Quiet Leonard Howarth was a
Giant in Tacoma's Finances
 He
was a wistfully shy little fellow with an oversized mustache, a
slight limp from a childhood bout with infantile paralysis and an
accent betraying English birth -- no advantage in a frontier
community. He had been in town less than three years. But a
century ago at the depth of the depression that followed the Panic
of '93, he held much of Tacoma's financial future in his slender
hands.
His
name was Leonard Howarth, a name mentioned around here today
mostly because he donated the money for one of the original
buildings on the present University of Puget Sound campus, Howarth
Hall.
Born
in England in 1866, Leonard was an apprentice in a print shop
before coming to America with his brother around 1885. The Howarth
brothers picked Wisconsin as their land of opportunity, and
Leonard caught on as a clerk for Hewitt, Son and Co., a private
bank in Menasha. His attention to detail, his memory and his
shrewd grasp of financial possibility soon caught the eye of Henry
Hewitt Jr., the son in the company's title.
Like
Leonard, Henry Hewitt Jr. was English born, although he was only a
month old when his family left their Yorkshire farm for America.
Like Leonard, Hewitt had a bad leg, having been severely wounded
when he tripped the wire on a spring-gun while timber cruising
north of Green Bay. Unlike Leonard, he was anything but
unassertive. He was said to have acquired more pine forest land
than anyone in the world except the czar of Russia. Young Henry
made Leonard his private secretary.
In
1888 Hewitt joined his brother-in-law, Charles Hebard Jones, and
partners Chauncey Griggs and Addison Foster of St. Paul to form
the St. Paul and Tacoma Lumber Co. They bought 80,000 acres of
prime timberland in Pierce County from the vast holdings the
Northern Pacific Co. received from the public domain as a reward
for building the transcontinental railroad. St. Paul and Tacoma
set out to build the "world's largest sawmill" on the
Tacoma tideflats.
Leonard
followed his boss to Tacoma in 1891. On arrival he wrote to his
brother, William, from the Tacoma Hotel, marveling at the forested
hills stretching back to the mountains -- and at the opportunities
offered by the booming town.
The
partners in St. Paul & Tacoma were investing all around Puget
Sound. The company itself bought half-interest in the Wilkeson
Coal and Coke Co. Griggs was a major backer of the Tacoma Smelting
and Refining Co., which took over Dennis Ryan's under-financed
smelter. Griggs also joined the group that bought a floating dry
dock at Port Townsend and brought it to Quartermaster Harbor on
Vashon Island.
All
the partners bought stock in Traders' Bank, which had been
organized by Henry A. Strong shortly before he returned to his
native Rochester, N.Y., to run his new company, Eastman Kodak.
Traders prospered and in October of 1892 reported deposits of
$950,000. Then came the crash.
On
June 1, Merchants National Bank closed its doors, the first of 17
Tacoma banks to disappear during the depression. That month, for
the first time ever, St. Paul & Tacoma received no new orders
for lumber. Traders' suffered no concentrated run on its deposits
but withdrawals were steady. By July 20 deposits totaled only
$170,000 -- 18 per cent of what they had been eight months
earlier. Traders' closed its doors. Addison Foster was appointed
receiver.
Hewitt,
Griggs, Strong and other directors personally pledged that every
depositor and creditor would be repaid every penny. By pledging
securities valued at $200,000, they were able to borrow $50,000.
In January, betting that the depression would ease, they reopened
the bank. Times got worse. Again Traders went into receivership.
This time the judge appointed 28-year-old Leonard Howarth as
receiver. He also became receiver for the Puget Sound Dry Dock Co.
and the Pacific Meat Co.
Writing
to a banker friend back east, St. Paul & Tacoma's president
Griggs pointed up the seriousness of the situation, not just for
the bank but for the region: "So long as the moneyed men of
our country have not full confidence that the public and the
business community intend to pay one hundred cents on the dollar,
there is no doubt in my mind that we will be unable to obtain
eastern funds in our western country for investment."
Working
with characteristic quietness with Griggs and the other St. Paul &
Tacoma investors, Howarth was able to see that all debts were
honored. Traders' did not reopen, Hewitt having decided "There
is no use running a business for the mere purpose of making ends
meet." But all depositors and creditors got their money. The
Pacific Meat Co. became Carsten Brothers. The dry dock at
Quartermaster Harbor returned to profitable operation, then was
sold to Manson Brothers and towed to Seattle.
With
the termination of his receiverships, Howarth went quietly back to
making money for himself. He became a vice president of the St.
Paul & Tacoma Lumber Co. and vice president, as well as
largest stockholder, in the Wilkeson Coal and Coke Co. With his
brother, William, he owned the Everett Pulp and Paper Co.
In
1927, for better or worse, he played a key role in St. Paul &
Tacoma's decision to sell Union Bag and Paper of New York the land
on the tideflats for a pulp mill. He did not live to smell it.
Howarth
died on May 12, 1930. He had never married and left most of his
$10,000,000 estate to nieces and nephews. There was, however, a
bequest of $150,000 for the City of Tacoma "to be used as
city officers see fit." It would be interesting to learn what
it was used for.
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