Notable People

Joseph Primavera was born in Bologna, Italy and came to Seattle in 1899 where he owned and operated a saloon. Ten years prior, Victor’s mother, Martina had left Italy, to come to Seattle to work in her aunt’s boarding house. Joseph and Martina met, fell in love and married in 1904. In 1912, when Martina inherited 100 acres in Bayview, she …

Jonathan Salisbury had left Pennsylvania like most young men in the early 19th century, convinced that “Going West” for a young man meant a destiny filled with prosperity. They made it as far as Tacoma. It was, quite literally, a “two-liner” announcement in the Island County Times of May 11, 1900: “ H.B. Campbell, late owner of the Clinton Hotel …

Ester (Anderson) Moe came to Whidbey Island in 1906 as the one-year-old daughter of Bertine and Anders “Graveyard” Anderson, well known Langley pioneers. Bertine had emigrated from Norway, and Anders from Sweden. Her parents were living in Great Falls, Montana where Ester’s father worked at a mine smelter, when Ander’s aspiration of being a farmer farther west won out. They …

Very little is known regarding William Johnson other than he showed up at about the same time as two other pioneer white settlers, Raphael Brunns and 26-year-old Virginian Robert Bailey. William Johnson married a native woman, Gah-toh-litsa, born in 1860, and the two set up house at Double Bluff on tribal land that a Snohomish Chief had provided. They were …

Jacob Simmons was born in Illinois in 1863. At the age of 19, he married Halverina Skorpin, a young Norwegian girl with the same birth year as his own. After some years on a farm in Iowa, Jacob decided to join his brother-in-law, Ole Peterson, on south Whidbey Island. By now, Helverina and Jacob had a girl, Severine, and two …

Joseph Whidbey Explores And Meets a Friendly Chief As written by William Haroldson Introduction In the spring of 1792 two British sailing ships arrived off of the coast of Washington.  The Discovery was newly built 96-foot vessel and the Chatham was a sixty-five foot armed tender.  They had been at sea for over a year sailing easterly from England.  Under the command of …

Paul Cunningham, Sr. (1846-1930) was a most interesting man on many counts. According to former Langley Mayor Lloyd Furman (in an interview with Bob Waterman just prior to his death), Furman’s great-grandfather was “a wagon master, scout, sharpshooter and a stand-in for William (“Buffalo Bill”) Cody at fairs, even performing with Annie Oakley.” Cunningham was also a big game hunter …

Langley’s namesake, James Weston Langley, was born in Erie County, Pennsylvania, January 17, 1836. One of 12 children, he grew of on a farm and attended local common schools. At age 15, his family moved to Illinois where James taught for three years while he continued his own studies. In 1857, he began reading law under the instruction of Hon. …

Helen B. Coe (1858-1940), Langley’s First Woman Mayor article by Linda Beeman Helen Coe grew up in Minnesota where she taught kindergarten.  We don’t know why she relocated to Whidbey Island in her late 30s, but something inspired her to settle just west of Langley around 1896.  She purchased ten acres and a home off Saratoga Road adjacent to Elizabeth …

In 1937, Austin Marshall opened “Austin’s Store in Freeland. It was located along the highway and is more recently remembered as the Gay 90’s pizzeria. “Deke” was born in Langley in 1894 and died in Freeland in 1974. When asked why friends called him “Deke,” he responded with: “I used to be in the woods, and they called me the …