REMEMBERING CHILDHOOD EVENTS WITH MOTHER AND DAD, ARCH & CORA RUSSELL BY IRMA BETH RUSSELL COLLINS

Cora was raised in Grass Valley, Sherman Co., Oregon. She was a school teacher in the area, four years. She boarded with a wheat farmer; who had hired Arch Russell to help him farm. That’s how my parents met. Arch’s parents, Augustus and Harriet Russell and Cora’s grandparents, James Brigale Doughterty moved from Elkhead to Grass Valley, Oregon when Cora was one year old (1981) to farm and raise sheep and horses. Another daughter, Bessie was born at Kent, Oregon. Arch and Cora were married Sept. 25, 1912.

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Mother wanted a piano and couldn’t afford it, on her teacher’s salary. She went to Sears and asked if she could buy a piano on “time payments”. Sears had never heard of such a thing, but decided that would be alright. Dad helped Mother finish paying for the piano. Later years, I had the piano; then when Alma and Frank came back from being missionaries in Pakistan and Kenya, they got the piano. Their daughter, Ruth Carpenter has the piano now.

There were eight children; Deston Roland, Lois Ellen, Greta Bertha, Forrest Augustus, Avery Milton, Alma Ruth, Irma Beth, Benjamin Dean.

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Irma weight 3 ¼ pounds; Alma weight 3 ¼ pounds. Mother wasn’t expecting twins. I heard we were so tiny, she sometimes put us in the “bun warmer oven” above the wood cook stove to keep us warm. Sixteen months later, Mother had twin boys. “Bobby died at six months. Benny weighed four pounds, grew up as though we were “triplets.” Our older sisters, Lois age ten and Greta age eight, worked extra hard, after school and holidays washing diapers and taking care of “babies”. They are very special sisters”. It’s also great having a twin sister.

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Early memories; I was five years, the family had moved to Lickskillet, district about fifteen miles from Grass Valley. Dad was still a wheat farmer with lots of horses and machinery; I can remember the milk cows, chickens, pigs and sheep.

1933; first grad: mother was our teacher; we lived so far from school. The older children rode the bus to Grass Valley School. The family always went to the Baptist Church in town. A few times, Alma and I sang the hymn, White than Snow, Greta played the piano for us. An “Old Grandfather man,” Mr. Holmes gave us a silver dollar. I can remember, “Old Time revival meetings” at DeMoss Springs. There was lots of singing, music and picnics. The folk’s closest friends were Shelton and Edna Fritz and Fred and Leona Cox. Mrs. Cox was our Sunday-school teacher.

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I don’t remember Grandma Dougherty, but Grandpa was around a lot, helping Dad and Mother wherever he could I heard Grandma divorced Grandpa and went to live near Aunty Bess, near Oakland, Oregon. She died in 1935. Aunty Bess was a school teacher 35 years.

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Grandpa had his own farm and raised horses and sheep. I remember being in a barn at lambing time. Dad went to help shear sheep. I remember the wool in big bags in the trucks. It was scary to see the sheep, run through sheep dip vats, for ticks and maggots. The tails were cut off the lambs, so they wouldn’t get maggots and ticks.

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Sometimes at wheat harvest time, Mother was a chuck-wagon cook, out in the fields; to feed the five workers on the combine. One time, I went with her, I fell off the steps and was unconscious a few hours, I woke up in someone’s basement.

One time, the family went huckleberry picking on Mt. Hood. We camped out in tents and picked lots of berries. I remember playing with Indian children and seeing their tents and clothes. I remember Grandpa giving me an Indian blanket, a pretty blue, red, yellow plaid design, I wonder what happened to it?

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Second grade; We rode the school bus into town. Alma was always smarter, I had a hard time memorizing poems, etc. I was “passed on condition” into the third grade. I was always getting ear aches and sore tonsils. We got the Red and German measles and Mumps. We were even quarantined for “seven year itch”. It was terrible, being rubbed down with grease and Sulphur and going naked several days. The family Doctor took our tonsils out; my throat was so sore. Benny, Alma and I did everything together.

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One time the Big Boys went Jack rabbit hunting and brought home a lot of big rabbits with ticks on them. The rabbits were eating the wheat grain.

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Forrest and Avery killed some rattle snakes; cut off the rattlers and heads, the snake’s bodies moved around for a long time. We like looking for Indian arrowheads and beads in the sand around the fields. Mother said the Indian used to camp in the area. The ground was sandy and hot in the summer and we went barefoot a lot. We like looking for Red Rock Roses and Yellow bell flowers. There was a pretty yellow rose bush in the yard; guess that’s why I still like yellow roses.

Dad had a lot of horses to pull the farm machinery. I remember Grandpa putting me on a big horse, when they came home from harvest. The horse sent to get a drink of water; I almost fell over his head into the trough. I hung onto the harness. Dad was always working to get water with a windmill, into the big water tanks.

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I’ve been told about the depression, bank loans that Dad couldn’t pay off; because of the hordes of grasshoppers eating the wheat and gumming up the combines. Dad lost the property; I was seven years old in 1934. So we moved to Lyle, Washington, in Klickitat Heights, ten miles north of Lyle. There were fir trees, hills and narrow gravel roads; compared to open sandy prairie wheat fields. At Grass Valley, we could see several mountains and at Klickitat Heights we were real close to Mt Adams and Mt. Hood.

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Lyle, Washington, Klickitat Heights: Klickitat Co;

We moved there because a retired Baptist preacher and Pearl Johnson lived there and helped the folks get settled again. The move to Klickitat Ht’s divided the family; so the older children could go to better schools. Deston was out of school and got a job. Lois went to live with relatives in Beaverton, Oregon and Greta lived in The Dalles, Oregon to work for her room and board and go two years of high school. Grandpa lived in Goldendale, Washington and then The Dalles so Greta got to see him often. Deston got married and bought Grandpa’s in Goldendale, was why Grandpa moved. Forrest lived with us and could go to Lyle.

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Klickitat Ht’s was a small community of about fourteen older farm families. Their children were grown and away from home. Only two families had children our age. Our one room school house was half mile from our house. Avery, Alma, Benn and I, Jessie Yohy and Merle Cimmiyotti went there. Our teacher was Beth McGowen. She married a neighbor’s son. I remember going to a “Shevoree” and all the neighbors surprised them with a shower and party. We waited until dark and everyone honked horn and rang cow bells to make noise. It was a real surprise party.

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Our fourth grade teacher was Gladys Klatt from Goldendale. We learned a lot in those two years; it was like our own private school; one teacher and five grades together. We had Christmas programs, lots of music and singing. One time, we dressed up in “Old Fashion Costumes” and danced the Minuets and Square dances. Even penmanship was fun and we had no excuse for not learning to multiply, divide and spell. At recess, we played Jacks, marbles, hopscotch, anny-over, jump rope and kick the can games.

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About 1938 one summer two retired ladies, that lived at Lyle, came to our school to teach us how to carve designs in wood, to make trays, book ends, hot mats, corner shelves and jewelry boxes. It really was fun to make some pretty things. I still have a tray and jewelry box made from a wood cigar box.

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There was a hand pump at the well for water and the teacher kept a fire going in a wood furnace in the basement for heat in the winters. The whole neighborhood turned out for the Last Day of School Picnic, games and singing. We didn’t have electricity in the building.

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There wasn’t enough children to go to school the next year; so our school was consolidated with Lyle. Dad bought a new car, had a jump seat put in, behind the front seat, to take about ten children to Lyle. Dad and Mother drove the “bus” three years. Then a big yellow school bus that had a longer route took all of us to Lyle. We lived at Klickitat He’s nine years.

All the years we lived at Grass Valley and Klickitat Ht’s; Dad made it an exciting time to have “Family Reunions on the fourth of July. Lots of Relatives and friends came for picnics. Mother would make ice cream, freeze it in a tub of rock salt and ice. We all took turns, turning the crank handle. To turn the cream until it was solid. In the afternoons, we could light firecrackers and sparklers. I still have a scar on my leg where a firecracker burned me. These reunions would go on every year until my dad died on July 4, 1953. Then we got together on Mother’s Birthday on Aug. 15. Eventually these Russell reunions were changed to the first week-end in Aug and “All the Russells” gathered for a Fun Time of three days. Dad had 17 brothers and sisters.

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Dad built a new woodshed that was used for Forrest and Avery’s bedroom upstairs; storage area and full of wood for the long winter; to cook and the heating stove. We didn’t have electricity and we used kerosene lamps for light. Then to split wood small enough for the stoves. The limbs were loaded onto a truck and taken home so they could be cut up with a buzz saw. Dad used a tractor with a long belt, hooked to the buzz saw roller to make the saw run. The family and neighbors worked together to get a good supply of wood in for the winters.

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The winters were cold, zero temperatures, East and West winds; lots of ice and snow. We were really snowed in until a County Snowplow cleared the roads. Dad went out and shoveled the driveway of snow so we could go to school. We did have fun sliding down the hills on sleds. Even on the ice, we had fu out in the fields. We got our hands and feet so cold that we got “chilblains”; Mother thawed us out; it was so painful. A lot of gravel roads got deep ruts in the winter and it was a challenge to keep out of them. Getting “high-center” was a lot of shoveling to get out.

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One time, Lois and Clifford came to see us a Christmas and got stuck in a snowdrift; Dad went o help them dig out and pushed the car. Dad got carbon-monoxide poisoning from the exhaust pipe and was real sick for a while.

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We had a bucket, tied to a rope that was on a pulley on the rafters on the back porch to get water from a well. We didn’t have running water piped into the house. The well was cleaned several times. Avery and Forrest took turns at the bottom, scraping the mud up in buckets and Dad dumped the mud out in the yard. The well was about 60 feet deep and five feet wide.

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Mother’s “refrigerator” was an ice box; a heavy wooden box with thick walls and door. The inside had galvanized metal walls to insulate ten pound block of ice that Dad could buy in town. There were shelves for food and the ice water dripped into a pan, under the box. We always had lots of milk and butter and food in there. The washing machine had a gas motor to wash clothes. There was a handle to turn the ringer to get the water out of the clothes. Then the clothes were hung, with clothes pins, on a line outside to dry. Mother heated water in a big wash tub on the wood stove when it was winter, the clothes sometimes froze solid. That was a strange sight to see.

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The summers were quite dry, warm and windy. The folks planted a large garden and we helped with the weeding. I learned early what the vegetable plants looked like. Mother did a lot of canning. We helped cut up fruit, prunes and apples, to dry on three tier wire racks, hung above the wood cook stove or put outside on hot days to dry. We cut corn off the cob to dry also.

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Every fall, we picked apples and we made cider in a big cider press. What we didn’t drink, it turned to vinegar. Mother could use that to make pickles. Dad made an underground “cold-cellar” to keep the vegetables and fruit all winter. It was quite an adventure to go down into the dark cold cellar. I remember in the spring, to “sprout the potatoes” and sort out the rotten fruit and vegetables. Some of the good potatoes, the folks saved to plant another crop.

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We went to visit Grandpa Dougherty at Goldendale and then The Dalles when he moved there. He was our only Grandpa so ti was exciting to see him. On November 1, 1937, his neighbors found him dead in his home. That was sad for us to go to his funeral at Lyle, Balch Cemetery. I was eleven years old.

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The folks had an old fashion hand crank telephone. That was really important to keep the lines up, to keep in touch with the “outside world”. Each neighbor had a special combinations of long and short rings.

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A bachelor neighbor, Mr. Hicks, invited the whole neighborhood to come to home for his birthday and to eat clam-chowder dinner. The neighbors brought food too and it was a lot of fun to get-together that way.

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For several years Dad and the older boys went fishing at Celilo Falls. A large falls on the Columbia River near The Dalles. One time, Alma and I went with them. One time, an Indian dropped a large salmon, from the railroad bridge onto Avery’s back. It almost knocked Avery into the falls. The Indian was so afraid of the accident, that he said Dad could keep the salmon. Avery was taken to the doctor several times and he got alright. Mother canned a lot of fish and it was really good to eat.

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In 1936, Bonneville Dam was built and The Dalles Dam was built in 196-, so Celilo Falls is gone forever. Now, today May 1999, I have a large picture in my kitchen that I like to look at; and “Remember When.”

I had my appendix out when I was thirteen years old; I had problems for several years so the folks decided that was the best thing to do.

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We kept going to Mr. and Mrs. Johnson’s for church on Sundays. Our other neighbors were different faith so never came. We all read from the Bible and the adults would discuss what it meant…We sang lots of hymns too. Mr. Johnson died from diabetes. A few years later Dad bought Mrs. Johnson’s place. He helped her move to Seattle to live with a daughter, Myrtle. We started going to Goldendale to the Baptist Church. It was good for us to be able to learn more from the Bible. Deston and Jeanette lived at Goldendale so we visited them too. Alma and I were baptized in 1941.

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Our sixth grade teacher, Miss Miller was killed, murdered by a man who wanted to marry her. She was planning to marry someone else. That really upset everyone in the school those of us in her room were placed in the seventh and eighth grade room for the rest of the year. Mr. Killborn was the teacher and he was a good teacher, being able to handle the eighth grade bullies and an extra grade too. We girls took sewing class with another teacher that was nice to learn how to do that.

I remember being a lot smaller than Alma; and someone would mentioned were “twins”. I always got teased for being skinny and “what happened to you” comments. I was glad Benny was more my size and we were always together; so it didn’t bother me so much. Alma’s hair was darker and wavy and my hair was blonde and straight. I wore pigtails a lot. Sometimes on special occasions Mother would put an old fashion curling rod in the kerosene lamp globe, get it hot then she could make “curls”. Sometimes the wick would make the globe black, but I like the curls anyway. Avery and Benny had wavy hair too. Dad had wavy hair and mother had a long braid, she rolled into a round “bun” pinned to the back of her head.

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Mother sewed a lot of our dresses alike; even into high school days, she made our clothes. She crocheted several sweaters for Christmas gifts. She showed me how to knit and tatt, but I didn’t make anything that I remember. Alma was really good at making things and kept doing it all her life. Mother crocheted bedspreads and table clothes for wedding gifts. There were Sears and Wards mail order catalogs to order things the folks needed.

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The neighbor ladies got together to exchange patterns and ideas to make several quilts after I got married. I really liked to embroidery and make some dresser scarves that I still have. I hand sewed a large “four-patch” built top that was fun later to see the materials, my dresses were made from.

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Dad bought several properties, so expanded the farm to grown more wheat and oat crops. Dad had two mules, Pete and Jerry, to pull the seed drill, grain binder and hay wagon. Dad had a John Deer tractor too, to run the stationary thrasher and baler with a long belt. The neighbors and big boys hauled the oat and wheat shocks in the wagon to the thrashing machine. The grain went into sacks and the chaff was blown into a huge pile. One time, I didn’t want to fall off, so I grabbed the reins and yelled for the mules to stop (WHOOOOOO). They finally did stop. When Alma and I were about thirteen we were given the job of “tying” the bales of straw. The baler was close to that huge stack of straw. The boys would keep shoving the straw toward Dad. He would put the straw into the baler; Alma had the job of putting the three wires into holes in the block. I was on the other side of the baler; I’d take the wires and tie the other ends of the wires as Alma put them through into another block to make each bale. Dad sold the straw and kept some for hay. He put loose grass hay into the barn for the cows to eat. Dad put the oat and wheat seed through a seed cleaner machine that was interesting to watch. Some grain he sold, the rest he kept for the next years seeding.

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One property Dad bought had enough trees, so he bought a saw mill. He cut the trees with the cross-cut saw, then with Pete and Jerry’s help, he drug the logs to the mill. I need to say that the whole family and neighbors helped Dad in everything he did. The logs were cut into slab wood, 2x4 and 4x4 railroad ties. Some of that lumber was taken to Bingen and loaded on the boxcars. Dad like getting that money. Another property we found agates, some I still have and started my interesting finding pretty “rocks”.

Now, we have moved to “The Johnson place”. Dad bought Mrs. Johnson’s five milk cows. I learned to milk cows; we took the milk to the kitchen to a cream separator. We had to turn the handle that separated the cream into five gallon cans. The cream was taken to the Railroad station in Lyle and sent to a creamery in Vancouver. We looked forward to getting the “cream checks” so mother could buy food and clothes. There were several cats in the barn that were fluffy gray Angora and Persian breed. I liked cats; Dad liked dogs.

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The “refrigerator here was a large walk in pantry. A small door opened into a room on the outside wall, onto a large porch area; so the cold air could keep the food cooler. The other “ice box” was used too.

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About 1940 the government started putting in electric power lines, on huge towers across our county. My parents were about to get electricity, but not while I lived there. In the powerline clearings the wild blackberry and blackcaps and elderberries grew. It was an all-day outing to pick berries for deserts and jams. I remember picking wild strawberries too.

We still didn’t have electricity or running water into the house. Dad put in a new windmill to pump water into a big “storage tank”. Mother had cold water into the kitchen, finally. We didn’t have an inside bathroom, so the water was heated in a copper tub on the wood cook stove. We took baths in another galvanized round tub. Usually in the kitchen where it was warm. Mother’s stove had a water reservoir on the side, to put water to get hot for cooking and to do the dishes.

The toilets were “outhouses” some distance from the house. Several times over the years, Dad had to dig a “new hole” and move the “outhouse“ over to the new 5x6 deep hole.

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Dad put a “wind charger” on the roof, to charge a car battery, so we could listen to the radio. That’s how we heard about Japan bombing Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on Dec 7, 1941. About this time, Forrest went to Portland to work, get married and go into the army. Avery lived with relatives in Portland to go to school, then join the navy. Alma, benny and I were still going to school in Lyle. The war was going on in Germany, for a long time, also; so we were give Ration books for the shortages of gas, diesel, sugar, tires. This went on until 1947.

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I go the chickenpox, when I was in tenth grade and was real sick. It was worse being older and having to stay out of school two weeks. Most of my friends had already had the chicken pox, when they were younger.

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Dad liked to go hunting for el, in Eastern Oregon and in the canyons around home. He would be gone several days and usually got one. He had a jacket and gloves made from the hide one time. Several times, he got a bear and hung the hide on the side of a shed to dry. We liked the “wild meat”, and Mother canned some and made “jerky” from some. We also liked the “mincemeat” that she made. A few times we all went to Mother’s sister, Besse and Kenneth Mulkey so Dad could hunt. Other times we all went to Dad’s sister, Alma and Karl Lentz so Dad could hunt. Mother rendered out the fat of the bear tallow, that she used to cook with, or recycle for the war effort.

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About 1943, Dad sold the Johnson Place and bought the Vinton Place, two miles away. He eventually owned acres at Klickitat Heights. This place had cold water piped into the kitchen sink. There was water piped to the wood cooking stove and ran through copper coil pipes, to heat the water then went to a hot water tank. We could put that water in the washing machine that was run by a gas motor, to wash clothes. Mother had the “ice box” to keep the food cool. Mr. Vinton had made a small shed over a “spring are” to keep things cold in the water. He milked several goats so they had milk, butter milk and butter. That was interesting to taste the difference between cows and goat milk and the butter was white instead of yellow. I never lived here; just went to visit Dad and Mother.

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UNDERWOOD, SKAMANIA CO. WASHINGTON

In 1943, my junior year in school, Greta needed a place to live; her husband Rex was in the army, sent overseas to France. World War II was still going on with Germany and Japan, and would be until 1946. Dad got a place for her at Underwood, so Alma and I went to live with her. We would go two years to Columbia High School at White Salmon, six miles away. Benny lived with the folks.

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It was nice to live at Underwood; a home with electricity, hot and cold water and inside bathroom. We still had a wood cook stove, so Dad cut down a big fir tree, that we helped cut up and split wood for the stove and fireplace. Greta had a baby boy, Terry, so Alma and I helped take care of Terry. After school and week-ends. Greta got a job there, our senior year. She wanted to be a nurse, so got some good training. She eventually joined the Cadet Nurse Corp and became a nurse; To make some extra money after graduation, I worked at the “Hospital’, graveyard shift, for two months.

I like going to school in White Salmon, I made several friends that I still keep in touch with. We also went to church in town too. Underwood had a grade school that first year, then consolidated with White Salmon. The junior and senior class boys were being drafted into the service to go to war; even the girls were taking extra classes to graduate early. We graduated in 1945.

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The underwood Gym was used for a Community building and on Friday nights, the young people went roller skating. This is where I met Jack Collins, who I would marry three years later. (At the Baptist Church, Goldendale, Washington).

Jack had lived at Underwood six years, 1934 to 1940. His parents moved to Texas, to be closer to his grandmother Emma Collins, Jack lived with his other grandmother, Gertrude Embrey; Mother’s Mom; one year then finished school in Beaumont, Texas. He worked in the shipyards long enough to get enough money to go back to Underwood alone. He didn’t like Texas so he left home, age 17. Lived with friends and got a job. He got back to Underwood about the same time we moved there. Jack joined the Marin Corp and was in the service two years. He was on the Battle ship USS Indian, Pacific area.

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The folks sold all the Lyle property and bought a place at Dexter, Oregon near Eugene. He could still farm and help his neighbors and go to church. Benny joined the Army.

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I went to the College of Puget Sound, Tacoma. Washington one year. I didn’t have any career in mind, so took the required freshman classes. It was different living in the big city and meeting lots of students. I went to a Baptist Church and went to the young people’s activities, too.

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As I’m writing this, I’m thinking all my life up to then was a learning experience to work and watch how my folks did things. I’ve repeated a lot of this knowledge in my married life. It seems I’m the one to raise my family “On the Farm” like my folks did. Mother got to see our modern machinery; she was ninety years old Aug 16, 1981 Jack and I raised six children, that mother got to know also.