Jan. 4, 1851, three adventurous men filed donation land claims surrounding Oak Harbor Bay. Martin Taftson a Norwegian, Ulrich Freund a Swiss Army officer and C.W. Sumner, a Yankee from New England. They had met each other in the California Gold Rush. Made their way north and by Indian canoe landed at Big Springs near Crescent Harbor.

Using the filing of donation land claims as the start point, as all other historical towns do, this makes Oak Harbor’s true founding to be 154 years ago, making our town one of the very oldest historical towns in the state.

Although the first three settlers did not start businesses, they were soon followed by several pioneers who did. All of the pioneer men and women who followed, who started the first stores, schools, churches, businesses and social clubs were Irish.

Straight from Ireland came the brothers Thomas and Samuel Maylor in the year 1851 as well. These two Irish brothers filed for donation land claims as well, in the year 1852. This land, known as Maylor’s Point.” This land is now home to the 1940’s Seaplane Base, Navy housing and businesses, as well as our marina.

Next to Oak Harbor Bay came Irish and English mixed. Capt. Edward Barrington, childhood friend of Thomas Coupe, who founded Coupeville. Each man was born in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, in the year 1818. Capt. Barrington bought up the claims from Taftson and Sumner and other land, soon owning over 1,200 acres. He offered to buy out Ulrich Freund, but the colonel was not selling. Ulrich’s land is still in the Freund family.

Barrington opened the first business in Oak Harbor, his store-warehouse-saloon combination, right on the waterfront on what was named Barrington Avenue (later in the 1960s changed to Pioneer Way). This old building years later was dragged across Barrington Avenue and made into what it is now, The Oak Harbor Tavern. Capt. Barrington passed away at his home in Oak Harbor in 1883.

The year 1858 brought more Irish families. They were the McCrohans, O’Learys and the Nunans. Each ended up with large families. These families along with the Maylors and Barringtons turned the settlement into a town.

In the year 1859, Capt. Barrington had a large schooner, The Growler, built on the beach next to his storehouse. It was built from oak and fir trees near by. It is the only ship ever built in Oak Harbor.

The early 1890s brought another Irish entrepreneur, the dashing and rich, Lourence Paul Byrne, otherwise known as L.P. Byrne purchased land from Christina McCrohan Barrington, Capt. Edward’s widow. Soon he built what could be said to be a whole town in itself. He built a fabulous store, hotel, wharf and warehouse. School classes and community meets were held upstairs in Byrne’s warehouse on the waterfront. The Byrne store and hotel sat on the now vacant lot on the corner of Pioneer and Midway. It was a sad day when a huge fire burned down this whole part of town in the year 1920.

L.P. had married a beautiful young soloist and pianist, Katie Nunan. He built the mansion just above Smith Park (then known as Oak Tree Park) for his young bride. This large home still graces our town.

The year 1892 found the Irish Maylor brothers busy building their own dock and store a bit to the west of L.P.’s. They too purchased the land from Christina. This spore was spared the 1920 fire due to the sheer Irish luck of the wind not blowing that direction that fateful day. The Maylor store still stands and has been in use all of these years. The Maylors made great improvements to their dock in 1920, and it stood until a sad day in the 1960s when it too burned to the ground, or should I say the water’s edge.

In the year 1894, the first folks of Dutch heritage arrived in Oak Harbor from the Midwest to farm the rich soils they had heard about. Most farmed in the Clover Valley area, now home to N.A.S. Whidbey, which arrived in the year 1941.

As we celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, let’s remember, and drink a toast to our Irish pioneer families, who endured great hardships as they made their way from Ireland to establish our little village by the bay, Oak Harbor.

Many descendants of these first Irish pioneer families still call Whidbey Island home, and are ever grateful for their courage and willingness to take a risk, to make our home on this island paradise, in the Northwest corner of the United States of America.

Story and photos submitted by one of those descendants: Peggy Darst Townsdin, freelance historian and writer. To contact Peggy about her book, “Step Back in Time,” call 678-5970. She is now working on Part Two, The history of Oak Harbor.