I never heard stories from my grandparents about their families. The only stories I heard were from my dad about when he was growing up. The same for my mom.
Dad
was the youngest of two children. His
dad worked for Weyerhaeuser in road construction. So, the family moved around a lot before
settling down in Galvin, Washington in the 1940’s. The stories Dad told were of his times at the
various logging camps in the McDonald-Vail (Skookumchuck) area as well as in St
Marie’s, Idaho. He also told stories
about his go-cart and about the home-made tractor. His sister, Lois, had mentioned at one-time
that their paternal grandparents were of high and low German birth. I have determined that Great-Grandpa
William’s family came from Mecklenburg-Schwerin area of Germany. Whereas Great Grandma Susan’s family came
from Bavaria. Susan always said she was
high German. Though, they didn’t talk
about Germany after WWII started.
Mom
was the fourth child out of nine. The
family seemed to have moved around before settling down. I’m not sure exactly what work her dad was
involved in until he started working for the City in Albany, Oregon in the
1960’s. I know that they lived on a farm
in the Randle (1940 Census), Centralia (1950 Census) and Rochester areas. Mom had graduated from Rochester High School
in 1956. One story that I haven’t proven is that a relative took Grandpa &
Grandma off to get married (her parents didn’t like my grandfather). Where they got married is unknown. Haven’t found a marriage certificate from
1932 (the year they supposedly got married).
However, we did find amongst their paperwork a certificate from 1972
from Idaho. Which raised questions for
me as Grandma couldn’t talk due to a stroke she had in 1959. So, how did she say her “I do’s”? We have reason to believe that they didn’t
have proof of their 1932 marriage for Social Security purposes. We will never have the answer as we don’t
know who helped them “elope” and they passed away in 1985 & 1990.
