Property History
HISTORY OF AGATE PASS AND THE HOUSE
Agate Passage was named for Alfred S. Agate artist for the Wilkes Expedition in 1841.
Sometime thereafter William de’ Shaw arrived on Bainbridge with” holes in his body and a knapsack full of scalps”(1) from the Indian fights he had survived. He left Galveston, Texas when he was 14 years old and eventually drifted to the Pacific Northwest. He settled on Agate Point which looked directly across at the Old Man House in Suquamish. He received a legal homestead here in 1864. He married Mary a granddaughter of Chief Sealth who lived near de’Shaw off and on during Sealth’s declining years. William ran a store named Bonanza, known for curing meat and salmon by smoking and was for a time an Indian representative for the Indians across the passage.
1. Bainbridge Thru Bifocals by Elsie Frankland Marriott 1941 Gateway Printing Co, Seattle 1941 pgs 111-112
Original owners of Bell Property: Frank and Eda Mariner
Eda Mariner
“A bright old person was once a bright young person”. The truth of that old adage was certainly brought home to me after spending a recent afternoon with Mrs. Frank (Eda) Mariner.
Mrs. Mariner and I are old friends. I first met her and her late husband when I was just a kid working on the ferry Bainbridge. It was 1930 and the Mariners had come directly to Bainbridge Island from their home in Chicago.
Mrs. Mariner said that her husband had a friend who was always talking about Agate Pass on Bainbridge Island. Frank Mariner was intrigued with the name, Agate Pass, and after taking one look at some property that bordered the Pass, he promptly bought it.
He brought his wife to her new home. It was a small cabin with no electricity, telephone, or running water and the nearest woman neighbor was a good mile away. When Mrs. Mariner, who had been a real city girl used to attending lectures, concerts, and being part of life in a large metropolis, found herself in what was then wilderness, she was ready to take the next ferry back to Seattle.
The morning after her arrival she got up and looked out of her kitchen window. She was feeling sorry for herself when she saw a bird who was singing for all he was worth. That settled it for her. She made up her mind to be happy with country living.
A carpenter was hired to build some shelves in the bedroom of the small cabin that was their new home. “Frank”, Mrs. Mariner said, I think that I will have the porch made into a dining room, extend the house, add another bedroom, a bath and enlarge our bedroom.
The carpenter ended up remodeling the house. The Mariners paid $568 to have power brought into their place and $129 for telephone lines. Mrs. Mariner’s home is charming and her davenport, several chairs and fire screen are covered in lovely needlepoint that she has made over the years.
Mrs. Mariner has always been interest in education. She was a teacher in a large Chicago high school and an examiner for a Chicago school board. She said that she still hears from former students whom she taught in high school. One wrote to her and said that he had “always loved her”. “My goodness, he’s at least seventy five years old now,” Mrs. Mariner said laughing heartily.
Mrs. Mariner was elected to the Island School Board in 1934 and served as its chairman for 12 years. As a member of the board, she set up an in-training school at the Winslow shipyard during WW II. Under her direction 18 classes were set up to teach such basic trades as plumbing and sheet metal work. She scrounged around for suitable places in which to hold the classes and kept a sharp eye on the attendance of both the pupils and instructors.
As a member of our school board, she visited each class in the high school and the elementary schools twice a year. She was as interested in the teachers’ feelings about the schools as she was the parents.
She spoke warmly of Charley Hoodenpyle, Dr. Varney Kelley, Kelly Price and Lawrence Clinton. All were former board members who had served with her.
I asked her what she thought of modern day education.
“Education is not necessarily academic things,” she said. “Every person should be educated for what his life work will be. You can’t make college students out of poor material! Trade and vocational schools must be up-graded and improved to train more young people and colleges must have high standards lest they become mere diploma mills.”
Mrs. Mariner keeps abreast of educational trends and is well informed on the subject. My generation, at le4ast, surely owes her many thanks for her years of able and unselfish service to our own public schools.
“I hear that you have a birthday coming up,: I said, as I got ready to leave.
“I can’t believe it!” I exclaimed. “Why you look about sixty and talk like you’re about fifty.”
Mrs. Mariner is truly a bright attractive, ninety year old lady. Her birthdays have hardly left their mark and the Saturday’s will probably be the best one yet!
From an article by Katy Warner published in the Bainbridge Review on January 31, 1968.
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