Whaley Mansion History
How the Whaley Mansion was Built
by Mary Kay Addis
The Whaley Mansion was built in 1911 by John and Clara Ellingsworth. It is a story that is told over and over in settling the exciting new West.
John was an Engineer and Lawyer who built large gravity flow irrigation ditches while working with the big railroads. The railroads were extending their lines into raw country everywhere and needed something to ship to make the new lines profitable.
They would alert John of their plans and he would go into the next area and engineer the new ditch to bring water to the parched desert land. Knowing where the next ditch would be built, he bought up acres of the dry worthless land. With his own private funds, John would pay to have the big ditch built. When all was in place and the ditch was full of water, he would sell the land with water rights, making a huge profit.
The Ellingsworths had taken a shine to the Chelan area. They bought a catalog house. This was the last ditch John would ever build.
The house came by rail to the end of the line at Mansfield, WA. Teams and wagons brought the house materials to Chelan, a five day round trip. The beautiful old growth oak doors, windows, woodwork, flooring and pillars came up the Columbia River on steam boats. They were all made in San Francisco.
When everything was in place, John brought Clara and their five children to Chelan. He suddenly had a stroke and quickly slipped away.
His business partner from Chicago came to visit. He was not an engineer and couldn’t build ditches. The Ellingsworths had $150,000.00 in a Chicago bank, shared with his business partner. In todays value that is about $25,000,000.00.
The house was here and paid for. Mr. Lewis, the young man who came with the house as it’s primary contractor, was staying at the Campbell Hotel waiting to start construction of the house. When John died it put everything into probate.
Clara borrowed $3,500.00 from Rosa Whaley to erect the house. She borrowed it for one year until the funds were released from probate. About a year later, the letters to Chicago came back. Nobody here by that name. Her husband’s best friend and business partner had absconded with the loot. Clara, who arrived here with a handmade automobile and kids in private schools, was BROKE.
She gave the house to Whaleys in 1919 for that tiny debt. When Clara’s boys came back from the trenches in France after WW1, they found their Mother destitute, living in a little shack. Clara was trying to make a living with a restaurant named the Palms. She died of a broken heart.
