News & Stories - Page 4 of 5 - Snohomish Stories

February 10, 2016November 23, 2016

Jennie + Lot Wilbur, 1868

Jennie and Lot Wilbur celebrated their wedding anniversary on April 8th; she was 24 years old and he was two years younger when they got married in 1868. The Michigan State marriage register for Calhoun County, with penmanship fit for a wedding invitation, lists Charles Proot and his wife as witnesses to the Wilbur’s union.

The union produced no children, but together they established the first drug store of Snohomish County at the corner of First Street and Avenue C, where their two-story brick building still stands.

Not so lucky for their three-story home on the corner of Second and Avenue B. It was on a hill, overlooking the town sprouting up on the north bank of the river, but was moved in three pieces and the hill lowered to street level for an automobile dealership.

Fortunately, it was long after they had stopped celebrating their wedding anniversaries — Jennie was gone in 1919, and Lot died in 1930.

Riverside Outing by Snohomish’s Elite c.1885. Identified in this defaced photograph are Mrs. Horton on the left (the photographer’s wife), seated next to her is Jennie Wilbur and husband Lot is on the right; seated behind him is Eldridge Morse, co-founder and editor of “The Northern Star,” Snohomish’s first newspaper — where he coined the term “Snohomish’s elite.”
PHOTOGRAPH BY G.D. HORTON | SNOHOMISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY ARCHIVES

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January 15, 2016November 24, 2016

Linnie (White) Sprau, 1876-1930

Pictured around the time of her marriage to Charles Sprau in the 1920s, this is the only known photograph of any member of the J.S. White family, that settled in Snohomish when Linnie was only eight years old. She was born in Topeka, Kansas, to Delia and John White as their first of three daughters.

Alice White was born around 1879 and Elsie in 1882, both in Topeka, Kansas, as well.

The family arrived in Snohomish in February, 1884, where it seems, John, as an architect and contractor, had a commission to build a church for a newly formed Methodist congregation where John and Delia served as trustees and remained members until their deaths.

Linnie was one of four graduates of Snohomish High School in 1889, a year after moving into the family’s new home at 310 Avenue H. She worked as a bookkeeper for the popular grocery store Bruhn & Henry. In 1906, Linnie married Charles Sprau and the 1920 Census recorded the couple living on a fruit farm in Chelan County, Washington. They did not have children.

Ten years later, the census showed Linnie living with her mother in the family home on Avenue H, while her husband was lodging across town. Apparently she was ill and her mother was caring for her. Linnie died in 1930, ten years after her father, who also died at home. Linnie was buried on the 13th of May at Woodlawn Cemetery alongside her sisters Alice, who died in 1898, and Elise, 1928.

The White graves at Woodlawn Cemetery.

On March 6, 1933, Delia White passed and was laid to rest with her daughters in a spot high on the hill overlooking the Snohomish River. John was cremated in Seattle and the location of his remains are not known but our imagination has the family members together again.

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Thanks to our favorite genealogist, Ann Tuohy, for her workup of the White Family; and to Dave Sprau for the photograph that included Linnie in a multi-family pose.

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November 25, 2015November 24, 2016

Season’s Greetings from 1895

This Christmas card, signed by the Lenfest family, is held in the archives of the Snohomish Historical Society, and it’s one of several cards left behind when the Blackman/Ford families sold their home at 118 Avenue B to the Society in 1969, which is now the Blackman House Museum.

Three of Snohomish’s Leading Families: (first row) Norman Lenfest (1893-1978); (second row from left) Lucetta (Morgan) Ferguson, (1849-1907); Mary Trout Morgan (1829-1903); Hiram Morgan (1822-1906); E.C.Ferguson (1833-1911); third row, left) Sylvia (Ferguson) Lenfest (1869-1952); and Elmer Lenfest (1864-1938).

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November 14, 2015November 24, 2016

Video: Ferguson’s Cottage

Part 1:

David Dilgard, history specialist with the Everett Public Library and co-founder of its Northwest Room, first came across the name “E.C. Ferguson” in Norman Clark’s history of Everett, “Mill Town.” From then on, the name would come up frequently in old newspapers, several times in reference to Ferguson’s first house in Snohomish and David suspected that it may still be standing. If so, it would not only be the first structure built on the future site of Snohomish of milled lumber, but also one of the oldest in the state.

He found it and confirmed its authenticity in 1981.

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Part 2:

Rebecca Loveless purchased Ferguson’s Cottage around 1997 without knowing that it was the first residence of the future City of Snohomish.

The late Everett Olson showed me the structure just before Rebecca’s purchase and at first glance it had the look of a tear-down. The condition evidently did not deter Rebecca as she proceeded to add a new kitchen in the old storage room, along with a new roof, paint job for the original siding and has had no trouble renting the charming, up-to-date home since.

Following Rebecca’s account, we are treated to a tour inside the home by its current residents, Andrea and Kevin Springer with young son Bill in tow.

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NOTES: The Journal mentioned by David is a useful source on E.C. Ferguson’s founding of Snohomish and is available in your local library:“Adventures of Old Ferg” by David Dilgard, “Journal of Everett & Snohomish County History,” Number 2, Summer 1981 & Number 3, Winter 1982, Publish by the Everett Public Library, 1981.

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October 8, 2015November 24, 2016

The First Residence

“The above building was the first dwelling built in Snohomish. It was the residence of the Hon. E. C. Ferguson and was constructed of material brought from Fort Steilacoom mill by boat.

Mr. Ferguson moved into his residence on the first day of March 1860 at which time he located his homestead upon which most of the present site of Snohomish now stands. He occupied this dwelling up until 1880 when his new residence was completed in the northern portion of the city.

The old house of Mr. Ferguson is still standing and habitable. It is located on the bank of the Snohomish river between A and Union avenues. The photograph shows Mr. Ferguson in the chair, M. J. McGuinness, the present owner, standing, and James Burton sitting on the porch.”

This story above was published in the obituary edition of the Snohomish County Tribune, October 13, 1911, under the head: “Hon. E.C. Fergusons first residence.”

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September 28, 2015November 24, 2016

Calling Members of SHS 1942

June Gregory is certain she has found all of the members of Snohomish High graduating class of 1942, that are still among the living. “Our group is getting smaller every year,” she tells me, when I finally accept her invitation to join the 73rd Annual Reunion at Hill Park Picnic Shelter around noon on September 9th.

Of course, the class of 1942 has held reunions on the conventional schedule through the years, but 11 years ago, June, proposed to the dwindling numbers that they meet every year for a picnic lunch. “At first some still wanted go to a restaurant,” claims June, “but all seem to agree now that this is much less fuss.”

Five women and eight men of the class showed up this year, and just like high school, most of the men gathered at one end of the table and the women at the other. The group was joined by spouses, family members, even some who graduated in different years.

All were welcomed, including me with my movie camera.

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August 26, 2015November 24, 2016

Harvey Heritage Destroyed

Pictured above is the “White House,” as it’s referred to by Donna Harvey, who wrote of her memories growing up in the home.

The image dates from around 1910, shortly after it was built by Nobel Harvey to use as a barn, even though it looked like the home it would become one day. The young person in the center is Eldon Harvey, who eventually raised his family in the structure. Behind him stands his mother, Edith White Harvey and next to her is Nobel, son of John who homesteaded the claim in 1859. Standing on the left is Maude Wheeler, a cousin, and alongside her is Bunny Bunstead, a family friend.

This significant piece of the Harvey Family heritage, empty of life for over 50 years, and listing badly to the south, was quickly demolished and disappeared into several large dumpsters during the last week of August 2015.

Going: 2012
This is when I learned from Kandace Harvey, owner of the Harvey Airfield, that she could not restore the historic home since it was in a flood plain and the county would not permit building a new foundation. I contacted Snohomish County Councilmember Dave Somers, and he contacted the appropriate people to work with Kandace Harvey….

Going: 2014
…. two years later, the structure had only sunk further. (Kandace Harvey has not responded to my invitation to include her side of the story.)

Gone: August 27, 2015.
The heavy equipment stands on the site as if on a grave, preventing the historic home from rising up.

Doing all we can to preserve our historic structures is vital because of the stories our old buildings tell us. You may download the pdf of Donna Harvey’s Memories of the White House.

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July 14, 2015November 24, 2016

Let’s Go Down-to-Camp Again!

While the 2014 Oso mudside got all the attention, a smaller slide destroyed one, maybe two, historic beachfront cabins on Brighton Beach, Whidbey Island, which shares historic roots with the city of Snohomish reaching back to the 1890s. The photo above is from the Ferguson family album documenting their summer days at the beach. Let’s revisit a story I wrote in August 2009, about going down-to-camp.

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Just as the leading families of Early Snohomish would do, we are going “down-to-camp” for the month of August.

Perhaps beginning as early as 1890, all three Blackman families would board a steamer at Snohomish and head down river loaded with tents, cots, and 30 days worth of supplies. The boat would head out into Possession Sound, past Hat Island, and aim for the sunniest beach on Whidbey Island. The overdressed passengers joyfully set up a row of tents along a narrow beach hemmed in by an unscaleable bluff of thick green woods.

The name “Camper’s Row” remains to this day. Even though a very steep road now allows the contemporary camper to park closer to the beach, it’s still necessary to walk-in, past several cabins to reach your destination.

I am looking for the cabin called “Drift-Inn” where I am to meet co-owner and author Frances Wood. We became acquainted several years ago when she visited the Blackman House Museum and introduced me to her book, “Down to Camp: A History of Summer Folk on Whidbey Island.” The story begins when Nina Blackman arrives in Snohomish to begin teaching school and she stays with her cousin Hyrcanus Blackman’s family in the home that is now our museum. But her stay was short, for within the year, she married Charles Bakeman, an early Snohomish furniture maker who responded to the demand for coffins by becoming an undertaker. Saving that story for another time, the union gave birth to Inez who is Frances’s grandmother.

Frances’s story reveals another wonderful fact about our famous Blackman brothers: they had an older sister, Mary Ursula. With her husband Eugene and their son Elmer, the family arrived in Snohomish around the same time as Nina. Trained as a civil engineer, Elmer landed a job immediately as the city and county surveyor. Next, Elmer met and married Sylvia Ferguson, Emory and Lucetta’s eldest. With the birth of their only child, Norman, the Lenfest family eventually out grew tent camping and built a cabin on the beach around the time their son turned eight.

Brighton Beach at Clinton, Whidbey Island, 1914.
Several tents are visible in this image, which is how the habitation of this summer place began. Off the left hand frame are the cabins of the Blackman Families, still in use though expanded and updated over the years. The first structure in view on the left is the Lenfest Cabin, built in the early 1900s by Elmer and Sylvia. Elmer was the son of the Blackman sister, Mary and Eugene Lenfest; while Sylvia was the first daughter born to Emory and Lucetta Ferguson. In the center, is the cabin built by the Morgans, Lucetta’s parents, currently owned by descendants of the Bakeman family. The image documents a dramatic slide of the hillside behind the cabins, one of many through the years.

Online: “Clinton landside claims another Brighton Beach cabin.” Includes close-up image of the Wood family cabin.

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June 16, 2015November 24, 2016

More Decorated Bikes and Less Boom! Boom! Booms!

This month’s historic photo from the Ferguson Family Album leaves me wondering when the decorated bike parades celebrating the Fourth of July ended in Snohomish, and the shopping mall parking lots began, spawning tents selling “small explosive devices primarily designed to produce a large amount of noise, especially in the form of a loud bang; any visual effect is incidental to this goal?” (Wikipedia).

“I remember well the first Fourth of July celebration in Snohomish,” begins city founder, E.C. Ferguson’s remembrance, as recorded in the Everett Daily Herald, February 6, 1902. “It was in 1861 and on the day, without following any preliminary or elaborate program, I took the old Yeger musket that the government furnished in those days to its frontier army — and going outside, blazed away, volley after volley til I thought the day had been suitably observed, and then returned the musket to its accustomed corner. It was a patriotic observance of the day, though there was no one present or within hearing but myself to participate.”

One or two high-wheel bicycles, nicknamed “penny-farthing,” may have been in town on July 2, 1887, but certainly not enough for a parade, when The Eye, published this somber Fourth of July Program:

National Salute at sunrise.

Music by the Pacific band at 9:30 a.m. on Front street.

Exercises on the ground will commence at 10:20:
Music by the band.
Prayer by Rev. A. Marcellus.
Vocal music by the quartette.
Reading of the Declaration of Independence by J. L. Griffth.
Vocal music by the quartette.
Oration by Hon. O. Jacobs.
Music by the band.

Dinner.

Races and other sports.

Fireworks, Balloon ascension and grand ball in the evening.

Sweet cider at Crossman’s.

A decorated bike parade in 1907 looked promising with the discovery of this half page ad in the June 28 issue of the Snohomish County Tribune.
(Click thumbnail to enlarge.)
A column above the ad with the subhead “Decorated for the Celebration” boosted this promise, but alas, no mention of a bike parade. Instead, the copy reads in part: “All arrangements have been completed for the track meet and other sports, such as log rolling, bucking contest, amateur contests, and all other sports. Most of the business houses on First street have signified their willingness and intention of decorating and what would make a better impression on visitors than to see all the stores and offices, as well as private residences, decorated with evergreens and national colors.”

“Snohomish Fourth Celebration Quiet as a Quaker Meeting,” reads a subhead in 1910. This is the year Snohomish dedicated its Carnegie Library, seems the town went suddenly studious. In Everett, on the other hand, the celebration got out of hand, according to the story in the Tribune:

“Thirty thousand people pushed and mauled one another on Hewitt Avenue. The air was full of talcum powder and flour which the unmindful people threw on one another without thought of clothes, or danger to eyes. The fire department drenched the mad joy seekers with a three inch stream. One offensive fellow was locked up and two thousand madcaps rushed to his rescue, overpowering the police and breaking the windows of the station house.”

Reading this, it seems selling fireworks from a tent in the parking lot shows a slow evolution over the years toward a more composed celebration.

Along with the newspaper ads and our photograph from the Ferguson Family Album, are the only records we have that decorated bicycle parades were once-upon-a-time a big deal in Snohomish. No less an authority on all things decorated than Martha Stewart reports online that tricked-out bikes have been parading down Main Street on the Fourth in Telluride, Colorado, for 130 years. (You may enjoy the slide show.)

In any event, may all your Booms! be safe ones this year.

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May 15, 2015November 24, 2016

Milkman Finds Tam Elwell Dead

Tam Elwell lived at 209 Avenue D, the second structure north from 2nd Street in the image above, circa 1885. Below is a blown up section of the historic image showing a gathering of men on horses and at least one carriage that we imagine is in front of Tam’s livery, which was next door to his home.

Given the name Jacob Tamlin at birth in 1839, he was the eldest of ten children born in Maine to John Elwell and Eliza Crosby, and all ten siblings, along with their parents, migrated to the Puget Sound Country in the 1870s.

Tam and his wife Sarah gave birth to nine children, two of them after settling in Snohomish. At first, Tam worked in the family logging operations, but his passion grew to breeding horses. He is reputed to have brought the first carriage to Snohomish. By the time of his death in 1913, his livery operation on Avenue D was known throughout Snohomish County.

Above: Tam Elwell’s livery operation on Avenue D.

Right: An ad for Elwell’s business published in a 1888 issue of The Eye. Not many early Snohomish residents could afford the expense of keeping a horse, much less, purchase a carriage. Instead, they rented a horse drawn rig when needed from a livery service such as Tam Elwell’s.

Tam Elwell was found dead in his home Sunday morning, where he had been living alone since the death of his wife Sarah, four years earlier. The obituary published in the Snohomish County Tribune on April 8, 1913, reads in part as if lifted from a mystery novel:

“The discovery was made by the milkman, who noticed that the milk he had left on Friday and Saturday had not been touched and that there were several unread newspapers on the porch. Looking through the window he saw Mr. Elwell sitting in his chair as though asleep.”

The funeral was held Wednesday afternoon at the Bakeman-Purdy undertaking parlor which was not nearly large enough to hold the massive turnout by the community. Tam was survived by five brothers, including Edgar who built his fancy home designed by the architect J. S. White, across the street in 1887; which he sold in 1901, and departed for the mines of Canada. At the time of the funeral, the home was being divided by the recently arrived architect Nels Peter Hansen, fashioning his family home in the southern half.

Tam’s body was escorted by the business leaders of Snohomish acting as pall bearers to his final resting place, alongside his wife, at the G.A.R. Cemetery, and where many of the Elwells are watched over by the steady gaze of a stone angel — one of the finest monuments on the well cared for grounds.

Stone angel watching over the Elwells at the G.A.R. Cemetery.

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April 23, 2015November 24, 2016

The Liberty Pole of 1892

The liberty pole is visible in Gilbert Horton’s photograph above just right of center. The Masonic Lodge is on the left, across Avenue C from the Odd Fellows Hall. Joe Getchell’s home is on the other side of Knapp & Hinkley Livery whose roof appears on the right.

Joseph E. Getchell managed to keep his name out of the newspaper — since building “one of the finest residences in Snohomish” — until this item appeared in The Eye, February 10, 1892:

“The old liberty pole near Masonic hall was cut down this morning. It has for some time leaned toward the Getchell residence, and as the wood had begun to decay at the foot, it was felled as a measure of safety.”

According to a story in the first volume of River Reflections, published by the Snohomish Historical Society in 1976, the liberty pole was installed July 4, 1884. The Blackman Brothers, members of the Mason’s Centennial Lodge No. 25, donated the pole, a log really, which was 110 feet long, straight as an arrow with a golden ball 12 inches in diameter attached to the top. A two foot thick post was buried several feet into the ground directly in front of the entrance to the hall on 2nd Street, with 10 feet exposed above ground to which the pole was to be attached with heavy iron bands.

The raising ceremony of the liberty pole began at 10 o’clock in the morning. At 45 degrees, on its way to 90, the rigging jammed and it took the hero logger and former sailor Bill Foss climbing the rigging hand-over-hand to clear the jam-up, which he did safely, and up went the flagpole, raising to its 110 foot, highly varnished glory. At noon, the largest flag in Washington Territory was hoisted into place accompanied by the traditional gunpowder salute by the local Anvil Battery.

At some point over the eight year life of the flagpole, the Morton Post No. 10 of the Grand Army of the Republic assumed ownership and the Post demanded payment of $100 from Getchell to replace its flagpole. Getchell refused, said the pole was dangerous to his family and that he cut it down by authority of the City Council.

The Post raised another flagpole in July, several blocks up 2nd Street to Avenue A at the cost of only $20.00.

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March 22, 2015November 24, 2016

Historic Chandelier Discovered Above Drop-ceiling

Last month I invited readers to checkout our second essay, Odd Fellows Hall, 1886, written for a book project with photographer Otto Greule documenting pioneer architect J. S. White’s surviving structures from 19th-Century Snohomish.

It needs a new ending.

Just this weekend I’ve had the opportunity, along with Snohomish City’s Planning Manager Owen Dennison and my partner Mayor Karen, to checkout the historic lighting fixtures discovered above the acoustical drop ceiling system installed on the second floor of the historic hall.

The Eye described the interior of the hall in its April 24, 1886, issue in part:

“The floor is covered with a three-ply Brussels carpet of a very pretty figure, while a handsome burnished brass chandelier ornaments the center.”

For sure, no trace of the carpet remains, but above the drop ceiling, owners Nicole and Matt, discovered still hanging lamp fixtures — one in the center of the large open room, used for the lodge’s ceremonies, and two in the corners at the east end of the room. More research is required to date exactly the existing fixtures which are now electrically wired of course. During the era when the hall was built, 1885, it was uncertain if electric lighting would really displace gas.

With access to the attic, above the original ceiling, we would look for evidence of gas pipe installation. But one item that requires no more investigation is the floral themed chandelier medallion — it has to be original. A longer ladder will be needed to reach the medallion in order to determine what it’s made of, either wood or plaster.

My essay’s current ending, under the heading: “Building for Lease,” reads:

“The ponytailed man who renovated the historic structure in the late 1990s died, and ownership passed to his daughter in 2006. Lease negotiations with the realty company, once an owner and then a tenant for over 40 years, broke down. In 2013, both the realty company and the daycare center moved to new locations, while White’s Odd Fellows Hall sits empty and silent.

Since meeting Nicole, the “daughter” in the story above, I am happy to report that she is in negotiations with a party interested in the renting the building; and even happier to learn, that Nicole is exploring her options for historic restoration. It’s a brave intention.

We wish Nicole our best and look forward to following this story to its happy ending.

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February 24, 2015November 24, 2016

What’s with the Goat?

When the Odd Fellows took over the town of Snohomish to mark the 73rd Anniversary of its organization in America, it was front page news in the April 30, 1892, issue of The Eye.

The procession began at the lodge hall on Second and Avenue C, led by a 16 member band and the “historical Goat, which on this occasion wore a Past Grand collar and attracted much attention.” The route took them down Avenue D to First Street, (referred to as “Front Street” in those days), turning left at Cedar, again at Second, then Maple and back down to First, coming to a stop facing the opera house, (Athenaeum or Cathcart Hall), where our local photographer, Frank Perry captured the impressive gathering pictured below.

THEN: 73rd Anniversary of Odd Fellows in America, photographed by F.Perry in Snohomish on April 26, 1892.

NOW: First Street, between Avenues C and D. Only the Wilbur Drug Store building remains, home to the American Legion Post 96, who also owns the parking lot and the former gas station building leased by Andy’s Fish House.

Inside the opera house, every chair was taken facing the huge American flag covering the entire wall behind the stage. Following the musical opening, W. W. Hewitt’s three raps with the gavel brought the large audience to its feet, when Rev. Mr. Feese offered the prayer. With the audience seated, he followed with some lively remarks, including a “deserved tribute to the Goat who had borne himself so majestically through the parade.”

Following another song by the choir, Past Grand Representative Kelly of Minnesota spoke of the origin of the order going all the way back to the middle ages, but that it was a “modern organization.” To illustrate his point to the overflowing crowd, he told of more recent beginnings with English working men holding meetings for “social intercourse and hilarity,” but they always came to the aid of a fellow in distress. “From this nucleus Odd Fellowship spread, and was introduced in America 73 years ago by Thomas Wilde,” The Eye’s report continues.

Seventy-three years later, the American order has more than 700,000 members, and it expends $3,000,000 annually in charity. “Odd Fellowship, said the speaker, closes its doors to atheists, and no man can join unless he is white and believes in God.” However, Odd Fellows was the first national fraternity to accept women when it formed the Daughters of Rebekah in 1851.

“The ball in the evening was one of the finest ever given in this latitude,” reported The Eye, with its entertaining style: “When it came to dancing the first quadrille, twenty-five sets took the floor. The goat, however was not there.”

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January 14, 2015November 24, 2016

Bids Wanted, circa 1885

The call for bids appeared in the October 17, 1885, issue of The Eye on page three.

Wish we knew how many contractors answered the call. For all the good the Odd Fellows organization did and are doing, saving records is not one of them. In 2012, I tried to track down any records from the Snohomish Lodge and I came up empty handed except for meeting the wonderful couple of Frank and Betty Green.

From reading the accounts of circa 1885 Snohomish, I can remember coming across the names of only one contractor, A. H. Eddy; and one architect, P. Boyce — but J. S. White got the job.

The Odd Fellows Hall, to the right of the Masonic Hall, was dedicated April 20, 1886. This scan of a newsprint photo by Gilbert Horton of the fraternal hall “face-off” across Avenue C was widely published. The Masonic Hall was built in 1879 and destroyed in 1958 by the members who sold the property as the parking lot it is today when the organization moved to it’s new building at 6th and Avenue B. Take note of the 100 foot plus flag pole, a very straight, long log, a little right of center — it has it’s own story.

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December 16, 2014November 24, 2016

Christmas Greetings, 1901

A newsprint copy of this rare historic photograph of a church service in progress was found in the Methodist church folder on file in the Snohomish Historical Society Archives, with the caption: “1901 was a good year to hold a Christmas pageant. This one at the First Methodist Church in Snohomish came complete with all the trimmings including ten angels on front stage. Photo, courtesy Everett Library Historical Collection.”

I contacted the always helpful David Dilgard, History Specialist with the Northwest Room at the Everett Public Library, and he sent along a digital scan of the 4×5 inch negative of an original contact print in the Snohomish County Museum collection, now the Everett History Museum. The only information listed with the negative was the same as indicated above.

As to the service captured, evidently by a hobbyist, a proud parent most likely, it’s an intriguing mystery. Something to do with Advent, I guessed, and found a service called “Hanging of the Greens” that’s celebrated on the first Sunday of the four week Advent observance. Reader’s are invited to contribute their thoughts in the comments below.

A draft of the first essay of the J. S. White: Our First Architect, The Methodist Church, 1885 is available online

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November 17, 2014November 25, 2016

When the Methodists Moved to be Higher Than the Catholics

Working on the first essay of the J.S. White Story this past month, it appears that John and his wife Delia, along with their three daughters, Linnie, Alice and Elise, moved to Snohomish specifically to build the newly formed Methodist Congregation its own church.

Two newspapers reported that the White arrived in February 1884. Two months later, the April 12th issue of The Eye reports: “The Methodists of this place have purchased the vacant lot on the corner of C and Third streets and will shortly erect a church thereon.” Then in November we read: “About all of the lumber for the new Methodist church, which is to be built on the corner of D. and Third streets, is on the ground, and carpenters will commence work in a few days. Its dimensions are 28×50 feet.”

Further digging revealed that joining the Whites as Trustees of the new church, were Mr. and Mrs. Mudgett; and, Isaac Mudgett was born in the same New Hampshire town as John White. The Mudgetts arrived in town in 1883 and within two years they had a home in the Clay Addition on Avenue H, just a few doors North from where the White’s would build their family home. Isaac was a bootmaker by trade, but once settled in the Snohomish Valley, he added his own saw mill to the cluster of small, family run operations around Snohomish.

Without the exchange of letters between Isaac and John, we are left with our imagination to make the connection. But it’s also a matter of common sense to think that White had a promise of work before moving his family and household goods to this remote river front town.

THEN: The Methodist and Catholic churches along Third Street photographed by Index resident Lee Pickett in 1910, just before the Methodists moved their church higher on the hill to its current location. The Methodist’s built the second church in Snohomish in 1885; and the Catholic Church was the third, dedicated in 1889.

NOW: (Above) Looking west down Third with the Methodist Church on the corner of Avenue B. Architectural photographer Otto Greule is capturing the structure for our book project: J. S. White: Our First Architect, in 2009.

Karen and I renovated the former St Michael Catholic Church between the years of 1994 and 2000, when we moved to Snohomish. Several times we were told the story that the Methodists’ moved their church from Avenue C, up the hill, to B because they wanted to be higher than the Catholics. We laughed and got back to work.

Can you imagine that being the reason given in the church’s history, published in 1983, celebrating 100 years?

Of course not. It was because more room was needed to add a Sunday School and three lots on the southeast corner of Avenue B and Third were purchased in 1908. Two years later, White’s gentle structure was indeed moved uphill and placed on top of a full, concrete basement, that eventually included a kitchen. Church membership numbered around 200 at the time.

It served well until the 1980s, when it was clear that the historic structure was too small and five acres were purchased northwest of Blackman Lake. The 1983 account ends with completion of architectural plans for the new church — their current home.

Captured from the internet in a search for “moving structures with horses.” Note the dirt path that was 3rd Street in the historic photo above — it was labeled “not fit for teams” on the Sanborn Insurance maps — meaning that it would be a tough go for the Fire Department horses pulling the pump and hoses!

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October 16, 2014November 25, 2016

White Family Arrives, 1884

Above: Stern-wheeler Nellie at Ferguson’s Wharf, 1877.
The building behind Ferguson’s is Cathcart’s Exchange Hotel; and, the dirt path to the right is Avenue D — much improved by the the time the White family arrived seven years later.

. . . .

John S. White arrived in Snohomish aboard a slow steamer followed by a weak wake of records going back to his birth on July 13, 1845, in the small town of Tamworth, New Hampshire.

The 1870 Census recorded White living in Walnut, Butler County, Kansas, age 25, single, working as a house carpenter and living in a hotel kept by his future wife’s brother, Charles Lamb.

January 1871, John S. White married Delia R. Lamb, daughter of Galand Lamb and Lucy Weston, in Kansas. Delia was born about 1853 in Fort Wayne, Allen County, Indiana.

The 1880 Census listed John, his wife Delia and daughters Linnie and Alice living in Topeka, Shawnee County, Kansas, where he was a carpenter.

White’s young family, now including a third daughter, Elise, disembarks from the steamer by way of a precarious plank connecting the ship to the wharf. There, Delia huddles with her daughters, watching, as the picturesque tableau of people who were waiting for the steamer is now animated and it’s chaos. People shouting, dogs barking, horse-drawn buggies and carts jockeying for a position to load, and operators of a dozen Indian canoes jockey for a job hauling the Boston’s cargo. The stack of household trunks and packages that John has assembled behind his family is beyond our imagination. Still, they stand, watching, frozen — for an instant, they are a living monument to evidence that there is life outside Snohomish.

The White’s new home town is a self-sustaining settlement sited in the sunshine on the south-facing bank of the river that gave this place its name. Located some dozen miles upriver from its fast growing rival, the port city of Everett on Port Gardner Bay to the west; but in February, 1884, Snohomish is not only the county seat, but it’s also home to two roller skating rinks.

. . . .

September 24, 2014November 25, 2016

Photographer Otto Greule

Exhibition of Photographs: Ten Surviving Structures by
J. S. White from 19th-Century Snohomish by Otto Greule

Along with the following programs at the Snohomish Library —
311 Maple Avenue

Thursday, 10/23 at 7p —
“Making the Photographs”
with Seattle Architectural Photographer Otto Greule
Free including refreshments
Checkout the story in the Herald!

Snohomish History Buffs Rewarded with Sunshine!
Thanks to all for showing up and helping me with the expenses of this month-long event.
Sunday, 10/26 at 2p —
Guided Walking Tour of J.S. White’s 19th Century Snohomish
with yours truly — suggested donation $10, space is limited —

September 15, 2014May 4, 2018

J. S. White’s Family Home, 1888

Above: J.S. White’s Family Home.
Built in 1888 at 310 Avenue H, John S. White, and his wife Delia (Lamb), raised their family of three daughters in this modest home. White died here on October 17, 1920, following a long illness. Seattle photographer Otto Greule captured this storybook image early one morning in 2011.

. . . .

Looking at the 1890 bird’s-eye illustration below, it could be said that all of Snohomish was built without permits. There are no construction records from this time. Only the sale and purchase of the property was recorded in General Indexes maintained by the County Auditor.

A researcher has to turn to the gossip pages of the early newspapers to learn who was building what for whom. Fortunately for this researcher, my historic person of interest, J.S. White, was a busy architect/builder of businesses and homes for the leaders of early Snohomish, and his doings were noted in The Eye and later in the Snohomish County Tribune.

A favorite example is from January 1, 1892, issue of The Eye where the arrival of council members is reported: “Councilman-at-Large White arrived next. He lives in Claytown and carries a lantern.”

A little background is required to appreciate the editor’s jibe.

Bird’s Eye View of Snohomish, 1888.

Legally known as the Clay Addition, Claytown shows up in the bird’s-eye view above as the cluster of homes on the left-hand side. The undeveloped eight-block area between Avenues H and D is Ferguson’s 2nd Addition – lots that he was planning on selling at higher prices, it seems, once railroad travel was established in Snohomish. The “Eye Man” as the editor of The Eye referred to himself, rarely missed an opportunity to remind readers of the workings inside Ferguson’s Snohomish Land Company.

But it’s the picture created of White walking through Ferguson’s empty lots, on a moonless night, (some council meetings stretched to midnight), enclosed by a flickering aura of bobbing lantern light, that captures the imagination.

. . . .

And it’s on this note that the printed version of this column will end. “Snohomish Then and Now” began publishing in the Tribune, January 2007. I appreciate the publisher and editor’s support for sharing the photos and stories of Snohomish’s then-and-now over the past seven years.

Snohomish Stories will continue here with excerpts from the book I will be writing about J. S. White. My goal is for the words to match the quality of Otto Greule’s portraits of White’s surviving structures from 19th Century Snohomish.

Otto’s work will be featured in an exhibition at our library for the month of October 2014. Please save the Thursday evenings of October 2nd and 23rd for presentations by David Dilgard and Otto Greule respectfully.

David is our favorite carpetbagger, as he refers to himself, from the Everett Public Library’s Northwest Room, who travels frequently upriver with his magic lantern, showing and telling stories of our city’s beginnings. And on the 23rd, also at 7p., Otto will give a presentation about his process of photographing White’s structures.

Wrapping up the month-long exhibition, I will lead a 90-minute walking tour of J.S. White’s 19th Century Snohomish, on Sunday, October 26, leaving from the Snohomish Library Branch on Maple Avenue at 2p. sharp.

. . . .

Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, September 17, 2014

August 13, 2014November 26, 2016

Blackman Grocery Store, 1889

In the late 1940s, an automobile dealership on the south side of First Street collapsed toward the Snohomish River, its foundation compromised by continued flooding. A block-long row of connected, one-story storefront buildings, built of local brick, was condemned and sat empty for nearly twenty years.

During this time, Snohomish’s main drag moved to Second Street, which was extended to reach the new U.S. Route 2, north of town — splitting the old cemetery in two. By the 1960s, however, the question on business leader’s minds was how to bring people back into our empty downtown? Urban renewal funds supported a study that recommended tearing down all of the old buildings on the river side of First Street, along with those condemned two decades before, then update the remaining buildings to give Snohomish the look of a Riverside Shopping Mall!

Artist rendering of a First Street urban renewal proposal in 1965. Implementing this plan would have prevented Snohomish’s downtown from being listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.

An editorial on October 28, 1965, summed it up this way: “Snohomish hasn’t sunk that low, yet.”

Two buildings designed by J. S. White would have been lost with that scheme: the A. M. Blackman Grocery Store (913 First) and Wilbur’s Drugstore Building (1201 First). Gone, too, would have been at least two stories about the flourishing of frontier Snohomish. The Lot Wilbur story is told here. It’s Arthur M. Blackman’s turn this month.

Born in the State of Maine in 1865, Arthur’s family settled in Oakland, California when he was only 11 years old. At age 20, Arthur set out for Snohomish arriving on Christmas day, 1885.

Since the California Blackman’s had grocery store business experience in their background, we suspect that the Snohomish cousins requested Arthur’s help in opening Blackman’s first grocery store at the northeast corner of Avenue C and First.

Within in a couple of years, however, Arthur was ready to open his own store and commissioned the contractor J.S. White to build the handsome building that is currently home to the Oxford Saloon.

Arthur’s grocery store failed in 1894, as did a lot of businesses, victims of the 1893 nationwide depression.

“Then it was a furniture store, a shoe store, and became the Oxford Pool Room during the Prohibition,” reported David Dilgard, History Specialist with the Everett Public Library on his 2006 walking tour, “and apparently began its career as a tavern during the Second World War.”

It was on David’s tour that I first heard the name “J. S. White.”

Arthur turned to logging work on the river until appointed Snohomish Postmaster in 1896, serving with distinction until his retirement in 1913. He died in 1929, but records are not clear if he is buried in Everett or in our local GAR Cemetery where a simple stone marker with his name is holding a spot alongside his wife Adeliza, who preferred to be called “Buddy.”

. . . .

Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, August 20, 2014

July 15, 2014February 8, 2019

The Building That Stopped a Fire!

Meticulously captured by photographer Otto Greule for our project documenting architect White’s surviving structures from 19th-century Snohomish, the Burns Block (1118 First Street) bears the historic name of its eccentric owner, Samuel John Burns.

“A Man Who Loves Money More than Comfort,” announced The Eye’s sub-head in a report of his paralysis in 1892. “John Burns, the long-haired old fellow, with an unkempt beard and a small dog,” the report begins, “has lived in the low wooden shack that stands in the shadow of the brick block bearing his name.”

Knowing this, you have to wonder about Burns’ relationship with his architect/contractor J. S. White … a little gossip would help my story just about now. In any event, their collaboration resulted in Snohomish’s grandest building, and a hero, as well, if a building can play that role.

It was the great Snohomish fire of 1911, when in the middle of the night, the wooden buildings on both sides of First Street, starting near Avenue B, were fully engaged in flames and smoke. On the south side of First, the fire burned the wooden buildings built on pilings until it ran out of fuel at the intersection of Avenue C.

Across the street, however, the fire’s raging westward movement was stopped by the three-story-tall Burns Block acting as a firewall.

This story was one of the favorites told on our tour with Emerson third graders this past May, judging by their thank you notes.

Thank You note from an Emerson third grader for leading a walking tour in May 2014.

The building is related to fire from another direction, as well. In 1889, the older, waterfront part of Seattle burned to the ground started by the infamous glue pot. The lesson taken from that disaster, which the Snohomish Fire Department helped fight, was that all commercial building would be built of brick. And the Burns Block is built of bricks manufactured in Snohomish!

Today, our grandest building wears its red bricks as many badges of courage, standing tall in the afternoon sun.

As for the miser Burns, who listed himself as a “capitalist” in the 1888 Polk Directory, he died at age 66. A single man, his body was returned to New Brunswick, Canada for burial in the family plot. His extensive real-estate holdings in Snohomish were divided among his six siblings.

. . . .

Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, July 16, 2014

June 13, 2014November 26, 2016

J. S. White’s Building, 1893

The graceful red brick building at 924 First Street was called the Princess Theater Building when I led my first walking tour of historic downtown Snohomish in 2005. Six years later I went digging for more news about the Princess Theater for a HistoryLink.org Cybertour, and came up surprisingly empty handed. Surprising because who ever heard of a theater that didn’t advertise?

The Princess Theater. This fuzzy image included on page 46 of the Snohomish Historical Society’s “River Reflections, Volume One,” published in 1975, evidently gave the building at 924 First Street its name over the years although no record has been found of the theater’s life in Snohomish; nor a better photograph.

Reaching a dead-end and a deadline, I wrote what I had about the building which you can read today on the HistoryLink.org website; but do it soon, because the entry will be changed to reflect its new name, “The White Building.”

The story begins with a four line report in The Weekly Eye, December 29, 1888:
“E. C. Ferguson this week sold a portion of the lot at the corner of First and A streets, with 25 feet frontage to J.S. White, the architect and builder; for $40 a front foot.”

But no follow up and no building appears on the Sanborn Insurance maps? Three years later, in the December 22, 1892 issue, a news item jumps out announcing that White’s corner lot is being graded for a shooting gallery! The plot thickens whenever guns are involved.

Fast forward to a mention in the April 27, 1893, issue:
“A scowload of stone for the foundation of J. S. White’s building at First street and Avenue A has arrived from the Chuckanut quarry.”

Picture a barge floating low, loaded down with stone coming upriver.

The following month, an issue over property lines was raised in the City Council Chambers by White’s attorney Hart who claimed that the Palace Saloon, next door, was four inches over its property line and asked the council to have it removed.
“The council were not convinced of their duty to do so and instructed Mr. Carothers to survey First street from D to A and fix the corners,” the report concluded. A subsequent meeting recorded the numbers without determination if the saloon was over the line.

White finished his two-story building and welcomed his first tenant, The City of Paris boutique occupying the first floor. The same issue, August 10, 1893, reported this tidbit about the odd layout of the second floor:
“People who have observed the arrangement of the rooms in the second floor of White’s new building have wondered what they were intended for. The plumbing is unusually elaborate, there are two bathrooms, a kitchen with a place for a range, a dining room, ample closets, and all necessary accommodations for housekeeping on a large scale. Yesterday Mr. White disclosed the fact that he put up the building and arranged the upper story as described at the instance of a city physician who desired to occupy it as a hospital. Mr. White added that the physician had changed his mind and that any responsible party who wants to rent a hospital is invited to call and inspect the premises.”

In a plot twist from the pages of a mystery, the new Bakeman Furniture Building, just down the street on the southeast corner of Avenue B, burns to the ground on September 15, 1893, following an unsuccessful incendiary incident in July.

The Weekly Eye, September 21, 1893
No loss of life reported, but the city council lost its meeting place. The editor showed restraint with no mention of how fitting it was for our council members to be meeting in a hospital.

. . . .

Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, June 18, 2014

May 18, 2014November 26, 2016

5. “Old Ferg” 1833-1911

May is Preservation Month, celebrating the establishment of the National Register of Historic Places in 1973; just in time, to get the Snohomish Historic District on the register the following year.

Reason enough to remember the founder of Snohomish, Emory Canada Ferguson, who “passed away at his residence last Saturday evening about 9 o’clock after a brief illness of a few days,” began the Snohomish County Tribune’s report of his passing on October 7, 1911. He was 78 years old and often affectionately referred to as “Old Ferg” in the press.

Snohomish County Tribune, October 13, 1911. Reports the death of E. C. Ferguson on October 7th in his home located on the site of the Snohomish Aquatic Center. Click to download a pdf copy or visit the Snohomish Library to view the actual paper.

The front page remembrance continues: “His health was always of the best up until nine years ago when he was laid up for over a year with a stroke of paralysis. Since then he has gained in health continually up to three or four months ago when a noticeable decline took place and he gradually became weaker until his peaceful death Saturday Evening.”

The second paragraph reads: “The funeral services were held at the family residence at 10 o’clock Tuesday morning. A large crowd of his many friends were there to bid farewell to the father of Snohomish, who has given his attention to the many needs of the city for so many years. Every business house in the city closed their doors from ten until eleven to do honor to one of our last pioneers. The school children were allowed the hour off to enable them to attend the funeral. The Masons took charge of the funeral after the departure from his residence.”

Cemetery record courtesy Biff Reading

On Saturday, May 31st, I will be leading a guided tour of his family grave site, located in the Grand Army of Republic Cemetery (G.A.R.), along with visiting the burial plots of several of early Snohomish’s leading families.

Enter the cemetery at 8601 Riverview Road and follow signs to the tour’s starting point near the caretaker’s garage. Good shoes are advised, as the ground is uneven; and the tour goes rain or shine. A $10 contribution is suggested to benefit the Snohomish Historical Society. (Follow this link to read more about the GAR Cemetery.)

Hope you can join me, after all, memories require preservation as well.

. . . .

Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, May 21, 2014

April 15, 2014June 15, 2022

4. Emory Cecil (1881-1964)

Your guess at Emory Cecil Ferguson’s age, captured in this handsome childhood portrait by the short-lived Snohomish studio of Barnes & Evans, is as good as mine.

Commonly known as Cecil, he was born in 1881 as the youngest child of Lucetta and Emory, and the only one with descendants living today in Snohomish.

It was not until he was 28 years old that Cecil married Clara Schlieve from Minnesota, but wasting no time, the couple had a growing family of three children ten years later — Emory Albrecht, Burdette Alonzo, and Madeleine — all graduates from Snohomish High School in the 1930s and living on Maple Avenue. A fourth child, Alvin Gordon, died shortly after birth in 1911.

Cecil and sons Burdette and Emory, 1950s
Partners in the family caning business, Ferg’s Finer Foods, produced products that they sold by the railroad car in its heyday. All images courtesy of the Ferguson Family | Snohomish Historical Society Archives

All three children joined Cecil in establishing the Ferguson Cannery, located in a building that still stands and was recently renovated for the new home of the Eagles Aerie #195. Incorporated in the 1950s, the family business became known as “Ferg’s Finer Foods” – even producing a tongue-in-cheek can of Puget Sound Air for the 1960 World’s Fair in Seattle. (You may read more about the cannery here.)

Clara died the following year and Cecil three years later in 1964, and the family operation he founded in 1914 soon came to an end.

Burdette, married Ruth Christensen in 1940, a union that gave birth to three children, all of who were saved from a future in the canning business — working summers through their high school years was enough.

The eldest daughter, Sharon Lee, lives today with her husband in Bellevue.

Middle child, Gary Howard married Penny Lu Hazeltine, daughter of Robert who was the first mail carrier in Snohomish.

And Bruce Allen married Marie McGlinchy, who with their children all grown, live today in the North Snohomish Train Depot, a replica station they built in 2007.

Both Gary and Bruce remember exploring what remained of the original 32-acre Ferguson Farm as kids, especially the stream, then called Ferguson Creek, that bordered the property. It’s called Swifty Creek today, a “daylighted” stream held safely behind cyclone fencing.

Gary Ferguson at the Snohomish Aquatic Center.
Gary is the great-grandson of E.C. Ferguson, founder of Snohomish.

Please leave a comment below with your guess of Cecil’s age in the cover photo above.

. . . .

Published in the Snohomish County Tribune, April 16, 2014