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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Subscribers Edition
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

810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp

Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

Woodburn, Whitney, Tillinghast and Sisson families
dam and dike the Padilla and Whitney areas Journal ed. note: This brief story is from the 1970 obituary notes that John Conrad prepared for the annual Skagit county Historical Society August picnic. Conrad prepared the profiles from 1949-73 and we have transcribed them from his handwritten notes.

By John Conrad, notes for 1970 Pioneer Picnic in LaConner Two sisters from an old time family, the Woodburns, are listed among our departed — Mrs. Elsie German, 71[died in 1969, born in Skagit county], Anacortes, and Mrs. Ida Rodgers, 79, Sumas. Both were daughters of William and Christina Woodburn, who came to Skagit county in 1884; the father came first with a brother, Robert Woodburn. They were both born in Ireland, of Scottish parents, William and Mary Montgomery Woodburn. The family emigrated from Ireland to Canada in about 1879 and the father and his two sons followed the woods near Lake Huron for the next few years and also ran a lumber business there. The sons came out West in 1884 and the father stayed behind, later moving to New York state. Robert and William first came to Padilla area near Bay View. Robert's first job in Skagit county was as a farm hand for R.E. Whitney, a big part of the work being dike construction and maintenance along Padilla Bay with its relentless tides of salt water.
Three early settlers occupied adjoining claims — Whitney, and his cousins, A.G. Tillinghast and E.A. Sisson. They all settled there in 1872 and jointly diked on 500 acres for a first demonstration of large scale diking and drainage on Puget Sound. Our subject, William Woodburn, secured a job with Sisson, so the brothers worked much of the time together as hired hands of the neighboring farmers. Bob Woodburn worked for nearly four years on the Whitney homestead until 1888 when Whitney purchased the large 700-acre island west of Whitney, which is now called Whitney island.
Whitney sold out his pioneer holdings to his cousins [Tillinghast and Sisson]. The following year, Whitney made one of the first gambles in Skagit county diking history; his big dams held tides out and he had 1,000 acres of new land fit to grow needed grass and crops. The [Seattle & Northern] railroad came through the following year and the depot east of his farm was named for Whitney. The following year, 1891, Whitney was killed in a tragic horse and buggy accident on the old Anacortes road near Similk Bay.
Brother Bob Woodburn was married in 1887 to Miss Globe Ball, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. John Ball, pioneers of 1873. They took up a preemption claim near Fredonia, bought 80 acres in 1890 in Olympia Marsh near Joe Leary slough and then in 1894 — together with father-in-law John Ball, bought the land of the late R.E. Whitney. That land lay north of the railroad tracks and they spent the rest of their lives there, erecting a large handsome residence in 1904, which still remains today in first class shape, visible across the track from the Anacortes highway, a mile east of the Swinomish bridge.
The Bob Woodburns had two children — Ruby, born 1890, and R.E., born in 1892 and named after bob's long time employer, R.E. Whitney [died in 1920 at age 27]. Both children married and were victims of the influenza epidemic [of 1918-19] during World War I.. All of the Bob Woodburn family are now buried in Grand View Cemetery in Anacortes. Our subject, Will Woodburn, continued to work for E.A. Sisson a couple more years until the dikes were built to a fairly safe standard and then he moved with his family a couple miles south to work for Richard Ball, a Civil War veteran who settled on his large farm in 1876, 200 acres, 40 from preemption and a homestead of 160. The farm was on the Whitney-LaConner road, a mile south of Whitney.
In a humble cabin on this pioneer farm, Ida Woodburn was born in 1890. At that time, the wagon road passing by the farm was built for two miles of solid plank puncheon to hold horses above the muddy soil. The drinking water in that area was one of the most undesirable of the county, tasting like iron water. Many farmers used the water for cooking but it was almost hopeless for coffee or for washing clothes, leaving a telltale dark color. About 1895 the Will Woodburn family moved up to a farm just north of the mouth of Joe Leary slough facing Padilla Bay and farmed the reclaimed tideland until the father died in 1902. Daughter Elsie Woodburn,. on the roll today [died at age 91], was born on this Samish flats farm in 1898. The mother, Christine Woodburn, remained on the farm with children several years after the loss of her husband, then moved to Anacortes, where she died in 1936.

Journal ed. note: The entire collection is being shared first with the subscribers to our separate online magazine and later on our free homepages. We plan to prepare a profile of these important pioneer families in the near future. Can you help us with memories or scans of photos of these families or any other historic family in Skagit county? Please email if you can. Thank you.

Endnotes

Mr. and Mrs. John Ball They were the owners of the much-photographed Ball House near Whitney, which is now gone, toppled over by the wind. [Return]

Woodburn House Margaret Willis tells an interesting story about this house in the fine book, The Buildings of Skagit County. About 1914 the engineer of a train on its way from Burlington to Anacortes saw from Whitney Station that the roof of the house was on fire. He stopped the train beside the house was on faire. He stopped the train beside the house and the train crew and most of the male passengers helped carry furniture out of the burning building. The home burned to the ground, but was later rebuilt from the same plans with minor modifications and on the same foundation. [Return]

Links, background reading and sources

Read about these Padilla pioneers in this transcription from the 1906 Illustrated History of Skagit & Snohomish Counties book, Chapter One, Part One and Part Two, and see other chapters while in that portal.
Obituary and profile of prominent Padilla pioneer Edgar A. Sisson
Profiles and civil war memories of Northwest County and Padilla-area pioneers Ed Wells, A.G. Tillinghast and R.H. Ball
Portal section with links to features about western Skagit County pioneers and towns

Story posted on Sept. 14, 2002, last updated June 24, 2009
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This article originally appeared in Issue 10 of our Subscribers-paid Journal online magazine

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