Gold Creek farm proved hard work for youngster

(The words, “The Great Northwest” bring to mind a land blessed with an abundance of natural beauty. We can all agree that our mountains, lakes, valleys and streams are majestic.  We can all agree that it would be next to impossible for anyone to find a better place anywhere in this world to live. It is common knowledge that we all live just one hill over from heaven but is that what makes our portion on the Northwest great? Over the years, I have been privileged to visit with many people and it was in them that I found our true greatness. People like the late Mae Davis Van DerPas who lived in Bonner County all of her life. I had the opportunity to sit in her living room, with two of her six children, and talk about her family and her life. Here is her story in her own words, with some editing due to space, about her life and her time.)

“I was born on May 2, 1912, in our house that set right past where the new Home Depot is on Starr Lane. The road is named Starr Road today. My mother was a housewife and my father met her in Oregon. My dad was born in Iowa. Dad worked in the woods and in saw mills and he was a farmer. I had three brothers and two sisters.”

“I was born in that house, my baby sister was born there, and my mother died there. My mother’s name was Maude and my father went by the name of Ed. He had a nickname and he was known as Hard Luck Davis. He was always interested in rocks, mining and prospecting, and people called him Hard Rock for a while. After my mother died, and 10 days later my oldest sister died, there was no one to care for my six-week-old baby sister so she had to be adopted out. It was 50 years after she was adopted that I got to know my sister. My father couldn’t keep the place any more and everything just went bad for him so he got the name of ‘Hard Luck Davis’.”

“My dad kept the rest of the children together and it was a pretty rugged life for a girl 6 years old. After my mother died I was of school age and I would go to school and come home and there was nobody there. I was by myself until my dad and brothers came home. I did what I could around the house but there wasn’t too much I could do at that age. I had neighbor girls a long way away that sometimes I would go and visit but most of the time I was alone. The only time I got to play was at school and we would play games like Ring Around the Rosy. I went to the old Ponderay School and I went through eight grades there. My dad always had horses and cows on the home place. We always had plenty of milk and things like that and we stayed there until 1926.”

“In 1926 I finished the eighth grade and it was then that I went way up in the mountains with my dad. That was in the Grouse Creek and Gold Creek area and it was just my dad and me. It was way back and we lived in a log house. My dad was up there cutting cedar poles. He had horses there and he had grain for them. It was hard to haul grain that far back and there were a lot of chipmunks around and they kept eating all of the grain. My dad gave me permission to shoot the chipmunks and I shot 21 of them out of 21 shots.”

“I did the cooking after I finished the eighth grade and I was 14 years old. While we were at Gold Creek there was no one else around except my dad and me. This was way back in the mountains and I didn’t get to go to school so I just went through the eighth grade. There was not much to do but do the things that had to be done. I did the cooking, swept the floors, made the beds, and kept the fires burning. Those were my chores.”

“Once in a while on Saturday night we would go down to the old Grouse Creek School. My dad played the violin and we would go there and he would play for the dances. We never went to church when we were at Grouse Creek because there were none up there. We were real pioneers.” 

“I left Grouse Creek in 1929 and I came down to Sandpoint and lived with a brother and some other relatives. I lived with whomever I could live with because I had no home except up there in the mountains with my dad. That was not much of a life for a young girl so I stayed wherever I could stay. I didn’t have any close friends then and I got married to Alex Russell in 1930 when I was not quite 18. We had six children and they are all well respected to this day. I love every one of them and they are so good to me. They are tops.”

“I lived out on the farm with my children and we milked cows and raised a garden. They all had their chores. The farm was located about where the Kentucky Fried Chicken is today. I never worked out of the home until my youngest baby was six years old and went to school.  My first job I ever had in front of the public was for Harold Marley at the IGA store. There was a little round restaurant in there and he put me to work in it. This was close to 1960. I worked there for about 10 years and then I went to work at Don’s Drive-in on First Avenue. I worked there for 10 or 12 years. I also worked at Sandpoint Drug for a while and I worked in the bakery at the grocery store where Sandpoint Super Drug is today.”

“I married Pete Van DerPas in 1973 and we had about 30 years of real happiness. He was a wonderful man. Pete died a few years ago.”

(Up until the time of her death, Mae enjoyed playing cards at the Senior Center. She said, “Oh, I have made more friends to this day. I go to the Senior Center a lot and I have more old friends and I make new friends there. It is wonderful.”)