The Story of One Quilt: Rosanna Miller Shiach’s Crazy Quilt (1886-1896)

Eastside Stories

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Article by Angeline Nesbit

Within the Eastside Heritage Center’s collection there are many quilts. These quilts come in different patterns which utilize small pieces of cloth to create designs, tell stories, and create a testimonial to the skills of their creators. One truly unique type of patchwork is seen in a style known as “crazy quilting”, the quilt we will discuss today exhibits this style perfectly and was made by Rosanna Miller Shiach in 1886.

When you look at the quilt features in this article it may seem obvious that the name “crazy quilt” refers to the odd-shapes, overly embellished, and sometimes chaotic style of the crazy quilt, but the name actually has more meaning than this. Crazy quilt style is believed to have been inspired by the American’s World Fair in Philadelphia, held in 1876. At the fair, Japanese art of many different styles was featured including a type of pottery glaze known as “crazing” which gave the glaze a fractured look. This style became increasingly popular over the next few years alongside the development of the uniquely Victorian aesthetic of overly embellished organized clutter.

photo (above): this photo shows about one half of the crazy quilt which Rosanna Miller Shiach created between 1886 and 1889.

Originally a type of design only accessible by wealthy women, manufacturers of textiles began to produce ready-made patterns and even cigarette and cigar companies caught onto the craze over time, including silk pieces for men to give to the women in their lives with every purchase. It seems that by 1886, crazy quilts had already reached California and Rosanna Miller Shiach. She started the piece in Petaluma, California where she worked as a schoolteacher and created one of the Eastside Heritage Center’s finest examples of the style. Some of the history of her life is recorded in this quilt.

In 1889 Rosanna married David James Shiach and moved to the eastside that same year, ending up in Kirkland where she and her husband are buried today. Bringing her needlework with her, the story of this quilt and her new life can be seen in the details of the piece. It took Rosanna ten years to complete and over that time she added letters, dates, and images. It is difficult to decipher today without Rosanna to explain some of the choices she made, but the embroidered elements have the potential to make this extremely decorative work both beautiful and a record of some of the things in Rosanna’s life.

Photo (above): This photo shows the recording of the beginning of this quilt as well as an applique star.

Although her granddaughter believed the quilt to have been started the year of Rosanna’s marriage in 1889, the embroidered year 1886 on this quilt indicates otherwise. Both the beginning year and the end month are recorded along with Rosanna’s name where she stitched “Mrs. D.J. Shiach Mar 1896”. Initials and acronyms including H.B., LEM., and R.M. are seen included although it is hard to definitively say who these letters represent. Still, the variety of fabric and the use of imagery gives us some idea of Rosanna’s life during the creation of this quilt. Rosanna’s daughter, Ethel Rose, was born during this time and they lived close to her husband’s brother William, his wife, and their six children.

This quilt has nine square panels, each one featuring intricate stitching, applique, and embroidery. They were created separately and then sewn together with a three-inch red flower border surrounding the quilt. Decorative images such as an owl alongside a crescent moon, birds, fruit, and stars show her skill with drawing while the complex embroidery stitches used to join sometimes delicate fabric only further display her skill with needlework.

Photo (above):This detail photo of Shiach's quilt shows some of the imagery and letters she included in her designs as well as the complex embroidery stitches used to hold the cloth together in this style of quilt making.

Images of nature seem appropriate when some more information is revealed about what kind of a life Rosanna moved to with her new husband. David had bought their home, a 160 acre homestead in 1888 and grew his own menagerie of animals among the well-stocked forests of the Pacific Northwest. They were reported to have been gifted two fawns from which David raised his own herd of deer. In 1918 the Lake Washington Reflector reported David to be raising “bareneck” chickens from Transylvania and many pets which included foxes, a mink, raccoons, and rabbits.

Since the development of textiles, women have played a large role in their production, creating both decorative and utilitarian objects. Through their handicraft’s women have made a record of their own lives through woven or sewn objects. Women like Rosanna Miller Shiach have recorded their personal story as well as the lives of others for thousands of years. Not only preserving some of her own experience, this crazy quilt’s aesthetic also shows the style of the time that Rosanna lived in as crazy quilts’ popularity has a distinct timeline. The Eastside Heritage Center is proud to keep preserving this quilt and many other textiles that represent the history of our region.

Resources

The Eastside Heritage Center Archives and Donor information

https://24blocks.com/quilting-history-american-crazy-quilts/

http://www.womenfolk.com/quilting_history/crazy.htm

https://www.allpeoplequilt.com/quilt-patterns/history-of-the-crazy-quilt

A History of Snoqualmie Part 2: Early European Explorers and Entrepreneurs

Eastside Stories

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Before modern building and development most of the Eastside was covered in dense forests. Much of the Pacific Northwest was the same. The difficulties of traveling and settling in such forests was only complicated by the mountainous regions to the east, known as the Cascades.

Those bold enough to travel into the forests and mountains of our region including Snoqualmie Pass went for the sake of opening new territory, searching for resources to exploit for monetary gain, and adventure. The famous Lewis and Clark Expedition traveled across the Cascades via the Colombia river to the south of us. The motivations for their travel was much the same as many to come before and after them a search for resources and mapping of a new territory. Others would come searching for new territory and resources to the west, either for their nation or personal gain.

An example of one of these entrepreneurs is Samuel Hancock who gives one of the first written records of the area around Snoqualmie. In search of coal with Native Americans who were knowledgeable of the area as guides, Hancock learned of Snoqualmie Falls. Intrigued by what he was told about the waterfall Hancock asked to be led to the falls where he recorded the following information in 1851; “We went right alongside the cataract* in our canoe and beheld a most imposing spectacle, though the roar was almost deafening. The river has a perpendicular fall of about 170 feet, with a surface at the present stage of the water not more than 30 feet broad. The banks upon either side of the basin, where the cataract deposits itself, are perhaps 200 feet high, and so steep that it is impossible to climb them.” This imposing and impassible picture of the Snoqualmie region shows the attitudes of European colonizers moving to the area during early settlement.

This imposing view however did not keep those traveling in and to the United States from eventually making their way into the Cascades to look for resources and potential money-making opportunities. 20 men hacked out the first road through Snoqualmie Pass in the late 1800s and although Hancock visited nearly 40 years before they were the first to report seeing chunks of coal in the pass. As the road reopened after the Puget Sound War of 1855, colonizing settlers went looking for coal, finding it in Newcastle, and Issaquah. As far away as Denny Creek, A.A. Denny and Jeremiah Borst found iron ore in 1862. Tipped off by Native Americans who obtained red pigments for paint there, Denny and Borst staked their claim on indigenous land.

Many people moving into the Cascade Mountains and traveling through during the second half of the 1800s and the beginning of the 1900s were looking for opportunities to strike it rich like this. Even after they were settled communities did not miss a chance to enhance their opportunities to make money. When the Gold Rush proved to be profitable it encouraged the creation of the roads through the mountains that would funnel travelers with money to spend through preexisting communities in the mountains and valleys to the west. These roads are passageways through the mountains we still have today including Steven’s Pass, and of course Snoqualmie Pass.

* A cataract waterfall is created when a large amount of water moving very quickly drops off a cliff to form the falls. It is determined based on the size and power of the waterfall.

Photo (above) :The 1930s postcard shows the Snoqualmie Falls and tells us the fall is 268 feet high.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

https://www.britannica.com/event/Lewis-and-Clark-Expedition

The Story of Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Eastside Stories

Shichiro and Shin Matsuzawa were both Japanese citizens married in Japan. Hailing from Niigata Prefecture their first son was born there and remained in Japan all his life even though his parents would travel through Seattle to settle on the Eastside. Shichiro first made his way to the United States and arrived alone in 1906 while Shin remained in Japan with their child until they could afford for her to follow her husband later. They would live separate for at least two years as the events of their lives kept them from being reunited.

Although being lucky enough to have studied at Aoyama Gakuin University in Tokyo like most Japanese immigrants to our region Shichiro found work on farms. His first job on the Eastside was at a Snoqualmie dairy farm where he was injured by a bull soon after arrival. His second son, Joe, recounted the story of his father’s injury during an oral history interview with Densho. It seems Shichiro was knocked down by the bull while working with the farm’s cattle and his chest stepped on, crushing several ribs and badly injuring Shichiro. He avoided being trampled and managed to escape by grabbing the bull by the ring in its nose and pulling it off himself.

Sources in the Eastside Heritage Center archive say Shichiro contracted tuberculosis at this time, probably from the nature of this injury which would have weakened his lungs. Seeking better medical attention, he decided to return to Japan. Unfortunately, at the same time Shin was already traveling to Seattle to be reunited with her husband. When she arrived and could not find him, she sought work and strove to learn English. Finding employment as a housemaid in Yarrow Point, Shin also enrolled in night school. Working very hard she learned to read and write in English and prepared for when her husband Shichiro would eventually return.

Shin and Shichiro were reunited in Seattle in 1908 while their first son once again remained in Japan. After about two years apart they could finally begin to build a life here in America. Settling near where Shin already worked in Yarrow Point their second son, Joe, was born in 1913. The Matsuzawa family are a part of the first (Issei) and second (Nisei) generation of Japanese-Americans who helped to clear the land on the Eastside and farmed there until World War II led to the mass incarceration of people of Japanese descent, including the Matsuzawas.

This photo shows Schichiro & Shin Matsuzawa and was taken in 1908 when the couple was reunited in Seattle.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

http://ddr.densho.org/interviews/ddr-densho-1000-23-1/

https://ddr.densho.org/media/ddr-densho-1000/ddr-densho-1000-23-transcript-a0c507f300.htm

Eastside Stories: The Bellevue Fire Department

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Article by Barb Williams

From small beginnings, the Bellevue Fire Department has grown over time to become  internationally recognized for its innovation and quality of service. Before Bellevue became an incorporated City (1953), it was part of unincorporated King County. Area residents were on their own to put out fires. However, as more people moved to the Eastside, there was a greater need for better fire protection. A group of volunteers provided an informal fire department that began in the 1920s. In 1941 a group of businessmen borrowed a fire truck from the county and parked it in the backyard of one of the volunteers. Calls for help came into the Medina switchboard operators, who relayed calls to the volunteers. “The first man at the truck rang the old school bell and wrote the address on the bulletin board. Men clambered on the truck. The fourth man operated the gauges and water pressure. They were off. More men raced after the truck in their cars and helped put out the fire.” (1) From this volunteer force, King County Fire District No.14 (KCFD 14) was created in Bellevue on July 27,1942 with the approval of Bellevue, Medina, Enatai and Wilburton residents.  A meeting was held at Henry Schierman’s Barber Shop on August 25,1942. Ten charter firefighter members attended. They elected George W. Sheets, a dry cleaner owner, as Fire Chief. The calls came into his service, he sounded the alarm, gathered the firefighters and off they went. In 1946, the alarm was moved to Bill Crooker’s grocery store. The group rented a building for a fire station in Old Bellevue behind Eastside Glass and Paint Company. They installed an air raid siren purchased from the Lake Washington Shipyard and bought a 1935 fire truck with pump from the U.S. Forest Service. Their primary function was to put out fires such as the outside wall fire at the Minish residence caused by an overheated stove. Or Ruth M. Bancroft’s fire in 1947 that started at Killarney Circle when she was clearing and burning Scotch-Broom on her lot.  “Never before or since have I been so glad to see men, Men, MEN!” She was speaking of the volunteer firefighters of the KCFD 14. 

Photo (above): Bellevue Fire Department photo of (Left to Right) Bill Crooker, ?, Len Schaal, Frank Gass (Fire Chief)

Over the years, the volunteers were integrated with paid staff. In 1947, Frank Gass was elected to be the new Volunteer Fire Chief and later became the first paid member of the KCFD 14. By 1964 there were 14 full-time paid firefighters who worked Monday-Friday (8am-4pm) and 83 volunteer firefighters. (Volunteers were phased out in 1980.)

The KCFD 14 was growing and evolved into its own city unit when the Bellevue Fire Department (BFD) was formed at midnight on January 1, 1965. Captain Leo Wenner managed 14 firefighters. Jeanette Woldseth Washington State’s first career female firefighter in 1977 later became BFD’s first female fire captain. The department became known for its creativity; it developed innovative programs such as fire prevention, training, and the establishment of Medic 1(1972), Eastside Hazardous Materials Consortium (1984) and the “Light Force Company”(1994) in which an engine and a ladder truck work in tandem.  In 1998 BFD received Accredited Agency status from the Commission on Fire Accreditation International becoming the eighth fire department in the world to receive this status. The increase in high-rise buildings required appropriate training and equipment. Medical emergencies out-numbered all others which prompted the department to have trained medics and equipment on many trucks. A City of Bellevue 2018 website report shows 78% of 20,000+ incidents were medical in nature. By 2019, the Bellevue Fire Department consisted of: 253 employees, including 9 chief officers, 167 firefighters - EMT, 37 firefighters - paramedics, 40 civilian employees, 9 fire stations and multiple vehicles. At this time the Bellevue Fire Department served the following communities; Bellevue, Medina, Clyde Hill, Beaux Arts, The Three Points communities, Newcastle, support to Mercer Island and medical units to Issaquah and North Bend.

Skillfully, members of the Bellevue Fire Department saved our home from burning in 1984. The Department deserves our respect, praise and thanks for their service to our Eastside communities over time. 

Photo (above): This photo shows a crowd or citizens with fire fighters and fire truck. Taken May 1965 during and Open House celebrating the first Bellevue City Fire Department this was snapped on Main Street and shows Leo Wenner (Bellevue’s first Fire Chief in white hat) riding on the fire truck Segraves purchased in 1961.

Sources:

1)   City of Bellevue website:  Bellevue Fire Department 2019 Annual Report

2)   Book: Bellevue Fire Department, 50th Anniversary   1965 - 2015

3)   Pamphlet:  50 Years  Bellevue Fire   1965 - 2015: A Guide to Our History  1942-2015

4)   Article by Ruth M. Bancroft “Lack of fire protection ignites volunteer spirit”, Bellevue  American, Thursday, March 11, 1976  page D2, footnote (1)

5)   Article  Eastside Heritage Corner, “The formative years of the Bellevue Fire Department”,  Bellevue Reporter,  April 8, 2016

6)  Article by Allison Deangelis “Laurie Lamp becomes Bellevue Fire’s third female captain”,  Bellevue Reporter,  May 13, 2016

7)  Article by David Wilma “Bellevue Emergency and Police Services” 

8)  Fire Report:  Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department  12-3-50

9)  Meeting Report:  Charter Members of Bellevue Volunteer Fire Department  August 25, 1942

A History of Snoqualmie Pass Part 1: Crossing the Northern Cascades Before Roads

Eastside Stories is our way of sharing Eastside history through the many events, people places and interesting bits of information that we collect at the Eastside Heritage Center. We hope you enjoy these stories and share them with friends and family.

Eastside Stories

To the east of Lake Washington lay the Cascade mountains, a range of peaks which reaches over 700 miles from Northern California to Canada. This stretch of rugged topography posed a formidable barrier to those traveling on foot to the Pacific before the creation of a road. Both creating a barrier and a life-source, water flows down from multiple rivers and lakes in the Cascades, increasing as snow melts in the summer. This water flows all the way to Lake Washington via winding rivers, creeks, and other bodies of water throughout King County.

Water is the reason the geography that we know today exists. Glaciers and the water flows associated with them have helped to form much of Washington State’s geography. In the Pleistocene (about 20,000 years ago), the Cordilleran Ice Sheet reached its’ farthest extent, covering much of Canada and the United States. 14,000 to 11,000 years ago it began to recede. As it moved north past the Canadian border, the Cordilleran Ice Sheet created many mountain valleys including the route we call Snoqualmie Pass today.

Human activity is recorded along this route as early as 6,000 years ago and indigenous groups lived in the area long before this, during the time of the glaciers. Native Americans used the route on foot for thousands of years and taught it to European explorers and trappers who came to Washington State in the 18th and 19th century. Indigenous groups from both sides of the Cascade Range traveled back and forth to trade game, plants, and other goods, a practice that continued for some tribes until the 1940s or later when military action in the middle of the state interrupted traditional hunting and foraging as well as routes of travel. 

The arrival of the horse in the 1740s encouraged this kind of trade, allowing groups like the Snoqualmie who occupied the Cascades to trade with those from the interior plains. Past encampments of indigenous groups have been found by archaeologists near food sources including berry patches and rivers where fish were readily available. By the 1840s and 50s, when a formal road was being discussed, Native Americans had already been influenced by European colonizers and goods which transformed styles of dress and economic patterns. Early Europeans also introduced smallpox, reducing the population greatly during early excursions to the region.

In the first half of the 1800s several European visitors to the region recorded being guided by indigenous populations through Snoqualmie Pass and on other routes. Although today hundreds of people pass through the Cascades in an hour or less, until the project to build a road was formally undertaken by state and federal government only about a dozen people passed through each year. Although many thought it safest to travel by water, the effects of war and Manifest Destiny on the region led to the desire for a quicker route for people to travel from east to west.

Resources

Eastside Heritage Center Archives

http://glaciers.us/jhbretz.html

“Snoqualmie Pass: From Indian Trail to Interstate” by Yvonne Prater