A Bainbridge Island Wedding Celebration
A festive community gathering marks the marriage of a local logger and a pioneer family's daughter at Eagle Harbor.
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.
At Eagle Harbor, yesterday afternoon, a large number of the citizens of the adjacent claims assembled at the residence of Hans Fryberg, to witness the solemnization of marriage between Mr. B. J. Hanson, a popular young logger, and Miss Mary Thielan, eldest daughter of one of the oldest and best-known logging camp proprietors of Bainbridge Island, Mike Thielan. The presents were many and appropriate, and the feast was one of the most generous and excellently prepared. A spacious dancing floor, with evergreen awning and sides, was in readiness for the guests to spend the hours of evening, and very many participated in the festivities, and joined in wishing the happy couple a long and prosperous life.
“A spacious dancing floor, with evergreen awning and sides, was in readiness for the guests to spend the hours of evening.”
This 1885 account of a community wedding on Bainbridge Island highlights the social cohesion of early settler life in the Puget Sound. Today, Eagle Harbor remains a center of community identity, though the logging camps have long since been replaced by the suburban and commuter lifestyle of the island.
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