Frontier Seattle, at this point an unincorporated…

Frontier Seattle, at this point an unincorporated village experiencing its first boom, has attracted hordes of men to work in the timber and fishing industries, but very few single women are willing to relocate by themselves to the remote Pacific Northwest.

Only one adult out of ten is a woman, and most girls over fifteen are already engaged.

White men and women of the Salish tribes do not always feel mutually attracted.

Even prostitutes had been scarce, until the arrival of John Pennell and his brothel from San Francisco.

A young Asa Shinn Mercer, as a member of one of the founding families of Seattle, Washington, a had assisted his brothers in clearing stumps to make way for the new territorial university in 1861.

Once the building had been completed, Mercer, the only college graduate in town, had been hired as the university's sole instructor and president.