On my side of the Gargett family, the sea is very important. My paturnal grandmother’s maiden name was Emily Slocum. She is a direct relative of Joshua Slocum, the first man to sail alone around the world so I guess you can say that sailing, yachting and the oceans have always held interest for me. That is why I joined the Bellingham Yacht Club. And to make a long story short, my wife and I put on a cruise for the Bellingham Yacht Club every year to Poets Cove in British Columbia, Canada. Well, last September during our cruise we kind of made up a story about piracy. As a result, and after giving it no real thought, I decided to write an ebook called the Pirates of Poets Cove. I would publish a chapter a month until our cruise next September where we would act out the final Chapter in a Dinner Theater. Anyway, some friends said I should post it here so if you want to follow along each month, feel free to read a story from someone who has never written a book – The Pirates of Poets Cove.
The annual end of year cruise to Poets Cove was held the 19th, 20th and 21st of September and was simply put, a journey of friends. This year’s cruise was truly about the water, the boats and the friends. There were new members, and new boats. There were old members and old boats. There were members returning from months in Alaska and members heading out for fall cruising. There were new, continuing, and renewed friendships.
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- Tales of Alaska
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- Smiling At The Sun
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- Canada Customs
We sailed on the tide with Chuck and Roberta McCord. We crossed the Bay, went up Hale Pass, and over to Matia. We passed Sucia and Patos watching Blackfish and Porpoises play. Past Skipjack Island, past Gowland Point and into Poets Cove we went.
We saw Gordon and Susie Hilaski glide across Bedwell Harbor returning from Alaska. We watched the sunset behind Gary & Dianne Turner on the Customs Dock with their daughter Marlin. We met Bob & Bessie Christman, owners of the Firehouse, cruising with Dick and Mary Jane Vetter.
We saw Bob and Marsha Riek stern-in-starboard-tie their Camano Troll for the first time with Joe and Judy Coons. We saw Max King cruising with new members Matt and Brenda Dennis under the staysail of his Maple Bay 27. We watched Alex Marr single handle his Beneteau into the slip after an overnight at Sucia.
We helped secure Jim Langei and Mary Jo into their slip. We welcomed Paul and Cheryl Meyers when they arrived off the ferry. We enjoyed the new Alaskan dog shirts on board Island Pilot with Bob and Jane Simica. We helped tie bow in, then stern in, Gary and Mary Baker who brought John and Teresa Van Haalen.
We had a dock party on Friday with the solar heat of the sun keeping us warm. We had a dockside potluck breakfast fit for Kings in the rain on Saturday morning. We solved the world’s problems under intermittent showers on Saturday afternoon. We watched the sunset having dinner, playing darts and telling lies over drinks Saturday night.
And we met new friends at Poets Cove 2008 – friends from Pender Island, friends from Victoria. Friends from Calgary, and friends from North Vancouver. And we certainly renewed existing friendships.
And we created a new tale of adventure, intrigue and mystery from the high seas adventures of the cruise of the BYC to Poets Cove in 2008…..a tale that involves piracy, attempted murder, international intrigue, secret affairs and survival….a tale that will be told, a tale that will be talked about, a tale you want to be careful about asking details of. You may end up in the story that is unfolding as we speak, a story that is continuing as a never ending story until its conclusion in character next year over the weekend of September 18, 29 & 20, the dates for Poets Cove 2009.
Remember, It’s the Water, It’s the Boats, It’s the Friends.
John & Patricia
Hopefully I will be able to keep up with all that is happening with the Gargett’s in Bellingham now. Well at least I will try. It is not an easy task, but onward we will go. As you can see from the header, there are a few of us here. Grandma is on the left, she just turned 90, then we have Patti and son Martin. Next to Martin is John (thats me in the bamboo forest, aka the web master), then daughters Mary and Celeste next to son Ben, then Heather and her Husband Arshia. Arshia is holding Oliver, one of their three dogs.
This last week I enjoyed a some final meals with Mary and Heather at Stanello’s Italian Restaurant and Patricia brought some take-out pizza home to share with friends because it was to crowded to get into another night. See, they are closing after 34 years. Building got sold for a bundle, probably be torn down and made into condo’s or something.
I debated putting anything in this blog about this, but hey, its my blog and Stanello’s closing is like anyones neighborhood pub closing. Besides, I figure the Gargett’s in Bellingham have spent at least twenty, twenty-five grand there and we have had a lot of family meals, parties and fun there. So, here is what I think-
I have been living in Bellingham since 1970 when there were really only bars in Fairhaven. That was good, but we did need somewhere to eat besides Toad Hall and Dos Padres. I think it was around 1972 or 1973 when a restaurant opened called Sofies. Nice place but it did not last. Stan Velis opened it as Venus Pizza in 1974.
I was still in college. The Venus Royal was our favorite after Scuba Diving class. There were a lot of us who hung out at Venus Pizza during, and after, College, and still do (or did). Great place, good food, people were nice and the bar was a heck of a lot of fun. Oh, and somewhere in here Stan changed the name to Stanello’s.
The years passed, I got married a few times, kids came along, but still Stanello’s was a place to hang out. Same owner, same friendly people, same food, same drink. It was good, reliable and friendly. We had a lot of parties and a lot of just plain old fashion “let’s go out and eat” family meals there.
After 20 years in its original location, Stan bought the old motorcycle shop down the street, tore it down and built a bigger place. He named it the Frannick Building after his parents, Francis and Nicolas – that was cool.
Some people liked the new building – they called it innovative and new, some did not – one friend called it a mausoleum, but what the heck, the food was still good and Stan even recreated the old brick wall from the old place.
So Stan, thanks for helping with the memories – from hanging while at college, to the kids coloring your pictures, to the birthday parties, to my folks surprise 60th anniversary dinner, to a relaxing meal after dad’s funeral, to making sure my mom’s minestrone soup was always hot, to making my special small white pizza with feta cheese, double anchovies and garlic, to enjoying your last couple nights.
Your food was always good, the staff friendly, and the beer cold.
Oh, just in case I over did this, Stan is not dead, just closed the restaurant. Rumor is he is going on a cruise and hanging out at the beach.
He did, I am told by a reliable source, keep the name, menu, recipes, so …… ?
I have no idea if it is true, who this John Gargett was, but I got the source from “THE LANGSTAFFS OF TEESDALE AND WEARDALE BY GEORGE BLUNDELL LONGSTAFF Transcribed by CAROLE A.M. JOHNSON COPYRIGHT 2001 All Rights Reserved” on the web (If I am violating the copyright, someone please let me know, but the following is from a newspaper, the Teesdale Mercury. There is nothing from the book.):
1757. ” THE MISSING PEDLAR ” : A TRUE TALE OF BALDERSDALE.*
One evening in March 1757 a pedlar named John Patrick called at the house of John Gargett, a small farmer of Hury. Gargett was a widower with one child, an imbecile daughter of 14. There is also in Gargett’s house at the time of Patrick’s visit a man called Longstaff, who lived in Mickleton. Business over the three sat down to drink and play cards.
Earlier in the day Patrick had called at the house of another customer, John Raine, a Quaker of Hunderthwaite, and had left his pack there, saying he would return for it in a few days. Several days passed but the pedlar did not return. Raine became alarmed, especially as he knew the missing man left with a considerable sum of money on his person. Raine went over to Hury and questioned Gargett, who said that Patrick left his house late that night about an hour after Longstaff. The latter part of the story was confirmed by neighbours having seen Longstaff enter his own house at a time corresponding with Gargett’s statement. Suspicions got abroad, and after a while, both Gargett and Longstaff were apprehended on the charge of having either killed the pedlar in a quarrel over the cards, or deliberately murdered him for his money.
A man named H——— of Briscoe, an intimate friend of Patrick’s, had a long-standing feud with Gargett’s family, and now exerted himself in endeavouring to substantiate the charge against Gargett, even going so far as to procure subscriptions for that object. The deep pools of the Balder were dragged, the floor of Gargett’s house was dug up, and the ground around pierced with spears in search of a new grave.
Nothing suspicious was discovered, and Gargett preserved a calm demeanour under repeated examinations, adhering to his original statement. Meanwhile Longstaff, for some reason which does not appear, was set at liberty.
Then Gargett’s daughter made a statement to the effect that her father on the night in question knocked the pedlar off his chair with the poker as he sat drinking, and then cut him up with a gully (large knife) and burnt him in the oven! This story was fully believed in spite of the girl’s mental condition, and the old stone oven was pulled down, but nothing was found. Nevertheless Gargett was committed to York Castle. Before the Assizes a Mr. Binks of Stonykeld (near Bowes), in whose service Gargett had been when a youth, and who did not believe in his guilt, having succeeded by solicitation in high quarters in procuring an adjournment of his trial, at his own expense advertised far and wide, offering a reward for information of the pedlar’s whereabouts.
All was in vain. Gargett was tried, found guilty, and sentenced to death. He was on the point of being hanged, when at the last moment a man appeared at the foot of the scaffold and cried out: “He is innocent. I am the pedlar!” and fell down in convulsions.
When Patrick had sufficiently recovered himself, he-told the following story:—
As a pedlar he dealt largely in contraband goods, and was part owner of a smuggling craft. Needing to replenish his pack, he left Gargett’s house at midnight, taking a short road across the moors and made for Shields, expecting to return in a few days. He boarded his vessel at Shields, but was driven off the coast by a Revenue cruiser and had to take refuge in a Dutch port. On returning, he was much delayed by contrary winds and only got into the Humber two days before that appointed for the execution.
*Abstracted from a long account in the ” Teesdale Mercury.”
So Ben, completing his years of work to be an Acupuncturist, just does not have enough time on his hands it seems in his final months of school in Portland.
Actually, maybe it is the stress of a real hard study program that has been grueling that made Ben decide to enter this, or maybe it was just for fun.
Apparently he considers this just a warm up for the big one in a few weeks.
In any case, way to go Ben!
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- Running
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- Riding Hard
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- Done Swimming
Right up here in the Northwest Corner of Washington State in the United States, just a mile or two from the Canadian Border is the remains of the Gargett Gold Mine. I have attached an article from Washington Trails on it, and from what I have found (rather quickly via the web) is that these Gargett brothers either came up from Michigan to Canada, then across Canada and back into Sumas, or they came across the US, with an extended stop in Nebraska. I really do not know, but there are 7 Gargett’s buried here in Sumas:
| Gargett | Elizabeth | 1856 | 1921 | |
| Gargett | Floyd F. | 1850 | 1932 | |
| Gargett | Chloe | 1884 | 1967 | On same stone as Clyde L. Gargett |
| Gargett | Cleona M. | 1892 | 1956 | On same stone as Lloyd F. Gargett |
| Gargett | Lloyd F. | 1888 | 1973 | On same stone as Cleona M. Gargett |
| Gargett | Leroy R. | 1880 | 1961 | On same stone as Minnie O. Gargett |
| Gargett | Minnie O. | 1890 | 1961 | On same stone as Leroy R. Gargett |
Since a number of you have asked what I might know about the Gargett Geneology, I am putting up a chart my father put together for us (yes, I finally found it). I am guessing that it starts around 1775 in Yorkshire England, and as you can see he was missing information, so if any of you have any, let me know.
Any way, here it is in PDF Descendants of An Unknown Gargett From 1775-Present. You will have to zoom in to read it, and if you print it, you will have to paste the pages together to see it all. I like looking at it on the computer, and I did test it on both my Mac and PC computers. I have no clue if you have a current version of Adobe Acrobat or not, but you can get it at Adobe free anyway.
Aldrene Heather Gargett asked me “Gargett where does it come from?” and “What date does Gargett start etc…”
My dad told me that Gargett originated in France, but we got chased out during the war of the Huguenots where we resettled in England. My dad died a few years ago, but I think he has a lot of that information. I will see if I can dig it out.
And, as an added bonus, here is what I found on SurnameDB:
Surname: Gargett
Recorded in a number of spellings including Gargat, Gargett, Garget, Gourget, Gorget, and Georget, this is an English and French surname. It originated in France as Georget or Geourget, being the diminutive form of Georg or George, a Greek name introduced into Northern Europe by returning Crusader knights. In the 12th century during a period of history known as the Christian revival, many attempts were made by various monarch to free the Holy Land from the Muslims. Of these kings the most famous was probably Richard 1st of England, known as “Lion heart” who actually died at Acre in Palestine, in 1199, whilst besieging the place. The surname as Gourget was probably brought to England in the 17th century by protestant Huguenot refugees fleeing the persecution of King Louis X1V of France (1643 – 1715), a religious bigot whose effects are still felt today. We do know from the surviving registers of the churches of the diocese of Greater London that Gabriel Gourget was a witness at the French church known as La Patente, Soho, on December 28th 1690. By the 1720′s the name spelling has apparently been slightly anglicised to Gorget, when one John Gorget was a witness at St Martins in the Field, Westminster, on November 6th 1721. Later still on January 10th 1729 we have a further development with the recording of Robert Gargett, the son of John Gargett, who was christened at St Bartholomew the Great, in the city of London.
© Copyright: Name Orgin Research www.surnamedb.com 1980 – 2006
Benjamin Gargett wrote me saying “didn’t think there were any gargett out in the world but me”
Well there are! I don’t know where this Benjamin lives, but it looks like most are concentrated in Australia and England, with a fair number in the United States. I don’t know if the large number of Gargett’s in Australia is as a result of the resettlement of criminals from England.
