By Bill Reynolds
La Conner Community News
The 122nd Skagit County Pioneer Picnic in La Conner on Aug. 6 will be a stylish event in more ways than one.
The upcoming gathering at Pioneer Park will honor both the Stiles family, which through multiple generations has made its mark in areas ranging from business and health care to education and the legal profession, and the iconic Oliver-Hammer Clothes Shop, the go-to store in Sedro-Woolley for men’s, women’s, and children’s apparel, footwear, and outdoor gear dating to 1921.
The Stiles family, also of Sedro-Woolley, is being recognized as the 2026 Skagit County Pioneer Family of the Year. Oliver-Hammer is the recipient of this year’s Pioneer Spirit Award.
The public is welcome to attend the Pioneer Picnic and Skagit County Pioneer Association business meeting afterward, which will be keynoted by Stiles and Oliver-Hammer representatives.
For $30, those attending will enjoy a barbecued salmon luncheon prepared by the “Good Girls” of La Conner and served by members of the La Conner Civic Garden Club starting at 11:15 a.m. The fee also includes a commemorative ribbon that permits free weekend admission to the Skagit County Historical Museum in La Conner, a primary beneficiary of the Pioneer Picnic.
Live music, information booths, refreshments provided by the La Conner Sunrise Food Bank, and story boards assembled by the historical museum staff that chronicle achievements of the Stiles family and Oliver-Hammer will grace the Pioneer Park grounds.
The Stiles family has been a fixture in Sedro-Woolley and Skagit County since 1918, when Etta and William Avery Stiles Sr. arrived from Jackson County, N.C.. Mr. Stiles, known around the valley as Avery, entered the logging and mining industries before branching out into auto sales.
The couple reared six children, including William Avery “Bill” Stiles Jr., who launched the family law firm in Sedro-Woolley that recently celebrated its 75th anniversary.
Bill Stiles led a full life aside from his remarkable legal career and devotion to public service. After graduating from Sedro-Woolley High in 1942, mere months after Pearl Harbor, he signed up with the U.S.Navy Air Corps. In the summer of 1943 he earned his wings as a naval aviator.
But during a training exercise in Florida, Stiles was injured in a plane crash after the aircraft’s engine froze. His squadron deployed while Stiles recovered from his injuries. He was medically discharged from the Navy, but Stiles wasn’t ready to step away from military service.
There was a war going on, after all.
In 1944, Stiles enlisted in the Army Air Corps. Following his honorable Army discharge at the end of World War II, Stiles enrolled at the University of Wichita (Kansas), graduating with a bachelor’s degree.
While in college, Stiles met Betty Brock and they married in Wichita on Dec. 18, 1949. The couple moved in 1950 to Sedro-Woolley after Stiles earned his law degree from Washburn University.
In 1951, Stiles passed the Washington State Bar Exam and shortly after opened the law office in Sedro-Woolley that to this day has specialized in Social Security, Worker’s Compensation, personal injury, and business law cases.
Oliver-Hammer opened 105 years ago in a partitioned section of a brick building on Sedro-Woolley’s Metcalf Street erected by renowned tailor Joe Oliver. Area loggers would bring wool and silk for Oliver to work his magic, creating suits for their weddings and to wear for christenings and church services.
Oliver was joined in the venture by George Hammer, son of state senator and Washington Territorial pioneer Emerson Hammer, and who was already well-versed in the retail trade.
George Hammer took custom orders for Oliver to fashion work clothes for woodsmen and formal attire for Sedro-Woolley’s business leaders. In the late 1930s, Oliver sold his share of the store to Hammer and moved to California, opening another business there.
Hammer, in turn, hired Robert “Pinky” Robinson and Greer Drummond, who had been ace salesmen at the J.C. Penney Store in Sedro-Woolley. In 1958, Robinson and Drummond purchased Oliver-Hammer and guided it into the modern retail era while maintaining its commitment to personalized customer service.
Today, Oliver-Hammer enjoys a loyal customer base that visits the store from near and far to purchase unique locally-themed clothing, quality brands, and items suited for the outdoors.
For a few brief hours, at the Pioneer Picnic, the Stiles family and folks at Oliver-Hammer will transplant their deep Sedro-Woolley roots to La Conner.
The Pioneer Picnic has been a La Conner summer tradition on the first Thursday in August for more than a century. The Skagit County Pioneer Association was founded in 1891, temporarily disbanded, and was revived in 1904.
Since then, Pioneer Picnics have been held in La Conner annually other than in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Bill Reynolds is a general assignment reporter for La Conner Community News.
