TARTE, John F. Capt. (d. 1905)
Wednesday night at the home of Jas. Veratt in this city Captain John F. Tarte, one of the pioneers of this section, passed away after long years of suffering with a distressing ailment. Captain Tarte was eighty years of age the 30th of last December. He was a native of London, England, coming to Victoria in 1862. He located in Whatcom county in 1871 and at Semiahmoo in 1874. He and his sons hewed out the first road around the Bay and built the first hotel at the Spit. He like many others, lost all his property in the boom. Two years ago his wife and life companion was laid at rest in the little cemetery at Enterprise and this morning at nine o'clock the remains of the deceased were taken to Pleasant Valley. Services are to be held at the Congregational Church after which the interment will take place at the Enterprise cemetery, his grave being beside his wife's. The children of the deceased are Mrs. E. J. White, of Seattle, Capt. J. W. Tarte, of Lummi Island, J. F. Tarte Jr., of Pleasant Valley, W. J. Tarte, Pleasant Valley, Capt. W. R. Tarte, of Blaine, A. A. Tarte, of Anacortes, and Mrs. W. A. Smith of Anacortes.
When another twenty-five years has glided by and Whatcom county to the foot of the mountains is one vast productive garden, when the beauties and riches of this vicinity have brought thousands and thousands of people to settle under the morning shadow of Mount Baker, and the combined resources of the earth and sea under man's enterprise have brought peace and plenty to every household, and then it is, far more than today, we will look back to the early days when Captain J. F. Tarte and other pioneers first penetrated the great pine forests of Whatcom county, and bless their memory.
