Our early 2025 Hannan House window display features the two earliest homesteaders in Bothell, George Wilson and Columbus Greenleaf. The Federal Government’s 1862 Homestead Act allowed settlers to claim up to 160 acres of land. In 1870, George Wilson was the first to take advantage of this law in what later became Bothell. (The Native population of the area had been forcibly removed more than a decade earlier by the 1855 Treaty of Point Elliott.)

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George Wilson began life in England as George Chislett. Deserting from the British Royal Navy when his ship docked in San Francisco, he changed his name to Wilson and made his way to the Pacific Northwest. He settled on 160 acres in the Bothell area but neglected to file his homestead claim. While he was away, Columbus Greenleaf arrived and settled on the same 160 acres, making it his by filing. When Wilson returned, he chose not to contest the claim, but homesteaded another 160 acres to the north, near where the University of Washington-Bothell is now. The picture on the right shows Wilson’s donation to the town’s Methodist Church, an organ now in the Museum, as well as a mantle clock from the Wilson home.

Born in Maine in 1827, Columbus Greenleaf migrated west and in July, 1870, paddled a canoe up the Sammamish River from Lake Washington. Pulling ashore on a level spot, he built a shelter on land that Wilson had left temporarily a few months earlier. By the time Wilson returned, Greenleaf “had planted a small garden, set out a few orchard seedlings, and moved in chickens and a cow.” (Words quoted from Squak Slough, 1870-1920, by Amy Stickney and Lucile McDonald.) Wilson moved a bit north, and the two men had neighboring farms in the area that came to be known to Bothellites as “Stringtown.” Both Wilson and Greenleaf were farmers and active as community members. Both were charter members of the Bothell Masonic Lodge, and church members, Greenleaf a Lutheran and Wilson a Methodist. And in their final years, both boarded with the E.J. Ross family.

	George Wilson, above left;   Columbus Greenleaf, above right.   Handdrawn map shows Wilson’s land   in green, and Greenleaf’s land in   orange.

A Bonus — Hannan Family memorabilia on display:

This beautiful corner shelf and the items on it were recently donated to the Museum by Bill and Emily Carlyon, who inherited them from Gladys Hannan Worley, daughter of William and Mima Hannan. The Museum’s main building had been the Hannans’ residence, and we are delighted to add such a lovely piece to what may have been its former home. The women in the picture have not been identified; it’s possible they are Mima and Gladys, or Mima and her own mother. Though this furniture is not directly connected to our window display, it’s worth noting that William Hannan did employ George Wilson as a clerk in Hannan’s Mercantile Store.