Archives West Finding Aid

The Bucklin family's history in the state of Washington begins in 1859. The family papers are concerned principally with three men, Nathan Bucklin, his son Robert Eben Bucklin, and his grandson Robert Willis Bucklin. Other family members, including brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, in-laws, and distant relatives, are all mentioned in letters, manuscripts, or diaries.

Nathan Bucklin, who was born in Warren, Maine, in 1839, came to Kitsap County, Washington Territory, in 1859. He settled in Seabeck W.T., and there supervised a lumber mill. In 1867, he married Marian Campbell. They had three daughters, Annie, born 7 May 1868; Amy, born 4 May 1872; and Marian, born 17 January 1874. Marian Campbell Bucklin died at Port Madison, W.T., in 1874.

In early 1877 Nathan Bucklin married again. His second wife, Mary Alice Babbitt, had journeyed to San Francisco from New Jersey, to live with relatives. There she learned of a widower, Nathan Bucklin, who needed a nanny to care for his young motherless daughters on Puget Sound. This information led to the eventual marriage of Bucklin and Miss Babbitt. They were the parents of six children: Robert Eben, born 3 December 1878; Frances Lydia, born 6 August 1881; Alice, born May 1885; Clara, born 10 January 1887; Henrietta, born 3 December 1889; and Emma Louise, born 18 November 1892.

Robert Eben Bucklin grew up in Port Madison, where his father was superintendent of local lumber mills. He first pursued his secondary education at Vashon College, in the town of Quartermaster, Wash., and then in the college preparatory program at the Washington Agricultural College, where he enrolled in 1896. Bucklin entered the college-level curriculum in the fall of 1897. He was one of the WAC students who lost all personal possessions in the fire that engulfed Ferry Hall in November 1897.

When the Spanish-American War began in the spring of 1898, R.E. Bucklin and many friends enlisted in Company "K" of the First Washington Volunteers. Soon he was shipped to the Philippines, where he was wounded in the left thigh by the gunshot of an insurgent. He was then sent to the Presidio, in San Francisco, where he convalesced for the next year at the U.S. General Hospital. Bucklin was thereafter afflicted with pain and disability from the gunshot wound which had shattered his femur, leaving shell fragments in his thigh. He underwent surgical procedures for the next thirty-five years in attempts to relieve the pain.

R.E. Bucklin returned to Bainbridge Island in 1900. In the next year, he married, Hattie E. Peak. They had five sons: Robert Willis, born 8 April 1902; Nathan Erwin, born 22 March 1905; Ronald Eben, born 15 March 1909; Curtis Vann, born 2 May 1912; and Lincoln Brice, born 5 January 1918.

Bucklin served Kitsap County as Deputy Assessor and later as Deputy Auditor. He was Mayor of Port Orchard in 1909 and 1910. Bucklin represented the county in the Washington State Legislature during the 1915 session. In the 1920s, he was a County Commissioner. He was appointed superintendent of the Washington Veterans' Home, in Retsil, in July 1941. In late May 1942, he suffered a ruptured appendix, from which he died.

Robert Willis Bucklin, the eldest son of R.E. and Hattie Bucklin, attended Port Orchard and Bainbridge Island public schools. He received his high school diploma in 1920 from Winslow High School. Bucklin graduated from the State College of Washington in 1925 with a degree in English and Journalism.

R.W. Bucklin first worked for a number of newspapers in Idaho and Washington. From 1935 to 1942 he was assistant secretary and manager of the Industrial Division of the Spokane Chamber of Commerce. He joined the Aluminum Company of America (ALCOA) in June 1942 as personnel manager for the new Trentwood sheet rolling mill at Spokane. He transferred to ALCOA's northwest sales district office in Seattle during 1946. Beginning in 1952, Bucklin became Northwest Public Relations Director for ALCOA, in Vancouver, Washington. Except for a few years in the early 1950s, in which he consulted for the U.S. Air Force on its radar defense systems, Bucklin remained with ALCOA until he retired in 1967. From 1968 to 1973 he was an account executive with Jay Rockey Public Relations, Inc., in Seattle.

While attending WSC, Bucklin was a member of Theta Chi fraternity, and Sigma Delta Chi and Phi Kappa Phi honoraries. He was also editor of the Evergreen in 1924, president of the Junior Class, and Captain in the ROTC. Bucklin was president of the WSU Alumni Association during 1959-60.