stella
The Alberton Papers Vol. VI, # III
By Dick Darne 4-7-08
Another sad day in Alberton. Stella Wylie has passed away at the age of 97. I got to know Stella a little bit over the last few years when Tom Wheeler and I would go over to reassure her that her furnace was working. We would usually visit for a short while and she would tell us some stories from her past. She told us that she came here from Portland Oregon as a young lady (although she never said exactly when) and how she was a cook in Honest Tom Bailey’s hunting camp, cooking for "eastern dudes". She told of one particular story about some clients from New York who would party a little too hard at night and be quite sick the next morning. She would fix them an "easy to keep down breakfast" and help them recover enough to actually go hunting the next day. They rewarded her efforts with generous gratuities which enabled her to have central heating installed in her house. They also returned year after year to the camp.
Now when one makes it to 97 years, we can assume they lived a long and full life and if any of us makes it anywhere near that, we could figure we got our money’s worth. Now, here is the sad part, Stella had many, many stories and we were all too lazy to listen and record them. She got to sing her songs, but we didn’t listen to all of them. There are hundreds, if not thousands of stories right here in our little town. We should be collecting them Studs Terkel style, a good listener and a tape recorder. We all have to leave sometime but the stories should remain behind. The stories are our past, the past is our heritage and the parting gift from our elders is their accumulated wisdom and knowledge.
Our library should have all of Studs Terkel’s books. Keep listening and remembering.
Farewell Stella. dd
By Dick Darne 4-7-08
Another sad day in Alberton. Stella Wylie has passed away at the age of 97. I got to know Stella a little bit over the last few years when Tom Wheeler and I would go over to reassure her that her furnace was working. We would usually visit for a short while and she would tell us some stories from her past. She told us that she came here from Portland Oregon as a young lady (although she never said exactly when) and how she was a cook in Honest Tom Bailey’s hunting camp, cooking for "eastern dudes". She told of one particular story about some clients from New York who would party a little too hard at night and be quite sick the next morning. She would fix them an "easy to keep down breakfast" and help them recover enough to actually go hunting the next day. They rewarded her efforts with generous gratuities which enabled her to have central heating installed in her house. They also returned year after year to the camp.
Now when one makes it to 97 years, we can assume they lived a long and full life and if any of us makes it anywhere near that, we could figure we got our money’s worth. Now, here is the sad part, Stella had many, many stories and we were all too lazy to listen and record them. She got to sing her songs, but we didn’t listen to all of them. There are hundreds, if not thousands of stories right here in our little town. We should be collecting them Studs Terkel style, a good listener and a tape recorder. We all have to leave sometime but the stories should remain behind. The stories are our past, the past is our heritage and the parting gift from our elders is their accumulated wisdom and knowledge.
Our library should have all of Studs Terkel’s books. Keep listening and remembering.
Farewell Stella. dd
posted by aldermandarne | 11:37 PM
1 Comments:
I'm a distant cousin of Stella's, but all I know of her I've found on the internet. I'm sorry I never met her.
Here's what her brother James (d. 1992) wrote of the family back in 1981:
"My father, Amos Baldwin Spitler, left Manchester, Iowa, a very small town, to go to Wyoming. Worked on a ranch, then to San Francisco, Calif., where he worked in the shipyards.
"He met and married my Mother [Ethel McDonald]19 Jan 1904 at Ferndale, Calif., South of Eureka. They moved to Hood River, Ore. 1905. Stella was born in Portland, Ore., 29 Dec 1910. They moved to Timber, Ore, 1906, where Reba, Abiah, James, Albert, Blanche, Martha Jean and Margaret were born. Blanche was the first child born in the new house. Mrs. Cardele was midwife for Mother.
"Our father had a dairy and supplied milk and cream for all the families surrounding Timber, 2,500-3,000 people at the time.
"Timber was a railroad and lumber town, roundhouse station--had 3 hotels for railroad men, one hotel for loggers.
"Father built a new house on the home place with lumber from one of the hotels, the house was sided with shiplap covered with singles spaced 2 and 4 inches to the wind, tongue and groove inside, winters were very severe.
"Father was a member of the school board at the time he was killed, had been a road supervisor and justice of peace, always active in community affairs.
"Father was killed Sept. 5, 1924, attempting to warn his crew of a falling tree, was struck on the head by falling timber and was killed instantly. After my Father was killed in Sept. 1924 my brother Albert (Buster) shot and killed my sister Abiah in June 1925 in an accident. Abiah was 8 years old and Buster was 5 years old.
"Mother had a breakdown and placed us in St. Agnes's Baby's Home at Park Place, south of Oregon Cit, Ore.
"Mother worked as a cook at Hubbard Mineral Springs Sanit. and in Salem. Mother received $8.00 from the State for each of us for our care and she added $8.00 to make $16.00 a month paid to Edward's
"Art and Stella stayed with Mother when the family broke up. Jimmie and Buster stayed with a family named Borch (Dutch) then Buster came to Edwards and Jimmie went to St. Mary's Home for Boys from July 1926--June 1927 and then went to live with Mother at Salem. Reba left Edward's at Elwood, Ore. Stella had been at the Chrisrie School for Girls, Maryhurst, Oswego from July 1926 to Christmas 1926.
"Mother got a job in Portland and became very ill. Mother died at the hospital, Mul. County Hosp.,
after 10 days of kidney failure 20 Oct. 1932.
The only other things I was told was that Stella had married twice, first to a guy name Joe and then to Chet Wylie. I don't have any other information about them.
Post a Comment
<< Home