The acreage on which the “Beach Store” on Lummi Island was built was purchased by Elizabeth Margaret Turney Richards in December 1901 for the sum of 600 dollars. It was unusual in those days for a woman to purchase property, but her husband Ripley Jonathan Richards was a disabled soldier from the Civil War. He had been staying in the Pacific Branch, National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers from November 22, 1894 until January 7, 1898 with a disability of chronic rheumatism.
During this time, Ripley discovered Lummi Island and wrote home to his wife, Elizabeth Margaret, inviting her and their ten children in Wisconsin to join him in this beautiful place. Many of the children were already married and had begun families of their own. However, the three unmarried sons and at least four of the married children decided to take the train with their mother and join their father in the West.
The third child and second son, William Lincoln Richards, and his wife Neva Estelle Case and four of their children established a place to live on Lummi Island with Ripley. When Elizabeth Margaret arrived with more of the family, the family chose the acreage on the leeward side of the island. Elizabeth Margaret purchased the property from George and Adelaide Guion of Chicago in December 1901.
By occupation, Ripley was a carpenter and taught his sons how to build. So, the family planned and built a large new grocery store with an apartment behind and a large meeting room upstairs. The boys in the Richards families in the area formed a band and played for dances in the large room upstairs.
The Beach Grocery (as it was called) also became the island’s post office that year and remained so until 1941. At that time, letters going to the islanders were addressed to Beach, Washington, rather than Lummi Island. William Lincoln Richards became the official Post Master and remained so until the acreage and store were sold in 1910.
Elizabeth Margaret continued to assist at the store for several years. However, Ripley and three of their sons moved to Fairhaven in 1903-04. After Ripley’s death in 1905, Elizabeth Margaret, four sons, and several grandsons lived at 703 21st Street until 1914. That is probably why Elizabeth Margaret Richards allocated the property on Lummi Island to William Lincoln and his wife Neva in March 1910, so they could sell it to Louis Buchholz on April 19, 1910 for the sum of one thousand dollars.
Ripley died at his home on 21st street in May 1905 at the age of 77; graveside services in Bayview Cemetery were conducted by members of GAR (Grand Army of the Republic) of which he was a member. Elizabeth Margaret died at 81 in April of 1920 while staying at the home of her son William Lincoln Richards in Bellingham and was laid to rest next to her husband Ripley and one of their sons, Otis, in Bayview Cemetery.
July 2001– LeRoy W. and Alice Richards