Welcome to our new home. Please note our new web address:
http://www.stumpranchonline.com/skagitriverjournal/
Celebrating 2 1/2 years on the web, approaching 70,000 page views.

Skagit River Journal

of History & Folklore
Subscribers Edition Stories & Photos
(Seattle & Northern 1890)
Covers from British Columbia to Puget sound. Counties covered:
Skagit, Whatcom, Island, San Juan. An evolving history dedicated
to the principle of committing random acts of historical kindness
Noel V. Bourasaw, editor ?? 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, Washington, 98284
Home of the Tarheel Stomp ?? Mortimer Cook slept here & named the town Bug
(Click to send email)

The Duke drank only whiskey and milk
Duke Fredrick George and Duke's Hill

Part three of a three-part series
Born 1873, Bavaria, Germany & Died Feb. 5, 1907, Sedro-Woolley
(The Duke's gravestone in Sedro-Woolley)
The Duke's grave stone is prominent in the Sedro-Woolley cemetery, with considerable growth of trees around it since this 1958 photo.
      Ask any oldtimer who grew up here (over 65) where he or she learned how to swim and half will tell you Bottomless Lake. Ask people who live on Duke's Hill (north of town) who the Duke was and you will hear a half dozen stories. A man calling himself Duke Fredrick George arrived in Sedro-Woolley in April 1905 and bought the 40-acre quarter section around Bottomless Lake. He only lived here less than two years until his death, but he left such a mark and became the subject of so many local legends that the whole area south of Hoogdal and Thornwood became known as Duke's Hill. The spelling of his first name is disputed. Historian Ray Jordan spelled it Friederich, but his burial record from 1907 spells it Fredrick.
      Although we do not have any contemporary photos of the Duke, we are fortunate to have a reader like Bob Garland who has saved old newspapers with wonderful history stories. The photos from this article were scanned by Bob from an August 1958 special "Tella Pix" edition of the Sedro-Woolley Courier-Times. They include photos of Mr and Mrs. Earl Everett [see link below], who owned the property around Bottomless Lake on Duke's Hill. Their property was roughly the same as the Duke's original estate.
      A descendant of a pioneer family, William E. McCarty, wrote to local historian Ray Jordan in the late 1950s and cleared up the mystery somewhat. The complete story is in Jordan's wonderful book, Yarns of the Skagit Country. Like a lot of people who moved here to get away from their former life, the Duke fashioned his own biography. McCarty said that when he was a youth, he stayed with the Duke, who claimed that he was banished from his family home in Bavaria, Germany, after he assaulted one of his father's guests:
      "He was a wonderful violinist and the reason he got kicked out of Bavaria was that his uncle, the ruler of Bavaria at the time, had a party and it seems he disliked one of the guests at the banquet - evidently this guest insulted the Duke, so he took his fiddle and busted it over the guy's head and knocked him cuckoo, causing his uncle to banish him on a pension." We suspect that the story was either apocryphal or at least embellished, since we have not been able to establish any such lineage in Bavaria.
      "[He] was a very attractive man, about 6 foot one, and as straight as a ramrod. He had a perfect military bearing. We stayed in the little [log] cabin and [my friend Harry White] fed him. The Duke stayed in bed and drank whiskey and milk only. In order to get the whiskey we had to drive the Duke to town with his horse and buckboard," McCarty recalled.
      A"He talked to us about India and Africa, his hunting trips there and he had on the floors, tiger, leopard and other skins that were trophies, and many mounted heads on the walls. He had several of the finest guns that I ever hope to see, inlaid with silver, gold and ivory and handsomely carved." McCarty went on to explain that he and his friend moved away when the Duke hired a Japanese houseboy who cared for and fed him, and made all the buckboard whiskey runs.We know that the Duke's cabin burned to the ground while he lay in the St. Elizabeth's Hospital in old-Sedro on Jan. 2, 1907. McCarty insists that it was a result of arson by burglars who had ransacked the cabin of its valuable silver and artifacts. The Duke died on Feb. 5 of that year at the age of 33 and is buried in the Union Cemetery. His obituary in the Feb. 7, 1907 Skagit County Times gave the cause of death as dropsy. It goes on to say that he was born in Breslau, Germany in 1875, the son of Herman George, a retired general of the German Army. His brother was the secretary of the German legation in Madrid, Spain, at that time. The obituary notes: "Contrary to general understanding, the dead man was not of title in his native land, although of influential family in social standing, intelligence and wealth."
      In 1951, Earl and Mary Ann Everett bought the property, which was in the heart of Mortimer Cook's vast timber holdings, now on the west side of Hwy. 9, two miles north of the city. When they began bulldozing for the basement of their new home, they discovered that they had accidentally chosen the exact site of the Duke's cabin. They found a pile of bricks along with an old iron stove, a glass candlewick and other household articles. They also found a single shot pistol, bearing a German proof mark, in a stump and carefully wrapped in plastic. Another tree nearby in an area of constant shade had a huge knothole that the Duke used as a refrigerator for his milk.
      Jordan noted that the property was always a sylvan glade. Squawberry, wild cherry trees, dogwood, maidenhair ferns and wild violets twined everywhere, along with what kids called the best blackberry patch in the county, growing from the part of the property that was clear-cut around the turn of the century. According to Ray Jordan, the name for the lake in Chinook Jargon was: tenas chuck hiyu kloshe, or "little water, much good."
      Does anyone out there have a photo or drawing of The Duke? If you do, email us today and attach it, and give us as much information as you can.
Please report any broken links or files that do not open and we will send you the correct link. Thank you.
You can read about our prime sponsors:
North Cascade Ford, formerly Vern Sims Ford Ranch,
West Ferry street and Crossroads/Highway 20
either on the Sedro-Woolley page or directly at www.northcascadeford.com
DelNagro Masonry Brick, block, stone — See our work at the new Hammer Heritage Square
See our website www.4bricklayers.com
33 years experience — 15 years as a bonded, licensed contractor in the valley
Free estimates, reference, member of Sedro-Woolley Chamber ?? (360) 856-0101

Looking for something special on our site? Enter name, town or subject, then press "Find"
Search this site powered by FreeFind
Did you find what you were looking for? If not, please email us and tell us what you seek and we will put it on our list to research. The more details, the better.
Please sign our guestbook so our readers will know where you found out about us, or share something you know about the Skagit River or your memories or those of your family. Share your reactions or suggestions or comment on our Journal. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to visit our site.
Sign Our Guestbook Get your own FREE Guestbook from htmlGEAR
View Our Guestbook
Remember, we welcome correction and criticism. Please click on the email slot at the right to report any problems with these pages or to suggest ideas for future stories. This is a completely free site. We fund it by providing an online magazine for paid subscribers. If you would like to help support our considerable research costs, you can subscribe for just $17.50 per year. As a paid subscriber, you will receive six yearly issues plus many rare treats between times, including scans of photos and documents that illustrate local history, before they are shared with anyone else. You can go here for Subscription details and you can read the preview edition to see examples of our in-depth research. You may also order gift subscriptions for friends, family or clients who are interested in local history or students or military people who are away from home. Or you can email us for more details. Do you have scanned photos to share? Or you can mail us copies. See addresses to right.
Email us at: journal@stumpranchonline.com
(Click to send email)
Use this email for scans and large files
Mail copies/documents to street address: Skagit River Journal, 810 Central Ave., Sedro-Woolley, WA, 98284.

Skagit River Journal free resources home page
If you are not a subscriber, go to story list of the Skagit River Journal subscriber edition,
including all archives.
Skagit River Journal online subscriber edition Preview edition page