Trails and Tales of The Early-Day Settlers Of North-Eastern Okanagon County Washington

February 5, 2006

One of the more amazing finds related to our family history contained in the Seattle Central Library is the book: "Trails and Tales of The Early-Day Settlers Of North-Eastern Okanagon County Washington." This book faithfully records the history of the families who pioneered Okanogan County including those in Wauconda and up Toroda Creek. This PDF document contains selected pages of that large work. I've highlighted interesting passages in yellow. There is an incredible hand drawn map from 1901 that shows where the Galloway homestead was located just south of 'old' Toroda. There is a remembrance of the Toroda school house which was initially a log cabin and then the first frame house version was built on the Bill Galloway place. William "Bill" Galloway was a son of Amasa and Elizabeth Galloway and a brother of Charles Galloway the father of Elsie (Galloway) Hamilton. There is also a section remembering Amasa Galloway ('A. Galloway') and his family including his granddaughter (my grandmother) Elsie. There is a mention of the Stilley family, specifically Jim Stilley. Jim was the oldest son of Jeremiah and Mariah Stilley who were very close friends of James and Mary A (Spaulding) Ramsay and who lived next to the Ramsay's in Pierce County near Puyallap, WA and who emigrated with them by wagon to homestead near Wauconda. Also mentioned on the early road cutting crews were George and John Ramsay. George and John were brothers and sons of James and Mary Ramsay. Mentioned as a worker and patron of the road building effort was Arthur Lund of Tonasket. Arthur Lund was a friend of the Ramsays. James and Mary were (according to their granddaughter, Elsie) large depositors in Arthur Lunds' bank in Tonasket (in later years) and Mr. Lund took a great interest in their great-grand child Darrel Hamilton in assisting with his medical care and became a patron of the Maurice and Elsie (Galloway) Hamilton family when they lived in Tonasket in later years. There is also a discussion of the formation of Wauconda Cemetary. Relatives buried in the cemetary include James Ramsay, Effie Galloway (baby sister of Elsie Hamilton and daughter of Lilly Ramsay) and Charles Spaulding. Charles Spaulding is thought have been a brother or nephew of Mary (Spaulding) Ramsay. I also included the section on the Wills family. The Wills family bought the Bill Galloway place and the kids remember their growing up years on the 'Galloway place.' I love their comment: <strong><i>"Wayne and I spent many hours trying to solve the story behind the shotgun holes in the front door, floor and ceiling of the Galloway house."</i></strong> The PDF document is 11.5 mb in size.

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