May 1910



Above: Page from Joesf’s journal: “Graded” May 4, 1910

We used to walk to town and drag our little brothers.  It was seldom when we walked both ways, but we had done it.  We had our grandmother at the end of the line and we stayed overnight or as long as we wanted or as long as we could.  She was a wonderful lady and loved all of her grandchildren but I loved grandfather best.  You could “work” him a little bit.  Grandmother was stricter and more careful of what we did.  We kids were a little bit afraid of her.  We didn’t want to do anything that we thought grandfather would disapprove of.  You see, we tried to please him – just carry wood like mad you know, and . . . what brats!  Get on the good side of him, then get our own way in everything.
At home we were always keeping a few cats because of the chipmunks and different things that roamed the woods  We were in the habit of keeping cats and couldn’t live without them.

We had just a few steps to school.  Well it was a quarter of a mile but that was just a few steps.  We had shoes for school but they hurt our feet like mad and we didn’t wear them on the trail.  We were all crazy about going to school.  We went joyfully and usually liked our teachers very much because they were always nice.  A girl would come out and teach.  Sometimes Mama would keep them for a day or two until they could find some place where they could stay.  But Mama couldn’t keep them really because she had too much with all the kids.

In the garden Emma and I would lay down and put our feet under each other’s skirt to keep our toes warm.  Mama should have paddled us for that because I guess our clothes were dirty.  Poor Mama.  And Mama was naturally a very fussy, clean woman.  Boy she had to drop that all to put up with us, and that place with all the mud.  And Dad you know would make the biggest fuss about something that wasn't quite right, and how could you ever get everything right.  How terrible in those days because there was Dad, a gentleman who was never supposed to be messing [helping] with such stuff as laundry.

We washed outside by the spring where we had the water, and there was a stove to heat the water.  We used to love to do that you know and Mama would kind of direct it.  And we felt like we accomplished something.  There was a lot of lye in the soap and you had to be careful or it would eat everything up.  Mama always used a soap powder when she could get it.

Mama used to make beautiful little dresses for us – awful nice – and she was a really good seamstress.  And while I guess we were very old-fashioned looking, why we were along with the rest of them.  And May (Morris) always had nicer clothes than the rest of us, or so we thought because hers she bought.

They (Morris family) lived way off on the other side, and to visit – Dad would never let us go there you know.  We wanted to go and they wanted us to come over too.  But Dad would never let us because he kind of hated them.  I don’t know why.  I think they kind of insulted Dad a little because he didn’t always understand the language and things and they made something of it that let him know that.  And oh, he just couldn’t take that – it hurt his pride so he wouldn’t have anything to do with them or let us.  And that was an awful thing because of course at school we were chummy.  An awful thing, and no way to keep in touch except at school.  May and I always seemed to understand each other and whenever we did get together everything was all right – even to our old days.  Wonderful May.  She used to write, bless her heart.  She was always my friend.”

Ina’s memories of Doraville country life ~ related to niece Carol in 1986

“I came from the heart of Oregon – a dear little town named Rainier and the outlying district.  Of course I didn’t like Rainier, but the outlying district, how lovely.  It was a real wild part of Oregon really.That old house, that was the most wonderful . . . see we had to climb all the hills to get to it.  It sat on a kind of embankment.  It was a beautiful place, it really was beautiful.  So far from the water made it awfully hard on everybody.  So we used to have to carry the water in pails – it was almost a quarter of a mile to go – way down to the spring and it was a trail, a rough trail that went down.  We used to walk down there and take the empty pails and carry them back as full as we could.  And the water was really lovely in those springs, it was awful nice.  Some of the men – I don’t know who it was – put some kind of a wooden box in there and so there would be clean spring water.  And that water was the best in the world.  The reason Dad built the other house was because of the good water supply.

“Cherry Trees by Otto Hackenberg”

The following undated article was submitted for this family project by Eleanor Abraham, Rainier historian and member of the garden club, who had asked Otto to write about trees.  It is an interesting insight into the “multi-tasking” cherry tree in the family orchard that always mystified Josef’s grandchildren.*

“Cherry Trees by Otto Hackenberg”

“. . . On the farm where I was born dad had homesteaded in 1886, and government rules required a house to be built, a certain amount of land to be cleared, and a certain amount of fruit trees to be planted each year in order to hold on to the homestead.  The size of dad’s orchard that I can remember as far back as 1911, I am convinced that he planted, and in some cases grafted fruit trees on wild ones.

He had a larger orchard than the government required him to have.  By 1911 some of the cherry trees had grown quite large, the trunks were at least a foot or more in diameter and the trees over 20 feet high.

There were three large Black Republicans, one large May Duke.  The May Duke tree was usually loaded with cherries, but it was an early variety and the birds would start in on them as soon as they started to turn red, and the birds usually won out.  Those we got to eat were far from being ripe.  The same for Governor Wood, also an early cherry.  *Perhaps about in the year of 1900 two native wild choke cherries came up and dad had a Bing graft from somewhere, and he grafted one of the trees to Bing and the other to Royal Ann, both grew, and nearly always they both had a good crop of cherries.  Perhaps the two varieties were good for pollination for each other.  The trees were pruned so that they resembled one tree.

About 1912 a seedling cherry came up in the yard.  Dad told my older brother Bill to get a Bing graft, and graft the tree.  He did.  But some years later when the tree started to bear, it had Royal Anns on it.  Dad wrote him about it, and my brother wrote back, “If you want Bing cherries from that tree, pick them in a milk pan, and they will go Bing!”

Christmas Toast

This was a special treat Josef’s children remembered from their childhood.  Josef sent the following recipe to granddaughters Dora and Evelyn, Ina’s daughters. 

Property Dispute

Two buyers from out of state showed interest in buying the homestead, but Josef decided to keep it in the family and sold to Joe Jr. and Pearl. The relationship between buyer and seller was not good to begin with and only became worse as time went on.  Two lawsuits were filed by Josef over the matter; the first when Joe Jr. was married to Pearl, the second lawsuit mentioned below when Joe Jr. was married to Wilma.

Josef’s letter to Ina, dated July 20, 1935: “. . .Our trouble with Joe is far from being settled.  When Joe would not give us the back pay we filed suit for foreclousre, and instead of an answer his lawyer filed a demurrer, and when the matter came before the judge, he said that no demurrer could be filed in a foreclosure suit and gave Joe another 10 days to file an answer, and that is where the matter stands now.  His lawyer made the proposition to pay all the mortgage off if we pay the costs, and this we refused to do as the mortgage should have been all paid last year.  Our attorney told us that we have nothing to fear, Joe will either have to pay all of it or get off, and under the circumstances either one will suit us. . .”

(The undated Rainier Review article below should have correctly stated “Joe Jr. and Wilma”, “Jos. Hackenberg Sr. and wife Carrie”)

 

Rainier Review, February 28, 1930

Joseph Hackenberg Sr. and wife (Carrie) have sold their home farm of 160 acreas to Joseph Hackenberg Jr. and wife (Pearl).  The elder Hackenbergs reserve two acres where the house and buildings stand to be occupied by them for their natural life.  Mr. Hackenberg is declining in health, which made the sale a matter of necessity.

1929-Married Again

Journal Entries:
Married Carrie May 22, 1929 –

Otto left Oct 1929: Sold place to Joe Feb 26, 1930