L.C. Huntamer Bio

Alan/Cheryl/Eric Radecki > M. Carol Underwood-Radecki > Helen Huntamer-Underwood > L.C. Huntamer

Lourence Cleveland Huntamer was born on October 26, 1885 near Madison, South Dakota, to John and May (Hare) Huntamer. He grew up on a farm there and attended high school in Madison, where he was a star football player. During his final two years in high school, their’s was the top team in the state, and Lourence could have gon on to the university on an athletic scholarship, but rather chose to take over the family farm.¹

Click the pic to jump to a photo album of LC Huntamer

Lourence’s older brother, John Jr., had taken his family west to Tacoma, Washington, and his father, John, put the farm up for sale and headed west as well. Lourence stayed on the farm for four more years, during which time he married Ellen Callant on his 21^st birthday, in 1906 (different reports have the wedding variously in Mitchell and Spencer SD). Before they left for Washington in 1910, the couple had their first two daughters, May and Bessie.¹

When they arrived in Washington, Lourence took over half interest in a 45 acre farm near Olympia that his father and older brother had bought (at Rural Route 9, Box 453). On the place was a large two-story house (at least 30 years old at the time they bought it), an apple and cherry orchard, and a number of other fruit trees. As John Jr. was living in the “big house”, Lourence built a smaller one for his family.¹ And the family continued to grow, welcoming children Bret (1911), Helen (1912), Elsie and Thomas (1915), Gene (1916), Dean (1918), Claude (1920), Merle (1923), Rena (1925) and finally Joy (1931).^{2, 6}

In about 1915, the family was getting bigger and needed more space. John Jr. and family moved to Tacoma, and Lourence moved his family into the big house, with his mom and dad moving into the small one. Though she was only three at the time, Helen remembers “moving from our house to the big house. It was about the length of a long block between the houses, and most of the moving was done via a wheelbarrow. I remember trotting along beside Dad with each load. I was about 32 months old at the time. There were three children older than I and already a younger sister and brother.”¹

Lourence, or “LC” as he became known, ran twice for County Commissioner and lost. He was well known and very active in the community, and owned a Lacey water company. He then ran for Sheriff of Thurston County in 1934 on a reform ticket, with the aim to “clean up the Sheriff’s office”. In the September primary, LC, as a Democratic candidate, won over four other party contenders by 108 votes (1,197 to 1,089 for the next highest vote getter). In the November general election, he won resoundingly over Republican Frank Cushman, 7,191 to 1,626.³

LC’s salary as Sheriff was $200 per month (as compared to $135 per month for his deputies). The Department’s first budget was said to be $34,000 and it was equipped with two V8 Fords, a panel station wagon, a spanking new 1935 four-door straight-8 Dodge (purchased for $528, after a #309 trade-in) and an unmarked Studebaker, which LC used.³

Thurston County Sheriff’s Office Administrative Captain Mark Curtis, who provided much of the information on LC’s career as Sheriff notes, “He spent most of his time serving civil papers and politicking. He carried only a 30-30 Winchester lever-action rifle in his Studebaker police car — unmarked — and would ‘dispatch’ wild, marauding packs of dogs, according to his son, Tom Huntamer. On July 4, 1936, the jail booking shows the Sheriff arrested a 21-year-old male for ‘shooting firecrackers in a dance hall’, a crime not on the books, although ‘disturbing the peace’ was in those days.”³

LC shows up a few times in surviving clippings of The Thurston County Independent newspaper. An April 26, 1935 article contained a front page piece about an arrestee who was suing LC for $10,000 for false arrest. The “victim” had been arrested by the Tenino Marshall’s office, and have been held in the county jail (which LC was in charge of) at the request of the State Patrol for 51 hours, three hours longer than the statutory maximum of 48 hours without charges being filed. The complainant was allegedly a passenger in a car whose driver had “disregarded a command to halt.” The two were arrested after the Marshall “peppered the car with shots”, shooting out a tire. There’s no word as to whether the complainant won the suit, but it’s probably safe to assume that he didn’t.⁴

The October 4, 1935 edition has a small item noting that a citizen, E. H. Lehman, filed suit to remove LC from office, charging malfeasance. The suit was heard a couple weeks later, “the drama was played to a full house, scores of spectators standing along the walls because of a shortage of benches.” After three hours of testimony, the judge threw the case out. The basis of the charge? “Malfeasance” by releasing a prisoner nine days early, by giving a prisoner several hours of freedom during his sentence and by failing to arrest a man involved in a fatal accident, and grandest of all, “larceny,” as the Sheriff ate food purchased by the County for prisoners.⁴

After he retired as Sheriff in 1942, LC’s friend Frank Tamblyn ran with competition from John Hudson (who LC had defeated in his first primary, and who served as a deputy under LC), so LC entered the race in name only in order to split the vote and give the office to Tamblyn.³

LC then built a big new house on the Lacey homestead, and managed the Huntamer Water Company, which supplied water for most of the homes in Lacey.⁵ He continued in this position until he died on March 19, 1958, at age 72, at his home following a heart attack.⁷ He was buried at the Pioneer Cemetery in Lacey⁶

Source Notes:

1 — Information from Helen (Huntamer) Underwood

2 — Notes from M. Carol (Underwood) Radecki

3 — Information from the files of the Thurston Co. Sheriff’s Department, provided by Capt. Mark Curtis

4 — The Thurston County Independent, clippings courtesy of the Thurston Co. Sheriff’s Dept.

5 — Bessie (Huntamer) Porteous, Uncle: The Story of Robert W. Porteous

6 — Genealogical Research by Louise Huntamer

7 — Obituary, newspaper unknown.