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Scott Terrell

By all accounts, farmer and tile-factory owner James Harrison didn’t want to wait around to get things done.

Neither did German immigrant Franz Fritsch. And it’s a good thing, too, because there was plenty of work waiting in Skagit County in the late 1800s — much of the land surrounding the few small settlements was tangled forest, trading and traveling was by boat, and pioneers struggled to organize businesses and services in the harsh landscape.
So Harrison, Fritsch and their families rolled up their sleeves, delved into the rural social and business fabric of the local community and made contributions to Sedro-Woolley and Skagit County history that reverberates today.

“They were outstanding families in the way they went about business and the way they became involved in the community,” said Lorraine Rothenbuhler, Sedro-Woolley Museum volunteer coordinator and genealogist.

That’s why the museum will honor the Harrison and Fritsch families during a ceremony as part of the 13th annual Founder’s Day celebration Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 8-9, in Sedro-Woolley.

The celebration includes the usual Founder’s Day breakfast, videos at the museum, a museum open house, a car show and, of course, the community picnic Sunday at Riverfront Park.

An addition to the lineup is woodworking demonstrations by Dennis Shinn.

This year’s events, however, won’t include the shoot-’em-up reenactment of the 1914 bank robbery that’s become the highlight of the celebration.

Two of the key gun-handlers who loaded the black-powder bullets with blanks and handled the other guns quit, leaving the museum without qualified help, said Carolyn Freeman, president of the museum.

And an incident last year proved that unqualified museum volunteers can’t handle the guns and ammunition themselves, Freeman said. When the museum ordered the blanks for the guns for this year’s event, they ended up with a box of live bullets among the blanks.

“It scared me to death, because I wouldn’t have known the difference,” Freeman said. “I need to find people who do.”

For now, museum volunteers have been concentrating their efforts on contacting members of the Fritsch and Harrison families, interviewing local descendants and contacting family members living across the country to invite them to a special event to honor their pioneering relatives.

Members of other pioneering families who have been honored are often thrilled with the event that reunites relatives who haven’t seen each other for years, Rothenbuhler said.
Bob Harrison, grandson of early Sedro-Woolley pioneer James Harrison, hopes to catch up with some cousins who have said they plan to attend.

Harrison is one of the museum founders and its first president. He still lives in the house that his father, John Harrison, built in 1921 on the Harrison family homestead. His grandfather’s house still stands just down the road.

Harrison, 85, said he doesn’t remember much about the grandfather from Ohio who moved to Skagit County in 1889 and later helped found the Skagit Dairyman’s Association and served in the state Legislature. Harrison was 14 years old when his grandfather died.

“He was an easy-going man, always gentle and nice,” Harrison said. “He was good to us kids. I learned all I know about the family from my parents.”

James Harrison grew up on a farm in Ohio, and after finishing high school, began teaching classes. He later decided to help his father build a drainage and tiling factory, which was a huge success.

For reasons unknown and undocumented, Harrison decided to leave Ohio for Skagit County. He packed up his wife, Ora, and two children and headed west.

Shortly after arriving in 1889, Harrison bought 130 acres just east of Sedro-Woolley and began clearing the land to build a home and start a farm.

After just a few years in the area, Harrison found himself drawn to local politics and community service. He began attending political primaries and conventions, and in 1901 was representing his district as a Republican in the state Legislature.

Being a former teacher, he also became involved in the local school system. He served as president of the local school board and later director of the district schools.

In 1912, James Harrison was one of several people who helped persuade the Legislature to set aside money to buy land where Northern State Hospital would eventually be built. He was also instrumental in helping found the Skagit Dairyman’s Association. He continued to farm, with the help of his children.

Harrison’s farm was eventually parceled out to his children.

Just a few years before the Harrisons landed in Skagit County, the Fritsch family made its way west from Texas.

Originally, the Fritsch family hailed from Germany. Like many families at the time, Franz and Theresa Galle Fritsch were looking for a better life when they sailed from Germany with their five sons to Texas, where Theresa’s family already had settled down.

The couple had five more children before moving in 1885 to Skagit County, where two of their sons already lived. The family headed east and settled down in a little area called Sauk, where the Sauk River flows into the Skagit.

While the family struggled to clear the land and develop a farm, they constantly battled the annual floods that eventually drove them back to the Sedro-Woolley and Burlington areas.

Franz invested in real estate and bought land to develop a farm near what is now Pulver Road. Franz and Theresa settled down there for years. Meantime, two sons bought an old building in Sedro-Woolley and quickly turned it into a hardware store, Fritsch Brothers Hardware. The business, which carried just about everything anyone could want, was a huge local success.

The family was often forgiving in its business dealings, Rothenbuhler said.

“If people didn’t have the money, they (the Fritsches) would give them credit to get them what they needed,” she said. “They were hard-working, good people.”

The hardware store burned down with other buildings during the 1911 fire in Sedro-Woolley’s fledgling downtown, Rothenbuhler said. But the Fritsches, like everyone else, took the loss on the chin and rebuilt.

Not as much is known about the Fritsch family as the Harrisons. Even relatives don’t remember much, said Mary Barker, whose mother was a Fritsch. Barker was just 5 years old when her grandmother died, and 12 when her grandfather died.

“My mother never really talked much about them,” Barker said.

Barker said the museum’s research has given her some valuable insight into her family history. And she’s looking forward to seeing relatives she hasn’t seen for decades.
“We’ve never been a close-knit family,” she said. “I have cousins I haven’t seen for 50 years.”

•••••••

The 2007 Founder’s Day Schedule of Events:

Saturday, Sept. 8:
• 8 to 11 a.m. — Founder’s Day Breakfast at the Senior Center, 715 Pacific St. Breakfast features biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, juice and coffee for $5.
• 9 to 11 a.m. — Historic videos at the Sedro-Woolley Museum, 725 Murdock St.
• 10 a.m. — Woodworking demonstrations in front of the museum.
• 1 to 4 p.m. — Museum open house and honoring of the Harrison and Fritsch families at the museum.

Sunday, Sept. 9:
• 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. — Open car show at Riverfront Park, 2212 River Road. $10 registration fee; dash plaques to the first 250 cars.
• 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. — Community picnic, with hot dog, chips, cookies and pop for $2 donation.
For more information, call the museum at 360-855-2390.

• Beverly Crichfield can be reached at 360-416-2135 or