QUILCENE — On July 4, 1871, Sarah Such gave birth to a son, the first Caucasian baby born in the frontier town of Tacoma.
In December 1884, her husband, John, filed a claim for 40 acres in Township 27 north of Range 2 West in Washington Territory.
The old house is gone, but a Such still owns 21 acres of the original property, located behind the school football field off the highway that forms Quilcene’s main street.
Doug Such, Sarah and John’s great-grandson, also has the letter of patent granting the tract of land to John Such and his heirs by Chester A. Arthur, president of the United States.
But he’d like a face to go with the name.
“I’ve never seen a picture of my great-grandfather,” Doug Such says.
To remedy that, Doug and his wife, Kathy, are inviting Such descendants from Sequim, Port Hadlock, Shelton and Bremerton to gather on Saturday at the family homestead, which they plan to turn back into a working farm.
The purpose of the reunion is to bridge the gap between the farm’s past and its future.
“The Suches have been here a long time.” Doug Such says. “I want to get back to the roots.”