Page 2 - 2022 SWHS Spring Newsletter for website

an energetic and enterprising busi-
nessman.”
On his deathbed, while suffering a
painful intestinal obstruction, he dic-
tated a will in which he left his surviv-
ing siblings $1,500 apiece, plus equal
division in the sale of his estate.
Initially, the inheritances were to be
made in a lump sum, except for the
special provision made for his younger
brother, John, which stipulated that his
inheritance be disbursed in monthly $30
installments until it was exhausted. Ev-
idently Arthur did not believe it to be in
John’s best interest to give him all his
inheritance at once.
Arthur’s memorial was a grand send-
off with 11 steamboats chartered to Most of South Whidbey's early logging camps floated logs to the Amos, Phinney and
Port Ludlow for the occasion. About Co. Mill at Port Ludlow (shown above in 1865) as well as to Pope and Talbot’s Mill at
1,200 people were in attendance with nearby Port Gamble. Much of the lumber was shipped by schooner to San Francisco
a procession of 140 Freemasons as for a post-gold rush building boom.
his 900 lb. metal casket was loaded At that time it was filled with Doug- of a Snohomish sub-chief. Their story
onto his barkentine schooner, the For- las fir, hemlock and cedar. As was the was covered in the Summer 2020 Now
est Queen. The cortège sailed to Port practice in those days, only the portion and Then newsletter.)
Townsend and from there the body of the old growth trees about ten feet After Arthur’s death, James went
continued through Admiralty Inlet and up from the ground to the first branches back east at age 50 to marry and then
down the coast to a Masonic Cemetery were used. The rest was left to decay, returned to Seattle, where he owned
in San Francisco. or until a use was found decades later several properties.

Remaining Brothers... James and John when brush-cutters filled barges with The handling of Arthur’s estate by
Younger brother James F. Phinney branches to be used as landfill for the the executors was bitterly contested by
had come to Port Ludlow to work in his wharves being built at Seattle. John who alleged fraud, and to a less-
brother’s mill and as a logger in 1862. James shortly sold his property to er extent by James. The mill was sold
According to local historian Cora Arthur who established a lumber camp for $64,850 to Pope and Talbot who
Cook, James took out a 130-acre home- there, had a skid road built and floated owned a nearby mill in Port Gamble.
stead claim on the southwestern side of logs to his mill at Port Ludlow. They enlarged the Ludlow mill and ran
Deer Lagoon in 1872. In Arthur’s will just five years later, it until it ceased operations in 1935.
he gave it back, writing: “I give and be- The 11,000 acres owned by Arthur
queath to James F. Phinney, the ox team, Phinney was put up for sale in 1879,
camp equipment, and land on Whidbey with both John and James buying acre-
now connected with the camp.” age from the estate.
Side note: another of South Whid- In Island County in 1880, there
bey’s earliest settlers was 49-year-old was threat of public auction of John’s
William T. Johnson, who homesteaded Whidbey Island holdings of more than
a large timber tract near Port Ludlow, 2,700 acres of land for back taxes of
but was sent to South Whidbey by Ar- $83.04.
thur Phinney to scout and take out a It is likely that the taxes were paid
claim near Double Bluff for the mill. just in time, but John seemed to
Johnson liked the land so much that over-extend himself again in 1882 as
he sold his Port Ludlow tract to the there was notice of a sheriff’s sale on
James F. Phinney (above) took out an mill and took out a 160-acre homestead property he owned near Port Townsend
1872 homestead claim at Deer Lagoon on claim for himself. Johnson married a for back taxes.
South Whidbey, sold it to Arthur who es- Snohomish Tribe teenager, Zah-toh-lit- He did have land to sell though, for
tablished a logging camp there. sa, aka Jane Newberry, granddaughter in 1881 he sold 120 acres for $100 to
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