Looking Back: Lillie Cordelia Breed — a pioneer in the wilderness

This 1890s photo shows Lillie Breed and son John at their first cabin.

Lillie Cordelia Breed was a wife, a mother and a grandmother.  Probably in her time, she was considered quite ordinary — not special or famous. However, it was the ordinary women — just like Lillie Breed — who by their hard work, diligence and courage helped in the taming of a wilderness land.

During the late 19th century, a few miles east of the small town of Edmonds and Puget Sound, a few hardy homesteading families settled amid the plethora of giant trees of the still uninhabited forested land. An early family was that of Charles and Lillie Breed and their five children.

In the year of 1888, Charles Breed paid cash when he filed a claim with the Seattle land office for 160 acres of timberland in South Snohomish County at Swamp Creek, a short distance west of Martha Lake. His cash payment totaled $200 ($1.25 per acre). The Bureau of Land Management in Portland, Ore. provided a copy of that original land patent in the name of Charles B. Breed, issued June 18, 1890 in Snohomish County.  In addition, in the records of the deeds of Snohomish County, is a 1903 Quit Claim Deed signed by Charles B. Breed, deeding 80 acres of the southern section of the original 160-acre land patent to his wife Lillie C. Breed.  A quit claim deed from a husband to his wife in those days was most unusual, and does seem to show that Lillie and Charles Breed had a very good marriage — a marriage where they were equal partners.

The Breed family’s 160 acres is shown in a portion of the 1910 Plat of Twp. 27 North, Range 4 East, Willamette Meridian, Snohomish County.

Lillie Breed did not live long enough to see her land and the community of Alderwood Manor became part of the incorporated city of Lynnwood. However, she left a special legacy — one currently in use every day and appreciated by both residents and visitors. No doubt, Lillie Breed would be surprised at the everyday happenings taking place on her former land. However, before learning about her legacy, let’s get to know more about this very special lady.

Lillie Breed – the beginning

Lillie Cordelia Nairn Breed was born Dec. 12, 1856 in Monterey, a community near the small post office village of Batchtown in central Illinois. She came from a family whose roots can be traced far back in America’s history. Her southern paternal grandmother, because of her Spanish ancestry, was given a land grant where the city of St. Louis now stands. However, when the land became part of the United States following the Louisiana Purchase, ownership was lost to the family. Lillie’s paternal grandfather’s ancestors were from a very ancient Nairn family of Scotland.

Lillie was a young child when the nation became embroiled in the Civil War. Her father John Nairn, a farmer, organized and became captain of a volunteer regiment of young men and went off to war as an officer to lead his troops on the side of the Union.  After her father safely returned from the fighting, the family continued to live on their large farm in Illinois.

Even though she was not a healthy and robust girl, Lillie had a great love for the outdoors. In her younger days, horseback riding was her favorite pastime and as with most women of that time, she usually rode sidesaddle.

When Lillie’s father died in 1874, her mother decided to move the family west from Illinois to Kansasto find a new home where Lillie’s health might improve. After traveling by covered wagon, they settled on prairie land near Pawnee Rock, Kansas, where they became grain farmers.

Lillie’s marriage and the beginning of a family

While living in Kansas, Lillie met her future husband, Charles Bradley Breed. They were married in 1881. Times were tough in Kansas, and seeking a better life, Lillie and Charles Breed traveled west by wagon train to Ratoon, New Mexico, where they heard there was employment available with the railroad.  Charles Breed worked as a laborer for Santa Fe Railroad and Lillie found employment in the cook house. However, they soon discovered that Ratoon was a wide-open town filled with violence — gun fights and hangings were commonplace.

After spending about a year in New Mexico, Lillie and Charles realized Ratoon was not the place to raise a family, so they returned to Kansas to again try farming, and to begin a family.  In Kansas, three children were born to them, Laura Fern (1882), John Amos (1884) and Ethel Mary (1886).

A new life for Lillie and Charles Breed

With lack of rain, dust storms, crop failures and a depressed economy, farming in Kansas was a disaster, and in 1888 Lillie and Charles Breed chose what they believed would be a better life for their family. Packing their belongings and saying good-bye to relatives and friends, the couple and their three young children headed out west to Washington Territory.

Traveling by railroad, Lillie remembered the trip as an adventure. They were on the Northern Pacific passenger train, which went over a frightening “switchback” in the Rocky Mountains. In Oregon, there was no railroad bridge over the Columbia River and, thus, from Portland the train was floated across the wide river on a ferry. Northern Pacific then traveled to its terminus at Tacoma. From Tacoma, they took a small steamer north up Puget Sound to Seattle, their destination.

In Seattle, during 1888, Charles Breed worked as a carpenter, and he also applied for the 160-acre timber claim near Martha Lake in South Snohomish County. Charles Breed’s land selection was a good one as Swamp Creek meandered through the middle of their property. Thus, the family was assured of a good supply of water.

They remained in Seattle, where Charles Breed worked at the carpentry trade, while also clearing their homestead land and building a cabin and outbuildings to make their Swamp Creek home site livable for his family. That same year, twins Flora Pearl and Paul Nairn were born. Paul died in infancy in early 1889 and was buried in Seattle, the town of his birth.

Lillie and her family were in Seattle to witness the great Seattle fire in June of 1889, and also, the birth of the State of Washington in November that same year.

While Charles continued his work at their Swamp Creek ranch, they moved to Stanwood where Lillie’s sister had a home. Their fifth and last child, Bessie Alice Breed, was born there in 1890.  That same year, Lillie and Charles decided they were now ready for the family’s big move to their new home at Swamp Creek.

Leaving Stanwood, the family traveled by steamer to Mosher, four miles east of Edmonds on the shore of Puget Sound.   Mosher is now part of lower Meadowdale and the name is seldom heard anymore. As the family left Mosher and headed for their wilderness home, their wagons were loaded with children, clothing, household goods, food and grain — also they were herding their cattle. They traveled east over a steep narrow trail and through trees so thick and tall, very little light penetrated the darkness or warmed the land. The family would soon find the riches of a forest teeming with wild game and fowl; and small streams with trout, plus salmon in season.

The Breed cabin in the 1890s, with Charles Breed and son John standing in front.

Lillie and Charles Breed named their new home Ruby Ranch. In 1909 they built a two-story, five-bedroom hand-hewed log house to replace the original small rustic log cabin they had been living in.

The family remained at Ruby Ranch except for two years when Charles and Lillie Breed were part owners of Chippewa Lumber Company, and they lived at a small logging community next to the rail line of the Seattle/Everett Interurban on the western shore of Lake Ballinger.

An ending of a life well-lived

By 1931, Lillie and Charles Breed had many neighborhood friends; and when the couple celebrated their golden wedding anniversary on Sept. 1 that year, it became a community event.  Carrying well-filled picnic baskets, relatives and friends gathered for the celebration at a resort on the south shore of Martha Lake. Martha Lake had been a favorite gathering spot for community picnics for over 30 years.

Lillie Breed never was strong and robust like many pioneer women. However, as her family said, her grit and courage made up for her small stature. Lillie witnessed a lot of changes in her lifetime. She lived long enough to see the development of Seattle and Everett, and to witness Alderwood Manor become a community of about 1,500 families.

Those who came later owe a debt of gratitude to early settlers such as Lillie and her family. Their pioneering spirit and hard work led the way for the Lynnwood we know today.

The death of 78-year-old Lillie Breed two days before Christmas in 1934, ended a marriage that had lasted 53 years. On Dec. 28, 1934, on its front page, the local newspaper, the Edmonds Tribune Review, published a lengthy and detailed account of the life of Lillie Breed. The writer called her a hardy pioneer woman — one who had seen the taming of a wilderness, and had left behind a large family, many friends and the history of a life well-lived. Lillie Breed is buried at Edmonds Memorial Cemetery in the city of Edmonds. Her husband and four of their children — Fern, Ethel, Bessie and John — survived her. Charles Bradley Breed died in 1946 at the age of 93. He is buried beside his beloved Lillie.

Lillie Breed’s legacy

Lillie’s home is memorialized in a special way — it is a legacy to the people of Lynnwood. The 80 acres of her pioneer land is visited by dozens of people every day of the week. If you drive along 164th Street Southwest in today’s Lynnwood, near the Swamp Creek Interchange, a mile or so west of Martha Lake, you will be passing by the southern portion of what was Ruby Ranch, the long-time home of the Lillie and Charles Breed.  The modern scene shown in the accompanying photo is one repeated each day at the dip in the road.

Customers at the artesian well on 164th Street Southwest in December 2018. (Photo by Betty Lou Gaeng)

What appears to be never-ending water flows from the pipes of an artesian well. Vehicles of all kinds stop at this spot at all hours of the day. With containers of varying shapes and sizes in hand, they come from as far away as West Seattle to wait in line in order to fill their containers with the cold, crystal-clear drinking water. You will find no taste of chemicals in this artesian water supply. Surprisingly, in our present day when almost everything has become a commercial enterprise, the water is still free to all — managed and inspected by the local water district.

The next time you fill a container at Lynnwood’s 164th Street water place, remember Lillie and Charles Breed and their place in history.

A story from the family’s collection of remembrances 

Much of the personal information for this article came from the memories of Lillie and Charles Breed’s youngest daughter Bessie Alice Breed Schoppert-Irby-Cornell (1890-1973). Bessie Cornell’s daughter, Betty Alys Schoppert Morgan (1925-1997) later collected and documented her mother’s remembrances.   Following is one of the family’s many Ruby Ranch stories. This one explains why Lillie Breed used a cane as she walked with a very noticeable limp.

In the first decade of the 20th century, a strange accident almost ended Lillie’s life. It was just before Christmas and even though the weather was chilly, it was clear and sunny — a perfect day for a walk in the woods. Lillie decided to visit her good friend Elizabeth Morrice, whose home was less than two miles south of Ruby Ranch — in fact, right where Alderwood Mall is today.  At the Morrice home, as the two friends talked and enjoyed each other’s company, daylight slipped away. It became too late for Lillie to make her way home before darkness fell.

Two local teen-age boys had spent their day hunting in the Swamp Creek area, not far from Ruby Ranch, and they were now on their way back home. By the time darkness fell, they had lost their way. Carrying their still-loaded hunting rifles, the two decided to follow the creek to the Breed cabin, where they knew they would find a welcome. Meanwhile, wearing a full-length black cape with a dark scarf covering her hair, Lillie was hurrying as she neared home. As the boys approached from the opposite direction, they were startled and terrified when they saw before them what appeared to be a caped dark figure from a nightmare. Five shots were fired — one from one gun and four from the other. As she screamed and called out, Lillie fell to the ground next to a log.

Realizing what they had done, the two went to her side. One boy immediately ran to notify Mr. Breed, while the other boy hurried to the Morrice home. When William Morrice, Jr. heard about the accident, he rode his horse west over a rough trail about three miles to Harry Reid’s place and Mr. Reid then hurried to Edmonds to find the closest medical help, Dr. O. W. Schmidt. The Reid home was less than a mile west of today’s James Village and Highway 99 — the town of Edmonds and the doctor’s home, a little over two miles further west.

Meanwhile, Charles Breed hitched his horse to a sled and took a suffering Lillie home. Luckily, the wound was not fatal. One bullet had hit her in the instep of her foot and then came out through her heel. When Dr. Schmidt arrived, he took care of the wound and with the doctor’s continued care, Lillie eventually healed. However, as Lillie Breed’s daughter said, “The boys who did the shooting paid the doctor’s bill, but they could never repay Lillie for all of her pain and suffering, nor for her years with crutches and a cane; as well as the pronounced limp she endured for the remainder of her life.”

— By Betty Lou Gaeng

Betty Gaeng is a long-time resident of Lynnwood and Edmonds, coming to the area in 1933. She researches and writes about the history and the people of early-day Edmonds  Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  1. Betty, What a wonderful piece of local history! My present condo home is just north of their Ruby Ranch, on the west side of Swamp Creek and my first Edmonds home was on the western shores of Lake Ballinger, just a block from the old Ballinger Interurban stop. I continue to enjoy your local history work. Swamp Creek is no longer the reliable water source it once was, as it dries out completely in summer these days, but of course the artesian well remains.

  2. Betty, I am a native of Edmonds, childhood of the 50-60’s. Curious if you have any info on an amazing teacher that taught at Edmonds Elementary and was truly a pioneer, Mrs. Stone. I recall stories she told of possibly living in Alaska and doing weather tracking. She was a fantastic teacher and I would love to know more of her history. Another teacher I remember from the same time frame is Mildred Hatch. Don’t recall her history as being as dramatic but of the same generation and another treat teacher. Any info on either of them???

  3. Marilyn — My schooldays in the Edmonds District schools was the 30s and 40s, so the teachers you mention were not mine. However, I remember the names. I had siblings in school in the 40s and 50s and my children attended Edmonds schools in the 60s and 70s, so I have heard a lot of teachers’ names mentioned. In fact, Mildred Hatch was teaching at Edmonds Grade School as early as 1945. I do have connections to possibly find out about the two you mention. I have always thought that Edmonds School District had some great teachers, and I had f few I have never forgotten. In fact, in the February issue of Everett Herald’s Senior Source section Homage (Feb. 20), I plan on sharing a story about a teacher I had In the 5th grade at Edmonds Grade School. Her name was Gwen Shakespeare, and after all these years, I still remember her. Also, you might want to make a note that on Thursday, July 25th this year, the Edmonds Memorial Cemetery board during its annual Walk Back in Time program will be honoring the teachers who are buried at the cemetery. I am a member of the board, so, God willing, I will be there. We will be portraying five teachers and three of them you may remember. Also, we plan to have a booklet on hand which will tell a little about each teacher who rests in our cemetery–so far we have about 30; dating back to Edmonds’ very early days. Some Edmonds teachers spent their entire teaching life in the Edmonds School District. If you graduated from EHS you may remember Mildred Johnson, the business teacher. I had her as a teacher in high school and about 24 years later, so did Marilyn, my daughter, who graduated from EHS in 1968. If you want to contact me directly, you can give your contact information to Teresa Wippel, the My Edmonds News publisher, and I will get back to you.

  4. Marilyn Sutton — A little bit more on your query about Mildred Hatch. If I remember correctly, she was the wife of George Hatch, who was the principal of EHS when I first started there–just before G. Mason Hall was appointed as principal. Mr. Hatch was also my history teacher and partially to blame for my sometimes very wordy Looking Back columns. He was the best history teacher I ever had and he wrote in my 1945 Echo, the high school annual, “Quiet Betty is a fair description. Keep your chin up and maintain the good work.” I guess when I was in school, I listened more than I talked. However, I always wondered about his comment. If Mildred Hatch was anything like her husband, she must have been a wonderful teacher.

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