Matilda "Tillie" Sophie Rasmussen, RN, ANC, 1890-1945

Image Credit: Registered Nurse Licensing File
Washington State Digital Archives

Matilda “Tillie” Sophie Rasmussen was born on Oct. 4, 1890, to Hans Peter Rasmussen and Julia Gunderson.  Census records indicate she was born in Wisconsin, the exact city is unknown. Matilda was the couple’s second child, joining older sister Estella who was born in August, 1887. Three more siblings joined the family before the 1900 census; Alma born February, 1893, Nels born November, 1894, and Laura born in January, 1897. Records found for Nels and Laura indicate the family was living in Colby, Clark County, Wisconsin during the 1890s. This provides one clue as to where in Wisconsin Matilda may have been born.

The family uprooted from their home in Wisconsin in the late 1890s and replanted in the small town of Kent, Washington. Kent was incorporated as city in King County in May of 1890 and had prospered thanks to the success of growing hops. By the time the Rasmussen family arrived in Kent, an aphid outbreak had destroyed nearly all of the hop yield and the town had turned to other crops. Hans Peter found work as a blacksmith in Kent and the older children, including Matilda, attended school in the city. On July 24, 1900, daughter Helen Corinne was welcomed into the family.

After attending school, Matilda enrolled in the Minor Hospital nurse training school in Seattle. Three years later in May of 1913, she was one of ten nurses who graduated from the program. A few days after graduating, she applied and was approved as a registered nurse in the state of Washington.

In April of 1914, Matilda took a position at St. Anne’s Hospital in Juneau, Alaska. Records could not be found for how long this position was held. She enlisted as a nurse in World War I, however the exact date of her enlistment was not found. By July 1918, she was serving at the U.S. Army Base Hospital in Rockford, Illinois. In late 1918, she was sent overseas to serve at Base Hospital 50 in France.

Following the war, Tillie returned home to Kent, Washington. She found work as a nurse and lived with her parents.  Her mother passed away on January 16, 1926, and her father passed a few months later on April 18. Matilda continued to live in the family home at 711 Meeker St. E in Kent. She left nursing and found a career as a ladies hairdresser.

In 1930, tragedy struck when Helen’s husband, Kenneth Cahail, died when his work truck collided with an automobile in Seattle. Helen was left to raise their two young sons; Kenneth Jr and Joseph.   Seattle City Directories show the family living at a home in Seattle until 1931 when Helen and her sons are absent from the directory. It is likely that Helen moved back to Kent to be closer to the rest of the family.

According to cemetery records, tragedy struck the Cahail family again when Helen passed away sometime around 1940. No death record or obituary could be found to provide details on her death. She was buried next to her husband in Hillcrest Burial Park in Kent, Washington. Kenneth Jr. and Joseph are found living with their aunt Tillie in the 1940 census. It is unknown if the boys moved in after Helen’s death or if they had been living in the Rasmussen family home since the death of their father.

Just five short years later, on April 1, 1945, Matilda “Tillie” passed away in Kenmore, Washington. She is buried next to her sister Helen at Hillcrest Burial Park in Kent.

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Sources: 

1. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2004. Census Place: Kent, King, Washington; Roll: 1744; Page: 7A; Enumeration District: 0076
2. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2006. Year: 1910; Census Place: Meeker, King, Washington; Roll: T624_1657; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 0043
3. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. Year: 1920; Census Place: Kent, King, Washington; Roll: T625_1924; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 44
4. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2002. Year: 1930; Census Place: Kent, King, Washington; Roll: 2490; Page: 3A; Enumeration District: 0306; Image:384.0
5. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012. Year: 1940; Census Place: Meridian, King, Washington; Roll: T627_4345; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 17-134
6. Ancestry.com. Washington, Select Death Certificates, 1907-1960 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2014. 
7. Helen Corinne Rasmussen Cahail. Memorial #117483434. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/. 
8. “History of Kent.” Kent Historical Museum . http://gkhs.org/kent-history/
9. Laura Merriam Rasmussen (Baptism). Ancestry.com. U.S., Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, Records, 1875-1940 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2015.
10. Matilda Sophie Rasmussen, Department of Licensing, Business and Professions Division, Registered Nurses Licensing Files, 1909-1917, Washington State Archives, Digital Archives, http://digitalarchives.wa.gov
11. Matilda Sophie Rasmussen. Memorial # 120362380. Find A Grave. http://www.findagrave.com/. 
12. “Minor Hospital Will Graduate Ten Nurses” Seattle Times. May 30, 1913 Pg. 11
13. Nels Arthur Rasmussen. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. 
14. “Nursing News and Announcements”. (1918). The American Journal of Nursing, 18(12), 1183-1205. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/3405811
15. "Nursing News and Announcements." The American Journal of Nursing 18, no. 10 (1918): 899-932. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3405471.
16. “Personal and News Items: King County, Washington”  The Pacific Coast Journal of Nursing. Vol. X No. 4 April 1914. Pg. 188
17. Seattle City Directories: 1925-1931. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011.
18. ‘Truck Driver Dies in Crash.’ The Seattle Times. October 3, 1930. Pg. 7, Column 2

Huldah Agnes Cooke, RN, ANC, 1892-1973

On January 31, 1892 Huldah Agnes was welcomed as the first child of Philetus George and Mary Cooke of Goshen, Whatcom County, Washington.  Goshen was a small town about 11 miles northeast of Bellingham. Philetus was the first county surveyor for Whatcom County and was responsible for laying out several of the arterial highways leading into Bellingham. Two brothers would join Huldah by 1900; Clay Charles born on October 17, 1893 and Philetus Jr. born on June 20, 1898. 

After graduating from Bellingham High School, Huldah began her training to become a nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham.  She finished her training in October 1914 and became a registered nurse in the state of Washington.   The photo at right is from her Application for Certificate as Registered Nurse. 

All three of the Cooke children enlisted in World War I.  Clay entered first on July 27, 1917; followed by Huldah on November 28, 1917; and then Philetus on October 7, 1918 .

Huldah first served at Camp Kearny in California before heading overseas to Base Hospital 50.  She would spend a year overseas in France with time also spent at Evacuation Hospital No. 31, and Base Hospital No. 208.  She was discharged from service on September 6, 1919.  

By the 1920 census, Huldah and her brother Philetus Jr. were back living with their parents in Lawrence, a township just outside of Bellingham. Huldah continued her nursing career and her brother Philetus begun studies at the University of Washington (UW). Her brother Clay married shortly after returning from the war and spent a few years in Kodiak, Alaska where both he and his wife worked as school teachers before returning to live in Bellingham. 

Huldah would follow in Philetus Jr’s footsteps and began studies at UW around 1923.  She went on to earn a B.S. from the school in either 1924 or 1925.  After obtaining her degree, Huldah found work in Bellingham as an instructor.  In 1926, she accepted an assistant professor of Home Economics position at the Colorado Agriculture College in Fort Collins, Colorado. She taught courses on   Elementary Nursing, Dietary Calculations and Meal Service, Introduction to Home Economics,   House Management and House Sanitation, Home Hygiene and Home Care of the Sick, Dietary Studies, Home Practice, and Home Management.  The picture below was taken of Huldah during her time at the college.

Image credit: University Historic Photograph Collection,
Colorado State University, Archives & Special Collections

After almost ten years, Huldah left her position in Colorado and returned home. She enrolled again at the University of Washington and obtained her certificate in Public Health Nursing in 1937.

Shortly after obtaining her certificate, Huldah moved to Portland, Oregon where she found a job as a school nurse.   She did not stay long and by 1941 was back living in Bellingham where she obtained a job at her alma mater Bellingham High School as a school nurse.    She would stay at Bellingham High School for the remainder of her career.  City directories and school yearbooks show she was the 

school’s nurse through around 1956.  

She spent her retired years living in a home overlooking Bellingham Bay.  Huldah Agnes Cooke passed away on February 23, 1973 and is buried in the Cooke family plot at Bayview Cemetery in Bellingham.  

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Sources:

1. ‘164 Are Given Degrees By U.W.’ The Seattle Daily Times. Tuesday, April 1937. Page 26 
2. Agnew, M.A. (1925). List of workers in subjects pertaining to agriculture in State agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 1926-1927. Washington, Government Printing Office. archive.org/details/workersinsubject87agne
3. Agnew, M. A. (1925). List of workers in subjects pertaining to agriculture in State agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 1927-1928. Washington, Government Printing Office. archive.org/details/workersinsubject43agne
4. Agnew, M. A. (1925). List of workers in subjects pertaining to agriculture in State agricultural colleges and experiment stations, 1935-1936. Washington, Government Printing Office. archive.org/details/workersinsubject234agne
5. Ancestry.com. U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2011. Bellingham, Washington: 1923-1926; 1937-1938; 1941-1960; Fort Collins, Colorado: 1929-1933; Portland, Oregon: 1940 
6. Bellingham High School. 1908, 1911, 1943-1956. Ancestry.com. U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2012 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010. 
7. Clay C. Cooke. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Census Place: Kodiak, Third Judicial District, Alaska Territory; Roll: T625_2031; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 13; Image: 373 
8. Clay Charles Cooke. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. 
9. Huldah A Cooks. Ancestry.com. 1900 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. ; Census Place: Goshen, Whatcom, Washington; Roll: 1753; Page: 9A; Enumeration District: 0236. 
10. Huldah A Cook. Ancestry.com. 1910 United States Federal Census [database on-line].Census Place: Goshen, Whatcom, Washington; Roll: T624_1674; Page: 5A; Enumeration District:0348; 
11. Huldah Cooke. Ancestry.com. 1920 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Census Place: Lawrence, Whatcom, Washington; Roll: T625_1944; Page: 2B; Enumeration District: 255; Image: 251. 
12. Huldah A Cooke. Ancestry.com. 1930 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Census Place: Fort Collins, Larimer, Colorado; Roll: 245; Page: 5B; Enumeration District: 0044; Image: 101.0. 
13. Huldah A Cooke. Ancestry.com. 1940 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Census Place: Portland, Multnomah, Oregon; Roll: T627_3391; Page: 61B; Enumeration District:37-366. 
14. Huldah Agnes Cooke, App. 762. Department of Licensing, Business and Professions Division: Registered Nurses Licensing Files, 1909-1917. Washington State Archives, Digital Archives. www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/70BFAE387ECB4E5024F041D8905FDB2E
15. Huldah A Cooke. Washington State Death Records. Washington State Archives, Digital Archives. www.digitalarchives.wa.gov/Record/View/581E0510FF4C3CCCCE7FC9121E514AAE
16. Jacobin, L., & Pershing, J. J. (1921). With the colors, from Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties: an honor roll containing a pictorial record of the gallant and courageous men from northwestern Washington, U.S.A., who served in the world war, 1917-1918-1919. Seattle, Wash, Press of Peters Pub. Co.thirdstbooks.com/colors/ww1whatcom2.html
17. Lopez-Terrill, Vicki. Librarian. Colorado State University Morgan Library. 'Huldah Cooke, Professor In 1920S/1930s'. June 1, 2016. E-mail. 
18. Philetus George Cooke Jr. Ancestry.com. U.S., World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2005. 
19. Tyee. University of Washington. 1923-1925. University of Washington Yearbooks and Documents. University of Washington Libraries. content.lib.washington.edu/uwdocsweb