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Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Subscribers Edition Stories & Photos
The most in-depth, comprehensive site about Skagit County
Covers from British Columbia to Puget Sound. Counties covered: Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan, Snohomish & BC. An evolving history dedicated to committing random acts of historical kindness
Noel V. Bourasaw, editor (bullet) 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp (bullet) Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
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Pete Beletsky/Beletski/Bilecki, the Stumphouse Man

(Pete Bielecki and his stump)
Pete Bielecki and his stump
      2005 update: We originally posted the 1948 Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times story about the Stumphouse Man of Northern State Hospital, Pete Beletsky, in 2001 because so many people wrote in and asked about him. When we asked many old-timers about him, their memories were hazy and varied and contradictory and we asked readers of the website to provide any information that would clarify and correct the story if need be. Earlier this year, Joanne Brawley was kind enough to provide an extensive update. She was horrified that the original Courier reporter had interviewed the wrong person for the story and had printed some information that Joanne feels was derogatory to Pete. The Courier reporter spelled his name as Bilecki. The reporter interviewed neighbors, the Christoffersons, who lived across Fruitdale road, instead of Joanne's mother and stepfather, who actually owned the land where the stumphouse stood. We found in land records that the John Christofferson family did indeed own land south of the Bates family at the time of the original Courier article in 1948. Perhaps that was why the reporter wrote some incorrect information. Joanne is definitely an authority; it was her family's property where the stumphouse was located and she knew Beletsky very well from having spent many hours around him with other members of her family. Joanne requested that we print her extensive corrections to the original 1948 story.
Update June 2005: Thanks to Joanne Brawley's follow-up research, we now have some answers to the vital statistics of Pete Beletsky. From his birth certificate and death certificate, we now know that the official burial record is correct. His last name was indeed Beletsky. Born Aug. 18, 1894, Somazy, Poland; Died April 17, 1957, Memorial hospital Sedro Woolley; Cause, Uremia - Chronic nephritis (15 years); Buried Union cemetery, Sedro-Woolley; Father and Mother unknown; US army May 14, 1918-Dec. 11, 1918.
      Joanne also recalled that the original reporter misspelled Pete's last name, but we could find no record of his death or any other official records. She recalled that it was spelled Beletski. Last week I was putting flowers out at my father's grave and those of other friends and I tripped across Pete's burial location. After double-checking burial records, we found there was also confusion at the funeral home and in the county burial records, which any genealogical researcher encounters quite often. The county record lists him as Peter Beletsky, with "(Bilecki)" in parentheses behind his name. His burial card is from Lemley, No. LE-18-007. His official burial record from Lemley spells his name as Beletsky. Joanne has sent for his birth certificate, which we hope will give his original official name. Until we find other official records, we will use the Beletsky spelling from his official burial record.
      This is a good example of why we always ask for corrections of the historical record and why we advise historical writers to be very careful about reprinting old stories verbatim. This website project was started so that readers and descendants of the pioneers would have the opportunity to correct the record. Newspapers in the old days often got the story wrong, and as the current Courier editor noted, if corrections are printed, they seldom get saved along with the original story. Newspaper reporters in the old days occasionally got a story wrong, just as we writers occasionally get stories wrong today. This doesn't mean that any malice was necessarily involved, but instead it points out that reporters need to be very careful about their sources. My grandfather taught me well that erasers were put on pencils because people make and write mistakes. We thank Joanne, who has taken the time to correct each mistake in the original story. We will post her facts first; that way you can compare both the old and the new and see how reporters can be mistaken when they interview the wrong person. Following the story below, quoted from the Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times, is Joanne's letter to the editor with some of her initial corrections of the story's details and criticism of the story itself. Some of the facts in the Courier story are undisputed, and the reporter did include actual quotes from Pete. We want to point out to other descendants of old-time families that they are welcome to do as Joanne did and present corrections and updates of any of the original stories that we transcribe or our own biographies of pioneers and old-timers.
Pete Beletski, The Stumphouse Man
By Joanne Kirkpatrick Brawley, his neighbor and friend
After reading the mistakes in the Courier Times newspaper article and Noel Bourasaw version of Peter Beletski story, I decided to write my own story of facts and memories. Peter's (Pete) name has been misspelled according to the pronunciation we have heard. (I have sent for his birth certificate that should indicate Dr. Bob Hunter's correct spelling.)
      My name is Joanne Kirkpatrick Brawley. My two brothers (Charles and Jack) and myself grew up using my stepfathers name of Bates until we became of legal age and were required to use our legal name of Kirkpatrick. We lived with Grant E. and Gladys Bates (Our mother and stepfather) on the property at Route #1 Sedro-Woolley, Washington U.S.A. They bought the 22 acre property in 1944 and later bought another 6 acres adjoining to the east, making the total 28 acres that adjoined the Northern State Mental Hospital grounds. Our property also adjoined the railroad that brought the train with supplies and coal into the hospital. It was located on the northeast side of the road now known as Fruitdale road, approximately one fourth mile north of the main gate entrance.
      When we moved to our home in Sedro-Woolley, my stepfather was hired as gate keeper at the main gate of the hospital, allowing visitors in and out. It had locked gates, in later years the gates were removed. We as children were allowed to visit him at the tiny gate house and later in the power house where he kept the furnaces going with coal brought in by train.
      Goat Hill (a small mountain) was on the hospital property, where we spent many hours playing on the rock top where small ponds of water collected from the rain. In the winter we played on the frozen ice. The backside of the hill was made up of a variety of size gravel and rocks that my brothers found very inviting to climb up and down and tumble larger rocks down the hillside. The beautifully landscaped grounds were also our play ground. Every Thursday evening we walked the road past the stump house to the railroad track then walked the railroad track to the building where we watched movies with the patients, (of course we were seated in a separate area).
      We innocently grew up with a positive attitude about the hospital, "NEVER" thinking of it as a "crazy house for bugs" (patients or referred to it as a "Bug House"). It was, and still is a very derogatory term, and used frequently in reference to the hospital or the patients, by uneducated people without compassion. We felt the Northern State Mental Hospital was no different from a city hospital where people with injuries, broken bones and illness went for care. The only difference in the patients, they had broken minds or spirits. In our belief they needed help, as well as the same care, understanding, and compassion as anyone else, if not more so. (I was always curious as to what had happened in their lives to break them mentally or emotionally.) We never had a fear of being around the patients on the grounds, people were always asking us those questions when they found out anything about our life there.
      My mother (Gladys Bates) also worked at the hospital as an attendant (similar to a nurses aid) on the wards. She later became a licensed practical nurse (LPN). All the attendants also wore white uniforms, stockings and shoes. In later years several of my relatives as well as my husband and myself also worked there as attendants.
      While working at the hospital my parents met Pete Beletski who was a patient at the hospital, he worked in the laundry, and later at the bakery. When he was released (sometime between 1944 -1946) he had no place to live. He asked my parents if he could make his home from a burned out hollow cedar stump that stood on the south edge of our property, now the Fruitdale Road. It was always his plan for the stump to be his home, "not" a storage shed as your story SAYS. The stump house was located approximately ¼ mile north of the hospital main gate entrance and approximately 150 feet north of the nurses gate entrance. Approximately 50 feet east from the road. It was approximately 100 feet north from the railroad track making his walking to work easy access until he could earn enough money to buy a bicycle. He then went to work in Sedro-Woolley Pete worked as a dishwasher at the Liberty Restraunt across the street from the Castle tavern, washing dishes, and earned enough money to buy a motor bike (whizzer).
      Pete was a kind hearted, gentle, soft spoken man and very generous with his time for us. He was grateful for having our family as his family and caring for him. We as children spent many hours watching and helping him with "our little helps" in his garden, flowers, cutting and clearing brush and trees, was all fun. Pete's house was a very unique house and we saw him as a unique person. He always had cookies and sweet bakery goodies for us. He shared with us a memorable "first" taste of "Cheeze-it" crackers with any kind of chocolate. The combination was very tasty. We loved the delicacies he often brought us. He would spend time at our house doing guy things with my dad and brothers, cutting wood, trees, brush, and building fences. He did land clearing with a hand ax while house sitting for us, for something to do and show his appreciation. He spent many holidays and dark winter evenings at our house. Pete also loved many varieties of colorful flowers, he experimented with them along the path referenced to in the editors story, but the path was only to the railroad track that led to his work.
      Peter "Pete" Beletski was born in Somazy, Poland. August 18, 1894. He came to America when he was 18 years old. He was a World War 1 veteran. He enlisted in the United States army May 14, 1918 with rank as a private in the Depot Brigade. Discharged December 11,1918. He spent time in Iowa and Pennsylvania (not sure if this was where he was trained or why he was there.) He died April 17,1957 with a kidney ailment (Urmice Chronic Nephritis) in Memorial Hospital in Sedro-Woolley, Washington, United States of America.
      My Stepfather, Grant Bates, made the funeral arrangements. Pete is buried in Union cemetery in Sedro-Woolley, Washington with graveside services by Clergyman Shafer.
The Stumphouse Man
Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times 1948 story, unknown date
Preface
      Courier-Times Editor note: (A word about the stump story below) — Several weeks ago, Warren Lepper, 605 State Street, noticed the stump-house near Northern State Hospital. He told the Courier-Times [where you may remember his wife Edna was the longtime office manager for Frank and Grace Evans] about the unique dwelling and a reporter obtained a story about the man living there.
      The Courier-Times then called the Seattle Times, who came up and took pictures and turned the story over to the Associated Press, who then wired the photo and article to newspapers throughout the country. The news story has also been on several newscasts along the Pacific Coast [radio, not TV, remember those days?] and the Portland Oregonian even wrote an editorial about the subject. The editorial appears in another part of today's Courier-Times. Al Arnst, formerly of this city, sent clippings from the Oregon Journal and said the story had also appeared in Tacoma papers.)

Main Courier-Times story:
      An old, burned-over stump is just so much wood to most people. But to an ingenious woodsman who wanted a garden plot, a tool shed and a place to live, it offered unique opportunities.
      Bald, stocky Peter Bilecki was that man [the spelling of his last name is in dispute in 2005]. A former cook at Northern State Hospital, but a gardener by choice, 54-year-old Bilecki envisioned a huge, rugged cedar stump west of the hospital as a future shed for his garden tools. The stump is three miles northeast of Sedro-Woolley on the Northern State hospital road.

Only a Saw, Ax, Wedge
From the movie, Stage Door-—
Lucille Ball [leaving her Manhattan rooming-house for Washington state:
If you're ever in Seattle, the house of Millbanks is always open to you.
Eve Arden: I thought the people out there lived in trees.
Lucille Ball: Only in the summertime. In the winter they live in burrows.
      Using a saw, axe and wedge, Bilecki split, chopped and sawed for six months until he hollowed out the stump. [Corrected above.] When he clipped the last splinter from the interior of the stump, he measured the room and discovered it was seven feet, two inches. He was only five feet, eight inches tall. That simple calculation cinched it . The garden tools would have to be stored someplace else. The hollowed out stump would be Bilecki's house. that was in May 1946 and the bachelor gardener has been living there ever since.
      While carving out his new home, Bilecki continued to work as cook from 4:30 a.m. until noon at the hospital, but each afternoon he tramped the two-tenths mile up the road and chopped away at the old stump. Sawing the top off the stump, Bilecki discovered that fire had partially gutted the tree, simplifying his task of hollowing out the inside.
      From November 1945, when he took the first whack at the stump, until May 1946, Bilecki worked daily, sometimes 10 or 12 hours to complete the unique structure.

Waterproof Home
      Insulated with oil paper and cardboard and topped with asphalt roofing, the snug little home to completely water-proof. And it cozy in a crowded sort of way. A low, hard wooden bunk stretches across the rear wall and functions as both bed and chair.
      Built-in shelves are jam-parked with cooking utensils, and boxes of cheese, crackers and Hershey bars. Clothes hang from the ceiling along one side of the circular room which averages almost eight feet in diameter. A kerosene lamp and a mirror hang above the bunk, and an alarm clock sits within easy reach.
      A cooking and heating stove, ingeniously made from a 10-gallon milk can, fills up the corner to the left of the door-way. Bilecki built the stove by knocking the bottom from the milk can, and cutting a hole in the side of the can for a stove-pipe. In another corner he has crowded a large bucking saw, hammers, an axe and wedge.
      "It isn't the best place in the world to live, but it's plenty big for me and the cat," the friendly, stump dweller mused.
      A pretty tabby cat who visited the stump a year ago has been the bachelor's loyal companion, following at this heels when he works about the place, but disappearing into the woods when strangers stop by. "Never had much use for cats until this one came along a year ago," he says.

Raises Beans and Oranges
      Son of a wheat farmer in Poland, Bilecki learned early in life what it means to make a living from the soil. Techniques he learned as a boy, information he has gleaned from gardening booklets, and experience have made Bilecki a gardener of note. Besides raising almost seven varieties of beans, he is also experimenting with several date, almond, orange, grapefruit and tangerine plants. But beans are his particular specialty. Since they keep without cold storage, he raises quantities of them. His Oregon limas expand to an inch and three-eighths when soaked in water. He also raises cranberry beans, scarlet runner, and a couple unnamed varieties.
      Before he planted a single seed, he cleared away old windfalls, chopped down small brush, and tediously hauled in tons of new top soil. He carried in the new dirt in a sturdy, handmade wheelbarrow. Complete with three wooden wheels, the vehicle is built to carry heavy loads without burdening the men who pushes it.
(Stumphouse living)
Famed Sedro-Woolley photographer Darius Kinsey photographed this family in their stump house at the turn of the century. Although captions in various publications sometimes placed the stump in Sedro-Woolley, most experts agree that it was in Snohomish county. The stump was from a very old cedar, more than 15 feet in diameter. The most expensive element was the window. This is from a color-tinted postcard, copies of which were widely distributed and mailed around the world. Update 2005: We originally posted this photo with the Stumphouse story because so many people had inquired about it and assumed that it was in Sedro-Woolley because of inaccurate captions in various sources. Our original hunch that the Sedro-Woolley location of this stump was a myth has now been proven true. In working with Seattle photographer and author Paul Dorpat, we learned that the location of this stump has been narrowed to somewhere near the present location of the Arlington airport. Again, we hope that a reader can peg that location even more exactly and that we can eventually find out who started the myth of the Sedro-Woolley location.
      Hauling things is part of Bilecki's daily life. He must carry all water he uses from Northern State Hospital, a short distance down the road. [Corrected above.] And although he grows most of the fresh food he eats, he must haul all his groceries from the hospital or from Sedro-Woolley, three miles away.
      Two items he always has on hand are cheese, crackers and chocolate candy. For those two delicacies he gladly rides his bike to town. [Corrected above.] The bicycle also is his means of transportation to gardening work near Burlington. An exceptionally energetic "squatter," Bilecki has constantly improved the triangular strip of land he occupies by permission of the owner, Mrs. Christofferson. [This is the crux of the problem with the story. The stumphouse was on the Bates property northeast of the road, not on the Christofferson property west and south of the road. And as Mrs. Brawley notes above, Pete was not a squatter, but her family's invited guest. It is possible that the reporter, when interviewing the neighbors, just assumed that the Christoffersons owned the property.]
      "When he began hollowing out the stump, the property around there was nothing but a marshy swamp," Mrs. Christofferson declared. "Why he's fixed up the place an awful lot. Last year his beanstalks were about 12 feet tall," she exclaimed.
      He has transformed the swamp from an entanglement of brush into a neat garden strip complete with wooden fence. (Not a white picket one.) He has planted a variety of flowers around the hut and along the path leading from the stump to the Northern State Hospital road which runs by the property.

No Housing Problem
      "Keeping up the place is easy enough," Bilecki commented. "I don't pay any rent. Of course I can't say how long I'll be able to live here. The owner has been very good to me. [The Bates family, not the Christoffersons, as explained above.] I left Seattle four years ago because I got tired of the busy streets and crowded buildings, and I like it up here."
      Although the novelty of living in a stump has worn off for him, Bilecki proudly tells of the many surprised tourists who have stopped to see if someone really lives in the stump. One day seven persons crowded into his hut all at one time to take a look around. The Christofferson have urged him to get a guest or register book and have all visitors sign their names, but as yet as he hasn't bought one.
      "People from Texas and Iowa and other states have taken pictures of the stump," he said. "One man from Texas or California said he was coming back to take some movies here, but he's never shown up again."
Other stories about Northern State Hospital area:
Letter to the editor:
      I read the article on your website about Pete tonight. I am not sure you even have his last name spelled correctly, but I can certainly find out. I am sorry to tell you that you have 2 different stump houses in your article.. Pete did "not" work 6 months on hollowing out HIS stump it was already hollow. He did "not" even have garden tools when he started, His home "was never" to have been a storage shed and "was on" the Fruitdale road, "not" west of Fruitdale road (it was on the east side of the road going north, just across the old railroad track to the hospital... before the power lines. "Not "the Northern State Hospital road. Your whole story is all mixed up and parts are not EVEN true. I would advise you to get more facts correctly before claiming to be a historian.
      It is very disturbing story to us who personally knew him. Pete was "not a squatter" though part was true...he was exceptionally energetic and "he did not" haul all of his water from the hospital... he carried much of it from our house, his wash and bath water came from the creek. The strip of land that he improved "was" owned by my mother and step father who were the ones who gave him permission to occupy the stump. NOT Mrs Christofferson, (I do not know how Mrs Cristofferson name came into the story unless she bought the land latter after Pete and my parents were dead.) and yes the owners were very good to him, they were my parents as well as my brothers and myself. He was a very kind hearted gentle man. He spent many holidays with us as well as many week-ends and dinners. Shared time with my dad and brothers. And yes my brother remembers why he migrated here and that he did come from Seattle as a Patient at the Northern State Mental Hospital with no place to go when he was RELEASED.... IS WHY the STUMPHOUSE....I am so sorry you have the story so screwed up.....Maybe if you had grown up in the circumstances that he did in Poland you might have been in his shoes too. —Joanne Brawley
Answer from the Editor:
      Dear Joanne: Thank you again for clarifying and correcting the story. I certainly made a mistake about the location of Pete's stumphouse, relying on memory from my childhood, decades ago. I will make that correction when I update the story later this month. And I appreciate your details and will also make those changes. I think you may not realize that the story posted on the site, including the quotes from Mrs. Christofferson, was from the Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times of 1948 and it is not a story that I wrote, myself. In our own defense, I draw attention to our request in the introduction to the story for corrections from any friend or relative of Mr. Bielecki. That is why I responded to your email of 2004 in which you explained that you knew him well and would update the story for me. Your letter that I posted above is the first time you have supplied those details that we requested. Regardless, it is our responsibility to post corrections and criticism and I welcome you to the forum. You have added much to the story of a man who was much admired by the community, as you have kindly offered historical information before that we appreciated. As we indicated in our introduction, we certainly did not mean to belittle Pete or his achievements. Finally, regarding the spelling of his name, we were unable to find burial records for him, so we took the spelling from various stories written about him at the time. We will make that correction, if necessary, once we receive the information.
Our statement on letters to the editor:
            We have inaugurated this section because we have received a two-part letter that seriously criticizes our features on the site. We repeat the statement we make on every one of our 425 story-sites and have made since the first day we posted our stories in 2000: "Remember, we welcome correction and criticism." We feel that it is important that an author back up his stories and take criticism where criticism is due. Up until now, we have made corrections as family members or other researchers have alerted us about them.
      We also want to restate the original goal we had for this site. In our original research, starting in 1992, we noted how many discrepancies there were in historical accounts specifically about Sedro-Woolley and Skagit county. Even contemporary accounts written by people who observed or were involved in events got things wrong. Another problem was that some of the writers of articles in newspapers and magazines long ago did not do their homework and repeated legends or mistakes. In other instances, writers or editors seemed to favor one family or businessman over another one unfairly, or carried a grudge against someone that colored the writing. That is why we have always warned writers in any medium about merely re-posting a story from any era without asking for corrections if they are necessary. We decided to launch this site so that descendants of pioneers and researchers could correct the record before we actually publish a book. We are very pleased that descendants of nearly 200 families have written us so far in five years, after reading our posted stories. Several have helped by sharing copies of original newspapers, which is very helpful. Others have supplied information from census reports; family bibles, diaries and letters; and official documents. Whenever someone has told a family secret and asked us to keep their statement confidential, we have kept our promise. In other cases, we have pointed out when the secret has already been included in a prior article or when it appeared in public records. As we stated from the beginning, our website is not the final word. It and our stories evolve as we find more information.
      Whenever we receive a letter that takes us to task for our writing or research, we will print it. And we will use the corrections we receive when we update the story. We will also answer for why we made the mistake and explain the source if we quoted an incorrect item. We only ask that you do not use profanity or defame anyone. Whichever one of us wrote the story on the site and the source of the article are completely open to criticism. And do keep in mind that other letter writers may also criticize or clarify your information or point of view.
      I take personal responsibility for anything I write, myself, and my point of view. —Noel V. Bourasaw, editor

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