THE MILHOLLANDS

Mr. Webster defines a pioneer as "a person who goes before, preparing the way for others." These words describe many people in this greet hobby of insulator collecting, but they can be applied especially to Marion and Evelyn Milholland. They have truly prepared the way for all of us. And along with being two of the first collectors, they have contributed so much to our hobby along the way. I feel that an article about these two pioneers has been long needed and is long overdue. Therefore, "Bea Lines" is proud to begin with the Milhollands.

During our visit to the Pacific Northwest this pest summer we had the opportunity to visit Evelyn Milholland and tour the Milholland Museum. At that time I asked Evelyn for an interview and she graciously consented. My purpose here is to set down information about these two early collectors for posterity; information about their collecting years, the insulator museum, and a little about their life history. Much of this information is not known by our newer collectors, and even the "older" collectors may have forgotten it, or never have learned it at all.

MARION MILHOLLAND

Marion Collier Milholland was born August 20, 1895, in Roxbury, PA, to Emma Miller and Andrew Jackson Milholland. Marion's father, along with a friend named Mr. Starkey, built a locomotive in the early 1900's for the Cook Inlet Coal Mine Co,, This was the first locomotive in Alaska. It stood on display in Anchorage for many years and is now at a museum in Fairbanks.

Marion spent most of his school days in Seattle, WA, and as a young businessman, in Olympia. After working as a carpenter for a number of years, he took up contracting in building. Later he studied and became an architectural designer of buildings, from which he retired. During his time in Olympia he was a Scout Master and he and his troop built a log cabin in the city park where it still can be seen.

Marion had 5 boys and 1 girl from his first marriage. He was married to his second wife, Myrtle, for 15 years.

Marion C. Milholland
1974

It was my great pleasure to have known Marion. He visited San Diego on several occasions, and I also talked to him at shows around the country. To me he could best be described as gentlemanly, kind, sincere, devoted, friendly, and always with a smile on his face. He was willing and ready to talk with anybody; man, woman, or child. He was tall, slender, with bright and very kind eyes. He was quiet, and yet would talk for hours on his favorite subject, insulators. He loved new finds, and was eager to record them for his book. He handled every insulator the same, whether it was a Hemingray 42 or a mint "Pluto". He told me once that by doing that, one would never get nervous and drop the insulator.

Marion Milholland passed away on January 17, 1976. But his years of work on behalf of our hobby will live on in his many books, and in his museum, both of which he and Evelyn created out of an intense love for insulators.

THE START OF INSULATOR COLLECTING

Marion began collecting insulators as far back as 1964, in Sequim (pronounced "Squim"), WA. Driving home one evening he noticed a lot of purple glass on some stacked telephone poles in a farmer's yard. He went to see what it was, and found out that the farmer wanted just the poles for fence posts, So, thinking that the purple glass was pretty, Marion took the glass home. (I think he told me once that they were mostly Whitall Tatum #1's). Anyway, he began to notice all the different marks and dates on the various types of insulators, and started collecting. On page 68 of his last book, Milholland's Most About Glass Insulators, 4th Revision, he tells us how he got started in his own words. "Many years ago we drove past a home where a mountain-high pile of telephone crossarms were just thrown. There was no effort made for a neat stack; some cross-ways, some diagonal; just a big random high pile. The insulators were still on the crossarms. With the afternoon sun setting, we looked through this stack of helter-skelter crossarms and behold; most of the colors of a rainbow came to life. A more beautiful sight in colors would be difficult to find... that moment I was really taken into the insulator hobby."

EVELYN MILHOLLAND

Evelyn Sofia Milholland was born in Beloit, WI, on March 15, 1904. She lived there until she was fourteen, when her family moved to Everett, WA, 30 miles north of Seattle. When she went to work, it was in Seattle and San Francisco. Then she came back to Seattle, where she married and want to Alaska. She says that the first night out, the ship hit the rocks, so they were shipwrecked. It took them 13 days instead of 5 to get to Cordova, AK.

One year later, when her daughter was only 5 weeks old, Evelyn's husband passed away, so she came home to her parents. When her daughter was nearly 11 , Evelyn was married again, for 28 years, and lived in Tacoma. She was widowed again in 1966. Her daughter, Mrs. Pearl Ethlyn Malo (Patty), lives in Tacoma, and Evelyn has 4 grandchildren; 3 boys and a girl. And 3 great-grandchildren; a boy and twin girls.

Evelyn met Marion in Seattle at a dance They were married in Seattle on May 17, 1968, and she became his partner in life as well as in insulator collecting.

Evelyn Milholland
1974

Evelyn is a delightful lady. If I had to describe her in just one word, it would be "gracious". However, she's also pleesant, friendly, kind, sympathetic, and fun to be with. Another one of her qualities is that she really listens to what people say, and she cares for people. To know her is to love her.

BOOKS

The Milholland's love for insulators was reflected in many ways, just one of which was the many books they wrote on the subject. For you collectors of insulator books, I am going to list them here.

Quite an impressive list, and one that represents a lot of work and dedication. Evelyn states that Marion already had the first book out when they were married in 1968. After the second book was published in 1969, they knew the next one would have to be hard-covered. The wire pins would not hold the number of pages in the next book. So the first hard-covered book was published in 1971; the first of five.

We had the distinct pleasure of visiting the Milhollands at their home in Spanaway, WA, in August of 1975. Marion had just celebrated his 80th birthday a day or two before we arrived. One of the things I remember vividly about our visit was his showing us the manuscript in notebook form for his next book, which was the Bicentennial Edition (published after his death). He allowed us to look through the pages, where each page was laid out in the form in which it would later be photographed, reproduced, and put in book form. We felt honored at being given a "sneak preview". We also saw the museum that day, but I will tell more about that later on in the story.

While I'm on the subject of books, I'd like to say a word or two about Milholland's Most About Glass Insulators, 4th Revision. This book is considered by insulator collectors to be the insulator "Bible". It contains actual photos of over 3,600 insulators and related items, and most photos are actual size. This cook has 456 pages, and along with the photos, contains insulator history, personal notes, and interesting related material. For identifying insulators along with the accompanying Price Guide, it can't be beat.

The Price Guide is now handled by Paul Keating 0f Tacoma, WA. He is one of the Milholland's oldest collector friends, and used to come up to Sequim to visit them when they lived there. He had often mentioned wanting to write a book on insulators. So when Marion passed away. Paul was right there and was therefore the logical one to do the Price Guide, as he had studied many hours with Marion. Paul has labored consistently to keep the Guide current and as accurate as possible; a monumental task (Incidentally, anyone wishing to purchase either Milholland's Most About Glass Insulators, 4th Revision, or the Price Guide can find out where and how to do so in the "Classified Ads" section of this magazine).

TRAVELS

Another facet of the Milholland's love for insulators was seen in the many miles they traveled each year in pursuit of new finds. Over a period of 8 years, right up until Marion became unable to travel, they logged up to 25,000 miles a year. Evelyn says that traveling was very easy for her and Marion. he was a good driver, with a new car every other year, and he drove carefully, observing all the rules.

I asked her to relate some of the experiences that stuck out in her mind during their travels. She says, "One year we were at Old Town, Maine, 5 miles from Nova Scotia to visit a collector, when it began to snow. At 6:00PM we got on the highway, followed a big truck back to Cromwell, CT, arriving at 3:30AM. No trouble, just tired." Another time she says, "We got stuck in traffic in a wrong lane and went through a tunnel under Baltimore, MD. That was a surprise. No trouble, as our highway was right there at the other end." And in NY once they took a wrong bridge over the Hudson River and ended up in the Bronx, down by the waterfront. She adds that Marion did all of the driving on the trips and she was the pilot.

Their travels took them all across the nation. They visited a great many collectors in their homes, as well as attending shows, looking for new finds for their collection and to add to the book. Those he couldn't purchase he carefully noted in detail, and often had photos taken so that as many as possible could be shown in the book. For collectors, each show they attended took on an added aura of excitement; just having the Milhollands present put an extra zing into it. People would be lined up beside them with their new finds, and he patiently scrutinized every insulator, adding it to his notes if it indeed qualified as a new find.

(Continued in July issue)