By Laura Swanson
The Tillamook County Pioneer was LeeAnn Neal, and her great-great-great grandfather Elbridge Trask is the featured photo of the Pioneer that graces all the posts. From the beginning of our new partnership and out of respect for the Neal family and in memory of LeeAnn, Trask’s image will be “retired” and will always have an honored place on the Pioneer pages.
As we explored options for images and looked at “generic” pioneer women images, being as the three partners are all women, we thought it would be appropriate to have a pioneer woman as the face. Kelly Benson mentioned, “Well Laura, your family are Tillamook County pioneers, maybe there’s a woman on your family tree ….”
A little time on Ancestry.com, sure enough, I found her — Catherine Fitzpatrick. My great-great-great grandmother, who arrived in Tillamook County in 1886 with her husband William. Not quite as early as Trask, but in the early years of Tillamook County. The Fitzpatrick family were one of the founders of Sacred Heart Catholic Church. William and Catherine’s photos hang in the Tillamook Pioneer Museum.
It seems extremely appropriate to introduce to you, Catherine Fitzpatrick on St. Patrick’s Day. Watch for her to become the “new” face of the Tillamook County Pioneer. We hope that you enjoy her story and connection to our Pioneer – we’ll share more of her story (and other historical stories) as we move forward with updating the website, expanding coverage, providing more feature stories, more art, more places, more outdoors, a fishing report, and just so much more. We’d are always interested in hearing your story ideas.
The Tillamook County Pioneer is the news and happenings of Tillamook County, and we look forward to connecting our community.