Port Townsend Washington

Biography of Capt. Henry L. Tibbals, Sr.

CAPT. HENRY L. TIBBALS, Sr. – One of the most active men of whom Port Townsend, Washington, boasts is the captain whose name appears above. He has done much to make that city, and merits the recognition and wealth which its rapid growth awards him. He was born in Middleton, Connecticut, on December 18, 1829. His parents were in good circumstances; but at the age of ten he took the responsibility of shipping as cabin boy on a brig, at seven dollars and a half per month. From that time forth, nearly half a century, his life has been spent … Read more

Biography of L. B. Hastings

L.B. HASTINGS. – Under the bluffs on the sandbank at the old place that the Frenchmen called La Dalles, in the autumn days of 1847, a company of wayworn immigrants was lying along the river side, the women at the tents, the children playing with the dogs and romping on the shore, and the ponies and cattle feeding upon the mountain. The men were at work day after day a whole month, with their axes and hammers, in making a flatboat from the pines that they cut form the hills. This company of sixty wagons had just come out of … Read more

Biography of Hon. Alphonso Fowler Learned

HON. ALPHONSO FOWLER LEARNED. – Mr. Learned, whose travels and services abroad have taken him extensively over the world as an able representative of the American nation and flag, was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1838. He spent a precocious boyhood in the schools of that city, – “The Athens of America,” – and at the age of sixteen was an alumnus of Comers College. Preferring the sea, however, to further bookish confinement, he became cabin boy on a full-rigged ship, returning as able seaman. In 1857 he came on the clipper ship Sierra Nevada to San Francisco, and as … Read more

Biography of Hon. Robert C. Hill

HON. ROBERT C. HILL. – Mr. Hill, one of the most responsible men of Washington, and a pioneer of an early day, was born in Hatboro, Pennsylvania, September 14, 1829, the son of Doctor John Hill, his mother’s maiden name having been Eliza L. Davis. At the age of seven he moved with his parents to Philadelphia, and received his education at the excellent grammar and high schools of that city. He entered upon a business career as clerk in a wholesale dry-goods store in the city, and followed that occupation four years. In 1848 he removed with his parents … Read more

Biography of William H. Whittlesey

WM. H. WHITTLESEY.- This popular young gentleman, who has brought to our coast a business capacity and enthusiasm of progress which augers well for the city in which he has made his home, was born in Virginia August 8, 1858, and is a son of the gallant Major Joseph H. Whittlesey of the United States Army. The mother, Kate K. Fauntleroy, belonged to one of the first families of the Old Dominion. The son William, of whom we write, remained in the south while his father, the major, was transferred to the Department of the Columbia, having command of Fort … Read more

Biography of Hon. Charles Miner Bradshaw

HON. CHARLES MINER BRADSHAW. – The present efficient collector of customs of the Puget Sound district, a portrait of whom appears in this work, is a gentleman who has worked his way from the lowest rung of the ladder until he now stands at the front rank in his chosen profession, as well as having acquired a recognized position among the men who lead public opinion and form institutions and states. Mr. Bradshaw was born in Bridgewater, Susquehanna county, Pennsylvania, August 9, 1831, – the son of Salmon and Sarah F. Schurz Bradshaw, and is a lineal descendant of John … Read more

Biography of Col. Henry Landes

COL. HENRY LANDES. – The subject of this sketch is prominent and noteworthy, even among the foremost self-made men of the great and growing Pacific Northwest, – a section so progressive and promising that it has attracted the most vigorous minds and the ablest men throughout the country. He was born in a small town in Germany on the 8th of October, 1843. In 1847 his father and family emigrated to Kentucky, Henry being then four years old. There the boy grew almost to the years of manhood, and developed in a marked degree the spirit of adventurous ambition which … Read more

Biography of John M. Thomas

JOHN M. THOMAS. – Mr. Thomas was born in Nicholas county, Kentucky, July 8, 1829, and is the youngest son of a family of seven children. When he was four years old his parents moved to Indianapolis, Indiana, where his father died a year later. In 1844 he went to an older brother in Kentucky, where he remained for five years, and in October, 1849, returned to Indianapolis. On March 30,1852, he went to St. Louis, and one month later to St. Joseph, and there joined a friend from Indianapolis; and together they started with ox-teams for Oregon. At Fort … Read more

Chimakum Indians

Chimakum Indians were located on the peninsula between Hood’s Canal and Port Townsend, they were often referred to as the Port Townsend Indians.

Dayton, Gretchen Adeline – Obituary

Elgin, Oregon Gretchen Adeline Dayton, 85, of Elgin died July 17 at Grande Ronde Hospital. A graveside memorial will begin at 7 p.m. Friday at the Elgin cemetery. She was born Dec. 25, 1920, in Port Townsend, Wash., to Asa and Sylvia Fowler. She spent most of her life in the Puget Sound area, living in Tahuya and Brinnon. In 1981, she married Darius Dayton and moved to Elgin. She loved the outdoors, especially fishing and hunting, and enjoyed watching the sunsets from her kitchen window. She was a great storyteller and loved the antics of the young children who … Read more

Eccles, Darris Elwood – Obituary

Baker City, Oregon Darris Elwood Eccles, 78, died at his Kala Point home on Oct. 14, 2004. He has been a resident of Port Townsend, Wash., since 1956. Born on Sept. 5, 1926, to Richmond and Lenore (Sturgill) Eccles in Baker City, Darris graduated from Baker High School. He was employed by Safeway Stores in several Oregon cities and entered the U.S. Navy in 1952, where he graduated as an operating room technician with honors. He loved his time in the service, traveling on a transport ship to Alaska and the Far East, according to his family. Darris married Lora … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Capt. Henry E. Morgan

CAPT. HENRY E. MORGAN. – This well-known pioneer of 1849 is a native of Groton, Connecticut, and was born October 30, 1825. He moved with his parents to Meriden, in the same state, residing there until April, 1849, when he set forth for California in a bark via Cape Horn, arriving in San Francisco the following September. A short time afterwards he began a sea-faring life, and for fifteen years sailed the ocean. During that time he entered nearly all the noted foreign ports, and later purchased a vessel of his own and followed a coasting trade. In 1858 he … Read more

Biography of James Seavy

JAMES SEAVY. – This representative gentleman of Washington is, as we have noted in the case of many of the leading citizens of that state, a native of Maine, having been born at Thomaston, of the old Pine-tree state (Maine), January 11, 1825. Receiving an ample practical education at the public school and academy of his native town, he maintained himself during his early manhood by teaching and farming. In 1854 he undertook the labor, almost unheard of in his community, of bringing his family by sea to the Pacific coast, accomplishing the voyage around Cape Horn in the bark … Read more

Biography of Hon. Charles Eisenbeis

HON. CHARLES EISENBEIS. – This wealthy resident of Port of Washington gained his eminence by sturdy industry and sagacious investment during the pioneer days. He is a native of Prussia, was born in 1832, and the fifth in a family of ten children. Of his father he learned the trade of a baker, and was prepared upon his arrival in America in 1856 to earn thereby, in company with his brother, an independent livelihood at Rochester, New York. In 1858 he came via Panama to San Francisco, and in the fall of the same year arrived at Port Townsend. He … Read more

Biography of Francis W. Pettygrove

FRANCIS W. PETTYGROVE. – The greatest respect and admiration is due the memory of the men and women who came to the Pacific Northwest when it was the home of Indians, and mountain men and a few traders, almost as wild, to plant homes and lay the foundation of the empires of Oregon and Washington, now so prosperous, and in fact fast verging into the garden spots of the union. They dared much when they accepted the role of pioneers. Among those who came in the earlier emigrations was the gentleman whose name heads this brief sketch. He was a … Read more

Biography of Hon. Albert Briggs

HON. ALBERT BRIGGS. – Ever green in the memory of the pioneer of the Pacific coast remain the trials and hardships they endured while establishing civilization in the far west. These pioneers, constituted no ordinary class; they were hardy, brave and energetic men; and thousands to-day are reaping the benefits which have accrued from the trials and hardships endured by the early pioneer. None among them deserve more tribute than the subject of this sketch, an excellent portrait of whom is placed in this history, from a photograph taken when he was in his seventy-fifth year. Mr. Briggs was born … Read more

Biography of Hon. Joseph A. Kuhn

HON. JOSEPH A. KUHN. – Judge Kuhn has long filled a position of such prominence in Washington that the details of his life will be of public interest. His career illustrates once more the fact that the brawn and brain of the East needs but to touch the earth to spring up in double vigor at the West. He is the fourth in a family of six sons, resident in Pennsylvania; and the year of his birth was 1841. His mother belonged to an old American family of large reputation; and his father enjoyed the rank of colonel, and was … Read more

Biographical Sketch of James McCurdy

JAMES McCURDY. – This gentleman, who worthily bears the name of his honored father, Doctor Samuel M. McCurdy, was born at St. Andrews, New Brunswick, in 1840. He was early sent to school, and spent his time to advantage until as a lade of fourteen he began the work of his own maintenance, finding a suitable position in the general merchandise store of Vose & Joyce at Robbinston, Maine. Four years later he engaged as clerk at New York. In 1859, however, he determined to join his father upon the Pacific coast, and reached Port Townsend, Washington Territory, in September … Read more

Biography of James O’Laughlin

JAMES O’LOUGHLIN. – This gentleman, whose portrait adorns the opposite page, is one of the representative men of Skagit County, Washington. He is a native of Ireland, thus making Skagit, as every county in the United States indebted to the emerald Isle. County Clare was the region of his birth; and the time was April 9, 1844. Before he was three years old, his parents crossed the ocean to this land of liberty, bringing their nine children with the. They located at Lyons, New York, but in 1856 went to Lapeer, Michigan. There the boy James learned the tinsmith’s trade. … Read more

Biographical Sketch of Wilhelm Otto Roesch

WILHELM OTTO ROESCH. – The brewery of Pendleton, Oregon, is operated by Mr. Roesch, a man who has had long experience in all the processes of manufacturing the beverage. Born in Germany in 1855, he came to America in1870, working in a brewery. He followed the same business in San Francisco in 1874; at Steilacoom in 1886; at Portland until 1888. At Port Townsend he built a brewery for himself, running it two years. At Heppner, in 1880, he operated his own brewery one year. In 1882 he returned to Germany, marrying Miss Anna Rapps. Returning to Oregon, he is … Read more