PORT TOWNSEND — Shelly Leavens often looks for documents to connect different points in history.
This time, it was for her own organization.
Leavens, the executive director for the Jefferson County Historical Society, found reference to a story about four men who founded the society in 1879.
They wrote bylaws and held meetings at the historic Fowler building on Adams Street in downtown Port Townsend.
When Leavens picked out a date to host the society’s 140th anniversary, she chose May 3.
Leavens found out later it’s the same date the men first decided to preserve the county’s history.
“Good ideas don’t die,” Leavens told a crowd of about 75 people Friday night at the Northwest Maritime Center, “and this is a good idea.”
Historians and volunteers gathered to honor the society and its members with cake, champagne and table displays.
Oral histories played on monitors, and patrons listened to them with headsets. Books were for sale. A traveling Native American exhibit used in classrooms was on display, and a few children worked with the artifacts.
Bill Tennent, who served as executive director of the society for 16 years, and Ann Welch — a descendant of Charles Eisenbeis, Port Townsend’s first mayor — talked about how much more diverse the organization has become throughout the years.
“There are families here with young people, and more mature people; women and men,” Tennent said. “The staff now are younger women. I think that speaks well.”
Tennent said areas of Port Townsend’s past that used to be the most popular featured the 1960s and moved into the ’70s.
But that isn’t always the case.
“History didn’t end at some point in the past, and it doesn’t have to be old,” he said.
Welch, one of the society’s board members, said her great grandfather came from Prussia. Eisenbeis lived for a while in Rochester, New York, but he wanted to travel west around Cape Horn in Chile at the height of the gold rush in 1856.
“He was on his way to Tacoma with his brother to start a bakery, but he was so seasick that he jumped off here,” Welch said. “He started a cracker factory here in a land-locked building that still stands a block off Washington Street.”
Eisenbeis lived at Manresa Castle and invested in the railroad that never was finished, Welch said.
“The railroad was just like any real estate boom,” she said. “He almost went bankrupt, although he hung on to a few properties.”
The historical society itself had a few fits and starts. The four men who founded the organization met for about a month in 1879 before the idea faded. Another attempt was short-lived in 1932.
Today’s organization has run continuously since 1947, and it’s been located at city hall, 540 Water St., since 1951.
“Happy birthday to the historical society, even if there were a few sleepy periods,” Leavens told the crowd. “But there were a few sleepy periods for Port Townsend, too.”
Special honors
Three people were given special recognition Friday night for their contributions to the society.
Gary Kennedy, a trustee emeritus, was provided a key to Jefferson County — made at the Port Townsend Foundry — for his volunteer and fundraising efforts for many years.
Norm Stevens, a retired staff member who worked at the front desk, was recognized for his ability to provide a story related to any guest’s interest.
Linda Scott, a former volunteer who died last year, was honored for her commitment to providing a tour of Uptown Port Townsend every other Sunday for 12 years in Victorian-style dress.
Leavens said Stevens plans to record many of his stories to be part of the oral history collection.
She also stressed the importance of collecting today’s resources so it can be part of tomorrow’s history.
“It’s important that your voices, your memories, your artifacts and archives that are important to you are preserved,” Leavens said.
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Jefferson County Managing Editor Brian McLean can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 6, or at bmclean@peninsuladailynews.com.
