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NORTHRUP CANYON AND STEAMBOAT ROCK
The nicest residential of Grand Coulee was around Steamboat Rock. There was good soil here and water from springs. pine, birch, and willow trees were convenient for building, fencing, and fuel. there was good grass and natural meadows for grazing livestock. Shelter from prevailing west winds. All of these promoted early settling.
The rich soil and flowing streams of Northrup Canyon drew one of the first families. Aunt Katie, or Grandma Northrup, was the first to live in the canyon. It still bears her name. Her son George and wife Joella came with their children to live on the place in 1897. There were Alfred, Nell, Emma, and the two year old twins Rufus and Rudolph. Rufus passed away when a boy, but another son, Charles, was born later.
Their home was of local, hewn logs covered with boards sawed at the Schiebner Mill a few miles below them. The building still stands, with various additions, on the W. J. Crider place. George Northrup was a farmer as well as a preacher. A good family orchard, mainly apples, was set out. A delivery route was established to furnish fruits and vegetables to the dry farmers in Almira and Hartline country. Because of the rocky canyon road this was done with horses and wagons until about 1915 when a car was housed at the top of the hill. Boxes of fruit were hauled to that point and transferred to the auto to allow faster delivery. Many farmers drove directly to the Northrup Ranch for fruit to can each year. A popular gathering spot for all young people. Trout had been planted in the creek and Northrup Lake, a mile and a half up the canyon, was excellent for bass fishing.
Mrs. Northrup lived here 29 years, raised her family and managed to send them to nearby town schools. At the time of her death she left 18 grandchildren and 14 great grandchildren. Her surviving children are: Alfred of San Leandro, California, Mrs. Emma Rose of Hartline, Rudolph of Colville, and Charles of Cashmere.
Northrup's nearest neighbor was the Charles Schiebner family located at the springs a mile below. With his brother Fred's help Charlie planted an orchard and established a sawmill. This was instrumental in assisting homesteaders to erect their shacks cheaply. Schiebner Brothers also engineered and built the graded road leading out to the Big Bend Plateau. John Jenkins who had married Nora Schiebner, came to assist in Schiebner's mill and established his home here. Fleet, a bachelor neighbor, was the millwright who worked in the mill. The Schiebner and Jenkins boys helped. John Jenkins' eldest daughter is now Mrs. Elma Mitchell of Coulee City. Elma describes their early home of logs with wallpaper of newspapers. She says it to a long time to wash dishes when she and her sister Gertrude tried to read from an upside down newspaper.
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After Elma married Harry Mitchell they moved to their homestead west of Steamboat Lake several miles. (1906) Later they were employed by Hebert and Donson on Ranch Number Two. She recalls making butter in a barrel churn and shipping it to Art Stapleton's Grocery in Coulee City by horse stage line. The Mitchells have two children, Lloyd, a grocer in Coulee City, and Lois who is Mrs. John Aston of Kettle Falls, Washington. They have four grandchildren and one great grandchild.
Dayma Evans
REPORT FROM ROD HOPKINS' DAUGHTER MAMIE PFLEGOR
Rod Hopkins' folks came to this area from Napa, California. Before 1906 Rod and Lois were married and moved to his homestead. Mrs. Hopkins' folks came from Arkansas to Ephrata in 1902. All of the children were born at their grandparent's home in Ephrata.
Joe and Ida went to the old Alameda School and later on to the school near where Osborne is now. By the time Mamie was old enough to go there was none near, so she went to stay with her Aunt Eunice and Uncle Elmer Seaton. She went to the Spring Canyon School.
Rod Hopkins had a row-ferry in early days and built a cable ferry about 1920. One time it got away in a wind storm and went several miles down the river before they caught it. They got their mail at Alameda but Mamie remembers one old letter postmarked Barry, 1906.
Rod raised hay, cattle, and horses. In later years he had a herd of sheep. He was noted as a great horseman.
Their home was a log house. There were pine trees on the hills above the river which they cut for their firewood.
Joe Hopkins remembers his dad selling a team for $450.00 which sounded like a fortune in those times.
There is quite a pile of gravel behind the Hopkins place where the Chinese worked the gravel bar for gold in the very early days. Rod Hopkins passed away several years ago at the Coulee Dam Hospital. Mrs. Hopkins is in Washington, D. C. at the present.
Edith Alling
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INTERVIEW WITH DORA WALTON PHILLIPS, ALMIRA, WASHINGTON
In upper Spring Canyon, a quarter of a mile below the present Rosenberg Ranch, you may see the remains of an early settler's home. The Waltons, with Dora 7, and Earl 11, came from Illinois to Davenport by immigrant train in 1889. That was the end of the railroad. From there they drove a team and covered wagon into the Almira country and bought a homestead right from Mr. Cole, a freighter. Shaffers and Pattersons already lived in the canyon.
Their first home was a dugout but Earl soon went to work at Joe B. Smith's sawmill on the Columbia River. His pay was rough lumber which he hauled up the hill to build a better house.
This sawmill used water power and horses. Dora recalls Mr. Smith calling to his wife, "Lizzie, turn the water off. I'll have to file the saw." Fred Herdrich recalls seeing parts of the old sawmill along the river bank when he was a boy. It was located near the Spring Canyon camp developed by the National Park Service. The actual site is under Lake Roosevelt.
There were a number of homes called California Settlement. They followed a draw, so the settlement was also known as "String Town". Dora said "We got up early and crossed the back field to get our mail at Tipso." Tipso was the Indian name for grass. There was good pasture for horses and cattle.
Soon a school was needed. It was first held in Jim White's dugout. In 1890 a one-room lumber building became known as Washington School. Some pupils at that time were the Shaffers, Roberts, Petermans, Waltons, Humphreys, Spangles and the Joe B. Smiths. Of the Shaffer family, Emmet and Dean, the older boys, still live in Grand Coulee.
Clarence Scarborough was the first teacher. He was a self-educated man, living with his parents near the Jameson brothers. He studied and practiced law in Wilbur later. He was a talented musician and gave lessons for 25 cents each. Even one letter cost 25 cents as the carrier, usually on horseback, was paid when the letter was delivered. Later teachers in the Washington School were La Vanchia Scarborough and Lulu Tompson, a Coulee girl. These girls were educated at a private academy in the rural district of Sherman, northeast of Wilbur. It was called Cortland for Mr. and Mrs. Cort who established it. This name was discontinued in 1892.
Lila Pitts first took the Rattlesnake Canyon ranch. She married Bill Zimmerman. He planted fruit trees where irrigation from springs was easy. It was called Zimmerman Canyon. It later became known as Davis Canyon.
Earl Walton, a bachelor, helped peddle the fine fruits and vegetables through the dry farm areas. He would walk from his home down Spring Canyon over a rocky Indian trail to the canyon. Indian writings may
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still be seen near Eden Harbor. Some were covered when roads were changed during construction of the Grand Coulee Dam. During these lonely hikes, Earl worked out a philosophy of his own, a delightful humor which pioneers still quote. He is often compared to Will Rogers. He said "He got four warmin's out of every arm full of wood. First gettin' the brush out, haulin' it in, cuttin' it into stove lengths, movin' it to the wood box and then - it never got the cat warm enough to leave the corner!"
Dora Walton longed for schooling so she went to Almira to work in the Zimmerman Store and attend school. In 1900 she moved to Wilbur where a new flour mill was established. Farmers could trade wheat for flour. This was the beginning of High Flight Flour, a trademark well known for many years. Quilts, petticoats, baby dresses - all the cloths lines advertised it on wash days.
In 1906 Dora married Ned Phillips, a dashing young man who drove a horse and buggy in style. He was a tinsmith from Loomis. Together they operated a country store and post office near the old stone barn still standing on the Almira road. Dora Phillips lives among her early friends in Almira, and is still an active alert woman. Her daughter, Pauline Proctor, is in Portland, Oregon. She has two grandsons overseas in the U. S. Army and one granddaughter, Mrs. Nansen, in Seattle.
Dayma Evans
INTERVIEW WITH ED KLOBUCHER
About 1903 I attended school at the old Grand Coulee Schoolhouse a mile west of the Grand Coulee Grange Hall. Charles Deets was the teacher. Some of the pupils were: Bernard and Gladys White, David and Jess Lewis, and their sister Laura, Mary and Frank Klobucher, the Tomper kids and their mother.
All kinds of pranks were played. The big boys were always trying to escape the tyranny of school by playing hookey. One boy was held down while the others spit tobacco juice all over him.
For recreation there were picnics down at Jack O'Neal's and some at Williams Grove. Camp meetings were held there too, but all the trees are gone now. They called old Danny Williams "Salt Grass Williams". There were card parties and plenty of fiddlers for dances - Ned Phillips, Harv Washington, Phil and Valle Rinker all played the fiddle. Telephones used were barbed wire fences. You could listen to the fiddlin' over the phone.
My father John, and Matt Klobucher, came together to take land in the 1880s. Matt's homestead of '84 was taken over by John Jenke. The
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Jenke children were Joe, Tony, Louis, Maggie, Anna, Lizzie and Josephine. They all attended Grand Coulee School.
Hannah, a niece of Jenke, came from Austria and expected to work to pay her fare over. Joe Klobucher had bargained to marry her. When the hay rack tipped over covering her with hay, a spirited argument went on over who was to pay the fare if Hannah was dead. Joe said he had already worked out her fare. Hannah wasn't hurt. They were happily married and raised several good American children. One of them, Katie, became a school teacher in the Spokane schools. The family now lives in Spokane. The Joe Klobucher ranch is now owned by Timms who has a fine country home at the edge of the scab rock on the Almira road.
An interesting character was McAvoy, a Texan cowboy who had really fine cattle. He lived near Cooper Canyon where the Spokane road now runs. When he came to this country, he walked from Spokane carrying his crosscut saw and leading his horse.
The first record of oxen used in this country was the team that Mr. LaFollette used to break his land. His sons Cy, John, and Milliard each homesteaded three quarter sections of land and Emma, their sister, took one quarter. Emma later married George Nash. They became well-to-do horse fanciers in Spokane.
Before 1890 the need of a cemetery was felt. Two acres of LaFollette land was set aside for one. Old Mrs. LaFollette was the first one buried in it. In 1903 a cemetery association was formed. The following names were listed by John M. White. This information is from the original notebook now owned by Bernard White of Almira.
LA FOLLETTE CEMETERY
R. Van Sicle
Sam Rinker
Vin Morgan
John Warehime
Sam Price
J. E. Shaw
Henry Menke
June Adams
C. Scarborough
Shaw
David Lewis
Frank Tucker
Rose McGarth
E. Walton
J. A. McAvoy
J. C. Keller
E. L. Herdrich
C. E. Elliot
H. Wynhoff
Ed Engleson
R. Holte
Jargon Clawson
C. K. Weisman
Peterman
T. Hughes
Childs
Peterman
Allen
Nash
Wolf
Zimmerman
R. Bernard
(This is not complete - only familiar names here).
One of the pioneer families was the Liberty Sanfords. They came to the Union School District west of Klobucher Draw about 1903. They were wheat and stock ranchers. Children were Frank, Jim, George, Ed, Rosie, Lillie, Florence, and Alice.
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Frank and George continued stock raising. Frank moved to the west side after marrying Mabel Adair and with his son and son-in-law, now farms a large area in Wallace Canyon. Their children are Mrs. Eva Bews, Franklin Jr., Mrs. Belva Flowers, and Mrs. Anna May Larrison. They have ten grandchildren.
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