Titled “Blogger digs into her roots: Snohomish County native works to uncover her family’s history,” the article quickly describes some of my family’s history related to the Snohomish County area on the Knapp and West sides.

For the most part, the article is correct, though the fun and adventure of my family’s history in Snohomish County is condensed due to the column’s limitations. Still, columnist Kristi O’Harran did a great job fitting in all the detail in the limited space, but I wanted to expand upon some of the story more here.

UPDATE: O’Harran just sent me an email with several names and contact information for people who recognized some of the people in the photographs from the article or know my family or has information to help me with my family history research. I’ll be calling them in the next day or so. I can’t wait. What a gift!!

The Story Behind The Story

This is from the Elwell/Knapp family archives, we'd love help identifying the people and place.

She was fascinated by the West family’s role in protecting the coast of Washington State, my grandfather raising his kids first in Marysville then Friday Harbor, Washington, while he worked with the various naval military such as the Marines, Navy, and Lighthouse Brigade, which became the Coast Guard. She loved the stories of my father and his sister growing up in Friday Harbor in the San Juan Islands in the lighthouse there.

What fascinated her most was the Knapp family’s connections with logging, Frye’s Lettuce farm, the Elwell family (with brothers Robert and Lloyd marrying into this family descended from Chief Seattle), and then both Robert and Wayne going into security, with Robert working the Monroe Penitentiary and Wayne at Seattle’s Boeing Security, key industries in the Pacific Northwest.

Snohomish County settlers Horace Harriman and Charles Elwell, but which one is which?

The West family were part of a religious migration arriving with the Mayflower and splitting off south in what became the United States, with my branch breaking north into Canada, eventually following the Quakers to Raisin, Michigan. Several generations back, one ancestor broke from the mold of pious farming and community building to ride the rails to Oregon to the logging camps up and down the Pacific Northwest. His son, Walter, caught up with one of our recent family’s biggest mystery women, Louella Brunner Pinder Parrett and had a son with her. That son, Howard West Sr., ended up in a Catholic orphanage in Portland, Oregon, with his half sister, Carmen. Eventually, he got out, lied about his age, and joined the military, eventually leading him to the USS Arizona, from which he kept a log book from 1924-1925 which I’ve published on the blog for historical purposes. In it, he casually ends the log with his marriage to Faye Vaughn in a courthouse in California. He continued with the military at bases along the Pacific Coast until he finally reached Friday Harbor, then his last years as a guard at Chief Joseph Dam in Bridgeport, Washington, with his second wife, Anna Mae Larmar.

What’s missing is the legacy left by the descendants of both sides. I still know so little about my living relatives, but I can tell you that on the Knapp side, my mother, Ramona West Boylan Fletcher, became a leading real estate agent and broker, owner of the well-known American Properties agency in Everett, helping residents and immigrants “settle” and build in Snohomish County for almost 40 years. Her grandchildren recently graduated from high school and one is playing college baseball locally.

There are doctors, lawyers, writers, business owners, teachers, a fire chief, and more among their descendants who cover a lot of Snohomish County as well as Skagit, Whatcom, King, Pierce, and other counties in Washington State. Others are in Oregon, California, and elsewhere around the country and world.

Part of the story I also told the writer was about how tough it is to work on the family history blog without much help from the family. I do what I can, but it isn’t enough to record all the stories about family members to help paint a fuller picture of what our family’s history is really about, the whys, hows, and lessons learned along the way as they pushed themselves through their lives on this planet. I’d love more help, and it’s hard for people to understand how they can help, which is why I do so many articles describing how someone can contribute to a family history blog or start their own. It’s so important to preserve the past for today as well as the future generations who will have the same questions as we do now about where we came from.

If you would like to contribute to our family history blog, I’m looking for photographs, audio, video, stories, notes, legal documents, whatever it takes to help define a life. I’d love a biography written about every family member, dead or alive, that helps us preserve their story. Through the family history blog, I’ve been honored to connect with people whose family connected with ours recently and hundreds of years ago. I’ll take whatever anyone wants to contribute to help paint their family’s story and how it connects and intertwines with mine.

If our family isn’t related by blood but you recognize pictures of people or have any information on our family’s history, I’d still love to have your help.

It takes a village to raise a citizen, and it takes a village to help preserve that citizen’s history.

Thanks to the Everett Herald and Kristi O’Harran for sharing the story of my family history research and my family.

United States Department of Commerce
Steamboat Inspection Service
Serial Number 135597
Issue Number 7-8
License to Master of Steam and Motor Vessels
This is to certify that Charles H. Elwell has given satisfactory evidence to the undersigned United States Local Inspectors, Steamboat Inspection Service, for the district of Seattle, Washington, that he can safely be intrusted with the duties and responsibilities of Master of Steam and Motor Vessels of not over 500 gross tons, upon the waters of Bays, Sounds and Lakes other than the Great Lakes and Pilot on Puget Sound and adjacent inland waters between Tacoma and Bellingham on vessels of same tonnage, and is hereby licensed to act as such Master and Pilot for the term of five years from this date.
Given under our hands, this 8th day of August, 1934.

Daniel B. Hutchins, Acting U.S. Inspector of Hulls
William N. Campbell, Acting U.S. Local Inspector of Boilers

For more information on Charles Elwell, see:

• Cooking On The Tug Boat Skagit Chief
• The Famous Elwell Boat Captains of Snohomish County
• Towing Logs On The Skagit River

It took ten years but the amazing book on the history of Snohomish County, Washington, is now available. “Snohomish County: An Illustrated History” features 432 pages packed with geological, environmental, historical, social, and political history of Snohomish County. There are 400 photographs, maps, and topical sidebars with many illustrations by local artist Bernie Webber.

Project coordinators and editors were David Cameron, Charles LeWarne, Allan May, Jack O’Donnell, and Larry O’Donnell. Many contributions were made by local historians, experts, and genealogists to make this the most extensive county historical book ever. The last one was written by William Whitfiled in 1926.

The book is available through the Museum of Snohomish County History (425-259-2022), Pilchuck Books (425-303-0345) and many local stores and shops in Everett, Snohomish, Lake Stevens, Monroe, and Marysville.

Having grown up in Snohomish County, the book is especially important to me because of my family’s strong connection with the area.

On the Elwell side of the Knapp family, we can trace our roots back to Chief Seattle of the Suquamish tribe. His sister, Gow-Gue-Wait, our ancestor, married into the Snohomish Tribe. Even today, her descendants live in Snohomish County.

The book talks about the whites struggling for dominance and control of the Pacific Northwest Indians, which eventually resulted in many of the local Indian tribes and peoples being forced onto land set aside for them in the area of Tulalip, which borders Snohomish County to the northwest.

John Elwell (1841-1895), who married Guaquiath Kektidose of the Snohomish tribe and daughter of Gow-Gue-Wait, was among the first men to see the “gold in them thar trees” and helped developing the logging industry. His sons, Charles and Simon Elwell, worked the Snohomish and Skagit Rivers, as well as the whole waterway of Puget Sound building boats and ferries, and hauling logs, supplies, and passengers up and down the rivers.

They are also mentioned on page 112 regarding the building of the town of Monroe, Washington:

Residents also participated in railroad construction activities. Barges 60 feet long and six to eight feet wide were filled with supplies and towed upriver by mules. Two brothers, Simon and Charles Elwell, built a 44-foot canoe to carry materials for railroad construction. Reportedly, the huge craft could hold up to 4,700 pounds.

The Knapp family also has its roots strongly embedded in Snohomish County, marrying into the Elwell, Odell, and Handley pioneer families. The Knapp brothers had grown up in the logging camps of Northern Wisconsin, so they came with experience and strong backs to work the rivers and logging camps with the Elwell family.

The West family also has a long tradition as part of the history of Snohomish County. Howard West Sr. and his son, Howard West Jr., lived their lives in the Pacific Northwest between Oregon and Washington. Howard Sr. called Everett, Washington, his home since not long after World War I. He worked on the lighthouses and dams throughout Washington State for all of his adult life, serving in the Coast Guard and Lighthouse Service, after an early stint with the Marines.

“Snohomish County: An Illustrated History” is a valuable resource to help us understand all of the cultural, political, and societal issues going on during the times of our ancestors. I learned of the political battles that overthrew the town of Mukilteo, where I spent my teenage years, as center of Snohomish County to the town of Snohomish, which was later taken over by Everett, as an open port city and military base, and eventually the home of Boeing.

Snohomish County has a very diverse and mixed history, not all pretty, but not all terrible, and gives us a chance to see what it was like for our ancestors as they struggled to survive in a tough new wilderness.

The records and legal papers in all the cases which have been tried before the higher courts of Snohomish county from 1875 to the present time and thousands of other legal papers are carefully filed away in the vault of the county clerk. Thousands of interesting documents of all kinds, some yellowed with age, and in the quaintest handwriting imaginable; all the judgments and cases which have come before the superior court up to the present time, and also the district court, when Washington was a territory, are filed there.

There are 19,670 cases on file in the Snohomish county clerk’s vault, besides hundreds of miscellaneous documents…

…The first suit in Snohomish county was filed February 12,1876, with County Clerk H. A. Gregory, the case being a suit for damages for assault, George Plumb versus John Richards. The assault was said to have been committed December 13, 1875…

…The first case filed after Washington became a state, and the court became a county superior court instead of a district court was filed on November 19, 1889, four days after statehood had been granted to Washington.
Everett Daily Herald Article
Oldest Documents in Snohomish County Records
January 7, 1916

What I found delightful is that the oldest record on file is from May 14, 1867:

On May 14, 1867, a party of three young couples were married at the home of James Hayes, different members of the party acting as witnesses for each other. James Hayes was wedded to Caroline Lily; John Elwell became the husband of Sarah Smith, and Charles Harriman married Elizabeth Pero.

Well, what do you know. One of my ancestors by marriage was one of the first to create a paper trail in the future Snohomish County records.

The article also explains that the act to regulate marriages passed in 1866 in the territory of Washington, which meant that getting married had more paperwork and money involved. Marriages had to be registered and “licensed”, bringing government control over marriage and income to the county and state.

“In the summer of 1900, Captain Charles Wright sold the City of Bothell and then the Snohomish and Skagit River Navigation Company was formed by Captain Charles Wright, Captain Charles Elwell, and Captain Vic Pinkerton. It was then decided to build a boat for towing on the Snohomish and Skagit rivers.

“Captain Charles Elwell made the hull model and Bob Houston was given the job of building the Black Prince.” Dimensions of the Black Prince were: hull, 93 feet; over-all length, 112 feet; beam, 19 feet; depth of hold, 5 feet; tonnage measurement was 159 gross tons, according to the captain…

…The first crew on the Prince in 1901, was Captain Elwell; Captain (Engr.) Wright; engineer Mike Hertzberg; Captain Pinkerton; Forrest Elwell, deck hand, and Wes Harbert, fireman.

“In the late summer of 1901, she made a trip between Novelty and Tolt. In 1902, the Prince took a two from Haskell Slough (near Monroe) to the mouth of the Snohomish River.”

…”In 1922, Captain Harry Ramwell of the American Tugboat Company purchased the Black Prince. She was sold to the Everett Port Commission in the year of 1935 for one dollar. The Port Commission then turned her over to the Everett yacht Club.”
“Time marches on and we found that the Black Prince was too small, too old, and too expensive to repair. She was dismantled in the late fall of 1956 to make room for a larger clubhouse.”

“As a memorial to the sternwheeler days, the paddle wheel of the Black Prince sits on the lawn of the Port Commision Office on the Everett waterfront.”
Stump Ranch Online – Black Prince – reprinted from the Skagit Valley Herald, October 7, 1964

The Black Prince ran up and down the rivers of Snohomish county, providing transportation for local and immigrating families, and moving supplies and materials to the outlying Pacific Northwest in the foothills of the Northern and Central Cascade Mountains.

Two Elwells were directly involved in the history of the Black Prince. Charles Elwell (1865-1947) was part of the original team that helped to build and captain the paddle wheel boat. Forest Elwell (circa 1880-1970), brother of Charles, became captain of the Black Prince in 1907. Charles and Forest were the sons of John Elwell (1843-1895) and Susan (Guaquiath Kektidose (Guag-Wah-Ah)), an Indian from the Snohomish Tribe, and a descendant of the famous Chief Seattle.

Another departed old timer whose life work was as a tow boat operator on the Skagit and Snohomish rivers was Capt. Forrest Elwell, 90, who passed on at Everett.

He was more than a real pioneer; his grandmother was a sister of chief Seattle. He made his home in Mount Vernon many years where he skippered the river tugboat, Black Prince, well known to so many in delta areas and in Mount Vernon. Later he built the Ora Elwell. The boats took tows of logs from upriver to rafting areas on the lower Skagit, Skagit Bay and some on to Everett, and some of his boats also were in towing service on Snohomish river.

In his later years he was skipper on the Black Ball Ferries from which he retired in 1954. There he was captain on the ferry Quillayute on the Anacortes-San Juan run. In 1933 he was asked to serve for two terms as a member of the state planning commission as the Skagit authority on flood control, bank erosion and soil erosion.

The Everett Yacht Club took over the Black Prince as headquarters on its retirement and today a banquet room there is named for the old boat, with a model of it occupying a place of honor in the foyer.
John Conrad’s obituary notes: Colorful Lives 1970 Pioneer Picnic, part 1

For more information on the Elwell brothers and their adventures on the Snohomish rivers and Pacific Northwest, see:

• John Conrad’s obituary notes: Colorful Lives 1970 Pioneer Picnic, part 1
• Tug Black Prince bringing Logs down the Skagit River to Mt. Vernon – Tugboat Ora Elwell
• Stump Ranch Online – Black Prince – reprinted from the Skagit Valley Herald, October 7, 1964