Category: Cemetery Biographies

 

Madeline Josephine Brown, 1901-1911 

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: Location in the cemetery is unknown

Birth: 03 September 1901, Seattle, King County, Washington.

Death: 12 May 1911, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Sarah Brown

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Possibly on her father’s lines. 

 

Madeline J. Brown, was born on September 3, 1901, in Seattle, King County, Washington. She was the youngest child of Sarah B. Brown, a Norwegian immigrant, and Henry M. Brown, a ship’s carpenter originally from Maine. Her birth came during a period of upheaval in her parents’ marriage: only months earlier, in January 1901, formal articles of separation had been filed between her parents, marking the end of their life together. Whether her mother was aware of the pregnancy at the time of the separation is unknown, but Josephine entered the world amid uncertainty and change.

Josephine’s mother, born Sigrid Olsdotter Brujordet in 1864 in Bismo, Oppland, Norway, had emigrated to the United States in 1886. By the time Josephine was born, she was living in Seattle under the name Sarah B. Brown. Josephine’s father, Henry M. Brown, was twelve years older than Sarah and had worked much of his life at sea. Shortly after Josephine’s birth, Henry disappeared from Seattle, and there is no evidence that he ever had contact with Josephine or her older brothers thereafter.

In 1907, when Josephine was about six years old, her mother left Seattle and relocated the family to Seabeck, Washington, seeking a quieter place to raise her children. By the 1910 census, Josephine was living there with her mother and two older brothers, Charles R., age thirteen, and William K., age ten. Her mother described herself as widowed—a common designation at the time for women who had been abandoned—and supported the family by working as a hotel cook. The census recorded that Sarah had borne five children, only three of whom were living, underscoring the fragility of family life in that era.

Josephine’s life was tragically short. On May 12th, 1911, at approximately eight years old, she died in a house fire in Seabeck. Her death certificate lists her name as “Josephine,” likely her middle name, though she had been enumerated in census records as Madeline J. Family tradition holds that she ran back into the burning house to retrieve her doll, a poignant detail that has endured through generations. While the death certificate does not specify a burial location, it is believed that her remains were interred in Seabeck Cemetery. A later descendant recalled that the house was rebuilt on the same property, only to burn down again years afterward.

 

Helena “Lena” (nee’ Whitney) Johnston Branham 1888-1932

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: location unknown

Birth: 16 June 1888, Illinois

Death: April 29, 1932, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: William Johnston, Norma Lovell Johnston,

Infant boy Johnston, Wayne Johnston

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Unknown. 

 

Helena “Lena” Whitney was born on June 16, 1888, in Illinois, the daughter of Jim Whitney of Ohio and Emma Thomas of Arkansas. Like many women of her generation, Lena’s life was marked by frequent moves, hard work, family responsibility, and personal loss, much of it unfolding across Missouri, Oklahoma, Idaho, Oregon, and Washington.

In 1907, at the age of nineteen, Lena married William Franklin Johnston in Missouri. William, a Missouri native born in 1867, was twenty years her senior. Their early married life followed William’s farm and labor work, and Lena began raising a growing family while moving frequently with him for work opportunities.

Lena became the mother of four children with William. Their first son, William Norman Johnston, was born in Carter County, Missouri, in 1907. A year later, James Loyal Johnston was born in Hunter, Grandon County, Missouri. In 1910, while the family was again in Carter County, Lena gave birth to a daughter, Hazel Helena Johnston. By 1913, the family had relocated to Kiefer, Creek County, Oklahoma, where Lena’s youngest child, Ruth Elizabeth Johnston, was born. During these years, the family rented farms and lived wherever William could find work, while Lena managed the household and raised the children.

By 1920, Lena was living in Mounds, Creek County, Oklahoma, where William worked as a laborer in the oil industry. This period coincided with Prohibition, during which William operated an illegal gin distillery. Family stories later recalled the secrecy surrounding the operation, including William’s habit of calling the car’s glove compartment the “gin box.”

Sometime between 1920 and 1925, Lena and William divorced. On August 27, 1925, Lena remarried in Sanders, Benewah County, Idaho, to Ray Branham. She married under the name Helen Parker, suggesting that she may have had an additional marriage between her divorce from William and her marriage to Ray, although no documentation of a Parker marriage has yet been found.

By 1930, Lena was living in Yankton, Columbia County, Oregon, listed in census records as a boarder in William Johnston’s household. She was recorded as divorced and working as a cook in the restaurant industry, reflecting her independence and continued labor to support herself. Two of her children, William Norman and Ruth, were also living in the household. During this time, Lena’s son Norman worked as a bucker in a logging camp alongside his father. A young married woman, Amber Kelso Hanby, was also lodging in the home; she would marry Norman the following year. Lena later signed as a witness at Norman and Amber’s marriage in February 1931 in King County, Washington.

The early 1930s brought repeated tragedy to Lena’s family. Her granddaughter, Norma Lovell Johnston, born April 18, 1931, died on December 6, 1932, from tubercular meningitis before reaching her second birthday. Another grandson, an infant son of her son James and his wife Gertrude Sage, was born on April 2, 1931, and died a week later from a seizure disorder. Both children were buried in Seabeck Cemetery. A few years later, Lena’s grandson Wayne Johnston, born in 1935 to Norman and Amber, died at less than three months old from excessive bone growth and was also buried in Seabeck.

According to family accounts, Lena moved to Camp Union, likely with her son Norman and daughter-in-law Amber, where she worked as a cook. Her daughter Hazel and Hazel’s husband, Kenneth Whitaker, were living nearby in Seabeck, Washington, placing Lena close to her surviving children and grandchildren during her final years.

On April 29, 1932, Helena “Lena” Whitney died at the age of forty-three from carcinoma of the uterus (endometrial cancer) with terminal pneumonia. She was buried in Seabeck Cemetery. Her daughter Hazel served as the informant on her death certificate and reported that Lena was still married to Ray Branham at the time of her death. No further records concerning Ray Branham have been located.

Neither Lena nor several members of her family are known to have marked graves in Seabeck Cemetery, and their exact burial locations remain unknown.

 

Marjorie Bradley (maiden name unknown) -1880

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: location unknown

Birth: Date unknown, Ireland

Death: 22 Jan 1880, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: None known.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None

 

Beyond Hauptley’s entry and her cedar marker, Marjorie Bradley doesn’t show up in any other records in Washington. However, in the June 1880 Seabeck census there was a Dennis Bradley (spelled Bratley) who was listed as a 33 year old widower born in Ireland who worked in the saw mill. There were also two children named Elizabeth Bradley (born 1875 in Nova Scotia) and Johnnie Bradley (born 1878 in the Washington Territory) who were listed as boarders living in Thomas Degnell’s household. There were no other Bradley residents living in Seabeck at this time, so there’s a good chance Dennis and Marjorie were husband and wife, and Elizabeth and Johnnie were their children.

Marjorie was buried with a simple wooden cross as a marker that read:  “Sacred to the memory of Marjorie Bradley Native of Ireland Died January 22, 1880 Amen” A photo of her marker was taken by Adele Ferguson in the 1950s and published in the local newspaper.

 

Samuel Bowker 1868-1883

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: location unknown

Birth: 1868, Maine

Death: 08 June 1883, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington, USA

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Frances Fayette (Cilley) Bowker.

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Ichabod Bonney, Jr. of Massachusetts (A012028), and William Cilley of Massachusetts (A021979). Major Levi B. Bowker of Massachusetts (A012833).

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

 

Samuel Bowker was born in 1868 in Maine to Simeon Crocker Bowker and Frances Fayette (Cilley) Bowker. He was one of six children in the Bowker family and grew up during a period of transition, as his family moved from coastal Maine to the lumber camps of Washington Territory.

Samuel’s parents married in Machias, Maine, in 1853. His father, Simeon, worked in the lumber industry, a demanding and often dangerous occupation, while also owning land valued at $1,200 and personal property valued at $100. Samuel’s early childhood was spent in Maine, where five of the Bowker children were born. His youngest brother, Frank, was later born in Seabeck, Washington, indicating the family’s westward relocation during Samuel’s youth.

By 1870, Simeon Bowker appeared twice in the U.S. Federal Census—once with his family in Machias, Maine, and again in Union, Mason County, Washington—reflecting the divided nature of the family during this period. By 1872, Simeon was employed by the Washington Mill Company in Seabeck as a bull puncher, driving oxen and hauling logs to tidewater via skid road. Company store records from the early 1870s show purchases of household goods, suggesting that Samuel and his siblings either had arrived in Seabeck or were preparing to join their father there.

These same records also reveal the physical toll of mill work. Simeon frequently purchased painkillers and liniment, offering insight into the harsh labor environment Samuel would soon experience firsthand.

In the 1880 U.S. census, twelve-year-old Samuel was living in Seabeck in the household of his sister Martha (Mattie) and her husband, Ensley Doncaster, along with his parents and brothers. Just one year later, on October 15, 1881, Samuel’s mother Frances died at the age of forty-eight. Jacob Hauptly, the Seabeck Cemetery caretaker, recorded in his diary that there was “a large turnout” at her burial—a significant event in Samuel’s young life.

Despite his youth, Samuel soon joined the workforce. In the 1883 Washington Territorial Census, his life appears in two conflicting entries. One lists him incorrectly as seven years old in his father’s household, while another, six pages earlier, records “Sam’l Bowker,” age fourteen, born in Maine, working as a “mill man” at the Port of Seabeck. This latter entry more accurately reflects Samuel’s circumstances, as he was already employed in the lumber industry as a teenager.

Tragically, Samuel’s working life was brief. On June 8, 1883, at just fifteen years old, he was killed in a mill accident. Jacob Hauptly noted that Samuel was buried two days later. According to historian Fred Just’s records, Samuel’s grave was marked with a cedar slab—now lost—similar to others once common in Seabeck Cemetery.

Later accounts misidentified the victim of the mill accident as Samuel’s father, Simeon, but census records confirm that Simeon was still alive and living in Seabeck in 1887. Samuel’s younger brother Frank, then eight years old, was living with the Doncaster family, who had a young child of their own.

The exact location of Samuel Bowker’s grave within Seabeck Cemetery is now unknown, as is the burial place of his mother. What remains of Samuel’s story is pieced together through census records, mill ledgers, and cemetery notes—documents that reveal the realities of child labor, family loss, and the dangers of industrial work in Washington Territory.

 

Nicholas S. Baker, unknown dates

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: date unknown, before 1900. Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington 

Death: Date unknown. Before 1900. Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington 

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Jasper Baker, Millie Baker

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Moses Baker (Massachusetts) A005039, Aaron Hanscom (Massachusetts) A051231, Daniel Hoyt (Massachusetts) A058984.

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

 

Nicholas Baker was the son of Jasper Baker and Isabelle Baker (née Little). The dates of his birth and death are unknown, though both occurred prior to 1900. Local historian Fred Just recorded that Seabeck resident Ensley Doncaster reported a Nicholas S. Baker buried in Seabeck Cemetery; however, no dates or parental information were documented.

 

Millie Baker, 1875-1876

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 11 January 1875, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington 

Death: 28 June 1876, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington 

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Jasper Baker, Nicholas Baker

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Moses Baker (Massachusetts) A005039, Aaron Hanscom (Massachusetts) A051231, Daniel Hoyt (Massachusetts) A058984.

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

 

Millie Baker was born on January 11, 1875, in Seabeck, Washington, to her parents, Jasper Baker and Isabelle Baker. She may have been their second or third child.

Millie lived for only one year, passing away in Seabeck on June 28, 1876. Her burial location within Seabeck Cemetery is unknown. Local historian Fred Just recorded that Seabeck resident Ensley Doncaster reported a girl named Millie Baker was born in 1875, died in 1876, and was buried in Seabeck Cemetery.

 

Jasper Gage/Gideon Baker, 1839-1885

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: January 19, 1839, Machias, Washington County, Maine

Death: March 7, 1885, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Nellie Baker, Nicholas Baker

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Moses Baker (Massachusetts) A005039, Aaron Hanscom (Massachusetts) A051231, Daniel Hoyt (Massachusetts) A058984.

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

 

Jasper G. Baker was born on January 19, 1839, in Machias, Maine, to Zebulon Baker and Deborah Hanscom. He was the fourth of five children. His father owned and operated a farm in Maine.

In 1860, at twenty-one years old, Jasper was working as a sailor in East Machias while still living in his father’s household. Around 1868, he moved west and eventually settled in Seabeck.

By the time of the 1871 Washington Territorial census, Jasper was living as a boarder in the household of Gilbert Little, which included Gilbert’s ten-year-old daughter, Isabelle. A couple of years later, on January 12, 1873, Jasper married Isabelle Little at St. Paul’s Church in Port Townsend. Isabelle was very young and heavily pregnant at the time of the marriage. Their first child, Ida, was born just two weeks later, on January 28.

Depending on the record consulted, Isabelle was between twelve and fifteen years old when she married the thirty-three-year-old Jasper. Four census records list her year of birth as 1860, which would place her at twelve years old at the time of marriage, while her death certificate states she was born in 1857, making her fifteen. Regardless of the discrepancy, there is no dispute in either the records or family lore that Isabelle was a very young teenage bride and mother.

Jasper and Isabelle eventually had five more children: William (1877), Gilbert (1879), Clara (1881), Henry (1883), and Arthur (1886). The 1900 census recorded that Isabelle had given birth to seven children, six of whom were living. All known children were still alive in 1900. Fred Just recorded that local resident Ensley Doncaster reported a girl named Millie Baker was born in 1875, died in 1876, and was buried in Seabeck Cemetery. In Fredi Perry’s book, she wrote that two of the Baker children had died before Jasper. Fred Just also noted hearing from Ensley Doncaster about a Nicholas S. Baker buried in Seabeck Cemetery, though no dates or parentage were recorded. It remains uncertain whether Millie and Nicholas were part of the Baker family.

In 1872, Jasper became the second captain of the Colfax, earning a starting wage of $70 per month. In 1874, he received a raise to $80 per month, followed by another increase to $90 per month. His wages were twice those of the average millworker. At one point, he also bid on a mail route between Seabeck and Port Gamble but lost the contract to Edward Clayson.

Jasper owned 160 acres of land in Seabeck, where he raised cattle. Jacob Hauptly and Charles Reid both mentioned butchering cows for “Baker” in their diaries.

On February 4, 1885, Jacob Hauptly noted in his diary that Jasper was seeking medical treatment in Victoria, British Columbia, due to a serious illness, likely tuberculosis. Jasper died on March 7, 1885, and was buried in Seabeck Cemetery, leaving behind his wife and six children. The exact location of his grave within the cemetery is unknown today.

 

Oluf Andersen, 1860-1909

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: September 24, 1860, in Christiansund, Norway

Death: November 29, 1909, Seattle, King County, Washington, USA

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Hulda Andersen, Emel Andersen, Emma Andersen

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None Found

Oluf Andersen was born on September 24, 1860, in Christiansund, Norway, a coastal town shaped by maritime trade and fishing. In 1880, at the age of twenty, he left Norway and immigrated to the United States, joining the growing wave of Scandinavian settlers seeking opportunity in the Pacific Northwest. In time, Oluf became a naturalized U.S. citizen and established himself in the developing community of Seabeck in Washington Territory.

Hulda C. Johnson was born in Oland, Sweden, on January 15, 1873 and immigrated to the United States in the late 1880s as a young teenager. At just fourteen years old, she traveled with her parents, August Johnson and Britta Louisa Johnson (née Anderson), to America. The family settled in Seabeck, where many Scandinavian immigrants had formed a close-knit community rooted in shared language, culture, and Lutheran faith. It was there that Hulda met Oluf.

Oluf and Hulda were married on August 29, 1889, in Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington Territory. Both were members of the Lutheran Church, which played an important role in their spiritual lives and community connections. The following year, in 1890, they welcomed their first child, marking the beginning of their family life together.

By the time of their marriage, Oluf and Hulda were living along the waterfront area of Seabeck that would come to be known as Andersen’s Landing, a name that endures to this day. There, they made their home and raised their children. Five children were born to them in Seabeck: Adolf (1890), Anna (1891), Emel (1893), Emma (1894), and Walter (1896). Their early years as parents were marked by both joy and sorrow. Emel and Emma tragically died when they were only days old, losses that would have weighed heavily on the family. Their surviving children—Adolf, Anna, and Walter—grew to adulthood and later established families of their own.

Oluf earned a living as a farm laborer, contributing to the agricultural work that sustained the Seabeck community during its early years. Life in the territory was demanding, and the family endured further hardship when Hulda died on August 27, 1900, at only twenty-seven years of age. The cause of her death is unknown, leaving a poignant gap in the family’s history.

Oluf lived for nearly nine years after Hulda’s death. He passed away on November 29, 1909, at Seattle General Hospital at the age of forty-nine. His death was attributed to chronic interstitial nephritis, a condition now commonly known as kidney failure.

Oluf and Hulda are buried in Seabeck Cemetery, laid to rest on either side of their infant children, Emel and Emma. Together, their graves tell the story of a young immigrant family shaped by faith, hard work, love, and loss, and firmly rooted in the early history of Seabeck.

 

Hulda C. Andersen (née Johnson) 1873-1900

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: January 15, 1873, Oland, Sweden

Death: August 27, 1900, Washington, USA

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Oluf Andersen, Emel Andersen, Emma Andersen, August Johnson, Louisa Johnson

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None Found

 

Oluf Andersen was born on September 24, 1860, in Christiansund, Norway, a coastal town shaped by maritime trade and fishing. In 1880, at the age of twenty, he left Norway and immigrated to the United States, joining the growing wave of Scandinavian settlers seeking opportunity in the Pacific Northwest. In time, Oluf became a naturalized U.S. citizen and established himself in the developing community of Seabeck in Washington Territory.

Hulda C. Johnson was born in Oland, Sweden, on January 15, 1873, and immigrated to the United States in the late 1880s as a young teenager. At just fourteen years old, she traveled with her parents, August Johnson and Britta Louisa Johnson (née Anderson), to America. The family settled in Seabeck, where many Scandinavian immigrants had formed a close-knit community rooted in shared language, culture, and Lutheran faith. It was there that Hulda met Oluf.

Oluf and Hulda were married on August 29, 1889, in Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington Territory. Both were members of the Lutheran Church, which played an important role in their spiritual lives and community connections. The following year, in 1890, they welcomed their first child, marking the beginning of their family life together.

By the time of their marriage, Oluf and Hulda were living along the waterfront area of Seabeck that would come to be known as Andersen’s Landing, a name that endures to this day. There, they made their home and raised their children. Five children were born to them in Seabeck: Adolf (1890), Anna (1891), Emel (1893), Emma (1894), and Walter (1896). Their early years as parents were marked by both joy and sorrow. Emel and Emma tragically died when they were only days old, losses that would have weighed heavily on the family. Their surviving children—Adolf, Anna, and Walter—grew to adulthood and later established families of their own.

Oluf earned a living as a farm laborer, contributing to the agricultural work that sustained the Seabeck community during its early years. Life in the territory was demanding, and the family endured further hardship when Hulda died on August 27, 1900, at only twenty-seven years of age. The cause of her death is unknown, leaving a poignant gap in the family’s history.

Oluf lived for nearly nine years after Hulda’s death. He passed away on November 29, 1909, at Seattle General Hospital at the age of forty-nine. His death was attributed to chronic interstitial nephritis, a condition now commonly known as kidney failure.

Oluf and Hulda are buried in Seabeck Cemetery, laid to rest on either side of their infant children, Emel and Emma. Together, their graves tell the story of a young immigrant family shaped by faith, hard work, love, and loss, and firmly rooted in the early history of Seabeck.

 

Emma Andersen, 1894-1894

 

Headstone GPS Coordinates:

Birth: 9 Nov 1894, Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Death: 30 Nov 1894 Seabeck, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Oluf Andersen, Hulda Andersen, Emel Andersen, August Johnson, Louisa Johnson

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: None Found

 

Emma Andersen was born on November 9, 1894, in Seabeck, Washington, to Oluf and Hulda Andersen (née Johnson). She was the couple’s fourth child, born into a family already familiar with both joy and loss.

Like her brother Emel, who had been born the previous year and lived only five days, Emma’s life was tragically brief. She passed away on November 30, 1894, at just twenty-one days old. The loss of a second infant child within such a short span would have been a profound heartbreak for her parents.

Emma was laid to rest in Seabeck Cemetery beside her brother Emel, marked by a modest upright granite headstone. Over time, the headstone sustained damage, but in 2025 it was carefully repaired by members of the Elizabeth Ellington Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR), ensuring that her resting place continues to be respectfully marked and remembered.