Our mission is to record, preserve, interpret, and display the history of Kingston, Washington
Week 1
The first week of working on the projects for the Kingston Historical Society was interesting. In March, I attended a monthly meeting of the society up at the Village Green in Kingston, which is attached to the library. The meeting included a good deal of storytelling by members who reminisced about days past—one story involved the origin story of the snakes that live in a certain area around the ferry dock. The members were thrilled to have me (or anyone) helping them with research as their numbers are dwindling and they are concerned for the organization’s future.
After the meeting, I met with my sponsor at the Kitsap Regional Library (KRL), Leigh Ann Winterowd, who is a vivacious, welcoming regional manager. We talked about our goals for the project and writing the learning outcomes. She also asked if I might be interested in attending the Tribal Library Summit at the Washington Library Association conference in April, and I jumped at the chance.
This first official week included a lot of setting parameters and organizing files. I have had contact with Dana Goodfellow, who oversees the 4th of July committee. She asked for a list of Grand Marshals for the 4th of July Kingston parade, which is the longest running parade west of the Mississippi River. Dee McKinnon of the Historical Society handed me a file at the meeting, which included handwritten notes and physical copies of photographs of several Grand Marshals over the years. They really, though, have not given me any other parameters. I photographed the artifacts and handed the file back to Lee Ann.
Twice this week I have traveled to the Sylvan Way branch of KRL to look through the archives on microfilm (I thought they were on microfiche, but it turns out they are on microfilm, which are on reels, rather than sheets.) I was surprised that the employee who unlocked the cabinet for me so that I could start my search simply told me I was allowed three films at a time and set me loose. It’s a good thing that I’m fairly tech-y, as they did not show me how it works. (See Fig. 1)
I chose mid-eighties years of the Bremerton Sun and figured out how to use the microfilm machine. I didn’t find anything on the first few reels and was starting to feel discouraged when I noticed there were also files of the North Kitsap County Herald, so I asked to choose films from those drawers. The first few employees who I asked to help me seemed rather annoyed that I kept coming up to change out films, but luckily, at a shift change the attitudes changed and the new employees were more than happy to help me. One even gave me some tips about how to better adjust the machine.
The Kitsap County Herald was the winner and I started finding the 4th of July parade news. I quickly realized, though, that I needed a system for recording what I was finding. Unfortunately, the first day I did not have a thumb drive with me, so I had to take photos of the articles with my phone, which are not very clear, but I wanted to have a record. I set up a Google Sheets form that tracks the names and origins of the articles and photos. (See Fig. 2) and a Google Drive that can house copies of the artifacts. (See Fig. 3)
I am hoping by giving 2 research days a week and a third to proper archiving per week, I can complete this 4th of July project within 4 weeks.
Week 2
This second week was as busy as the last, with the first part of the week spent at the Sylvan Way branch of KRL with the microfilm researching the 4th of July Grand Masters. We discovered, after I sent the tracking documents to Dana Goodfellow of the 4th of July committee, that the jpg files I had created on my first KRL visit did not save with a resolution that was sufficient for reading, so my first hours were spent going back through the reels from the 1980s and resaving those files as pdfs, which save very clearly. See Fig. 4 for an example of the clarity of files saved to PDF. It was a learning moment for me, if discouraging to have to trace back through the years I thought I had finished.
I was able to make it through half of the reels (basically the 1960-1980s) in this particular file drawer for the Kitsap County Herald (KCH) (See Fig. 5). I also did some research online and was able to find information on the Persons of the Year in the 2020s. I believe there is more information to be found online, but the KCH has a paywall after 3 articles, so I will need to find a log-in or pay for any further research.
The second part of the week, I traveled to the National Archives (NARA) in Seattle on Sandpoint Way to start researching rumrunners who were arrested in Kitsap County during prohibition. Dee from the Kingston Historical Society had given me a printout of files that I could start with that NARA had provided in 2021, from which I made my list (See Fig. 6). I corresponded with Eric Flores who informed me of the steps I would need to take to do research at the Seattle Branch. First, all researchers need to take a training regarding how to handle records. The training is online and takes about 30 minutes. When you have completed the training, you receive a certificate, which you bring with you to your first appointment. Eric pulled files for me so that they were ready when I arrived. The staff at the desk made my researcher card and set me up with my cart of boxes (See Fig. 7).
Though I was there for many hours, I was only able to look through files from 2 boxes. It is a time consuming process. I took photos of dozens of documents, though across the several hundred documents I perused, I saw only two direct mentions of Kitsap county. Given the amount of material I am tasked to go through, I quickly realized that my time at the archives would be better spent recording any document that I thought my be relevant so that I can fully read them later. If I read every document in the file, I would have to be there for months. I'm positive that I will learn how to do this more efficiently as I go on. I was able to do a little bit of research on the NARA site online as well. I am afraid there may not be very much material that mention Kitsap County, but there is plenty of material on Seattle and Vancouver, as well as some information about coastal Oregon. I will be setting up a Google drive for the photos I have taken of these documents, as well as a Google Sheets tracker, similar to the one I created for the 4th of July.
Week 3
This week I have spent a good deal of time organizing photo drives. I discovered, at the National Archives, that it’s imperative that I do not spend too much time on any one document. It is difficult not to get sucked into the stories that are unfolding as I read. For example, in Fig. 8, I began reading articles about Chinese opium dealers which mentioned Vashon Island, where I currently live. It was difficult not to want to spend time reading each of these documents out of pure interest. I learned to quickly snap photos of each artifact after scanning for mentions of rum runners or Kitsap County. Fortunately, I was able to move through the boxes a bit faster this week. I made it through 8 of the 9 boxes I had pulled before the research room closed at 4pm. Unfortunately, again, there were very few mentions of Kitsap and none of Kingston in particular, though Port Townsend and Port Angeles were noted quite a few times (See Fig. 9)
I continued researching the 4th of July Grand Masters as well on the Microfilm at Sylvan Way, making it through almost the end of the rolls—I have 3 left. There are quite a few gaps, many years where there are no articles about the 4th of July in Kingston at all. When I’ve finished with the Kitsap County Herald rolls, I may try some of the Bremerton Suns again, of which there are many many years in the filing cabinets. One of the librarians showed me where there were gigantic tomes of physical copies of the papers (See Fig. 10). I was hoping there would be copies of the years that were missing from microfilm, but, alas, they were the originals from years that are already on microfilm.
An incredible gift this past week was an invitation to join Leigh Ann at the Tribal Libraries Summit, as one of her librarians could not attend. I was honored to be included as an observer, as one of KRL’s branches is on the Port Gamble S’Kallam Reservation. There were only 6 tribal libraries represented this year, and most of them were about to lose their IMLS funding, so it was a sober gathering. The librarians who were hosting the meeting, from the State Library, had just been notified that they were losing their jobs. But everyone who attended the meeting believes in libraries and as one person said (I am paraphrasing), “We are a resilient people. We have been through much worse. We will find another way.” Each of the libraries shared stories of the programming they are working on, from teaching native arts to working on storytelling projects. I met some incredible people who are doing good work out there. Let’s hope they can continue doing so without federal funding.
Week 4
This week I attempted to wrap up the 4th of July Grand Marshal research, but I've been unable to fill in several gaps in information. I have 3 reels left from the Kitsap County Herald at the Sylvan Way branch, but they are from the early 1900s, and thus far, there have been spare mentions of the Kingston festivities. Next week, I will attempt to look through some of the other papers in the files, but I don't hold a lot of hope regarding those archives, as they don't often cover the Kingston area. I will visit with the genealogy center as well to see if they have any leads.
I was able to do quite a bit on online research as well. I purchased a one month membership to the Kitsap Daily News online and was able to find articles for many of the most recent years (2007 +), but there were still many years wherein I could find no information. I discovered there was a website, which is now defunct, called www.kingston4thofjuly.com. I checked the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine and was excited to find captures of the site from 2012-2019 (See Fig. 11), but was ultimately disappointed, as there is no mention for any of those years about Grand Marshals or Persons of the Year. The best lead I found was a phone number for a parade coordinator. I think perhaps, if there is a desire to go further with this research, someone might start with her. I've entered links for all of this information in the tracking document.
I also created a Google Drive for the Rum Runner information I gathered at the National Archives. See Fig. 12 for a link to that drive. I also initiated a Dublin Core archive for these documents, but, upon consulting with the Kingston Historical Society, I do not believe they wish for me to spend my time with an archive of this sort. I attended the monthly meeting of the KHS but, unfortunately, there were only two other members who attended. They were unsure of what the agenda might be for the meeting, so I showed them my work and asked questions. I was mainly interested in what they were hoping to learn through my research. The attendees were unsure, but they were able to find a display that a previous member put together regarding Kingston rum runners (See Fig 13). I asked that the members connect me with the person who created the display so that I might get a better idea of what they are hoping to find through my research. In the meantime, I am continuing to organize the files and flag any mentions I find of the Kitsap region.
Week 5
Halfway through the semester, I feel like I have made good progress with the 4th of July research. This week I spoke to Elisabeth, one of the Public Service Assistants at the Sylvan Way branch of KRL, and we discussed other possibilities for information outside of the Kitsap County Herald. I finished looking at the reel available for the KCH, then moved to the Bremerton Sun. Though I was unable to find more than an ad here and there for the Kingston Parade, I was able to find more articles through the online archive through ProQuest from both the Bremerton Sun and the Kitsap Sun. See Fig. 14 for a screen shot of that archive. Next week, we intend to check the physical archives, which they mostly have stored in the back, out of public view. Elisabeth told me they are about to do away with many of those resources, so I am arriving at a good time.
Elisabeth suggested that I also try the Kitsap Historical Museum in Bremerton as well as the Poulsbo Historical Society. I will try both of these resources in the coming weeks to see if they have further information.
I received an email from De', the president of the Historical Society, asking how my research was going. She agreed with the other members that my time was better suited to more research rather than creating metadata for the artifacts I have logged. She also let me know that there are a few names I should be looking for in the National Archives:
"the Brazeau family claims their ancestor ran a prohibition boat called the "Gizmo." And another family, Ramstead, claims their ancestor went to prison for rum running. We're interested in any arrests, trials, and/or deportations of individuals from the Kingston area. All pictures are of great value."
This information definitely helps in my research, as I will now know what names to keep an eye out for. I have also made a list of the names and information I gathered from the KHS's rum runner display (See Fig. 15). These names will inform my next visit to the National Archives next week.
Week 6
I came to the end of what I think I am going to be able to do for the Kington 4th of July Parade committee. I have looked through all of the Kitsap County Herald, the Kitsap Sun and the Bremerton Sun reels at the Sylvan Way Library as well as online. I have scoured Facebook and local blogs, yet there are still gaps where I have been unable to find mentions of the Grand Masters or Persons of the Year, though most years I was able to find blurbs about the festivities. It is easy to get side-tracked while researching. For example, I found in the Bremerton Sun’s 1962 July issue, an article about how women never look as good in their bathing suits as the girls in the advertisements! I also saw another blurb regarding women “invading” the Montreal Stock Exchange. It is imperative to focus on the task at hand and not to read every incredible article you find.
In a last-ditch effort, I have a call into the Kitsap Historical Society to see if they have any leads. But with just a few weeks left, I feel it is important to turn my attention more fully to the rum runner project.
I was at the National Archives this week again and did not have very much luck with the boxes I had pulled. I had a discussion with Eric Flores (a UW iSchool graduate!), who I have been corresponding with throughout. He notified me that they had just organized the dockets from the courts in the 20s and 30s and he wondered if I would like to look through them. Just before I left for the day, I thought I might as well. Most of the files had nothing of interest, but right at the end, I hit the jackpot. This was the rare mentions throughout my search wherein Kitsap, and Bremerton in particular, is mentioned. See Fig. 16 for a photo of some those documents.
Next week I will be searching the final boxes regarding the Prohibition Era that the National Archives has available. Eric, though, has suggested that I might want to search next through the McNeil Island records if I think that anyone I come across has served time there. I can see that I will only be able to do a fraction of what I had hoped to accomplish in these 10 weeks. I was certainly feeling overly optimistic when I suggested I might be able to take on a third project.
Week 7
I was unable to get through all of the boxes at the National Archive this week (I searched through Box 26 out of 32), though I found a file that is exactly what we were looking for, minus any photographs. RG56 Box 25 holds records of what the authorities named--unimaginatively-- the "Kitsap Case". The file is chock full of references to Kitsap--including Poulsbo, Silverdale, Bremerton, and, finally, Kingston. Apparently there was a man named Todhunter who ran a notorious still out of the Kingston area. The files name local witnesses and even offer narratives regarding where vats, copper piping, and sugar were purchased. There are stories via an informant named Einar Oas (what a name!) wherein he explains who was involved and what they were doing day by day. The case is built around Oas's testimony.
I spent a great deal of time this week, rather than finishing up my search, in organizing files. This is a time-consuming process wherein I upload the documents I've photographed into the Google Drive folders I've set up, look through and fully read each document, then add the record to the tracking document to note if the photo has any reference to Kitsap. If the artifact is relevant it is tracked under "RG 56 Puget Sound" or "RG0021 Puget Sound". If the document has no direct local references, it is cataloged under "Files with no Kitsap Reference". See Fig. 17 for screenshots of the various sheets.
Though I discussed with the KHS not spending time fully cataloging the items, creating taxonomies and adding metadata, I realized that if I did not at least add filepaths to my tracking sheets, the photographs might just sit there in the drive forever without the KHS understanding where/ what they have. I feel it is worth the time to at least make basic sense of what I've gathered for the group. This is a project which, if done correctly, could take months, perhaps even years to catalog, but I'm giving it my best shot considering the time constraints.
I decided to include both the filepath for the original file each photo is in, as well as the filepath to the "Flagged as Puget Sound" copies. As stated in an earlier post, I made copies of each of the documents that mention the Kitsap area and put those copies in a separate file for ease of searching through them. But I realized that anyone searching these documents might want to know the original file the documents came from (should anyone need to go back to the archives for further reasearch). It did take quite a bit of time to track in this way, but I think future researchers will thank me for this bit of information. See Fig. 18 for examples of where the files can be found according to the tracking document. I have highlighted any direct reference to Kingston in yellow.
Week 8
This week entailed going to the last meeting that I will attend for the Kingston Historical Society. It was slightly larger than last month's meeting, with 5 people in attendance, though there was not very much to talk about as the group is still in a bit of a lull. We talked quite a bit about the work I have done for them. I shared the documents, though no one seemed particularly interested in looking at the drive or the tracking files. They simply wanted me to know what I had discovered.
I had had some success in contacting the Kitsap Historical Museum. One of the staff members there, Lisa Hope, who is the Director of Marketing & Development, said she lives in Kingston and was happy to look into their archives for the 4th of July Grand Marshals. It turns out there is (or was) a Kingston Community News paper (that I had not previously found), so Lisa was able to find the names of 2 GMs in that paper, which is in their archives. Her emails states, "We have copies of the Kingston Community News from 1984-1993 so I went through those. Sorry we don't have anything on the parade going back further." I was very happy to have any help at all in this search.
I had no luck when I checked in with the Poulsbo Historical Society, as suggested by Elizabeth, the library assistant at the Sylvan Way branch of KRL. They looked through their archives for any mention of the parade in Kingston, but only found one button, no articles.
I did suggest that someone from either the KHS or the Kingston Parade Committee try calling Christine Connors, the Parade Coordinator for 2012 to see if she remembers any of the missing years. Perhaps she has her own archives?
I have mostly moved on to the rum runner research. I went again to the National Archives and searched through the remaining boxes that I did not have time for last week. Unfortunately there was very little about Kingston in this last group, unlike last week. That Einar Oas file was the best find of the whole research process.
At the KHS meeting, I gave them the names of some of the rum runners I had read about in the files, including Todhunter and Hoff. I promised to spend the last 2 weeks of this DFW extracting as much information about Kitsap rum runners as possible and working them into a narrative so that they do not have to dig through the files for information. See Fig. 19 for a list of accomplices I found in the Kitsap County case.
Luckily, my sponsor, Leigh Ann, was in her office when the meeting was finished, so I was able to say a quick hello and thank you to her, as we are unlikely to see each other in person again. I was excited to find she may be using some of my research as part of a book group she is putting together for Jess Water's novel The Cold Millions, which is set in the Northwest during the early 1900s. She was kind enough to give me a copy as well. Perhaps I can lead her to the artifacts which are relevant to this novel.
Week 9
I said goodbye to the staff at the National Archives this week. They were incredibly helpful, pulling out anything they thought might be of use to me. I did not take a lot of time to read each artifact in detail as I snapped a photo. I developed, over these weeks, a keen eye for scanning a document for any mention of Kitsap County, Puget Sound, or in particular Kingston. The "K" is an easy letter to look for, as it is uncommon, so I was able to catch many circumstances where Kingston or Kitsap were mentioned.
The rest of this week was all about cleaning up the files for the research I have done. I added columns for the File numbers, which I had originally omitted on the the Google tracking sheet. See Fig. 20 for a screenshot of that updated document. I also spent a good deal of time cleaning up the file names, adding commas and periods so that they all track correctly, should someone else decide to take up this work.
The largest task I took on this week was reading through each of the Kingston-flagged documents in order to pull out names for the Kingston Historical Society regarding what I have learned. I discovered at the meeting last week that no one on the committee has the time or inclination to go through the documents themselves, so it is imperative that I extract the information they are looking for from the documents. See Fig 21 for a glance at that ongoing document that I am working on. I intend to submit this document with my final report to the Kingston Historical Society.
Week 10