(died 27 May 1929, aged 70), lumberman. (Peter McMartin) Born at Martintown, GC. McMartin was a lumberman in Snohomish County, Washington state, for 45 years. “McMartin settled in the Stanwood district [of Snohomish County] in 1885, building the first log boom at the mouth of the Stillaguamish river, where Stanwood is now located. He drove a team of oxen through the woods to Arlington and logged for many years in the district between Arlington and Bryant.…He owned a 200-acre farm and the entire town of Hazel which is named after his daughter, now the wife of Ross H. Piles, son of former United States Senator Samuel Piles.” McMartin platted the town of Hazel (formerly known as Packard) in 1903. At the time of his death, Peter D. McMartin was “perhaps the best known man in the Stillaguamish valley” (Cornwall Freeholder) and was “the dean of Stillaguamish valley lumbermen,” and “said to be the oldest logger in the county in years of service” (Washington State obits.) McMartin was one of the founders in 1903 of the Lake Riley Lumber Co. at Hazel, and at the time of his death he was its vice-president and was vice-president also of its subsidiary the Hazel Logging Co. At the time of his death, also, his sawmill at Hazel, established 5 years before his death, was owned by himself, his brother Dan McMartin, who was then a resident of Martintown, GC, but had formerly been an associate of Peter in logging in Washington state, and by E. J. Gilliland, who was postmaster of Hazel in 1929 and a partner of Peter from at least 1912. Peter D. McMartin, struck down by a fainting spell or a heart attack, fell from a logging truck in which he was travelling to his work and was crushed under a rear wheel of the truck. (one child)

     As a hobby, he made burl carvings, i. e., carvings from strangely malformed pieces of wood. At least one of these has survived, to be depicted on a website in 2006. His daughter’s father-in-law, Samuel Henry Piles (1858-1940), a lawyer and Republican, represented Washington state in the U. S. Senate 1905-1911, and was U. S. minister to Colombia 1922-1928.

The Everett Daily Herald (Everett, Wash.) 27 May 1929, The Arlington Times (Arlington, Wash.) 30 May & 6 June 1929, Cornwall Freeholder (QF) 8 June 1929; Glengarry News 14 June 1929 * Place Names of Washington