 A
residential lumber town at the forks of the Willapa River on Highway 101. Captain John Vail took a Donation Land Claim
on the Willapa River in (Riverdale section of Raymond) in February 1853, after
his ship, the Willimantic, wrecked off Grays Harbor. The
homestead was known as the “Home and Orchard of the Vail Family” for many years
after his death in 1856. In 1865, Dr. Edward T. Balch retired English army
surgeon, established his home on the South Fork of the Willapa River. Captain
George Johnson bought
the claim of the Perkins Brothers in 1875. Most of the Johnson property was
http://www.pacificcohistory.org/sw2002_1.htm
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muddy tideland but the high ground came to be known as "Johnson’s Island” while
the family lived there.
In 1892-93, the Northern Pacific Railroad laid tracks over the mudflats below
the island on the way to the terminus at South Bend. Stella (Johnson) Raymond
moved back to her father’s property on the island (where she was born in 1875)
with her husband Leslie V. Raymond in 1889. In 1902-03, Alexander C. Little
(former mayor of Aberdeen 1893) rowed a boat to the tide flats at the
forks of the Willapa and decided to promote a town there. He
immediately set to work attracting Jacob Siler and W.S. Cram to the site
to build a sawmill, and approached L.V. Raymond about selling portions of
his father-in-laws old homestead. L.V. Raymond, who was already
selling land, like Little's enthusiasm and formed a company called the
Raymond Land and Improvement Company (November 1903) to survey a town
site, sell property, build sawmills and encourage the location of other
industries in the town. The post office department established an
office February 23, 1904, and named the office "Raymond" in honor of the
first post master, L.V. Raymond. Later in the year, the Improvement
company filed a survey for the town of Raymond (October 1904). An
election on August 4, 1907, approved incorporation of the town and A.C.
Little was elected mayor. In the early years, Raymond's business
section and part of the residential section, was built on stilts five or
six feet above the tidelands and sloughs which crisscrossed the site.
Elevated sidewalks and streets connected most the buildings. Twice a day
the tides washed away refuse under and around the town. In 1913,
Raymond claimed a population of 6,000 and had a reputation as a wild and
wooly lumber mill town. City fathers resisted the unwanted
recognition with promotions of Raymond as "The Empire City of Willapa
Harbor", "The City That Does Things" and the "City of Smokestacks".
Raymond's most active years were from 1912 to 1932, when twenty mills and
factories lined the waterfront. Today, a single high technology
sawmill dominates the Raymond waterfront and the city built on stilts is
surrounded by a dike.