04/27/2026
Among the oldest gravestones at Port Blakely Cemetery, there is one that stands out above the rest: a tall stone tree stump that is unmistakably a Woodsmen of the World headstone. This one belongs to James, Grace and Arthur Smith, three victims of the Dix disaster in 1906, one of the worst recorded catastrophes in Puget Sound maritime history. Beneath their names reads the epitaph, "To forget is vain endeavor, love's remembrance lasts forever."
James Newton Smith was born in November 1866 at Newry, Blair County, Pennsylvania. Both sides of his family can be traced back well beyond pre-Revolution America. James was the son of Maxwell Blair Smith (1833-1890) and Anna Mary Newton (1845-1912), and he was the second born of their nine children. He grew up in Newry, a small but prosperous town just south of Altoona in southwestern Pennsylvania, where his father worked as a blacksmith and was later elected as a councilman.
In 1885, at the age of 18 years-old, James ventured west and landed in Port Discovery, Washington Territory, located on Discovery Bay at the northwestern edge of the Olympic Peninsula. He worked as a fireman at a saw mill on Mill Point, where his job was to help run the steam power system, manage the fuel for the furnace, and remove ash and buildup from the firebox.
Gratia Leonard "Grace" Brown was born in August 1867 in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was the daughter of William Sherman Brown (1835-1918) and Anne Lydia Starr (1834-1903), and she was the second born of their six children. Most ancestors on both sides of Grace's family were also present in the colonies before the Revolutionary War, but opted to move to Yarmouth following the war, during a time when a substantial number of British loyalists arrived.
Grace grew up in Yarmouth, located at the entrance to the Gulf of Maine, a coastal town and a major shipbuilding center. Her father's trade as a leather maker would have been in high demand. It's unclear exactly why she came to the west coast in 1887, at the young age of 20 years-old and unmarried, but she may have been living with family.
Grace married Frederick William "Fred" Masters on May 12, 1891 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Fred, born in 1866, was a native of Maidstone, Kent, England. He was working as a tallyman when he married Grace and was a member of the Knights of Pythias. Their first child, Leonard Granville Masters, was born the following year in Vancouver, followed by their second child, Clarence William Masters, in 1893 in New Westminster. Both areas were young but rapidly industrializing, fueled by transporting timber along the Fraser River. Fred most likely worked at one of the large mills that processed logs and shipped lumber.
Around 1894, the family moved to Port Blakely on Bainbridge Island, where Fred worked as a tallyman for the Port Blakely Mill. On the morning of Christmas Eve 1896, Fred left Port Blakely on a steamer to Seattle to visit with friends and relatives, telling Grace that he would be back that evening. After spending some time with friends, he stopped for a drink at Harms & Dickman's Saloon. With the evening already dark, he left shortly before 6 p.m. for Central Dock to make the sailing of the SS Renton for Port Blakey. Although he was seen on his way to the pier, he never made it aboard.
After not making it home as scheduled, Grace arrived in Seattle on Christmas Day to report him missing to the police. Days turned into weeks, and there was still no sign of Fred or any clues leading to what may have happened to him. Finally, on February 10th, Fred's body was spotted in the bay at the end of Central Dock by a wharf employee. On his left cuff was a plated button with the letters K of P. Grace remained in Port Blakely while her brother, Arthur, made a positive identification of Fred at the morgue. It was determined that due to the darkness of night, and the lack of lighting around the wharf, that Fred had accidentally fallen into the bay. Fred was brought back to Port Blakely on the Renton, where a funeral was held, attended by many from the mill, and he was buried at Port Blakely Cemetery.
This time for Grace must have been some of the most difficult she had ever experienced in her life. Widowed with two young children, she continued to make their home at Port Blakely. She and her sons were generously taken in by the Quash family. It was also during this time that James Smith was superintendent of the Port Blakely Mill. He had worked for the mill for several years as a saw filer, and was also a member of the Knights of Pythias and Woodsmen of the World. Two years after the death of Fred, Grace and James were married on December 19, 1898 in Seattle by the Reverend John Damon.
Grace and James' first son together, Maxwell H. Smith, was born in Port Blakely in 1900, followed by another son, Arthur Smith, in 1901. Sadly, tragedy never seemed far from Grace's life. In 1904, just one month shy of his fourth birthday, Maxwell died in Port Blakely following a battle with Croup, a contagious respiratory infection that often affects babies and children. He was buried at Port Blakely Cemetery beneath a little lamb headstone.
Setting into motion a grim twist of fate, in 1905 the steamer Renton was replaced on the Port Blakely to Seattle route with the steamer Dix. Life's coincidences can be hauntingly precise, and there is a sad irony in considering that from the exact same Seattle wharf, and involving the same steamer route, both Grace's first husband Fred, and then Grace herself, would never make it home.
In September 1906, the Smith family traveled east for the first time to visit James' family in Altoona. It should be noted that James and Grace only brought Arthur and Leonard on the trip - it is unclear where Clarence was during this time, but he may have been away and living at school.
On October 7th, they left after three weeks of visiting, stopping at several places along the way as they made their way back home to Washington. They arrived back in Seattle on Saturday, November 17th, and spent the weekend in the city visiting with Grace's brother, Arthur Brown.
On the evening of Sunday, November 18th, James, Grace, Arthur, and Leonard boarded the Dix heading for home in Port Blakely. Shortly after setting sail, the Dix collided with the SS Jeanie, a large three-masted schooner carrying 400 tons of iron ore. The results were instantly catastrophic for the much smaller Mosquito Fleet ship, and within just a few minutes, the Dix was beneath the cold waters of the bay, after rolling over and sinking stern-first at an extraordinarily fast rate.
More details about the events leading up to the sinking of the Dix, as well as the sinking itself and the aftermath, can be found in a previous post here:
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James, Grace and their five year-old son Arthur perished when the Dix sank beneath the waves. As the Dix was hit, Leonard sprang from the boat and caught a chain hanging from the Jeanie. He clung to the chain until someone stepped on his feet, and he was forced to let go and drop into the water. He managed to seize hold of the bow of the Jeanie by inserting his fingers into the ship's indentations and hold on long enough until Captain Tobin dropped him a rope.
After he was rescued, he was brought to the wharf office on the Virginia Street dock. He sat in front of the wood stove, trying to keep warm, while silently weeping and shivering from the cold. "Oh why didn't they save them," he sobbed. "We were all in the cabin when I felt the boat going over. I ran up the stairs and crawled through the door to the deck. At that time the chains of the bowsprit of the other steamer were almost over us, and I jumped and grabbed them. I hung on as long as I could but finally fell off into the water. Then I grabbed the bow of the vessel and there I clung, shouting for help. There was some man who caught the chains just after me and tried to haul himself up. He finally gave a yell and slipped off into the water and went down. Yes, I could see him going way down, as he made a bright light in the water, which seemed as though it was on fire when anyone moved through it. I called and called but nobody heard me. Finally Capt. Tobin, master of the 'Invincible' now in Port Blakely, managed to grab hold of the chains and he hauled himself up on deck. Then he threw a rope and I climbed up."
Following the catastrophe, Leonard arrived home in Port Blakely on the steamer Florence K on Sunday night. The entire town, awake and grieving the news all night, was waiting at the dock for the steamer to arrive to see who had survived and who had died. Having been orphaned at the young age of fourteen, Leonard was taken in by Port Blakely resident and Kitsap County Sheriff Peter Murray.
Although at least one deceased passenger was recovered after the Dix sank, there were never reports of any more people being found. It's unclear if James, Grace and Arthur were found, but no death certificates were ever issued for them. It seems likely that their true final resting places are not within the plots at Port Blakely Cemetery, but within the Dix itself.
