Will and Grace
William Jenner Worthington was born on August 21, l863, in San Francisco, California. He was the son of Mr. William Worthington, Cheadle, England, and Ellen Jenner Worthington of Ohio. He came to Quilcene with his brother, Edgar Kirk Worthington, in 1890. A self-educated man with a great love of books, Will had an extensive collection in his personal library, and all his life he borrowed books, which he faithfully returned, to read from friends and family members.
Will married Grace Amelia Legg on February 4, l892, in Seattle. Grace was born on December 23, l869, in Speedsville, New York. The daughter of a teacher, she received a good education at Ithaca Academy to become a teacher. She came out west to visit her brother, Louis Henry Legg, and to look for a teaching position, but soon married Will who had proposed marriage on their second date.
The newlyweds moved at once to Quilcene, where William and his brother, Edgar, had built a mercantile store in 1890. Will had spent 5 or 6 years selling groceries and provisions out of his 31 foot sloop, Mary Elizabeth, sailing up and down Hood Canal. Will later became involved in the logging industry, owning many acres of timberland in the Quilcene area and some real estate in Seattle. In 1907 the Worthingtons purchased the M. L. Hamilton house (built in l890) with acreage on the Little Quilcene River from Squire McArdle. They were active members of the First Presbyterian Church in Quilcene and donated the land where the church is now located. Will Worthington was a firm believer in a good education and served on the local school board. His daughters, Grace and Mariette, were in the first class of Quilcene Union High School which was formed in 1907. Grace went on to teach in the Quilcene schools, and Mariette taught high school in Idaho, Wyoming, and Washington.
William Jenner Worthington died on February 28, 1936 and is buried in Quilcene Cemetery beside his wife, Grace, who died the year before on May 4, 1935. Their oldest son, William Jenner Worthington, Jr, died of blood poisoning on July 13, 1909, and is buried beside his parents. Their sons Robert, Norman, and John are there, as well.
Children of Will and Grace
Grace
Born | 22 October 1893, Quilcene |
Baptized | 10 March 1903 |
Graduated | Quilcene Grade School, 1907 |
Quilcene Union High School, 1911 | |
Wellesley College, 1917 | |
University of California Berkeley, 1926, MA in Economics | |
Worked | Taught schools in Tarboo, Quilcene, Port Townsend, and Portland |
Married | Laurence A. W. Swabey (1892-1985) of Essex England, 1937. He worked for Pope and Talbot as an accountant and a timber buyer. Later they enjoyed retirement living on a small farm near Juanita, WA. |
Lived | Quilcene, Port Townsend, Portland, Juanita |
Died | 29 April 1984 |
Buried | Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle |
Mariette
Born | 11 December l894, Quilcene |
Baptized | 10 March 1903 |
Graduated | Quilcene Grade School, 1907 |
Quilcene Union High School, 1911 | |
University of Washington, Phi Beta Kappa, in Latin and Greek, 1916 | |
Attended | University of Chicago College of Education, 1926 |
Married | Merritt Benson Major (1893-1986), a teacher, Chicago IL, 1926 |
Worked | Taught Latin and English in high schools. Merritt taught science in high schools in Sheridan and Kirkland. He also worked for the US Forest Service in the Olympic National Park during the summers. |
Lived | Quilcene, Brinnon, Twin Falls ID, Sheridan, WY, and Kirkland, WA |
Child | Merritt Worthington Major, 1931-2018, dentist and orthodontist, Bremerton, WA |
Died | 1 August 1988, and was cremated with ashes at Worthington Park, Quilcene |
William Jenner, Jr.
Born | 1 November l896, Quilcene |
Baptized | 10 March 1903 |
Graduated | Quilcene Grade School, 1909 |
Died | 13 July 1909, of blood poisoning from a cut on his finger, soon after graduating from grade school |
Obituary | 14 July 1909 |
Buried | Quilcene Cemetery |
Robert Edgar
Born | 27 January 1900, Quilcene |
Baptized | 10 March 1903 |
Graduated | Quilcene Grade School, 1913 |
Quilcene Union High School, 1917 | |
University of Washington, BA in Forestry | |
University of Washington, MA in Forestry, 1932 | |
Attended | Yale University for a PhD in Forest Economics, 1932-5 |
Married | Janet Main Izett (1909-2001), 1932, daughter of James A. Izett and Mary Forsyth Izett, a logging pioneer family in Brinnon |
Worked | Forestry research for US Forest Service in Washington, DC, Southeast USA, and Ohio. He returned to Quilcene in 1944 to work as forest engineer for Buck Mountain Logging Company and as a land surveyor. |
Lived | Quilcene, Seattle, New Haven, CT, Washington, DC, New Orleans, LA, Columbus, OH |
Children | Ellen, 1943- , elementary school and yoga teacher, Seattle and Brinnon |
James Norman, 1945- , engineer, Chicago, IL, and Pt Townsend | |
Divorced | 1966 |
Remarried | Marie Eilleen Miller Criscuola (1919-2012) on 8 April 1974, a widow from Coupeville with grown children and grandchildren |
Died | 10 November 1995, and was cremated, headstone in Quilcene Cemetery |
Harold Legg
Born | 16 November 1901, Quilcene |
Baptized | 10 March 1903 |
Graduated | Quilcene Grade School, 1915 |
Quilcene Union High School, 1918 | |
University of Washington, Civil Engineering, 1923 | |
Founded | Prominent structural engineering firm Worthington, Skilling, Helle, and Jackson in Seattle, WA |
Married | Doris Alexandria Seibert (1900-1974), November, 1934 |
Children | Stephen, 1935- , businessman, Seattle, Woodway, Port Angeles, Sequim |
Barrett, 1939- , banker, Seattle and Sequim | Remarried | Mary Jane Potter (1914-2008), 1977 |
Died | 28 October 1994, Edmonds |
Obituary | 6 November 1994 |
Buried | Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle, WA |
Norman Parker
Born | 27 December 1903, Port Townsend |
Baptized | 3 September 1904, Presbyterian Church, Quilcene |
Graduated | Quilcene Grade School, 1917 |
Quilcene Union High School, 1921 | |
University of Washington, BA in Economics, 1926 | |
Yale University, MA in Forestry, 1937 | |
Married | Trena Selvidge Belsito (1908-2003), a lawyer and widow in Olympia, 1958 |
Worked | Industrial forestry in Washington and Arkansas, and then in forest research with the US Forest Service at Southern Forest Experiment Station and Pacific Northwest Forest Experiment Station in Olympia; an expert in commercial thinning of Douglas fir and growth of red alder |
Died | 7 February 1991 |
Buried | Quilcene Cemetery |
John Clinton
Born | 30 December 1905, Port Townsend |
Baptized | April 1907, Presbyterian Church, Quilcene |
Graduated | Quilcene Grade School, 1918 |
Quilcene Union High School, 1922 | |
University of Washington, BA in Business, 1931 | |
Built | A log cabin on East Quilcene Bay in 1929 which was enjoyed by all the family for 80 years, and a 24 foot sloup |
Married | Elizabeth (Betty) Harriet Hart (1913-2009), in Seattle, 1938 |
Worked | For the tax commission in Seattle and shipyard on Bainbridge Island. He operated two farms on Bainbridge Island from 1942-1968. They retired to their cabin in Quilcene and then to Sequim. |
Children | Douglas Haines, 1940- , engineer, Seattle and Bellingham |
William Jenner III, 1941-2014, mining engineer, Sudbury, Ontario, Canada | |
John Hart, 1944-2021, auto care business, Bellingham | |
Willadee Grace (Mrs. James Tallman), 1949-2012, PUD and banking business in Sequim | |
Died | 2 May 1988, Sequim |
Obituary | 25 May 1988 |
Buried | Ashes in Quilcene Cemetery and summit of Mt. Worthington |
Kenneth Taft
Born | 15 February 1909, Port Townsend |
Baptized | April 1907, Presbyterian Church |
Graduated | Quilcene Grade School, 1922 |
Quilcene Union High School, 1926 | |
University of Washington, BA in Business, 1930 | |
Married | Zoe Bayne Lees (1902-1963) |
Worked | For his uncle Edgar K. Worthington and then for Kenworth Motor Truck Company, which his uncle founded, where he was treasurer of the company until 1965 |
Child | Richard Kenneth, 1947-2021, real estate broker, Seattle and Cathedral City, CA |
Remarried | Alma Alvina Gans (1915-2006) in 1964 |
Died | 16 March 2008 |
Buried | Lakeview Cemetery, Seattle |
Ellen Worthington Jenner, September 7, 2021