Covered wagon still mode of transportation in early 1900s

Although we think of a covered wagon as a mode of transportation during the mid to late 1800s, such as wagon was used to move the Knopps to the Palouse country in 1916. Read on.

Wilson Creek area 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 Frank and Rosa Knopp by Rosa Marie Dorothea Hirschel Knopp:

In December, 1910, a man named Frank Knopp came from Indiana to find work in Wilson Creek. His Uncle John and Aunt Mary Swaim lived close to Wilson Creek, the thriving railroad town.

Frank was employed by Mr. S.J. Klepler who attended and brought Frank to social activities in the schoolhouse where I attended. We became acquainted and a romance budded. On May 31, 1911 we were married at Four Lakes, Wash. After a honeymoon, we lived with papa and family working through harvest.

In October we decided to go to Indiana, my husband's childhood home. We farmed there five years, then in March of 1916 we returned to the Wilson Creek area, staying with my family until October.

There was no opening to obtain a farm so we took our children (Marvin, Raymond, and Ralph), and belongings, loaded them on a covered wagon and started for the Palouse country, with canned fruit and vegetables for food. Our beds were placed on top of the other belongings. We truly were pioneers.

We owned two cows, two heifers, and a team of mares named Daisy and Fly. Brother Harry gave us a mare to ride and drive the cattle. The load was heavy for the mares that I was driving. The gravel road was dusty and full of chuck holes caused by hauling wheat to market. The rough road caused the wagon tongue to whip back and forth bruising the horses. The old white mare got sore feet, so we had to have her shod at Reardan.

While waiting, we got a warm breakfast for the family. Our meals were cooked on a small borrowed camp stove. Our animals were thirsty so we drove to a farm along the highway. The owner was displeased when we asked for water for the stock. He had pumped a tank of water for his own stock. He tried to send us on, but when he saw how thirsty the animals were, he consented to let them drink.

As we traveled on, we found lakes along the way for the watering until we got to our place. We camped a number of times and stayed at a friend's place near Meadow Lake over Sunday. This gave the horses a much needed rest.

Here a calf got struck by a car. At first I was concerned it might have been my husband that was hit as he had been walking the horse in back of the wagon. It was a relief when he appeared with the calf to raise for meat that winter.

Our last stop before we reached our home, which we had bought from Anson Bushnell, was near the Poor Farm near Spangle.

Late the next night we arrived at our home in Idaho. Mr. Bushnell greeted us with a loud voice, "My stars! Is that you?" He let us have his house?hold equipment and went to his nephew's home.

The one-room shack was small, so we remodeled the henhouse and later built an addition to it for our quarters. We lived there eight years. Then we moved to another place in Washington where we farmed, raised wheat and peas for a couple of years.

In 1928 we traded our place in the woods for a ferry boat on the Columbia River at Hover, Wash. The bridge went out, so we had a great deal of trade during that time. We sold the ferry and moved on a prune and asparagus farm in Kennewick. This was lots of hard work. Our family grew to twelve children.

In 1937 we came back to the Wilson Creek area, settled on what was known as the Gentry place in Cannawai Valley, where we still live. We observed our 65th wedding anniversary May 31, 1976.

We raised eleven children to adulthood. Our twelfth child, Stella, lived for only 18 months. The eleven children grew up and each have families of their own.

Marvin and Tootsie Knopp and Melvin and Maureen with their families live in Canada. Ray?mond and Vera live in Oregon. Ralph and Ger?trude live near Colville. Angeline and husband Alvin Liebing live near Wilson Creek. Clara and husband William Harris live in Puyallup. Lucille and husband Wallace Harris and Fern and husband Alvin Harris live in the Pasco area. Laurence and wife Adine live in Bridgeport. Wayne and Bernetta Knopp and Jesse and Delores Knopp live in the Coulee City area.

We are fortunate in being able to visit the child?ren and their families quite often. They in turn faith?fully visit us in our farm home.

E-mail from Cheryl

Facts from the past from the Moses Lake Herald, CBH and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins. From the Herald on Feb. 3, 1950:

Weather delays PTA Carnival

The "Bouncy Boosters of the Banana Belt" bowed to a big blow this week and announced postponement of a PTA carnival scheduled for tonight. Chairman Henry Trisler said the weather was too cold and that the party will be after warm weather arrives.

On Feb. 13, Trisler is calling a meeting of all working committee members to discuss weather forecasts and make arrangements for another date. The meeting is to be held at Fleet Service.

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 begin the story of Ephrata by Thelma Billingsley Nicks:

The Billingsley family history was published in 1936. The history was compiled by Major Harry A. Davis. It is a huge volume of 977 pages and weighs 7 pounds, and has 25,999 names of this old southern family. It would be hard to cope with all descendants since then. We only hope to keep a record of our immediate families since then. This history was traced back to 1096. The first members of the family to come to the New World were three brothers; John, James and Francis. They arrived prior to 1649 and were joined a few years later by their brothers Thomas and William.