MARYSVILLE — In 1872, James Comeford and his wife, Maria, established a trading post at Tulalip.
Six years later, three men who owned 1,280 acres adjoining the reservation to the east were looking for a buyer for the land.
Comeford plunked down $450, about $2.85 an acre, and the land was his. He built a store with living quarters attached, a small dock and a plank road leading to it from higher ground.
The plank road was called Front Street.
“Thus, on a day in 1878, Marysville was born,” according to the introduction from “Voices of the Past,” a new book by the Marysville Historical Society.
Pioneer families such as the Comefords, along with other stories and anecdotes from Marysville’s past, are featured in the 104-page book and in a 2008 calendar for sale.
Proceeds from the book and the calendar will go toward a planned new $2 million museum at Jennings Park. Also available is a DVD, “The Place Where it All Began,” an hourlong documentary of Marysville’s history featuring photos from several local historical collections.
“The historical society’s primary goal in life is to get a museum built,” said Ken Cage, the group’s president.
The historical society has raised about $500,000 and needs about another half-million to start construction, Cage said.
The calendar features a different pioneer family each month, including the Swinnerton family. Mark Swinnerton bought Comeford’s store in 1885 and became the first mayor of Marysville that same year. He and his wife, Sarah, had the first white girl born in incorporated Marysville.
Also pictured in the calendar are members of the Jennings family, the descendents of whom eventually donated land for Jennings Park, and the Kuhnle family, who established what is now Kuhnle’s Tavern in 1919.
The book includes interviews with longtime residents, such as Ruth Lashua Hawley, whose family moved to the Sunnyside area in 1903, when she was 8.
“When we lived at Sunnyside we used to go to Marysville in a rowboat,” Hawley said in a 1986 interview. “My dad would row us there and bring us home.”
Other stories are first-person accounts. These include “The Only Kids in Town Without TV,” Lowell Dudley’s account of when her family purchased its first television. First, she and her sisters went to the home of a neighbor who had a TV and “inspected this strange new piece of furniture.”
— Bill Sheets
Book, DVD, calendar sales aid museum fund
The Marysville Historical Society is offering a book, a DVD and a 2008 calendar for sale to raise money for its new museum.
The 104-page book, “Voices of the Past,” includes diary writings of pioneers and historical photos. It sells for $20.
The DVD, “The Place Where it All Began,” is an hourlong documentary of Marysville’s history. The cost is $20.
The calendar features a historical photo of a pioneer family each month. The calendar sells for $10.
The items are available at the historical society’s office at 1624 Grove St. Hours are 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Monday through Friday. Beginning in January, the society’s office will be at 1508-B Third St.
For more information, go to www.marysvillehistory.org or call 360-659-3090.
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