When I look back at my heritage I find evidence of the pioneer spirit. My grandfather William Stanley McLaughlin bought into the Puget Sound Co-operative colony in Washington Territory in 1887 for the sum of $50. This entitled him to one 50 foot-front lot in the property to be acquired from the government. There were thirty-five members of the Incorporating Convention of the colony including three women. We now call this area Port Angeles.
My grandfather was named trustee of the new cooperative colony which was to be just that—cooperative in maintaining this community. They set up to live off the land and to share expertise. There were no TV experts urging them to buy products or showing them how to cook or keep house. Grandma cooked up a great mulligan stew which my own mother learned to cook and serve up to our family as well. My grandmother made decisions based upon her experience without leaning on anyone to persuade her.
But pioneering is dangerous. My grandfather lost his life while using dynamite in clearing land for the house and garden. My grandmother took in roomers to help pay expenses and her offspring grew up to make her proud. My mother won public office in Chehalis, my aunt was a manager of an office in Port Angeles and my uncle Ray became an office manager in a government office in Olympia.
What would my grandmother think of today’s world? She would be aghast at prepackaged food and eating out in fast food restaurants. She would think that women who depended upon television to learn about food preparation and face makeup to be weak minded. As a young child I remember her commanding presence, never uncertain about her way of life but always in control. I later realized how much my own mother drew from my grandmother’s personal power in making her own decisions. Grandma saved her egg money until she had enough for her own burial. Planning ahead for any downturn was her way of life.
In those days a journey from Chehalis to see grandma was a real adventure driving on the less than perfect roads. We needed to stay at least one or two nights giving us time to eat several meals from the set of blue willowware dishes Grandma had in her Chinaware cupboard. I bought a few pieces for one of my daughters at an antique shop some years ago. Somehow it took me back to the days of visiting my grandmother.
My mother was used to long journeys as she traveled alone from Port Angeles to Missouri to be married. My father had come west to Port Angeles after his first wife died to visit his brother who owned a business college where my mother worked. It didn’t take long for my father to begin squiring my mother on dates which were limited to going to hear lectures. Soon they were engaged to be married. My father went ahead to Missouri to get a teaching position and prepare for his bride-to-be to travel from Port Angeles to Kansas City, Missouri. After the wedding with only my mother’s in-laws attending, my parents lived in one room of the two-room schoolhouse. It wasn’t long before they journeyed to the hills of Lewis County with my oldest brother, their first child who was born in that schoolhouse with my father assisting at the birth. Since money was scarce my father assisted at the birth of all my older sisters and brothers. It wasn’t until my father died, just before I was born, that my mother had to get the help of the doctor in the little town of Chehalis. Left with ten living children, only the two oldest gone from home, my mother drew on the pioneering spirit of her ancestors. In the present economic downturn we are experiencing perhaps we can draw upon this same spirit to carry us through.
Georgie Bright Kunkel is a freelance writer who can be reached at gnkunkel@comcast.net or 206-935-8663
