Cecelia Jane Haguet Johnson (1848-1920), pioneer school teacher and mother of nine, was the granddaughter of Chief Hoqueem of the Quinaults (after whom Hoquiam, Washington, was named) and Chief Uhlahnee of the Celilo Falls Chinooks.

Cecelia “Jane” Haguet (pronounced “Hay-gay” by the family) was born in 1848 on her parents’ Donation Land Claim near present-day Ilwaco. She was educated at Providence Academy in Vancouver, Washington and, before she married, was one of the early schoolteachers in Pacific County.

One of her first assignments was in 1868 at the one room Riverside (Raymond) School which had been built of lumber from the “Old Mill” nearby. Early scholars there remembered that the floorboards of the little building were two feet in width. Many also remembered that for her term’s work, Janey was offered a pig as payment. That seemed an excellent exchange to the young teacher who knew that a fine, fat pig would be a much-appreciated gift by her parents with their large family.

On the final day of the term, farmer John Adams tethered the pig behind the schoolhouse for Miss Haguet to take home on the following day. Unhappily, in the morning she found that a bear had done away with her “salary” during the night.

Pull Quote

Unhappily, in the morning she found that a bear had done away with her “salary” during the night.

The story still is told with amusement by her descendants, especially when they come to the Oysterville area for their family reunions. It was to a small house just south of where the Historic Oysterville Church now stands that “Janey” moved when she married James Johnson in 1870, two years after the pig incident. There, she settled into life as a mother and housewife in the busy oyster boomtown on the banks of Shoalwater Bay.

Janey’s husband, “Captain Jimmy” as he was affectionately called by his many friends and acquaintances, was an oysterman and, beginning in 1877, became the mail carrier — in those days by mail boat to communities and hamlets along the rivers and around the bay. He was well-known from Astoria to the Willapa Valley.

“He loved the water, spent most of his life upon it, and met death by drowning,” according to his obituary in the Jan. 18, 1889 Pacific Journal. In addition to his wife, he was survived by seven of his eight children: Wilfred, John, Cecelia, Denny, Frank, Percy and Victor. James, the eldest boy had died in infancy. On April 13, 1889, their ninth child, Myrtle, was born.

Through her mother’s family, baby Myrtle, like her siblings, was the great-grandchild of both Chief Hoqueem of the Quinaults (after whom Hoquiam, Washington, was named) and Chief Uhlahnee of the Celilo Falls Chinooks and granddaughter of Hudson’s Bay Company employee Capt. James Johnson Sr. When Myrtle was born, the chiefs of many tribes arrived in their high-prow canoes bringing gifts in celebration and to honor this descendant of chiefs, this child whose father had so recently drowned. Among the Pioneer settlers, Myrtle was referred to as “the last Princess of Oysterville.”

“Janey” subsequently married William Howard of South Bend, where she lived until her death in 1920. She is buried in the Oysterville Cemetery.