Espy Family of Oysterville

    Robert Hamilton Espy

(1826-1918)

For generations before the pioneer settlers arrived, Chinook Indians gathered oysters in this part of Willapa Bay and camped in the area that is now Oysterville. They called it "tsako-te-hahsh-eetl" which, like many Indian words, had two meanings: "place of the red-topped grass" and "home of the yellowhammer." (Yellowhammer is the local name for the red-shafted flicker, a woodpecker common to this region.)

The first white settlers here were Robert Hamilton Espy and Isaac Alonzo Clark. They had agreed on a rendezvous with Chief Klickeas who had told Espy of nearby tide lands covered with oysters. On April 20, 1854, as they paddled north from the head of the bay, they became engulfed by a heavy fog. Klickeas, having spotted them before the fog rolled in, guided them ashore by rhythmically pounding on a hollow log. The Indian Chief had not exaggerated; reef upon reef of tiny native oysters grew on the shallow bay bottom. Espy and Clark marketed the bivalves in gold-rich, oyster-hungry San Francisco. A peach basket filled with oysters brought a dollar in gold on delivery to a schooner anchored on the tide flats in front of town. That same basket brought $10 on arrival in San Francisco, and epicures in oyster bars and seafood restaurants there would pay a silver dollar for one oyster - an oyster smaller than the dollar!  - source + more of the story

R.H. Espy Wedding Photo

R.H. Espy Family, 1895.  R.H. Espy co-founded the village/town of Oysterville, Washington.  For more very interesting history of the family, click here.

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This looks like a different home.  Is it?

When I asked my cousin Beverly (Espy) Dayries if she had discovered anything about the Espys of Oysterville, she e-mailed this:

Many, many years ago I checked the book Oysterville out of our library and read it beginning to end. It is a very interesting, informative, and enjoyable book. I'm almost sure that Willard Espy gives ancestry background in the book and names the common ancestor. By that I mean he names an ancestor our line goes back to. I think that what happened is some of the children of our Espy ancestor who came to America split up, like one brother heading north and another south. The book is very interesting in that the brother who headed north - either he or a descendant went on the Oregon Trail, winding up in Oysterville. Our ancestor is the one who came south. I recall that I felt like when you read Oysterville, you learned much of the history of America and that our Espy ancestors represented much of our country's background. I think the book even told of some Espys who moved to Mexico after the War Between the States because they did not want to take The Oath when the War ended. If you like such reading you might want to see if you can find the book on the Internet or the library. Willard Espy's Oysterville makes for very good reading, in my opinion.    

To order a copy, click here.

The Espy Lineage is Secure

(very interesting article)

Author/historian Sydney Stevens says, “I often feel that the Espy family and Oysterville are so inter-related it is hard to know which has had the greatest influence upon the other.”

Click here for more on Robert Hamilton Espy at Find A Grave.

For a present-day walking tour of Oysterville, WA, click here.

Click here to read about Oyster Days in Headland, Alabama.