We elders have heard stories of attending one-room schools when our grandparents were growing up, 80 to 100 years ago. The potbellied stove was used to keep the room warm. The teacher used it to warm Elsie's feet. Read on.

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 have the story of The James Family, by Elsie James Newman:

In the early days my grandfather, William F. James, wife Ellen and sons, came west from Virginia and settled south of Marlin, then Krupp. My parents were Moorman and Hattie James. I had two sisters and one brother. I am the second daughter, Elsie. My older sister, Cora, died at the age of 14 of appendicitis.

I recall attending the Hoover School a mile and a half from our farm house. The Hoover School was also used for Sunday school and Church on Sunday. I completed most of the early grades there in a one room schoolhouse with a potbellied stove in the middle of the room. Often my feet would get cold from walking the mile and one half in the snow.

The one teacher, who taught all grades, would stand me on top of the stove to warm my feet while the stove warmed up. Sometimes, however, when the snow was too deep, father would get out the old sled and horses and take us to school. That was great sport.

Our parents moved from south of Marlin to nine miles south of Wilson Creek in the 1930s where father continued to farm for many years. Sister Mila and brother Harry both attended school in Wilson Creek. My sister was elected Princess Wilson Creek to be in the Wenatchee Apple Blossom Parade. She relates the bad time she had getting to Wenatchee to be in the parade.

They had one of the worst dust storms that they had ever encountered that day. She was forced to walk almost all of the way into Wilson Creek in front of the car to direct mother, who was the driver. When they finally arrived in Wilson Creek she was so covered with dust and sand that she had to go to cousin, Edith James, friend's place in Wilson Creek to take a bath and change clothes before proceeding to the parade. She says in spite of the storm it was fun being Princess for a day.

Mother was killed in an automobile accident in 1947. After which my husband, Clinton C. Newman, and I moved to the farm south of Wilson Creek to be with my father. We were there off and on for about two years. My father and I sang in the Wilson Creek church choir and I did some solo work at the Presbyterian Church.

Brother, Eugene Harry James, lived around Wilson Creek most of his life and farmed in that area until his death, of a heart attack at the age of 40. Two of his children, Pat and Penny Gene James, still live in or around Wilson Creek. The two boys, Tim and Bill James, are both married and have families. Bill lives in Bellevue and Tim in Harrington. All of Eugene Harrys' children attended school in Wilson Creek.

Sister, Mila, is married to Howard T. Bell, who was a Spokane County Commissioner for several years. They now live near Post Falls, Idaho on Hauser Lake.

Father married Eleanor McQueen in 1949. Eleanor took my job on the farm helping lather, while my husband and I returned to Spokane. I went back to work at The Spokesman-Review, where 1 had worked before mother's death, and my husband, Clinton, went to work for the Washington State Patrol. Eleanor also worked at the Spokesman-Review for years before marrying my father. She and father lived in Wilson Creek until his death from numerous strokes. Eleanor still resides there as does her son, Maynard James, my step brother and his wife and three children. Maynard owns and farms extensive land around Wilson Creek.

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 Ephrata, by Ed Harvill, recorded on Oct. 11, 1977:

Another thing I should tell you is about the old barn on the place, it was built by L. Pruit, who we affectionately knew as "Old Man Pruit," but it is said of him that when the people built the barn they weren't to have a level or a square on the job that, "my eye is as good as any level or square there is." So consequently the barn was 120 feet long and 50 feet wide on one side and 55 feet wide on the other. But it served the purpose.

We used it for many, many years. After he sold the dairy he tore down the large barn and built a small one and there was a level and square used on that one. In later years, after he sold the dairy, you can't just stop keeping cows all at once, you have to sort of taper off, he still kept two or three cows and milked them for years and finally weaned himself completely.

That was about the time the war began to rumble and they had the Air Base here. So he set up a riding academy in this old barn and there were many horses there. He spent a lot of his time up there.

Of course, my mother, with the kids being gone, had more time to devote to her antiques. She was quite an avid collector of glass and set aside one room to display her glass in. During World War II he brought in some little cabins and set them in the area and rented them out to service people. Plus half of the house was rented out to people. Many lasting friendships were made from these contacts during the War.

Mother was intensely interested in glass and spent all her waking time, reading and studying and collecting glass. So after the War she wanted a place down town where she was right on the main drag. The house on B Street, known as the old Greenlee place, become for sale, so that was just what she wanted. They bought it and moved there.

Well, at that time, all the subdivisions had crowded in around the old place and people were clamoring to get that old, smelly barn out of there. Of course, Dad was a little bit stubborn, not too bad, but said, "That barn was there before your houses were. What are you worrying about?" But eventually, he succumbed and the barn went, and it was all subdivided lots. The front bedroom of their house was an antique shop and she delighted in showing people around.

In the winter of 1958 Mother and Dad went to Arizona and spent the winter with her brother and sister, one of the few times that I know of, when she and Dad went together. She loved to travel and he loved to go to rodeos, but he didn't love to travel too much. Consequently they didn't run around too much to?gether. In that time, when my family was growing up, in the summer I'd come up to the house and my mother would tell me that she "had been studying and I know where I'd like to go and if you'll drive me I'll pay the gas bill," so away we'd go. We visited Yellowstone and Glacier and Waterston parks and over to the Coast. The only stipulation was that if there was an antique shop or sign I had to stop and I couldn't go very far by it. I had to stop.

After their trip to Arizona it was January. Their 50 th Anniversary was in December of 1958, so we celebrated their anniversary in January, 1959. Shortly after that she was buried. My Dad continued to live in the house there on B Street until 1974 when he had an accident and broke his hip and never recovered. But they both lived full lives and I am sure a part of them continues to live in all of us.

My father's name was Ben Harvill. My mother's maiden name was Vesta Adams and of course, later Vesta Harvill.