Blog

By Joanne Mulloy, President, Mukilteo Historical Society

A small group of dedicated Mukilteo residents drew up Bylaws for the new Mukilteo Historical Society (MHS) in 1965 as a step towards incorporation in 1966.  In 1967, letters were written to Senators Warren G. Magnuson and Henry M. (Scoop) Jackson requesting a site for a museum on the lighthouse property, which was then owned by the United States Coast Guard.  Both replied that they would look into it.  During those early years, there were not many minutes of meetings held in private homes.   Opal McConnell, the author of “Mukilteo Pictures and Memories” was secretary in the seventies, joining the organization after her kids were grown and left home.  She got up at 4am with her husband and wrote her book while her husband went to work at the Boathouse, their boat rental business.  They lived in a storage loft above the Boathouse as newlyweds. 

Prior to 1977, the City of Mukilteo established a Historical Commission with the purpose of collecting and recording historical facts and photos.  The City purchased a fire proof file cabinet to safely store these records (which is still on the property today).  The charge for the Commission lines up with the current MHS mission statement, which reads: Locate, acquire, restore, preserve and exhibit any and all articles, documents, photographs, papers, artifacts and other items of historic, cultural, educational, or scientific value which pertain to the City of Mukilteo and its environs.  MHS still collaborates with the City of Mukilteo to carry out this purpose.

In 1977, Opal’s book was printed.  Two years later, a museum space was created in Room 201 of the Rosehill School.  Bev Ellis was President for 5 years during this time.

In 1991, the City of Mukilteo leased the lighthouse from the Coast Guard.  The following year, Mim Loree became President.  Lighthouse tours provided by MHS started on May 14, 1992.  The beginning gift shop started out as a small display cabinet/counter inside the lighthouse.  In 1992, the museum was moved from Rosehill School to a portable.  In 1997, the gift shop moved to the garage and a fundraiser for purchasing floor tiles in the lighthouse and Interpretive Center was launched.  These tiles are a popular attraction now as people try to find the tiles their family purchased or inquire about buying a new tile.  The tiles sold out in 1997 so this is not an option.

In 1999 under President Chris Wilson, MHS headquarters moved to the light station.  Volunteers started maintaining the gardens.  Funds were raised to restore 17 headstones at Pioneer Cemetery.  In 2001, the US Coast Guard gifted the lighthouse to the City of Mukilteo.  MHS currently has a facility use agreement with the City to staff the lighthouse and plan events.

Over the years, MHS administered and maintained the gift shop and archives, created themed parade floats, supported the Lighthouse Festival on many different levels, developed historical exhibits and grew their membership.  Staffing the lighthouse expanded to provide special tours and support weddings.  The League of Snohomish County Historical Organizations (LOSCHO) honored MHS with their Malstrom award (named for local historian Helmer Malstrom) several times for projects in support of local history, including this year for the mapping of Pioneer Cemetery and the accompanying book authored by Margaret Summitt.  Work was performed to get the lighthouse added to the State and National Historical Registers. 

The Archive Team catalogues the collection of over 3,000 photographs of historic places, people, and events. This year alone, data on 569 photographs was entered into a searchable museum-quality database program called PastPerfect.  This work is slow and labor intensive and will continue in 2019 and beyond. Portions of the resulting database were uploaded to an on-line website, allowing public access to over 2,400 photos. These photos can be viewed and ordered at:  https://mukilteohistorical.pastperfectonline.com/.

The current activities and accomplishments of MHS are only possible because of the foundation built for the organization many years ago by its leadership and that of the City of Mukilteo.  The gifts of their talents, skills and idea continue to benefit the Mukilteo community.  Many of the challenges of the early years still exist today.  Membership and turnover are still challenges.  Numerous strong women kept the organization moving forward.  Volunteers still maintain the gardens and paint the fence when needed. Friends were made and traditions were carried down through the years.  This rich legacy will continue to grow.

The 2019 MHS Board has been elected to continue to support the community and the City of Mukilteo:  Joanne Mulloy, President; Sally Morrison, Vice President; Al Friedrich, Treasurer; Margaret Summitt, Secretary.  Directors include:  Peter Anderson, Craig Fisher, Eric Richstad, Sharon Sutherland, and Mark Sutherland. 

If you would like to become a member of MHS, here is a link to an application, including volunteer opportunities:  https://mukilteohistorical.org/support-shop/membership/.

Originally published in the 12/5/2018 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.

By Al Friedrich, Treasurer, Mukilteo Historical Society

Good news!  The yellow caution tape surrounding an area of the Mukilteo Light Station (MLS) is finally gone.  But wait, why all the fuss?

A casual glance skyward would have revealed a broken antenna atop the wooden pole.  Now the antenna has been replaced and the yellow caution tape is no more, not to mention all the orange safety cones.

We know the MLS is home to two active United States Coast Guard (USCG) Aids to Navigation.  The first, a light encased in a Fresnel Lens which was made by opticians in Paris, France in 1852.  Visible for 10-12 miles on a clear night, the signature flash is every 5 seconds (2 seconds on and 3 seconds off).  The light is listed in USCG publications and shown on navigation maps.  The MLS has the only active Fresnel Lens in the State of Washington.  The second, a fog horn that can be activated by the USCG on those “rare” foggy days.  The signature sound is a 3 second blast every 27 seconds.

But did you know that the MLS is also home to a communications system which is part of the USCG Vessel Traffic Service?  In the words of the USCG at the Navigation Center website (navcen.uscg.gov):

“The purpose of a Vessel Traffic Service (VTS) is to provide active monitoring and navigational advice for vessels in particularly confined and busy waterways.  VHF-FM communications network forms the basis of most major services.  Transiting vessels make position reports to a vessel traffic center by radiotelephone and are in turn provided with accurate, complete, and timely navigational safety information.  They encompass a wide range of techniques and capabilities aimed at preventing vessel collisions, rammings, and groundings in the harbor, harbor approach and inland waterway phase of navigation.  They are also designed to expedite ship movements, increase transportation system efficiency, and improve all-weather operating capability.   The Coast Guard operates 12 Vessel Traffic Centers (VTC):  Prince William Sound, Puget Sound, Valdez, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles/Long Beach, Houston-Galveston, Berwick Bay, Louisville, Saint Mary’s River, Port Arthur, Tampa, and New York.”

The communication system at the MLS is part of the Puget Sound VTC located at Pier 36 in Seattle.  The Puget Sound VTC monitors the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Rosario Strait, Admiralty Inlet and Puget Sound south to Olympia.  The MLS system provides valuable communications to/from vessels passing through Possession Sound (Whidbey Island and the coastline of Mukilteo and Everett).

Since 1979, the USCG has cooperated with the Canadian Coast Guard in managing vessels traffic to include areas north of the Strait of Juan de Fuca through Haro Strait to include Vancouver B.C..  The relationship with Canada is invaluable in their mission to protect vessels in Puget Sound and the Salish Sea.

In summary, the USCG, the City of Mukilteo and the Mukilteo Historical Society are pleased to cooperate in the preservation and maintenance of the Mukilteo Light Station whose mission is to serve as an Aid to Navigation for all vessels sailing the Possession Sound.

Originally published in the 10/2/2019 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.

By Margaret Robe Summitt, Mukilteo Historical Society

Logger John H. Davis was built to cut down trees.  Six foot two, powerful shoulders, long legs.  He matched his strength with the best of them at the slightest provocation or challenge.  He bought timber land and sold it and made a profit, for a time.  But he died penniless.

John H. Davis was living in Coupeville on Whidbey Island in 1871, with his father, William, a native of Wales, and his brothers Charles and Daniel.  John was born in the state of Maine in about 1848.  He came out to Washington about 1870, and worked as a logger near Snohomish, in a camp headed by Martin Getchell.

John was married for the first time about 1873.  His first wife’s name is unknown. At about this time he was living at Preston Point (Hibulb), where he diked the tidal flat.  

Then, on or about November 18, 1875, a murder took place on Hat Island.  When “French Peter” Goutrie, the island’s only resident, failed to come to Mukilteo to pick up his mail, Morris Frost went to investigate and found Goutrie had been murdered, probably for the money he was rumored to have hidden.  Goutrie’s estate was sold and John H. Davis bought the homestead for $525 from the public magistrate.  Davis then partnered with Amos Phinney of Port Ludlow and logged off all the virgin timber on Hat Island.

After Davis made a bit of money, he married again.  On June 8, 1878, Morris Frost as justice of the peace solemnized the marriage of John H. Davis and fourteen-year-old Mary Harvick.  At that time John had sons Charles and Orville.  The children of his second marriage were Johnnie, Daniel, Orville (a younger Orville b. 1889), Ernest, Albert, Abbie, Viola and Thelma.

Daughter Abbie was born July 6, 1898 in Mukilteo and died January 16, 1910 of cerebro-spinal meningitis.  Daughter Viola died March 22, 1912 at age 11 of tubercular meningitis. It is not known what relation Stuart Davis was to the family.  No son named Stuart is listed in census records.  He may have been a son of John Davis’s first marriage.  Abbie, Viola and Stuart Davis are buried in the Mukilteo Pioneer Cemetery.  They have bronze plaques near the edge of the bluff.

It is not known when Davis bought the land where the Delta railroad yards in Everett are now located.  When he sold it, circa 1915, he received $250,000 in two installments.  After about a year he spent the entirety of the first installment of his payment.  When he showed up to collect the second installment, he was shabbily dressed and in a state of dissipation.  He ended up as a charity case at the county farm in Monroe, from which he disappeared in 1919.  His skeleton was not discovered until December 1931.  Apparently he had walked along the railroad grade in the direction of Snohomish and died as he was crossing a section of land near the Charles Frye farm. Coroner Nicholas Challacombe recognized that the skeleton, being that of a large man, might well have been that of Davis.  A unique pocket watch was discovered on the body.  Advertisement was made among Everett’s jewelers, and identification was confirmed with the help of a former Mukilteo neighbor, Max Fairfield, who recognized the engravings of an engine, coach and sailboat on Davis’s pocket watch.  That watch, he said, was “one in a million.”  Davis was buried in the G. A. R. Cemetery in Snohomish.

John Davis built his house near the present southwest corner of 5^th and Lincoln, and it is considered one of the very first houses built in Mukilteo.  It’s a small wooden house, presently painted blue, with a double set of concrete steps leading up to its porch.  Although it looks small on the outside, a visitor in the early years recalled a luxurious interior and an attractive winding stairway.  Today it houses a restaurant.  Few are aware of its history or of the life of its builder.

Originally published in the 7/4/2018 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.

By Margaret Robe Summitt, Mukilteo Historical Society

Chart Pitt was a Mukilteo original.  In his heyday, the 1920s to 1940s, some might have called him ornery and a crank.  To say he was colorful would be disrespectful to the rainbow. Chart Pitt was an adventurist, a pulp fiction writer, a passionate legislator, full of antics on the Washington State House floor.

His energy flowed into creative words and speeches, inspired by long hours spent watching the seas and observing men at work.  “I am a product of the Wisconsin woods,” he wrote.  “Been a hunter and trapper all my life—began on rats.  Of late it’s editors I’m baiting.” He hunted and fished in Alaska, where he “hunted gold and had the pleasure of not finding it.”

So far I have been unable to find Chart Pitt in the 1910 Census, but that’s not surprising, considering that he was at the time a young man in search of adventure. He may have been living on a remote island, maybe in Alaska as a lighthouse keeper, or in tropical seas outside the U. S.

Chart Pitt was born Chartley Artel Pitt April 17, 1878 in Portage County, Wisconsin, to William C. Pitt (b. 1847 NY) and Jane “Jennie” (Eaton) Pitt (b. 1850 Canada). At age 22 he was residing on his father’s farm (1900 Census, Eau Pleine, Portage, WI).

Pitt struck out for the west as a young man.  He made Bellingham his home but he wandered far and near, sometimes riding the rails with hoboes in boxcars.  The hobo, he mused, is a character impossible to capture in fiction.  The spirit of the hobo, to Pitt, was a spirit of brotherhood and anonymous charity.  To illustrate, he related in his brief autobiography a time when he was sleeping with hoboes in a boxcar in the Northern Pacific rail yards in Pasco.  They were awakened by shouts of “Fire!”  The town of Pasco was ablaze and the rail yard was threatened.  The hoboes then seized fire hoses in the yard and did their best to put it out.  When he arrived home in Bellingham, Pitt saw that one of the Seattle papers had blamed the hoboes for starting the fire for the purpose of looting the town.  This was ever the attitude of the media toward hoboes, Pitt said.  

He married (18 Aug 1909, in New Westminster, B. C.) Emma May “May” McLeod, b. 1886 in North Dakota, daughter of Captain Neil S. McLeod, a master mariner of Bellingham. The McLeod family was living in Bellingham by 1890. At the time of his marriage at age 32 Chart Pitt was a resident of Joseph, Idaho. His parents were listed as living there in the 1910 Census—at least his mother Jennie was, but her husband William’s information was crossed out by the census taker and her marital status was listed as “widowed.” The year 1910 was notable in Pitt’s literary career for two reasons. In that year he won a prize of $10 for “The Watcher,” the best poem about Mother’s Day, offered by the Modern Woodmen of America fraternal organization, which pronounced Pitt a “real poet,” a feat duly recorded in his hometown newspaper, the Stevens Point Gazette. In 1910 he also published a poem, “Back to the Night,” in Liberty, a Seventh-Day Adventist magazine, beginning a long association with that sect that culminated with his baptism in May 1959.

Daughter Lotus Pitt Pasternack was born July 6, 1912 in Bellingham. At the time, her father was employed by the U. S. Lighthouse Service. Her first four years were spent south of Ketchikan at Tree Point Lighthouse, where Chart Pitt was Second Assistant Keeper from 1911, and where locals called her “Lavender Lotus, Lilly of the North.” The family later moved to Ediz Hook Lighthouse, Destruction Island Lighthouse and finally to the Mukilteo Lighthouse. He was lighthouse keeper at Mukilteo from 1917 to 1922. In the 1920 Census he was living with his family in Mukilteo, married with wife May and small children: daughter Lotus age 7, sons Donald age 4 and Gordon age 2; these children were born in Washington.   Of his time at lighthouses Chart Pitt wrote of “sitting alone thru the night-watches, keeping the beacon burning, that those who go down to the sea in ships, may return again.  It’s the thunder of surf—and the flying spray—and the gauzy things they make dreams of, that hold me there.”

Chart Pitt’s niece, the late Elaine Scheib Jensen, was Mukilteo Pioneer of the Year for 2011. The Scheibs used to live diagonally across from her best friend Sylvia “Tude” (Zahler) Richter’s house on Fifth Street. Elaine recalled that Chart Pitt drove her and Tude to a hotel in Edmonds the night of the Powder Mill Gulch explosion in 1930. It was the first time either had spent a night in a hotel, but Tude was disappointed because they did not get the ice cream they were expecting that night. Tude told me that at age 12, she and Elaine used to go around Mukilteo delivering radical newspapers for Mr. Pitt.

Starting about 1909, Pitt frequently submitted verses and fiction to popular magazines. His short stories appeared in such pulp magazines as Thrilling Adventures, Action Stories, North-West Stories, Outdoor Stories, and Red-Blooded Stories. They often dealt with seafaring, hunting, mining, and man against nature generally.  If the Everett Public Library had started back in the 1970s collecting Pitt’s fiction, there would be a whole shelf of it now in the library, librarian David Dilgard told me.

“The Bootlegger’s Brat” (1931) is set in Oregon, but those in the know recognized it as a thinly disguised portrait of Mukilteo during Prohibition days. David Dilgard told me that this book is like H. P. Lovecraft’s “Necronomicon”—in that some people claim to have seen a copy but no one knows where to actually find one. It was published in 1931 under the imprint of Hurst and Blackett in London. Pitt’s fiction had been, and still remains, better known in England than over here. The only review (unsigned) to be found online appeared in the Sydney, Australia Morning Herald for April 3, 1931.

“Among the Rum-Runners of Oregon”: “The purpose of Mr. Chart Pitt in writing ‘The Bootlegger’s Brat’ may have been to supply ‘wet’ propaganda, or to show the ease with which lawless practices are carried on in the United States. Apart from this, his story is a vigorous if undistinguished piece of writing, which deals with a remarkably thirsty community on the Oregon coast. Citizens who are not consistently imbibing spend all their leisure in a search for spiritual intoxication through the agency of the more violent forms of evangelism. Both parties are despicable, the one meanly striving to snatch such sources of happiness as the other possesses. “The trouble begins within a few days of ‘the death of John Barleycorn,’ when Pat Shanley installs his secret distillery to satisfy, at a price, the inordinate thirst of his fellow townsmen. Shanley is caught by Federal officers and sent to gaol, but as soon as he gains his freedom he learns that bootlegging has by this time been scientifically organized throughout the country, and he is honoured to find himself district manager of the liquor ring. One learns something of the extent to which bootlegging has destroyed the integrity of American law officers and others in authority, including prison governors, who apparently accord special privileges to such rum-runners as the police occasionally imprison for the sake of appearances. Mr. PITT also concerns himself with the effect of organized lawlessness upon young America, and the difficulties facing a lawyer of repute at the beginning of his career, under the present corrupt conditions.”

Pitt is best known today as a representative to the Washington State Legislature for the 38th District, elected in 1937, 1939, 1941, 1943 and 1945. The present 38th District includes Everett, Tulalip and Marysville (but not Mukilteo). When Pitt served, the 38th covered part of Snohomish County and part of Island County. As a legislator his antics were legendary. As the summary of “Bootlegger’s Brat” attests, Pitt long associated the “wet” interests with political corruption. Although a Democrat, he often broke with his party over this issue. During a debate in the Washington Legislature in 1939, he stood up to oppose a bill to permit sales of liquor by the drink on trains within the state. Proponents said the measure was for the benefit of thirsty tourists. “If these tourists want to souse up for 3000 miles, all right,” countered Chart Pitt, “But when they get to the state of Washington it isn’t going to hurt them a bit to sober up for a few hours.” The measure was killed by four voles.

His antics were well known to speakers of the house. When Speaker Jack Sylvester wouldn’t recognize him, Pitt waited until about halfway through the session and then leaped to his feet. “Mr. Speaker, I want to make a motion,” said Pitt. The speaker sighed and said, “Make your motion, Mr. Pitt.” Chart smiled, raised his hand and thumbed his nose at the Speaker.

During his time in the legislature, Chart Pitt took up the cause of imprisoned Communist Party political leader Earl Russell Browder, joining over 100 activists, politicians and intellectuals in the 1942 in the Free Browder Congress. 

A 1945 newspaper article described him as a “grim, pipe-biting little representative” when he spoke on the house floor to oppose Governor Wallgren’s proposal to appoint a liquor control board to serve “at his pleasure.” After his side was defeated, Pitt stood up to declare he was unashamed of his vote. When told to sit down, he protested, “there is nothing before the house.” “Nothing except Pitt,” snickered another representative.

A few days later, perhaps figuring he had already committed political suicide and had nothing to lose, Chart Pitt was waving and thumping a baseball bat on boxes and desks to get the chairman’s attention during a near riot on the house floor, when labor members were beaten down in an attempt to amend the rules to permit forcing of bills from the rules committee upon presentation of a petition by 33 members or 50 members. Chart Pitt came in third in the 1946 primary election.

Although he ran for his old seat several times, he was not elected to statewide office again. His name was on the ballot as a candidate for Mayor of Mukilteo in 1947.  He ran as a Progressive in the 1948 election, and was back among the Democrats in 1962.

He summed up his creed as a writer, and incidentally as a legislator, when as a young man he wrote: “my literary creed is not elaborate—but it is strict.  I never write anything, whether verse or fiction, unless I think it will make some poor human better because of the reading.”

Chart Pitt died Thursday, February 3, 1966, and is buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Everett, Block 50, Lot 129.

Chart Pitt’s Obituary from the Everett Herald, February 5, 1966 Chart A. Pitt Chart A. Pitt, 87, of 2510 Victor Place, died in a local hospital Thursday evening following an extended illness. Mr. Pitt was born in Wisconsin on April 17, 1878, and had lived in Mukilteo and Everett for 48 years. He was a lighthouse keeper, retiring 40 years ago. Since his retirement he has been an author. Mr. Pitt was a member of the Bellingham Bay Masonic Lodge, F. & A. M., the Townsend Club and the Golden Hour Club. He served in the Washington State Legislature for a number of years. Surviving are a daughter, Mrs. Joe Pasternack of 612 Park, Mukilteo; two sons, Donald Pitt of Forks and Gordon Pitt of Novato, California; a brother, Ray Pitt of Ketchikan, Alaska; 17 grandchildren and five great-grandchildren. Funeral services will be Monday afternoon at 3 o’clock at the funeral home of Purdy and Walters. The Rev. Philip A. Laurie of Mukilteo Presbyterian Church will officiate. Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery. Should friends desire, memorials may be made to the charity of their choice. Pallbearers are to be Martin Roken, Rex Tucker, Oliver Markham, Miles Rooney, Robert Hayes and Andy Arvidson.

Originally published in the 1/30/2019 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.

---

References:

 “Chart Pitt, the Poet,” Stevens Point (WI) Gazette, Wednesday, June 15, 1910, page 1.

“Chart Pitt: His Autobiography,” Chicago Ledger, 20 Sep 1919 (vol 47 no 38) p 2, 26.

“Both Houses Pass Bulky Highway Bill after Long Battle,” Spokane Chronicle, Monday, March 12, 1945, page 2.

“It Would Be a Change! “ Pottstown, PA Mercury, 18 Feb 1939, p. 3 (regarding the debate in the Washington State Legislature over serving liquor on trains by the drink).

“North Pacific Union Gleaner,” (a Seventh-Day Adventist publication) vol. 54, no. 20, College Place, WA, dated May 18, 1959, p. 5: “May 2 was a happy day for the believers in the Everett-Marysville area when twenty precious souls were added to this faith…Mr. Chart Pitt, formerly of the State Legislature, was also baptized. A patient of Doctor Wagner, he owes some of his first contacts with the church to this Christian physician.”

History of Whatcom County, vol. 2, by Lottie Roeder Roth, 1926, pp. 473-474.

“House History Hysterical: Official Collects Stories,” by Eldon Barrett, Spokane Chronicle, Wednesday,

March 3, 1965, page 6.

Personal interview with David Dilgard, Everett Public Library, 22 Dec 2015. Having brought up the Necronomicon of H. P. Lovecraft, Dilgard mused that Lovecraft and Pitt, being both pulp authors, had a lot in common. If only Lovecraft could have been a lighthouse keeper like Pitt, he would have been happy, Dilgard said. I thought at once of Ray Bradbury’s story “The Fog Horn,” in which a great undersea beast attacks a lighthouse, and pictured to myself a Cthulhu-spawn on the spit at Mukilteo.

Personal interview with Tude Richter, Mukilteo, 12 Dec 2015.

Obituary of Lotus Jean Pitt Pasternak, Juneau Empire, May 7, 2007: http://juneauempire.com/stories/050907/obi_20070509022.shtml#.Vj6y-29dFhF

“Pioneer of the Year Elaine Scheib Jensen”, Mukilteo Beacon, 17 August 1911, p. 12.

“Wallgren Wins in Liquor Fight,” Spokane Statesman-Review, Thursday, March 8, 1945, page 1.

By Margaret Summitt, Mukilteo Historical Society

Crown Lumber attracted laborers from all over the world.  The best known are the Japanese workers who came to Mukilteo in the early 1900s.  Not so well known are the Poles.  About six interconnected families of Polish descent, now blended into Mukilteo’s history, came here from one county in Minnesota.  They came for jobs in the lumber mill and stayed to build our community.       

Using U. S. Census records, I found a number of families with Polish origins who were neighbors in Mukilteo in 1910. Ten years earlier, in 1900, they were neighbors in Otter Tail County, Minnesota.  These families, in alphabetical order, were the Brodniaks, the Goralskis, the Niedzielskis, , the Pokswinskis, the Rogalskis, and the Wilkowskis.

These families came from Posen Province in Prussia, which today is in the western part of Poland.  In the late 1800s this area was under German control.  The Poles were the majority of the population, but the Germans ran things.  For 45 to 60 dollars an emigrant family might travel as far as Minnesota.  Minnesota has forests, lakes and a climate like Poland’s.

Pine and hardwood forests in Minnesota and the Northern Pacific depot in Perham, Minnesota, were the connection between Otter Tail County and Mukilteo.  Otter Tail County, in southwest Minnesota, was considered a prime location for the construction of lumber mills.  Logs were floated south down the Otter Tail River to the Red River, which flowed northward into Canada.

The Northern Pacific rail line ran directly from Perham, Minnesota to Mukilteo.  When the lumber mill opened in Mukilteo in 1903, workers were brought in from many places. I imagine someone got off the train in Perham and told the Polish community about opportunities in Mukilteo, saying: there’s a new lumber mill in Mukilteo and they’re hiring!

Perham, Minnesota was founded in 1871.  St. Stanislaus was the Catholic parish that the Poles attended.  The parish was established in 1884 and at that time there were 150 families.  St. Henry’s was the German Catholic parish.  A census of German and Polish Catholics was taken in Minnesota as part of an effort to get more German and Polish bishops appointed; at that time the Irish dominated the hierarchy. Today about 3.5% of the Otter Tail County population claims Polish ancestry.

The Goralski, Wilkowski and Niedzelski families, who came to Mukilteo, were next door neighbors in Otter Tail County in the 1900 Census.  The Pokswinski family was also living in Perham, Minnesota, in 1900.

The Wilkowskis and Niedzelski families were neighbors in Mukilteo in the 1910 Census.  The Goralski family was still in Otter Tail County in 1910; Frank Goralski was in Detroit in 1920 and in Mukilteo by 1930.  By 1930 the rest of the complement was here.

Let’s look at the significance of two of the families: the Pokswinskis and the Brodniaks.

Pelagia (Wilkowski) Pokswinski was the sister of Edward and Francis Wilkowski.  She was born about 1871 in Poland and died 11 Nov 1953 in Everett.  Pelagia was the wife of Franciszek Pokswinski. Pelagia’s daughters were Cecilia Maryanna who married Carl Kasch in 1912 (of Kasch Park fame, near the Boeing plant) Clara who married Bartle Kane in 1917, and Delia who married Ray Hughes about 1928.

Clara Kane was the mother of Ronald Kane, who was mayor in the 1960s. She was chosen Citizen of the Year in 1972. That year the Pioneer Days honored the former residents of Japanese Gulch, and Clara Kane was a special guest. Clara had befriended and taught English to many of the Japanese boys and girls she grew up with in the 1920s and 30s.  These families left Mukilteo after the Crown Lumber mill closed in 1930.  One of these friends was George Tokuda.  She had not heard from him for some time when, in April 1943, she received a letter written in the Minidoka Relocation Center in Hunt, Idaho.  “Remember me?” George’s letter began.

“This is the kid who used to haunt your home day and night, the one who formerly raided your cherry orchard, the one that was always at your door the day you baked those delicious home made breads; the kid who to this day often reminisces about those boyhood days when life was so beautiful and full of anticipation and dreams.  Today, a little bitter perhaps, but still hopeful, I am living in this concentration camp, looking only for the day when that day of freedom will again be mine.  Fortunately, the parents, brother, his wife and I are in the best of health.  Here’s hoping that your family and the Pokswinskis are all well.”

The Pokswinskis resided on Fifth Street in 1930. By 1940, when Clara received this letter, she was living at 148 Sixth Street, near her mother, who was living with her daughter Angeline (Pokswinski) Cole. Two photos in the Historical Society collection, taken by old-timer Bevo Dudder Ellis in 1975, show the Pokswinski home at 6^th and Cornelia.

The Brodniak family came to stay and their family is still around.  Frank and Hattie Brodniak were born in Posen Province, in what is now western Poland.  Frank had an older brother named Anton Brodniak, who, when their families arrived in New York in 1891, decided to settle in Perth Amboy, New Jersey.

Frank and Hattie lived briefly in Thurber, Texas before coming to Minnesota.  Between 1888 and 1921 Thurber, Texas was one of the largest producers of bituminous coal in Texas and the largest company town in the state. It had a large Polish community among other ethnic communities.  Today it is a ghost town.

The 1900 Census finds the Brodniak family at Gorham, in Otter Tail County, Minnesota.  Frank was a day laborer.  The children numbered five at that time: Thomas, Pelagia, Andrew, Mary and John.

They left for Mukilteo in 1906. Frank came first and stayed in Mrs. Gongla’s rooming house; when Hattie came later with their (by then, eight) children, they rented a house down by the railroad.  Frank Brodniak then built a house at 1002 Fifth Street, where children Barbara and Wallace “Wally” Brodniak were born.  Frank worked at Crown Lumber and the children all attended the Rosehill School, and the sons worked for Crown Lumber.  Wallace “Wally” Brodniak was a co-Citizen of the Year in 1974 with Jack Gribble.

Daughters Pauline and Mary Brodniak worked at McDonald’s Restaurant on the waterfront, and later at Butler’s Hotel with Frances Sinclair and Vi Riches.  Daughter Barbara Brodniak was a waitress in Seattle in 1940 and married for the first time in 1949 to Everett Ace Chamberlain.

The Brodniaks and Goralskis were active in Mukilteo’s baseball team. This was a team of mill workers whose main rival was the mill team from Port Angeles.  In the front row of the 1921 team photo we see Frank Brodniak, Frankie Goralski and John Brodniak.  Love the striped socks.

Johnnie Brodniak is the boy on the far right in the front row.  At the age of fourteen he was an avid reader of the Seattle Star newspaper.  “Uncle Jack” was the handle of the children’s page editor.  Johnnie wrote to “Uncle Jack” in 1913 boasting of his artistic ability. “Dear Uncle Jack: We have been taking The Star for the last four years and found it a good paper.  I am a Mukilteo boy, 14 years old, and in the eighth grade.  I am the boy that got Clarence Brennan to join, and so I thought I would join myself.  At school we are the best in drawing.  We stay in at recess every day and draw pictures of each other and other things.  We have won prizes in drawing at school.  Please send me a membership card—John Brodniak, Mukilteo, Wash., Box No. 3.”

John went on to work in lumber mills and by 1938 he was in home construction in southern Oregon.   

Crown Lumber closed in 1930 but the Polish community lived on; it just blended in so well over the years as to lose its visibility. The Rosehill School is no longer a school but Rosehill is still a focal point of Mukilteo. The baseball team, which Crown Lumber sponsored, is also gone.  But we still have a Lighthouse Festival to honor our pioneers. So remember the Polish community.

Originally published in the 10/3/2018 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.

By Peter Anderson, Director, Mukilteo Historical Society

This year marks the 100^th anniversary of the start of National Prohibition as stipulated in the 18^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.  The amendment banned the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within the U.S. and its territories.  With passage of the Volstead Act, enforcement took effect on January 17, 1920.

The amendment did not eliminate the craving for alcoholic beverages, so it gave rise to smugglers, rumrunners and bootleggers engaging in various activities to circumvent the law.  People in Washington State had a “head start” in these activities because the state had already adopted its own prohibition statute in 1916.  Mukilteo and its surroundings were ideal locations for these illegal activities.  The area was heavily forested with deep gulches in which to hide stills and stashes of contraband.  There were also deep-water coves that could be used to import and export product under the cover of darkness.

People considered the scofflaws as either criminals or local heroes, depending on who you talked to.  Enforcement often became a game of “cat and mouse”, and some enforcement officials drifted into illegal activities themselves.  It was a lucrative business, and some officials took bribes to look the other way.  Perhaps the most notorious local turncoat was Seattle’s Roy Olmstead, a former police officer who became known as “King of the Rumrunners.”

Learning enforcement practices while a police officer, Roy Olmstead thought he knew how to avoid being caught in the lucrative rumrunning business.  He left the police force to pursue the business full-time.  His operation brought large quantities of Canadian liquor to the Puget Sound area.  Olmstead chartered a fleet of vessels and became one of the largest employers in the region, utilizing office workers, bookkeepers, warehousemen, rumrunning crews and legal counsel.  At its peak, his organization was grossing about $200,000 a month.  Olmstead was eventually caught unloading Canadian whiskey at the Meadowdale dock, just south of Mukilteo.

Another former police officer, C. P. Richards, had a mansion built in an area now part of Mukilteo that became known as Smuggler’s Cove.  The building was actually the shell of a manor house constructed in about 1929 to conceal the bootlegging activities going on inside.  Some folklore suggests that construction of the manor at Smuggler’s Cove was financed by Al Capone interests, although we have found no evidence that the famous Chicago gangster was ever here personally.

The building had an imposing exterior, but the inside was unfinished.  C. P. Richards lived there with only sub-floors and framing.  He installed a second basement beneath the first, with a large furnace hiding its entrance.  The 9-by-9-foot sub-basement had a still and a tunnel connecting the operation to the gulch and Puget Sound in case the smugglers needed to make a quick getaway.

Use of the fake mansion at Smuggler’s Cove for illegal activities only lasted for a few years.  The still blew up after a short period of operation, and enforcement officials raided the place in 1932.  After the raid, the sub-basement was cemented over.  The following year (1933), the 21^st Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was ratified, which repealed the 18^th Amendment, putting an end to National Prohibition.

We have no records of how the Smuggler’s Cove property was owned or used for a period between the end of Prohibition and the end of World War II.  Records show after the war, the Axel Jensen family finished the interior of the manor building and made it into a comfortable residence.  The three Jensen daughters remember playing games with old whiskey bottles uncovered by their father.  Their mother loved the kitchen, which looked out over Smuggler’s Gulch, Possession Sound and the Olympic Mountains.  But their father, Axel, was worried that the steep cliff supporting their home could collapse in heavy rains, so he decided to sell.

Dennis and Trudy Tobiason bought the Smuggler’s Cove property in the early 1950s for $18,000.  Dennis Tobiason was born April, 1920, in Monticello, Iowa, and grew up on a farm there.  After a stint with the U.S. Army, he attended the University of Colorado in Boulder, where he met his wife Gertrude “Trudy” Ortgies.  They were married in 1947, and moved to Washington, where they built the Cedardale Motel and Dining Room in Mount Vernon.  After four years there, Dennis and Trudy came to Everett, bought and remodeled the old Smuggler’s Cove building to turn it into the Waldheim Restaurant, which they operated for 29 years.  They retired from the restaurant business in about 1980, and continued involvement in many community activities, including starting an exchange program between Yokohama, Japan, and many local high schools.  Dennis died in Everett on January 29, 2006.

Claude and Janet Faure were the next owners of the Smuggler’s Cove property.  Claude was born in Lyon, France on February 11, 1944. His parents owned a patisserie and were forced to cook for occupying German troops. As a young man he was trained in the culinary arts and showed exceptional talent.  In 1964, Claude arrived in Edmonds and joined the kitchen at Henri de Navarre.  Word quickly spread of Puget Sound’s classically trained French chef.  In 1975, he purchased Henri and gave it a new name – Chez Claude.  In 1989, Claude and his wife, Janet, opened Charles at Smugglers Cove in Mukilteo, serving the Puget Sound’s finest cuisine in one of its most beautiful settings.  The restaurant had an elegant dining room with pink decorations and a spectacular view.  Frequent guests included foreign dignitaries, elected officials, and visiting celebrities.  Janet continued to operate the restaurant for a short while after Claude’s death in 2014.

County records show that the Claude and Janet Estate sold the Smuggler’s Cove property on November 30, 2015, for $850,000.  The buyer was Farland International Development LLC, a general contracting business in Edmonds.  The old manor house is still standing on the property.  Located in Mukilteo at 8340 53^rd Ave W, the 1.7-acre parcel had an assessed valuation of $917,000 in 2019, and all property taxes have been paid through 2019.  Checking with the City a few weeks ago did not uncover any upcoming development plans or permit activity at this time.  We’ll just have to wait and see what may lie ahead for this storied property.

Originally published in the 3/4/2020 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.

By Peter Anderson, Director, Mukilteo Historical Society

In the early 1900’s, Mukilteo kids looking for penny candy, or adults looking for tobacco products, could always find what they wanted at Brennan’s Store.  John Brennan had located his confectionery store at a prime spot on Park Avenue across First Street from the Crown Lumber Company Store and next to the railroad tracks.  It was also next to the movie theater on Park Avenue.

John Patrick Brennan was born in Canada on August 15, 1863, the son of Thomas Brennan and Ellen Diome.  Both parents were born in Ireland.  He immigrated to the United States at age 27 in 1890, and married Isabel Catherine McDonald on November 25, 1890, in Chippewa Falls, Wisconsin.  Isabel, sometimes also known as Katie Bell McDonald, was the daughter of William McDonald and Anne McMillan.  Isabel was born about 1875 in Canada.  Both of her parents were born in Scotland.

John and Isabel Brennan came west – settling in Mukilteo in 1903.  They brought their three sons: Thomas, born in Wisconsin about 1892, Allan, born in Minnesota about 1897, and Clarence, born about 1900 in Minnesota.  Thomas worked as a packer at Mukilteo’s Yukon Lumber Company and married Effie D. Waterman.  Allan worked as a welder in a shipyard and married Roberta.  Clarence enlisted at age 17 and served until the end of World War I.  He later worked in Mukilteo as a longshoreman for a stevedore company.

The Brennan Store, which opened in 1903, occupied the ground floor of the two-story building on Park Avenue.  The Brennans probably lived on the second floor above the store.  Being so close to the railroad tracks, the building shook whenever a train came by.  The building had an awning in the front that could be deployed over the ground floor entrance and windows.  Inside, there was a large glass display case full of merchandise.  A later (perhaps around 1915) photo shows a sign on the south side of the building advertising “We serve K&K Ice Cream”.  The sign also indicated they sold confectioneries, soft drinks and fruit.

John Brennan was a valued member of the Mukilteo community.  He was always willing and eager to help others with transportation or moving heavy loads using his wagon and team of horses.  He was a faithful communicant of the Catholic church and was associated with the Knights of Columbus and Woodmen of the World.

John Patrick Brennan’s death certificate indicates he died of cancer at age 65 on September 18, 1928.  His wife Isabel (aka Katherine I Brennan) died in 1943.  Both are buried in Block 14 of the Evergreen Cemetery in Everett.

Originally published in the 2/5/2020 issue of the Mukilteo Beacon.