Page 2 - FINAL EARLY SPRING 2019 SWHS Newsletter

Stores, continued Maxwelton dock and Montgomery’s Maxwelton Grocery, circa 1910

(likely murdered by a hired man ac-
cording to a later account), and the
village slowly disappeared. It was
overtaken by the growing village of
Clinton located four miles north.

Dockside Stores
In the late 1890s and early 1900s
dockside stores allowed loggers and
new settlers to purchase essential sup-
plies locally, rather than having to trav-
el to Port Townsend or Everett.
Post offices were usually a part of
these stores as well, and a mail contract
was a boon to the owner as it offered a
steady source of federal money.
Boats were able to pull alongside
stores such as the 1901 socialist Co-
operative Store in Freeland, which This false-front Maxwelton Grocery and
was built on a dock just below the hill post office was located at the entrance
where Freeland Hall now stands. to the Maxwelton dock which the Mackie
The nearby Harbor Cash Store was brothers built in 1908.
built by Hudson and Sarah Spencer at The store was built and operated by
the head of Holmes Harbor. Though James Edgar Montgomery and his wife,
originally situated on the land side of Sara. They moved to Maxwelton in 1905.
the Harbor, it was moved over the wa-
ter in 1917 to be accessible by dock. Note the not-yet-covered amphitheater The Chautauquas ended when the ‘Big
Other stores were built but a short for the Chautauqua at right. Estimates Snow of 1916’ collapsed the roof over the
distance from a nearby dock where put the seating capacity at about 4,000, amphitheater.
passenger boats arrived daily. These which was huge, considering there were The passenger steamer Columbia pro-
included: only 12 families living in the Maxwelton vided service to Maxwelton from Seattle
• Glendale Store built by the Pecks area at the time. and Everett for about 35 cents.
about 1900,
• an initial store built by Clinton
founder Henry Hinman and a later
Union Store built in 1903,
• Maxwelton Grocery operated by
J.E. Montgomery about 1908,
• Mutiny Bay Store operated by P.
H. Cookson in Austin about 1910,
• Bush Point Mercantile built 1914
• Possession Store built by Charles
and Mabel Payne in the 1920s
The earliest store in Langley, built
by Jacob Anthes in 1891, was located
just up the hill from the dock.
Though not accessible by passenger
boat service, shallow draft boats could
pull up to the warehouse dock of the
original Bay View Store in 1908 via
a channel at Useless Bay where Lone
Lake used to flow into Deer Lagoon.

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