History of Marysville
By Curt Cunningham

Marysville was established in 1872 by government-appointed Indian agent James P. Comeford, an Irish immigrant who had served in the Civil War, and his wife Maria as a trading post on the Tulalip Indian Reservation. The reservation, located to the west of modern-day Marysville, was established by the Point Elliot Treaty of 1855, signed by local Native American tribes and territorial governor Isaac Stevens at Mukilteo.

The treaty's signing opened most of Snohomish County to American settlement and commercial activities, including logging, fishing and trapping. The timber industry was the largest active industry in the area during the 1860s and 1870s, with hillsides in Marysville cleared by loggers for dairy farms. The Comefords' trading post accepted business from the reservation and logging camps that were established near the mouth of the Snohomish River.

In 1874, Comeford acquired three timber claims from local loggers for $450, totaling 1,280 acres, and cleared the land in preparation for settlement. Comeford and his wife moved to the present site of Marysville in 1877, building a new store and wharf. Although Marysville remained a one-man town until 1883, a post office and school district were both established by 1879 using the names and signatures of Native American neighbors of the Comeford's, who were given "Boston" names for the petition. Comeford completed construction of a two-story hotel in 1883 to welcome new settlers.

Among the first residents to arrive were James Johnson and Thomas Lloyd of Marysville, California, who suggested the town's name be used for Comeford's new town. Comeford sold his store and wharf to settlers Mark Swinnerton and Henry B. Myers in 1884, and moved north to the Kellogg Marsh to farm 540 acres of land he had purchased. Marysville was formally platted on February 25, 1885, filed by the town physician J. D. Morris and dedicated by the Comefords.

More settlers began to arrive after the completion of the town's first sawmill in 1887, joined by three others by the end of the decade. Marysville was officially incorporated as a fourth-class city on March 20, 1891, with a population of approximately 400 residents and Mark Swinnerton served as the city's first mayor. The Great Northern Railway also completed construction of its tracks through Marysville in 1891, building a drawbridge over Ebey Slough.

On May 15, 1887 the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed an article about the new city of Marysville; "The thriving little town of Marysville in Snohomish county, lying on the north bank of the Snohomish river, is destined to enjoy a good, healthy growth in the near future. It is just fourteen miles north of Snohomish City and thirty miles north of Seattle. The surrounding country for a radius of twenty miles is perfectly level; the and being of a clay subsoil is very good for farming, and having plenty of good marsh lands. it is really uno of the beet localities for settlement in the Territory."

"There are thousands of acres of both marsh and upland that are open to settlement, or can be purchased at a nominal figure. The upland is specially adapted to hop culture, that most profitable of all Washington territory products. The streams abound with fish of various kinds, and there is an abundance of pure water from wells and springs. The town and adjacent country support an excellent hotel, two large general merchandise stores and a number of smaller business houses etc."

"Here they have the most substantial and best wharf and warehouse in the county. The inhabitants are afforded direct daily communication with Seattle by water; steamers leaving Seattle in the morning loaded with merchandise and returning at night with the various products from the farms and mills. Shingle manufacturing and logging is being carried on extensively, and shingles and lumber form a large percentage of the exports at present, but as the adjacent country is rapidly populating with settlers, who have been so fortunate as to thoroughly investigate the Sound country before determining upon a location, other industries on a much larger with varied products are rightly looked forward to at a distant day."

"It is said that when building a railroad the projectors first determine upon the different points which they may reach, that will extend to them the most liberal patronage and offer the best business for their road. Marysville has already attracted attention from one railroad that will before long do much to build up this enterprising little town, and another line is now being built that will tap her farming country. The Seattle and Bellingham Bay Railroad's line, running from Seattle north to Whatcom, passes through Marysville, thus giving her citizens the advantages of being within a two hours ride of the Queen City of the Sound."

"This will be fully appreciated by the farmers, who can then get on the train in the morning, and bringing their products to the city, can sell them and return borne in the evening. Then again the Seattle and West Coast Railroad only this week let the contract for clearing and grading the line of their road, from its junction with the Seattle, Lake Shore and Eastern Railway, to Snohomish City. This road is destined to connect with the Canadian Pacific Railroad at Fort Hope."

"The would-be-settler would find it greatly to his interest to look over this section of the country, before making up his mind upon a location. Certainly there is no section in our Territory offering greater inducements to the newcomer, than that embraced in Snohomish County, and there is no town on the Sound which has a brighter future than Marysville. People who go into the place now, when land is cheap, and the opening for new industries varied, can but be laying the foundations of ventures that must eventually prove successful."

"The agricultural land about is rich, and produces beautiful crops; farmers in that section are bound to prosper, and this insures the development in Marysville, of a certain and substantial trade. Now is the time to get a foothold in the town while it is in its infancy. Property acquired today, is certain to appreciate and those fortunate enough to obtain now an interest in a locality with such a fair future are des tined, later on, to congratulate themselves upon the wisdom of their selection."

Marysville in the 20th Century

In 1891 a newspaper named the Marysville Globe was established by Thomas P. Hopp and it continues to be published for the city. By the turn of the 20th century, the city's population had grown to 728, and social organizations began to establish themselves in Marysville, including a lodge of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows and a Crystal Lodge of the Free and Accepted Masons. The first city hall was opened in late 1901, at a cost of $2,000, the building also housed the city's fire department, and later the first public library in 1907. Electrical and water supply systems were both inaugurated in 1906, alongside the construction of a high school building.

The timber industry in Marysville peaked in 1910, at which point the city's population reached 1,239, with 10 sawmills producing lumber on the shores of Ebey Slough. Agriculture began to grow in Marysville, with its fertile land suited for the growing of strawberries in particular. In 1915 the city had a population of 1,500. By 1920, the city had more than 2,000 acres of strawberry fields, leading to the coining of the city's nickname of "Strawberry City" and the establishment of the annual Strawberry Festival in 1932.

The city remained relatively unchanged through the Great Depression, with the diversity of industries helped Marysville avoid the worst of economic hardship experienced by other nearby communities. During World War II, an ammunition depot was built on the Tulalip Reservation near present-day Quil-Ceda, later being re-used as a Boeing test site after the aerospace company expanded to Everett.