1312 East 65th - A personal connection

The little white house at 1310 NE 65th Street, with the former Åkerlund house to the right. Undated image courtesty of King County Department of Assessments

In 1986, a friend and I rented the little white house at 1310 NE 65th Street, next door to the former Åkerlund house. Our landlord was Hugh Sisley. I hesitate to mention that name. I might as well say "Voldemort". But in 1986 the house was still in good shape, and quite charming.

Mrs. Peterman lived in the former Åkerlund house. I don't remember much about her, except that she was nice and that she had a Maine coon cat named Elliot whom we adored. She told us, more than once, that the man who used to own our house kept his yard looking "just like a park". (My guilty conscience might have only imagined the significant glances. We were good tenants, but essentially apartment-dwellers who had no experience with yard work. Fortunately, our other next-door neighbor, Bob, mowed our lawn for us.)

I was sad, but not surprised, to learn that Hugh Sisley had acquired 1312. It's subsequently suffered the degenerative fate of all Hugh houses. I won't be posting a "now" photo of the house. It makes me too angry.

"... the happiest in her life." - 1312 East 65th - August, Anna, and Glen Åkerlund

House built: 1910
BEG 429.32 FT W & 36.35 FT N OF SE SEC COR TH N 102 FT TH W 30 FT TH S 102 FT TH E 30 FT TO BEG
Plat Block: ?
Plat Lot: ?
1910 Address: 1312 East 65th
Current address: 1312 NE 65th

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August Åkerlund, age 34, born in Sweden, house carpenter
Anna Åkerlund, age 31, born in Sweden
Glen Åkerlund, age 2, born in Washington

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Anna, August, and Glen Akerlund, circa 1910 - reproduced with kind permission from Anders and Inga Åkerlund

August Åkerlund was 29 years old and single when he sailed from Liverpool to Boston on the S. S. Saxonia in May of 1905. He listed his trade as "carpenter", had $250 in his possession, and was headed for Minneapolis. According to the ship's manifest, he'd been to the US once before, in Chicago.

On 11 May, 1907, he married Swedish-born Anna Gustafson in Minneapolis. Some time later they moved to Seattle. On 14 August 1908, Anna gave birth to her first son, Glen Oskar.

Inga Åkerlund, Glen's daughter-in-law, wrote to me that the family returned to Sweden in 1912. August had promised his parents that he would return to care for them when they could no longer manage their small farm. "They actually had tickets for returning with Titanic," she wrote, "but must wait for new booking". August struggled with the farm, but returned to his profession as a carpenter. The family moved to Västerås for the sake of Glen's education.

Glen was ordained in 1936, and went on to become a dean in the Västerås diocese. He died on 23 January, 2003, at the age of 95. Read more about him (translated, or in the original Swedish).

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The public record of the Åkerlund family's life in the United States is practically non-existent, limited to the census record from 1910, the marriage record, the ship's manifest. I haven't been able to find a directory listing for them, nor any mention of them in the newspapers.

This photograph makes up for any perceived loss. It's a beautiful portrait of a young family and their new home, and a rare glimpse of a neighborhood young enough to still have space to breathe.

Anna once told Inga that "the years in America were the happiest in her life." I'm grateful to Inga and Anders Åkerlund for sharing this treasure.

The Recently Departed, Part II - 816 E. 67th - Robert, Fannie, and Johanna Hilts, and Oran Harper

House built: 1901
Woodlawn Add to Green Lake
Plat Block: 52
Plat Lot: 9
1910 Address: 816 E 67th
Current address: Demolished late August – early September 2014

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Robert Loren Hilts, age 51, married 30 years, carpenter, born in Oregon to Canadian-born David Hilts and Indiana Hilts (born in Indiana).
Fannie NORMAN Hilts, age 50, born in Missouri to Saul Norman (born in Indiana) and Hepzibah FRAKER Norman (born in Missouri).
Joanna Hilts, daughter, age 18, single, born in Washington, working as a salesman (sic) in a department store.
Oran Harper, step-grandson, age 12, born in Missouri, birthplace of parents unknown.

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Photo taken 20 August 2014

Undated photo courtesy of the King County Department of Assessments

Let's just put this out there right now. Fannie Norman Hilts lived to be 99 years old, and if she'd held on a month and a half longer, she would have lived to be 100. She was born on 22 February, 1860, in Gentryville, MO. Her father was killed during the Civil War, fighting for the Union Army. "My people helped free the slaves," she told a reporter from the Seattle Times. In the same interview, she also mentioned hearing the guns booming during the Battle of Charleston (Missouri). Since she would have been less than two years old, I suspect it was a family story, told so often, and in such detail, that it assumed the solidity of memory for her.

The Times story includes her photo. She's a pretty, round-cheeked, bright-eyed lady who could more easily pass for 67 than 97. She outlived her husband and four of her five children, but she appears unbowed by grief. She worked from age 5 – "taking care of babies near Unionville, MO. Later I dropped (seeded) corn. When I was 10 I did housework." – but she regretted her failing hearing and eyesight because it prevented her from working.

Work – constant, physical, and at any job that came to hand – was reality, was life. Robert Hilts began his (official, recorded) working life as a carpenter in Union County, Oregon. He married Fannie, whose family had come to Oregon in a wagon train, in November of 1879. By the 1887 Washington Territory census, the family was farming in Stevens County. He also served as County Commissioner in 1892.

In 1904, the family moved to Seattle, and to the house at 816 E. 67th. Robert's occupations ranged from farmer to carpenter to timber clearing contractor and logger. He died in Darrington, WA, on 23 May 1916, at age 60.

Fannie lived with her children after that – with a son, Rupert Leelen Hilts, who was a fisherman in Wrangell, Alaska; with a daughter, Lena, whose husband was a dealer in wood; with Joanna. She died in 1960, in a nursing home, after a long illness.

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A word about Oran Harper, the "step-grandson": it appears his father was Stanford Harper and his mother was Amanda Jane (or Manda, or Mandy Jane) Norman. I couldn't find a connection between Amanda Jane's family and Fannie's. Maybe I just didn't look hard enough, or in the right places. For now, he will remain a mysterious presence.

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A word about footnotes: blogger keeps breaking them, even when I make wholly-unrelated-to-footnotes edits. So I am kicking the footnotes to the curb. See my sources below.

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Sources:

"Child Who Heard Guns Boom in Civil War Turns 97th Birthday Leaf Here", The Seattle Times, February 24, 1957

"Mrs. Robert L. Hilts, 99, Pioneer, Dies", The Seattle Times, January 15, 1960