Isac Israelsson Klockars was born May 25, 1866 in Klockarbacken, Malax, Finland. This is the Swedish-speaking part of Finland. He worked on the family farm until he left for America on the S/S Romeo on November 2, 1888 at the age of 22. It was common that the oldest son in the family inherited the family farm, and the other children had to find their livelihood elsewhere.

Isak & Ida Klockers wedding - August 16, 1916

Isac changed the spelling of his name to Isaac Klockers once living in the Forest Hill area of Port Ludlow (referred to as “Swansonville”). He built his house and barn on five acres across from the church, and it was completed in 1900. The land had to be cleared by hand and the stumps were blown up with dynamite. The barn on the property burned to the ground one day at 5 am in 1926. The two horses and cow survived but the chickens didn’t. The fire was caused by a kerosene brooder.

Isaac married Anna Marie Vogt in 1902. Anna was born in Port Ludlow to Norwegian immigrants. Isaac and Anna had three children: Albert in 1903, William in 1908 and Iola in 1910. Anna and the children all died in an epidemic and are buried in the Forest Hill Cemetery. Isaac had lost his whole family.

Ida Maria Alexandra Henriksdr Silander was born on May 6, 1880 in Klockarbacken, Malax, Finland - just a little over a mile from Isaac’s family farm - and sailed into New York from Liverpool on the RMS Baltic in 1912 to work as a housekeeper for Isaac. Ida was one of 11 children. Isaac and Ida fell in love and married on August 15, 1916.

They had three boys: Helmer in 1917, Walter in 1919 and Leonard in 1922.

Isaac worked at the lumber mills in Port Gamble and Port Ludlow on the logging crew and as a longshoreman. When logging the Swansonville hill, the workers had to take the crosscut saws, sledge hammers and wedges and pack them off to the woods, walking a mile or two. They put in a full day with 7-foot crosscut saws. They made $2 a day, and had to walk to work - and walk back home.

He also started a chicken ranch, building many houses for their “thousands” of chickens. It was a lot of work for everyone with all the cleaning, tending, gathering, marketing, etc. In addition to their school work, the boys had to clean eggs at night and candle them. They spent their summer vacations working on the chicken houses, building fences and gardening.

The Klockers’s chicken ranch provided chickens and eggs for the workers at the Port Ludlow Mill and for the Port Ludlow store. The boys loaded wheelbarrows with eggs and pushed them down to the store in Port Ludlow. Oldest son Helmer was issued a provisional driver’s license when under legal driving age so they could get the eggs to market in a more efficient way. Customers even came from Seattle to buy the chickens. One customer was miscounting the chickens in his favor while putting them in the gunny sack. Leonard quietly told his mother that fact, and she said, “Shhhh,” afraid of losing the sale.

Ida was a strong woman and hard worker with a very kind heart. She played guitar with an all-female band for church gatherings while in Finland and brought her songbooks with her, although she had little free time to use them. She spoke broken English and was sometimes hard to understand by her grandkids, but she always offered them a lunch with dessert on their visits, with love. She spent her time cooking, gardening, running the household and chicken ranch, and tending the other animals. Ida enjoyed crocheting as was evident by her doilies and table coverings throughout her home.

Since there was so much work to be done at the homestead, Ida’s older sister, Ella Silander, moved out from Rockford, Illinois to live with them and help lighten the load.

When the oldest, Helmer, started school in Port Ludlow, he was sent home the first day because he spoke only Swedish. He ended up going back to school and the boys did all learn English. They walked a mile and a half downhill to school in Port Ludlow and, of course, uphill coming home on a dirt, and sometimes muddy, road from 1st through 8th grade. When in high school, they were bused to Chimacum High School, but still had to walk down to the store in Port Ludlow to catch the bus.

Going to the doctor when one of the boys was sick in the early times was an all-day event by horse and buggy to Port Townsend, leaving early in the morning and getting back at night. The first car in Swansonville was in 1926, owned by Tom and Betsy Johnson, whose farm bordered the Klockers’s farm, and it was a sight for all to see when that car came into the driveway for the first time!

When the boys were older, Port Ludlow held many attractions. There was a big store, post office, ballpark, movie theatre, hardware store and a butcher shop. Job opportunities included the Port Ludlow Mill, Mats Mats Rock Quarry and the ferries. The ferries went from Port Ludlow to Edmonds and Ballard, and the boys went shopping with Ida in Seattle and Edmonds occasionally.

Isaac died of cancer in 1930. It was a tough life for Ida and the boys. Ida’s sister, Ella, lived with them for the rest of her life and died at age 91 in 1949.

The Finnish Klockers boys from Swansonville grew into honest, hardworking, gentle, kind, well-respected - and very handsome - men.

About The Klocker Boys

Oldest son Helmer was a huge help to his mother after Isaac died. He graduated from Chimacum High School in 1936, then served in WWII with the U.S. Army in Japan. He worked in civil service on Indian Island and at Bangor, and in later years, in real estate for Hadlock Realty. He loved bowling, baseball and fishing. It was an exciting day when he got a near-perfect score while bowling in his men’s league! He was a great older brother to Walt and Len.

Helmer married Ada Thoren from Swansonville in 1950 and they lived in Port Ludlow. They had a daughter, Nancy, who married Mark Johnson from Nordland in 1972. Mark and Nancy have six children and 24 grandchildren and live in Nordland, Washington.

Helmer died on December 8th, 2006 at age 89. His wife, Ada, preceded him in death in 2003.

Walt holds his beloved baseball glove, pictured with Lyle and Alan

Walt taught the Port Ludlow kids how to play baseball and they adored him. It was also told that all the girls in the area had a crush on him! He graduated from Chimacum High School in 1939 and then attended the Carl Mayes Baseball School in Portland, Oregon. During WWII, Walt served in the South Pacific in the US Navy, attached to the Admiral’s Staff as a Radioman – 2nd Class on two aircraft carriers. Walt loved baseball and fishing. He won first place in the Port Townsend Salmon Club Derby in 1980 with a 29 lb. 3 oz. catch just 10 minutes before the end of the derby, topping the high catch by 3 oz. He worked for Crown Zellerbach for 32 years and became the number two Journeyman Millwright before retiring in 1984.

Walt looked forward to attending the Chimacum High School Alumni Dinner each year and got his 80-year certificate in 2017.

Walt married Leona Fultz (who lived across Werner Road from the Klockers’s ranch) in 1949. Walt quit the Mats Mats Rock Quarry in 1952 when he found employment at the Crown Zellerbach paper mill in Port Townsend. They moved from their house in Swansonville in 1953 with their two daughters, Janet, age 3, and Karen, age 1, to Port Townsend. Son Walter Brandon was born in 1958.

Janet married Chet Boutilier from Houlton, Maine in 1970. They live in Port Townsend and have 4 children, 10 grandchildren and 1 great granddaughter.

Karen lives in Port Townsend with her cat, Prudy.

Walter Brandon married Jeanne Rogers from Port Angeles, Washington in 1982. They live in Moses Lake, Washington and have two children.

Walt died on February 10, 2018 at the age of 98. His wife, Leona, preceded him in death in 2012.

Leonard “Len” Klocker holds his favorite possession, a guitar. Pictured with Floyd Thoren (left).

Leonard loved baseball, singing western tunes and playing his guitar. He had the opportunity to perform with Tex Ritter at the Spokane Army Airfield (APAAF) when he was 22 and it was something he loved to share with visitors throughout his life. He joined the U.S. Army on October 26, 1942 and served as a cook, achieving Head Chef, before becoming a Medic. After the service, he worked at the munitions facility on Indian Island, Washington. Len was the family historian and luckily, captioned many of his photos of life in Swansonville. He also loved to tell the stories of earlier years.

Len lived at the family homestead in Swansonville until moving into Life Care Center in Port Townsend in 2012. He entertained the residents there with his singing and guitar-playing skills. He was selected to be the Life Care Center King for the Rhododendron Parade in May 2013 and got to cruise through uptown and downtown Port Townsend for the last time - with a crown on his head while smiling and waving to his fans. Len died on October 8, 2013 at the age of 91.