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The collection consists of two histories of the families, one by
Frances Bacon Roberts and the other by Bertha Crockett Jenner,
and one published memoir by George H. Bacon. The documents
convey what life was like for the families, who were some of the
early settlers in the Puget Sound area. In addition, the
accounts describe familial relations, local industries, and the
local economy.
The family history written by Frances Roberts, "The Crocketts,
the Donovans and Their Times: A History of Two Pioneer
Families," begins with the Crockett family in France in 1643 and
the Donovan family in Ireland in the 1850s during the potato
famine. However, her history focuses upon life on the frontier
as experienced by the settlers of the Puget Sound area when it
was still the Washington Territory. Samuel Crockett was the
first of the Crocketts to settle on Whidbey Island in the early
1850s. Charles Donovan came to live in the town of Sehome in
1873 as a telegraph operator. The family members' involvement in
coal mining, the stringing of the telegraph, and the expansion
of the railway line are related in the history. Written in
1940, Jenner's history, "Over Uncertain Trails," recounts the
journey her ancestors, the Crocketts, made to Whidbey Island in
1852 and the Chamberlains, to the Oregon Territory in 1857 and
then to Seattle in 1881. The narrative includes excerpts from
letters and diaries as she describes the journey the settlers
made and the experiences they and she had living in the Puget
Sound area. Bacon’s reminisces in "Booming and Panic-ing in
Puget Sound," written circa 1932, describe the economic and
social life in and around the town of Whatcom during the boom
years of the early 1890s leading up to the panic of 1893. He
concludes his story in 1897 when the local economy began to turn
for the better. |
