1 10 1 https://caspercollege.cvlcollections.org/files/original/a9d5d24025f12409e05a1738cbc37743.pdf ebf1b1296d5c31d6e8f638671553a714 PDF Text Text MEMOIRS Dorothy Marie Dolph My birthplace: Baraboo, Wisconsin, November 11, 1884 We lived on a farm four miles from town. The first memory I have was when I was three years old. The farmers every year would have a get together at a picnic. They had a program and asked my mother to have me speak a piece. She had taught me a poem, of which I remember only the following: "I don’t get my living gnawing a bone." As I was so small, they stood me on a table and that made me very frightened, but I managed to get through with it. I guess it had a lasting effect though, as I would never speak another piece, I did afterwards take part in school debates, which I liked to do, but they could never get me to speak a piece. '* My mother had been a teacher and she taught me at home. There was a country school across the road, which I attended some of the time, but not often, as I had a bad habit of fainting. The children there at recess and the noon hour played such active games which I liked too much not to play with them, and when the bell rang and I returned to my seat, I would faint. There was a big boy in school who would then carry me home. His name was Herman and carrying me home each day became known as "Herman’s job." So mother did not let me attend school often, but taught me at home. When I was five years old, we moved to Baraboo for the winter months, after the harvest. When we entered the room, the teacher told us to pick our seats. In those days each seat held two children. I looked all about and picked the seat where the prettiest girl was sitting. I did not know that there were two grades in the school, and the side of the room I had picked was the first grade and I belonged . in the second grade. Just a little country girl, I was too bashful to tell the ■-■^8 teacher of my mistake, and when she asked me a question I did not answer. After a few days she called my mother and asked if I were deaf. Mother told her of the mistake and after the teacher seated me where I belonged, everything was okay, but » . I was always afraid of that teacher and never liked her. After this year I did not attend school again except for one term in the fourth grade, but was taught at home for several years. When I was nine years old we moved to Madison, Wisconsin, so that my oldest sister could attend the University. Mother entered me in the sixth grade there, but they soon promoted me to the seventh grade. However, mother made them put me back in the sixth grade as she did not want me to overdo. I liked this school and my teacher very much. There was one thing though that bothered me. On the farm, I had had no playmates but boys. I had never let any boy do anything I couldn’t do. I was the champion tree climber and was proud of my ability to keep up with them and I had been treated as one of them. But here in the city, they treated me as a girl. They tried to kiss me and that angered me. I would fight with them and of course that made them more anxious to tease me. But at the time I didn’t realize that, so I soon learned to hate those city boys. Everything was so different here and quite interesting to a country girl. My sister at the University took me as a spectator to a dance. I sat with the other guests in the balcony. It was a spectacular dance. The dancers all wore masks, but the masks were on the back of the heads. The hair covered the faces so it appeared as though they were all dancing backwards. It was a bit unusual and I have never seen it done since. �In those days, toys were scarce and consequently more appreciated. ' Mine consisted of a ball and jacks and a jump rope. I did have dolls as mother felt that little girls must like dolls, but I didn't. So one day when mother was away, I gathered them all up, took them to a poor section of town and c^ave them all to the poor children. That was the last of my dolls1 I did love to fish and spent all the time I could doing it. My shing tackle consisted of a branch from a tree for a pole and a bent pin. The only fishing place I had was Lake Mendota. One day while prowling about, I found an old boat, a large one, so I went aboard to investigate. Suddenly, the floor gave way beneath met Luckily, when I fell through into the water, I threw out my arms and with caution I was able to extricate myself. Frightened, I returned home. It was a long unT if and I was tired. I got into a hammock in the back yard where I soon fell asleep. When night came mother was very worried, not knowing that I had returned. She called the police and they searched for me. At 10 o'clock my bother discovered me in the hammock. My mother was very soft-hearted. When hobos would come to the door asking for food, she always fed them. There were many who came, too. One day my brother was passing a tank near the railroad tracks, which was but two blocks away, when he discovered a number of addresses written on it. Among them was our address. • Heerased our address and told mother, after which no more hobos were given food. The schools required smallpox vaccination. The doctor was not able to get any reaction from vaccinating me, so I had to get a special permit in order to keep on in school. I have always been immune^ to communicable diseases or else get them only lightly. My brother contracted measles and was very sick, so mother sent me back home in Baraboo to stay with father on the farm. I did get them though and father called mother. She arrived but couldn't find me for some time. At last she discovered me in the barn, jumping from a rafter into the haymow. She insisted I go to bed and she sat by the window reading a book. When she discovered me sitting,up drawing a picture of her, she let me get up as she did not want me to try my eyes. Mother spent part of the time in Madison and part of it on the farm. She ' left my oldest sister in charge of us in Madison. I would get homesick and bum a ride on a freight train to Baraboo and then walk the five miles home. One time I arrived at the freight yards at midnight. There was no moon and it was very dark. I arrived at home at two o'clock in the morning. It did worry mother, but I stm continued to bum rides. Sometimes I rode in the caboose, and sometimes in the cab with the engineer. We lived in Madison that one year and then returned to Baraboo. The school there was different and the seventh grade there was about the same as the sixth grade in Madison. Within a short time they promoted me to the eighth grade. When the principal found out that I was but 10 years old, he insisted I go back to the seventh grade. I greatly resented this and am afraid I made myself obnoxious from that time on. I spent most of my time doing all the mischief I could think of. The boy who sat in front of me I especially disliked. He had an elongated head which was flat on top. I called him Punqjkin Head, as his head resembled a pumpkin in shape. He called me Turkey Egg, as I had freckles. I would pull his hair or put things down his neck, and he would haul off and hit me when the teacher was not looking. All through school, I was fighting with boys and refused to have anything to do with them. �The next year in the eighth grade, a boy I especially disliked sat behind me. I had long hair which was kept in two braids. He would tie those braids to the legs of the desk, so when I tried to get up to recite, I couldn’t. I never tattled, so the teacher thought I just refused to get up, and I had many black marks. To retailiate, I would haul off and hit him in the face. Sometimes I would get caught at it, and so had more black marks. There was a boy in the front who was always looking back and it bothered me. I never knew who he was looking at as he was cross-eyed, until he tried dating me. Later, he had his eyes straightened and he was a fine looking chap. The next year I entered High School. We did not move to town until the crops were harvested. In those days there were no cars or busses, so I had to walk five miles each way. The roads in places were deep sand, making walking difficult. There was one steep hill, called Haynes Hill after the man who lived there. All the ■ > rest of the way was downhill. When we moved to town, we had but a mile to walk to school. Just beyond me one of my schoolmates lived. One morning when the k was very slippery with ice, he called out to me, "Wait and I’ll pick you up," which was a common way in those days of saying, "I’ll walk with you." Just then he slipped and fell. I turned and said, "Better pick yourself up," and then walked on. I still did not like boys. I liked High School and took two extra solids all through it. I especially liked algebra. In the second year, I ran a race with another girl to get the highest standing. One night I couldn’t seem to work out a problem. Mother offered to help, but I felt that if I took her help and didn’t work it out by rayself that I might forget it. So I worked on it until finally succeeding at two o’clock a.ra. At the end of the year, we tied, both receiving the standing of 100. In botany, we made a deal. I did her drawings and she did the writing for me. To make sure the teachers wouldn’t know, I shaded my drawings. At the end of the year, she came out the head of the class, but I came out at the other end for I knew little of the writing part. When I entered High School I was the smallest in school, but when I graduated I was the fourth from the tallest in ray class. We played the usual pranks youngsters do. One day I carried a snake up my sleeve and turned it loose. It created quite a panic I I loved to play with snakes and tease my oldest brother with them for he just did not like snakes. I used to draw caricatures of the teachers on the blackboards until they discovered who was doing it. One time I was sliding down the banister to al imi steps and landed at the bottom in the arms of the principal. We had quite a lecture that day in class about being ladies instead of tomboys. One Halloween my brother and some friends managed to get a buggy on top of the schoolhouse roof. There was quite a bit of competition between the seniors and juniors. One time when I was a junior, the seniors put on a party and had ordered ice cream for a certain date when they would call for it in person. Some of the juniors went after it and said that the date had been changed and that they were asked to get it. So we juniors had a party with the seniors' ice cream. Summer was a busy time on a farm. As I had two older sisters and was much younger, I was just in the way in the house. So I never did learn to cook. I always liked the outdoors an3rway. When I was just a baby I used to ride in a box that my father made for me with him on his cultivator. I was always one of the first up in the morning and practically lived outdoors. I had a large flower garden and mowed the lawn, which was a large one. My father raised strawberries and raspberries. �which I helped pick. He raised so many that he had to hire many pickers. Once when I was 11 years old, I wanted to visit my sister who was camping with her class at Devils Lake. Mother didn’t want me to go, so she said if I picked 100 boxes of strawberries before I left, I might go. She was certain I could never do it. I was out in the patch before daylight. We had carriers that held eight quart boxes, since in those days they sold in quart boxes. I managed to get 100 boxes picked. Furthermore, I was not like my brother who one time turned the boxes over and filled only the small place in the bottom of the boxes. I had to walk five miles to the train, though I ended up running most of the way to get there on time. I barely made it! Devils Lake was beautiful then. The area was wild and uncluttered with dwellings as it later became. My high school class camped there one year for a week and it was a fun week! We stayed in a two-room dwelling. The boys were in one room and the girls in the other. One day when we girls were all gone, the boys put pepper in our pillows. As the walls were thin, I imagine the boys got a bang out of oxjr sneezing. After that it was a game as to which group could play the greatest prank. One night we had a dance and to choose partners the girls stood behind a curtain that was high enough to show only their shoes. Then the boys clamped their names on the shoes. I had a new pair of patent leather shoes and many pounced on them, but of course the first one won. As it turned out, he was the shortest boy in the class and hero I was one of the tallest girls. . The tallest boy who was over six feet pasted his sticker on the shortest girl, so we exchanged partners. After graduating from High School, I planned on teaching but there was a law that one could not teach before 1? years of age. However, I took the examination and put down 1?. My trouble started when I applied in person. One member of the board looked at me and said, "You look like you should be in kindergarten and not teaching." So I started to write in for a position, and by so doing I managed to get a job. As a teacher, I was rather worried as two of the boys and one girl were older than me. Then they tested me. Several youngsters threw spitballs and were sure I didn’t see them. I didn’t say a word until recess when I named the culprits and told them to stay put. I kept them in at noon and afternoon recess and made them throw spitballs. Then after school I made them stay and pick them up. I didn’t see any more spitballs after that day. One of the big boys talked back to me one day and so I told him to stay after school. When school was out he started to go with the others. I met him and grabbed one of his ears and led him back to his seat. I doubted that he would go, as he was bigger than I, but he did. I heard him say later to some of the boys,' "My but she has power in that left hand of hers," From that day on I had perfect order and no more trouble. I felt it was due to this until later I learned that the older girl in school had taken this boy behind the schoolhouse and beaten him up badly and said to them all, "If I hear of one of you doing anything in school you shouldn’t, I will do the same to you." This girl and I became very good friends. The schoolhouse was two miles from where I boarded, and the Wisconsin winters are quite severe. The lady where I boarded each morning baked two potatoes for me to carry. They kept my hands from freezing on the way to school and also served as my lunch. In those days it was customary for teachers to visit parents of the students and spend the night. I told my friend I was going to do this with a certain family. She said that I couldn’t but gave no reason why no, so I went anyway. There were seven children in the family I found out and the family lived in a one-room house. At bedtime the children rolled up in blankets and laid down along the.wall. �As the room was not large, there was no vacant space left. friend came for me and I went back with her. About that time my The nearest dentist was 14 miles away and my wisdom teeth began to bother me, so I started for town. I walked about 10 miles when some people in a wagon came along and offered me a ride Of course, I was glad. When we were near the town they stopped and asked if I wanted to get off I thought it funny and asked why. They said that they used to give rides to a teacher in a nearby district and he always got off there as he didn’t want to be seen riding to town in a wagon Wages in those days were rather small. I received $25 a month during my first years of school, but still saved money as board and room was but $2 a week. I saved enough so that the next year I attended the University of Minnesota. I chose this University as it had an art course in the engineering department, and also my sister was teaching there. We roomed together and boarded at a nearby restaurant. This restaurant had two rooms. In one they served American plan and in the other, European. In the American side, one could get all they wanted to eat for 10 cents. It was served on a long table and passed along. When one wanted a second helping all he had to do was to ask to have it passed. The European plan was much more expensive and the customers were served individually. Our art classes were from two to four in the afternoon, but I worked as long as it was light enough to see, as I was especially interested in art. My other classes were from 8 a.m. to 12:30 p.ra. I specialized in German. Wisconsin was well-populated with Germans and I had spent much time with them; some of whom could speak only German. I should have specialized in Spanish as later on I was to be among Spanish speaking people. My sister spoke Spanish fluently and later spent 16 years in South America. While teaching in Minneapolis she met a man studying law She wanted him to study for the ministry and so he did. They were married and went to Colombia, South America, as missionaries. She taught in a boys* school and he accepted the position as minister there. Her first son was born there. He has spent many years in government service in various parts of the world. In World War II he served in the FBI as an interpreter being a fluent speaker in seven languages. At the university our French class started at 12:30 p.m. By that time we were tired and hungry, at least I was, and I had a habit of going to sleep. I didn’t care for the professor and he didn’t care for me. He had a long mustache and continually lifted it with one hand up to his eye and that annoyed me. He always He was always late for class. One day in called on me when he caught me dozing So I took spring the day was so beautiful that we all wished we could be outside advantage of his being late and went to the blackboard and in big letters printed, "Fourth Hour French class excused today." When the students arrived and saw that, they left. Three of us loitered in the hall and when he arrived and saw the writing on the blackboard he turned to me and said, "Who did that? Do you know Miss Newell?" (That was ray maiden name.) I said I couldn’t say, which wasn’t really a lie. At the end of the semester he flunked about half the class, so many in fact that we were allowed to take a special examination. All but three then passed and luckily I passed. The next year he was not with us. I loved to dance and felt bad if I did not get to go at least once a week. One time we were given a book written in German to read and in our own words write over in English. We had a week in which to complete it. I kept putting it off until the last minute and then there was a dance I wanted to attend. I arrived home from the dance at 2 a.m., skipped through the book enough to get a general idea of the story and finished ray essay just in time to get to the eight o’clock class �6 A month before the end of the first year, one of ray sisters and I left for North Dakota to teach summer school. They hadn’t been able to get a teacher in one district for over a year, It was considered a tough school. There were a number of big boys who had taken the last teacher, a man, and thrown him out tne door. Of course, we didn’t know that. The only house in six miles was just across They asked us to the road, so we planned to stay there but soon changed our minds, rushed outl At the dinner dinner. Upon arrival as we opened the door two pigs table they had a smelly dog underneath that they fed now and then. We decided to board near the other school, but to do so I had to take the tough school as my sister was lame and unable to ride the distance on her bicycle. Our mode of transportation was bicycles, It was quite a task for me as my school was to the east and if one has been on the North Dakota plains, you win know that the wind travels with the sun. Thus in the morning the wind comes from the east and in the afternoon from the west, so that I had to go against the wind both ways. The wind there is strong. Sometimes it was so strong that I had to walk and push the bicycle, and sometimes so extra strong that it was hard to do. In extremely bad weather I drove a buggy. The horse I drove was not very gentle and sometimes he would buck in the harness. He sometimes refused to face a bad storm. The country was bleak with no protection as there were no hills, just flat open country. It was easy to get lost with no fences or other landmarks. I had an aunt who started out once on a lovely sunny day with three small children. A blizzard came up suddenly and they were lost. The horses led them to a haystack and they burrowed into it. But the cold was too much for theml They were found after the storm frozen to death. The sad part was that they could have been saved as they were but a few hundred feet from a house. My sister tried to teach her students what a tree looked like. She thought she had succeeded, when one of the pupils raised his hand and said very excitedly, "Look teacher. Here comes a tree." It was a big tumbleweed blowing across the prairie. I told ruy sister that she wasn’t a very good teacher. When I started teaching school there, I was worried on account of its reputation. The very first morning it happened. A group of boys outside on horses rode about the schoolhouse yelling and whooping. After a while I stepped outside and said, "Say, boys, have you an extra horse? I would like to join youl" They looked a bit sheepish and rode off. From that time on it was the easiest school I ever taught. I would go to dances, and since those country dances would last all night I sometimes went directly from the dance to the schoolhouse. Of course, I would be sleepyl I would tell the youngsters to study their lessons and when they had them to wake me up and I would hear them recite. They did just that and we got along fine. It must have been satisfactory, as I was asked to continue teaching there. However, I wanted to go back to the University. My sister and I did enjoy our stay in North Dakota though. On weekends we went to Cathay, a little town two miles from where we stayed. We hired a buggy and took trips. Often we were unable to get a good horse, but were given the one that few people would hire as it was a runaway horse. To use it we had to ride in a two—wheel cart, as a buggy was not safe. The horse was not choosy as to the route he would take but head across country over rocks and bwxjsh. It was hard to keep from bouncing out but it was fun I Once we had to attend a teachers' convention in a town 17 miles away, so we rode our bicycles. After the convention was over we started home. We were facing one of those high winds and it was impossible to ride and also difficult to push the bicycles. The road ran along side the railroad track. We had gone about two miles when a freight train came along. The engineer stopped the train and asked us if we wanted a ride. Of course we did. The brakeman loaded our bicycles on a flat car and we climbed into the cab with the engineer. �‘ We had gone about half way when I said to my sister, "Chlook, Margie at the beautiful flowersl” The engineer said, "Would you like to pick some?" I said, "SureI" So he stopped the train, and we got out and picked flowers. The brakeman helped. It was an unforgettable experience and a bit unusual. ■ One night we went to a dance. I do not know how it started, but the orchestra did not stop but played continuously. The dancers all dropped out but my sister and I. I danced with three different men. When one would quit another would take his place. My sister won though as I gave out first. Not ,, long after this the marathon dances became the rage. I didn’t get much inspiration in that country to paint. The scenery was just flat. It was just like standing on a huge pancake that ended off in a circular line. When I returned to the University, I had to take examinations for the time I had missed and fortunately passed them. I enjoyed this year even better than the one before. They had introduced a bowling alley in the basement of our church and I liked to bowl. Madame Clopath, my art teacher, was an unusually good bowler. After the two years at the University, I decided to leave and go to art school. To do so I had to renew my funds so the next two years I taught school. To get to the first school I had to travel all day on a stagecoach. Part of the time I rode with the driver. The stage was drawn by mui^s. At one stage stop when the driver got off to deliver mail, he handed me the reins and a very long stick with a nail in the end. He told me to use the stick if one of the mules attempted to lie down—a habit he had. Sure enough he tried, but when I jabbed him with the nail he desisted with a loud bray—the first time I had ever heard a mule bray. As we neared the post office, all the mules started to bray. I thought it an odd way to enter the town and not as dignified as a very proper professor in the stage would wish. In this school I had the first four grades, which included 65 students. I liked the children and they were well-behaved. They tried me out one day by turning loose a snake, but as I had played with snakes it didn't bother me. I just picked it up and took it outside. No more snakes were brought into hqt room, though the teacher across the hall had trouble with them. She was very much afraid of them. One of my pupils, a little girl had just started school and came very dirty and with a bad odor. I complained to the school board, whose members investigated. They found her family living in a dug-out, keeping pigs and chickens in with them. The school board made the family clean up the place, so that the little girl could come back to school. She was an unusually intelligent child and learned fast. There was good fishing in this vicinity and I was lucky at fishing. The principal for some reason never had any luck. Then one day he came back with quite a string of fish. We thought his luck had changed until the little boy who sold him the fish confessed. There were many Indians near and one day while hiking with a friend we were invited for dinner. They never would have asked us, but my friend was wellknown to them as she used to help them. It was the first and only time I had dinner in an Indian tepee with the Indians. It was a large tent. Quite a number of Indians sat in a circle around a large pot of stew. We sat down along side of them. The stew was delicious. When I saw how hard up these Indians were and how difficult it was for them to survive in some parts, I always tried in later years wherever I went into Indian country to buy from them when I passed where they were selling by the roadside. One time when I stopped to buy, a little girl about 10 or 11 years old asked me if I had any magazines she could have to read. Unfortunately, I had none. It made me think of all the magazines that are thrown away when they could be sent to these isolated Indians. �In Wisconsin the winters are severe with deep snow and cold weather. Nevertheless, some of us teachers liked to get out and hike in the winter. One day while out in the woods we found an Indian lying out in the snow. We notified the authorities and they rescued him. He had been drinking too much. This was bad as his brother had been found frozen to death after he had drunk too much. The town, though small, had two saloons and there was much drinking. The justice of the peace was even a hard drinker. One time when there was a murder trial pending, he had some papers that if found would condemn the murderer, so those who wanted to help get him off kept the justice of peace drunk for a week. Someone drew in chalk a picture of a pig on his back. This man had a large family of seven children. One of them was a pupil of mine. He came to school sometimes through the snow in below zero weather with no shoes, just gunny sacks wrapped about his feet. On May Day some of us teachers were putting baskets of flowers on doorsteps and in the dark I accidentaly ran behind one of the saloons. What a sightl There was a circle of drunk men, put out there after drinking too much. The daughter of the hotel owner asked me to come and stay with her so I did. Her uncle who ran it was quite strict, but her mother left one window unlocked so that was our way of entrance when returning late. We had ice skating parties and went tobogganing and did not always get back early The following year I taught in Crandon in Northern Wisconsin. After we left the train to get to Crandon we had to ride two hours through the dense woods on a logging train. It was a real wilderness. Here I taught the seventh and eighth grades. There were 5^ students and again I had two older than I. As assistant principal, I took over when the principal was visiting other grades. When I visited other grades he took over. This room had a bad reputation and was quite difficult to handle. One day there was loud laughter. I looked up to see the cause and there was a drawing of a funny face on the blackboard. I was • * angry and said, "I wouldn’t laugh at anything as babyish as that I" The drswing was ’ on the board half way between a girl and a boy seated there. The,boy said, "I ain’t no babyJ” Whenever I am extremely angry my face turns white, I cannot speak!. So I just walked over and shook him hard and when he hung onto the desk the ink. spilled out of his inkwell all over the desk, his books and the floor. This was at the time there were always inkwells in the desks. I went back and sat down as if nothing had happened. I learned later that he had not done the drawing but that the girl had. When school was out he came to me and asked if I would go skating with him that evening and I did. He was a big boy and a year older. He was the postmaster’s son and his mother was Indian. From that time on school was easy and the children very friendly. We used to take many hikes in the woods. The girl who had done the drawing became my best friend. There were many forest fires near and one finally came within a mile of our town. If the wind had not changed, the town would txave been wiped out. School was dismissed as it was impossible to see because of the smoke. For days the smoke obscured the sun. Most of the mon in town were out fighting fire. I boarded at the hotel when a lady came and asked me to come stay with her as she was lonesome. She lived at the other end of town a mile from school It was quite a walk in winter when it was 30Oor 40° below zero. I would run part way and go into a store to warm up before starting out again. There was a large lake near town with a shoreline of 100 miles. Ice ... . my _______ _ One night I had as a partner a tall six-foot lad; skating was favorite sport. He had skates and I had hockeys. Although he was tall I took longer strides f<5it#* “^3 j ; ' - �It In one stride he didn’t make it, his skate caught in mine and threw me dislocated my kneecap and cracked the bone. My room in school was on the second floor, so I had to quit teaching that grade, A teacher on the first floor who taught second grade was getting married in a month, so she resigned and let me have her grade. From this time on I had to depend on a taxi driver for transportation. Two interesting boys were in this grade. They were twins and even their mother could not tell them apart. One would study his lesson and then when I called upon them for recitation when I wasn’t looking they would exchange seats so that it was always the same boy who answered, though I thought I had called on each of them. This way, only one had to prepare his lesson every other day. I didn’t catchon for some time, until one day I saw them exchange places, I asked them how one could tell them apart and one answered, "I have one more wart on my hands.” Both had numerous warts on their hands, but he said this as if I could stop to count theml Their parents owned the hotel. There was a porch in front that was open underneath. Men used to sit on the floor of this porch with their feet dangling. One day the twins took a rope and carefully tied their legs together so when one man stepped down it spilled all the others off, too. The teacher they hired in my place for seventh and eighth grades was not popular. The children made it so hard for her that she left within; a month, I do not know who they hired after that, as I found it too difficult to teach when I couldn’t walk. I resigned at Christmas time.and moved out to Hot Springs, South Dakota. I hated to leave Crandon. There were 1? teachers there, and many of us would take long hikes in the forests, The woods were beautiful in autumn. It was a bit dangerous though, as there were many timber wolves. One night after school on a lovely moonlight night, I took a walk alone. I walked about two miles and then headed back. Suddenly, I saw a wolf, skulking along in the woods. I was frightened but realized I was safe as long as he was alone. I hurried for fear another wolf would join him, and luckily none did. However, he followed me all the way to the After that, I didn’t take the chance of going out nights alone. I edge of town Many years later I re-visited it. Like all,. liked the wildness of this country other places it was completely changed, Instead of the only way there being by ’ logging train, there were well-paved roads. The wilderness of trees was replaced with houses. Ihe lake which had been completely surrounded by trees was now surrounded by houses. The train went through sections My trip to Hot Springs was interesting where the snow covered the barns and telephone poles. Hot Springs is in very beautiful country. I spent some of the happiest days of my life there. My uncle Captain Palmer, had recommended the place to me. He and a Mr. Evans founded the town. They had a railroad, a spur, built in. Uncle and Senator Martin spent two years in Congress getting a bn 1, passed to build a soldiers’ sanitarium. Uncle drew the plans for it where the separate buildings all face a circular patio, making it easy to go from one building to another*. Uncle had been captain in the Civil War, and at that time had the position of soldiers’ homes inspector. A portrait of him hung in the raaai office. It was a large painting with an eight-inch wide frame. i It “■ Soon after I arrived, I was invited to spend a week at Senator Martin’s ranch. He had many horses, including a beautiful race horse. I had never ridden horse a horse and was rather dubious about riding a race horse. It was the easiest riding horse I ever rode, and since then I have ridden many. They had quite a laugh at me though, as all I could think of was to grab the saddle horn and yell, "Whoo, Whool" The next day there was a cattle drive, and, of course, I had to be in it, I had never seen a cattle drive. We were going along fine when a steer • ¥ ■A-.,. �right in front of me decided to go in another direction. My horse was well-train^].;’ and whirled about after him. I almost flew off, but just managed to stay on.I liked riding so much that I decided to buy a horse. So upon n^y return I bought a two-year-old Indian pony. She looked rather scraggly so I hired a man to clip her. I first halter broke her, and then I rode her bareback before I tried the saddle. She didn't offer to buck, but one day when mounting her I accidentally hit her with the,picket pin and away she rant I couldn't stop herI I lived on a dead end street with a fence at the end. I didn't know if she would jump or turn sideways. She whirled sideways, but I managed to stay on by hanging onto her mane. My family came out for the summer after I was there a while. My sister from South America brought a servant named Teresa, who was half Indian and half Spanish, horse took a dislike to Teresa and would chase her every time she came near. Teresa would run with her hands high above her head, screaming Spanish words. My horse didn't like the saddle. I found out she could really buck and was especially good at ’’sunfish bucking.” I taught her to pace, singlefoot and to dance. She made quite a show in parades. One time a photographer asked me if I could make her buck. He wanted to take a picture that he could sell to tourists. I told him I could. On my way down to meet him I had to cross the railroad tracks, just then a, train came and it scared the horse and she started to buck. I couldn't get her off the tracks, so the train had to stop. Then when I tried later to make her buck for the photographer, she wouldn't do itl I did get her to stand up and whirl and he got a good picture of her standing on one foot. Then I looked for a horse for my sister. Two cowboys brought in a fine looking sorrel and I bought it. When I returned to the house I had a telephone call from a rancher I knew, telling me not to buy that horse as it was an ’’outlaw,” but it too late. I tried to make friends before I started to ride her, but that horse never liked me, nor I herI She would not picket, so I had to rent a box stall. Every time I entered the stall.to feed her she would push me hard against the wall or put her foot out and step on my foot, I had a hard time getting on her when I finally decided to try to ride her, Luckily, she did like my sister and never did buck with her. When we left to go back to Wisconsin, we sold her to the Army. She reverted back to being the ’’outlaw” and no one was ever able to ride her again. However, they did train her to harness. Good saddle horses were hard to find. I had tried out an albino in my search for a horse. I put it in a corral with a high fence but it umped over the fence. I found him and took him back to the owner who lived 1? miles away. I asked a friend to go with me. We had quite a time getting him back. He wouldn't be led, so we had to drive him. He wanted to io anyway, but the way we * wanted him to go. It took us most of the day to get the horse back. My friend's father had a ranch near, so we decided to go spend the night there. It was 10 miles away and we arrived after dark. Her father had been drinking too much, and she said that we had better go on. He insisted we take back a cow and a calf. The two were difficult to drive and in the dark with no landmarks we soon lost our- sense of direction. My friend insisted on going one way, but I another, so I said I would leave it up to the horse. My horse headed straight across the prairie and home. We didn't arrive there until 5 o'clock in the morning. We had been riding since seven o'clock the morning before. We spent a wonderful summer in Hot Springs. We joined a club of horseback riders and took many interesting rides. There were 35 members in the club, took many long rides through the Black Hills. Then the time came to return j �'X " - to 'Wisconsin. I shipped my pony by train In Baraboo I kept her in a barn. She wouldn’t let anyone go near her but a cousin of mine, My father wouldn't go in the same stall, and my brother wouldn’t go into the barn after she broke loose one time and chased him out. When I turned her out to pasture, it was easy to get her day or night. I just had to call, "Nig" and she would come a running St My sister and I often would ride on picnics. We would just take off the bridles and turn the horses loose, Once when I fell asleep under a tree by a school house and my sister sat on the steps reading, I was suddenly awakened by a noise I looked up to see my horse standing over mel I started to scold her when my sister said, "Don’t you scold herI She just chased away a dog that was sniffing your face and is now standing guardI" Soon after we returned, I entered Art School in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, during the day and business college at night, until I had a chance to play in the theatre at nights, I played in the Prince of India at the Davidson Theatre. The second year at Art School I attended classes both day and night. I had received a scholarship the year before, so I had no tuition to pay. The scholarship entitled me to attend evening classes as well as day classes. A friend wanted me to go with her to Chicago, so the next year I entered the Chicago Art Institute. Here I was fortunate to get into a class taught by Mucha, who at that time was considered the greatest mural painter in the world. The Art Institute had him over from France for a month, and I was fortunate to be chosen as one of his pupils. The first year, I joined a club of girls who lived quite a distance from school, so I had to ride the "El" back and forth. The second year I took a job of baby sitting of a little girl, for which I received room, board and street car fare. All I had to do was to take her to the park after I returned from school. Her father was general manager of the Stuart Speedometer Company. I became greatly attached to this family, fact we became such good friends that we corresponded for nearly 60 years or until the mother’s death. r. ’•■. i-.» At Christmas time, a friend wanted me to apply for a job at Marshall Fields during the Christmas rush. I always liked to try new things so I applied. "•4' We had to give three references and state how much education we had had. Since I . had had more education than my friend, they put me in the book department on the eighth floor and she was placed in the basement. I received $8 a week and she only earned $5» Now it is almost unbelievable that one could ever have lived on that amount of money but she did. Obviously, even then an education counted At the end of the spring term, I returned to Baraboo. I had not been there long when I had a long distance call from Madison, offering me a job as bookkeeper. A friend had recommended me to them. They offered me $50 a month, which was high wages at that time. Ihis friend had been working two years in a bank at a salary of but $32 a month. I accepted the offer and stayed with this friend who lived at the other end of town, or five miles away. I rode horseback to work even in the coldest weather. To keep my feet from freezing I wrapped newspapers about them. Once I rode five hours in 40° below zero weather. The firm I worked for had a barn for the horses and they kept mine there and fed it. The barn man would bring her to me when I wanted her. I did not have to keep regular hours. As long as I was back at five o’clock to cash up, I could ride whenever I wanted to. I usually had my work done by noon so spent the afternoon . riding , • -^3 �in Baraboo took a job in Madison. I had met him in an odd way. His father had a strawberry patch near town. I had wanted to get out and pick berries like old times, so I got permission to pick some. A few days before my horse had reared and came down on my one foot. It had swelled so that I couldn’t get my shoe on. I was picking berries barefoot, which was not done in those days. This boy, the son of the berry patch owner, came by and as I had never met him I was most embarrassed. I tried to hide my feet under my dress, which was long as that was the style of the day. That is the way I met my future husbandI He was a mechanic and electrician and took the job as trouble shooter inspecting machines so that he could be near me. He rode a motorcycle, a long Pierce Arrow, which I learned to ride. We took trips though—he on the motorcyle and I on the horse. Then one summer, I took the train to Cassa, Wyoming. This was 1912. My sister was teaching there and had taken up a homestead of 640 acres. She wanted me to take up one too, so I did. In ■ the spring of 1913»I resigned as I had to establish residency on the homestead, I told the people I worked for that I wanted to spend the summer in the West They offered to pay me half wages for the summer if I would return, But f when I told them I planned to get married, they said, "Then I suppose there is no chance of your returningl" and I said,. "No chancel" _ 'I’m. certain the barn man was glad I left. He did not like my horse after he had tried to ride her and she had bucked him off and jumped him. Workmen standing by had rescued him from being stamped to death. On our trip west we arrived at Cassa, Wyoming, by train—one that was late. There were many tales told about its always being late. One story in <• particular was good. It told about a lady who walked to town with a basket of eggs. The engineer stopped the train and asked her if she wanted a ride, She replied, "No thank you. I am in a hurryI" ” ’S .-^15 When I left the Chicago Art Institute one of ray instructors said to me "Keep up your art workI Don’t let a day go by that you do not paint1" But for 15 years I did not touch a brush. It was hard for me to adjust to married life as I had never done any housework, not even wash dishes. In my first try at baking bread I forgot to put in the yeast. When it didn’t look right I took the dough out and hii it under a rock so that my husband wouldn’t know. But he found it when a bit of dough ran out from under the rockI The wind blew so much in this country and the winters were severe. One warm autumday we walked to our homestead to work on the house. It was a walk of six miles. On the way back we stopped to visit friends. I was in the kitchen when suddenly without warning a terrific wind blew a pail full of water off the table in front of a window. I looked out of the window and saw my husband hanging onto a water tank and the owner of the place grasping a fence post to keep from blowing away. Within a matter of minutes the thermometer dropped to below zero and a blinding snow hit—a typical Wyoming blizzard. Pty- husband walked home, which was a distance of about a mile, and came back with warm clothes for me and his motorcyle to take us home on. We really roughed it for the first few years. Our cabin was a one-room house with an open porch where we slept even in winter when it .was 35°or 40° below zero. The cabin was built of boards running up and down with a smaller board to cover the cracks. There was no insulation. It was not built for cold weather. After a snow in the morning when I got up I had to dust the snow off the books, as it would drift through the cracks. Our only heat was from an old pot bellied stove. When the wind blew strong in zero weather we could stand tighV against the stove and still see our breath. One day when our oldest was a few, ,, �- 4 13 *i'(£ months old, a hailstorm hit so hard it tore off the roof and threatened to blow the side in llie wind was so strong, we pushed against the side wall as hard as we could When the hail quit it poured rain, and since we had no roof, I had to push the baby’s bassinet under the table to keep him from drowning. One time I had pleuracy. They took me to a train flag stop, which consisted only of an old box car that had but three sides—one side having been destroyed by fire. The train as usual was late, over an hour, and it was 3° below zero. The doctor was miles away. He gave me a prescription and I took the next train back. 1 had to change trains part way home, and the station master loaned me a lantern, as I had to walk two miles at the end of the trip. When I got off the last train, another blizzard had hit, and the wind was so strong that the lantern would not stay lit. I dared not go by road as I would get lost that way, so, though much farther, I followed a draw with high sides that I would have to climb to get out of. This draw was fenced off near the house, so when 1 came to the fence I followed it to the gate and from there to the house. I had been so frightened stumbling along in the dark that I had not thought of how I felt until I arrived home. Suddenly, I realized that ray pleuracy had gons. I was completely cured, either from breathing in that cold air or from the fear of freezing. That spring I went back to visit my parents in Wisconsin, telling my husband I wanted to get away from the wind. I stayed there two months and in that time was in three cyclones. The first one was so strong that it blew a large draft horse into the city from such a distance that they never located the owner. The second storm blew by our house and snapped off a huge pine tree as if it were a toothpick, then traveled across the road and mowed down a path of trees 30 feet wide. Our windmill on the farm was tied in a bow knoiti and five large trees piled against the house. The third cyclone was not quite as bad, but I decided that Wyoming was not so bad after all and so headed back. We were not only a long distance from a doctor but also a dentist. One day a sheepherder called and asked my husband if he would pull one of his teeth which had been hurting. My husband asked if he had anything with which to pull it. The man replied, “I carry mit me my monkey wrench and cold chisell" After my first son was born, I road 16 miles on horseback after milk and groceries. I took bad weather to go in, as during nice weather my husband worked and couldn’t look after the baby. One time I was lost in a blizzard, so I let my horse have his way and he headed for the river which was lined with trees. I followed the river until I came to the ranch. 1 4*^^ While on the,ranch, I had started to raise horses. After the war the prices for them went down, so after eight years on the ranch when we moved to Casper, I just turned them out on the range. I hated to part with them, especially two sorrels with white manes and tails. I kept only my first pony which was branded In Casper, we lived in the airplane hanger, as my husband had charge of the planes. In one end of the hanger they had built three rooms for living quarters. The place was very comfortable after the homestead shack. Planes at that time were small and if people dared to ride at all, they refused to go without insurance. We had two accidents while I was there. One was the death of a parachute jumper. His parachute had failed to open. There was a story about his fall. It was said that he fell so far that it made a big dent in the ground. The ground around there was as hard as a rock, but to satisfy the curious people who came to see the dent, I took them out and showed them a place in the yard where there was a hallow place in the ground. >5? �we were at the hanger a year when we bought a house in town. Soon after we moved, a real estate man, having heard somewhere that I was a painter, called and asked me to paint him a picture. He wanted it done that day, which was rather short notice for I am not a lightning artist. Furthermore, I had done no painting for 15 years. There was a real estate convention in progress, and he wanted me to paint a picture of a house with clouds in the background and in them another house—a dream house. He was anxious for me to do it so he went downtown and bought a canvas and stretched it for me. I painted what I could each day, and he would then take it each evening to display at the convention. By the time the convention was over, I had finished it. That started me painting once more, so I then painted an historical painting of Casper in 1910. The governor of the state bought it and from that time on I continued to paint and have been very lucky. At that time, my husband took up a homestead on the Cheyenne River, 100 miles away. It was early spring when we drove there—my husband, a friend of his. and our youngest of four, who was but three weeks old. When almost there we were stopped by high water. The men found two logs and put them across the stream and stood on each side to help while I drove over on the logs. After we crossed, we came to a house but no one was home. In those days, the doors were always open to anyone. Many a time I had made good use of this custom. There was always coffee on the stove for guests. We stayed there five days before anyone showed up. We had been working on our house. One night when we returned, two men were there. They had been laughing about the baby clothes on the line, as they were bachelors. After the cabin was finished, I spent sometime there with the children and a girl from an orphans’ home who helped me with the children. Our only neighbors were the two bachelors. One day there was a picnic 15 miles away. I wanted to go, so I went out on the range and roped a horse and started out. I never got to the picnic as I got lostJ I never did get to thank the owner of the horse, as I never found out who owned him. The last time I drove to the homestead, the house had been burned to the ground. Only the stove remained. I later found out that it was done by moonshiners. I had driven nearly all day and hated to go further but had to. It was spring and the roads were nearly impassable. Then I was told that the road to Casper was impassable, as it was washed out. This meant that I would have to go back and around another way, adding a distance of another 100 isiiles. It was getting late, and I decided to take a chance. I had to take to the sagebrush and devious detours. In hitting rocks and high centers, the pan underneath would dent up onto the motor. I had to get out and pound it back again, but I did finally get to Casper. After that my husband relinguished this homestead and took up one on the Platte River, only 12 miles from Casper. It was a beautiful location across a red mountain called "Goose Egg Mountain." In later years, this mountain was the background setting for the television play, "Hellsfighters. " It was an ideal spot for painting. One day when I was painting the red hills behind.our house, a man came to me and started talking. I thought he was a salesman and not wanting to be interrupted, I said to him, "I do not want to buy anything." He replied, "But I dot I am here to buy some of your paintings." He wanted paintings for Yellowstone Park and during the next two years I painted 1,^65 of them for him. The ranch was two miles from the Goose Egg ranch which was made famous by “ Owen Wister’s book, ”The Virginian." The last water color painting I ever painted -A-t'. Ju..?’ �was an order for Owen Wister for this Goose Egg ranch building. I wish I had kept a record of the number of Goose Egg ranch paintings that I did, as there has always been a demand for them, even though the building has been gone for many years. The owner of the place once said to me when I was there painting a picture of the building, "I bet you have made more money on the place than I have." A few years later when there was a national exhibit at Rockefeller Institute, where each state was represented by one painting, one of my paintings of the Goose Egg ranch was chosen. The schoolhouse where my boys went to school was near here and they had to walk the two miles each way. One beautiful sunny day, they went off to school with light sweaters. That afternoon the thermometer dropped to 35® below zero. The teacher put some of her warm clothes on them to keep them from freezing while walking home. We had milk cows that used to wander and were sometimes hard to find. Our neighbor across the river had cows too and each morning our cows would swim across to his side and his cows would come over to our side. To get our cows back, one of our boys would have to walk to a bridge two miles away. When they found the cows they would ride one of them back, herding the rest. The bull was their favorite "steed." The river was noted for quicksand. One time, the highway department found the bull nearly buried in quicksand and pulled him out. Another time we found one of the cows in the quicksand. My husband managed to get a chain around her before she sank too low. By the time he could get the tractor to pull her out, she had sunk until only her head was out of water. However, he managed to pull her out. It was one o'clock in the morning before we got her out. I started home with her. On the way, after being in the water for hours, she stopped to drink out of a mud puddle. It looked to me as if she had had enough of water, but that is a cow for yout One day, when I was working in the garden, a man came to me and asked for a bottle. When I told him I didn’t know what he was talking about, he became rather obnoxious. Then my husband climbed up on the mountain behind our home and looked about. Finally, he discovered, well-hidden in the brush, a small entrance to crawl through to a moonshine still. He notified the authorities and there were no more demands of me for bottles. Our cattle did not have too much range, and we were bothered by sheep men. My boys came home one night and told me that a large herd of sheep was grazing on the far end of our land. I took a shotgun, drove over, pointed the gun at the sheepherder and told him to move the sheep off our land. The next morning I went back at daylight, as I was certain he wo;id drift them back onto our land. Sure enough, he hadl So I hustled him off againJ When I dropped back to the rear, one of his helpers without the owner’s knowledge put two sheep in the trunk of my car, saying that his boss had a habit of making trouble for ranchers. There was a cliff behind the house that was perpendicular for 25 feet. To climb this, I had to take off my shoes and use the cracks in the rocks for steps. One day when snow was on the ground, I threw the shoes down first to make better use of my hands. One of them slid down the slope 100 feet, and I had to walk through the snow without shoes. The water from the spring dropped off the cliff and froze, making huge icicles up to the width of 30 feet. We had a large garden of vegetables and flowers, as well as fruit trees. When the depression came, I started to travel and paint where the paintings sold best. I spent most of the summers on dude ranches, Jacson Hole, Yellowstone Park and the Big Horn mountains. Here I met a lady from Switzerland ■sdiose hobby was mountain climbing. From her I acquired the desire to climb to the highest spots. �16 The next summer I spent in Yellowstone Park and Jackson Hole. I had my yo^gest son with me. Evenings we spent playing games on the park tables. We had a battery lantern. The rangers had warned us about bear, as they had been bad that year. One evening, as we were playing flinch, we could tell by the sound that very near us, though not visible, two bears started a fight. My son grabbed some of the cards and the lantern and said, "Let’s finish this in the car." I replied. "Let’si" We made for the car. I have had quite a few experiences with bears though I enjoyed them. Not one time though did I enjoy them, for in camp that time a bear entered our tepee and destroyed the contents. Our dog woke me and there was the bear fighting with our tied to the rear wheel, so I slipped out and pulled the slip knot that held him and hustled him in the car. It was a bit scary as I was but a few feet from the bear, which looked awfully big standing on his hind legs. At two different times, bears have licked my facel One time when I was alone in the park, I was visited each day by a two-year-old.bear. I kept a small pile of rocks on the bench to throw about. He always went after the pebbles, thinking they were food, but it kept him away from me. After a while, he became discouraged and didn’t visit me every day and I missed him. The last time I saw him was after a heavy snow fall. As he passed me, he looked rather pitifully at me, as much as to say, "Please, won’t you give me something to eat, just this once?" One fall when I had my son with me, I didn’t know just which way to head, east or west, so I flipped a coin. It said, "west" so west we went. That winter wo spent in Hood River, Oregon. That spring we returned to Wyoming via Los Angeles, luma and Phoenix. We spent the summer in Jackson Hole. From that time on I spent the summers at the Square G guest ranch. It was a wonderful place with 32 cabins and in order to get one, we had to reserve it a year in advance. We formed quite a group as the same people returned year after year. When I wasn’t painting, I was hiking, riding, horseback or mountain climbing. One time some people from my home state of Wisconsin had been waiting several days to see the mountains, which clouds had obstructed from view. I said, "Why not climb above the clouds to see them?" So we did) They got to see the tops of the mountains. We climbed as far as the glaciers. One place we had to climb up and down on two cables. Of course, there was no foot hold) We had to depend entirely on our arms, like a monkey climbing a rope. If we had dropped, we would have fallen 1000 feet. It was quite a thrill, but I wouldn’t care to do it again) On the way back it was getting dark, so instead of following the path on the switchbacks, we sat down and slid) One other time, a friend and I climbed up on a mountain trail to a lake. Night overtook us and we had quite a time trailing back. The only way not to miss the path was to take a stick and feel the hardness of the ground. It was a cloudy night and completely dark among the pines. It took us until one o^clock in the morning to return. Square G ranch is no longer there. After the owners sold it, all of the buildings were moved to Coulter Bay. Not a trace of residency shows now. It has gone back to the wilds) The owners of the Square G spent their winters in Twentynine Palms, California, and I too moved there for the winters. It was a very sociable town. I joined the rock club and we had many expeditions hunting rocks. I also joined the camera club and the Daughters of the Revolution. The' town grew fast as well as the surrounding country. The area was soon filled with five-acre homesteads, some of which was sub-divided after proving up. This meant more bn-^Tdings so at night it began to look like a big city as far as one could see. �P(5s? 7 17 fel ^¥8 w After Mr. Gabbey died, a few years after w© went to Twentynin© Palms, I used to drive my car up to Jackson Hole and leave it there. take the bus back and drive Mrs. Gabbey‘s car back for her. One time in late Jun© when I went down it was 120° so I drove only at night Another summer I took th© train to Detroit, Michigan, to buy a car. I visited Niagara Falls and Eastern Canada, I camped out all the way. One camp was the best on© I had ©ver known. It was on Lak© Huron and only a small camp but with all the horn© comforts, including hot water stoves, Washington machines. Twice a we©k they sprayed for mosquitoes and flies Also they had movies each night at no charge They were like indoor movies, but w© sat on benches or chairs out-of-doors watching the movies and listening to the loud speaker One summer I headed east for the coast and traveled through 43 states and much of Eastern Canada. This was an interesting trip, as I saw unusual things such as th© houses along th© Gulf of Mexico which are set up on “stilts." However, under many of them th© space was filled with boxes and refuse of all kinds. It was interesting to see th© mammies working in the fields with their bandannas on their heads. In on© place a row of little pickaninnies fished from.a foot bridge. I was intrigued by the long bridges about New Orleans. On© was 14 miles long. In Florida I was fascinated by th© swamps and alligators. The best road that I traveled was the New Jersey turnpike. We had to ferry across the Chesapeake Bay, the longest distance I had ever ferried. They were building a 17-mile long bridge but it was unfinished. t pf..t 8i BS Mammoth Cav© was interesting but not as pretty as Carlsbad Caverns. At one place, called the corkscrew, a real fat person could never have gotten through as it was small. Th© ranger told me that they never let them in there. Most of lighted so w© carried lanterns. Part way down there was a pond the cave was of water where w© rode in boats and sang songs. Our singing had a wierd sound deep down in th© earth. I visited th© backwoods and th© hillbillies. Sundays they sit on the porches of their houses all dressed up with fine-looking cars in the yard. Some of the houses on© would hardly dare enter for fear they would collapse. I stayed th© longest time at the park at Bar Harbor, Maine. It is a beautiful park. W© would go out and pick wild raspberries, or go fishing. I had all the fish I could ©at while there. It was an ideal place for painting and I mad© us© of it. Th© water in th© ocean was a bit cold so we went in a section filled by high water that was much warmer. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont are beautiful states and also adjacent areas in Canada. I re-visited Niagara Falls and this time spent more time on th© Canadian side. I took the interesting trip under the falls. It was a wonderful suDnner. But when I arrived in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where I had had my letters forwarded to, I received a letter stating that the bank where I kept my money had closed for a time. A cashier had absconded with $600,000. Luckily, I had credit cards and a few travellers checks left. When I finally arrived in Twentynine Palms, I had only eighty cents left, but by that time the bank had re-opened. In 1958, I drove to Alaska. It was a grand trip in spite of the roads or lack of themI The summer was cold and rainy, so it was difficult to get pictures of the mountains on account of th© clouds. On th© way ther©, one of the bridges was washed out and we had to drive more than a mile on the railroad bridge. There ar© many interesting spots along the highway, like the Atlasta House, which got its name in an odd way. It took quit© a while to build and the family had to live in a t»nt until it was finished. When it was completed, the lady was so glad, she cried out, "At lastI A House!" So they named it Atlasta House. ■ �18 To keep supplies away from animals, they built "cashes," small log buildings on poles. They were very picturesque. There are few buildings along the highway. One I saw near the road had a sign over the door, reading "Rancho not so Grande," It was abandoned, Chitina is an abandoned town—-ghost town-with but few people living there, I could see why for as I traveled in deep mud for many miles, expecting any minute to be stuck. • I took many pictures, among them one of an Indian fish wheel that turns by the flow of the water, scooping up fish and dumping them in a box. I took some pictures of Anchorage from a helicopter. They charge one dollar a minute, so I didn’t stay up too long. I visited a friend living on the Spit, a narrow strip of land jutting out in the ocean four and a half miles from Homer. At Kenai there is a remarkable church, the first one built in Alaska by the Russians. This hnilriing as all other structures there that were built by the Russians was noted for its unique structure, the logs fitting perfectly without nails. Of course, I had to visit Mt. McKinley. The superintendent of the forest rangers, where I had stopped to see a dog race with sleds on wheels as there was no snow, warned me not to go. He told me the road was under construction so I would be going at my own risk. The only other way in was by plane. Ihe road was hard to travel and in one place I really took a chance. 13aey were building a bridge and had only the stringers up. There were no boards on it. As the stringers were just the same distance apart as the car wheels, I drove across on the stringers. This reminded me of another time when I took a big chance. On a trip in Wyoming I was traveling on an old side road when I came to a bridge that had lost a piling on one end. It was hanging down on that side with no support, I crossed the bridge all right but I had a hard time making the bank on the other side. It was badly washed out. There must have been a bad flood, as I passed a house where they had all the furniture and bedding outside to dry out. The only way I managed to cross that bridge was by making a fast run for it—fast enough to jump over the fallen end. fc'y/ I stayed near Mt. McKinley five days before the clouds lifted so I could get pictures of it. Then at one o’clock in the morning I finally did get to see the entire mountain. One of the advantages of Alaska is that one can take snap shots any hour of the day or night in summer. When I left Alaska, I headed for the Yukon, again over a road that was just being built. I had gone over about 20 miles of it when I came to a sign which read, "Resume breathing, only three more miles." On my way to Alaska I met few people, but what few I did meet were very friendly. One oar from New York was traveling rather slow as it was overloaded. They had started out with a small one-wheel trailer which broke down along' the way. They had abandoned it, putting the contents in the car. I would stop to take pictures and they would pass me. Soon I would pass them. Finally, we both stopped and in that way became acquainted. Before long, four of our cars traveled together, finally parting at Whitehorse. One of the drivers had to be back in New York to begin school as he was a professor there. The last night in Whitehorse we played a game of hearts. The one who got beat had a spanking coming. I was sure I would be the one, as I had played it but twice before. Just at the last the professor lost. He was the one we all spanked! The ghost town of Dawson in the Yukon is the most interesting ghost town I had ever visited. There is a fine museum there. I visited it with some friends I had made on the trip. While looking at one of their dog sleds, I was telling them a story told me by an old-timer who had been in the Klondike gold rush. When he was on his way to the gold fields, a lady with goats instead of dogs pulling the sled was going along with them. They thought it a joke and that she would never make it. But she not only made it, but when they arrived to where they had to take a boat the others had to sell their dogs, while she was able to sell her goats to the ship’s captain and was then hired as a cook. While I was telling the story. �the lady in charge of the museum overheard me and came up to us and said, "Yes, I knew her. She came here to Dawson and lived the rest of her life here." We planned on rides on the boat Klondike, but the boats were not running. I,did take a picture of it as it was moored near by. The country around Dawson was pretty well torn up from the gold mining. One of the huge dredges was abandoned but one was still running. * ■ *' J On the way to Whitehorse, I stopped at a settlement of a few log houses where a few Indian; children were playing. I wanted to take a picture of them, but they didn’t want me to. When I took out n^y pocket book and offered each a dime, they gladly let me. I had no more than taken the picture when from every direction a stream of Indians headed hqt way. They evidently wanted dimes too. I had to get away in a hurry or my dimes would give out, so I drove off. I was luckier than many in not having my windshield broken. In traveling through Canada a lot, I have learned to slow up when meeting a car, and if they are going very fast, to stop altogether. Canada has beautiful scenery. Revelstroke was one of iny favorite spots. There was at that time a camp on top of a mountain above the city. To get to it, one had to follow a winding road 18 miles. At one place about half way, one can look straight down onto the city. I camped at this camp one night. Flowers peeked out of the snow. Jasper is another beautiful spot that stands out. They have a fine camp there. Canada has so many beautiful spots, and their camps are immaculate, which is more than I can say of those in the United States. There are too many litterbugs here, and in Canada they are more strict. One morning a mountain climber put his pack on one of the tables. Immediately, he was told to take it off. Then he put it on a bench, but was told to lay it on the floor. Their tables and benches are kept so clean that they shine. Southern California is one of the places I like. I belong to the Death Valley 49‘rs. They have a variety of entertainment^. I always enjoy their donkey races. Oldtimers start with their burros from one of a field, lead the burros to * the other end (and some are hard to lead), unpack, build a fire, and cook pancakes, ; and then make the burro eat them. The first to succeed wins a prize. One year a red-headed oldtimer was the first to get the cakes cooked, but he couldn’t get the burro to eat them and so lost. Guess the burro didn’t like his cooking. Almost every place has scenery that is interesting to paint, like the red rocks of the Garden of the Gods in Colorado and Bryce Canyon. Bie ranch in Wyoming also has the red rocks. I would like to have been to all the places my paintings have gone, from London to Southern Africa and from Alaska to Peru, South America. In 1966, I moved to Post Falls, Idaho, to be near three of my sons. This is a beautiful place among the pines on the Spokane River, not far from town, but still in the country. My son Howard builds boats and my son Scott did help him but is now working at the Consolidated Welding, Rawlins, Wyoming. The third son, Richard, is superintending building projects near, so I get to see him often. Each year now I have to drive to Wyoming to see Scott and to Huntington Beach to see my youngest son, Donald and family. It is good though to visit friends in Wyoming and also in Twentynine Palms, California. Two years ago, Scott went with me, first to Canada and then south. It was a great disappointment to see the old favorite places as they are now, so crowded and commercialized. The wild woods are no more and no where can one get away from the crowds or unfrequented highways. I am glad though that I was privileged to have seen it when its beauty was untouched. In the United States it is the same. . J: '' �20 visited QduLter Bay camp where the Square G buildings had been moved. 7™.^® place, but there is but one narrow road out of the surrounding woods. After the fxre I drove through in the Yukon, I was impressed with the fire hazard and kept thinking of what a hard time people would have trying to get out all at the same time in case of fire. On ray trip .of 1958, near Whitehorse, I drove through a fire that was on both sides of the road. While taking a picture of a burning pine by the roadside some pines behind me exploded with the sound of a cannon. I had to even drive oyer a burning log to go on. It was har;? to drive through the smoke and the terrific heat. It was a narrow two-car road and flames almost touched ray car. They had told me that they were closing the road, but if I hurried through they would let me go on. I hadn’t hurried though, as I had been stopping to take pictures. Finally, I did hurry though. The fire came so close to Whitehorse that people were warned to have their cars ready for getting out in a hurry. After driving through this fire, I could not help but see the fire hazard at Coulter Bay. Scott and I had a nice trip south. While we were in Twentynine Pal ms, friends took us on a jeep trip to the top of a mountain. Another friend put on a party for me, so I was able to meet many of my friends again. Then we went to Huntington Beach to visit my son Don. One of Don’s friends took Scott and Don over Los Angeles in his plane. They also went fishing' one day in the Pacific Ocean. On the trip back we visited Yosemite Park and Lake Tahoe. The changes in both places were even greater than in other places. Roads were closed and the only way to get to see anything was by walking. ^fe is often sad but often funny, like one time when I was ipainting up in the mountains near Laramie, Wyoming. We had a grasshopper plague at the time and the children I had taken with me were having fun catching them. They had a small can to put the grasshoppers in, but it was soon full. Then they asked me to hold them in my hand which I did. I painted with one hand, while I held the grasshoppers in the other. I may not be much of an artist, but I wager no other artist ever did that. During my life I have had much to be thankful for. I am very grateful for the appreciation of those who have liked my paintings. Selling them, not directly, but through dealers as I do, I do not always know where they go. But I have been told that many have been bought by prominent people, including Delano Roosevelt, Owen Wister, Tom Waring of the Pennsylvanians and an English ambassador. Some of ay paintings have gone to many different countries from Alaska to Peru, South America, and from London to Southern Africa. Last year my son, Howard, and I spent three days hunting rocks in Southern Oregon. Then he headed back north and I went south, where I ran into snow at Winnemuoa. I drove all day in a snowstorm. I finally arrived at Twentynine Palms and while there took another jeep ride and attended another party given me by a friend. Again I visited my son and family in Hun ting ton Beach. Don took me on a very interesting trip where whild animals and birds are kept. We drove along among the lions, rhinocerous, ostriches and all kinds of birds, as well as all kinds of other animals—the largest, the elephant. It was like Daktari on a small scale. As the passes were snowbound in Nevada, the road I usually travel, I came via Sacramento and Portland. It is quicker but not as nice as Nevada, where one can stop to take pictures or have a cup of coffee, as one could do anywhere in the old days. Then £iso one did not have to travel 60 or 70 miles an hour! I have had much to be thankful for in my lifetime, which has extended from � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Rosemary Malone Papers Description An account of the resource This digital collection contains materials from the Rosemary Malone Papers, which are composed of various pieces of Mrs. Rosemary Malone's life. Some of these materials include personal documents and photographs, maps and materials on Wyoming history, notes on historians and historic sites, a memoir of Dorothy Marie Dolph's, papers and reports on Casper residents, an obituary in memoriam of her, and a plaque for her library advocacy, among other items. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text; Image Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Rosemary Malone; Dorothy Marie Dolph Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Rosemary Malone Papers Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.1987.01 Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Paper Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Memoirs: Dorothy Marie Dolph Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource <a href="https://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/</a> Description An account of the resource This is a digitized copy of a written memoir of Dorothy Marie Dolph's who was born in Baraboo, WI in 1834. Dolph became a landscape painter with a focus on western life and scenery. Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Doroth Marie Dolph Language A language of the resource ENG Is Part Of A related resource in which the described resource is physically or logically included. Rose Mary Malone Papers Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context CCA 10.1987.01_DolphMemoir Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource PDF