Emmett Hunt's Diary entry for Wednesday, February 27, 1884

Bright sunny & warm.  Finished puttying the boat & set her up ready for some paint.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Captain Nels G. Christensen

When looking through the files at Harbor History Museum in Gig Harbor, like any search in other museums, it is like opening a treasure chest.  You never know or anticipate the treasure that will catch your attention, or why?  What was there about the treasure you found?  I have no answers.  I know everyone’s treasure may be different.  

But my treasure for today is the following letter I discovered.  This very heartfelt letter was written April 30, 1987 to the Washington State Historical Society Centennial Hall of Honor Committee in Tacoma, Washington.

Dear Committee Members:

I would like to nominate my uncle, Capt. Nels G. Christensen, to the Washington State Historical Society Centennial Hall of Fame.  He was captain and owner of the Virginia I, II, III, IV and V passenger boats on puget sound.

Nels G. Christensen was born in Denmark, in 1872.  As an infant he arrived in the U. S. with his parents.  The family settled in Seattle, Washington in 1876.

Grown to manhood and married in Seattle, he moved his family to Lisabuela on Vashon Island, March 12, 1908.  A barge with a tugboat to tow, transferred all their possessions plus lumber for a new house to be built on the Island.

During the next year he became dissatisfied with the commuting service, the water transportation was not adequate for the residences of the West Pass.  The summer of 1910 several meetings of interested men was held, to attempt to solve this problem.  Nels was elected to collect enough money to buy a boat.  His efforts resulted in zero dollars.

A friend and neighbor, John Holm, later agreed to put up half the money, $2,00.00 ($62,500.00 in 2014).  The next day for $5,000.00 ($125,000 in 2014), Nels bought the … boat Virginia Merrill.  She was renamed and christened Virginia I, the first of the Virginia series was started.  Captain Christensen was founder, and president, of the West Pass Transportation Company from 1909-1936.

John Holm dropped out of the company after one year.  Capt. Christensen continued to hold controlling interest in the company stock, for the next thirty years.

The service of the Virginia I was so dependable the business expanded.  Over the years the Virginia II, III, IV and V continued the water service on Puget Sound from Seattle to Tacoma.  These boats were a part of the well-known “Mosquito Fleet”.

The Virginia V was constructed in 1922, the last passenger steamboat to be built on the sound.  The Virginia V was designed by Capt. Christensen, and built for him at Maplewood, Washington.

Capt. Christensen died July 19, 1936.  The Marine Digest July 25, 1936 printed “Capt. Christensen was long known as one of the constructive leaders in Puget Sound shipping.  He had the confidence,, esteem, and friendship, of the North West business world, as well as the waterfront shipping circle and the traveling public.  He founded the West Pass Transportation Co. in 1909, and from then until his death was its active head and manager.  No other transportation concern now engaged in the sounds local routes, had such a record of continuity of control, and managership by one man.  In the west pass district embracing the west side of Vashon Island, and the mainland districts on the opposite side of that body of water, Capt. Christensen had come to be regarded as an institution in himself.”

In 1973 the Virginia V was placed on the “National Register of Historical Sites, a testimony to her well deserved distinction, as a contribution to the annuals of American History.”

Under the auspices of the Virginia V Foundation and the Northwest Steamboat Company, and many volunteers, she will celebrate her 65th university this June 1987.

The well built Virginia V is still using the steam engine from the Virginia IV steamer, & has outlived all other steamboats on the sound.

To-day the Virginia V is still a pleasure steamer plying the waters of Puget Sound.

Thank you for reading this,

Sincerely

Wallace Christensen

Deck Hand 1928-1929

References:  1. Family History

2. Isle of the Sea Breezes - Roland Carey

3. Steamboats - Virginia V - M. S. Kline

4.  (Not legible)

Of course, once I read the letter then all sorts of questions entered my mind; most important of course was, did Captain Nels G. Christensen’s name get placed on the Washington State Historical Hall of Fame.  Joy Weblink, Research Librarian, WA State Historical Society, has advised that Capt. Christensen was not one of the 100 Washingtonians selected for the WA State Centennial Hall of Honor in 1989.  That does not however diminish his contributions to sea transportation in the Puget Sound.

Virginia III at Pier 4, Seattle.  Originally "Typhoon II" and built for Lorenz Bros. in Tacoma in 1910.  91 Tons, 92.8 ft long, 19.4 ft. beam, 5.5 draught.  In 1914 acquired by West Pass Transportation Company and completely remodeled & renamed Virginia III.  One of her captains was a J. J. Macmillan who died 1935 at age 43.

I do know that the Tyrus built by the Lorenz Brothers was sold to West Pass Transportation Company in 1918 and renamed Virginia IV.   I also found a reference in Google Books -Pacific Marine Review, Vol. 15, The Past Month in Tacoma by Special Correspondent “The passenger steamer Tyrus, built here in 1904 by the Lorenz Brothers, has been sold by them to West Pass Transportation Company, and will be operated between Tacoma and Seattle, via the East Pass route, both in freight and passenger trade.  The new owners have been running boats on the West Pass route for several years.”

Built by John J. Hill, Tacoma, 1904, for Lorenz Bros. (Ed, Otto & Oscar).  174 Ton passenger steamer, 97.6 ft long, 22.7 ft. beam, 6.7 draught.  Sold Nels Christensen of Lisabuela 1918 renamed Virginia IV.  Wrecked 4/24/1935 near entrance to Lisianski St. while bound for Kimshan Cove, AK

In an article on the “History of the Virginia V” I found that the Virginia Merrill Captain Christensen’s first steamboat was a 54-foot (16 m) long gasoline-powered tug, and Capt. Christensen converted her into a small ferry.

The engine which powered the Virginia V as mentioned by Wallace Christensen in his last sentence was a “1898 triple expansion reciprocating steam engine built by Heffernan Iron Works of Seattle, an engine that was originally fitted into her predecessor, Virginia IV”. 

I discovered at the Tacoma Public Library Northwest Room Image Archives that the crew of the Virginia V saved several people when a municipal streetcar crashed through the gate of the 11th Street (Murray Morgan) Bridge plunging into the Thea Foss waterway.  The streetcar broke apart spilling passengers as it fell.  The Virginia V was docked nearby and the crew rushed into action, pulling several people from the water four of which were injured.  The death count was five.  Crew members included:  David Balduzi, Alfred Jergenson, J. Christensen, Joe Brooks, Claude Williams, Al Torgeson and Capt. Nels Christensen.

Karen Borell wrote an excellent history of Lisabeula for the Washington Water Trails Association - Cascadia Marine Trail.  I suggest reading it to better understand Captain Christensen’s home on Vashon Island.

Have I whetted your imagination yet on how much you can learn from a simple letter?  (Are you ready to become a history detective?

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary entry for Wednesday, February 20, 1884

Considerable warmer.  Some snow some fog & some rain, steady rain in eve.  Snow 22 inches this morn.  Put in the day puttying boat.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Delano Beach

Delano Beach is located on the Key Peninsula in the vicinity of Lakebay and Longbranch.  The Delano Beach Park is 3.1 acres of undeveloped land listed on the Pierce County, Washington Proposed Park System.  It’s classifications have not yet been assigned to a zone, a management unit, or a proposed park classification.  

But that is not what we want to talk about; instead we want to remember the man whose name is attached to Delano Beach:  Captain George E. Delano.

Our story begins whenCaptain Delano was in command of a 3-masted square rigger, “Austria”, owned by A. M. Simpson, a San Francisco lumber baron.  The “Austria” was heavy with ballast headed for the Puget Sound on January of 1887.  When they were about a week out of San Francisco they got caught up in a raging storm just off Cape Alava’s Umatilla Reef, and were pushed towards the rocky coastline.  Captain Delano described it as:

“Immediately we made all possible sail and headed northwest by north.  The vessel, making leeway, bore around heading south-southwest.  Lost foresail, fore topsail and mizzen stay sail - all new canvas blown out of the bolt ropes.  The vessel was still making leeway and drawing nearer  the shore.”    

Captain Delano realized that the best he could hope for was to try to hit the softest spot on shore.  At 7:30 a.m. on January 21 they hit the jagged rocks just south of Cannonball Island.  Again Captain Delano “It was one chance in a thousand that anyone was saved, but we succeeded in getting on shore all safe and no one hurt, although the sea was running mountains high and breaking all over the rock.”   

“The next day it moderated some and we went on board and got our stores and clothing.  It was intensely cold and had it not been for the Indians (Ozettes) on the beach, I guess we would have froze to death.”  

The Captain then started out on a 30-mile hike to Neah Bay to report the shipwreck, and hope to returned in another vessel to pick up his crew and whatever salvage they could recover from the wrecked “Austria”.  He reported back to his wife, Edith Helen Weeks Delano, “ I frosted my face walking from the wreck to Neah Bay . . .over the roughest ground I ever saw.  I got through all right, but pretty well used up, so stiff I hardly could move the next day.”  

While in Neah Bay he learned that the distress signal had been heard but the “Wolcott”, a revenue cutter that would have rescue them was awaiting fuel there in Neah Bay.  Once fuel arrived and the “Wolcott” refueled, it returned with him to Cape Alava.  

Captain Delano removed everything possible from the wrecked “Austria” before he allowed the “Wolcott” with him, his crew and the salvage to leave.   Taking the salvage was important because as was customary, the captain or master of a sailing ship was given a share of the total capital invested in the vessel and cargo.  The “Austria” built in 1869 had an estimated value at time of loss of $20,000 ($571,428.57 in 2014).  The vessel’s insurance coverage was $7,000 ($200,000 in 2014), and salvaged materials another $3,000 ($85,714.29).  The ship’s loss meant that he, Captain Delano was bankrupt. *(Captain Delano’s percentage or share was not provided in in the information I had for this article.)  He wrote his father-in-law telling of the incident and said “I don’t know what I will do now, but I guess I will have to go to farming.”

Captain Delano sent for his wife, Edith, and their daughter, Virginia, to join him in the Pacific Northwest.  He chartered a small boat from Captain Lorenz and spent about a month hunting for a piece of land to make their new home.  The spot that finally appealed to him was a small harbor, nine miles from Tacoma, and had a quarter mile of tide flats on Carr Inlet.  He bought 200 races from the federal government and had planned to open a hull-scraping business.  But that plan fell through when Bremerton installed up-to-date dry docks.

So then he and Edith did turn to farming, but having left home at age 13 for the sea to avoid farming, it still held little interest for him.  And so, in 1890, they decided to invest what little money they had in building a 20-bed hotel, including a living room, and outdoor dining room, and a postoffice.  Later they added 24 separate sleeping cottages.

Neither Captain Delano nor his wife had any background in hotel management.  But back in Maine, Edith’s family always seemed to have a house full of guests.  Edith wrote her parents: “I shall be happy to act as hostess for the hotel, but I will do none of the work.”

Edith’s skills of supervision were most likely picked up back home in Maine and were the results of watching her father’s ability to manage the farm and the farm crews, as well as her mother’s management of the house and household staff.

And, as hostess Edith,  she ran the hotel for a successful 40 years while Captain Delano went back to sea . . .  The last vessel I found that Captain Delano sailed on, and captained, was the “Everett Griggs”.   I believe it was owned by the St. Paul Lumber Company, Tacoma, WA.  It was a six masted barquentine (barkentine) sailing ship.

Note:

• The Seattle Times, Sunday, September 27, 1964 - “Remember Delano Beach?” by Margaret Sedgwick Powell
• The News Tribune, Tacoma, Sunday August 30, 1981 - “Faded Pictures, letters tell history of Delano Family” by Emily Walker
• Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary 
• State Library of Victoria (digital image of vessel Everett Griggs in full sail)
• Pierce County, WA Proposed Park System Classification

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary entry for Wednesday, February 13, 1884

Just the same or a truffle colder.  Finished ribbing our boat and began dressing her surface which goes along beautifully.  W- boys came down in eve.  Firring Baby night & morning now to keep her alive & free from frost if possible.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Hubert Blaine Secor

A couple weeks ago while reading the blog on Gig Harbor Sand & Gravel Co., we learned that Tom Myers owned a bus line running from Bremerton to Tacoma, aptly named Bremerton-Tacoma Stage Line, in 1939.  This naturally reminds us of Hubert Secor and the bus service which he started in 1922 with the total capital of $45.

But before we discuss the bus line let’s step back a moment and start with the arrival of the Secor family in the Gig Harbor area.  Hubert’s maternal Grandfather, Robert Irvin Franklin arrived on the Gig Harbor Peninsula in 1886 with his second wife, Sarah H. Benway Franklin (1847-1901).  His first wife, Elizabeth Ann Dickens Franklin who had died in 1875 was “Littie’s” (Artalissa Naomi Franklin Secor) mother.  

David E. Secor had married Littie Franklin in 1878 in Colorado where he was engaged in mining. They then moved to Elma, Washington from Colorado with their two sons, Eugene (1879-1946) and Hubert (1892/1972), and then to Tacoma in 1904; in 1905 David served as a Deputy Sheriff and assisted in the quelling strike disturbances in Pierce County.  The Lonshoremen’s Union and the Sailor’s Union disagreement erupted into battle causing one death and numerous injuries.  

The family arrived on the Gig Harbor Peninsula in 1907 to care for Littie’s ailing father.  (Hubert was 15 that year.)  

Littie went on to become one of the founding members of the Gig Harbor Fortnightly Club.

1907 Gig Harbor Fortnightly Club members

  David was active in political and civic affairs, as well as associated in the bus business with Hubert.  Hubert’s brother, Eugene, was employed by the Peninsula Gateway following his schooling.   Eugene was also known throughout the community as being one of the better horseshoe pitchers in Gig Harbor.

Eugene Secor, Peninsula Gateway's office

Like so many of the early Gig Harbor residents, Hubert took the ferry to Tacoma where he attended Stadium High School.  Following his graduation, Hubert went to work for the telephone company, first in Tacoma at Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, and then in Gig Harbor with the Island Empire Telephone & Telegraph Company.

In 1922 at the age of 30, Hubert and his father, David, began a bus service.  On May 12, 1922, the State of Washington Department of Transportation issued a certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to H. B. Secor, to furnish passenger, express and freight service between Gig Harbor and Tacoma.  Certificate was transferred to Henry Kaffenberger and H. B. Secor d/b/a Gig Harbor-Tacoma Transportation Co. on September 8, 1922.   Followed by a transfer to H. B. Secor on 2/16/23, passenger and express service only.  The route was to and from Gig Harbor and Tacoma.

This was the original garage in 1922

Hubert leased the Scarponi family garage at 8802 North Harborview Drive, located just a few doors southwest of Uddenberg’s Market.  His first bus was a White Motor Company bus, and soon exchanged for a larger Pierce-Arrow bus, and in 1924, a second Pierce-Arrow bus was purchased.   Roscoe Savage was hired to drive the second bus, and then, perhaps as early as 1926, Roy Clark 

took his place.

As well as transporting passengers, Hubert had a contract to carry mail between Tacoma and Gig Harbor twice a day for approximately 10 years.  The fare was 25 cents one-way to Tacoma including the ferry fare.  Rides in and around Gig Harbor only to run errands, et cetera, were free.

Passengers in the early days included students going to Stadium High School in Tacoma since Gig Harbor did not yet have a high school.  Some of those students included Ruth and Erick Erickson, Nellie Austin, and Bertha Lund.  Dr. William Treutle, Sr., a dentist in Tacoma, and Mr. Brintnall, a printer for one of Tacoma’s newspapers were also passengers.

Sometime between 1922 and 1928, Hubert added a run from Gig Harbor to Bremerton using an eleven passenger Studebaker bus, again with two round trips daily.  By 1928 two additional daily bus routes were added to the Tacoma run.  All the drivers were required to be 21 years old or older.  The drivers, Hubert and Oroville Hemphill, worked 12 hours a day; Hubert 6 AM to 6 PM, and Oroville 8 AM to 8 PM.  Their daily wages were each $4.40 per day.

Gig Harbor Stage at Head of Harbor in front of the Sweeney Building

C. Mojean, driver, Gig Harbor Bus

On February 1, 1931, according to information provided by a Mr. George R. Llewellyn of Silverdale, WA, the route’s certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity was transferred to Joseph Lyons, owner of the Tacoma Bus Company.  However, Hubert continued to drive the bus until 1934.

In 1929, Hubert and his wife, Marian, had started Minterbrook Oyster Company on the Key Peninsula at Minter Bay and Rocky Bay.  So it was only natural that when he decided to sell the bus company and stop driving, he would devote his full time attention to growing the oyster business.  He and Marian would continue to maintain and operate the oyster company until 1954.  That year, they sold the operations and company to Harold and Beverly Wiksten who continued expanding the business until finally selling it in 2012 to Kent, Donna, Austin and Garrett Kingman.  The Kingman family operates Mintercreek Oyster Company today.

In 1964, Hubert Secor was elected mayor of Gig Harbor; in 1969 he had a stroke which led to his death in 1972 at age 80.  He worked for a few years for the Pierce County Road Department and was involved in many community activities during his lifetime.

Secor's Garage as listed on the Gig Harbor Historic Inventory 2008 Listing

*************

Note:  Courtesy of Mr. Llewellyn:  “On May 12, 1922, the State of Washington Department of Transportation issued a certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity to H. B. Secor, to furnish passenger, express and freight service between Gig Harbor and Tacoma.  Certificate was transferred to Henry Kaffenberger and H. B. Secor d/b/a Gig Harbor-Tacoma Transportation Co. on September 8, 1922.   Followed by a transfer to H. B. Secor on 2/16/23, passenger and express service only. Transferred to Tacoma Bus Company, 2/1/31.  Added service between Tacoma and Bremerton via Gig Harbor.  Certificate transferred to Bremerton-Tacoma Stages, Inc. 12/10/1934.  Added service between Purdy and Longbranch via Wauna, Vaughn, Home, and Lakebay, Bremerton and Shelton via Navy Yard; Bremerton and Eldon; Eldon and Port Angeles 9/4/46.

Note: 

 Mintercreek Oyster Company 

Find-A-Grave Memorial for Secor Family Members

Peninsula Gateway Obituaries    

Pierce County Hazard Identification & Risk Assessment

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary entry for Wednesday, February 6, 1884

A cloudless day again & cold.  Albert & I put in 27 ribs today & it was doing well enough for the time we worked.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.