1 - Family Matters

When I was four I wanted to go meet the older brothers and sisters coming home from school so I could get a horseback ride home with them. One day after the bigger kids had left for school on horseback I was out playing under the care of sister Louise. If I could spot the kids coming home I ran hard they would let me ride horseback back to the house. This day I got impatient for them to get home and I thought I’ll just go meet them. It was about ten in the morning. Well I got a short distance from home when my sister missed me. Well she came after me and when she did she brought a switch. Louise switched me with a little switch all the way home. On my bare legs that switch made an impression on me I never forgot and I still remember it very well today. I didn’t try that twice.

Now our house on the ranch was functional. A bedroom downstairs a kitchen with a big wood stove a dining table a living room with a wood heater for winter. A pantry and that’s about all. The chimney from the stoves heated the bedrooms upstairs. The upstairs consisted of two rooms, one for the boys and one for the girls. We had the spring water piped into the house but there was no electricity. We had coal oil lamps, candles and one gas (Coleman) lantern. We had no electricity in those days. Our lights were kerosene lamps and a big gas lantern hanging in the center of the living room. The Coleman lamp had to be pumped up after filling and then lit. One day Ruby sat me on the table. When Howard lit it my hair caught on fire (burned all my hair off). Ruby put it out but it sure took off all my hair that night.

On the family farm to help feed the family and the crew when the harvest was on. (The crew had to be fed) we had a potato patch. On a north slope when the snow stayed longest the potatoes were planted as there was no water to irrigate them. After planting rain and ground moisture was all the water they got. We had chickens and geese and ducks, pigs and calves for meat and eggs. Butter was hand churned and bread was baked once a week. We had a cook stove and a heater in the front room. The chimney up through the upstairs was all the heat we had in the bedrooms. Dad laid the fire at night before bed and started it before milking and feeding the horses. All the farm work was once with horses and our transportation was by horseback or wagons.

All my older brothers and sisters went to the one room school at Beaver Creek as well as my older nephews the Gurnards. It had a horse barn an outdoor privy (john) a house for the teacher and an out door pump for water. One day (I was about 4) Mom and Dad had to go to Wenatchee so they dropped me off at school for sister Ruby to look after me. I was kind of grubby so she took me out to the pump and scrubbed me clean. Ill tell you that was my first day at school was not that enjoyable as I not only got cleaned up but I had to sit still and be quiet all day. Boy it was good to go home when school was out that afternoon. One teacher taught all grades up to the 6^th. After that if you went farther it was down to Wenatchee for 7-8-9-10-11-12. Robert was doing that and staying with our Grandpa and Grandma. He was the first of the children to go to high school. He would come home for holidays and summer. The rest of the year he stayed in Wenatchee for six years.

When we did go to Wenatchee we would stay and go to church as there was none on the mountain. What is now the pedestrian bridge replaced the ferry. I do not remember ever crossing the ferry. I always got up early and went with my dad to church. It was in German and I still remember it to this day. Dad always said the blessing and his prayers in German. I never learned to speak it but I could understand and we said the response. We thank thy Father at the end in German.

On Badger Mountain we shopped mostly by mail (Sears or Wards). The mail man brought most everything. When ever needed a trip to town for staples flour, beans, coffee and the likes of that. We tried to grow everything else we needed. Picnics and dances were community affairs and friends would come over when farm duties allowed and the grown ups would visit and play cards all night. We had a barn that would hold about 20 horses as they were used to pull the equipment. We had about four cows for milk and pigs for sale and food. Lots of ducks, geese and chickens for eggs. They more or less ran loose so eggs could be anywhere and us kids would watch so we could gather them when they tried to hide a nest in the weeds. Doctors were so far away you tried to get along with out them unless you were really sick. Waterville was the place we went for the 4^th of July. Dad really was proud to be an American and he said that our freedom was the one thing that made this country great. Waterville at that time was a small town with dirt streets and wooden sidewalks. It had the fair in the fall and everyone went. The women to exhibit sewing and canning. The men to exhibit livestock. Wheat, cows, pigs, horses, sheep then a big dance to celebrate the harvest. Most everyone who lived up there was related or related to some one who was related to you. Everyone knew everyone else anyhow.

Washing was an experience and in the summer was done outdoors as the water had to be heated and our washing machine was a gas operated affair that needed a lot of room. It made a lot of racket so it was moved outdoors in the summer. This day Louise was washing and I was under foot as usual. One thing intrigued me. It was the ringer. It could be reversed to run the clothes either way. I had been putting my fingers on the rollers. It gave a rippley feeling as my little fingers bumped. Louise had told me not to do this. I stopped and she reversed the rollers and ran some sheets through She turned away to go to the house to get something. As soon as she left I thought ah ha this is my chance, I put my fingers on the rollers and my whole hand went into it up to my wrist. Now this really scared me and I started yelling and pulling trying to get my hand out. Well the machine didn’t want to let go and it pulled and I pulled My left hand never went in past my wrist but it chewed all the meat and skin off the top of my left hand before she got the ringer released. I carry that scar today on the back of my left hand.

I was about four when Cora died. One of my earliest memories was to visit them in Entiat where he was working. Bill Cora and Maxine lived in Entiat. Dad brought us down to Wenatchee, Mom, Helen, Donald, and myself. We caught the train in Wenatchee for the trip. It’s about twenty miles up the river. When we got on the train I told Don hang on to your hat so it don’t get blown off on the train ride. The two of us spent the whole twenty miles holding our hats so we wouldn’t lose them. We must have been a sight. After Bill’s wife Cora’s miscarriage his daughter stayed with her great grandmother Davis in Wenatchee as her mother had TB. When she passed away Maxine came to live with us until she was grown. I always felt that she was one of my own sisters. We were that close.

The trip to Wenatchee was an all day affair from our ranch by horse and wagon. It’s about twenty five miles and was all up hill on the way back. The road is different now and the last mile through the sand canyon really was hard on the horses. Half way up the grade there was a spring with trees and a nice turn out. Everyone stopped there and when people met they would visit, picnic lunch, cool spring water, feed the horses and break up the trip. In those days a trip to Wenatchee was an all day affair. When we came down if it was for shopping just South of Centennial Mills was a horse trough with trees and a blacksmith shop right where Stan’s Merry Mart is now. If we planned to stay over night we could put up at Grandma’s and Grandpa’s on Palouse Street just about two blocks from the Lutheran Church. If we did, I remember many times going to the services with Dad, the first thing in the morning and the services would be in German. Dad could read and write in German better than in English. He was sixteen when he started school in Illinois and he hated every minute because here he was six feet tall and in the first grade. After one year he and his brother John got on the train and came out West to Wenatchee to visit cousins. They never did go back. Charlie Witte, John Witte, Henry Wolf and his wife and family, the Koen’s were here just to name a few. When they didn’t come, Grandma sent Grandpa and Herman out to bring them back from the Indian Country. He looked around went back and moved the rest of the family and started a homestead raising wheat and stock. Dad married mother, who’s family had moved up onto the mountain to raise stock and stayed to farm wheat.

The Wenatchee Valley <Previous 1-Family Matters Next> 2-The Family Farm 3-When I Was A Boy 4-Olden Days Travel 5-Growing Up and Winter Sports 6-Events