Biography Villeneuve Charles

Charles Villeneuve Sr. is one of the men whose activities in Skagit county commenced in the days when settlers were few and communications difficult. He and Mrs. Villeneuve were the real pioneers of Conway, where they still have interests, though living in Sedro-Woolley and operating the St. Charles hotel in that city.
      Mr. Villeneuve was born in Ottawa, Carlton county, in the eastern part of the province of Ontario, Feb. 18, 1830. His father, Charles Villeneuve, was a native of Quebec where his ancestry had gone to engage in the fur trade. He took sides with the American revolutionists when the struggles of the colonists commenced with the mother country, and as one result of this, the Villeneuve estates were forfeited. Mrs. Ann (McKusick) Villeneuve was a native of Ireland.
      Charles, who was the only son of his parents, attended school until he was sixteen years of age, and his interests being in common with those of his parents, he continued to reside with them long after he had attained to man's estate. January 29, 1868, at Ottawa, Ontario, Mr. Villeneuve married Miss [Bridget Ann]. Treacy, daughter of William and Rachael (Dagg) Treacy, who were of Irish descent. [We now know from descendants that the family name may have been Tracy; it is spelled both ways on many records]. Mrs. Villeneuve was born in Ottawa in 1847, the tenth of a family of eleven children.
      In 1868, shortly after his marriage, he went to San Francisco, where he passed three years in a sash and door factory, his natural ability with tools supplying in a great measure what he had lacked in experience and training. He finally determined to come to the Puget sound country and boarded the Forest Queen for the trip to Port Gamble, in Kitsap county, reaching his destination after an exciting voyage in which the vessel was driven 200 miles to the south of the Golden Gate on the third day out from San Francisco.
      At Port Gamble Mr. Villeneuve passed two years in a saw-mill, engaged in sawing and tallying, then he went back east and visited his family and friends for six months, returning with his daughters. In the fall of 1873 Mr. Villeneuve came to what is now Skagit county and took up land where now stands the town of Conway. In a few months his family came.
      On the east side of the [South fork of the] river at that time were Big Wilson, Little Wilson, Willard Sartwell, Orin Kincaid and Billy Johnson. During the following summer an Englishman named Marshall started a little trading post across the river where Fir now stands. Marshall had to leave because he was selling whiskey to the Indians, and a Frenchman named Longpre, who became his successor, left after a time for the same reason, but was later caught by the authorities and had to serve a term in prison. The stock of goods was bought by Charles Mann early in 1876, and the steamers, which by that time came up the river quite frequently, gave the place the name of Mann's Landing.
      Further up the river were Joe Lisk, William Caton [probably Hayton?], James Abbott and John Wilber [Wilbur], in regular order toward Mount Vernon, all squaw men. Next came Thomas and John Moore with their white wives, and Robert Gage and McAlpin [Edward McAlpine] came next after them, all on the west side of the river. To the south was Tom Jones, who came shortly after the Villeneuves. There were no roads, and travel was wholly by boat. Mrs. Villeneuve had preceded Mrs. Tom [Moore] and Mrs. John Moore, and was thus the first white woman in that section of the county. At that time on the site of Mount Vernon were Mrs. Jasper Gates, Mrs. [Augustus or George?] Hartson and her mother; Mrs. Kimball [Kimble] and Mrs. [Levi] Ford, the Washburn familynot coming till later.
      In order to get lumber with which to build his house Mr. Villeneuve went to Utsalady, on Camano island, made the lumber into a raft and towed it behind his Whitehall boat. The tides greatly hindered progress, and he was four days in making the return trip. The house built from that lumber was the first board structure in this section of the country. A suggestion as to the utter wildness of the country may be gathered from the fact that on the site of Mann's landing was an old Indian burial place and bodies were found wrapped in blankets and hung in canoes in the trees, which were removed by the first two traders because they caused so great a stench. Many of the Indians at that time had long, fiery-red hair.
      When Mr. Villeneuve fist settled on the Skagit where Conway now is, he worked in the woods and logging camps for a number of years. In 1880 he sold out and went to Snohomish county, taking up a preemption near Stanwood, but on proving up, he came back to Skagit county in 1885. For a year after his return he ran a hotel at Fir. Later he purchased land on the east side of the river hard by Conway and commenced to operate a ferry across the Skagit, also built the first store in Conway and arranged for keeping boarders. When he attempted to get a post-office located there, he met with opposition from the people of Mann's Landing who looked with displeasure on the rival town across the river. He was postmaster at [the new town of] Conway for eight years, during the last three of which he was a resident of Sedro-Woolley and conducted the post-office through a deputy.
      In 1897 Mr. Villeneuve came to Sedro-Woolley and built the Hotel Royal and built the St. Charles which he continues to operate. In addition to his hotel property he owns seven acres of the town site. During his residence at Conway and in Snohomish county he was justice of the peace; he was a member of the city council at the time of the consolidation of Sedro and Woolley [1898] and is still a member of that body, also is secretary of the Skagit County Pioneer Association [which debuted in Sedro-Woolley in 1904].
      The Villeneuves have six children: Mrs. Drusilla T. McGregor; William Eugene, now in Alaska; Mrs. Ida Emogen Lloyd, wife of John Lloyd; Charles F. and Joseph Benjamin, bought of whom are in British Columbia; and Cecilia, living at home. Mrs. Villeneuve, who is deeply interested in education, was the prime mover in the establishment of the first school built on the Skagit river, the lumber for which was brought by boat at half charge owing to Mrs. Villeneuve's individual effort and public spirited action.