The Secret of the Forgotten Boxes?

Nancy Drew is my alter ego – I love a mystery!  Mystery books are at the top of my reading list and, yes, I read Nancy Drew mystery books when I was growing up in the 1950s.  A mystery involving local history is high on my list too.  On February 21, 2025, I donned my Nancy Drew sleuthing tiara and went to Rainier Valley Historical Society to investigate!  Could I solve “The Secret of the Forgotten Boxes?”

Vintage boxes full of memorabilia, found along Seward Park Ave.

Who owned the boxes? Where did the boxes come from?  How did they get to the office of the Rainier Valley Historical Society? 

Julie C. found the boxes many years ago on the east side of Seward Park Avenue, south of the Kline Galland Home, while she was out doing errands.  It appeared to her that the boxes were waiting on the side of the street to be picked up by a garbage truck.  She just couldn’t leave them there!  Julie took the boxes home – she says she loves stuff like this and collects way too much of it!  The boxes sat for a time at Julie’s house (I don’t think she ever looked at the contents, or just barely).  Then the boxes went to a storage unit where they remained for some 12 years. 

This year – 2025 – Julie cleaned out her storage unit and the boxes made their way back to Julie’s house.  Now, after all these years, the thrill of finding the boxes and bringing them home was gone!  Julie contacted Becky Corpuz, RVHS board member, with the hope that RVHS would be interested in the contents or that we could find the original owner, especially since the boxes were found in Rainier Valley.  RVHS knows that I love to do research – people, property records, local history, and such.  “Let’s get Teresa!”

On a cursory view at the office, I found letters and greeting cards addressed to a family in Ballard.  Interestingly, it was the Robert W. Anderson family, but no relation to me.  We didn’t see any quick connection to Rainier Valley, so the boxes came home with me to Issaquah for further research.  

Lillian Logar Anderson’s Ballard address.

Now what?  I emptied one box at a time and looked for hints.  Some letters and greeting cards were addressed to Mrs. Robert W. Anderson -- not at the Ballard address but instead in care of the Logar family in Ravensdale.  Aha!  It was much easier to search for “Logar” than “Anderson"!  I would later learn that the correspondence was sent to Mrs. Anderson there after she was married and was visiting at the Ravensdale homestead.  That’s where I found her maiden name – Lillian Logar.  

One of my favorite search tools is ancestry.com, especially for past generations.  By the next day, I had found a Logar Family Tree on the ancestry website!  From there, I was able to send a message to the family tree owner:

February 22, 2025:  “Hello. I am writing about Anton Logar from Ravensdale, Washington. I see that you shared a photo to his family tree. I have recently learned about the Logar family through a box of discarded memorabilia (mostly greeting cards) that was found near Lake Washington in Seattle a couple of years ago. Are you related to the family?”

I didn't hear back from my message for a few days.  In the meantime, I continued searching the ancestry website for more hints.  Somehow I figured out that Gary Habenicht was related to the family of Robert W. and Lillian Anderson (Gary is a nephew).  Google search: I found Gary through his association with the Black Diamond Historical Society.  I left a message with BDHS and Gary called me.

On February 26, 2025, I received this message from ancestry.com: “Hi Teresa. Yes. Anton is my great-grandfather. He had five daughters; one of which is my grandmother. I would tend to believe that the box of memorabilia you have was from my great-aunt’s home, Lillian Logar Anderson. She lived near the lake south of Seward Park area. I would be happy to take them off your hands. The Logars were an amazing family and I know that many of my traits came from them. I look forward to hearing back from you.”  The message was from Kimberly B., Gary’s niece, who maintains the Logar Family Tree on the ancestry website.

Boxes are united with Lillian’s ancestors.

It didn’t take long for the puzzle pieces to fit together.  Gary and I talked on the phone; Kimberly and I emailed.  Mystery solved!  Gary's mother Bertha Logar Habenicht was Lillian Logar Anderson's sister.  Gary's niece Kimberly is related by way of her father Wallace Habenicht who was Gary's brother.  Kimberly was my contact on ancestry.com. We made a date to get together on March 25 at Gary’s house in Maple Valley.

It was wonderful to meet Gary and Kimberly – over banana bread, while we sat at the dining room table, they opened the boxes to a flurry of mementos from days gone by, most of which they had never been seen before.  They looked at every single thing in the boxes and were reminded of their family history through 100s of greeting cards for every occasion (birthday, anniversary, Christmas, Easter), a few letters, school valentines given to Robert and Richard Anderson (Robert & Lillian’s sons) in the 1930s, grade school report cards from St John’s, original baptismal certificates, two locks of dark auburn hair, a veil, one baby shoe, and more. They learned some delightful things too -- Lillian was known as "Chickadee" by her husband Robert.  He put "Chickadee" on the envelopes of most of the greeting cards that he gave to his wife. 

We think we have pinned down why the boxes were found where they were, but we can't figure out the timing/year.  Lillian's son Richard lived at 7920-1/2 Seward Park Ave S and Lillian as a widow lived with him.  That address is between Kenyon St and Budd Court.  That's where Julie found the boxes, on the parking strip waiting to be picked up by a garbage truck.  We looked at King County Property Records to see when the house was sold, but the year didn't match up with Julie's finding the boxes -- which was at least 12 years ago.  We're thinking that they got squirreled away somewhere in the house and eventually were found and disposed of on Seward Park Avenue -- or so they thought!

Gary kept a few things that meant something to him. Kimberly, who lives on Bainbridge Island, took the boxes with her and will deliver them to Robert and Lillian Anderson’s granddaughter Dana who lives in Kingston.  Robert and Lillian had two sons, Robert and Richard, who are both deceased.  Robert was Dana’s dad.

Finding the descendants was a satisfying end to a story nearly lost to time. The two vintage boxes, once discarded on the street, had carried more than just old photos and letters—they held forgotten fragments of a family’s past. Thanks to a bit of persistent sleuthing, by Teresa, those fragments are now back where they belong.

“A thread of personal history can be lost forever were it not for folks who grab the thread just in time to revive something so important to piecing together family history,” Gary reflected with gratitude. And in this case, that thread was rewoven into the fabric of the Habenicht family.

Note: Rainier Valley connections to the Lillian Logar family: Even though the Logar family settled in Ravensdale and Gary’s family was in Maple Valley (Gary Habenicht is a Tahoma High School grad), at least one Habenicht attended Franklin High School around 1918. The family lived in Columbia City at the time, on both Ferdinand and Hudson Streets.

Teresa also learned that Kimberly’s mother was Aldine Lorraine Maletta, a branch of the Maletta family tree that includes Carmen Maletta, whose family had barbershops in Garlic Gulch! A small world.

Thank you, Teresa, for your thoughtful research in connecting the vintage boxes with its descendants. Your efforts have helped preserve a meaningful piece of family history, RVHS.

Logar family L-R: Anton, Mary, Kathrine, Lillian (owner of vintage boxes), Margaret Kokal Logar, Anna, grandson Wallace Habenicht, and Bertha Logar Habenicht (Gary’s mother) . (Photo Ancestry.com)