[or-roots] Reminiscences

[Leslie Chapman]

I wish I could remember some of the stories I heard as a child from my
family. As a baby boomer somewhat misplaced generationally I heard a lot of
second hand stuff, but suffer so bad from CRS disease I can't tell any of
the stories reliably which doesn't stope me from telling them anyway.

I do want to tell one of the stories from my family which I was inspired to
tell from my fellow Cottage Grovian's story about scarlet fever. I am going
to paraphrase the story as I recall it, if anyone is interested in a
detailed version of it I can look it up in my cousins book on that side of
my family.

There were two daughters of my something or other cousin Emma Sherrett who
had Scarlet fever at North fork on Smith River late in the 19th century and
my maternal grandpa rowed down Smith River, borrowed a horse at the mouth of
the Umpqua to ride to Coos Bay, rowed across the bay, got a Doctor and made
the return trip in about 24 hours. Unfortunately the girls died, but their
mother was eternally grateful for the effort and it so impressed my
grandmother that she married that Norwegian over the objections of her
family. There were a lot of other stories about his strength but what I
really wish I had was the story of how he came to america. He told it to a
number of folks but none of them ever recorded it so I just have snippets.

I anyone is interested in detailed reminiscences of the Roseburg, Reedsport
and Coos Bay from early 20th century I recommend seeing the web site of
another something or other cousin of mine.

http://pages.prodigy.com/benderslanding/tbcont.htm


Les C