2021 SKCGS in Review And What's Coming in 2022? At this time of year, as individuals we are reminded to reflect on our past year and make plans for the new year.  This is a good strategy for continued growth in every aspect of our lives. It is also a good strategy for organizations, presenting a fresh, dynamic approach to the new year.  South King County Genealogical Society is striving to maintain our purpose " educational in character and devoted exclusively to furthering genealogical research and interest in family and local history.” SKCGS has operated in the "virtual" world for nearly two years with tremendous growth in the organization in general and individuals specifically.  The efforts of society members who have contributed to this success may not have been obvious to people in the general public so we present here brief reviews and plans for the future. Education Committee The team is composed of the Director of Education Barbara Mattoon, Lola Weber, and...

Dr. Janice Lovelace was the featured speaker this afternoon, October 24, 2021, at a joint meeting hosted by the Black Diamond Historical Society and South King County Genealogical Society, on Black Miners in the West.   The event was well attended with people from all over the United States who have an interest in the heritage of the Black miners who came west in the late 1880s and early 1890s. Notes from the meeting:  https://skcgs.groups.io/g/Society/message/1934  . People who live in South King County, especially on the eastern side are familiar with the coal mining communities of Newcastle, Renton, and Black Diamond; some may even remember the names of Franklin, Cedar Mountain and other towns from long ago. Franklin WA ~ Cemetery ~Abandoned Mining Town by vikisuzan, (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0) I've had an interest in the mining operations at Franklin ever since I discovered the names of the 37 men who died in the mine fire of August 24, 1894.  That lead to other...

  SUICE, SOOS, OR SUISE CREEK?   EARLY IMMIGRANTS   AND THEIR STORIES The Cemetery In 1988, Louise (Melin) Merritt began gathering records of those buried in the Suise Creek Cemetery in preparation for publication of an Obituary Book in cooperation with the South King County Genealogical Society. “The cemetery was originally located above Suise Creek on SE 240th” [ 1 ] “In 1903, bodies were moved by horse and wagon from the old to the new burial grounds . . ..” located at SE 256th and 132nd Ave SE. [ 2 ] “A few years later some sort of a dispute arose between the Finns and the other Scandinavians, and henceforth most of the Swedes and Norwegians took their business elsewhere. They are predominately buried in the old Meridian Cemetery or the Hillcrest Cemetery in Kent, Washington” [ 3 ] Finnish Immigrants As the project progressed, Mrs. Merritt decided to compile a his...

Image by  Miroslava Chrienova  from  Pixabay   Covid stopped us cold in March 2020, and yet only two meetings were cancelled. As we learned how to host virtual meetings, our online group communication became busier and more of a comfort to all of us. The time just to chat after meetings became so precious that we created " Genealogy Books Q&A " April 27 and it was a huge success.  We've not traded lookups much since, but our monthly chats have continued, now the fourth Monday afternoon each month. We have made friendships, deeper and stronger than one would ever expect with joy in having found each other.  We even had a New Year's Eve party! Virtual is safe, fun and EASY Since April, our monthly third Saturday general meetings have continued with presentations by society members and nationally known speakers, all accessed safely by virtual media.  And we aren't through yet!  We have speakers planned through May 2021 and a virtual seminar with...

Can you identify the men in this photo? This photograph was taken sometime in the 1920’s or 1930’s in Franklin, King County, Washington. It is of two men who are probably not miners, due to the style of their dress. The standing man is simply in trousers and no particular footwear, meaning he and probably the second man were visitors to the mine. Perhaps they were businessmen or engineers come to visit to see if the mine was worth keeping open. The mine entrance is to the “Gem Mine #3”, the third mine of this name. The first one was the biggest and was on the Green River. The second was a bit further down river and this one, the third, was the smallest and was above the river, between it and the railroad tracks, below the present-day track to the Franklin Cemetery. This photo is part of a larger photo, the rest of which is trees and background, and which hangs in the Black Diamond Historical Museum . The “gas” sign was often posted even if there was no danger of gas as it sc...

Part II—Fire Spreads Death in Franklin Mine By MaryLynn Strickland By 1894 the miners of Franklin were working side by side—people who had migrated from Pennsylvania and Ohio, immigrants from Wales and England, single young Italian men hoping to earn enough money to bring their families to the US and black miners who had been “imported” from the mid-West in 1891.   Seattle Post-Intelligencer newspaper articles in 1894 related stories of miners striking throughout the United States.  Miners in Roslyn, Washington, had become divided over a wage reduction.  The August 18 paper reported that black miners had accepted the reduction; white miners were holding out and there was talk of moving black miners from Franklin to Roslyn.  Other news of the world dominated the front page of each issue. Picture property of Black Diamond Museum, permission granted for this purpose But “Stifled by Smoke” was the headline on the front page of the August 25, 1894, is...

Part I—The Rest of the Story By MaryLynn Strickland A couple of miles east of Black Diamond is the town of Franklin, now a ghost town but once the site of the Oregon Improvement Company’s mine.  Inhabitants were made up of immigrants mostly Welsh, English, Irish, Italian and Scots.  Other European immigrants included Swedes, Poles and Austrians.  When the Seattle to Walla Walla Railroad was extended to Franklin, coal was shipped to San Francisco and the operations grew. Picture property of Black Diamond Museum, permission granted for use in this purpose. The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, May 18, 1891, described Franklin thus: Franklin is blessed with one of the most beautiful sites in Washington, though it is the last place a real estate man would choose for a townsite.  It clings to the steep side of a mountain which rises precipitously from the right bank of the raging, roaring, tumbling Green river (sic).  The main part of the town is so high up t...