An Illustrated History of the State of Washington, by Rev. H.K. Hines, D.D., The Lewis Publishing Co., Chicago, IL. 1893 M.W. WILLIS, pioneer of 1850 to the Pacific coast, was born in Bridgewater, Vermont, June 4, 1828. The progenitor of the name in America came from England and landed in Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620. He was a conjuror of great skill and reputation. The parents of our subject, James and Nancy (Morey) Willis, of Scotch-Irish descent, were born in Vermont, where James Willis followed farming and in later life was a prominent stone mason, engaged quite extensively in railroad work in the building of stone culverts and bridges. Educational facilities in those early days were exceedingly limited and M.W. Willis began his studies in the little, old, log schoolhouse, attending the short winter terms and spending his summers in labor upon the farm. Subsequently he attended a higher school at Woodstock, Vermont, and at the age of sixteen years was apprenticed to Marshman D. Lull of Woodstock to learn the trade of gunsmith. This line of work he followed up to 1849, then, learning of the gold excitement in California, he declined a generous offer and started for that El Dorado of the West. He sailed from Boston November 22, 1849, on the ship Reindeer, which was among the first five-yard clipper ships. Loaded with a general cargo and 212 passengers, the voyage was rapidly and successfully completed, and they landed in San Francisco on April 2, 1850. Young Willis was one of the Vermont mining company of sixteen, who had a complete outfit of mining tools, and they proceeded at once to Sutter's creek, where there was gold in great abundance. Being unfamiliar with the work and not knowing how to save the gold in their zeal to work rapidly, the gold was largely washed away, and, not being able to make more than $30 per day where they expected hundreds, the mine was soon condemned and they went to the Stanislaus river at the foot of Mormon Gulch, spent three months in attempting to turn the course of the river, and made a complete failure of the enterprise. They then went back into the gulch and were meeting with fine success when one Dr. Woodward appeared on the scene, gave startling news of the richness of mines at Gold lake, where it was only necessary to shovel up the gold into sacks. They listened to his story with credulity and all started for the richer diggings. After following him forty days through a wild, unbroken country they arrived in Walker's valley, there held an indignation meeting and drove the doctor out of the camp at the point of the bayonet. The party remained to recruit, then crossed a ridge into Carson's valley and by the emigrant trail returned to Hangtown, where the company disbanded and our subject left the mines and went to Stockton, where he purchased a horse and dray and followed trucking, his income averaging about $30 per day. The city was wild with gambling and lawless depredations, and in January, 1851, he started with horse and dray and drove to San Francisco, the journey taking seven days. On arrival he bought another team, express wagon and water cart, then sold water about the city and conducted a general draying business for about one year, making money rapidly. During the winter of 1851-'52, as eggs were selling at $4 per dozen, he started a chicken ranch, paying $ per dozen for his fowls, increasing his flock to about 800, when disease settled amongst the fowls and carried away all but 150, which he sold at a great sacrifice. This misfortune about "broke him up" financially. As music was in demand and as he had given some attention to violin-playing in the East, he then resorted to the violin as a means of support, playing at dances and fandangos, receiving $4 per hour and often making six to eight ounces of gold per day. He rapidly gained notoriety and gradually secured assistants, creating a band known as Willis' Brass Band which became famous and gained for him the sobriquet of the "Gilmore of the Pacific Coast," his services being in great demand at the swell entertainments of the "Bonanza Kings." This occupation he continued up to 1878, when he retired from the business and came to Olympia, Washington, and then engaged in the oyster business, shipping to San Francisco. This was continued for two years, when the oysters gave out. He had handled 15,000 sacks. In 1881 he engaged in the hotel business at Olympia as proprietor of the Pacific Hotel, which had been known as "Aunt Becca's Hotel." To provide eggs, milk and vegetables for his table, he purchased near town a farm, which he stocked and managed, hut with the depression of 1885 he again "broke up." He then removed to Victoria and opened a fine restaurant, but being a foreigner could not work up a trade, so sold out and went to Portland and opened a hotel and there contracted disease, and was obliged to seek rest and recuperation in the drier climate of San Francisco. Learning of the possible "boom" in Seattle over the construction of the Seattle, Lake Shore & Eastern Railroad, he came to this city, arriving in July, 1887; and after waiting five months for a house to be finished he again started a hotel in a twenty-one-room house on the corner of Front and Seneca streets. The demand was such that in a few mouths he opened a second and made money rapidly, and after one year sold out and rented "Squires' Pacific" of seventy-two rooms on Second and Maine streets, which he named Willis Hotel. Here he built up a large patronage, continuing to the fire of June, 1889, when he was burned out, not possessing even a place to sleep. As soon as order was evolved from the existing chaos he returned to hotel life, and with the completion of the present building in 1890, he leased the property and opened the Occidental Hotel, which he has continued to conduct with marked success, this being the sixth hotel he has furnished in his six years' residence in Seattle. He was married in Portland, Oregon, in 1885, to Miss Ruth L. Wilson, a widow with one son. Mr. Willis is a member of the Territorial Pioneers of California, and of the Washington Pioneer Society. He was a charter member of the Musicians' Mutual Protective Union of San Francisco and took great interest in that organization. In politics he is Republican and takes an active interest in the success of that party. He was elected Councilman of Seattle in the spring of 1890, and is thoroughly enlisted on the side of progression and in advancing the interests of his adopted city. Submitted to the WA. Bios Project in January 2004 by Jeffrey L. Elmer * * * * Notice: These biographies were transcribed for the Washington Biographies Project. Unless otherwise stated, no further information is available on the individual featured in the biographies.