Marysville History
Eleven compact Marysville history stories for residents, students, families, and America 250 visitors who want a quick way into the local record.
Story collection
These cards are built for browsing and sharing. Each one points to a specific part of Marysville's past: names, streets, mills, steamers, civic milestones, and school traditions that still help explain the city today.
Roads & timber
The plank-road scene brings timber work, road building, machinery, mud, and practical labor into the same frame.
It shows how movement through the landscape had to be made before it could be taken for granted, one rough route and workday at a time.
One account says James Johnson and Thomas Lloyd, carpenters from Marysville, California, suggested the name. Another tradition credits Maria Comeford. The exact answer may never be fully settled.
In 1877, J. P. Comeford purchased about 1,280 acres of mostly delta land between Ebey Slough and Steamboat Slough for $450.
Marysville incorporated on March 17, 1891, making it one of Snohomish County's earliest incorporated towns. Everett incorporated two years later, in 1893.
HistoryLink: Marysville — Thumbnail History 1906 Illustrated History of Snohomish County
The first council meeting of newly incorporated Marysville was held on March 20, 1891, in the basement of council member Alexander Spithill.
In 1884, Marysville's first wagon was brought in pieces and assembled for use on Front Street. At the time, Front Street was only three blocks long and was the only street in town.
In 1891, the south side of Front Street had wooden frame buildings, handmade fences, and houses on stilts to protect them from flooding and swampy ground.
Before Marysville had a regular post office with boxes, mail was carried by rowboat from Steamboat Slough to the Comeford home on West Front Street.
Before highways and trucks, Marysville depended on water travel. In 1890, the steamers City of Quincy and Mabel made daily trips to Seattle and intermediate points.
Around 1890, Marysville was reported to have 27 dwellings, 14 business houses, two shingle mills, and one sawmill.
Red cedar shingles were one of Marysville's early industries. In 1885, Mike Murphy made cedar shingles by hand, then called shakes, using cedar from the townsite.
Marysville High School's first football team formed in 1906. The first football game played in Marysville was against the Tulalip Indian School on December 5, 1906. Marysville won 10-0.
