District 37, Crescent Valley School District, Gig Harbor

District 37, Crescent Valley School District, Gig Harbor

Joseph Goodman - He first lived in Samuel Jeresich's cabin behind spit, but since area was military reservation, he built home and farm in Crescent Valley (Crescent Drive near Drummond intersection)

Joseph and Rose Goodman, along with their children, arrived in the Gig Harbor area in 1883.  Joseph was a Civil War veteran having served in the 45 Wisconsin Voluntary Infantry.  The education of their children was of foremost importance.  This is why three of their children remained in Tacoma to finish high school when they arrived.  At first Joseph taught his and the Jeresich children in the evenings after he finished his farm chores.  By 1886 the local Gig Harbor tribe of the Puyallup-Nisqually tribe loaned him their potlatch house to use as a schoolhouse.  His daughter Anna was employed as the teacher, and now the student body included the Novak children as well as the Jeresich and Goodman children. 

The community was experiencing growth, which meant a new school house was needed.  In 1887, the school house was finished, but before a teacher could be hired the citizens needed to form a school district.  Joseph Goodman took it upon himself to see that this was done.  As Therese Hogan wrote in her “The Early Years of Education in the Gig Harbor Area and the Goodman Family”, August 9, 2000 paper:  Joseph Goodman walked several miles to get a petition signed and to conduct a census.  He walked north along the Kitsap County Line, west to Purdy, east to The Sound.  The southern point is unknown as to where he walked but his effort resulted in one of the largest school districts in the area.  He obtain the names of every school age child.  At this time funds were allowed to schools for the number of school age children in an area, although they were not required to attend.  With the documentation of a proposed school district and the names and head count of school age children Joseph Goodman traveled across The Narrows by row boat, 10 miles to Tacoma, and met with the County Superintendent of Schools and “others”.  His proposal mapped the largest school district in the area, which would be designated District #37.  Joseph Goodman was a trustee and a clerk of the school board for many years.”.

This area became Crescent Valley School District #37.  The Harbor History Museum has a hand drawn map of the area which identifies it as:  “beginning at the point where the shoreline of Puget Sound known as Colvos Passage intersects the north boundary line of Pierce County T 22 N R 2 E thence west to N W For. of Sec. 17 in said T & R thence south to S W For of Sec 29 thence west to N W For of Sec 31 thence south to SW For of Sec 7 T 21 N R 2 E thence east to the intersection of the said line with the shoreline of Puget Sound thence along said shore line in northernly direction to place of beginning.  There was a conflict in the descriptions of boundaries with District # 36, both of them evidently being given section 31.  It was left with District #37.  Later (5/3/1912) the Lincoln School District in Gig Harbor was formed of most of the lower half of sections 5 and 6, section 8 and most of section 7.  Earlier when #79 was formed part of the southeast corner of 7 had been transferred to it.”

The school District as described above contains numerous land patents, and there are no land patents associated with the district itself.  By 1941, all the greater Gig Harbor Community schools were incorporated into on district, that being Peninsula School District #401. 

In 1887 another building had been constructed to house the school and the students fas the student free as more people settled in the area, and the school district identified was so very large.

Crescent Valley School, Winter

By 1915 another new school building, which we currently remembered as the Crescent Valley School aka The Masonic Temple was built.  This last building is still standing and is located at 3025 96th Street NW, Gig Harbor.  (It was recently purchased by the City of Gig Harbor and adjoins the City Park).  It was built by E. L. Major & F. C. Bradshaw of Olalla, WA.  Unfortunately I have been unable to trace these two men.

Crescent Valley School, West Side with fire escapes - 1948

Crescent Valley School, Rear View, Boys bathroom at end of woodshed, Steps leading up to main floor.  March 1948.  Frank Owen Shaw

The following information was found in the Research Room at the Harbor History Museum.

“The following material was written by Mrs. John H. Insel for the Tacoma News Tribune:

“When the Crescent Valley school building is sold this Saturday at public auction to the highest bidder, another district school will join “the little red school house” in history.

“This notable landmark, located at the head of Crescent Valley, one half mile northeast of Gig Harbor, was constructed in 1915 by Pierce County School district No. 37 to provide a school for the large number of children in the fast growing community.  Heretofore, the children had attended the two room school house which was built in 1887 at he head of the bay on a site donated by Dr. A. M. Burnham who came to Gig Harbor in 1884.  The building has since been divided, one room now houses the Peninsula Gateway, weekly newspaper at Gig Harbor, and the other is a part of the Edward New house.

“Directors of the district at the time the Crescent Valley School was built were Peter Alvestad, Homer Benson, and Arthur Peterson.  The two story frame building with its distinctive tower that is visible at a long distance was dedicated in August, 1915, with Principal Nash of the Bellingham Normal School giving the main address.  Contractors who erected the structure were Major and Bradshaw of Gig Harbor.  The building originally had two rooms, but an increase in enrollment necessitated building a third room in the basement.

“The first primary teacher was Miss Lucy Goodman of Crescent Valley and the other teacher was a Professor Hatch.”

In a later column, Mrs. Insel tells of the sale of the school and the plans for he future use of the building and site:  

“Plans for a new Masonic temple on the site of the Crescent Valley school, one-hale mile northeast of Gig Harbor, were announced Saturday by the Masonic Temple Association.  Excavation for foundations and basement will be started as soon as weather permits.  The second story and tower of the school building which occupies the site will be razed and the interior of the lower floor will be remodeled to conform to the new architectural plan for the building.

“‘Architects’ plans, drawn by Mock & Morrison of Tacoma, show that a 30 X 39 foot addition with basement will be built on to the west end of the present structure.  The first floor level will have a 38 X 46 lodge auditorium, an adjacent anteroom and preparation room.  The basement, besides a 30 X 40 foot banquet and social hall, will contain a modern, fully equipped kitchen.

“There are separate chapter rooms for Waconda Chapter, No. 217, Order of the Eastern Star, and Waconda assembly, No. 122, Order of Rainbow for Girls.

“At present the Masonic Lodge is housed in private quarters in the Community Hall.”

A newspaper article, presumably Tacoma News Tribune although note noted, tells us that the drive to acquire a new lodge building originally started in 1943.  At the time they were meeting in private quarters in the Community Hall, owned by Herman Uddenberg, Post No. 1854, VFW.  The Masonic group then formed the Gig Harbor Masonic Temple Association in 1946.  Byron L . Conan was the worshipful master of the John Paul Jones Lodge.  

A booklet entitled “Freemasons in Gig Harbor” written and produced by Joe Hoots in 1997 tells us that the Masons were active in Gig Harbor and Key Peninsula area prior to 1920, although much of its history has disappeared.  However the booklet provides much history of the organization from the 1940s forward.  He states that “We do know that eighteen local sojourning Masons became charter members that established John Paul Jones #271 F & AM in 1926.”

The City of Gig Harbor Parks Page has this to say about the adjoining park:  Located at 3303 Vernhardson Street, Crescent Creek Park is still known to long-time residents as "City Park". The park's large, open air structure, natural creekbed, and specimen trees represent an important historic landscape that embodies Gig Harbor’s early rural lifestyle. It was the first (and for many years) only park within city limits. It signifies a national economic period of significance with architectural characteristics of a type, method of design, and construction typical of WPA projects around the country. Although the Park is not currently listed, the WPA structures at City Park are eligible for Gig Harbor's Register of Historic Places.

The site was originally owned by Crescent Valley School (built 1915) and was used as a playground.

The Washington State Department of Archaeology and Historic Preservation describes the property:

The first homesteaders to stake claims in the Crescent Valley appeared as early as 1883, and made a living off the valley land through ranching, farming, and dairy operations. In 1915, the Crescent Valley School was built and remained the primary school house for the valley until it closed at the end of the 1946-1947 school year. Crescent Valley School owned the stretch of land along Vernhardson Street upon which the WPA recreational structures had been built near Crescent Creek. With the school set to close, the school board donated this piece of land to the town of Gig Harbor in 1946 to be used as a park. This park soon became known simply as Town Park. 

Now, at the end of 2017, we await to discover what the City of Gig Harbor has in store for this property.

Notes:

• Old Town, Gladys Para
• The Early Years of Education in the Gig Harbor Area and the Goodman Family by Therese Hogan, August 9, 2000
• Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room
• Harbor History Museum, Research Room document with Mrs. Insel’s article
• Washington Dept of Archaeology & Historic Preservation
• City of Gig Harbor Parks

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Old Town, Gladys Para

Puyallup-Nisqually Indians Lived near head of Bay by Gladys Para, Gateway Staff and Executive Director of Gig Harbor Peninsula Historical Society 1985

I received a request to reprint this article which originally appeared in The Peninsula Gateway in 1985.  The request was based upon the fact that the Puyallup-Nisqually Native Americans history and contributions are generally overlooked except in certain circumstances.  So in an effort to correct that, here is Gladys’ original article.

Old Town, Gladys Para

The Joseph and Rose Goodman Family

Lillian Goodman Rust was only an infant among the six children Joseph and Rose Goodman brought to the Harbor in 1883.  Here to meet them were Sam and Anna Jerisich and their family, John and Josephine Novak and children, and Joe Dorotich, who only a week previously had married the eldest Jerisich daughter, Caroline.

In addition, many of the people who called Gig Harbor home were Puyallup-Nisqually Indian families who moved from it to Vashon and back with the seasons.  They had lived for generations in cedar houses on the creek (Burnham) [we know it now as Donkey Creek] whose mouth forms the northwest corner of the Harbor waters.  They called the place Twa-wal-cutx.

One resident of the Indian village was addressed by his white neighbors as Buckshot, Quickshot, or sometimes Shinshot.  He was knows to the Puyallups as one of their “trainers” of the children, a man who taught them their own history.  They gathered for this training in the potlatch or meeting house.  This building was recalled in her old age by Puyallup tribal member Lucy Gur as being 100 feet long.

It, therefore, must have seemed logical to the Twa-wal-cutx teacher to loan it, later, to the new Gig Harbor teacher.  It was the largest structure in Gig Harbor at the time.

The Goodman family stayed in Sam Jerisich’s first log hut on the spit while Joseph Goodman built a house near the mouth of Crescent Creek.  Within two years, Lillian’s 17 year-old sister, Anna, stepped forward as teacher of the local children — from the Indian families, the Jerisich and Novak families, and her own brothers and sisters.  Classes kept only slightly warm in the potlatch house near the clay and stick fireplace that would self-destruct in too hearthy sic a blaze.

Lillian, who was the last surviving Goodman of 10, before her death in 1969, was taken by her mother to visit Mrs. Jerisich, who occasionally persuaded Mrs. Goodman to wrap her into a papoose board, as was her own child, Julia.  To the little girl growing up  in early Gig Harbor, Indians were people who were familiar neighbors and friends.

Early Gig Harbor Native Americans fishing on Puget Sound 

Her father set her an example, Barbara Pearson, local historian, writes, “The Goodman girls’ father made them return beads (they had found) to the east Gig Harbor site, because he felt they had taken something that was not theirs, and was important to the Indians living at the head of the bay.”

When Lillian became Mrs. Erwin Rust, her home continued to be in Gig Harbor.  The important things in her adult life included her membership in the Amateur Garden Club and her writing.  One of her poems suggests first hand knowledge of an even in an Indian child’s life.  One of her stories reads strongly like an eye witness recollection.  In it she speaks of an Indian woman she must have known.

“…At dusk on Crescent Bay a boat with young folks left the north shore, gay voices and laughter in its wake…a tiny breeze no stronger than a breath of air conveyed a strain of strange music.  In hushed voices they asked each other, “What was that!

“…With one accord…the oarsmen turned their course westward to follow the eerie music, guiding their boat through a narrow lagoon ‘till they came within the shadows of a sparse hedge of wild roses.

“There beyond the thorny hedge, lighted by the flames of an open wood fire, was the Indian village.  On the beach were canoes, hewn from logs of cedar; in the background stood cabins of driftwood with chimneys of round limbs and clay.

“In the doorway of her cabin sat old Hosanna, wife of their leader, Buckshot (Quickshot).  Around her stooped shoulders was wrapped the plaid shawl worn by her kind; across her forehead a gay kerchief was found.  Her face twisted into contortions of suffering…Hosanna was in great distress.  A headache, an annual ailment, announced the presence of an evil spirit within her, wracking her very being, and it must be cast out.

“Within the circle of light the Indians stood in duplication, their heads bowed, chanting in cadence, while one kept perfect rhythmic beats on a crude drum made by the use of a hide drawn tightly over the mouth of a large iron kettle:  ‘Tum-tum-tum.’  Buckshot held out his hand for silence, then, lifting his scarred old face toward heaven, raised a prayer with such entreaty that surely the pleading tones could not go unanswered. 

“The drum took up its measured beat, but faster” ’Te-tum-te-tum, te-tum.’  The voices started a joyful chant  blending in unison, until at last, long-drawn high note ascended the tree-fringed hills…raised heavenward and was heard no more.

“Old Hosanna, relieved of suffering, stood up, her face with trans…. looked upward…The Evil spirit had departed.  Turning, she entered the cabin door.

“Released,…the oarsmen….their homeward course…the strain of music remained with them, leaving impressions that endure too a lifetime.”

I found in an article written in 1948 for The Tacoma Times by local resident, Mrs. John H. Insel, the following information which adds a bit more to the story of the first school in Gig Harbor.  The article was based upon a personal interview by Mrs. Insel with Mrs. J. A. Wheeler aka known as Anna Goodman.

“Sixty-two years ago in January, 1886, the first school was started in Gig Harbor.

First Gig Harbor School loaned by the Native Americans.  It is the shack in front of the sawmill in middle of picture.  It was all that remained of the longhouse offered by the local tribe members as a classroom to teacher Anna Goodman Wheeler.  Picture taken 1915

Miss Anna Goodman, now Mrs. J. A. Wheeler of Crescent Valley, was the first teacher.

She doesn’t remember the exact date on which the school opened, but recalls ‘It was shortly after the beginning of the new year.’

The school was the “potlatch house” belonging to the Indians who donated the building for use by the white man.  It stood near the Indian village on what is now the site of the Galbraith mill (formerly the Austin Mill) and the Peninsula Light Company’s office.

Anna Goodman Wheeler with dog and friend

ROUGH BENCHES SEATS:  There was a fireplace at one end of the room with the chimney made of alternate layers of flat sticks and clay.  Rough board benches were placed against the wall for seats and a blackboard improvised from a piece of cardboard painted black completed the school’s equipment.  In order to write, pupils held their slates braced against their knees and books, when not in use, were laid on the bench.

The first pupils to attend the pioneer school were John, Mike, Sam, Melissa, and Catherine Jeresich, children of the late Samuel Jeresich, the first white settler who founded Gig Harbor in 1867, and the late Mrs. Jeresich; Lee, Cora, and May Goodman, brother and sisters of the teacher, whose parents, the late Mr. and Mrs. Joseph Goodman came to Gig Harbor in July 1883; Peter St. Louis, and William Peterson.

$30 MONTHLY SALARY:  Mrs. Wheeler was 17 years of age when she began teaching school, receiving a salary of $30 a month for the 4-month term. …

…She was one of the first three pupils graduating from Tacoma public schools to receive a diploma.

The other two members of her class — June 1887, were Lizzie Hazard and Walter Harvey.

She recalls the title of her graduation “essay” was “What Science Has Done”.  Principal of the school was Edmond Young.  She attended the old Central school in Tacoma, when it was located on So. 11th St. across from the courthouse.  She received her teacher’s certificate by “passing” the county’s teacher’s examination.”

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Logging and Lumber Industry

This is a long overdue blog, the PowerPoint presentation given by Elizabeth Frisiano, at the Harbor History Museum in early 2014.  

“Green Gold in The Beginning

My name is Elizabeth Frisian.  You may be wondering what connection a woman born and raised in New York may have to do with logging and lumbering in the Northwest.  I am told my grandfather came to this country in 1914 from a little town close to Bari, Italy.  His first job in this country was as a lumberman in Port Jefferson, Long Island, New York.

The logging and lumber industry was for many in the Northwest - Green Gold and were major players in the birth of our little Harbor just right for a Gig.

We will go on a journey back in time when forests of giant cedar and fir trees dominated our landscape which gave rise to the lumber mills and big and small logging companies to feed the mills and the world demand for lumber.

As Commander of the United States Exploring Expedition of 1838-1842, Charles Wilkes visited the Northwest, and as he traveled through a “gigantic fine cedar forest” near the Nisqually River, he encountered trees that “as saplings, were 6 feet in diameter and upwards of 200 feet in height.”  He stated, “I could not control my astonishment” at the size of the trees.

Rosedale-Sehmel Donkey Engine-1916 (Karl & Adolf Sehmel-From Mrs Don Sehmel

• Such accounts attracted white entrepreneurs and settlers bent on using the forests for profit.  The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was the first significant developer of the region’s timber resources
• 1828 First lumber mill at Ft. Vancouver 
• 1848 the California Gold Rush created a huge surge in lumber production on Puget Sound.  Puget Sound sawmills provided building material for San Francisco and other boomtowns
• By the mid 1850s there were over two dozen mills in Puget Sound.  Many of these investors had roots in older lumbering regions, such as Maine.  Pope and Talbot built the Puget Mill Company at Port Gamble in 1853.
• Although there were many logging operations, their impact was initially limited because of the cost of transporting logs.
• Logging was limited to ares near water’s edge.
• 1862 Homestead Act giving 160 acres if they live or work the land
• 1878 Congress passes the Timber and Stone Act.  This legislature allows residents of West Coast states to purchase 160 acres of forestland for $2.50 per acre.  Mill companies abuse the law and use it to acquire millions of acres of timberland.
• 1880 About 160 million board feet of timber are harvested in Washington Territory.
• 1881 John Doubler patents the donkey engine, a small steam engine used to power a winch.  The donkey winch revolutionizes logging by replacing animal power and allowing companies to reach stands of trees that were previously inaccessible
• As forest right next to the water become relatively scarce and logging moved inland, it became apparent that bull team logging had to be replaced by a more efficient method
• The engine consisted of a steam engine set on skids and attached to a winch.  The donkey engine pulled logs from the woods with cables.
• The development of narrow gauge logging railroads was another important milestone
• Though the donkey engine enabled loggers to haul logs considerable distances, there was no efficient way to move logs from the deep woods
• In the 1880s a few mills began to build logging railroads opening up new stands of timber that were previously inaccessible because of the rugged terrain and the distance from the water
• 1876 Ephraim Shay of Harbor Springs, Michigan, is credited with the invention of the logging locomotives that changed logging and milling
• Prior to the logging railroads it was estimated that as little as 17% of the actual cost, represented the lumber, while as much as 73% was for transportation of the lumber.
• In 1910 the West Coast Lumberman included the Gig Harbor Lumber Company and Story Timber Company as operators of Shay Locomotives
• 1883 The Northern Pacific completes a transcontinental line to its terminus in Tacoma.  The railroad owned 7.7 million acres in Washington Territory.
• Timber supply in Midwest was dwindling and loggers moved west in search of Green Gold
• 1890 1 billion board feet of lumber harvested annually
• 1905 Washington becomes the leading lumber producing state in the nation
• 1910 Washington companies harvest 4.1 billion board feet of timber
• 1920 Washington companies harvest 5.5 billion board feet of timber
• 1926 The state’s timber harvest reaches its all time peak, 7.6 billion board feet versus 4.1 billion in 2002
• With the passage of the Homestead and Timbers and Stone Acts settlers from the Midwest and New England began moving to the Northwest and Gig Harbor with lumbering and logging background
• Land had to be cleared for homes and farms
• Virtually every parcel of 160 acres became a logging location and camp to feed the mills and meet the world wide demand for lumber
• The early logging was limited to areas close to the mills and harbor
• The classic scene of two men standing springboards with axes, another lying in cut with his saw leaning against tree demonstrates the size of trees and the new norma; for Gig Harbor
• The primary tools of the pre chain saw loggers were the cross cut saw, ax and springboards

The primary tools of the preteen saws of loggers were the cross-cut saw, ax and spring boards

• To digress a moment some familiar phrases such as Skid Row and Grease Monkey can be credited to logging
• Skid Road or Skid Row
• The term skid road dates back to the 17th century, when it referred to a log road used to skid or drag logs through woods and bog
• The term came to refer not just to the Corduroy Roads themselves, but to logging camps and mills all along the Pacific Coast
• The source of the term as an urban-landscape reference is heavily debated, and is generally identified as originating in either Vancouver or Seattle.
• On job on the skid road was lubricating it to make the logs slide more easily.  The person with that job was called the “grease monkey”, predating and probably giving rise to the modern usage of grease monkey as a mechanic
• Seattle’s historic Skid Road district (now better known as Pioneer Square) centers on Yeller Way.  This road is often said to have been the original “Skid Road” in the literal sense serving a saw mill owned by Henry Yeller.
• The Skid Road became the demarcation line between the affluent members of Seattle and the mill workers and more rowdy portion of the population
• The following picture is an example of a Skid Road or Drag Road in Gig Harbor.  The fact that some of our roads such as Peacock Hill, Rosedale, Stinson, are straight downhill can be attributed to the need for straight skid road to the harbor.

The classic scene of two men standing on springboards with axes, another lying in cut with his saw leaning against tree demonstrates the size of trees and the new normal for Gig Harbor

Logging on top of Stinson Hill.  John Wilkenson with crew, friends and horses.  He also logged Raft Island

• Prior to the logging locomotive, logs were pulled out of the forest by ox teams and horse drawn to the harbor or other loading points
• Logging was also a family enterprise that was carried on by many of the first settlers such as the Wilkinson, Kimball and Sehmel families
• They took contracts to cut timber in harbor communities such as Rosedale, Arletta, Artondale, Raft Island, Purdy and in the case of the Kimball brothers, as far south as Shelton
• Logging on top of Stinson Hill, John Wilkinson with white bread.  Roy Cruver sitting on log on left.  Three men around stump on right.
• Logging crew and friends with horses on Stinson Hill.  John Wilkinson and crew.  He also logged Raft Island 
• From present day North Gig Harbor, Turnham Drive and Crescent Valley no area was without the quest for Green Gold.  Kimball family logging operation above.  Burnham property in north Gig Harbor about 1908
• In 1885 the Skid road which transported logs down the hill near present day Burnham Drive was very close to a school that was originally an Indian cedar plank longhouse and stood in what is today Donkey Creek Park.
• Logs thundered past the school twice a day on their way to the bay.  At least one log jumped its skid road track and smashed into a corner of the school
• In 1886 a new school out of harm’s way was built higher up the hill and the first teacher was Lucy Goodman
• In the 42-page manuscript named The Pioneer Family of Gig Harbor, Pauline Castelan Stanch is quoted as saying “I remember the donkey engine that stayed in the middle of it (present day Donkey Creek) pulling logs out of the woods, under the bridge and into the bay.”
• With the dawn of the 20th Century logging in Gig Harbor saw the introduction of the logging locomotive or LOCI as it was affectionally called and the logging railroad
• Most of my best information and research material centered on the Story, Wilson, and Calavero Timber Companies
• In addition to the Story and Wilson Timber companies, the Gig Harbor Timber, Cavalera, and Spadoni Timber companies also operated until around 1934
• As late as 1928 Spadoni felled a fir tree with a circumference of 29ft in Crescent Valley and the last giant spar tree of 229ft was felled at Point Fosdick in 1934
• Story Timber Company 1905-1912
• In 1910 the West Coast Lumberman included the Gig Harbor Company and Story Timber Company as operators of Shay Locomotives
• The company using the Shay locomotive much like the one one the next slide (picture) built a short steep line to carry its logs from the hilly forest between Arletta and South Rosedale to dump the logs at the slough along Ray Nash Drive (present site of the Kopachuck bridge) and Island View store
• The company was founded by Chester Thorn of Lakewood and Frank Fuhman of Arletta
• The railroad went from the flats near Rosedale Slough south through the Brown Homestead turning east after crossing Whitmore Creek up the steep hill ending at the Schindler’s 160 acre homestead where most of the timber was harvested
• As late as 1985 the RR grade was still visible
• The logging railroads were not without dangers.  In 1908 the train, or Loci as the engine was called, loaded with logs, was traveling too fast and left the tracks and logs flew everywhere; the engineer and fireman were sent to Tacoma hospital
• After the Story Timber, the Kangly Timber Company leased logging rights in the Rosedale Slough area and went on for a few more years
• Unlike conventional railroads the logging companies that had logging locomotives and rail lines would move their locomotives, rail cars, tracks and crews to the next pot of Green Gold when the land they were harvesting ran out of trees.  The Wilson Logging Company is a good example of this.
• Wilson Logging Co.
• The railroad ran from the mouth of Minter Creek up into the Minterbrook Farm area
• From MInter-Elgin, the Wilson Logging Co. later moved to Burley Valley where they logged and dumped into Burley Lagoon.  Old piling for trestles may still be seen at Minter and Burley
• From Burley, they moved beyond Port Orchard and later Crescent Valley.  The railroad ran from Crescent Lake and emptied into Gig Harbor Bay
• Burley Lagoon and Minter Creek Railroad trestles were built to dump the logs in Henderson Bay for transporting as shown by the next slide (picture)
• Calavera Logging Company
• Began business between 1909-1910 at the head of the bay.  It is said that Lucy Goodman used to ride in the cab of the engine when she lived up the valley and taught school at the head of the bay.
• Shay Locomotive built 1909, Lima Locomotive Works, Lima, OH
• 1909 shipped around Cape Horn to Seattle
• 1909-1912 Owned by Gig Harbor Timber/Cavalera
• 1913 Owned by Stimson Lumber #1, Belfair, WA
• Owned by Stimson #1 Peggy, Gaston, OR
• Retired from logging 1950
• 1950 Donated to City of Portland, OR
• 1972 to present: World Forestry Center, Portland, OR
• Weight 42 tons, 67,100 lbs empty
• Warer Capacity 1500 gallons
• Fuel 1.5 Cords
• Hauled 1 Billion feet of Logs
• Timber Mills
• 1886 (Alfred) Mark Burnham immigrated to G.H. from Albert Lea, Minnesota
• He encouraged fellow Minnesotans to follow and in 1888 the Gig Harbor Saw Mill Company, as joint venture with Tacoma’s and Minnesotans was founded
• Frank Hall, O. B. Forbes and Ira A. Town, Edward S. Prentice and James H. Parker were owners of the mill.  George Atkinson was manager
• In addition to saw milling the company had ambitious plans to get involved in all aspects of lumber manufacturing and wood work on buildings, vessels, furniture and wharves.
• At it height it was turning out 100,000 board feet a day
• The wharf of the mill was 450 ft long and 80 ft wide
• 15 sailing ships and steamers were coming to Gig Harbor for lumber
• They built two tall ships, the Republic and Nineva to deliver lumber around the world
• The Republic alone transported 1 million board feet to Chile.
• By 1890 there were 191 sawmills and 82 shingle mills in Washington.  The 1893 depression created havoc in the lumber and milling industries
• In 1891 the mill was sold under a foreclosure sale with hopes of revitalizing it but it never happened and in 1899 it was moved to Clear Lake on the north end of Puget Sound near the Skagit River where it operated for a few years until it burned down
• In 1892 E. S. Prentice one of the founders of the Gig Harbor Mill started a shingle mill which turned out 20.4 million shingles in 1892 but the depression hit them hard with only 1 million.  It was located at head of Harbor by Peacock and Harborview.
• Sawmilling did not return to the Harbor until 1909 with the start of a newcomer named Charles Osgood Austin who came to Gig Harbor from New Hampshire
• The Mill turned out everything from moldings, fruit boxes, dock timbers, shingles.  It continued in operation until his tragic death at the mill in December 1946.The mill lay idle a few months until John H. Galbraith purchased the mill
• Galbraith had been mayor of Eatonville for 27 years, but moved to Rosedale and became our biggest employer owning the Peninsula Cafe, Galbraith Motors, Gig Harbor Hardware and Grocery
• In the early 1950’s the mill closed.  The Peninsula Light Co. purchased the entire site.  It left in the mid-1980s
• Charles Osgood Austin and his wife Mabel had three children, Howard, Bessie and Nellie.  Howard Austin and his wife Ruth had a daughter named Nancy who married Sandy Elken.
• On June 11, 2007, Sandy Elken, in honor of his late wife and the Austin family requested the City of Gig Harbor name the park on the site of Austin Mill “Austin Estuary Park”
• The proposal was accepted and to my right is Austin Estuary Park (remember this was a Tea & Tour Presentation held in the Harbor History Museum Research Room)
• Austin Mill land is now the site of Harbor History Museum
• Old  Le Bistro was purchased in 1909 as a home for the grandparent of Ruth Austin (now Gourmet Burgers)
• The Thai Restaurant is the house that her grandparents also built for $2,000.00
• The Christmas Shop was the home of Howard and Ruth Austin
• The Beach Basket was Howard Austin’s log house sawmill
• Austin Estuary Park is part of the site of C. O. Austin’s large sawmill

As a friend of Nancy Austin, daughter of Howard and Ruth Austin, once said as they passed Finholm Market and rounded the bend ‘WE ARE NOW ENTERING AUSTINVILLE’

THANK YOU,

TEA AND TOUR POWER POINT PRESENTATION PRESENTED BY, AND WRITTEN BY, ELIZABETH FRISINO

 Note:  Not all Elizabeth's pictures are inserted due to space limitations.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Elmer Quistorff (August 10, 1907-September 26, 1999)

I happened to run across document entitled “Quistorff Family History” written in 1990 in the Harbor History Museum Research Room and was immediately curious as to why although I had seen the name somewhere had never heard anything about the man.

A quick search on the internet immediately pulled up an article from The Seattle Times dated October 2, 1999,  Elmer Quistorff, 92, Pioneer Fisheries Expert.  Since Gig Harbor is known as a commercial fishing village by people all over the world I find it interesting that he isn’t spoken off when we discuss famous Gig Harborites.  

So what follows is a greatly condensed version of his history taken from that original Quistorff Family History paper I referred to earlier.  Elmer wrote his version of the family from his memories and it was to become part of a more lengthy history started by his nephew, Kirk Quistorff, which reaches back to 1841. 

“I was born on August 10, 1907, in Tacoma, Washington, where my mother, Tessie, had lived with her stepfather Fritz Mensing, and where she and my father were married.  We eventually became a family of eight:  Mother, Father, my older brother Wallace William (Born November 7, 1905), myself, Ralph, John, Helen, and Fred, in that order.

Our mother was born in the Dalles, Oregon, daughter of Wolfgang Shreder and Therese Rosencratz.  When he father died, her mother married Fritz Mensing, who adopted her.  My mother’s mother passed away when my mother was 12, and my mother and her stepfather moved to Tacoma, where he married Christina Nuschler.  All four of those who made up my mother’s family were immigrants from Germany.

My treat-grandfather Fred Quistorff was an immigrant from Denmark (later Germany), and a carpenter by trade.  The language he and his wife brought to the United States was German.  My grandfather grew up in the Michigan-Wisconsin area, and like his father, became a carpenter and millwright.  My father also took up the carpentry trade and was working in Tacoma when he met and married my mother.  Fritz Mensing, my mother’s stepfather, was a carpenter and building contractor.  To carry the coincidence of craftsmanship background further, my father’s brother Adolph, also a carpenter, married Lydia Miller of Tacoma, whose father, Henry Miller, was likewise a contractor and builder.  Adolph’s son Albert became a carpenter, and my brother Wallace worked several summers as a carpenter for my grandfather Mensing.  My brother Fred also worked briefly at the trade.  

My parents moved to a logged-off area in what we referred to as Gig Harbor (now referred to as North Rosedale) in the fall of 1907.  My father and his brother purchased 16 acres from G. H. Wood (who continued to hold as his home the area north of our property extending down to Henderson Bay).  My father and Adolph divided the property between them, the north eight acres being ours.  

…. In 1927, my father purchased the 40 acres of land containing the water-wheel site, which was located about a quarter-mile east of the home place.  Here he installed a large hydraulic ram taking water from a spring on the hillside.  This delivered water to a 5000-gallon tank, which released gravity water to our house and a number of neighbors’. (NOTE:  G. H. Wood had erected a waterwheel on a small creek that ran through his property to provide water for his and both the Quistorff properties.  Elmer’s father had tw wells on his property including a 300-gallon tank.)  

… My brothers Wallace and Ralph and I attended Booster Grade School, which was located about a mile and three quarters south on the Purdy-Rosedale Road.  …This school was consolidated with the Rosedale district in 1919, the year Wallace was due to enter high school.  This was favorable timing as there was no high school closer than Tacoma.  With the consolidation it was possible to add the ninth and tenth grades to the Rosedale School, so that Wallace was able to continue his schooling without interruption.  …

Our father had provided much leadership during the consolidation.  Two years later, in 1921, he was instrumental in organizing a high school district that consolidated nine grade school districts, including Purdy, Elgin, Rosedale, Crescent Valley, Lincoln, Midway, Arletta, Wauna, and Artondale.  The consolidate high school district was centered in a new two-story brick building in Gig Harbor.  For the first several years, it took in seventh and eighth graders from those schools which by then were overcrowded.  …..

….We children were aged 15, 13, 8, 6, 4 and 2 when our mother passed away April 19, 1921.  For the remainder of that school year, Mrs. Blomley, who lived near the Purdy bridge, came in six days a week to be with the younger children and to do baking and washing, as our father had to continue working.  He drove to Purdy each morning to pick up Mrs. Blomley, and took her back again in the evening after returning from his work.  Wallace did the farm chores, milking and feeding the stock.  I helped get dinner underway, and mind the younger children.  

When school was out that summer, I took over caring for the children during the day.  Mrs. Blomley came in one day a week to bake bread and wash clothes.  Wallace often helped our father at his carpentry work.  When school took up in the fall, we resumed our spring schedule, until our father married Mary Murray in October that year.

Wallace and I both went to high school in Gig Harbor from the start.  This school met in the newly built community hall in Crescent Valley until Christmas time, then moved to the just completed high School building, centrally located between Crescent Valley and Lincoln schools.  When we entered, Wallace was in the eleventh grade, and I in the eighth (Rosedale was one of the grade school districts to share the high school building at the same time.)

The first senior class numbered two:  Millard Blakesley from the Elgin district and Ovid Grant, who came from Fox Island.  Ovid and his brother came by skiff to Warren each day to meet the bus that started from Arletta.  In Wallace’s graduating class, there were five students.  He was the only male and had the honor of being valedictorian.

Elmer continues talking more about his father and how he had become acquainted with the Murray family, and of course, Mary Murray who became their second mother.  How difficult and much changed life was following their father’s death in 1929, a mere 8 years after she and Elmer’s father married.  Raising the four younger children during the Depression without accepting any public assistance.  And he shares his memories on his stepmother’s life following the last two children’s graduation from high school.   There is a delightful memory of Wallace and Elmer’s adventures while growing up such as learning to swim, the heavy rains and landslides in 1915, the blizzard of 1916 and, of course bits and pieces about his brothers’ lives as they grew up and married.  He then continues with more on his own life after high school.

“… After high school and before, during and after my trip through the University of Washington, I was a commercial salmon and herring fisherman in Puget Sound and Alaska, worked on patrol boats for the U. S. Fish & Wildlife Service (then Bureau of Fisheries) in Bristol Bay, on the Kuichak, Naknek, and Egegik Rivers.  More of these experiences later.  

I married Anna Louise Sivesind at Cashmere, Washington, May 28, 1938.  She is the daughter of Claus William and Lena Sivesind of Seattle.  I met her while she was teaching school at the Gig Harbor Union High School.  We have a daughter, Nancy, born February 15, 1940, and a son, Ned, born December 2, 1942. ….

…. My work from 1937 through December 1949 was with the Washington Department of Fisheries, mostly at the Lewis River and Issaquah salmon hatcheries; from 1937 to 1938 it was connected with the fisheries problems created by the building of Grand Coulee Dam.  From Issaquah, I went to Okinawa, Japan, for three years, where I was in charge of the rehabilitation of the Okinawa fisheries.  This was followed by 2 1/2 years as a fisheries consultant for the Point Four program in Lebanon and Egypt.  Louise and the children were able to be with me during most of both tours.  Louise taught school at all three places.  She also taught for seventeen years in the Issaquah school system after our return from the Middle East in 1954.  

Back in Issaquah in September 1954, I undertook a project concerned with fisheries problems confronted in the proposed building of Puget Power’s Upper Baker River Dam.  These problems were unusual and called for solutions employed nowhere else where fish were affected by power dam construction.  The job lasted eight years, requiring an integration of my part as building of the dam progressed.

Following this, I went to the Department office, and I retired from the Olympia office in 1972.  While there, I was concerned with the planning and budgeting of a wide range of money sources for projects, such as my field work on the Baker River Dam, which were outside of regularly appropriated state funds.  For nine years, I drove back and forth from Issaquah to Olympia, a matter of 65 miles each way.

So, again we will skip a few paragraphs and jump down to his closing, and how his love of fishing dates back to his days as an eighth grader attending Gig Harbor Union High School (now Harbor Ridge Middle School) at the head of the harbor.  

“… When school opened each September, many small fishing vessels could be seen as they lay at their moorings on those calm waters below.  A mile from the school, the easterly and westerly headlands dipped toward each other to form a narrow inlet.  Through this gap could be seen a part of Puget Sound, the waters of West Passage (Colvos Passage) to the north, the Narrows to the south, and a part of Commencement Bay beyond.  Across these waters and further eastward, framed by the two headlands, the high school had an unobstructed view of Mt. Rainier and adjacent foothills.

Before the first week of school was over, we suddenly found that just overnight, the fishing fleet had vanished.  The first week in November, they were back again.  Again in December, they were missing.  These comings and goings were not as we saw them from our vantage point at the school.  Actually, during the latter part of the year, some of the vessels were back at their moorings again during the hours of darkness, these having been fishing in West Passage while we were at school.  

During the winter and spring, we seemed to take for granted the scene in the harbor as we saw it from the end of December to June.  Then, on a warm May day, we became aware of a stirring, that something was changing.  There was a faint fragrance drifting up to our heights on the hill.  The smell of newly tarred nets signaled the start of a new year of activity for the fishing fleet.

That wonderful smell will forever linger with me, as it became a starter for a series of activities and events that were to see  me in many out-of-the-way places, combined with unusual circumstances and people.  To cite a few:

• Standing hip-deep in herring as I brailed 500 barrels of the fish, which filled up the hold and made a deck-load on the seiner Shenandoah, off the coast of Baranof Island in southeastern Alaska.
• Alone on a 16-hour towboat up the Egegik River, tributary to Bristol Bay, a wide inlet from the Bering Sea.
• A trip to the foundations of the Grand Coulee Dam on the Columbia River, to be sure that salmon could continue to pass upstream as the construction of that giant continued.
• Eating dried squid with Okinawa fishermen on an outlying island, while inspecting the progress of their bonito boat construction.
• Visiting the Temple of Baalbek in the Baka’s Valley of Lebanon.
• Snapping a picture of the Rose Red City of Petra from a Jordanian Air Force plane, while the pilot circled so I could get the best view.
• Spending the night at Mersa Matruh on the Mediterranean coast of Egypt, where Cleopatra is said to have seduced Mark Antony.

Elmer Quistorff died at age 92 and left behind a rich history as a pioneer fisheries expert.  He wrote a memoir for the University of Washington School of Fisheries, as well as technical books on fisheries biology.  I hope this brief view into his life as he recorded it spurs you on to find out more about his mark on fisheries around the world.  

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

This article originally appeared in the Kitsap Sun-Gig Harbor Life newspaper on April 28, 2010.  I have received permission to reproduce it in its entirety here.  

It is most important for the entire Gig Harbor community to remember George Bujacich (April 29, 1925 - May 17, 2015).  George Bujacich contributed greatly to our town, our people, to Gig Harbor’s commercial fishing industry, to the Gig Harbor Sportsman Club, to the Donkey Creek Fish Hatchery, and so much, much more.  

I loved running into him, as he was a neighbor, because he always had a smile, a funny story to tell, and comments on the   the city, county, state and world affairs.  George, you are missed.

His family will be holding a celebration to  honor his life on June 13, 2015 at the Gig Harbor Eagles between 1 to 5 PM.

The Bujacich Brothers — Elders of Gig Harbor's Fishing Community

Jack ("Jake") and George recall growing up in a fishing family.

Charlee Glock-Jackson (Gig Harbor Life)

4:58 PM, Apr 28, 2010

George Bujacich, Jake Bujacich  (Photo-Scott Turner-Gig Harbor Life)

GIG HARBOR - Gig Harbor's oldest remaining net shed, the Skansie Brothers shed, turns 100 years old this year.

The City of Gig Harbor will host a 100th birthday celebration of the net shed Saturday, May 1, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Skansie Park, 3207 Harborview Drive.

The public is invited to participate and share in the fun.

For information, call (253) 853-7609 or visit gigharborguide.com.

Jack and George Bujacich probably have saltwater in their veins.

The brothers hail from one of the long-time fishing families who have called Gig Harbor home for generations.

Their mother was a Ross. Their father, who was born in 1894, left his home in Croatia at the age of 13.

After working for a few years in the mines of Colorado, he migrated to Gig Harbor.

Winters, he worked at a mill in Eatonville. In summer, he fished out of the harbor.

"Back then, Gig Harbor was a unique community," Jack, the younger of the two — who's better known as Jake — recalled. "The Swedes lived in Arletta. The Norwegians were in Crescent Valley. And the Croatians lived in Gig Harbor. They all fished together in the summer."

In 1928, their father launched the Majestic, a boat he'd built himself.

"I first went out with my dad on that boat when I was 8," George said. "That would have been 1933."

In the 1950s, George inherited the Majestic and fished from it for many years. In 1966, he bought the Mustang, and Jake took over the Majestic. All in all, George fished for 47 years.

Jake started fishing in 1942, first with his uncle, then, a year later with his father and older brother on the Majestic.

He took a break from fishing in 1944 and joined the Merchant Marines. "Me and my buddies joined up together. We said we were going to go win the war," Jake said.

As soon as the war was over, however, Jake came home and went back out on the water.

He fished every summer until 1978, including the years when he was Gig Harbor's mayor.

"Back then, everybody helped each other. We'd get together and make a crew, if somebody needed help," he said.

He figures he's fished on at least 17 boats.

"In 1967, I fished with George Ancich. In '69 I had my own boat. In the 1970s, I ran the Shenandoah."

The latter is now on display in the Harbor History Museum, awaiting restoration.

In 1978, Jake ran for Pierce County Commissioner and "gave up my boats."

There were good seasons and bad, the brothers recalled, listing a few:

"The first year I fished, in 1942, I didn't even make enough to pay my union dues," Jake said. "1946 was a big sockeye season. In '47 it was a big humpy season."

"In the winter of 1949, the harbor froze completely over," George added.

In 1947, the fishermen struck. "We needed to get 14-cents a pound for fish in order to make it work," he said. "When we finally found a buyer at 14-cents, off we went."

Jake was appointed cook on that crew. "I got recipes from my mom and my sister. Just about every man in this town who fished knows how to cook."

That's because, until the 1950s, women weren't allowed on the boats.

"The old guys believed it was bad luck," George said.

George broke with tradition and hired a woman to cook on his boat in the early 1950s.

"He was a new breed," Jake said of his brother.

"I can't think of her name," George said. "But she went with us to Alaska. She was a good cook, too."

Like all the boys in fishing families, the brothers got their start filling the needles used to sew the nets.

"Our dad was an expert at making needles," George said. "He made them out of needle wood, which is a real hard wood."

"We'd go down to the docks and fill needles all day long," Jake added. "The faster and better you were the more they liked you. They had to be wrapped real tight."

It was a big day for a youngster when he no longer had to fill needles and got to go fishing.

"It was the highlight of every kid's life, when you finally got to go fishing," Jake said.

"We figured one of the reasons they put a kid on board was so they could have somebody to yell at," George added. "Kids did everything. Just like the grown-ups."

Next week: Fishing then and fishing now — how things have changed.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.