Veterans' home is a living tie to history

By JACK HOPKINS
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Orting's history is entwined with that of the Washington State Soldiers Home and Colony.

The 108-year-old facility is home to about 180 veterans who live on the tree-lined, 180-acre campus in Orting.

"It first started when there was a major railroad stop in town and it brought old soldiers from the Civil War out here to the area," says George Blum, superintendent of the soldiers' home.

"They were just kind of hanging around and some kind person donated this land which was turned into a work farm. Eventually it evolved into the veterans' home," he says.

Few of today's residents were career soldiers. "But one of the nice things is that they are able to share with each other their common background and experiences," Blum says. "They all understand what each other went through in the military."

J.D. Galloway is the barber at the veterans' facility. But his shop caters to the people who live in town, too.

"My goal when I started here was to be able to make the business pay with me working only four days. And it does," he says. "And with the setting out here, it's just like being at camp."

Galloway doesn't bring it up himself. But Blum does. Galloway spends some of his non-working time shopping in town for the veterans' home residents who aren't able to get there themselves.

It's just one more example of people helping others in what remains -- at least for now -- a small town with family values.