Robert Bruce Hite

Headstone GPS Coordinates: 

Birth: 1 Sep 1881, Summerfield, Noble County, Ohio                

Death: 11 Dec 1951, Bremerton, Kitsap County, Washington

Relatives in Seabeck Cemetery: Alice J. Hite (née Wilson), Ashbel F. Hite, Dempsey Wilson, Margaret Wilson (née Woodruff), Sarah Stillwell (née Wilson), Margaret W. Stout (née Stillwell), Margaret C. Selby (née Wilson), Joseph S. Selby, Mary Bell Selby, Lloyd M. Selby

American Revolutionary War Patriots*: Matthias Hite (Virginia) DAR # A055697, Joseph M. Longacre (Virginia), and Peter Hess (Pennsylvania).

Robert Bruce Hite was the fourth child of Ashbel and Alice (Wilson) Hite. He was born on September 1, 1881, in Summerfield, Noble County, Ohio. Around 1889, he moved with his parents and four siblings to Seattle, Washington, and by about 1900 the family settled permanently in Crosby. Robert’s formal education ended at the sixth grade.

Throughout his adult life, Robert worked in a variety of occupations. Census records list him at different times as a farmer, boilermaker, cement finisher, logger, and sawmill operator. He was active in the local community and served for a period as president of the Crosby Community Club.

In the late 1920s, Robert and his older brother George operated their own sawmill, which supplied lumber to the Seabeck area. Their operation was noted in the Kitsap County Herald:

Friday, July 13, 1928 (Seabeck):
“The Hite Bros. are operating a sawmill on their place, supplying the neighborhood with lumber, and other places also.”

Friday, May 31, 1929 (Crosby):
“The sawmill at Hite Center is very busy filling orders for the local demand.”

Robert never married and had no known children. He lived primarily with his parents, whom he helped care for in their later years, or with his older brother George. He never served in the military, though his draft registration cards describe him as of medium height, with a stout build, black hair, and blue eyes.

Robert Bruce Hite died on December 11, 1951, at the age of 70, at Puget Sound Memorial Hospital in Bremerton, Washington, from a cerebral hemorrhage and arteriosclerosis. His brother George signed his death certificate. Robert is buried in Seabeck Cemetery alongside his parents.