Warm memories of Washington Stove Works. (Looking Back).

When Ralph Mackey sold Washington Stove Works in 1981 to the Goldbelt Corporation, he became the last of four generations in his family to own and run the firm. Ralph's great-grandfather, William Mackey, Sr., had founded the company in South Haven, Michigan, in 1875. But the stove works' connection to Washington began in 1903, when Everett's civic leaders, wishing to build a diverse industrial economy, lured the company to the Northwest. The company's long-term success here is testimony to the founding family's fortitude and their ability to keep the company a vital part of Everett's manufacturing scene for over three-quarters of a century.

William Mackey, the company founder, was born in Belfast, Ireland in 1839, and immigrated alone to Quebec, Canada, when he was 12 years old. He later moved to Brantford, Ontario, where he apprenticed as an iron molder and met and married Susan Jenkenson. The couple moved …