So back to Tacoma C&GC...here is what I can gather as some truths.
1894 - Alexander Baillie rented property and designed a course.
1904ish - The land Baillie rented from Edison now had to be released as the owner desired to put homesites on the property.
1905 - The Tacoma Golf course was built at its current location, called the American Lake course at the time until the final closure of the "Edison" course. It is believed that Jim Barnes (President of the new site) and Alexander Baillie (Vice-Pres) were most influential in the course layout.
1906 - Closure of the Edison property
1909 - Clubhouse destroyed in a fire
1905-1923 - many financial struggles at the property cause the course to grow slowly, often creating just one hole at a time.
1917 - Original watering system installed. At this time, it is clear that the original American Lake routing was completed.
1923 - Club decided to raise funds by allowing member donors to improve a hole and in return they were allowed to name the hole.
1987 - John Steidel redesigned 5 holes.
What does all this mean? It leads me to believe that the design was mostly a member layout. I would give credit to Jim Barnes and Alexander Baillie as the lead co-designers. All of the holes were completed by 1917, which is proved by the final installation of the irrigation plan. 1923 till undetermined, member donors paid money to improve the layout and change the appearance of the holes (which ones, I do not know).
I believe that Stanley Thompson must have been hired by the club to look over the design and alter the layout but it is not clear what he did. To give him credit for the design or someone other than Barnes and Baillie, there should be proof that he seriously altered the course enough to consider it his own design.