Hunt, Herbert and Floyd C. Kaylor.  Washington: West of the 
Cascades.  Vol. III.  Chicago, S.J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1917.  
p. 432-434.

GAWLEY, CAPTAIN THOMAS R.: Throughout practically his entire 
life Captain Thomas R. Gawley has been connected with 
transportation interests by sea or land and is now president and 
manager of the Seattle & Alaska Transportation Company, which 
is doing most important work in connection with the development 
of Alaska in the equipment of a fleet of ships to make trips to 
the richest agricultural district of that country.  He was born in 
Detroit, Michigan, April 7, 1862, a son of Robert and Josephine 
Gawley, the latter a native of Philadelphia, while the former was 
born in the highlands of Scotland in 1833.  At an early age the 
father accompanied his parents on their emigration to Canada, 
where the family remained for a short time and then went to 
Independence, Missouri, where Robert Gawley was educated and 
learned the blacksmith's trade.  In the early '50s he became a 
resident of Leavenworth, Kansas, where he engaged in black-
smithing until 1860.  He then removed to Detroit, Michigan, where 
he became captain of a lake vessel.  In 1862 he arrived in 
Washington, traveling westward through Canada and settling at 
Port Townsend, where he resumed work at the blacksmith's trade.  
Soon aftwerward, however, he went to California on a sailing 
vessel and there engaged in blacksmithing and in mining for a few 
years.  Returning to Port Townsend, he again followed black-
smithing at that place until 1866, when he once more established 
his home in Detroit, Michigan, where he was captain and owner of 
vessels on the Great Lakes.  In 1874 he went to Arizona, where he 
engaged in prospecting and in blacksmithing.  He was afterward in 
New Mexico, where he remained until 1883, in which year he went 
to Windsor, Canada, to live with a daughter but died soon afterward, 
passing away the same year.
	Captain Thomas R. Gawley attended the public schools only until 
he reached the age of nine years and his life's lessons have since 
been learned in the school of experience.  At that very youthful age 
he became a sailor on his father's vessels and was thus employed 
until he attained his majority.  He then went to Lincoln, Nebraska, 
and accepted the position of locomotive fireman on the Chicago, 
Burlington & Quincy Railroad.  Eventually he became an engineer and 
was thus employed until he reached the age of twenty-six.  He 
afterward went to Deadwood, South Dakota, and spent two years as 
an engineer on the Northwestern Railroad.  For a time he lived at 
Rawlins, Wyoming, working as a locomotive fireman, after which he 
was advanced to the position of engineer and so continued until 1897.  
He then came to Bellingham, where he engaged with the Carlyle 
Packing Company as captain of the Juanita, a salmon fishing vessel, 
which he soon owned, operating it for various canneries.  In 1901 he 
sold the Juanita and bought the Marguerite, which he operated in the 
same capacity until 1905.  He next went to San Francisco and became 
connected with the Pacific Mail Steamship Company as an officer on 
their coastwise and orient vessels.  When two years had passed in 
that connection he became second mate on the Dauntless, an ocean 
tug owned by the Spreckles Steamship Company.  After three months, 
however, he made his way to Tacoma and purchased the Advance, 
which he operated as a tug on Puget Sound for a year.  After selling 
that craft he was captain on various Sound boats.  In 1910 Pullman 
College gave a demonstration trip on the Sound, covering all points 
that could not be reached by railroad - the only trip of the kind ever 
taken - and Captain Gawley was master of that boat for the entire 
journey.  In 1914 he organized the Seattle & Alaska Transportation 
Company, a half million dollar corporation, of which he is the president 
and general manager, having its headquarters in Seattle.  The company 
has already laid the keel for its first vessel and expects to build ten 
two thousand ton freighters with the purpose of making their northern 
terminal six hundred miles up the Kuskokwim river off the Behring sea 
in Alaska.  The valley through which this river flows is considered the 
richest agricultural section in Alaska and the work of development 
there has been barely begun.  Captain Gawley feels certain that before 
many years this valley will be thickly populated and will be producing 
enough to warrant the operation of their ten vessels.
	In Grand Island, Nebraska, on the 6th of April, 1897, Captain Gawley 
was married to Miss Mattie L. Baldwin, and they have two children: 
Robert A., who attended the Bellingham high school and is now engineer 
on the United States Steamship Cuyaura and lieutenant junior grade in 
the United States Naval Reserves; and Blanche R., who is a graduate of 
the Bellingham high school and the State Normal School and is now a 
teacher at Ferndale, Washington.
	In politics Captain Gawley maintains an independent course.  He 
belongs to the Fraternal Aid Union, to the Masonic fraternity and to the 
Masonic Club, and in his life he exemplifies the beneficent spirit of the 
craft, being most loyal to the teachings of this order, which is based 
upon a recognition of brotherhood of man and the duties thereby imposed.  
Captain Gawley is today one of the best known figures in connection 
with the navigation interests of the northwest.  His work has brought 
him prominently before the public, bringing him a wide acquaintance 
among the leading business men of this section of the country, and his 
own capacities and powers have carried him steadily forward on the 
road to success.

Submitted by: Jenny Tenlen

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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.