Alexander De Soto

Alexander De Soto
Born(1840-07-28)July 28, 1840[1]
Caroline Islands[note 1]
DiedNovember 11, 1936(1936-11-11) (aged 96)
New York City, U.S.[12][13]
Burial placeMount Olivet Cemetery, Seattle, Washington, U.S.[14]
Occupations
  • Surgeon
  • physician[6][7]
  • founder and president of the Wayside Mission and Hospital
  • co-founder,[15] vice-president, and general manager of the De Soto Placer Mining Company[16][17]
  • founder of the Everett & Snohomish Rapid Transit Company[18]
  • promoter and general manager for the Bering Sea Commercial Company[19][20]
Years active1890–1936
Organizations
  • Seattle Benevolent Society (co-founder)[2]
  • Crittenton Mission[4]
  • Bleecker Street Mission[21]
  • New York Bowery Mission[22]
Known forEstablished the first Seattle's public hospital; co-founded and managed the De Soto Placer Mining Company, the biggest mining company of its time; first businessman to introduce dredge mining to Alaska.
Political partyRepublican[23]
RelativesHernando De Soto[5]

Alexander De Soto (July 28, 1840 – November 11, 1936) was a Spanish-American physician, philanthropist, and businessman. He is best known for establishing Seattle's first hospital, the Wayside Mission Hospital, which he directed from 1898 to 1904. A born again Protestant, De Soto wanted to help more poor, homeless, sick, and people with addiction, and wanted to create a business that would finance his numerous philanthropic plans. At the zenith of his business career, De Soto was involved in mining businesses in Chile, Peru, Spain, North and South America, South Africa, and Mexico. He co-founded the De Soto Placer Mining company which conducted more mining activity than any other company of the time in Snohomish County, Washington, and was the first businessman to introduce dredge mining to Alaska. The company-owned Alaskan lands were considered the richest and best-equipped in the world, featuring the largest dredges and steam shovels available in 1903.

De Soto was born in the western Pacific Ocean's Caroline Islands, and educated in Spain. He arrived to America in 1862, and served as a navy surgeon in Federal Navy during the American Civil War. In 1867, he worked as surgeon in Alaska. He was one of the leaders of the Carlist movement. From 1870 to 1872, De Soto lived in Sweden, where he served as physician for King Charles XV. Later, he moved his practice to Chile and Peru. In 1879 and 1880, he served as an army surgeon for Chile in the War of the Pacific. De Soto's life took a turn when he developed an interest in gambling, which led to a morphine addiction. He was saved and converted to Protestantism, becoming a member of the New York Crittenton and the Bleecker Street Missions, and later of the Bowery Mission. In 1879, De Soto led a gospel expedition to Alaska, which failed to reach Klondike ending instead in Seattle, Washington, where De Soto established the city's first hospital and continued his missionary and philanthropic work.

De Soto started other business ventures to finance his missionary projects. He was involved in planning a railroad to Alaska as well as his mining business. Only his mining business was initially successful, as the Granite Falls mine in Snohomish County turned a profit. De Soto's decision to reinvest the proceedings into a gargantuan project in Alaska, although initially very promising, proved mistaken. De Soto successfully secured a significant investment fund and delivered state-of-the-art dredging equipment to Alaska, but the business idea failed, as his mining company's land didn't yield enough gold. De Soto was accused of mismanagement, and after several more unsuccessful attempts, he abandoned the mining business and returned to medicine. In 1910, he unsuccessfully ran for King County Coroner, and then went to Sweden, where he served as physician and dietician for the King of Norway from 1910 to 1915. Later, he returned to New York. In 1936, at the age of 95, as he was working as a dietician on the private yacht Centaur, he died soon after falling into the Gowanus Bay in Brooklyn.

In the 1920s, an historical plaque and an anchor marker were installed on the Washington Street Public Boat Landing in Seattle to commemorate De Soto and the Wayside Mission and Hospital.

  1. ^ a b c Prosser 1903, v.II, p. 47.
  2. ^ a b Warren 1980, p. 127.
  3. ^ Philadelphia Times; Nov 7, 1897.
  4. ^ a b Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Oct 28, 1900.
  5. ^ a b Morning Oregonian; Oct 20, 1906.
  6. ^ a b Bagley 1916, v.I, p.331.
  7. ^ a b Hunt & Kaylor 1917, v.I, p. 268.
  8. ^ Tewkesbury 1974.
  9. ^ Herbert 1960.
  10. ^ Salem Times Register; Oct 23, 1903.
  11. ^ Devine 1905, p. 287.
  12. ^ The Courier-Journal; Nov 13, 1936.
  13. ^ Brooklyn Times Union; Nov 12, 1936.
  14. ^ Brooklyn Daily Eagle; Nov 14, 1936.
  15. ^ Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Jul 28, 1903.
  16. ^ Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Jun 1, 1903.
  17. ^ Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Jun 2, 1903.
  18. ^ Prosser 1903, v.II, p. 48.
  19. ^ New York Times; Jun 16, 1907.
  20. ^ Seattle Post-Intelligencer; Dec 16, 1907.
  21. ^ Philadelphia Times; Oct 24, 1897.
  22. ^ Boston Daily Globe; Oct 18, 1897.
  23. ^ Seattle Republican; Aug 19, 1910.


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