Job with Northern Pacific brought family to area
(During the making of the Sandpoint Centennial Film, Erik Daarstad and I had the pleasure of sitting down with the late Robert William Green and his family. It was an experience that stands out in my mind because Bob spoke about a lifestyle that has passed from the scene of American history. This week, he tells us about the early years and next week we will learn of his later life. Here are excerpts of Bob’s story, in his own words, with some editing due to space limitations.)
“My story starts on Jan. 10 1912, the day I was born. My mother, Mabel Crandall, came from Wisconsin to the Hope area with her parents, Elisha and Emma Crandall. Her father was a conductor on the Northern Pacific Railroad and the family moved west as the railroad came through. My grandparents homesteaded their farm on the lower end of the Spring Creek road.
“My father, William Green, moved from Iowa in 1900 and bought 180 acres on upper Spring Creek, three miles from my grandparent’s place. He came from a family of 11 children. My parents were married in 1903 and lived on my father’s place. I have a sister, Grace, who was born in 1906.
“A few of the things I can remember as a small child was an old man about 80 who lived near us and he and my Dad would take me fishing in the beaver ponds. I gained an early fondness for the outdoors and things of nature. The old man’s name was Droukemiller. I remember my father cutting hay in and around the stumps with a scythe and eventually providing a small version for me, so I could help him.
“We had cattle, horses, pigs and chickens on our place to supply us with the things we needed to live comfortably. My father was a hard worker and he supplied timber to the Dover Lumber Co. to be made into railroad ties. My sister and I had the job of peeling the logs before they were shipped out. We hauled them with the team and wagon down to Denton to be loaded on the train cars. My dad had a contract to supply the school with about 20 cords of wood for the year.
“One of my childhood and lifelong friends was Maurice DeMers. Maurice and I did a lot of things together. I remember one time we stole a setting hen from his aunt and then got some duck eggs to hatch for decoys when we went hunting. That was the way ducks were hunted in those days. So we kept the best ducks to train for decoys and the ones that weren’t so smart, we ate.
“I started school when I was eight years old at the old Thornton school just at the bottom of the hill near my grandparent’s house. We attended half days and my sister and I each rode the horse one-way. One of us would ride the horse down to my grandparent’s and leave it there, and the other one would ride it home. Each of us, that way, had to walk only one-way.
“It was about this time I developed ‘growing pains’ in my legs, my folks had me going to Sandpoint to a doctor, and the only way then was by boat. Once a week we hiked down to the lake where we would catch the boat and make the long trip. The boat hauled mail and other things from Sandpoint to Hope and folks in Hope sent their mail and things they had to sell. The boat stopped at each little settlement to pick up people and baggage. It was always a long day.
“There were interesting things that happened that are funny to look back on. One night the chickens started cackling and setting up a real distress call. My mother grabbed the lamp, I grabbed the shotgun, and my dad, in his shirttails, followed us. As my mother went outside, the wind blew out the lamp and my gun accidentally discharged into the ground. The dogs went crazy, and this upset the skunk who was the culprit in the henhouse and he exited very fast and scooted under the house — our house. I eventually shot the skunk when it was in the chicken house but we couldn’t stand to go near it for days and I don’t know how the chickens could stand it either.
“In the early years, I remember the Indians would come to the area around the mouth of the Clark Fork River and camp. They would fish and pick huckleberries and prepare for winter. They traveled over the mountains and they would put up teepees to live in when they camped. We got to know many of them.
“I went to school through the eighth grade and part of the ninth when I quit and went to work.”
To be continued