The Hirschels sent their children to Timm District School
Dr. Mitchell and his wife, Julia, relax outside their Wilson Creek home in 1911. It appears the Doctor is reading the newspaper, most likely the Wilson Creek World. Julia, on the other hand, seems to be holding a fan. Other interesting parts of the photograph include a sprinkler watering the lawn to the right side and a push lawnmower on the left side.
Historical Society board meeting next Tuesday
Grant County Historical Society will have their monthly board meeting next Tuesday, August 9, at 10:30 a.m. at the Ephrata American Legion, 276 8th Ave NW, Ephrata.
The Heritage lunch will follow at noon with guest speaker Jeannie Kiehn. Jeannie will give "The Story of Beef". She is one of 20 National CattleWomen receiving training for the presentation and is required to present this topic to 15 organizations unrelated to the Beef industry.
Her presentation may also include a short video. All members are encouraged to attend. If you wish to have lunch, please call the American Legion at 509-754-2761. Contact Rita at 509-750-4555
Wilson Creek History
The Rev. David H. Crawford compiled and published a history of families in and surrounding Wilson Creek titled, "Family Memories of Wilson Creek Area." The book was printed in 1978, which was the 75th anniversary of the town. David's son, John Crawford, has given permission for those memories to be a part of this column.
Today we continue the story of Adam and Emma Helmke Hirschel by Rosa Hirschel Knopp and Clara Hirschel Mordhorst:
There were two doctors in Wilson Creek. Dr. Mitchell, see photo, who struggled to save the inhabitants from the epidemic of typhoid fever, from which a number of people died. Then Dr. Crampton came with a remedy that checked the terrible disease. Dr. Roberts came later. These and other later doctors performed a valuable service to the early residents.
Some of the wives of the early settlers couldn't cope with the rugged life in this new country. Our mother's health had failed fast following a frightening fall downstairs by her youngest child. Mother died in 1908 leaving father to raise the family alone.
Sister Rosa, the eldest, had to try to take the place of mother to us children until she married Frank Knopp in 1911. They moved to Indiana for five years, then returned to Washington. They had a family of seven boys and five girls.
Harry Hirschel married a neighbor girl, Lillie Rose Roschman, in the year 1913. They lived on the Frank Vorba farm. Three children were born to them. A sad tragedy struck the family, both Lillie and the new baby girl died. Harry with the other two child?ren, Howard and Eleanor, moved back to the family home. The two children grew up, attended Timm District School and graduated from high school in Wilson Creek. Harry married Sarah Semro Swartz, a widow, on Feb. 16, 1929.
Benjamin remained single. He farmed with his brothers until impaired health forced him to retire. He died April 9, 1943. His body lies in the family plot in the Wilson Creek cemetery.
In 1926 Elmer married Florence Liebing. They bought the Erhardt Hirschel place. Their two children, Aaron and Pauline, graduated from Wilson Creek high school. Elmer and Florence reside on that same place, spending most winters in Arizona.
Clara married Cris Mordhorst, who lived in the Wilson Creek area since 1906. They raised one son, Darrel, and two daughters, Maxine and Dorothy. The three attended Wilson Creek School and graduated from high school there. They are among the Mordhorsts who attended this school for 62 years, nearly consecutively.
Ida, the youngest of father's children, was married to John Scott. She brought twins, Ivan and Iva, into the family. She later married Oscar Olney and they now reside in Florence, Oregon.
Father sold the farm to his eldest son, Harry. Father continued to reside on the farm. This farm bought by father in 1901 is one of the leading wheat producing farms in the Wilson Creek area. The wheat was hauled to the warehouse in Wilson Creek where father did most of his trading.
Father was proud of his heritage and kept it alive for us along with establishing good standards and morals.
The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.
I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column.
Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.
Today we continue the story of Coulee City, by Alfred Twining recorded July 30, 1975:
One day we seen a team sitting out there in front, ?a four-horse team, in the rain. I went in and told my dad and he went out and it was old Dave Baird, passed clear out on the front seat of the wagon, all slumped over. So he told us kids to unhitch the horses and put them in the barn.
Somehow or another dad got Dave off the wagon and led him over to the barn and laid him down on some straw and he spent the whole night there. The next morn?ing he woke up, hitched the horses up and went home. He was hauling wheat 30 or 40 miles.
St. Andrews used to be kind of a way-station be?tween Buckingham and Leahy and even Bridgeport. The farmers used to race one another. The farmers across Moses Coulee always tried to get in ahead of the other long-haulers from up on the hill. Some?times there would be a line-up. Sometimes they'd have to wait two or three hours to get unloaded. The string of teams would be half-mile or a mile long or more.
George McDonald when he used to buck wheat when he got his warehouse full, he'd stack the wheat 20 or 30 feet high with a pulley and a horse on the end of the rope and a pair of tongs one sack at a time.
They hauled wheat all fall and into the winter by bobsled. A lot of times they'd have snow on top of the hill and mud down in the Coulee. They'd have somebody bring a wagon and leave it on top of the hill and transfer the wheat off the sled onto the wagon and go on and bring the wagon back. It didn't make any difference whose wagon it was, if there was a wagon there they'd take it.
One time Lester Hawden told me about Jimmy Leahy. He had to come to town to get a wagon. He left the load of hogs on the sled, took the leaders off and came to town to get a wagon. About the time he left the hogs, Lester Hayden was nearby and he was mad at Jimmy and he wanted to get even with him someway or another. He was going home and he left his wagon and hooked onto the sled with the hogs on it and went home. That was his way of getting even with Jimmy.
Jimmy Leahy married a daughter of Ed Halderman. He was an oldtimer here, too. Some of the grand kids used to come to school here. I remember some of the Halderman kids, there was Carrie Halderman and some boys.
Speaking about Fourth of July the homesteaders used to come in along about 1901, 1902 and 1903 ?an immigrant train would come in almost every day from Spokane and then the homesteaders would decorate with flags and bunting and every?thing else and the whole family would be loaded on the wagon coming in for the celebration.
And they had firecrackers all over town, trash and papers and things strung all over. Hogs and cattle and sheep and chickens and everything running loose around town and they could have had a fire, but didn't seem to ever have one. One kid one time slipped up behind me and lit a firecracker and dropped it down my shirt collar. I turned around and he was gone and I don't know who he was.
The difference in location, between the town of Coulee City and McIntee, was very little. McIntee was right up by the springs. I remember seeing his cabin, but it was burned down later. But it was sitting, ?you have been to the rodeo grounds I suppose, and the cabin set south and a little bit east of the grand stand.
The railroad built on into Adrian in 1903 and 1904. There was quite a boom. There were seven saloons in Coulee City at that time. They started to build toward Waterville from Coulee City. Water?ville thought they'd be on a railroad at that time. Several grades were built up the hill, but they were never completed. They never completed that rail?road, but finally the Great Northern built down along Crab Creek to Wilson Creek.
Dan Paul used to sell beef to my brother-in-law, Billy Smith. He was head cowboy and used to drive cattle from Coulee City to the Cascades where they had the Great Northern camp. He'd sell the cattle and bring the money back by horseback, all in gold, mostly.
Tom Cook used to work for Dan Paul. Dan Paul was quite a character. He never drank very much, but when he did he was gone for a week or two. He told me one time, "I got in a poker game in Spokane. I kept losing and losing and losing. So darn it, I thought I'd just buy a pot. So I made $800. And they called me and beat me."
Colonel Box came in about 1906, 1907 or 1908. He homesteaded up on top of the hill on the, road to Mold. His daughter, Alzina, was one of my first girl friends. She finally lived in Ephrata. She was married to Roy Craig.
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