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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
600 of 700 total Free Home Page Stories & Photos
(Also see our Subscribers Magazine Sample)
The most in-depth, comprehensive site about the Skagit
Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness
Noel V. Bourasaw, editor (bullet) 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp (bullet) Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
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Biographies and obituaries of Skagit county
Pioneers and their descendants: S

Continually updated, last time: May 17, 2011
      You will find the type of story in brackets ( ) behind the file link. (Bio) indicates a Journal story link. (Obit) leads to an obituary on this page. If you have suggestions for people you want to read about, please email us and we will add them to the list. Meanwhile, just click on the link and it will take you to the obit for each person, along with our notes, if we have more information, or a link to another page that will tell you more about him or her. Please note that if a woman was the descendant of a pioneer family, her link will be listed under the first letter of both her maiden name and her married name at the time of her death. And please email us if you have family memories or copies of documents or photos you would like us to include. We never ask for your originals.
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Ira Savage, Birdsview
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, Feb. 24, 1966
      Ira Savage, 92, resident of Birdsview since 1880, died Feb. 15, at the Mira Vista Nursing Home in Mount Vernon following a long illness. Mr. Savage, a retired logger, was born May 28, 1873, at Sioux City, Iowa.
      Survivors include a son, Tom Savage of Shelton; two daughters, Mrs. Florence Hathaway of Route 1, Concrete, and Mrs. Irene Scharff of Edmonds; three sisters, Mrs. Ollie Brown and Mrs. Rose Brobak of Anacortes, and Mrs. Catherine Pulsipher of Sedro-Woolley; one brother, John Savage of Seattle and four grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren. His wife, Mary, passed away in 1957.
      Funeral services were held Saturday afternoon at 2 o'clock at the Lemley Chapel with Rev. Sam Adams of the Mount Baker Presbyterian Church in Concrete officiating. Casket bearers were Kenneth Balzar, Sam Jones, Vern Daves, Emil Balzar, Dick Campbell and Tom Royal. Honorary bearers were Felix Talley, Howard Johnson and Carl Nelson. Interment followed in the Sedro-Woolley Union Cemetery.
John W. Savage, Birdsview and Seattle
Seattle Times, undated but probably November 1971
      Funeral services for John (Wesley) Savage, 84, of 1911 NW Sloop place, a World War 1 veteran and painter, will be tomorrow at Wiggen & Sons. Burial will be in Acacia. He died Monday. (Family records show that John was born on Sept. 25, 1887 in Birdsview, Washington, the second youngest child of 11, to George and Georgetta Savage.)
      A native of Birdsview, Skagit county, Mr. Savage painted logging activities on the Skagit river as he remembered them from (family stories of) the 1870s. The paintings were published in the Times "Charmed Land" magazine. The Washington state Historical Society purchased the originals. Mr. Savage was a house painter as a youth when he lived in Hamilton on the Skagit river. He later began sign painting. He painted an eight-story-high sign on the upper portion of the Roosevelt Hotel.
      Mr. Savage and C.E. Stevens painted signs painted signs in this state, (along wit) Idaho, North Dakota and Montana. In one year they painted 1,800 Fisher's Flour signs (a really large number?). Mr. Savage retired from sign painting in 1937. Mr. Savage worked for the Navy in Bremerton until 1941 when he retired again.
      He was a member of the Military Order of the Purple Heart, the disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of World War I, the Veterans of Foreign Wars and 81st Infantry Division. He was a charter member of the Salmon Bay Aerie No. 2141, Eagles, and an honorary member of the Washington State Historical Society.
      Surviving are two sons, Theodore, Seattle, and Dr. Bob Savage, Langley, Whidbey Island, and two sisters, Mrs. Rose Brobock, Anacortes, and Mrs. Catherine Pulsipher, Birdsview.
      Ed. note: We have three pet peeves about obituaries and the editors of newspapers where they appear. Two occur here. One is when the date of death, with year, is not given. People have a habit of clipping obits without including the folio date of the newspaper page, so a clipping like this leaves much information out that is necessary for genealogists. This error on the part of editors was not largely corrected until the 1990s and is still prevalent in some weekly newspapers. Second is the inexplicable absence of Mr. Savage's birth year, place and names of his parents. Third, though not applicable to this article, is the habit by editors through the 1950s and '60s to call the deceased, "Mrs. John Smith." Since women were rarely mentioned by their given names in news stories, especially in the early days of the frontier, it is especially disheartening that their given names were not important enough to mention in their obituaries. That is especially disappointing to genealogists, in addition to the lack of a maiden name and parents' names in the story. We welcome copies of obituaries to post in the section and if you supply them, please include the genealogy information if it is not included in the article, along with the date and newspaper name. Thanks in advance for your help.
Leslie Savage, Birdsview
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, April 4, 1957
      Funeral services for Leslie George Savage, a pioneer resident of Birdsview, were held at the Lemley Mortuary on April 1. Mr. Savage passed away at Mermorial Hospital March 29. He was born Oct. 14, 1866, in Woodbury county, Iowa, and came to Washington in 1877 (actually 1873). He moved up the Skagit river to Birdsview in 1879 and has lived here ever since.
      (Leslie) married Katherine Gibbins on May 10, 1891, in Mount Vernon. He is survived by three sons, George and Warren of Sedro-Woolley and William of San Francisco; two brothers, Ira of Birdsview and John of Seattle; three sisters, Ollie of Seattle, Rose of Anacortes and Katherine of Birdsview; ten grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. Rev. Pat Bridgman of Lyman officiated at the services. Interment was at the Sedro-Woolley cemetery.
By Mrs. Harvey Morgan, Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, April 4, 1957
      The oldest one of our pioneers passed away last week. Leslie Savage, who came to Birdsview with his parents in 1879, passed away at the Memorial Hospital after a short illness. Mr. savage had lived on the south side of the river until his last illness, living alone in his home there for many years since his wife passed away.
      Only in the past two years had he become so feeble that he had not been the first one to vote at the polls on any election day. In fact the past November is probably the first time he missed voting since the first time he was able to vote, which was in 1900. He was 90 at the time of his death.
      Ed. note: Charles Savage, Leslie Savage's grandson, has been corresponding with us. He was born in 1924 in Birdsview to George and Selma Savage and he has three brothers, Arthur, Philip and Joseph. Leslie was the oldest of 11 children of George and Georgetta Savage and was born on Oct. 14, 1866, near Sioux City, Iowa, and the Nebraska border, according to family records. His parents moved with their four children sometime shortly after Leslie's younger brother, Ira, was born back in Iowa in 1873. George came to Birdsview sometime in 1878 to work at Birdsey Minkler's water-powered sawmill on the south side of the Skagit across from Birdsview and apparently moved his family upriver the next year.
Grant Sisson, Fir island
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, June 14, 1956
      A well known farmer and former state representative died yesterday in a Mount Vernon Hospital. Grant C. Sisson, 71, died following a brief illness. He was the son of Mr. and Mrs. E.A. Sisson, pioneer Skagit residents.
      He farmed in the Padilla area from 1909 until he retired in 1945. He was a charter member of the Elks Lodge in Mount Vernon and was a past exalted ruler and past district deputy. For 45 years he was a member of the Modern Woodmen. He was also active for 30 years in the Good Roads Association.
      As a Republican, Mr. Sisson served in 11 sessions of the state legislature. He was Skagit County representative to two national conventions.
      Mr. Sisson is survived by his wife, Tilda Jorgenson Sisson. They were married in 1909. Other survivors include his sisters, Mrs. Pearl Wilson, Edison, and Mrs. Nettie Wright, Anacortes; a daughter, Mrs. Wayne Buffon, Bremerton; and a son, Darrell E. Sisson, Spokane. Services will be held on June 16 at Hulbush Chapel, Burlington.
      Ed. note: Historian John Conrad wrote that E.A. Sisson arrived in Skagit county in 1872 from Pennsylvania. He, and his cousins A.G. Tillinghast and R.E. Whitney took up adjoining claims on the saltwater flats east of Padilla Bay in present Whitney and completed the first large scale diking project on Puget sound. In 1876, E.A. Sisson married Miss Ida Leamer, 19. Also a descendant of pioneer parents, she taught at Pleasant Ridge school at age 15 and later became the first teacher in the LaConner school. Grant Sisson operated the family farm from 1909 until his death in 1956.
James H. Smith, Hamilton
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, Feb. 22, 1940
      James H. Smith, pioneer resident of Hamilton, died at his home there on Feb. 20 after a long illness at the age of 79. Funeral services were held in St. Mary's Catholic church this morning with the Rev. Father M. Murtagh in charge.
      Mr. Smith, born in Ontario, Canada, in 1860. He came to Skagit county in 1890, establishing his home at Hamilton, where he operated a drug store for many years and was also associated with the Hamilton Farm and Timber Co. He was very well known through the county, and highly esteemed.
      Mr. Smith is survived by four daughters, Miss Mary Jane "Jennie" Smith, Mrs. Emma (Leland) Clark, Miss Frances Smith of Hamilton and Miss Gertrude Smith, and a son, James Dewey Smith.
      Ed. note: This is another obituary that inexplicably left out a lot of important information about a key pioneer. Mr. Smith married Mary Ann Molseed from California at an unknown date. She died on Sept. 8, 1937. They also had a daughter named Mabel who was born in 1902 and died in 1905.
      Jennie was the first child, born in 1894, and according to Carol Bates's Hamilton book, she never married because of a promise to her mother on her death bed. She played an important role in one of Hamilton's most important institutions. Back in 1914 the Hamilton state bank was incorporated with stockholders that included James H. Smith, Fred and John Slipper, F.E. Wyman and Ike Morrell. After an embezzlement at the bank in 1924, James H. Smith was elected president and Jennie was hired as cashier. His will decreed that his daughter should succeed him as president and cashier and continue to operate the bank as long as she felt able, and then liquidate the bank, return deposits and not sell it. Two years after he died, Jennie did so and all depositors were paid in full on Dec. 31, 1942. Then on April 27, 1944, someone who did know how to case banks well, broke into the bank in a daring robbery. Daring, certainly, but the bank had closed its doors 16 months before. The bank has survived all these years, including the great fire of 1925, and most recently was a flower shop.
Daisy E. (maiden Hamilton) Staveness, Burlington
Unknown newspaper, November 1996
      Daisy E. (maiden Hamilton) Staveness, 88, of Burlington died Nov. 6, 1996, at home following a brief illness. She was the granddaughter of William Hamilton, the founder of the town of Hamilton. She was born April 19, 1908, in Day Creek, daughter of Motz and Maude (Cannon) Hamilton. She attended school in Sedro-Woolley and Hamilton. Her marriage to John H. Staveness took place in 1951 in California where they made their home. He died in 1959. She had been employed as a department store manager until her retirement in 1975. She then moved to Rio, Wisconsin. Her hobbies included bowling, playing cards and reading.
      She is survived by her daughter, Mary Jane Staveness of Burlington; one niece, Pay Noyes of Burlington; four grandchildren, Roxanne Staveness of Waukesha, Wisc., Marline and Brenda Staveness of Del Rio, Texas, Kristina and Scott Alexander of Baraboo, Wisc., and Robert and Joyce Staveness of Sun Prairie, Wisc., eight great-grandchildren; one great-great-grandson, and several nieces and nephews. Funeral services were held and interment followed in the Hamilton cemetery under the arrangements of Hulbush Funeral Home.
Nellie (Brown) Stefan, Sedro-Woolley
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, March 28, 1946
      Mrs. Nellie Stefan, sister of Mrs. Arthur Cochrum and Charles Brown of this city, passed away suddenly on March 20 at the Columbus hospital in Seattle after a week's illness. Mrs. Stefan, who had been a resident of Seattle for many years, was born Jan. 22, 1893, in Sedro-Woolley.
      Funeral services were held in Seattle on March 24. Besides her brother and sister of this city she is survived by another sister, Mrs. Nettie Gerdon of Richmond, California; another brother, Frank Brown of LaGrande, Washington; her husband, Fred Stefan of Seattle, and four daughters, Mrs. Maxine Ammerman, Mrs. Dorothy Peterson, Mrs. Virginia Miller and Mrs. Bernice Lemen, and a son, Arthur Stefan.
John Frederick Stendal, Sedro-Woolley
Skagit Valley Herald, Jan. 2, 2008
(John old)(John young)
Courtesy of the Skagit Valley Herald
      Beloved father, grandfather, great-grandfather, brother, uncle, and friend to all, John Frederick Stendal, 89, of Sedro-Woolley passed away Friday, December 28, 2007 at the Clayton House, an Adult Care Home in Sedro-Woolley.
      John was born June 1, 1918 at his grandparent's home in Sedro-Woolley where he attended schools and graduated from Sedro-Woolley High School with the class of 1937. He married Dolores Nelson of Clear Lake in 1942, and was married until her passing in 1997. John worked at Skagit Steel for over 45 years and retired as "lead man" of the machine shop.
      He was a member of the Masonic Lodge, Elks, Swinomish Yacht Club, and Trinity United Presbyterian Church. John had a creative mind, and he was known for his interesting stories and quite a sense of humor. His love of life was apparent even to the very end. He enjoyed boating in the San Juan Islands, spending time with family and friends at his cabin on Cain Lake, fishing and hunting with his good buddies, traveling to many destinations with his wife, music, cooking, and being at gatherings which always brought a smile to his face. Many mornings, he would be found preparing his famous pancakes while singing old tunes.
      John is survived by his three children, Gary Stendal and his wife Vicki of Pomeroy, Bliss Stephens and John Stendal both of Sedro-Woolley. He was blessed with six grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; Sara Puls and her husband Nick and their children Axel and Mesa, Erin Rick and her husband Kyle and their children Sam and Tiley, Shannon Moore and her husband Jack and their daughter Esabella, Travis Stendal, Nick Potts, Lindsay Potts and her husband Anthony. His sister-in-law, Bernice Stendal, his brother Bill Stendal and his wife Eloise, his special friend, Katherine Jensen, and numerous nieces and nephews.
      He was preceded in death by his parents P.A. "Puss" Stendal and Mildred Stendal, his step-mother Martha Stendal and his brother, Ralph Stendal. He will truly be missed by his family and friends, but his stories and memories will remain in our hearts forever.
      A Memorial Service to celebrate John's life will be held at 11:00AM on Saturday, January 5, 2008 at the Lemley Chapel in Sedro-Woolley with Pastor Wendy Tingley of Trinity United Presbyterian Church officiating. Memorials are suggested to Trinity United Presbyterian Church or a charity of your choice. Please sign the online guestbook for John at www.lemley chapel.com
      (Journal ed. note: I want to add a special note here. First, John was a dear friend who provided so much crucial information for this website that only he still remembered. And his dear wife, Delores, was also my special friend from the time I was six years old on. Some of you will remember that she was at the desk daily at the old Carnegie Library for many years. I spent countless days curled up in an alcove there or prone on the floor in front of the fireplace, reading books she suggested to me. When I was a wee tyke, I thought she was a magician because I would ask about a subject or a book and then the next time I walked in out of the rain, there it would be under the counter, waiting for me. They both contributed so much to the community. Finally, John died within a month of two of his cousins, Pat Hegg Brown and Fred Hegg. His middle name, Frederick, came from his maternal grandfather, pioneer grocer F.A. Hegg, the father of John's father's first wife, Mildred Hegg Stendal.
Percy "Puss" Stendal, Van Horn and Sedro-Woolley
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, Jan. 8, 1992
      Percy A. "Puss" Stendal, a longtime Skagit county resident and former mayor of Sedro-Woolley, died Jan. 6, 1992, in Sedro-Woolley. He was 97. He was born Sept. 12, 1894, at Eau Clair, Wis., the son of John and Mary Stendal. He moved to Washington with his parents in 1903. Later the lived in Van Horn, Birdsview and Lyman before settling in Sedro-Woolley where Mr. Stendal graduated from high school in 1915. He attended a teacher's college in Detroit and later taught school and coached sports in Blaine.
      In 1918 he enlisted in the U.S. Army. Following his discharge, he returned to Blaine where he taught and coached for another year. In 1917 he married Mildred Hegg in Mount Vernon. The couple moved to Sedro-Woolley in the early 1920s where Mr. Stendal was employed by Union Mercantile Co. During World War II, he worked at the Anacortes Shipyard. Later he was co-owner of White Fuel and Transfer in Sedro-Woolley until his retirement in the early 1960s.
      His first wife, Mildred, died in 1962. In 1966 he married Martha Buchanan of Clear Lake and they had resided there since (Martha celebrated her 99th birthday in the summer of 2003).
      Mr. Stendal served as a Sedro-Woolley city councilman for many years, then served as mayor for 13 years. An active member of the community, Stendal was a charter member and the first president of the Sedro-Woolley Lions Club, a charter member and past commander of the American Legion (George Baldridge Post 43), a past master and 70-year member of the Masonic Lodge, past patron of the Order of the Eastern Star, past royal patron of Amaranth, past president of the Skagit County Shrine Club, a member of the Eagles and Elks clubs, an honorary member of the Rotary Club and an 18-year volunteer firefighter.
      In addition, he was the first recipient of the Liberty Bell Award from the Skagit County Bar Association. He was on the first Skagit County Selective Service board, serving under every U.S. president from Franklin Roosevelt to Gerald Ford, when the draft board was disbanded. He was also a member and past president of the Skagit County Pioneer Association and was Sedro-Woolley's first Boy Scoutmaster.
      Surviving are his wife, Martha, at the family home in Clear Lake; two sons and daughters-in-law, John and Dolores Stendal and Bill and Eloise Stendal, all of Sedro-Woolley; a daughter-in-law, Bernice Stendal of Sedro-Woolley; a stepdaughter, Kathryn Tewalt of Clear Lake; a stepson and his wife, Ellis and Ruby Buchanan of Clear Lake; a sister, Lona Stendal Bishop of Montecito, Calif.; two sisters-in-law, Gretchen Stendal of Laguna Hills, Calif., and Henrietta Stendal Stendal of Salem, Or.; grandchildren Gary and John Stendal, Bliss Potts, Erik and Chris Stendal, Stacy Sullivan, Mark Stendal, Mary Edwards, Fred and Charles Tewalt, Carolyn Dreyer, Randy Buchanan, Debbie Waite, Linda Latimer, March Buchanan, Martha and Melody Buchanan; numerous great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren.
      He was preceded in death by a son, Ralph Stendal, four brothers and one sister. Memorials are suggested to the P.A. Stendal Scholarship fund, Sedro-Woolley United Lodge No. 93, F&AM (Masons). Funeral arrangements are under the direction of Lemley Chapel, Sedro-Woolley.
Excerpts from Skagit Valley Herald, undated, by Elena Bianco
      A part of Sedro-Woolley's history is gone following the death of former mayor Percy "Puss" Stendal yesterday at a Sedro-Woolley convalescent home. He died of complications following a stroke he suffered about three weeks ago, according to his son, Mayor Bill Stendal.
      "We all happened to be at the hospital at the same time," Bill said. "He was conscious and communicating" with family members before his death. Stendal, 97, played an active role in virtually every part of Sedro-Woolley's past, from working as a cook in logging camps as a teenager to seeing his son follow in his footsteps as mayor, taking office just a week ago.
      "He was a part of Washington history," Bill Stendal said. "He had 97 good years."
      Puss, as he was known to nearly everyone in this town, was mayor of Sedro-Woolley from (1944 to 1958 and was the city's first paid mayor). He lived with his wife, Martha, at Clear Lake (after they married in 1966). His first wife was the former Mildred Hegg. . . .
      Stendal became something of a town historian, said longtime friend Pinky Robinson, owner of Oliver Hammer Clothes Shop in Sedro-Woolley. Stendal could point out where all the town's old buildings were once located, he said. . . . Robinson first met Stendal in 1920, when Stendal was working in Black's Clothing Store in Sedro-Woolley. "He sold me a sweater," Robinson said. "He was quite a character around town. "He's worn a lot of different hats in his lifetime. Back when the town was growing up in the early 1900s, he grew up with it, too."
      Ed. note: Puss became a great friend of my father, Victor A. Bourasaw, when they were members of the American Legion. When Dad took over the reins of Loggerodeo, Puss recounted the history of the carnival, which Puss helped inaugurate on Metcalf street in the 1920s with a committee from the Legion. He spent many evenings at our kitchen table telling us stories of the old town and I wish I had taken more notes. A March 17, 1921, Courier-Times article tells of how the John Stendal family moved their home on log rollers, pulled by horses, from the old Lyman Highway to Central street, just two lots down from my house. John Stendal still remembers that his mother had a small store next door at the corner of State street.
      Puss recalled for us how Ballard was the shingle capital of the world when he was a boy there and he told us about a trip he made as a young boy by train from to Van Horn, where his father was cooking for a logging camp near Jackman creek, and how he was both amused and scared by a black bear that was chained in a cage on the train. His stories were crammed with details and he gesticulated as he talked, telling us about the fishing holes he discovered as a boy, especially on Jackman, which he said was the best fly-fishing creek he found.
      He raised three fine boys. Ralph Stendal was another Legion pal of my dad's and he also had an eye for history, restoring the old Hegg home on Warner street and running Millie Disbrow's old Coffee Cup restaurant in Dr. C.C. Harbaugh's former home and office on Woodworth, where the Chevrolet dealership now stands. Bill Stendal was a very special teacher in the Sedro-Woolley school district and is still a volunteer at many city events. John Stendal was a longtime Skagit Steel veteran and still has a amazing recall of local history. John's wife, Dolores, was my favorite librarian of all time; she used to select books for me at old Carnegie library, urging me to read and finish James Michener's Hawaii when I was 12.
Ira J. Stiles, Sedro-Woolley
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, March 5, 1942
      Ira J. Stiles, former Sedro-Woolley postmaster and first master of the local Masonic lodge, died on Monday, March 2, at the age of 85 years at the Masonic home in Zenith. Funeral services were held in Kent on Saturday afternoon under Masonic auspices.
      Mr. Stiles was born at Elo, Wisconsin, in 1857, and in 1881 was married to Marie Pullick. He moved to Sedro-Woolley when the railroads were building into the city (1889-90) and subsequently was agent for some time, later being appointed postmaster. When the Masonic lodge was instituted here in 1893, Mr. Stiles was installed as its first worshipful master and re-elected the following year. He was very well liked by all with whom he came in contact, and his neat appearance and cheerful disposition were noted by friends visiting the home. Surviving Mr. Stiles are his wife and five of their seven children and several grandchildren.
Mary Elizabeth (maiden Wulff) Stiles, Utopia and Sedro-Woolley
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, Aug. 27, 2003
      Mary Elizabeth Stiles passed away Friday, Aug. 15, 2003, at the Merry Haven Health Care Center in Snohomish at the age of 89 years. She was born July 26, 1914, in (the Utopia district near Lyman), the daughter of Christian H. and Nora Snyder Wulff.
      Mary grew up in Sedro-Woolley, attending school, and later was married to Louie Stiles on Oct. 14, 1933, in Sedro-Woolley. She worked with her husband in logging for many years and later operated the following restaurants: Bob's Cafe, the Dairy Bar and the Chuck Wagon in Mount Vernon. (Louie also owned the old Wixson Club Tavern with Tuffy Pearson during that time).
      In 1970 she and her husband returned to Montana where they operated a restaurant in Townsend, Montana, and later returned to the logging industry until 1995 when they returned to Sedro-Woolley.
      Mary was a member of the V.F.W. and the Rebekahs Lodge. During WWII, Mary worked for the Civil Air Patrol as a plane spotter from the roof of City Hall and when the war ended she was working on Haystack Mountain as a whistle punk and could hear the sirens going off announcing the end of WWII.
      She is survived by a daughter and son-in-law, Noretta and Bob Pedersen of Wichita, Kansas; a son and daughter-in-law, Louis and Peggy Stiles of Clancy, Montana; five grandchildren, Melanie Pedersen of Wichita, Kansas, Terra Johnson of Superior, Montana, Bill Pederen of Brier, Washington, Douglas Stiles of Liberty Lake, Washington, and Eric Stiles of Everett; eight great-grandchildren; a sister, Betty Bates of Mount Vernon; and a brother, Bill Wulff, of Spokane.
Leonard B. Swafford, Sedro-Woolley and Seattle
Probably Skagit Valley Herald,, Sept. 27, 1951
      Leonard B. Swafford, former Sedro-Woolley resident, passed away at his home in South Seattle on Thursday, Sept. 20, at the age of (80). He was born in Cleveland, Tenn., June 21, 1871, and moved to Hamilton in 1889. Later he and his family resided in or near Sedro-Woolley, where he was interested in a shingle mill. He followed mill work until he moved to Seattle more than 20 years ago. There he was employed at Boeing's until ill health forced him to retire.
      Funeral services were held at Kent on Monday, Sept. 24, and cremation followed. Surviving are his daughter, Mrs. Julia (husband Riley) Olin, formerly of Sedro-Woolley, now residing at Eureka, Calif.; two grandchildren and four great-grandchildren. A niece, Mrs. Minnie MacLellan of Sedro-Woolley, attended his funeral in Kent last Monday.
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