Luther J. Wyckoff: Growing Lavender on Chambers Prairie
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Number 14 April 2021 Luther J. Wyckoff: Growing Lavender on Chambers Prairie Artist Edward Lange and Tumwater, Washington Heroes Among Us Mystery Photos $5.00 THURSTON COUNTY HISTORICAL JOURNAL The Thurston County Historical Journal is dedicated to recording and celebrating the history of Thurston County. The Journal is published by the Olympia Tumwater Foundation as a joint enterprise with the following entities: City of Lacey, City of Olympia, Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, Daughters of the American Revolution, Daughters of the Pioneers of Washington/Olympia Chapter, Lacey Historical Society, Old Brewhouse Foundation, Olympia Historical Society and Bigelow House Museum, South Sound Maritime Heritage Association, South Thurston County Historical Society, Thurston County, Tumwater Historical Association, Yelm Prairie Historical Society, and individual donors. Publisher Editor Olympia Tumwater Foundation Karen L. Johnson John Freedman, Executive Director 360-890-2299 Lee Wojnar, President, Board of Trustees [email protected] 110 Deschutes Parkway SW P.O. Box 4098 Editorial Committee Tumwater, Washington 98501 Drew W. Crooks Jennifer Crooks 360-943-2550 James S. Hannum Erin Quinn Valcho www.olytumfoundation.org Obtaining a Copy of the Journal The Journal does not offer a subscription service. To get your own copy, join one of the her- itage groups listed at the top of this page. These groups donate to the publication of the Journal, and thus receive copies to pass on to their members. Issues are also available for purchase at the Bigelow House Museum, Crosby House Museum, and Lacey Museum, and occasionally at Orca Books in downtown Olympia and Hedden’s Pharmacy in Tenino. One year after print publication, digital copies are available at www.ci.lacey.wa.us/TCHJ. Submission Guidelines The Journal welcomes factual articles dealing with any aspect of Thurston County history. Please contact the editor before submitting an article to determine its suitability for publica- tion. Articles on previously unexplored topics, new interpretations of well-known topics, and personal recollections are preferred. Articles may range in length from 100 words to 10,000 words, and should include source notes and suggested illustrations. Submitted articles will be reviewed by the editorial committee and, if chosen for publication, will be fact-checked and may be edited for length and content. The Journal regrets that authors cannot be monetarily compensated, but they will gain the gratitude of readers and the historical community for their contributions to and appreciation of local history. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of the Olympia Tumwater Foundation. Written permission is required to reproduce any part of this publication. Copyright © 2021 by the Olympia Tumwater Foundation. All rights reserved. ISSN 2474-8048 Number 14 Table of Contents April 2021 2 Luther J. Wyckoff: Growing Lavender on Chambers Prairie Mary Paynton Schaff 21 Artist Edward Lange and Tumwater, Washington Drew W. Crooks 37 Heroes Among Us Karen L. Johnson 46 Mystery Photos Back Cover Who/What/Where Is It? On the cover: Lavandula angustifolia ‘Wyckoff.’ Photograph by Joy Creek Nurse- ry, Scappoose, Oregon. Used by permission. See related article on page 2. 1 LUTHER J. WYCKOFF: GROWING LAVENDER ON CHAMBERS PRAIRIE Mary Paynton Schaff INTRODUCTION It is perhaps a little-known occupa- tional hazard that librarians are often drawn into the questions they field to an alarming degree. Provide any of us with an intriguing historical fact or personage, and we are quickly down the research rabbit hole trying to find out what else may be discovered. After fifteen years at the Washington State Library, this has been my experience too many times to count—but perhaps there is no better example than the search set off by Erin Quinn Valcho of the Lacey Museum in April 2015. Erin wondered what the State Library had on the lavender farm that used to exist near the Horizon Pointe develop- ment in Lacey. She didn’t have exact dates at the time, but it was clear this was a very early example of commer- cial lavender growing in our state. I sent Erin the materials I was able to L. J. Wyckoff in an image captured by locate in our collections at that time, a street photographer at 4th and Pine and she wrote an article that appeared in Seattle; undated. Photograph courte- in the Spring 2015 issue of Museum sy of Emmy Fairfield. Musings.1 And yet even after Erin’s initial ques- did his farm come to be forgotten? tion was answered and her article Nearly six years after Erin’s inquiry, it written, the topic stuck with me. Who was clear that only a more in-depth was L. J. Wyckoff? How did he get in- examination of the Chambers Prairie volved in lavender growing, and how lavender farm, and the intriguing man 2 behind it, would exorcise “the lavender fully intelligent” and “a well-educated farm question” from this reference li- agronomist.”7 brarian’s obsessive need to research it further. A letter to the editor Wyckoff wrote to The Seattle Times in March 1932 indi- L. J. WYCKOFF—EDUCATION AND WORK cates there may be reason to doubt he had a formal education after high Luther James Wyckoff, identified as L. school. In it, Wyckoff decried excessive J. Wyckoff in all his professional writ- spending on public schooling, urging ing, was born December 8, 1881 in cuts to both elementary and higher Galesburg, Illinois,2 the eighth and education: last child born to James D. and Mary Wyckoff.3 Luther’s father was a Con- “While I doubt if many would be will- gregational minister who received his ing to go as far as I would in reducing seminary training at Union Seminary our elementary schools to their skele- in New York, and was awarded a Doc- ton of the three ‘R’s,’ I believe every tor of Divinity from Knox College in thinking person will agree that a great Galesburg. James spent much of his deal of adipose [fatty] tissue has ap- ministry in Stark County, Illinois, and peared of recent years that could well at the time of his death in 1909 had be done away with . If we could one son serving as an Episcopal rec- close a majority of these institutions of tor4 and another, Charles Truman higher learning . and restrict such Wyckoff, with a Ph.D. in History, serv- education to those whose mental qual- ing as Dean of the Lower Academy at ifications would indicate that such ed- Bradley Polytechnic (now Bradley Uni- ucation would be of benefit and stop versity) in Peoria, Illinois5—as well as stuffing a lot of useless information two daughters working as missionar- into heads that have not the capacity ies in China. to retain even a small fraction of it, we should be able to effect very consider- It is unclear whether Luther Wyckoff able savings along this line, without pursued or obtained a secondary edu- loss to the nation as a whole.”8 cation like his brothers. The Wheaton College Register for both 1897-1898 Wyckoff appears in Seattle in 1906, and 1898-1899 shows him enrolled in boarding with his sister Susan and the science department at Wheaton her husband Charles Congleton, an College preparatory school,6 but un- attorney.9 It seems likely his brother- fortunately no subsequent enrollment in-law used his connections to assist information could be verified. His pro- Wyckoff in finding a job in real estate, fessional writing shows he possessed a as both are listed as working at the curious and inventive mind, but aca- same address in the New York Build- demic credentials were never cited. ing in downtown Seattle. However, it Wyckoff’s neighbor, Shirley Englehart does not seem Wyckoff remained in- Cronk, remembers him as “wonder- debted to his brother-in-law for very 3 long. Subsequent censuses show ed the start of his experiments with Wyckoff spent the majority of his pro- the plant to a dinner table discussion fessional career in Seattle as a sales- in the summer of 1926. man, selling everything from leather belts to oysters to insurance.10 “Talking of the possibilities of small Wyckoff moved quickly on the family scale commercial flower growing, front as well: by January 1907, brought to mind the Lavender plants Wyckoff had married June Lee which grew so well in our gardens and McKay,11 called Dearie by everyone in the use of dried blossoms, long a the family.12 Their sons Luther James standard practice. In suggesting this Wyckoff, Jr. and John McKay Wyckoff feature as an interesting side-line, I were both born in Seattle by 1909. made a casual remark as to thinking that there was an oil produced from AN IDEA GERMINATES this flower as well. Writing years later about his interest “Having aroused my own curiosity and in growing lavender, Wyckoff attribut- a subconscious pioneering instinct by The L. J. Wyckoff family, 1916. Left to right, John M. Wyckoff, June “Dearie” Wyckoff, Luther J. “Jim” Wyckoff, Jr., and Luther J. Wyckoff Sr. Photograph courte- sy of Emmy Fairfield. 4 this remark, a visit to the li- brary soon opened my eyes to the wide range of essential oils and gave me a mass of infor- mation as to the Lavender plant and its uses.”13 Wyckoff’s backyard lavender on Queen Anne Hill thrived in the Chimacum Puget Sound region’s rocky and well-drained soil, and he ob- served that “the luxuriant growth and abundant blooms made by this plant in the Seat- tle region suggested the proba- bility that it would produce con- Seattle / siderable oil per acre . .”14 Bothell Spurred by his experience, li- brary research, and natural cu- riosity, Wyckoff began by at- tempting to find planting stock with which to test his ideas.