McMicken family photograph collection, 1845-1924

William McMicken was born in Youngstown, New York in 1827 and learned engineering from his father's firm. He moved to Wisconsin and then to Minnesota. When the Civil War started, he joined the army, and was commissioned first lieutenant in Company B of the Tenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry, which fought against the Sioux in 1862. He subsequently was assigned to the Department of Tennessee, the Sixteenth Army Corps. After the war he returned to Minnesota and was appointed assessor of internal revenue of the state's First Congressional district. He moved to the Puget Sound region in 1871 for health reasons and was eventually appointed the surveyor general for Washington Territory. A distinguished Mason, he was accorded high Masonic Honors at his funeral in 1899.

William McMicken married Rowena Ostrander. The 1878 wedding of their son, Herbert McMicken to Helen Parker linked together the four families represented in this collection: the McMickens, the Parkers, the Ostranders, and the Hays. Herbert was related to the Ostranders through his mother, Rowena. Helen was related to the Hays family though her mother, Jerusha Jane. The families resided in the area of Washington Territory that later became Olympia, Washington.