The Gagnon family to be honored as Pioneers of the Year

WAITSBURG - This year, the Waitsburg Historical Society has selected the Gagnon Family as the Pioneers of the Year. Members of the family will be honored at Fall Festival on September 21 at the Bruce House Museum.

The Gagnon family's deep roots in the Walla Walla Valley farming community date back to the arrival of Marcel Gagnon in 1855. He immigrated from Quebec to the United States and became a citizen at the age of 18 in 1849. Along with other retired Hudson Bay fur trappers, he settled in the Washington Territory near the Whitman Mission in the area known as Frenchtown.

Marcel married Rosalie Dauphin, from the Cayuse Tribe, and together they raised a family of six – Lucien, Jeremy, Sophia, Selina, Marcel Jr., and Peter.

Marcel Jr., who was born in 1873, married Maria Remillardm in 1892, in Walla Walla. Her family also came from Quebec. They raised ten children. Among them was Joseph "Philip" Gagnon, born in 1893. At seventeen, he left home for the ranches of Waitsburg. The call of duty came in 1917, and Philip served in a machine gun battalion during World War I.

After the war, Philip worked for Oscar Abbey in Waitsburg, where he met Eula Eunice Reid from a neighboring farm. She quit school to help her parents with farming and to care for her siblings and cousins.

After marrying in 1922, Phillip and Eunice rented land near Prescott and started their family in a one-room shack, complete with a cook stove and a board-walled tent. Their first three children, John, Don P, and Ellen, were born there. Before long, the couple purchased land and a home near Alto, with the promise of a brighter future. There, Phillip and Eunice added their two youngest, Dorothy and Cecil, to their family while working the farm together.

In the summer after Phillip's passing, son John returned from his Army service in France, during World War II, to the rustling wheat fields of their family farm. He and Don P helped their mother run the family farm.

Eunice met and married Carl Peck in 1946. They took over the Reid farm on Whetstone Creek and had a son, Carl "Butch", who helped his father work the farm.

John married Ava Jean McMillen, and they raised four children – Bess Herndon, Nancy Bray, George, and Barb Jones.

Just down the road, Don P fulfilled his dreams of marrying Ida Fontijn, and they welcomed four children – Kathy "Kitty" Greenwell, Margie Benson, Joe, and Louie.

Ellen married Bernard Doud, a fellow student at Waitsburg High School. They settled in Seattle to raise Don and Laura Tropple. Tragedy struck when Bernie died in 1956. Ellen later married George Huckle and added Deanna Vavrinec to their family.

After returning from the Navy, Cecil went to work for Standard Oil in Dayton, Wash. He married Irene Randolph, and they had three children: Deb Smith, Phil, and Pam Smith. The family traveled and moved frequently with Cecil's job at Standard Oil. They lived in Waitsburg for a bit before moving to John Day, Ore.

Youngest daughter Dorothy married Dorne Hall, who also went to Waitsburg High School. They moved to Seattle and raised daughters Terry Ferguson and Sharon Richter. The daughters moved back to Dayton and Waitsburg to raise their families. Dorne and Dorothy moved to Walla Walla after Dorne retired from Boeing.

Through the years, many of the cousins remained close, marrying neighbors and raising families across the region. The community thrived with Margie Benson, Joe & Joann, Louie & Marie, and George & Roslyn all raising their families in the Waitsburg area.

There have been seven generations woven through Waitsburg's history. The current generation includes at least 30 cousins and family members.

"All the cousins and their children have very fond memories of the Alto Tunnel and Grandma & Grandpa Peck's farm," said Kathy Gagnon Greenwell.