Emmett Hunt's Diary Entry for February 18, 1885

Somewhat rainy but not all rain.  Delivered freight and cut wood to fill up time.

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McNeil Island

The Map described below as gifted to Harbor History Museum

The Harbor History Museum was very fortunate a couple weeks ago when they were gifted a copy of McNeil Island that was drawn sometime around 1936 showing everything on the island from property owners to schools to the territorial cell house.

And it got me to thinking that few of us know very little about its history;  most people know about the federal penitentiary and  its closure in 2011.  But how many of us realize how intertwined the history of McNeil Island, Anderson Island, Eagle Island and Steilacoom?  I didn’t.  Betsey John Cammon, born in 1886 on Anderson Island, known as Wallace Island in the 1870-1880s expressed the connection this way that following her wedding to Oscar Cammon in July, 1906:  “Coming to McNeil to live, where Oscar and his brother Martin had, several years earlier, butlt their bachelor home, wasn’t like coming to a strange land.  McNeil and Anderson Island people had been and were at this time close neighbors…..We moved to our newly-built home on Anderson Island in 1916.”  So other than those short ten years, and her time teaching at Kapowsin, she lived her entire life on Anderson Island.

The island was originally charted in 1841 by Captain Charles Wilkes specifically during his exploration of Puget Sound.  As was his want, Captain Wilkes named the island.  He chose, as HistoryLink.org put it, “On a rampage, he even saluted the British with Anderson Island for the chief trade at Fort Nisqually, Alexander Canfield Anderson, and McNeil Island for a Hudson’s Bay “chief factor” named William Henry McNeill.”  However when naming the island, Captain Wilkes dropped one ‘l’ and so, McNeil Island it became.

William Henry McNeill was captain of a Boston built brig Llama which he sailed from Boston to the Pacific Northwest on a fur trading expedition in 1830.  Two years later while in Honolulu Roderick Finlayson, Hudson’s Bay Chief Factor for the Pacific Northwest, purchased the brig and retained Captain McNeill as Captain.  But by doing so, the Hudson’s Bay Company was forced to make an exception to their ‘all British employees’ and for the first time had a ship commanded by someone very familiar with the west coast.  By 1836, steamship started replacing the brigs, and Captain McNeill took over command of the S. S. Beaver, and later the Una.

The earliest days of settlement did not start until, in 1850, the United States Donation Land Claim Act was enacted by the U. S. Congress.

In 1853 we find Ezra Meeker settling on McNeil Island and he is thought to have been the first white settler on McNeill.  His proportion which he never filed the paperwork for his claim, later became the the territorial cell house, and then the federal penitentiary.  After building a log cabins for  his wife and child to live in, he and his brother Oliver left to guide their parents and their party across the Cascade mountain range.   I know most of us always associate Ezra Meeker with Puyallup after he left his home in Ohio and came west.  But before he moved to Puyallup in 1862, he owned a farm and built a home on McNeil Island.  Just one interesting fact about Erza Meeker that doesn’t belong in this blog about McNeil Island but I thought should be shared is:  “He found another kind of success when he began his efforts to mark the route of the Oregon Trail that he and Eliza Jane had taken west in 1852. Now in his 70's but still hale and hearty, Meeker crossed the continent with his replica covered wagon, raising funds to erect memorials along the route and eventually meeting with President Theodore Roosevelt in Washington, D. C. Meeker became a splendid publicist, issuing booklets and postcards, inspiring newspaper and magazine articles about his efforts. Before his death in 1928, just a few days shy of his 98th birthday, Ezra Meeker had not only walked the Oregon Trail several times, he'd ridden along it in an automobile and aboard a train, and flown over it in an airplane: he'd come a long way, and for many his story symbolized the opportunities that had been available on the frontier.” 

The map gifted to the museum, dated ca. 1920-1936, is quite important because it shows all the various property owners including the federal cell house that was built originally in 1873, ownership placed under the direction of the United States Marshall in November 1874 and changed to a ‘territorial’ prison. As mentioned earlier, this was the property which Ezra Meeker originally claimed but when he left for Puyallup was turned over or sold to J. W. McCarthy, Jr. and then purchased by Jay Emmons Smith.  Smith then sold it, all 27 acres,  to the territorial government for $100 in 1870.   When it opened in 1875 it housed nine prisoners.  In 1889 when Washington was admitted to the Union, and afterwards, in 1893, the prison received its first warden, Gilbert L. Palmer and a custodial force of seven guards.

Other than an isolated settler here and there, it wasn’t until the 1880’s when settlers really populated the island.  Betsey Johnson Cammon writes in her book “Island Memoir” “An old map of McNeil made at this time (1880) by David White, a civil engineer, shows fifteen land owners.  They were:  J. Brown, J. Hawk, P. A. Berry, J. Holm, J. Smith, W.S. Label, F.A. McCarty, J. Swan, J. Ross, J.S. Ward,s. Shucker, G. E. Smith, E. J. Clendenen, Dilley Brackel, and A. Harrison.  (The only familiar names among the list are J. Holm and J. S. Ward.)  All but three of the above_named owned waterfront property.  By contrast, on the Anderson Island map made by David white at the same time we find twenty-eight landowners.

The largest property owners on our 1936 map included Clark and Hunt, A. B. Savage, H. Halverson and the school property.  Including the school and penitentiary property there were 207 property owners that I counted on the map.  Small farms were the general rule.  The first school was established in 1888 and remained until 1936 at which time everyone was forced to vacate the island except for prison employees and the school then was kept open to service the children of prison employees.  It closed permanently 1980.

McNeil Island eventually had three post offices the first in opened in the Benjamin F. McCain General Store in 1895.  The Meridian Post Office was originally opened on the mainland but moved to McNeil Island west side in 1915 opposite where it had been on the mainland.

The third post office was established in January 1900 inside Carl Johan Julin’s store which he had built in 1899 in Still Harbor. It carried the name Gertrude Post Office after the small island sitting in Still Bay.  (Gertrude Island housed St. Anne’s which was a home for unwedded girls.)  Julin served as postmaster 14 years until his death in 1922.  He originally settled on the island in 1884 and his family remained living on the island until forced out in 1936 by the federal government.  It is also interesting to discover his daughter, Nina Julin Ulsh was Wes Ulsh’s mother.  Julia worked at the Johnson Woodyard on Anderson Island rowing back and forth each day until he opened his store.  But all this time he continued to farm his land.  He and his wife, Ida, had five sons and four daughters.

iPhone picture of the Julin Family from Island Memoir by Betsey John Cammon

Like the greater Gig Harbor Peninsula and other surrounding areas, McNeil Island was heavily wooded.  Settlers had to remove the timber to build their homes and to cultivate their farms.  But they also discovered that if surplus timber was cut into cords, or kept in marketable logs, it could be sold for profit bringing in needed income.  There were several individuals logging as well as logging companies such as Meridian Logging Company.

Once the logs were available it was helpful to establish sawmills, and Betsey Johnson Cammon tells us there were several both large and small sawmills.  Joe Floyd on of the loggers had one on his property at Meridian.  His equipment was sold to Willis Thomas Parr & Norgren Bros. who built their own sawmill on the west side off Pitt Passage.  Parr bought his partners out in 1910, renamed the the sawmill Parr Manufacturing Company and besides producing cut lumber and shingles he also manufactured fruit boxes.  The mill was also known as the West End Mill.  It was destroyed by fire in 1926.

The largest mill was the Washington Lumber and Box Company started in 1908 by partners - Herbert Williams, the Cammon brothers and the Johnson brothers.  Within a short time, the partnership was bought out by Zech and Munson of Puyallup.  I’m not sure whether the operator Mr. Bach, also from Puyallup, was just an employee or new owner.  However the last owner was George A. Misener of Tacoma and retained ownership until 1936.

Being an island, boats were and remain as necessity for transportation to leave the island for any purpose.  The Hunt Bros. of Gig Harbor, the Lorenz Bros. of Lakebay, the Bay Island Producers Union were just a few of the folks providing transportation for people and goods on and off the island.  Even the Skansie brothers Washington Navigation Company provided service at one time.

But it was not all work and no play for the people living on McNeil Island.  Hagar Miller, a bachelor farmer, was active in forming the McNeil Island Library Association in 1909 and served as its first president.   The association was quite successful in raising funds to buy a lot, build a two story hall for meetings and library, dressing rooms, kitchen and dining room and nice entrance hall with the stairway to the second level.  but also, on the second floor have a stage for plays with a sizable auditorium.  He was also active as the manager and coach of the Still Harbor Baseball team.   When Miller married, he sold his farm to Albert and Selma Westrom and left the island.  

The folks on the south side of the island established the South Side Improvement Club and one of the first things it did was work with the Pierce County Commissioners to get a dock built.  The entire island benefited from it.  

Like all the other communities around, McNeil Island had a service organization, The Helping Hand Club.  Membership was made up by people from all over the island, and they lived up to their name.  Fifteen of their young meant serviced in the military during World War I; and three served in the Spanish-American War against Pancho Villa in 1916 in New Mexico.  They lost one soldier in each of the two wars.

And of course we mustn’t forget their church founded by the Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Sunne Congregation of Anderson and McNeil Island.  Their first meeting was held at Carl Juliann’s home to decide where to build the church in 1896.  Edwin Iverson donated some of his property on McNeil Island, northwest of the south dock.  The church was used until the forced closure of McNeil Island by the federal government.  All of the existing history, articles of incorporation, membership information (births, confirmations, marriages, deaths) as well as two books of meetings, minutes, and reports, in Swedish are archived at Pacific Lutheran University along with letters of dismissal. 

Betsey Johnson Cammon’s earliest memory of Sunday School was in 1891, and although she lived on Anderson Island as did many of the church members, everyone attended church on McNeil Island.  First in Julin’s home and then in the school house until the church building was erected.

We learned a little about Carl Julin earlier in the discussion of the post office, his farm, and his store.  But I was unable to discover a lot about Mr. Iverson except Betsey Johnson Cammon’s description:  “Mr. Iverson was a retired gardener who had been in partnership in the nursery business with a Mr. Carlson in Tacoma.  He lived on his fifteen-acre tract just north of the South Side Dock.  There he delighted in growing things, giving to his neighbors generously.  He even came to Anderson Island.  I remember him making a lovely border of flowers for Mama Johnson.”

Eric and Martha Nyberg, island pioneers, donated the land for the first cemetery. Charles Larsen, president, and James Ward, secretary, managed the cemetery and all the settlers helped to maintain it.  The first burial occurred in 1905 when Christian Tangen died, and the second occurred that same year when Carl Tangen was accidentally killed in a logging accident. When all residents were forced to leave in 1936 the cemetery was closed, the remains exhumed and reburied in cemeteries on the mainland.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McNeil_Island

Gradually the federal government started buy additional property, first for a prison garden, then for water rights so that by 1931 the federal government owned almost half of the island: 2,303.1 acres versus total island acreage of 4,445 acres.  Now, they were raising steers for beef and milking cows as well as pigs and vegetables with a few chickens thrown in the mix as well.

By 1936, the federal government was exercising their rights to eminent domain as well as the individual purchases and fee simple title granted to the U. S. Government for the entire island.  By 1940 the entire island was under federal control.  http://www.doc.wa.gov/facilities/prison/micc/mcneilhistory.asp

I found the following article in the October 8, 1979 Spokane Daily Chronicle:

“Island Heirs Set Suit”

“TACOMA (AP) - About 100 former McNeil Island property owners and the heirs gathered here over the weekend to officially organize their effort to win back property confiscated by the government in 1936 for the federal penitentiary.

“The group members, called McNeil Island Heirs, intend to go to federal court to challenge a 1949 law which says former owners of federal land have no special rights to regain their land if the government declares it surplus.

“The government plans to close the century-old prison by January 1982 and turn the 4,400-acre island over to the General Services Administration for disposal.” 

The Appendix in Betsey Johnson Cammon’s book "Island Memoir”  states 

“Land Owners in 1936

THE DISTRICT COURT OF THE UNITED STATES FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF WASHINGTON in the matter of the petition of the United States of America to condemn, appropriate and take certain real estate and other property rights adjacent to the United States Penitentiary at McNeil Island, and all of Gertrude Island and Pitt Island, all in Pierce County, State of Washington.

And this paragraph is followed by a list of all property owners at that time.

iPhone picture of 1936 McNeil Island Property Owners from Island Memoir by Betsey Johnson Cammon

Note:

• Island Memoir, A Personal History of Anderson and McNeil Islands, by Betsey Johnson Cammon
• Images of America Anderson Island by Elizabeth Galentine and the Anderson Island Historical Society
• Wikipedia-McNeil History
• Washington State McNeil History
• Pacific Lutheran University Archives
• Spokane Daily Chronicle, 10/8/1979

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary Entry for February 11, 1885

Better day than yesterday tho a light shower or two.  Ran down to Tacoma with Alden's scow load of brick and got back at 2 P.M. after which - -  which?

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary Entry for February 4, 1885

Windy and squally with light showers.  Cut some wood and a little tinkering on water works & float finished the day except the eve at Pinochle, Quit too late.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Dr. Alfred Mark Burnham

I enjoy reading other’s articles, blogs and papers on people who eventually fall in love with, and  make their homes in, our community.   Or those born and raised here you leave our small community to do even greater things in the larger world both nationally and internationally.

Today I thought I would share with you an article that was written by Ed Shannon, Feature Writer for the Albert Lea Tribune, Albert Lea, Minnesota, on August 10, 1995.  I’ve seen other articles he wrote on Dr. Burnham, and attempted to contact him in the past.  But by the time I was familiar with his historical standing in Albert Lea he had retired from the newspaper and the Albert Lea Historical Museum.   I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.

Page 2 - ALBERT LEA TRIBUNE, Thursday, August 10, 1995

by ED SHANNON

Tribune Feature Writer

ITASCA — If Dr. Albert Mark Burnham had been more successful with his first big promotion back in the late 1850s, the Freeborn County Courthouse would have been a part of Paradise Prairie in a growing town named Itasca.

However, his prescription for the location of the county seat wasn’t filled in the November 1860 election which resulted in Albert Lea becoming the winner by 178 votes out of the 770 cast.

Despite this disappointment, the doctor remained in the county for about 25 years and combined a sporadic medical practice with a wild variety of commercial ventures.

He became a part of history as one of the county’s first residents, for being an aggressive promoter, and for later starting another new town further west in Washington.

Burnham was born Oct. 16, 1824, in Genesee County, N.Y., and graduated from the University of Buffalo in 1852 with a medical degree.  Within a few years he and his wife moved to Freeborn County.

The doctor is credited with the name Paradise Prairie for an area northwest of Albert Lea, and for being one of the three founders of the new town of Itasca.

According to one historian, “His first winter was spent at Shellack (Glenville) where he built a hotel, and on a contract for $244 constructed the first bridge across Shellack River.

Later he (Burnham) constructed a steam-propelled boat called the Itasca, on which he transported lumber and logs … uptake Shellack River, (across) Lake Albert Lea, (through Fountain Lake) and on up to his town-site, Itasca, on Paradise Prairie.

“Itasca soon claimed a hotel, a blacksmith shop, a shoemaker shop, a drugstore, a newspaper, and a dozen houses.

The purpose of all this was to secure for Itasca the dignified status of county seat.”

The trips of the good ship Itasca were made before there was a permanent dam at the outlet of Fountain Lake.

Burnham, incidentally, owned the hotel, the newspaper (named the Herald, which was published for a few years), an imposing two-story home with an observation tower, and a farm operation in Itasca.

The attention of the county was soon focused on the Civil War in 1861, and the Sioux Uprising on the Minnesota frontier the following year.

The doctor decided to enlist in the Tenth Minnesota Regiment in October 1862.  He was discharged just a year later “on a people’s petition” and returned to Itasca.

Burnham’s first wife died on June 7, 1865, at the age 34.  Her gravestone is in the historic Itasca Cemetery.

After the Civil War, Dr. Burnham somehow combined a local medical practice with several commercial activities.

News accounts tell of a gold mining operation in the Dakota Territory during 1866.

This was followed with an 1869 project involving the cutting and sales of wooden ties to the Union Pacific Railroad in the Wyoming Territory.  

He also sold cattle from time to time.

Dr. Burnham’s second wife, and their four children left Freeborn County and the gradually dying town of Itasca in early 1884 and moved west.

After living in Oregon for a short time, the family moved north to Tacoma, Wash.

Not far from this city on Puget Sound is a scenic bay known as Gig Harbor.

It was discovered in 1841 and named for a type of small rowboat.  Turnham thought this might be the place where he could start and promote a new community.  

A guide sponsored by the Washington State Historical Society says Gig Harbor’s “first settlers, Dr. Burnham and his family arrived in the early 80s…”  In reality, the date was 1886.

Gig Harbor quickly became a lumbering and fishing center.  Dr. A. M. Burnahm died on July 11, 1896, in the second town he started.

He lived to see it become more successful than the first one he tried to promote back in Minnesota.

Gig Harbor, Wash. is on the Kitsap Peninsula.  (Actually it is located on the Gig Harbor Peninsula, the southeastern most extremity of the vastly larger Kitsap Peninsula.)

Dr. Alfred Mark Burnham

Rachel Jane Turnham (2nd Wife)

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Emmett Hunt's Diary Entry for January 28, 1885

Very medium day.  Chaffed around considerable, cut a little wood, delivered what freight we bro up yesterday and so passed the day.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.

Estella Rust's Diary entires 12/24/1906-1/1/1907 and Christmas . . .

Estella Rust’s Diary Entries December 24, 1906 to January 1, 1907

Ettie, Arthur & Herbert came down on the morning train. Dr. went to Buckley.  Could not get turkey.  Got one turkey & two chickens at our market.  Gave the turkey to the Minister McHenry [?] and Gladys a little umbrella.

Arthur Ettie Herbert & Gus brought Abbie Brough & Dr & me here Xmas to dinner, had 2 chickens &c [etc] Had a Xmas tree looked very nice  Fred & Minnie sent us a stove for our feet in buggy a nice drawn work scarf and Laura sent me a cushion very pretty. 

Ettie gave me a paper holder very pretty & a red rocker bed and her & Arthur gave Dr a pr of Masonic cuff buttons A gave me a box stationary  He gave Dr a tooth pick holder *& me a bookThe Lady of the Lake Oscar Park gave Dr a jackstand  Annie Hanson gave me a lovely white apron  I gave Dr a rubber blanket for the carriage and a tin horn  He gave me a ring, a manicure set, nice, a book Prof at the Breakfast Table, a rose bowl  

He gave Abbie Brough a heller [Austrian coin] & box candy her father a tie & candy box

We gave Oscar Parks a book (150) candy tinhorn  We gave Ettie a spice cabinet A nice tablecloth candy  We gave Arthur The Circle Magazine one year a tie &c [etc]

Fay (?) got The Circle Mag one year

Laura a glove box perfumery

Missie [?] & Fred 6 volume of Poes works & a doll baker, perfumery Calendar

Vernon & Maud gave us a china plate & tea cup & saucer & a set of sleeve buttons for Dr very nice 

We gave them a glass water set must get them something more

I gave Mrs Ashman my rose bowl

Thursday night we went to an Eastern Star banquet given by the single gentlemen and initiated Tillie Cleymire

Ettie & Arthur & H went home Sat morn  Dec 29th  Dr drove them to Buckley to the ferry at the White River bridge and a livery team took them the other side of river and drove them all to the depot where they boarded the train for home the freshet [the flood of a river from heavy rain or melted snow; a rush of fresh water flowing into the sea] took out the RR bridge & wagon bridge too makes it very hard to travel

Fay [?] came up Sunday morning and went back Monday morn Dec 31st the last day of 1906  Oscar & me washed & swept the parlor & sitting room thoroughly  Doctor drove Fay [?] to the ferry and had team to meet them the other side and took him to Depot.

Snowed a little Jan 1st 1907

New Years Day

It is noon Dr arose at a few minutes to 6 o’clock built the fires and I arose at 6  He went to Kangley Oscar drove.

I ironed all of my clothes that was dry and have practiced one hour on my violin

Mrs Mc Haury called and gave me a picture of Gladys and one of church  They have left for Southern Oregon this church is to be supplied  Dr went to Kangley and earned & got $30

And now let us repeat a Christmas Blog originally published on December 19, 2013:

Christmas …. 

A glance at any social networking site reminds us of some people’s annual holiday viewings during the holidays.  They seem to take us back in memory to something we saw when we were young or younger; many an annual event we celebrate with our families as a holiday viewing or reading.  “A Wonderful Life” is one, normally an annual TV movie but this year shown at the Galaxy Theatre in Gig Harbor to a movie audience and it received lots of raves from the attendees.  In my family “The Dead” by James Joyce, Guy du Maupassant’s “The Necklace or La Parure” and “Joyeux Noel” a true story about the truce called by the British, Germans and French for Christmas Day during WWI. Other selections include Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol”; “The Gift of the Magi” O. Henry; Jean Shepherd’s A Christmas Story and “T’was the Night Before Christmas by Clement C. Moore.  Let’s us not forget that there are some less serious movies/books in the annual custom - “How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss”, movie by Ron Howard  or Jodie Foster’s “Home for the Holidays”.

But for the purpose of this holiday blog, I would like to share some memories as recorded by some of our earlier residents.  I hope you enjoy these few records of the holidays specially Christmas day/s in Gig Harbor’s past.

Emmett Hunt’s Diary for December 25, 1882 (Monday) “A day of surprising beauty.  Lovely Christmas!  Stroll promiscuously in AM.  In PM go to Mother’s get a huge dinner followed by Xmas tree, taffy pulling, a little invigorated, etc.”

But Lillian Vernhardson Fries description paints a large picture of their Christmas.  We always had a Christmas tree with real candles, Mamma made “Icelandic pancake,” a flat pancake made right on top of the stove.  She also made the little sweet rolled pancakes (crepes susette).  The best we had was our Christmas dinner.  On Christmas Eve we all went to church, where they had the Christmas program.  Little Sarah had not started school but she recited “Twas the Night Before Christmas” one year.  It was often raining hard.  Papa would go ahead with the lantern, we would follow in the mud.  It was (the) only time Papa ever went to church.  Our only Gig Harbor church at the Head of the Bay was Methodist, but our family was Lutheran.  Sam and Sadie later joined the Methodist church.

“The church was decorated and full of people.  All the children took part and it was a gay, warm time.  Each child received a stocking with candy.

“After we came home, we sang the Christmas carols that we had sung in church.  Papa sang “Hily Night, Silent Night” with us off-key, but it was so good to hear him singing.  Mamma said it was the only fault she could find with him was that his singing was not good.  We ate our candy and opened our presents.  Our presents from our folks was always needed clothes, but we got wonderful gifts from an aunt in Vancouver, B.C.  

“One year it was a necklace, one year it was an exquisite little doll, about 10 inches tall, with many clothes.  Aunt Ena worked as a domestic and how kind of her to think of her little nieces and nephew who would get little.  She also sent c;other from the children in whose household she had worked.  One was for me, a lovely cream-colored dress with a sailor collar.  

“In Hoquiam, our Christmases had been different the last few years there.  Papa had been a foreman at the mill and had Greeks working under him.  At Christmas they came with elaborate gifts for our family.  Black-eyed, black-haired mustached men, thinking perhaps of their own families back in Greece.  A big basket for Mamma filled with oranges and nuts and candy.  We always had that big basket afterwards.  Mechanical toys for Sam and a doll for me.  One year it was a marvelous jointed doll, its neck, arms, elbows, wrists, hips, knees were all jointed.  It had real hair and eyes that opened and closed.  I never got such a doll again.”

Then there are Clarence “Nick” Burnham’s (Dr. A. M. Burnham’s son) diary entries from 1930, 1942 and 1943.  “1930:  Spaded some.  Took the truck out to see if the speedometer worked, it did.  Bis *took Lee for groceries.  Lee went to town to Don’s for dinner.  … stopped & gave Bis & I a drink of whiskey.  Fine day.”   1942 “Bis, Smith & I piled the mill wood that was dumped in the yard.  I gave Smith lead & ladle to … a jigger to fish for Ling Cod off Pt. Defiance.  I finished cultivating the … berries.  Made an iron shoe for Ashford’s boat.  Cold & heavy frost tonight some ice.”  1943 “Rain last night clear & warm today.  Arthur & Zell came to Lee’s we had a small tree and we had a fine time.  Lee had a turkey.  We had a lot of funny toys among the real presents.”  *Throughout the records you will find Bismark’ nickname spelled either Bis or Biz.  Nick wrote it as “Bis” which I used.  Since they were brothers I believe it is only appropriate. 

Estella Rust wrote in her 1912 Diary on Wednesday, December 25th “A good Xmas day.  We ate dinner at Etties had duck, chiken (sic) and everything good.  We sent cards to Mrs. Van Der Volgen & Wm. Mrs. Thompson, Ulman, Taylor John Frank & Hal, Herb & wife, Miss Kiet Kieth, Ettie & Herbert.  The (sic) all ate supper here.  Rec’d card from Miss Newman.”

And lastly, Chester Edwin Dadisman wrote in his memoir “I remember well that Dad and Mom bought me my first bicycle for Christmas in 1924.  Dad had assembled and hit it in Grandmother Dadisman’s vacant house.  What a great surprise when I was told to go there and look around.  It was a 26-inch wheel Schwinn model, without training wheels.  Though anxious to ride it, I wasn’t very proficient on the gravel roads in Home so I experienced many scrapes.  Neighborhood kids, especially Ada Sorenson, helped me take off on my own.  Her folks operated a competing grocery store located next to the Home dock.  They resided on a houseboat a short distance away.”

And our last remembrance is from Gertrude Emma Strebe, born in 1879, died in 1976.  Unfortunately her memories remind us how hard life could be, especially for the children.  She lived in Wisconsin until 1902.  Most of this comes from the eulogy given at Gertrude’s funeral and written by her grandson and her daughter.  “There was no religion in their household.  August [her father] was a German Lutheran and Elmira [her mother] was Catholic, and in order to make their marriage survive, they must have had an agreement on no religion.  At that point in history, in Europe, not so far removed from the Lutheran Reformation, feelings were strong for or against Catholic doctrine.  The glorifying of Christmas, for one thing, was taboo in Puritan New England and so probably among the German Lutherans, as well. The little cabin she and her four brothers and one sister grew up in was of the crudest type. …

“Every winter for eighteen years, August would go up to  Northern Wisconsin to log in the woods.  … If he came home at Christmas time, the children got apples or oranges.  For whatever reason, the little Strebe children were never allowed to have a Christmas tree.  After they saw the neighbors’ pretty Christmas trees, Gertie and her brothers begged for a tree too, but only once did Elmira relent and allow a tree.  It was decorated with little apples, molasses cookies and popcorn, and to the children it was the prettiest tree in the community.  Maybe August wasn’t home that Christmas.”  *”Our McIntyre Family  In loving memory of Fredrick David McIntyre and Gertrude Emma Strebe, Rosedale, Washington Pioneers.

© 2012 Harbor History Museum. All rights reserved.