Katie Gale: A Coast Salish Woman's Life on Oyster Bay

23. The End of an Era

226 23 The End of an Era A short, sad notice appeared in the April 25, 1905, Morning Olympian. Mrs. Fanchier Dead Mrs. Maud Fanchier, wife of Burt Fanchier, of 216 Plum street, died Wednesday night of cancer of the stomach. She will be buried at 2 o’clock on Saturday at the Masonic cemetery. The funeral will be from the Fanchier residence and the Rev. S. Crockett of Christian church will hold the services. Mrs. Fanchier was formerly Maud Gale, the daughter of the prominent oyster man. She inherited property to the amount of about $30,000 in oyster lands which passes on to her eleven-months-old baby girl. Mrs. Fanchier was only 19 years of age at the time of her death.1 The value of Maud’s bequest to her daughter was nearly $800,000 in today’s currency. Her will was filed on May 5. In it she wrote, I give, bequeath and devise unto my beloved daughter, Inez Maud Fanshier, all the property both real and personal of every kind and nature whatsoever owned by me at the time of my death save and except and subject to the estate in a portion of my real property hereinafter bequeathed and devised to my beloved husband, T. B. Fanshier. Second I give, bequeath and devise unto my said beloved husband, T. B. Fanschier, the rents and income from my real estate The End of an Era 227 until my beloved daughter shall have attained the age of 18 years, at which time everything shall revert to her. Within just a few years of Katie’s death, then, another will was read and oyster lands passed on again. Maud had married Herbert (also known as Bert, Burt, T.B., and Thomas Bertram) Fanshier in Shelton in September 1903. The article in the Morning Olympian reports that “the event was quite a surprise to their friends, who were kept in ignorance of the coming nuptials.” They both lived in Olympia and returned there the day after the September 16 evening wedding. The sudden marriage may have been a necessity. Inez was born within the next nine months. The son of E. G. and Mary Fanshier, formerly of Illinois and Indiana, Bertram was born in Fall River, in the southeastern section of Kansas, in 1878. Bertram and E.G. were bottlers at Olympia Brewery, though after Maud’s death Bertram became a brakeman for the railroad. Upon his death, Joseph’s estate had been divided equally between Lillian Gale and the two children. Lillian left Oyster Bay and moved to Olympia within the month. The children were to go back to their studies after the funeral. However, Maud and Ray apparently stayed in Lillian’s care when they were not in school. J. W. Ludgate, who eventually bought the Gale property, was appointed guardian of the children by the court and administrator of Joseph’s will. He apparently managed well. The children received regular stipends from the proceeds of the oyster beds. Curiously, the records of St. Amable Academy do not show Maud in attendance after October 1901. Perhaps Ludgate allowed the children to attend another school in each other’s company. After Maud’s death in 1905, Ray lived with the Fanshiers in the 400 block of Fifth Avenue in Olympia and attended People’s University. People’s was a progressive institution established by John R. Chaplain, a Congregational minister, who had dreams of establishing a university The End of an Era 228 in southern Puget Sound and was able to attract like-minded people to settle in Olympia and join his enterprise.2 People’s University was, Chaplain said, “unfettered by denominational boundaries, by fixed theological creeds, by the dangerous demands of either accumulated wealth or combined numbers, by the unrighteous requirements of social ‘castes,’ by the unnecessary burden of foolish and expensive styles and fashions, or by the disastrous influences of political dominations, its aim is to meet all the people on the broad and fraternal plane of co-partnership, seeking the best and highest in human character.”3 The university was a stock company and boasted shareholders from “every state in the union.” In 1903 it had already acquired four thousand acres of land in and around Olympia and secured a faculty. Travel was to be part of the four-year course of study. The school declared it would provide “guides, chaperons...