Thea Foss Lodge #45, Daughters of Norway, Pt. Ludlow, WA (original) (raw)

Thea Foss Lodge #45 is the newest Lodge and was instituted on May 29th, 2004. Many members of this lodge came from the former Kirsten Flagstad Lodge #35 (Sequim Washington, 1987-1996).

Lodge #45 meets the 3rd Sunday of every month at 1:00 PM in the Tri-Area; Community Center, 10 Valley Highway, Chimacum, Washington. Chimacum is south of Port Townsend, in the area locally known as the Tri-Area; (Port Hadlock, Chimacum and Irondale) in eastern Jefferson County on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington. The lodge is very active in promoting their Norwegian heritage and encourages anyone interested to join them at their meetings. For information on this lodge, please contact the Lodge President.


Thea Foss, 1922

The lodge is named after a well-known; Norwegian emigrant, Thea Christiansen Foss, whose business ingenuity in Tacoma, Washington in the late 1800�s spawned the famous Foss Maritime Company. She was one of Washington�s first successful businesswomen.

Thea was born in Eidsberg, Ostfold, Norway on June 8, 1857. In 1880, while in her twenties, she immigrated to the US in search of more opportunity and moved to Minnesota. Here, in Minneapolis, she married another Norwegian immigrant around 1882&#8212Andreas (later using the name Andrew) Olesen Fossen who had been a seaman carpenter on square-rigs; before coming to Minnesota. Thea and Andrew eventually dropped the en from their last name became known as Thea and Andrew Foss. They began a family by 1885 and had moved to Tacoma by 1889. Here Andrew built a home for his family on the harbor (near the 11th and 15th Street bridge) in what has been called a float house, or a house on logs.

Eager to earn money for his family, Andrew was often called away to building projects in other areas for long periods of time. Thea remained with her children on the houseboat while thinking about how she could supplement her family�s income. One day, in 1889, a fisherman sailor presented her with the opportunity she desired. He was upset with his lack of luck fishing and was eager to sell his boat. Thea managed to purchase the boat for $5.00. She put some sweat equity into the boat by painting it up before selling it for a nice profit. Thea continued to purchase boats from other down-hearted; sailors at a small sum from her previous profits. Again, she spruced these boats up and sold them for a good profit. When her husband returned from his building project and found his wife had made more than he had during his absence, he decided that Thea had a good business plan. Thus began the family foray in the shipping business.


Thea and Andrew Foss

Their original fleet of boats included four rowboats for hire at any time of the day or night. Her waterfront houseboat porch was where Thea conducted business and advertised her boats were Always Ready� for hire. All Foss boats were painted the green and white colors that Thea had chosen to use on her first boat. These colors became the company�s flag colors. Customers included fishermen, hunters, and people out for an afternoon of rowing. It didn�t take long for Andrew to decide that building and repairing rowboats for Thea�s rowboat renting business wasn�t a bad idea and would yield more money than other carpentry work. Thea's fleet quickly grew to 200 rowboats.

Later the Foss business plan included purchasing larger launches that could transport supplies and people to work areas inaccessible during the high tide. Then, by 1890, the Foss�s made some contracts to haul brush and lumber on the waterways of Washington and the first tugboat was purchased. More and bigger boats were added and by 1913 the company was called the Foss Launch and Tug Company of Tacoma. They eventually got into the shipyard business in the Tacoma area today known as Thea�s Landing Park.

During WWI, the company purchased another Seattle tugboat firm and moved its headquarters to Seattle. It eventually became the Foss Maritime Company, and currently operates the largest, most modern tugboat fleet on the West Coast.

Not only was Thea an active participant in the Foss business (including being the President of the company), she was also well known as a wonderful, quiet, hospitable Norwegian mother and excellent cook. She treated her workers as family. Thea would meet sisters and other family members of her workers arriving in Tacoma at the train station and help them acclimate to America while living at her house. She always had coffee and Norwegian food available for anyone who would stop by her two-story; waterfront home. The first floor was used for business and had accommodations for both her workers and other newly arrived Norwegian immigrants, while the second floor is where the Foss family lived.

The day before her 70th birthday, June 7, 1927, Thea died. Her funeral was the largest one Tacoma had experienced for that time. The funeral procession of tugboats in Tacoma�s harbor was such a sight that it inspired Norman Reilly Raine to write the Saturday Evening Post�s Tugboat Annie series. Talking with Thea�s sons, Raine developed the concept for his ongoing story of Tugboat Annie that later became a movie in 1933 and TV sitcom in the 1950�s. Although Thea was not really the sort of person Raine�s Annie was, she did have the business sense that helped develop one of Washington�s leading companies. She was one of the first woman presidents of a large company and in an industry usually ruled by men.

Thea�s historical legacy can be seen in the new waterfront area in downtown Tacoma—the Thea Foss Waterway—where her company�s shipyard used to stand. This area includes the Thea Foss Maritime Center, a maritime history museum and boat building shop. In the summer of 2005, a movie in her honor will begin showing at this Maritime Center.

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