Philip Woolley (February 17, 1831 – June 12, 1912) was a

Canadian American Canadian Americans () are American citizens or in some uses residents whose ancestry is wholly or partly Canadian, or citizens of either country who hold dual citizenship. Today, many Canadian Americans hold both US and Canadian citizenship. Th ...

businessman for whom the city of

Sedro-Woolley Sedro-Woolley ( ) is a city in Skagit County, Washington, United States. It is part of the Mount Vernon–Anacortes, Washington Metropolitan Statistical Area and had a population of 12,421 at the 2020 census. The city is home to the admini ...

Washington Washington most commonly refers to: * George Washington (1732–1799), the first president of the United States * Washington (state), a state in the Pacific Northwest of the United States * Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States ** A ...

, is partly named.

Early life and education

Philip Woolley was born in

Malone, New York Malone is a town in Franklin County, New York, United States. The population was 12,433 at the 2020 census. The town contains a village also named Malone. The town is an interior town located in the north-central part of the county. History ...

, to an American father and Canadian mother.

Career

Woolley moved to

Russell, Ontario The Township of Russell is a municipal township, located south-east of Canada's capital of Ottawa in eastern Ontario, in the United Counties of Prescott and Russell, on the Castor River. The township had a population of 19,598 in the 2021 Can ...

in the 1850s, where he worked as a

lumberjack Lumberjack is a mostly North American term for workers in the logging industry who perform the initial harvesting and transport of trees. The term usually refers to loggers in the era before 1945 in the United States, when trees were felled us ...

and opened a

general store A general merchant store (also known as general merchandise store, general dealer, village shop, or country store) is a rural or small-town store that carries a general line of merchandise. It carries a broad selection of merchandise, someti ...

. In 1867 he relocated his family to

Michigan Michigan ( ) is a peninsular U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, Upper Midwestern United States. It shares water and land boundaries with Minnesota to the northwest, Wisconsin to the west, ...

and, later, to

Elgin, Illinois Elgin ( ) is a city in Cook County, Illinois, Cook and Kane County, Illinois, Kane counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is located northwest of Chicago along the Fox River (Illinois River tributary), Fox River. As of the 2020 United Stat ...

. Building on his experience as a lumberjack and salesman in Ontario, Woolley began selling timber for railroad crossties to the Chicago & Alton Railway. In 1889 Woolley again moved, this time to

Washington state Washington, officially the State of Washington, is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the United States. It is often referred to as Washington State to distinguish it from the national capital, both named after George Washington ...

, in hope of growing his railway contracting business by taking advantage of the expanding

Northern Pacific Railroad The Northern Pacific Railway was an important American transcontinental railroad that operated across the northern tier of the Western United States, from Minnesota to the Pacific Northwest between 1864 and 1970. It was approved and chartered b ...

, which had just established a terminus in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

. Woolley settled in Sedro, Washington, in

Skagit County Skagit County is a county in the U.S. state of Washington. As of the 2020 census, the population was 129,523. The county seat and largest city is Mount Vernon. The county was formed in 1883 from Whatcom County and is named for the Upper and ...

, purchasing 84 acres of land just outside the town limits at a location where he felt the expanding rail lines would cross. Meanwhile, with his sons, he began constructing the Skagit River Lumber & Shingle Mill on his newly acquired property, growing his acreage into a company town named Woolley. A fire in neighboring Sedro prompted many businesses to relocate to Woolley and, in 1898, the two towns were merged as Sedro-Woolley. Woolley continued to enjoy business success in later life, supplying material to the

Seaboard Air Line Railroad The Seaboard Air Line Railroad , known colloquially as the Seaboard Railroad during its time, was an American railroad that existed from April 14, 1900, until July 1, 1967, when it merged with the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad, its longtime ri ...

and taking up part-time residence in

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the South Caucasus * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the southeastern United States Georgia may also refer to: People and fictional characters * Georgia (name), a list of pe ...

to service his new client.

Personal life

Woolley married Catherine Loucks of Ottawa on January 23, 1857. They had at least five children. Woolley died at his home on Woodworth Street in Sedro-Woolley in 1912.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Woolley, Philip 1831 births 1912 deaths American people of Canadian descent People from Malone, New York People from Sedro-Woolley, Washington 19th-century American businesspeople