1910 - 1920

Browns Point (1910 - 1920)

During this decade the southern beach of Browns Point was lined with summer cottages and some squatters who lived there permanently. Ernie Burrows remembers one squatter called "Dad" Adams. Around 1914 Ernie and a friend occasionally rowed across the bay to borrow Adam's crab nets. Within a half hour they could catch eight to ten large crabs.

As a young boy, George Oathout rented launches from the Foss Launch Company and rowed over to Browns Point for crabbing and fishing. He especially enjoyed his visits with Oscar Brown and the tours of the lighthouse.

A list of some of the earliest residents of Browns Point, offered by Beverly Storkman, demonstrates how slowly the population grew there:

1911 - Ida Wyland Duncan

1913 - Katherine Doolittle & family, Fremont Campbell Jr., Jdg. Fremont Campbell, Clarence Campbell

1917 - A.R. Wingard

1918 - Ed McClure, Elmer Johnson, Dana Chappell, William Wharton

1919 - R.F. Gleason, Gus Shuett, Francis Simmons

1920 - J.E. Burrows, W.E. Burrows

Dana Chappell, circa 1918

The Chappell home, circa 1930.

The Clambakes of Jerry Meeker and Ed Newcome

As far back as 1912 Jerry Meekr's clambakes were enjoyed by his friends and neighbors. Jerry and another resident, Ed Newcome, began the first organized clambakes for Republican rund-raising. They were held on the beach, but later were held next to the schoolhouse on Tok-A-Lou.

Newcome was a very visible member of the community. He lived across the road from the present Episcopal Church. Newcome owned dairy cattle and cultivated a large garden. Much of his living was made delivering milk to the people on Dash and Browns Points, and also from selling fresh vegetables in the summer. He owned a team of mules which enabled him to do a great deal of the point's dirt moving, excavating and farm or garden work. He was a staunch Republican and a good friend of the county commissioners and other officials.

A typical gooeyduck dug up from the beach flats.

Although Newcome and Captain McDowell were close neighbors, a well known feud and rivalry existed between them. McDowell was strongly opposed to government intervention and refused to pay taxes, and he could not tolerate Newcome and his friendships with government officials. Their animosity toward each other was not reconsiled until just before Newcome's death.

Another early resident, and one who still lives on Browns Point, is Ed Olsen who came with his wife and two children from Gold Hill, Oregon in 1914. His first job was with the Tacoma Lumber Company on the tideflats. He remembered his wages were 18 cents per hour until he got a promotion driving a team of horses for $2.35 per day. He was fortunate to be able to rent a company house from Tacoma Lumber for $6.00 per month which included utilities. For over 70 years he has lived on Browns Point and has owned three different homes there. When he first moved to the point there was no local school available. His children attended school in Tacoma with their transportation provided by a Foss tugboat.

Browns Point's First School and Improvement Club

By 1918 there were enough children on Browns Point to warrant a school. It was built on the east side of Tok-A-Lou and the first year had about 12 students. Martha Floberg was their first teacher.

The Browns Point Improvement Club's beginnings go back to 1919 and are attributed to the need for a piano in the new school. The first years of its existence it functioned more as a P.T.A. (Parent - Teacher's Association) than the kind of club it eventually became. The first meeting was in the waiting room on Browns Point Dock.

The early B.P.I.C. house.

Dash Point (1910 - 1920)

By 1912 a grocery boat and a meat boat came to Dash Point once a week. Mr. La Vanway owned the grocery boat. He sold staples, canned goods and fresh produce. Another essential retail boat, the "Dispatch #5" owned by Standard Oil, delivered keronsene for lamps. All of these boats also served Browns Point residents.

The D-Line and other launches, for some reason, seemed inadequate to the Dash Pointers. The Dash Point Transportation Company was organized and purchased the "Chickawana," a 65-foot launch which carried 75 people. It had a 90-horsepower Wisconsin 6 - cylinder engine and traveled 10.5 miles per hour. Louis Eberhardt was the principal owner and the president of the company. It was financed by $100 shares plus $10 and $15 donations per year. During the summer it ran 11 trips per day. The company hired Art Nelson to pilot the boat. Its only destination was Tacoma. During this time stern wheelers and side paddlers were used for long distance trips. The Sound was a panorama of boats. The "Indianapolis" and the "Tacoma" were steamers which ran hourly between Seattle's Colman Dock and Tacoma's Municipal Dock under the 11th Street Bridge. They ran from 7:00 a.m. until 9:00 p.m. daily. The "Flyer" was a relief boat for the "Indianapolis" and the "Tacoma." Clocks and households were timed by these three boats as their swells hit the beaches.

Dash Point's First School

Dash Point School became a reality in 1914 when a house directly south of the present dock was rented from T.H. Smith for $15.00 per month. The first teacher was Katherine B. LaFabre. Harry Kline strung the first and only telephone line on Dash Point. It was located on the exterior wall of a log cabin next to the school. Both the school and the original log cabin are now parts of private residences.

Dash Point's Third Dock & the Park

After many years of rowing boats to catch launches going in and out of Dash Point, the Community Club contracted Pete Manson, who owned the best pile driving company in the area, to build a new dock for $7,777. The community furnished the labor. On a cold and very rainy December night in 1917, the lowest tide of the year, the community poured the concrete pilings. The dock had a house on the end for passengers and freight, and a sloping slip for loading and unloading. In the 1920's a 40 ft. high dive and springboard were donated by Roy Allen, one of the most prestigious members of the community. He was president of Star Iron and Steel Company in Tacoma. For many years his home was one of the showplaces of Dash Point.

In about 1918 the bulk of the property, which is now the part adjoining the dock, was donated for the purpose of a park, by R.P. Milne and Louis Eberhardt. It was reported in Milne's personal memoirs that he felt coerced into donating the property. He had intended to build a bungalow hotel on it, but a petition by residents and condemnation by the Metropolitan Park Board prompted him to abandon his idea.

Also in 1918 Harry Johnston deeded to the county the property in front of the present Lobster Shop and tennis court, for the park. Johnston for many years was prosecuting attorney of Pierce County. He was a member of the Scotch Society "The Caledonians" and on of the area's staunchest supporters. Apparently many Dash Point residents considered him arrogant and quite outspoken, yet he had a very sensitive and creative side to his nature which was concealed from most of his neighbors. In 1913 a book of his poetry, entitled "The Scots Abroad the Nicht and Other Banquet Poems," was published. Some of the poems included "Our Own United States," "The State of Washington," and "Watch Tacoma Grow."

Also during this period, the community formed its own volunteer fire department which eventually acquired what was then considered to be good fire fighting equipment.

Due to the generosity of Milne, Eberhardt and Johnston, Dash Point had property for a park. On April 10, 1923 residents voted to put the property under the juridiction of the Metropolitan Park District. Soon after, the swamp was filled in and a fountain and parking lot were built. The dock was not deeded to the Park District until 1949.