Doe Bay Postcard 1945

Here's a wonderful postcard of a cabin at Doe Bay, on Orcas Island. It's addressed to my great grandma, from her friend Francel. The back reads, "Wed. a.m. Dear Adah, We are having such a nice time, just the four of us. Wish you could come and spend the day with us. The men caught a nice silver this morning, so we are going to have fried salmon for Peg and Al's anniversary today. It is so pretty here, and so much activity on the water all day. We are just enjoying ourselves reading and doing a little cross stitch. Wish I had a sweater started tho. See you soon after we get home. Isn't our cabin cute? Love, Francel." The card is postmarked August 1st, 1945...67 years ago, today.

Postcard from Dolphin

Dolphin Bay was a settlement on Orcas Island, founded by Freeman Iotte. It eventually became a community, in the early 1900s, that even had its own school and post office. Freeman Iotte was the father-in-law of my great-great-grandpa's daughter, Mary Emma. Freeman and Mary Emma are buried next to each other on Orcas Island.

The postcard was sent July 26, 1916. Mary Emma tells her father (my great-great grandpa), and sister Ada (my great grandma), that they are all well and have been picking berries and selling soap. She tells that her daughters Goldia and Myrtle are doing fine, and that it has done nothing but rain for the past two weeks.

I love these types of artifacts; little bits of history that give insight into what the lives of those who went before us were like. It's especially interesting living in the same area as they did. People often comment about the remoteness of the islands in this day and age, yet imagine what it was like in the little community of Dolphin, in 1916!