Chelan County

The following DARNELL and WRIGHT family history information and photos were submitted by Wanda Darnell Garrett.

Click on any photo to enlarge.

Joseph Darnell family photo taken in about 1895 before the family moved to Chelan. (Otis, Joseph, Edward, Ella, Eva, Nancy)

The Lake View Hotel when it was owned by Joseph Darnell. (Photo from "Lake Chelan Valley, (Wa)" by Kristin J. Gregg, Lake Chelan Historical Society

Josephine (Hess) Wright,
wife of Robert P. Wright,
between 1900-1910, most
likely in Chelan.

Robert P. Wright with a prize ribbon won at the 4th National Apple Show in Spokane, 1911.

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Newspaper article about Robert P. Wright being part of the 4th National Apple Show in Spokane, 1911.

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DARNELL FAMILY:
DARNELL, Joseph L.; May 1890; b. 1850 Penn Twp, OH-Morgan
DARNELL, Nancy (Harris) (Mrs. Joseph); May 1890; b. 1850 Windsor Twp, OH-Morgan
DARNELL, Ella; May 1890; b. 1873 Zanesville, OH-Muskingum
DARNELL, John E.; May 1890; b. 1876 Zanesville, OH-Muskingum
DARNELL, Eva; May 1890; b. 1879 Zanesville, OH-Muskingum
DARNELL, Howard Otis; May 1890; b. 1882 Zanesville, OH-Muskingum

WRIGHT FAMILY:
WRIGHT, Robert P.; 1899; b. 1851 Lawrenceville, IL-Lawrence (brother of Thomas A. Wright, who is listed in the Chelan County Pioneers Index.)
WRIGHT, Josephine (Hess) (Mrs. Robert P); 1899; b. 1856 Freeport, IL-Stephenson
WRIGHT, Frederick; 1899; b. 1877 Eagle, NE-Cass
WRIGHT, Mamie; 1899; b. 1880 Palmyra, NE-Otoe
WRIGHT, Eva; 1899; b. 1882 Lincoln, NE-Lancaster
WRIGHT, Mabelle; 1899; b. 1885 Ord, NE-Valley
WRIGHT, Ethel; 1899; b. 1887 Fort Hartsuff, NE-Valley
WRIGHT, Lucy; 1899; b. 1889 NE
WRIGHT, Hazel; 1899; b. 1893 Burwell, NE-Garfield
WRIGHT, Ruby; 1899; b. 1895 Burwell, NE-Garfield
WRIGHT, Myrtle; 1899; b. 1897 Burwell, NE-Garfield
WRIGHT, William R.; 1899; b. 1899 WA-Chelan

Joseph (b. 1850) a Nancy (b. 1850) Darnell were from the Zanesville, Ohio area, where they had 5 children. In 1885, he investigated moving to Washington, first purchasing property near Sprague. In 1889 he learned of Lake Chelan, checked it out in December, and in May 1890, brought his family with 4 of the children from Ohio to Chelan. The eldest, Mary, remained in Ohio.

From "An Illustrated History of Stevens, Ferry, Okanogan and Chelan Counties, State of Washington", Western Historical Publishing Company, Publishers. 1904, pages 791-792: "Following four months’ residence in Chelan he came to Lakeside, which at that period consisted primarily of a small store, and began teaming. He also conducted a barber shop and a grist mill. He was elected justice of the peace and arrested the first man to go to the penitentiary ever sent from that county. The prisoner had been guilty of selling whiskey to the Indians. Mr. Darnell also built a catamaran steamer, seventy-five feet long, and during the winter utilized the engine on board the boat to grind corn and wheat, averaging twenty dollars a day when running steadily. Mr. Darnell and Judge Navarre, mentioned elsewhere, platted the townsite of Lakeside, and the former purchased the first lots sold. "

Mr. Darnell was proprietor of the Lake View Hotel in Lakeside, which in 1904 had 21 guest rooms, electric lights, pumped water, "and other conveniences."

Howard Otis Darnell and Eva Ann Wright married in 1903, and had 5 children (all of whom are now deceased). Otis managed the Lake View Hotel, and Eva cooked in the hotel kitchen. Around 1917, they moved to the Seattle area, but at least one of the now-adult children and their family remained to own and manage the hotel, which remains to this day under the family name.

Robert Wright (b. 1851) and Josephine Hess (b. 1856), were originally from Illinois. They married in 1873 in Nebraska and had their 11 children there, 9 of them girls, including my father’s grandmother as well as the mother of his stepfather. The family moved to the Lake Chelan area in 1894, where Robert and his brother planted one of the first apple orchards in the Chelan valley, in an area on the south shore of Lake Chelan called Wrightsville. He was one of the first to ship apples to England, exhibited Washington-grown apples in many states, and won awards at national apple shows. Due to Josephine’s poor health, they moved to Seattle in 1922, and later lived at Lake Burien. Josephine died in 1932 at 76, followed by Robert in 1937 at 86.

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