Samuel Libbey came to Penn’s Cove in 1853. He left his wife and two sons in Maine in 1852 and sailed to the Pacific with his brother-in-law Capt. Benjamin Barstow.

Barstow established a trading post at the cove, and Samuel took 320 acres at Point Partridge on the north side of today’s Libbey Road. He was joined by his family in 1859.

Libbey cleared his land, shipped the timber to San Francisco and worked at Barstow’s store. He became Island County’s treasurer in 1857. He held the position until 1860 when he was appointed deputy auditor. He became the county’s auditor and served until 1862.

Libbey had no vault or safe, so while he was treasurer, he chose an uncoventional spot to stash funds. For lack of a better place, he kept county funds in an old hollow tree on his property. Libbey felt the money was safe since there were few houses at the head of the cove. (The county’s first courthouse stands today on Madrona Way, between Highway 20 and Kennedy’s Lagoon.)

County commissioners were anxious about the hollow-tree depository and Libbey was ordered to bring all receipts, money, orders and books to t he county seat for auditing. Later, when he was elected auditor, Libbey kept the funds in the same cedar tree.

Mrs. Libbey was terrified of Indians, and at Capt. Ed Barrington’s insistence they moved to a house at Penn’s Cove. The house was covered with vines, and stood near poplar trees that grew from a wand placed in the ground by Capt. Henry Roeder.

The spot today is marked by young poplars that have grown from the orginal tree that was lost during a storm years ago, according to Jimmy Jean Cook’s “A Particular Friend, Penn’s Cove.”

Samuel Libbey’s son, Joseph Barstow Libbey, was elected county treasurer and county auditor (1879-1892); his grandson Howard Wayne Libbey was elected auditor and served until his death while in office in 1921; his great-grandson Joseph William Libbey served as auditor from 1935 until 1971.

And what about the cedar tree — the county’s first vault? No one really knows.