1890 New Year’s Day Greeting Card Made by Prominent Early Seattle Citizens

Prominent early Seattle citizens Henry Yesler, Bailey Gatzert, and Moses Maddocks made a New Year’s Day tradition out of carrying together greeting cards to their friends in town, and probably getting their fill of seasonal snaps in return. They were close friends, loved to play pranks on each other, and at one time or another each held the office of Mayor of Seattle.

Henry Leiter Yesler (1810-1892) was a lumberman who established the Seattle's first steam-powered sawmill in 1852, and was Seattle's mayor from 1874-1875 and 1885-1886. Bailey Gatzert (1829-1893) came to Seattle in 1869 to run the Schwabacher Brothers and Company's hardware store. As of 2018 Mr. Gatzert is Seattle's only Jewish mayor, serving from 1875-1876. Moses Rideout Maddocks (1833-1919) arrived in Washington Territory in 1858 to work as a logger, then began a successful real estate career. Mr. Maddocks won a special election in 1873 to serve the two remaining months of the previous mayor's term.

The card pictured here was given by the three men as they visited friends on January 1, 1890, as part of a New Year’s Day tradition they had begun in 1871. The photograph on this card shows all three men; from left, Mr. Maddocks, Mr. Gatzert, and Mr. Yesler.