HISTORY AT A GLANCE

Florence Waldrip was born in November 1893, in her Aunt Mary's house at the head of Oyster Bay. Her father, Joe Waldrip, owned the Olympia Oyster Company in partnership with W. H. Kneeland.

In an interview with the Journal in October 1976, Florence recalled her early life at Oyster Bay and New Kamilche.

For several years, Joe and his wife, Zora, raised their family on a houseboat in the middle of Oyster Bay.

"There were three children and no railing on the porch, so we had to learn to mind our folks," Florence told the Journal. "The house was constructed with two bedrooms, a kitchen in the middle, and a cull shed on the other end where the men would scrape the barnacles off the oysters."

When the oldest child, Sarah, was of an age to attend school, the family moved to New Kamilche.

"I suppose my father must have moved our furniture on the float, but the thing I remember is that he had an Indian canoe and Mama sat in the back holding our baby brother, William. Papa kept close to the beach so we could see the rocks and so if we tipped over, we wouldn't drown. I was about 4 or 5 and I remember watching the trees as we moved along. It seemed like those trees were walking."

Joe had bought his family a house in New Kamilche.

"New Kamilche had a post office, a store, and two hotels. They had already moved most of the houses away by the time we moved there. A great big boat with large wheels on both sides would often stop at New Kamilche to pick up rafts of logs from the Rollway and haul them out. It was a Russian battleship that had been bought when the U.S. purchased Alaska. There were still large guns on it."

When the family traveled to Olympia, they went on Joe's launch, "Polly," which was also how he transported oysters.

"Papa had some harrowing experiences," Florence said. "He was taking a load of oysters to Olympia on Polly and when he got to the mouth of Mud Bay, a big wind came up. He had such a big load that he knew he was going to sink, so he had to dump his oysters into the bay in order to save himself and the launch. He had another boat called Grace, and he was coming from Allyn in it when it caught fire. He was out in the middle of the bay, so tied his oars together, took his shoes off and tied them to the oars, and swam to shore. The boat burned to the water line.

"Papa and Mr. Kneeland had a lot of Chinese men working in the oysters. From the 1890s to the 1900s, there were mostly Chinese and Indians living on the bay besides the few white people. One man who worked for Papa was Tom Kei. If we children ever needed help with anything, we'd go to Tom.

"Well, when Tom got to around 65 or 70 he decided he wanted a wife and family. There was a Japanese family at Mud Bay who had a lot of children. The folks decided to go back to Japan but they couldn't afford to take all the children, so they were giving some away. But Tom first had to have a wife. He went to Seattle to see a rich Chinese man, and that man gave his daughter to Tom.

"Tom's wife was a lot younger than he was, and they went over to get a boy from the Japanese family. They came home in the boat with this little boy, and when they got home, they found out it was a little girl. They kept her anyway, and she was the only little Oriental girl in the area. She became 'Queen of the Bay.' Everyone treated her special. When she wanted to go play with someone across the bay, she would just holler and someone would go pick her up and take her where she wanted to go. She sat in the back of the boat like a little queen and gave orders.

"Her name was Nellie. Sometimes when she had to go home she would get upset and pout and old Tom would say, 'Oh, Nellie, he mad,' because she was supposed to be a boy. Later on, old Tom adopted his nephew, so he finally had a son."

When Florence's sister was ready for college, Joe bought a house in Seattle, and the family lived there while Sarah attended the university. Florence went on to marry Gene Taylor, of S. K. Taylor and Son Oyster Company, and they raised their two sons in the Kamilche Valley.

Jan Parker is a researcher for the Mason County Historical Museum. She can be reached at [email protected]. Membership in the Mason County Historical Society is $25 per year. New members will receive a free copy of the book "Shelton, the First Century Plus Ten."