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.”

1920 and 1921

The year 1921 brought tragedy with the suicide by hanging of the children’s beloved “Mamma” Dora on November 11th.  She had been in declining health and there are many 1920 – 1921 journal notations such as “Dora sick.  Did housework.”  Otto was 12 years old at the time and the only one still at home with his parents. Emma was married and close by in Rainier.  She often came out to check on her mother, or took Dora home with her for a few days.  Joe Jr. “left for good” according to Josef’s sendoff for 1919 and only occasionally back to visit, Rudy lived in Underwood, and Bill and Ina were both in California.
Josef’s end of the year journal summaries:

“Sendoff for the year 1920:  The year 1920, the year of worry, trouble and expenses, was financially fair, very wet in spring and fall.  Repaired fences extensively, seeded 25 acres to pasture, cut out part of north fencerow, lost much time through fire and wife’s sickness; bought 22 Victor records and a small drugstore (?).  Farewell rotten year 1920!”

“Sendoff for 1921:  The year 1921 has been the worst year since 1886 for me; financially poor, lost wife by death, much time and money through her sickness, in fact the last half was a time of worry and trouble.  Finished fencerow, bought wire and 8 Victor records.  Farewell rotten year 1921!”

“Sendoff for 1922:  The year 1922 has been one of the worst I have lived through.  Financially very poor, extreme in cold and drought, dust, smoke and fire.  All crops were good except summer grain, hay and pasture.  Lost heifer; lost shingle shed and much fence by fire.  Laid new floor, built granary; had many aggravations through gossiop;  joined Correspondence Club and corresponded with 20.  Farewell rotten year 1922.”

1899

Josef began the new year with a larger diary with columns for the weather and correspondence. January 1899:  “Worked on horsepower.”  Repaired the fanning mill.  Trashed and cleaned flax.  Went to Rainier, “came from Rainier with a heavy load.”  Cleaned toolbox, filed handsaw, cut roots.  Fixed sled.  Made a rake and ladder.  “Cut hair.”  Made a brakeblock, repaired tongue holder.  Made a trail to spring, dug velvet grass, set out new trees.  Put window in barn, made a stool.  Worked on the county road.  Took Ina to Rainier, and went smelt fishing with Bob.  “Came home with heavy load.”  Cut wood for Holsapple.  School ended on January 28.  Cow had a calf.  Correspondence during the month with:  Albertine, Risher, and Mrs. Beusch.

February 1899:  Trashed and cleaned garden seeds.  Cut wood for Holsapple and Dad.  Worked on county road at school house.  Made a cow trail on the hill.  Carried blankets to C. Snyder’s mill, cut shinglebolts [two weeks work].  Weather notations of “Devilish cold” “Creeks very high” and “Farewell you rotten month!”  Letters from:  Albertine and home.

March 1899:  Another two weeks during the month were spent working off and on at Snyder’s, then he quit and “settled with Snyder.”  “Went to Hogtown pruned Huffmann’s orchard.”  He also pruned trees at Johnson’s, and Malcom’s.  Cut wood for Dad.  Went to Rainier with Rudy, “came home with Ina”.  Went to McKee’s for flour with Mike, exchanged calves.

April 1899:  Hauled manure and wood.  Sowed pasture.  Went to Kilby’s, got a cat and artichokes.  Plowed and sowed peas, vetch, barley, and clover.  Turned “Billy” out for first time.  Finished and put up windmill.  Made a barrel cover.  Grubbed on the hill, and south of the house.  Cut wood for Dad, brought Rudy home.  Went to McKee’s for flour.  Dora went to Rainier, “went with Rudy for Dora and children.”  Made garden in hollow.  Went to McKee’s for a stove.  There was an inch of snow on April 30. “Farewell you mean stinker of an April!”

May 1899:  Made a cow trail on the hill, “connected 2 cowtrail on North line (Braddock)”.  Grubbed south of the house.  Sprayed.  Braced shrubs.  Fell timber and cut bolts for Snyder, and also worked at Peterson’s camp during the month.  “You glorious May, full rain and hell, get!”

June 1899:  Fell timber and cut bolts at Snyder’s.  Oiled clock.  Went to Rainier, cut wood for Dad.  Grubbed south of the house on the new patch, plowed.  “Hung transmission wheel.”  Went to Morris’s and Headlee’s.  Worked with Headlee on school ground.  Hung bull wheel, split timbers.  Kitchen “got a fire.”  “Hauled and placed horsepower timbers, cleaned stovepipe.”  “Finished horsepower.”  Worked for C. Snyder, put up frame of mill building at the Washburn place.  Fixed hay wagon, mowed meadow, got in first hay.  Split flooring.  “This has been the first good month this year.”

Letters were from Whiteheads, and home.

July 1899:  Emma’s first birthday.  Josef spent most of his time harvesting hay, then “Went to Snyder’s and Holsapple’s for nothing.” After that he got a  week’s work at Peterson’s.  He also went into Rainier twice, leaving Ina and coming home with Willie.  “Big fire at Peterson’s.”  Cut thistles, cleaned grain barn.  And, he did his own burning “Set out fire.”

The weather notation indicates “This month has been very dry.”

August 1899:  The first week was “hot” and Josef “set out fires”, then made a trip into town to “cut wood for Dad”.  After that the weather rapidly deteriorated as indicated by numerous notations of “Heavy Showers”, and the extra steps he took to harvest his grain “dried wheat” “turned wheat and rye”, “turned grain”.  A horsepowered device aided his harvest efforts as he again went to Rainier and “came home with the belts, put on one”, “worked on the horsepower, Mike rheumatic.”  During the month, Bob and Annie came for an overnight stay and that evening the “kitchen caught fire.”  Dora made a trip to town with Rudy, and two days later “Dora came with Ina and Rudy.”  Weather notation: “The foulest August that ever was in Oregon.”

Correspondence: Mrs. Whitehead, Risher.  Mentioned contacts: Art Snyder, Holsapples, Nelsons.
September 1899:  The weather improved and there was more thrashing, cleaning , and fanning of grain.  First Ina was sick with “measles”, and two weeks later “Dora, Willie, and Emma having measles”  Once again Josef did the  “housework” four consecutive days.  During the interval between family bouts with measles, Josef left Rudy in Rainier and “went to Portland and back on Iralda.  Hauled flour to Dad:”  The next day he “went to Rainier with Mike and back” [to pick up the supply of flour?]  Dug potatoes, plowed at the barn, grubbed.  Hauled first manure on hill.  There were also two more trips into Rainier, one with Mike.  “This month has been very fair.”  Contacts: Will Snyder, George Moeck, W.H. Kyser, Morris.  Correspondence: Home, Risher, Mrs. Beusch, Mrs. Hawkins, Kyser

October 1899:  Sowed wheat and rye, and cleared east of the barn the first week.  The rest of October was spent working at Snyder’s where he “cut bolts”, ran the “cut off saw” and “cut roads”.  He did have time for a visit to the neighbor “Rowed with old Headlee”.  “This month has been tolerably fair.” Correspondence:  Dad, Mrs. Hawkins, Peterson, home

November 1899:  Starting out the month, he first “cut bolts for Snyder” for four days, then “quit”, and “came home with blankets”.  He worked in town the next week “cut wood for Dad, “hauled Dad’s freight”, “dug thistles”, “came home with heavy load.”  The next day he went back to Rainier with Ina and Mike, and again “Came home with heavy load.”  Fixed Mike’s bell, made sauerkraut, threshed vetch and peas, hauled in rutabagas.  Cut and hauled in wood. “This month has been very warm and rainy.”  Correspondence: Dad, Lohmann, Hawkins, Albertine. 

December 1899:  Cut and hauled wood.  Cleared east and below the barn; cleared below the house.  Raked and grubbed on the new patch.  “Made timbers for horsepower.”  “Hewed timbers for horsepower.”  “House got badly on fire, repaired roof.”  There were two trips to Rainier, one with the horse.  He visited Gallien’s. December 28:  “Birthday the 40th, rested.” “This month has been tolerable fair.”  Correspondence:  Risher, Mrs. Beusch, Schroth.

“Sendoff for the year 1899.  The year 1899 has been every thing concerned tolerable good, extreme in rain and cold.  Good crops, except fruit, were raised everywhere.  Made a windmill, made a failure on treadpower.  Grubbed ½ acre new ground, 1/8 acre meadow, cleared 1/3 acre.”

1898

January: Worked on road at Stuart’s, worked at Beusch’s.  Went to school board meeting, made and painted a blackboard for the school.  Ollie Rice came to board January 2 - 28.  Notation of “night of weeping women” on January 25th. and later Josef “went to Rice’s for meat”.

February 1898 :  Dora made a trip to Rainier the first week and “came home with Willie.”  Worked on wagon, harrowed meadow, cleared below barn.  Trashed and cleaned peas and clover seed.  Poled, pruned and set out orchard trees, hauled logs with Mike.  Finished garden markers and stepladder.  Made the trial trip with the new wagon.  Repaired stove.  Grubbed at Beusch’s.  Ollie Rice came for a visit.

March 1898:  Josef worked at Beusch’s, grubbed and grafted trees there for 6 days.  He was reelected director at the school meeting, and painted the blackboard.  Plowed garden, planted some potatoes, sowed oats in front of the house, and oats, barley and clover west of the house.  On the hill, he sowed veatch, and flax, and south of the house he put in China peas.  Cut down two trees for fence, split stakes and rails, and fenced on the hill.  Went to Rainier with Rudy, cut wood for Dad.  Worked on new Stehman road.

April 1898:  “Sowed and harrowed in clover seed on new patch below barn.”  Went to Rainier and worked for Dad, spaded at Bob’s.  Made fence below barn, spaded hog lot.  Planted garden seeds, which included celeriac.  Worked at spring west of house [to ensure a summer water supply?]  Went to Peterson’s camp, worked there 3 days, and “worked for old man Meserve” a couple of days.  Filed saw, made a sledge handle, made railroad ties.  Dora and Ina made a visit to Rainier, and the last day of the month Josef went to Rainier and brought back Rudy.

May 1898:  Worked at Peterson’s camp the first half of the month.  “Blazed and swamped a trail on the hill for hauling fence rails.”  Hoed garden, made bean poles, cut logs in the new trail on hill.  Made table boards, improved table.  Sprayed “a few trees”.  Went to Portland on the Iralda, and on the way back “came home with R. Lovelace” [a teamster].  Hoed Dad’s garden.

June 1898:  Cut out and graded road.  Hauled fence timbers with Mike, cut and split rail timbers.  Filed saw, cleaned shop, fixed cowstand, repaired cow’s bellstrap.  Hoed potatoes.  Fixed hay wagon, mowed and hauled in first grass hay.  Cut down a cedar, made rails and stakes, and cut logs in the fence road, made fence.  Went to Rainier, came back with Rudy.  Mrs. Beusch visited during the month.  June 3:  Josef and Dora’s 7th wedding anniversary. 

July 1898:  “Nice day, mowed and hauled in hay – at 10 o’clock P.M. Emma born” July 2.  Josef is again doing “housework” with “Dora resuming her old post” 10 days later.  [Rudy is 6, Willie 4, and Ina about to turn 3 years old.]

Canned raspberries, picked blackberries, went to Morris’ for beef.  “At 6 o’clock in the evening kitchen got badly on fire.”  Fenced spring, cut thistles, cut and trashed rye, cut wheat.  Mrs. Morris visited, there was also a visit from the assessor.  Went to Rainier, cut wood for Dad, came home with Willie.

August 1898:  “Devilish hot”, “Hellroaring hot”, cut wheat, oats, rye and barley; trashed and cleaned grain.  Set fire on hill, grubbed.  “Bob, Annie, Mr. and Mrs. Lohmann visiting, hauled Mrs. Lohmann to Larson’s place, came home late, had a bull fight.  Bob and Annie with Rudy went back.”  Fixed wagon’s harness, went to Rainier, came home with flour and pears.  Dora and Ina went to Rainier with baby Emma on a visit.  Pulled last of flax.  Finished the big stump south of house, split railroad ties for Peterson.

September 1898:  The first week of September “worked for Peterson”.  Then on the 10th ,“worked in the mud hole of a chute in forenoon, got fired for refusing to work on Sunday at noon, went to Rainier in afternoon” and brought home glass jars.  He returned to Petersons’ camp for his blankets, going “through Peterson’s chute to Rainier.”  Cut wood for Dad.  Back at home again he picked Bartlett pears, and the Italian and French prunes; then went to Petersons for “time check, thence to Rainier”.  On that trip he went to Portland and back on the Iralda, and came home with more fruit jars.  Hauled big roots with Mike, fixed wagon for manure, plowed, grubbed, and trashed grain.

October 1898:  Josef started out the month with a trip to Rainier, and the next day “came home with Rudy.”  Trashed last peas, sowed rye and wheat, picked fall Pepins.  Made a hay rack for “Bullil”.  There were two trips to town and back with “Mike”; and two family trips on wheels - “hauled Dora and children to Larsen’s place.”  Sawed stumps, made pickets.  “Made a bed for the boys.”  Visited Mr. Kilby. 

November 1898:  Tore old hen house down, made and raised rafters, shingled and finished new hen house.  Made a new wheelbarrow, fixed axe handle.  Worked at Holsapple’s, came home with meat.  Cut wood for Dad.  Went to school board meeting.  Picked some Stark apples, dug rutabagas.  Went with William Holsapple to visit Mr. and Mrs. Washburn.  Another long dry summer, as first water in the well on November 18.

December 1898:  Plowed rutabaga ground.  Cut and hauled in wood.  Made chicken lot fence.  Moved hog barn and fence.  Dug on barn lot.  Made timbers, hauled and spread manure.  Fired two stumps, grubbed east of the barn.  Cut wood for Dad.  Fixed Daisy’s stand.  Prepared for calf stand, fixed singletree, repaired Mike’s harness.  “Worked on horsepower.”

“The year 1898 has been everything concerned tolerably good; splendid crops of hay, grain and fruit were raised.  Moved hen house and hog barn.  Cleared 1/6 of an acre, grubbed ½ of an acre new ground and ½ acre meadow.  Fenced ground on hill, made ½ mile cow trail.  Work simplyfied by the use of a small waggon instead of the cart.”