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Lulan & Jimmy Chisholm |
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John James "Jimmy" or "J.J." Chisholm was born 9 September 1879 at Scotch Hill, Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada. His parents were John Chisholm & Annie Gordon Matheson. He was one of five children.
Lulan Royle Chisholm born 20 December 1880 in Illinois, She was one of six children of Jeremiah Royle & Margaret Lewis. Her siblings: Margaret "Maggie" Royle, Joanna "Jo" Royle, Otis Royle Eva "Eve" Royle, and Adelia "Dill" Royle. Her half-siblings from her mother's previous marriage: Grant Young and Allie Young.
The half-sister had her first child on this same day and Laura Cody was both Lulan/Lil/Lilly's niece and her best friend.
Lulan was named Lulan, but frequently called Lil or Lillie. The story is that her father wanted to name her after Lilly Langtry, a famous beauty of the time, but her mother objected. However, it didn't seem to stop her being called Lil or Lillie.
Lulan moved with her family from Illinois into Canada. They had a ranch there.
Jimmy moved west after his brother Alex did and stayed with him near the Royle's. He was there by November 1898, which was when Eve Royle mentioned him in a letter.
Lulan's older sister Eve was working as a waitress and met Alex Chisholm, a handsome young mountie. They married. Lulan was the bridesmaid and Jimmy attended the wedding.
Eve and Alex moved to Seattle.
Lulan and Jimmy got married in Seattle at Eve & Alex's house on 9 September 1903, which was also Jimmy's 24th birthday
After that, they lived in Seattle in a little house north of Green Lake, which was way out on the edge of town at that time.
They had two children while living in Seattle:
John Kenneth "Jack" Chisholm born 24 June 1904
Jean Ann Chisholm born 15 December 1908
In early 1906, Jimmy Chisholm bought a second-hand view camera. This was the kind of camera that is a big box on legs, and takes pictures on individual sheets of film. The edges of the (approximately) 3 1/4" x 3 1/4" sheets are sometimes rough or irregular, which shows they were hand cut from a larger sheet.
Eve and Alex moved to Fall City, Washington, a small town in the Snoqualmie Valley, about 30 miles east of Seattle.
Jimmy went to visit them.
Then Jimmy and Lulan moved to the hills above Fall City to a farm they named Hill Acres.
Alice Lulan Eva Chisholm was born 19 July 1916
She was named after her mother Lulan, her aunt Eva and her initials spell "Alec" so she was
also named after her uncle Alex/Alec. As for her first name, Jack always told the story of
how the baby had been born and they asked him what he thought a good name for her would be.
He'd been reading "Alice in Wonderland" so he said "Alice!" And so Alice she was.
Lulan wrote poems, carved statues (soap or wood), modeled clay and made dollhouses among other things. One of her better ones was a painting that she did for the back of her ironing board which fit into the center panel of the door over the ironing cabinet.
Raised vegetables and chickens to sell at the mill in Snoqualmie. Known as "Honest Chisholm" because once he'd driven all the way back because someone had been overcharged by one cent. (One cent was worth a lot more then than now, but still this was a bit beyond the call of duty for most people.)
Transportation was by Tommy, the horse. He knew which days he was expected to do which job. There was one job he really hated and he tended to hide out in the woods on that day so he couldn't be found. At least, he did that until the time he got injured while hiding and had to be there by himself until someone found him. (Aunt Jean told me this.)
They had collie dogs. Jimmy led the dogs around the outside edge of the property every morning until the dogs learned to do the patrol by themselves daily. One dog (at least) had papers as a purebred.
Jimmy had TB (tuberculosis) and lived outside in a screen house. Part of the time, he had pet chipmunks in there with him.
Lived there to 1940s when they sold the place to Bob and Gen MacManiman
They moved to Renton, Washington to be next door to their daughter Alice and her husband David Saunders.
Jimmy Chisholm built another house there. They could not live in the same house with Alice & David because Alice & David had two young children and Jimmy had TB. It was because of this situation that they were able to get building materials during World War II when the supply of materials was severely controlled.
Jimmy died 2 April 1953 in King County, Washington and was buried in the Fall City Cemetery.
Lulan continued to live in the little house next to Alice's place in Renton, Washington for the almost all of the rest of her life. (The final year or so was in a nursing home.)
Lulan died 2 August 1971 in King County, Washington and was buried in the Fall City Cemetery.
Photographer: Jimmy Chisholm (for most), Jack Chisholm (J.J. & Laird)
Author/artist/designer/programmer of page: Rowan Ainslie Chisholm
This website and all contents copyright 2009 Penelope Chisholm aka Rowan Ainslie Chisholm
This page first posted 8 April 2007
Latest revision: 22 January 2011
