Wilson Creek area 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 then continue the story of The McKeehan family:

Helen was born the 6th of 11 children to John B. and Laura A. Willard on September 20, 1901 in Grant County, Oklahoma. She has three children, Helen Gee of Fallon, Nevada; Lois Stanford of Pasco and Donna Wick of Soap Lake.

She also is the proud grandmother of nine and great-grandmother of seven. Helen lives in Wilson Creek and likes to garden, read, sew and try new experiments in preserving. She has recently been experimenting with a dehydrator and sun-dried fruit leather.

Mary Lu, born Dec. 4, 1929 in Moscow, Idaho, is the mother of two daughters: Kathy in her third year of college and Judy a graduate of Kennewick High School.

Lu has lived most of her adult life in the Tri? Cities, now residing in Kennewick. She works as an auditor for a company that is building seve:ral nuclear power plants and in this job has traveled to many parts of the country.

Mary Lu collects antiques and spends her free time refinishing them, as well as sewing, gardening and camping, hiking and boating with her family.

Carey Mae, born May 19, 1933 in Orville, is married to David Jasman and is the mother of four: Linda, Robin, Amy and Lee. Carey and David have a wheat farm in Odessa and were chosen Lincoln County Soil Conservation Farm Family for 1977.

Linda and Robin are nursing graduates of WSU. Amy is a 1978 graduate of WSU in food nutrition and Lee a senior at Odessa High School. Besides helping with the farm, Carey worked several years at the Odessa Hospital. She enjoys being a wife, mother and likes to read, garden and sew. Their second daughter Robin is married to Bill Higginbotham of Almira.

Ben Leroy, born Jan. 5, 1935 in Ephrata, has lived for many years in Spokane. He is the father of two: Bryan and Shana. Leroy is presently working in construction in the Spokane area. He likes to hunt, gradua'e fish, camp, read and travel.

Bryan is a graduate of a Spokane high school and is presently employed as a roofer. Shana lives and works in Spokane.

Charles Raymond, born July 29, 1936. Raymond was born in Ephrata and moved to Wilson Creek with the family at the age of 5. He attended school through the third grade. The summer of his 10th birthday he died in a tragic incident in Wilson Creek.

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 July 27, 1950:

Orville man to join Cash Store

Bill Booker, formerly of Orville, will start work Monday for the grocery section of the Moses Lake Cash Store. He will work in all parts of the store, said Hank Parsons, grocery manager. Booker and his wife, Margaret, have a 22-month-old boy. At present the family is looking for a home in Moses Lake.

Grant County 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 continue the story of the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project by Jake Weber recorded Nov. 9, 1976:

One of the real problems in developing this country was the domestic water. There were two places to go for water, over the hill to Fitzpatrick Springs or down south in the Potholes there were some more springs.

They used to haul it on a wagon in barrels with two horses at least and sometimes the horses would be ready to drink all they had when they brought it home. I don't know how true it is, but water was so scarce that I remember my mother washing clothes in a tub and then mopping the floor with the same tub and then if there was any water left we'd take it out to the pigs.

The original wells, as I recall and what I know, the first one was dug just north of the present PUD building by one gentleman, at least he was responsible for it by the name of Louis Mullerleile.

The second one was right near the Great Northern depot and the third one by a fellow named Ledbetter. You probably know some of the girls, the Thorsons, who now live in Soap Lake.

My father's was the fourth well and he built a real large cistern. He built a windmill that pumped day and night and a lot of the neighbors came and got water.

One hot afternoon a neighbor with four horses and a big wooden tank was filling his tank with a pump, and I, being kind of an ornery little brat, got behind his tank and I either turned some or moved it, and the water came out. Boy, that was really fun.

The fellow come down and he said, "You damned Dutchman, you're a bad boy." That was my first English. That fall I started to school and my teacher would ask me a question and I'd say, "Damned Dutchman, bad boy."

I knew a couple of other English words. I remember when the well drillers were working on my father's well one of them said, "What time is it?" and the other pulled out his watch, so I knew the words what time is it?"

Another thing, exactly at five o'clock in the afternoon the east-bound passenger train would come to Quincy. That was known as the fiver. So that way, to me, a passenger train was known as a fiver, no matter what time it arrived in Quincy. That is all the English I knew when I started to school. The school was where the Security Bank is now.

The first town of Quincy had just a few buildings, right in that area north of the present PUD building. When the depot was built the town moved to the north side of Quincy and Later on moved out to where the present town is. In those clays, Quincy was quite a business center. There were over 30 businesses, several saloons, two lumberyards, two hotels, two livery stables, and a lot of wooden sidewalks. Also, at one time they had a fully professional baseball team which was sponsored by the town.