Cayton's weekly. [volume] (Seattle, Wash.) 1916-1921, 1920-02-14
THE PASSING THRONG.

While Seattle has great many more OF
less important female personages, yet, to my
mind, none Of them have reached that pin
acle of Importance as did Mrs. Frank Nc
Dermott, who passed to the great beyond
last Saturday. I have often heard it said
of men, who attained great prominence in the
affairs Of the country in which they lived
he was man among men," but Of Mrs.
McDermott it can be truly said, she was a
woman, not only among women, but woman
among men. In the business world she reach
ed the zenith not by leaps and bounds, but
step by step. When I first came to Seattle,
some thirty years ago, Mrs. McDermott, who
was then Mrs. Nordhoff, in conjunction with
her husband was operating a baby Bon
Marche in Belltown, Seattle suburb, and
they always had Saturday Sales and multiple
ed hundreds Of persons with limited means
would walk miles to get to those sales, and
I followed the crowd I would stand and
watch Mrs. Nordhoff serve her customers,
and I said to myself, that woman will make
a fortune for herself and husband " and she
certainly did. It gave me much pain to read
of her seemingly untimely death, not that
was so well acquainted with her. but because
/ had seen the establishment, in which her
whole soul seemed to be wrapped, grow from
an almost infnitismal nothing to the most
gigantic dry goods emporium in the West.
From business stand point, I know her to
have been a jewel not only to her husband,
but to Greater Seattle, and, I repeat, it gave
me much pain to hear of her Demise In the
early history Of the Bon Marche it was the
only establishment that gave employment to
many colored persons and that too may have
had something to do with my sympathies for
her. While the later day Bon Marche does
not empty single colored person, so far as
l know, yet do not believe it was the wish
of Mrs. McDermott. Her remains were laid
to rest last Tuesday and Seattle halted for
a spell to drop a tear Of regret at her bier.
The meeting of the King County Colored
Republican Club, must have been special
"Special' one as some unusual things came
before it. The first very remarkable thing to
be acted upon by the Club not in keeping
with the call, was to name committee to in
vestigate the refusal of the school board to
appoint a young colored lady to position
in the public schools. However, worthy the
cause, it was in the right church, but the
wrong pew The committee was finally in
structed to act in conjunction with the Seat
tie Branch Of the National Association for
the Advancement Of Colored People, pro.
viding it decided to look into the matter and
if meritorious espouse her cause. Prior to the
conclusion Of the meeting, P. S. Barnett rose
to a question Of person privilege and appeal
ed to the members Of the Club to financially
assist the brass band, with which he is con-
nected, and in order to kill two birds with
one stone, he appealed to the members and
their friends to subscribe for local weak
ly" paper, and the band and the paper would
share the spoils Which Of the two most need
ed the hoped for contribution, he did not
say, and I therefore surmise it was case
of 81 tickle you and you tickle me- Moth
ing politically, however, was accomplished.
I said to you last week that l had reached
and passed my sixty-frst mile stone-way on
the shady side Of life-and since that time I
have occasionally thought Of myself and like
wise my fellowman. Though loaded to the