Ritzville City Park site of grange picnic in 1949

Members of the various greater Columbia Basin granges were busy in 1949 with a picnic, home economic group social and a canning contest. Read on.

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 Columbia Basin Herald on Aug. 12, 1949:

Ritzville picnic enjoyed by grange

Potluck dinner on the grass, under shady trees, pleased 36 grange members Sunday afternoon when Moses Lake Grangers picnicked at the Ritzville City Park.

After watching the Moses Lake team win a baseball game from Ritzville, the picnickers returned to their banquet tables, enjoyed swimming and other park games before returning about six.

County grange women to meet this afternoon

All county grange women are invited to attend this afternoon's social meeting of the Moses Lake grange home economics group in the housing project. Mrs. D.L. Vanderventer, local chairman, said invitations went out to all granges in the county, which included Quincy, Wilson Creek, Adrian, Blind Springs and Two Springs.

Guest Speakers are to be Mrs. Melvin Stepon, county Pomona chairman and Mrs. Jessie Burch Jackson, county home extension agent.

Members of the fair booth planning group will meet at the housing project at 1 for a business meeting. The social hour will begin at 2. Hostesses are to be Mrs. Evelyn McGinnis, Mrs. Fred Reid and Mrs. W.C. Dames.

Canning contest prizes announced

All expert home canners should be preparing now for the September canning contest, Mrs. D.L. Vanderventer, local chairman for the event said this week.

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 conclude the story of the MacCheyne Family:

About 1931 Georgia married Dea Llowelyn, and had two children, Vern and Partha Ann. At present Georgia (now Mrs. Ray Brown) lives in Lewison, Idaho. Phyllis married Marvin H. (Dave) Paul, who was working on the Dipper Ranch at the time, 1938. They had two girls, Sharon and Marlene. Jean marred Loren Curry, a former Stratford resident in 1947. Ruth married Ray Jessop, also a Dipper Ranch employee, in 1941. They now live in Kelowna, B.C. Their four children are Jean, Ardith, Cheryl and Shayne.

After serving in the Army in World War II, Robert MacCheyne returned to Wilson Creek, later marrying Laurette Poitras of Kelowna, B.C. They moved to Lakeview while their children were still smalll. Their four children, Michael, Annette, Jean and John attended school in Soap Lake.

Michael MacCheyne, now a U.S. Navy Veteran and his wife, Vanessa, have two children, a boy and a girl. Now the youngest MacCheynes still living in Grant County. Robert and his second wife, the former Virginia Orris of Ephrata, now live in Arkansas.

Jack and Anna's descendents now living in Wilson Creek are Phyllis (Mrs. Floyd Underwood), her daughter, Sharon Eckhart (Mrs. Gerald Eckhart), and Sharon's three children, Gerald Jr, Lorna and Kenneth Eckhart.

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:

Wilson Creek also had a Doctor Mitchell. The house that he lived in still stands. It is just west of the Wilson Creek Grange Hall. The second winter we were in Wilson Creek an epidemic of diphtheria broke out and many families were put under quarantine.

A red flag had to be put up at the gate post and a sign on the door warning people that they could not enter while this siege was on. Wilson Creek was blessed with a second doctor, Crampton. While we were under such a quarantine the city marshal had to come to the door in the morning and again in the afternoon to carry water for household use and bring supplies from the grocery store if any were needed.

I'd like to point out that at that time we had some what they called city wells. There were about four and everyone was welcome to carry water from the city wells. There were also some private wells and as near as I know there was never any objection for you going there for water . Being the only boy not old enough to go out and work and earn a dollar, it was my job to supply the water for the house, and I thought my sister used ·an awful lot. I don't suppose it was near as bad as I thought it was.

There were times when they hauled wheat to Wilson Creek from the Warden area and those big trail outfits would come in with six or eight horses and stay overnight and go back next day because it took two days to come in and one day to go back empty, so they hauled about two trips a week.

I remember going for water sometimes when they were pumping for their horses. Of course I was a kid and these were generally men in their teen years or so, and they'd say just hang your bucket on here, kid, I'll fill it, so I, once in a while, got a bucket filled for nothing.

Wilson Creek being a Great Northern Division, there were always extra steam locomotives here and many times there were arrangements made to use one of these and a railroad car to take the baseball team to other towns that were also located on the Great Northern Railroad.

Other towns such as Waterville, Mansfield and Hartline either used stage coaches or a couple of teams from the livery stable. Mail service was very good. There were at least four passenger trains and two fast mail trains daily and they all carried mail for Wilson Creek. The post office was established in 1894. The old brick bank building was built in 1906.

The Dipper Ranch (I think many of you have seen the sign) was owned by Tony Richardson and in 1906 he gave the largest horse sale ever made in this area to my knowledge.

He sold 3,000 head to England. The rounding up of these horses was a big operation. I have been told that the bulk of these horses were shipped out of Ephrata, however, many carloads were shipped out of Wilson Creek.

There were many cowboys and Indians used in this big roundup. Steve Osborn, Ralph Osborn's father, bought the remnants of the wild horses that the Dippe·r Ranch owned. At that time the stockyards were just about where the Grange Supply auto tank sets now. After that they moved it out east of town and then west of town and now they have no stock yards for loading stock in Wilson Creek.