Marlys Rudeen is the Deputy State Librarian at the Washington State Library. Rand Simmons, Acting State Librarian observed, “It is the responsibility of the State Librarian to envision wild schemes that may rile up the staff. It is the responsibility of the Deputy to help him see the ramifications of those visions.”

“It usually begins something like this: Well, let’s think about the implications of doing that . But when an idea is a good one I can count on Marlys having my back!” 

The Deputy State Librarian oversees budget issues and is the primary contact for the Office of Financial Management (OFM), the Legislature and legislative staff regarding fiscal impact of legislative and budget information. Simmons stated, “I know I will get good advice from Marlys regarding approaching the Legislature. She listens well and I listen when she speaks. We are a good balance for each other.”

When the responsibilities of being the Deputy State Librarian become too burdensome Marlys finds relief by working on digital projects. She is the Head of Digital and Historical Collections which is a part of the Central Library Services program.

“I would say that Marlys is warm, open, welcoming, helpful and receptive,” commented Pam Griffith, new to the Digital and Historical Collections group.

You can’t help but love working with Marlys. When asked about that, veteran Judy Pitchford quipped, “Oh, I have lots of Marlys stories, but I can’t share most of them. But I can share that she is very passionate about the work we do in Digital Collections and she is a very hands-on manager. She loves historical materials and can give you specific details about each item and the people/events they are about. She especially  has a huge interest in historic maps. I think she sees them as more of an art form than just a visual representation of the land around us. Marlys makes our work meaningful. I guess that’s my favorite part about working with her. That and she has a great sense of humor, a must when you work with me.”

Steve Willis, Manager of Central Library Services said, “I love brainstorming with Marlys. She is not afraid to run with a thought through undiscovered countries and imagine all kinds of possibilities and potential. And then, to balance it out, she provides practical reality checks in a very positive way.”

So hats off to Marlys, veteran of many a dreadful budget cut. Simmons say, “When it comes down to final decisions, Marlys and I make the decisions based on recommendations of the Program Managers, and then send them to Executive Management for review.” As Sam Reed once told me, “It’s lonely at the top.”

Thanks, Marlys. You make the Washington State Library a better, kinder, gentler place to work!

From the desk of Evan Robb

Gordon and June Thompson in goat-drawn carriage, Everson, Washington, 1928.

A new digital collection from the Whatcom County Library System is providing access to historical materials first gathered more than a decade ago.  From 1995 to 1999, a collaborative, citizen-led effort in Whatcom County sought to document the unique primary sources found in family collections throughout the Nooksack River Valley.  Known as the Whatcom Memories Photograph and Interview Project, and co-sponsored by the Lynden Pioneer Museum and the Whatcom Museum of History and Art, the project solicited materials from private collections, photographed and described them, and returned them to their owners.  Since that time, the materials have only been available to researchers visiting these institutions in person.

For its 2011-2012 Washington Rural Heritage grant project, the Everson McBeath Community Library (a branch of the Whatcom County Library System) digitized more than 500 items from this project.  Focusing on the communities of Everson, Nooksack, Clearbrook, Glen Echo, and Hopewell, the collection includes material from more than 40 Whatcom County families, many of whom were original pioneers and homesteaders in the area.

Collection highlights include:

• Nooksack River flood photos spanning several decades.
• Early homesteads and pioneer family portraits.
• Downtown business districts of Everson and Nooksack, including cannery and dairy industry photos.
• Lumber industry and loggers of the Nooksack Valley.
• A Y.M.C.A. ascent of Mount Baker.

Congratulations to the staff and volunteers at the Everson McBeath Community Library for making this grant project a resounding success.  According to local project manager, Susan Johns: “With the digitization of this collection and online access through the Washington State Library, it is now available to anyone, anywhere. This will be an incredible resource for all present and future generations.”

Y.M.C.A. ascent of Mount Baker, Deming Glacier in background.

The Everson McBeath Community Library joins more than 80 cultural institutions in 30 communities throughout the state that have digitized material with assistance from the Washington Rural Heritage initiative. Washington Rural Heritage sub-grants are made possible with Library Services and Technology Act (LSTA) funding provided by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.

For more information about Washington Rural Heritage, contact Evan Robb, Project Manager: (360)704-5228, [email protected].

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

In 1906 cowboys in the Ephrata area rounded up a few thousand wild horses and sold them to buyers back East in what was known as “The Last Grand Roundup.” At the time this event was considered a final farewell to the era of the Old West in Eastern Washington.

But the day of the horse wasn’t quite over. Amazingly, horses were in so much demand by the European powers early in the Great War that buyers came all the way to Washington State to acquire the animals.

The following article was found in the Okanogan Independent, June 19, 1915:

 MORE HORSES FOR WAR

 “Another band of twenty-nine horses were purchased in Okanogan last week by Ted Lasley, representing contractors who are securing horses for the French and English governments to be used in the cavalry, artillery and commissary departments of the armies of the allies in the great European struggle now going on. For the past two months horse buyers have made frequent visits to the Okanogan valley and it is stated by Mr. Lasley that fully $100,000 has been distributed in different parts of the county for horseflesh and expenses of various kinds for the buyers. In Okanogan alone previous to the buying expedition last week they had spent $13,000, and the band that went out last week brought the sum total for this point to a figure near $17,000. The animals bring from $100 to $150 each, according to age, size and physical condition.”

By the time the United States entered the war in 1917, the use of horses was already starting to give way to more mechanized methods of assault as the 19th and 20th centuries overlapped on the battlefield.

The Okanogan Independent covered life in that region from 1905-1975. The Washington State Library has nearly a complete set available on microfilm.

The newspaper also organized and published in book form a series of local biographies in 1924 called Glimpses of Pioneer Life. WSL has this title available in hardcopy, as well as in online digital form.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

Shortly after losing the status of Clallam County seat in an election in 1890, many in the town of New Dungeness picked up and moved across the river forming a community called, interestingly enough, Dungeness. This new hamlet even had an optimistic (although short-lived) newspaper: The Dungeness Beacon.

The following item was found at random in the July 29, 1892 issue, reprinted from Port Townsend’s Key City Graphic:

 TOO CLOSE FOR COMFORT.

 The Gay and Festive Sea Serpent in the Vicinity of Dungeness.

 “We clip the following harrowing tale from the Key City Graphic of July 21st:”

“Yesterday morning, while the steamer Monticello was coming from Angeles to this city, and when almost directly opposite Dungeness, Captain Oliver says he saw the water in the Straits lashed into foam. Drawing near, to the surprise of the captain and all on board, a huge sea serpent, wrestling about in the waters as if fighting with an unseen enemy, was seen. It soon quieted down and lay at full length on the surface of the water. Captain Oliver estimates it to be about fifty feet in length and not less than four feet in circumference of the body. Its head was projecting from the water about four feet. He says it was a terrible looking object. It had viciously sparkling eyes and a large head. Fins were seen, seemingly sufficiently large to assist the snake through the water. The body was dark brown in color and was uniform all along. From what he says it would be capable of crushing a yawl boat and its occupants.”

“As the steamer passed on its course, the snake was seen disporting itself in the water. At the time the Straits were calm, and there could have been no mistake in recognizing the object.”

Sea serpent reports in the Strait of Juan de Fuca in general and Dungeness in particular have a long history. L.E. Bragg in Myths and Mysteries of Washington describes a sea serpent that was seen so frequently in the Strait in the 1930s that the citizens of Victoria gave it a name: “So many came forward after these reports were published that editor Archie Wills of the Victoria Daily Times held a contest to name the sea serpent. The winning entry was ‘Cadborosaurus,’ or ‘Caddy’ for short, named for Cadboro Bay just north of Victoria where it had been seen. Even after limiting reports to those that were signed and verified, Wills compiled a list of around 100 people, including three sea captains and the pilot who flew the mail between Seattle and Victoria, who had seen the beast.”

But I’d like to propose a new name for the serpent, at least for the one who hangs around the Washington State side of the Strait:

DungeNessie.

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

The settlement of Beaver, Washington is a little bit north of Forks. According to the USGS: “Originally, Beaver Camp, which had Beaver PO, was a logging camp located to the east of Tyee and moved west as the logging progressed. As Tyee continued to grow and Beaver Camp did not, the Post Office moved 2.4 km (1.5 mi) west to Tyee. In 1957, it was recommended that Tyee be renamed to Beaver.”

The original Beaver had a newspaper of its own. The only copies of this publication residing in Libraryland can be found the Washington State Library, as part of a microfilm reel entitled: Clallam County misc. Reel # 1.

The Beaver Leader began in 1890 and lasted until at least 1897, but by then it was known simply as The Leader. Editor Will A. Sparks was a champion for forming a new county made up of western Clallam and Jefferson counties. But we later find him in 1902 as editor of the Suburban Reporter in Columbia City (King County). In the following piece from the Feb. 18, 1895 issue of The Beaver Leader, Sparks relates a couple tales of embezzlement while advocating for home rule (a few parts are mangled so I have used the [***] symbol in those trouble spots):

 WE WANT DIVISION

 “Nothing appears to retard to onward march of the recent movement toward county division. It seems to take like wild fire and so far as we are able to conjecture from an observation of the sentiment in this immediate neighborhood, the people are of one mind on the subject of the formation of a new county. The petitions are being liberally signed, and when everyone is fully informed on the matter, the objection from the people of the proposed territory of the new county will be very slight. A general meeting of delegates,– one from each precinct in the proposed new county,– will meet at Beaver, on February 15th to decide on the preliminary arrangements in getting things into shape to present before our present session of legislators. We will then have done our best and the matter will rest in the hands of the legislature.”

“Apart from the general inconvenience of being compelled to travel 170 miles to get to the county seat, as they do in west Jefferson, and handy to 100 miles from the extreme west part of the county to Angeles, several minor considerations exert an influence, in this county, in creating a sentiment for county division. For instance the failure of the First National bank of Port Angeles taking down with it $42,000 of the county funds is generally thought to have resulted through inexcusable if not criminal negligence, which must have been in some [***] to our county officers. For it is preposterous and insulting to the [***] that the financial standing [***] institution harboring thousands of dollars of the people’s money was unknown to the persons responsible for the safety of the county funds. When the crisis came,– an event of vital interest to nearly every citizen of the county,– the newspapers of Angeles dismissed the whole matter with the bare assertion, variously worded, that ‘the bank had failed.’ Warrants depreciated in value and the effect was felt by everybody, but still the Angeles papers pursued the noiseless tenor of their way and said nothing. The commissioners with exasperating carelessness neglected fixing the treasurer’s bonds secure until they were at the mercy of the bondsmen. When, as a final bath of bitterness, the grand jury failed to indict any of the bank officials, it became reasonably certain that that the Angeles papers and leading citizens of Angeles and perhaps some of our county officials were uniting to shield the bank officials in their nefarious dealings.”

“Another instance is the case of Benjamin F. Schwartz, Esq., than whom, there is probably no greater rascal unhung. Mr. Schwartz came to Angeles, reported himself worth a cool half million, and in an incredibly short time was cock of the walk and hyas [sic] tyee of the whole hunting ground. He was feted, lionized and aped till you couldn’t rest; and to be patronized by him was to a person with aspirations of upper-tendom an occasion of unutterable joy. But Mr. Schwartz fell,– as high steppers sometimes do,– and was convicted of embezzlement; but being a man of inconceivably ‘high education’ and the very name of ‘refinement’ he was considerately sentenced to a paltry eighteen months instead of a deserving sentence of as many years.. This little incident as well as his subsequent escape from the Angeles jail,– which escape is universally believed and perhaps in some quarters known to have been pre-arranged,– was, if we remember rightly, passed without comment by those bull-dog guardians of the public– the newspapers of Angeles.”

“The Leader might mention several events that has happened in and around Port Angeles which seem to indicate that Port Angeles is selfishly addicted to the preservation of her own welfare and the hides of her citizens rather than the good of the whole county. But letting these pass, the limit of forbearance is nearly if not quite reached in the recent defalcation of ex-Treasurer Clump, his arrest and easy escape from the Angeles jailor; and the fact that his $60,000 bonds were so managed as to make it very improbable that they will cover a slight defalcation of $3,000, about one-twentieth of the bond given. These things and the fact that Angeles holds the balance of power in voting and consequently may, and undoubtedly does, elect officers friendly to her interests, as is illustrated in the last election when every officer elected hailed from Angeles, are some of the reasons why the people of the west End want to be let loose from Port Angeles.”

“It is of course expected that there will arise opposition to a division of Clallam county, and perhaps of Jefferson. It is stated, however, that Port Townsend and East Jefferson would offer no obstacle to losing a portion of her territory, and the Tribune Times of Port Angeles thinks that that city would offer no special objection to the proposed division. If it be true that there will be no opposition worth noting, with reasonable assistance from our members in the state legislature we ought to make the thing go. The assessed valuation of the West Commissioner district for 1894 is $500,295 and the total indebtedness is $255,375.34, according to a statement made by the county auditor.”

The movement for the new county died that year, but it still resurfaces now and then. Of course the most interesting part of Sparks’ story was the double embezzlements and double jail escapes by two pillars of the community.

In Port Angeles, Washington : a History, Paul Martin comments: “The History of the first banking effort in Port Angeles is sad indeed.” But for more dirt we need to dig some more.

In The story of Port Angeles, Clallam County, Washington; an historical symposium (1937), Jens Peter Christensen supplies an account of P.A.’s history in banking and the fate of Mr. Schwartz. He begins rather diplomatically:

“The history of banking in Port Angeles differs little from that of other budding towns of the West in the early nineties, except that its citizens might, at the time, have been more than ordinarily optimistic and gullible. These two tendencies of the human construction do not augur well for successful banking and the city’s experience in that line proved no exception to the rule.”

Later on in his essay, as Christensen approached the case mentioned above, he was more direct: “Mr. Schwartz, its president, was indicted for embezzlement of funds entrusted to him by James Stewart, a local attorney. While incarcerated in the city jail, pending the appeal of his case, he made his escape on a schooner under cover of night, and several months passed until word was received that he had been arrested at St. Louis. Our sheriff, Sam Morse, made the trip there to bring the embezzler back, and the day arrived when the city’s first bank president stood on the deck of a local steamer, manacled, and facing a large crowd of the curious who jeered at him. Stripped of his former self-confident air, he made a sorry picture, trembling at the sight of the large gathering,believing they were met en masse for the purpose of doing him harm.”

And let’s not forget the “Ex-Treasurer Clump.” His full name was Mussena Jacob Clump. He was handily elected as a Democrat to the office of County Treasurer in 1892, and apparently took off with tens of thousands of dollars in short order. Like Schwartz, he escaped jail and was eventually arrested in Boise, Idaho. He blamed the bank failure (and indirectly Mr. Schwartz) for his troubles.

Who knows, maybe both of these gentlemen were cellmates when they served time in Walla Walla.

Clump was pardoned by Gov. John Rogers. He moved to California where he continued to have legal problems. He died in Los Angeles in 1940, aged 93.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen if the west end of Clallam and Jefferson counties are still the most likely to secede.

Click here to see a map of Clallam County at the time this article was written, digitized by the Washington State Library.

Billie Legg picking apples in Manson, Washington, 1924 – click image to see larger version

From the desk of Evan Robb

Just as this year’s Washington apple crop is shaping up to be the second most productive season on record, a new Washington Rural Heritage collection documents our state’s long history of agricultural abundance in the heart of apple-growing country. The Foodways & Byways of North Central Washington Collection illustrates how the production, acquisition, and distribution of local food has played a central role in the history and development of North Central Washington.

For its 2011-2012 LSTA grant project, the North Central Regional Library (with a service area comprising one quarter of Washington State’s geography) partnered with the Wenatchee-based Initiative for Rural Innovation and Stewardship (IRIS). The partnership hosted five community-based digitization events at NCRL branches in early 2012, where more than 100 historic photographs from private collections and local historical societies were digitized for the collection.  Bringing together a wealth of unique material from Chelan, Douglas, Ferry, Grant, and Okanogan counties, the collection topics range from hunting & fishing, to the fruit and grain industries, to herding and range management.

Highlights include:

• Apple orchard and packing shed  photos from Manson, Washington, including the undeniably iconic photo shown above as well as another great image of the same apple picker taken that year.
• 1940s and 1950s-era photos of camping and fishing Lake Curlew in Ferry County. The trout fishing looks to have been excellent, not to mention the porcupine hunting (note: pan to the bottom of this image to see ‘Madilane and her porcupine, 1958’).
• Wheat planting and harvesting photos from Grant County, including this happy harvest photo and a 1908 family harvest photo from the Low Gap area.
• Hunting images from throughout the region. We especially like this one from Republic, Washington.
• Group portaits by Frank Matsura, still held in a private collection by a family member with deep roots in Okanogan County. This photo features Matsura himself, joining in on an Omak-area watermelon feast.

Baseball and sheep, Grant County, Washington – click image to see larger version

Congratulations to the North Central Washington Heritage partners–they join more than 80 cultural institutions in 30 communities throughout the state that have digitized material with assistance from the Washington Rural Heritage initiative. Washington Rural Heritage sub-grants are made possible with Library Services and Technology Act funding provided by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.

For more information about Washington Rural Heritage, contact Evan Robb, Project Manager: (360)704-5228, [email protected].

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

If there is any doubt that Washington Territory was part of the Old West, the following information regarding vigilante groups in Columbia County in the 1870s-1880s should put that to rest.

This week’s reel grabbed at random turns out to be from Dayton, in Columbia County, in 1878. But before we dive in, let’s let Robert E. Ficken set the scene from his excellent work, Washington Territory (2002):

“Founded in 1872 on the upper Touchet, sixteen miles south of the Snake River, Dayton was the leading urban byproduct of expanding wheat production. City-like amenities included flour and woolen mills, a brick-walled store, a flourishing hotel, two churches and a ‘well regulated brass band.’ Dayton was nonetheless an uncivilized place of materialist ambition enveloped in dust from never-ending winds. The school closed when residents refused to pay taxes. ‘Young hoodlums,’ the loutish offspring of prosperous farmers, loitered about and ‘soiled doves’ occupied their own well-patronized quarter, separated from respectable folk by an appropriately festering ditch.”

(As an aside, Mr. Ficken was our very first speaker when we started our WSL lecture series in 2002)

The following Dayton News article appeared on the editorial page, March 2, 1878:

  CLAIM JUMPING

“There is considerable excitement in some localities in this county about Claim Jumping. Secret societies have been
formed, and there are indications that trouble is brewing. The following is one of the several notices which have been posted up:”

Recently the Washington Anytime Library celebrated the addition of its 30th member library to the group. The Grandview Library became library number 30, meaning that almost half the state’s 62 public library entities are now members of the Washington Anytime Library!

The Washington Anytime Library provides a substantial collection of downloadable eBooks and audiobooks to its patrons. The Anytime Library is the cooperative effort of a consortium of Washington public libraries, coordinated by the Washington State Library. A list of participating libraries is available on the Anytime Library’s web site.

Congratulations to Grandview Library, and to the Washington Anytime Library for providing this valuable service to library users throughout the state!

This project is funded in part through the use of LSTA (Library Services and Technology Act) funds provided under the auspices of the Institute for Museum and Library Services (IMLS) through the coordinating efforts of the Library Development Program at the Washington State Library. Additional funding comes from the participating libraries.

Other Washington libraries provide similar services to their patrons. A list of libraries offering downloadable  audiobooks is available on the project website.

Questions about the project may be directed to Will Stuivenga, Cooperative Projects Manager, Washington State Library.

Map of the Columbia Basin Irrigation System

From the desk of Evan Robb

Washington Rural Heritage is pleased to announce one of several new digital collections being published this month.  From southeast Washington’s Franklin County, the Connell Heritage Collection marks the completion of a year-long grant funded project led by the Connell Branch of Mid-Columbia Libraries. In partnership with the Connell Heritage Museum and the Franklin County Graphic, this collaborative effort resulted in the digitization of more than 200 unique resources documenting a century of the town’s history.

Among the materials that are now digitized and full-text-searchable for the first time is The Beginnings of Connell.  This local history document that the story of Palouse Junction, a remote point along the Northern Pacific Railroad line in the 1880s which would later be renamed as Connell.  Most of Connell’s growth came after 1900, as more settlers began to move into the area.  Otto Olds’ reminiscences, Memories of a Pioneer, describe a challenging existence for early homesteaders:

 “I don’t remember much that happened that first year, only that we got a house and barn built out of 1 by 12’s standing on end. Dad managed to plow about 15 acres with a walking plow or ‘foot burner’ as they are called, and planted it to oats in the fall. We had to sell one of the cows as it took most of the daylight to haul water and cut sagebrush to clear the land. Dad and Uncle Ed got a harvest job by driving to Lind, thirty miles away. Dad got $3.50 a day, himself and four mules, so was able to buy our winter groceries.  Dad had arrived in Washington with $1,400. With this he had been able to pay the filing fee on 160 acres—which was about the same as the government betting it was impossible to live on the homestead five years without starving to death. If you survived, the 160 acres were yours.”

Presbyterian Church in Connell, ca. 1917 – present day home of Connell Heritage Museum

Additional highlights from the Connell Heritage collection include:

• Photos of an August, 1907 cloudburst which sent a flash flood through town.
• Photos of February, 1956 flood, demonstrating the effect of a “pineapple express” event in this Eastern Washington community.
• Digitized negatives from the collection of the Franklin County Graphic, documenting community life in Connell across the decades.  Paisley shirts, black-rimmed glasses, and an “I Hate Girls” button all make an appearance on this photo of boys participating in a 1966 pie-eating contest.
• Photos from the Connell Heritage Museum, depicting the aftermath of destructive 1905 and 1909 fires in Connell.
• An early promotional map depicting areas to be irrigated as a result of the Columbia River Basin Project. This map includes canals serving Connell, Mesa, and areas east; these were never constructed.
• A series of street murals from present-day Connell.  These have been geo-referenced along with other materials in the collection, and can be explored on an interactive map.

Congratulations to the Connell Heritage partners—they join more than 80 cultural institutions in 30 communities throughout the state that have digitized material with assistance from the Washington Rural Heritage initiative. Washington Rural Heritage sub-grants are made possible with Library Services and Technology Act funding provided by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services through the Washington State Library, a division of the Office of the Secretary of State.

Railroad Commissioner's Map of Washington (1910)

From the desk of Steve Willis, Central Library Services Program Manager of the Washington State Library:

Charleston was a city that used to exist just to the southwest of Bremerton. The settlement was still young when talk of the two cities merging first came up, given their mutual interest in the Naval shipping area. The book Kitsap County History (1977) presents a detailed chronology of Charleston, ending in December 1927, when voters decided in favor of consolidation.

One person who almost certainly voted against this measure was George M. Terrell. This early Charleston resident had arrived in the role of one of the first drydock inspectors, and later moved into the real estate and insurance fields. He was also a devout Baptist who was part of a group that formed the first church (Presbyterian) in town.

In addition, Terrell appears to have been something of a Christian political activist. In 1896 he resigned his post as City Treasurer in protest when the City Council voted to grant liquor licenses as a way to collect revenue. His obituary in the May 23, 1932 Bremerton Daily News Searchlight after his death at age 85 noted: “He was deeply interested in civic affairs of his chosen locality and was staunch in the carrying out of his convictions.”

Mr. Terrell’s letter to the editor in the May 29, 1909 issue of The Charleston Record (from the microfilm reel I grabbed at random this week) is a fun snapshot of how the two cities were regarded through the lens of a Charleston civic leader:

 AGAINST ANNEXATION

 “‘Everybody loves a lover.’ The sweet unselfish persistence of our Bremerton lover is a sight to tickle the angels– in hades, –but it does not excite even surprise in Charleston; we are surprised tho’ that Bremerton should assume that we have more suckers this year than last.–and such suckers! That man has used his thinker to mighty little purpose who does not instinctively shy and look to the safety of his pocket book when the confidence man comes with tears in his voice, pleading to him a great gain at the givers loss.”

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