Submitted by the Redmond Historical Society

It is no secret that Redmond is experiencing tremendous growth and change. With transformation, it is easy to forget that “every town has a history” and none more so than Redmond, whose namesake arrived in the area well over 100 years ago at the mature age of 51 — an Irishman who’d already been a politician, sheriff, sea captain and lumber-mill manager while living in Tennessee and California.

Presented by incoming Redmond Historical Society President Joe Townsend, “Redmond History 101: The First Fifty Years” will kick off the society’s Saturday Speaker Series for 2015.  The program will be held from 10:30 a.m. to noon on Jan. 10 at the Old Redmond Schoolhouse Community Center, 16600 N.E. 80th St.

“Redmond’s settlement began in the 1870s when Luke McRedmond and Warren Perrigo filed homestead applications. Who are these men and their families?” Townsend asks in raising some of the themes he’ll cover. “How did they get started? Where did they locate? How did the city gain its name? What were the first industries?”

What early residents shared was a determination to prosper, a pioneering spirit.

“The area was rich with trees and fertile land,” Townsend says, “and the evolving uses of these resources brought social and economic change: primarily subsistence farming to industrial logging, as the railroad arrived; logging to commercial farming as the timber played out; commercial farming to chicken and mink farming as transportation brought competing growing areas into the market.”

Redmond’s designation as a town in 1912 led to other growing pains.

“After incorporation, the challenges were political,” Townsend notes. “Mayor Bill Brown’s machine keeping him in office too long; resistance to annexation of today’s Education Hill area, and cronyism resulting in the resignation of progressive Mayor Lewis Green.”

The Saturday Speaker Series is a monthly program presented by the Redmond Historical Society on every second Saturday (with the exception of June, July, August and December).  Topics range from local, state and Pacific Northwest historical interest. There is a suggested $5 donation for non-members.

The Redmond Historical Society is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that receives support from the City of Redmond, 4 Culture, Nintendo of America, the Bellevue Collection and Nelson Legacy Group as well as from its many donors and members.