▼ Early Years
Tjeert Hendricks Knot, third son of Hendrick Pieters Knot and Jantje Jans Knol, was born on the 23rd of January 1825, in the small village of Stitswerd, Groningen Province, the Netherlands.[1] During the first two or three years of his life, he and his parents lived with his grandparents.[2] Having an extended family living in the same house was unusual, and may have been a reflection of increasing economic pressures for ordinary people in the Netherlands at that time.
Tjeert received a basic education, sufficient that he could at least sign his name. By the time he was fourteen he was working, as was traditional for many young people, on a nearby farm. The farm was large, employing five other young people between the ages of 17 and 21, including his youngest uncle, Lambert Pieters Knot.[4]. Sometime during the next ten years Tjeert found work as a servant in the home of a local landowner in Stitswerd. It was likely here that he met his future wife, Imke Willems Pesman, who worked as a farm maid for the same family.[5]
Tjeert and Imke were married on the 19th of October 1852, with Tjeert’s mother and Imke’s father as witnesses. Tjeert and Imke remained in Stitswerd, where Tjeert worked as a day labourer. In many ways Tjeert and Imke probably lived much as Tjeert’s parents had, except that Imke also worked as a day labourer.[6] Again, the fact that more and more women were working for income was another indication of increasing economic stress throughout the country. Economic stress is probably also why Tjeert’s brothers had all moved away from Stitswerd by about 1860, seeking employment in larger communities and cities. Tjeert and Imke were the last to leave, moving to Warffum in June of 1869 with a family of six children.[7][8] Their oldest son, Hendrik, had already moved to Warffum to find work, and Tjeert had cousins there, the children of his mother’s youngest brother, Tjeert Jans Knol.
In Warffum, the family lived beside a canal, possibly three canals where they came together, and there they had a tavern. In the winter, skaters would stop for food and a drink, or even for new skates, since Tjeert made skates. During the rest of the year, boaters on the canal would stop.[17][18]. Their oldest daughter, Grietje, although living at home, apparently added to the family income working as a tinker, someone who repairs tin utensils. The younger children, in the way of children everywhere, were curious about the world around them, and one day Imke found three of them, Willem, Jantje and Pieterke, sampling the remains left by tavern customers, including the sweetened alcohol in the bottom of the cups. Imke grabbed an axe and chopped down the tavern sign. Her children would not drink alcohol![18]
▼ Emigration
Tjeert and Imke’s oldest son, Hendrick, was already in the United States and had written home urging his parents to join him. So they left Warffum early in 1873, traveling first to Liverpool, England. Liverpool was not an easy stop for everyone in the family. Willem, for one, was subjected to ridicule for his strange clothes and wooden shoes. Not the shyest of young boys, Willem promptly used the Edam cheese he was carrying to hit the other boy over the head.[18]
In Liverpool Tjeert and family boarded the Wyoming for New York City. As they sailed into New York harbour on 15 May 1873, they were no doubt exhausted. Like so many immigrants, they had traveled steerage.[9] The Wyoming was a new ship, barely two years old, and fast, averaging 10 days for a trip. But with over 1300 passengers in steerage, it would still have been crowded and miserable, with a babble of langages and a lack of privacy. Passengers came from Ireland and England, Germany, the Scandanavian countries, and France, as well as the Netherlands. Three died during the voyage, while one woman gave birth in the midst of the babble.[19]
When Tjeert, Imke and family arrived in New York, they were not greeted by the Statue of Liberty, nor did they pass through Ellis Island, as neither yet existed. Instead, they would have gone through the old immigration centre known as Castle Garden. An old fort at the southern end of Manhatten, Castle Garden opened in 1855, to “process” arriving immigrants. Operated by the State of New York, it reflected changing attitudes towards immigrants, and remained in operation until 1890, when the Federal Government assumed responsibility for immigration. [20]
▼ Chicago
From New York the family most likely took a train to Chicago, already recovering from the fire that devastated much of the city core in 1871. Tjeert may have found work there as a laborer for a year or two, living with his family in a small duplex at the back of a cottage at 813 S. Morgan. The neighborhood (now the Near West Side) was known as Groningen Quarter, with many residents having immigrated from Groningen province. Tjeert and family would have felt partially at home, surrounded by neighbors who spoke Dutch, and within easy walking distance of the First Dutch Reformed Church, the center of community life.[10][21] Tjeert and Imke did change their names, to George and Emma, one of the few concessions they made to living in a new country. They had come to America not to become Americans, but to live a better life. They had no desire to give up their Dutch identity, and in this respect they were little different from other Dutch immigrants to Chicago in the latter part of the nineteenth century.[16]
By the time George and Emma arrived, however, the area was becoming a destination for immigrants from eastern Europe, those for whom Jane Addams created Hull House near-by. It was probably not the better life they had envisioned when they emigrated. By 1880, George and Emma and three of their children were living west of Chicago in an area heavily populated by German immigrants, most of whom were farmers, and George was renting a farm. The older children continued to work in Chicago, while the baby, Jana, and another daughter, “little lame Anna”, had died[11]
▼ Minnesota
Even with the move out of the city centre, George and Emma were still not happy, and it wasn’t long before they moved again, this time to the settlement of Roseland in Minnesota, another community of Dutch immigrants. Here George and his son William were able to buy land. They bought from a land development company, based in Chicago, Minneapolis, and the Netherlands and supported by Chicago’s Dutch churches, that promoted a “Nieuwe Hollandsche Kolonie” near Olivia, Minnesota. In 1885, George and William purchased 320 acres of land.[22]
As important as the land was, it was only part of a better life. By 1886 George, his family and neighbours, had organized a church, the Roseland Reformed Church. The first services were held in William’s barn. By 1890 they had built a church.[23] During this time as well, George’s children, all except his oldest daughter Grace, settled near by, beginning and raising their own families.
George died 21 February 1897, at the age of 72, secure in his church and his community, having gained the better life he sought for himself and his children, the first in a long line to leave a landed estate.
Early Years
Tjeert Hendricks Knot, third son of Hendrick Pieters Knot and Jantje Jans Knol, was born on the 23rd of January 1825, in the small village of Stitswerd, Groningen Province, the Netherlands.[1] During the first two or three years of his life, he and his parents lived with his grandparents.[2] Having an extended family living in the same house was unusual, and may have been a reflection of increasing economic pressures for ordinary people in the Netherlands at that time.
Tjeert received a basic education, sufficient that he could at least sign his name. By the time he was fourteen he was working, as was traditional for many young people, on a nearby farm. The farm was large, employing five other young people between the ages of 17 and 21, including his youngest uncle, Lambert Pieters Knot.[4]. Sometime during the next ten years Tjeert found work as a servant in the home of a local landowner in Stitswerd. It was likely here that he met his future wife, Imke Willems Pesman, who worked as a farm maid for the same family.[5]
Tjeert and Imke were married on the 19th of October 1852, with Tjeert’s mother and Imke’s father as witnesses. Tjeert and Imke remained in Stitswerd, where Tjeert worked as a day labourer. In many ways Tjeert and Imke probably lived much as Tjeert’s parents had, except that Imke also worked as a day labourer.[6] Again, the fact that more and more women were working for income was another indication of increasing economic stress throughout the country. Economic stress is probably also why Tjeert’s brothers had all moved away from Stitswerd by about 1860, seeking employment in larger communities and cities. Tjeert and Imke were the last to leave, moving to Warffum in June of 1869 with a family of six children.[7][8] Their oldest son, Hendrik, had already moved to Warffum to find work, and Tjeert had cousins there, the children of his mother’s youngest brother, Tjeert Jans Knol.
In Warffum, the family lived beside a canal, possibly three canals where they came together, and there they had a tavern. In the winter, skaters would stop for food and a drink, or even for new skates, since Tjeert made skates. During the rest of the year, boaters on the canal would stop.[17][18]. Their oldest daughter, Grietje, although living at home, apparently added to the family income working as a tinker, someone who repairs tin utensils. The younger children, in the way of children everywhere, were curious about the world around them, and one day Imke found three of them, Willem, Jantje and Pieterke, sampling the remains left by tavern customers, including the sweetened alcohol in the bottom of the cups. Imke grabbed an axe and chopped down the tavern sign. Her children would not drink alcohol![18]
▼ Emigration
Tjeert and Imke’s oldest son, Hendrick, was already in the United States and had written home urging his parents to join him. So they left Warffum early in 1873, traveling first to Liverpool, England. Liverpool was not an easy stop for everyone in the family. Willem, for one, was subjected to ridicule for his strange clothes and wooden shoes. Not the shyest of young boys, Willem promptly used the Edam cheese he was carrying to hit the other boy over the head.[18]
In Liverpool Tjeert and family boarded the Wyoming for New York City. As they sailed into New York harbour on 15 May 1873, they were no doubt exhausted. Like so many immigrants, they had traveled steerage.[9] The Wyoming was a new ship, barely two years old, and fast, averaging 10 days for a trip. But with over 1300 passengers in steerage, it would still have been crowded and miserable, with a babble of langages and a lack of privacy. Passengers came from Ireland and England, Germany, the Scandanavian countries, and France, as well as the Netherlands. Three died during the voyage, while one woman gave birth in the midst of the babble.[19]
When Tjeert, Imke and family arrived in New York, they were not greeted by the Statue of Liberty, nor did they pass through Ellis Island, as neither yet existed. Instead, they would have gone through the old immigration centre known as Castle Garden. An old fort at the southern end of Manhatten, Castle Garden opened in 1855, to “process” arriving immigrants. Operated by the State of New York, it reflected changing attitudes towards immigrants, and remained in operation until 1890, when the Federal Government assumed responsibility for immigration. [20]
▼ Chicago
From New York the family most likely took a train to Chicago, already recovering from the fire that devastated much of the city core in 1871. Tjeert may have found work there as a laborer for a year or two, living with his family in a small duplex at the back of a cottage at 813 S. Morgan. The neighborhood (now the Near West Side) was known as Groningen Quarter, with many residents having immigrated from Groningen province. Tjeert and family would have felt partially at home, surrounded by neighbors who spoke Dutch, and within easy walking distance of the First Dutch Reformed Church, the center of community life.[10][21] Tjeert and Imke did change their names, to George and Emma, one of the few concessions they made to living in a new country. They had come to America not to become Americans, but to live a better life. They had no desire to give up their Dutch identity, and in this respect they were little different from other Dutch immigrants to Chicago in the latter part of the nineteenth century.[16]
By the time George and Emma arrived, however, the area was becoming a destination for immigrants from eastern Europe, those for whom Jane Addams created Hull House near-by. It was probably not the better life they had envisioned when they emigrated. By 1880, George and Emma and three of their children were living west of Chicago in an area heavily populated by German immigrants, most of whom were farmers, and George was renting a farm. The older children continued to work in Chicago, while the baby, Jana, and another daughter, “little lame Anna”, had died[11]
▼ Minnesota
Even with the move out of the city centre, George and Emma were still not happy, and it wasn’t long before they moved again, this time to the settlement of Roseland in Minnesota, another community of Dutch immigrants. Here George and his son William were able to buy land. They bought from a land development company, based in Chicago, Minneapolis, and the Netherlands and supported by Chicago’s Dutch churches, that promoted a “Nieuwe Hollandsche Kolonie” near Olivia, Minnesota. In 1885, George and William purchased 320 acres of land.[22]
As important as the land was, it was only part of a better life. By 1886 George, his family and neighbours, had organized a church, the Roseland Reformed Church. The first services were held in William’s barn. By 1890 they had built a church.[23] During this time as well, George’s children, all except his oldest daughter Grace, settled near by, beginning and raising their own families.
George died 21 February 1897, at the age of 72, secure in his church and his community, having gained the better life he sought for himself and his children, the first in a long line to leave a landed estate.
Doopboek 1782-1811, archiefnummer 124, Doop-, trouw- en begraafboeken enz. in de provincie Groningen, inventarisnummer 391
Gemeente: Kerkelijke gemeente Pieterburen en Wierhuizen
Periode: 1782-1811
Doopboek 1782-1811, archiefnummer 124, Doop-, trouw- en begraafboeken enz. in de provincie Groningen, inventarisnummer 391
Gemeente: Kerkelijke gemeente Pieterburen en Wierhuizen
Periode: 1782-1811
▼ “Any Work I Could Get”
George Knott was born near the highly urban context of Chicago, Illinois but spent most of his life in rural or semi-rural areas, not necessarily out of choice. He once said that he “took any work I could get”, and that plus his efforts to acquire land, the land that he likely saw as a form of security, provide a framework for much of what happened in his life.
▼ Chicago and Minnesota
George was born 17 June 1885 in Maywood, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago.[23][1][20] Two years later the family was living in Melrose, just eight miles north, where George’s oldest sister was born. Then, when George was about three, his family moved to Lone Tree Township in Chippewa County, Minnesota, where his father felt called to serve as a lay missionary.
About the time George was five the family moved again, to Perham, Ottertail County.[13] Here, George's father served several years as a lay, or supply, minister to the Methodist Church. Because the pay for supply ministers was minimal, the family was dependent to some extent on charity, and George's youngest sister talked in later years about getting clothes for the family from a barrel sent them by the Missionary Society.[26]
When George was about ten, the family returned to Raymond, in Kandiyohi County, where the extended family was settled. Then George's father died, leaving George the oldest male in the family at the age of 14, with five younger siblings. An unmarried uncle came to live with the family, possibly to help with whatever farm chores needed attention.[14] George's mother had no experience with farming. Instead, she apparently worked as a midwife or helped nursing the sick, and the older children helped out as best they could. George worked out for the neighbors so that he didn't have to be home for board, and to pay for his clothing and other expenses. One year George tried raising purebred chickens, even investing in an incubator, but presumably that experiment proved less successful than hoped, as it was not repeated.[26]
George's mother had a cousin living near Chicago who offered to pay for George's education, and George may have spent a year in Chicago attending school. His youngest sister believed that he attended the Moody Bible Institute,[26] but that may have been what their mother wanted. The Institute has no record of George ever attending.[27] What George wanted was to be a lawyer. George's mother, however, considered law unfit work “for a God-fearing man. She said all lawyers were crooked, and she didn't want her son to be a lawyer”.[26] So George went west, probably with others from the area of Raymond, perhaps first to Denver, Colorado,[28] but eventually to northwestern North Dakota.
▼ North Dakota
In North Dakota George continued to work at any job he could get, including coal mining.[23] But the real attraction of North Dakota for George was probably the opportunity to own land, something his father had never done. Land for much of the rest of the family had provided the basis for financial security, however hard the work was. When George applied for a homestead, in the fall of 1905,[23] he provided a covering letter stating that:
"I am a native born citizen of the United States, and that I will be 21 years of age June 17, 1906; that my father died about six years ago without leaving any means of support for my old and feeble mother and three younger brothers and sister[29]; that I have a brother 11 years and one 14 years of age and a sister 9 years of age; That I am the head of the family in that I have furnished all the means of support for my old and feeble mother and two young brothers and sister, and that I have furnished the exclusive support for the family ever since my father died six years ago to the present time and that I must and will continue to do so for the future, that my mother, brothers and sister have no other means of support except myself; that I am the head of the family in all that goes to furnish a home and neans [sic] of support for my old and feeble mother and brothers and sister.”
Since George's mother was almost universally described as "formidable" by those who knew her,[30] the statement that she was "old and feeble" may have been formulaic, emphasizing his need for the land.
Like others who homesteaded, George worked to improve his claim, building a small house (eight by 12 feet) and a larger barn (sixteen by thirty feet), and breaking soil for crops. He also continued to work off the farm to earn money for expenses and to send home to his mother. During the summer he worked as a school teacher, coming home for the week-ends.[23] He also seems to have been active in the local community, as he was apparently a school trustee who helped his sister Ethel get a job as a teacher one summer during this period.[26] This may also have been how he met his future wife, Neva, for she, too, worked as a school teacher before their marriage.[31]
George continued to work part time off the farm after his marriage. His occupation in the 1910 census is listed as bookkeeper for the local bank,[15] the bank owner being one of George's neighbors. For all that he was hardworking and involved in the community, George seems to have had a somewhat romantic streak, as well. He was quite proud of the mustache he grew (although his wife hated it),[31] and in a photo of him taken with his plow and team during this time period, his hat has a definitely rakish appearance.
Nor was George without a temper. His wife Neva suffered complications and nearly died giving birth to their youngest son. The attending doctor was drunk, which did not help matters. George waited until mother and child were safe, then took the doctor outside and beat him up, exacting a rough and immediate justice. [31]
According to family stories George and Neva continued to live on their homestead until the winter after their youngest son was born, when they sold the farm to a local rancher and spent that winter working for the rancher. George worked as a cow or stock "hand", and Neva worked as a cook. Come spring, they left North Dakota , their youngest son still in diapers, and travelled by train to Skagit County in Washington. [31] This would have been the winter and spring of 1917-1918.
According to documentary sources, however, the farm was sold in June 1914.[3] It's possible that the family needed the money to pay medical expenses, as Neva mentioned one time that one of her older sons had to be taken to the hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota when young, although she refused to elaborate. [31] Whatever the reason, George did later investigate the possibility of making a second homestead claim, but because he had sold his first claim, he was ineligible.[23] It's also likely that the journey to Washington state was made in at least two stages, as when George's youngest brother Carlton wrote to their mother in 1918,[32] he said he did not know where George was, whether he was in ”Sand Point or Kootinia”, both places in Idaho. By September of that year, however, the family was in Sedro-Wooley, Washington, where George worked for the Carnation Dairy Company.[1]
▼ Washington
In Washington, George and Neva soon bought a house in the town of Sedro-Woolley.[4] But George wanted more. He is said to have purchased land to start a dairy farm, taking out a bank mortgage to do so. Interest rates on the mortgage were said to be predicated on a strong dairy cream market. Shortly after taking out the mortgage, the bottom fell out of the dairy market.[33]
Documentary records tend to bear out the family story. Spurred by the war, the agricultural economy in the Skagit Valley was booming when George arrived. Dairy men, among others, were challenged to meet wartime demand,[34] as George clearly would have known, working in the dairy industry. George did buy land for a farm.[5] The farm land was in the hills above Clear Lake, less suited than the valley itself for agriculture. Straddling a logging road known as the John Day Creek Road, (or Old Day Creek Road as it is now known), it, too, was purchased with a private mortgage.
Unfortunately, George’s purchase was not well-timed. With the war ended, the dairy market collapsed and the economy of the Skagit Valley went into a serious recession.[35] Either in order to help make payments on his mortgage or to buy a house in town, in February 1922 George sold part of the farm, with a private mortgage, to his brother Ray in Montana, who had a well-paid, steady job.[5] Ray in turn, seems to have sold his share of the farm about 1930, again on private mortgage, with the sales being finalized in October 1939.[36]
On the farm, the family lived in a log house, possibly on that part of the land purchased by his brother Ray. In the late 1930s George built a new frame house about a half-mile up the road. The log house burned down in the 1950s and no longer exists. In the meantime, George seems to have re-negotiated the mortgage for the remaining portion of his land in 1928, with the mortgage taken over by the First State Bank of Clear Lake and paid in full in 1933.[5]
George continued to believe in property ownership, for in April 1922 he purchased a house and lot in Clear Lake.[6] Presumably the property was sold at bargain prices, as it had been owned by the Clear Lake Lumber Company, previously the economic mainstay of the area. But lumber companies, like farmers, were suffering from the recession. Then a fire destroyed the company mill in 1921. After at least one abortive attempt, the mill finally re-opened in February 1929, only to be hit by the failure of Wall street later in the year.[37] George resold the house and lot late in 1925, when it looked like the mill would re-open. He assumed a private mortgage, but the new purchasers were unable to make the payments on the mortgage and defaulted in January 927, presumably because the mill failed to remain open. For once, fortune was on George’s side, as the Clear Lake Lumber Co. was involved in legal battles to settle its own debts and full ownership of the town lots was granted to George by the courts for the amount he had already paid.[6]
By this time other members of George’s family were congregating in Clear Lake. His mother and step-father had arrived early in 1920, purchased a house and lot on 17 May 1920, then a farm along the Lake in December of that year. George’s sister Ann and her husband arrived in 1922, and his sister Ethel and her husband about 1929. Who, if any, of the family occupied the house is unknown, but it was sold, this time successfully, in June 1930. [6]
The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the Skagit Valley hard. Men lost their jobs, companies failed, hobo camps grew. As in other areas of the country, public construction of roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects often provided the only form of economic relief. .[38] George was among those who worked at road building, and it was to this period of his life that he referred when he said that he took "any work I could get”.[39]
The 1940s brought some measure of prosperity to the Skagit Valley, although little of it reached the town of Clear Lake. Logging continued to be the major economic activity, and George worked as dynamiter in the logging camps while continuing to farm until his retirement. He was active in the community, belonging to the local Grange,[11] and may have been a School Board Trustee.[31]
▼ Retirement
In 1950 George retired, selling the farm and moving to Sedro-Woolley where one of his son's lived. When that son moved to Kennewick, Washington, George and his wife Neva followed, and then again to Walla Walla, Washington, where he died on 22 January 1962.[2]
▼ “Any Work I Could Get”
George Knott was born near the highly urban context of Chicago, Illinois but spent most of his life in rural or semi-rural areas, not necessarily out of choice. He once said that he “took any work I could get”, and that plus his efforts to acquire land, the land that he likely saw as a form of security, provide a framework for much of what happened in his life.
▼ Chicago and Minnesota
George was born 17 June 1885 in Maywood, Illinois, a suburb west of Chicago.[23][1][20] Two years later the family was living in Melrose, just eight miles north, where George’s oldest sister was born. Then, when George was about three, his family moved to Lone Tree Township in Chippewa County, Minnesota, where his father felt called to serve as a lay missionary.
About the time George was five the family moved again, to Perham, Ottertail County.[13] Here, George's father served several years as a lay, or supply, minister to the Methodist Church. Because the pay for supply ministers was minimal, the family was dependent to some extent on charity, and George's youngest sister talked in later years about getting clothes for the family from a barrel sent them by the Missionary Society.[26]
When George was about ten, the family returned to Raymond, in Kandiyohi County, where the extended family was settled. Then George's father died, leaving George the oldest male in the family at the age of 14, with five younger siblings. An unmarried uncle came to live with the family, possibly to help with whatever farm chores needed attention.[14] George's mother had no experience with farming. Instead, she apparently worked as a midwife or helped nursing the sick, and the older children helped out as best they could. George worked out for the neighbors so that he didn't have to be home for board, and to pay for his clothing and other expenses. One year George tried raising purebred chickens, even investing in an incubator, but presumably that experiment proved less successful than hoped, as it was not repeated.[26]
George's mother had a cousin living near Chicago who offered to pay for George's education, and George may have spent a year in Chicago attending school. His youngest sister believed that he attended the Moody Bible Institute,[26] but that may have been what their mother wanted. The Institute has no record of George ever attending.[27] What George wanted was to be a lawyer. George's mother, however, considered law unfit work “for a God-fearing man. She said all lawyers were crooked, and she didn't want her son to be a lawyer”.[26] So George went west, probably with others from the area of Raymond, perhaps first to Denver, Colorado,[28] but eventually to northwestern North Dakota.
▼ North Dakota
In North Dakota George continued to work at any job he could get, including coal mining.[23] But the real attraction of North Dakota for George was probably the opportunity to own land, something his father had never done. Land for much of the rest of the family had provided the basis for financial security, however hard the work was. When George applied for a homestead, in the fall of 1905,[23] he provided a covering letter stating that:
"I am a native born citizen of the United States, and that I will be 21 years of age June 17, 1906; that my father died about six years ago without leaving any means of support for my old and feeble mother and three younger brothers and sister[29]; that I have a brother 11 years and one 14 years of age and a sister 9 years of age; That I am the head of the family in that I have furnished all the means of support for my old and feeble mother and two young brothers and sister, and that I have furnished the exclusive support for the family ever since my father died six years ago to the present time and that I must and will continue to do so for the future, that my mother, brothers and sister have no other means of support except myself; that I am the head of the family in all that goes to furnish a home and neans [sic] of support for my old and feeble mother and brothers and sister.”
Since George's mother was almost universally described as "formidable" by those who knew her,[30] the statement that she was "old and feeble" may have been formulaic, emphasizing his need for the land.
Like others who homesteaded, George worked to improve his claim, building a small house (eight by 12 feet) and a larger barn (sixteen by thirty feet), and breaking soil for crops. He also continued to work off the farm to earn money for expenses and to send home to his mother. During the summer he worked as a school teacher, coming home for the week-ends.[23] He also seems to have been active in the local community, as he was apparently a school trustee who helped his sister Ethel get a job as a teacher one summer during this period.[26] This may also have been how he met his future wife, Neva, for she, too, worked as a school teacher before their marriage.[31]
George continued to work part time off the farm after his marriage. His occupation in the 1910 census is listed as bookkeeper for the local bank,[15] the bank owner being one of George's neighbors. For all that he was hardworking and involved in the community, George seems to have had a somewhat romantic streak, as well. He was quite proud of the mustache he grew (although his wife hated it),[31] and in a photo of him taken with his plow and team during this time period, his hat has a definitely rakish appearance.
Nor was George without a temper. His wife Neva suffered complications and nearly died giving birth to their youngest son. The attending doctor was drunk, which did not help matters. George waited until mother and child were safe, then took the doctor outside and beat him up, exacting a rough and immediate justice. [31]
According to family stories George and Neva continued to live on their homestead until the winter after their youngest son was born, when they sold the farm to a local rancher and spent that winter working for the rancher. George worked as a cow or stock "hand", and Neva worked as a cook. Come spring, they left North Dakota , their youngest son still in diapers, and travelled by train to Skagit County in Washington. [31] This would have been the winter and spring of 1917-1918.
According to documentary sources, however, the farm was sold in June 1914.[3] It's possible that the family needed the money to pay medical expenses, as Neva mentioned one time that one of her older sons had to be taken to the hospital in Minneapolis, Minnesota when young, although she refused to elaborate. [31] Whatever the reason, George did later investigate the possibility of making a second homestead claim, but because he had sold his first claim, he was ineligible.[23] It's also likely that the journey to Washington state was made in at least two stages, as when George's youngest brother Carlton wrote to their mother in 1918,[32] he said he did not know where George was, whether he was in ”Sand Point or Kootinia”, both places in Idaho. By September of that year, however, the family was in Sedro-Wooley, Washington, where George worked for the Carnation Dairy Company.[1]
▼ Washington
In Washington, George and Neva soon bought a house in the town of Sedro-Woolley.[4] But George wanted more. He is said to have purchased land to start a dairy farm, taking out a bank mortgage to do so. Interest rates on the mortgage were said to be predicated on a strong dairy cream market. Shortly after taking out the mortgage, the bottom fell out of the dairy market.[33]
Documentary records tend to bear out the family story. Spurred by the war, the agricultural economy in the Skagit Valley was booming when George arrived. Dairy men, among others, were challenged to meet wartime demand,[34] as George clearly would have known, working in the dairy industry. George did buy land for a farm.[5] The farm land was in the hills above Clear Lake, less suited than the valley itself for agriculture. Straddling a logging road known as the John Day Creek Road, (or Old Day Creek Road as it is now known), it, too, was purchased with a private mortgage.
Unfortunately, George’s purchase was not well-timed. With the war ended, the dairy market collapsed and the economy of the Skagit Valley went into a serious recession.[35] Either in order to help make payments on his mortgage or to buy a house in town, in February 1922 George sold part of the farm, with a private mortgage, to his brother Ray in Montana, who had a well-paid, steady job.[5] Ray in turn, seems to have sold his share of the farm about 1930, again on private mortgage, with the sales being finalized in October 1939.[36]
On the farm, the family lived in a log house, possibly on that part of the land purchased by his brother Ray. In the late 1930s George built a new frame house about a half-mile up the road. The log house burned down in the 1950s and no longer exists. In the meantime, George seems to have re-negotiated the mortgage for the remaining portion of his land in 1928, with the mortgage taken over by the First State Bank of Clear Lake and paid in full in 1933.[5]
George continued to believe in property ownership, for in April 1922 he purchased a house and lot in Clear Lake.[6] Presumably the property was sold at bargain prices, as it had been owned by the Clear Lake Lumber Company, previously the economic mainstay of the area. But lumber companies, like farmers, were suffering from the recession. Then a fire destroyed the company mill in 1921. After at least one abortive attempt, the mill finally re-opened in February 1929, only to be hit by the failure of Wall street later in the year.[37] George resold the house and lot late in 1925, when it looked like the mill would re-open. He assumed a private mortgage, but the new purchasers were unable to make the payments on the mortgage and defaulted in January 927, presumably because the mill failed to remain open. For once, fortune was on George’s side, as the Clear Lake Lumber Co. was involved in legal battles to settle its own debts and full ownership of the town lots was granted to George by the courts for the amount he had already paid.[6]
By this time other members of George’s family were congregating in Clear Lake. His mother and step-father had arrived early in 1920, purchased a house and lot on 17 May 1920, then a farm along the Lake in December of that year. George’s sister Ann and her husband arrived in 1922, and his sister Ethel and her husband about 1929. Who, if any, of the family occupied the house is unknown, but it was sold, this time successfully, in June 1930. [6]
The Great Depression of the 1930s hit the Skagit Valley hard. Men lost their jobs, companies failed, hobo camps grew. As in other areas of the country, public construction of roads, bridges and other infrastructure projects often provided the only form of economic relief. .[38] George was among those who worked at road building, and it was to this period of his life that he referred when he said that he took "any work I could get”.[39]
The 1940s brought some measure of prosperity to the Skagit Valley, although little of it reached the town of Clear Lake. Logging continued to be the major economic activity, and George worked as dynamiter in the logging camps while continuing to farm until his retirement. He was active in the community, belonging to the local Grange,[11] and may have been a School Board Trustee.[31]
▼ Retirement
In 1950 George retired, selling the farm and moving to Sedro-Woolley where one of his son's lived. When that son moved to Kennewick, Washington, George and his wife Neva followed, and then again to Walla Walla, Washington, where he died on 22 January 1962.[2]
Bronvermelding
Doopboek 1654-1812, archiefnummer 124, Doop-, trouw- en begraafboeken enz. in de provincie Groningen, inventarisnummer 289
Gemeente: Kerkelijke gemeente Middelstum en Toornwerd
Periode: 1654-1812
Bronvermelding
Doopboek 1654-1812, archiefnummer 124, Doop-, trouw- en begraafboeken enz. in de provincie Groningen, inventarisnummer 289
Gemeente: Kerkelijke gemeente Middelstum en Toornwerd
Periode: 1654-1812
