A Family Left Behind

The decision to leave was not easy, Josie, Bruce’s wife, wrote that their son Clyde, age 3 “insists on carrying out his threat to you, says he will get a cannon that will shoot to Seattle,” she added, “but I guess it would hardly hit you away up there. He thinks to scare you into submission so you will come back.” She also noted that the youngest member of the family, Lyman, aged 21 months, “feels all over my face every morning and then says Where’s papoo?” Harold, age 6, included one sentence, “We are reading about (…) Susy and her chickens in my reader now.” Lillian, age 9, noted that she and her brother Waldo were called upon to sing “The Moon Song” at community gathering, she added that “they want me to speak a piece [probably a memorized poem] but I don’t think I will.” Each of the older children mentioned a basket social that would raise money to pay freight charges for a new organ that was coming to the school, and had some questions about the trip north. Waldo asked, “Did you take any popcorn with you or not? Mamma said she dident [sic] think you did.” Josie had her hands full with six children and a farm, in addition to family duties, she taught choir at the school, and would probably play the organ that was being shipped to the school. Josie probably also taught private lessons, in mid-January her son Waldo wrote that a neighbor “brought us a sack of apples to pay for Addah’s singing lessons.” Josie worked hard, and left some responsibilities to her eldest children. Farm duties in particular fell to the eldest son, Waldo, age 13.