Pioneer past touches the present

            After vacationing and celebrating the 4th of July, I got to thinking how many good vibes revolve around community – that sense of belonging to a greater whole – and not just being a grain of sand on the beach. It also occurred to me that community can spring from a place, connecting those who experienced it, even over different eras.

            Anyone who has ever had the pleasure of living on an island, especially one of our Puget Sound gems, or enjoyed an extended stay on one, knows the rich feeling of community. Life on an island is like no other. There is a liberating freedom that comes from being non-accessible by road, but more importantly, there is a great feeling of connectedness with others – they are our lifelines and likewise, we are theirs. Fiercely self-reliant islanders nevertheless rely on their neighbors and from this interdependency springs kinship. It is close knit, and if I may say so, on a severely restricted access island as McNeil Island is and always was, the feeling of connectedness is even more so.

         McNeil has housed a prison since 1875, before Washington even gained Statehood, and owing to its strict isolation, McNeil possess a unique timeless quality that can be found nowhere else. Being the last State or Federal Prison accessible only by water or air, McNeil’s isolation would allow someone from the late 1800s to feel as at home there today, as they did back in their day. Likewise, former inhabitants and staff, all very much 21st century products, still feel McNeil’s powerful pull.

            The special timeless quality of McNeil Island, that enables community, reaches out from the past into the present as many fabled island stories involve families and friends connected to McNeil, carrying forth tales gathered from its sentient shores. This truism applies to my first blog topic, the 1896 grave of the infant Settler Edwin Holm, whose burial site, marked by four Madrona trees, still rests serenely today.

            After Ezra Meeker encamped in 1853, McNeil held just a few pioneers who happily increased their wealth by selling lots to new arrivals. One such settler that gladly bought land on McNeil was Hans Kammen, who like many of the farmers whom would call McNeil home; Hans was born in Norway in 1839, arriving at McNeil after traversing America via stops in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and North Dakota, and after burying two wives and five children. The pioneer life was a rough one and Hans lived it fully.

            In 1882, the three surviving children of Han’s second marriage, Lizzie, Oscar and Martin, saw him wed Inger Johnsen, who he’d met while working as a carpenter and mason. Two new arrivals, Adolf and Emma joined the family and the decision was made to move to the scenic and temperate Northwest. So, in 1887 Hans bought forty acres at Hyde Point and settled the Kammen family into their new home just before daughter Klara’s birth. Minnie and Alice soon followed. With ten people now in the family, Han’s eldest three children left home very early in life to fend for themselves.

            Lizzie went away to marry but returned to live on McNeil. Perhaps she missed her brothers Oscar and Martin who did odd jobs around the homestead and McNeil. Eventually they began a store with Hans but sold it to the Julin family who would successfully run it for years. The brothers wanted to be shrimpers, so with Hans they bought a boat from John Proctor (of Proctor Street fame) and then worked all manner of jobs to earn enough money for a bigger boat. Soon they had a fleet of three boats which the brothers managed.

            Hans and Inger’s girl Klara died in 1906 at age 19 but their strong faith sustained them. In fact, the Kammens were charter members of the Sunne Congregation on McNeil and Hans headed up the building of the church sanctuary, which was near the present day Ferry slip. Hans died suddenly in 1908, after church services while visiting friends, the Charley Johnsons, who lived at Four Corners on McNeil, nearby the church.. The Johnson house still stands today, although extensively remodeled one can make out the old 1890s bones, in its forest setting. Interestingly, the house is reputed to have been a brothel, perhaps primarily for the local lumber mill, or other islanders, but the tale seems born out by the original floor plan.

            After Han’s passing the Kammen home was sold to Captain Neil Henley, but the tough Norwegian stock of Hans’s family flourished, and despite Inger’s death in 1923, the Kammen legacy continues on to this day; although most throughout Puget Sound are more familiar with the name Cammon, thanks to their daughter-in-law Betsey Johnson Cammon’s wonderful book, Island Memoir.

            There are even more talents that germinated from McNeil’s magical soil, as harp guitars, writer’s blog, and magazine articles all attest to the talents that sprang from the uniquely isolated island. Han’s great-granddaughter Jean Cammon Findlay, descended through his son Oscar and Betsey, and Findaly’s blog http://www.harpguitars.net/knutsen/harmonyinthefamily.htm goes into great detail about the talents of her family, which grew out of McNeil Island. Findlay did a lot of her genealogical research using local resources such as the Anderson Island Historical Society and other local non-profits. She discovered so much data the Tacoma-Pierce County Genealogical Society (TPGC) published her article about the Kammen’s in their publication, The Researcher; which is a neat historic journal that really deserves public support for keeping our communities alive by connecting us with our roots. 

       The Cammon’s are only one of many former McNeil Islanders with stories to tell that impact today. In fact, today in Lakewood, the McNeil Island Retirees Association is having a picnic to reminisce about good times on the island. McNeil is very much alive and still giving to the local community. Just as the old Johnson house still stands, several other settler houses that were lovingly tended and remodeled over the years, are awaiting rebirth so that they might house new island families, all involved in full lives shared on their special island, just as those who have gone before have done. 

            Really bringing this concept of community home was an email to the McNeil Island Historical Society from former island resident Marge Karpen, who lived on McNeil from 1948- 1965, over lapping with one my family’s tours there. In her email Marge noted how particularly close-knit the McNeil community was and still is, as they keep up via Face Book and get-togethers. She went on to say that she now lives on another Puget sound island, because “Once an island girl, always an island girl” and this writer whole heartedly agrees!