Pioneer Association president had historic two-year term

It only seems fitting that John Kamb, Jr. would serve two years rather than the customary 12 months as president of the Skagit County Pioneer Association.

Kamb, after all, was a history major in college and for years his Fir Island home has been the repository for photographs, correspondence and records collected through eight generations of his family’s Washington residency, much of it in Skagit County.

But despite a love of history, his two-year term wasn’t by design.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation of the 2020 Skagit County Pioneer Association’s annual picnic and general meeting, so Kamb and the group’s other officers retained their posts through last Thursday, when the time-honored event at Pioneer Park resumed.

At the close of the Aug. 5 program, Kamb, a Mount Vernon attorney, handed the president’s gavel to Liza Peth Bott, who will guide the association over the next year.

As recently as this past spring, Kamb feared the 2021 Pioneer Picnic would have to be shelved as well.

But increased availability of COVID-19 vaccines, the state’s re-opening under its pandemic recovery plan and the loosening of virus crisis restrictions by the Centers for Disease Control opened the door for the picnic’s resumption this summer.

Kamb and his team worked fast.

In less than two months they put together the framework for this year’s gathering, highlighted by the Good family – which has extensive La Conner and Fir Island ties – being recognized as Skagit County Pioneer Family of the Year.

“It was a fabulous salmon barbecue,” Kamb said afterward, “and many were able to get together again for the first time since the pandemic struck. It was well attended and I was able to introduce my grandson, Ryan. It was his first Pioneer Picnic and we figured out he’s an eighth generation Washington resident on my dad’s side and seventh generation on mom’s side.”

The eight paternal generations begin with English-born Mary Cartridge Harrison, who emigrated to Roslyn, in Kittitas County in the 1880s, while in her late 50s or early 60s. The seven maternal generations date to 1872, when Peter Janssen, then in his mid-40s, settled on Fir Island.

Kamb’s great-grandfather, John William Kamb, built a home and worked a dairy and crop farm off McLean Road, just west of Mount Vernon. He often dined Sundays near La Conner at the old Hope Island Inn, noted then for its Scandinavian buffets.

Kamb’s father, John Kamb, Sr., now 92, chose a career in the law over farming. One of Kamb, Sr.’s grandfathers, Thomas Smith, had been an eminent pioneer attorney in Mount Vernon and figures in an interesting chapter of La Conner lore.

The story goes that there was a local Thomas Smith who was convinced to change the spelling of his last name to Smyth to avoid being confused with the lawyer Thomas Smith. One of the descendants of the La Conner Thomas Smith is Pat Smyth of the Town Public Works Department and who two years ago provided the Christmas tree that stood at Gilkey Square.

Much of the Kamb family history has been preserved through a 2014 interview conducted by Gordon Strand for the Nordic Heritage Museum. Kamb, Jr. participated in the interview with his parents.

“I’ve always grown up with an interest in history,” he told Strand.

That has probably never been more evident than the last two years.