Aunt Kate assisted others during flu epidemic

The flu epidemic of 1918 and 1919 killed millions, so say 130 million, of people around the world. Aunt Kate assisted many of the people of the greater Big Bend Country. Read on.

Grant County history

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 backtrack a bit and then continue the story of Hartline, by Kathryn (Kay) Evans, recorded May 9, 1978 and the letter written by her grandmother, Aunt Kate, in 1940:

"During those years on the ranch, there were but few houses in our community, in the country and in Hartline, that I was not there at the time of births, deaths, accidents and sickness. During the first flu epidemic, I spent weeks, day and night, taking care of the sick. At the time of the second epidemic, I spent six days and nights where there were three men, one woman and two children, one 4 years old and the other 8 months.

I was up night and day, the baby was teething and had just been weaned, and also had the flu, so of course he was fretful all night. I was so nearly worn out that it took me several days to get over that experience. It was eight miles out in the country and no one near to relieve me at all.

Mr. Behne came to do the outside chores and brought wood and water onto the porch, but I did all the cooking and washing besides the nursing.

"Oh yes, while the war was on, I began teaching again in our district. After being entirely away from teaching for 18 years, I had to write the examina?tion for a certificate and pulled through by the skin of my teeth in grammar. I did not teach the following year, but began again in 1918 and kept on teaching until 1931 when 1 taught my last term.

"Evelyn having married, and Bess going to school and teaching, we left the ranch in 1920.

"A Normal diploma having become necessary after 1927 for teaching, I decided I had better prepare myself for that and entered the Normal at Cheney in the fall of 1922. I rather dreaded it as I was 54, but I enjoyed every moment of it and graduated in August 1924 at the age of 56. I have always been thankful for those two years. I became intimate with some of the faculty and enjoyed all my classes so much.

"I taught five years after graduating, which repaid me financially, but the two years at Cheney were worth much more than the money spent.

"After my last term of teaching I settled in Hart?line and bought the old school house in which I had taught about a year when my children were small. It had been somewhat remodeled and lived in by different families. I lived in it six or seven years.

"During those years, I did as I pleased. I kept house for Julius Smith across the Coulee for three months. Doc Evans came over and said that the whole 8th grade at Hartline had failed in the May exam, which left them with no freshman class for the following year. It had been decided to hold an emergency term before the exam in June and wanted me to come back and take charge and try to salvage enough to have a fresh?man class the next fall.

"We had 15 days, including Saturday, to prepare. We began at 8 a.m., five minute recesses, half hour noon and let out at 4 p.m. We then came back at 7 and worked until 9, thus putting three extra hours a day, including Saturdays. The youngsters, stung by their failure in May, worked like Trojans. Eight out of 12 of them passed in June.

"Their teacher had been too easy on them and allowed them to be so careless in their work that they had not known how to write even that which they did know. Our extra hours and time in the sum?mer school amounted in all to 23 regular days of 5 and a half study hours per day which meant a little more than a regular month of school.

"The reason I was asked to teach that emergency term was because I had at various times previously coached or tutored pupils who had failed and been quite successful. It was while living in Hartline that I taught my last term in a lonely schoolhouse, Ragged Butte, in Douglas County.

E-mail from Cheryl

Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins.

From the CBH on Friday, June, 8 1950:

Dam to irrigate area nearly size of Delaware, Warne says

The spectacular achievements of Grand Coulee Dam in building a new industrial area in the Pacific Northwest must not overshadow its contribution to an agricultural realm three-fourth the size of Delaware, William E. Warne, assistant secretary of the interior department warns in an article in the June issue of Reclamation Era.

Warne cites the achievement of Grand Coulee Dam in an article comprised of experts from a speech before the American Public Power Association in Washington, D.C. March 28.

"During the war, with fewer than half if its 18 generators installed, this giant produced power equal to the labor of 78 mission men working an eight-hour day for a whole year," Warne says. "These spectacular achievements have led some to overlook the fact that this dam is about to give us an agricultural realm three-fourth the size of Delaware."

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 the J.G. Kirchner family:

The Kirchner children were educated in the Wilson Creek school system. Otto later attended Concordia College in Moorehead, Minnesota, where he was married to Miss Esther Stenson, daughter of a former Lutheran minister in Wilson Creek. She passed away in 1922 and Otto returned to work for the Great Northern Railway at Wenatchee. He remarried in 1924 and passed away December 8, 1964 and is buried at the Grand Coulee Cemetery. His wife presently resides at Renton.

Alfa married Miss Jean Waite, a former high school teacher in Wilson Creek. He worked for the government in classified employment at Tullahoma, Tennessee, where they made their home. He passed away April 9, 1969. His wife, Jean, still makes her home in Tullahoma.

The daughter, Edythe was married to Earl H. Sibley Feb. 1, 1928. He father, Charles W. Sibley, purchased the Wilson Creek World in 1920. Later he and family moved to Granite falls, Wash. Earl and Edythe remained I Wilson Creek in charge of the newspaper until the spring of 1931.

Located across the street from the Wilson Creek World building was the Chas. Davis pool hall. One of the Steady afternoon customers was Zach Finney who arrived every week day from his ranch on Crab creek for a game or two of his favorite recreation.

Whenever they were short one player for the pino?chle game, Zach would come across the street and inquire if Earl could come over to fill in. This got to be a rather steady procedure and finally Edythe decided she would rather have a little help with the typesetting, so she gave Zach a negative answer to his request.