Laura's Letters - 3 - 1911-1912

I must start writing in my book for this year by talking about the weather. On January 12th an incredible temperature drop affected the whole area. At 6 am the temperature was a pleasant 49 degrees, however, over the next two hours the temperature plunged an amazing 62 degrees to 13 degrees below zero. This 62 degree drop is the U.S. record for a two hour temperature change.

 

May 10th, 1911

Dearest Laura,

We have just had your note about the birth of little Chester Rense. It is nice that you are naming him after his grandfather. I’m sure he is very proud, as is your Nick. You say he is a good boy, and was a
reasonable weight. I’m sure you are very busy now.

I am writing to tell you the latest news. Pa says we are going to move to Oregon. They have definitely made up their minds. Berte knows some people called Bakers, and also some called Hill, who are vaguely related to us, who moved out there, and she says it is such a beautiful place and a wonderful climate. We are going to a place called Canby, not far from Portland. We will go out by train in the fall. Agnes will finish her high school out here, and Oscar and I will try to find jobs at least until I go to my nurses' training in Montana.

So you won’t need to send any more letters to Wisconsin after this summer. We will all be gone. I shall miss this area a bit, as I have friends here, and enjoy the place, but I am also anxious to try some place new and exciting.

Send us a picture of your new baby if you can. We would love to hear all about him.

Love from your sister, Mary

 

August 5th, 1911

Dear Laura, Nick and baby Chet (Is that what you are calling him?)

I am pleased to announce that I am now officially a Deaconess. I was consecrated by Bishop McIntyre of the Methodist Church, and will get on with my ministry whenever and wherever I can. But I am leaving Chicago. My two years at the Evangelist Institute were good, but I don’t want to live in a big city. And I am thinking that I would like to train to be a nurse and the best place I have heard of is in Butte, Montana. I can do my ministry anywhere they have a Methodist Church and will have me. I will write to you when I find out if I have been accepted into the Deaconess Hospital at Butte. Don’t you think that is a perfect place for me to go, now that I am a deaconess too?

Much love

Ida

*****

Christmas 1911

Dear Bertha,

Congratulations on the birth of your new boy, Ralph. I find it hard taking care of one child. I can’t imagine how much more work it must be for you, with your six. Even finding beds and food for that many must be a full time job for you.

My little Chester is doing well. He is starting to crawl now, and we have to keep our eyes open to make sure he doesn’t get too close to the fire. Nick is very good with him, and already he is thinking of the time when he will be old enough to be help to him on the farm.

I wonder how the folks are getting on in Oregon. Neither of them is any good with writing, so I guess we will just have to wonder. It would be nice if we could manage to go out to visit them sometime, but I can’t see that happening.

That’s about all the time I can spare for letter writing at the moment.

Have a wonderful Christmas, and let me know when you can how things are with you.

Lovingly,

Laura

*****

Christmas, 1911

Dear Laura,

We really do like this place where we are living. I want to tell you all about it. What a change in the winter time. We haven’t even had any snow yet, and you can go around outside with only a jacket on. It does rain a lot, but everything is so green and pretty, that we don’t really mind that much.

Canby started out as a town in August 9, 1870,  and is the second oldest city in Clackamas County.

The railroad station is a really important place. Trains are frequent, carrying merchandize for stores, supplies for farms and homes, and passengers. Shipped by rail from here are mainly agricultural
products - milk, cream, eggs, grain, potatoes, turkeys, rhubarb, lumber, livestock, bulbs, flowers, nursery stock - to name a few.

Canby is best known locally as the home of the Clackamas County Fairgrounds for the the Country Fair and Rodeo, We missed out on it this year, but everybody says it is a really good time. We are about 20 miles SW of Portland.

Between the bigger cities and us is a stretch of farmland in rolling hills and fields. Entering Canby from the north brings you past the Willamette River.

On the high plateau, bordered by the Willamette and Molalla Rivers, Canby was once the meeting place for tribes of local Indians and was well known for its annual crop of wild strawberries. The area known as Baker Prairie was an open expanse of ground in the dense fir forest that stretched for miles.

Baker, one of the earliest white settlers in Oregon, arrived in the area in 1832 with a cattle drive from California, took an Indian wife and was soon farming. The land he "squatted" on was what is now north Canby. Other settlers arrived, including Philander and Anna Lee in 1848, who bought "squatter's" rights beside a spring-fed creek. Lee began growing apples on 80 acres of land and
shipped them to the gold miners in California. In 1850, the Lees gained title to their 647 acres through the Donation Land Claim Act which brought many more settlers over the Oregon Trail to Baker Prairie and surrounding areas. I guess that is sort of like the Homestead Act we are more used to hearing about.

 While pushing the Oregon and California Railroad line from east Portland to San Francisco, promoters approached Philander Lee for land in 1870. For $2,960, he sold 111 acres for the 24-block city, 12 lots per block. Lee would only sell land for a town if the streets were wide enough for two span of oxen and a wagon to turn which was 80 feet, which became the width of Canby's original streets.

Canby has three hotels and a bank, and the population is 587.

 

Love

Agnes

1912

Agnes talked so enthusiastically about her new state, so I suppose I must try to tell a bit in this journal, about what I know about our state.

Agriculture is by far the most important industry of the state, and, owing to climatic conditions, it is commercially limited to summer wheat, as the growing season isn’t enough for corn or winter wheat. We have some hardy small fruits as currants, gooseberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries which grow in abundance.

The average size of the farms was 345 acres in 1900. Our land is 160 acres mostly in wheat which is the state's most important product. In 1909 North Dakota ranked first among the states of the Union in producing both wheat and flax, raised for the seed. Other crops are oats, barley, hay, potatoes, rye and corn.

The population of the State in 1910 was about 584,000. The number of the foreign-born population was 35.4%, the highest proportion to be found in any state of the Union. The principal elements composing the white foreign population are as follows: Norwegians 30,206, English Canadians 25,004, Russians 14,979, Germans 22,546, Swedes 8419. They didn’t even mention the Dutch, which annoyed Nick somewhat.

The colored population of the State consists of 4692 Indians not taxed, 2276 Indians taxed, 286 Negroes, 148 Japanese and 32 Chinese. Most of the Indians not taxed live on reservations, of which there are four.

As far as churches go, in 1906 the Roman Catholic Church had the largest number of members, 61,262, compared to the next largest, 59,923 Lutherans.

All citizens of the United States residing in North Dakota are declared to be citizens of the state. Voting is confined by the constitution to males twenty-one years of age, who are citizens of the United States or have declared their intention of becoming citizens, and who have resided in the state one year, in the county six months, and in the voting precinct ninety days preceding the election. Civilized Indians who have severed their tribal relations two years before an election are entitled to vote. Women may vote for all school officers and upon all questions relating solely to school matters, and are eligible to any school office.

North Dakota is one of the few American states whose constitution forbids the manufacture, importation or sale of intoxicating liquors. Apothecaries may secure a license to sell liquors for purely medicinal purposes upon a petition signed by twenty five reputable free-holders and twenty-five reputable women. In 1909 the advertising of liquors, solicitation of orders for liquors, and the sale of cigarettes to minors were prohibited.

Schools are open to all pupils between the ages of six and twenty-one years. For children between the ages of eight and fourteen attendance for twelve weeks, six being consecutive, is compulsory. 

Educational facilities are also furnished by the University, near Grand Forks, normal (teacher training) schools (opened in 1890) at Valley City and Mayville, an agricultural college and experiment station at Fargo, an industrial school at Ellendale, a school for the deaf at Devil's Lake, a scientific school at Wahpeton, and a school of forestry at Bottineau. The state supports a hospital for the insane at Jamestown, an institution for the feeble-minded at Grafton, a home for old soldiers at Lisbon, a blind asylum at Bathgate, a reform school at Mandan and a penitentiary at Bismarck. There is a state sanitarium for tuberculosis.

 

*****

October, 1912

Dear Pa, Berte, Mary, Oscar and Agnes,

It is nice that I can write to so many of you at once. I send one letter, and I should get five back. But I know that at least Agnes will write, so she can tell me all your news if the rest of you don’t
have time.

I have enclosed a snap that I thought you might like to see. If was taken by Nick’s brother Leonard when we were busy digging potatoes. You can see that little Chester (pictured above)  is quite at home on the horse now, and that he doesn’t mind being out in the fields with us. There is so much to do, and the potatoes are so much of our staple diet, but luckily we have a good crop this year.

 Love from Laura