Second Frontier Movement

By Kay F. Reinartz

In order to understand Ballard's development as a community it is valuable to understand the community within its historical context. In the period following statehood, 1889, Washington experienced its own version of the great American westward movement.

In three decades the number of people living in the state increased at an astonishing rate. In 1900 state residents numbered 518,013. In 1910 there were found to be 1,141,990 residents. The rate of increase for Washington's population was 120 percent between 1900 and 1910, six times the national rate for this period. Bt 1910 Seattle's population had grown to 237,194, an impressive figure when one considers that the population of the entire state had been a mere 367,232 only 20 years earlier.

For the Puget Sound region this was a time of amazing economic, social and political transformation. Tens of thousands of immigrants poured into the state - the last American frontier other than Alaska. Ballard population growth statistics reflect this movement with the local newspapers claiming that the population was doubling every four years by the late 1890s. Without any indication of how these population figures were arrived at, it is impossible to establish if this was true. However, there is much evidence that the community was indeed experiencing substantial growth.

Washington historian and regionalist Lancaster Pollard has identified some unique features of this westward movement in Puget Sound. He concludes that at the end of the century Washington passed through a "second frontier." Significantly, the region that experienced the heaviest population growth was the immediate Puget Sound area, where in many communities the flood of newcomers submerged the previously established culture. In fact, in Washington the ratio of newcomers, domestic and foreign-born, to the total population was greater by 1910 than for any state in the Union.

Pollard notes that the large portion of foreign-born immigrants, especially Scandinavians, was a significant aspect of this demographic phenomenon. National population numbers shows that no other region in the U.S. received more Scandinavians in proportion to the resident population than Washington. As late as 1950, it still ranked third nationally in terms of greatest density of population of Scandinavian origin.

The 1910 Census

Analysis of the Ballard population through data contained in the 1910 U.S. Census shows that the Ballard community very much fits the state model Pollard identified in his regional research. The 1910 U.S. Census provides a detailed and accurate picture of the Ballard population. The following discussion is based on a hand tabulation of census tracts for Ballard identified by street addresses.

Throughout American history frontier areas have always been typically populated by a preponderance of young single males. It seems that unattached adventurous men are attracted by the excitement and novelty of an unsettled area, and they have the energy and optimism to work in what are often very crude circumstances. The 1910 Census shows that at that date, Ballard's population, as in 1890, was still "top heavy" with single adult males. Adults (defined as eighteen and over) made up sixty-eight percent of the population; only eleven percent of the people were over fifty years old. Approximately half of the adults were married (54 percent) and, as it had been since pioneer days, Ballard continued to be a paradise for single women with there being seven single men for every three unmarried women.

The 1910 U.S. Census contains precise information on the national origins of Ballard's residents. Fifty-six percent of the adults were Americans - Yankees - as the foreign-born immigrants liked to call them. American born, yes, from Washington State or even the West Coast, no. Only 224 adults gave Washington as their state of birth. In fact, one out of every two of the Americans moving west to Ballard came from one of five states: Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Illinois and Iowa.

In 1910 nearly half of the people living in Ballard were foreign born. Walking down Ballard Avenue, one was as likely to hear a thick foreign accent as a Midwestern twang. Nine out of ten of these immigrants came from seven countries: Norway, (30 percent); Sweden, (22 percent); Canada, 14 percent; Germany (7 percent); Finland, (6 percent); England, (5 percent); and Denmark (3 percent). In a future edition of "Notes from Old Ballard" I will explore the question of "just how Scandinavian is, or was, Ballard in the Old Days."

Kay F. Reinartz may be reached via bnteditor@robinsonnews.com