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THE SIDNEY FORD FAMILY
My grandparents, Mr. and Mrs. Sidney Ford, came to the coulee about 1902. They had four children, including my mother, Ruby. At that time they lived in a house by Steamboat Rock. They stayed there about four years then went to Alberta, Canada, living there about four years before returning. While up there, they lived in a frame house with sod up to the eaves and liked it real well except for the cold winters. They had school in the summer and started as early as they could in the spring and went until Christmas.
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Upon returning to the Coulee, their house had burned down so Grandpa bought lumber and built a new home. This house is also the house the Martins lived in, also the Kruks. It was the last house moved out of the coulee when it was cleared for Banks Lake. It is also the house that is in the picture on the wall of the Rexall Drug Store now.
In the period of years Grandma had six more children, making a family of 10 living, also losing three more at birth or soon after. It was hard making a living for such a large family so my Mother, Ruby, had to work out and send wages home to help care for the smaller children as she was the oldest.
My grandparents then moved to Nespelem where they lived for several years, then on to Omak where they made their home until they both passed away.
Mother homesteaded at the foot of Wallace Canyon when she was 21 years old. At that time they had to live on the place so many months and could work out to prove up on the place if she worked on a farm, which she did part of the time. She tells of one night in the winter when she was alone in her cabin and hearing a noise outside. She was afraid to see what was out there so waited until morning. When going out to see who had visited her during the night, she saw only footprints in the snow of a rabbit that had been hopping around the cabin.
While living in the Coulee my Mother went to school at the Steamboat Rock School at the age of 8 years. At the age of 24 she married and lived on a farm north of Hartline, but still owned her place where Dad would keep horses. But too many people would go through, leaving gates open and knocking down fences, so after the dam was started they sold the place to Julius Johnson.
Grandma and Grandpa's ten children all lived to be past 40 years old, two of the boys passed away the same year. This leaves Ruby, Lena, Doris, Alice, Bernice, Velma, Wilbur and Leonard still living. The ones passing away were Albert and Lawrence. They all live around the area close except Leonard who travels all over the United States due to his job, and Lena who lives in Tucson, Arizona.
My folks, Ruby and Ivan Carlson farmed north of Hartline, but after 51 years have retired and moved to Hartline. In summing it up my Mother says she thinks they went through all the hard times like everyone else in the early days, and to me, it is interesting to think I have come to live not far from where my Mother lived when she was a young girl.
Vesta Seiler
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MARIE BAINES
Editor's Note: We felt that most of our readers would be interested in reading a little history of the early days, and so are passing along this quite "colorful" letter we received from Marie Baines, who formerly owned the Deluxe (now the Wildlife Restaurant) in the early days. Marie seems to have a grasp of the English language that we have been unable to match, so consequently we did little or no editing on the following letter.
"Let's turn back the clock and compare the good old days with what it is like now. Beginning in 1934 when our streets were paved with mud so deep you would lose a shoe and never find it again. This is in comparison to your chuck hole blacktop today.
Taverns and cafes had to use scoop shovels to shovel out the mud in comparison with electric vacuum sweepers today.
Have some construction stiff tear up your board sidewalk to retrieve a coin that fell through the cracks. If there was any sidewalk, the owner of the property put it there.
When the only time a cop came to your place was when he took out a very much alive customer or one that had lost his mobility and couldn't see his way home. When red caution lights were over doors instead of street intersections.
When it took two nights to take in all of the sights in two blocks. When construction stiffs danced and dined with blonds with blond roots, then married a brunette who is a blond today.
When pedestrians used our narrow dirt sidewalks heading for the bright lights, and just used the middle of the street to get home at daybreak. When a construction worker spent his evenings "upstairs", and now spends his evenings downstairs watching TV.
When tourists saw a worker dangling on a rope manicuring the huge hunk of cement, and would say, "now i know what you mean by a swing shift".
When many bodies were nearly buried in the huge pile of cement while they were spreading the wet cement, only escaping in the nick of time.
When the Deluxe Cafe boarded men, two meals, bucket lunch, cigarettes, coffee breaks (5¢ per cup), and one square meal every night, usually T-bone steak for 75 cents.
When bar owners made more money selling tea than they did on beer.
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When flush toilets cost the owners 5 cents per flush. When a housewife could go to the store with a tiny purse and return with a bushel basket of groceries. today she goes to the market with a bushel basket of money and returns with a tiny purse.
When we had a cop who accosted a tourist for stopping beside the only fire plug and arresting him on suspicion. The suspicion was the tourist said he lived in Chicago. The cop then asked him how come he had an Illinois license plate on his car!!
When farmers worked on the dam for 50 cents per hour to earn money to pay his taxes, now he has a $30,000 air conditioned self propelled combine."
Marie Baines
From The Star
December 28, 1967
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More than likely many area folks felt that Marie Baines was a rather tough character, and assumed she acted indeed quite harsh at times.
Not so!
Underneath that supposedly brusque impression lay a heart as big as this typewriter and made of gold.
Under no circumstances would Marie let us give her credit for being a true community philanthropist. But indeed she was.
People in the area probably never knew she donated a large sum of money towards the hospital and always supported community related projects. If there was a time she disagreed with a projected idea, like the Chamber of Commerce, her adversaries were left with no doubts in their minds. however, even though she might have disagreed, she took part.
Marie Baines came here during the earliest days of the Grand Coulee Dam construction as mentioned in this article, saw hard times during the depression, made a going concern of the Deluxe Cafe (and renamed it The Wildlife Restaurant) and prior to her passing was aware of the potential and orderly growth of a place she proudly called her home.
Jack Hilson
1976
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