Oysterville’s Changing Demographic

...and the beat goes on!

…and the beat goes on!

By my calculations, as of last week the full-time population of Oysterville is up by a goodly percentage. We were at 13 and are now at 15! The increase is due to the change in status of Bob and Charlotte Jacobs who have sold their winter home in Sun City, Arizona and are now in Oysterville permanently. “It was always going to be Oysterville,” Charlotte told me Saturday.

Contrary to my erroneous report of a year or so ago, Charlotte was born in Oysterville and spent a good portion of her childhood vacations here visiting her grandparents Minnie and Bert Andrews, as well as her aunts, uncles and cousins. Her Oysterville roots – like Tucker’s and mine and Bud’s and the Freshley brothers’ – go way back to the 19th century. It’s a warm and comforting feeling when people “come back to Oysterville for good.”

There are quite a few Oysterville residents who are second and third generation, too. Their forebears arrived in the early part of the 20th century and, as the years have passed, family members have stuck through good times and bad or, perhaps, have come “back” to retire. I think the fact that many of us have history here gives our community a special flavor.

Oysterville Memory

A Bright Oysterville Memory

Among our part-time residents, the demographic has also changed, but not for the better. Within the last few months we’ve lost Mike Gray of the Tom Crellin House and my cousin BG Hook of the Red House – BG, old family, and Mike a relative newcomer but both with children who chose Oysterville as the place to exchange wedding vows, giving the next generation another sort of bond with the village. Perhaps some day they, too, will “come back.”

I can’t help but think of an article that appeared in the Seattle Intelligencer on August 17, 1881. The author was comparing Oysterville of 1873 “a busy and growing town” to the “deserted village” he visited eight years later: “It would be difficult to imagine a more dreary place than Oysterville. It contains about 100 houses of which not more than 12 are occupied, the entire population not exceeding fifty of whom the greater proportion are children…”

Our total population (full- and part-timers) probably just about matches that 1881 report. But these days it seems like we might be on the upswing demographically. We can but hope…

3 Responses to “Oysterville’s Changing Demographic”

  1. Mark Clemmens says:

    Sydney,
    When you add in the Espy Ridge and Woodland Hights Subdivisions (which your father platted) up here on the ridge, I count up a full time population of 58. (Generally here 180 days or more each year – per the OW records, of course.) Hope we see a few more young’ns coming back.
    MC

  2. Greg Rogers says:

    BG was such an enthusiastic supporter of Oysterville Store. I will miss her including me in the treasure hunts for the kids. I don’t want to do away with her tab book marked “BG.”

    Great to have Charlotte back. She has provided me with so much of the needed back story that I use on customers. And the photographs she shared with me have proved invaluable in the restoration of the 1939 Standard Oil color scheme.

  3. sydney says:

    True, Mark. I should have specified “within the village” or “within the National Historic District.” Traditionally, Oysterville included the entire area served by Oysterville School District #1 — from Stackpole to Sargant’s (where Downers now live) and out to the beach. Nowadays, a case can be made for all those (160?) who get their mail at the Oysterville Post Office, It’s all where you cut the pie. By your count, how many full-time versus part-time residents are there served by Oysterville Water?

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