by James Canby | Feb 15, 2022 | SW People & Families
Edward Oliver and Thomas John Johns had scarcely established themselves on the Deer Lagoon side of Double Bluff when they acquired a new neighbor, Nathaniel Porter. In 1859, Porter took over the financially distressed property which had been homesteaded by Raphael...
by James Canby | Feb 15, 2022 | SW People & Families
Edward Oliver found that the job of logging Deer Lagoon was too big for one man so he started looking for a suitable partner soon after he arrived on South Whidbey. On a trip to Port Ludlow he found just the man he was looking for, Thomas John Johns, an adventurous...
by James Canby | Feb 15, 2022 | SW People & Families
While Bailey was establishing a home, a business and a family on the southern tip of Whidbey and Raphael Brunns was filing his claim on Mutiny Bay, another white settler, William T. Johnson, settled on Double Bluff. Few written records concerning him have been...
by James Canby | Feb 15, 2022 | SW People & Families
Into the unexplored, untamed wilderness of dense forest, wild animals, tangled underbrush and Indians that was South Whidbey in 1850 there came a twenty-six year old Virginian, Robert Bailey, a trader intent on doing business with the Indians. His destination was the...
by James Canby | Feb 14, 2022 | SW People & Families
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...
