A History of Lummi Island

Section of the Digital Archive, has not been fully reviewed

This is a collection of historical vignettes about Lummi Island from several sources. The principal contributor is the late Marguerite “Peggy” Aiston who researched Lummi Island history for many years.

Peggy Aiston and her husband Homer purchased 135 acres on Lummi Island in 1942. The purchase included all of Smuggler’s Cove and nearly a mile of interesting water frontage. They built a small cabin there near the beach.

“Our ambition was to own a few acres of land. It must be inexpensive and the taxes low, so we could pay for it and then keep up the taxes, without saddling ourselves with debt. We wanted a creek or good spring, lots of trees, and enough level land for a kitchen garden, These were the essential features we looked for in our long search. Several times we would have compromised on our essentials, but luckily we held back. And when finally our ambition was achieved, we got these essentials and much, much more.”

As there was no road to that part of the Island, they traveled from Bellingham to their property in a double-ender boat, the Doxie. In 1958 they sold most of their property and soon built a cabin in Smuggler’s Cove, facing Bellingham Bay. They sold their remaining property in 1975 and moved to Bellingham .

Peggy continued her association with Lummi Island for over fifty years. In the early 1970’s she began researching Island history with the intention of writing a factual account of its earliest days through 1940. She continued her endeavor after moving to Bellingham , concluding her research after 23 years of work.

Peggy contributed a column of historical vignettes to every issue of the Lummi Island NEWSLETTER for fifteen years from 1978 to 1993. She also typed the first ten years of the NEWSLETTER for the original editor, Lehr Miller, and was also instrumental in producing “Potluck Recipes”, a Lummi Island cookbook. A talented writer, she was the author of several published articles. Peggy passed away on April 29,1998.

This collection contains vignettes from several other sources as indicated by the initials in parentheses following the dates at the left margin Peggy tended to abbreviate a lot in her informal notes. Where no initials are shown, it is usually Peggy’s material except for the brief death notices of pioneers which were injected by PGD from his Necrology of Lummi Island. The initials referred to are as follows:

- LLD Lloyd Lincoln Davis (Paul’s father who provided much of the early history)
- BH Beth Hudson
- JG John Granger
- PGD Paul George Davis
- FK Florence Konecke

There are a few contradictions in this history, but in some cases, logical deduction or other corroboration will settle the issue.

circa 600 BC (LLD)

First evidence of the development of the Marpole culture in the San Juan Islands: The Marpole culture was a land-based hunting people with little evidence of a marine economy. Their artifacts were characterized by rude chipped stone points and implements with some use of deer antlers but few bone points. This culture named after the Marpole site on the Fraser River flourished through all the islands until about 400 AD.

circa 400 AD (LLD)

The Marpole culture had died out, and the beginning of the Salishean culture is found. It was primarily a marine-based culture with a fine development of fishing artifacts using bone points and bone with antler tools — practically identical to the recent Salishean culture.

circa 1300 (LLD)

By the fourteenth century, the Salish people had expanded through all the islands, and had grown to a large and extensive race.

circa 1700 (LLD)

By the eighteenth century, the ethnic group known as the Nuh-Lummis had spread all over the north Puget Sound country and included the Lummi Tribe of the northern San Juan Islands, the Samish occupying Samish Island and southern San Juan and Lopez Islands, the Semiahmoo at Blaine, the Nooksacks on the Lummi and Nooksack rivers and a few of the more northern Skagit County groups. With ample and easily acquired food, there was little warfare between the different villages, but a serious and powerful enemy developed from the northern Pacific Coast Indians of the Athabaskan and Wakashan ethnic peoples — particularly the Haidas and Tsimshian clans. They were a tall powerful warlike people equipped with excellent weapons with copper and stone points, knives and spears. They wore armor made of hide and wood. They were slavers, and in the spring would raid the Lummi Villages, killing all the inhabitants except those wanted as slaves. They sold slaves up and down the Pacific coast, such slaves having been found as far south as the Hoh River.

1741 (LLD)

During the seventeenth century, the Russians had crossed Siberia and had reached the Pacific and had built forts on the Kamchatka peninsula. In 1741 The Bering Expedition with two ships, explored the Aleutian Islands and one ship reached the Alaska mainland. They returned with stories of the fabulously rich furs, particularly the sea otter, and the Russians rapidly developed a fur trade south along the Alaska and British Columbia coast.

circa 1770 (LLD)

The news of the rich north Pacific fur trade quickly spread through Europe, and both the British and Spanish who both claimed all of the north Pacific coast sent out survey expeditions and started active fur trading. The “Boston Men” soon followed. This trade gave the northern Indians steel for knives, spears and arrow points, and even worse, muskets, powder and shot.

The acquisition of the new weapons by the northern Indians proved almost disastrous to the Lummis who had no defense against the increasing raids from the north. The result was that the Lummis abandoned their permanent villages in the islands and moved to the mainland, driving the Nooksacks up the river away from the salt water. They continued to use their fishing and hunting locations in the islands during the summer seasons.

1791 (LLD)

The Spanish from Mexico started extensive surveys of the north Puget Sound. Quimper sailed through the islands and left the name “San Juan” for the islands and “Rosario” for the strait.. Francisco Eliza surveyed Bellingham Bay, giving it the name of “Seno de Gaston” (Gulf of Gaston). Galiano and Valdez sailed through Hale’s Passage, naming Lummi Island “Isla de Pacheco” and Lummi Bay “Ensenada de Locra.”

1792 (LLD)

Vancouver followed closely after Galiano and Valdez. He sailed up Rosario Straight and did not enter Bellingham Bay, but sent Master Joseph Whidbey in a small boat to explore the area, and named the bay “Bellingham “, the mountain “Baker” and “Point Frances” (note the original feminine form). Vancouver did not recognize Lummi as an island and did not mention it. Vancouver’s only interest in the area was charting it, and as a result he left little information regarding the Indians. It was in the summer, and the permanent Indian villages were deserted, and the Indians were away to their fishing and hunting sites. Whidbey did describe a small group on Orcas Island where the women were weaving storage baskets and mats. Whidbey made one of the few reports we have about the “wool dogs.” On the east side of Whidbey Island he saw a drove of 40 dogs shorn down to the skin like sheep. The Lummis did not eat the dogs but raised them for their “wool.”

1792 June

“Finally, about 7 PM in the evening of June 8 the Sloop-of-War Discovery (commanded by George Vancouver) and Armed Tender Chatham (commanded by William Broughton) weighed anchor and caught a light breeze which took them about 11 miles northward into Rosario Strait. At 9 the same evening, the vessel dropped anchor on a rocky hard bottom. Chatham… lost anchor which probably still lies on a rocky ledge in the southwestern part of Bellingham Channel, encrusted with barnacles and covered with seaweed. Monday, June 11 at 4 am the ships sailed out of Strawberry Bay (Cypress Island) and tacked up Rosario Strait. For a few hours the wind fell off and they were becalmed. In the late afternoon they passed Lummi Island and entered Georgia Strait where they sighted a small bay to the north … Birch Bay…” From Coastal Exploration of Washington by Robert B. Whitebrook.

1792 (BH)

In 1792 Lummi Island was charted for the first time by the Spanish explorers Goliano and Valdez. They recorded it as the “Isla de Pacheco” apparently in honor of the Viceroy of Mexico. Isla de Pacheco remained on the charts until 1841, at which time the Wilkes expedition renamed it McLaughlin Island after John McLaughlin of the Hudson’s Bay Co. Its present name of Lummi Island was given it by the U.S. Geodetic Survey in 1853.

circa 1800 (LLD)

Alexander Mackenzie had crossed the Rocky Mountains and had reached the Pacific coast. He was soon followed by Canadian fur traders who established forts on the lower Fraser River, such as Fort Langley, directly north of Lummi Island . Dr. John McLoughlin of the Hudson’s Bay Co. established the fort at Vancouver Washington in 1825 as the headquarters of the company for all the northwest. This led to frequent messenger service by canoe up through Puget Sound between Vancouver and Fort Langley.

1827 (LLD)

In this year, a messenger with four boatmen and an Indian woman was making his way up from Vancouver and camped for the night on Lummi Island, quite possibly at Village Point. The men were massacred and the woman carried off. A British gunboat investigated and by the help of the Lummis determined that the murderers were Clallams from the Port Townsend area. The Clallam village was shelled by the British, and the woman released.

circa 1830 (LLD)

The northern Indians had continued their raids on the Lummi villages, and the Semiahmoos had been almost completely annihilated. Their village was abandoned and the remaining survivors had joined the Lummis.

The last great raid occurred on Eliza Island. Several villages, including the Lummis and Samish had established a joint hunting camp on Eliza Island. The men were off on a deer hunting drive, leaving the old men, women and children on Eliza. Several war canoes of the northern Indians, each carrying from 50 to 100 warriors came in during the night. After destroying the beached canoes, they massacred all but the ones they wanted as slaves. Only three Lummis, who found a small canoe hidden in the brush escaped to Lummi Island. Between 200 and 300 Lummis were killed.

Sa-ump-ki, the Lummi Chief, was a great warrior and planned an ambush for the next enemy raid. Watch was kept, and when the northern canoes were seen up in the Gulf of Georgia, messengers were sent to all the villages, and the warriors gathered in the forest. A number of Lummi war canoes went out, apparently to oppose the northern Indians but retreated before them, leading them to the beach near the portage. The Lummis dashed into the forest and were followed by the enemy. Suddenly the forest fairly erupted with the hidden Lummis, and after several hours of fighting, the northern Indians were all killed. Sometime later, the Lummis sent three bullets up to the northerners with a message inviting them to come back for the same treatment.

Although this was the last big raid on the Lummis, the northern Indians continued raids on Puget Sound until 1858 when they were finally driven from these waters.

1841 (LLD)

The Wilkes surveying expedition named the Island “McLoughlin” after Captain John McLoughlin, head of the Hudson’s Bay Co. at Vancouver, Washington. They also named the northern point of the Island “Point Migley” after a gunner on the ship. Hale’s Passage was named after Professor Horatio Hale, an Oregon philologist who first compiled a systematic Chinook Jargon. The island south of the pass was named “Eliza” – changing the “s” in the original Spanish name to “z”. The feminine Spanish Point “Frances” was changed to the masculine “Francis”. The southern point of Lummi Island was named “Carter Point” after one of the officers.

1855 (LLD)

Governor Isaac I. Stevens and the superintendent of Indian Affairs for Washington signed a treaty on January 22 with five Indian tribes at Mukilteo (Point Elliot). The tribes were the Dwamish, Suquamish, Nuh-Lummi, Skagit and allied tribes. Chow-its-hoot, chief of the Lummis was assumed to represent all of the Nuh-Lummis and signed the treaty for them.

The treaty assigned all the land Chah-choo-sen which lies between the two mouths of the Nooksack, that is, between the old Lummi River and the Nooksack. This included land up to the present town of Ferndale. All the Nuh-Lummis, that is, the Lummis, Samish, Nooksacks, and Semiahmoo were moved onto the reservation. This did not work at all. From the beginning there was continual bickering between the groups, and some flatly refused to stay on the reservation. Finally in 1873, over President U.S. Grant’s signature, the reservation was decreased to its present boundaries and assigned to the Lummis and Semiahmoo who had become incorporated with the Lummis. The Samish were given their present lands on Samish Island and the Samish River valley. The Nooksacks were allowed to return to their scattered homes up the Nooksack River and were given the right to individually acquire title to land under the homestead law.

1858 (LLD)

GOLD! The discovery of gold on the Fraser River almost overnight turned the Bellingham Bay area into a wild boom town. Ship load after ship load of would-be prospectors came into the harbor. There was as yet no trail north to the Fraser. Those with money sailed by river boat up to the diggings, but those short of money acquired canoes by hook or crook and paddled the long way through the Gulf of Georgia and the Fraser River. Starting out from Whatcom, it was quite common for the canoeists to stop over night on Lummi Island before starting the long paddle across the Gulf. Two such prospectors did camp for the night at a spring on the beach. Some Lummis found their bodies the next morning with all their equipment gone. An armed group from Whatcom investigated, and with the help of the Lummis decided the murderers were Samish. . The combined armed group went to Samish Island and arrested seven Samish and took them to the jail in Whatcom. There our tale ends, as although the local paper wrote up the story to this point in detail, nothing was ever reported of later events and there is no courthouse record of the events.

1860’s (LLD)

The Island settled down into a period of peace and quiet. The Lummis made their annual fish camp at Village Point and there were no more raids from the north. With all of Whatcom County and its forests to settle, the whites had no interest in the isolated island.

1860 (BH)

In the 1860’s Lummi Rocks was known as “Race Rocks.” (These are the off-shore rocks near the northwest end of Lummi Mountain. At low tide they are connected to the Island by a sand bar.)

(From Lehr Miller in the second issue of the Newsletter in August,1966)

“To our local Historian, Mrs. Loren A. (Nyleptha) Ford, we are indebted for the following: Along side the road across from the Glen Schuler’s (on North Nugent just south of the corner of Blizard Road) are two trees growing of considerable size, a black walnut and an oak. These were planted from seeds in 1860 by Frederick Lane who later was the first superintendent of schools on Lummi Island. Apparently the first school was established in 1894 but nobody went to it.” (These two trees are still magnificently standing in 1999. The black walnut actually straddles the ditch and the ditch water runs directly under the trunk.)

1871 (LLD)

In the summer of this year a white man paddled a canoe into Legoe Bay on Lummi Island and was so interested in the Lummi reefnetting and in the beauty of the bay that he decided to settle there. It was Captain Christian Tuttle, and by homestead and pre-emption he obtained 330 acres on the bay.

Note: Under the 1820 U.S. Homestead Act, a person could file on 160 acres as a homestead, and by living on it for five years obtain title and a deed to it. He could also pre-empt a “donation” claim on another 160 acres. This gave him an option to purchase 160 acres at $1.25 per acre and he would receive a deed upon payment. This means that the date on which a person received a deed might be five or more years after he had actually settled on the property.

Christian Tuttle, born in Michigan in 1827, had led an active life as a whaler and as a gold miner in California with a partner named Shrewsberry. He was on his way to Alaska when he stopped in Whatcom and visited the islands by canoe. He built a split cedar home on Legoe Bay and married Clara Shrewsberry, the daughter of his former California partner. He cleared land and planted an extensive garden and orchard. He stocked the Island with sheep that ranged freely over the Island as far south as Race Rocks (now Lummi Rocks). He later added cattle. The Tuttles had seven children who had active parts in the growth of the Island.

1871 (BH)

The first white settler on Lummi Island was Floyd and Marion Tuttle’s grandfather, Captain Christian Tuttle, who arrived in the summer of 1871. One version of the family’s history is that Captain Tuttle saved the life of an Indian Chief, and later, when the Chief died, became the guardian of the Chief’s orphaned daughter. Being a sea Captain and a bachelor, with no permanent home, Captain Tuttle arranged for the Indian Princess to be raised and educated in a California convent. At the age of 18, her education completed, she left the convent and traveled to Lummi Island where she and Captain Tuttle were married and established a home.

Note: In a conversation with Marion Tuttle on May 14, 1997, he stated that Clara Shrewsberry and the Indian princess were one and the same person. She may have been part Indian. The details of the above story may be at least partly fanciful imagination.

(LLD) Soon after Christian Tuttle had settled on Lummi Island , Frederick F. Lane came to the Island and built a home on the beach just south of Lummi Point (Lane Spit). he is credited as being the second homesteader on the Island. He was here in 1880, but did not receive title to the NE quarter of section 4 until 1887. He married a Lummi Indian (some accounts say Sumas and others Canadian Indian), Miss Nellie Howen and they had twelve children.

About this time, the increased demand for timber resulted in a rapid increase in the settlement of the Island. The majority of the early settlers were interested in lumbering rather than farming and many left the island after the timber was logged off.

1876 April

The times were turbulent; In April, 1876, the people of Bellingham Bay subscribed to a fund to capture outlaws who were terrorizing the settlers among the islands of Rosario Strait, and an armed posse was sent in pursuit, but without results.

1876 May 19

Road Poll tax set at $4.00 on all male inhabitants “liable to perform said labor.”

1874 November

Christian Tuttle was paid $13.01 for jury duty in September, 1874.

1877 (LLD)

SALMON! SALMON! SALMON!

The phenomenal run of salmon was almost unbelievable. Even after the turn of the century every creek and every drainage ditch would be so full of spawning salmon that farmers would gather wagon loads of fish with pitch forks to use as fertilizer. Commercial fishing in Puget Sound started almost with the first settlers. Salmon and herring were salted and shipped in barrels, and herring was smoked and shipped in cases. By 1877 the fishing had grown so important that the state passed a law requiring all barrels and cases of salmon to carry in two-inch high letters the mark “P. S. Salmon.”

1881 (LLD)

The first salmon canneries in the northwest were in British Columbia and on the Columbia River. The first cannery in Whatcom County was built by Martin and Captain J.W. Tarte at Semiahmoo in 1881 but proved a failure and was operated only two years.

1881 June

A Lummi Island census dated June 10, 1881 lists Wade H. Beach, 31, farmer, born in Wisconsin, and wife Nancy, 30, born Washington Territory. He was the Island’s first postmaster (1882) and the post office carried his name until 1946 when it was changed to Lummi Island.

1882

William Legoe came to Bellingham in June 1882, spent a year in a logging camp on Lummi Island. after which he opened a blacksmith shop in Bellingham. Harrison Bacus was a logger on Lummi Island opposite Portage Island. He logged with oxen.

(LLD) John Beach took up land and built a cabin about half way between the present Beach Store and Earl Granger’s home. He opened the first post office in his cabin and obtained mail once a week by canoe from Chuckanut. (LLD apparently inadvertently substituted “John” for “Wade” Beach. Other references refer to John Wade Beach, but the item above for June, 1881 and many other references mention Wade H. Beach or Wade Hamilton Beach)

mid 1880’s (LLD)

During this period some of the settlers included Frank Reel who located on the present Earl Granger’s property were Mr. Parker, Harry Rambeau, G.T. Bumstead, James Chappell, Arthur & Arden Payne, and Mr. Peterson.

William and Harrison Bacus organized the Bacus Lumber Co. with headquarters at the Reel place. In 1891 William Bacus obtained title to the quarter section between the present Beach Store and the school house.

1886 (LLD)

Albion F. Bowden and his mother (Caroline P.) settled on the Island and in partnership with Peterson opened the first store located at John O’Rourke’s home (David & Molly Harmoney’s present home.) The store was almost exactly where Molly’s horse stable is located. A dock was built out from this point, and the Steamer De Haro gave the first twice weekly mail and passenger service.

1888 (LLD)

Melzer Granger and his family settled at the north end of the Island — the start of the present “Granger Clan.” The Granger family landed on this island wilderness in a dugout canoe.

1889 (LLD)

John Chamberlain and his family homesteaded on Lummi Island .

The first Lummi Island school started on land donated by Peterson at the site of the present fire hall. Charles Norman was the first teacher. In 1892 he purchased ten acres from Frederick F. Lane where Beach School is now located. Due to a poor survey, their house and barn were built directly on the half-section line. When the road survey was made in 1903, the Normans purchased an additional six rods south of the line for the road right of way. This is why there is a jog in Centerview Road where it passes the school.

In this year the U.S. Coast Guard placed a kerosene-burning navigation light on the tip of Lane Spit. It was up on a wood pole platform and was attended for many years by the Lanes. The Lanes tended the light until an automatic, untended light was built.

1889 (BH)

The light buoy at Lane Spit was preceded by a low lighthouse on the spit, built in 1889. For years it was tended by the Frederick Lane family for whom the spit was named. According to June Reynolds, Mrs. Lane got $7.00 per month for taking care of the light house.

1893 (LLD)

The first state control of the salmon industry occurred in this year with the passage of a law licensing fish traps.

1895 (LLD)

The first salmon trap on Lummi Island was the famous Alsop trap located just north of Lover’s Bluff. By the end of the year, there were three traps on the Gulf of Georgia.

Ellery Rogers built the shingle mill on Lummi Bay north of Lane Spit. The mill had a capacity of 100,000 a day and was operated until 1907 or 1909. During those years, by various reports, it would be owned in succession by John G. and/or John E. Chappell (Chappell’s Mill or Lummi Island Shingle Mill), Mr. Rembaugh or Rambeau in 1906, and John E. Rice in 1909 (Beach Shingle Co.)

(From Beth Hudson’s Lummi Lore collection) The “Old Art” Granger property (on North Nugent north of Lane Spit) was the site of a shingle mill at one time.

1896 (LLD)

The salmon cannery at Village Point was built by Messrs. W.C. McKee and E.G. McDonald from Canada with English capital. It was later incorporated as the Lummi Island Packing Co. and was finally purchased, with six traps, by Frank and Charles Wright for $100,000 and they organized the Carlisle Canning Co. in February, 1902. It had a capacity of 100,000 cases a year.

The coming of the fish traps caused a great deal of argument and trouble. Owners of adjacent land claimed that they had the offshore fishing rights while the State claimed the right to license the trap sites. It was even worse for the Indians. In spite of the treaty of 1854 giving them the right to fish “at usual and accustomed grounds”, the traps cut them off from their reef netting sites. The Alsop trap and the Carlisle trap at Village Point completely blanketed the reef net sites in Legoe Bay, and the last reef netting by the Indians was in 1898.

1897 (LLD)

The State of Washington Township law was passed, and soon after, the Township of Lummi Island was organized and thereafter the Township was active in the development of roads and other Island interests.

1898 (LLD)

William T. Corcoran settled on Lummi Island . He was active in lumbering and fishing. In 1902 he purchased the family home on Cowan Road (later renamed “Centerview Road” ) . In 1890 he married Elizabeth Chappell who was born in England. They raised a family of eleven children.

1900 (BH)

Several years ago workmen repairing a leak in the main building at Loganita Lodge found a box in the stairwell. When Mrs. Irene Thomas opened the box she discovered it contained letters which had belonged to Joe Granger’s father (Chan Granger). According to Joe, they were dated 1900 and were love letters written to his father by his mother (Eva Blanche Warren Granger) before their marriage.

1901 (LLD)

Elizabeth Margaret (Turney) Richards and her son, William L. Richards came to Lummi Island , and she bought the William Bacus property, and the present Beach Store building was built. It contained the Post Office and was so used until 1941.

1903 (LLD)

John Fredrick and Marie Alfs, originally from Germany, purchased from Mrs. Richards the land which is now (1980) the Jules Peterson home. The Alfs had three children: Marie, Herman and Emil.

1908 (PGD)

In this year, Robert Abraham Lincoln Davis, owner of Whatcom Wholesale Grocery, built a summer cabin on the Island for his family. In 1952, his son, Lloyd Lincoln Davis, expanded the cabin into a year-around house and became a permanent resident with his wife Edith. In 1975, Paul, a son of Lloyd and Edith, became the third-generation Davis to occupy the house.

circa 1910 (LLD)

The old shingle mill at Lane Spit was rebuilt as a salmon cannery by the Beach Packing Co. A few years later the Nooksack Packing Co. built a cannery at Glen Cove (the home of Captain James W. Tarte) also known as Hansen’s Echo Point and Sunrise Cove. From then on, salmon fishing and canning was the dominant economic activity of the Island.

1911 April (PGD)

Frederick Lane, Jr. was clearing land when a log fell on him and pinned him to the ground. He died of his injuries on April 15, 1911. He was born in 1882.

1914 June (LLD)

The land donated for the cemetery was cleared and leveled by volunteer labor donated by the community. It was felt that the church organization could not support the cemetery, and the land was deeded to the Lummi Island Township. The plat was completed and filed by the Township in the County records in June 1914.

The first direct interment was in about 1908 and dates earlier than that probably represent re-interments from other locations. The writer found a blueprint of the original plat as filed in the County records, Vol. 6 Book of Plats Page 32. The copy carried the signatures of Messers C.R. Granger, Walter A. Merz and J.B. Seelye. On it in ink were written the names of original lot owners, representing the people who donated labor or other means for clearing the land. This list gives a good census of the major families living on the Island at the time. It of course does not list all the second generation families of the same names. They are:

Charles Anderson (2-13-15) *

(Alonzo) Leonidus Blizard (12-17-14) *

V.(Virgil) C. Botsford (10-22-08) *

Ernest B. Chamberlain (6-27-53) *

(William) W.T. Corcoran (9-20-35) *

Chauncy R. Granger (10-15-48) *

Melzar Granger (3-25-22) *

Nettia L. Granger (1944) *

Frederick F. Lane **

Lars B. Nedrebo

Jennie Payne

James O’Rourke

J.(James) Barton Seelye (10-11-40) *

Lyman (W.) Seelye (4-1-39) *

Al Smith ***

Peter (B.) Smith (8-2-18) *

Christian Tuttle (Jr.) (1-27-68) *

Mathew Vaughn (9-7-08) *

* These are buried in the Lummi Island Cemetery and died on the dates shown.

** Frederick Lane might have been either Sr. (2-21-09). or Jr. (4-15-11).

*** Either Almon S. Smith (9-13-47), or I. Albert Smith (1967)

1915 (PGD)

Nineteen-year-old Gretchen Kaufman of west Smith Road north of Bellingham was awarded the contract to teach the 1915/16 school year at the North End School on Blizard Road, but she deferred and yielded the contract to her sister, twenty-two year-old Edith Rachel Kaufman. Edith was working her way through college at University of Washington by teaching alternate years at various schools. She had graduated from Bellingham High School in 1911 and finally graduated cum laude from U of W in 1920. Gretchen would eventually make her career teaching chemistry at Bellingham High School. Edith would later marry Lloyd L. Davis and become the mother of five children: Helen, Robert, William, Paul and Patricia. Edith and Lloyd became permanent residents on the Island in 1952, having re-built into a permanent home the summer cabin built by Lloyd’s father in 1908. Paul retired to the family home on the Island in 1975.

1916 (BH)

The Lummi Island Civic Improvement Club (name changed later to Civic Club) was organized in 1916. Some of the early projects included “Dump no Garbage” signs posted, holding a public hearing on ferry rates and acting as a committee of the whole to read all the books in the school library (grades 1-8) to be sure they were not objectionable.

1918 (PGD)

Charles Allison “Al” Granger, son of Melzior, died about 1918 or 1920. He was born March 27, 1880 and married Nettie Alfs. His brother Edmond who was born in 1885, died in 1918. He married Martha Martin.

1920 (PGD)

The Beach School property is on land purchased by Charles Norman from Frederick F. Lane. The Normans had left the Island in 1899 and the land was farmed by Frank Seelye, son of Lyman Seelye. The property was purchased from the Normans in 1908 and the strip along the waterfront was platted by Seelye as the Seelye Heights Addition.

1925 (PGD)

Salmon fishing and canning was the dominant economic activity of the Island. Roth reports that in 1925, of the eight canneries still operating in Whatcom County, the three Lummi Island canneries packed 28% of the total county pack.

Beach Packing Co.              44,582        cases
Carlisle Packing Co.            34,180        cases
Nooksack Packing Co.        44,546        cases
Total County Pack             446,108        cases

1926 (PGD)

W. Woodard lived from 1866 to 1926.

1931 December (PGD)

Harriet (Rehm) Davis (Mrs. Robert Abraham Lincoln Davis) died December 21, 1931. She was born May 3, 1872. Her son was Lloyd Davis and her grandson is Paul Davis. Her husband died in December, 1936.

1933 (LLD)

The salmon canneries operated until 1933 when the traps were outlawed. After that, the salmon catch was so diversified that the fish were taken into Bellingham and Anacortes canneries. The year after the traps were discontinued, the old reef netting was restarted in Legoe Bay-but operated by whites instead of Lummis.

1935 May (PGD)

Franklin Wright, Sr. died May 29, 1935. He was born August 17, 1866. His name appears very prominently throughout this history. He married (1) Myrtle (Cramer) who died October 17, 1919, (2) Leigh Graham (Allen) who died in 1932 and (3) Maud who died about 1956 and who was formerly married to Franklin’s brother Harry. Frank, Jr. who was the son of Franklin and Myrtle, died February 23, 1997.

The stage (bus) company was advertising three daily trips from Bellingham around the Island at $1.50 for a round trip including ferry charges.

1935 September (PGD)

William Thomas Corcoran died September 20, 1935. He was born August 19, 1861. He built the shed at the North End School on Blizard Road in 1915 even though the County Superintendent of Schools complained that the Lummi Island School District No. 32 couldn’t afford the expense. His wife Marcia died in 1919.

1935 (PGD)

The teacher for the 1935/36 school year at Beach School was Irene Reither. She returned to the Island in 1994 for the 75-year Beach School reunion.

Late 1930’s (BH)

Dick Hudson was the first driver for the public bus route on Lummi Island during the late 1930’s. The bus made two trips each day from Bellingham , around the Island, and back to the city, to accommodate local people and the numerous vacationers coming to stay at Loganita Lodge and The Willows.

The Lane Spit area was once a park complete with peacocks, cages of pheasants, tame deer, rose gardens, tennis courts and a large dance pavilion. Clams were so plentiful on the point that they were dug with a horse and plow.

1940 August

Starting in late August when its engine clutch became disabled, the ferry Chief Kwina was towed for three weeks by the tug Dividend of the Bellingham Tug & Barge, while waiting for a new clutch from a San Francisco concern.

A total of 407 autos were accommodated on the county ferry to Lummi Island Sunday, August ll. The boat ran constantly from early morning until after midnight. Some car drivers dropped out of the lines rather than wait for their turn to make the crossing.

Note (PGD):

Here in Hales Pass, we have a maximum tide of about 13 feet between low tide and high tide. Instead of using counterweights like modern ferry docks to raise and lower the ramp to ferry deck level, the Lummi Island and Gooseberry docks in those days had the ends of the ramp resting on sections of huge floating cedar logs. Over the years as the logs became water logged, they sank deeper into the water, very much limiting the weight of a car that could cross to Lummi Island. The Chief Kwina was designed as a six-car ferry–for six small cars like Model-T Fords. Heavy trucks couldn’t cross at all.

1941 March (PGD)

Marcus S. (Marc) Tuttle, son of Christian Sr. and Clara, died March 7, 1941. He was born May 21, 1883.

1947 (FK)

Twenty pupils enrolled on opening day, September 2nd. They were: First grade: Don Adema, Kaynor Gerritz, Raymond Howard, Gayle Knudson, Laurel Peterson, Delores Tuttle. Second grade: Roy Granger, Terry Granger, Randy Luke. Third Grade: Billy Auvil, Irene Hicks, Sandra Howard, Gernet Knudson, Jewel Peterson, Helen Louise Woods. All representing fifteen Island families.

Nyleptha Ford, teacher and principal, reported the first six weeks were spent reviewing the previous year’s work. The lst grade had finished their first pre-primmer and had started their second. A POINTA project was to acquire a movie projector and sound equipment for school use and community entertainment. A show given by Emery Strebe to benefit the POINTA raised $42.40 toward the goal. Membership dues were 50¢ per person. Lois Peterson was Treasurer; Grace Tuttle was President; Helen Corcoran was Vice-president; Gladys Granger was Secretary; and Marie Luke was Entertainment Chairman. The October POINTA meeting would bring special guest, Albert Gerritz, County Superintendent of Schools, plus a program presented by the 3rd and 4th grades, “Honoring Columbus Day”, supervised by the teacher. Aloa Auvil and Marie Luke promised refreshments for the meeting.

1958 May (PGD)

Wallace Coleman died May 16, 1958. He had owned and operated the Beach Store from 1921 to 1945 with the post office cubicle in the northeast corner of the building. His wife, Jessie May, died eleven years earlier on March 24, 1947. She was born in 1882. Jessie’s son (Wallace’s stepson), Harold long and wife Gladys took over the Operation of Beach Store in 1945 and in 1970 they sold it to Bill and Virginia Smith.

1959 February

Harold R. Davis died February 11, 1959. Born to R.A.L. & Harriet Davis July 2 1896.

1960 (BH)

The only tangible evidence of a fire department was a fire siren belonging to Harold Long. (Probably at the Beach Store.)

1962 (PGD)

The new ferry Whatcom Chief was first put into service with Jerry McDonald as Captain.

1967 May

Edith Rachel (Kaufman) Davis, Wife of Lloyd L. Davis and mother of Paul G. Davis, died May 7, 1967. She was born October 22, 1893.
Herman F. Alfs died May 16, 1967

1967 November (PGD)

Isaac Ely Austin, Sr. died in November, 1967. He was born in 1884. He married Glenara Sherwood. He was the son and step-son of Fanny Winslow Bana Granger and Melzior Granger, Sr. Fanny was the second wife of Melzior after his first wife Lucy (Rogers) died in 1890 shortly after they arrived on Lummi Island .

1969 March (PGD)

Jessica (Hudson) David, aunt of Lorraine Peel, died March 29, 1969. She was born October 9, 1883.

1976 December (PGD)

Glenara (Sherwood) Austin (Mrs. Isaac Ely Austin, Sr. ) died December 4, 1976. She was born in 1894. She had taught at the South End School in 1916, and later at Beach School. Ely, Sr. was the son of Fanny Winslow Bana Granger before Fanny married Melzior Granger, Sr., so Ely was the step-son of Melzior.

1980 August (PGD)

Genevieve Maurine (Taft) Melcher died August 9, 1980. She was the grand-daughter of Leonidus and Sarah Blizard, the daughter of Frank and Ruby Taft, the wife of John Melcher II and the mother of John III and Jacquelyn Maurine (Melcher) Gaines. She was born May 26, 1902.

1981 November (PGD)

The new ferry dock on the Island was first conceived in the fall of 1974. After many delays by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife who were worried about interruptions to the migration path of fish, a fill-type dock (rather than pilings) was finally accepted. A radical new design for the lift mechanism which lifts the dock ramp was proposed by the design corporation. Instead of using the time-tested counterweight system used in all other docks, this one would use two enormous screws to raise and lower the ramp. It was a very clever engineering concept, but unfortunately it was the product of poor design and incompetent construction. The problems were almost beyond counting. After several years of repair, replacement and re-design, the new concept was finally abandoned. A new dock with the standard counterweights was designed, and the big screws were removed and discarded. Finally, after seven years of part-time use of the new dock and continued use of the rapidly deteriorating old ferry dock with a four-ton load limit, the re-designed and re-built new dock was put into full-time regular service in November, 1981.

1993 February

Mary (Davis) Gillies Johnston, daughter of R.A.L. & Harriet Davis died February 21, 1993. She was born May 1, 1900.

1993 December

COULD THIS BE THE END OF HISTORY? – – (Paul Davis, Editor LICA Newsletter, The Tome)

For the past 15 years, MARGUERITE “PEGGY” AISTON, now living in Bellingham , has been a major contributor to the Lummi Island Community Club NEWSLETTER with her monthly history capsules. Peggy lived on Lummi Island from 1967 to 1975, and she typed the NEWSLETTER for our first editor, Lehr Miller during those years. She has been absolutely reliable and punctual and never needed a reminder about a deadline. As a reader, I have thoroughly enjoyed her history vignettes as I’m sure everyone on the Island has. Peggy’s history gives me a sense of value and continuity to life on this perfect place to live. We now have an accumulation of over 150 NEWSLETTER editions with her historical vignettes permanently preserved for future historians to peruse. As editor, I have complacently accepted that Peggy would continue to submit her paragraphs forever, but alas, she now sadly informs us that it is time for her to quit. It’s hard to think what to say except “Thanks, Peggy, for your valuable and entertaining work.”

1998 April

Marguerite “Peggy” Aiston died April 29, 1998. She was born June 24, 1912.