Charles Donovan, 2201 C street, one of Whatcom county's earliest citizens, who had filled many of its public offices, and who once knew the description of every piece of land in the county, died at a local hospital at 7 a.m. Sunday, after three weeks' illness. Had he lived until September 27, he would have been 86 years of age. He was widely known in Northwest Washington. It was said of him that for years he was acquainted with every person in Whatcom county, outside Bellingham. Of late years he was a familiar figure in Bellingham as he took his daily walks, bareheaded and serene. Funeral services will be held at the Harlow-Hollingsworth chapel Tuesday at 3 p.m. Rev. James M. Wilson, minister of St. James Presbyterian church, will officiate. Mrs. William Gardiner will sing. In accordance with Mr. Donovan's expressed wishes, his body will be cremated and the ashes will be scattered in Bellingham Bay, where he had resided sixty-three years. Honorary pallbearers will be Hugh Eldridge, Charles I. Roth, Victor A. Roeder, John Delford, C. F. Fitzgerald, of Ferndale and Jack Simpson, of Everson. Mr. Donovan is survived by one son, Charles Donovan, superintendent of the Bloedel Donovan Lumber Mills at Sekiu, Olympic peninsula; four daughters, Mrs. George H. Bacon, Bellingham; Mrs. L. Mead Johnson, Port Angeles; Miss Sidney Donovan and Mrs. E. R. Myers, Seattle; seven grandchildren and one sister, Mrs. William Golden, Seattle. Mrs. Bacon is chairman of the city library board.
Charles Donovan was born on the ship "Sailor Prince," enroute from England to New Orleans. He was named after the ship, but he always wrote his name Charles Donovan. From New Orleans the family went to St. Louis, where the lived a number of years. In that city Mr. Donovan's mother joined a Mormon wagon train to Salt Lake City. In that city Charles Donovan grew up and eventually entered the freighting business, which took him to Montana and Idaho.
Ultimately he helped take a string a mules from Boise, Idaho, to Yale, B. C., where they were sold to prospectors bound for the Peace River country. While waiting for the party to return to the United States, the young man found work with telegraph linemen, who were restoring the Western Union line, which had been abandoned 800 miles above Yale when it was telegraphed around the world that the Atlantic cable was a success. The line was being restrung by the Canadian government. The government line followed the old abandoned line to Yale and then branched to Vancouver and New Westminster, B. C. Another branch connected New Westminster with Seattle via Blaine, and yet another crossed Puget Sound by cable from LaConner to Victoria, B. C.
While in Canada, a wire man taught him telegraphy and after a short time he was placed in charge of a station at Clinton, B. C. From there he was transferred to an Indian reservation in Southern British Columbia, and it was while there that he exchanged stations with a young Englishman quartered at Sehome. Arriving in Sehome, Mr. Donovan took charge of that part of the coastal telegraph line extending from Lummi reservation to Wildcat Cove. His duties included that of lineman. When there was trouble on the line, in this section, he walked to the reservation. There he would hire and Indian to take him to Wildcat in a canoe. From there he always walked back to Sehome.
For five years prior to his marriage, in 1878, to Miss Sarah Crocket, of Whidby island, Mr. Donovan lived at the Keystone hotel, which for many years stood near the corner of Laurel and State streets. Mrs. Donovan died many years ago.
Early in his career on Bellingham Bay, Mr. Donovan began taking an active interest in politics. From 1876 to 1880, he was county treasurer; he was auditor from 1882 to 1886; county clerk from 1885 to 1883, and county commissioner thereafter until 1891, when he was elected mayor of New Whatcom. While he was commissioner the first plank roads in Whatcom county were built. For many years Mr. Donovan was a deputy in the county assessor's office. It was while he was in that office that he retired from an active life.
Pioneers of the county still recall that Mr. Donovan, of recent years an inveterate pedestrian, was widely known in the county as a fine horseman. Mounted on a spirited black saddle horse, he was often seen on Whatcom's roads and trails.
In 1914 Mr. Donovan married Mrs. Mary Thornton de Fremery, daughter of the late Dr. A. W. Thornton, of Ferndale. She died about a decade ago. The couple made a trip to Europe, visiting in Ireland and going to Paris when the World war broke out and both offered their services to the field hospital corps, but because of delays, due to red tape and confusion, they tired of waiting and returned to Bellingham.
Mr. Donovan was honored in the summer of 1930 when the Old Settlers' association of Whatcom county, at its annual picnic in Pioneer park, Ferndale, presented him with the old settlers' cup, a trophy donated many years ago by Federal Judge Jeremiah Neterer, of Seattle.
