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EARLY FAMILIES IN THE WOODLAND COMMUNITY
a 1958 Report of The Woodland History Committee

Ester Robinson Gilmore, daughter in law of John Robinson, related that he and his brothers Tom and Charley of Scots-Irish descent, came from Ohio to Lewis River when John was 16 or 18 years of age. When he became 21, he took up a homestead at what has become known to this day as Robinson's Bend just above Kerns. Tom located near Vancouver and it is not known where Charley located. A sister, Lucia Ann, who married Ozra Stratton in Ohio, may have come west with her husband and son, Jim in the same wagon train with her brothers. The Stratton Place was a mile further up the road. If they all came together, the preponderance of evidence is that they all came in 1867.

The children of John and Margaret Ann Eaton Robinson were Elizabeth, Emmet, Jane, Charley, Rose, Ollie, Etta and Nora. Elizabeth married Bill Ellis and their children were George and Cliff. Emmet married Lulu Burke and their children were Eldon and Elaine. Mary Jane married George Wyman and their children were: Anna, John, Agnes, Victor, Elizabeth, Richard and Ruby. Charley married Esther Abernathy and their children were: Charles, Jr., Clarence, Elmer, Helen and Kenneth. Rose married Joe Beck and their children were Chester, William, Ray, Rosie and Eddie. Ollie married Fred Taylor and their children were Mabel and Ethel. Etta married Tom Hill and they had a son Earl. Nora died at age 15. Mrs. Lulu Robinson at 84 lives within a stone's throw of her son Eldon and daughter Elaine Dettloff on the brow of the hill back of the Odd Fellow's Cemetery (Woodland View Drive). Ester, now living in Woodland says that Charley couldn't get along with his father and left home, winding up at Bonner's Ferry where they were in 1897. They later moved to Lewis River on the former Lee Matthews or Bahnholzer Place in Clark County. Charley died in 1921. Esther and Charley's children were Charles Alvin, Clarence, Elmer, Helen and Kenneth.

Mary Jane Robinson Wyman was the daughter of John Robinson and Margaret Ann Eaton who crossed the plains from Iowa to Washington in 1867. They settled up Lewis River on what is now the Kortes place (2416 Lewis River Road). Mary Jane was born in a log cabin down by the creek.

In later years grandfather built a larger house which was a stopping off place for people going up the river. Mother remembered Indian Zack as a little girl. She told that he often was at grandfathers. He was very old and rode a mule. He would be gone prospecting for days at a time. He carried his tomahawk and usually brought back gold. One time when he stopped, he hadn't any gold and said that there had been a big slide. He prospected up around Mt. St. Helens.

Grandfather and grandmother were friends with the Indians and could speak their language. On one occasion some white settlers had shot some of the Indian dogs. There was quite an uprising among the Indians and it took quite a bit of talking to settle them down.

When grandfather butchered, the Indians would come with their cups and drink the warm blood of the animals. Grandfather was a hunter and trapper and kept several hounds. Wild game was plentiful and it wasn't unusual to see deer drinking from the creek near the house. He also had a blacksmith shop, shoeing for his neighbors as well as for himself. He also was a logger having his own ox team.

The Rosland family came from Minnesota in 1905 and bought the Mike Lynch place. The children were Elmer, Melvie, Victor and Oscar. Elmer married back east. Melvie married Herman Syring and they had three children: John, Eldna and Roy. Oscar married Anna Griegor, Fay's adopted sister.

Mr. and Mrs. David Ross, both born in Ohio, and baby daughter left Iowa from Guthrel County in May 1867. They arrived here near Pekin Landing as there was no town of Woodland at this early date. The wagon train had several families, the MacAfferty, Davis, Kalahans and more families that I can not recall. Mr. and Mrs. William MacAfferty were aunt and uncle of my mother, Elizabeth Ross.

In crossing the plains Indians had massacred wagon trains ahead of them as they saw plenty of evidence. A lot of people had taken sick and died on the way. Old wagon wheels and stones marked their graves.

My mother and father arrived here in September 1867 and bought out Jake Robinson's homestead, which consisted of 160 acres which they farmed after they cleared the ground. They had eleven children, four boys and seven girls. One of the girls died at the age of seven years.

In 1929 my brothers and sisters were passing away and now just two of us are left. My sister Mrs. Rhoda L. Rudy and she lived in Centralia and I have always lived in Cowlitz County.

In 1867 times were hard and no money so when father proved up on his homestead, he sold a fat steer for $20.00 and that paid the government for his patent, of which I now have with Ulysses S. Grant's own handwriting on the patent.

The Dave Ross children were: Mary Jane, Rosetta, Luticia, Margaret, James, Isaac, Elizabeth, Ann (died age 7), Sam, Martha, Wilford, Rhoda and Clara. Mary Jane married T. A. Root, they had no children. Rosetta married Frank Spect and their children were Winford, Elmer, Stanley and Ira. James married Katie Gemes and their children were: Harold, Albert, Mildred and Leonard. Isaac married Mary Huck and they had one son, Alfred. Sam married Myrtle Stallcop and their children were: Lemuel, Ivan and Lena. Martha married Andrew Stone and their children were: Archie and Regie. Wilford married Berdie Newman and their children were: George, Lola and Patricia. Rhoda married George Rudy and their children were: Ida, Clara, Hazel and Herman. Clara married Charles Edward Jones and their children were Clarence and Thelma.

All of these children except Mary Jane were born on Lewis River and she was born in Iowa.

George and Mary Rudy and their children bought the Ezra Stratton place. They came soon after the Ira Geemes family. Mrs. Geemes was a Rudy. George Rudy, Jr. married Rhoda Ross. See Ross family above.

F. L. Sawyer's father was Jonathan Sawyer, born 1811 in Maine. To supply the mother's name I would need that family Bible. They had three children: Clara, Franklin and Charles.

Franklin was also born in Maine, April 11, 1849. Presently the family moved to Pittsburg, Penn. He enlisted in the Union navy early in 1865, while still 15 years of age, and served until late the same year on the Mississippi River on the USS GREAT WESTERN, the USS CRICKET, and the USS SILVER LAKE.

In 1877 he married Miss Laura Kibble, a native of Illinois, and moved to Marion, Iowa, where three of the couple's six children were born: Hugh Milton, Claude Monroe and Emma Edith. About 1882 they came west to Portland and in 1883 moved to Kelso, Cowlitz County, Washington Territory, where the second daughter, Vernie May was born. In 1890 they settled on Cedar Creek in Clark County, one quarter mile east of where the present Cedar Creek Road crossed the creek to the north side. There Mr. Sawyer farmed until 1911, then selling out to Mr. Jones. Two children were born to the Sawyers there, Eva Lola and Ethel Ora.

Mr. and Mrs. Sawyer and their two younger daughters moved to Springbrook, Ore. Again selling out they moved into Portland in 1915. Mr. Sawyer died there in 1924 and Mrs. Sawyer in 1928.

Hugh M. Sawyer went to Alaska in 1901. He engaged very successfully in logging and fishing enterprises. He married (Nellie) Eleanor in February 1922. Mrs. Sawyer died August 23, 1942. No children.

Claude M. Sawyer also went to Alaska (with Hugh) in 1901. He went from one end of the territory to the other, living an adventurous life of hunting, fishing, and prospecting for many years. He returned in the early 1920's, married the former Virginia (Virgie) Paulson. The couple had two daughters, Claudia May (born 1925; married Ed Champlin) and Mary Ellen (born 1927; married George Turner. The Turners had one child). Claude Sawyer died June 11, 1935.

Emma Sawyer married Walter s. Jarvis, December 28, 1904. They had four children, Helen (now Mrs. Morris; born 1905; no children; living in Portland; Loyd James (born 1907, married, two children, living in Portland); Franklin Walter (married, no children, living in Portland); Hugh Samuel (married, one child, living in Portland).

Vernie Sawyer married Hugh Hamilton, June 6, 1906, (one daughter Elsie, married Harry Gleason, no children). Hugh Hamilton died in 1925. Vernie is now Mrs. Robert Graham and lives in Portland.

Eva Sawyer married Carl Landerholm, June 6, 1916. Four children: Edith Vernie (born June 4, 1917, married Robert B. Woodworth, 1942, and has four children: Edith, Donald, Melvin, and Elaine; lives in Vancouver, Washington); Alan Werner (born June 15, 1919, married Miss Dorothy Johnson in 1941, six children: Carol, Beth Ann, Alan and Anna (twins), Helen and Christine; lives near Vancouver); Irwin Carl (born December 12, 1923, married Dovy Carlos in 1951, two children: Carl Irwin and Jean; lives near Vancouver); Merle Edwin (born September 9, 1927, married Mary Lee Boggs in 1951, two children: Erice and John; lives in Bellevue, Washington).

Eathel Sawyer married Fred McAdams in 1917, one daughter, Verna Mae, now Mrs. Brandon, living south of Seattle; born October 9, 1918). Eathel is now Mrs. Wayne Stevens and lives on R. R. #1 Vancouver, Wash.

Henry Schei came from Norway and began working for the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1910. In 1915 he returned on a visit to Norway. In Bergen he met and married Aestrid Haaland and they returned to Woodland in 1915 where he continued working for the railroad. Except for 13 years in Ridgefield they have lived here ever since. Their children are: Ansgar, born in 1915, Lucile and Genevieve.

August and Anna Paul Schmitz came around the Horn from Germany in 1878. He worked as a brick mason in Portland until 1883 when the family came by steamboat to Martin's Bluff. Mr. Schmitz learned at Vancouver of the abandoned Frank Klager and Carl Tesch homestead and came down to file on it. Mr. Martin hauled them up to the log house already built by Frank and Carl. They traded at Kalama and the children went to Ferndale school. Their children were: Augusta, Anna, August, Jr., William, Alfred, Albert and Paul. Augusta married Joe Hayes and their children were Marie and Margaret. Anna married John Stewart and their children were George and Robert. August Jr. never married. The farm was left to him. William married Teressa, a Portland girl. Alfred died at age 8. Albert, born 1890, married Anna Reimers in 1928 and their children are: Anna, William, Paul, Helen, Carl, Marie, and John. Paul married Gladys Hatton. The last four were born on the homestead.

Albert says he worked 8 years with Mr. Timber of Kalama and worked in camps down the Columbia and at Ryderwood for Long Bell. He was a World War I Veteran, and has been deputy assessor for 16 years.

John Stewart, Anna's husband, worked for Gilbert Scott whose father, a Milwaukie farmer, bought Martin Island from William Martin and sold to Cliff Thomas.

Mr. Schmitz died about 1930 and Mrs. Schmitz 1 year later. The Schmitz homestead joined the Wodaeges.

Mr. Schurman was born in Wesfalen, Germany in February of 1845. In 1865 he came to California. Desirous of knowing something of the military experience in Germany, the matter was referred to, but Mr. Schurman had escaped (serving in the military. ed) as his eyes were not good enough to pass the examination. Mr. Schurman was fortunate in that his sweetheart and he came to America at the same time and they were married in California. For several years he followed the life of the farm and worked for a farmer at Dixon, California. In 1871 he and his family came to the Clark County and settled on an eighty acre homestead six miles northeast of La Center. Here he cleaned out a small place and built his house on the top of a stump. This house was of split cedar. As soon as it was erected he cleared a garden spot. In the beginning, he had neither oxen nor horses and no money to buy them with, so he broke his cow and heifer to work. He raised one steer and by that time was able to buy another.

Mr. Schurman spoke regretfully of the fact that when he had to go out to work, his wife had to stay in the wilderness in all its loneliness. Two years after taking up the homestead his wife died. The neighbors understood the position of the man who thus looses his wife and took the children. One of them said to him one day, 'I have a sister who would come out if you would send her the money.' Being assured that she was a desirable person, Mr. Schurman went to the fisheries and made money to pay her passage from the East. She came and Mr. Schurman paid the tribute due her by making her his wife.

While supporting his family and clearing up thirty five acres of land, Mr. Schurman worked out a great deal. He worked at the Cascades on the Oregon and Washington railroad while it was being built, and also worked at Woodland on the Northern Pacific. Harvest fields also furnished him with employment in season. One dollar and a half per day was the wages received and the day was from sunrise to sunset.

All marketing was done by the way of La Center. He walked over with the produce and would borrow a boat to go to Pekin. If there was no boat available he would walk home again. When they got a road to La Center it required two yoke of oxen to haul a dozen sacks of potatoes to that place in the Winter or Spring.

Mrs. Clara Schurman Rounds remembers her father telling of how their boat sank with a load of supplies he and another man were bringing up the river from Pekin when Pekin was the trading center. There the boat sat right side up down under water and her father was sitting in it. The man reached down with a pole and pulled him out. Her father had taken cramps and couldn't move.

Mr. Schurman got two hundred acres together while living on his homestead. This he sold later, buying a farm nearer La Center, which he has disposed of to one of his sons. At one time he had eighty acres of timber that was a nuisance to him so he gave it away to get rid of it. He adds that it would be worth twenty thousand dollars if he had it now.

Mr. Schurman was the father of twelve children, two of whom were by the first wife and then by the second. Of that number nine were girls and three boys. As a family, they learned to do their bit. One of the girls, in business herself in Portland, came out during haying time for a visit. "Where's a fork, Dad?", she asked and loaded hay as she had done as a girl at home. It should be added that in addition to caring for his own family, he sent to Germany and brought out his wife's half brother, Fred Zuhl.

Mr. Schurman died August 18, 1925 while living with his son Frank and is buried in Highland Cemetery.

The children by his first wife were Bertha who married Fred Zuhl and Henry married Ida Stein. By his 2nd wife: Louise who married Fred Wagner and later married Jacob Bahr; Etta who married Brad Machias; August never married; Martha who married Herbert Hewett; Caroline who married Harry Temple; Clara who married Francis Rounds; Anna never married; William who married Ella Bennett; Frank who married Angeline Eckert and Madeline who married Orval Jackson.

Aaron W. Scott was born at Abingdon, Virginia in 1855. At the age of three he emigrated with his parents to Bradley County, Tennessee. When he was 21 he went west to Thayer, Kansas. Here he was an apprentice to a shoemaker. By this work he was able to cut and sew his own wedding boots.

August 16, 1877 he was married to Amy Rundle, whose ancestors were active in both the Revolution and War of 1812.

May 15, 1883, A. W. Scott, his wife, Amy and three children left Kansas by covered wagon drawn by mules. Their destination was not sure. He followed the Old Oregon Trail to the Dalles. Here he left his pals of the wagon train, ferried across the Columbia River and drove to the old town of Yakima. A mule had lost a shoe and Mr. Scott found a blacksmith shop and had the shoe resent. Mrs. Scott spread a blanket on an old wooden sidewalk and sat Dora, the baby, down to crawl. The Indians came, they wore long black braids of hair and were wrapped in blankets. They offered the covered wagon full of watermelons for the white papoose.

Not being satisfied there, Mr. Scott returned to the Dalles. Sickness in the family forced him to ship his wagon and team on an Oregon Rail and Navigation boat to Albina, NE Portland. Here he met a family from Georgia, which brought back memories of home in Tennessee. After resting a day, the two families drove their teams of wagons toward Vancouver. They crossed the Columbia River on a ferry. They followed the old military road north, forded Salmon Creek where the highway bridge is now located, on to La Center and out through Highland, then west to the North Fork of the Lewis River. There was a ferry on the Eaton Donation Land Claim, 2 miles NE of Woodland. Their first camp was made west of the cemetery on the John Bozorth Donation Land Claim on September 16, 1883. We rested here for a few days, later renting a one room cabin in Woodland, which stood on Davidson Avenue near the river.

A. W. Scott in the next few years rented a dairy farm and sold milk to a Cooperative Cheese factory. In 1888 he purchased 55 acres of the Kraft Donation Land Claim and erected some buildings and this was home. The family had now grown to six children. Four of school age. We all went to a one room school with children from miles around. Turman, the eldest child, had eight years of country school to his credit without being absent or tardy.

In 1890, A. W. Scot logged up Lewis River. Oxen were used for transportation. This adventure was a sad one as three men were drowned in Shirt-Tail Canyon. In 1898, he again logged using horses for transportation. This adventure too, was not a profitable one.

In 1889, Mr. Scott purchased a tract of land from A.K. Davidson and had a survey of the town of Woodland made. On October 14, 1889 the streets and avenues were dedicated by A. W. and Amy Scott to the public for public highway. At this time, there was one residence, a general merchandise store (Post Office in the store) and a small cabin. In 1890 the community began to grow. A railroad located and built up a grade near town. The excavations left many deep holes which filled with water. A deep hole (near the depot) was the play ground for small boys. One day a boy fell from a raft and George Scott, second son of the A. W. Scotts, begged the help of two men and dragged the pool with a barbed wire and recovered the body.

We now had a Presbyterian Church and a short time later an Advent Church, a small hotel and a saloon began looking for locations. Our school began to grow and a new one was added. Competition in the stores began. We soon had a Doctor and a Dentist, a thriving small town. Mr. Scott was public spirited; he served much time working for better schools, donated to the struggling churches and helped needy families. He was an ardent worker in the Grange. Mr. and Mrs. Scott spent much time in the early days in the homes of sick neighbors and at the bedside in death.

Now in 1900 his family has grown to do for themselves. Turman married Martha Parker; George married Lois McArthur; Dora married Andie Clawson; Charles, deceased; Lloyd married Ida Keene and Albert, deceased.

Mr. and Mrs. Scott sold their 55 acre farm in the Woodland bottoms and moved to a 50 acre farm (John Bozorth, Donation Land Claim), a high bench 1 mile north of Woodland. This land purchased in 1892. He moved to this home in 1906 and with the help of his son Lloyd, cleared this land of old growth stumps and second growth trees. It was in a high state of production. Mrs. Scott passed away in 1933. Mr. Scott's health failed and he passed away in 1943. The farm was sold to the United Bulb Company and is now the home of Ted DeGroot (on Scott Hill ).

Mrs. Carrie Scott, a well known and highly respected widow with three children was a school teacher in the primary grades in Woodland in 1899-1900. Amos Willoughby was principal that year. Mrs. Scott had taught or was to teach in many schools in Cowlitz and Clark Co.'s. Her last school was in Vancouver. In her retirement she lived with a sister in Portland where she died. Her children were: Harry, Julia and Joe.

Julia, a very pretty girl, took the fancy of Prof. Willoughby in whose company she was quite often seen.

Joe proved his skill at duck hunting by shooting a flock of Mrs. Klager's tame geese. When he was apprised of his error he pitched in with a well and helped dress the geese.

The August Scottburgs settled in the Clark Co., Green Mountain area. Their children were Beda, Anna, Gus, Oscar, Frank, Ernest and George. Beda married a Portland man, as did Anna. Gus married Edna Lund, sister of Vander. Oscar married a View girl. Frank married Sophia Lund, a sister of Vander. Ernest never married. He is living on the old Utter place. George married a widow named Johnson.

C. A. Soney, one of the most colorful and widely known personalities to grace the Woodland scene came first as a school teacher in 1888. He taught first at Woodland. Dora Clawson says he was teaching his first term their when she first started to school. He later taught at Hayes, Kerns, Clover Valley and other up-river schools.

He started logging operations up Lewis River about 1905 and continued logging until his retirement, having acquired considerable wealth. He was an active Odd Fellow and a charter member of the Rebeccas. At his often expressed desire, he was buried in the Odd Fellows Cemetery. He had brothers and sisters but never was married.

The Soney house, an outstanding one for the time (built soon after he came here) still stands at the intersection of old Highway 99 and the Ariel road. See old newspaper clippings for Mr. Soney's activities.

Isaac Benton Shoemaker was born July 15, 1851, died December 1924. Place of birth was Kentucky. He was a graduate of a Kentucky Medical School. Shoemaker married Mary I. Brown who was born April 30, 1860 in Illinois and died January, 1940.

The children: Claude F. Shoemaker born at Woodland on December 15, 1884; John William Shoemaker born at Woodland on April 12, 1886; Thomas Benton Shoemaker born August 1, 1892 at Goble, Oregon and died at Woodland in 1902; Eva Dell Shoemaker born November 9, 1893 at Goble, Oregon; Ina Bell Shoemaker born March 1897 at Goble, Oregon.

Dr. and Mrs. Shoemaker first came to Woodland and vicinity in 1882, and lived for a short time about 10 miles up Lewis River from Woodland. They then moved to Woodland where he had a medical practice. They went then to Scappoose and Goble, Oregon but returned to Woodland in 1900 and resumed his practice until 1904 when he moved to Yacolt, Washington.

The children of the Shoemakers all reside in the vicinity of Seattle, Washington.

Christain and Jessie Dunham Sigel came from Cincinnati Ohio to Portland in 1898. Two years later they came to Woodland on the MASCOT. Mr. Sigel was a painting contractor, later carried mail, Woodland to Couger, three round trips per week. Mr Sigel died in 1924 at the age of 62.

The children are: Mable, who married Burl Givin, School Superintendent in Alaska and La Center, Mable also taught school; Harry married Rose Ballhorn and their children were: Patty who married Arley Coney; Ralph Dunham married Josephene Trosper, a teacher of 1st grade in Woodland and their daughter is Joyce.

Charley Specht and his brother, Henry, were born in Germany and had sailed before the mast. They settled in Iowa for awhile where they became acquainted with the Stallcop family. They came to Kalama in 1874. Charley moved over to Goble and lived there 7 years before moving to Woodland and Henry stayed in Kalama 5 years before moving to Woodland. That was in 1879 when the Lewis River country was known as Pekin.

Charley Specht prospered and built the most elegant house in Woodland. Adorned in gingerbread cornices it proclaimed the proud possession of it's owner. This house withstood the 1894 flood all right but Charley complained when the Str. Egalite, towing barge loads of ballast to weight down the houses on the bottoms, splashed waves against the house. The house was sold to Dave Wallace in 1902 and is known as the Wallace house (5th and Davidson).

Charley Specht married Elizabeth Hunsacker and their children were: Frank who married Rose Ross; Ernest who married Emma Jones and Joe who married Alice Jones. Frank and Rose's children were: Winford, Elmer, Stanley and Labena. Ernest and Emma's children were: Kenneth, Leota and Hilda. Joe and Alice's children were: Herbert, Thelma and Margie and they live at 717 Pine St., Silverton, Oregon. Henry Jr. married Ethel Payne and their children were George and Dale. Henry passed away in 1956. Sophia married Jake Miller and their children were: Athena, Tillie, Julia, Alta, Amelia and Icel. Carl married Essie Benson and their children are: Raymond, Oscar, Lyle and Louise. Emma married Ed Lytle and their children are Joe and Ann. Bertha married Grover Blahe and their children are: Lidona, William Evans, Genevieve, Jessie, Allan and Lois Helen. Willie married Odis Woodward and their children are Doris Mae, Van, Douglas, Gloria, Valda and Sue. Freda married Woods Payne and their children are: Hilda, Harold, Margaret, Tommy and Linda.

Bertha, the fourth child, now Mrs. Bertha Blahe living in Roseburg, Oregon, tells of a shipwreck experienced by her parents. She says " I remember my parents telling of being shipwrecked as they came from New York. It happened off the coast of Mexico near Acapulco. They lost everything. This shipwreck occurred at night and when the women and children were put in the life boats they were not allowed to take as much as a hand bag with them. Mama said "when their boat was near the beach the boat began to sink. She realized she could not carry both the children to shore so she stood up in the boat and threw the baby (Rose) as far as she could then she waded out with Freda in her arms. When she came to the beach she picked Rose up unharmed and she seemed perfectly happy."

John Springer took up his Donation Land Claim on what are now the Auction Barn and Harmon places in 1853. Charley U. O. Springer, probably John's son, aged 25 years died August 21, 1871 and was buried in the Hawk cemetery in the Allen Gilson plot. From the inscription on his headstone it is assumed that Charley's father had died and that his mother was still living. The headstone reads "Tell mother I have been good and now am going home". It is assumed the Springers and Gilsons were especially good friends. That assumption gains weight when considering a news paper clipping stating quote "Woodland's first school was in the home of Mrs. Louisa J. Springer about 1854. Louisa was a sister of Mrs. Gilson.

Billy Spurrel came to Cedar Creek about 1874. He married Mary Woodham and their children were: Nellie, Charley, Fred, Emma, Lena, Bessie, Jennie and Cecil. Nellie married Bill Emerick (William Forbes' uncle); Charley never married; Fred married and they had one son, Fred, Jr.; Emma married a school teacher, Mr. Thompson and they moved to Hawaii; Lena married Bill Fraser and they had three sons and one daughter, Oscar, Fred, Earl and Marguerite; Lena later married A. B. Bozorth and later married Burt Gillott; Bessie married Bob Darnell of Kalama; Jennie married Capt. Cann of Juneau, Alaska. Capt. Cann owned the Gasteneau hotel at Juneau. Cecil married a widow woman and they lived on Chelatchie Prairie.

The family of James Stallcop came west from Adams County, Iowa in the Fall of 1874. The Union Pacific Railroad had been built and they used it's facilities as far as Sacramento, thence by ocean liner, the Oroflame, to Portland, Oregon. After living in Milwaukee near Portland for a year they moved to Ridgefield in 1875, coming to the Lewis River in 1876. Point of contact with this vicinity was at Caples Landing. The first family, they became acquainted with was that of Sol Strong, son-in-law of Squire and Milly Bozorth who had settled on a Donation Land Claim 26 years before. Here the Stallcop family was served a meal.

Mr. Stallcop was born in Indiana and served as an officer in an Indiana regiment in the Union forces where he suffered a bullet wound. Soon after the war ended, he was married to Irene Rathbun of Iowa (1868). Four children blessed union, three of whom were born in Iowa and on the Lewis River.

Fred N. Stallcop, born in Iowa February 3, 1869, came with his parents in 1874, lived around Woodland until 1882 then went to Kelso for a number of years. In 1897 Fred again came back to Lewis River and took a bride who was Miss Matilda Pea, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Nathan Pea, early settlers on the Upper Lewis River. The following years found Fred working at donkey punching, firing river steamers and running passenger launches between Kelso, Washington and Rainier, Oregon. For fifteen years he resided near La Center, Washington but since 1944 has made his home in Woodland where he and his wife, Mattie still live.

Fred's side interests have been violin making, song writing, family genealogy and making merry with the fiddle.

In May, 1957, Fred and Mattie with a host of relatives and friends celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary.

Ernest C. Stallcop was born in Iowa in 1871. He spent most of his life in the vicinity of Woodland. He was a volunteer in the Philippine War. His marriage in 1902 again united the Stallcop and Pea families, his choice being Miss Gertrude. This wedding was affected in the now extinct store building in Kerns.

Ernest took up farming in his later years and farmed in Enumclaw and Labam. He and Fred were both members of the Woodland Bank. He passed away in Raymond in 1935. As of this date Ernest's wife and four children still live, one child having died in infancy.

The third child of James and Irene Stallcop was Gertrude Lillian, the mother of this writer. She was born in Iowa in 1874 and made the journey as a young babe. Her girlhood was spent at the family home a few miles up Lewis River from Woodland where she attended Park Grove school. Her marriage in 1891 to Albert H. Bozorth was the connection between the Stallcops and Bozorth families who settled in the valley in 1851. Gertrude passed away in 1909. Four children came from this union.

The youngest of the Stallcop family was a daughter Myrtle who was born March 18, 1879 after the family moved into the Lewis River Valley. Myrtle married Sam Ross in the 1897's and lived on her husband's farm the remainder of her life. Two sons and one daughter resulted from this marriage.

James Stallcop was active in the affairs of the community during his residence in the Valley. He served as school master in the old log school house which was the first school of the Woodland area. Also a term of school was conducted by him in a converted dwelling about 100 yards southwest of the present Railroad Depot (1877-78). Mr. Stallcop also was active as a singing school teacher and Justice of the Peace.

In the winter of 1879 the Stallcop's family moved to a place now known as the Combs place situated near the Wall log dump. In the spring of 1880 they settled on a homestead located on Butte Hill, taking over a claim relinquished by C. C. (Chris) Bozorth. Mr. Stallcop died in 1882.

The Stallcop clan has roots deep in American history, stemming from both the Pilgrims and the Swedes of Delaware. An account of an old time spelling bee might well be told here. Representative spellers of the Lancaster precinct and the adjoining Powell precinct were lined up on either side of the old Grange Hall situated across the road south of the Kerns Cemetery. The date was 1878. Near the final stages six Lancaster spellers were still standing. Four of these were the two Stallcop boys, Harry Le Lewis and Luella Bozorth. The remaining spellers then went to work to finish themselves off. Ernest Stallcop finally won the match. He was seven years old.

Eli and Mary Strait with their children and grandchildren settled on Lewis River, where Woodland Park now stands, in 1889. They bought the place from Charley and John Page. Their children were Homer, Eugene, Perphene (Aunt Attene) and Laura. Homer and Louisa Straits children were: Alvin, Amos, Clemetine, Alf, Addie and Vesta. Eugene (Gene) never married Aunt Attena married Elvin Hill, their son, Leo, now lives in Woodland and is married to Thelma Eaton Hill, daughter of Courtney Eaton.

Aunt Attena Hill later married Herbert Dart. Laura Strait married Benjamin Hannah, brother of Mat and Hanson (Hank) Hannah. Their granddaughter Flossie Taylor Davis supplied much of this date. Leo Hill and William Hannah also helped. William is Hand Hannah's grandson and Jack's son. William says that Aunt Attena was a favorite among Ariel neighbors for her many kindness'. She not only raised her own family, but took her nephew Eli Burton under her wing and raised him.

Ezra Stratton and wife Lucia Ann Robinson and son James crossed the plains probably from Ohio and homesteaded near the present Jack Greer place (Ross Road and Lewis River Road) on Lewis River in 1866. Frank Ables, a single man also came with the Strattons. The proof that they came from Ohio lies in the fact that Ezra married Lucia Ann, John Robinson's sister, and they bore son James before crossing the plains and it is known that John Robinson came from Ohio.

The Stratton children were James, Tom, Ezzie, Mary, Charley, and Rose. James married an Eilback girl. Tom married Bessie Spitznagle and their children were: Clarence, Elwood and Glen. Ezzie married Amos Burk and their children were: Jim and Albert. Mary married Otto Eilback. They had children but names not known. Charley married Thera ? and their children were Perl and Lola. Rose married Charley Goodwin, whose father ran a Woodland butcher shop.

Jim, Tom and Charley were fiddlers. Tom was the best anywhere around. Tom served at council and started his Woodland Drug Store in the late 1890's after Dr. Davis had moved his to La Center. Tom was also a commercial photographer. He died about 1953. Charley now lives at the La Center rest home.

Solomon Strong, Sr. was born in New York State in 1817. He moved to Ohio then to Illinois then to Iowa, where in 1845 he married Mary Ann Bozorth. They crossed the plains in 1847 and first settled 3 miles above Vancouver on the Oregon side of the Columbia. He took up his Lewis River DLC on December 9, 1850. Their children were: George, Mary, Solomon C., William, Milly, James, Elizabeth, Harriet, Sarah, Lorena and Lydia. The two later were twins.

George married Melissa Gilson and they had one child, Stella who married Frank Bedford. Mary married Jonathan Wills and their children were: Grant, who married Viola Wright (see Lish Wright family); Solomon C. married Amelia Thiel and their child was Solomon (Bud) who never married; Lizzie, who married Billy McGrotty; Bessie; Effie, who married Dave Gardner and had Effie and Fred; William married Eddie ?, and their children were: Roy, Gay, Vivian and Esther. The spouses of the rest of the children are unknown. Solomon C. Strong served as Clark County Commissioner from 1853 - 1862.

Ezra Strong, brother of Solomon, died at his Lewis River home in 1877. His children were: Chester; Phoebe, who married Ike Easton; Willard who married Cash Wier; Celestia who married Wilda's and their children were: Kenneth, Dorothy, Lucile and another boy.

Ezra's youngest daughter, Emma, married Bill Tooley and their children were: Maud, Agnes, Julia, George, Bill, Della and another girl.

Carl A. Tangen, Sr. was born May 15, 1861 in Tangengard in Larkendalen County, Norway and grew up there. At age of 21, he went into the army training for 2 or 3 years, like all the old country was accustomed to doing. Carl Tangen met and married Elisa Marie Christensen in 1883. She was born in Frederikshald, Norway on April 23, 1862. I, Ragna, was born in Ostre Burun, Norway on April 7, 1887. When I was around one year old, Carl A. Tangen came to America landing in New York. He then sent for Mother and me. As soon as we landed, father, mother and I went to Minnesota where my sister Anna was born. Our family met some people there that wanted to come to Woodland so he came and took a homestead 9 miles up the Lewis River in 1889 and "proved up" on.

Two more children were born, Elizabeth and Benjamin. Sept. 16, 1896, our mother passed away. Sometime later my father met and married Lelia Lenora Davis and to them were born four children: Malissa, George, Cora and Carl, Jr. who are still living. In a few years my father sold his homestead and moved to Marshland, Oregon where work was plentiful He was a timber faller for many years in both Oregon and Washington and also did some farming.

In 1903, my sister, Elizabeth passed away at age of 11. My brother, Benjamin passed away from a logging accident at age of 37. My father, Carl A. Tangen, Sr. passed away at the age of 81 in 1942.

The Harvey Taylors were special friends of Henry Bennett family and lived up back of them near the Canyon Road.

John Thomas and Nancy Taylor came from Indiana to the Cedar Creek area in 1876 where they bought the homestead rights of Tim Cannon. Their children were Charley, John, Aaron, Lewis, Laura and Walter.

Charley married a Portland girl; John, now 81, living on the old homestead married Helen Wooday and their children are: Connie, Tom, Laura, Chris and Harry. Harry married Margerie (Ed Griffith's daughter) and they now live on the Griffith's place on Pekin road.

Aaron Taylor died at age 17 and Lewis at 18. Laura never married and she ran a restaurant for many years in Kalama and now lives at Oroville, Wash. Walter Taylor married Gerti Gay and their children were: Gayle and Evelyn.

The John Taylors celebrated their golden wedding anniversary last year on the old homestead, where John has lived all his life. He related many interesting events that occurred on the farm, in the woods and on log drives. Oxen were used on the farm at first and in the logging camps. John and his father logged for the Ad Reid mill. John tells of a log drive he was on with Indian George Charley through Shirttail Canyon. Log driving in the 90's was an annual event. The good wages induced the hardy, venturesome young men to put on their caulk boots and with pike pole and peavey, push, pull and roll logs off the snags and bars out into the current. They welcomed a chance to ride snags and bars out into the current. They welcomed a chance to ride a log or two. If two or more got on the same log, usually a contest developed to see who could stay on the longest. John says George Charley usually did. They could only get him off by slipping up behind him.

Godfrey and Willamina Thiel left Germany with their four children when their youngest child, Hulda Klager, now 94, was a babe in arms (probably about 1864). They first settled in Minnesota, later in the Dakotas and Wisconsin. Mr. Thiel was a brewer and followed his trade there. On their first trip to the Coast they came to San Francisco then to Portland, then to Pekin in 1876. But Mrs. Thiel's fear of the Indians induced them to return to safer grounds so they returned to the starting point in Wisconsin and being then dissatisfied after viewing the possibilities here, returned to Lewis River. Their oldest child Julius stayed in Wisconsin this time. Mrs. Klager remembers that they came down from Portland to Pekin on the Steamer HYDRA when she was 13. That would be in 1877.

The Thiels bought a portion of the Le Lewis and Lydia Webb DLC, and followed farming, trading at Pekin and the children going to school in a log school house at the Lewis place.

Their children were: Julius, who stayed in Wisconsin; Bertha married Carl Tesch on September 22, 1882 and their children were: Carl, born September 21, 1883 who married Emma Erickson on May 26, 1907. They had no children. Sophia, born October 10, 1885 who married August Wodaege in 1909. Their children were: Hilda, Emma, Otto and Marie. Fred, born May 6, 1887 who married Anne Dinwiddle. They had one child, Fred Jr. Diedrick, born May 14, 1893, who married Emma Rich. Their children were Charles and Edna. Martha, born October 28, 1894 who married Abe Wodaege. Their children were Carl who married Allene Schiewe, Joe who married Mary Lemmings and Kenneth.

Amelia Thiel married Solomon Strong. Their children were: Solomon (Bud) who never married, Lizzie who married Billie McGrotty, Bessie who married Buzz H. Rankin, Effie who married Dave Gardner and Fred who never married.

Emil Thiel married Tillie Erdman and their children were Albert who married Florence Schultz, Elma who married Ed Blum and Hazel who married Kenneth Barr.

Hilda Thiel married Frank Klager. For their children see Frank Klager and Carl Tesch families. Mrs. Klager tells of the dual wedding of her and her sister Amelia. the expectant brides were held in their rooms as such occasion requires until the Justice of Peace, Nathan Davis arrived. He was to have been there at 11:00 am. but did not arrive until late afternoon and then bedraggled in his muddy boots.

John Sloan Tooley was born near Atica, Fountain County, Indiana, October 28, 1836. (He) crossed the plains with his father in the year 1852. The family took up a homestead in the extreme part of Clark County, Washington Territory. They stayed on the old homestead until the massacre of the white people at the Cascades of the Columbia River, March 26, 1856 by the Indians.

The Tooley home being only a few miles below the Cascades, the entire settlement had to abandon their homes and flee to Vancouver and Portland for safety. On the morning of March 27, 1856 John Tooley went in Captain Len Powell's Company of Minute Men from Portland, Oregon to the relief of the remaining white people at Cascades.

After returning to Portland and the Company disbanded, he immediately volunteered in Capt. Wm. Kelley's Company of Clark County Rangers and served until the end of the Indian War the following Fall.

The Tooleys moved to Kerns in 1879 or '80 where they raised their large family. The children were: George L., born April 4, 1862; Margarette M., born November 26, 1863; William W., born June 25, 1865, married Emma Strong (see Strong family); Francis A. born February 25, 1867; Mary Jane, born February 3, 1869 married Amos Burke (see Burke family); Fanny A., born June 29, 1871, married Harry Lewis; James M., born November 1, 1872, married Maude Davis and their children were Jesse, Emil, Cecil, Albert, Anna and Thelma; Sara Ann, born November 10, 1874, married Cloudy Bozorth (see Bozorth family); John C. born July 30, 1881; Fred Lee, born may 17, 1885, married Eva Birt; Charles L. born May 15, 1887.

The Silas Tucker and Jim Matthews families moved up from Puget Island to Lewis River and built their homes along the river on the D. Wells Gardner place about 1890. About 1895 the Matthews moved away and in 1897 or '98 the Tuckers moved their house and belongings including a cow on to a log float and floated down the river to the mouth and on up Lake River on a flood tide to Felida. They lived there on the float a few years then moved to a house in Felida.

Columbia River fishing was the main activity of Silas Tucker and Jim Matthews. Jim spent his last years living on a boat house at the mouth of Lewis River. (see Powell family.)

Silas Tucker married Mrs. Remington and their children were Randolph (Remington), America, Esther, Emmet, Ernie and three younger ones. Stepson Randolph Remington, age 80, now living at the Faith Foundation Home in Vancouver, relates a long experience on Columbia and Lewis River steamers. He worked up from deck hand to mate to pilot on the Strs. Oklahoma, George Burton and Robert Young and to Captain on the Str. Catherine, formerly called the Maria, and the Robert. He had been mate on all of these boats. Randolph proudly shows his Master's License. He also served a time in Africa in 1917 as foreman getting out mahogany timbers for shipment.

America is married and lives in California. Esther died years ago. Emmet lives alone in Felida. Ernie is married and lives in St. Helens, Oregon.

Gustave and Kristine Utter come from Sweden to Minnesota to Portland then on to Etna on the Str. Lucia Mason in 1888. Mr. Utter bought the homestead rights to Mr. Peterson's place near Cedar Creek. He was a miller by trade and continued in that capacity in the Portland Flouring Mills for three years after moving the family on the homestead. In 1891 he leased the Cedar Creek Grist Mill from Mike Lynck, installing additional machinery, including a turbine, and began grinding grain into the different varieties of wheat and oat products such as white and graham flour, midlings, shorts and Bran. Farmers brought wheat oats and occasionally corn and barley from a wide area. When the '93 depression set in and people had no money, Mr. Utter ground on shares taking wheat which he fed to his hogs and marketed the pork.

The Utter children were: Mary, Gustave Jr., Emil, Antone, Fred, Rose and Alvin. Mary married a Mr. Johnson and they had one child Hilda. Mary later married William Hanson and their children were: Harry, Arthur, Clarence and Evelyn and Eleanor. Gustave, Jr. married an eastern girl and they had one son, Gustave. Emil married Bessie Langtrey and their children were Frank, Earl, Louise and Edward. Antone never married and died at age 30. Fred married May Horn, a La Center girl and they had one daughter, Alice. Rose married Arthur (Ducy) Wallace and their children were Erma and Dorothy. Ducy was drowned in 1917 while working for George McCoy on the boom. Rose later married William Gray in 1920 and he died in 1936. Alvin married Cassie Russell and they had one son, Clifford. Rose Gray now lives in Woodland.

John Henry Van Bebber of New York Dutch stock appears to have arrived on Lewis River with the earliest settlers. In 1853 or '54 he married Rhoda John and four children resulted from this union: Francis (Frank), Emma, Edith and Ida.

For some reason, not passed on down the family history, John Henry disappeared. Probably the quiet Lewis River scene paled and he struck out for greener pastures. He must have been a reader of Captain Kidd and Jesse James stories and maybe he helped create the Jesse James legend. Anyway, through the mist of fact and fiction as related by his grandson, Lloyd, "He and some others outfitted a ship in San Francisco and were about ready to put to sea when grandfather was tipped off that the U. S. Government was preparing to arrest the entire crew as pirates. He beat the law to Mexico and I don't believe ever came back till after grandmother Rhoda got a divorce in 1862, granted by the Washington Legislature. C. C. Bozorth was a member of the Legislature at that time and secured the passage of the bill that authorized the divorce." (Chris and Rhoda were married the following year.)

Lloyd continues, "Later grandfather was associated with the James boys, Jesse and Frank, in Missouri and married Marinda Younger, full sister of Cole Younger, who is credited with being the brains of the James Boys gang. I remember my father saying that his father was the fastest and best shot with a rifle or revolver he had ever seen."

Referring back to John Henry and Rhoda Van Bebbers children, Frank married Lellah Stewart of Martins Bluff. They had one child, Lloyd born January 21, 1880. Frank worked in his step-father's (C. C. Bozorth) store, did prospecting around Mt. St. Helens in 1894 and '95 but this venture did not pan out. In 1882 he and his brother-in-law, Jake Stewart took up homesteads 30 miles north of Spokane. They were poor and lived mostly on venison. (Frank, like his father, was a good shot.) In 1896 Frank made his first trip to Klondyke over the Kyea Trail of Chillcotte Pass, quoting Lloyd again, "He (Frank) put his scow together with 5 Swedes at Lake Lindeman and was the first man in these parts to shoot White Horse Rapids. He took 50 other boats through the rapids, as pilot for 50 or 150 dollars depending on the size of the boat. He was practically broke at Dyia but landed at Dawson with his entire outfit weighing about one ton and a trained team of 7 Shephard dogs. He staked out some good claims and made a fair cleanup. Came back to Woodland in the fall with enough to clean up his debts and leave him a tidy sum, most of which he invested in property.

He returned to Dawson the next year to find that during his absence his claims had been taken over by Sharpers and worked out." He prospected, worked claims, etc. till steamboats appeared on the Yukon at which time he worked on the boats, mostly as pilot. Later he went to Nome when they had the Beach strike! He was foreman on the first dredge operated on Salmon River or anywhere in Alaska. Lloyd just returned from the sea, became fireman. Frank had the reputation of being the only one from this vicinity coming back with a full poke.

Frank was a Black Republican (Democrat) and played Alto horn in the Woodland Band. Lloyd claims to be the only Republican in the family. Lloyd is 78, married and lives in Portland. He had his early schooling in Woodland and later attended Portland schools.

Emma was the 2nd child of John Henry and Rhoda Van Bebber. She married Sam Conrad (see Sam Conrad family). Edith Van Bebber married Norman Merrill, a member of the Oregon Legislature and for a time mayor of Clatskanie, Oregon. Ida Van Bebber married Dr. R. A. Parrent. The Parrents lived in Castle Rock where he practiced medicine.

In the year of 1885, Dora Ann Lawyer and David Locke Wallace were married in Portland, Ore. Dave was in the milk business with Frank Walker at the time. Both men had been friends in Kansas where Dave spent his boyhood years.

About two years after Dave and Dora were married, they moved to the new settlement of Woodland. At this time there was only one store on the banks of the Lewis River. This store was located near the present firehouse. The Wallace family settled on a farm at Pekin Ferry. This farm is now owned by the Ferguson brothers. The Wallace children, Arthur, Wesley, Claude Harrison and Grace Amanda, attended school in Woodland. The schoolhouse was located on the Goerig property (5th and Davidson Ave.), about two blocks east of the train depot and across from the Wallace home in Woodland. During the summer months, the family moved back on the farm. The roads from Pekin to Woodland were such that they were not always passable in the winter for the three children to commute to school. Thus the reason for the family living in town part of each year.

Arthur, known to his friends as "Ducy", was a gay young blade and along with his somewhat quieter brother, Claude, cut many capers about the countryside. Arthur had two daughters, Dorothy and Irma Wallace. His daughter Erma married Charles Peterson and at the present time they are living in Tacoma. Dorothy, the second daughter, is married to Leslie Feris. Their home is in Pheonix, Oregon. Rose Utter was Arthur's wife. Arthur was drown in the Columbia River while riding a log raft. Claude married Edna Fisher and they were blessed with a baby girl, Marguerite. When the little girl was almost a year old, her father died. The little girl lived with her mother until she was about 8 years of age and then Edna passed away. Grandpa and Grandma Wallace raised her until she was in her early teens. Later she lived with her Grandmother Fisher. At present Marguerite lives with her husband, John Youngman, and their three daughters and one son, in Woodland. They operate and own the Sporting goods Store in North Woodland.

Grace married Harry Griesen of North Platte, Neb. They owned and operated a general merchandise store in Woodland. Soon after her second child, Lucille was born, Grace died. This left the boy, Hilgar and Lucille in the care of the maternal grandparents. The Wallace's raised both children until they married. Hilgar married Doris Babb of Kelso. Lucille married Elmer Eaton of Woodland.

The last child born to Dave and Dora Wallace was a little girl named Alice. She was born seventeen years after her sister Grace. She is now living in Woodland and teaches in the Woodland schools. She is married to Alvin Schiewe. Their only child, Allene, married Carl Wodaege. The couple reside in Ridgefield. Al Schiewe, Alice's husband, owns and operated the Woodland Shoe Shop.

David Wallace died in May, 1937. Dora Wallace died in November 1947. Both are buried in the I.O.O.F. cemetery in Woodland.

Rose Gray adds this to Alice Schiewe's story of the Dave Wallace Family. She says, "Dave, with his parents and brother and sister came first from Kentucky. They moved to Kansas then to Portland where Ducy was born September 1886. Dave came down from Portland and scouted around Lewis River in a row boat and picked out a ranch joining David Cooises at the mouth of the river. He later bought the place on the Pekin Road now owned by the Ferguson boys (1123/1129 So. Pekin). Rose Gray tells what Mrs. Wallace was up against on one of her trips to Portland marketing the butter from the farm. While she was in Portland the river froze over so hard the Steamer couldn't run and Mrs. Wallace hired a man to drive her home in a horse and buggy over the Columbia river. Mrs. Gray thinks that was the 1887-1888 winter. She says the Wallaces leased and moved into the Charley Specht house (now known as the Wallace house) in Woodland. Mr. Wallace was an Odd Fellow and served for a term as school director."

The committee searched but has not found when they came here nor whether they were sons of Lydia Webb who took up a DLC on the Pekin Road. The Webb boy's first known place of residence was near future Caples Landing. Many ol' timers refer to the Webb place when they talk of happenings in that district. The boys later had a place in the Butte Hill district. They like many bottom land dairymen, probably acquired this for a place to keep their cattle during high water periods. It seemed that Mark and Mose were inseparable. They never owned separate farms. Mark never married. Mose married and they had one child, Wilda, who married Willard Strong. (see Ezra Strong family for their children.)

Mrs. Mose Webb became a partner of Thedo Oliver when they went into the general mercantile business in Woodland in 1900.

Marion and Perry Wilkins and their father came into the Hayes area and bought a few acres off the Frank Bergman place opposite the church. All three were large, rather portly men. Marion was a blacksmith and was always found with a chew of tobacco in his mouth. He made his own charcoal for the forge. The old gentleman did the cooking and always went barefoot. Perry married and moved away as did Marion and father a few years later, about 1905.

Tom Wilkinson family took up a homestead across the river from Spielei Creek. Their children were John, Mary, George, Emma, Sam and Lillie. John married (name not known). Mary married George Tooley. George never married. Emma married W. A. (Doc) Hampton. Sam married the daughter of the Stevens family who operated the Martin Hotel, not the Grange Hall. Lillie married Charley Pea. Another Wilkinson girl married Bill Birt.

Mat Woodward came from Minnesota to La Center in 1898 and first worked for Tom Hadley in his blacksmith shop. He later worked for Tom Wilson and Victor Martin in their sawmills up the Highland District. That was the period about 1900 on to 1910, when these two mills and many others used Steam do-devils mounted on flanged wheels instead of teams on the Skid Road. These go-devils would travel over the wooden rails at a maximum speed of 10 miles per hour. Three times as fast as horses. Mat's job was to run one of these home made locomotives.

In 1902 Mat married Bertha Forbes, daughter of Charles Forbes, a prominent La Center merchant and granddaughter of W. G. Wier, one of the first Lewis River Steamboat Captains and owners. The Woodward children are Ardis Dye, Charley and Jerry Carey. In 1940 the Woodwards moved to Woodland where Mrs. Woodward lives with her daughter Ardis.

August and Judith Wodaege came from Germany in 1880 or '81. The family lived a year or two near Portland at the junction of the Willamette and Columbia Rivers. August worked for a year or two as a butcher at St. Helens and it was here he learned of land to be homesteaded back of Martin's Bluff. The family took passage on the steamer TOLEDO arriving at Martin's Bluff Landing and located on a homestead in the Green Mountain district above the Columbia.

August and Judith were the parents of: Guss, Gussie, Hannah, Abe, Mattie, Mose and Joe. All the children but Joe were born in Germany. Guss married Sophie Tesch and their children were: Hilda, Emma, Marie and Otto. Gussie married Henry Lokey and had a son, Edgar. Hannah married Fred Jenkins and their children were: Francis, Lucia, Hallet, Joe, Beatrice, Ruth, Susan, Frank and Mary Lou. Abe married Martha Tesch and their children were: Carl, Joe and Kenneth. Mattie married Joe Keefe and had no children. Mose married Ida Boyer and their children were Loren and LaVelle. Joe married Katie Rosenburg and their children were Judy, Martha Day, Bertha May and Clyde.

Mr. Abe Wodaege, tried his luck in Alaska going there in 1898 as a young man of 25; coming out occasionally to visit and one time intended to join the Navy during the Spanish American War. However, on his arrival at Seattle to enlist, the war was over. He left Alaska in 1908 and the same year found him operating a steam shovel helping construct the Panama Canal. During holidays and time off he had the opportunity to "bum around" central and South America. Abe returned from Panama in 1911 planning to see his mother and then return to Alaska but his mother had passed away. He married Martha Tesch and settled on 40 acres of the original homestead, where they live now. Mr. Wodaege is 85 and says there was no Green Mountain Road when they came. There nearest trading point was Kalama and nearest school Ferndale. He says there was no store at Martin's Bluff at that time, but William Martin put in a store and Post Office later.

Lewis and Mary Wright with their sons Harry, Gene, Milo and Ernest came from Poll Grove (now Alma Center), Wisc. to Hayes on Lewis River in 1883. They had come out two years before and returned to Poll Grove. This time they came here and remained. They settled on the present Extine place and developed it into one of the nicest places of the neighborhood. Mr. Wright had the finest binder around Hayes and a wonderful strawberry patch. Walter was born in 1884. Milo, ernest and Walter attended the Hayes school. Harry the oldest son went on to Arcata, California and Gene, the second son, stayed on the farm, a grown man of standing, in the community.

Gene Wright either bought or ran on commission the Dell Lewis store at Kerns in 1896. He became postmaster there November 28, 1896. About that time, Gene and his parents traded their Hayes farm for the fine newly built Allen Harrison home in Woodland. This building still stands back of Neil's Garage and is owned by the John Peterson heirs. The parents health was failing. Milo was a rover not content to settle down and while working on a log drive, he took cold which developed into T.B. from which he died soon after. Ernest had followed his brother Harry to Arcata, Calif. This situation had left the parents alone on the farm and the retirement to Woodland was made. Mr. and Mrs. Wright died a few years later of T. B. at their home. After their parents death, Walter lived with Gene at the Kern's store and died in 1902.

In 1898 Gene married Edith Bedford, a charming Woodland girl, over the competition of Frank Fields. Edith died five years later of diphtheria. They had one child, a boy, Glen Irwin. Gene's history from here on is related in a letter by his second wife, Bessie S. Wright, who lives at Cathlamet, Washington. She say, "Gene worked with Frank Badger of Kerns and learned to frame houses and was working as a building contractor in St. John's, Oregon where we were married Nov. 6, 1906. I had met him several years before when I taught the upper grades in Woodland. We lived in St. Johns until 1919 when we moved to Tillamook and bought a furniture store and operated it until 1934 when we sold out and moved to Cathlamet. We set up the Wright's Furniture and Hardware Store here which is now run by our sons."

Gene and Bessie Wright's children were: Otis Eugene, born Oct. 11, 1908; Edna May born May 11, 1911; Arthur Benjamin born February 2, 1913 and Leland Clinton born April 20, 1915. Mrs. Wright says the children are all happily married and that she had ten grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Lish Wright and John Wright families came from Iowa on the Str. LUCIA MASON to the Hayes district on Lewis River in 1884. Joe Wright came later. John Wright died about a year after arriving here. His daughter married Lew Matthews. John's family soon moved away from the Lewis River District.

Lish Wright was a farmer and hop raiser. His place was the present Andy Smith place (2107 NW Hayes Road). The largest black Walnut tree was planted from a seed they brought from Iowa. It was planted by daughter Ann the first year they came here.

Joe Wright never married and lived most of the time with Lish's family. They were both civil war veterans. Joe was Postmaster at Caples Landing from Fed. 4, 1890 to Oct. 14, 1892. Lish was a charter member of the Woodland Odd Fellows.

Lish and Rachell Wright's children were: Ann, Viola, Alta and Clark. Ann married Holly (brother of Thede) Oliver. Violet married Grant Wills, son of Jonathan and Mary Ellen Strong Wills. Grant's son Joe says, "My father was raised on the place now known as the Lambert Gardens in Sellwood, Ore. My father spoke of working in the gardens with Seth Lewelling who was the originator of the Bing Cherry, named for a Chinaman working there." Joe says, "My father pruned the walnut, that Ann planted as a seed, about 1904, cut all the limbs off, just left a few on the top. I can hear him saying, 'some day that will be the largest walnut tree in the country', which I think is so." Note: This tree was sold to a Portland Furniture Co., February 1958 for its wood.)

Grant and his brother George came to the Woodland and Hayes area as young men. Being related to the Bozorths they probably came to Woodland first but they soon settled at Hayes. George married and moved away and Grant worked in logging camps and on farms specializing in pruning fruit trees. He spent most of one season pruning Grandpa Gardner's large apple orchard.

Grant was a stocky built man, heavier than sons, Joe and Earl, and wore a short bushy beard and mustache, a great tobacco chewer and full of inventive ideas. He invented a R.R. car coupling and made a full size model. He belonged to the Modern Woodmen. He and Viola when married first lived on the Old Littler or Charley Houghton place back of the present Ralph Bozorth place. Grant died at age 54 and Viola, now Mrs. Patrick at age 84, lives in Woodland. Their children are: Joe, Jeff, Ester, Annette, Ida and Earl.

Alta, the third Lish Wright child, married Morris Hawkins and went to Alaska in the Gold Rush days of 1898. They had no children.

George Wyman, descendent of the Wymans who came to America from England in 1640, came to the Kerns district from Illinois in 1883. He married Mary Jane Robinson in 1888, C. L. Klady officiating. Their children were: Anna, John, Agnes, Victor, Elizabeth, Richard, Ruby and Emma. Anna married Fred Bustrin. John married Hildgren Chapman and their children were: Ed, who married Marie Gerritsen; Francis, who married Rick Heglund and Dorothy, who married Harold Lease.

Agnes married Frank Burnham, they had no children. Frank came with his parents from New York as a young man and first settled at Rainier, Ore. in about 1907. He was working for Mr. Henderson on the Lewis River bottoms when he met Agnes at the Christian Church services. Victor never married. Elizabeth married Frank Merrimen. Richard married Velma Delaney. Ruby married Pete Kalahan, Clara Kalahan's son and Emma married Ernest Eden.

Carl Zuhl came from Germany and married Anna Wilson, Jim Wilson's daughter and Tom Wilson's niece. The children were: James, Lottie and William. James died in infancy. Lottie died in infancy. William married Wilma Bottorac. She taught school in Woodland.

Fred Zuhl, brother of Carl, came from Germany in 1880 and lived in Oregon until 1904 when he bought part of the Huffman (now Derry) place (1801 NE Hayes). He married Bertha Schurman in 1899. Their children are William, Frances, Lena and Carl. William died at age 14. Frances married Frank Hewett. Lena married Vander Hund, Carl married Geneva Graves. Fred Zuhl sold the place in 1925 to Frank Hewett and moved to Woodland. He died in 1934.

The Walt Wood Hardware store, prior to 1916 was owned by Mr. Patrician who sold that year to Roy Stewart (Mrs. Dan Heiam's former husband). Mr. Stewart operated it until his death in 1938 when it was then sold to V. H. Andrell who three years later sold to Walt Wood. These two stores and Bryant's Drug Store are the oldest stores in continuous operation in town.

Page 26 Steve Jones came to Woodland in 1881 (belongs in chronological history of early settlers.)

Page 43 It was Max Luck's cow that swam down Davidson Avenue in the 1933, not the 1894 flood, and Mrs. Colvin (Dorothy Potter's mother) standing on the Colvin Hotel (now the Grange Hall) porch called the cow and it swam to her and was led on to the porch and into the Hotel parlor. As Mrs. Colvin's good rug was there they decided that wasn't such a good idea so they took her to the kitchen and fed her out of the sink.

The Farmer's Co-op Trading Co. was organized in 1917 by the first settlers of the Finnish-born citizens of the area. Abel Steph, John Haapa and Armas Fields were appointed as trustees to do the "ground work", such as to look for a suitable location for the planned enterprise and incorporate it, etc. which was done July 17, 1917. After that the Board of Directors took over it's duties: President Abel Steph, vice-president Charles K. Johnson, and Secretary, Armas Fields.

When Charles Palo, a Finnish merchant who had come recently from New York Mills, Minnesota and was operating a grocery business at the present location of the Recreation Center, heard of the Co-op movement, he at once offered his store for sale at moderate terms. The deal was closed with enthusiasm and thus was the Co-op idea a reality, a working establishment.

Mr. Jack Granstrom was chosen from a dozen applicants for manager of the new enterprise, and being an honest hard working person, the establishment was flourishing like any business would under the guidance of sound business principles. But then among our members there wasn't any political divisions, never heard any of the Statesmen orators in our Co-op meetings. Those come a few years later. Everyone was busy in taking care of his home duties, building their homes little by little as the time and means allowed, clearing the jungle for agricultural uses, etc. and that took very much of iron will besides a strong back. Every acre had to be wrested from the jungle of wind-falls and snags up to 6-7 feet in diameter and green younger trees of many species added to the hard bargain. But they didn't shrink or waver in their battle with the jungle. The valiant pioneer-spirit was their light and strength in their struggle for a brighter future. They were a hard working, straightforward people, these first settlers whom I'll always remember with respect and admiration. Therefore at the grave of the Farmer's Co-op Trading Company. even though I have to say it with a deep sigh "Sic transit Gloria Mundi". I'll take off my hat and thus silently eulogize their way of life.

In 1925 the women of Woodland felt the need of closer contact with one another along intellectual and social lines and thus they met by special arrangement at the home of Mrs. R. W. Mills on September 14, 1925. The Charter members were: Mrs. Frank Burlingham, President; Mrs. Al Bozorth, Mrs. Alice Stewart Heiam, Mrs. Lizzie Mills, Mrs. J.J. Haberman, Mrs. Kitty Dunham Welch and Mrs. A. B. Martin. They formed an organization called "The Woman's Study Club of Woodland." It grew slowly the first year, having the following May, only a membership of twelve. Desirous of helping and improving the community, they did many things to beautify the surroundings, one of which was planting the birch trees on the school yard. Other organizations joined them in the ceremony program including: the two churches, the Garden Club, the Daughters of the American Revolution, the Grange and the High and Grade schools. In later years the Club lined Goerig Avenue with flowering trees.

They met in homes until February, 1937 when Mrs. Fred Harn was President. They then met in the Club House. Feeling the crying need of our little town to have a Public Library, they early began to plan and work for that end. Having a nucleus of the remains of a Library started by Mrs. Emma Conrad some years before, they had some books donated, bought some and through the influence and cooperation of the American Legion secured a room upstairs in the fire-hall to use as a Library, and members of the Club took turns acting as Librarian and keeping open every Friday evening and Sunday afternoons.

Our faithful library committee next presented the subject to the town council, who promptly levied a one mill tax for the library which at that time amounted to about $260.00 a year and which enabled us to buy books and hire a Librarian. It has grown steadily ever since and now has a library of which it can be proud.

The Woodland Study Club became a member of the District Federation and of the State Federation in 1926. This Club has aided in many civic projects including health drives. They sponsored the first girl sent to Girls' State, Miss Doris Huddleston.

During the early part of March 1935, a group of young women met with Mrs. Ralph Linsay, President of the Columbia District of Junior Women, to assist in the organization of a Junior women's Club here. They met at the home of Mrs. Archie Potter (then Dorothy Colvin). Those present were: Mrs. Edna Bryant, Mrs. Loretta Blum, Mrs. Bea Bryant, Mrs. LaAlvah Pachal, Mrs. Hazel Clawson, Mrs. Harry Taylor (then Marjory Guest), Mrs. Lillian Scott, Mrs. Archie Potter, and Misses Lillian Youngstrom and Dorothy Murk.

On March 21 the club elected officers and completed organization. The meeting was held at the home of Mrs. Harry Taylor with sixteen present.

Officers elected were: Mrs. Carl Button (Daisy Pederson then), President; Miss Irma Wallace, Vice-president; Mrs. Loretta Blum, Secretary and treasurer; and Mrs. Harry Taylor (Marjory Guest), parliamentarian.

We entertained District juniors for the Spring conference, which was very successful in every way for such a newly organized club.

Committees in charge were: general chairman, Mrs. P. A. Pederson; printing, Mrs. Loretta Blum and Mrs. Lillian Scott; hostess, Mrs. Harry Taylor, Mrs. LaAlvah Pachal; luncheon menu, Mrs. Mazie Insel, Mrs. Archie Potter, Miss Lillian Youngstrom; luncheon programs, Mrs. Edna Bryant, Mrs. Beatrice Bryant, Mrs. Archie Potter; Decorations, Mrs. Erma Lainhart, Miss Inez Esswien, and Miss Dorothy Murk.

A few meetings were held during the summer to complete plans for our first full club year, 1935-36. The program was "Better homes and Gardens."

The officers elected were: Mrs. P. A. Pederson, President; Miss Erma Wallace, Vice President; Mrs. Henry Blum, Secretary-Treasurer; Mrs. Scott Clawson, Parliamentarian.

The program committee was Miss Irma Wallace, Mrs. Harry Taylor, Mrs. Carl Button, and Mrs. Porter Lainhart.

The committee chairmen were: Mrs. Archie Potter, Membership; Mrs. Phil Pachal, Transportation; Mrs. Albert Insel, Music; Miss Dorothy Murk, Publicity; Mrs. Robert Bryant, Finance; and Mrs. Stuart Bryant, Flowers.

Owen Bennett married Rachel Backman. Their children were: Evelyn May, born May 14, 1897 and married Clifford Huddleston October 8, 1916 at Puget Island. Ella Clara, born February 3, 1899 married William F. Schurman in Vancouver. Leslie Edgar, born January 23, 1901 married Neelie Freeland June 30, 1923 in Ocean Park, California. Lawrence Grant born January 2, 1904, married Alice Newkirk July 27, 1928. Belva Vivian, born February 27, 1909 married James Ritchie February 9, 1927 in Portland, Oregon.

Catherine (Kate) married Ben Barr and had one son, Kenneth born July 10, 1905. He married Hazel Thiel in 1926 at Los Angeles.

Fred married Florence May Oliver and had two children, Helen Marie, born December 29, 1917 who married Stewart Fletcher in 1942 at New Kinsington, Penn. Virginia Ann, born August 31, 1922, married Allen N. Sweeney at New Kensington.

Frank married Edith Rideout. Their three children: Stanton D., Layton A. and Geraldine Amy, were small children when the family moved to Forest Grove, Oregon from Woodland, Stanton d. born September 28, 1916 married Ernisteen Nichols, 1943 in Kansas. Layton A., born April 12, 1919, married Laurens Wilder. Geraldine Amy, Born November 20, 1922, married Terry Pace in Forest Grove.

Earle D. married Maude Powell and they had one son, Clayton, known as Pete to all his school mates. Earle enlisted in the U. S. Army and saw active service in World War I in France. His son, Clayton was in the Marine Service of World War II.

On November 28, 1926, Henry and Anzanetta Bennett celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary. Their 6 children and their 11 grandchildren were present as were also a host of friends.

Page 163 Charles Jr. should be added to Charles and Hannah Fields' children. Paul Niemi should be Peter Niemi.

Page 164 John and Selma Turpeinen arrived and settled in Little Kalama in the year 1912. They and their infant son, John Henry, left Finland in the early part of the year 1901. They had five children, John Henry, Walter, Vaino, Laurie and Carrie. In 1920 they moved down on the Lewis River Road.

Abel was called among us neighbors "The Cape Horn Sailor" because he was honestly convinced that if a sailor hadn't gone for once around the southernmost tip of the American continent and thus had not experienced all the deadly perils and thrills while sailing through the 40 foot cross surges of the ever stormy water, he wasn't worthy to be called a sailor. And I for one almost agree with him, that is if his rather colorful sea tales were one percent fib proof. But be that as it may, even though at times a shadow of doubt was hovering over my mind, they were very entertaining. They seemed to bear as much reality as the "One Thousand and One Nights" tales. He was very modest about his tales. Perhaps he often thought he'd stretched them too much for when the evening had drifted well nigh on to midnight and he was ready to leave for home, a twinkle in his eye he would say, "You can believe them or not, take your choice, I don't charge a penny for them. Good Night."

Onni Steph and August Johnson came to Woodland in the spring of 1907. george Wilson came to woodland in 1908. This small group organized a Lutheran congregation in 1910 and a Lutheran Pastor has been conducting church services in the family gatherings once a month.

Page 198 Herbert and Ivy Martin who drowned at Martin's Bluff in 1902 in the same accident with the two Durkee sisters when the boat capsized were son and daughter of William S., not William H. Martin. Willliam S. was the son of William H. Martin.

Ray Ramesbotham did not marry Bessie Englert according to Lena Hablen and Leta Rasmussen. Her name was Lena something.

Charley Specht married Elizabeth Hunsacker and their children were: Frank, who married Rose Ross; Ernest who married Emma Jones; and Joe who married Alice Jones. Frank and Rose's children were: Winford, Elmer, Stanley and Labena. Ernest and Emma's children were: Kenneth , Leota, and Hilda. Joe and Alice's children were: Herbert, Thelma and Margie.

Henry Specht, after coming to Lewis River in 1879, first rented the Kraft place for five years then bought a piece down by the Railroad bridge and lived there five years. He then sold the place to satisfy a mortgage Charley held against it and in 1902 moved to Mitchell, Oregon. "He didn't get along with Charley and wanted to get away from him," says Mrs. Hulda Klager. He died in 1921. Henry married Sophia Otto in New York in 1872 or 3 and their children were: Fred, Rosie, Henry Jr., Lizzie, Sophia, Carl, Emma, Bertha, Willie, Helen and Freda. Fred never married. Rose never married and lives at 717 Pine Street., etc.

Page 223 Solomon Strong's children : Bessie married Mr. Rankin and Fred never married.

Ezra Strong's children were: Chester, Phoebe, Printhy, Celestia, Willard and Emma. Phoebe married Charley Kenyon. They had no children. Printhy married Cash Wier. Celestia married Ike Eaton (see Joe Eaton's family). Willard married Wilda Webb. They had two boys and two girls. Kenneth and another boy, Dorothy and Lucile.

Page 233 Fred Zuhl married Bertha Schurman in 1889 not 1899. Correction by Lena, Mrs. Vander Lund.

For further history see a hard copy of "Pioneer Families of Yale Valley, Washington (and surrounding areas)" by Mary Helen (Laughlin) Rice.

edited by J U D Y C A R D
PO Box 1861, Woodland, Wa 98674
jcard20983@aol.com