Top 10 Records in the Digital Collections from 2014
Dorothy Hailstone Beal (right) ca 1936 |
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believed to be Jake Jones Jr. ca 1890 |
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Bill Evans in uniform |
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Arline Nikko and family ca 1953 |
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Janice Ott ca 1970s |
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ca 1950 |
Dorothy Hailstone Beal (right) ca 1936 |
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believed to be Jake Jones Jr. ca 1890 |
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Bill Evans in uniform |
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Arline Nikko and family ca 1953 |
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Janice Ott ca 1970s |
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ca 1950 |
Hailstone Feed Store – the closest thing IHM has to a picture of James “Pinky” Hailstone
(left to right: Frank Hailstone, Nell Hailstone Falkenstein, Emma Greenier Hailstone [wife of James Hailstone])
Did you ever hear anything about that hanging over by the Marchettis, a maple tree?
James “Pinky” Hailstone: Oh, yes. My older brother witnessed that.
RW: Oh, yeah.
JH: They were buried in that corner.
BE: What explosion was that?
JH: Well, you see, why, they hanged the man. He went down and blew up part of a house. Of course, the whole history of the thing was, at the time then, why, we had instead of – we did have hotels in this town. I don’t mean that, but we had many of the men that worked in the mine were single men. And a lot of the women had what they called “rooming houses.” They would have board and room for so much a month.
And this fellow came to one of those boardinghouses and he and this woman that was operating it had known one another in Europe. I think in Austria or one of the German you know, close to Germany. And he wanted to board there with her, but she wouldn’t let him.
So, her and her daughter lived in a little sort of a lean-to built onto the house. They slept in that. And, of course, he got that information. And when she had refused him two or three times to let him come in there and stay, why, he brought powder from the mine, and one night he blew up this part of the house. And during the time from when he had talked to her until he was ready to blow it up, she had moved her bedroom upstairs and moved a couple of her boarders in there. And, of course, they were the ones that were killed; and that’s what the hanging was about.
The town folk just organized and got the guy and took him up there and hung him. They had a trial in the little union hall up there.
RW: Where did they hang him at?
JH: Well, they just took him down over the hill … now, what would that … let’s see …
BE: That was Marchetti’s there, wasn’t it?
JH: Yeah, that was Tom Marchetti’s place, right just across the alley from the Tom Marchetti –
BE: Where they built the schoolhouse and [inaudible].
RW: Uh-huh.
JH: You know, from the school, it’s on that side, on the west side. That was the original school grounds, of course. But they just held their court, and they found him guilty, and they went down there and strung him up and left him.”
Oral History Transcript / Full Record
Note: the transcript and record are incorrect in their use of the name “John” Hailstone. The correct and full name is James Hooker Hailstone, Sr. Records will be updated to reflect this.
James “Pinky” Hailstone was born in British Columbia in 1898 to Francis Hailstone and Ester Hooker Hailstone. He was interviewed in 1975 by Richie Woodward, a student at Issaquah High School. His interview has a lot of interesting stories including he and some friends burning a “fiery cross” and the KKK being blamed for it, the story of the only hanging in Issaquah, and a story about Ben Legg.
Last week we wrote about James “Pinky” Hailstone’s daughter – Dorothy Hailstone Beale.
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Student Body of Squak School Jake Jones (believed to be 3rd from right, in front) Full Record Full Record 2 Jake Jones: And furring and trapping and trading, so they created what they called the Chinook language. It had something like about a hundred words. And many of them words, the way you used them, meant two or three different things, depending on how you used it.
And the Indians, the younger Indians, they learned the Chinook, and they also began to learn more of the English language than they did Chinook. But not being – uh – they couldn’t pronounce the English words very good, so you might say theirs would be part Chinook and part jargon, with the Indians.
When an Indian would meet you on the road, or you’d meet an Indian, he’d say [sounds like] klahowya. Well, that meant hello. And when he went after you’d talked with him a while, he’d say klahowyaagain. That meant good-bye. And that’s the way, they didn’t have many words and they used the same words.
If he had something to sell – he wanted to sell the whites some clams one time – and [sounds like] nika – nika means either the Indian himself or it means you that’s talking to him, or whoever the other party is. Nika means either party. He’d say, “Nika tikke clam.” If you wanted to buy something, buy potatoes, he’d call them hopatoes. He’d say, “Nika tikke hopatoes.”
So they accumulated more of a jargon of the white man’s language, but they couldn’t pronounce the English words very good, so it become more of a jargon with the younger Indians. That was my time then when I associated with them.
Jacob Jones Jr. was born in 1881 to Jacob Jones Sr. and Mary Anderson Jones. He was born in Washington and lived in Issaquah until his death in 1959. His interview is from 1958 and contains many first person accounts of Issaquah’s early days. His interview is a fascinating picture of what life was like in early Issaquah.
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Maria McLeod: …Tell me a story about you and Walt Seil. I know you guys ran around together, and I’m sure there’s a lot of stories. Some you could probably tell, some you can’t. [laughter] But what’s a memorable moment with your friend Walt?
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Volunteer working at Issaquah Research Group Lab Oct 1984 (image used in Bezos Center for Innovatione exhibit) |
Visit our Digital Collections to view more images relating to Seattle Biomedical Research Institute (records available October 14, 2013.)
Visit MOHAI and Seattle Biomedical Research Institute on Facebook for more up to date information.
Make sure you “Like” us on Facebook to follow our Washington Archives Month posts!
Camilla Berg Erickson Yearbook Photo ca 1936 |
Walt Seil Senior Yearbook Photo ca 1941 |
Walt Seil: Well, this was in the fall of the year. And Tony Campbell, who was neighbors to us, him and I decided to go hunting for deer. We walked up to the railroad track and went a mile or so up the railroad track.
And we was hunting and hunting and didn’t find nothing, so we come back across the trestle and stopped. And Tony says, “Let’s hit that snag over there that’s sticking out on that tree.” And I says, “OK.”
So he tried and he missed, and tried and I missed. And he said, “Well, let me try with your gun.”
And I’d already injected a shell into the chamber and I had the safety on. And he says, “Here’s my gun,” and I reached over and took his gun.
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Vernon “Babe” Anderson ca 1945 Full Record |
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Ruth and Albert Anderson August, 1923 Full Record |
In addition to buildings, land, and this oral history, both Vernon and his brother Rodney wrote letters home during their time in service, and these letters were generously donated to Issaquah History Museum’s by Rodney’s daughter. Some of these letters are available in our Digital Collections as well as other documents and pictures. Check out the full extent of the Anderson Collection.
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Vern Anderson’s Navy Class April 11, 1946 Full Record |
Welcome to Washington Archives Month 2013!
Every year Washington State’s Archives celebrate the month of October by choosing a topic to highlight in museum collections across the state. This year the theme has been chosen as oral histories – and we couldn’t be more excited!
Issaquah History Museums has a substantial amount of oral histories in its collections. We have more than 50, the earliest dating from 1958 and the most recent from 2011. There are over 20 transcripts available through our website and on our digital collections website.
In honor of Washington Archives Month, we’ll be highlighting a few of our oral histories here on our blog, Facebook, and Pinterest. If you want to get a jump start on checking out our oral histories, you can visit our Oral Histories section of our website here.
Thanks to generous grants from 4Culture for making these oral histories, and all of our digital collections, available to the public. Thank you to members, donors, and volunteers as well.
Gilman Town Hall
165 SE Andrews Street
(425) 392-3500
Issaquah Depot Museum
78 First Avenue NE
Issaquah Valley Trolley
78 First Avenue NE