Archives West Finding Aid

Charles Willoughby was born in New London, Connecticut in 1832. He first went to sea as a boy, and by the age of twenty-one took charge of a vessel traveling to ports on the Pacific Coast. He came to Puget Sound in the early 1860s, and worked as a captain in the service of the Coast Survey until 1865. In 1877, he was named the Indian Agent at the Neah Bay reservation. During his time at Neah Bay, charges were filed against him that called into question his administration of agency affairs, but these were later dismissed in his favor. He then assumed the same position of agent at the Quinault reservation. Charles died in 1888.

Charles and Sarah Cheney Willoughby were married in Port Townsend in October 1865. Together they had five children: Adeline, Oliver, John, Joseph, and Frederick. Willoughby was a widower when he met Sarah, and also had a son, Charles, from his first marriage. Sarah was born in Massachusetts on May 27, 1841, to parents John Lorenzo and Cynthia Cram Cheney. After graduating from Lowell High School and the Maplewood Institute in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, she traveled on Asa Mercer’s first expedition to Washington Territory in 1864 at the age of twenty-two. She intended to teach art at the University of Washington; however, there were very few students and she soon left the university to teach in Port Townsend. She maintained her interest in the arts throughout her life, and often sketched scenes and transcribed Native American legends while her family lived on the reservations. Following Charles’ death in 1888, Sarah returned to Port Townsend, where she died on November 7, 1913.