Fall Away

"Come, little leaves"

 said the Wind one day;

 "Come to the meadows with me and play.

Put on your dresses of red and gold;

for summer is past and the days grow cold."
 

 

 

 

When we were ready to go back to town in September, reversing the process that brought us over was a mad scramble for us to find shoes and clothing to wear back to the City because we had lived as natives with a pair of pants and no shoes all Summer

 

Mr. Lillico brought his tug and everything was rowed out from the shore and put on the the tug Mr. Murray rowed the last boatload out.  He took our tents and flies, which, of course, had all been folded up, put them on his horse and wagon , took the row boat and stored it away and stored the tents in his barn

 

 and the summer was over.

 

 

 

 



Gailey Tent Camp

Pictures of the property when only tents occupied the space:

Campy

 

 

Circa 1910

 

 

 

Fancy!

 

 

 

Relaxing

From material found at the Bainbridge Island Historical Society, not from the Gailey Family but other Summer people just down the beach, a description of arriving to the Island for the Summer:

...... We would all arrive there about the same time and and all of their stuff would be loaded on the tug and the tug would chug across the sound and drop anchor as near the shore as it could get in front of the properties. When we got there, Mr. Murray, who was a farmer up on Madison Avenue would come down and meet us with a rowboat. He'd row out to the tug and take the men and older boys to shore.  While we were being moved to shore, Mr. Murray would have brought our tent and flies down from his barn where he had stored them during the winter and he and the men would then put the tents up on platforms. 

Lot 11

A trip to the Historical Society on Friday yielded a picture of  the Gailey property from a perspective I never knew could exist;

A photo taken from the now gone Yeomalt  Dock titled:

"Gailey Tent Camp, July 2, 1913"

also gave a view into the history of the property next door,

"Lot 11."

This post is for them. And the house.

1869 - 1889:

Renton/Smith acquires from the United States and then divides and sells the 63 acres later to be known as "Yeomalt Point"  in multiple transactions, which I'm still tracking.  All parties are seemingly "related" by business or birth. 

Renton/Smith is also affiliated with the Port Blakely Mill Company (A California Corporation) and gives power to "cut and remove said timber in such time as to him shall seem meet" in August of 1871.

October 18, 1889:

C.L. Dingley purchases  a total of 38 acres described as "Lot 4".

April 13th 1893:

C.L. Dingley sells to H.H. Dingley (for $5.00) all 38 acres as previously purchased. (I'm assuming H.H. Dingley is his son) and plats the land into 39 parcels.

November 27, 1905:

"H.H. Dingley"

Sells to

 "Yeomalt Point"

"3 acres of land above high water" This plat contains lots or tracts 1-39 inclusive."



Click to make larger

 
January 11, 1907:

"To have and to hold with appurtenances forever"

Charles W. Smith purchases Lot 11 from H.H. Dingley for,

$10.00. (still working through this one.)


September 27th, 1909:

Lot 11 is sold to "The Seattle Land and Improvement Company" for $2100.00.

October 4th 1909:
(less than ten days later?)

The Seattle Land Improvement Company sells to

Jay M. Graybill,

the property for $2100.00.




1913
Lot 11 had a house low on the beach before the real house?
(House on far right, click to make bigger)
The Gailey House is only a tent house (middle)
The Polson House (lot 9) is on the far left.


May 6, 1926:

Lula H. Graybill sells Lot 11 to Wyle Hemphill for $3,000.00

April 24, 1934

Wyle Hemphill sells to Carl & Violet.

To be continued.....

Yeomalt Defined



1928
"On the Beach"

 "Yeomalt" is a name which stems from the Lushootseed dialect of the Salish word "Yeboa'lt" ("ya'boq" or "fight.")

Anglicized and spelled "Yeomalt," the name refers to the legend of

a fight between the South Wind and North Wind that reminded canoe voyagers of the treacherous waters near the point. 

1920
The only house still standing is Glen Gailey (middle house.) The original "Lot 11" House (on the far right) is closer to the beach in this photo and was rebuilt sometime in the 1930's .

But it quickly became more than a convergence zone. 

Yeomalt Point is/was a community that over one hundred years later still has many descendants of the original owners living there.

It's a place that once you walk its beach. Smell the water. Collect some shells or beach glass. Build a beach fire.

Is a place you never want to leave. Or maybe,

never leaves you.

That's what Yeomalt is.

1950
Mrs.  Eileen Gailey Kelly on the Beach



2011
Glen Gailey stands alone



“Our memories of the ocean will linger on, long after our footprints in the sand are gone.”

--Anonymous

Interiors

I continue to be fascinated/charmed by interior photos of the house provided by the "children" of Eileen Gailey.  I know we're lucky to have these, but they leave me wanting more.

That said.

Interior shot of the living room, 1915:

and today:

We just noticed there is an extra row (or two) of bricks in the current picture of the fireplace, which leads us to believe it was rebuilt at some point.  However, a phone call to the Kitsap County Assessors Office found no paperwork for any building permits/etc. 


With the amazing views, I'm not sure why they positioned the couch in front of the fire place, but I'm assuming because they were more interested in heat?

and 2011.

Abstract of Title

The document located in the archives of the Historical Museum was the "Abstract of Title" for Glen Gailey.

A property abstract is a collection of legal documents, deeds, mortgages, wills, litigations and tax sales for a specific property.  All essential data pertaining to a property are compiled into one very BIG folder.

They are considered the best place to start researching a property and I was handed that document last Saturday morning.

And here's what I learned:

The Yeomalt Beach Community was established in November, 1905 when a man named H.H. Dingley platted the land previously known as "Lot 1" and "Lot 3."  spanning approximately 63 acres.  The properties had originally been purchased in 1890 by Renton, Smith and Company (a San Francisco land developer with ties to the Port Blakely Mill) from the United  States and sold over a period of years between parties associated with Renton/Smith.  Through a series of transactions (37 and counting and includes a law suit) H.H. Dingley acquired what would become Yeomalt Point in July of 1905. 

He in turn, sold the lots to a group of Seattle-ites looking for beach property.

Lots 9, 10 and 11 are important

Eileen Gailey's Mother was on the boat in 1906 that came to pick which lot to purchase and folklore has it because she was the only woman on board,  she was given first pick of the properties.

And she picked well.



Nicely done Mrs. Gailey



Any information I publish are not necessarily the complete facts and I'm using this blog as a way to keep my research organized. It could/will change as I learn more.  The legal-ese of the documents, combined with the language of the time makes it difficult to keep track of every detail.  The properties had multiple owners, who were often related and possibly were "flipping" the properties back and forth.  I'm still not sure

I think it's time for a spreadsheet.

 

A Trip to The Past

Year unknown. Found in the Kelly-Gailey Lineage Book.

Over the weekend I made a trip here without much hope of finding anything of interest (or relevance) in my search for information on the house.

But, let me say, the amazing people who volunteer at the Bainbridge Historical Museum were so kind and do a great job in preserving the history of the Island. 

I was led to a room full of books and file cabinets and given access to everything. I was happy to find one slim file called "Yeomalt Beach Community" and sat down at the long tables and began to sort through the modest collection of maps/articles. Included in the folder was also a group of oral histories written by the name of  a person I didn't recognize,

and yet,

the stories seemed familiar about life on the beach in the 1920/30's and I put them aside while I sifted through the other photocopies.

It took a few minutes before I noticed a penciled comment at the top of each photocopy of the oral histories that read,

"Received from John Gailey-Doe" (not real name, but Gailey is)

As in, the son of Eileen Gailey?

Hurray!

I have no idea who the woman is that wrote the stories (but I'm going to find out) and I spent over an hour photo copying everything and began reading them on the ferry as I returned to Seattle on Sunday.  They are random stories of life on the beach in the 1920 and 1930's along with a few other from another person who had information dating back to 1905. When held up against a vast amount of photos we received from the "Doe" Family a few years ago,  this adds more pieces to putting together the puzzle of the history of  the house. I still don't know what year the house was built and that's my current mission.

My hero at the Historical Society then asked me John Doe's name and within minutes unearthed a document I will only describe as potentially "Mecca" that dated back to 1896.

I held my breath as a volunteer went into the archives and moments later handed me a package of documents that potentially contained early purchase documents.

to be continued......

Yeomalt Dock

From BAINBRIDGE LANDINGS, written by Allen Beach, Copyright: 1960:

Along the shores of Bainbridge Island lie stark reminders of bygone days when automobiles were a novelty and the steamboat reigned supreme. At scattered intervals a few gaunt weather beaten pilings still sway back and forth in the rolling swells like ghostly apparitions patiently awaiting the call of some long departed Sound steamer coming in for a landing.

Steam boating took a rapid surge forward starting in approximately 1900.  In the decade from 1900 to 1910 Steamer runs between Seattle and Bainbridge Island were established.

There were many individual docks around the Island that served different communities, but Glen Gailey was served by the Yeomalt Dock.

Coming in to dock

Yeomalt was a summer community of cabins and the old YMCA recreation center.  Originally known as "Dead Man's Bar", named for a man's body found on the beach, it was changed to Yeomalt in 1910 by a group of Seattle men who decided it was the perfect spot to build their summer cabins. 

We've been told Mrs. Gailey was given first pick of properties and she chose the site where GLEN GAILEY now resides.

Today, the pilings stand as a silent reminders of a time and life that still lingers and I continue my research......

2011

Benches

I'm not sure of the age of this picture, but by the length of the dresses, I would say....

1920's?

Sitting on the deck

and 2011, they are inside:


August Morning On the Beach

August 27th, 1919

An excerpt from the "Gailey-Kelly Lineage."  A book published by the Gailey-Kelly family and found last year in Geri's Seattle house.

In it, Eileen Gailey describes her wedding at the beach house:

Our wedding day, the 27th of August, dawned bright and clear. Our marriage took place at my parents' home called Glen Gailey. 

The paths and pergolas about the houses were strung with gaily colored lanterns. In the living rooms were profusions of pink roses, asters and sweet peas.

The scene was softly lighted by tall candelabras. The ceremony was performed under an archway of pink and white blossoms and foliage.

The bride, who was given in marriage by her father, was beautiful in her wedding gown of white crepe de chine and satin.

Happy Anniversary Mr. and Mrs. Kelly. 
The house still holds your memories and we are now once again calling the house,

GLEN GAILEY