• Bailey Compost, 12711 Springhetti Road, Snohomish, (360) 568-8826

A contemporary addition to the historic Bailey farm, the company provided the Society with compost for the major renovation of its garden on Avenue B. Plus, they accepted without charge, many truck loads of yard waste.

• Chuck’s Seafood Grotto, 1229 1st Street Snohomish, (360) 568-0782

Yes, the owner’s name is Chuck and his tasty business gave the Society a very generous discount on a grilled salmon dinner for our 40th Anniversary Dinner.

• Grilla Bites, 1020 1st Street, Snohomish, (360) 568-7333

Owner Anne Dottai stepped up without hesitation to help produce our Anniversary Dinner this past June — even carting the dirty dishes across Avenue B to wash them in her industrial machine!

• Harvey Field, Snohomish, (360) 568-6894

Kandace Harvey provided sponsorship for our “This Place Matters” billboard and then an in-kind donation of helicopter time to document the Kla Ha Ya Days Parade. A shout out of Thanks to pilot Stacy Stone and photographer Dennis Bishop as well.

• Kusler’s Pharmacy, 700 Ave D, Snohomish, (360) 568-7787

Co-owner Mary Pat Connors came to the Society five years ago with an idea to order hand painted glass ornaments, picturing historic Snohomish homes, as a fundraiser for the Society’s scholarship fund. Unfortunately, the shipping process is marginal and the 2009 ornaments arrived after Christmas this year! Fortunately, there is a long waiting list for the latest edition.
Kusler’s is also the retail outlet for signed copies of “Early Snohomish” — for which Mary Pat refuses to take a commission — 100% of the sales price goes to the Society.
Plus, Mary Pat and Janet enthusiastically supported the printing of our “Making History” posters featuring the SHS girls basketball champions 100 years apart, which is for sale at the store but offered as a gift for joining the Society.

• McDaniel Do It Center, 510 Second Street,  (360)568-1544

Owner Brad McDaniel has never turned down a request for help including a generous discount on all purchases for both the Blackman House Museum and the Waltz Building.

Thank you to one and all, and Happy New Year Wishes from your Membership Web Team!

WE ARE HAPPY TO POST THIS VIDEO HOLIDAY CARD produced by Society president Warner Blake for our once and future members. The footage was captured during the Parlour Tour on December 13th when musician Chloe Wilcox provided over an hour of live music on the folk harp.

A BIG BOLD THANKS! to the following members who have joined and/or renewed their 2010 Membership:

Pioneers:
*Glenda Barnhart; Warner Blake & Karen Guzak; Keith Gilbertson; Sayra Hill; Robert Heirman; Eric Hoem; Maureen Loomis; Meagan McKenzie; Polly Roberts; Middy Ruthruff; Marilynn Willard

Homesteaders:
Lya Badgley, Izabel & Alex Babic; Marion & Bill Berge; Joelle & Andy Blair; Joseph & Dorthy Cllayton; *Sharon Ferguson-Monks; Heidei & Mark Ford; Marisa & Edgars Graudins;Victoria & Steve Harrington; Donna Harvey; Delores & Walt Hyden; Pamela & Robert Keith; Anne & Steven Knight; Pat & Bob Knight; Darcy Mertz Krewson & Jeff Krewson; Ardie & Gary McLean; Deborah Needles; Polly Roberts; Middy Ruthruff; Morrie & Tina Sachsenmaier; Christine & L. Darrel Smith; Ann & Louis Stanton; Allison Merrill & Steve Swartz

Traders:
Chris & George Price; Brain E. Starr, C.P.A.; *Patricia Strand

Settlers:
Lindsay & David Douglas

Archivists:
Gary & Gretchen Brandstetter; Melody Clemans; Nancy Moehring; Donna & Wally Walsh; Bill Wojciechowski

[* Indicates welcome to new members!]

PLEASE READ MORE about the benefits of membership HERE — or click on this image
to download a membership form.

[Please CONTACT US with any problems downloading the pdf file.]

Wishing for us all, a prosperous New Year!
– Your Membership Web Team

Society President Warner Blake, contacted Sharon for her help with creating a holiday display that would be in keeping with the early history of the home. The intention is to present an interpretation of how the home might have been decorated in the 1890s, and in the process, give the museum visitors an opportunity to see how the holiday might have looked before the invention of plastic.

Featured is a four foot tall Black Hills Spruce on loan from the Garden Shop which has been placed on a table in the front parlor. This was the custom practiced in Europe, so the story goes, and that in the 1600s, every member of the family had their own small tree on a table with their gifts placed around it.

Rounding out the display of live plants, are winter garden cuttings, along with plenty of ribbons, bowls of fruit, and ivy balls — fabricated by Sharon for the holiday. (A plant list will be available for visitors who wish to adopt some of her ideas.) We are very grateful for McDaniel’s support of the Blackman House Museum this year and hope you will make a point to visit the historic site all deck out for the season — the hours are listed to the right. Then, after visiting the museum, stop by at McDaniel’s to let Sharon know that you read about her generosity here.

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And to help encourage your visit, we are happy to present CHLOE WILCOX in a concert on the folk harp, Sunday, December 6th at 3pm in the museum. Titled, “A Winter’s Peace” the concert will feature both traditional and non-traditional music for the holiday season. Chloe will also play from 2 to 3pm at the museum during our annual Parlour Tour on Sunday December 13th.

Please CONTACT US if you need more information.

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Here is the slate of Officers and Directors for 2010:
Chris Gee, President
Eric Vannice, Vice President
Penny O’Connell, Treasurer
Marta Gronlund, Secretary
Darlene Huntington, Director
Terrie Schmitt, Director
Gary Ferguson, Director
Marcia O’Hair, Director
Ardie McLean, Director
Gary McLean, Director
Allison Merrill, Director

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And Membership Chair, Gary Ferguson, led the full house of attendees at the Waltz Building in a once every 150 year toast to the future of Snohomish!

Dear Once and Future Members:

ONE SUNDAY AFTERNOON, Alberta and Richard (pictured above) visited the Blackman House Museum carrying a large box. Inside was a well-used Victorian album, covered in faded rose velvet, with thick pages trimmed in gold. “It was my grandmother’s album,” explained Richard Guttormsen. She was Edith Blackman, daughter of Elhanan and Francis, born in 1872, the same year that the Blackman brothers left Maine for the Pacific Northwest.

The E. Blackman Album is now under the care of Kathleen Lince, the Society’s first paid archivist who has been creating accession records of our papers and memorabilia since the spring of 2008 with a generous grant from the Stack Family Foundation.

The album will be on display at our Annual Meeting on Monday evening, November 16, at the Waltz Building, 116 Avenue B. A business meeting begins at 7pm with the election of Directors and Officers and other business, which will adjourn to enjoy the Director’s (Home Made) Desert Buffet at 8pm, along with a champagne toast to the 150th Anniversary of the City’s founding.

The Founders Award for Historic Preservation, 2009 will be presented to Zouhair Mardini and Mosaic Architecture for their outstanding collaboration on the 901 First Street Building project. Joshua Scott and members of the Mosaic team will give a show and tell presentation of the two-year long project.

And my two-year term as President ends with 2009, so this letter is the last opportunity I will have to gently remind you how important your financial support is to the survival of the Society’s mission. The dues have not been raised for 2010; instead, I am asking you to consider raising your level of commitment to the Society by renewing at the Sustaining Member, or even the Archivist level of membership of $150, for which I will gratefully sign and deliver a copy of my book “Early Snohomish.”

I couldn’t help wonder while turning the thick pages of the recently acquired Blackman Album — what would have happened to this priceless treasure of local history if our Society and its archives did not exist?

And the same question can be asked of our entire collection that began 40 years ago – from one of the smallest artifacts: Mrs. E. C. Ferguson’s calling card that she left while visiting the Blackmans – to the largest: the historic home itself!

Your continuing commitment is our main source of revenue; without it, the Society will fade away, and future donors will have only the likes of eBay … or the dumpster!

Please join us for the Annual Meeting on November 16th at 7p.

Warner Blake
(You may download a Membership Form HERE.)

A picturesque fog slowly lifted like stage smoke just before the start of the first annual tour of the GAR Cemetery to benefit the Society.

As a couple dozen participants toured from one historic marker to the the next, the sun broke through, creating dramatic fall shadows to help set the scene.

A quick list of the grave sites and memorials visited, with short stories by Warner Blake, includes Hiram and Mary Morgan, John and Christina Harvey, Eldridge Morse, Albert Folsom, both Blackman families, one that was in the grocery business, and those we know best from the lumber business side of the large Maine family, (including the story of the two Clifford Blackman markers), the Fergusons also have several family sites, John and Eliza Elwell, Charles and Nina Bakeman, Cochrans, William and Eunich Ford, once residents of the Society’s historic home, , and ending up at the Pilchuck Julia and Jack’s Memorial.

The tour raised $100 for the care of our Blackman House Museum, and we are very grateful to all who joined us. Plans are underway to make this an annual event and we would love to hear suggestions from you who attended by using the “Leave a Reply” feature below.

View Tour Slide Show HERE. (With thanks to Gene Fosheim.)

A guided tour of the GAR Cemetery on Saturday, October 24 at 10am includes the story of the why there are two graves for Clifford Blackman.

Warner Blake, author of “Early Snohomish,” will lead the tour that features the tombstones of Snohomish’s earliest settlers.

The cemetery is located west of Snohomish at 8601 Riverview Road, and signs will direct you to the tour starting point near the caretaker’s garage. Tour is offered rain or shine, good walking shoes are required since the ground is very uneven, and allow an hour and a half for the tour.

Clifford Blackman was one of two children raised in the Society’s historic home, the Blackman House Museum. His sister Eunice eventually lived in the home with her husband, then as a widow until the 1960s when it was sold to the Society.

Besides the family plots for the Blackman Brothers, other grave sites on the tour include those for the Ferguson’s, Harvey’s, Bakeman’s, Cochran’s and others.

A seasonal disclaimer: This is a history tour. Participants are responsible for their own ghost stories since none will be told by the tour guide.

Details on the Events Page.

Joan Curtis, historian and author of “Town on the Sound” the history of Steilacoom, traveled to Snohomish on Sunday, October 11th, to participate in a discussion about the founding of Snohomish.

The event was held in conjunction with an exhibition titled, “E. C. Ferguson in Steilacoom, 1858-59,” which is on view during Museum hours, weekends from 1 to 4pm.

Joining Joan was David Dilgard, well known to Society members as the History Specialist in the Northwest Room of the Everett Public Library who has adopted the history of Snohomish to the benefit of us all.

Moderating the discussion was Warner Blake who first introduced David as one who introduced him to the history of Snohomish. “And David’s accounts always began with Steilacoom,” Warner said, “so finally, early this year I visited the Steilacoom Historical Society and was lucky enough to show up on a day when Joan was at work in the archives.”

Immediately, she found a reference in the history of Pierce County referring to E. C. Ferguson and some 95 other bachelors calling for a meeting to ” devise ways to secure the emigration of the fair sex from the Atlantic States to our shores.” At the discussion on Sunday, Joan reported that no other account of the meeting has been found, and David felt it was most likely a fraternal activity without serious intentions of taking further steps. In fact, the meeting was called for a day in February 1860, three months before Ferguson took up residence on the Snohomish River.

Four years later, Asa Mercer acted on the idea when he brought 11 women to Seattle from the east coast who became known as the Mercer Girls.

The account that Ferguson had a child with a native woman in Snohomish before his marriage in 1868 to Lucetta Morgan was brought up. David reminded us that it was common for the white settlers of Snohomish to take an Indian wife and that in fact, the first school in 1865 was attended by the children of these mixed marriages. Joan reported that this was not common in the early years of Steilacoom, perhaps due to the transit nature of Steilacoom’s population — most were on their way to somewhere else — as was the case with our Mr. Ferguson.

Following the discussion, guests visited the exhibition in the Gallery of the Blackman House that features images and text of life in Steilacoom when Ferguson lived there, along with portraits of his business partners in the plan to establish a ferry across the Snohomish River for the military road proposed to connect Steilacoom with Bellingham.

Only Ferguson took up residence here when financing for the road fell through. David reminded us that it’s very unusual for a founding settler to actually settle-in as Ferguson did in the town that he named after the river and where he lived until his death in 1911.

Follow this link to view a slide show of the event.

Follow this link to read more about E. C. Ferguson.

Follow this link to read more about Pierce County.

Before E. C. Ferguson took up his claim on the Snohomish River in 1860, he lived in Steilacoom, the first city of Washington. This is where ‘old Ferg’ built the cottage that was shipped up river, reassembled, and is still in use!

Just before leaving Steilacoom, however, Ferguson joined 95 other bachelors “realizing the benefits of matrimonial alliances” by signing on to the call for a meeting to “devise ways to secure the emigration of the fair sex from the Atlantic States to our shores.”

These and other stories about E. C. Ferguson’s year in Steilacoom will be shared by David Dilgard, Everett Public Library and Joan Curtis, Steilacoom historian, author of “A Town on the Sound,” in a discussion moderated by Warner Blake.

Please plan now to join us for an informative and informal Sunday afternoon on October 11th at 2pm at the Blackman House Museum in historic downtown Snohomish.

Details Here.

38TH ANNUAL HOME TOUR TO HONOR THE FOUNDERS
OF THE SNOHOMISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY.

Ruth Brodigan married Stanley Dubuque in the 1930s and for 70 years the couple made their home at 214 Avenue D (pictured above). Stanley lost Ruth in the 1980s, and he joined her in 2002. The Sterley’s purchased the Dubuque home the following year and are graciously opening it for the first time for this year’s Home Tour on Sunday, September 20th, from 12-5p.

Tickets are $15, or $12 for Seniors (+62) and Society Members; and they may be purchased at Joyworks on First, Kusler’s on Avenue D, McDaniel’s Do-It Center on 2nd, and at the Waltz Building/Blackman House on the weekend of the tour.

Other homes featured on the tour are as follows:

Renovation of the 901 First Street Building (1900) was awarded our Founders Award for Historic Preservation to Zouhair Mardini, owner, and Mosaic Architecture.

A Manor of Wine, a Victorian home built in 1890 at 610 First Street, has been given new life by Tina Ruybal as a gathering place for sampling Northwest wines, conversation, even dancing; plus, the cozy home will be available for all varieties of private functions.

Snohomish North Depot is a finely detailed reconstruction of a 1940s era train station located at 1011 Maple Avenue, alongside the Centennial Trail, once the roadbed for the first railroad serving Snohomish.

The Schott House (1904) is a grand, classic Queen Anne home built for the Schott family, early Snohomish merchants, located at 432 Avenue G. Owners Cherie and Carroll Brown have made many improvements, yet always careful to maintain the home’s historical integrity.

The Original Methodist Parsonage (1892) at 502 Avenue C is currently home to Pillows and Platters B&B. Shirley and Dennis Brindle, proprietors, will be on hand to show visitors how elements have been added over the years in order to function as a Bed and Breakfast operation without destroying the heritage of the stately Queen Anne home.

This year, visitors will travel outside of Snohomish, to the Pederson Home at 9906 111th Street SE, off of Springhetti Road, to the stately home for a dairy farm built in 1908.

Back on Route 9, visitors are invited to head south and turn right on the Lowell-Larimer Road, then look for the signs to turn left into the driveway of the Medhi Atelier — yes, an art gallery and studio!

The first home tour was held when the Society was only two years old in 1971, which is the date of this photo of the Dubuques with Mayor Anderson of Everett. Stan served as the County Auditor for 12 years, while Ruth retired from a title insurance company in 1971. They were very active in the founding of the Historical Society and both contributed many articles to both volumes of “River Reflections” published by the Society.

We are celebrating our 40th Anniversary this year of celebrating the history of Snohomish city, and we dedicate this home tour to the memory of the Dubuques and all of the founders of the Society.

View the tour using an interactive google map in a new window.

Read about the tour in the Herald.