Howard Edward Cleveland

Born: 12 Mar 1897 in Centralia, WA

Died: 7 May 1956 in Issaquah, WA

Howard was the third child of Milton Denzil Cleaveland and Amelia Alvina Leston. At some point the spelling was changed, so Howard and his two elder siblings, Edith and George Emmett, spelled their surname Cleveland, instead of Cleaveland. Howard was born in Centralia, WA, and dropped out of school during or after fifth grade and went to work as a cook for a nearby lumber company.

Not much is known about his activities over the next ten years. The next photo I have that gives a clue pictures him at Camp Lewis. Because Camp Lewis was constructed over 90 days beginning 5 July 1917, and abandoned shortly after the war ended on 18 November 1918, then the picture had to be taken between those dates, making Howard about 20 at the time. It is known that he did not see active duty, he played pitcher on the Camp Lewis baseball team, he met Grace while playing a ball game in Issaquah, and they were married on 25 October 1920.

In June, 1926, Howard got a passport (the picture on the left is from his passport) and headed to the Philippines to work in a lumber mill there. He returned on 09 October 1926. Steve, his first grandson, recalls "Papa" telling him about it.

"The story I remember about him going to the Philippine Islands is that he was working for the lumber company. They went over to harvest teak...which I don't think was just cut and hauled out. I think that the preferred logs were those that had been aging at the bottom of ponds for some time. Apparently, as teak sits under those conditions, it becomes more dense and the oils permeate the wood better. Though I have no idea where I came by that info, or if it is true. But the story about Papa was that he got this job to go over and harvest the wood. The job didn't pay a lot, but he did get transportation over and back, for himself and all his gear, plus some money. As the time to head home approached, he built packing crates for all his gear out of massive teak planks. I have this mental image of crates that are 4x4x8 feet and might have a little space in the center to pack stuff. The story was that he shipped back enough teak, as packing crates, to keep him supplied with woodworking material for years, and made far more money from the crates than from his wages."

Howard learned carpentry, perhaps at Camp Lewis or just taught himself, and built most of the many houses that he and Grace raised their two childen in. The family migrated back and forth between the Seattle area and Crescent City, CA,where Howard was the Yard Boss for the Hobbs Wall Lumber Company, depending on the availability of work.

Howard was an avid fisherman, particularly enjoyed fly-fishing, and often went on extended fishing trips with a home-made smoker and returned with lots of smoked fish.