History of 1046 Boyer Avenue, Walla Walla, WA

Legal Description

Lot 9 and the East half of Lot 8 in Block 3 of Lennon’s and Wildwood Addition to the City of Walla Walla, as per the plat thereof recorded in Volume D of Plats at page 16, records of Walla Walla County; situated in the City and County of Walla Walla, State of Washington.

Title and Occupant History

Washington Territory was created in 1853.  In 1854, the new territorial legislature created Walla Walla County, which stretched from the crest of the Cascade Mountains to the crest of the Rocky Mountains in the present states of Washington, Idaho and Montana.  In 1855, Isaac Stevens, governor of Washington Territory, held a council on the banks of Mill Creek at the present site of Walla Walla with representatives of regional Indian tribes to purchase land from them.  The Yakamas, Cayuses and Walla Wallas were dissatisfied with the treaties and the intrusion by whites into their lands before the treaties’ ratification, and war followed.  Missionaries, former French-Canadian employees of the Hudson Bay Company trading post at Wallula, and soldiers at the military Fort Walla Walla were the primary European occupants of the area prior to 1859, when the treaties were finally ratified and the land was opened for settlement.  The transfer of ownership occurred by virtue of a treaty signed on June 9, 1855 in Walla Walla and ratified on March 8, 1859 by President James Buchanan, in which all of the land in the Walla Walla area was acquired from the Cayuse and Walla Walla Indian tribes.

The town of Walla Walla was originally laid out by County Surveyor Hamet Hubbard Case in 1859, prior to its formal incorporation as a city in 1862, as a one-quarter mile square with its eastern side centered on the point where Main Street crossed Mill Creek (at roughly the point where it does now).  The original plat was lost, probably in the fire of 1865.  Thus, the earliest plat on file is one made by W. W. Johnson, City Surveyor, in July 1865 that claims to have made corrections to Case’s survey.  Johnson’s survey was made the official plat of the City of Walla Walla on September 25, 1866, was filed and recorded July 5, 1867.

This property is a part of a U. S. Patent to Artimas Dodge for 160 acres as a cash sale issued at the Vancouver, WA Land Office on April 1, 1865.  Artimas and his wife Fannie were born in Maine and arrived in Walla Walla in 1860 with their three children.  By 1870, they had moved to Lebanon in Linn County, Oregon with their seven children.

The first legal transaction recorded in the office of the Walla Walla County Auditor on this property was a sale from William Matzger to Eugene Lennon on May 21, 1881.  Lennon was born in Ireland in 1850 and had lived in Walla Walla since 1880.  He listed his occupation as a brick mason in the U. S. Census. Neither party to this deed is present in the Walla Walla Auditor’s Direct or Reverse Index and the stated deed number is incorrect. However, Eugene Lennon testified to its accuracy under oath on May 24, 1922.  In that same testimony he stated he had been single when he purchased this property in 1881 but married Fannie C. Dixon in 1886.  There were several transactions regarding this property between Lennon, W. W. Baker and the Walla Walla Water Company regarding easements and water rights. Lennon seemed to have used this property as a bank account, borrowing and repaying money of varying amounts frequently. These mortgages provide more information about this property than the deeds.  Lennon’s first recorded mortgage was on August 2, 1881 for $1500 to John H. Stahl and Joseph McDonald, satisfied in full on October 4, 1881.  This document also stated that Lennon’s property included 22.5 acres excepting the 1.93 acres sold to H. P. Isaacs plus a brick kiln and bricks.  In 1905 Boyer Avenue did not extend beyond the city limit at Division Street.  At that time Division had not been built between Alder and Boyer because there was no bridge across Mill Creek there.  On June 4, 1907, Lennon had this area platted as Lennon’s and Wildwood Addition to the City of Walla Walla, filed the same date.

The title history for this property is missing several key transfers dealing with the parcel this home is built on consisting of Lot 9 and the east half of Lot 8 in Block 3 of Lennon’s and Wildwood Addition.  As detailed below, this property was part of a larger parcel acquired by Eugene Lennon in 1881 and owned by him until 1908.  On November 14, 1908, he deeded only the west ½ of Lot 8 to Martin Meiners, and the construction of this home on Lot 9 and the east half of Lot 8 appears to have been completed by Meiners in 1909.  Conveyances of Lot 9 and the east half of Lot 8 only began in 1940 and continue by grantors unconnected with Lennon to the present.

8/2/1881, Deed, William Matzger, grantor; Eugene Lennon, grantee, 22.5 acres more or less in Section 21, Township 7-North, Range 36-East except for rights given to H. P. Isaacs under a lease granted by G. I. Dodge? (illeg.) on 7/27/1863,  “including rents, issues and profits thereof…” $2,000 in gold coin.

7/12/1895, Deed, Eugene and Fannie C. Lennon, grantors; W. W. Baker, grantee, including a large tract of land that specified water rights, right-of-way concessions, etc., $4,000.

9/21/1895, Quit Claim Deed, W. W. and Mary E. Baker, grantors; The Walla Walla Water Company, a Corporation, grantee, op. cit. “conveying all water rights and privileges…conveyed to W. W. Baker by Eugene Lennon and wife, by deed…” $4,000.

12/2/1899, Warranty Deed Against Grantor, The Walla Walla Water Company, a Corporation, grantor; The City of Walla Walla, grantee, op. cit. excluding “44 acres belonging to race track,” $6,000.

12/26/1900, Lease, Eugene Lennon, grantor; G. S. Young, grantee, “about 15 acres…about one mile East of Main Street bridge,” a 4.5-year lease, $2,600.

8/11/1908, Affidavit, Eugene Lennon to The Public, that he is the grantee in a deed from William Matzger of filed on 8/2/1881 and that he is in possession of the property except what he has “disposed of” and that he has been in possession of and has occupied the same since 1881.

11/14/1908, Indenture, Eugene and Fannie C. Lennon, grantors; Martin Meiners, grantee, the west ½ of Lot 8, Block 3 of Lennon’s and Wildwood Addition, $500.  (Note that this indenture did not include Lot 9.)

1/7/1919, Deed, John Meiners, Elsina Tracy and Grace W. Cochran, heirs of Martin and Ettje Meiners, their parents, grantors; Cornelius M. and Luda M Meiners, Lot 7 and west ½ of Lot 8, Block 3, $10.

7/26/1937, Notice of Lis Pendens, C. E. Jenks, Supervisor of Banking for the State of Washington in the liquidation of the Peoples State Bank of Walla Walla, plaintiff, v. C. M. and R. E. Meiners, defendants, to recover $2,850 with interest at 8% per annum.

10/28/1940, Quit Claim Deed, W. E. Milne, grantor; Alexander Milne, grantee, Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8, Block 3, “pursuant to a stipulation on 7/19/1940 in the estate of Mary Armour Milne, deceased.”  This is the first recorded document that defines the property as all of Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8 despite the fact the house had been built decades earlier.

The current owners of 1046 Boyer passed on information they have that in 1913 W. E. Milne, then a student at Harvard, was residing at 1046 Boyer Avenue.  This predates the deaths of both Ettje and Martin Meiners.  William Edward Milne, born in Pendleton, was a 1912 graduate of Whitman College, where he obtained his A.B. in Mathematics.  The Whitman College Pioneer reported on June 20, 1912 that Milne was one of three in the largest graduating class to date (29) to deliver an oration, his subject being ‘War Against War.”  In 1915, he obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard.  After teaching at Bowdoin College for awhile, he went on to head the Mathematics Department at Oregon State University from 1932 to 1955.  The Milne Computer Center at OSU is named for him.  Although there is no deed from any Meiners family member to Milne (a search of Forward and Reverse Indexes to deeds at the Auditor’s Vault disclosed nothing), it would appear that quite possibly they had taken him in as a young member of their family and eventually passed on the house to him as a gift.

3/8/1943, Quit Claim Deed, William Edward Milne, grantor; Bessie G. Milne, grantee, Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8, Block 3 “as her separate property,” $1.

2/21/1945, Warranty Deed, Bessie G. and William Edward Milne, grantors; George F. and Rosana J. Bower, grantees, Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8, Block 3, $10 and other valuable considerations.

6/6/1973, Real Estate Contract, Donald Brower and William Neil Hunter, guardians of the person and estate of George Brower, incompetent, grantors; James L. and Carolyn J. Ely, grantees, Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8, Block 3, $9,500.

6/6/1973, Statutory Warranty Deed, Donald Brower and William Neil Hunter, guardians of the person and estate of George Brower, incompetent, grantors; James L. and Carolyn J. Ely, grantees, Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8, Block 3, $9,500.

2/1/1991, Notice of trustee’s Sale, Walla Walla Title Company, trustee v. James L. and Carolyn J. Ely, for payments 11 months in arrears.

1/9/1997, Statutory Warranty Deed, James L. and Carolyn J. Ely, grantors; John William Luscher, grantee, Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8, Block 3, $10 and other valuable considerations.

5/25/2006, Statutory Warranty Deed, John William Luscher, grantor; Robert and Lisa Varady, grantees, an undivided 12% interest in Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8.

5/25/2006, Statutory Warranty Deed, John William Luscher, grantor; Andrew Varady, an undivided 88% interest in Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8.

8/24/2009, Quit Claim Deed, Robert and Lisa Varady, grantors; Andrew H. Varady, grantee.

10/10/2017, Statutory Warranty Deed, Andrew H. Varady and Turner M. Piggott grantors; Elizabeth Seaman and Jackie Jackson, Jr., grantees.

Construction of Building

Walla Walla County Assessor records list 1909 as the date 1046 Boyer Avenue was constructed.  On 11/14/1908, Eugene and Fannie Lennon sold the west ½ of Lot 8 to Martin Meiners. The 1908 Walla Walla city directory for that year does not include Martin Meiners.  The 1909 city directory, however, lists Meiners as a farmer residing at 1046 Boyer Avenue.  Thus, despite the absence of any title to Lot 9 and the east ½ of Lot 8, it is apparent that construction of the home was completed by Meiners on this parcel sometime in 1909.

Meiners was born in Germany in 1847 and died in Walla Walla 1918.  He married Ettje Beenders, also German by birth, (1854-1915), and they had four children, Cornelius Martin Meiners (Luda), John Everett Meiners (Ruth) and Grace Widen Meiners Cochran (George), all born in Illinois.  A younger daughter, Elsina, was born in Washington Territory.  The exact year that the Meiners family arrived in Walla Walla County could not be determined, but daughter Grace was born in Illinois in 1879 and the youngest child, Elsina, was born in Washington Territory in 1888.

While living in Pennsylvania, the Meiners were members of the German Evangelical Lutheran Church and the baptism certificate for their oldest son, Cornelius  (b. 1874, baptized 1875) is in German.

The 1900 and 1910 U. S. Census reports indicate the Meiners family was residing on Mill Creek Road, and Meiners Road that intersects with Mill Creek Road some 5½ miles from Tausick Way was doubtless the location of the Meiners farm and is therefore probably named for Martin Meiners.  The entire family is buried in Mountain View Cemetery in the Meiners plot except for Grace who is buried in her husband’s plot in the IOOF section.

1046 Boyer Avenue is essentially a version of the American foursquare house, a subtype of the Prairie style.  The house is almost square – there is a shallow bay on the west side – with a fairly low-pitched hipped roof.  The street façade is irregular, with the front entrance on the left.  The porch roof is gabled, supported by four plain round columns and two elaborate brackets.  Interestingly, a replica of this porch may be seen on the east side directly around the corner in the photo.  Did Martin Meiners wish to display a modicum of ornamentation as a farmer who was now able to have a city home?  The rest of the house does not display ornament, nor does it have dormers projecting from the roof.  The siding does not appear to be original and it’s unlikely that the windows were originally shuttered.

Resources

• TitleOne (formerly Pioneer Title)
• Whitman College Archives (online assistance from Dana Bronson, Associate Archivist)
• Walla Walla County Auditor’s Vault Indexes of recorded deeds
• Walla Walla City Directories, various years
• Standard Atlas of Walla Walla County Washington Including a Plat Book of the Villages Cities and Townships of the County, Geo. A. Ogle & Co., Chicago, 1909
• Archives West and Oregon State University Archives
• Mountain View Cemetery records
• United States Census records