GENERATION 9 – HANS JOHN DE JONG>DEYOUNG AND SARYELEN PRIEST

Their oldest son John (my grandfather) married Ellen Priest in 1918. She had moved to Kent (via LaBam, Washington) from Arkansas about 1911 or 1912.  Here is their wedding picture in 1913.

They had 6 children: John Milford “Milford” (1914), Anna Frances “Frances” (1916), William Lowell “Lowell” (1920), Robert Taylor “Bob” (1924), James Henry “Jim” (1928), and my Father Frederick Allison “Al” (1929). Below is a picture taken in 1922 of the John DeYoung Family.

The Back row is Anna Frances DeYoung Gasslander and John Milford DeYoung. The middle row is Hans John DeYoung and Ellen Priest DeYoung.  William Lowell DeYoung is in the front.

On the right is a picture of John and Ellen taken at their 50th wedding anniversary in 1963. 

 Next is one of my favorite pictures of my grandparents taken in the 1950’s.

John and Ellen had six children:  Milford, Frances, Lowell, Bob, Jim and my Father Al.

All of John and Ellen’s children have lived to celebrate their 50 year wedding anniversary. We think that is quite an accomplishment. The grandchildren have not been so fortunate. Like most families today, the younger generation has had had several divorces.  Below is a picture of the DeYoung children and their spouses at my Uncle Milford and Aunt Frances’ fiftieth wedding anniversary in 1988.  It should be noted that three of the DeYoung boys married three of the Pemberton girls, including my Mother and Father.  We laugh that Woodinville just wasn’t that big in the 30’s and 40’s.  First to marry was Milford and my Mother’s second oldest sister Frances in 1938.  Next were my parents (Al and Donna Pemberton) in 1946 and finally Jim and my Mother’s twin sister Dorothy also in 1946.  It has always been very confusing to people that my Mother and her twin sister had the same married name and were married to men who look alike.  In addition, growing up Jim and Dorothy lived down the street from us.  We had more than one strange look and comment from door-to-door salesmen!   Consequently six of us cousins are double cousins:  Lance, Larry, Linda, myself, Terri and Diane.  It has been interesting.  Also adding to the confusion most of John and Ellen’s children were called by their middle names.  Consequently Anna Frances DeYoung went by the name Frances (until she was 85 when she decided she would rather be called Anna – it was so great!).  She married Dick Gasslander and was known as Frances Gasslander.  My Mother’s sister Frances Pemberton married Milford DeYoung and was known as Frances DeYoung.  This was also very confusing to the people in town.

From Left to right are Robert Taylor (Bob) and my his wife Barbara Mae Koontz, William Lowell “Lowell” and his wife Stella Pascoe, John Milford “Milford” and his wife Frances Pemberton, my Father Frederick Allison “Al” and my Mother Donna June Pemberton, Anna Frances “Frances DeYoung and her husband Richard “Dick” Gasslander, and James Henry and his wife Dorothy Jean Pemberton. (As a side note three DeYoung boys married three Pemberton girls. Plus my Mother and Aunt Dorothy are identical twins. Consequently, six of us are double cousins. It is very confusing to everyone, including the family sometimes!)

Here are most of the cousins in 1988. The back row is: Lance DeYoung (double cousin), Larry DeYoung (double cousin), John DeYoung, Rick DeYoung, Diane DeYoung (double cousin), Patricia DeYoung Rigali, Kate Gasslander Lickey. The front row is: Jean Gasslander Bloom, Linda DeYoung Cooper (double cousin), Lucy DeYoung (double cousin), Terri DeYoung (double cousin), and Virginia DeYoung. Missing are Mike DeYoung, Dennis DeYoung, and Edith DeYoung Matulka.

My Grandfather John also worked in Kent for the Carnation Can Company as a “tool and die man.” When they shut down the factory about 1920 he could have transferred to Carnation’s factory in San Jose, California. He went to San Jose to get settled while my Grandmother Ellen, who was pregnant with Bob, rented their house and packed their belongings for the move. John called and told Ellen he didn’t like San Jose and they weren’t moving. To the right is a picture of their house in Kent with Ben DeYoung’s car in the driveway (John’s brother).

After coming back to Kent he then worked in Seattle and in a hardware store in Auburn. In 1925 the family moved to Woodinville when he purchased a General Store from Mrs. Clara Teegarden.  I look at this store and think that they had to have imagination and vision to see a successful business in this ramshackle store, but they did.  John went on to become a very successful businessman in Woodinville and Ellen was very involved in the community.  They both were very active in the church.  My Aunt told me that shortly after they moved to Woodinville my Grandfather wanted to leave because Woodinville was rought and tumble and it “wasn’t the type of town he wanted to raise his family in.”  My Grandmother told him (and I can just hear her) that well, they weren’t moving and it was up to them to make Woodinville the type of town he wanted – and they did.  They were quite an example for our family!

The following excerpt is from a Community Profile written about my Grandmother in 1969 for the local newspaper. The first part of the story talks about how the DeYoung’s moved from Kent to Woodinville.

“If the late John DeYoung hadn’t scanned his Sunday paper one day in 1925, the Northshore community would have been poorer in many ways.

“We lived in Kent and my husband had a good job,” recalls his widow, Ellen DeYoung. “But he always wanted his own business.”

When John DeYoung discovered a general store for sale in the classified ads, “We climbed right in the car and drove to Woodinville that Sunday,” Mrs. DeYoung said.

What the DeYoungs saw of Woodinville and Clara Teagarden’s general store that day convinced them the community had a future. Borrowing $700 and investing every cent of his own, John DeYoung bought the store, where the Woodinville Texaco station is located today.

“I had misgivings about moving to a jumping-off place where logging was the only support of the town,” Mrs. DeYoung remembers. “But I decided to help make the community better.”

In the 44 years since that afternoon Ellen DeYoung has been true to her word. Setting the pace with her tireless efforts on behalf of civic, business, and religious activities, she imbued her six children with the same dedication to public stewardship.

Yet she will say modestly, “No mother could be as lucky as I. All my six children are around me. Besides, I have 15 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.”

Her husband, who died several years ago, began his contribution to Woodinville when he built his own general store and post office beside the old one.

In another building across the road, he operated a lettuce-packing shed. When that era ended, John DeYoung converted it to a feed and fuel operation.”

The above picture of the Teagarden General Store was taken in about 1905. My Aunt Anna Frances remembers the building and says it looked about like the picture when they bought the business and moved into the back of the store in 1925. I look at that picture and I can’t help but wonder what my Grandmother must have thought. My Aunt says even though she was only nine she was none to happy about moving to Woodinville. Kent was a city with sidewalks and Woodinville was a logging town with dirt roads. I don’t think my Grandmother could stand living in the General Store because they didn’t live in the back of the store too long before they rented a home in Bothell about 2 miles away. They obviously had a dream.

I have the contract between my Grandfather and C. J. Teagarden for purchase of the business

“Woodinville, Wash. Feb. 7, 1925.

Received of John DeYoung $200 for option on store until five o’clock p.m. on Feb. 10, 1925. Consideration to be: Twenty five hundred ($2500.00) for goodwill, truck and fixtures on accompanying list. All other goods and stock in store at current wholesale prices. Damaged or obsolete goods, not to exceed one hundred dollars in original value, to be arbitrated. Rent to be paid monthly in advance at fifty dollars per month. Two year option on building at a price of ($4000) four thousand dollars from which the first two years rent is deductible leaving a net purchase price of $2,800 if bought at the two year limit. All repairs and alterations to building to be made at the expense of the lessee. Also an unexpired lease on F. hall building used for hay storage to be included with rental of store building at no extra charge.”

/s/ C. J. Teagarden

Accompanying List – Ladders, counters, shelves, gasoline pump, stove to go with building

$25.00 – 1 scale – computing

$30.00 – 2 scales – platform

$30.00 – 1 Refrigerator show case

$20.00 – 1 Safe

$20.00 – 1 Cash register

$100.00 – 1 Acct. register

$20.00 – 1 Check protector

$? – Post office fixtures – boxes

$15.00 – 1 meat block

$10.00 – 1 cigar case

$10.00 – 1 bread case

$100.00 – 1 Garford Truck

$40.00 – 1 Coal oil tank

$25.00 – 1 Cylinder oil pump

$5.00 – 1 pop rack

$0 – 1 Cookie rack

$0 – 1 hand grain truck

When my Grandfather bought the business he had a partner A.M. Waage who had been in the grocery/hardware business around Kent. I am not sure what percentage of the business he owned but after my Grandfather caught him stealing Grandfather bought out Mr. Waage’s share of the business.

Apparently my Grandfather decided not to exercise his option to buy the building after two years. Instead he bought the property next door and built the Woodinville Mercantile store that still stands in Old Woodinville today.

This is a picture of how the building looked in the 1930’s. My Grandfather must have been successful at running a General Store because he enough money to build a new house in Woodinville in 1929.

From the Northshore Citizen – Home of Note, about 1965 – A creamy yellow colonial house in the heart of Woodinville has been the John DeYoung family home since it was built in 1930. Most of the couple’s six children were raised there, and in turn, have settled in the Northshore area themselves. Now the ten-room colonial house has become familiar to the grandchildren as well. Mrs. DeYoung found the original plans for the house while browsing through a home magazine some 35 years ago and turned the sketches over to Woodinville contractor E. D. Miller. He devised this traditional home whose rounded roof and classic entrance make it as distinctive in Woodinville as it would be in its native New England. The interior features high cove ceilings throughout the house. The tile fireplace was installed at a time when tile was just entering the home building scene. The bricklayer combined large tile blocks of pastel blue and beige to form an interesting pattern of the fireplace. A classic entry hall leads directly to either the living room, second floor stairway, or dining room. Under the rounded roof are the second-story bedrooms. Mrs. DeYoung has converted the center room on the north side of the house to a sewing room, where a window wall gives her natural light plus an interesting view downward to busy NE 175th St.

I have wonderful memories of this house. The family would get together for every birthday and holiday and all the grandchildren would chase each other through the house until someone got hit with one of the swing door and tears would ensue. We would play rock school on the large staircase going upstairs, or build houses and forts out of hay in the barn. It was great fun with lots to do and lots of cousins to do it with.

The house was moved from Main Street to the east side of the downtown area (about 1/4 mile) in 1973.

In 2009 the house was for sale and my Father and Uncle Lowell bought the house and gave it to the Woodinville Heritage Society.  We are currently in the process of meeting the conditions of the City of Woodinville’s Conditional Use Permit so we can open as a Museum, hopefully in January 2011. In 2007 the Heritgage Society videotaped Anna Frances, Lowell and Dad talking about growing up in Woodinville.  It is a wonderful tape.  The three of them were blessed with my Grandmother’s memory. It is impressive.  Anna Frances died shortly thereafter and Lowell two years later. You can buy it from the Heritage Society atwww.woodinvilleheritage.org for $7.

Over the years my Grandfather also owned a shingle mill on the Sammamish Slough down the street from merchantile. He owned a tug boat and they would take it up to Lake Sammamish and bring logs down to make shingles. (What fun my Dad and Uncles had!) After they logged the Woodinville area in the early 1900’s what remained were many old growth cedar stumps. Settlers were called “stump farmers” because they had to remove the stumps before they could build on or farm the land. Some of these farmers would dig out the stumps and haul them to my Grandfather’s mill for some extra money. The valley also had many Italian and Japanese farmers. Much of their produce was hauled by railcar back east. My Grandfather built a ice house and lettuce packing plant that would pack the lettuce in ice so it wouldn’t rot before it got to market. My Grandfather truly was an entrepreneur. Although my Dad and his brothers worked hard after school and after dinner for my Grandfather’s, I also believe they also had a great childhood in Woodinville playing clean practical jokes with the neighborhood kids, riding the trains into Seattle, and hauling logs on their tug boat down the river. It became a town that was a great place to raise your children much to the credit of my Grandparents.

My Grandfather eventually sold the Mercantile and built a Hardware Store which was, I believe, his first love. He was a hard worker and a dedicated family man.. My Dad remembers that they went to Kent every Sunday to visit his grandparents – Menno and Ida and then Ida after Menno died. He was always giving his mother money which my aunts and uncles found hidden in books, canisters, and the mattress after she died. My Dad also remembers either my Grandfather was at work or out in the field digging ditches for better drainage. (After being to Friesland and seeing all those ditches I realize it must of been his Dutch heritage). My Dad says he learned how to dig a ditch from his Dad so it continues. He was a quiet man with a wonderful laugh. My memories of him are mainly from down at the Hardware Store and that he always wore overalls except when he went to Church. I remember on our birthday’s we would meet him down in the basement of their house when he came home and he would pull out a roll of bills with a rubber band around them and he would peel off two one dollar bills for us. It was a big deal. He was also a founding Board member of Washington Federal Savings and Loan which still operates today with over 100 branches in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada, Utah, Texas and Arizona. Although he started a bank, we fondly remember that he ran the unofficial Bank of Woodinville out of his front pocket. He had a piece of paper in his pocket where he kind of kept tract of too whom he lent money. He helped out many families during the Depression who otherwise would have lost their homes. He extended them credit so they could buy groceries.

Before WWII he started stockpiling gas, oil and staples. He must have believed that we were going to war. He started stockpiling shingles. My Father says that my grandmother was so mad that he had all these shingles and wanted him to sell them. But he just kept stockpiling them. When the war came he sold all those shingles to roof the houses in West Seattle and Magnolia where they were building homes for the Boeing workers. My Father remembers that during the war they would deliver groceries to the outlying farmers. They used to trade food and gas stamps for sugar. These farmers used the sugar to make liquor in their stills. There were quite a few stills in this area during that period. Woodinville – 30 miles outside of Seattle – was still a wide spot in the road.

The following is a picture taken in at the DeYoung Park dedication in Woodinville in 1998.

From left to right: Al DeYoung, Anna Frances DeYoung Gasslander, Jennifer Cooper, Stella Pascoe DeYoung, Linda DeYoung Cooper, John DeYoung, Bob DeYoung, Larry DeYoung, Donna Pemberton DeYoung, hidden Barbara Koontz DeYoung, Jim DeYoung, Frances Pemberton DeYoung, Diane DeYoung, Lucy DeYoung, and Lowell DeYoung.

Below are pictures of John and Ellen’s gravestones at Hillcrest Memorial Park in Kent.