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.

Carol’s observations from Josef’s journal of the 1890’s

It appears the children, one at a time, commonly stayed in Rainier, often weeks at a time, with their Winchester grandparents.  Josef was very industrious and within the first five years after his marriage, had put finishing touches on his house and outbuildings.  With the growing family, he must have needed more income so started working more at neighboring homesteads.  1899 marked the beginning of Josef’s extended work at the various lumber camps where he would carry his blankets and stay to work the week.  He continually went around looking for outside work and there are many notations of “went to. . . for nothing”.  Whether he was paid is not mentioned, but he spent considerable time building his father-in-law’s new house and walk in Rainier, and is continually “cutting wood for Dad”. 

Josef no longer is obtaining flour at various neighbors, but purchasing it in Portland on his Iralda trips.  There was a severe shortage of household water nearly every summer, lasting until November; and as Josef never mentions carrying water, it is likely Dora and the children were assigned that task.  Dora had a sewing machine, and there is a good supply of fruit jars.  Perhaps some of the kitchen fires so often mentioned were caused by having to keep a roaring hot fire in the wood stove during the canning season.

The young orchard which is poled, pruned, and grafted on schedule is just starting to produce, and they also have strawberries for a change of diet from the many blackberries that are available.

So Carrie won't be alone....

"...so Carrie won't have to be alone..." were some of Carol Ann McNeely, nee Hackenberg's last words in the early September 2010 days when she was "getting her affairs in order" at Valley Medical Center, Renton, Washington. Having dispensed with immediate family business, she turned the conversation to where she wanted to rest. Her husband, Mike, having pretty much supposed her choice would be either with her mom and dad or at the farm, was a bit surprised with what she said.

During Carol's research into her family's history she had been much impressed with Carrie. Carrie Tobiath Hackenberg, Josef Hackenberg's third wife, was a strong, intelligent activist woman who championed and participated in the enactment of much of the social legislation and reform we take for granted today. She had participated in a communal living experiment; she was acquainted with Eugene Debs and Norman Thomas; she wrote provocative letters to the editor of the Rainier Review. No doubt she was outspoken and assertive. One can understand that this was womanly behavior unfamiliar to a lot of folks in those days and many, including Carol's own mother, Wilma, didn't like Carrie very much. She was criticized and, probably, to some extent ostracized - left alone - from warm family relationships and interaction. Carol felt strongly that Carrie had been slighted and poorly judged in her own time; she wanted to do something about it. And so she directed Mike to put her urn at Carries grave.

Mike's promise to Carol to "get it done" was an easy one to keep. He chose the inscription in her stone, placed next to Carrie's at the Green Mountain Cemetery in Rainier, because these were her words; because they subtly reveal the warm caring person she was; and because they contain a hint of mystery that someday might inspire somebody to investigate - and that would please Carol very much.

Grave

Photos taken on November 2nd, 2011 at the Green Mountain Cemetery in Rainier, Oregon.

Beloved Wife, Mother, Sister, Friend

Carol Ann McNeely

Nee Hackenberg

March 15, 1938

September 18, 2010

"...so Carrie won't be alone"

View of Cemetery from Carol's grave looking towards the Grange

Skyward view from Carol's grave

William Balod

1887 1975

She came, stayed and went in matchless grace

Ina Albertine Hackenberg Esquer

1895 Daughter 1996

Joseph Hackenberg

1859 Father 1942

Mother

Dora Hackenberg

Born August 31, 1868

Died November 11, 1921

Carol's stone adjacent to Carrie's:

In memory of

Carrie Hackenberg

Wilma L. Hackenberg

July 15, 1913

December 14, 2008

Joe Hackenberg

May 31, 1902

Aug 5, 1985

Joe's and Wilma's stones

In Memorium of Carol Ann McNeely (March 15th, 1938-September 18th, 2010)

After a long battle with lymphoma, Carol Ann McNeely died peacefully at home on September 18th, 2010. Carol was born on March 15th, 1938 and grew up on her family’s homestead farm in Rainier, Oregon. She attended Oregon State University and then worked in public service for a variety of agencies in Europe and the US, retiring from the Federal Aviation Administration's Renton Office. She began her public service career with the U.S. Army in Europe’s Judge Advocate Division in Heidelberg, West Germany in 1962. Later there were stops at General Service Administration in Auburn, Washington, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Seattle. There were also brief stints at Boeing and Auburn Hospital.

She was an avid gardener and was always delighted to share her knowledge, some good compost or a few bulbs with her friends and neighbors. Her flowers regularly garner compliments from the neighbors and passersby.

One of Carol's passions, second (or perhaps not) only to her love of gardening was 'rooting' out and writing about her family history. Her accomplishments in this arena were impressive, and she spent several years painstakingly compiling a comprehensive history of her family, resulting in a 400 page book that details the Hackenberg family in Europe, their immigration to the U.S., the trip west across the Oregon Trail and their life on the homestead, which is still in the family. While she spent all her adult years in the Seattle area, the homestead farm was never far from her thoughts and she visited there with her ‘Washington’ family often.

Carol was an enthusiastic music lover and accordion player and friends and family were always prepared for an impromptu concert; sometimes they would have to sing, sometimes they got lucky. She was a country music fan and knew all the old tunes, to sing or to play.

Carol was an intrepid traveler in her early years, leaving Oregon State University and her family for a job in Germany for the U.S. Army. She visited much of Europe during this time, even touring the U.S.S.R. during the cold war, when not many Americans had been there. Her stories from this time were legendary, like when she turned the wrong way down a one-way street and found herself surrounded by about a thousand Spanish soldiers on horseback, coming down the street the proper way. In a parade. During some of these foreign travels, Carol became an early critic of the ‘Ugly American’ syndrome when she was frequently embarrassed by the behavior of her fellow tourists. Her favorite spots to visit, though, were Cannon Beach on the Oregon Coast and Vinegar Mountain, in Eastern Oregon.

She was a great baker and a bit of a health food nut. She won a prize for her sourdough rye bread, but tried to slip her kids ‘comfrey milkshakes’ consisting of comfrey, castor oil and wheat bran. She was interested in social issues and was always looking out for the underdog; she was always the first one to offer help to anyone who needed it.

Carol was devoted to her family and loved baking with her grandkids and teaching them garden tricks: the best way to kill a slug or how to propagate a rose. She was married to Cyrus ‘Mike’ on June 4th, 1966 in church with same day receptions at the farm in Rainier, Oregon and at the family home in Renton. In lieu of flowers, remembrances may be made in her name to the Oregon Historical Society (http://www.ohs.org/).