The Hidden History of the McNaught Family
A rare historical correction surfaces, revealing the true lineage of Angelina and the tragic life of her father, John McNaught, in early Washington territory.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Regarding the newspaper reports of the death of Mrs. McNaught, there has been a mistake. She was not the wife of John McNaught, but his daughter. As all the early settlers will know, Angelina was a daughter of a Head Indian. Her second marriage was to a man named Mr. Kenney; he was Angelina's brother by her father's first marriage. She was McNaught's granddaughter. Keney was married to a woman, but the name has faded. He performed the ceremony himself, did not do well, and hung himself to a tree which stood near where the McNaught block now stands. John McNaught had several children, among them McNaught Jr., who was a well-behaved man that inherited his father's mental abilities. He lived for several years after his father's death. His son was killed in battle in California, and finally, there was no one left of the McNaughts, but McNaught, that Indian, was the site of the town, was Alki. Signed, W. D. T. Dunn.
“The site of the town was Alki.”
This letter functions as an early, fragile act of historical record-keeping. It underscores how quickly the specific histories of the Duwamish and early settlers were being overwritten or distorted by the rapid urbanization of the late 19th-century boom, a process that continues to reshape the landscape of the city today.
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