The Hilpert family farm
The farm is a thread running through this family’s story. David August Hilpert bought the land and built the original house and barns. After his death, Otto, Reinhold and Phillip carried on farming.
In later years Reinhold lived on one side of the property, while Otto lived in the farmhouse he built on the other. Eileen grew up in Otto’s house, followed by her daughter Martha and her grandson Isaac.
Isaac’s memories
I lived in David August Hilpert’s original farmhouse for the first few years of my life. When I was about three, we moved to Otto’s farmhouse. My grandparents, Bud and Eileen, built a new house on the property.
When I was about five, we moved up on the hill. My dad, John, had been building a house there by himself for several years. My parents, John and Martha, live on the hill above the Skookumchuck River. My mother’s brother Bill lives in Otto’s house, which has been enlarged many times.
— Isaac, October 2026
The farm through the years
The farm’s land records
David A. Hilpert’s land patent · November 1, 1864
This federal land patent grants 160 acres to David A. Hilpert. It records the assignment to him of a military bounty-land warrant originally issued in favor of Catharine Brown, widow of William Brown. The land described is in sections 28 and 29, Township 15 North, Range 2 West, Washington Territory.
The family has kept this document as the farm deed. Its front is dated November 1, 1864; its reverse carries later county recording entries, including June 2, 1875.
William Packwood’s homestead patent · November 20, 1875
This is a federal homestead patent, naming William Packwood as the recipient of 160 acres in section 27, Township 15 North, Range 2 West. It is numbered Homestead Certificate 508 and Application 1107, through the Olympia land office.
The record belongs to the family’s land-document collection, but it names William Packwood rather than David Hilpert. How this parcel became connected with the Hilpert property remains to be traced. The reverse preserves later county recording entries.
