Isaac N. Ebey
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Colonel Isaac Neff Ebey (1818–1857) was the first permanent white resident of Whidbey Island, Washington.
Isaac Ebey was born in Ohio in 1818, and during his childhood his father, Jacob, moved the family to Missouri where as a young man, Isaac was trained in law. At 25, Isaac Ebey married Rebecca Davis and they later had two sons, Eason and Ellison. Born with a naturally adventurous spirit, Isaac temporarily left his wife and young sons in Missouri to discover the west coast.
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[edit] Journey West
During his journey west, Isaac briefly tried his hand at gold-mining during the California gold-rush and then headed north to Oregon Territory. After arriving in the Puget Sound region he went to work for the U.S. Customs service and spent some time in Olympia, which he is credited with naming in honor of the Olympic Peninsula mountains to the west. Hearing of the islands in the north end of Puget Sound, Isaac came upon Whidbey Island and fell in love with the natural beauty, climate, and rich land perfect for farming.
[edit] Homesteading Whidbey Island
In October 1850, Isaac moved from Olympia to Whidbey Island. He claimed a square-mile for himself and his family overlooking Admiralty Inlet and wrote his wife that she should prepare to move west with their sons. While awaiting their arrival, Isaac sent numerous letters to his relatives begging their relocation to Whidbey Island in order to snap up the best remaining land for homesteading and farming. Rebecca and their sons arrived in the fall of 1851 with her three brothers and the Samuel Crockett family.
In October 1854, the rest of his family followed: Isaac's parents, Jacob and Sarah, siblings, Mary, Winfield, and Ruth, Mary's two children, Almira and Polk Wright, and a cousin, George Beam. Jacob Ebey claimed ridge land overlooking what is today called Ebey's Prairie. On the same ridge Isaac built a blockhouse for protection against raiding Indians. Isaac and Jacob's land would prove to be some of the most productive around and word of this fortune travelled, drawing settlers from the east into the region and starting a rush of settlers who claimed most of the prairie-land by the beginning of 1853. By 1860, all of the best farmland had already been claimed.
[edit] Establishing a presence
Like other American farmers of European descent on Whidbey Island, Isaac Ebey grew wheat and potatoes. Taking advantage of the natural landing at his property on the shores of Admiralty Inlet Isaac built a dock for commercial traffic on Puget Sound in order to facilitate trade from Port Townsend on the Olympic Peninsula. Because most transportation in the area moved by water, the location of what was now called Ebey's Landing (on the main Puget Sound shipping route) minimized transportation costs. The landing remained active until a new dock was built at Fort Casey a few miles away at the turn of the century.
In his nine years in the Pacific Northwest, Isaac Ebey was a vital player in territorial affairs. Serving as prosecuting attorney for the Whidbey Island community he also represented Thurston County (Olympia) in the Oregon Territorial Legislature when that county still stretched to the 49th parallel. He helped persuade the legislature to sign the Monticello Memorial, separating Oregon and Washington Territories in 1853, and assisted in breaking Thurston County into smaller units, among them Island County. Appointed by President Franklin Pierce to be collector for the Puget Sound district and inspector of revenues at the new state capital, Olympia, he relocated his customs office to Port Townsend and made it the official port of entry for Puget Sound.
[edit] Colonel Ebey
After Ebey raised a company of volunteers to fight in the mainland Indian wars of 1855-1856, the United States government bestowed the title of Colonel upon him. Well respected among the residents, prospective volunteers refused to enlist unless they would serve under his command.
[edit] Untimely deaths
Rebecca Ebey was never happy about the family's encounters with local Indians. Living some distance from the other Euro-American farmers she stayed close to home managing the household during Isaac's long absences. Already being in a weakened condition from tuberculosis she died in 1853 following a difficult childbirth and subsequent death of a newborn daughter, Sarah. Following Rebecca's death and raising two boys alone, Isaac soon married one Emily Palmer Sconce, a widow with a daughter named Anna.
In 1857, a party of Haida Indians from the Queen Charlotte Islands of the then British colony of Vancouver Island|Colonyh of Vancouver Island]] and Tlingit allies from Russian America travelled by canoe into Puget Sound on a mission of vengeance. Following the murder of one of their chiefs by white men the previous year, the Haida party searched for a white Tyee (chief) in retaliation. Originally, the intended victim was Dr. John Kellogg, who lived near the present day lighthouse at Admiralty Head. On the hot summer evening of August 11 and unable to locate Kellogg who was out of the area, the Haida beached at Ebey's Landing and traversed the steep cliff up to Ebey's home. Knocking on Isaac Ebey's door, the Haida called him out of the house, shot him dead, and beheaded the Colonel in front of his horrified family and visiting friends. Taking his head as a trophy the Haida raiders left his body in the front yard of the Ebey home. Emily and the children fled to Jacob Ebey's blockhouse on the ridge. The Haida evidently felt that their revenge had been exacted and allowed the family to leave unscathed.
Unwilling to remain on the farm, Emily abandoned it, leaving forever with her daughter Anna. Isaac's relatives raised Ellison and Eason, and the two brothers later divided their father's farm between them. Three years after the murder, the scalp of Isaac Ebey was recovered by Captain Charles Dodd of the Hudson's Bay Company and given to Ebey's brother Winfield. Dodd acquired the scalp for the price of "Six Blankets, 3 pipes, 1 cotton handkerchief, 6 heads of Tobacco, 1 fthm. Cotton".
On April 5, 1860, Winfield Ebey noted in his diary the much awaited return of his brother's "poor head": "Captain Coupe got over from Port Townsend bringing my friend A. M. Poe Esquire. Mr. P. brings my brother's scalp which was recovered from the Northern Indians by Captain Dodd. At last this memento is received. At last a portion of the mutilated remains of my dear brother is returned. Near three years has elapsed since his murder and now his poor head [or a portion of it] returns to his home. The skin of the head is entire contained, the ears and most of the hair. The hair looks quite natural. It is a sad memento of the past".
While some historians insist that Winfield had the scalp buried with his brother's body, no record exists of this. After Winfield's death in 1865, at least five separate accounts maintain that his sister, Mary Ebey Bozarth, inherited the relic. Albert Kellogg, the son of Dr. John Kellogg, recalled visiting Bozarth "ten or twelve years" after the murder and "she showed the scalp lock still retaining the long black hair. It was the only thing of that kind I had ever seen and I remember it caused cold chills to run over me." After Bozarth died in 1876, Ebey's scalp was on passed to his niece, Almira Enos. The next mention of its location occurred in 1892 when Almira visited Whidbey, an event noted by the Island County Times. In their July 29 issue they reported that "Mrs. Enos visited the Times office. She was a resident of the Island ... when her uncle was killed and can relate things connected with that tragic affair as though it was but a recent incident." But Enos also visited an old friend, Hugh Crockett, who was quoted by the Times as saying that Enos "told me only a few weeks ago that she has (the scalp) at her house in San Francisco." Those two articles are the most reliable accounts to date of where that "sad memento" of Isaac Ebey's death was kept. At this time only one other reference to the scalp's whereabouts has been found. According to family reports, Isaac Ebey's scalp was last known to be in the possession of the Almira Enos family in California as of 1914.
Isaac Ebey's body was interred in the original Ebey family cemetery located at Ebey's Prairie on the bluff near Isaac and Rebecca's home. Ebey's first wife Rebecca was already interred in that location along with their daughter Hetty. The rest of the Ebey family is officially interred at Sunnyside Cemetery, 50 feet from the burial place of Isaac.
[edit] Legacy
The area around Isaac Ebey's original homestead is today a living memorial to his pioneer legacy. Fort Ebey (established in 1942) on the west side of the central part of the island (just northwest of Coupeville) is named in Colonel Ebey's honor. The rich farmland claimed by Isaac and his father Jacob is still called Ebey's Prairie and is farmed to this day.
Ebey's Landing, while no longer a docking port, is named for the beachfront located just below the still-standing home Ebey lived in with his family. The Landing is now a National Historical Reserve and was the first NHR in the nation. External views of Ebey's home and the surrounding Ebey's Prairie can be seen in scenes from the 1999 movie Snow Falling On Cedars, depicting the homestead of the character of German emigrant Carl Heine, Sr.
