by James Canby | Feb 18, 2022 | SW People & Families
It was a miserably cold day. John Olaf Erikson, his wife Sofia, and their children were huddled around the stove in their home in Strandquist, Minnesota, wondering whether they had really improved their lot in life by leaving their native Bjurholm, Sweden. Then the...
by James Canby | Feb 18, 2022 | SW People & Families
He set fire to the woods near Clinton when he was a boy. He chased communist bandits who were bent on bank robbery in China when he was a young man. While other kids ran and hid, he played with the Indian boys who camped with their families on Columbia Beach where...
by James Canby | Feb 17, 2022 | SW People & Families
It was just a simple little item in the May 11, 1900 personals column of the Island County Times, but the import of the news it carried had a profound effect on the tiny town of Clinton. The item read, “H. B. Campbell, late owner of the Clinton Hotel property,...
by James Canby | Feb 17, 2022 | SW People & Families
Young Tom Orr sat counting his money in the living room of the home of his relatives in Iowa. There was a lot of it. He had left his native Norway to seek his fortune in the United States, but never in his wildest dreams did he expect such a thing as an Alaska...
by James Canby | Feb 17, 2022 | SW People & Families
The year was 1911. It was a beautiful summer morning. Peter Anderson pulled his row-boat beside the Clinton dock, rested his oars on the prow, and observed the bustling little business community on the beach; then, he noted the hill¬side of the plateau on high ground...
by James Canby | Feb 17, 2022 | SW People & Families
Jacob Simmons decided to follow his brother- in-law Ole Peterson to South Whidbey Island in 1889 and settle on a farm a couple of miles from the Clinton business district, up Deer Lake Road. His only purpose was to make enough money log¬ging giant cedar trees to...
