Port Townsend Washington Genealogy

Biography of Hon. James G. Swan

HON. JAMES G. SWAN. – Hon. James G. Swan was born in Medford Massachusetts January 11, 1818.He came to San Francisco via Cape Horn in 1850. He came to Shoalwater Bay in 1852, which was then a part of Oregon, and remained till 1856,when he went East as private secretary to Governor Isaac I. Stevens, Delegate to Congress at Washington, District of Columbia. He returned to the territory in 1858, and settled in Port Townsend. In 1862 he was appointed teacher in charge of the Makah Indian Agency at Neah Bay, and remained till 1866, having charge of the government … 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

Biography of Hon. Allen Weir

HON. ALLEN WEIR. – This universally known and universally respected maker of public opinion and founder of pioneer institutions in Washington Territory, of whom we present a portrait, was born in Los Angeles county, California, April 24, 1854, and is therefore in his thirty-sixth year. In 1860 the family removed from California to Puget Sound, arriving at Port Townsend June 1st of that year. They located on government land in the Dungeness river bottom in Clallam county, and there resided and “grew up with the country.” They were among the early pioneers of that section, moving in when there were … 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

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

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

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 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

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 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

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

History of the Olympic Peninsula

“The Last Wilderness” by Murray Cromwell Morgan, published in 1955 by Viking Press in New York, is a comprehensive historical account of Washington’s Olympic Peninsula. Spanning 275 pages, this book delves into the rich and tumultuous history of the region, offering insights into its pioneering days, the challenges of its lumber ports, and the establishment of Olympic National Park.

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 George B. Calhoun, M.D.

GEORGE B. CALHOUN,M.D. – There are but few men better known or more highly respected in the medical profession on Puget Sound than Doctor Calhoun, an excellent portrait of whom appears in this history. He is a native of New Brunswick, and was born October 19, 1837, his parents being John and Mary (Brewster) Calhoun. When he was but a small boy, he moved with his parents to the sunny South, locating in Maryland. His father, being a shipowner and seafaring man, was stricken, while on a voyage to the Bermudas, with yellow fever, from which he died. Our subject, … 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 Hon. David Shelton

HON. DAVID SHELTON – Mr. Shelton, one of the very earliest of the pioneers of Washington Territory, who with Mr. L.B. Hastings and F.W. Pettigrove became a founder of Port Townsend, was born in Buncombe County, North Carolina, September 15, 1812. His father, Lewis Shelton, emigrated to the territory of Missouri in the year 1819, and settled in Saline county but kept on the advance wave of settlement, ever moving westward as the state settled up, and died in Andrew county in 1847. In this frontier life young David came to maturity, and on May 30, 1837, was married to … 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

Biographical Sketch of Alfred A. Plummer, Jr.

ALFRED A. PLUMMER, Jr. – This gentleman, of whom we present an excellent portrait, is the son of the pioneer whose sketch appears above, and was born in Port Townsend September 7, 1856. As a boy he received a sound practical education at the public school of the place, and as a young man entered into mercantile business, and has become a leader in business enterprises. In 1881 he inaugurated a business at New Tacoma, but eighteen months later returned to his native city, and after a time established with D.W. Smith and J.D. Fitzgerald the Port Townsend Foundry & … 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 J. J. H. Van Bokkelen

J.J.H. VAN BOKKELEN. – We constantly find among those that are here present lives of such incident and fullness, that any sketch must be so meager as to be well-nigh worthless. The active career of Mr. Von Bokkelen, covering more than half a century, is one of them. He inherits his name and much of his rugged mentality from an old Holland family on his father’s side, which at the time of the entrance of the French and flight of the King came to New York. There the grandfather became one of the first physicians, settling in the old Bowery, … Read more