GRANDMA B's STORY
Grandma Baker wrote this autobiography in 1988 when she
was 90 years old. Grandma died in 1998 at 100 years old. She was born in
a sawmill on the Columbia River Gorge. She lived all her life within a
10 mile radius.
THIS IS MY LIFE: 1898-1988
Born to: Allan Brown Kerslake and Jessie Orilla Hart Kerslake
Clara Jeannette on June 22, 1898 In a logging camp at the foothills of Pepper Mountain in the Brower Area.
From that beginning at the Deverell Camp, logging camps were my place
of residence from birth until I was seven. At that time my parents
purchased property in Springdale. While my Dad continued to work
logging and in sawmills my Mother, brother Bob and I began to be more
stable. We lived in a rented house until our house was completed. When
we moved into our house my brother Pat was an infant. We lived in that
house all of my life, and my brothers and sisters until we moved into
our respective homes after marriage. The house was occupied until my
brother Fred died in 1985. It was burned in 1988 because it was not
expedient to redo it for occupation again.
Papa, as we called my
Dad, worked as woods boss, coming home on weekends while we held down
the fort on the farm. He was working in Aims where I now still live and
rode horse back to and from there. One eerie adventure was being
followed by a Cougar from Springdale to Gordon Creek, screeching now and
then. His dog Togo got under the horses feet and added to the
excitement. That mill was Kelly and Whilon and was just south of where
my house is now closer to the river. The river was the means of
transportation as ties were rafted down the river to Troutdale for
shipment.
The nearest school was at Aims… near where the church
is now… and walking alone there was not possible. It was a three mile
walk with many animals in the woods. I started to school in Springdale
at age seven and graduated at fifteen.
My Mother was expecting my
sister Dorthy my 8th grade year. She was ill much of the time so the
bulk of the heavy work was mine. I washed clothes on a wash board, did
the scrubbing floors and cleaning on the week ends. “Mama” always
cooked and I was glad for that. Cooking was not my first love.
School was special for me and I was enthusiastic about it. Spelling and
Math were my favorites. I was rewarded often for my perfect spelling.
(It has somehow slipped at this point in my life.) Every Friday
afternoon we had spell downs. It was one of the high lights in our one
room school.
There was no high school locally so after
graduation I become [sic] everyones helper… at home or at Grandmothers
house. At 15 I had my first adventure away from home. I spent four or
five months with my Aunt Libby (my Mothers sister). She had TB of the
kidney and had been operated on in Portland, her husband Uncle Harry,
had come to Portland and gotten a job but she was determined to return
to the Coast to home. No adults were able to accompany her so I got the
job. Her 17 year old cousin stayed nights with us. Her home was on
the slough so we went everywhere by boat. It was my initiation to
someone terminally ill. It frightened me when she would say “If I die…
just throw me in the slough.”
She was a wonderful person and
never complained about her pain though she suffered terribly. I was
deathly afraid of water but while there learned to deal with going
everywhere in a rowboat. I also enjoyed meeting new friends who also
came by boat to visit. Once they waited too long and had to wait for
the tide to return so they could go home. Even then they had to don hip
boots to push the boat out. During the evening Aunt Libby would play
the piano. She also sang and once gave us a real scare when she got so
tired she fell off the piano stool.
It was while staying with Aunt Libby that I first cooked.
Until I was 17 I worked on the farm doing everything including
delivering milk to Springdale to meet the truck. My small horse hitched
to a two wheel cart added spice to my life. That horse loved to do the
unexpected and often did. At times he refused to cross the bridge on
Christianson road and turned back. Other times he raced across with one
wheel off… or so it seemed.
The Corbett high school was built
when I was seventeen so I started to school again. I wanted to be a
nurse and one year was all that was needed before going for training.
We walked to school… no little adventure itself expecially in the East
wind. After I had gone for one year Dr. Hughes (our family Doctor in
Gresham) said I should go another year as I was too young. By the end
of that year one had to go four years. I continued into the 3rd year
deciding to teach… one could do that right out of high school. Things
changed again. Mama got sick and I had to quit and return home to help.
My teachers outlined a weeks work, I completed it at home, returned it
and was tested and got another weeks work. I finished by [sic] third
year that way.
In June 1988 I received an honorary high school
diploma at the graduation ceremony. That was a real thrill to me.
World War I brought an end to my schooling in a formal setting. I was
sad not to be able to finish. Getting the belated diploma was very
special.
The War brought many changes. All eligble [sic] boys
left for the service. Weekly I rolled bandages from old sheets for the
Red Cross. I also solicited for war bonds… used to finance the War.
While it was most distressing it was also interesting and exciting.
Troop trucks rolled along the highway and the men threw their names and
addresses on slips of paper. Walking home from school we picked them up
and wrote letters to them. It was fun. Only one, from Texas, showed
up after the war to meet me. The friendship did not develop.
I
was picking apples with my friend Esther Settlemeir when the War was
over. (I made $20.00 in a month picking apples.) The whistles blew and
the church bells rang to mark the finale of the War. It was a welcome
bit of news for everyone.
HOW I MET DAD I met Louie Baker
when I was about 12… a long friendship that ended in marriage when I was
23. His parents bought the farm where Dan lives and moved there from
Six Prong country in Eastern Oregon. Dad had come ahead with a wagon
load pulled by a team of horses. He came from The Dalles via boat and
landed at Corbett. He came to our house because the beautiful day of
his arrival was replaced by a terrible storm. It was early in January
and it was so cold and windy he feared his horses would freeze so he put
his blankets on them and was trying to keep warm by his stove.
Papa invited him to our house. It too was very cold and that night we
all spelt in the beds by the fire. Bob (7), Pat (5) and I plus Mama
slept in one bed… feet to feet. He stayed with us until the storm was
over.
I was really too young at that time to get too excited by I
tell you all the girls in the area were thrilled by that good looking
young cowboy with his pretty horse, chaps and trimming. I think he dated
all of them. Dates were cheap in those days because there was really
no place to go.
It annoyed me somewhat when one of the girls who
was really chasing him told me I would get him in the end because I
lived close by. I was totally uninterested in boys at that point. Sure
enough though, when I was 13 he asked me to walk to Springdale with him
ad that was the start of a long courtship. He worked for my Dad so was
around a lot.
His Father never stayed in one place long so they
moved to Friend (near Dufur in Eastern Oregon). We wrote to each other
and he came to visit once or twice a year on the train. As the years
went by we drifted apart and each dated others some. When I started
high school and planned to go to nurses training he was unhappy. Both
of our families were opposed to us marrying. His Father thought kids
should keep their parents. My parents thought he would be a drifter and
not support me…plus they didn’t want me to leave. Many obstacles.
World War I took care of the decisions for awhile because Dad was
drafted at age 25. His Mother only voted once and that was for Woodrow
Wilson who vowed to keep us out of war, only to have it declared and us
be in all out War less than a month after his inauguration [sic].
When he came to say good bye I was in high school and had many plans
which he didn’t like. He was depressed and I supposed I would not hear
from him again. A week later a letter came from Ft Lewis asking me to
write and that I did. However, it couldn’t be too personal because
other people read the letters.
With scarcely any training he went
overseas. He was in the Army 22 months and spent 20 months overseas.
His rank was Wagoner. He hauled ammunition to the front lines and
carried the wounded and deceased back. He was overseas a year after the
War was over but didn’t get to stop to see me on his way because his
Father sent word there were problems at home. He did not need that.
Problems then as now do come up. His brother Dud (Laurence) was bucked
off his horse, landed on his head and was declared insane. He was
institutionalized [sic] (and did not live very long). Before he was
put in the hospital and they didn’t realize his mind was affected [sic]
he bought a beautiful team of strawberry roan horses with fancy
harnesses and his Father signed the note. It was for $650 which was a
lot of money then and Dad had to take over the payments. To make
matters worse the money he had sent home had been spent.
When Dad
finally got back to see me he was discouraged. After a few days he went
to the harvest fields to get a job. It was Christmas when he came again
and I returned to him to visit a few days and try to decide what to do.
We both decided we did not want to live in Eastern Oregon. We had
decided to sell the horses for whatever we could get and start from
there. I returned on the train and within a few days he followed with
his team and wagon. That was early January and with his meager
belongings in the wagon he plodded down the trail (supposed to be a
road), steep and narrow and bitter cold. It took him nearly three days
and he was near frozen when he arrived at our house. He got a yarding
and wood cutting job off Oxbow Park Road. His brother-in-law offered
$200 plus an old team and harness for the beautiful strawberry roans. It
was fine for yarding wood so he took it.
Move again his folks
did. They came and cut wood and lived in a tent till fall. Later they
moved to Cottrell. He would walk across the river and up to see me every
Sunday and I would return to see him across at night. He was a very
determined and loving man.
News came of homesteading and there
was land available in the Aims area near where my Dad had worked for
Kelly and Whilon Mill. War veterans could homestead so Dad filed for
land. He got 120 acres for $2.50 per acre…$50 down and the balance in
three years. We had to live on the land also. In November he got a job
at Cameron Hogg Mill and started to build a house. He stayed in an old
shack while building the house. Most folks would declare our first house
was barely more than a shack.
He worked at the mill six days a
week, 10 hours a day and got $5. per day. Nights and weekends he worked
on the house or sometimes walked out to see me after that long work
week. We would take him back to the Powell Place (top of Gordon Creek
Hill) and let him walk home from there. The road was almost impossible
from there.
My Mother got sick again and put a stop to getting
married as soon as the house was complete. We set the date for MARCH. I
wonder that Dad had the patience to persist. While I appreciated my
Mother’s burden with all the kids and such poor health, it was hard to
give up my plans. She did help me get some new things including glasses.
She made me two cotton gowns with crocheted yokes.
Louie Ervin Baker
And
Clara Jeannette Kerslake
Were united in marriage on
March 26, 1921
At the home of the grooms parents in Cottrell, Oregon
The brides father took the couple to Troutdale to catch the street car.
They went to Portland, got the license, had pictures taken and returned
to the groom’s parents home in Cottrell via streetcar (Max is not a new
invention). It was a surprise to the grooms parents when they arrived
but the grooms preacher brother-in-law was called and he performed the
ceremony…free. Dressed in a brown and black checked suit and wearing a
white blouse, the bride was lovely. While all of this may not sound too
romantic it was indeed a very successful marriage and only ended when
death did them part.
Florence and Ella short-sheeted the bed and
tied knots we feared would never come out. After church on Sunday with
the folks we returned via streetcar from Cottrell to Troutdale, were met
by my folks. Dad returned to the homestead and I gathered my things to
go the following Sunday. My brothers brought me with the car to the
Powell place where Mr. Basch lived. He brought me via horse and wagon on
to the homestead.
STARTING MARRIED LIFE
Tears flowed when
I first saw the house. It was twenty by twenty feet (our present living
room) and it sat behind three huge trees. By then it was like the end
of the world. The furniture Dad had bought at a fire sale. The wrapping
around the chairs had adhered to the wood from the heat and the water.
What a mess. It was built of green 1x12’s rough. It was easy to scrub
because I could pour water on and sweep it down the cracks. The boards
dried after a while and the chipmunks could come through the cracks.
When one fell into the wash basin, Dad put slats in the cracks. That
first day was bad and it is a wonder Dad didn’t say go back! After the
curtains were up and things moved around it wasn’t so bad.
With
no transportation we were good walkers. If we walked toward Springdale
my brothers would meet us at the Powell place with the old White. If we
went to Gresham we walked to Dodge Park cross country and rode the
streetcar.
Soon I brought my horse up so I could ride to my folks
and help my Mother. When at my folks I worked like crazy to get the
washing, ironing and heavy cleaning done to help my Mother. I would
carry a few groceries home on my horse. We had little money and I
remember having $2.50 left the first month after we bought our supplies.
That had to last a month. After we got credit Mr. Bosch brought us
groceries from Seth Evans Store (near the old Pounder place.)
We
carried our water from the spring and had an outhouse. I took our
washing to the Thomas’ (Granbergs now) and often did hers too. I needed
work to keep me busy. We caught water in a barrel when it rained so I
could use it more freely.
By July we had saved enough money to
buy a second hand Ford Roadster. Dad took the back off and made it into a
little pick-up. Through the roads were terrible it was nice to be able
to go together.
Summer was busy. Dad worked full time and on
weekends we built a small barn and little chicken house. My folks gave
us a cow and a few chickens. The hens set out in the brush and by fall
we had lots of chickens.
By fall being pregnant I could not go as
much so had to figure ways to keep busy at home. I burned a huge pile
of logs behind the house that had been left by loggers. Dad helped in
the evenings. A big windstorm came along and blew a lot of rotten snags
down behind the barn. The fuzz on them made them quick to burn. There
were so many downed logs we could walk from one end of the place to the
other on logs…including crossing the creek.
OUR UPS AND DOWNS OF MARRIAGE
As a child I pouted but never talked back to my parents. When I was
about 18 I remember telling my Dad to go to the house and “shut up” when
he bawled me out for something the milk inspector complained about. I
had been doing milk things for years. It nearly broke his heart. He
nearly cried as he told my Mother so I had to apologize.
But,
after we were married I guess I thought I had equal rights and could
speak my piece if I felt like it. It didn’t work. Dad was different,
very calm, didn’t get upset easy but when he got mad you wanted to look
out. It was scary and I was glad he never got mad at me.
We tried
to set up some rules, for neither of our parents communicated or
considered one another’s feelings. As the Bible says, “Don’t let the sun
go down upon your wrath” so we agreed never to go to bed mad. It was
sometimes hard, but we managed.
When I would blow off, Dad would
take my face in his hands, look me straight in the eyes, give me a kiss
and say “Ah, it wasn’t that bad”. After a good cry I’d be ready to start
again.
Once I wanted him to be mad at me. A fellow came along
with a piano he had repossessed and I bought it. We could not afford it
even though the price was reasonable. He didn’t get upset at all and
that made me cry.
Dad was sick a lot. Having been hit with
mustard gas during the war, his lungs were bad. That ultimately ended
in asthma. Once he had pleurisy and I put mustard plaster on him…front
and back with straight water and mustard. Having put it on and pinned a
flannel bandage all around him it did quite a job. When he went to the
Doctor the next day he said the pleurisy was gone, but what a blister! I
should have used 20 parts flour and one part mustard.
He had many sinus
problems that resulted in surgery twice. He developed a tired heart at
fifty and ulcers caused by stress they said. At 65 he had a serious
heart attack and while the Doctors thought he might live 5 years he
lived13. He did many things during that time…cedar chests for the
granddaughters and desks for the grandsons. He did lots of building on
the kids houses and worked on the church. He did most of the finishing
of the inside of the church upstairs.
It sometimes bothered me
that Dad put the kids first if there was money for something special.
When Allan and Jim got their first car I thought we should get the newer
one and let them have the old one. “No” he said. I must realize they
worked hard and we needed to keep them happy. Of course he was right.
Once when we sold some beef he held out some of the money and bought me a
new coat for Christmas. He was very secretive about it and I couldn’t
figure out why we didn’t get more money. He had given the money to my
sister Dorthy to buy the coat.
OUR FIRST THANKSGIVING
The
mill didn’t close for the holiday so we planned to go to my folks on
Sunday to celebrate. My brother Bob’s birthday was that day also so it
was special. It was raining when we started but was ice by the time we
got to Gordon Creek. We made it to the foot of Buck Creek hill, Dad
walked a little way up but the trees were down all over. We turned back
only to have a tree fall across the road just after we crossed Gordon
Creek bridge. We were lucky.
We were invited to Thomas’s for
dinner that evening. The only memory I have of the meal was her salad,
tomato juice and gelatin. She was a wonderful cook, but that was bad. It
was so sour it cramped our jaws.
LIFE MOVES ON
Allan was
expected the 11th of January. The roads were very bad and I had to get
out before it was too late to travel, so before Christmas we went out
with Old Sam (the horse) and the buggy. The roads were so slick I walked
down the hills for I was afraid to ride. I was to stay with Grandma
Baker when Allan was born and for a while a storm appeared to make it
impossible to get from Sprindgdale to Gresham. We finally made it and I
stayed there until he was born January 21, 1922. It was a long
separation and was nearly a month before I could return home.
Life with a baby was different but as I recall we adjusted quite well. Gave me more to do, and that made me happy.
That years excitement was a big fire that was started back of Dave
Thomas’ at the old mill site. The mill moved out 15 years before, but
the company didn’t burn the slash. They were ordered to do so and set it
afire on May 30. It was so dry it just went wild. Came up so fast it
crossed the road to our place. Having never seen anything like it, I was
scared. My Dad and brothers came to check on us by coming through Bull
Run, since the road in from Springdale was closed. I wanted to go home
with them but Dad wouldn’t let me. Said I had to cook for the men
fighting fire. That evening the fire swooshed up a tall tree near where
Dave Thomas’s barn is and I really panicked. I had packed a suitcase
with baby clothes so grabbed it and the baby and took off up the road.
Dad sent David to take me to the Van’s. When I got there the suitcase,
which I apparently hadn’t fastened well, fell open and everything fell
out. Allan had a blanket wrapped around his middle with head and feet
sticking out. It was about 10 PM. I know those flames went to the sky.
Everyone made fun of me. Some Pioneer I was!
We built a little
kitchen on the back of the house and a step down bedroom we called the
dog coop on the west end that summer. We got a ram and pumped water from
the spring to a barrel outside the house too. That was wonderful.
The next year my Uncle Mac was our first boarder. He got a job at the
mill. That didn’t last long because he was always bossing Allan and
didn’t like my cooking. Couldn’t make it so he quit and left. My Grandma
didn’t like it but my Mother understood.
Later my brother Bob
and Pa Baker boarded with us and worked at Hogg’s mill. Bob stayed until
he got married (he knew Alice 13 days) and Pa for about six months. We
managed those situations fine.
Out I went again in January 1924
to Grandma Baker’s house to have Jim. The weather and the roads made it
impossible to risk having the doctor come in. Dad and Bob batched and
were eager for me to come home. They promised to help me and they did
very well. Bob was good at caring for the babies. Dad helped with my
work. Washing on the washboard, heating water to do so was the hardest.
What they really missed was a cook.
Jim was about three months
old when the men were doing some clearing up towards where Allan’s house
is now. They set the brush on fire one evening and after they went to
work the next day a wind came up and off went the fire. I looked out and
saw fire had crossed the road and was burning near the corner above
Dunlap’s. There were two big snags where their house is now and lots of
brush. I was so scared I grabbed my two babies and ran to Hergert’s
(Baum Place). Mr. Hergert was really heavy and it was hard for him but
he came puffing back with me. He said, “If the fire gets I those snags
everything will go.” He started putting wet sacks around the snags. I
took the boys to Thomas’s. Margaret went to the mill to get Dad. By my
return Mr. Hergert was about exhausted. I carried water and he kept
things wet and it finally went by roaring down behind the house and
barn. When Dad arrived Mr. Hergert and I were sitting down watching it
go by. Jim’s eyes were nearly swollen shut from the smoke. My fear of
fire continued.
About the end of April 1924 we had saved enough
money to pay up on the homestead. Dad was really getting worn out
working so many hours so we decided to try making a living on the place.
We had two cows and started selling milk to the folks at Hogg’s mill
delivering twice a day. We got 9 cents a quart.
We put in a large
garden and sold vegetables. We rented land on the Lowe place (end of
Grace Road) in addition to our cleared land. We worked very hard that
summer but had beautiful gardens. Dad took orders and delivered the
produce with the milk. Dad also did plowing with the horses for others
and we did quite well. I worked outside all the time too and Dad helped
me with the housework in the evenings. We raised beef for sale. We had a
thousand chickens and sold the eggs to Art Groce in his store in
Springdale for groceries and feed.
June 1926 Catherine was born
in my present living room. Dr. Hughes and Mrs. Elsie Warren attended.
Another baby slowed me down a bit but we put her in a powder box out
where we were working. That year we build a barn across the road. When
she was 8 months old the Hogg mill moved out and we lost our milk
business. We sold to the folks at Nelson and Jarl mill until they moved.
We bought a cream separator and sold cream to the creamery and fed the
milk to calves and pigs. Dad always wanted to go into the pig business
like they had in eastern Oregon. We once had 10 pigs. After all the work
we made $5.00 profit so that was the end of the pig business.
FAMILY PROBLEMS…LEARNING PATIENCE.
When Catherine was two, Pa Baker moved in with us. He had gotten so
cross and mean to Mother that his daughters kicked him out so he took
the streetcar to Dodge Park, walked over the hill to us. What could we
say but yes when he asked to stay. That was a real nightmare. His family
was all mad at us except Mother. He lived with us 8 months before he
died of bladder cancer. He was really hard to live with, was partial to
Catherine and cross with the boys.
He loved to coal pit stumps.
When he found he had cancer and was to have surgery he wanted me to
keep those stumps burning until he got back. He also gave me a list of
all his brothers and sisters to inform if he didn’t survive the surgery.
He lived long enough after the surgery to get all the family together
and apologize and ask forgiveness of them and the Lord.
During
that time I did not see any of the family. Dad would take Pa to town to
visit his friends and he would go see his mother. I felt sorry for
myself and was angry at all of them. I didn’t think a daughter-in-law
with three little kids and so much work should have to put up with a
crabby old man. We recognized later that his mind was a little strange.
While I was a Christian I was not close to the Lord so practiced no
patience. To top it off, Mother Baker wanted all of her family for
dinner after the funeral. My mother worked on stubborn me and said I had
to go and stand by her husband. I did and everyone gushed over me and
were so glad to see me. I dearly loved Mother Baker and it was great to
be able to visit her again. The Lord taught me a real lesson in caring
and patience.
After Pa’s death Mother sold the rooming house she
had and bought a small home. In those days there was no retirements and
social Security so the family agreed to contribute to her support. After
a while the sons-in-law decided they could not and wanted to put her on
welfare. Dad and Sid would not do that so our two families tightened
our belts a bit more and took care of her. Her faith was beyond belief
and it all worked out well.
When Allan started to school we
dreaded that he would have to walk from the county line and hated to
have him alone. We had a 12 year old girl, Marie Wood, living with us
for a time which was really a blessing. Hergerts and us took turns
hauling them when weather permitted.
It was then that I learned to drive. We had a Model T touring car that we paid $35.00 for.
The school board decided to put a bus on the next year, as there were
children at Jarls mill and the Powell place. They hired Dad to provide a
bus. We bought a Ford truck and built a body with a canvas covering on
it. Benches on both sides were the seats. He took the high school kids
to the top of Buck Creek hill to meet the bus and then hauled the grade
school students to Aims. Mrs. Johnson always let the kids stay inside
when the weather was nasty until the Corbett bus came. His wage was $25,
raised to $30.
MARILOU
Marilou was born in August
1929…not planned but a real blessing. I had planned to have her at home
but after coming three nights the Doctor decided I should go to a
private hospital in Gresham. I came home the 10th day, and when she was
12 days old the Cameron Hogg mill caught fire. It was thought berry
pickers started it. There was such smoke it looked like the world
country was afire. Dad decided he had better go get the children at
school. Fire was blazing on both sides of the road near the county line.
He made it safely. The fire came clear down through Granbergs and the
back of our property. As the buildings burned at the mill great chunks
of roofing from the houses came and dropped in our yard. They dropped
almost down to Jarils mill and set fires. That night it looked so bad
David Thomas and I walked the road because we couldn’t sleep. Dad was so
exhausted from working he slept.
Jim had appendicitis when he
was 7 and a half, in July. He was helping Harvey Crook plant cabbage.
It was a short job but he came home sick. I thought he had eaten too
many raspberries so gave him a dose of castor oil…which he immediately
vomited up. Praise the Lord he did, for it would have killed him. The
next morning he was still very ill so Dad got Dr. Botkin who had a
summer place at the end of Johannsen Road. He informed us that we
better get him to the hospital quick or he would die. That gave us a
fright and we rushed to Springdale to my folks, called Dr. Hughes and he
took Jim and I to Portland Sanitarium on 60th and Belmont. Dr. Rippey
did the surgery at 6 a.m. Said they could wait no longer and he couldn’t
wait for Dad to get there. The appendix burst as they removed it. For
eleven days he hung onto life with tubes hanging out all over. The
doctors did not give us much hope. We had a special nurse with him 24
hours a day. Dr. Holden let me stay and we were in the hospital for 16
days. Poor Dad and Alan and Catherine at home trying to hay. Grace
stayed part of the time. Marilou was at Grandma Kerslake’s.
After
we got home we took Jim outside with us in an old wheel chair so I
could help. It was hard to mow back hay after having sat for sixteen
days.
It was a month or more before Jim was allowed to walk and
by then he was quite spoiled. He went to school and told the teacher he
wasn’t well when she tried to get him to work. Finally Dr. Hughes had to
inform him that he was perfectly all right and could move on with life.
Folks told us that Jim’s illness was a punishment from God because we
were not walking close enough to Him. It very well may have been true
that we were not being led by the Lord, but I have always prayed since
that I would never make such a statement in judgment to someone in
trouble.
In 1934 little Louie Anderson came to live with us. He
was seven and had been passed from place to place since his mother’s
death. He was a tough little kid made tougher from his experiences and
we did have our ups and downs. After being with us for four years he
died after being ill only 12 days.
Only he cut his finger off
using dad’s sharp ax, which was a no-no. The doctor said we could grow
another tip on his finger and we did in three months. Took a lot of
patience.
With five kids to feed and clothe we were in need of
money. We were praying for something to happen to provide it. A man
stopped and asked if he could board with us while working on the
Bonneville Power line going through Aims. It was washday and things were
a mess. I told him we couldn’t unless he couldn’t find any other place.
In a couple hours he returned and said “I didn’t try.: His name was Mr.
McCorkle. He stayed with us a year and paid $1 per day. The Lord had
answered our prayers.
THE HOUSE IS BIGGER…
By this time we
did have the big house and I have to tell you a bit about it. Dad said
we would get everything ready and in August we could remove the roof and
change it because it would not rain. We did that and had the shakes
ready, the lumber all there and a crew coming. We tore the roof off,
built up sides for an upstairs, added rooms on the west said all went
fine. My dad and Bob came to help put the roof on. With them, Dad and
Jim and Allan they were doing great. It was a beautiful morning but
about noon the clouds began to roll in. The next thing came the pouring
rain. We had oilcloth on the ceilings of the old kitchen. It would fill
with water, come loose and let a waterfall (muddy from the dust) rush
in. Alice and her kids were there. She swept muddy water out all the
time.
They got the roof on the back part of the house and we
moved all the furniture in there. I was especially concerned about the
piano.
To top it off some folks got stuck coming out of Younkers
place so Dad had to take the team of horses and pull them out. Those
folks stopped to warm the baby’s bottle. (Had the teakettle on the
stove so used that.) She put a $5 bill in my pocket because she was so
upset over causing us more trouble when we had so much.
Alice
wanted to take Louie and Marilou home with her because we were going to
sleep in the barn. They wouldn’t go but didn’t enjoy sleeping in the
barn either. They were scared when the cows bawled and practically
crawled under us. We did it several nights so got rather used to it.
The following day was beautiful so the roofing progressed and we
gradually got back to normal living. Don’t ever try to tell me it
doesn’t rain in August. It was a cold winter and the house was not very
weather proof. Dad slept behind the stove and kept the fire going. We
only had a ladder to get up and down stairs. That was 1936-37.
THE GREAT DEPRESSION
These were depression years and it was hard to keep going and make ends
meet. We had some cutters and an old truck. One day some man came along
and wanted 1,000 cords of wood right away. Dad hired extra cutters and a
neighbor to haul the wood but the deal fell through. After a couple of
weeks the neighbor with the truck wanted to quit so being desperate we
took the giant step. We bought the truck and we were in the wood
business.
He asked the cutters if they would be willing to stay
until we got started. They would. He went to the grocery store and
arranged to charge groceries for everyone. It was rough but we managed.
We had as cutters, Taylors, Morgans, Big Jim, two Whales families, Merle
Martin, Sr. and Jr. and some times Dave Thomas. After we got going we
bought land from folks who were going to lose it for taxes and paid
$5.00 - $8.00 per acre.
Stress and work took its toll on Dad and
he developed ulcers and heart problems. Practically living on eggnog he
determined to stay on the wood truck until Allan graduated from high
school. When Allan took over he did very little for a year.
During the 30’s, the depression years, our road was improved, new roads
were built including Trout creek and Larch Mountain and many rock walls
were built. There was so much unemployment the government started the
WPA.
Wages were meager but better than nothing. Food was given
free according to the size of ones family. Because we owned our home we
were not eligible for those benefits. Mr. Groce at the store said you
could go cry. Dad was very proud and said he would “whittle a beak and
pick with the chickens before he would ask for anything”. The ladies
could go make sheets and pillowcases and get them but we couldn’t. My
sheets were all made of feed sacks. They were cloth (not gunny) with
emblems on them. The emblems were very hard to get off so the sheets and
the girls underwear often had crown on them in faint colors.
Some of our woodcutters were really interesting people. Jack Taylow was a
piano player and taught Catherine the fundamentals of the piano. Big
Jim was a monstrous big fellow. The Morgans were like Jack Sprat…he was
very small and thin and she very big. One group was very dear to us.
There were two sisters, 16 and 18 married to boys 19 and 20. The boys
were cousins. The girls’ mother had died and left them and three younger
children a boy 2, and two girls 4 and 8. The girls promised they would
raise the younger kids. They came together in an old car from the east
with all of their belongings looking for work. We had a garage (one room
about 12 by 16) that we had made into a playhouse for our kids. (That
house is now Frank and Catherine’s bedroom). They moved in there. One
couple slept in one of our bedrooms.
It was hard how they found
us. We had gone to Cottrell to visit Dad’s family and while there this
old car drove up loaded with people. Someone had told them we were
hiring wood cutters and they desperately needed work. Dad told them to
go to our house, build a fire and keep warm till we got there and they
would talk. We got home when it was nearly dark and had to decide what
to do. They moved into the playhouse, Bud and Sis in with us and the
boys started to cut wood the next day. After 40 years Bud and Sis
stopped to see me. I was so happy. They were like our own children
coming home.
The depression was a very difficult era. We learned a
lot. God was good to us. We managed to have enough money so our kids
were not deprived of everything.
The Hoggs were a real
inspiration to me during those depression years. When the mill was
closed and they moved out Mr. Hogg had plenty to retire. His money was
invested with interest coming in, was a director of a Kelso, Washington
bank board and had lots of land. He had a beautiful home in Portland and
was living well. Then the stock markets fell, the banks folded and he
lost it all. The Bank Board had to repay as much as possible those who
had deposited and he was left broke. They moved out to one of the mill
shacks. They had their two grandchildren, children of their only
daughter who had died with them. They planted berries and worked like
the rest of us to get by even though they were retirement age. We
sometimes felt sorry they had so much and lost it but they handled it
very well. I learned to love her like another Mother. They still had
their lovely furniture and it did seem odd in so humble a home. Merrily
and Townsend were special to us and Merrily is like my own…I love her
so. Mrs. Hogg usually made the refreshments for our parties for kids and
we furnished the home. Our furniture was less fragile and they did get
tough…especially playing winkum.
The depression was getting
less oppressive but we still continued in the wood business. There is
100 cord of our wood in the tunnel at Eagle Creek on the Columbia River
Highway. We sold wood delivered in Portland for $5 per cord.
WAR AGAIN…
December 7, 1941 – Pearl Harbor was bombed. We were having a bridal
shower for Merle Martin, Jr. and Lorraine Bridges at our home when
someone came from Corbett and told us that Pearl Harbor had been bombed
and many ships sunk. You can imagine what happened to that party. We
had no phones and no Sunday paper so had not news her in Aims. Only had
battery radios and used them sparingly. President Roosevelt declared War
on the Japanese…The beginning of World War II. All the boys eighteen
and over had to register for the draft immediately.
Jim and Allan were
both helping at home yet as the dads health was so poor. Jim had a job
at Hyster for a while but was back at home. It was a very difficult time
for everyone. Boys were either enlisting or being drafted. When
enlisting it was somewhat possible to get into a branch of one’s choice.
Allan wanted to enlist so he and Dad went to Gresham to see about
it. They took him immediately that day and dad came came home alone, very
discouraged. We at home didn’t get to tell him good-bye. He joined the
Airforce and was gone for 43 months without ever getting home. No
telephones so no calls. Only letters.
Someone told the draft
board that Jim was needed at home and he was given a deferment to stay
on the farm. He was very depressed about that so Dad went to the Draft
board and had him released. He told Jim he would go the next week so if
he wanted to enlist he would have to do it right away. He joined the
Navy and was gone in a few days. That was in January 1944.
Dad
was too distraught about it to take him to leave so Ardie, Catherine,
Marilou and I took him and bid him good-bye. Sending his boys to war a
real trauma for Dad. I worried for him that he would not be here when
they returned. The twenty-third Psalms was my solace through those years
and the Lord was good. The girls and I helped Dad keep things going and
the Lord was good therapy to control the anxiety. Letters were very
sporatic. We might get a bunch and then not hear again for a long time.
Ardie and Jim wer married in Norfolk, Virginia on June 4, 1944. (D-Day
in France) and only got to stay there for a short time so Ardie was here
a lot. We had to sign for Jim to marry and I thought he was too young
but Dad convinced me it was okay. During those years when things got
tough and I needed a good cry I would go to the barn and have my cry and
then face the world again. Psalms 23 remained my solace.
Gas was
rationed during the War as were tires and sugar. We had ration books
and only had f gallons a week for personal and pleasure. After Catherine
graduated from hiugh school she got a job for the Weather Bureau at
Crown Point and got 5 gallons for personal use also. Since everyone had
left the community the little Sunday School at Aims was closed and we
started going to Bethal Baptist Church in Gresham.
REA / PGE
One real interesting activity during that period of our life was the
coming of electricity. For twenty years we had tried to get PGE to
bring electricity to us but they refused because of the sparcely settled
area. They would charge those off the road an exhorbinant amount. Rural
Electrification Association was started during the Roosevelt era to
promote progress in rural areas. It was a government funded project that
made it possible for everyone to get power if all agreed to share the
costs. That way those off the main road were not so hard hit.
An
agreement was made and REA had the easements to plant poles. When PGE
discovered it, both companies began digging and planting poles at the
same time.
To assure REA would maintain their plan they put in a line
from Elsner Road to Trout Creek Camp and purchased a diesel engine that
had been used at Timberline Lodge to supply the power. Dad kept that
thing running night and day for 1 year. With that noisy motor running
all the time…when it wasn’t broken down it was an interesting situation.
The company men came often to repair it and we became good friends. I
hardly remember a good nights sleep that year. By years end the lines
were ready to connect from Sandy way and the motor was shut down. PGE
later bought out the REA lines.
Getting electricity during the
war was wonderful but getting wiring appliances and fixtures was very
difficult. Mose everything was second hand. All efforts were toward war
equipment…not civilian. I still have the refrigerator I got though.
Aims school closed during the war. Multnomah county students went to
Corbett and Clackamas county to Bull run. Teachers were scarce. Our last
teacher was a total loss. She couldn’t handle the eight graders at all.
Marilou was in the 8th grade so she started to Corbett in the fall of
1942. That year when one parent arrived to visit the school she found
the teacher being bombarded with matches that lighted when shot from
bean shooters. She was batting them away. When the parent reported it to
the school board that was the end of school at Aims.
We also
started keeping Foster children during the War. We needed something to
brighten our lives. Leroy (6) was the first. He gave us excitement
alright. We became good friends with his Dad and step-mother and
maintained that friendship until their death. After LeRoy went back to
his mother (she was something of a mental case) we got Harold and Dick.
Harold was only with us a couple years I think. He had many problems
and as a teenager hanged himself. They were 11 and 12 when we got them.
We had Dick until he was 17 when we wrecked our car and ran away. Dick
also had many problems and his thievery continued. We heard from him a
few times after he left. We often wondered if he is in jail or a
policeman.
After we got the boys we got two little girls,
Carolyn (3) and her sister Maxine (4). Maxine went back to her mother
when she was 12 but we had Carolyn until she was grown and she is
family.
Catherine got a job with the Weather Bureau at Crown
Point as soon as she graduated in May 1943. By then the married men were
being drafted and she replaced an employee with a wife and child. The
Bureau was moved during the war to Troutdale airport.
WAR OVER
Allan was supposed to get home for Christmas Day 1945 but he managed to
surprise us by hitchhiking from F. Lewis to Springdale and my brother
Fred brought him home. He arrived about 3 a.m. We were excited.
Jim arrived soon after getting out on points since he was married and
that added points. He got a job at the Aluminum Plant and he and they
set up housekeeping in a little house where Carl Anderson lives now.
Catherine met Frank when he and a buddy were on the same ship as Jim
came to Astoria and then to Portland and came to visit Jim. They were
soon married and Frank got a job at the Aluminum Plant and Catherine was
still working for the Weather Bureau at Troutdale. They rented a house
where Marshes (Mrs.) now lives.
About them Dad decided to give
each one a piece of land and have them all live near us. That had always
been his dream. I was very much against it. I felt I couldn’t handle
being so involved with in laws as well as my own and grandchildren bound
to come. He got his way.
The Lord made me see I had to change in many
ways.
Frank and Catherine moved next door to us in a house Dad
put together from the old “play house and diesel shed” with a few other
scraps. They have been there since adding on and on and on.
Allan
had stayed on the place and was going to try to farm. He married Ruth
the next year after he returned from the service (August ’47) and Dad
helped them build the ir house. Jim and Frank quit the Aluminum Plant in
February of 1947 and went into partnership with Allan and got into the dairy business. Dad was delighted and he deeded the home place to the
three boys beside giving each their individual pieces of property. Allan
and Ruth lived with us for a time until their house was done.
FIRST GRANDCHILD
First grandchildren are hard to beat and Pat came along inn April of
1947 and was really precious. Each as they came along were special in
their own right and we have been really blessed with them.
When
Pat was 11 months old Jim and Ardies’ house burned and they lost
everything but themselves and their clothes on their backs. That’s when
Dad gave them the property they live on now and everyone pitched in and
helped get a house built. People were kind in many ways after the fire
but it was then that I determined to be very careful when I gave things
to folks in need because they gfot some nicew things but lots of junk.
That was true when we collected for missionary too. It is important to
give things that are good enough for you or you shouldn’t expect others
to wear them. Made lots of rags for the garage.
The day their
house burned I was taking Dad out to get the school bus, which he still
drove and we had a huge hail storm. Part way up the hill at Trout Creek I
got stuck and while trying to put the car in the ditch instead of
letting it go over the bank I fell off the running board (I was out of
the car when it started to slide) into the ditch and injured my knees.
I’ve suffered with them a lot every since. When the car went into the
ditch the windshield broke and I sat on a piece of glass. My knees and
my bottom were bleeding and I was a mess. Hard day.
Marilou and
Ralph were married and I was glad to be through with the frustration and
stress of weddings for a while. Ralph had to go back into the service
during the Korean War and Marilou lived at home again.
Jim and
Ardie lived with us for a time after their house burned. Then Catherine
had been ill and had a miscarriage so Jim and Ardie lived in their house
and they lived with us. Babies continued to come along and we baby sat
when the young people were working.
They all had to work hard.
The dairy business was not easy and was expensive to get going. The boys
decided to do some logging and the girls did the milking in the
evening. We babysat and made dinner a lot. It got very hard to keep
going this way and in 1965 they sold the dairy, went in to beef and
logging full time.
Marilou and Ralph had bought a house in
Portland and lived there for a couple years after he got home from
Korea. Then they decided to move back and Dad gave them land. They lived
with us for a time while the house was being built. Doug was a little
guy then.
HEART ATTACK
Dad had a massive heart attack at
age 65. He was in the hospital for six weeks. The doctors gave us very
little hope for recovery saying if he lived five years would be the max.
He fooled them and lasted 13. It was a very difficult and tiring time.
He was in the Veterans Hospital and for nearly a month someone took me
each morning and got me in the evening. For the first couple of years
after the attack he could not do much but later did very well. I pretty
much did what he wanted to do. He made cedar chests for all the
granddaughters and desks for the grandsons. He worked on everyone’s
houses, did lots of jobs about the ranch and worked on the church.
We had a large beautiful garden and provided produce to everyone in the
neighborhood who wanted it. He had a chair at the end of the rows so he
could rest and about worked the socks off me at times. Since he
couldn’t pull the marker I did under his direction and learned to make
pretty straight rows. After he died people would say “you sure don’t
have a garden like Baker used to have” and I felt like spitting in their
eye.
After dad got better the kids thought we needed a vacation
so bought us train tickets east to Ohio, Indiana and Minnesota. I was
really scared…of traveling and of Dad getting another heat attack away
from home but we made it fine. Only as we went across the high mountains
did we have to stay put because with his asthma and heart problems he
couldn’t breath well. Was okay if he just sat.
We were gone two
and a half weeks and visited Frank’s family in Ohio. Stayed with Harley
and Marie Bilger there. They took us somewhere every day and treated us
royally.
We left there for Goshen, Indiana to visit Dad’s cousin
Maude and Rosco Garber. We met many cousins we had never seen and some
we had never heard of. They showed us all around the area and we had a
wonderful time. One of the most interesting was visiting the Amish. We
visited when they had all gathered to harvest maple syrup. Men took off
from work and kids from school for a couple of weeks to do the
harvesting. It was famous and shipped to all parts of the world.
Visiting the Amish was like going back in time.
From there we
went to Minnesota. Dad’s cousins Ruth and Loren Young met us in
Minneapolis and we drove to Milaca. We visited St. Cloud where Dad was
born and saw many of Minnesota’s 1,000 lakes. The Blue Mountains that
Dad thought were big turned out to be very small. We saw the little
houses along the lake that were used by ice fishermen. Again we met many
relatives and had a fantastic time but weariness was upon us when we
started home.
We were met buy everyone at the Train depot when we
got home. The boys had milked at 4 a.m. so they could come along and
all of the kids were there too. I was so excited to see them all I
asked…”Where is the Band”. Breakfast was planned for everyone when we
got home and we talked a mile a minute. A wonderful trip.
About
the longest trip we ever took driving was to Auburn California to see
Dad’s sister Etta. His widowed sister Florence and her son went along.
It was a good time but with them and Carolyn along we did have to
practice patience.
Carolyn graduated and left to make her way in the world returning now and then until she married.
Life moved along without a lot of change until 1969. Dad’s health began
to deteriorate. He felt miserable much of the time and couldn’t walk to
the pond like he often did but had to drive down. He always said he
would have to die first because he couldn’t get along without me but
that didn’t do much for me…especially when I saw him getting worse He
did plug along though and we went to Gresham still and to church. He
went to church the night before he passed away.
Our last
Christmas dinner together was in 1969. It was really wonderful because
all of the family got to visit including the grandchildren away at
school.
December 29th he got up feeling really good and cooked
breakfast while I fed the chickens. He hadn’t done that for along time
and felt really bad because I had to build the fires. After lunch he
took his usual nap and got up feeling terrible. In late afternoon we
decided he should go to the hospital and along the way he enjoyed the
Christmas lights and suddenly he died about 1/2 block from the hospital.
He had filled with fluid and drowned.
Tami was a real joy to him
during his last days. She was so tiny she would climb on his lap and
take his billfold out of his overall pocket and play with it and talk to
him. At the end he couldn’t lift her so she would get a stool and climb
on his lap. It was entertainment for him. I appreciated that.
He was buried January 2, 1970 and I started a new life alone. Even
though my family was all around I stayed in the big old house and it was
big and it was lonely. I often sat on a stool in the corner by the
chimney so I didn’t feel so alone. The Lord blesses in interesting ways.
Tim got the red measles and with his mother working I took care of him.
Then Clair got them and I had to help with her. It filled my days a bit
and made me feel useful. For a time I went to one of the kids homes for
dinner every evening but after awhile that stopped. It was great but we
had to get on with life.
Everyone was so good to me. Even the
grandchildren took me places. Once when Tom and Judi were stationed in
Chicago, I went with Marsha to see them via air. It was my only airplane
ride and quite enough to last a life time. It was very stormy and
rough. While there Tom took me to see Maude Garber in Goshen and it was a
terrible snow storm and what should have taken four hours took eight.
Did see lots in Chicago.
My dear friend Alta Van Ausdell passed
away soon after Dad and that was a great loss. We had homesteaded
together and shared many good times and bad times together. When Allan
was a baby I would walk with Dad to the mill and then visit with Alta
until he came home. They had no children and loved the baby. A great
loss.
During the sixteen years since Dad’s death (it is 1986 as I
write this) there have been deaths and weddings and births that have
all affected my life. Divorces and other traumas that caused me pain.
All of Dad’s family are gone…the sisters and brothers and in-laws and I
live on. There has been much joy in all of it also and the Lord has been
so good I have health and home and friends and family in abundance.
Three of my brothers are gone and agony over lawsuits over division of
property has been a heartache.
Growing old has its difficulties.
It is hard to watch ones children grow old and ready to retire but it is
exciting to see the new ones come along. My life is really quite full
and I am blessed.
I try not to feel guilty about all of my blessings but it does seem I have more than I deserve.
My 88th birthday in 1986 was exciting because many friends and family
helped celebrate with a potluck. Also Caitlin, Norma’s adopted daughter
from India arrived at the airport…not by stork but by plane on my
birthday. That was special.
Every birth was specials but it was
extra special when Linda had twins. The great grand children really help
to keep me up with life. When Catherine and Frank’s kids next door all
left I was lonesome for someone to come for jelly beans and kool aid but
the next generation is keeping up the tradition.
Being the gum lady at church keeps me acquainted with all the little ones there and I do so enjoy that.
I do miss things I used to do and getting outside to work is one.
Giving up the chickens was hard even though I knew it was for the best.
The world seems to go on just the same even though I am not out there
keeping it going.
MY CHRISTIAN LIFE
As I recall there were
no Sunday School or churches around for many years. My Great
Grandmother and my Grandmother were spiritualists…then turned to
Christian science. My Dad only sang hymns when he was mad…(he did know
the words). My Mother did read her Bible and tried to teach us the best
she could. When I was about eleven some folks started a Sunday School at
Pleasant View on Cabbage Hill and a bunch of us kids from Springdale
walked there. We always got there on time but took a long time getting
home. Only went in the summer. Then a Mrs. Eliza Chamberlain started a
Sunday School in Springdale School and I believe it continued until the
Gospel Hall was built. I always liked to go. Dr. Elliot and Dr.
Ironsides both spoke at Gospel Hall. They were very good. I accepted the
Lord at one of Ironsides meetings when I was about 13. As most kids are
I went to church on Sunday but it did not change my life a lot.
I went to revival meetings at the dance hall in Springdale when preachers came to hold them.
Dad’s family always went to church but were church hoppers. Dad
accepted Christ as a boy but did not get involved in it because his Dad
did not live like he thought a Christian should.
My mother-in-law
was the dearest Christian I ever met and demonstrated such faith under
trying circumstances that she was my ideal. I yearned to trust the Lord
like she did.
After we were married we rarely went out to church. It was too hard.
When Jim and Allan were little Mr. Davis started a Sunday School at
Hurlburt School House and we started to go there. That only lasted a few
months because he started studying the Bible and got on the wrong track
somehow and decided he was an atheist and went to his grave that way so
far as I know.
We then went back to Gospel Hall in Springdale
because all of the efforts to start a work in Aims at the mills failed.
In 1933 through Mr. Elwick at Springdale I was introduced to the
American Sunday School Union (now American Missionary Fellowship) and a
Rev. Frank Allen who came and visited in the community and then helped
us organize a Sunday School. It was held in the Aims School House. It
continued until War time and there just were not enough people to
support a work.
We started attending Bethel Baptist church and both Dad and I were baptized there.
When the War was over the young people returned and again the idea of
having a church in Aims began to be discussed…an answer to my prayers.
Again the Sunday School and Church was held in the old school house…one
room with curtain partitions for classes. It was growing and there was a
need for a “real” church. It was such a joy for me to see that happen.
Dad was able to help with a lot of the finish work and that is a
pleasure for me to enjoy when I look especially at the cedar walls in
the sanctuary. It was a real volunteer effort and a special time in our
lives.
I have a plaque received from the AMF for 50 years of work
in the Sunday School at Aims. It is one of my precious earthly
treasures…very beautiful.
EXPERIENCES WITH ANIMALS
As a
girl at home Old Sam fell down as I was driving him with my Mother and
the boys. I had to hold his head down and hold the other horse while
they unhitched them so we could get him up. Scary.
Stagger weed
was a real problem with our cattle when we let them graze all over the
hill. Molly, the cow the folks gave us, died down on the Clark place.
Once we had four or five cows down along the road from home to the Baum
place. Dad had to drench them all with kerosene, lard and warm water.
Old Daisy nearly died of stagger weed poison but Dad saved her by
drenching her with carbolic acid and warm water only to have her go down
to the Lowe place (end of Groce Road) and get caught in a bear trap. We
both cried. When Dad told the man who had set the trap what happened
the man said he had posted signs. Traps were supposed to be fenced in
as there was ho herd law. He said he would pay for her but he not only
did not pay for her…he left without paying his milk bill.
Another
time some Ayrshires with long horns that belonged to the neighbors got
into a fight with our cow Honeysuckle and ripped her open so her innards
fell out. We needed that cow and we cried again.
One time when
our horse was sick Dad put a rope over the limb of a tree and I was
supposed to hold the horses’ head up so he could drench her. Not liking
that she reared up and I started pulling in the slack. Dad said let go
and I came down with a thud. Had I held on to the rope though I would
have been up the tree or on top of the horse.
One of the wildest
times was when Dad was in the hospital with a severe sinus problem. Bob
and Alice came to stay with me to help with chores. I never learned to
milk. We had a cow that kicked so bad Dad always put a rope around her
back legs before he tried to milk her…a hobble of sorts. Well, Bob did
that but some how she got her head out of the stanchion even though she
had big horns. She started out of the barn through the chute. Trying to
stop her Bob bopped her on the head with the milk bucket. Her horn went
through the pail so out she went with her hind parts dragging, her head
in a bucket into the barnyard knee deep in mud. Hearing Bob yelling I
went to find the cow stuck in the mud. We couldn’t get her out so put a
rope around her neck and pulled her out with the horse. Could have
broken her neck but didn’t. Called the butcher who came around to buy
cattle and sold her even though my dad said I shouldn’t until Dad got
out of the hospital.
During that time Bob, Dave Thomas and Harvey
Crook butchered a beef and they had a terrible time. I about had a fit
before it was over. When Bob and I were cleaning up the mess we decided
to verify what we heard that cows had four stomachs. We cut it open and
sure enough it was in a bag with four rooms. Pretty dumb for two adults I
guess.
I forgot to mention that they gave us a chivarie when we
were first married. That was the custom and we were supposed to be
startled and even though we thought they were coming we were surprised
by their banging and yelling. I was making fudge to treat the when they
came. Our wee little house was really crowded. I do remember a Mr. Judd
eating peanuts looking just like a monkey. It was a fun time.
During the years I became something of a midwife…or at least a helper at
births. George Crook was born at our house right after we got home from
Jim’s stint in the hospital with appendicitis. He and his mother were
with us ten days. I helped deliver Janet at their house. I was with my
Mother when Dan was born and took care of Alice when Jean was born. Also
helped with Dorthy when Tim and Barbara were born.
My first
Midwife experience was when I helped deliver Leonard Sutton (the race
car driver). We had gone to a Wedding dance and while there Sutton came
to call the Doctor and asked if someone could come help because Hazel
was in labor. The midwife who was supposed to come had stopped by to
check and finding Hazen fine went on to town to grocery shop. Thinking I
could do anything, Dad said Clara would help.
Arriving we found
Hazel walking the floor and raving about everything. She was mad at the
baby and at Sutton. Really crazy. I tried to calm her down while Sutton,
Dad and Dr. Hughes sat in the kitchen drinking coffee and spinning
yarns. When I would try to get Dr. Hughes to do something (he had
checked her now and then) he would just say…she is doing fine. Finally
about 5 a.m. she was ready and soon Leonard was born. I used the ether
mask and we did just fine. Now over sixty years later it is a vivid
memory to me. It was to Hazel also until her death even when she became
quite mixed up about other things. I went every day and took care of
her. It was my first midwife experience. Our kids and theirs all slept
through the excitement. That was a blessing.
So many things I
have forgotten as I have written down these thoughts during the year
1986. Running out of room at Dunlaps, Chris and Sarah moved in with me
after Dad passed away. That was really comforting to me. When they were
away at college they would bring friends home so the old house was full
and lively again.
Lori stayed with me and so did Sandra for a
while. The Darlands lived with me when they first moved to Aims in
preparation for building a house. It was a real sad day for me when
Jolene died at such an early age.
The Columbus Day storm in 1962
was quite an experience that I will always remember. Cooking on the
outside fireplace when we had no electricity was exciting to all of the
kids. Things were such a mess we were all just working to survive and
clean up and we worked together to do it.
Mt. St. Helens eruption
was quite a thrill…one in a lifetime. Of course in my lifetime I have
seen a lot of change…a lot of war…a lot of joy…from horses to supersonic
travel is quite hard to comprehend sometimes.
At the end of 1986
as always I find myself missing Dad so much. How I wish he too could
have enjoyed all of the grandchildren and greatgrands that I have been
privileged to enjoy. Since he is with the Lord I would not wish him back
but know he would have enjoyed all this so much.
The highlight
of my year in 1987 was being “Queen For A Day” at he Pioneer
Association. It was exciting and I had two kings. The oldest man and
woman are picked. Two men were exactly the same age. Never happened
before.
In 1988 I reached ninety and we had a wonderful
celebration. Held it at the church and 151 people attended. Marilou and
Becky made me a “This is Your Life” book and it is so exciting to look
at. So many cards and greetings I was nearly overwhelmed. It was just
grand.
Earlier in the month I had received my “Honorary High
School diploma”…at the graduation ceremonies for the Corbett High School
Class of ’88. It was 70 years since I should have graduated and
couldn’t so it was special.
Life continues to be full. It is not
that I do so much but I am involved and affected by everyone’s joys and
sorrows so I am busy. I have learned to do many craft things to keep
occupied.
It is my hope and prayer that 1989 will be a good year. The world is in such a mess only God can control.
I also pray that if I am to stay her for a while I’ll keep my health so
I won’t be a burden to my family. May I always appreciate my family and
extended family and friends and show them that I do. I do not want to
get fussy and hard to get along with. My aim is not to be a miserable
old woman.
I am so thankful for my savior, for my family and my friends. I pray please Lord bless each one.
November 20, 1988.
Catherine has written an epilogue to Grandma Baker's story, telling about the last ten years not included. Here it is:
The rest of the story…In Grandma B’s Book
At age 90 in 1988 Grandma completed her memory account. For ten more
years she continued to live very actively celebrating her 100th birthday
with a grand party at Aims Church.
She succeeded in meeting her
goal of not becoming a “miserable” old woman. Her health, including her
mind, remained quite good until just three weeks prior to her death.
She continued to live alone in her own house until she was nearly 97.
Granted she got a lot of help from family members but she vehemently
insisted she was doing fine. She never missed church and continued to do
her grocery shopping.
The one thing she was disappointed about
was that she didn’t continue driving after Grandpa died. It was a bad
decision on all our parts. She knew she had a place at the Dunlaps when
she was ready. One morning in the first week of May 1994 when I
(Catherine) went to see how she was doing she announced, “I’m going to
have to give up and move in with you.” Then began a rapid change over
from a TV room at Dunlaps to her home for the remainder of her life.
Within a week the room was converted and she moved in on May 12, 1994.
Along with her move Kylie Dunlap was born that same night. I have no
problem remembering the move day!
Her health was not at it’s best
at that time. She suffered from a bowel blockage. We were able to get
the problem resolved at home. She was back to mostly arthritis bothering
her.
She had poor eyesight at best and one problem that had to
be dealt with on a regular basis was with her eyes. Her bottom lashes
would turn into her eyes. About every three weeks the eye doctor pulled
them out with tweezers – not pleasant.
She loved company and
telling and retelling stories. Probably many of the grandchildren have
memories of stories about them individually. Tami & Ben have one
about when she sent them home because they were fighting at her house.
They headed towards home, but she watched them duck into the rhubarb
patch for a while and then went back to her house. She never failed to
tell the “rhubarb” story if they were around. I know you can add your
own.
Amazing as it seems she continued to remember birthdates
of family members and kept current with deaths, marriages, etc. She
could also say the alphabet backwards and recite the numbers 1 to 10 in a
Native American language…which tribe is unknown.
When telling
her stories about neighborhood history she would say, “I tell it like I
remember it and who can challenge me? – I’m the oldest.”
After
her 100th party she said she was ready to die but continued doing well
until late in August 1988. She woke up one Sunday morning ill and was
unable to go to church. She was still not well at all on Monday and the
doctor called Hospice. She went to be with the Lord three weeks to the
day from the first health issue. During that time there were some really
bad days and some good. She quietly slipped away very glad to be on her
way. We were very blessed to have her those many years.
When she
left her house we had to decide its future. It was not in good shape.
It was not well built, the foundation having been originally constructed
on rocks. Some better foundations were attempted in some areas but
nothing was very stable. It had been put together over the years and was
in bad shape. To repair or demolish became the question. We always
wondered who would make it the longest…Grandma or the house. Grandma
won.
The decision was made by all of us to burn the house by
letting the fire department practice first, which they did several times
before the final burn. We had one last party on the front porch and
yard before it was gone. To save the building site something had to be
constructed soon. A manufactured home was put there and Marc Dunlap and
family moved there in December 1994. Kylie became an active participant
in entertaining Grandma until her death. And Grandma entertained Kylie
as well.
Grandma was a practical woman, not overly sentimental.
Her treasure was in people, not things. So when the house had to go, she
was a really good sport about it. She never complained about anything
that needed to be done. She was not a burden nor a “miserable” old woman
to anyone. She remained a vital part of the family and community to the
very end. She fulfilled her hope.
She lived to see the “new
church” – a great joy to her. She always passed out gum to the children.
It was somewhat a pain for those scraping it off the floor, but they
knew the joy it brought her to have the little ones gather around her.
She was a great lady!
We were all blessed by her presence.
