History Talk at the Schmidt House

Our December History Talk is titled “Tales from the Crypt”! The Masonic and Odd Fellows’ cemeteries in Tumwater are more than simply the repository of graves; they are the repository of history and stories, more than can be told in one sitting. Noted local historian Dennis Larsen speaks about a few of the more colorful interments: the Tilley family, spanning three generations from an 1852 wagon train to European royalty; Charles Grainger, Chief Leschi’s hangman; Myron Hawley Ranney, a Congressional Medal of Honor winner; Wittington Johnston Sayre and Ann M. Sayre, vigilantes who hanged a sheriff; and James Biles, the alleged ox killer.