It was a rainy day in February 2012 that several us sat down for coffee with three special ladies who talked about the early, very early Finn Hill years. Loita Hawkinson of the Kirkland Historical Society was there taking several pictures. She took notes and received copies of several historical papers that will become part of the Finn Hill archives. The three ladies are Mrs. Doris Raine Snow who lives on Finn Hill, Sandy Haug, who works with the Nordic Heritage Museum in Ballard and Kay Lindquist-Leary lives in Kenmore but lived for a very long time on Finn Hill.
A Presentation on Finn Hill written by Doris Snow was given at the FinnFest, Univ of Wash. in 1999. This is a wonderful story starting in December 1903 when her paternal grandparents set sail from Helsinki for America. Her family bought 10 acres on Finn Hill for $300. They were the first family to build on what is now Finn Hill. She says, “There were approximately 50 Finnish households located on the main section of the hill, a few Estonians and only one family who we called “the English people.” The Finns had 5 or 10 acres of land. They raised turkeys, chickens, sold eggs and strawberries, blackcaps, grapes and had fruit trees. She said, “everyone had a cow or two….”
Do you know stories or have pictures on early pioneering families?
As a child in the 50’s we lived next door to the Raine farm. It was run by Otto and George Raine
Neither had ever married. Otto was the oldest and took care of George, it was said that George
Had been kicked in the head as a child by a horse and he had challenges. They made their own butter
They milked the one or two cows every day and had a manual cream separator. Grew corn to sell, raised
A few beef cattle had a bunch of chickens for eggs and took them to Seattle to butcher. The house, still standing brick was wonderful. The barn is gone but it had been designed by Paul Kirk, famous NW Archetec and neighbor. It was written in the Sunday paper years ago. You could see it from the 520 Bridge with the sun reflecting off the metal roof.