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Skagit River JournalSubscribers Edition Stories & Photos The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit. Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness |
Home of the Tarheel Stomp Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug |
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This aerial photo was taken in 1964, looking northwest, with Puget Sound in the background, and Samish Island and the western part of the Samish River Valley in the foreground. It is courtesy of samishisland.net, a terrific historical resource, a virtual feast that is packed with research and photos and you will want to start your own research there. |
The writer also visited Fidalgo island, noticing the Swinomish Indian reservation in the southern part and the white settlements in the northern classing the land held by the latter as the garden spot of Whatcom county. He made mention of the fine farms of Messrs. H. C. Barkhousen, H. A. March, S.B. Best, William Munks, William Crandall, H.J. White, J. A. Compton, Robert Becker, Shadrach Wooten, H. Sibley and others. He also crossed to Guemes island and visited the places belonging to Messrs. Edens and O'Bryant; likewise called at Cypress island on his round and viewed the well-improved farms of Mr. Kittles and Mr. Tilton.
Henry Barkhousen, Helen's grandfather, settled on Fidalgo Island, coming from Whatcom in 1865 and located on what was later known as the Baxter Farm, now part of the present Texaco refinery property. He had been Auditor of Whatcom county and a member of the Territorial Legislature. After William Munks served 20 years as postmaster of Fidalgo, Mr. Barkhousen succeeded him on Dec. 4, 1890, the same day the office was changed to East Anacortes. That was the year of the big boom and that office covered an area that included March's Point. Apparently they were not too happy with the new name and in two months it was again called Fidalgo. Barkhousen kept the position for ten years, succeeded on Dec. 26, 1900, by Mrs. Munks. He once sold a team of horses to Capt. George Morse of Whidbey Island and they were obliged to swim them across inner Deception Pass from Dewey [due east of the bridge built in 1935], landing them near a skid road leading to Dugualla Bay [northeast Whidbey Island]. Barkhousen took a more optimistic view of pioneer life than many, said he preferred the open prairie soil of Fidalgo Bay to the difficult muddy farms to be had by diking on the flats. He said he had not seen too much hardship in his pioneering — a good garden was easily grown and a suit of clothes lasted for years. All the Barkhousen children spent their lives on the [Fidalgo] island. Granddaughter Helen and her sister still made their home on a corner of the old homestead, just south of the Texaco plant.
William served in the Army under Ulysses Grant during the Mexican-American War. Following the war, he made his way north and spent some time mining in Nevada before heading to northern Washington and settling near Anacortes. Based on what I have seen in your newsletter, it looks like you have much of the information concerning his activities during those years; postmaster, hotel builder, etc. He sent away to Sears in Chicago for a mail order bride and that is how [Arminda Van Valkenburg] wound up coming out via the Oregon Trail on a prairie schooner in 1880. [They married on Aug. 11, 1881 at Seattle.] Nicknamed Minnie, she gave William five sons in short order. They were William, Leonard, Arthur, Merton Grant, and one whose name I do not know. Arthur died in the Flu Epidemic of 1918. Merton Grant (middle name in honor of U.S. Grant), born in 1885, was my paternal grandfather. . . . My grandfather spent his remaining years on a small farm next to Leonard Munks's place in Anacortes. Leonard was my great uncle. Our family spent a number of summers dividing our time between Merton in Anacortes and Julia in Mt. Vernon. Mildred married Bud Robinson and moved to Bremerton. Merton Grant, Julia, and Mildred have all long since passed away. My father, Merton Arthur, and mother are still going strong.Although some sources contend that Munks came to the Washington Territory at the time of the Fraser River gold rush in 1858, Don Kelly recalls family history that placed him here when the International Border was being carved out of the forest along the 49th Parallel. In 1999, Don Munks — great-grandson of Munks and currently a Skagit County Commissioner, told a reporter from the Skagit Valley Herald: "He came up here to help make peace treaties with the Indians so the surveyors wouldn't be hunted." We also have a copy of the 1890 magazine, Anacortes Illustrated, which notes that he came west from Ohio and . . .
In 1849 Mr. Munks went to the far West, hunted and trapped for a time on the western slope of the Rockies, visited Oregon and then went to the placer mines of North Carolina, remaining until 1855, during which time he took part in two Indian wars. In 1855 he returned to Oregon and entered the service under Joel Palmer of the Indian Department. After making a successful trading and prospecting trip to the headwaters of the Columbia through a hostile Indian country. [This timeline is at variance with other Munk profiles.] Mr. Munks came to Puget Sound and served one season on the United States Boundary Commission, locating the boundary between Washington Territory and British Columbia and at the breaking out of the Frazer gold excitement, established a trading post at Fort Vale and embarked in mining. In 1859 he selected a beautiful spot on Fidalgo Island, now known as Munks Landing, and settled down, but the following spring went on a trading expedition to the Similkameen mines [eastern Washington/Southern B.C.] and afterwards on an exploration to the Harney Lake country, returning to following fall to his home and opened a mercantile store; he was surrounded by Indians with no white settlers within twenty-five miles but he was never molested. Mr. Munks was postmaster at Fidalgo for twenty years; he had at one time 800 acres of land, of which he sold eighty acres and contributed seventy acres as subsidies to the Seattle & Northern Pacific Railroads.During the Great Depression, the WPA researchers interviewed many pioneers, some of whom knew Munks personally. In the resulting 1938 book, Told by the Pioneers, Volume 2, the authors supplied tremendous details of the daily life of Munks and others:
At that time he was employed as a scout by the State of Oregon. He was the first permanent white settler on Fidalgo Island, having bought a squatter's right of the first homestead on January 14, 1861, from William Bonner, the consideration being $60.00 and a silver watch. Bonner, who came from Utsaladdy [Utsalady], Camano Island, had been occupying the cabin which had been built on the place in the spring of 1859 by Lieutenant Robert H. Davis, nephew of the celebrated President of the Southern Confederacy, who, with several other white wanderers, had come over from the San Juan country on a hunting trip.John F. Conrad's obituary notes for the 1961 Pioneer Picnic included an interesting detail we have not read anywhere else. William's son, Gerald L. Munks, died that year. He told Conrad a family story that William paddled a canoe to Fidalgo Bay in 1848, where he squatted temporarily on a piece of prairie land, but he told the family that Indians threatened his life, so he left for government service on the boundary survey. Some sources state that Munks opened his store as early as 1870. The source above indicates that he became postmaster of Fidalgo in 1870 and another says 1871 but we have not been able to confirm that; the Anacortes Post Office opened in 1879.
After hunting on Guemes (earlier know as Dog Island, also Lawrence Island) where there was an abundance of deer and other game besides thousands of howling wolves, they pulled their boat over to the head of Fidalgo Bay, (referred to by earlier settlers as "Squaw Bay"). The party included Charles W. Beal and his cousin, Robert Beal [actual spelling was Beale]. They had decided to stay there awhile and, using a squatter's right, built a cabin cornered on the imaginary line of their claims. Then the Civil War called Lieutenant Davis and he left suddenly for the South, where he joined the Southern forces and won distinction.
Soon after settling, Mr. Munks went to Bellingham to find an old friend, Eric Compton, and succeeded in persuading him to move to Fidalgo Island and locate beside him. These two helped each other and made their trips to Bellingham together. They rowed their boat each way, and it was a long pull with the oars to Bellingham, where they marketed their wild game and produce. Each trip took several days and they had certain places where they camped, usually near other white settlers. During the sixties other families moved to the island and steamers began to run between LaConner (then known as Swinomish Settlement) and Seattle. There was no wharves nor docks, and steamers anchored as near land as possible. Men wearing hip boots carried the supplies, and the ladies ashore.
Mr. Munks built a wharf and store in 1873. A little later he married Arminda Van Valkenburg. Three sons were born, then twins, and it was during the birth of the twins that necessary medical aid could not be obtained in time from LaConner, and the mother and one of the babies died. The other twin lived six months.
The first home of Mr. Munks was built of logs, with a shake roof and the rough floors had no carpets. The furniture was all home made. Mr. Munks had first used candles--an open dish to burn oil--then later candles and lamps were obtained. The only means of transportation was by row boat or canoe. Later he had a horse which he rode over the prairie, which was then a fern-covered open country. Munks' Landing was the first stopping place on the island and the piles of white rock used for the landing are all that remain of this oldest landmark.
An old Indian fort and stockade had been built by the peaceful and quiet Puget Sound Indians years before, at the head of Squaw Bay, on the land later bought by Mr. Munks, and here on one of the hardest fought Indian battles took place. Near the old stockade was a bed of clam shells approximately seven feet deep, indicating the Indians had used the site for a camping ground for many years. There were still many Indians in the region and Mr. Munks had many interesting and exciting experiences with them. He brought the first cattle, seventeen head, to the island, aboard a sloop from Whatcom. He also brought the first wagon and planted fruit trees and a grape vine, and some of these plants still yield an excellent crop of fruit. They were planted in 1863. In 1870, Mr. Munks, a veteran of the Mexican War, was appointed postmaster. Prior to this time the nearest postoffice was at Whatcom, later named Bellingham.
Mr. Munks had lived in Whatcom before coming to Fidalgo Island, and had served on the Boundary Commission. Later he had a trading post on the Frazer River. He had crossed the plains in 1849 and had engaged many of the Indian wars in California and Oregon.
When the boom struck Anacortes, December 31, 1890, the excitement spread all over Fidalgo Island, and Mr. Munks built an up-to-date hotel at the water front and near the old landing. He expended his entire savings. When the boom broke he found himself without a cent. However, during the boom he built on a grand scale, and his hotel was a three-story affair, built of lumber from Utsaladdy. Mr. Priest was the contractor. Mr. Munks passed away [on Nov. 19, 1898] on Fidalgo Island, of which he was often referred to as "King," a title of which he was proud.
After his death, life was a struggle for Mrs. Munks, left with two babies and three step-sons, debts and taxes long unpaid, and a mortgage on their home. However, she managed well and gradually paid off the indebtedness. The Munks home is a rambling old frame house of two stories with large rooms, high ceilings, and large windows made of small square panes. It is comfortably furnished, with old pictures decorating the walls. The floors have a few home- made rugs scattered about. In the attic is stored an accumulation of more than half a century. Among the pieces of furniture is a queer little organ, the height of a table, with flat top. Its tones are still mellow when played. In the parlor is a set of black walnut furniture that came across the plains.
Harry Elmer March was a son of early settler H.A. March for whom March's Point is named. His father left New York City in 1853, 110 years ago, by boat, then walking across the Panama Isthmus, carrying a gun on his person that is still in the family possession. He went on up to the Fraser river gold rush [in 1858], and then back to Whatcom where his old friend James Kavanaugh was appointed U.S. Deputy Marshall and March became his first deputy. They both filed claims on adjoining places on Fidalgo Island in 1866 but did not move their families down till 1869. March's U.S. Patent, signed by President U.S. Grant in 1972, is still in the family possession. The elder March was educated as a horticulturist in New York and had the only cauliflower seed-growing business west of Long Island, NY. He died in 1905 after serving as a county fruit inspector [does not say if that was in Skagit county.] Harry, the son, started as a deck hand and fireman on the old steamer Utsalady and later was chief engineer and master marine engineer on Puget sound boats. The March farm now is mostly occupied by Shell Refining.March was one of the first three county commissioners selected when Skagit County split off from Whatcom in December 1883. As the excellent Anacortes Museum website (http://www.skagitpublishing.com/ourcentury/1900-1909.html ) explains, Hiram A. March died in February of 1905, short of his 79th birthday. He started farming in 1863 and by 1885 was raising cauliflower seed, the only producer of such seed in America, soon joined by the Tillinghasts and other families farming near Padilla Bay. March became the commander of the Anacortes Yacht Club and died with the title of Commodore.
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