William John Getty, Jr. was born in Forest Home Township, Antrim County, on July 8, 1873. His early life is well described in the letter he wrote to Myrtle Hall, shown on the following page. After high school he studied law and was admitted to the bar in 1894.

At the age of 24, on May 20, 1898, he enlisted as a private in Co. B of the 34th Michigan Infantry. He is described in his military record as being 5' 10" tall, of light complexion, with blue eyes and light hair. He served for a short time in the Spanish American War in Cuba, as a member of the military band, mustering out December 9, 1898.

After taking up the ministry, he wrote his family a letter from Cross Village, Michigan, dated March 15, 1900. He had been to Bellaire and Central Lake, and praised his new horse, Babe. He said, "Lancaster's place is right where the old school house stood, where the Grange met. From the window I can see the cemetery and the evergreen tree by our little brother's grave." He was enthusiastic about having assisted at the morning and evening services. "I visited at Emmy's too, and found her just getting a little better from quite a spell of sickness. Monday I left there about 4 o'clock and drove out to Lancaster's." (Note  he mentioned his little bro­ther's grave. Apparently William and Addie had a baby who died in infancy. Also, this is the only mention of Emeline I have found.)

During the latter part of 1900 Will married Lizzie Wolford, who was a teacher on an Indian Reservation. Around 1905 they adopted a little girl who had been abandoned by her mother. They named her Louise Irene. In a letter written October 13, 1905, Will said, "Baby Louise has gotten a ring from George. When she came her hair was two or three inches long, black as midnight. It is now dark brown and getting lighter. Her eyes are a cross between brown and blue. Her features are almost perfect; she shows Irish in her looks."

One of Will's first missions as an Episcopalian priest was in Black Hills, Sturgis, South Dakota. In 1908 he was pastor of the M. E. Church at Castle Rock, Washington. On May 24, 1908, he wrote to his brother George, who was in the timber business near Kalkaska, and urged him to move to Washington. On May 18, 1909, he wrote from Puyallup, Washington. He urged Mama to sellout and move to Washington, where they "have no winters." He planned to buy a lot in Tacoma, for "soon things will start to progress, and I will buy more lots. They should double in value during the next five years. They will need factory sites; Tacoma and Seattle will soon be one town."

Sometime later that same year, George and his family moved to Washington. He had had several job offers and was playing in a band. He was hired as a bookkeeper for the Orillia Lumber Co. at Orillia, Washington. Times looked very promising, but not for long.

The following letter from William to his cousin, describes very well the family's early days in Northern Michigan.

Seattle, Washington May 17th., 1947

Mrs. Myrtle Getty Hall Phoenix, Arizona

Dear Cousin:

I have just received in today's mail, your letter to my sister Elizabeth, in Kalkaska, Michigan. Since she almost never writes to anyone, and considers me her last surviving relative, it is apparently for me to write a much belated reply to your letter. I am the second son, William John Junior. An elder brother George Baird (my mother's maiden name), who passed on some nine years ago, leaving a son Clarence, by a first wife, and a son and three daugh­ters by a second marriage, his widow being Alice a Scotch girl he married, much younger than himself, and who is now a shoe saleslady in the People's Store in Tacoma.

I think that George and my elder sister Irene both knew your father and Uncle Charles in Michigan before they came to the West; but I never knew them except from stories of them told by Irene. So far as I was concerned, I knew Uncle George and Uncle James, and Alex was killed in the Civil War, I believe.

Following that war my father moved up into the wilds of Northern Michigan and founded there Antrim County, named for the county in Ireland from which the whole family came originally. There, on a 160 acre homestead, he and my mother cut down enough timber to build them a log cabin containing one large room below and two or three rooms separated by cloth partitions on a second floor, there being a large kitchen stove with a high oven, the pipe of which ran up thru a hole about three feet square, and on to a three foot chimney pipe, thru a shake roof.

There the family consisting of three boys and three girls were born, no physician or midwife ever being near enough to attend our mother, the saintliest woman that ever came into this miserable world, God rest her soul.

I recall that it was my daily habit to fall thru the three foot hole, (which was enlarged a little every time the boards caught fire from the pipe becoming too red hot) onto the high oven top and from thence to the floor, and if the cellar door happened to be open, on down to the dirt floor of the full size cellar, and not infrequently being caught by one of the hired men before my skull would be fractured by too violent contact with the sharp edge of the pork barrel from which he might be fishing forth a slab of salt pork or corned beef.

Schooling consisted in some times as much as a three month term usually starting about the middle of May and ending as soon as there were spuds or cabbages or other vegetables which required our help to harvest. But, as soon as we were old enough to enter a graded school, my Dad traded the homestead lock stock and barrel for lumber in Kalkaska, much to the grief of my blessed mother, and we all moved there, purchasing a commodious house from a family of Abbots who had lived there a number of years, buying all new furniture except what the Abbots would sell with the house, and eventually all graduating from the high school, which was, for those early times (the 1880s) a very excellent school indeed.

Dad in a couple of years purchased a large livery stable, of which George took active management, and later becoming countrywide salesman for a company that manufactured hard wood kitchen implements, from a four foot chopping bowl down to a clothes pin. Irene began teaching when she was 15 and gave the rest of her life to educational work, finally ending up as County School Commissioner, and being one of the most beloved Grand Worthy Matrons of the Eastern Star.

I studied law as soon as I got out of high school, was admitted to the bar when I was six months nearer to 21 than 20, and when the Spanish War broke out, enlisted in Co. B of the 6th Michigan Infantry, which was afterward renumbered the 34th regiment (otherwise I would have served in the same company and regiment that my father was in, in the Civil War). Elizabeth never wanted to do anything except breed and drive horses of which Dad always had a pre­tentious string. Frances graduated from the Boston Conservatory and then taught piano and violin, and toured the United States with a ladies orchestra finally becoming Deputy Judge of Probate in Houghton County (Upper Peninsula in which office she continued to serve until she died last January, of a case of pernicious anemia.

I have heard several times of a family of Gettys in Southern California, but never had occasion to go there, and because they were said to have struck it rich in the oil fields, never wrote for fear they would think I was trying to get a hand out. But since I have never known anyone who spelled the name just that way who did not come originally from Antrim County, Ireland, I just take it for granted they must be related, however distantly.

It might interest you to know that though he often tried, father was never able to ascertain whether any of his father's brothers came to America, or what became of them. In the summer of 1916 I was serving for three months a parish (Episcopal) in Ketchikan, Alaska, during the vacation of the rector. One morning following early communion, I noticed two tourist ladies waiting for me to come down. One of them said, "My name is Doctor Quay of Amsterdam, New York. I noticed your name on the bulletin and my maiden name having been Getty, I wondered if we might be related!" I replied that if her forbears came from County Antrim in Ireland, we probably were. She said her father's uncle came first to New York, then moved to Pennsylvania and founded the town of Gettysburg, which would probably never have been heard of but for the accident of a great battle of the war between the North and South having been fought there.

I don't know just WHY I became a clergyman, except that my S.S. teachers had always insisted that I must give my life to that work. But one day on guard just out of Santiago Cuba, the sun pouring down out of clear sky, and the temperature running around 110 or 120, I suddenly decided I would be happier to follow their advice, knelt down and told God that if that was what He wanted, I would do it. Nothing supernatural just a quiet feeling of peace, and as soon as I got tack to home and was well enough to do anything, I did that.

I broke my father's heart, because he had sacrificed a great deal to put me thru the course, but after I told him, silence for at least ten minutes, then "Well, Bill, if you're going to be a preacher, I want you to be a good one". So he bought me a horse and cutter and sent me on my way to my first "charge" of seven preaching stations, living in an Indian village in which the girl I married in a year happened to be one of two school teachers. She died in about ten years leaving me with a seven year old daughter to whom I had to be both Dad and Mother until she married. She lives here in Seattle and is wife of the Washington State Transportation Director.

Well, please forgive so LONG a letter. Sorry I do not know the address you want but were I in your place I would write the Chief of Police at Long Beach and obtain the initials and their address and write direct to them.

If 'I can be of any possible service, will be glad to, and if you are in or near Seattle, it will be such a great pleasure to have you visit me. I am just finishing 14 years of service as State Chaplain of the Veterans of Foreign Wars and all the members call me "Bill" so you would have no trouble finding me. My present address is 1020 Frye Hotel, Seattle, Wash.

With kindest regards and best wishes, Sincerely yours,

(signed) Rev. W. J. Getty

 

After a few years Will and Lizzie's marriage began to turn sour. Will wrote to his mother on September 15, 1912; Lizzie had left him and had rented a large house, however the child, Louise, stayed with Will. During 1912 and 1913, Will wrote his mother and sisters dozens of letters describing the day to day proceedings in the divorce trial.

George left his position as bookkeeper at the lumber company, and for one reason or another he never stayed with anyone job too long. Money was short so he and his family often moved in with Will.

Sometime before 1920, Will married a lady named Bertha. Things went along fine for a couple years, but by October 31, 1922, Bertha had left Will.

After Mama died in 1924, the letters from Will and George to their sisters in Michigan became few and far between. Occasionally they wrote to tell how hard up they were and to ask for a small loan. Strangely enough, for two such talented people, Will and George seemingly were always plagued with hard luck.

In later years, while living in Washington State, Will became the first National Chaplain of the V.F.W. According to records in the Diocese, Will was ordained deacon in 1911 and priest of the Episcopal Church in Puyallup, Washington, in 1912, both by the Rt. Rev. Frederic William Keator, Bishop of the Diocese of Olympia. Father Getty served Christ Church, Puyallup; St. Paul's in Port Townsend; St. Luke's in Seattle; and was locumtemens for a time after his retirement at Trinity Church, Seattle. The Rev. William J. Getty retired as a priest of the Diocese of Olympia to the Veterans' Home in Retsil before being transferred to the Veterans' Hospital at American Lake near Tacoma, Washington, where he died March 7, 1955, at the age of 82. The services were held at St. Mary's Episcopal Church, Tacoma, March 10, 1955. His daughter, Louise Revelle, lived in Tumwater, Washington. She died in January 1981.