By Peter Anderson, Director, Mukilteo Historical Society
This is a story about Victor McConnell, who arrived in Mukilteo about 1900 and built a facility on Front Street for servicing boats and motors. He should not be confused with George McConnell, who came to Mukilteo in the 1940s and purchased Victor’s facility, which then became McConnell’s Boathouse. Victor McConnell and George McConnell were not related.
Victor McConnell was born on February 2, 1872, in Caledonia, Kent County, Michigan. From the 1880 US Census and other records, we know he was the son of Marcus McConnell, born about 1842 in Ohio, and Sarah A. Humphrey, born March 7, 1844, in England. He had three brothers, Albertus, Guian and George, and two sisters, Fannie and Rachel. After his father died, Victor came west seeking his fortune. The 1900 US Census finds him single, at age 28, living as a boarder in Culver Precinct, Chelan County, Washington, where he and his neighbors worked as gold miners.
Other family members also came west. Victor’s mother, Sarah, settled on Orcas Island, where she died in 1928. His brother, Guian, lived for a while in Vancouver, BC, then in Bellingham, and finally on Orcas Is. His sister, Rachel, married John E. Barker in Orcas in July 1896.
There is some speculation that, before coming to Mukilteo, Victor McConnell established squatter’s rights to a small unpopulated island just south of Orcas. According to folklore, while living there, he engaged in some shady activities, including assisting Asians to enter the U.S. in violation of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882. A Tacoma grand jury found Victor guilty of smuggling a marine engine from Canada to put into a 38-foot hull that he was building at West Sound. Victor’s small island, which became known as McConnell Island, was later purchased by Thomas Gordon Thompson, a University of Washington professor. A portion of the island is now a nature reserve.
Victor was a bit of a womanizer – married four times that we know of. In 1904, he married Florence La Forte in Yakutat, Alaska. She had been born in Michigan and was only 17 when she married Victor, who was 32. It may have been a “shotgun” wedding, as they soon had a child, Rosa Victoria McConnell, born October 6, 1905, in Mukilteo. Rosa died young, in 1907, and is buried in Mukilteo’s Pioneer Cemetery. Victor and Florence (La Forte) had two other children: Ernest. born in 1907, and an unknown child born in 1909, who died as an infant.
Upon their arrival in Mukilteo, Victor and Florence lived for a short time in one of the beach houses located where Lighthouse Park is now. They then moved to a large house next to the gas station that they operated on the south side of Front Street.
We next find records indicating Victor married Louise Tesch of Seattle on March 1, 1919. They were married by a Justice of the Peace in Everett. We have not found a verifiable record that indicates what happened to Victor’s previous wife, Florence La Forte. And evidently the marriage of Victor and Louise did not last long. Although Victor was still listed as married in the 1920 Census, it indicates Louise was not part of Victor’s household. At that time, he was living in Mukilteo with just his son Ernest.
We next find a marriage record for Victor McConnell and Florence I. Jones. This Florence was born September 9, 1886, in Kearney, Buffalo County, Nebraska. Her parents were Henry W. Reeves, born about 1848, and Annie M. Brant, born about 1852. Their daughter, Florence Isabelle Reeves, first married Charles F. Jones in Kearney, NE, on May 31, 1912. They had two children: Harry Franklin Jones and Ada Jones. Florence’s first husband, Charles, died of suicide in Hagerman, Idaho, on September 23, 1920. Then the widowed Florence Jones married our Victor McConnell in Mukilteo on November 27, 1922.
Curiously, there was again a significant (14-year) age difference between Victor and his new wife Florence Reeves Jones. The 1930 U.S. Census lists their Mukilteo household consisting of Victor and Florence McConnell and Franklin and Ada Jones (Florence’s children from her first marriage). By this time, Victor’s son, Ernest, had married and moved to a separate residence. Ernest died of pulmonary tuberculosis at age 30 on June 21, 1937.
Seeing further business potential, Victor acquired the land across the street from his house and gas station and began building a marine service station there using cement and beach sand. Located on the north side of Front Street, where the Silver Cloud Inn is now, it was the first concrete building in Mukilteo. Curious townsfolk marveled as they watched “Mac” trudge day-after-day hauling sand in his wheelbarrow from the beach to mix with cement to construct his building. He completed the first section of his building in 1925, and later added to it using the same construction technique.
The concrete building had large signs on it which read: “McConnell Service Station”, “General Repairing”, “Storage”, “Red Crown Gasoline” and “Zerolene Oils”. Mac and third wife Florence were engaging figures around town. Mac owned a vintage truck that they used to haul goods for people and businesses. Mac usually wore bib overalls and had a large collection of hats. He and Florence would entertain gas station customers with colorful stories while filling their tanks at the gas station.
Florence Isabelle McConnell died in Mukilteo on March 15, 1946, at age 59. She is buried at Evergreen Cemetery in Everett. After his wife died, Mac sold his concrete service station building to George McConnell (no relation), who turned it into McConnell’s Boathouse. Victor kept his house and gas station across the street.
In 1948, Mac married his fourth wife, Ida (Singleton) Wilkes. At the time of their marriage, Victor was 76 and Ida was 72. Ida’s first husband, James Alvin Wilkes, had died of a brain tumor in Seattle in 1915.
Victor McConnell died in Mukilteo on January 10, 1953, at age 80. He was cremated and interred at View Crest Abbey in Everett.
Following Victor’s death, stepson Charles Robert “Bob” Wilkes and wife Helen assumed ownership of the McConnell house and gas station. Seeing a business opportunity, the Wilkes moved the old house to the back of the lot to make way for the Sea Horse Snack Bar Delicatessen. The Deli opened on the south side of Front Street in 1955, and later became the Buzz Inn.
Victor McConnell’s fourth wife, Ida Wilkes, died in 1961. Stepson Bob Wilkes died in Snohomish on December 5, 1976. His wife, Helen Wilkes, was named Mukilteo’s Citizen of the Year in 1981; she died in Everett on March 6, 1998.
Originally published in the 10/14/2020 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.