Fredrick Lewis Blumberg

Fredrick L Blumberg was the auditor of Skagit county, Washington, and one of the leading citizens of Mt. Vernon. He was a first-class citizen in every way and was representative of the intelligence, responsibility and progressiveness of the great state of Washington.

He was educated in the public schools of Newburg, Wisconsin. At age 16 he moved to Rockford, Illinois to work on a farm. Then he relocated to Milwaukee and engaged as a shipping clerk in a wholesale tobacco store for one year. He then spent one summer on a farm in Bremer county, Iowa, and during the succeeding winter attended school at Sumner. Mr. Blumberg then taught school for five years, during the winter seasons, spending the summers in farm work. In the spring of 1888 he went to Sheldon, Iowa, where he worked until January, 1889, as a hotel clerk, going then to Skagit county, Washington, again spending the summer on the farm and the winter in the schoolroom. On October 1, 1890, Mr. Blumberg was united in marriage at Seattle to Allie Bartholomew, who was born in Worthington, Indiana, and is a daughter of Cynthia A. Bartholomew. In the fall of 1898 Mr. Blumberg and his family moved to Mt. Vernon, he having been appointed deputy county auditor. He remained in that capacity until February, 1902, when, upon the resignation of Auditor Grant Neal, he was appointed auditor, and in the fall was elected auditor by the heaviest vote in the county. Mr. Blumberg was fraternally associated with the order of Odd Fellows, the Knights of Pythias, the Ancient Order of United Workmen, and in the Masonic fraternity he was senior warden of the blue lodge and secretary of Mt. Vernon Chapter No. 17, R. A. M.

Source: A history of the Puget Sound country: its resources, its commerce and its people      

                                          By William Farrand Prosser

Fredrick was thought to have drowned - "walking the logs". He actually died of sudden heart attack, falling into Skagit River after his heart failure.