TOLD by the PIONEERS - Washington Secretary of State

Told by the Pioneers
There were only five children to go to school.
a private kindergarten.
The first school was
In Minneapolis, before my first marriage, I trained for three years
to be a nurse. My father had remarried and I did not want to go back
to Norway. Naturally an active person, I wanted to do something
with my time. In D'Ouglas county, when I first came here, there was
no doctor to help the poor women with their babies. I was a midwife.
As my own children came, I was tied to mv home. I made babY clothes
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from my nurse uniforms.
My two story house was open to the trayelers. r sually they had
their own blankets and I never refused them food. Each trip to Spokane
meant another chair, bed springs, and even curtains. There
were hogs, chickens and cows. We lived well. When a beef was killed
in summer, I put it up in tins. Chicken 'was also canned. There 'was
always food for a hurry-up meal.
When a traveling preacher came through the country, people came
from as far as Entiat. Preaching was in the grove below the Fisher
farm and picnic lunches followed the sermon.
I came to Douglas county with a chest of clothes. It was years before
we had to buy anything. 'When the need came, there was always
Spokane, the nearest shopping place.
In 1926 I went back to my native Norway. :J-Iy family were all dead.
The mountains had been levelled to make a harbor. Big farms were
villages. Everything was changed. But it was the land of my birth,
and I plan to go again if I can weather the depression.
I am eighty-one years old. I grieve for my husband, but spring is
here, the trees are in blossom, the tractors are working and the weather
and activity are encouraging.
WILLIAM SCIlCSTER
Klickitat County •
Father was a 'forty-nineI', and was appointed first sheriff of Klickitat
county, serving for 16 years. Rockland was the county seat until
1879. John Burgen was the superintendent of schools, the only county
officer to draw a salary. He had the astonishing salary of $25.00 a
year. The sheriff, who was also tax collector and assessor, was paid
mileage for serving papers.
There were no fences, only two or three ranches.along the Swale
being so improved. There was a stage road from The Dalles to Ellens-
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