March is Women’s History Month. The theme this year is “Providing Healing, Promoting Hope,” both a tribute to the ceaseless work of caregivers and frontline workers during this ongoing pandemic and also a recognition of the thousands of ways that women of all cultures have provided both healing and hope throughout history.

While women of the west end may not be nationally known, there are many who have made their mark as early pioneers and businesswomen in an environment of tough loggers and manly men. They may have even worn the pants in the family before women were “allowed” to wear pants.

Several local women have been acknowledged for their significance to the history of the west end, recognition has been by way of a road sign. For as long as I can remember when making a trip down 101 heading for Port Angeles I have passed by Mary Clark Road, located just before Sappho and the turn off to Clallam Bay. Who was Mary Clark and why was this road named after her?

Johann Schutz was born in Bavaria Germany in 1847, he was decorated for bravery in the Franco-Prussian war of 1870-71 and immigrated to the United States around 1873 where he made his home in Minneapolis. There he met another German immigrant Johanna Ness and they were married. After a few years in Minnesota, the couple moved to Seattle and there Mary Clark began her life as Mary Schutz, on February 29, 1892.

In November of 1892, the Schutz family, Johann & Johanna their children Peter, John, Louise and eight-month-old Mary left Seattle for the West End of Clallam County. Since there was no road from Port Angeles at that time they traveled aboard the steamer Garland and after arriving at Pysht set out over the mountain on horseback and covered wagon to their homestead on the Beaver flat near Sappho. The Schutz’s added two more children to their family after settling in at Sappho; Alex, and Sophia.

On July 29, 1914, Mary Schutz married James Clark the son of another west end pioneer family. They had one daughter Margaret, born in 1917. Together they started a dairy business on the Quillayute Prairie and operated it until 1941 when the United States government purchased their property to build the Quillayute airfield during WWII. After the purchase, the Clarks moved back to the Schutz homestead at Sappho. Mary’s father passed away in 1933 and her mother in 1943. During this time Mr. Clark also served as a Clallam County Commissioner.

In 1952 James Clark died after an extended illness. Marilyn Cook, of Forks, remembers her grandmother, Mary Clark, as a remarkable person, always working. Even after the death of her grandfather Cook remembers her grandmother as a woman who chased the cows and milked them, delivered the milk to the creamery, put in the hay crop and took in boarders. Cook said, “She was tough, she took care of herself.” Cook also remembers going with her grandmother to pick cones and peel cascara bark as a way to earn extra money.

Mary Clark died July 16, 1962, her obituary says that she liked to hunt and fish and tend her flower garden and had lived on her farm until her recent illness.

Cook says she is not sure how or when Mary Clark Road got its name. The old homestead site sits a few miles up at the big curve in the road, a few daffodils mark what once was Clark’s front walk.

Fifteen years before Mary Schutz Clark arrived in Clallam County one-year-old Mina Smith, her parents Andrew Jackson Smith and Mary Jane Stewart Smith and seven siblings arrived at Neah Bay, the year was 1877. The road which bears her name is located off the Quillayute Road, at the corner is the Quillayute Prairie Cemetery, Smith and several of her children are laid to rest in this little country graveyard. Mina Smith Road wanders five miles up the Dickey River near Smith’s former homestead.

In 1879 the Smith family moved from Neah Bay to the Quillayute Prairie. Smith’s father paid a local Quileute man $8 to paddle the family and all their belongings to LaPush. From the reservation, they went to the place later to be called Mora at the mouth of the Dickey River and then followed a trail that started at James Lake and ended at the west end of the Quillayute Prairie. Smith’s father had prepared a small log house for his family and upon their arrival, they set about planting a garden and orchard. Smith was the yarn spinner, her older sisters the cloth, clothes and bedding makers and her brothers cut wood, built things, and helped with the farming.

By 1899 Smith found herself waiting for her suiter to return from the Alaska goldfields. When it became obvious he was not coming back the twenty-three-year-old was getting past her prime and so in 1900 she met and married Oren Smith a surveyor for the geodetic survey.

Smith had already filed her own homestead claim at the junction of the East and West Dickey River. The Smiths built a home and proceeded to raise a family. Twelve years and five children later Mr. Smith decided he wanted to go to Alberta, Mrs. Smith had family nearby and did not want to move her children to an unknown life. Mr. Smith took the horses and the wagon and left.

Smith and her children survived, by hunting elk and deer. They sold the sheep’s wool and cream and butter. Smith built a larger house and one of the rooms served as a school for her children. The County supplied a teacher and wood to heat the rooms.

In 1920 Smith met and married a veteran of WWI, an Italian named Gusseppi Romeo. Romeo was a city guy and although he tried, the country life just wasn’t for him. The union ended in divorce and Romeo left but Smith was expecting a baby, and on January 18, 1921, Stewart Francis Romeo was born.

Eleven days later Smith went to visit friends, late that afternoon the wind started to pick up, she thought she should get home to her newborn, just as the biggest windstorm to ever hit the West End began. Abandoning her horse she ran for her life as trees fell all around, arriving back at her home around midnight. A few days later her friend Sextus Ward rode his horse to check on her. The horse had to jump many logs to make the trip, upon his arrival Ward said “Nika kewitanwiksiah memaloose nika”, meaning my horse almost killed me.

Smith’s life included many dangers but it also included music, parties, and dances.

In the days before public assistance and welfare, Smith spent many years of her life as a single mother, breadwinner and teacher carving out a life for her and her children in an environment that was amazingly difficult. The life that one of her children the late Dorothy Smith Klahn recounts in her book called Mamas Dickey River Homestead. Quoting from Klahn’s book “She died as she lived, with a great deal of courage, determination and independence.”

Mina Smith Romeo died December 25, 1949, and from her place of rest in the Quillayute Prairie Cemetery she watches over the road which bears her name.