By Peter Anderson, Director, Mukilteo Historical Society
Mukilteo’s first resident doctor was Claude E Chandler. He was born February 19, 1883, in Scopus, Missouri, to parents Harrison S. Chandler and Sarah E. Whitner. Harrison was a doctor, so it appears Claude chose a profession to follow in his father’s footsteps. The Chandler family moved to Woodward, Oklahoma, in 1894, when Claude was 11 years old.
Claude attended public schools in Woodward before leaving home to pursue his college education at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon, and complete his medical degree at the University of Oregon at Portland. While in college, he often spent summers in Mukilteo, staying with the McNabs. Here he could also visit with some distant Smith family relatives, who had also come west from Missouri.
The N. J. Smith family had first travelled from Missouri by train to Seattle and then by boat to Everett. They subsequently settled in Mukilteo in about 1905, where they opened a general store at the corner of Park Avenue and Second Street. (Their building is still standing at this location as the Empty Shell Restaurant.) Newton J. Smith and his wife, Mattie (Berry) Smith had seven children: Marvin, Edgar, Edna, Abbey, Carrol, Donnel and Arnold. Carrol Smith would become Claude Chandler’s wife.
After finishing his MD degree and residency in 1908, Claude Evan Chandler, age 27, married Carrol M. Smith, age 18, on November 27, 1909, in Everett. She and Claude were half-cousins (they had the same maternal grandmother, Cynthia R. Barks, but different maternal grandfathers). The couple lived for a short time in West Kittitas, Washington, before moving and opening their drug store and medical office in Mukilteo in 1911.
Before Dr. Chandler’s arrival in Mukilteo, the community’s medical needs were served by a doctor hired by the local lumber mill. The contract doctor from Everett would visit the mill one day a week to administer first aid and check on patients needing treatment. The Everett doctor was also on call for emergency treatment. A nickel a day was withheld per mill employee for the contract doctor’s service. There was also a midwife, Mrs. Patton, who lived in a large brown house in Mukilteo and delivered babies before Dr. Chandler’s arrival here.
After his arrival in Mukilteo, Dr. Chandler established his office and drug store on Park Avenue. Due to frequent flooding, the buildings along Park Avenue were built on raised foundations and had raised wooden walkways (see accompanying photo). Chandler Drugs was located between the Mukilteo Transfer (hauling) Company and a barber shop. The drug store was destroyed by fire in 1915, and later rebuilt with a separate entrance to Dr. Chandler’s office in the rear of the new building.
The new Chandler Drug and Variety Store had a long room with two bay windows on each side of the door. There were window seats with an ice cream table in the middle and two ice cream chairs to fill in. There was also a soda fountain, candy and cigar cases, cosmetics and other sundries. After Dr. Chandler, Dr. George K. Moore of Everett used the office in the back. Dr. Moore came here two or three days a week. After the drug store left, the building became a laundromat in the mid-1960’s.
Trained as a physician and surgeon, Dr. Chandler served the medical needs of Mukilteo citizens for many years before his death in 1938. This included treating serious injuries such as those caused by the Powder Plant explosion in 1930. He made regular home visits in Mukilteo and Whidbey Island where he traveled by boat to call on his patients or deliver babies. He was the company doctor for the Crown Lumber Company as well as doctor for the Rosehill School. He was on the board of directors for the Rosehill School when it burned down in 1928.
Claude and Carrol Chandler had five children: Monica, Claude (Jr), Patricia, Jo-An and Donna. Tragedy struck the family when 15-year-old Claude Jr. was accidently run over by a truck and died in 1927. He is buried in Evergreen Cemetery, Everett, WA. Jo-An was Mukilteo’s Pioneer of the Year in 2010. Dr. Claude E. Chandler died of a heart attack at age 55 on October 12, 1938. His wife Carrol continued to manage the Chandler Drug Store for many years and later worked at Carter’s Drug Store in Everett. She died in 1982, in Orange County, CA.
Originally published in the 1/10/2020 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.