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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
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Noel V. Bourasaw, editor

810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp

Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug

Founders Days Sedro-Woolley
Next: September 13-14, 2008

During the first Founders Day in July 1994, the late Stan Nelson, far right, was the reigning King Neptune of Seattle's Seafair Days. While the Sedro-Woolley Museum honored the Cook descendants, King Stan honored Sedro-Woolley residents (l. to r.) as Knight William Stendal, who was mayor at the time; and as ladies, Carolyn Freeman, one of the founders of the museum; and Paula Cook Budlong Cronin — great-granddaughter of Sedro/Bug founder Mortimer Cook. That first Founders Day was held during Loggerodeo after we tracked down Cook's relatives and visited them across the country. But the Museum chose to select a month and date separate from the busy Loggerodeo week. Thus the festival is scheduled annually on the second week of September.

Update for 2008: The 14th Sedro-Woolley Founders Days weekend events will be conducted on Sept. 13-14, 2008. This event is staged annually on the second weekend of September and the events generally repeat on both Saturday and Sunday as outlined below.
The two pioneer families to be honored this year at the Sedro-Woolley Museum are: Huggins, known for their famous auto parts dealership that has equipped cars for three generations here; and Marlin Miller, the real estate agent who is even more famous for being a truly marvelous man and a historical encyclopedia. Two pioneer families were honored in 2007. One was the family of Franz (Americanized to Frank) Fritsch. Fritsch and family emigrated from Germany to New Orleans in 1871 and settled in Texas until the early 1880s when they moved first to Whatcom County and then to Sauk City when that was the entryway to the Monte Cristo mines.
After a series of floods and the disastrous fire of 1889, Frank's sons moved to Sedro-Woolley and he moved the rest of his family to Burlington. The sons bought the early Sedro Hardware store and the father invested in a sawmill and store. You can read several Journal stories about the family: obituaries; the store at the time of the 1911 downtown fire, here and here; the brothers' role as investors in and location of the early Sedro-Woolley Iron Works; newspaper ads from 1891, 1896 and 1903; descendant memories; and a descendant on the first Woolley champion wrestling team.
The other honored family is that of James Madison Harrison who arrived in 1889 with his family at Sterling Landing on the Henry Bailey sternwheeler, after a long journey from Harrison County, Ohio. James M. Harrison bought a preemption claim of 133 acres due north of the Skiyou Slough on the Skagit River. An acknowledged expert in drainage districts back home, James soon gained fame here as he drained and tiled the swampy, boggy land on his own claim and those of his neighbors. He and his sons cleared much of the dense timber and started a dairy farm, which continued on through the current descendant, Bob Harrison, who was an early president of the Museum. In 1901, James, a Republican, was elected a state representative in the first of three terms, followed by a term a term in the State Senate, where he was a key leader in getting the mental hospital located near Sedro-Woolley.
George Holmes Harrison, the eldest son, managed the family farm. John, the youngest son, was born on April 22, 1889, in King County before the family arrived here. After high school and U.S. Army Service, he became a logger and logging contractor until the stock market crash of 1929. In 1921 he bought the present Skiyou farm tht belongs to his son and he also established a dairy with 15 cows. In 1921, he married Anna Eyre who was a noted descendant herself, the daughter of Frederick Eyre, who was a county pioneer in 1870 as the Western Union telegrapher and then in 1892, he built the first rural telephone line in the county.
John Harrison recalled in 1939 that his dad unloaded their possessions on the bank and Sterling and asked the purser if someone would steal them. "I don't know who in hell would steal them," replied the purser Joshua Green. "There is no place to take them." Green became the most famous banker in Seattle over the next 70 years, and his fame started with his steamboat investments and then ownership of ferry boats. In that same year, older brother George recalled how young men could daydream themselves into trouble in those days 80 years before the malls: "My father sent me down to Cook's store for a froe [a tool for cutting cedar shakes]. I went on horseback. I was just 8 years old. When I went into the store I spied a mouth organ. It was 25 cents and I only had 10 but Albert E. Holland, who was clerking there (founder of Holland Drugs), gave it to me for 10 and I went home, happy trying to play it. Another time when I was going to town I met a bear. It didn't take me long to get to town. Then I was afraid to go home that road so took a very roundabout way."
See the schedule below for times and places of regular annual events.

1994, The beginning A fire truck and a police car took them from Three Rivers Inn to the Sedro-Woolley Museum with sirens blaring on the Fourth of July, 1994. The Cook family returned to Sedro-Woolley, 94 years after the last member of Mortimer Cook's family moved, from his old town of Sedro by the river, to Rockford, Illinois. On Sept. 11, 2004, the family returns to town to celebrate the tenth anniversary of Founders Days. The event was moved permanently to the second weekend of September annually back in 1995.
This year, Paula Cook Budlong Cronin is returning with her granddaughter to donate the wedding dress of her grandmother, Nina Cook Budlong, to the museum. She is bringing her nine-year-old granddaughter with her to actually hand the dress over to the museum, where it will be housed in a special wooden case in the Mortimer Cook room, which was dedicated to the town founder back in 1994. Cook first appeared on the Skagit river in June 1884 and initially named his town, Bug. The town was renamed Sedro on Dec. 7, 1884, when Cook obtained a post office for his general store at the old wharf. His daughter, Nina, married Standish Budlong at the Cook home near the store on Oct. 30, 1895. These events below generally repeat annually:

Saturday events

8 to 11 a.m. Founders Day Breakfast at the Senior Center, 719 Pacific street, featuring biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, juice and coffee, for $4.50
10 a.m. 1914 Bank Robbery Lantern Slide show plays at the museum downtown on Murdock street, assembled from the slides of the bank robbery
[This event was cancelled in 2007 when live bullets were shipped instead of blanks] . . . 1 p.m. Reenactment of the Great Sedro-Woolley 1914 Bank Robbery. Performed by the Loco players. Event takes place in front of the museum. See our Journal website about the Oct. 17, 1914, robbery.
1:30 p.m. Museum Open House, honoring the descendents of the honored family.

Sunday events

9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Classic Car Show at Riverfront Park, the site of Mortimer's original village on the north shore of the Skagit river
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Founders Day Picnic, featuring hot dogs, potato chips, cookies and pop for only $1.50.
11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Arts- In-The-Park, free to the kids. Sponsored by North Cascade Health Council (A United Way Agency), SKADU kids and the Sedro-Woolley Kiwanis.

Regular Museum Hours: Wed. and Thurs. 12 noon to 4 p.m., Sat. 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Sun. 1:30 to 4 p.m. 725 Murdock St. Sedro Woolley, Washington 98284-1457; Phone: (360) 855-2390

Links, background reading and sources

Sedro-Woolley Museum official page and more details.
The robbery of the First National Bank of Sedro-Woolley on Oct. 17, 1914. Includes layout of the town and businesses at that time, the crime wave of Summer 1914 and the True-Love bandit.
A descendant of J.B. Crane, a member of the 1914 posse that chased the bank robbers, shares letters that give details of how the robbers were tracked after the First National Bank robbery of Oct. 17, 1914.
Museum's Sedro-Woolley Book, Journal site.
The late Kerry Freeman, Journal site about the guiding hand of the Museum.
Regional museums, Journal site
Founders Mortimer Cook, his family, the towns of Bug and Sedro
Brief introduction to Cook and family.
Daughter Nina Cook's diary from 1885-87 at old Sedro.
Daughter Fairie Cook's land claim near Alger and the story of how she and her mother were trapped in a blizzard when they visited the claim.
We have found the written proof of the actual existence of the town called Bug and when and how it changed to Sedro.
Ray Jordan's memories of growing up as a child on Mortimer Cook's ranch on what is now Cook road west of Sedro-Woolley.
Read our exclusive two-chapter profile of P.A. Woolley and his family and his company town. The link now works, so that you can read part two, about how his Woolley town was born, how Metcalf Street was named, Dr. Harbaugh's marriage into the family, how the family moved their business to Savannah, Georgia, and much more.

Story posted on Aug. 1, 2001, last updated Sept. 1, 2008
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Founders Days Sedro-Woolley Next: September 13-14, 2008

Founders Days Sedro-Woolley
Next: September 13-14, 2008