Helen Pauline Creger (1915-2012) - In Her Own Words

My Mom, Helen Pauline (Creger) Nielsen, lived a long, full life. We were blessed to have her with us until her death at the age of 96 on 18 June 2012. She is missed every day.

Mom loved having a good visit with friends or family. She loved hearing what was happening in people's lives and providing advice when she could. Those who knew her know how much she loved to tell stories about her life and to talk about our family history. 

While her formal education ended before she had graduated from high school, Mom developed an encyclopedic knowledge of our country’s history. Her ability to rattle off names, dates and stories about our ancestors astounded many.

When she was 88 years old, Mom decided she should write her life story. The following is that story exactly as she wrote it. The names of living people have been removed, however, to protect their privacy. Notes have been added at the end to clarify who some people are and provide additional information about certain events.

My Story 

by Helen Pauline (Creger) Nielsen

I was born September 30, 1915 in Valier, Montana, the daughter of James I. Creger and Gertrude E. (Blayden) Creger.

My memory of life there is limited to what was told to me by my parents and elder sister, Alma who I learned much later was my Mother’s daughter by her first husband Samuel Creger, deceased younger brother of my father, thus Alma was a cousin and half sister, but always considered as a full sister.(1)

In these early years of my life my mother was ill, so she had a cook and nurse to care for Alma and I. My mother had an inside goiter (graves disease). She missed being close to her family so we traveled by horse and wagon to Great Falls, Montana to take two train trips back to Idaho so she could visit relatives and maybe improve.

My memory is only of the second, and last trip. This second trip had to be before the fall of 1917 as great grandfather Thomas Edgington was alive and at one of the family gatherings. A picture was taken of him holding my hand for a little walk. To me this was great fun with all the attention Alma and I received from the extended family members.(2)

By late 1918 my father gave up his dream of staying in Montana, as my mother didn’t like it and her health wasn’t getting better.

In Idaho, we lived on rented farms with no electricity or inside plumbing. My parents had three more children. We did not own a car until I was in second grade, so did all traveling by horse, wagon or buggy with heated stones or bricks, at our feet during winter.(3)

Due to our mother’s ill health, Alma and I spent many days away from home staying with various relatives. There were many willing to take us to help my mother. Both she and my father were the eldest children of large families. I started school in Fruitland, Idaho. Some of my classmates were my father and mothers cousins.  

That winter our school bus broke down en route to school so we had to walk the rest of the way in. By the time we arrived many had frozen feet, etc. The teacher put my feet in a tub of snow to thaw and it hurt making me cry. All my relatives were trying to protect me, so the poor teacher had her hands full.

Fruitland, Idaho celebrated an Apple festival and part of it was a May pole dance. I was chosen to take part in it, also Christmas school and church programs. This meant a new wardrobe that my father and mothers un-married siblings were happy to provide.

Alma and I were exposed to Chicken Pox and Measles the following spring and sent (taken) to a neighbor we called Aunt Ida Taylor, who nursed us through three weeks of back to back illness. When allowed out of bed I had to learn how to walk again. Going home was strange with the other babies.(4)

My father and a younger brother (a WWI veteran) decided to purchase what was known as the Island farm, where the Payette river flows into the Snake river, so my second year of school was at Payette, Idaho. Alma and I could walk to school along the path from the river or on a longer route by road. I liked the long way, as we passed my paternal grandmother’s bachelor brother’s place and could always count on a treat. I remember the snow along the short path, so deep, way over my head and falling into deep drifts, to arrive at school very wet and late for class. Of course we played along the way.(5)

The Payette river froze over so we could ice skate on it out to the Island. We used a row boat to get there during summer months. We had lots of company every weekend, and we looked forward to Uncle Roy and Aunt Katy Blayden’s visits, as they brought cousin Ralph and while the adults visited we played in areas we were not supposed to be in.(6) 

I remember Aunt Mildred and Uncle Martin Platz’ visit. The men had been catching frogs and they persuaded my mother to fry the legs they skinned out telling her it tasted just like chicken, not mentioning that heat made them jump in the pan. This uncle loved to play jokes. A favorite pudding of mine was tapioca until he told me they were fish eyes so I never ate it again until I was quite grown up.(7)

My mother’s Uncle Malcolm Hazeltine, also liked to play tricks on me. He was grinding horse radish one day, and persuaded me to turn the grinder. Of course it got in my eyes. My great aunt Ella was very upset with him, as it took a long time to stop the burning.  

In my third year of school the banks closed their doors, all part of the great depression. Without their money to make payments due, we lost the farm and my father got an offer of working at a hop yard in Corvallis, Oregon. This was on my mother’s Aunt and Uncle’s cousin’s place near the Willamette river. Our housing that year was in a boarded up tent.(8)  

It was decided we would travel from Idaho to Corvallis, Oregon, by car, an old Briscoe touring car, that caught fire on the grade into Pendleton, Oregon. This took time to repair, then on to Boardman, Oregon where we had a much needed rest, and clean up at my mother’s Uncle George and Aunt Ella Blayden’s place. My mother’s cousins were still at home, so made the visit fun.(9)  

After a few days we continued toward Portland, Oregon through the beautiful Columbia gorge, making stops at scenic places to let the car cool down and eat our picnic style food. At long last a very tired and cranky bunch we found our way to one of my mother’s younger sisters home in S.E. Portland, Oregon, where we stayed about a week resting, cleaning up, and visiting younger cousins. Before long we made our way on down to Corvallis, and to get settled in before the Hop harvest in the fall.(10)

While my father ran the dryer, my mother and all we kids picked hops. Alma and I earned enough to help buy our school supplies. When we started school I was put back a year as Idaho Schools didn’t meet Oregon’s standards, so I was in third grade twice. We stayed in that school district until my sixth grade making several moves in the area to different places. One being so near the river we were nearly flooded out. My father had obtained an old pony that Alma and I rode to school on high water days, and also used to bring cattle in from pasture. The horse loved to go under low limbs and brush us off. There was a big old stump in the barn yard that the pony would get on and perform, making us slide off it’s back.

In school one year there was a special program, and much to my mother’s dismay I was chosen to do a black face, a roll about little Orphan Annie using the southern dialect.

Our summer’s were spent working on the places my parent’s rented and neighboring farms picking berries in spring, harvesting our crops and picking hops in the fall, never any money but we had food, not always the kind we wanted, sugar was a luxury. We bought enough sugar to make lot’s of candy, and material from the 10 cent store for me to make a new dress in 4H Club.This didn’t last long, another move back to near Corvallis for my 7th and 8th grades and into high school years with many moves in the school district. In high school, all said I was too thin, my high school principal had been school and Sunday school student’s of my mother’s so took special notice of me, changed all of my classes so I didn’t walk much and made me go to their offices to drink malted milk and Ovaltine mid morning and afternoon. It was decided that I should go live with my mother’s cousin Floyd Thompson and his wife Susie who had no children. Pampered again, luxury for me to step out the door, catch the bus to school, no chores before or after school. Unheard of at home.(11)  

During these years my grandmother Blayden Moore made her home with us for six months, then with the Platz family for six months.(12)  

My mother’s married sisters visited us from Montana and Idaho, bringing their children, my cousins with them. My mother’s youngest sister from Portland made her home with us with her three children for a time when she divorced and a long time after. We were always near the Thompson’s.(13)

As I was growing up I had no bed of my own but shared one with my sisters. We slept on straw ticks, no dresser or chest of drawers. We used empty orange crates for the folded clothes.

Alma had a son, so the year my parent’s moved up to Estacada, Oregon I more or less left home. Taking care of my sister’s son while she worked and looking for any job I could find. One was Stadelman fruit packing in The Dalles, Oregon and another on a wheat ranch at Maupin, Oregon. In-between I returned home to care for my ill siblings who had the mumps, with my mother gone to Idaho for a gathering of the Blayden clan at the Platz home.(14)

My next employment was as a cook-waitress in a then popular restaurant near my sister Alma’s home, so I could stay with her. My boss introduced me to my future husband John Nielsen in the fall of 1937. We were engaged the following March and were married May 22, 1938, before John, who worked for the Forest Service, started that year’s fire guard season.(15)  

Our wedding was a small one. Our parents didn’t have any money to help us, so we paid for everything. My parents could not even attend. Our only attendants were my older sister and my husband’s brother. We chose to be married at Mt. Tabor Presbyterian Church on Belmont. We both knew Reverend Beard before we had met. Our reception was in my new in-laws home. We paid for all provisions that my new mother-in-law catered. Our honeymoon trip was to the beach, with a brief stop to see my parents and sibling’s then on down south to Florence, Oregon. Then broke, but happy we returned briefly to Portland.(16) 

John was working in summer for the Forest Service and in the fall and winter he was time keeper for the crew that built the roads to Timberline Lodge on Mount Hood. So by June 1st when John started that year’s fire guard season, we were living at Summit Guard Station where he drove the fire tanker. We had a little cabin and he was often gone fighting fires. I was alone so I picked huckleberries and sold them to the market where we obtained our fresh groceries.

That first winter after fire season we returned to Portland. John worked with a landscaper friend and I returned to work at the same restaurant I’d met him at.

By the next fire season we were again headed for Mt. Hood. I was telephone operator and John had many duties including rescue missions. The following summer we moved into the office at Summit Guard Station where I was to take care of the office and telephone switchboard while John was out on fires. On one such fire they used the CCC Crews from Zig Zag, Oregon, and I received this frantic call asking could I feed this crew, they’d reimburse me with food. I had picked huckleberries so made hot cakes with them. We spent the winter there, and John worked with the crew building the ski lift above the Lodge.  

We had our first and second anniversary dinners at Timberline Lodge prepared by the Chef special for us. While working at Timberline we stayed over night a couple of times in the Presidential suite.

In our second and third winter on the Mountain I learned to ski but never very good.

We made once a month trips to Portland to shop for groceries. $25.00 bought all our staple food. The fresh food was trucked up once a week from Sandy, Oregon. We could not afford very much of that.

We saved for weeks so we could make a trip to Portland for the opening of the movie Gone With The Wind and dinner at a restaurant called Bit of Sweden.(17)

My friend and I were among the first non-employees to ride up on the lift. With no hats, it had turned windy and cold. We made hats from the Oregonian newspaper and our picture appeared on the sports page of the newspaper the next day.(18)

At this time Timberline Lodge was the new play ground for the rich and famous, so very exciting place to be, meeting people from around the world.

My husband and a friend were employed to operate the new ski chair lift at Silcox Warming Hut above the Lodge.

The friends wife and I also obtained employment in the Lodge. She in the gift shop and I in the Ski Lounge selling candy and soft drinks, all doing well. She and I persuaded the manager to let us try making coffee and hot dogs to sell at Silcox Warming Hut. No water at the hut, so we melted snow on a kerosene camp stove, another to heat buns, etc. The venture surprised everyone, selling the coffee and hot dogs faster than we could make them under such primitive conditions. We had to carry our supplies up on our laps while riding the chair lift up to the hut.

That winter we rented a log cabin in Government Camp, Oregon. Our friends lived with us. They were building a home on property they owned. We decided to purchase the property from them across the road, so that when their home was completed enough the four of us moved into their home while continuing to work on it and as time and money allowed on ours. I helped the carpenter lay bricks for the chimney and shingle the steep roof, so we could get in our own places.(19)

One of our neighbors at Summit Guard Station was the Forest Service representative at Timberline Lodge. He and his wife were children of Missionaries. He was born in Korea. His parents continued to live there, coming home and visiting their son. They gave a dinner for all who lived at the Station with typical Korean food, at the dinner during which a warning was given that danger of war was a worry. This proved to be true sooner than any of us expected.

With no children, John signed up for the draft. We were sure he would be called, so we decided to come back to Portland. He was employed at Columbia Air Craft and we rented an apartment.(20)

My younger sister Jean lived in the same building with her then husband. While we were adjusting to city life and all the changes the war brought, I became pregnant and was delighted.

My sister-in-law had worked for a promoting company that raised money for widows and orphans of policemen. The department here decided to do their own work, but needed to set up files before they began. She and I, with a few others were hired to get them organized.(21)

Our daughter was born early, on March 6, 1943. She was less than 5 pounds and premature so our hospital stay was longer.

John knew he was going to be called so didn’t wait, but enlisted in the Marine Corp and was taken right away. With a new baby there was not much I could do so I went to live with my in-laws and shared friendships with other war time widows. I signed up as a block warden so on black outs I patrolled the area for any light showing and drew a diagram of each home’s proposed shelter, etc. During my time staying with my in-laws I worked with my mother-in-law and her friend who had a catering business. We were always busy, but as the war got worse we found we could no longer buy needed supplies.(22)

One evening after my mother and father-in-law had retired, the door bell rang bringing the dreaded news that my brother-in-law [George Martin Nielsen] was dead in Finchhaven, New Guinea. John was in North Carolina and due to ship out at the time so he got emergency leave for two weeks. As sad as it was we were happy to be together, even briefly.  

A short time after his return to camp he was due to ship out to serve in the Pacific on board a ship. I made the trip east to spend what time we could together before he left.(23)  

Upon my return home, I returned to our mountain home at Government Camp, Oregon with our small daughter, and went to work in a small hotel restaurant in Government Camp that was a bus stop. Troops came through from east to west very hungry and in a hurry, with no time to eat. My daughter could be with me at work, and we had our meals there. I woke up one morning with my face all puffy. My boss came by, took one look, and sent for Dr. Otto George, who luckily was there, to see me. He took one look and laughed, telling me I was pregnant. I stayed up there working a few months longer, but before the heavy snow came, I left to visit my parents, who by now lived at the Oregon coast.(24)

My brother was in the Army Engineers in Europe. My parents were upset, as they hadn’t heard from him so they decided to contact the Red Cross. He was demoted for not writing, though he hadn’t had his boots off for weeks at a time.(25)

I returned to Portland and visited my youngest sister and family near Lebanon, Oregon in a logging camp. She had daughters older than mine, so the cousins had fun, and a welcome break for me.(26)

Upon returning to my in-laws home, the welcome news that the war was over came. My brother Alex arrived home first then my husband John got home the very day our second daughter was born, May 4, 1946. I could hardly wait to get out of the hospital and home. We immediately searched for a home to rent. They were few, but we were lucky to find one through a friend.

John went to work for a company making golf carts, that were also used by the Postal Service. They were expanding and wanted us to open their shop in Chicago however we didn’t want the move. John had joined the Oregon Air Guard and was offered the job as training specialist for them by the state. This later became a Civil Service job.(27)

We did not like the area of our rented house, so we found one to buy on Cooper Street in S.E. Portland. With our young family, I did not try to work away from home. We had a large garden and fruit, so I canned lots of our food. Our eldest daughter started school however the district changed lines making her cross a busy street and walk further to school. She wasn’t very strong and had to have an emergency appendectomy at the same time the school district was buying our home and property for a new school and John’s Air Guard unit was called to active duty for the Korean War. We wanted to stay in the same area and school with a home about 10 years old and with lots of frantic looking to stay within our price range we found the home I still live in.(28) 

We barely got moved in when John left for Air Force active duty in the territory of Alaska. I could have gone to Fairbanks, but not out to the site where he was. Since I’d be alone there most of the time we decided I should stay here with our two girls and not disrupt our eldest daughter’s schooling. We were only three blocks from the school. She caught the measles and we had manufactured gas heat that blew up, leaving the girls and I with only the fireplace to heat, cook, etc. We did not know our neighbors then, so the few I’d met, we bought what wood they’d sell toting it home in the girls play wagon.(29)

During this time, my in-laws both died and my sister-in-law had moved to San Francisco, California leaving me to settle their estate and that of a maiden Aunt who named cousins in Sweden in her will. I communicated through the Swedish Consulates office here, had many trips to the lawyers office and also rented out their home place. The year soon passed with John arriving home.(30)

John had to go to Great Falls, Montana to be discharged from active duty so we bought a car and went as a family. En route we took side trips, one being through Gates of the Mountain on the Missouri river as Lewis and Clark had done.

Once there John checked in at the base and took us up to Chinook, Montana where my Aunt, my mother’s sister, and family lived. My cousins there who were close to my age, so I enjoyed my visit very much.(31)

We rented a small apartment in the same building my Aunt and her family lived in so we could visit every day and have meals together when we wished. They had been flooded out of their home on the farm, so they had purchased this big house near the school and were making three apartments of it. They took one, their daughter Georgia took one and the third was rented out to a teacher.

John came up every week for long weekends and lots of trips while waiting for his release papers. School started so our daughters enrolled in and attended school there for a month in Chinook, Montana.

At last on our way back home to Portland, Oregon we took our girls for an extended tour across Montana to Cook City Pass into Yellowstone National Park As it was closing for the winter and we were the only ones there besides a few employees, we spent one night in the President’s suite at Old Faithful Inn. We had also been through Glacier National Park going from east to west and back again. Anyway on this trip home we went on to the Grand Teton’s, ate at a chuck wagon, etc. Many wild animals to see and beautiful scenery.

Home looked very welcome. The girls were back in school and John was working at the Air National Guard Base. I was busy helping our daughters through all their extra activities, a sponsor for Camp Fire Girls and received permission for their club to use the school for Ballet and Tap dancing class from donated time of some professional instructors. One day the school Principal asked me if I would help out in the lunch room. I did and soon was employed full time, the extra funds a big help with growing family.

With our income, a treat was buying .19 cent hamburgers or a trip to the beach on non-drill weekends and some holidays. We had lots of company from my family. It seemed like John was always off to summer camp or drill weekends, etc. when we needed help at home with a problem.  

Before we knew it our girls were grown and married. John attended training classes at San Antonio, Texas and Denver, Colorado. With the girls now grown, I went along both times and with plenty of time we toured both states, not missing much. Then John’s unit was transferred to Kingsley Air Base in Klamath Falls, Oregon and I went with. With John at work I found myself with nothing to do.  

My girls knew their father’s genealogy, a first generation American, his mother from Sweden and father from Denmark. They asked me where or what country my family came from. The only one I knew about was my mother’s paternal line of Blayden, but not her mother’s, nor nothing of my father’s. So I decided to find out the where, and when and began at the Klamath Falls local library. The librarian was a big help and from names I gave her soon realized most if not all were pioneer Americans arriving before the Revolutionary War. Now to find out where from. John became interested, too, so in a few years after he retired and we returned to our Portland home, we made driving trips east traveling in their foot steps and visiting Court Houses etc. for their records along the way. We missed clues along the way so of course had to go back, in all we made three trips to Washington D.C. area, doing our research each time a different route. Northern, Middle and Southern, staying at Guest Housing on Military Bases as often as we could and buying our meals there. We visited many college libraries, met distant cousins etc. A big highlight on one trip was to Westmoreland County, Virginia, where in the little Court House of Montrose in Court Order Book number one I found one of my paternal fifth great grandfather’s named along side George Washington and Robert E. Lee.

We visited many historic places, also Williamsburg, Virginia. On my Mother’s maternal side, we found that Walker Mountain is named for them. The land Washington & Lee University is on was donated by them. They were of Scotch, Irish and English descent. Seven sons of one branch all served in the Revolution. On my paternal side, also Scotch, Irish and English with native American, French, Swiss or German. I’m still looking for ship departure records in Europe to learn what I can and citizenship papers, so early in time, many records destroyed in the Civil War. It would have been nice to have had computers then but I enjoyed our travel, seeing the land, what their occupations were and why they moved west.

I lost the love of my life on July 9, 1993 after fifty five years, and miss him every day. 

NOTES:

1. Samuel Levi Creger married my grandmother Gertrude Ethel Blayden at Caldwell, Idaho on 12 April 1911. Sam died less that 6 months later on1 September 1912 due to head trauma he suffered after being thrown from a horse. Grandma gave birth to their daughter, Alma Elizabeth Creger, on 30 Jan 1912. Her mother, my great grandmother Margaret Annabel (Edgington) Creger, married L.C. Moore in 1907 after the death of my great grandfather James Horatio Blayden. L.C. wouldn’t allow any of Margaret Annabel’s children to move back home, so my grandmother moved in with her Creger in-laws after Sam’s death. On 19 November 1913 in Payette, Idaho, Gertrude married Sam’s brother, my grandfather James Iver Creger.
2. Mom’s great grandfather Thomas Edgington died 9 August 1917 in Grangeville, Idaho at the age of 82.
3. Mom’s younger siblings were Jeannetta Harriet (aka Jean), James Alexander (aka Alex) and Fairy Delores Creger.
4. This is another reference to Jeannetta Harriet, James Alexander and Fairy Delores Creger.
5. The 1920 census shows that Charles and Louisa Hezeltine were living on “2 islands in the Snake River” in Payette, Idaho. Some or all of this property was the Island Farm which Charles sold to James Iver and his younger brother Dillard Creger. Charles Hezeltine’s brother was Malcom Hezeltine, the husband of Lu Ella Edgington. Lu Ella was the sister of Margaret Annabel Edgington, Gertrude Ethel Blayden’s mother and thus my Mom’s grandmother. The bachelor uncle Mom liked to visit on her way to school was her great uncle James Curtis Slinker. James Curtis was the brother of Mom’s paternal grandmother Agnes Emeline (Slinker) Creger. That is to say that he was my grandfather James Iver Creger’s uncle. James Curtis Slinker lived at 928 N. 6^th Street in Payette, Idaho.
6. Roy Earl Blayden was the brother of Mom’s mother Gertrude Ethel Blayden. Roy’s wife was Katie Alma Watts and their son was Ralph Earl Blayden.
7. Mildred Sylvia Blayden was the sister of Mom’s mother Gertrude Ethel Blayden.
8. Will Thompson was the foreman for a hop yard owned by Jess Seavey, his cousub. Will Thompson’s wife was Cora Alice Edgington, a sister of Mom’s grandmother Margaret Annabelle Edgington.
9. George Charles Blayden and his wife Ella Harriet Coskey Blayden were Mom’s great aunt and uncle. George was the older brother of James Horatio Blayden, Mom’s grandfather.
10. Goldie Winifred Blayden, Mom’s mother’s sister, and her husband Earl Botts lived on Woodard Road in Troutdale, Oregon. Mom’s cousins were Gwen, Rex and Donald Botts.
11. Floyd Thompson was the son of Will and Cora Alice (Edgington) Thompson.
12. After the death of Mom’s grandfather, James Horatio Blayden, her grandmother Margaret Annabel (Edgington) Blayden married L.C. (Leander Cassidy) Moore. The marriage ended in divorce. From 1925 until her death in 1937, Margaret Annabel alternated between living with her daughter Gertrude Ethel (Blayden) Creger and her daughter Mildred Sylvia (Blayden) Platz.
13. Mom’s aunts, her mother’s sisters, were Etta Blanche, Goldie Winifred, & Mildred Sylvia Blayden. Etta, who was married to Frank Lewis, and Goldie, who was married to Earl Botts, lived in Montana. Mildred and her husband Martin Platz lived in Idaho. After Goldie divorced Earl Botts, she lived with Mom’s family before she married Chester Rogers in 1931.
14. Mom’s sister Alma’s son was Donald Elmer Cunningham who was born 23 April 1929.
15. “Ptomaine Tommy’s” was a restaurant at 39^th and Powell in Portland.
16. Attendants at the wedding were Mom’s sister Alma (Creger) Cunningham and Dad’s brother George Martin Nielsen. A reception was held at the home of Dad’s parents George and Ida Maria (Westlund) Nielsen at 2728 SE 43rd Avenue, Portland, Oregon.
17. The Swedish smorgasbord restaurant “Bit of Sweden” was located at 1744 N.E. 42nd Street, Portland, Oregon. As children, Mom and Dad frequently my sister and me there.
18. Mom and Dad’s friends at Government Camp were Jack and Mary Ferrell.
19. The house Dad and Mom built can still be seen  at 30396 E Camp Creek Trail, Government Camp.
20. Columbia Aircraft made plane parts for the armed forces during WWII. The company dissolved in 1945.
21. Mom’s sister-in-law was Ethel Marie Nielsen.
22. My Dad, John Robert Nielsen, enlisted in the Marine Corps 20 Oct 1943.
23. My Dad, John Robert Nielsen, was a Sergeant assigned to the U.S.S. Rendova.
24. Mom worked at the Battle Axe Inn in Government Camp. The Inn burnt to the ground in 1950.
25. Mom’s brother Alex (James Alexander Creger) served in Colonel Dunbar’s 343rd Engineer Company D under the command of General George Patton.
26. Mom’s youngest sister was Fairy Delores Creger. Her husband was Arthur Robert (Art) Andrews.
27. Dad worked for the Jarman-Williamson Bagboy Golf Cart Company, which was founded in Portland, Oregon in 1945.
28. The school district bought our house on Cooper Street and moved it to another location to make way for the construction of Meriwether Lewis School at 43rd and Evergreen. Mom and Dad then bought the house at 5211 S.E. 52^nd Street, Portland, Oregon where Mom continued to live into her 90’s.
29. a. Dad was stationed at Galena, Alaska. b. My sister and I attended Woodstock School at 5601 SE 50th Avenue in Portland. c. An accident at Portland Gas & Coke Company prevented them from delivering manufactured gas until repairs could be made. I remember how we had to huddle in front of the fireplace in the living room to get warm and how freezing cold the bedroom I shared with my sister felt. I also remember pulling our wagon up to Foster Road so Mom could buy wood to burn in the fireplace.
30. Dad’s father George Nielsen died 25 September 1948, his mother Ida Maria (Westlund) Nielsen died 29 September 1950 and his aunt, his mother’s sister, Emma Westlund died 13 March 1950.
31. Mom’s Aunt Etta Blanche Blayden, her husband Frank Lewis and daughters, Georgia and Miriam.