George F. Cotterill

George Fletcher Cotterill (November 18, 1865 – October 13, 1958), born in Oxford, England, was an American civil servant and politician. His public career in Seattle and the state of Washington lasted over 40 years; Cotterill was a Georgistprogressive. He was an advocate of woman suffrage, prohibition, land value tax, municipalization of port facilities and utilities, and the development of public parks.

Born in Oxford, England, Cotterill was the son of a gardener Robert Cotterill and his wife Alice. The family immigrated to the United States in May 1872, when he was six, arriving in Boston before settling on a farm in Montclair, New Jersey. After graduating from high school in Montclair—at the young age of 15 and as class valedictorian—he worked as a rod man on a railroad survey, while training to be a surveyor and engineer.

In 1883, he traveled to the Pacific Northwest with his father and brother. They had hoped to find work for the Northern Pacific Railroad, but by the time they arrived the project in question had been suspended. His father and brother headed back East in 1884. Cotterill stayed on and managed to obtain a job as a bookkeeper for the Moran Brothers shipyard in Seattle. Moran and Cotterill would each later serve the city as its mayor.

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