* ?!! oulwe toC 5

AUTUMN1986

Published Quarterly by thePacific County Historical Society

State of Washington

Mabel GoodellLebam Was Named For Her

Volume XXINumber 3

So ZJ1,e ou 'WeSINCE 1966

tee'*A Quarterly Publication of the Pacific County Historical Society, Inc .

A Non-profit Organization

Magazine subscription rate - $8.00 AnnuallyMembership in the Society - $3.00 single, $5 .00 couple

Payable annually - membership card issuedAddress : P.O. Box P, South Bend, WA 98586

Historical articles accepted for publication may be edited by the editors to conform to size and other re-quirements . Opinions expressed by the authors are not necessarily those of the historical society . AllRights Reserved . Reprinting of any material approved by special permission from the Pacific CountyHistorical Society . Second class postage paid at South Bend, Washington .

PUB. NO. ISSN-0038-4984

EDITORLarry Weathers

StaffKaren Johnson and Luvirla Evavold - Subscriptions

Joan Mann - Editorial Assistant

Printed by Pacific Printing, Ilwaco, Washington

Our CoverMabel Goodell was born on a farm near Half Moon Creek on April 27, 1886 .

Her parents were Jotham and Julia Goodell . Mr . Goodell spelled Mabel's namebackwards when she was an infant and produced "Lebam" . One hundred yearslater the town still bears her name .

Mabel married Charles A . Thompson in Santa Rosa, California, on July 3, 1907 .She lived in Pacific County most of her life and raised five children . On February17, 1976, she died in Seattle at the age of 89 .

Our cover photograph of Mabel was taken when she was a teenager . It is fromthe family collection of Mrs . Doris Spalding of Lebam . Mrs. Spalding is one of theThompson's children .

Table of ContentsTITLE

PAGE

Our Cover 46Lebam: The Glory Days - by Kathleen J . Hanna 47Lebam Post Office - U .S . Post Office records 53The Kirsch Family of Forks Prairie - Edited WPA Interview 52Willapa Fish Hatchery - from South Bend Journal, Pacific County Edition 190056J.W. Goodell was the Father of Lebam - by Larry Weathers 58

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Lebam: The Glory Daysby Kathleen J. Hanna

Editor's Note: Kathleen J . Hanna is a resident of Lebam . For the past three years she has contributed abiweekly column to the Willapa Harbor Herald under the title "Harbor Homesteading" . She recentlywrote a book of fiction called Echoes of Eternity which was published by Horizon Publishers of Boun-tiful, Utah, and is at work on another .

Mrs. Hanna wrote "Lebam : The Glory Days" after researching several sources and interviewingresidents of the town .

In Southwest Washington, about 45 miles from Centralia-Chehalis, there is asmall town named Lebam . It consists, these days, of one church, one tavern, asmall store, a Rebekah Lodge hall, a desultory shake mill, and a couple dozenhomes . Strangers passing through often try to give the name a French accent, think-ing that its straightforward sound is too plain to be accurate .

Seventy years ago, things were different, and those passers-by would notrecognize that town as the one they pass through so quickly today .

The area was settled in 1879, and the lone, un-named man' who first enteredHalf-Moon Prairie was soon followed by Jotham Goodell, and then by others, untila dozen adventurous families clustered together on the small prairie .

When the railroad established a depot in 1891, they asked the name of thetown, so it could be posted on the boxcar that would serve as a depot . Since noname had been chosen, Jotham Goodell, then serving as postmaster, was invited todetermine how the town would be known . After watching his infant daughterMabel play in his office, he finally reversed the letters of her name, to form thestrictly American name that was painted on the depot sign . His choice was notdisputed and has survived for 95 years .

With a depot serving the town, growth came more rapidly. Businesses wereestablished to cater to the needs of families employed by the growing number ofmills in the area . By 1914, one mill, on Half-Moon Creek, was recognized as themajor industry . The trees in the nearby woods were cut and divided between thesawmill, shingle mill, and planer mill that comprised "The Mill" . The yards werenearly always filled with numerous stacks of lumber, ready to be shipped out bymule or train .

Maynard Patton was born in the thriving town in 1902 . He remains in Lebam,one of the few there who remember those days . In 1902, the business district wasdiverse, including banks, livery stables, and barber shops, as well as two saloonsand an ice cream parlor .

The original one-room schoolhouse had been enlarged to four rooms, andsmall businesses and homes lined the railroad on both sides for the better part of amile. That first railroad depot had been replaced by a more spacious brick building.

Still, the real hub of the community was the mill, which employed most of themen in town . People were content . Businesses prospered, and profits were good .

Then, on April 30, 1912, fire struck, beginning in the Knights of Pythias Hall inthe business district . Before it could be extinguished, it had destroyed a full block of

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-courtesy of Doris Spalding collection

A view of Lebam, Washington, looking northeast . The photo is not dated but was taken before the first fire April 30, 1912 .

wood frame buildings housing the business establishments of Lebam . Only twohomes in the block remained unscathed .

The town rebuilt, its pioneering spirit triumphing over dampened enthusiasms .A new brick general store was erected where the post office had been, and thetown began to flourish once again . Damage was estimated, in newspapers of theday, at $10,000 .

On May 21, 1914, just two years after the first fire, a second began . This time itreportedly started in the boiler room of the mill, during the noon lunch break,while the machines were shut down . When the 1 :00 p.m . whistle blew, calling themen back to work, the conveyor in the boiler room began moving, carrying wasteout of the mill .

Along with the waste, the conveyor carried the piles of smoking coals, waitingonly for the fresh air to burst, once again, into flame . The coals were carriedthrough the mill, into the yards and nearby businesses. Fire spread rapidly, throughthe stacks of lumber, to the wooden buildings beyond . The mill, at the north end oftown, was consumed in a short period of time . The business district burned, andfire stretched toward the houses surrounding it . Wooden buildings separated byalleys only a few feet wide served as kindling to a fire that generated heat intenseenough to warp the railroad tracks .

Buckets of water, carried by townspeople, had no effect . The men useddynamite, but the fire moved on .

The children, including Maynard Patton, were in school when the whistle blewsignalling the end of lunch hour. They heard it, and heard the series of short, franticblasts that followed . Soon, they could smell the smoke . Their teacher, concernedfor their safety, kept them in the school building, which was located some distancefrom town .

Guy Schriver had moved to town shortly before the fire . He was working withthe crew logging the hills north of town . They heard the whistles, and saw thesmoke, but continued their work completely unaware that the town was rapidlybecoming an inferno . There was no means of communication with the men in thewoods .

As the fire raged on, homeowners frantically began to salvage what they could .Farmers brought their horse-drawn wagons and began to help haul householdbelongings and store merchandise into the fields owned by Patton's father andothers, where they would be in the open and safe from the blaze . One Studebakertruck, the only automobile in town, arrived . Homes were abandoned as efforts tosave them became hopeless .

As soon as the word reached nearby Raymond, carloads of men made the1 7-mile drive to try and help. Nevertheless, by the time Maynard Patton's aunt ar-rived at the school at 5 :00 p.m . to take him to her home outside of town, the fightwas nearly over . Patton's father and neighbors had repeatedly covered the Pattonhome with wet gunny sacks in an attempt to protect it from the flames . This house,and one other treated similarly, halted the fire's progress . The family home was oneof only four or five near town that survived .

When Guy Schriver came down out of the hills, at about 7 :00 p.m ., the townwas gone. Out of a flourishing business area and residential district, only a half-dozen houses and a church remained . Twelve homes had been totally destroyed,

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-courtesy o

Spalding collection

The Lebam Hotel. The men and boys in the photo are not identified . The photo is notdated but was taken before the fire of 1912 .

leaving only those set back from the tracks . Damage, this time, was estimated at$500,000 .

Mayor A.C. Little of Raymond called a mass meeting to organize help for thoseaffected .

In time, some of the businesses were rebuilt, including the general store,garage and livery, and Hartman's Hall, with a restaurant . The warped railroadtracks were replaced . The mill, main source of employment in town, was com-pletely destroyed, and the owners announced plans to wait a few years beforerebuilding. In the end, a new mill, built by another party, was to replace it .

Men who had spent their lives working in the prosperous mill now foundthemselves unemployed . Though many businesses had rebuilt, a large number didnot. There was no new bank . After two fires in as many years, Lebam was not con-sidered a good risk . There were no saloons, barber shops, or ice cream parlors afterthe fire . The town was a much smaller, less prosperous place than it had been .

People began to try and sell their homes, to go somewhere with workavailable. No one was buying homes in a town without jobs. As the houses failed tosell, many of them began to burn . Causes were difficult to ascertain in those days,but as the number of houses destroyed by fire grew, the insurance companiesbecame suspicious . Rumors circulated that the fires were set by the owners, whocould see no other way to leave . They desperately needed the insurance money ifthey were to get a new start elsewhere . No one blamed them, but soon fire in-surance companies began to cancel policies in the area, and the fires graduallystopped .

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The second mill was much smaller than that first ill-fated enterprise . While thefirst had produced a variety of products, this one served only as a piano leg mill,producing small pieces of wood similar to todays 2 x 4's . They were shipped out asquickly as they were produced . Eventually, this mill, too, closed and after restingidle for several years, was purchased by a Portland company and dismantled .

Whispered stories of a jinxed town became even more prominent after a thirdfire, on September 12, 1922, swept through town . 2

Once again, Guy Schriver was present, this time among the men who foughtthe early-morning blaze that began in the restaurant of Hartman's Hall . It was a los-ing fight, and the meat market, Post Office, grocery store, general store, andwarehouse were destroyed, along with the Methodist Church and several otherbuildings .

The fire of 1922 completed the destruction of what was left of the town and lifefaltered in Lebam . A few determined men rebuilt, primarily those who had per-sonal reasons for remaining in the area . They held high hopes, insisting that Lebamwould come back, stronger than ever .

As the years passed, those hopes faded and died. There were no hotels built,no bakery or department store . Houses and businesses were closed and dismantled .

There is a modern brick school today where that four-room school stood in1914 . A small Wesleyan Church stands on the site of the town's earlier MethodistChurch . A new store has been built on the corner where a house stood that sur-vived the fires, and a small shake mill provides some employment . There is onehouse still standing that survived all the fires, and watched the town grow and thendie. The rest are gone, the victims of age and lack of interest .

Hopelessness, understandable after several devastating fires, has turned Lebaminto a tiny town no one hears much about .

-photo from Pacific County and Its Resources, 1909, Pacific County Historical Society

The Lebam schoolhouse, 1909 . It was built as a two room schoolhouse in1902 and enlarged to four rooms in 1907 . In 1910 it was replaced by theschool which is still used by Willapa Valley School District No . 160 .

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2

-photo collection, Pacific County Historical Society

Lebam Concert Band in 1911 . Louis Prueter, director . The band members and positionof the director are unidentified . Several county communities had concert bans in theearly part of this century .

There is a small cemetery near the church . It is no longer used, but is cleanedup periodically by older citizens - those who, like Maynard Patton and GuySchriver, remember when Lebam was a busy, growing, prosperous town .

Lester Goodell, son of Jotham, says the first man on the Prairie was William F. Meloy, whocame over the trail from Lewis County on horseback in 1879 .

The fire of 1922 was actually the fourth major fire in Lebam in ten years . A third fire occurredon January 18, 1921 . The Willapa Harbor Pilot of January 21st reported that the blaze started inthe storeroom of J .Q. Adams grocery store. It consumed the contents and quickly moved tosurrounding buildings . The fire was eventually stopped when the Y .M.C.A. building, whichwas occupied as a moving picture theatre by J .P. Looney and Adams, was levelled bydynamite . Ironically, the Raymond Herald reported on January 21st that new building andbusiness starts in Lebam were making it one of the most prosperous communities in the valley .

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Lebam Post OfficeEstablished May 26, 1890

Postmasters

Name

Date of Appointment

Jotham W. Goodell May 26, 1890William F. Meloy January 7, 1891Alfred S . Patton September 14, 1895Albert Shore April 5, 1897Cheney C. Dodge June 13,1901John Q . Adams November 6, 1909Leo Morrison November 23, 1910George W. Adams March 19, 1914James S. Wise June 24, 1951Mildred R . Bair January 31, 1965

(Acting Postmaster)

James E. Patton April 4, 1968Mildred R . Bair May 29, 1970

(Officer in Charge)

Jake Kaech, Jr July 31, 1971 to present

The Kirsch Family of Forks PrairieEdited WPA Interview

Editor's Note : According to all accounts, the Frederick W . Kirsch family was the first "family" to livein the Upper Willapa Valley between Giesy's Crossing and Pe Ell (Lewis County) . Bachelors and a fewfamily men without their families had filed land claims in the area but Mr. Kirsch was the first to builda cabin and settle in with his wife and nine children : six boys and three girls . The Kirsch family movedto the valley in 1874 from Dr . William Keil's Aurora colony in Oregon to be with the colonists livingon the Willapa.

In 1935, Frederick W. Kirsch, Jr., was interviewed by Lebam resident R.W. Campbell for theFederal Writers Project division of the Works Progress Administration (WPA). The biography whichfollows is an edited version of the WPA interview and includes additional information from obituariesfor Frederick W . Kirsch, Sr ., which appeared in the March 4, 1921 issues of the Raymond Herald andWillapa Harbor Pilot .

Frederick W . Kirsch, Sr., was a Prussian, born at Bolmholder on the Rhine,Germany, May 17, 1837 . He came to America at the age of 18 and settled in Pitts-burgh, Pennsylvania . During the Civil War he served with the Eleventh Penn-sylvania Infantry for four years and four months and was said to have been amongthe first to volunteer. Although he had no use for the Kaiser and his wars, he hadevidently developed a strong loyalty for his newly adopted country .

After the war Frederick married Phillipina Helm of Pittsburgh on August 6,1866 . She was 27 . Frederick, Jr ., says his mother was born in Pittsburgh on August

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8, 1839 . Newspaper obituaries reported that she was born in Oldenberg, Germany,January 12, 1839, and came to America with her parents at the age of 9 years .

The newly married couple lived in Pittsburgh for two years . After their firstchild was born they decided to move west to Oregon . Frederick was a tinsmith bytrade which he learned in Germany . He worked at his trade in Portland for severalyears but was finally forced to quit because of acid poisoning . He then moved hisfamily to Aurora in Marion County to be with Dr . Keil's colony . After his health im-proved he worked at this trade until he got sick again . His doctor advised him togive tinning up and get out on a ranch in the country . Having an uncle with the Keilgroup in Pacific County, he decided to move his family to Washington Territory .There were two boys and two girls in the family by the time the family moved .Frederick, Jr ., was born at Aurora on September 19, 1868 .

The Kirsch family landed at Woodard's Landing in Willapa on July 3, 1874 . In1881 they rented the Shaffer place (Michael Shaffer was one of the Keil group whocame to the valley in 1853) at what is now known as Holcomb . They stayed at theShaffer place for eight years and then took up a claim at Forks Prairie where theWillapa Fish Hatchery is now located . Five children were born on Forks Prairie,completing the family of nine children .

According to Frederick, Jr ., nearly all of the population in the area were Indiansat the time . The nearest white neighbors were at Giesy's Crossing and Pe Ell .

Frederick, Jr., said he worked on his father's farm until he was twenty years oldand then worked in the woods for 16 years. He also worked in Seattle and Tacomafor several years in the merchandise, hotel and painting business . During the boomtimes he made $8 .50, which he considered pretty good wages, but had to quitbecause his eyes were bad from working in the woods and his knees were gettingshaky .

-photo from South Bend journal, Pacific County Edition 1900Pacific County Historical Society

Frederick Kirsch and Family, 1900 . Frederick and Philippina Kirsch are sittingin the center of this photograph . The children are not identified according toposition in the photo ; Frederick Jr., Ed, Charles, Sebastian, Phillip, Henry,Emma (Woodard), Josie (Gunderson), and Nellie (Gibson) .

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Frederick's education amounted to only 23 months of actual schooling . Hisfather hired teachers for $60 a month to teach in his home and the first two wereOla Gillespie and Miss May Lilly. Each woman taught him for one term (threemonths) a piece . When he was 9 years old he attended school at Giesy's Crossingfor a term where his teacher was W .W. Lilly . Later, he went to a school his fatherand Mr. Lilly built at Holcomb . After 23 months of schooling he was almost throughthe 5th grade . The rest of his education he completed through his own efforts .

When school was in session (mostly the summer months) the children playedball (they made their own) . In the winter months they went ice skating . Some of theboys had bows and shot arrows . Frederick, Jr ., had a bow made by an Indian chiefnamed "Plug-Ugly" . The older children attended parties where they waltzed,square-danced, schottished and played games like button-button and marbles .

Frederick, Jr ., said his parents always got along fine with the Indians but the In-dians did not always get along with their neighbor Hiram Towner . "Old Plug-Uglywould come and tell us when the Indians planned to commit some kind of dirtydeeds to injure the Towners but always told my mother not to worry for they wouldnot harm them ." The older Kirsch's always talked to the Indians and persuadedthem not to hurt the Towners . "This saved them much trouble and sometimes theirlives. We could talk the siwash language and my folks often gave the Indians applesand were kind to them ." The Indians returned the favors with venison and com-pany. For nine months after the Kirsch family moved to the farm on Forks Prairie,Mrs. Kirsch never saw another white woman .

Frederick, Jr ., recalled many memories of living on Forks Prairie but heespecially remembered one skirmish with a pack of wolves . "It was one day justbefore Christmas. Father and I went to South Bend to get a little candy and thingsfor the children and on our way home the timber wolves chased us up a tree . It wasa very large pack and they closed in on us so quickly that we had no chance toshoot. There were so many of them that all we could do was to climb a tree andhad to hurry so we had to drop our guns . I counted 21 of them and we wereperched up in that tree for two hours before they left us . That same night the samepack went down the country to old man Soule's place and killed 75 sheep."

Death finally came for Frederick Kirsch, Sr ., March 1, 1921 . He died at hishome near Lebam after a long illness at the age of 81 . He was a beloved husbandand father and considered an excellent neighbor by his many friends . Due to hisCivil War service he was buried with full military honors by county residents whohad also served in the grand Army of the Republic . He was laid to rest in the OddFellows cemetery on Maple Hill in Lebam . His wife Philippina died on January 8,1928, and was buried next to him .

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Willapa Fish HatcheryFrom SOUTH BEND JOURNAL, Pacific County Edition 1900

Editor's Note: There are four fish hatcheries in Pacific County . Three of them (Willapa, Nemah andNaselle) are owned and operated by the State . The fourth (Chinook) is owned and operated by SeaResources, Inc ., a private non-profit corporation .

The private hatchery on the Chinook River is the oldest in the state and recently celebrated its100th anniversary . Readers who want to know more about it should refer to the Sou'wester, 1985,Vol . XX, No . 3 .

The hatchery on Forks Creek, a tributary of the Willapa River, is the oldest of the three statehatcheries in the county . It was established by an act of the state legislature in 1899 . Today, it is one of33 major hatchery stations operated by the state .

F .A . Hazeltine, publisher and editor of the South Bend Journal, printed a special edition of hispaper in 1900 to mark the beginning of the new century . The paragraphs which follow were takenfrom the issue .

The Willapa fish hatchery, located on Forks Creek, about two miles west ofLebam, was installed last summer and turned out the first season upwards of amillion and a half small fry including 800,000 silversides, 600,000 fall salmon and

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-photo from South Bend Journal, Pacific County" Edition 1900Pacific County Historical Society

The Willapa Fish Hatchery on Forks Creek, 1900 . The hatchery was built in1899 and almost destroyed in a 1909 freshet . Two dams above the hatcherywithstood the freshet for a short time and then gave way . Large saw logs weredriven through the walls of the building tearing out the windows and ruiningthe troughs inside. The superintendent's family barely had time to escapetheir house. Repair work soon put the hatchery back in commission . Thisphotograph was taken by Frederick W . Kirsch .

-photo collection, Pacific County Historical SocietyThe Willapa Fish Hatchery, December 1958 . The hatchery on Forks Creek was com-pletely rebuilt and the grounds re-designed in 1953-54. Modern equipment wasinstalled . A new residence was built in 1958 .

200,000 steelheads . The superintendent of the hatchery is Mr . Stephen Butts of Il-waco, and he is assisted by Mr. Phillip Kirsch, a resident of the vicinity and a deserv-ing and thoroughly trustworthy young man .

Stephen Butts was born in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, January 1, 1849, cross-ing the continent in a prairie schooner with his parents to Portland at the age offour . He soon after became an adopted son of the state of Washington ; his peoplesettling on Lewis River, Clark County .

In 1877 Mr . Butts began fishing and has since that time fished the ColumbiaRiver from Vancouver down to its mouth; he has been a gillnetter, trap-fishermanand seiner ; few men in the state are so well acquainted with this river and with thevarious methods of fishing it . Mr. Butts came to Ilwaco in 1899 and made the cityhis home. In 1896 he was appointed deputy fish commissioner. He worked in theChinook salmon hatchery two years and was its superintendent one year ; he is now

'' the superintendent of the Willapa river hatchery . His territory as deputy fish com-missioner covers all of the Columbia River and Willapa harbor . In this capacity hehas had abundant opportunity to display his superior knowledge of all branches ofthe salmon industry, from the hatching of them to the canning . He has achieved anenviable reputation as a fair and capable official, as well as an expert fisherman,and his continuance in office is a source of gratification to his many warm friendsamong the fishermen of this county .

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J.W. Goodell Was The Father of Lebamby Larry Weathers

Editor's Note : Jotham Weeks Goodell was recognized by local newspapers and the citizens of Lebamas the father of the town . He was not the first settler in the area, nor was he the man who platted thetownsite . He was, however, the man who named the town and was for several decades the man hisneighbors looked to for leadership . At the time of his death, Willapa Harbor Pilot editor Edwin M .Connor wrote, "Mr . Goodell was a picturesque figure in Pacific County and it is said that very fewpeople who lived here for any length of time were not acquainted with him" .

The major source for the biography which follows were three letters in the possession of Mrs . DorisSpalding, Lebam . Mrs. Spalding is the grand-daughter of J.W . Goodell and the daughter of Mr . andMrs. C .A. Thompson . Mrs . Spalding's mother Mabel is the women for whom the town of Lebam isnamed . The letters Mrs. Spalding loaned me were written to her by her uncle Forest Lester Goodell in1976. Mr. Goodell, who went by the name, Lester, was the middle child of five born to J.W. and JuliaGoodell . Two of the letters are original compositions by him but the third appears to be a recapitula-tion of an article prepared by his sister Mabel and Mrs . Nels (Virginia) Olsen for the book WillapaCountry in 1965 .

I also used information in obituaries that appeared in the Willapa Harbor Pilot (May 8, 1914) andRaymond Herald (May 5, 1914) ; a speech given by J .W. Goodell in Lebam on July 4, 1912 andreprinted in the Raymond Herald ( July 12, 1912) ; an interview of Mrs. J.W. (Julia) Goodell by R.W .Campbell for the Federal Writers Project (WPA) about 1935 ; various newspaper articles J .W. Goodellwrote for the local newspapers between 1910 and his death in 1914 ; and "The Goodell Family"which appeared in the Sou'wester, Autumn, 1972, page 56 .The sources noted above contained conflicting biographical information . In preparing this

biography I chose to use the facts which were recorded by Lester Goodell whenever I found dif-ferences .

Jotham Weeks Goodell, known as Joe most of his life, was born February 21,1849 in Vermilion, Ohio, overlooking Lake Erie . When a little boy, nine monthsold, he made the trip across the plains with his parents, brothers and sister, in aprairie schooner drawn by oxen. The trip proved long and hazardous and the fami-ly was forced to spend the winter of 1850-51 in Salt Lake Valley . They reachedOregon Territory in the spring of 1851 and settled for a time where Portland is nowlocated .

Joe's father, who was also named Jotham Weeks Goodell, was a Presbyterianminister . The Rev . Goodell eventually left Oregon and moved his family to GrandMound in Thurston County, Washington Territory. He built a large house out ofcedar east of Grand Mound at a place still known as Goodell's Point . The housebecame a stage station on the route from Olympia to Monticello on the ColumbiaRiver . The Rev . Goodell was also appointed postmaster at Grand Mound fromAugust 13, 1855 to May 2, 1859 and could survey property .

Joe was ten years old when his father died on November 13, 1859. In 1976,Joe's son Lester wrote that he did not know much about his father's early lifebeyond the fact that the U .S. Census of 1870 recorded that he was a printerresiding in Olympia . Lester said he worked for the Washington Standard, an earlyterritorial newspaper .

Other accounts indicate that Joe completed his education and then worked atdifferent jobs . They also report that he made at least two visits to Pacific County inthe 1860's . His first visit was in 1867 . He remained only a short time and there is norecord of where he resided or what he was doing . His second visit was in 1869

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when he returned with a government surveying party . Again no mention is made ofwhere he lived in the county . It is assumed he returned to Chehalis when thesurveying work was completed .

Lester Goodell says his father returned to the Upper Willapa Valley for the thirdand final time in 1880 . He moved to what was called Half Moon Prairie and was inpartnership with William F . Meloy, who had moved there in 1879 .

In a speech Joe gave to a 4th of July crowd in Lebam in 1912, he said, "Travel-ing at that time was slow, tedious, and tiresome . Remember there was no publicconveyance . One desiring to make a trip out of the valley would find but two waysof exit, one by crossing the Willapa Harbor on to Oysterville, then across the beachto Ilwaco and then if fortune favored him a steamer to Portland and way-points .The other by way of the old Indian trail to points in Lewis County . This trail wasmade many years before the foot print of the white man was first made in the fertilesoils of the Willapa Valley . For reasons best known to the Indian the trail traversedthe highest peaks and zig-zagged in a perplexing and discouraging manner . Itlaboriously climbed almost impossible places; it descended into ravines andfastnesses unpenetrated by the summer sunshine . Afterwards, it was somewhat,but not greatly, improved by the . . . white man and was in common use until the ad-vent of a railroad in 1892 ."

Lester Goodell says that his father's partner William F . Meloy was his nephew .Their partnership involved them in logging and farming along Half Moon Creek .Working for Mrs. Meloy was a young girl named Julia Ellis . Joe finally proposed toher and married her in Oysterville, the county seat, on December 25, 1881 .

Julia was the daughter of Dr . and Mrs . William Ellis, who lived on a tract of landwhich is now known as Ellis Garden Tracts in Raymond . Julia was born near GreenBay, Wisconsin, on October 24, 1862, the fourth of seven children . At the age of 5her parents moved to Kansas and settled at Mound City near Fort Scott . After sevenyears in Kansas they began the journey westward over the recently completedrailroad from Kansas City to San Francisco . From San Francisco they took a steamerto Astoria, Oregon . They remained in Oregon about two years, residing first inWestport on the Columbia River and then in Oregon City . Finally, in 1877, the Ellisfamily moved to the Willapa River taking a homestead east of what is now the townof Raymond .

After moving to the Willapa River, Julia started working for different families asa housekeeper . She was about 16 years of age according to Lester . On August 14,1881, she went to work for Mrs. Meloy at Half Moon Prairie where she met JoeGoodell .

Joe wrote about the wedding for the South Bend journal in 1913 in an articleabout pioneer ceremonies . "On Christmas day of that year (1881) there wascelebrated a double wedding in the old Pacific Hotel in Oysterville . The contract-ing parties were all from the Willapa Valley and were Capt . George Whitcomb andMiss May Ellis ; J .W. Goodell and Miss Julia R . Ellis . At this time there were but fewofficers in the county who could perform a marriage ceremony . The county officersincluded a Probate Judge, who was authorized to solemnize a marriage service, andsince Probate Judge A.S. Bush lived on the Riverdale farm opposite Raymond, hewas taken along to tie the knot or knots .

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-courtesy of Doris Spalding collection

Charles A. and Mabel Pearl (Goodell) Thompson, 1907. This is their wedding photo .Charles died August 15, 1944 . Mabel died shortly before her 90th birthday on February17, 1976 .

"Two steamers, all there were on the harbor, the SOUTH BEND and the TOMMORRIS, were chartered for the occasion and they each were loaded to their car-rying capacity. One of the steamers went up the Willapa and took on a load . Theother one was loaded at South Bend . As this was long before the boom days youmay know that South Bend was not cutting a very wide swath . However, theymanaged to load one steamer, mostly with mill employees from the old South Bendmill, then owned by John Wood and James and Robert Miller . . .

"At Oysterville there were no docks and the flats extended out for a longdistance in front of the town, but the citizens were appraised of our coming andvery gallantly came to our rescue with a large passenger scow . Passengers wereloaded on the scow and then approached the shore as nearly as possible . Then thegentlemen removed their shoes and waded out and the ladies were carried toshore in their arms . John Davis was the county auditor, F .C. Davis treasurer, andC .A. Reed sheriff and assessor . They were ever present on occasions of this kind,thus showing an accommodating spirit, and some wag had said, 'earning a con-siderable part of their salary each year in that way' . All were finally landed in safety,the gentlemen not seeming to notice or to be inconvenienced by the half pint ofsand in their shoes .

"During the course of the evening the clothing became dry, the passengerswere warmed up and cheered up and then the wedding ceremony was performedand this is about all there is to a wedding anyway."

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After the wedding, the young couple returned to the Willapa River and madetheir home near Julia's parents east of Raymond . The Goodells lived there for twoyears during which time Julia gave birth to their first child Grace B . on March 22,1883 .

In the fall of 1883, the Goodells returned to Half Moon Prairie where severalnew families had taken' residence . Joe filed his homestead claim on October 22,1883, and started building a cabin for his family .

In 1912, Joe wrote, "Lumber being inaccessible, the first steps toward buildinga house was to fell a cedar tree and then with axe, frow, and saw, proceed to riveout the building material . Everyone was his own architect and while there weresome very creditable buildings there were many others that should have beenpreserved as relics . I built one myself and my wife shot a look of pride at me when itwas finished . It is said that wives are always proud of husbands who are handy athome building. A neighbor preparing to build a house said he would build one likemine, but after inspecting it declared it would be past the art of man to do so . . .

"Life in these cabins, as I remember it, was as happy and carefree as it wouldhave been in more imposing structures. There were not many of us but hospitalityabounded, and it was against the law of custom to refuse the hospitality of yourhome. . .to any and all who came . There were days when the sunshine of happinessshone round about us, and we became-optimists ; other days when the glad lightwas dimmed with the burden of care and anxiety . Altogether the life was a happyone, and some sigh because the 'good old days' have passed away ."

-Anita Christen Dunsmoor collection, Pacific County Historical SocietyDowntown Lebam around 1910. The Northern Pacific Railroad tracks ran through thecenter of town . The building on the leftside edge of the photo is the Lebam Saloon . Thetwo and a half story, white building is the Lebam Hotel .

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Although there was still no recognizable town on Half Moon Prairie in the1880's, the growing cluster of farms were referred to as Half Moon precinct on thevoting rolls . As if to demonstrate their growing clout in 1886, the precinct helpedelect Joe Goodell county commissioner from the third district . He served one term .The job paid little and was time consuming . As with others before him, he found hecould not afford the honor . During his term he promoted road and schoolhouseconstruction throughout the valley .

Mail was brought from Woodard's Landing at Willapa to Half Moon Prairie inthe 1880's by anyone who would pick it up . At Half Moon it was distributed fromthe home of the Goodell's . Joe was the unofficial postmaster until he applied forrecognition by the government in 1890 . He received his appointment on May 26,1890 and waited for his cancellation mark . The U .S. Post Office Department didnot like the community's long name and asked him to rename it with a one syllableword . He finally decided on the name while doodling on a sheet of paper watchinghis daughter Mabel playing on the floor . The story of how. Mabel became Lebam isnow part of the popular folklore of Pacific County .

Shortly after the Lebam Post Office was established and Joe received his ap-pointment, he took a job in Chehalis at the state reformatory . The Goodell familywas absent from Lebam from July 1890 to August 1891 while Joe was superinten-dent of the facility . Forest Lester Goodell was born in Chehalis on August 9, 1891,prior to the family's return to Pacific County . Lester wrote in 1976 that the familylived in Willapa for two years before returning to their homestead in Lebam .

During the remaining two decades of his life, Joe considered himself a farmerbut continued to invest time and money in the growing community which bore hisdaughter's name. At times he sold real estate and sometimes insurance . He alsostarted businesses. He built a creamery and invested money in a herd of cattle .When the creamery failed he closed it and converted the building into a boardinghouse with a dance hall . After he became justice of the Peace he held court in thedance hall .

After 1900 Joe put his earlier newspaper training to use and wrote items for thelocal newspapers in South Bend and Raymond . He was often in demand as aspeaker at holiday celebrations and started recording the history of Pacific County'searly pioneer years . Some of these speeches were reprinted in the newspapers .

Joe was also involved in the civic life of the community . He was instrumentalthroughout his life in getting roads and bridges built across the terrain and streamsfrom Willapa to Lebam, and was an advocate of good schools in his district . In 1908he was unsuccessful in an attempt to regain the County Commissioner position hehad held in 1886 . Although he was known as a man of energy and good judgementhe was unable to capture a majority of the votes in a field of five candidates .

Death finally came for Joe Goodell on Saturday, May 2, 1914 . He died fromheart failure after a long struggle with Bright's disease. The funeral was held at theMethodist church in Lebam and he was buried at Fern Hill cemetery near Menlo .

Julia Goodell continued to live in Lebam on the family homestead with two ofher sons . Around 1935 R.W. Campbell reported that she had been seriously ill fortwo years but was once again keeping house . He wrote, "She has a keen sense ofhumor and is very optimistic in her ideas . Her memory and mentality are above theaverage, even though she has had a serious illness . Having been an ambitious and

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-Big Sky Map No . 25, revised 1980, Pacific County Historical Society

Map of the Upper Willapa Valley showing the location of Lebam .

industrious woman all her life, she says that if she could just get out of doors nowand burn trash and spade she would feel fine again" . Julia died on February 2, 1944at home .

Of their five children, Grace B . (Stephens), Mabel Pearl (Thompson), ForestLester, William Loren, and Harold Merle, only William Loren Goodell still survives .He is living in Puyallup . Mabel died on February 17, 1976, a few months before her90th birthday .

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-Don Cox collection, Pacific County Historical SocietyLebam "tooth Pick". An undersized Pacific County log, about 1915 . The people in thephoto are unidentified .

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