For our upcoming The Lives They Lived issue, we invite you to contribute a photograph that illustrates a story from the life of someone close to you who passed away this year. It could be a wedding snapshot, a travel brochure, a book cover, a blueprint of a dream house: any image that you think captures one moment from the life of the person you’re remembering.

The deadline is now as the issue comes out December 25, 2011. They are requesting high-resolution scanned originals or digital images representing the life of that person, along with a 200 word explanation and permission to publish.

Can you pick a single picture that represents an entire life? As I think back over the past of the family members we’ve lost, is there a single image that represents their life in total? That’s a tough question.

For my Aunt June DesRochers, the last picture of the whole DesRocher clan around her taken just before she died a few years ago represents her life to me. She had six kids and managed to raise them by herself after her husband died when the youngest was in diapers. It wasn’t easy, and maybe she didn’t do a perfect job, but the six kids turned out great and they all have children and grandchildren, an amazing family, one that June was actually pretty proud of even though she might not have said much about it.

I’m trying to find it, but the only image I have that comes immediately to mind of my grandmother, Nora Knapp Anderson, is one of her reading to me in bed. I think of it every time I think of her. I don’t remember her physically, so this single photograph represents my visual memory. I was only two or three years old and it was months before she died. As I look through all of the family history photographs I have of the Knapp family, Nora, the only girl among eight boys, is often seen with a brother hanging off of her, helping them read or reading to them, laughing, playing, or just hugging together. Images of the close knit family they were. According to family members, me, her first grandchild, brought back those happy and joyous family feelings and she dreaded missing a moment with me. To me, that photograph represents the sense of togetherness, family, and sharing that made up most of her childhood.

Tent built by Robert and Wayne Knapp circa 1924 along Peshtigo River, Taylor Rapids, Wisconsin. Burnt down by Earl Fugate in bully prank.

For my father, I wonder if I even have a photograph in my collection that would sum up his life. I have pictures that represent moments in his life when he played various roles, and the picture I used on the cover of his funeral card taken in the last few months of his life looking happier and healthier than anyone had seen him in 30 or 40 years, but does that truly represent his life or a moment in time?

Actually, when I stop and think about his father, Howard West, Sr., then I find the picture that completely represents both of their lives. It is of the two of them standing next to each other in their Coast Guard uniforms, standing apart from each other yet looking so much alike. Howard Senior has the same expression I ever remember on his face, stern, unsmiling, just there because someone told him to stand there and he wants to look like he had the idea in the first place. My father, Howard junior (“Bud”) so wanting to look proud but knowing he would never measure up to his father or the expectations of the world in general. While only serving about 18 months in the Coast Guard, almost all of it on land, my father spoke of the Coast Guard as if he was a lifer. It defined who he was, what he did, and he used it to create expectations with others. He wore a Coast Guard cap and told long stories of his “life” in the Coast Guard, but most of those were built upon little moments not a life time. He wanted the world to think of him as someone better than he was, but who he was was good enough, if you just looked past the made-up stories to the caring and simple humanitarian who wanted so much to be like his father, though his father seemed to barely notice.

I’d have to say that photograph of the two of them completely defines my father’s life.

As for my mother, I have many photographs but only one that comes immediately to mind when I think of a “defining” image. The picture is in a frame in a box right now, but I’ll use a similar one of my mother, Ramona Anderson West Boylan Fletcher, from 2006 until I can find the one I’m thinking of. The picture features her dressed up in a bright red pants suit made of nylon or some high-tech fabric, her blonde hair all punked up, a lightning strike painted on her cheek, safety pins in her ears, all dressed up for a fun day in downtown Seattle at the Bumbershoot Festival. We decided we’d dress up like punkers for the event just for fun. She’s swinging off a stop sign, laughing and full of life.

That’s my mother. To the world she is vivacious, energetic, and the first to jump off the bridge, out of an airplane, off a cliff in a hang glider, or tell someone exactly what she thinks of them so they actually thank her afterwards. She’s quick witted, terrible with a joke but great with a pun, and ready for anything. She’s led an incredibly full life and while she tells me she’s too tired to come for a visit or too old to travel, she’s off on another airplane to Cancun, Bahamas, Hawaii, New York, or wherever, sailing her boat, skiing down a mountain, hiking the foothills, dancing the night away.

These are pictures that don’t visually represent a life. They represent the story of the life lived not the life itself. Finding an image to contribute to The New York Times is harder than you think.

If your family member invented something or spent their life’s work on a specific project, then that would be an ideal image to contribute. For the rest of us, this is an excellent exercise in how we define the life of our family members.

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.

Such was the discovery of the mention of my West family members in the Diary of Hannah Pierce (1835-1873) from among the resources on the Lenawee, Michigan, genealogy and historical site.

8th Mo. 1843.
Had a visit from E. Spafford and G. Warner. Spent the day at Wm Hoags. Ira Smith and Elizabeth West were married today…

9th Mo. 1847 on the 12th
Mercy West has been buried to day, the work of death is still going on, its ravinges are deeply felt in many familys as well as our own. Seymor West lost his child about 3 weeks since and now his wife. How fleeting are the things of earth, how uncertain is life, but a few short weeks ago many who were them taking an active part on the stage of life, are now slumbering in Death’s long dreamless sleep.

Much of the diary documents the visits and meals shared with various people in the community outside of Adrian, Michigan, in the community of Raisin, Lenawee County. Weddings, christenings, illness and death is mentioned as a log of the community events.

Flu and other epidemics came through and were faithfully and painfully reported by Hannah Pierce. Disease took its tool on this poor farming community. It’s a lovely and simple look into the lives of the community and their families in the early 1800s.

The following West family members are mentioned, though not all are related to the same West family.

• West, Abram
• West, Abram and Anna
• West, Anna
• West, Elizabeth
• West, Jane
• West, Maria
• West, Mary Ann
• West, Mercy
• West, Seymor
• West, Seymore
• West, Susannah

If you have family in the Lenawee County of Michigan, they may have passed through and gotten a mention by Hannah Pierce. What a treasure this find was, and much thanks to her descendants and the volunteers from the Lenawee History Society for adding this to the web.

WILBUR WEST.

Foremost among the skilled artisans of Lenawee County is the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this sketch. His reputation as a master carpenter and joiner extends far beyond the limits of this township. He also possesses considerable ability as an architect, and being a good draughtsman, and enabled to make plans for any kind of structure that he may be called on to build.

Mr. West was born in Norwich, Oxford County, Ontario, Canada, Feb. 23, 1827, and is the youngest but one of his parents’ large family of children. His father, Benjamin West, was born in Dutchess County, N.Y., Nov. 14, 1782, and married, Aug. 14, 1806, Miss Polly Disbrow, a native of New York. After marriage Mr. West settled in his native county, following the occupation of a farmer, and in the year 1823, he removed with his growing family to Oxford County, Ontario, Canada.

After living under British rule twenty-one years he returned with his family to the United States, traveling by slow stages in an emigrant wagon, and at length arriving at Adrian on the 28th of May, 1844, and soon after settling on section 36 of Raisin Township.

The face of the country presented a very different appearance from what it does today, as a great deal of the land was unbroken, and large tracts of the primitive forest were still standing, though the country was by no means uninhabited.

Here, in the home that they had planted in the wilderness, the father and mother ended their days of toil, her death occurring Jan. 31, 1849, while the husband survived until Oct. 6, 1858.

In religion, Mrs. West was a Baptist and Mr. West was a Quaker, while in politics he was an old-line Whig, and a sturdy advocate of the policy of that party. They were much respected in the community. They had ll children, five of whom are yet living, four sons and one daughter, and are recorded as follows:

Mary married Niles Bowerman; Abraham married Amanda Westgate; Briggs married Polly Farling [Farlin], who died, and he was again married to Mrs. Hannah White; Hulet married Eliza Coffin; and Wilber; all reside in this township.

Our subject passed his boyhood in his native place, receiving the benefits of the educational advantages afforded by the town, and at seventeen years of age he came with his parents to Michigan. He assisted his father in clearing the land, and did other farm work until about 1850, when he and his brother Hulet bought 260 acres of unbroken land, which they farmed together with good results until the year 1870, and then divided it and discontinued the partnership which had continued so long to the advantage of both.

His farm contains ninety acres of well-improved land on section 36 of Raisin Township, and forty acres in Blissfield Township. Notwithstanding the demands of his other business, Mr. West has not neglected the cultivation of this farm, whereon he has erected neat, substantial farm buildings and a pleasant dwelling.

When he was twenty-six years of age, Mr. West made a new departure, turning his attention to carpentering, as at that time there was a great demand for carpenters and other artisans in the county. He possessed a natural aptitude for mechanics, and without serving an apprenticeship, he soon became quite expert in his new calling, becoming in time one of the most skilled mechanics in the county. His services were always in great demand, and he has built about every kind of structure made of timber.

From 1872 to 1878 he was in the employ of the Chicago and West Michigan Railroad Co. as bridge builder and constructor of stations, tanks, etc. He finally became a master carpenter, and often had several men in his employ. Many of the fine residences of this county were constructed under his supervision.

Mr. West was married, July 3, 1847, in Raisin Township, to Miss Comfort C., daughter of John S. and Deborah (Grecim) Wells, natives of New York. They came to Michigan in 1888 and located in Raisin Township, where Mr. Wells became actively engaged as a lumber merchant and farmer. They were influential members of the Baptist Church, and are now deceased.

The record of their children (John S. Wells and Deborah Grecim) is as follows: Content married Reuben Hall, and is a widow living in New York; James married Mary Ann Patton and lives in Adrian. Mrs. Wells was born in Warren County, N.Y., Jan. 1, 1830, and was educated under her parent’s supervision, receiving ??? which well fitted her for the duties of a wife and mother.

To Mr. and Mrs. Wilbur West have been born eight child, two of whom died in infancy. Those living are: Deborah, wife of Ileiny Fetterinan, residing in Blissfield; James A., who married Emily Tarbell, and lives in Fremont, Neb.; Angelia, the wife of E. R. Kamup, living in Palmyria Township on a farm; Ida, the wife of David Borinoir, a farmer of Raisin Township. and Adella, and Alonzo, who reside at home with their parents.

Mr. West has served two terms as Justice of Time Peace, one term as Highway Commissioner, and is now serving his second term as Drain Commissioner. In politics, he is a Republican, and a highly respected member of the farming community of Adrian Township, like many of his neighbors.

They also have a “Men of Portland” article.

Our ties to Portland, Oregon, in Multnomah County, are flimsy at best. We know that Grandfather Walter West was involved with Louella Brunner Pinder, though whether they married or not is still in question. His son, Howard, was born in Portland, or Michigan, Washington, or Canada, as no birth certificate was ever found during his lifetime and after. We do know, however, that Louella, known also as Lula and Lulu, lived the rest of her life in Portland after Howard’s birth, marrying at least one more time to Lewis S. Parrett, who survived her death in 1930.

Her son, Howard W. West, was abandoned as a child along with his baby sister, Carmen, and the two spent their childhood raised by the nuns at St. Agnes Baby Home in Portland.

Louelle B. Brunner Pinder West Parrett is one of our research brickwalls. We just can’t find out much information about her other than she appears on the Portland census for several decades and we recently succeeded in finding her death certificate listed under Lula Parrett. If you have any information about her, please let us know.

Howard W. West Jr., was also known as “Bud” or “Howie” to his friends and family. Born April 20, 1937, to Faye Vaughn West and Howard West Sr., he was raised along the Washington and Oregon coast and islands, living in various lighthouses where his father worked as a member of the Coast Guard and Lightships. He loved telling tales of his childhood, one rarely experienced today, of fishing in a small wooden leaking boat in the San Juan Islands as the sea erupted with flashes of the black and white of dozens of killer whales swimming by. Or of the harbor so filled with migrating gray whales, you could walk across their backs to the other side. He remembered playing along the Columbia River before it was dammed, and living in a wild, woolly, and natural world, a tumbled and rough kid barefoot and dirty.

Following his father’s footsteps, he joined the Coast Guard after graduating from Queen Anne High School and Edison Technical Vocational School in downtown Seattle in 1954. Back injuries led to a medical discharge, but he continued his affiliation and pride of being a member of the US Coast Guard his entire life.

Howard was a person who made friends easily and was a good life long friend to so many. He died with one of his best friends, John Ryan, and his family, while camping in Eastern Washington near Leavenworth. The “hunting” trip with Ryan was an annual event. The two no longer hunted but instead, the two long time friends and heart attack suffers would visit and retell stories. And Ryan would walk miles of laps around the campground while Howard would sit at the picnic table, smoking, waving as his friend passed by.

His death was expected, after over thirty years of heart problems and complications, even surviving a couple bouts with cancer. He had been in failing health for a very long time, but that didn’t stop him from doing as much as he could.

For Christmas of 2001, against doctor’s advice, he surprised his daughter, Lorelle, and husband, Brent VanFossen, with a month long visit to Israel where they lived for many years. He ignored US government and friend’s warnings not to visit during the violent Intifada and terrorist threats and got on the plane for the very long flight. His first time overseas, he quickly learned a few words in Hebrew and figured out the money, and had a great time visiting with our Israeli and international friends, shopkeepers, and anyone he met on the street. Even though he couldn’t walk far without resting, he carried a little portable stool and did his best to explore Israel, including the Holocaust Museum, the Old City of Jerusalem, swam in the Dead Sea and Galilee, and throughly enjoyed all of the country and it’s treasures.

Howard and his daughter, Lorelle, traveled a year ago across country in his small motor home so Howard could “winter” in the warmth of Mobile, Alabama, temporary residence of Brent and Lorelle. Along the way through the southern United States, they stopped in on family and friends for a visit, including a wonderful visit with his mother’s sister, Vivian, and her husband, Bill Hinsely in Desert Hot Springs, California.

While in Alabama, he explored the ruins of Mississippi and New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, seeing destruction beyond what he imagined and saw on television. He explored local museums and gardens, including getting a wheel chair push through the famous Bellingrath Gardens and their popular Christmas light show and exhibition. During his fourth month stay, he thoroughly enjoyed the Mardi Gras events, going to over a dozen parades and collecting up pounds and pounds of beads and stuffed animals which he distributed to friends and family back in Seattle.

Driving north back across the United States, Lorelle and Howard fulfilled life long dreams of exploring their family history and genealogy and were united with the descendants of the Farlin family, which married into the West family in the 1700s in Michigan. Together they explored old cemeteries, records, and museums to find traces of their family’s lineage, which goes back to the 1600s in the United States. He was proud to find out he was a Son of the American Revolution and that his ancestors fought in every war the United States and pre-state experienced.

A friend to all, few were closer to him in his last years than his Flapjack Restaurant family. A small historical breakfast and lunch restaurant in Marysville, Washington, every morning found Howie there for his meal of the day served by owner and friend, Christine. He was a shoulder to lean on and tell stories to, and his friends loved all his crazy stories and tall tales, especially his bad jokes. He was a master of the groaner joke. He his honored and remembered there with many photographs and a coffee mug bearing his photograph, dressed up like Arafat.

Howard worked for Todd’s Shipyard and other shipyards and dry docks since 1961, leaving Todd’s in 1989 to work for a few years at Boeing. He worked for a short time as a real estate agent in Snohomish County, and house builder, and built a large home in Lake Stevens for his family. While he held an Associates Degree from Everett Community College, he decided to go back to get another degree at age 57, graduating in 1995 with another Associated Arts and Sciences Degree and a Degree in Real Estate from North Seattle Community College.

Howard West is survived by his daughter, Lorelle (and husband Brent VanFossen); son Loren West and grandchildren, Aaron Raymond and Lindsey Rae West; step-children David Chamberlain and wife, Charlotte, Cheryl Lanum and husband, Robert, and Janet Gaswint and husband, John, along with numerous step-grandchildren. He also leaves his sister, Rita June DesRochers and her children, Darrell DesRochers, Bruce DesRochers, Lorinda Mills, Rochelle DesRochers, Duke DesRochers, and Mike DesRochers, along with many grand-nieces and nephews. All live within Washington and Oregon, close to their family roots.

He is also survived by his first wife, Ramona Fletcher of Everett, Washington, and her husband, Robert, who continued to care and support him long after their divorce as father of their children, Lorelle and Loren. He is also survived by the mother of his step-children, Charlene Kluge, and her husband.

Howard was well known for his passion for animals. He is also survived by his cat, Squirt, a tiny ball of fuzzy energy that was his unconditional loving friend for the last few years, traveling and sleeping together constantly. She rarely left him out of her sight.

Please, send no flowers or cards. Instead, remember him well with a donations to your local PAWS or animal shelter in his name so the care of rescued and wild animals will continue.

Howard will be interned at Evergreen Cemetery in Everett, Washington, side-by-side with his grandfather, Walter West, and his great grandfather, Perry Saville West.

For those attending his memorial service Wednesday, October 25, 2006, from 6-8PM at Solie Funeral Home, 3301 Colby Avenue, Everett, Washington, we ask that you bring a favorite story about Howard to share with his friends and family. Let’s keep alive his love of corny jokes and unique sense of humor.

Here are some highlights worth exploring if you are interested in the USS Arizona or had a relative serving on her:

• USS Arizona Historical Gallery
• USS Arizona Survivor Stories
• USS Arizona Crew Stories
• USS Arizona History
• USS Arizona Statistics

The first hunt for Nishimura on the web came up with a Shoji Nishimura (1889-1944), a Vice Admiral with the Japanese Navy. He died in the Battle of Leyte Gulf website guiding the Fuso and Yamashiro Battleships among other destroyers and cruisers.

Both Nishimura and Sannomiya are surnames and the names of towns, streets, buildings, and companies around Japan.

If you have any information on this Nishimura woman, it might help fill in some blanks about the life of my grandfather. Please leave a comment below to help us uncover our ancestors’ past.

The term “lenawee” or “lenawai” (Shawnee) cames from the Native American word meaning “man” from the Delaware “leno or lenno”. Lenawee County’s first white settlers were thirty New Yorkers who founded Tecumseh on the River Raisin in May 1824. The Farlin family arrived in the 1820-30s and the West family arrived in the 1840-50s. A railroad between Toledo and Adrian was finished in 1836, opening up the area’s farm land and population to the rest of the world, becoming a leader in agriculture in Michigan. It continues to be agricultural land today, though times for farmers are tough.

Much of the area remains as it was in the middle to late 1800s, with a few spots where farm land has been converted into subdivisions of homes. It remains far outside of metropolitan and populated areas, so growth and change is slow.

I was surprised to find dirt roads leading to my the homesteads of our ancestors, Farlin and West, still there in wide open fields surrounding old farm houses. At times I could tell when the original farm house and barns remained or where replaced by newer buildings, other times, I couldn’t tell if they’d restored the original farm house or not. I wish I’d had time to knock on doors to find out if anyone still remains and knows of any history from that time. I’ll have to plan that for my next visit.

As you drive around Lenawee County, you will see occasional signs marking the homestead as being continuously owned by the same family for over 100 years, paying tribute to the areas history.

The Lenawee County Family Researchers Genealogy Society provides local help and research as well as many events and activities around Lenawee County for historians, genealogists, and residents.

Here are some other helpful online resources I’ve found to help with my family history research in the area.

• Lenawee County Cemetery Information
• American Local History Network – Lenawee County, Michigan
• Lenawee Historical Society Museum
• Michigan Tombstone Transcription and Photography Project
• US National Register of Historic Places – Michigan Lenawee County
• Lenawee County Family Researchers Genealogy Society
• Rootsweb – Lenawee County, Michigan, Links to Area Resources and History
• Linkpendium – Genealogy Resources for Lenawee County, Michigan
• Memoirs of Lenawee County Michigan Vol. 1 and 2 – Online Book by Ancestry.com – Paid Access Only
• Michigan County Histories – Books, Maps, and Resources for Lenawee County
• Lenawee County, Michigan, Gedcom Family Files for Downloading
• Podunk – Cemeteries List for Lenawee County, Michigan
• Rootsweb MIGenWeb Archives for Lenawee County Michigan Cemetery Records and Photos
• Historical Society of Lenawee County
• Index to Lenawee County Naturalization Files
• Requests to the Archives of Michigan – Vital, Naturalization, and Other Document Research and Requests
• The McLain Cemetery, Raisin Township, Lenawee County Michigan
• Lenawee, Michigan, MIGenWeb
• Lenawee MIGenWeb Cemetery by Township List
• Lenawee MIGenWeb Cemetery by Alphabetical List
• Michigan USGenWeb Tombstone Project
• Lenawee County Family Researchers
• Library of Michigan Online Search through Michigan Cemeteries
• Lenawee County Vital Records
• Lenawee County Offices
• Lenawee County MIGenWebLenawee County Library
• 1895 Atlas for Lenawee County
• Lenawee County Platt Maps

In an ongoing project to cover the 80-year history of the Marine Corps Recruit Depot, San Diego, the Chevron will be covering a decade in the history of the Depot in weekly installments. The archivist at the Command Museum has verified all facts.

In 1915 Col. Joseph H. Pendleton envisioned a Marine Corps Base in San Diego and approached Congressman William Kettner with the idea. Kettner had his own visions as well and decided on an area known as Dutch Flats, which was a low-lying tidal marsh that was covered with water at high tide.

Pendleton’s continued lobbying and regular speaking appearances at luncheons held throughout the city enlightened San Diegans to the idea of building a Marine advance base in San Diego. After a visit from Maj. Gen. George Barnett, the twelfth Commandant of the Marine Corps, Pendleton persuaded Barnett to write in his report to Congress on 26 August, 1915, that “Climatic conditions in San Diego are particularly suitable for an advance base or expeditionary regiment or brigade to work outdoors the year round.” “San Diego, being the southern most harbor in the United States of the Pacific Coast, is particularly well suited for such a post.”

In the fall of 1915, San Diegans voted, 40,288 to 305, to transfer 500 acres of tidelands to the Navy. On 5 January 1916, Kettner authored a bill to provide $250,000 for the purchase of 232 acres of land as a site for a U.S. Marine Corps Post in San Diego, Calif.

The series takes you step-by-step through the process of government cooperation and negotiation to make the base happen in a time of World War I, then through its construction and growth as major influential base into World War II.

Grandfather Howard W. West Sr. was stationed in San Diego in the 1920s and the series includes information describing what his day-to-day life might have been.

By Aug. 15, [1923] there were five platoons of 65 men each in training. Recruits were called “applicants” during the first two days. They watched training procedures and, after that, they could join if they still wanted to. Training lasted eight to 10 weeks and included daily parades at 4 p.m. on the sand covered parade deck.

Reveille was at 5 a.m., followed by physical training, area cleanup, and breakfast. After morning colors, the days were filled with close order drill and extended order drill, with a break for the noon meal.

The rifle range at that time was in La Jolla, now the site of University of California at San Diego. The recruits would hike to the range for the week long session.

Qualifying brought monetary rewards with an expert receiving an extra five dollars a month, a sharpshooter three dollars and a marksman two dollars. Messmen were paid five extra dollars for their services.

Howard W. West’s photograph album of his Marine service includes photographs of China and Asian ports, so it was exciting to discover references to China in the article.

During the fall of 1924, the Commandant issued an alert for the Marines at San Diego to prepare for expeditionary service in China. The base expanded as several new areas were developed for training in bayonet, entrenchment practice and weapons drill.

The buildup for China resulted in a flurry of construction activity in 1925. That same year President Franklin D. Roosevelt declared a limited national emergency following the outbreak of war in Europe and the base remained almost unchanged physically from 1925 until 1939.

Exploring the history of a place helps fill in the blanks of an ancestor’s life, so if you had an ancestor in the Marines during this time period, check out this series.