In the early 1890s, hundreds of men worked to harvest the abundant timber around Edmonds. They also built railways and roads, worked in the shingle and lumber mills, and helped provide the much needed wood for steamboats and locomotives that traveled up and down Puget Sound.

Unfortunately a number of them were seriously hurt performing these tasks. But a few of the most industrious ones were able to overcome their injuries, adapt and build new lives for themselves and their families.

This is the story of one of those men.

William Kingdon Jr., his wife Vadner and 1-year-old son William Carl Kingdon first arrived in Edmonds in 1893. Initially William worked for O.C. Sorensen in a variety of logging operations around Edmonds. But having a team of sturdy horses, he heard that horses were needed to haul cord wood from the north Broadway area in Seattle to the docks where the wood was used to fuel the steamers.

He and his team of horses proved to be excellent in that endeavor and he was able to expand his workload with contracts in Richmond Beach, Innis Arden and Hidden Lake.

A year after their arrival, while William was working in Richmond Beach, the Kingdons welcomed their first daughter, Esther Amy Kingdon.

As his work contracts took him further north, William moved his wife and family, keeping them always close to him.  With larger and larger contracts, William expanded his teams of horses. By the time he had finished the contract in the Hidden Lake area, he had seven teams of horses and associated horsemen working for him.

While his family was living in the Hidden Lake area, William’s father traveled west from Michigan to live with William and his family. William Sr. had been a farrier by trade, and upon his arrival helped William Jr. with his horses.

Author’s note: At some point, William’s younger brother and sisters — Frank, Sarah and Lucy — also moved west to the Edmonds area. Unfortunately there is no record of when they arrived.

In 1897, William received another large contract in the Tulalip area to haul cord wood to the docks in Edmonds for the mosquito fleet’s steamboats. The contract also included hauling cedar shingles to the mills that were now lining the Edmonds waterfront.

Sadly, in early 1898, William was severely injured (possibly a broken back) while working in the woods. According to Kingdon written family history, he was injured so badly that he couldn’t be moved for weeks and was finally transferred on a stretcher to Edmonds in late spring of 1898.

By the time he was able to be transported, the family had moved into a house on 6th Avenue and William was brought there to rest. While William was recuperating, a third child — Frank Dewey — was born on May 30, 1898. Shortly after William’s son’s birth, William’s father died suddenly of a heart attack, at age 69, and was the first person buried in the Independent Order of Odd Fellows (I.O.O.F.) Cemetery. The I.O.O.F. Cemetery today is known as the Edmonds Memorial Cemetery.

Despite his crippling injuries and the emotional ups and down associated with births and deaths within the family, William continued in the logging business. He leased out the Bell Street dock in 1899 and 1900, using his teams of horses to supply shingles to the Edmonds mills and cord wood to the Puget Sound steamboats. In December 1900, William and Vadner brought their second daughter, Ivy May into the world.

With his family growing, William decided to purchase a small grocery store with his brother-in-law, John C. Farrell, at the end of the Edmonds wharf in the beginning of 1902. Their store was the only grocery near the wharf that could quickly serve steamboat passengers and crew. The next closest store was the Schumacher Brothers’ Grocery, four blocks up from the wharf on the corner of Fourth Avenue and Main Street.

Author’s note: I have not been able to find a photo of the original Kingdon-Farrell Grocery Store at the end of the Edmonds wharf in any of the historical archives.

Over the next three years, William continued to work in the logging industry and also manage the store. During this time, his family continued to grow. Frederick Dorr Kingdon was born in April 1902 and Ana Florence Kingdon in October 1904.

Now with six children and a wife to feed, William sold his interest in the wharf-side store to his brother-in-law in late 1904 and additionally sold all of his horses except for one team. With the proceeds, he purchased the competing Schumacher Brothers Grocery Store, which was closer to the growing town center.

But William had a bigger vision than just a grocery store. When the Wm. Kingdon General Mercantile store opened, it offered not only groceries, but dry goods, clothing and shoes, home furnishings and much more. Given the size of the two-story building, William also saved money by moving his family into the upstairs and rented out their previous home on 6th Avenue.

During the following two years, the business continued to grow. William offered an even wider variety of dry goods, clothing and shoes, plus he sold hay and grain, which he personally delivered using his team of horses and wagon.

In 1906, the first cement building in Edmonds was built adjacent to the Schumacher building. Once the building was completed, William moved his general store into the new space and continued to expand his product offerings. He also relocated his family to a new house near 7th Avenue and Main Street, close to the Edmonds Grade School.

By the end of 1906, William had two teams of horses and wagons making home deliveries to neighboring farms, mills and — on Sundays — to some of the lake areas around Edmonds. Home delivery was a new concept to merchants at the time.

Author’s note: The original Schumacher Grocery Store is now the site of the Machavelli’s Restaurant after being the home of Chanterelle Bistro for over 20 years, and the concrete building is the long time home of Housewares.

For the next five years, the Kingdon General Mercantile became a staple within the community. But on Feb. 27, 1911 William was stricken with an acute appendicitis and was rushed to Seattle for an emergency surgery. According to the doctors, he survived the operation but died two days later.

His obituary in the Edmonds Tribune-Review the following Friday read:

“William Kingdon, one of the most prominent merchants of this city, died Wednesday morning in a hospital in Seattle whither he had been taken while suffering from an aggravated attack of appendicitis, on Monday. He had had several attacks from the same malady extending over a few years, but did not seem to realize the seriousness of the disease that had him in its power. 

However when he again felt the repetition of the disease fastening itself upon him last Sunday, he was persuaded to submit to an operation and was hurried to the hospital Monday. 

The entire community is shocked by the outcome, as only last Saturday he was in the store apparently in good health as usual.

The deceased was loved and respected by all with whom he had come in contact with and was generous to a fault.  His most conspicuous characteristic was his unceasing devotion and fidelity to his wife and children, for whom he utilized every ounce of his strength and capacity to make comfortable and happy. His greatest delight and pleasure was sought and found around the family fireside, where, invariably, his spare moments were spent.”

William was buried the following week alongside his father at the Edmonds Memorial Cemetery.

William Kingdon arrived in the Edmonds area with his young family when he was only 29 years of age. Obviously skilled in the woods and with horses, he was successful in providing for his growing family before he was seriously injured.  Not feeling sorry for himself, he transformed his life, becoming one of the most successful early merchants in Edmonds through hard work and innovation.

Esther Kingdon Knowles, William’s eldest daughter, in her oral history stated: “Papa was a hard worker and a great believer in private enterprise, and always worked for himself”.

It was William’s resolve, and those like him, who overcame personal tragedies while helping Edmonds succeed in the early days of its history.

Author’s final notes:

 William Kingdon, was only 48 when he died. His wife Vadner, and the six children sold the store after his passing.  Vadner remarried in 1916 and ran a hotel with her second husband, Leander Benner, in Everett.

William’s younger brother, Frank, was also in the grocery business. He was the manager of the grocery department at the Edmonds Grocery and Market and later he and Myrtie Otto owned the store.

William’s younger sister, Sarah married Eugene Amidon and they later moved to Oregon.

A number of the Kingdon family stayed in the Edmonds area. William Carl Kingdon, the eldest son, lived in Edmonds, dying in 1964, and was buried in the Edmonds Memorial Cemetery. William and Vadner’s eldest daughter Esther Kingdon Knowles was honored in 1991 as the resident who had lived the longest in the Edmonds area. She passed in 1993 at the age of 99. Her younger sister, Ivy May Kingdon Specht Hoff, also an Edmonds resident, lived to be 99 years of age too, passing in 1999 and is buried in the Edmonds Cemetery. It is believed that there are several third- and possibly fourth-generation Kingdon family descendants in the Edmonds area today.

This article was researched and written by Byron Wilkes. Thanks go to the Edmonds Historical Museum, Sno-Isle Genealogical Society, The Edmonds Cemetery Board, Larry Vogel and the Lynnwood Library for their help.