For about five years after his arrival at Mutiny Bay, Nathaniel Porter’s only white neighbors on the western shore were the Olivers, Johns and Johnsons. Bailey’s establishment on the south end of the island was almost unreachable by land over Indian trails through dense forests, as were the two or three settlements beginning to develop on the eastern shore of the island.
In 1865 a new neighbor, Andrew Deming, arrived from Vermont and settled on a tract of land just north of the Porters at Bush Point. Deming, who was thirty-seven years old at the time of his arrival on South Whidbey, spent the next ten years clearing his land and establishing a thriving farm. He specialized in hay which he baled with a homemade baler and then shipped to Port Townsend and Port Ludlow.
In 1875 he married a fifteen year old Indian girl named Catterina and, as the years passed, they became the parents of Jedediah, Lillian, Edna, Alice, Mary and Grace. Deming’s farm, and the house he built, which was put together with wooden dowels and hand-cut square nails, became a landmark and was known for many years as ”The Deming Place”. The house remained in use as a residence until about 1940 when it was demolished. The Deming property was taken over by the William Crawfords in the 1930s.