Good family will be honored at Pioneer Picnic

A Good family that has had a great impact on the history and agricultural development of Fir Island and whose members have since been actively engaged in an array of public service projects will be honored at the Skagit County Pioneer Association Picnic Aug. 5 in La Conner.

Descendants of William and Rebecca Eady Good, who emigrated from Ireland to North America in the 19th century will be saluted as the Skagit County Pioneer Family of the Year when the annual picnic resumes after a one-year hiatus due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The late Pat Good was a longtime fixture at the Pioneer Picnic, where he prepared the salmon that is the traditional main course of the event’s luncheon and continues to be served by La Conner Civic Garden Club members.

His three daughters, Kim, Virginia and Patsy – fondly dubbed “The Good Girls” – have succeeded their dad in that role. All are La Conner High School graduates who work tirelessly on behalf of others.

Kim is a past Pioneer Association president. Virginia, who serves on the board of Helping Hands Food Bank, is another Pioneer Association past president. Patsy is a La Conner Rotarian who has volunteered here with the Sea Scouts, and been a Smelt Derby mainstay, along with son Marcus. The extensive Good family lineage includes Skagit pioneer Edward Eady Good, who arrived in Washington Territory from New Brunswick, in eastern Canada, in 1872. His younger brother, Thomas Good, who is profiled in the Illustrated History of Skagit and Snohomish Counties, came to this area in 1891, clearing his land just northwest of Fir with explosives, cables and animal teams.

They had grown up in a family that one chronicler has said “had a respected affection for their neighbors and welcomed all with a warm fraternal spirit” and which would nightly address a chapter in the Bible “that would suit the circumstances of the day.”

The Goods would prove well suited to pioneering.

Thomas Good, a stock and dairy farmer, was instrumental in constructing the dike along the Skagit River from Fir to Skagit City. He was so successful at diking that he would ultimately be chosen to serve as a dike commissioner.

Early Skagit farming was no easy task. Thomas Good was known to have waded in water up to his armpits to reach a barn to feed his stock and he had to transport his hay more than a mile by canoe.

Brother Edward was also a farmer.

“He bought up claims and owned almost if not all of Section 14 on Fir Island,” said one of his descendants, Laurie Good Olds, who has studied and preserved much of the family history.

In addition to Edward Eady and Thomas, their brothers William and Jonathan also moved to Washington during the pioneering era, she said.

Lloyd Thomas Good, Olds’ father, was a decorated veteran of World War II, having been presented the Legion of Merit Badge for his role in developing automatic shutters that prevented dust and sand from entering the engines of fighter planes flown in North Africa.

Sgt. Good and Sgt. George Drolshagen, of Jersey City, N.J., perfected the device when their outfit was flying close support missions behind Allied lines in Libya and Tunisia. Their work was credited with saving countless engines in both U.S. and Royal Air Force aircraft.

A large family, the Goods over time have produced farmers, teachers, musicians and business owners, reaching across generations to today.

For instance, Olds noted that Robert Hayton of Hayton Farms and David Hughes of Hughes Farms are descendants of James and Mary Maud Good Hayton.

That enduring legacy will be celebrated at the 2021 Pioneer Picnic, a traditional summer event in La Conner for more than a century – one that has even survived COVID-19.