Author: Elizabeth Ellington Chapter, DAR

 

Oscar Henry Ueland, (1910-1953)    

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 31 January 1910, Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway

Death: 9 August 1953, Wrangell, Alaska

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards

 

Oscar Henry Ueland was born on January 31, 1910, in Stavanger, Rogaland, Norway, to Luther Hendriksen Ueland and Berta Johanne Torbjørnsen. He had an older brother and sister, Peder and Betsy. 

Stavanger, located on the west coast of Norway, was a community deeply connected to the sea; many families made their living as fishermen, and Oscar undoubtedly learned the trade during his youth there.

In 1928, at age eighteen, Oscar’s father paid his passage to North America so he could live with his maternal uncle, Lauritz Thorbjornaen, in Fairview, Montana, and work as a farm laborer. Oscar boarded a ship in Bergen, sailed to Southampton, England, and from there boarded the Alaunia, bound for Quebec, Canada. He eventually made his way to Montana.

By 1930, he was living in Richland, Montana, working on the farm of Orvel Martin. However, the landlocked landscape likely didn’t suit Oscar. Missing the sea, he moved to Bremerton, Washington—an area whose Puget Sound coastline, surrounding mountains, and large Scandinavian population would have felt more familiar while still offering opportunity.

Oscar found work in the fishing industry. Whether he joined a boat in Seattle that traveled to Alaska or traveled north on his own is unknown, but he soon arrived in Juneau. There he met Loretta Wheeler—née Robinson—from Sitka (Wheeler was the surname from her previous marriage). Oscar and Loretta married on June 14, 1938, in Petersburg, but their marriage showed signs of trouble almost immediately. Just one month later, Oscar placed an ad in the Alaskan Daily stating he was “not responsible for any bills incurred by Mrs. Oscar Ueland from this date on July 21, 1938.” Their divorce was finalized on January 1, 1940.

By this time, Oscar had steady work as a fisherman in Juneau. On December 18, 1941, he married Marjorie Ellen Allen, who had arrived in Juneau from Portland, Oregon. They appeared not to have known each other long before their marriage.

In 1940, Oscar completed his draft card, and on June 23, 1942, he was called into service. Reporting to Fort Richardson in Anchorage, he served with Company B of the 208th Infantry. Although he had not yet become a U.S. citizen, the Nationality Act of 1940, Section 701—a wartime naturalization provision added by amendment in 1942—created a special pathway to citizenship for non-citizens serving honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II. This provision waived the usual residency and declaration-of-intention requirements for naturalization. As long as an immigrant served between September 1, 1939, and December 31, 1946, and received an honorable discharge, he could be granted full U.S. citizenship. Under this law, Oscar became a naturalized citizen on March 3, 1944. His name formally changed from Oskar to Oscar. 

While Oscar was still in service, Marjorie returned to Oregon. On December 1, 1944, she filed for divorce, citing “cruelty”. When Oscar’s military duty ended on February 5, 1945, he returned to the life he knew best—fishing—and began moving regularly between Juneau, Seattle, and San Francisco as his work demanded.

While in Seattle, he met Martha C. Brown (née Neyhart), a widow from Seabeck. Martha was the daughter of Ralph Neyhart and Olive Selby, and great-granddaughter of Dempsey and Margaret Wilson who had settled in Seabeck in 1889.   

Oscar and Martha married on September 8, 1947. Like his previous marriages, this one was troubled. Martha filed for divorce in July 1949, though it appears the divorce was never completed; when Oscar died a few years later, she was still listed as his wife in both newspaper reports and his death certificate.

In 1949, Oscar became one-third owner of the newly built MV Ocean Cape, a 57-foot seiner-halibut vessel designed for a crew of nine. He and his crew fished for salmon in Alaska and delivered their catch to Seattle. During this time, he listed his residence in Seabeck—perhaps a sign that he and Martha had reconciled. Life, after years of instability, seemed to finally be finding a steady rhythm.

But everything changed in the early hours of August 9, 1953.

That night, while the Ocean Cape was docked in Wrangell, Alaska, Oscar went ashore with his friend and crewmate Richard (Dick) Rod of Juneau. Their night of drinking set in motion a chain of events later recounted by a witness whose testimony appeared in the Wrangell Sentinel.

According to the coroner’s jury, Oscar’s death was ruled an accidental drowning. The testimony revealed that both Oscar and Rod fell into the water once earlier in the night while returning to their vessel, managing to climb out with help from other crew members. They returned aboard the Ocean Cape and continued drinking. Around 5:30 a.m., they stepped onto the deck for air and began wrestling playfully to see who could pin the other. In the scuffle, both men tumbled overboard again.

Rod caught hold of Oscar as the crew pulled him back aboard, but he lost his grip. He dove in again, searching frantically, but could not locate his shipmate. Crew members dragged the bay for hours alongside U.S. Deputy Marshal Jack Krepps. Eventually, they recovered Oscar’s body. He was 43 years old when he died.

Martha traveled to Alaska to claim her husband’s remains. She had Oscar’s body cremated—either in Juneau or Seattle—and, according to notes recorded by Fred Just from a Seabeck resident, his ashes were placed beside the marker of William and Larry Brown in the Seabeck cemetery. William had been Martha’s first husband, and Larry their son. It seems fitting, perhaps, that she chose to place Oscar beside them.

 

Glenn Harrison Taylor, 1888-1960

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 27 June 1888, Eureka, Adair County, Iowa

Death: 11 January 1960, Bremerton, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None known.

 

Glenn Harrison Taylor was born on June 27, 1888, in Eureka, Adair County, Iowa, to Isaac Newton Taylor and Sallie Nichols. His parents were farmers, a vocation Glenn would follow for much of his life. According to his World War II draft registration card, he stood 5 feet 10 inches tall, weighed approximately 155 pounds, had gray eyes, black hair, and a ruddy complexion. Although he registered for the draft, Glenn never served in the military.

In the 1910 census, Glenn was living in Colorado, boarding with Ellis Miller in Prowers, Bent County, where he worked as a farm laborer. While there, he met Elda Darling, and the two married in 1911. Elda was 16 years old at the time, and Glenn was 23. Shortly after their marriage, Glenn returned with his new bride to Eureka, Iowa, where he farmed rented land. Their son, Newton E. “Jack” Taylor, was born in Adair County in 1915, followed by their daughter, Dixie, in 1925.

During World War II, Glenn and Elda moved west to Hanford, Washington. Their daughter Dixie, who was grown and married, accompanied them while her husband served overseas. Their son remained in Iowa. By 1944, Glenn, Elda, and Dixie were living in Bremerton, Washington, where Glenn was employed at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as a tool room mechanic.

Glenn Harrison Taylor died on January 11, 1960, at the age of 71, at Harrison Memorial Hospital in Bremerton. The cause of death was a heart attack; he had been hospitalized for an asthma attack a week earlier.

An obituary published in the Bremerton Sun on the day of his death provides additional insight into his life and career. It notes that Mr. Taylor was a grain and livestock farmer in Iowa for more than 34 years before spending four years as a road construction foreman. He also served his community as a school board member and county clerk. In early 1944, Glenn and Elda left Iowa and settled in Bremerton, where Glenn worked at the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard as an outside machinist until the end of World War II. Following the war, the couple lived on a small farm near Seabeck for five years, during which time Glenn also worked for the state highway department. He later returned to federal service at the Bangor Naval Ammunition Depot’s Bremerton annex as a tool room mechanic, retiring in 1956. Glenn was a member of the Knights of Pythias lodge for 48 years and attended First Christian Church.

 

Margaret Stout née Stillwell (1885-1932)    

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 31 October 1885, Troy, Miami County, Ohio  

Death: 28 June 1932, Seattle, King County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery:Sarah Stillwell née Wilson, Margaret C. Selby née Wilson, Dempsey Wilson, Margaret Wilson née Woodruff, Mary Bell Selby,  Lloyd M. Selby, Alice Hite née Wilson, Joseph S. Selby

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Jeremiah Stillwell (Pennsylvania)

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards

 

Margaret W. Stout née Stillwell was born on October 31, 1885, in the family home on Market Street in Troy, Miami County, Ohio. She was the younger of two daughters born to Elias H. Stillwell, a Civil War veteran, and Sarah “Sadie” Wilson. Her sister Mary was four years older.

When Margaret was four years old, her father died, leaving Sadie to raise two young daughters alone. Elias had owned timberland, which Sadie sold in order to support the family. Margaret grew up in the same Market Street home where she had been born, attended local schools, and graduated from Troy High School.

At eighteen, Margaret moved to Columbus, Ohio, to attend Ohio State University. Around 1905, the university had no dormitories for female students, so they rented rooms in nearby boarding houses. OSU would not open a women’s dormitory until 1908, and even then it accommodated only 60 students despite the fact that about 600 women were enrolled at the time.

By 1910, Margaret was working as a stenographer for the railroad office in Columbus and living with her mother, who had also relocated to the city. They rented a home off 11th Avenue, just steps from the OSU campus.

During this time, Margaret met Harry Loren Kneisly of Galveston, Texas. Harry had lived with his aunt and uncle in Troy before attending OSU, where he likely met Margaret. On August 17, 1912, at the age of twenty-five, she married Harry in Houston, Texas. Harry worked as an electrical engineer.

By 1915, the couple had moved to Waxahachie, Texas. Around this period, Margaret wrote an article advocating for women’s suffrage that was published in the Dallas Morning News and later reprinted in the Miami Union in her hometown.

Sometime before 1917, Margaret and Harry separated. Margaret relocated to the Wallingford neighborhood of Seattle, where she worked as a stenographer. Around 1922, she met James Montgomery Stout, a divorced father. They married in March 1923 “back East,” according to their marriage announcement, and settled in Seattle, where James worked as a salesman. That same year, Margaret’s sister Mary died in Chicago.

It is unclear how long Margaret and James lived together. By 1930, they were estranged. Margaret was living in Seabeck, Washington, in her mother Sarah’s home, along with her grand-niece, Celine Chilson. James, meanwhile, was living in New Jersey with his daughter. On the 1930 census he listed himself as “widowed,” though Margaret was very much alive in Seabeck.

Margaret continued living with her mother and great-grandniece. During this time, she became ill and was admitted to Martha Washington Hospital in Bremerton, likely with severe abdominal pain. Doctors diagnosed her with hysterosalpingitis, a bacterial infection of the fallopian tubes, as well as a pelvic abscess. She underwent treatment, and the abscess was drained, but she remained hospitalized for nearly a month.

On June 28, 1932, at age forty-six, Margaret died unexpectedly from a pulmonary embolus—a blood clot that traveled to her lungs. Such clots were a known complication after pelvic infections, prolonged bed rest, and surgery. In the early 1930s, effective treatments such as blood-thinning medications were not yet in widespread use, and physicians had few options beyond supportive care. As a result, a significant pulmonary embolus was typically sudden and often fatal.

Margaret’s funeral was held at Lewis Chapel, where the community brought an abundance of flowers in support of her grieving mother, who had now lost her last surviving child. Margaret’s remains were sent to Seattle for cremation, and her mother placed her ashes atop the grave of Margaret’s grandmother, Margaret Wilson. When Sarah died in 1941, she too was cremated and placed beside her daughter.

 

Sarah “Sadie” C. Stillwell née Wilson, (1858-1941)    

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 16 June 1858,  Zanesville, Muskingum, Ohio, USA          

Death: 16 May 1941, Bremerton, Kitsap County, Washington,USA

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Margaret Stout née Stillwell, Margaret C. Selby née Wilson, Dempsey Wilson, Margaret Wilson née Woodruff, Mary Bell Selby,  Lloyd M. Selby, Alice Hite née Wilson, Joseph S. Selby

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Unknown

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards

 

Sarah “Sadie” Stillwell née Wilson was born on June 16, 1858, in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, to Dempsey Wilson, a Civil War veteran, and Margaret Woodruff. Sarah was the third of the Wilsons’ five daughters.

She likely grew up in Summerfield, Ohio, attending school and helping her mother at home. Her father worked as a saddle maker and produced other leather goods to support the family.

On November 23, 1880, at the age of twenty-two, Sarah married Elias Henry Stillwell, a thirty-six-year-old Civil War veteran who had also grown up in Summerfield. When Elias was about twenty, he enlisted in the Union Army and served in the 92nd Ohio Infantry, Company D. He later served under Ohio native William T. Sherman in every major campaign, including Sherman’s infamous “March to the Sea,” during which Union forces caused an estimated $100 million in property damage all through the state of Georgia. After the war, Elias suffered from lingering health problems, but by the time of his marriage to Sarah, he was successful in the timber business and owned several parcels of land.

In 1881, Sarah and Elias welcomed their first daughter, Mary Lucretia Stillwell, in Troy, Miami County, Ohio, where the family had settled. Their second daughter, Margaret S. Stillwell, was born in 1885.

In 1888, Elias was charged by the State of Ohio with battery, assault, and “using obscene language in the presence of females.” He was fined for the offense.

Elias’s health declined rapidly, and was unable to work. By 1889 he was drawing from his war pension and classified as an “invalid.” On June 30, 1890, Elias died at the family home in Troy. Sarah was thirty-two, and her daughters were eight and four years old.

To support her family, Sarah relied on Elias’s pension and gradually sold portions of his timber land. By 1900, she and her daughters were still living in their Troy home on the income from the pension and land sales.

That same year, Sarah’s eldest daughter, Mary, married Alva Collins at the Stillwell home in Troy. With sixty guests in attendance, the Buckeye newspaper described it as one of the “most notable society events of the season.” After their honeymoon in Cincinnati, Mary and Alva returned to live with Sarah.

By 1904, Sarah had moved to Columbus, Ohio, likely to be closer to her younger daughter, Margaret, who was attending Ohio State University. Margaret later married and relocated to Texas.

Although living alone, Sarah remained involved in her family’s lives. In 1914 and 1915, she cared for her granddaughter Margaret Eva Collins after Mary’s husband passed away. Mary had two daughters—Margaret Eva and Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth stayed with her grandmother Collins in Troy, while Margaret Eva lived with Sarah.

In 1918, Sarah moved west to Crosby, Washington, to be near her sister Alice Hite and other family members living in Seattle. She purchased her own farmhouse on Seabeck Road, where she lived independently but close to the Hite family. In 1921, her granddaughter Margaret Eva moved west to join her after graduating high school in Troy. The younger granddaughter, Mary, also eventually joined them in Washington.

In 1923, Sarah received the heartbreaking news that her eldest daughter, Mary—who had remarried a man named Jack Wilcox—had died in Chicago at the age of forty-one. Her cause of death is unknown.

In 1923 and 1924, both of Sarah’s granddaughters married. They settled in Seattle and Seabeck before eventually moving to the San Francisco and Oakland areas in California.

By 1930, Sarah was still living in Crosby. Her daughter Margaret returned to live with her, likely due to marital estrangement. Sarah’s great-granddaughter, Coline Chilson, was also staying with her, probably because her parents were separated at the time.

Sarah was remembered as a kind woman with many friends in Crosby. She continued to support herself through income from land sales and her husband’s pension. But sorrow struck again: in 1932, her last surviving child, Margaret, died suddenly in the hospital. The community expressed deep sympathy and sent many flowers in recognition of Sarah’s devastating loss.

Sarah remained in Crosby, surrounded by her nieces and great-grandnieces. Her great-granddaughter Coline eventually went to live in Oakland with her mother, Mary, but Sarah made trips to California to visit her granddaughters and great-granddaughter. After returning from one such visit in 1939, she contracted a severe case of pneumonia but recovered.

By 1940, Sarah had a live-in nurse to assist with her care. On May 16, 1941, she died of heart failure at her home when she was eighty-two years old. Her health had been poor for several years. Her obituary described her as having a “very kindly nature” and noted that she had many friends who attended her funeral. Her remains were cremated and placed atop her mother Margaret Wilson’s grave, alongside her daughter Margaret’s cremated remains. 

Sarah likely descends from several Revolutionary War patriots, though both her parents’ ancestral lines are difficult to trace beyond her grandparents. While there are potential connections, further genealogical research is needed to confirm these links.

 

Hannible Hamlin Spencer, 1860-1945    

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 5 November 1860, Des Moines, Polk County, Iowa  

Death: 30 May 1945, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Unknown.

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards

 

Hannible Hamlin Spencer was born November 5, 1860, in Des Moines,Polk County, Iowa, to farmers Alexander Spencer and Sarah Lang. He had two older siblings, Elizabeth and Commodore Edwin. By 1870, Hannible was living with his parents and older brother in Jackson, Kansas.

Sometime before 1890, Hannible married Lena Margaret Rice. Their first daughter, Leota Pearl, was born in 1890 in Dayton, Columbia County, Washington. Their second daughter, Hazel Alice, was born in March 1891 in Seattle. In May 1897, Lena filed for divorce. That December, she married John Lloyd and took her two daughters to live with them in Meadowdale, Snohomish County, Washington. It appears that Leota and Hazel did not maintain a close relationship with their father, as they began using their stepfather’s surname, though John Lloyd never legally adopted them.

On November 20, 1897, Hannible remarried in Seattle to Icia Hite, daughter of Ashbel and Alice Hite of Seabeck. They had no children together. In the 1910 census, Hannible and Icia were living in Seattle in the household of Ashbel Hite, along with Alice Hite, George Hite, Robert Hite, and Margaret Wilson. By 1920, Hannible and Icia were residing off Seabeck Road in Crosby.

Throughout his life, Hannible worked in a variety of occupations. While living in Iowa, he was listed as a farmer. After moving to Seattle, he worked as a blacksmith and forger. Later, in Seabeck, he returned to farming and also worked as a faller in the logging industry.

Hannible died at his home in Seabeck on May 30, 1945. The cause of death was recorded as “general debility, senility without dementia.” His obituary named only his wife, Icia, as his survivor and did not mention his daughters, who were still living at the time.

He was cremated at Woodlawn Crematory. According to Fred Just’s notes and plot map, his ashes were placed near the graves of his in-laws, Ashbel and Alice Hite.

 

Henry “Harry” Shaffer, 1840-1880    

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 1840, New York

Death: 8 July 1880, Seattle, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Unknown

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards

Henry Shaffer—known to most as Harry—was born around 1840 in New York. The names of his parents remain unknown, though the 1871 census records them as natural-born U.S. citizens. He may have had ties to Camden, New Jersey, but his exact origins are still uncertain. Research into his early life and family continues.

Henry arrived in Seabeck around 1862. By 1871, he appeared in the Washington Territory census living in Duckabush, Jefferson County, working as a laborer. At some point thereafter, he returned to Seabeck and found employment with Denny K. Howard as a barkeeper in Howard’s saloon.

Harry was known for his humor, and one of his pranks on “Old Anderson” was recorded by Edward Clayson in Narratives of Puget Sound, Hood’s Canal, 1865–1885. Old Anderson, a European immigrant, had learned English mixed with Chinook when he first arrived in Seabeck. He later settled in what is now Holly, making his home with a Native American woman.

Eventually, the Indian Department ordered all Native Americans to move to reservations, except for Native women married to White men. Determined to comply, Old Anderson set out by canoe for Seabeck to purchase a marriage license—unaware that licenses could only be obtained at Port Madison, the county seat at the time. Upon arriving in Seabeck, he stopped at Denny Howard’s saloon, where Henry was tending bar, and asked him to secure a marriage license.

As Clayson recounts, “…the barkeeper [Harry] did not propose to be stuck on such a small affair as that of securing a marriage license, so he dug up out of an old dusty cigar box from behind the bar a last year’s road tax receipt, and wrapped it up in a piece of fancy tinsel paper taken from an old I.X. bitters bottle, and handed it to Anderson as a marriage license with that broad smile of his, which he could hardly control from bursting into a fit of laughter.”

Only later, standing before a judge, did Old Anderson learn that the document he had obtained from Mr. Shaffer was no marriage license at all. In time, however, he secured the proper paperwork and married the woman.

Another of Clayson’s narratives describes “Old Marshall,” who lived alone five miles from his nearest neighbor, growing onions and making shakes. He played the clarinet, with only woodland and bay animals for an audience. On his annual visits to Seabeck, he would stop at the saloon where Henry worked and attempt to entertain the “boys” with his music. Clayson wrote, “Old Marshal was earnest in his attempts to entertain the ‘boys’ with his music, and Harry Shafer had a very strong sense of the ridiculous. The old clarionet would break down about every two or three minutes; some part of it would give out, so the program had many interludes. This afforded an opportunity for ‘refreshments.’” Such evenings could stretch on for two or three hours.

No known records indicate that Henry ever married or had children.

On July 7 or 8, 1880, Henry died in Seattle of heart failure at the age of forty. His death was noted in The Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

“On July 7th, Harry Schaffer of Seabeck died, and his remains were sent to that place for interment. He came over about a month ago to doctor for the heart disease, but he was too far gone. He had lived in Seabeck for the past eighteen years, and had a host of friends and acquaintances on the Sound.”

 

Mary Bell Selby (1893–1907)

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 16 Jan 1893, Guernsey or Muskingum County, Ohio

Death: 30 Apr 1907, Seattle, King County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Dempsey Wilson, Margaret Woodruff Wilson, Alice Wilson Hite, Sarah C. (nee Wilson) Stillwell, Margaret W. (nee Stillwell) Stout, Margaret C. (nee Wilson) Selby

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Mordecai Selby (Maryland) A101655, Nicholas Selby (Maryland) A101659, William Rogers (Maryland)

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.

 

Mary Bell Selby was born on January 16, 1893, in Ohio, the sixth of seven children born to Stanton Selby and Margaret “Maggie” Wilson Selby. She grew up in a working-class family that lived primarily in Cambridge and Zanesville, Ohio, where her father earned a living as a coal miner and her mother managed the household while also contributing through sewing work when needed.

Mary’s early childhood was shaped by both family closeness and hardship. In June 1899, when Mary was just six years old, her father was fatally injured in a mining accident at the Trail Run Mine in Cambridge, Guernsey County. While being lowered into the mine shaft, the cage rope snapped, sending him plunging 120 feet. Though he survived the initial fall, he died the following day from internal injuries. His death left Mary’s mother a widow with seven children ranging in age from sixteen to two, and it permanently altered the course of Mary’s young life.

Following her father’s death, Mary lived with her mother and siblings in Jackson, Guernsey County. Margaret supported the family as a seamstress, while Mary and her younger siblings attended school. Mary was known to have heart problems, a condition that affected her health throughout her short life.

In 1906, when Mary was thirteen, her mother made the decision to move west to Washington State to reunite with extended family. Mary traveled with her mother and four siblings to Seattle, where they settled in the Wallingford neighborhood. The move marked a significant transition for Mary, placing her far from the Ohio communities where she had spent her childhood.

Tragically, less than a year after the move, Mary’s health declined. In the spring of 1907, she contracted diphtheria. Compounded by her existing heart condition, the illness proved fatal. Mary Bell Selby died on or about April 30, 1907, at just fourteen years of age, likely at home in Seattle.

Following her death, Mary’s remains were transported to Seabeck, Washington, where she was buried in Seabeck Cemetery near her maternal grandfather, Dempsey Wilson, a Civil War veteran. Although no gravestone for Mary survives today, the late historian Fred Just’s cemetery plot map indicates that she was buried near her grandfather. While one plot (#88) was once labeled as Mary Bell Selby and marked as a cremation, Mary’s death record clearly states that she was interred whole, suggesting that the plot may belong to another family member. It is therefore believed that Mary was buried intact near the Wilson family graves.

 

Bessie Olson, (1912-1922)

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 06 November 1912, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Death: 24 March 1922, Medical Lake (Spokane), Spokane County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Hickman Hensley, (Virginia)  DAR# A215926

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.

 

On November 6, 1912, Bessie Olson was born in Seabeck, Washington to father Benjamin Olson from Sweden and mother Lillie Hensley from Arkansas. Bessie had an older sister named Annabell, and two half sisters named Zora and Lora White from her mother’s first marriage. Bessie’s half-sisters never lived in Washington, but stayed with other family members in Arkansas.

In 1920, Bessie was living on the family farm with her parents and older sister Annabelle. 

Around April 28th in 1921, Bessie was admitted to the State Custodial School at Medical Lake in Spokane, which was a “school” for children up to the age of twenty-one with mental disabilities. Almost a year after being admitted, Bessie died on March 24, 1922 from chronic endocarditis with mitral insufficiency (heart failure) caused by “mongolian idiocy” (down syndrome). Bessie was nine years old when she passed away. Her remains were sent to Seattle from Spokane, where her family claimed them. 

The Kitsap County Herald published about Bessie’s death and burial on April 14, 1922: 

“Little Bessie, the ten-year-old daughter of Mrs. Olson, passed away a few days ago.  The remains were laid to rest in the Seabeck cemetery, Tuesday of last week.”

Bessie’s grave is currently unmarked, but the late historian Fred Just recorded its location on his plot map.

 

Margaret C. Selby née Wilson, (1861-1935)

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 1 September 1861, Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio

Death: 3 August 1935, Crosby, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Dempsey Wilson, Margaret Woodruff Wilson, Mary Bell Selby, Alice Hite née Wilson, Sarah C. (nee Wilson) Stillwell, Margaret W. (nee Stillwell) Stout 

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Unknown

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards.

 

Margaret “Maggie” Wilson Selby was born on September 1, 1861, in Zanesville, Muskingum County, Ohio, to Dempsey Wilson, a Civil War veteran, and his wife Margaret (Woodruff) Wilson. She was the fourth of their five living children. The Wilson family later settled in Summerfield, Noble County, Ohio, where Dempsey worked as a saddler and leather goods maker. In 1870, the eldest daughter helped support the family by tying tobacco leaves for extra income, while Margaret and her younger siblings stayed home with their mother and attended school.

When Margaret was nineteen years old, she married twenty-year-old Stanton Selby on January 1, 1882, in Guernsey County. That same November, the young couple welcomed their first child, a daughter named Goldie. Over the next fourteen years, they had six more children, born roughly every two to three years: George (1884), Ethel (1887), Joseph (1889), Olive (1891), Mary (16 Jan 1893), and Lloyd (1896). The family lived primarily in Cambridge and Zanesville.

To support his growing family, Stanton worked in the coal mines. In 1899, while employed at the Trail Run Mine in Cambridge, tragedy struck. As he was being lowered into the mine shaft in a cage, the rope snapped, sending him plunging 120 feet. Remarkably, he survived the fall but suffered broken ribs and a fractured arm. The broken ribs punctured his lung, and although he remained conscious for about a day, he succumbed to his injuries on June 9, 1899, at just thirty-seven years old. His death left Margaret a widow with seven children ranging in age from sixteen to two.

In October of that year, Margaret settled a claim against the James W. Ellsworth Coal Company, owners of the Trail Run Mine, for her husband’s wrongful death caused by faulty equipment.

Margaret continued to live in Jackson, Guernsey County, working as a seamstress to support her family. Her fifteen-year-old son George found work as a farm laborer, while the younger children remained in school.

Her eldest daughters soon began families of their own: Goldie married in 1903 and remained in Cambridge, while Ethel married in Guernsey County the following year and also stayed nearby.

Around over a decade earlier in 1889, Margaret’s parents and several siblings had moved west to Seabeck, Washington. In 1906, Margaret decided to join them, bringing her five unmarried children to Seattle. The family settled in the Wallingford neighborhood.

Sadly, another tragedy soon struck. Fourteen-year-old Mary Bell, who had heart problems, contracted diphtheria and passed away, likely at home on April 30, 1907. Her remains were taken to Seabeck Cemetery, where her grandfather, Dempsey Wilson, was buried. Although no marker survives, the late historian Fred Just’s plot map indicates she was buried near her grandfather.

By 1910, Margaret was renting a home in Seattle with her children George, Joseph, Olive, and Lloyd. George worked as a surveyor, Joseph as a construction laborer, while Olive helped her mother at home and Lloyd attended public school.

A decade later, in 1920, Margaret was living in San Francisco with her youngest son Lloyd, who was employed as a craneman in the steel industry. Joseph was also in San Francisco, working in a lumber yard until he was called to serve during World War I.

In April 1927, Margaret, Lloyd, and Joseph returned to Washington, settling in Crosby and living at Hite Center with Margaret’s sister, Alice (Wilson) Hite and other members of the Hite family.

On August 3, 1935, Margaret passed away there from heart failure at the age of seventy-three. Her daughter Olive, who had moved to Hite Center several years earlier, was the informant on her death certificate. The record notes that Margaret was buried whole, not cremated. Although no marker is currently known, researchers believe she may rest near where her parents are buried.

Margaret Wilson Selby likely descends from several Revolutionary War patriots, though both her parents’ ancestral lines are difficult to trace beyond her grandparents. While there are potential connections, further genealogical research is needed to confirm these links.

It is likely that Margaret Selby and her daughter Mary Bell Selby were both buried intact near the Wilson graves. The SCRP hopes to conduct a ground-penetrating radar scan next year to help identify possible burial locations for Margaret and Mary.

 

Lloyd McKinley Selby. 1896-1972

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 27 September 1896, Guernsey County, Ohio

Death: 13 August 1972, Bremerton, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Margaret C. Selby née Wilson, Dempsey Wilson, Margaret Wilson née Woodruff, Mary Bell Selby,  Sarah C. Stillwell née Wilson, Margaret W. Stout née Stillwell , Alice Hite née Wilson, Joseph S. Selby

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Mordecai Selby (Maryland) DAR# A101655, Nicholas Selby (Maryland) DAR# A101659, William Rogers (Maryland)

Disclaimer: These lines have not been officially proven by NSDAR standards

Lloyd McKinley Selby was born on September 27, 1896, in Guernsey County, Ohio—likely in either Cambridge or Byesville. His parents, Stanton Selby and Margaret Wilson, were both born in Ohio. Lloyd was the youngest of their seven children.

When Lloyd was two years old, tragedy struck. His father died from injuries sustained in a mining accident when the rope or cable lowering him into a coal shaft snapped, causing him to fall 120 feet. Lloyd’s mother remained in Ohio for several more years, but around 1906, the family moved west to Seattle to be near Margaret’s mother (Lloyd’s grandmother Wilson) and her extended family. Soon after their arrival, another tragedy occurred when Lloyd’s 14-year-old sister, Mary Bell, died from diphtheria and heart complications.

Lloyd attended public school while living in Seattle. Around 1914, him and his brothers Gorge and Joseph moved their mother Margaret south to San Francisco. Lloyd and his mother shared a home, while George and Joseph established their own nearby households.Lloyd went to work for the Pacific Coast Steel Company as a craneman. In 1917, when he registered for the World War I draft, he requested an exemption, noting that he was the sole provider for his mother.

In 1921, while still employed at the steel mill, a fire broke out after a furnace “lost a heat.” Lloyd and another worker suffered burns in the blaze, though neither was seriously injured, and the fire was quickly contained.

By 1927, Lloyd’s mother’s health had declined, and she required additional care. Him and his mother decided to move back to Washington, settling at Hite Center in Crosby. Lloyd’s sister Olive also moved into Hite Center to help care for their mother. 

In Crosby, Lloyd found work as a lineman on a gas shoveler—likely maintaining the cables and lines of a diesel-powered excavator used in local construction projects. His prior experience as a craneman in California would have served him well. He may have worked alongside his neighbor, Victor Card, who operated the gas shoveler as an engineer.

When Margaret Selby passed away in 1935, she was buried in Seabeck Cemetery. Lloyd and Olive continued to live at Hite Center, and by early 1940, he was working as a huckleberry brush picker. Later that year, in December, he was hired at the Bremerton Naval Yard.

In 1942, Lloyd’s brother Joseph returned from the Yukon, where he had lived for twenty years, and moved in with Lloyd. The brothers lived together through 1950, running their own brush-picking business. Eventually, Lloyd relocated to Port Gamble, where he worked at the local sawmill until his retirement in 1966 at the age of seventy. By then, he was the last surviving member of his family.

After retiring, Lloyd continued living in Port Gamble with his niece, Martha Harnden. In 1972, he suffered a stroke and was taken to the Bremerton Convalescent Center, where he passed away three days later on August 13, 1972. He was cremated at Woodlawn Crematory and interred at Seabeck Cemetery, marked by a handmade concrete gravestone.

Over time, knowledge of Lloyd’s burial in the cemetery was lost. Local historians Fred Just and Freddi Perry did not include his name in their Seabeck Cemetery burial lists. While working in the cemetery, Fred discovered a simple concrete marker reading “At Rest. 1896–1972,” but its owner was unknown. In 2023, during cemetery restoration work by the SCRP team, the same marker was rediscovered buried near a tree in the Brown family plot. Through research, an SCRP genealogist confirmed that the marker belonged to Lloyd Selby—his obituary noted burial at Seabeck Cemetery, and the birth and death dates matched the inscription. The SCRP team was thrilled to solve the mystery of the unidentified marker and to finally restore Lloyd McKinley Selby’s name to the Seabeck Cemetery burial list.