February 9, 1978 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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February 9, 1978 |
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ygone days in c
LEE
eew people are still around to remember, but once upon a time,
So'Yvo[Own of Tahuya was a regular cosmopolitan community.
shores iroeStUln, who should know, having first set foot on
• ster of homesteaders back in 1911 at the
age of five years.
blacks, Indians, Filipinos, Scots and Scandinavians all
together,,, says Frances, thinking back to those years. "And no
thought a thing about it. A person'was either good and fair
or they weren't. Color didn't have a thing to do with it,
or another."
the time Frances arrived on the scene, many of the original
were already well established; others had been and
One of the "oldtimers" in the area, even back when Frances
65 years ago, was Rodney White.
was a black
match.,, man, as black as your hat wi a heart of gold
had come to Tahuya, Frances guesses, in the 1860s, then
to homestead his four "forties." Two parcels of his land
the Tahuya River Valley while the remaining 80 acres
down its slopes and fronted along the river.
along with many of the other first settlers, had quite a
for road building. He whacked out the road that still
Tahuya with neighboring Dewatto, though now there's little
:t with in Dewatto.
in those days Dewatt) was a prsopering town. It had
s, including Nance's, which had an inventory of more
a large sum back then. That'd be like $50,000 today.
didn't have a dock, so people like Rodney who lived up
had to get all their feed and supplies in Dewatto.
had an old sled he formed out of maple and used to
around. It was pulled by a team of oxen led by two
'01' Rodney had a voice like a foghorn. I can still hear him
across the valley, 'Get on, Baltimore; get on, Babe.' "
who had originally hailed from Seattle, working his
was no doubt demanding, but it must have also given
of an independent life. Frances says he always
and content."
is not always pleasant and at first Rodney must have
came here with four other black men. Tahuya
a dock so the steamer would let people off in a skiff and
:ould make for shore.
skiff Rodney and his friends were in sank before they
it ashore and three of the men drowned. Only Rodney
friends, whose name I Can't remember, survived.
nately, both of them did well once they finally got going,
things must have seemed pretty bleak for them."
ears, as Frances was growing up, Rodney with his voice and
have seemed permanent fixtures;in the small community.
time claimed even the "ageless" Rodney.
died, they took those tired old burros over to the
ark Zoo in Seattle and for years children rode around on
;ltutten years ago I went to visit the zoo. Old Babe had
,-tore was still plugging along. Rodney would have been
oldtimer in the area was Arthur Linn. His pride and joy
surrey with a matching fringed launch. Both were kept
shed and boathouse fronting Tahuya's shoreline.
Arthur who came to pick up Frances, her brother and
they first •arrived 6n the'H6od Canal. .....
pristine boat named "Ida Linn" after his wife, Arthur
the canal to what was then called Union City to pick
and transport them to their new home.
mother had decided to bring her two children out west
a Separation in their home city, Chicago. As a five.year-old
the familiar cityscape change from the train's
plains, then mountains and finally the rustic city
out of towering forests.
to a year the three made Seattle their new home. Then
mother, Effie, answered an advertisement in a Seattle
r for a housekeeper and the trio was off on a new
mother was one of those determined and independently
Omen Who had always wanted to do a little 'pioneering,' as
So there we were on the double
' headed fo- - • -wheeled steamer,
, ut lanuya, wherever that was" •
em 10 er"
P Y was a local ranch owner, Vern Knollton.
cooked for Vern and his crew of ranch hands, then
Particular surprise she soon became Vern's wife.
Frances says the drastic changes in locale when she was still a
little kid never bothered her,
"Everywhere we lived held some attraction for me. I liked living
in the city and I felt at home in the country."
Even her native Chicago, though she only spefit five years in the
Windy City, was special to her.
"It may sound funny, but I finally got the chance to return to
Chicago after being away for 29 years, and it felt like I was returning
home.
"Once I got there a whole flood of memories came back to me,
childhood things, kind of stupid things, actually. Like the small tabs
you have to squeeze together to raise the window shades on the El."
Frances says she probably felt that way because most of her
"roots" were from Chicago by way of Hoosier ancestry. Her mother's
grandfather, Steven DeForest, and great-uncle, Charles DeForest, both
served as editors-in-chief for the then fledgling Chicago Tribune.
Even with a mind clouded over by memories, Frances couldn't
ignore the fact the Windy City had grown by leaps and bounds.
"When we lived there it was way out in the tullies, at least we
thought so, .but when I went back to visit, the 'old homesite' was
smack downtown. Nowadays it's another 16 miles out to the city
limits, and even then the houses keep right on going."
So the Chicago Frances once knew was now gone and she
returned shortly to the more serene Tahuya where she had grown
mopolitan Tahuya
Thursday, February 9, 1978
from child to young adult on her stepfather's 160-acre ranch.
In the community were scores of other children to help pass the
fun during hours when chores were finished.
Many of her friends were Indians, while several of her closest
were Filipinos.
"One of my stepfather's best friends went to fight in the
Philippines during the Spanish-American War. When the war had
ended he stayed in 'the Philippines for several years and then returned
to Tahuya with a Filipino wife. They had several children and we all
went to school together."
Much of the children's playtime was taken up with variations on
the timeless game, tag. One of these diversions was called
"duck-on-the-rock."
"I can't remember too much about the game other than we
played it all the time. It seems we placed a small rock on top of a
large one, then someone tried to throw rocks and knock the small
one off. If somebody knocked it off on your team, then everybody
started running around like crazy and you tried to get past the other
team without being tagged. If you were caught, then you had to join
the other side. The game ended when the last man was tagged out on
the losing team."
When not helping to raise the pigs, cows and vegetables on the
ranch, Frances, like the other children, spent her time studying in the
Frances Huson :
Section of the Shelton-Mason County Journal
Costly burglaries continue to plague
Fire L)istrict Five; reward offered
"Whoever it is, I wish they'd
cut it out, because it's costing
both the fire district and its
taxpayers money."
Richard Knight, fire chief of
the Mason County Fire
Protection District Five, is
addressing himself to theperson,
or persons, who have repeatedly
broken into the department's
stations and stolen equipment.
Several weeks ago more than
$200 of emergency medical aid
equipment was stolen at the
district's station located between
Mason and Benson Lakes.
Equipment taken included a
portable oxygen bottle and an
accompanying bag mask.
Just a few weeks earlier,
someone entered one of the
district's two ambulances while it
was parked on the ramp outside
the main station in Allyn. They
made off with two oxygen
bottles, two regulators, masks
and tubing.
Just prior to the ambulance
burglary, a complete firefighter's
smoke mask kit and air tank
were taken from the plagued
station at Mason Lake.
Meanwhile, another station in
the district reported a complete
first.aid jump kit was stolen
along with other oxygen
equipment.
Within the past 45 days,
Knight says that the district has
lost more than $500 to thieves.
Over the past two years,
Knight estimates the figure
reaches more than $2,000.
To help curtail the problem
Knight says the district is
offering a reward of up to $200
for information leading to
apprehension and conviction of
anyone involved in the
burglaries.
"I'm just hoping somebody
out there who has seen
something or knows about
something will come forward so
we can put an end to this waste
of money."
Because none of the
burglaries have been executed by
forced entry, Knight says he
can't rule out that they might be
"inside jobs."
"But you can't go around
accusing your own firemen, so
I'm going to assume the best."
Knight says they change the
locks on the station doors at
least once each year and that
lately they've been altering the
locks and combinations every
three months.
"But we've got 90 volunteers
in the department and each of
them has to have access to the
stations to do their jobs, so it's
difficult to keep track."
up missing, we either replace it
and hurt somewhere else in the
department, or else we 'don't
replace it. And that's serious."
People with information
concerning the missing
equipment are encouraged to call
WOMEN VOTERS
TO MEET
North Mason unit-at-large of
the League of Women Voters
will meet Thursday, February
16, 9:30 a.m., in the Fireside
Room of the Belfair Community
Baptist Church.
Reports will be given on
'community groups in which
league members are active,
including the Community
Education Association, school
levy advisory committee, senior
citizen center and the local
political caucuses.
Public is invited.
Knight says the district has
considered placing alarms in each
of its stations, but considers the
cost prohibitive.
"To make the system
effective, we'd have to run all
the alarms directly into the main
station. Just to pay for the
phone lines would run $60 per
month for each station."
Hooking the alarms into the
station's siren has been tried but
proved confusing to firefighters
who had no idea whether it was
a fire or just an attempted
break.in.
As for the ambulance, Knight
says he's busy installing "jiggle
switches" connected to an alarm
to guard against any future
midnight raids.
"It's hard enough just to find
the initial funds for purchasing
emergency equipment, let alone
coming up with money to
replace the stuff that's been
stolen.
"Sure, our insurance pays
$100 on each claim, but it's
driving the premium costs way
up.
"Over the last few years
we've been able to replace stolen
equipment from funds provided
by the special levy. But this year
we have no levy to fall back
upon.
"So when something turns
either the fire district (275-2889
or 426-5533) or the Mason
County sheriff's office (275-2844
or 426-9766).
MEETING FOR
COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
ADVISORY GROUP SET
Next meeting of the North
Mason Citizens' Advisory
Committee to draft the new
county comprehensive plan will
be Tuesday, February 14, 7:30
p.m., in Room 2 at the North
Mason High School.
Public is invited to attend.
LIBRARY HOURS
REMINDER
Local residents are reminded
that the North Mason Branch of
Arthur Linn pilots his " ' ' • • ,, : " "
his boathouse. Arthur graceful pride and joy, the Ida Lmn,, away from
including Frances' fam °ften journeyed to Union City to pick up People,
dock across the bay. ily, headed for Tahuya who were left off on the
community's school or playing in its gymnasium if the weather had
turned cold.
For Tahuya, 1914 was a busy year. In just that short period the
local people built both a wooden bridge spanning the Tahuya River
and a gymnasium for their children.
Costing exactly $493.73 the 690-foot bridge was constructed
mainly to allow children on the far side of the river to walk across it
on their way to school instead of using a ferryboat.
During the same year the townspeople also paid for a contractor
to construct a gym on the school site next to the schoolhouse that
Frances says was built long before she arrived.
Although the bridge was built to accommodate cars, not much
traffic passed over it until the North Shore Road was opened in
1924. The original wooden bridge was still used after some
modifications until 1935 when it was replaced by its modern
concrete counterpart.
As for the school gym, it's still standing on the original site near
the river, but the schoolhouse can now be seen rotting where it was
later dragged to down by the bridge.
Life on the Knollton ranch was typically busy.
"At first we raised the standard livestock until the land was
pretty well cleared and then we started into producing vegetables.
"We had acres of cabbage from which we :made tons of
sauerkraut and sold it to well-known restaurants like Manke's and
Boldrs over in Seattle."
During the 1920's the ranch's production grew so fast that Vern
Knollton built a large cannery on his property. Frances estimates that
more than 20 people were living and working on the ranch during the
period.
Tahuya and the surrounding areas were also booming at the time.
Both the Woods and Brooks logging companies were going full force,
causing Dewatto and its dock to swell.
In 1924 Frances married John "Wing" Huson, whom she had met
through friends in Seattle, and left Tahuya for a decade.
Both the logging off of available timberland and the onset of the
Depression took their toll around Tahuya.
"It seemed like Dewatto disappeared overnight."
Frances says 1927 was a memorable year because it was the only
known time in recorded history that Hood Canal froze over.
"Believe me, it was cold that year, not just for days or weeks but
for months on end.
"Two local men who would do anything anyway, Dale Luart and
Burt McDonald, took it upon themselves to skate from Tahuya over
to Alderbrook.
"They made it okay, but first they had to slide down the steep
slope made by the tides, and then once they got over to the other
side, they had to take their skates off and climb up in their stocking
feet.
"If you want to talk about things that have changed, try the
weather.
"It used to snow most every winter, now all it does is rain.
"In 1916 we had eight inches of snow and nobody thought it was
particularly strange. Nowadays, 1 don't know %vhat's happened."
By the 1930s, however, people started moving into Tahuya once
again and the community resumed its growth.
Wanting to leave the city, Frances and Wing decided in 1935 to
buy the Tahuya Grocery up for sale by its owners, Jergen Caldevin
and wife.
During their ownership of the store, the Caldevins had
consolidated its operation with that of the town's post office.
Originally, the Tahuya post office was started in 1914 housed in
a separate building under the direction of the first postmistress,
Jennie Rollie.
Then, when Caldevin became the postmaster, he moved the office
to his home.
"They closed off part of their bedroom and sold you stamps and
things from a little window they installed on the side of the home."
When the Caldevins bought the Tahuya Grocery, they moved the
post ottlce rote the store.
For a while, with Frances as postmistress, the Husons followed
the same set-up for the combined store and post office. Before long,
however, the post office was moved to a small, separate building
across the road as part of raising its classification from fourth class to
third class.
For 17 years the Husons operated the Tahuya Grocery while
raising their three children, one girl and two boys.
In 1952 they sold the store, but for a total of 35 years - until
her retirement in 1971 - Frances served as postmistress for Tahuya.
"I liked the work, but even more important I really loved the
people in the postal service. I still like to get together with them
whenever I can.
"Also, I've enjoyed being sort of in the center of Tahuya and
watching it change and grow over the years."
In 1916 a heavy winter's snow covered the Tahuya schoolhouse in the
center, the teacher's quarters to the left and the community's gym on the
right.
the Timberline Regional Library ::::
is ,)pen Tuesday and Thursday, :: ......
noon to 8 p.m., and Saturday,
noon to 4 p.m.
When the canal froze over in the winter of 1927, Burt McDonald took the
opportunity to skate across from Tahuya to Alderbrook.