Chapter 4

1911

I must start writing in my book for this year by talking about the weather. On January 12th an incredible temperature drop affected the whole area. At 6 am the temperature was a pleasant 49 degrees, however, over the next two hours the temperature plunged an amazing 62 degrees to 13 degrees below zero. This 62 degree drop is the U.S. record for a two hour temperature change.

This year they have brought out the North Dakota State flag. I’ve copied this out of the paper.

Colonel John H. Fraine introduced a resolution to the North Dakota Legislative Assembly to adopt a state flag that would take the color, size and form of the regimental flag carried by the North Dakota Infantry in the Spanish American War and the Philippine Island Insurrection. The only exception was that the name of the state, North Dakota, was to be displayed on the scroll below the Bald Eagle.

A dark blue field displays a Bald Eagle grasping an olive branch and a bundle of arrows in its claws. The eagle carries a ribbon with the words "One nation made up of many states." On its breast is a shield with thirteen stripes representing the original thirteen states. The fan-shaped design above the eagle represents the birth of the United States and included thirteen stars echoing the thirteen stripes on the shield. The red scroll below the eagle displays the state name, North Dakota.

*****

May 10th, 1911

Dearest Laura,

We have just had your note about the birth of little Chester Rense. It is nice that you are naming him after his grandfather. I’m sure he is very proud, as is your Nick. You say he is a good boy, and was a reasonable weight. I’m sure you are very busy now.

I am writing to tell you the latest news. Pa says we are going to move to Oregon. They have definitely made up their minds. Berte knows some people called Bakers, and also some called Hill, who are vaguely related to us, who moved out there, and she says it is such a beautiful place and a wonderful climate. We are going to a place called Canby, not far from Portland, the capitol. We will go out by train in the fall Agnes will finish her high school out here, and Oscar and I will try to find jobs at least until I go to my nurses' training in Montana.

So you won’t need to send any more letters to Wisconsin after this summer. We will all be gone. I shall miss this area a bit, as I have friends here, and enjoy the place, but I am also anxious to try someplace new and exciting.

Send us a picture of your new baby if you can. We would love to hear all about him.

Love from your sister, Mary

*****

August 5th, 1911

Dear Laura, Nick and baby Chet (Is that what you are calling him?)

I am pleased to announce that I am now officially a Deaconess. I was consecrated by Bishop McIntyre of the Methodist Church, and will get on with my ministry whenever and wherever I can. But I am leaving Chicago. My two years at the Evangelist Institute were good, but I don’t want to live in a big city. And I am thinking that I would like to train to be a nurse and the best place I have heard of is in Butte, Montana. I can do my ministry anywhere they have a Methodist Church and will have me. I will write to you when I find out if I have been accepted into the Deaconess Hospital at Butte. Don’t you think that is a perfect place for me to go, now that I am a deaconess too?

Much love

Ida

*****

Christmas 1911

Dear Bertha,

Congratulations on the birth of your new boy, Ralph. I find it hard taking care of one child. I can’t imagine how much more work it must be for you, with your six. Even finding beds and food for that many must be a full time job for you.

My little Chester is doing well. He is starting to crawl now, and we have to keep our eyes open to make sure he doesn’t get too close to the fire. Nick is very good with him, and already he is thinking of the time when he will be old enough to be help to him on the farm.

I wonder how the folks are getting on in Oregon. Neither of them is any good with writing, so I guess we will just have to wonder. It would be nice if we could manage to go out to visit them sometime, but I can’t see that happening.

That’s about all the time I can spare for letter writing at the moment.

Have a wonderful Christmas, and let me know when you can how things are with you.

Lovingly,

Laura

*****

Christmas, 1911

Dear Laura,

We really do like this place where we are living. I want to tell you all about it. What a change in the winter time. We haven’t even had any snow yet, and you can go around outside with only a jacket on. It does rain a lot, but everything is so green and pretty, that we don’t really mind that much.

Canby started out as a town in August 9, 1870, in Clackamas County and was named after Brigadier-General Edward Richard Sprigg Canby.

It is the second oldest city in Clackamas County, incorporated February 15, 1893. First settlers came in the mid-1840s to the surrounding area.

The railroad station is a really important place. Trains are frequent, carrying merchandize for stores, supplies for farms and homes, and passengers. Shipped by rail from here are mainly agricultural products - milk, cream, eggs, grain, potatoes, turkeys, rhubarb, lumber, livestock, bulbs, flowers, nursery stock - to name a few.

Canby is best known locally as the home of the Clackamas County Fairgrounds for the the Country Fair and Rodeo, We missed out on it this year, but everybody says it is a really good time. We are about 20 miles SW of Portland.

Between the bigger cities and us is a stretch of farmland in rolling hills and fields. Entering Canby from the north brings you past the Willamette River.

On the high plateau, bordered by the Willamette and Molalla Rivers, Canby was once the meeting place for tribes of local Indians and was well known for its annual crop of wild strawberries. The area known as Baker Prairie was an open expanse of ground in the dense fir forest that stretched for miles.

Baker, one of the earliest white settlers in Oregon, arrived in the area in 1832 with a cattle drive from California, took an Indian wife and was soon farming. The land he "squatted" on was what is now north Canby. Other settlers arrived, including Philander and Anna Lee in 1848, who bought "squatter's" rights beside a spring-fed creek. Lee began growing apples on 80 acres of land and shipped them to the gold miners in California. In 1850, the Lees gained title to their 647 acres through the Donation Land Claim Act which brought many more settlers over the Oregon Trail to Baker Prairie and surrounding areas. I guess that is sort of like the Homestead Act we are more used to hearing about.

Joseph Knight and four sons moved to Baker Prairie in 1868. They were instrumental in Canby's early development as they opened one of the first general stores, built many local buildings, served as postmaster, school clerk, sheriff, druggist, blacksmith, carpenter and more.

Along with a meager network of dirt roads and trails, the Willamette River served as their main transportation. Steamboats took produce into the markets of Oregon City and Portland from the little local communities.

While pushing the Oregon and California Railroad line from east Portland to San Francisco, promoters approached Philander Lee for land in 1870. For $2,960, he sold 111 acres for the 24-block city, 12 lots per block. Lee would only sell land for a town if the streets were wide enough for two span of oxen and a wagon to turn which was 80 feet, which became the width of Canby's original streets.

Canby has three hotels and a bank, and the population is 587.

I’m enclosing a picture of the Willamette River. What a wonderful place this is.

Love

Agnes