Although Emily and Julia were twins and the first born of Peter and Ada Mackie, Emily was more first-born than Julia by a matter of minutes, thus making her the eldest child in the family. The story of her courtship and marriage to a man whose family hailed from Wales is as different from that of her twin sister, Julia, as is the temperament of the two twins.
While Julia was going off to college and then to teaching, Emily was content to stay home and help her mother with the house work and care of the younger children. She did all the washing, bread-making and churning which was quite a chore in a family that numbered a dozen members. This was a great help to her mother because Ada was a sort of spark-plug among the women in the community and among her other activities she was a member of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and took an active part in the fight against liquor.
Emily and her siblings used to enjoy going over to the edge of the bluff where the loggers brought their felled trees over skid roads and slid them over the bluff into the water below. There was a long cable involved in this operation and the loggers always had a man on guard to make sure the children weren’t injured by the cable. One of these men was Herbert S. Green and he became the hero of teen-age Emily’s dreams. He also played on the baseball team and Emily prowled the beach to watch him even when he was playing a game on Sunday—which was frowned upon in her family who believed that Sunday baseball games desecrated the Sabbath. The young Welshman was not unmindful of the pretty girl who always seemed to be present when he was performing. In 1913 they were married.
Although Herbert’s family had come from Wales, He was born after their arrival at Oregon City, Oregon in 1885. The family moved to Seattle in 1900 and shortly thereafter Herbert, in his teens, joined the throng of gold seekers in Alaska. He returned to Seattle in 1909 with a wealth of experience but not much tangible wealth to show for his adventure. Foot-loose and restless, he was casting about for something to do when two friends invited him to join them on South Whidbey Island where they were working for a logging company.
That is how it came about that a wedding occurred at Maxwelton in 1913. The daughter of the Scottish Mackies, who founded the community, and the son of the Greens who hailed from Wales, built a house on the Maxwelton road. In the course of time, they became the parents of four sons and one daughter. In 1985 one of their sons, Everett, is living in the house his parents built and he farms the original Green land. He worked for the South Whidbey School System for many years before retiring. Also, over the years, he served as parade marshal for the annual big Maxwelton Fourth of July parade and celebration. He is particularly proud of having involved the children of the entire South Whidbey community in these parades. In 1983, over 125 youngsters participated. Everett married Nita Fish and they had two daughters, Phyllis Mae and Becky, also a son, William H. Berry, Nita’s child by a previous marriage.
Emily and Herbert Green’s children have all remained in close contact with their South Whidbey roots over the years. Their son Darrell was a lumberman who operated a mill in what is now Whidbey City, for several years. In recent times he has been working at the Clinton Post Office. He has been active in community service over the years and served two terms as a member of the board of the South Whidbey school system. His wife was Erla Dalton and they have two children, Douglas and Ardis.
Lester Green left the family home when he became a young man and entered the Coast Guard. Following his stint in the service, he was employed for Safeco Insurance Company for 12 years. He married Ellen Jane Cleveland and they have a daughter, Susan. Lester is now retired and lives on South Whidbey. Verna the only “Green girl,” married Carl J. Colella and they divide their time between Seattle and South Whidbey. They have one son, Robert, who lives in California.
Clay Green, the eldest son of Emily and Herbert, followed in his father’s footsteps as a logger, working for the Waterman mill until his retirement in about 1980. Like his father, he was a baseball player of considerable talent, being at one time a member of a semi-professional team at Oak Harbor. His first wife was Neola Trumbull; their children are Ronald, Diane, and Ralph. There is a Mackie tradition that the family Bible descends to the eldest child of the eldest child in the family. Clay’s mother, Emily, was the eldest child of Peter and Ada Mackie. Clay is Emily’s oldest child so he is presently the possessor of the treasured Mackie heirloom.
Clay and his present wife, Selma Mattilla Green, live on Humphrey Road in Clinton in 1985 and are serving as co-program chairmen for South Whidbey Historical Society. Selma, who was born on South Whidbey in 1914, is the daughter of Wilhelm and Hilma Mattila.