Jacob Nist , a farmer and grocer from Philadelphia , migrated to Seattle with his wife and seven children by 1880 , and initially took up farming . He and his sons soon found work in the lumber mills . Nist worked for three years as a turner at the Stetson-Post Mill Company in Seattle , and his sons found employment as carpenters and mill engineers . By 1888 , Nist and his sons Michael , Jacob J. , George , and Aloys were all working at the Seattle Lumber and Commercial Company , which was operating 20 hours per day , and had added a new box factory . That mill was destroyed on June 6 , 1889 , in the Great Seattle Fire , along with every other mill and wharf between Union and Jackson streets , as well as most of downtown Seattle
Great Seattle Fire
Great Seattle Fire
Seattle-Tacoma Box Company