Madge was skittish in the cold weather

Firsthand accounts of life in the early days are interesting and sometimes exciting. School teachers had lots to do in those days, especially during cold weather. 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 The Lindblad family by Frank Lindblad:

Effie, Amy and Ella were school teachers in various schools in the Inland Empire and spent summers attending college in Cheney, Bellingham or Pullman.

Effie wrote that "much can be said of the days of the pioneer school teacher. In the farm communities she boarded at a farm home, walked a mile or more, and on reaching school, swept, dusted and had a warm fire going to be ready for the future farmers who would soon appear for learning.

"There was no playground equipment; children brought bats and baseballs from home to play with or played other games. There was no vandalism or juvenile delinquency. Everyone was too busy. Their farm chores were waiting when they got home from school.

"In a school I taught in Douglas ·County I rode a horse two and a half miles to school. The weather got as cold as 10 degrees below zero that winter. I would hurriedly eat my breakfast, get my lunch, and saddle my horse.

Being so cold, my horse, "Madge" was quite skittish. She would race down the road and then suddenly shy at some imaginary bird or animal. Being so bundled up against the cold, I couldn't do my best riding and would find myself deposited in a snowdrift.

But Madge was very polite. She would wait until I collected myself, let me get on, and then away we'd go until she was ready to try it again. It was extremely cold in the school building and kindling had to be cut in the evening to get the fire started quickly. Coal had to be carried in to have it ready for a nice warm fire. Teachers needed brawn in those days."

Daedalian Scholarship deadline less than two weeks away; April 30

If you are not a pilot or wanting to become a pilot, please be patient with me as we again discuss this scholarship. This could mean $1,000 or $2,000 to a deserving student. Read on.

A $1,000 scholarship is available from Flight 41 of the Order of Daedalians in Spokane/Fairchild Air Force Base. It is possible this will be matched by the national Organization of Daedalians. Read on.

The scholarship

Flight 41 of the Order of Daedalians in Spokane/Fairchild Air Force Base is again sponsoring a $1,000 scholarship for deserving high school seniors or college students that intend to pursue a career in military aviation. Applicants need to complete the application found at www.flight41.org and email to Frank Conderfer fcbum@aol.com or Joe Schwab joseph.schwab@us.af.mil no later than 30 April 2013. The national Daedalian Foundation may match the scholarship to double the award.

Order of Daedalians

What are the Daedalians? I think of them as combat pilots. They asked me to join their organization and I did. Below is a bit about the group and the offer of a scholarship. If you know of a person who fits the qualifications, tell them to get busy as time is short.

The Order of Daedalians is the National Fraternity of Commissioned Military Pilots. It was organized on 26 March 1934 by a group of World War I commissioned Army pilots to perpetuate the spirit of patriotism, love of country and ideas of self-sacrifice which place service to nation above personal safety or position.

On behalf of the Order of Daedalians, Inland Empire Flight 41 is sponsoring a Flight scholarship in the amount of $1000. If you are currently attending an accredited four-year college or university or have applied for and been admitted, and if you have demonstrated the desire and potential to pursue a career as a commissioned military pilot, you are eligible to apply for this scholarship.

Go to www.flight41.org and click on the scholarship information. Deadline is April 30.

Here is a short recap of the info:

The Spokane chapter, Flight 41, of Daedalians is sponsoring a $1,000 scholarship for deserving high school seniors or college students that intend to pursue a career in military aviation. Applicants must complete the application found at www.flight41.org and email to Frank Conderfer at fcbum@aol.com no later than 30 April 2012.

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 continue the story of Wilson Creek by Cris Mordhorst, recorded Feb. 10, 1976:

The jackrabbits came in and took much of the wheat and I suppose some of you remember the jackrabbit drive we used to have. We killed so many jackrabbits that at first they shipped them to Spokane in barrel lots for the poor people to consume up there.

I know when we came to the country there was many a jackrabbit we used to eat, seemed like. After a while their diet sure changed away from rabbits. I don't know how many years it has been since I ate my last piece of rabbit.

I'll pass around a picture of the early day baseball team that was champion at that particular time and it shows the railroad car that they used to travel around in. I also have a picture of one of the first fairs in Grant County. I believe the first one was at Wilson Creek, we had them for two years. They were supposed to be annual. On the second year they also had one at Moses Lake and after that started, Wilson Creek's died out.

I tried to get information about when the railroad came in. It is sure odd how hard it was to find out. I have a daughter that is teaching in Spokane and we asked her if she could find out from the library there because one time we were putting on a fair booth and we were wanting to find out about the early plows and we found out in that library we could go way back to the stick plows to find out about different plows .

She is teaching and it was unhandy for her to get to the library, so she asked her husband to call the library and find out what year the Great Northern built the railroad through Wilson Creek. Then she called her daughter and asked her to call the library and ask when the rails were built through Wilson Creek.

As it happened , they all three called the library the same day and when the third one called the librarian said, "We wonder why they want to know so badly what year the railroad went through Wilson Creek . That's the third one who has called today."

They couldn't find out in Wenatchee for me, but they did call Seattle and it was built in 1892, from Spokane to somewhere up in the Cascades the same year. It was 1892, when it went through Wilson Creek and Ephrata.