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CORA (SEATON) RINKER
I was born in Cass County, missouri, and came west on an immigrant train to Spokane with my family in 1889. There my father, Thomas Seaton, purchased a team and wagon and we traveled on to Waterville in the wagon. Mother and we children stayed with relatives while the men scouted for a place of settlement which ended up with our family being established at Hesseltine, northwest of Wilbur. Her my father eventually proved up a preemption, a Homestead, and a Timber Claim. Near our home my father built and ran the Hesseltine General Store and Post Office, with mail being delivered on the Wilbur-Barry route. Later on my dad built the Seaton Ferry.
I was married to Washington Rinker in 1895 and after farming in the Broadaxe country, we moved to near Delrio in 1904. There we purchased the rights of Bill Stubblefield and moved over 50 head of heifers and work stock. We added more land by homesteading. Washington built the house where my son Roy still lives. He brought in lumber by wagon from Wilbur. He broke up the sod, farmed and raised stock - mostly work horses. The army, as well as farmers of the Big Bend area, was a great buyer of our horses. At first we had no near neighbors, got our mail from Leahy, and sent our two oldest children to school at Broadaxe.
My husband rigged up a horse-powered grinder fo grain, and one of the children's most tedious tasks was to drive the horses round and round grinding grain. Six or eight head of horses were used on this contraption and they had to be driven at a steady pace. Another tiresome task I recall was the flailing of dried beans for our household use. Then the shelled out beans were thrown into a stiff breeze to clean them, caught on a canvas, and rechecked by hand again before being stored.
Washington was a well known teamster. He had freighted between Conconully and Wilbur before our marriage. On one of these freighting trips one winter the Columbia River was frozen so the condon Ferry could not run. The depth of ice varied dangerously with crevices in spots. A blizzard
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was raging and there was no horse feed on the Okanogan country river side. Washington and Riley Hulbert abandoned their wagons, trailed the horses together and safely led their teams across the river by carefully choosing the thickest ice path.
Within a few years there were people on nearly every quarter section in this entire country, but after the first world war we had a period of hard times and a drought, and many settlers moved out. We milked cows and sold cream, continued farming and increased our cattle. As a result of the disaster period much land reverted back to the state which still controls considerable Delrio acreage.
Cora L. (Seaton) Rinker
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ROY HARPER
I was born in Wisconsin, but with my parents came to Custer, Washington when I was about 10 years old. We moved to Almira, and from there we came in 1906 to the Strahl Canyon area where we settled as squatters, and later on my father homesteaded in 1908. I believe no acceptable survey had yet been made of the area by the state in 1906. My father, Rod Hopkins, and Arthur Strahl were among the many who had orchards. People would come from Leahy and Delrio to get fruit.
Some of the first settlers in the Alameda area before 1900 were Rod Hopkins, herb and Webb Buck, and Mr. J. Victor and his son Cyrus.
I could not legally file on my own homestead above condon Ferry until 1912 due to state surveying. The Condon Ferry played an important part in the settlement of Okanogan County after the reservation was opened up. I recall the increase of traffic over this ferry during prohibition days. Ultimately, a number of bootleggers were caught who had been using this route to bring liquor in from Canada.
Roy Harper
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BESS (SEATON) DUMAS
I was born in Cass County, Missouri but came west in 1889 with our family to the little community of Hesseltine in the Broadaxe country west of Wilbur. There my father built a store where he sold all kinds of merchandise - even machinery, dry goods, and drugs. my father, Thomas B. Seaton, became Hesseltine postmaster though he also did some farming. I recall many Indians trading at our store, and at one time I had a large collection of Indian clothing and accessories, all beautiful, handmade items. Sometime about 1899, my father built the Elmer Seaton Ferry. He had the timers cut for this up the Columbia River and rafted down to the ferry site, which was about two or three miles up river from Grand
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Coulee Dam. My father also built a house at the ferry. Billy Mahaney was placed in charge of running the ferry at first. A road was built on the east side of the river leading on to Nespelem. Dad also constructed the road from the top of Birchell Canyon down to the ferry all by himself with one team of horses and a pick and shovel.
My father had dealt with the Indians so much at the store that they all wanted to cross the ferry free, saying they owned half of the river (the east side of the river was reservation land). Dad would laugh and tell them, "All right, I will take you half way free." Prices for crossing varied according to loads. I believe it cost $1.50 for a wagon and team to cross. Later on, my husband Charlie Dumas and I ran the ferry for a number of years.
I remember Captain McDermot and his steamboat crew staying overnight at our ferry site. They wen much farther north - at least as far as "Hell-gate". The steamboats hauled freight both ways, but actually didn't get enough business to make it pay.
The first truck ever driven to Nespelem went over our ferry. It was owned by Jones and Jones Brothers who had a contract for hauling mail and freight. The truck was driven by Fred Jones of Wilbur. In 1922 my brother Elmer Seaton bought the ferry, which he maintained until the construction of Grand Coulee Dam.
Bess (Seaton) Dumas
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PAULINE AND BERNARD WHITE
John M. White came to the Big Bend in Washington Territory from Indiana in 1883. He found Albert Probstel, a bachelor, with his brothers and sisters and Shaw already located. Probstel ran a postoffice called Grand Coulee where mail came in every two weeks. The Roberts family kept the postoffice after Probstel. The carrier was paid so each letter cost twenty-five cents. John and his brother James took wheat land thirteen miles north of Almira.
Miss Jessie Bernard came from California about the same time. She carried all her clothes in a brown leather portmanteau still in good condition some seventy years later. It is proudly owned by her son, Bernard, today. Jessie worked in Dr. Pittwood's dental office in Spokane Falls when it was a small town. Then she joined her mother, Mrs. Bernard, sister Anor, and brother Rollie, who lived on a homestead near John White. She was a beautiful, dark-eyed young lady soon sought after by the host of bachelors in a new country. John White, with squared-off beard, was the most eligible. They married and their first child, Bernard, was born on the Frank Roberts place. Gladys and Delmar were later born and after Gladys' death in 1905, a younger sister
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Ada came to their home. The children were educated in the Grand Coulee school, at one time going to school to their aunt, Anor Bernard. Ada finished her education at the State Normal School at Cheney and is now Mrs. Gather Kenner. Their home is about ten miles south of our Grand Coulee town. Kenner's two daughters are Mrs. Keith Masterson and Mrs. Duane Childers. There are three grandchildren.
Bernard White married Pauline Hass, a teacher in their rural school. They have two boys, one of whom runs the farm. The other lives on the east coast with his family. Three grandchildren occasionally visit the Whites in their fine modern home in Almira.
Delmar White is a well known sportsman of the area. He farmed the home place for many years and has recently bought a home in Almira. He married Lucille maxwell, a teacher. They have one married daughter, Marilyn.
Dayma Evans
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THE NILLES, CAMPBELL, AND LEAHY FAMILIES
In the spring of 1902, my parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Campbell came to this country by wagon team from Spokane. My two sisters and I came later that year. We rode the stage out from Coulee City and were let out at Leahy. Uncertain just when we would arrive, no folks met us, and we walked the seven miles to our new home. George Nilles also came to this area in 1902.
In the spring of 1903, my father was hauling feed from old Mold (about four miles southeast of present Mold). On one such trip it became so foggy that dad couldn't find his way home, though actually he was only about a mile from our place. There were no fences then to guide you. He drove around and around in his own tracks, then realizing he was lost, decided to unhitch the team, turn them loose and they'd find home. He rode one horse, expecting the other to follow and wondered why it didn't. About 4 a.m. dad heard a rooster crow at our house and finally reached home. Several days later he went back to his wagon. Here he found he'd failed to completely unhitch his other horse. She had gotten down and been eaten by coyotes.
The Catholic Church at Leahy was built in 1906 by community help.
During the mild winter of 1905, my husband George Nilles was working for Mr. Leahy. They had turned out the cattle, and drilled spring wheat. On the 10th of March a severe blizzard struck. It froze out the grain and caused them to round up and feed the stock for three or four more weeks.
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The following obituary written in 1945 gives information on Leahy pioneers:
"Mrs. Josephine Leahy, 79, pioneer resident of the Big Bend and Douglas County, died in a Spokane hospital after an extended illness. She was born in New York in 1865 and as a small child crossed the plains in a covered wagon to Park City, Utah. Marrying James Leahy in 1887, she moved to Douglas County where they homesteaded on Foster Creek on what is now known as Leahy. The oldest postmistress in service in the state, she served for over 50 years, up until the time that the Leahy post office was closed two years ago. She and her husband built the Catholic Chapel at Leahy and also operated the general store. Mr. Leahy was one of Douglas County's pioneer stockmen."Mrs. George Nilles
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