In 1906, Annie Edmunds Wiestling of Seattle, WA acquired the East half of Section 26, Township 6 North, Range 28 East, in the Horse Heaven Hills of Benton County, Washington. With her husband, Frank Wiestling, she managed the land from their home in Seattle. The majority of the time, their half section was leased to the Coffin Sheep Company, which owned all of the surrounding land.
Following their deaths, the land passed to their children, Annette Wiestling Platt, Francesca Wiestling Anderson, and Dorothy Wiestling Wattleworth. By 1951, only Annette Platt maintained interest in keeping the land, and subsequently bought her sisters' shares of the property. She continued a close relationship with the Stanley H. Coffin, both business and personal, throughout his life, and continued the relationship with his son, Stanley H. Coffin II, while managing the land from her homes in Seattle and, later, Portland.
The correspondence in the collection shows that Annette Platt was always considering selling the land, looking for prospective buyers and keeping up to date on the plans to irrigate the Horse Heaven Hills, which would drastically increase the land's value. Eventually she found a buyer through the help of Stanley Coffin II, and sold the land in 1976.
This collection contains items pertaining to a 320-acre parcel of land in the Horse Heaven Hills region of Benton County, WA. From 1906 to 1975, the property was owned by members of the Wiestling family: Annie Edmunds Wiestling, Annette Wiestling Platt, Francesca Wiestling Anderson, and Dorothy Wiestling Wattleworth. It contains land deeds, grazing leases, maps, and correspondence between family members and other parties regarding the sale of the property.
This collection is arranged in a single series.
This collection is open and available for research use.
Copyright restrictions may apply.
[Item Description] Wiestling Family Papers, 1906-1976
Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections, Washington State University Libraries, Pullman, WA.
Elaine Johnson, great granddaughter of Annie Edmunds Wiestling, and granddaughter of Annette Wiestling Platt, donated this collection to the Washington State University Libraries in 2017 (MS.2017.17).
James Feller processed this collection in 2017.
This collection is indexed under the following headings in the online catalog. Researchers desiring materials about related topics, persons, or places should search the catalog using these headings.