I call it Lake Roosevelt, but the official name is Franklin D.

Roosevelt Lake. Read on.

E-mail from Cheryl.

I call it Lake Roosevelt, but the official name is Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake. Read on.

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, April 20, 1945:

Grand Coulee lake named to honor Franklin Roosevelt

The 151-mile lake formed by the Grand Coulee Dam has been named Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake in honor of the late president, Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes announced Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

"The development of the Columbia River Basin was near to the heart of Franklin D. Roosevelt. He championed the dam, advocated the legislation that guaranteed that the small family farmer would be given the opportunity to develop the sagebrush lands into secure irrigated fames, he frequently asked about the progress and he made many opportunities to comment on the great project to harness the water resources of the Columbia River and to devote them to the use of the people," Ickes said. "The tens of thousands of families who will make their homes on the irrigated land, the hundreds of thousands who use the power and the millions who will enjoy the restful scenery of the lake, I am sure, will approve this token honor to the late president."

Seniors date set for ball and class night

The seniors have set May 5 as the date for their senior ball which will be semi-formal and held in the school auditorium. Class night will be May 22.

Two supervisors named for soil conservation district

Final approval of the State Soil Conservation Committee, for the establishment of a district at Moses Lake was given this week with the appointment of George Knapp and Percy Driggs, as supervisors to continue the process of organizing the Moses Lake Soil Conservation District.

Land owners in the proposed district approved the formation of the district at a referendum vote held some time ago.

The newly appointed supervisors have applied to the secretary of state for a certificate of organization, which when granted will make this district a legally formed sub-division of the state.

Nominating petitions for the remaining directors are being circulated. These required 25 names for the name to be placed on the ballot. From these three supervisors will be elected to complete the district's board of directors.

Alden Copeland, soil conservationist from Kittitas County, is assisting the local organization.

Delivers trucks

Vern McGee, Reo truck dealer reports delivery of four new Reo Speedwagons here this past week to Western Cold Storage. Frank Hansen, W.H. Graham and Moses Lake Transfer.

WWP Company to sponsor new radio program

Washington Water Power Company is inaugurating a new radio program, "The Country Correspondent" over KHQ every Monday evening at 9:30 p.m. starting April 23. It will feature news stories from the weekly newspapers of the Inland Empire.

New library books

New books in the Woman's Club Library are "Look to the Mountain," By LeGrand Cannon, Jr.; "The Robe," by Lloyd C. Douglas and "Hard Facts," by Howard Spring.

News from MacDonald Hill, By Miss Jessie MacDonald

Mr. W.H. Consfare of Spokane is spending a few weeks at the Frank Moss home.

Miss Belle Campbell of Warden spent Tuesday with Jessie and Donald MacDonald.

Don Miller from Cheney was here this week looking after his horses. He stopped at the Finlay McDonald home.

John Branam and Mr. H.P. Farmer returned to Moses Lake Friday from California where they spent the winter working.

Mr. and Mrs. Donald Ewald were in Moses Lake Saturday on business and they also called on Donald and Jessie MacDonald.

Mr. Harold Gates, who has been sick with the flu, returned to his work Thursday.

Mr. and Mrs. Forbes Driggs spent Sunday evening with Mr. and Mrs. Frank Moss.

Russell Hansen took delivery this week of a Model M Farmall tractor from the Lake Truck and Implement Company.

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 with the story of Moses Lake by Earl Cole, recorded May 13, 1975:

I got a letter from a girl that lives in Pendleton, Oregon, one of the Carpenters. I put some pictures in the paper last fall. I don't know whether any of you folks saw it but my wife and I were in the paper there where we had a team and buggy and was taken in 1914. And I put that picture in there and one of the pioneer picnics, and this girl wrote to me and wanted to know if I couldn't get another picture because she said, "I know my family was all there at that picnic at that time."

That was in 1910 when the picnic was on. We had picnics down there every year. You rem ember, John White? Well, John White, you know, was quite a leader. He was the fellow that engineered nearly all those picnics. He was a banjo player and a pretty good singer and we used to sing at those places and they had a real good time.

Those people all over the hill came there and they'd stay all night and they'd spend two days there in that picnic down there. It seemed like that people were more sociable in them early days than they are now days. And I think we enjoyed ourselves a lot better and we didn't have the conveniences we got today.

So I think I've told you about all I know. My father's name was D.B. Cole. Also, my uncle's name, his brother, was S.D. Cole, Dwight Cole. They were some of the early pioneers.

Wilson Creek history

A large part of this column deals with firsthand accounts of history seen through the eyes of our early pioneers. The book of memories of Wilson Creek is packed full of them. Read on.

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 then continue the story of James P. Gilman by Thomas Howard Gilman:

During this time he (the farmers of the area) tried to live off a few cows and chickens, and raise hogs enough for a year's supply of meat. Selling eggs and butter to the stores for groceries.

Ground squirrels were a nuisance in those days, living in large colonies and ruining acres of wheat. Poisoning them with poison wheat was about the only way to combat them. Badgers would dig them out and make large dens in the fields, in which the horses and machinery sometimes sank. Coyotes and hawks were a menace to the chickens, which ran loose on the farm.

The wireworm would kill acres of new wheat and sometimes frost ruined many acres. The hot winds at certain times would burn the wheat and the head would only have shriveled grain left in it. Then came the Russian thistle and Jim Hill mustard. This seemed like the straw that would break the farmers' back. Early plowing would be infested with the thistle so thick that it was impossible to hoe them, as was first tried.

Homemade rod weeders were some help, then hand hoeing afterward, the weeds that were missed. However not until the revolving rod weeder was invented and the tractor replaced the horses was the thistle controlled.

Early days saw the usual outbreak of sicknesses. Mumps, measles, whooping cough, chicken pox and more serious illnesses. Influenza being the worst as it struck at practically all homes and took its toll in many. Before the days of the Model T Ford, getting a doctor to visit a patient meant several hours travel by horse and buggy.

Early day farm life was not altogether without some enjoyment. The people created their own entertainment with various kinds of get-togethers such as box socials, dances, parties, picnics, school programs, quilting bees and 4th of July celebrations and fairs. Auction sales, marriages, charivari, births and death were top events and if help was needed the neighbors were there to assist.

One time James Gilman was called to Waterville for jury duty, before the County was divided, and when he came home the neighbors all came and helped him sow his wheat, as it was getting late in the spring.

James Gilman was one of the few early day home steaders still farming his original place until he retired because of age. He quit farming in 1936, but moved into Wilson Creek in 1934. Having worked hard all his life, raised a family and endured the hardships of the early day settler, he lived to see the coming of the automobile, the tractor replace the horses, the combine, disk plow, weeder, radio, airplane and electricity. However never dreaming that electricity would be available to everyone on the farm, with television replacing the radio, and an oiled highway between the towns, with gravel roads to the homes, where only ruts, chuckholes and washouts prevailed.

James Gilman passes away in 1949 and his wife Cora in 1951. Effie, Louie, Oma and Tony have also passed away. This writer is the sole survivor of the James Gilman Family on July 1, 1977.