Fir Island Historical Family Reunion

We hosted a family reunion for descendants of the original owners of our home recently. George and I met Mark Hansen at an event at the Rexville Grocery last summer.  He explained that he was the great-grandson of Charles and Hanna Tollber who built our home back in 1898 on Fir Island, but that he had lost contact with his family.

George had previously met other members of the Tollber family, most of who live in eastern Washington, so he put them in touch with each other.  As a result of that, Mark was able to pull together a large family reunion on Fir Island this summer.  Mark asked if they could stop by during the reunion (it was close by as Mark just lives down the road!), and we invited them all over to tour the home and property, share stories and enjoy the afternoon.

We had so much fun hearing great stories about the history of our home, and were glad we could provide a place for the family to share memories with each other.

One story told of Mrs. Tollber sitting in her chair out of sight behind the stove in the kitchen, and when the children would run through the house, she would yell out and catch them red-handed! We could easily visualize the bustle of kids laughing and running through the house almost a hundred years ago.  There’s a stool in that very spot today.

The event was also featured in the La Conner Weekly News in August.

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