Page 8 - Newsletter Spring 2023

Settler family establishes first south Whidbey school and post office
Michael and Mary Lyons settle at what is now Maxwelton

Long before the Mackie brothers ‘Nellie,’ and a second daughter, Mary, order against the Island County sher-
bought land in 1905 that they would in 1859. Like many others, they headed iff in order not to be served with lien
name Maxwelton... before a wharf was west: far west to Washington Territory. papers on their exempt homestead, that
built in 1908 and a store was run by By 1860, they had arrived at Port they had, in fact, not yet homesteaded.
James Montgomery... before the Chau- Ludlow (whether by wagon train or Then, in April 1875 tragedy struck.
tauquas that were held there in 1910... ship is not known). For several years At age 35, Ellen died. The day before,
there was the first settler family in the Michael worked as an engineer at the she made her mark on a will that left
area: Michael and Mary Lyons. Port Ludlow Mill. In the mid 1860s he her property and possessions to her
Michael Lyons, along with neighbor built the Lyons Hotel in Port Ludlow husband, including 551 acres on South
Robert Bailey, established south Whid- and ran a thriving business, with assets Whidbey, 360 acres in Jefferson Coun-
bey’s first school district in 1883 and set of $5,000 (worth $115,000 today). ty, and 120 acres in Kitsap County.
up a school in a log cabin at the back Ellen bought several tracts of land In 1876 or 1877 Michael married Mary
of the Lyons home located just west of on south Whidbey beginning in 1870 Mullen, and with the younger children
the bluff, likely near where the dock was from logger Luther L. Moore. (See moved to south Whidbey, establishing a
later built in 1908. side article on the next page.) farm and a logging operation there.
Michael became the area’s first post- The Port Ludlow census of that year Mary subsequently gave birth to four
master in 1884, as well as a Justice of lists several boarders with the Lyons children on south Whidbey.
the Peace. family, including a 21-year-old school- The following is a quote from the Is-
Life on south Whidbey was a world teacher named Mary Mullen (McMul- land County School record book Feb.
away from his immigrant beginnings. len on some census records), who was 5, 1883 – “I have this day granted the
Michael Joseph Lyons (born in Coun- from Connecticut. By then Ellen had petition of M.J. Lyons and 9 others for
ty Cork Ireland in 1833) and his first given birth to a son, Michael “Frank” a new school district at Skagit Head
wife Ellen Deneen (born 1840) survived and a third daughter, Annie. bounded as follows: all of Whidby Is-
the Irish potato famine as children, then The Lyons Hotel burned down in land south of the line between TWP 29
sailed to the United States in the mid November 1871, but was rebuilt. and 30N or from Sandy Point to Bush
1850s, landing at Boston, MA. In 1872, Ellen gave birth to a second Point #8″ – J. Ely, Supt. of Schools.
There they met and married and in son, Charles, then a daughter, Eliza- On May 31, 1883 M. J. Lyons and
1857, 17-year-old Ellen Lyons gave beth “Maud” in 1873. Cultus Bay neighbor Robert S. Bailey
birth to a daughter, Ellen, nicknamed In 1874, Ellen gave birth to twin were appointed school directors.
girls, Pauline and Josephine. A series of articles by Cora Cook
That was the year that the was published in the 1951 Whidbey Re-
Lyons sold the hotel to Mi- cord, including her account of this first
chael’s business partner and school on South Whidbey.
the family moved to Victoria “On Nov. 6, 1883 school opened in
on Vancouver Island. an old log house that stood in back of
The older Lyons girls had the Lyons house near the west side of
been attending St. Ann’s the bluff. As far as can be determined
Convent School there, and the Lyons house was in the area we
Maxwelton three of the younger daugh- now call Maxwelton.
ters (including the twin girls) “The Lyons children and two Bailey
would later attend the school children attended that first school. One
and become nuns. of the Bailey children was Laura who
Schoolteacher Mary Mul- later became Laura Jewett.”
len moved to Victoria with the According to Cook’s article, Miss
Lyons family, likely to help Hannah Condon was the first teacher
Per the 1875 will of Ellen Lyons, the gray areas of Ellen with her 9 children. of the school, however another account
property, comprising 551 acres on South Whidbey, That year, Luther and Fran- has a Mr. Clark as the first teacher. This
were left to her husband, Michael, who added to ces Moore brought a civil suit log cabin was likely a loggers cabin
the acreage over the years that he and his second against the Lyons, and the that was perhaps first used by Luther
wife, Mary, lived on Whidbey. They sold 800 acres
to a Seattle realtor in 1890 and moved to Seattle. Lyons sought a restraining Moore.
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