Emmett Hunt's diary entry Wednesday, July 25, 1883

Just the same as yesterday if not more so.  Finished on the little boat except a little more paint & did some brushing.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's diary entry Wednesday, July 18, 1883

Still smoky & warm but not unpleasant.  Worked some on little boat & then slashed.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Barbara Ogden Pearson 1934-2014

Barbara Ogden Pearson 1934-2014

On July 4, 2014, Gig Harbor lost a most valuable and dedicated member of our community, Barbara (Barb) Ogden Pearson.

Although Barbara dedicated much of her time, energy and talents to numerous Gig Harbor Peninsula charitable community and social organizations, her most passionate interest was in the local history of Gig Harbor, the Peninsula and the surrounding areas.  

You have been touched by her whether you are aware or not whenever you learn something about our community and its people.  As a founding member of the museum, her dedication will continue to shine throughout the years.  And, as you read through the museum’s timeline and the reminiscences of her friends we hope you will come to know Barbara better, and thank her for all she has done and what she has accomplished for our benefit.

Barbara’s love of history started early in life, or as she put it “for as long as I can remember”.  Throughout her life, from a very early age and continuing through the present, Barbara loved every minute researching the history connected to her own genealogy but also the history of her “unique” community.  The way she expressed it was “I love it.  It’s just part of me”.

And speaking of Barbara’s growing up in her unique community of Gig Harbor, she shared this memory with Linda McCowen:  “Her family had a sailboat that they sailed all over the Sound.  She learned to row a dinghy by being put in the boat, tied to the dock, and rowed around the front of her property.  Later, she and (her Sister) Dorothy rowed across the bay to go to school, ditching the rowboat at the dock below Berkheimer’s Hardware Store and her life jacket underneath the store counter.  The store was in the now Harbor Inn (Windermere) parking lot across from Spiro’s (Pizza & Pasta).”

This picture explains why rowed across the bay was faster than walking around the harbor.  Barbara’s childhood hood is the house on furthest left (Goodman Drive); it no longer exists and in its place is a huge cream stucco house.

As you read through the Timeline of the museum Barbara’s handprint is very visible.

• November 6, 1963:  Gail Reed, Jewel Holsinger, and Esther Snowden, members of the American Association of University Women, met to organize a group of Peninsula women to find out about local history, industry, geology, transportation, etc.  Each was asked to bring 3 or 4 prospective members, with Bruce LeRoy, Director of the Washington Historical Society, Tacoma, to be speaker.  The group would include any woman in the community that was interested, AAUW members or not

• February 18, 1964:  First meeting was held at home of Jewel Holsinger’s.  The meeting date would be the 2^nd Tuesday of the month, 9:30-11:30 am.  There were nine meeting that day; Barbara Pearson was there.  The group would meet monthly, September through June.

• January 15, 1965:  Barbara Pearson and Esther Snowden began slide shows.  The next month Kay Weaver and Barbara Pearson gave a presentation to the Wiggenagamote Round Table.  

• April 2, 1966:  Members gave a program to AAUW, each presenter speaking 5 minutes.  Pat Lantz (Rosedale), Ann Kirby (Wollochet), Esther Snowden (Fox Island), Barbara Pearson (Warren), ArtaLou Kennedy (Purdy), and Marilyn Arnold (Wauna/Burley).  

• June 5, 1970:  Jean Lyle, Esther Snowden and Barbara Pearson take took the papers of incorporation to Olympia to file on May 21. 

The Peninsula Study Group incorporated under the name of The Peninsula Historical Society.  “The objects of the society shall is the discovery, preservation, and desimination of knowledge about the history of the mainland part of Pierce County lying west of the Narrows, South of the Kitsap County line, known as the Gig Harbor Peninsula and the Longbranch Peninsula.  More particularly the objects shall be:

·  To discover any material which may establish or illustrate the history of this area.

·       To provide for the preservation of such material and for its accessibility, as far as may be feasible, to all who wish to examine it or study it…

·       To disseminate historical and arouse interest in the past by publishing historical material in the newspapers and otherwise; by holding meetings with addresses, papers, and discussion; and by marking historical buildings, sites and trails.

Dues will be $2.00 a year.  

• 1970:  the first Harbor Holidays celebration 

6/13/70 Barbara Pearson at center; riding with Geri & Roy Peterson, Dorothea Peterson, Brad Peterson in Dr. Searl's horse wagon rig - They won the Judges' Award

1972 Christmas Picture of the members of GHPHS Seated Jean Lyle-Robertson, Barbara Pearson, Joan Bassett, Standing Unknown, Helen Matthaei, Shirley Wendle, Unknown, Dorothea Peterson, Esther Snowden, Unknown, Bonnie Anderson

• 1970:  Gig Harbor Peninsula Historical Society started having school classes come to the museum to learn about its history

• President:  Barbara Pearson;  1975 and 1976;  Corresponding Secretary (they also had a recording Secretary) for 1977

• 1976:  Began using acid-free boxes, and learning about cataloguing and filing artifacts, manuscripts and photos.  Barbara Pearson studied the best practices to teach other members.  

• 1976:  The Gig Harbor Peninsula Historical Society started their first Quilt Raffle to raise funds for the museum with a Bicentennial Quilt.  It was also in 1976 (until 1987) that the GHPHS started publishing an historical calendar with local artists reproducing old historical photographs of the community.  

1979 - Barbara Pearson with winner Jim Wright at Quilt Raffle

• 1977:  Groups went to the Southwest Washington Association of Small Museum Workers meeting, listening to Dave Nicandri, former head of the Washington State Capital Museum in Olympia and the Washington State Museum in Tacoma.  Barbara Pearson and Esther Snowden went to Ellensburg to meetings. 

• 1977:  Dorothy Hull, from the Elizabeth Forey Chapter of the DAR contributed these memories:

•   She was very proud of her Patriot, Jedediah Ogden, a private from New Jersey.

• She served our Elizabeth Forey Chapter in many ways, as an officer, committee chairman, as a delegate to State Conferences and to Continental Congress held in Washington DC,  and annually hosting a meeting at her home.  She also organized the monthly Gig Harbor carpool to our meetings.  She was warm and welcoming to members and guests at all our meetings.

• She held the office of Registrar, helping prospective members, and the office of Chaplain twice.

• Some of her committee interests were in Lineage Research, Genealogical Records, American Heritage, and Conservation. 

• She attended several DAR Lineage Research Training seminars held by our national society and in turn helped in giving seminars to our chapter members. 

• Several times she participated with other members in the 4th of July parade in Steilacoom. 

• When our chapter celebrated our 75th anniversary in 1997 Barbara contributed to our memory booklet that she remembered at the end of WWII there was a celebration "Gig Harbor style -- Church bells rang, fishing boats blew whistles, guns saluted.  'We sat on our bulkhead crying, laughing, and yelling while sound reverberated around the harbor.' 

• 1978:  After consulting with the Lewis County Historical Society, Barbara Pearson and Esther Snowden drove to Chehalis to pick up archival boxes.  

• 1979:  The GHPHS moved into the basement of the old St. Nicholas Catholic Church to house the museum. 

9/1981 L to R:  Dorothy O'Donnell, Shirley Wendle, Unknown, Barbara Pearson, Jean Lyle-Robertson, Joan Bassett, June Doherty, moving into original St. Nicholas Catholic Church basement

• The GHPHS published Bridging the Narrows by Joe Gotchy which was edited by the then GHPHS Director, Gladys Para. 

• 1997-2003:  Chris Fiala Erlich served as Director of the Gig Harbor Peninsula Historical Society and Museum and this is what Chris had to say:

• “Barbara had great passion and dedication to Gig Harbor history that was evident from the first time I met her. She was the personification of the society’s mission to preserve and share the community’s story of its past.

• I admired her encyclopedic memory. Anytime I researched and wrote something on Gig Harbor history, I depended on her review.  She would often be able to point me in directions that “ordinary” research methods did not uncover.  During my years at the museum, she took on the monumental task of organizing the society’s research files – an extensive collection of newspaper clippings, memoirs, and other materials.  It was not an easy task or a quick one, but she kept at it.   

• What I most remember, however, was her kind and generous support of my work. She was always there, to do whatever I asked, or to just offer a few words of encouragement.   She was a gracious lady, who will be long and well remembered. “ 

• 2000-2013:  Victoria Blackwell, Curator, put it this way:  “For me, Barbara Pearson was the heart and soul of the museum.  Her incredible knowledge of the people and events that shaped Gig Harbor was, and forevermore will be, unmatched.  It was an honor to know her and to help her achieve her dream of creating the Harbor History Museum.”

• 2004:  Jennifer Kilmer, the new Executive Director, started the Leadership Council, comprised of former board members:  Barbara and Gene Pearson, Rosemary Ross, Jake Bujacich, Don McCarty and Joe Hoots.  

• 2007:  The GHPHS acquired the former Peninsula Light Company and Beach Basket Gardens property at the current location of the museum, and broke ground for the new museum.

Ground Breaking July 14, 2007

Barbara Pearson at construction of the current Harbor History Museum

• 2009:  Barbara and Gene Pearson named the Resource Room in honor of Barbara’s mother, Marjorie Ogden, and worked with the architects to make it a workable and flexible space that it is.

• 2009:  Barbara is successfully nominated for the DAR Community Service Award by Jennifer Kilmer, Executive Director and Rosemary Ross, member of the Leadership Council, of the Harbor History Museum. 

Rosemary Ross and Barbara both attended Peninsula High School where they became friends even though Barbara was younger and a grade behind Rosemary.  After graduation, they completely lost track of each other and it wasn’t until Rosemary retired from the Peninsula School District in 1995 and Rosemary began volunteering at the museum that they resumed their friendship.  

Rosemary went on to say “Barbara lived and breathed the museum and was very much looking forward to being a huge part of this 50 anniversary.  What a tragedy in the timing of her death.”  

  

Barbara, you are missed.  But your gifts and contributions to the community and to the Harbor History Museum will live on.  Thank you.

Thanks to the following Contributors:

• Linda McCowen
• Rosemary Ross
• Dorothy Hull
• Chris Fiala Erlich
• Victoria Gehl-Blackwell

Written by Tomi Kent-Smith

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

The Iliff Family

Ella M. Gilbert traveled from Independence, Iowa to Gig Harbor, Washington in 1890 to settle her brother Fred’s estate, a tract of land near Point Evans.

While here, Miss Gilbert attended the Settlers’ Fourth of July 1890 picnic in a grove near Young’s Landing.  It was there she met Maurice V. Iliff, who was visiting from Seattle where according to the 1890 census he resided and worked as a carpenter.  And as  both young people related, it was “love at first sight”.  

Young's Landing

Ella returned home to Independence and her parents.  Maurice and Ella were married later that year in Buchanan, Iowa on October 29th, although some documents say they married in Gig Harbor. I believe they actually did marry in Iowa in the present of Ella’s parents, especially since her brother had died, she was their only living child.  Following their marriage they lived in Independence hoping to convince her parents, William Wallace Gilbert and Hester H. (Palmer) Gilbert to move west with them.  It took Maurice and Ella six years to convince her parents to join them in Gig Harbor, and it was during those six years in 1892 their daughter, Mabel E. was born.  

The family traveled by train and once back in Gig Harbor, they lived in Millville in the house across from the General Store which is known locally as the Stanich Brothers Store.  The house was built by John Novak and Joseph Dorotich and in 1898, the house was owned by a Mrs. M. K. Anderson.

They searched for property of their own  and purchased Lot 12 in the abandoned Military Reservation on the east side of the harbor from a squatter, Mr. Bonelli, for $205.00 on July 27, 1898.  According to a letter written by their daughter Mabel, “on November 10th, 1898, the Iliff brothers built a ‘ten room house, 4 other out buildings, barn 32 x 38, Valuation $1,800 with a promise of clearing 6 1/2 acres’.” 

The Iliff and Sund Houses

The Neighborhood

“It wasn’t until 1908 that Congressman Francis W. Cushman introduced a bill in Congress to gave the squatters a deed to their properties.  When the bill passed, a new survey was conducted “which resulted in our giving cleared land on the south, and acquiring huge stumps on the north.  This deed was for 9.42 acres at $2.50 per acre.  Later we got our tidelands.”  (again from Mabel’s letter regarding her family)  Mabel sold the family property in 1943.

The Iliff Family Home with Family in Front Garden

Maurice died August 16, 1909, and is buried in the Gig Harbor Cemetery, Plot Lot 48, Section 3;  Ella M. Gilbert Iliff died September 4, 1938 and Mabel E. Iliff Proctor died in January 1968 and both buried in the same plot and section as Maurice.   

Gladys Para, who used to write “Old Town” articles in the Peninsula Gateway wrote an article on the Iliff Family on Wednesday, August 6, 1986.  In it Gladys mentioned several other families that lived around the same area and were neighbors to the Iliff family.  She stated that Fred Kaehler purchased the Iliff property, and since he was a log scaler the waterfront property became a log dump as it had been in the early days when the Iliff first purchased the land.  When the Iliff family originally purchased the property there was a steam railroad which carried logs down 3 miles of Crescent Valley; then dumping them on the bay just in front of the house before Iliff received the rights to the tidelands in 1908/09.

The railroad tracks for the logging in Crescent Valley

* Mabel E. Proctor letter

*Ancestry.com - 1890 Census; Marriage Record

* Find a Grave site

* Peninsula Gateway August 6, 1986 (Gladys Para)

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Wednesday diary entry, Wednesday, July 11, 1883

On July 11, 1883, Emmett Hunt wrote:  Moderately warm & hazy.  GW's people moved home again & left me.  I spent my time in putting timber.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

The Fourth of July

What does the Fourth of July immediately bring to mind?  Fireworks, picnics, barbecues, swimming, family reunions, and on and on with summer in full swing.  Oh, occasionally, a little history facts might enter the picture but most of the time, those facts are in the background.  So today I thought it might be interesting to share a few facts and myths about the Fourth of July.

July 4, 1776 - the first Fourth?  Nope, the Continental Congress decided on July 2, 1776 “This day the Continental Congress declared the United Colonies Free and Independent States” as published that same day (July 2, 1776) by the Pennsylvania Evening Post.    

This was confirmed in a letter John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail on July 3rd wherein he stated or predicted “the Second of July, 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America.  I am apt to believe it will be celebrated by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival.”   John went on to say  the occasion should be celebrated “with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one end of the Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more.”  However it was not until a year later  that the first fireworks were exploded.  Again, according to the Pennsylvania Evening Post  on July 4, 1777 “The evening was closed with the ring of bells, and at night there was a grand exhibition of fireworks (which began and concluded with thirteen rockets) on the Commons, and the city was beautifully illuminated.  Everything was conducted with the greatest order and decorum, and the face of joy and gladness was universal.”  Similar fireworks were displayed in Boston.  Unfortunately a nineteenth century scholar quietly “corrected” the document to read not the second but the “fourth”.

Celebrations in honor of the Fourth of July really became more common following the War of 1812, and it wasn’t until 1870 nearly a hundred years after the Declaration was written that Congress first declared that July 4 be included as a national holiday as part of the bill recognizing several holidays including Christmas.  In 1939 and 1941 further legislation was passed regarding national holidays.

The Declaration of Independence was not signed on the 4th of July.  Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration of Independence in June, 1776.Most delegates signed the document on August 2, 1777 and several signed later, with names of all signees not released to the public until January, 1777 according to David McCullough in his biography of Adams.  It, the Declaration of Independence, was delivered to Great Britain, not on July 4th, but in November 1776.

Did the Liberty Bell ring in honor of the American Independence?  No one really knows.  The story about it happening was made up by writer George Lippard in a children’s book he wrote in the nineteenth century for children, Legends of the American Revolution.  According to the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission, although it did not ring on the 2nd or the 4th, it rang for the first public readings of the Declaration of Independence on July 8.

Who sewed the first flag? There is no proof that Betsy Ross did, although she was a seamstress. However, Frances Hopkinson designed the flag and he sent a bill to the Board of Admiralty in May 1780 for designing the “flag of the United States”.  As for Betsy Ross House in Philadelphia, there is no proof that Betsy Ross herself ever lived there according to a study by the Joint State Government Commission of Pennsylvania conducted in 1949.  

Did John Adams and Thomas Jefferson both die on July 4th?  Yes, on July 4, 1826 fifty years after the adoption of the Declaration of Independence both men died.

The pictures include only a few from the Gig Harbor Washington peninsula.

Grange Float 4th July 1922

4th July Parade - 1950 ?

4th July Parade - 1950 ?

4th July Parade - undated

4th July Parade - undated

Cromwell School Flag Drill for the 4th July 1917

History News Network HNN 

National Geographic Daily News - 4th of July:  Nine Myths Debunked

Slate The Rockets’ Red, White and Blue Glare

ConstitutionFacts.Com The Story of the Fourth of July

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary Wednesday, July 4, 1883

Warm, warm.  Went to ..ake Bay for fun & pulled a skiff all the way alone.  Considering circumstances did well but paid pretty dear for the whistle.  Had it not been for that big "skewlmarm"& that other girl should have been left.  Played about 1/2 the night.


© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.