After suffering for a long time from a lingering illness, Mary Crosby died in 1866. Her obituary included the following poem:

"Past her suffering, past her pains,
Cease to weep, for tears are vain,
Calm the tumult of thy breast .
For she who suffered is at rest."

One of her sufferings included the loss of her husband, Nathaniel Crosby. A seafaring captain, he died in Hong Kong and is buried there.

Her son, also Nathaniel, was born in Wiscasset, Maine in 1835. He is the one who owned the famed Crosby House of Tumwater. Like his father, he took to the sea; he was a purser on a steamer. Later he operated a book store in Olympia, credited by the Washington Standard as the leading book store on Puget Sound. He and his wife, Cordelia, had two sons: Frank and Harry. Harry was the father of famed singer/actor Bing Crosby.

Nathaniel and Cordelia were married in 1860 on Chambers Prairie at the home of her parents, Jacob and Priscilla Smith, who lie here beside them. The house that was the site of their marriage still remains, but it is the one that is the center of controversy in Lacey.

Templates in Time