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T.G. Heuser Compnay - Expert historical inquiry
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T.G. Heuser Co. Encyclopedia
John Quinlan - Mechanic
By Tom Heuser, August 6, 2016
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ohn Quinlan was born in Port Townsend, Washington on December 1, 1893 or 94. He was orphaned early on and adopted by his step-father Jeremiah Quinlan (pictured below), but it isn't clear exactly when or where. One source suggests Jeremiah, or Jerry as most called him, may have adopted John in Skagway, where Jerry had been living since about 1898 and had been the White Pass and Yukon Railroad's conductor ever since it was built that year. So perhaps it was a scenario similar to the one depicted in the film There Will Be Blood in which the main character Daniel Plainview adopts the boy of a man who died while prospecting for oil (pictured below). Perhaps John's father similarly died while prospecting for Gold. Heck, Jerry and Daniel even look a little bit alike, it must be true! Comparisons aside, it appears that once John was old enough he helped his step-father at work while attending school in Skagway.
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John Quinlan
Above: There Will Be Blood (Paramount/Miramax Films 2007).
Left: Jerry Quinlan, undated (Skagwaystories.org).
Once John was about 17 or 18 though, he struck his own path. First he landed in Caribou Crossing, Yukon Territory Canada by 1911 and then joined the Washington Naval Reserves by 1912 and served two years. After about 1914, his step-father's health started to decline and he retired. He died on April 15, 1917 at the age of 56 after being confined to bed at his sister's home for six months. It is unknown whether John remained in any way connected to his step-father during his final years. John's where-
(Un)settling In Seattle
Before the war's end, John met Helen V. Boyd (1893-1993) a music teacher who lived with her family on Seattle's Capitol Hill and the two got married on September 24, 1919. With plans to raise a family, they purchased a house at 7055 Dibble Avenue NW and John started his own grocery business of all things (likely with the support of Helen's parents).
abouts after his military service are unknown until August 1917 at which point he was living in Hillyard, WA (now a neighborhood of Spokane) and working as an electrician for the Northern Pacific Railway at Nelson, British Columbia, approximately 145 miles due north of his residence. Available records suggest that the United States Navy called John back to service during World War I just a couple months later. This is likely how he ultimately landed in Seattle.
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Unfortunately, the plan quickly derailed from there. Helen caught a bad case of the flu in February 1920 (the Spanish Flu pandemic was technically still on-going) while she was about three months pregnant. The couple stayed with Helen's parents while she recovered and during this time, had a breakdown. Allegedly it culminated in John declaring he did not care whether she recovered, violently storming out of the home, and disappearing for three weeks.
After his return, they went on to struggle and suffer through a rocky marriage while John failed to keep consistent work. It seems around the time of their first breakdown that John's grocery business failed or perhaps never got off the ground, because by the time the 1920 Polk Directory was published, he was working as an electrician. Then by mid-1921, he found another job repairing furniture only to end up filing a seaman's application in August 1921 on which he claimed he'd been working as a seaman since 1912! Unsurprisingly, that didn't work out either, but around the same time he finally found something that suited him rather meaningfully. He developed a knack for rescuing failing automobile service businesses starting with Nagle Place Garage, an automobile service and storage business at 1626 Nagle Place (eventually relocated to 1831 Nagle) followed by the Utility Service Company in May 1923. In a way, you could say these businesses had been abandoned just like he perhaps had been as a boy and he adopted them just like his parents had adopted him. By his own account, he, much like his step-father no doubt, doggedly worked on the average of 18 hours per day for several months to get the the first business on a small paying basis and then used the profits to acquire the next, but it was too late, the damage was done.
On July 17, 1923 Helen, by then living with her parents again and working as a telephone operator, had had enough and filed for a divorce and restraining order. During the proceedings, she reported that not only had John failed to support her and their young daughter Florence, but that he had grown increasingly abusive toward them, both verbally and physically. He allegedly referred to Helen as a "yellow dog," told her to "go to hell" or "go jump in the reservoir." (now Cal Anderson Park). The final straw had occurred just the day before, when he showed up at her parents house demanding to see her and their daughter and threatening to shoot anyone who interfered. The police eventually induced him to leave peacefully, but not before he wrecked the place, and he declared he'd never return. Of course, John denied ever threatening to shoot or kill anyone.
Ultimately, the court ordered John be restrained from visiting Helen for a time and pay her $80/month alimony. He also couldn't visit his daughter more than one day per week. John, down, but not out, moved into an apartment a block away at 1020 East Denny Way and with the unexpected free time, threw himself into his work.
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John Quinlan
A Second Chance
Over the following year, John cleaned up his act--or so it appeared. So Helen gave him a second chance in 1924 and allowed him to resume living with her at her parent's house at 124 11th Ave E. They also incorporated the Utility Towing and Wrecking service together in February that year and conceived their second child Daniel a few months later. So clearly John must have made an incredible impression on her. Unfortunately just like the early days of their marriage, this impression proved short lived. For starters, Daniel tragically died of polio at the age of 6 months on November 5, 1925. This event along with a pending lawsuit of $4,000 (worth over $55,000 today) against Utility Towing likely put a lot of stress on John and Helen's reconciliation considering how poorly John managed his own emotions. So it would only be a matter of time before their relationship would break down again, but first there was business to attend to.
Traffic Jam
That summer, it seems Seattle hit a critical mass of automobiles. Double parking, parking in no parking zones, and parking over the time limit had become an epidemic in Seattle. Part of the problem was the ineffective efforts to curb these activities with ticketing, which drivers routinely ignored. This prompted the city to start calling on towing companies like Utility Towing to remove and impound violators' vehicles until they paid. Meaning, anyone with a tow truck and garage could suddenly reap considerable profits. So within a few days, nearly a hundred cars were towed away, (many by Utility Towing Service no doubt), often just minutes after their drivers stepped out of them. Such that tow trucks had to have been camping out in high traffic areas watching and waiting like vultures. The tow truck drivers probably even competed fiercely with one another over turf. And who could blame them? Well, the drivers, that's who. They descended upon police headquarters in a deluge of ire forcing Police Chief Severyns to put a moratorium on the practice. It isn't currently clear when exactly the process resumed hereafter.
Moving On Up
However, John Quinlan and other tow company operators must have known that it was only temporary because they all seem to have expanded their operations during this time. Or maybe it was just because the 1920s in general were a time of plenty. Whatever the reason, a mechanic named Martin Cordes from across the street gained full ownership of 1830 Broadway in 1926, including its basement unit, 1831 Nagle Place, where Utility Towing was. For a number of years, Martin had
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wanted the whole building to himself and seeing that the Quinlans wanted out of the basement, he set them up in his old 1827 Broadway space. Both parties couldn't have been more satisfied.
With all the extra space, John decided to file additional articles of incorporation alongside the ones he had filed with Helen. It seems he wanted to be more official. He declared himself president and hired an accountant up the street to be his secretary and treasurer, and invited a mechanic buddy of his from Spokane named Harold Lilliequist to be his manager. The pressure was on though, because just days before filing the papers in Olympia, that pending lawsuit was increased from $4000 to a whopping $15,000 (worth over $200,000 today!). Clearly he was not about to let anything get in the way of the life he and Helen had worked so hard to rebuild. Fate had taken their son, but it would take no more. So John doubled down and fate gave them another chance instead. On December 6, 1926, just 5 days after John's 32nd birthday, the plaintiff dropped the charges. By all appearances, the rest of the 1920s were clear sailing.
Black Tuesday
Unfortunately, this good luck only got them so far. It isn't entirely clear how and where things exactly went wrong, but by July of 1930, Utility Towing was out of business. Perhaps they overextended themselves only to fall with the market in 1929 when business would have slumped. Or maybe it was because John had taken to drinking heavily and fell into his old abusive habits. Or maybe it was a combination of the two. However it came to be, they were deeply in debt. On March 3, 1930 they had mortgaged their towing equipment to Helen's father to secure a $1300 loan from him (worth $18,000 today). When it seemed they weren't going to be able to repay the loan, Helen's father foreclosed on the mortgage and towed the business away along with it.
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John Quinlan
Depression
For all those times John called Helen a "yellow dog" he seemed to do a good job of living up to that name himself. Down and out now, Helen sent him out to the dog house: an apartment at 1815 Broadway. To escape his woes, he drowned himself in a reservoir of liquor--in a manner of speaking--only to find himself escaping from the law. John denied the accusation, but according to the arresting police officer, John drunkenly crashed into a parked car at the corner of Olive and Denny Ways. John and the officer got into scuffle both accusing the other of starting it. John broke free and fled from the scene towards his apartment. The officer
chased John inside until John locked himself in the bedroom, jumped out the window, slid off the steep roof, and fell to the ground landing himself in the hospital. And as if it couldn't get any worse, his wife Helen took him to court again on January 12, 1932 seeking a restraining order and alimony--he'd apparently grown violent towards her again. Parts of the case are missing, but assuming she won it, it like the first time, was a wake up call for John.
Yet Another Chance!
Over the next few years, John cleaned himself up again and regrouped, proving that he could be as much of a smooth talker as he was a trash talker. In 1935 he moved back in with Helen, her parents, and their daughter Mary and reopened Utility Towing at 1827 Broadway under the auspices of their benevolent patrons the House of Cordes. However the towing business in general had changed a great deal in his absence. First off, his competitors (including Cordes Garage now) were way ahead of him. They had not only managed to weather the market crash in '29, but in most cases, had expanded their operations through prudent management and effective advertising. The two ads shown here are from two super service stations that offered towing services. The question of towing and impounding had also become incredibly political. Debates in city government over whether it should exist and how had been going on for years. Concurrently, the larger towing firms had been cozying up to city officials in order to acquire city towing contracts. The whole thing turned into a racket.
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So John and Helen both wrote letters to the city council on June 3, 1935. John complained that A-1 Towing, who at the time had a contract with the city, towed a car that was in an accident and auctioned it off in a mere three days(!) before the owner could even make arrangements to remove it from their garage. In his letter, John wrote:
"Have we reached a point in City Government where business men holding city contract can brow-beat our citizens to the extent that property can be taken from them (stolen?) and no compensation made?"
For all of John's horrible qualities you had to hand it to him, at least he was an honest(?) businessman and he was right in this instance. As was Helen who recalled a time where the city called on their business to clear certain streets on April 6 or "Navy Day." After filing all the proper paper work they were unfairly denied the contract because apparently they didn't rub elbows with people who were close enough to the current city administration. In her letter Helen wrote:
"If toadying to any office seeking political clique is necessary to obtain city business and render service to our citizens, then it is about time this requirement be broadcast and made known to the people."
City council heeded their complaints and later that year, discussed a proposal to establish a central city garage and eliminate the profiting on towing and impounding by private companies and their buddies in city administration. The debate went on for years, but by 1939 its detractors defeated it. From that point forward the city awarded contracts to private towing companies as before which ultimately went to the duopoly held by Terry and Cordes Garage. So it would seem these two had the most friends in the city.
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John Quinlan
Coda
However, this was all a moot point for John and Helen who by 1937, had left the business for good. Perhaps the bigger towing companies, who had fought so hard for private city towing contacts, pushed these rabble-rousers out of the market. Besides, it's not like Utility Towing ever had a good track record anyway. Honestly, ask yourself, would you trust? A drunken lout like John Quinlan or an upstanding citizen like Walter Cordes? Whichever way you could spin it, John more or less fell into obscurity thereafter. One source suggest that he spent the rest of his time at sea, probably as a ship's engineer until his death aboard one in 1949. Helen returned to her long lost music career and remarried to a man named Arthur Stenvall in 1939.
Last updated: December 1, 2024.
To cite this article:
CMS Bibliography:
Heuser, Tom G. “John Quinlan - Mechanic.” In T.G. Heuser Company Encyclopedia of Pacific Northwest History. Seattle, WA: T.G. Heuser Company, August 6, 2016. https://www.tgheuser.co/john-quinlan.
CMS Footnote:
Tom G. Heuser, “John Quinlan - Mechanic,” in T.G. Heuser Company Encyclopedia of Pacific Northwest History, (Seattle, WA: T.G. Heuser Company, August 6, 2016). https://www.tgheuser.co/john-quinlan.
SAA Bibliography:
Heuser, Tom G. 2016. "John Quinlan - Mechanic." In T.G. Heuser Company Encyclopedia of Pacific Northwest History. Seattle, WA. 6 August. https://www.tgheuser.co/john-quinlan.
Note: This article was originally published on my blog under the title "1827 Broadway: Johnny 'Second Chance' Quinlan" on August 6, 2016 as a spin-off story to "1827 Broadway Part 2: A Story of Iron and Blood" originally published on Capitol Hill Seattle Blog on August 7, 2016.