Gleanings From
In Christian Fellowship
By Shirley Lindahl
Edited by Jerry Rutherford
Town is Revitalized
As the population increased businesses started opening. At the foot of market a brick building which originally housed the offices of the steel company, became the "Bank Building" in 1911 when Glenn Johnson started the Kirkland State Bank. The Redmond-Kirkland Stage Company also began that year. It followed the route now known as N.E. 70th. Locating near the ferry dock was the meat market, barber shop, mercantile and the Kirkland Hotel which burned in 1916. A church member, V. L Elson opened a plumbing shop.
One of the newcomers, Harry Kean, came west from Pennsylvania after reading an advertisement for a reduced railway fare for settlers interested in the Puget Sound area. The young bachelor bought land in 1912 from Burke and Farrar in the roadless area of Rose Hill. (Harry is one of my first memories of the church when I became a member in the early 50's--he was an "ageless" person who loved to garden and sing. He sang in the choir into his 80's--always added so much with his good voice and ability to read music so well.)
Harry built a small cabin making a table and benches from the trees he cleared from his land. Every morning he would walk from his home site to the ferry landing to commute to his job with the Ford Motor Co. in Seattle. Personal appearance was important to him, so part of his daily routine was to stop at a certain hollow log. There he had hidden a shoe brush and a hair brush for a last minute touch-up before he boarded the ferry.
He helped organize the Rose Hill Community Club in 1912. One of the group's first projects was to get the county to clear the streets of stumps to make travel easier. The clubhouse was the center of entertainment for many years with dances, dinners, card parties and even plays.
In 1915 he brought his bride, Grace, from Yakima to Rose Hill and they both became members of the Congregational Church of Kirkland--both singing in the choir.
As one of the first to own a car in the area he often told about how he got his first traffic ticket. "We were driving down to Chehalis in 1918 and the headlights were oil lamps which kept going out. When I arrived in town they were not burning so I was cited for traveling without lights." (Remembering Harry this was probably the only time he ever received a ticket!)
On Easter Sunday in 1911 Mr. and Mrs. T. L. Kyler joined the church and immediately became active members in the congregation. They had already been influential in the community as he had helped develop the first electric power service and telephone system for Kirkland.
In the fall of 1911 the pastor divided the area into districts with callers going out to invite families to church. An ecumenical effort began as the Methodists and Congregationalist churches held union services on Sunday evenings, alternating between the two churches.
Reverend Newberry continued the tradition of serving outpost church groups. He organized a Sunday School on Rose Hill in 1912 which had 65 pupils and 10 adults. They were expressing a wish to form a new church. He also served a similar group in Juanita.
Mrs. Newberry was busy in the community as well as the church as she served on the city council. She also started the first Camp Fire Girls group on the east side of the lake. Twenty young girls gathered together in the summer of 1911 to form the Es-Ke-Le-Da Camp Fire Girls with the Congregational Church as the sponsor providing the meeting place.
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