________________________
________________________
66
WILLIAM B. PENDELL
The Pendell family came to the Barry country in 1900 from the Palouse country. When they arrived they bought the Ed Armbruster place, now the Bob Pendell place. Here they raised horses and farmed.
There were nine children in the family - eight boys and one girl. The boys were great sport enthusiasts. They organized a baseball team and would play at different places. Sometimes as far over as the Mold country, which was a long way to travel in hack and on horseback.
Each of the boys took up farming as he was married. Some of their descendants are still farming here today.
Edith Alling
BENJAMIN J. ALLING
My grandfather, John W. Grogan, hauled oats from near Plaza to Fort Okanogan on the Columbia for the cavalry that were stationed there. My father, Joseph Peck Alling, took care of the stage station near Plaza while Grogan and Mr. Wells, the man he was working for, came to Fort Okanogan. My mother, Nell Grogan Alling, was born in Pennsylvania and came to California in a covered wagon and then came to the Cheney area.
In 1910 Benjamin Alling and his brother came to the Rex area. They both took homesteads adjoining land their father bought, which included the former King Ranch. They came here after hearing stories of the country from Jim Hollingshead, a horse rancher.
In the summer Indians would come over to the ranch and pick service berries and kill ground hogs to eat. They wore their hair in braids and used moccasins but otherwise dressed like white men. Some of the older ones used their blankets. They would never camp by the spring or in the shade near the brush. Mr. Alling inquired why and they said "Too many mosquitoes." He saw Chief Joseph at one time and said he was a very light skinned Indian.
Rock Lake School was started about 1911 with the neighbors donating lumber, money and work to build it. Mr. Alling was one of the first directors. One of the school teachers, a Mr. Thompson, boarded at the Alling Ranch. He could never remember which horse he was supposed to ride. One morning they found him with a horse that was only halter broke and he had it all saddled up and ready to go.
Lumber was rafted down the river. Hudspeth built a log house on the land he sold to Ben's father. There were also two log cabins that King had built. King had planted an orchard that was bearing good by the time Mr. Alling had married Edna Whitney and she remembered canning 150 quarts of fruits and vegetables for their first winter at the ranch,
________________________
67
but it didn't go as far as she planned. Mrs. Alling remembers using the Sears and Roebuck catalog to order clothing and household items.
In the winter of 1910-11 the neighbors in the Rex Area put on a play, "Ten Nights In a Bar Room". It was done in four acts. Some of the players were Bill and Fanny Harrison, Willis Pendell, Mary Bennison, the star, Ben Alling, the scoundrel, and Mattie and Albert Bennison also worked on it. They put it on at the Rex Schoolhouse for a one night stand and played to such a large audience that they had to open the windows so people could hear and see from the outside.
One night in the fall of 1912 Ben went to bed and slept soundly. He woke up the next morning to find a strange man sleeping with him. He found out he was a federal agent who had ridden in late the night before and didn't bother to wake Ben. He was investigating reports of stolen stock.
Mr. Alling remembers seeing flocks of Curlews which stopped over at the ranch. These birds are nearly extinct now.
Edith Alling
HAL RICE
Hal Rice came to Bellingham where his brother Fred lived. He came from Indiana in 1907. He had lost his wife and had three sons to raise. In 1909 they came to the Grand Coulee area to homestead. His brother Fred and two of the boys, Ted and Delbert, came with him. They came on the train to Almira and Joe Hodgins hauled them and their household goods out to the homestead. They lived in a tent until they could get the first cabin put up. They didn't bring a stove and at first cooked over an open fire. Alex Sanderson, a neighbor, gave Hal an old stove and he hauled it home. He had it all set up and built a fire in it and out dashed a wood rat. Hal baked bread and declared that the stove had a good oven. He also cooked for the threshing crew at Max Cunningham's house.
To prove up on his homestead he plowed the required twenty-six acres. He fenced the plowed ground and later fenced the whole homestead. To make money for needed supplies, he worked during the summers and harvest on the other side of the Coulee.
The mail route went past their place on its way to the Alameda Post Office so they picked their mail up at the road. They also used the post office at Wallace's Store. Two of the drivers on the mail wagon were Parks and Whithead. Hal said you felt pretty isolated out here in the early days but they had fun too. Some times they would sit up all night playing cards with the neighbors and there were dances twice a week at Fiddle Creek.
________________________
68
One of the colorful characters of the early days was "Walking Wilson", so called because he walked to Coulee City, a distance of 35 miles, and pulled his provisions home on a hand sled. Wilson had a son that was a natural fire-bug and he burned many of the homesteaders shacks while they were away from home. He was jailed in Coulee City on a drunk and disorderly charge and being a great smoker, he set the bedding afire and burned to death.
Another noted character was "Doctor Smudt", so named because he handled all kinds of patent medicines. He was a near neighbor to the Rice's. Hal remembered the shooting of Bill Stubblefield in the coulee, who was saved through the care of Mrs. Steveson and Dr. Yount. The Stevesons lost a son in an accident while hunting. He was getting the shotgun out from under the wagon seat when it went off.
Edith Alling
BILL SUMMERS
Bill Summers came to this area in 1907 and got off the train at Coulee City. He had a friend in Oklahoma who had relatives on Alameda Flats so he headed out to their place. He worked on a threshing crew that fall and took a homestead up in 1908 at the age of 28. His homestead is where his sister Susie Wilkerson now lives.
Bill had know Will Rogers when he lived at Claremore, Oklahoma.
Bill remembers the post offices were in different homes. Mrs. Ern had the post office at Elliot's Store where he first received his mail. The post office at Tommy Sanderson's was nearer so he switched to it. The nearest town for Billy was Coulee City and he used the Barker Canyon Road to get down into the Coulee. He also got supplies from the store at Delrio. He had always been a gardener and raised his own vegetables. He raised hogs and cattle at one time. he had to haul the hogs to Coulee City but the cattle were bought by buyers that would come through the country. The buyers would then trail the cattle out to the railroad. In the spring the Indians would pass by his place on their way to dig camus.
Bill plays the fiddle and has a collection of twenty-one fiddles. One of his hobbies is the making of fiddles. He still enjoys gardening and is out almost every day working. He raises strawberries to sell locally.
MAX AND VERNA CUNNINGHAM
The Max Cunninghams were well known in this area before their deaths.
________________________
69
Mr. Cunningham was born in Nebraska and homesteaded here in 1906. Mrs. Cunningham was born in Missouri. They were married in 1904 and farmed near Reardan before coming here to homestead.
The Cunninghams were some of the best known dancers in the area. Mr. Cunningham served on the Election Board.
There was no natural spring on the Cunningham ranch so they had a well.
The neighbors held a party for them in May 1954 to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. Since then, both of them have passed away.
Edith Alling
MRS. GEORGE STANARD
It was early morning down in the little canyon. The sun was hitting the northern rim, suddenly the two little dogs started to growl, then the wild yapping and snarling of fighting dogs put Mrs. Stanard on the move to look out and see what stray was bothering around the ranch. Not being able to see from the window, she dashed to the door and around the shed to where the fight seemed to be. There were the two ranch dogs mixing with a big yellow coyote. Not seeing any stick near and knowing the two little dogs were fast losing the fight, she moved closer, grabbed the coyote around the neck and pulled it off of the dogs. She hung on to its neck while the dogs pulled its hind legs. It soon choked to death. Being a thrifty woman, she sent the hide to a fur market for a few dollars and thus lost the souvenir of her thrilling experience.
Edith Alling
LOREN PENDELL
Loren Pendell's grandfather, William B. Pendell, came here from the Palouse Country to homestead in 1900. Loren was born at Pullman and his father, Lou Pendell, brought the family here in 1902. They homesteaded about a mile north of the Rex Hall.
The neighbors overhauled a little building at the head of China Creek in 1906 and he went to school there one year. Some of the others who attended school there were Joe and Tom Meyer and the Cleghorn boys. The teacher was Miss Gillispe, who homesteaded a piece of land about two miles east of China Creek. This piece of land is still known as the "School Marm Place". The next year they went to school at the Rabb house, also used as Rex School until the school building was built across the road.
________________________
70
Another early memory is when his grandfather had built a new barn and they held a masquerade dance there. Loren's mother dressed him as a little Chinese boy. He said there were several fellows in the crowd dressed as devils and he was just terrified of them.
Baseball has always been the favorite sport of the community for years. Some of the teams they played were Nespelem, Leahy, Pearl, Delrio, Coulee City, Bridgeport, and a team from the Coulee near Steamboat Rock. Most of the ball games were a Sunday get-together with a picnic lunch. One of the popular diamonds was on the flat near Rankin's home in Strahl Canyon. If the team went somewhere else to play they usually left at sunrise.
Loren has always enjoyed calling square dances and some of the old time fiddlers he remembers are Joe Hodgins, Clarence Hopkins, Charlie Andrews and Tommy Sanderson. Mrs. Tommy Sanderson played the organ and if there wasn't one at the place they were dancing they would bring one.
One time the ferry at Barry bot away when the cable broke. It swung into the bank just above Buckley Bar on the reservation side of the river. They had to pull it by hand because the boulders along the bank were so large a team couldn't be worked. Several men had to be out on the ferry to keep it poled off from the bank.
One experience that Loren had on the river was when he and Jack Pendell were crossing in a row boat and a whirlpool came up under the boat. They found themselves whirling around and around with each end of the boat on the rim of the whirlpool and the hole underneath. It finally broke and they were back on the level surface of the river again. Retta watched all of this from the opposite bank.
Edith Alling.
________________________
________________________
No comments:
Post a Comment