Place:Steilacoom, Pierce, Washington, United States

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Steilacoom is a town in Pierce County, Washington, United States. The population was 6,727 at the 2020 census. Steilacoom incorporated in 1854 and became the first incorporated town in what is now the state of Washington. It has also become a bedroom community for service members stationed at Joint Base Lewis–McChord.

Based on per capita income, Steilacoom ranks 61st of 522 areas ranked in the state of Washington.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

The Steilacoom people, a Coast Salish tribe, lived in what became the city of Steilacoom. Their main village was called Scht’ləqʷəm, later anglicized as Steilacoom. William Bright says the name comes from the Southern Coast Salish subgroup /č'tílqʷəbš/, anglicized as "Steilacoom".

European-American settlement at Steilacoom began with Lafayette Balch, a sea captain from Maine, and the town was officially incorporated in 1854. It is the oldest incorporated town in Washington. It has four individual buildings and sites listed on the National Register of Historic Places, including the oldest Catholic Church in the state, the first Protestant Church north of the Columbia River, as well as the Steilacoom Historic District, with 68 contributing properties.

Steilacoom's main source of early prosperity was the processing and export of lumber to San Francisco. When the United States Congress established the Washington Territory on March 2, 1853, Governor Isaac Stevens chose Steilacoom as the seat of Pierce County.

Steilacoom had the first jail in Washington and the first sawmill. The City of Lakewood has developed next to it, and the city is home to one of the two major state-run mental health facilities, Western State Hospital, on the site of what was once Fort Steilacoom.

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