Page 4 - FINAL EARLY SPRING 2019 SWHS Newsletter

he replaced Anthes as postmaster in
1904. Prices on Whidbey Island in 1908:
Ed Howard was also one of the own-
ers of the Olympic Club (now the Dog • Potatoes: 75 cents to $1 a sack, • postcard: 1 cent
House). He also built a hotel where seed potatoes $1.50 a sack • a pair of work shoes: $3
the current Inn at Langley is now. The • A 200 pound barrel of flour was • a dozen eggs: 10 cents
Howard family was very industrious $3.50 • milk: 5 cents a quart
and soon had a variety of businesses in • a 100 pound sack of sugar: $4 The working day was 10 hours and
Langley. • a gallon of kerosene: 5 cents paid $2.50 to $3 per day.
• a pound of ranch butter was 15
Funk Mercantile cents – from “The Langleyites of Whidbey
Fred Funk, an immigrant from Den- • a postage stamp: 2 cents Island 1899-1921” by William McGinnis
mark in 1865, was recruited from
Marysville in 1910 to operate a gen-
eral store on the west side of Anthes Definitions:
Avenue south of Howard’s Store. Trading post: an early form of store in a
The Funk Mercantile became the Company store: a store at the site of log- sparsely populated area where trappers
town’s main general store after both the ging operations that was owned by the
Anthes Store burned in 1910 and the company. (Classic Road logging camp had and farmers could sell or exchange furs
and produce for manufactured items in
Howard store burned in 1911. one.) Nationally, such stores had a repu- limited supply.
Funk is credited with bringing the tation of high prices and credit that kept
first gasoline pumps to Langley in 1915, workers in debt. Mercantile: a larger store with set hours
including the first underground tanks. Corner Grocery: Usually a ‘Mom and Pop’ offering wide inventory, plus items for
Like other merchants, he was very in- store at a country road intersection that also livestock. Often included a post office.
volved in civic affairs and was Langley offered refreshments and gasoline.
mayor for two terms.

The 1910 building was located
on the site that now houses the
Langley Whale Center.

Fred Funk on the porch with his wife, Mathilda, and several of their six children.
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