Details of the Photos
Photo 1: Four Haines brothers, threshing. Charles and his four sons may have had one of the first threshing machines in the area and were known to have traveled up and down in season, threshing grain for the other farmers, even as far south as Four Mounds.
Photo 2: George Haines in his World War I uniform.
Photo 3: The Deer Park Railroad; Harry Baughn on the right. He was working on the train while his brother, Charles, and father, Tom, were logging in the area around Ford, WA. They probably were living, still, at Deer Park. Harry related that he met the Haines brothers playing baseball in Ford and attending the socials there. He also met the Hoffstead family of Happy Hill and later married Deloria Hoffstead. In this time, between 1916 and 1920, much was to occur for these three families.
Photo 4: George in full view in his Army uniform
Photo 5: George, possibly, in chaps as a young man. I am not sure this is he.
Photo 6: Nels and Ella Hoffstead. According to Jim McMillan, in his book, Pioneers of Happy Hill, An Historical Documentary, Statesman-Examiner, Inc., Colville WA, 1981; Nels Hofstedt brought his family to Happy Hill in the spring of 1915. Besides himself there was his wife Ella, daughters, Marie, Delores, Irene, Helen, and son Clifford. An older sister, Hannah, was married to Fred Rankin and continued to live in Spokane, where the Hofstedt family had lived for many years.
Nels Hofstedt purchased the Burnson place and became the closest neighbor to the McMillan family. I recall that soon after they, the Hofstedts, came, my father sent my brother Jack, and me, with a large bundle of young onions as a gift to the new neighbors. We went a short ways down the road, out of sight of our home place and then decided that we simply could not face up to this new family, especially because there were so many girls. No one, who has never lived in the backwoods and seen strangers as seldom as we did, can understand our feelings on the matter. When we made our decision that we could not carry out the mission, we hid the onions under some bushes, waited a reasonable length of time and then went home. In a day or so my father learned of our failure to make the delivery and we got one of the severest whippings we ever had. I can only remember receiving a whipping from my father three times. But when it did occur, it was something that stayed fresh in your mind for a long time.
The Hofstedt family were wonderfully fine neighbors. Clifford was the idol of my brother and me. He was several years older than we and was rather skillful with tools. The thing that stands out in my mind was that he rmodelled an old buggy into a wagon for us and we spent many happy hours coasting down the hills in that old wagon. Clifford also taught my brother Jack the only song he was ever able to sing and keep the tune. That song was, "When You Wore a Tulip, And I wore a Big Red Rose."
In the winter of 1918 Clifford was killed in a tragic logging accident up near what was known as the Cove, an area about a mile from Ford. He was hauling logs with a team and logging sled. It was a very cold morning and he was walking besire the load to help keep warm. As he passed between the load and a tree beside the rod, the sled slid sideways, pinning him between the load and tree and killing him instantly.
After this tragedy the Hofstedts sold their ranch and moved back to Spokane. At this writing Hannah and Marie still live in Spokane, and Irene lives on the west coast.
Photo 7: Hoffstead girls, Marie, Helen or Irene, and Deloria with Olive Baughn.
Photo 8: Threshing in 1920. This photo is also in Jim McMillan's book, Pioneers of Happy Hill, An Historical Documentary, Statesman-Examiner, Colville, WA, 1981. He identified it as follows: Threshing on the old Higby Place in 1920. Men, left to right: Bill Jolley, Ben Smith, W.W. Clark. Women, left to right: Mellie Brown, Delores Hofstedt, and Oda (Brown) Sabin.
Photo 9: Thomas Heller of Orin, Stevens Co., WA. This photo was given to me by Mrs. McMillan, of Orin, as a matter of kindness when we visited her many years ago. Click here to read a biography of Thomas Heller.
Photo 10: Lucy Haines and Olive Baughn; Olive has dressed herself in George's WWI uniform and is thinking how funny it is. Did George take this photo?
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