McREDMOND Family History in Ireland  History of Redmond, WA  WA Pioneers

Luke McRedmond married Catharine "Kate" BARRY, widow of his good friend Captain Richard MORSE in Port Townsend. (The marriage year is listed as 1860 in Kate's obituary but as 1859 in another source.) Luke McRedmond was 42 years old when he married. They had six children and one step-son, James MORSE.

William Michael McREDMOND, born about 1860 - died 12/04/1884 at age 24. His grave marker lists his name as "William McREDMOND" without a middle initial. Calvary Cemetery records had William (Michael) McREDMOND. Our Town Redmond states William was not included in the 1860 census for Redmond as he was mining in the coal-rich area or Newcastle, South of Bellevue. 

The Pioneer Association book has his birth place listed as CA, which is either a typo or possibly Luke and family had homes in Kitsap County and California in 1860. Medical care might have been more available in California. Since Luke McRedmond was the Captain of a ship that went from Puget Sound to California regularly, it might have been better for Kate to live in California with James (her son) while Luke was traveling. All other children were listed born in Seattle, Washington Territory,  except Annie born in Redmond. 

He was first buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Seattle, which opened in 1884 and closed in 1905. He was moved to the McREDMOND plot at Calvary Cemetery, Seattle.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer - DIED - McREDMOND - In Redmond, King County, W. T., Dec. 4, 1884, of consumption, William, son of Luke and Catherine McREDMOND, aged 24 years. Funeral services from the Catholic Church, tomorrow (Sunday), at 1:30 p.m.  

see www.irishgenealogy.com/redmond/mcredmond-william.htm for more information

John Luke McREDMOND, born about 1863 - died 10/19/1889 - age 26 - First buried at Holy Cross Cemetery, Seattle, which closed in 1905. He was moved to McREDMOND plot at Calvary Cemetery, Seattle. Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 22 Oct 1889 - BREVITIES: The funeral of John McREDMOND took place yesterday afternoon from the Catholic church in Masonic cemetery. 

Richard B. McREDMOND, born about 1867 - died 2/28/1891 - age 23 - buried at Calvary Cemetery, Seattle. By 1891 notice that Holy Cross Cemetery, Seattle was to be closed and graves relocated to Calvary must have been known. It is probable that he was named after his mother's first husband, Richard Blair MORSE, who died in 1859. Captain MORSE had suggested his widow find Luke after he died. It was sometimes customary to name a child after a late husband. It's also possible that his middle initial "B" is for BARRY, his mother's maiden name.

Emma Francis McREDMOND,  born in Seattle on February 11, 1869. Her masculine middle name, Francis, was bestowed to honor Father Francis Xavier Prefontaine (1838-1909), early and revered Catholic priest. Emma died July 24, 1932. Emma married Judge William WHITE.

• 1869 Father Prefontaine established Seattle's first Catholic church, Our Lady of Good Help. Seattle had roughly six hundred inhabitants, though Father Prefontaine found only ten people who professed to be Catholic. (The Luke McREDMOND family lived in Seattle at this time and would have been part of this small group.)  http://www.acc-seattle.com/cchistry.html 

• 1870 The first official census lists 1,107 people in Seattle.  

 

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David Barry McREDMOND, born about 1871, died 1/28/1905 age 34 "of consumption." Priest officiating services was Father Metz or Melz. Bonnie Watson funeral home.

Annie McREDMOND, born after 1871 in Redmond, WA.  - probably buried in Oregon with husband and children. Dorothy recalls: "When Annie, was born, Luke went to Woodinville (by canoe)  to get Ida Woodin to help with the delivery. Then the trip to Woodinville was so long and arduous that Kate McRedmond, assisted by a Native-American woman, delivered the baby before he returned." Annie McREDMOND was the first "white child" born in Redmond.

REDMOND School History
1887 list of 19 children attending school included Dave, Emma and Annie McREDMOND. 1880 Census had listed 11 children in the community attended school that year. 

http://www.acc-seattle.com FIRST Cemetery CC = Calvary Cemetery 

Land Patents below show transactions of acquiring land from the U. S. Government: 

McREDMOND deeds for WA in http://www.glorecords.blm.gov/default.asp

Patentee Name     State     Issue     Date Doc.     Nr. Accession or Serial Nr. MCREDMOND, JAMES WA 06/28/1890 2836 WASAA 068221 MCREDMOND, JOHN WA 11/23/1891 11022 WASAA 068251 MCREDMOND, LUKE WA 07/20/1881 1232 WAOAA 068100 MCREDMOND, LUKE WA 09/09/1870 2273 WAOAA 071825

Seattle Times article about Emma (McREDMOND) WHITE - July 24, 1932

Mrs. White, who helped build Redmond, died July 24, 1932. As a girl, she was postmistress and hostess of a hotel known to notables.

"Redmond today is a thriving, bustling little community in the fertile Sammamish River Valley, but a woman whose requiem will be sung at St. Joseph's Church tomorrow morning (July 25, 1932) could remember when she, her father and her mother constituted the entire population of the town.

She could remember when Redmond was a day's trip up the Sammamish slough from Bothell, when she was appointed postmistress there at the age of 16 years, when she became proprietress of the now forgotten but once famous Hotel Redmond, to which William Jennings Bryan, Percy Rockefeller, Sam Hill and other notables came to hunt, fish and ride horseback.

Mrs. Emma Frances White was the widow of former Supreme Court Judge William H. White and the daughter of Captain and Mrs. Luke McRedmond. She was one of the first women in the State to run for public office, organized the Woman's Democratic Club, and was charter member of the Pioneer Daughters of Washington State. She died Thursday night at Providence Hospital at the age of 63, leaving a colorful history, an enviable reputation for resourcefulness, kindliness and neighborliness.

Her daughters, Mrs. Raymond Locke Gardner of Seattle, Mrs. Lloyd Eacrett of Bellingham and Miss Dorothy R. White of New York City, and her sister, Mrs. Anna M. Smith of Seattle (now Portland) were recalling her life yesterday.

Mrs. White was born in Seattle on February 11, 1869. Her masculine middle name, Francis, was bestowed to honor Francis Prefontaine, early and revered Catholic priest. Her father, a sea captain, took out a homestead on the site of the town of Redmond when she was three years old.

As a child she helped her family clear the property. At the age of 12 she came to Seattle to be educated at Holy Names Academy, then located at Sixth Avenue and Jackson Street. She remained there four years. Prior to that, she attended school at her own and nearby farm house. 

The school came to the pupil in those days, the students, congregating at one another's homes for a month or two, the teacher staying with them.

Among other youngsters her own age with whom she studied in this fashion was Mary Woodin, whose father established the settlement that later became Woodinville.

At the age of 16 years, Mrs. White became postmistress, a position she held many years, even after she married Judge White in 1898 and opened the hotel in 1900.

Judge White's reputation first as an attorney and later as a jurist, grew. The family was drawn to Olympia, and again to Seattle to live, but always harkened back to Redmond. Both the Judge and his wife liked the quiet restfulness of the country.

The hotel prospered in 1910-12. It was a popular week-end place for tourists crossing Lake Washington by ferry and traveling overland by horse and carriage. The train was running in those days, too. Mrs. White remembered when they laid the rails of the Seattle, Lakeshore & Eastern into and through the town that took her father's name.

Judge White died in 1914, but his widow lived on the old farm, in the old hotel, until six months ago (in Jan. 1932). She preferred it to life in the city. (the article continued)