In the late 1880s, there was a town called Gettysburg. There are only two existing records of burials in Gettysburg. Clallam County Health Records state both were in “Gettysburg,” one at the Charles Kerr Farm and the other location is not specified. The cemetery was said to be above the beach on a wooded hill, where there had been a road. There was an attempt in 1990 to locate this very old cemetery. At that time, it is was overgrown and there were no signs of a cemetery. In 1989, the land was owned by a logging company.
Robert N. Getty, a prosperous Pennsylvania farmer and lumberman, homesteaded a huge piece of land during the late 1880s and named it Gettysburg. He opened a general store, obtained a post office and encouraged logging firms to build skid roads to Gettysburg as a shipping port. As the town grew, Getty built a new store, the Gettysburg Hotel, a new boathouse and warehouse. He donated land for a schoolhouse and cemetery. In 1908, a road connected Gettysburg with Port Crescent. However, the railroad and new county road, both running parallel to Gettysburg about five miles inland, usurped the town’s seaport business and people moved away. The post office was discontinued in 1920. Today, no one would ever know a thriving community existed at Gettysburg. Submitted by Henry Chenowith
