The next Lunch with the Troops event will take place on Tuesday, Oct. 18 from 11:30 to 1 p.m. The luncheon will take place at the Porterhouse Steakhouse in Moses Lake.

This is the second to the last Lunch with the Troops event, folks. Everyone is invited.

We are offering one Buck Knife and one Wenger, Genuine Swiss Army Knife, in a raffle to benefit Operation Warm Heart, a fund operated by unit First Sergeants to assist airmen in need.

Randy Graham representing RSC Equipment Rental is sponsoring the last six knives, which is greatly appreciated.

Becky Hill, Manager of the Moses Lake American Legion Post 209 conducts the raffle so we are in compliance with Washington State laws and regulations. Raffle tickets will be sold during the luncheon with the knives as a prize. The drawing will take place at the end of the event.

Come join the fun and bring a friend or two. You will find the visit with the troops invigorating and heartwarming.

People wanting to attend the Oct. 18 luncheon are asked to call me at: Home: 762-5158 or Cell: 750-0541. Or the Porterhouse Steakhouse at: 766-0308. We won't turn anyone away, but we need to have an approximate head count.

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 finish the finish the story of the Elmer Hirschel Family by Pauline Keno:

Elmer and Florence have been going to Arizona each winter for 13 years as Elmer's health hasn't been good, and his doctor advised him to go to' a warmer climate for the winter.

On December 21, 1976 they celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary with their daughter and family taking them out to dinner at the Holiday Inn in Yuma and later sharing of wedding cake, which Pauline had made and brought to Yuma from Fairfield, with the residents and friends in the trailer court where they live.

Today we begin the story of Erhard Hirschel by Howard Hirschel

Erhard Hirschel came to Wilson Creek on the immigrant train October 18, 1901. His parents were Henry and Maria H. Hirschel. His father was a soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War. Erhard's father lost his health because of the war and died shortly after its end.

Erhard, the youngest of four sons, was born at Mokena, Will County, Illinois on Feb. 5, 1864, where he lived with his parents and brothers until shortly after his father's death.

The widowed mother and her sons William, Henry, Adam and Erhard moved to Tackson, Minnesota where they farmed until 1901, at which time, with the exception of the oldest son William, they came to Wilson Creek to go to their new farm homes north of town.

There were no improvements. The land was uncultivated, so Erhard contributed to breaking the ground and erecting the buildings. He considered himself to be a carpenter.

Erhard lived with his mother who had established her own home. At her death, she left him that home and the 160 acres upon which it stood as an inheritance. Erhard was willing, but the wedding bells would not ring, so he remained a bachelor all his life.

In researching the family records I have found several interesting things about Erhard. Perhaps the most important was the finding of his birth certificate which gave the maiden name of his mother as well as the location in Germany from which his father and mother had emigrated. This certificate was one item that had been saved when the original house, where his mother and Erhard lived, burned to the ground. Needless to say it is a cherished document. It was written in German so it had to be translated for me.

Erhard drove a spirited team of black Hamiltonians, which pulled a fancy top buggy. He also purchased an auto called a Carter Car. The Carter Car had the steering wheel on the right hand side. It had an unusual system of transferring the power from the engine to the rear wheels.

It did not have a transmission, but used a friction device which moved in and out on a flywheel to change speed and torque. It seemed to be a good idea, but was not practical because slippage resulted in the burning away of the friction area creating flat spots which resulted in failure. He also owned a model T Ford for a time.

Erhard farmed on the home place for a while and then took a homestead claim at Pearl in Douglas County near Bridgeport. He must have had financial difficulties as he sold the Grant County property to his brother Adam on September 18, 1918. The deed shows that Adam assumed indebtedness as part of the purchase agreement.

Erhard did not keep the property at Pearl but disposed of it to return to Grant County where he made his living doing carpenter work and odd jobs. He eventually purchased a small house in Coulee City, where he lived until his death December 25, 1934. He was laid to rest near his mother in the north side of the Wilson Creek Cemetery.

Among the clippings from the Wilson Creek World, under the headings of Timm News I have found reference to "Paradise bachelors." One incident reporting a party at the E. Hirschel home makes notice of a new face being there known as a "Paradise bachelor."

The second incident was a surprise party that occurred on December of a leap year. The party was for the purpose of consoling the bachelor who was still free and apparently without hope and to encourage him for the future. The correspondent identifies Erhard as one of the "Paradise bachelors."

It would be interesting to know the names of the paradise bachelors and why they were given that title.

There also is a report of an auto wreck that occured about a mile and a half north of Wilson Creek in which a teacher of the Timm School was killed and Erhard injured.

Columbia Basin history

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 backtrack a bit and then continue the story of the Rev. John H. Dills, given by grandson George G. Schiffsen on Nov. 11, 1975:

I took my first job as a hired man with old Mr. Sieler, who owned forty sections of railroad land. We ate in the cook house and the spoiled beef made all of us sick. Mr. Sieler had me to hold prayer and the reading of the Scriptures each morning before we went to work.

We slept on the great wheat ricks. The fresh cool air after the heat and dust of the day was very refreshing. The stars that hovered over us seemed very near and the glow in the east seemed to come very quick. One morning, Mr. Seiler called out in a high voice, "wolf, wolf, wolf." A coyote dashed through our camp and all of us gave a whoop and he was gone.

My wage was $2.50 per day, that is, all the daylight in a July day. I was proud of my cheek for $20. Nobody got rich off the Seiler land. I bought three beautiful colts and named them Pete, Cleo and Sam. These I gave to Paul, John and Neva. Neva's colt died. It suffered two days and its groans were pitiful. Later on, I gave Neva a range horse named Bonnie that developed into a black beauty. When Paul and his mother returned from California how glad he was to find Pete, a beautiful sorrel colt. These young horses were a delight to our children.

In the winter we had some debates in the nearby school houses. We had picnic parties on the banks of Moses Lake before there was a settlers' home in the vicinity.

We had a neighbor, bachelor homesteader, who lived about five miles from us. We will call him Brownlow. He was a good farmer. He treated his horses exceptionally well, but he was addicted to drink. It was a 25 mile drive to market his wheat at Wilson Creek. While there over night, he would drink and next day he could hardly stay on the high seat of his wheat wagon. However, his intelligent, faithful horses would bring him home without much guidance.

One day he had too much, and fell from his seat, caught in the wagon gear and not being able to get loose, was drug along for miles in the dusty road. The faithful horses stopped at his barn. Later on, neighbors found his bedraggled, dead body. His sisters came from Nebraska, took his poor body back for burial, and told the sad story of how they had hoped that their brother would reform after coming to a sparsely settled, new country.

His sisters, his family, were fine people and they hated strong drink. Yet, we are now told that it is smart to take cocktails! We had another bachelor homesteader who brought some type of drug, let it get mixed with some ginger cakes, got drunk, ate the cakes and the result was his mouth and his eyes were so swollen that he could not talk or see. Mrs. Dills walked across our Coulee hill about two miles to minister to him. Yet, we hear that men of distinction drink certain brands of whiskey.

Mrs. Dills and two of her special lady friends of Spokane filed on "timber and stone" public land in the John Day country in Oregon. They had a thrilling trip there twice before they got title for the land. It cost about $500 and this was on borrowed money, but Mrs. Dills sold her timber for $1,600, and this enabled us to dig our well, buy machinery and make a payment on the Morgan quarter just north of our homestead.

About this time we acquired the 40 by buying Skrip, also on borrowed money. We now had 360 acers of land. Our wheat crops were poor and our children needed better schools.

Now after the mellowing years, I look back and ask myself, what kind of people were our neighbor homesteaders? I will not speak of the German?Russian. They were people unto themselves. I loved them but did not like them.

But who and what were the others? They were landless, poor people. Three fourths of them were bachelors, and rather strange. They were restless, and some were a shiftless sort. Some of them were immoral. A few were drunkards. A few of these bachelors married, but withal, I liked them. We got along with them.

All of us have happy memories of our near neighbors: the Grays, the Fillians, the Brockmillers and the wholesome Mitchel girls who romped all over their homestead ranch and rode their calves. We loved the Gray children, especially the two youngest, brother and sister. Mrs. Killian loved to have our girls visit her and ransack her cupboard for good things to eat. Her only daughter died, she loved ours. Mr. Jeff Killian was a quaint, wise man, and I loved to hear him talk. The Brockmillers were true friends when Mrs. Dills needed a friend. Were these people religious? No. If any were church members, they left their membership and most of their religion back across the Rockies, but down in their hearts, they were not bad.