This morning I listened to an archive edition of Local Wonder on KUOW – one of our local public radio stations – and it got me thinking about our Seattle ancestors.
The commentator was discussing the original settlers and their descendants: progeny of Denny, Yesler and Maynard, as well as Chief Seattle. It was fascinating, of course, to the genealogist who is always working to bring the past into the present.
Our ancestors who first arrived in Seattle are Carl and Anna Telquist, their children, and Frank Robert Gollofon <Spelled variously, Golofong, Goldfon, Gollofond> who married their daughter Caroline. The Telquists are first documented in Seattle in 1889 but the date of arrival for Gollofon is still a mystery. We first find an individual who we believe is him in 1892 working as a laborer at NY Kitchens in Seattle, according to the Seattle Polk Directory. More about him and his family in a later post.
The Telquist migration and arrival is easier to trace. They began in Tanumshede, Bohuslan, Sweden and ended up in Eau Clare, Wisconsin where their youngest son was born in 1886. They continued west and we find them in Seattle in 1889 on Plummer Street – wish we knew if they came before or after the Great Seattle Fire – June 6, 1889. The actual location is no longer, having fallen to the Dearborn Regrade of 1907-11.
Seattle Now and Then: Suburbia on Dearborn gives a lot of background on the process of the regrade and has some great pictures.
From the Plummer Street address, Gerda Caroline Telquist, 18 years old, our great grandmother, and third daughter of Carl and Anna, married Frank Gollofong, 23, who was a neighbor, in 1893. For the next several years the families clustered around the Plummer area.
The school-aged Telquist kids attended South School. And at least one of the sons was on the football team: 
The other Telquist children, some of whom were adults or young adults, arrived in Seattle with their parents and went on to be remembered in various ways: one was a streetcar conductor, another a postal carrier who wrote poetry and entertained us as children with his verses. Uncle Oscar is the Telquist best remembered by me.
Several of the family moved north to Bothell/Kenmore and many descendants live near there. I am forever indebted to our Telquist cousin Norma Telquist Chapman, who compiled information on much of the Telquist family. Sadly, Norma passed a a few years ago but left a rich legacy that has helped with further research.
After moving from the regrade area Anna and Carl lived at 2923 East Harrison Street in 1910. Perhaps it was quite a stretch for them to purchase their house, which was built in 1908, but conceivably they built it themselves with help from the family. The house must have been well constructed as it is still standing in a very desirable neighborhood and just sold for over $650,000. Amazing!
2923 East Harrison Street in 2016
Our great grandmother, Gerda Caroline Telquist Gollofon died at the age of 27 from septicemia, when our grandmother was less than 3 years old. I wish I had a picture of her! Caroline’s sisters cared for our great uncle, aunt and grandmother when their mother died in 1901. Caroline is memorialized in Mount Pleasant Cemetery on Queen Anne Hill in Seattle along with her parents, a sister and her husband.
As I sit here today in Port Townsend, north and across Puget Sound from Seattle, I realize that many of my grandmother’s descendants live in the Pacific Northwest: several less than 20 miles from where the family first settled. There are 31 of us living and as of today only a handful reside out of the Seattle Metro area. I, for one, am glad the Telquists settled here!
Telquist Descendant Chart
Searching in Seattle 