaddle of a demogogue." The Republicans also brought up Eugene's past by reminding voters he ran away to the West during the Civil War.

He was clobbered at the polls. Ferry: 33,711 (57.68%); Semple: 24,732 (42.32%). Semple won three counties, Skamania, Clallam and Franklin, and the first two by only 10 votes. He gracefully accepted defeat and ended his quest for elective office. He was briefly considered as a candidate in 1892, but only briefly.

During the next decade, Semple would embark on a project for which he is most remembered. He was appointed to the Washington State Harbor Line Commission in 1890. Writer David B. Williams picks up the story in "The Strange History of the Ship Canal" (Seattle Times, 4/30/2000):

"This position gave Semple the opportunity to study the navigable waters around cities. A map of Seattle then would have showed one primary waterway and one potentially navigable route. The primary route was the Duwamish River, which meandered north toward Elliott Bay and ended at a tidal flat covering a wide area south of what is now downtown Seattle ..."

"Semple saw money-making potential in a southern canal route - specifically, in filling the tideflats as part of a canal project connecting to the Duwamish. Fill material could come from dredging land at the mouth of the Duwamish and from cutting the canal through Beacon Hill to connect with Lake Washington roughly where Mount Baker Park is today. The only problem was that the state did not allow the dredging Semple envisioned."

"Semple still had friends in the Legislature, though, and that body in 1893 passed a bill permitting private companies or individuals to dig waterways through tideflats and to use the excavated material to fill tidelands. The work could be financed by liens on the filled land and the contractor could 'levy `reasonable´ tolls on any locks.'"

"In describing this action, Semple's biographer, Alan Hynding, wrote: 'Few of the lawmakers comprehended exactly how Semple would employ the new law. Had some of the Seattle legislators known, they probably would have opposed it in the interest of the north canal.' (Ironically, John McGraw, elected governor in 1892, had run on a pledge to 'dig the ditch' - but he meant the northern route.)"

"After filing plans for his canal, Semple acquired backing from the Mississippi Valley Trust Co., with which he had family connections. With that support and public backing following the 4,000-strong, Seattle armory meeting, Semple started to dig. By late 1896, his firm, the Seattle and Lake Washington Waterways Co., whose board members included many prominent Seattleites, had dredged 2,000 feet up the Duwamish from Elliott Bay, creating what is known now as the East Waterway. It also filled 70 acres of tidelands."

"The canal initiative had gotten away from the powerful Lake Union shoreline landowners - among them Burke, Denny and Dennis Gilman, who owned a railroad now memorialized by the Burke-Gilman Trail - who wanted a northern canal. They teamed up with the Chamber of Commerce to protest Semple's actions and sent Erastus Brainerd, a local promoter, to Washington, D.C., to lobby Congress to support the northern route."

"Semple followed Brainerd to defend the southern route, and Burke followed Semple. Their controversy reached a head in a meeting of the Rivers and Harbors Committee, where Burke stated that the state Supreme Court had ruled against the south canal. According to Hynding, 'Semple challenged him . . . Burke admitted that he had only a vague recollection of the case . . . and he quietly returned to Seattle.'"

"Work, meanwhile, continued on the south canal. Semple did not meet his goal of completing it by 1900, but gravity-fed water had started to sluice a gap into Beacon Hill in 1901. Meanwhile, water cannons, using roughly 14 million gallons of water a day from the city's new Cedar River water system, cut into the west side of the hill (at roughly 14th Avenue and Hanford Street) and washed material into the tideflats. By 1904, more than 300 acres had been filled and the East and West waterways of the Duwamish had been dredged, creating Harbor Island."

"Although the northern canal promoters had lost the argument in Congress, they were finding Seattle citizens more hospitable to allegations against Semple. Critics of the south canal claimed that Semple was getting the Cedar River water at below-market value through collusion with a Seattle City Council member. Semple was being sued by Beacon Hill residents whose homes were being damaged by digging. And the northern-route promoters' ally, Erastus Brainerd, had become editor-in-chief of the Seattle P-I in 1904."

"With public sentiment turning against his project, Semple resigned from the Seattle and Lake Washington Waterway Co. Within a few months, work stopped in the south canal. Semple's foes appeared to have won their push for a northern ship canal ..."

Unbroken but broke, Semple continued to dream big dreams and attempted to gain financing to make them a reality. One of his later visions was a canal system from Seaside to Astoria, Oregon, where ships could bypass the treacherous mouth of the Columbia River. By the time he died in a San Diego rest home, Aug. 28, 1908, he had been living off the charity of relatives. Gov. Semple was cremated and his "ashes were inurned on the original first floor (now the basement) of the Queen Anne Columbarium in Seattle" according to a source on Genforum.

A bit of trivia, Semple Plateau, a geographic feature in the Olympic Mountains (Jefferson County portion) is named for Eugene Semple.