This was originally posted to: Guemes Island Historical Society

Historical Society, 2017 - May Meeting Minutes

GUEMES ISLAND HISTORICAL SOCIETY

May 8, 2017

 

Present: Carol Deach (pres), Janice Veal (treas), Tom Deach, Win Anderson, Barb Ohms, Shirley Margeson, Dave Margeson, Carol Harma, Sally Stapp, Emma Schroder, Rob Schroder, Nancy Bush, Sue O’Donnell (sec)

 

SHOW & TELL:  Carol Harma brought a quilt with “GUEMES ISLAND” embroidered across the top.  It was found in an antique shop by the daughter of Bonita Smith.  Bonita took it to show Anne McCracken who has donated the quilt to the Historical Society.  Carol H. is going to research the folks who participated in the making of the quilt.  It was probably auctioned off at some point and is dated 1996.  Leta Nelson was into quilting back then so Barb will contact Leta (since Barb and husband Mark Ohms have recently purchased the Nelson house).

Carol H. also had a Guemes calendar from 2006.  She is trying to identify folks in the pictures.

 

Win brought a broken strut - now repaired - used to support the grain mill hopper.  Rob and friend Tom Fouts worked on the metal grain mill hopper support as well as welding together the antique folding baby stroller from Kager family collection.

Win also unfurled a very large poster of the history of Causland Park in Anacortes, built there in the 1920s.  Now the question is how to preserve it for future display and use by the Society.  Barb suggested it be adhered to poster board.  We will have to look into the cost to do that.  The poster (an extra) was given to the Society by the Anacortes Historical Museum.  [According to Gertie Howard’s “Guemes Gleanings:  “Charles Stapp, one of our long-time, hard-working islanders, was chairman of the Park Committee in Anacortes when it was decided, in 1919, that Mr. LePage should build the rock work at Causland Park.  And, of course, the park was named for another islander, Harry Causland, who was a World War I hero.”]

 

The 3-D map of Guemes and surrounding islands, found by Barb at the Community Center, has been taken to the studio of Carol Deach.  It is in need of repair and Carol D. has been working on cleaning it and assessing how to bring it back to its former condition for eventual display.  Barb & Carol report it is quite heavy and large, ~3’ X 4’.  They have determined it was built by Les Dunn, perhaps mid-20th century.  Maybe having it on display will jog memories of anyone who might have recollections of the map and of the Dunn family.  Carol may be able to bring it to next meeting for all to see; will at least bring pictures of it.

The story of a Guemes Island Christmas from 1888 that Win shared during the December 2016 meeting was recently shared with Bonita Smith by Sally Stapp.  Sally & Win would like to do a recorded interview with Bonita.  Her ancestors were the March family.

PROGRAM:  Carol D. showed family pictures of Al Bacetich (1927-2010), ferry captain from 1963-1988.  They are on loan from Al’s son Anthony.

 

Carol has been working with Bret Lunsford of the Anacortres Historical Museum. She is sharing Shoultz/Lopp-Dolph-Stone family history on Guemes Island with the museum.

 

Bret gave Carol a copy of a news story from a circa 1925 Anacortes American about the coming to Guemes of the Causland  family.  What an interesting story which tells of the Causlands (Frank & Fannie) meeting in mid-1880s!!!  Then making their way to Guemes, clearing land, building a house, having babies, suffering the loss of a son to WWI.  arryH

Harry Leon born first, mid-wifed by Mrs. Wilfong; mom & babe cared for by Louise Mathews until Grandmother arrived from the prairie of Illinois.  Harry, or course, famous for having served in WWI, killed in action in France, 1918 on a suicide mission.  Causland Park in Anacortes is named after the war hero (refer to The Evening Star of November 1999).

 

The article tells of HUGE trees and very dense undergrowth which limited light to the ground and impeded the progress of folks trying to get building materials from the shore to building sites.  Mr. Causland and Jim Mathews rowed lumber for the house from the saw mill to Guemes.  Logging operations left skid roads and gigantic mossy stumps.

 

Perhaps this document will eventually be made available to all on this Historical Society website.

 

BUSINESS:

Treasurers Report (attached):  Previous balance - April: $26,251.05.    Current balance: $26,243.06 + the 2 CDs (at Washington Federal equaling ~ $4470). 

 

Sally has been weeding extra plants from her flower garden and offering them for sale.  She is generously donating the proceeds to the Historical Society.

 

Annual Election of Society Officers:  Carol Shoultz Deach has stepped down as president.  She was praised for the excellent care she has taken over the years to bring interesting and personal memories to the Society.  She has also spent many hours in the Hist. Soc. storeroom - sorting, organizing and filing the many items which come to us – “out of the blue”.  We are so grateful when old documents, letters, pictures, publications, etc. are found and shared with the society. 

 

Tom Deach was elected new president by wild acclamation!  He has shown apt technical skills in helping to present the history, sought out interesting topics, boldly requested artifacts and keeps his eyes and ears open for ever more history of Guemes.  Tom has taken on our storage issues and serves on the “Second Century Vision Committee” as the community seeks to expand space at

Community Center.

 

Janice has agreed to continue on as Treasurer; Sue has agreed to continue on as Secretary.

 

Father’s Day Display:  Tom would like to have pictures of Fathers/Children labeled for display at Strawberry Social.  We will look at the collection of photos at June meeting.  Everyone is welcome to submit pictures.  Bring to June meeting, June 12, 7pm.

 

Dog Show: planned for August?  Barb suggests we look ahead to a year when new folks will carry on the fun of the DDOSGIDS Dog Show.  Nancy has been keeping excellent records of supplying food for the hot dog feed (as well as how to run the November fund raiser bazaar).  Tom has also written down the steps he has taken to organize the dog show.

 

“New Museum” Report:  The “Second Century Vision Committee” (SCVC – a name proposed by Win to reference the Community Hall's first 100 years and a mandate to plan for the long term) will meet this week (May 9) to continue the scoping of the storage issue for the Historical Society. 

[Tom is rep from Historical Society; the other four representative groups are C.E.R.T. (Barb Ohms & Gail Nichols), GICCA (Rob Schroder), Library (Carol Pellett) and Member-at-Large (Gary Curtis)]

Displays:  Tom showed examples of display cases we might look into for documents display.  Janice will inquire at the Island View school where they got their display cases.

Newsletter Update:   no report

 

Coming Events:

 

Strawberry Social – on Father’s Day, June 18.  Hist. Soc. has been asked to set up a display for the event.  We will gather together pictures of Fathers and Their Children from the Guemes archives.  The community-at-large is welcome to submit pictures.

 

Growing Up Guemes – Tom would like to identify participants who lived and grew up on Guemes during the 40s.

 

Possible programs to come:

 

August – Carol Harma on history of Holiday Hideaway

 

Children of Madge Welch

The LaVeque/Gould families

West  Beach settlements

 

 

Recent losses:  Mary Helen Richardson (1948-2017)

 

 

Sue Stapp O’Donnell, secretary                     5-8-2017

 

 

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