Name of Tracyton pioneer is now part of the landscape

"Few roads linked Tracyton to Silverdale and the rest of rural Kitsap County when H.O. Pahrmann settled a 10-acre plot of land in the berg on the east shore of Dyes Inlet in 1908. He built roads, worked the land and helped shape the community for the following seven decades. Thirty-one years after his death, the state of Washington acknowledged the Pahrmann legacy in Tracyton, renaming a creek running through the family property after the founding patriarch. The name officially changed from Creek 0258 to Pahrmann Creek on Dec. 10 after prodding from fellow Tracyton resident Myrna Campbell. John Pahrmann, son of the creek’s namesake, responded humbly to the honor.“I don’t know why she went to all that bother,” said the 92-year-old, who has lived on the Holland Road property since childhood.“You’ve got to live somewhere,” he said, smiling.But Campbell noted the strong roots the Pahrmanns, particularly H.O. Pahrmann, have in Tracyton as reason to honor the pioneer. Not only was he one of the first recorded settlers in Tracyton (having traveled to the states from Germany as a child), but he helped blast stumps out of the way to build Holland Road in the early 1920s.He is mentioned in the Kitsap Historical Society compilation of local history as a farmer and former Silverdale High School board member. One of the most oft-cited anecdotes about H.O. Pahrmann are his horseback trips to the school and back for meetings.The Pahrmann family started with 10 acres and now have 10 acres, although their bounty grew to 34 in the years between. They farmed the land for vegetables to sell at the Pike Place Market. They also sold meat from the cows and chickens they raised for slaughter.Though the state considers Pahrmann Creek a salmon-bearing stream, Pahrmann couldn’t remember if he ever had fished there. “Maybe, when I was little. But there’s not much fish in it, I imagine – it’s a pretty little creek,” he said.The creek stretches a mile into Dyes Inlet from two ponds near John’s son Donald Pahrmann’s home. Three of John Pahrmann’s four children live on the family property; the other lives in Randall, Wash.The ponds and Pahrmann Creek serve as a drainage basin for 300 acres, and part of the land has been put in an environmental easement."

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