The promise of free land brought many people westward. While Jim Munn came west on the Canadian National Railroad from eastern Canada alone, Ana Mae Edwards came west on the Union Pacific Railroad from Kansas with her entire family. The two met in the booming city of Port Townsend in 1889 just as Washington gained statehood. They were married three years later.
Ana caught a vision of living her entire life on the shore of Lake Leland twenty miles south of Port Townsend. Jim was happy with her dream as the land they homesteaded or bought together gave him the timber resource to build his dream barn. Jim was the entrepreneur and builder. Ana became a business woman and a post mistress. Stories of their business ventures and growing family are typical of many pioneer families. Though the stories form a record written for family members, the account of the lives of James Hector Munn and Ana Mae Edwards Munn may be of interest to current and future residents of Leland, Quilcene and South Jefferson County.
A study of ones genealogy can develop to more than a list of names and dates. As the author discovered more and more detail of his grandparents lives, it became important to him to share his discoveries with his relatives and to leave a record to the progeny of Jim and Ana Munn. Today when families become spread to the far corners of the world, knowing family origins is important to a healthy self-concept.
Hector is the conservator of the family name. He has had access to many of the documents that Jim and Ana generated during their lives. Additional information has been gathered by visiting the places of their origins in Canada and Kansas.