Mukilteo’s Pioneer of the Year for 2017, Janice McCaulley Henry, has a lot of family! Janice’s mother, Hazel Riches McCaulley, was the tenth of twelve children. And Hazel’s mother, Mamie Gongia Riches, was the oldest of twelve children. So Janice has lots of relatives, many of whom lived in Mukilteo through the years.
Janice’s grandparents, Mamie and Ed-ward Riches, came from Wisconsin to settle in Western Washington in the early 1900s, coming to the Mukilteo area in 1906, the year in which the Mukilteo lighthouse began operation.
Then Mamie’s parents, Joseph and Mary Gongia (Janice’s great-grandparents), also decided to move from Wisconsin to Western Washing-ton. They sold their Wisconsin farm and, with their six youngest children, boarded the Great Northern for the four or five day train ride to the west coast.
Settling in Mukilteo, Joseph worked at the Crown Lumber Company. They had a large house near the beach and took in boarders. Later they moved to a house up the hill. They also lived in Seattle for a while, but after Joe died, Mary moved back to Mukilteo to live with family. Mary, who died in 1931, was known as “Grandma Gongia” to Mukilteo kids.
Mamie and Edward Riches, Janice’s grandparents, lived in the Edgewater area where they raised their twelve children. Edward was a chicken farmer and at one time had 1,000 chickens in two large coops. They also had a strawberry patch just past Edgewater. Edward owned the hall located near the Post Office on Park Avenue that was used as a skating arena and also for dances. Two of his sons, Claude and Walter, man-aged the hall. Claude and other members of his family played in a small band for dances.
Jan’s father, Ralph McCaulley, came to Mukilteo before 1920 and worked at the Crown Lumber Company. He and Hazel Riches were married in Everett; they lived in one of the small beach houses where Lighthouse Park is today. They had four children, and Janice, born in 1935, is the youngest.
Jan grew up in a house at 912 5th Street that Ralph had built using hand-split shakes and beams from the mill. Jan remembers fondly how her father loved music—when the ships docked in Mukilteo he liked to play his violin with the Filipinos playing mandolins and ukuleles. He also played piano in addition to the violin, an instrument Jan played in the Rosehill school orchestra.
After graduation from Rosehill school, Jan went on to Everett High. She re-members going to the beach where Alma Ek (“Ekie”) watched over all the kids as they swam there. Janice and her husband Larry Rise had three daughters: Leanne, Karen, and Lynda. Janice now has three grandchildren and one great- grandchild. Her second husband, Dean Henry, died in 2007.
Jan has lived in her house at 605 3rd street since 1960; the house is now one hundred years old. She enjoys doing art work, mostly using pastels. She also likes playing golf and gardening. Her garden was on the Mukilteo Garden and Quilt Tour in 2015.
Janice will be our guest at the MHS meeting on Thursday, August 10, sharing her memories of growing up in Mukilteo. She will be riding in the Lighthouse Festival parade with our MHS contingent on Saturday, September 9, and will be honored in a reception at the lighthouse at 3:00 pm that afternoon.