Dan Twining arrived in the United States from Wales and then

...Well, read on.

Dan Twining arrived in the United States from Wales and then ...Well, read on.

The Grant County Historical Society has compiled several volumes of Grant County history. The books are available for purchase at the Historical Society Museum gift shop in Ephrata.

I bought the series in 2009 and secured permission to relay some of the history through this column.

Memories of Grant County, compiled from taped interviews by the Grant County Historical Society.

Today we continue the story of Coulee City, by Alfred Twining recorded July 30, 1975:

To recap: Phillip was born in Ireland in 1830, landed in New York in 1846 I guess, and in Grand Coulee and Coulee City about 1881, and lived here the rest of his life.

He built three houses about one hundred yards apart, close to the springs up here. He occupied one of them and rented the other two.

So now we will switch over to when Dan Twining came to the country. From Wales he came to Illinois and stayed one year in about 1881 or 1882 and then he went to Sprague and worked around at different jobs for about one year and then he came north to Almira, since there was quite a settlement of Welsh people around there.

He homesteaded there in 1884 and stayed there until 1888. In 1887 his childhood sweetheart came out from Wales to Spokane Falls and they were married in Spokane on March 17, 1887.

The couple lived in Almira for a year or so and when the boom started down at McIntee, he came down to McIntee and started a saloon and run that for awhile.

My mother being kind of a religious person, didn't like the idea of raising a family with a saloon keeper, so she talked him out of staying in the saloon business, so he went out of that. Later on he bought a dray line from Bob Roberts in Coulee City and run that, and about a year later handled wood and coal business. He sold wood and coal and run the dray line for several years.

But after my mother died in 1903, he bought a butcher shop from Jack McGowan, a lot, and a building, and one big fat steer for $500. So the kids were getting pretty good sized then. I was about 12 or 13, Tom was a little older, and I took charge of most of the butcher shop and sold meat and coal and wood and one thing or another.

I remember that Harry Hutton used to come in every evening and say, "Give me four bits worth of slaughterhouse steak."

E-mail from Cheryl

Facts from the past gleaned from the Moses Lake Herald, Columbia Basin Herald and The Neppel Record by Cheryl (Driggs) Elkins:

From the Columbia Basin Herald on Friday, Dec. 5, 1947:

Did we miss them?

Did you get your lessons in on time Monday? If so, do you know why? Juniors say it was because there were no interruptions form the seniors. They were gone. Some leaving in the morning and some in the afternoon for Spokane where they had their pictures taken.

Graduates' pictures

Seven groups of graduate pictures, ranging from the class of 1929 to the class of 1947, have been hung on the wall of the downstairs hall by Darrell Davis. Two of the pictures, the class of 1946 and 1947, were tinted. According to Mr. Davis other graduate pictures will be added to the "Rogues' Gallery" in years to come.

FFA team second in state

The new FFA banner that hangs in the agriculture room represents the winning of second place by the Moses Lake FFA team in a state potato grading contest in Ellensburg on Nov. 15.

Wilson Creek history

The Rev. David H. Crawford compiled and published a history of families in and surrounding Wilson Creek titled, "Family Memories of Wilson Creek Area." The book was printed in 1978, which was the 75th anniversary of the town. David's son, John Crawford, has given permission for those memories to be a part of this column.

Today we backtrack a bit and continue the story of Sam Gross, Jr. and his family:

I worked for Jack Schroeder after school one winter, 1929 and the spring of 1930. He had straw and horses out in the country, plus he had some cows in town and a team of horses. Every morning I would go out with a load of hay and scatter it on the ground in piles and then bring a load into town.

It was cold going out that morning but I didn't think it was that cold. I wrapped the lines around the pole and let the horses go down the road. I walked in back, so I had a windbreak in front of my face.

Schroeder played pinochle that day at the pool hall, Davis ran the pool hall down here. Schroeder was a good player. They gave hickeys in those days. One time he had $200 in the drawer up there just from hickeys. That is a lot of games too. Four times 200, that is 800 games. He'd usually get home about 7 or 8 at night. They played late.

"Did you feel cold this morning when you went out?" he said.

"Not really, why?" I said.

"Well, it was 17 below."

Well, that seemed colder then. Wages were $40 a month and board, never worked on Sundays.

After high school, I picked apples in fall and worked for Schroeder in summertime and Seleen one winter. One winter I worked for Bennett. Hauled hay to town, 60 bales to a wagon load. We would get going at 5 in the morning and harness the horses. One day we'd make two loads, next day one load.

They were getting $20 a ton and boy, they thought they were getting good money. It was a stationary baler out there. Bales weighed 135 pounds apiece, three wires. I stacked for a little while and then they put me to hauling.

One time Claude came home on the weekend. He was the State Representative. He helped unload that one load. He kept saying, "Another Bale," even before we had a chance to get one. About the third time, he had three of four bales piled up. He just stopped and grinned at me, no more "another bale." He was the representative of this area and a smart man. About 1917 he built the dame. Took seven years to build it, all with horses.