Tiedeman Road Name Corrected

If you live on or drive by Tiedman Road, you may have noticed that the spelling on the road signs was recently changed to Tiedeman. Pierce County updated the signs the week of April 18 to reflect the historically correct spelling. The road is named after pioneer Lakebay settler Johann Heinrich “Henry” Tiedeman.

Henry Tiedeman was born in Germany in 1827 and immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1853. After a few years in Missouri and Kansas, the family found their way to Oregon and eventually Puget Sound. In 1878, Tiedeman filed for a homestead on 160 acres in what would soon be known as Lake Bay. The name was changed to one word, Lakebay, in 1894.

Tiedeman’s homestead, a mile long and one-quarter of a mile wide, ran from north to south roughly straddling the north section of Whiteman Road SW and including present-day Little Palmer Lake. Tiedeman was the first postmaster at the Lake Bay post office, established in 1882, until his death in 1891. As was customary, the post office operated out of the postmaster’s residence.

Tiedeman’s patent, or title, to the land is dated May 5, 1883. That is also the date on the homestead patent issued to his neighbor William Creviston; the two properties touched at the northeast corner of Tiedeman’s property. Tiedeman’s son, Cord Heinrich, married Creviston’s daughter Ida.

Creviston had filed for his homestead claim two years earlier, in August of 1881. The Homestead Act of 1862 required settlers to reside on the land and farm it for five years before being issued a patent. However, a homestead patent could be approved sooner if the claimant paid for the land at the rate of $1.25 per acre; that was perhaps what Creviston did. Creviston Road in Lakebay appears on a 1928 map as Ira Creviston Road, named after William’s son Ira.

A few years later, in 1889, Carl O. Lorenz bought 80 acres touching the corner of Creviston’s land, on the hill overlooking Mayo Cove. In the next few years, he would buy another 90 acres on the shores of the cove where he built a lumber mill and eventually a successful ship-building operation.

Tiedeman, (Ira) Creviston and Lorenz Roads in Lakebay are named after these three early settlers on the Key Peninsula.

In April, 130 years since Henry Tiedeman died and about 50 years after it was built, Tiedeman Road is spelled correctly.