September Monthly Program Draws Large Crowd
The Flett Family: A Northwest Saga
On the evening of September 17 at St. Mary's Episcopal Church in Lakewood, Beth Julian held a large audience in thrall with stories, slides and artifacts of the family of John Flett, a Canadian immigrant of Swiss heritage. One of the first and most prominent settlers of the Lakes District, he also happens to be her direct ancestor.
Tracing her family's history and sharing anecdotes of its members, Beth told how the Fletts homesteaded the lonesome prairie (now modern day Lakewood), first coming to the Puget Sound region under the auspices of the Hudsons Bay Company in 1841, only to move south to try farming along the Columbia River. They returned to our region for good in 1859 when the experiment proved a failure.
The second time was the charm. John and his family grew so prosperous and well-known that their last name became attached to the community growing up around them. The little settlement of Flett lasted halfway through the 20th century, when it was finally absorbed into the much larger entity of Lakewood.
A bit later in her presentation, Beth sprang a surprise--on this self-described local history "expert" anyway. She revealed that John Flett had nothing whatsoever to do with the enterprise that made his last name famous. Flett Dairy, producing and distributing milk, cream, cottage cheese, and ice cream to every regional mom and pop grocery--and later every supermarket chain--was the creation of John's son-in-law, George Chapman.
By giving it the Flett name in 1903, George probably only meant to alert potential customers of its location. Still, one suspects his bride, Annie Josephine Flett Chapman, and her family must have felt a twinge of pride every time they saw the family name on display in every dairy cooler in Pierce County, and later emblazoned on a fleet of delivery trucks. If so, it was a sensation they reveled in for 91 years, right up to the closing of Flett Dairy in 1994.
At least as fascinating as Beth's stories were the dozens of slides she brought with her. Tin-type portraits, panoramas of unspoiled scenery from 120 years ago, life on a family farm in the early 1900s--primitive, even dangerous by today's standards, but still evoking familiar pangs of nostalgia. Horsepower being a literal concept back then, the picturesque blacksmith shop (rendered in a charming charcoal sketch) was an absolute necessity. As was the milk-cooling house built over a creek, the barn of rough-hewn logs, and that big bunch of kids tending a thousand daily chores.
For those who like tangible history, Beth's table of artifacts and framed photos was a bonanza. Nothing like a heavy wooden dairy case chock-full of pint bottles made of thick glass to make our disposable world of flimsy wax-coated cartons and crinkly plastic containers seem more insubstantial than ever.
The few photos shown on this page don't really do the evening justice, so head on over to Lakewood Historical Society's Facebook page for an album of shots capturing more of a presentation to remember--thanks to Beth Julian, her slides, her memorabilia, and most of all, her remarkable family.
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