[or-roots] She would not move again

[Cecil Houk]

More from Florence Courtney Melton


    Father met with an accident on the 25th day of September, 1870.  He had a spasm and fell in the fire.  A few coals were in the fireplace; his right hand and right side of his face were frightfully burned.  Mother dressed his burns four times in twenty-four hours.  That fall I could not go to school.  Baxter had a crop to put in.  I had the cows to milk, three of them, and potatoes to dig - to be "Handy Andy" generally.  As soon as Father was able to work, he began working on the arm chair he longed for, an arm chair to lean his head against.  It was sent to Albany to be stained and varnished and a rawhide bottom put in.  He had several offers to make others like it, but Baxter, Mother and William Cluster made up their minds to come to Washington.  They had decided in June.  I think they didn't have the courage to tell Sarah until in July.  She and Father went out one Saturday afternoon and stayed until Sunday evening.  They had a battle royal.  She was determined she would not move again, and it made her so mad to have them tell of the failure of the grain crop.  [Jacob] Houk would have liked to come but he did not take a stand at that time. 
     It seemed to me I was bidding goodbye to Paradise when we left Oregon.  Mary and I felt the same.  We had spent most of our lives in a new country. It may sound romantic to have a cabin built around you, but the privations that go with it take all the romance out for the one who experiences it.  Oregon Was settled up, everywhere you traveled you went in a lane, good farms, comfortable homes.  What we knew of Walla Walla, it was terribly rough.  It was nothing to hear of a man being shot in a saloon row.  The Vigilantee committee would hang some of the worst to make things interesting.  People were panic stricken to get away.  They had to sell their improvements to get away.  It was not very encouraging to say the least.  Will was only going to stay five years.  I think four of them Molly spent her spare moments in tears. 


Jacob and Sarah Houk lived the rest of their lives in the Lebanon area, and are burried there.

Cecil Houk, ET1 USN Ret.
PO Box 530833
San Diego CA 92153
FAX 619-428-6434
mailto:cchouk at cox.net
ANDERSON - BLAKELY - FORD - HOUK - KIMSEY - MOE - RULAFORD - SIMPSON
Searchable GEDCOM: http://worldconnect.rootsweb.com/~cchouk
My web page MENU: http://members.cox.net/~cchouk/
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