The Susan Woodin Chapter, NSDAR, was organized in Woodinville, Washington, on March 22, 2014, with 16 members; the chapter was confirmed by the National Society on April 12, 2014. Six years after its formation, the chapter has more than 65 members. We have numerous projects and committees that reflect both members’ interests and the DAR’s mission of promoting historic preservation, education, and patriotism.
The chapter is named for a Washington state pioneer and an original homesteader of what is now Woodinville, Susan Woodin.
Susan Campbell Woodin
As a pioneer Northwest child, Susan Campbell began knitting socks at the age of five and was expected to complete one sock a day thereafter. A year later, at six, she was doing the family washing (without benefit of an automatic washer or dryer).
When Susan, 15, married 30-year-old Ira Woodin at Seattle in 1863, she was already an accomplished homemaker. By 1871, Susan and Ira with their two daughters had loaded their possessions on a scow tied behind a rowboat and rowed across Lake Washington to the mouth of Squak Slough. Coming up the river, they claimed a 160-acre homestead in the wilderness.
The Woodins built a riverside home which became a stopping point for travelers. They planted an orchard and raised cows and chickens to feed their family of five. Susan established a post office in their home and served as postmistress for nine years. Helping form Woodinville School District, she “imported” a teacher in 1881 who used her parlor to teach nine children who lived in the valley. The Woodins also hosted a weekly worship service for years until a church was built across from the school.
Cheerful and energetic, Susan churned butter and then rowed every two weeks across Lake Washington to sell her butter and eggs in Seattle, coping with stormy weather that sometimes stranded her on the lake overnight. Susan also neighbored with Bear Creek Indians camping in the area, teaching herself their Chinook language so she could communicate. Widowed in 1908, Susan died in 1919.