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| Christeen's great great aunties. Aunt Ella is top center. |
Christeen, a friend, recently came across this photograph of her great-great aunts. Her grandfather thankfully preserved a story of Aunt Ella, the lady in the center, back row. She was born in the west and was most definitely a free and beautiful spirit.
Christeen says:
Just found this, on a piece of paper, printed on both sides (all my grandfather's original typography and punctuation intact here), written by my late grandfather, entitled "OUR AUNT ELLA," who is pictured in that old-timey photo:
"We had several aunts, sisters of our mother, and also several aunts who were sisters of our father. They were God-fearing, nondrinkers, nonsmokers, and lived with only one husband at a time. DIVORCE? Yes, sometimes. MOTHERS? Yes, some were. POLITICS? Some were Southern Democrats, some were conservative Republicans. They voted and they paid taxes. GOOD CITIZENS? You bet. Were WE PROUD OF THEM? Always. Were they FEMINISTS? Yes in a quiet and nice way, but they took no guff from their husbands or their brothers.
"But this is not a story about all of those aunties. This is a bit of reminiscing about Aunt Ella. She never married. She was an old-maid aunt who loved her nephews and nieces. She had eleven brothers and sisters.
"Aunt Ella, whose given name was Ellen, was the fifth child ... born [in 1882] at the family home on a 320-acre donation land claim in Jackson County, Oregon. Jacksonville was the county seat and trading center, and there was no city or settlement called Medford at that time. The town and county was named after Andrew Jackson, a hero to most of the settlers who were Democrats and favored the rebels during the Civil War.
"Aunt Ella was a beautiful and vivacious woman. She had a touch of henna in her hair and blue eyes that danced and were full of humor and deviltry. She lived in the old family home with five bedrooms, a wood cookstove in the kitchen, and an outhouse beyond the woodshed. The stone fireplace in the family room had a metal cover placed across its face, and this room and the parlor were heated by a large freestanding iron stove which burned wood from Madrone trees. The warmest room in the house, either winter or summer, was the kitchen where the family preferred to gather in the wintertime.
"She studied oil painting at the Catholic Academy in Jackson County and painted many a canvas as well as being a water-colorist. She visited many art exhibits held in her community.
"The household consisted of her widowed mother, a pioneer of 1857 and 1875, and two bachelor brothers. Her mother managed the ranch. Her two brothers did all of the farming including milking the half-dozen cows, raising calves and hogs, feeding and working three pairs of workhorses, and always one or two harness horses for the buggy and for riding.
"Aunt Ella's job was to cook, keep house, do the laundry, feed the dogs and cats. The laundry was done by boiling the clothes in a huge iron kettle heated over a wood fire in the backyard. The same kettle was used to scald the pigs and make soap from lye and fat at butchering time, and to immerse the chickens to remove the feathers prior to preparing them for Sunday dinner.
"She could drive a team as well as drive a car. Her first car was a Dodge sedan. Her second car was a Packard.
"She raised and fed chickens, guinea fowl, ducks, geese, and peacocks. The colorful feathers from the peacocks were given to the dressmaker to be sewed on the latest style of women's hats in Jackson County.
"Getting back to fowl, the undisputed and vocal leader of the band of geese [!!!] was a patriarch named August. A few days before Christmas one year, Aunt Ella sold August to the local butcher to be sold for a Christmas goose dinner. A few days after Christmas, the butcher phoned Ella and told her he wanted his money back and that he would return August to her. When she asked him why, he said that August was so tough that the customer could not cut the meat with a sharp knife and had returned it to him for a refund. From that time on, Aunt Ella gave up raising tough old geese for the market.
"Aunt Ella and her mother slept in the same large bedroom on the ground floor. Each had a double bed and a freestanding closet for her clothes. A visiting nephew or niece always slept with Aunt Ella and could watch their grandmother sitting on the edge of her bed, brushing her long black [?] hair and braid it before retiring, and redo her hair and lace up her black shoes with the long shoelaces in the morning ... all from Aunt Ella's bed.
"Aunt Ella attracted the attention of some of the swains of Jackson County. One of them, a widower and owner of a large pear orchard, took Aunt Ella to the Fourth of July celebration at Lithia Park in Ashland. On that trip he proposed to her. She took the proposal under advisement and wanted to marry the man, but her mother and two brothers said no. Thus ended this romance.
"Aunt Ella liked to read the Bible. She also would tell a smutty story on occasion. In 1921 she and other family members were visiting a sister in Bellingham, Washington. The International Peace Arch between Canada and the United States at Blaine, Washington, had been completed and was being dedicated. Blaine and the Peace Arch was not too far from Vancouver, Canada. We drove on up to the city and visited cousins who were Canadians and lived nearby. [I AM Canada Jones!!!!] In Vancouver she bought a rare piece of cut glass to use as a sugar or cream bowl. Aunt Ella was afraid Customs at the U.S. border would charge her a Customs fee for the bowl. Amid much laughter from her nephews and nieces from the backseat, she tied the bowl to a corset string and hid the bowl under her ample dress. Amid much giggling and suppressed laughter the Customs agent did not look under dresses ..."
There's another page somewhere. Thanks, Grandpa Herman
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