Some South Reardan Homesteads

Introduction

This is a collection of stories about a few of the homesteads and properties south of Reardan, Washington. Most of these places are tied to a common Mahrt heritage. Much of the information comes from family lore, old photographs, the genealogy collection left by Leah Mahrt, public records and the Internet. Most of the description of Fred Mahrt place has been adapted from stories and information in the Leah Mahrt collection. While I have endeavored to be accurate, some mistakes will be unintentionally included. The blame for any error is mine. I ask for help to fill in missing information, whether it be a missing fact or story about one of the included properties or stories about properties not included. I can be reached at Kirk.Carlson@att.net. It would be nice to fill out some of the other quarters of land.

I hope you enjoy reading these stories.

Figure 1 Map of the area showing original owner. Roads are approximately where they would have been around 1900. Places are identified with their original homesteader (even if long forgotten) and an identifier of the quarter section. All sections are part of Township 25 North Range 39 East Willamette Meridian, except for the John Plaster Purchase Quarter which is Township 24 North Range 29 East Willamette Meridian.

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Figure 2 The area as it is today. From Lincoln County 9-1-1 Road atlas.

Buckman Railroad Quarter (NE ¼ Section 17)

John and Lizzie Buckman moved to the Reardan area in 1885 from Ohio. John met Luke Ensor on the train and together they decided that the area would be great for raising cattle. Rather than wait out homesteading requirements, John and Luke purchased some land: the SW ¼ of Section 8 from the US Government in 1891 and the NE quarter of Section 17 from the Northern Pacific Railway on 2 December, 1889. The Central Washington Railway was built through their Section 17 property and Reardan in 1888. They sold the right of way for the railroad in 1889. Luke Ensor dropped his claim to Section 8 in 1892. The two men transferred the Section 16 property to John’s wife Lizzie in March 1894.

Washington Territory was anxious in 1885 to become a state, so it performed a census every year to know when it had enough citizens to achieve statehood, which it did in November of 1889. From these censuses we learn the names of the Buckman children. There were five girls: Grace, Gertie, Birdie, Mable and Mollie. After moving here, they had two more children, Florence and Charles. Charles who died shortly after birth in 1891 and Mable died at age 14 in 1894. Their eldest, Grace, married Fred Garber on December 20, 1893. Mollie married Russel Cassels in 1904. John, Lizzie, Charles, Mable, Grace and Mable are buried at Reardan.

The Buckman name kept coming up in the Mahrt family history. The following story is from William F. Mahrt (son of Fred Mahrt). William would have been four years old at the time of the event and eighty-six at the time of the interview. He believed that this occurred in 1897 or 1898, but newspaper articles say 1896. He also missed the name of Walter Fairman. calling him Walter Freeman. The names have been changed to keep the stories consistent. Other than that the story is similar to newspaper accounts.

Walter [Fairman] was working on the threshing crew for [Fred] Mahrt on the [John] Buckman place at Reardan, Washington. Buckman thought [Fred] Mahrt was measuring wheat by the number of sacks of wheat harvested. So Buckman told [Fairman], who was sewing up the sacks, to fill the sacks fuller to put more wheat into each sack. This made [Fairman] mad and he proceeded to put less wheat in the sacks instead of more. Now [Fred] Mahrt had no intention of counting the sacks of wheat, because he had measured the bin in which the wheat was to be stored beforehand while it was empty. When the wheat was all gathered in the bin, [Fred] was going to measure the depth of the grain in the bin and thus would know how much wheat he had threshed for Buckman. But Buckman, thinking that [Fred] Mahrt was going to measure by the sack, got very angry at [Fairman] and took after [Fairman] with a knife. In defense of his own life, Freeman used a pitch fork on Buckman to try to knock him aside and hit him on the head with it and knocked Buckman down. It turned out Buckman was mortally wounded and died before the harvest crew came in to supper. [Fairman] who worked for [Fred] Mahrt wanted to flee the country, but [Fred] told him there was no need, as he would testify to the truth that Freeman was protecting his own life, as Buckman intended to cut him up with a knife. So [Fairman] stayed for a court trial and was pardoned and released by the court who said anyone had the right to defend his own life when necessary, which is what [Fairman] had to do when Buckman attacked him with the knife.

From two newspaper accounts at the time we can learn a bit more.

Spokesman-Review September 12, 1896

DIED IN 30 MINUTES

A Lincoln County Rancher Killed by One of His Employees

THEY HAD A QUARREL

Walter Fairman Struck J. H. Buckman With a Pitchfork--The Former in Custody'''.

Reardan, Sept. 11.—A tragedy occurred yesterday at the ranch of J. H. Buckman, a prominent Lincoln County man and an old resident that has thrown a shadow over at least one family.

Walter Fairman had been engaged with a crew to do some threshing on the Buckman place, and while at work, the two got into a dispute over the measure from the separator. Buckman accused Fairman of short measure, but later denied it and called him a liar. Whereupon Buckman struck Fairman with his fist, and the latter struck back, knocking Buckman down and held him there until he took it back.

Buckman then got up and went off, and a few minutes later Fairman noticed him coming toward him with a knife. Fairman then grabbed a pitchfork to defend himself with, and as Buckman came on he struck him on the head with the butt end of the fork. He fell without another word or motion, and within 30 minutes and before a physician could arrive, had expired.

Fairman is now in the custody of Deputy Sheriff Frazier, and will be doubtless taken to Davenport for trial. He expressed sorrow at the outcome of the quarrel, but says he did it in self defense. Prosecuting Attorney Brock was sent for and is expected to arrive on the morning train.

At the coroner's inquest held this afternoon at Buckman's home the body of J. H. Buckman was viewed by the jury. Six witnesses, who saw the tragedy, were called and examined, and found that death was caused by the stroke of a pitchfork in the hands of Walter Fairman.

At the preliminary examination, held tonight before Justice of the Peace Garber, the defendant waived examination under the charge of murder in the first degree, and was bound over to await the action of the Superior Court, his bond being fixed at $1500.

And from the Lincoln County Times, a predecessor to the Davenport Times.

Lincoln County Times September 18, 1896

TRAGEDY AT REARDAN

J. H. Buckman gets into a Quarrel with a Threshing Hand, and receives a Fatal Blow

A tragedy took place near Reardan, last Thursday afternoon, the victim in the unfortunate affair being Mr. J. H. Buckman, one of the best know settlers in that part of the country, who owns a fine farm just west of the town of Reardan.

The threshers were engaged taking care of Mr. Buckman’s grain, and it appears that Mr. Buckman conceived the notion that Walter Fairman, the man who was filling the sacks from the machine, was not giving him good measure, and they soon got into high words which terminated into a hand to hand fight, in which Buckman was easily worsted. It is claimed that Fairman let him up only on his promise that he would refrain from further fighting, but that soon after getting up, he procured a knife and again started for Fairman, declaring he would now fix him. Fairman caught hold of a fork, and as he (Buckman) approached, struck him across the head with the handle. It was told at the preliminary hearing that Mr. Buckman did not immediately fall after receiving the blow, but first walked away and leaned up against the machine, and a little later fainted, and in a few hours expired without ever speaking or regaining consciousness after he fell.

Mr. Fairman was placed under arrest, and Prosecuting Attorney Brock notified. The following day the preliminary hearing was held in Reardan, Attorney H. A. P. Myers, of Davenport, appearing for the defense and Attorney Brock for the prosecution. Murder in the first degree was the charge preferred against the defendant, after the examination of witnesses, and a spirited debate between the attorneys, the prisoner's bond was fixed at $1500 for his appearance before Judge Mount at the November term of the superior court. Not being able to give the required bond however, he was committed to the county jail at Sprague.

Mr. Buckman, the murdered, man, was a pioneer citizen of Lincoln county, who had accumulated considerable property, and who was in many respects a worthy citizen, although much given to quarreling about small matters. His wife and family are highly esteemed by neighbors, and much sympathy is expressed for them. Fairman, the man who committed the deed, is a comparative stranger and without friends in this part of the country. He is said to have worked around Davenport for a while, and has no particular vocation except to do a day's work here and there as he moves around the country. The impression seems to prevails that he acted in self-defense when he struck Buckman, and that he had no intention of striking a fatal blow.

By courtesy of the publisher of the Sprague Herald, the TIMES is in receipt of an advance proof of a detailed statement of the trouble as recited by Fairman, which does not materially differ from the above account.

</quote>

A footnote to this story. There was an election in Lincoln County in November 1896 to move the county seat from Sprague to Davenport. Sprague had been a large town while the Northern Pacific railroad was under construction. However, once construction was complete, Sprague quickly lost its population. Davenport, on the other hand, had grown to be the largest town in the county and was nearer to the center of the county. This may be the reason for some of the confusion as where Mr. Fairman was taken. There is a jail cell is in the parking lot of the Lincoln County Museum in Davenport, which dates back to this time. It is possible that Walter Fairman was held in that cell. Unfortunately the Lincoln County Clerk has no record of Fairman’s trial.

fig:By happenstance the Mahrt family archive includes a picture of a threshing machine complete with a detailed caption. The threshing machine was owned by the Mahrt brothers, John and Fred, and was one of the first threshing machines in the Reardan area. The brothers disbanded their partnership after a bumper crop in 1897 which ended in November snows. This threshing machine could well have been the same threshing machine and the same scene as the 1896 Buckman murder. The following description is adapted from those dictated by William F. Mahrt to Leah Marht in 1978 to show how complex and manually intensive harvest was back then (and how there were six witnesses to a farming incident). He also notes that the picture may have been taken on the Buckman place as it was less hilly that the Mahrt land.

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fig:Wheat was cut with a reaper or with a header pushed by six horses. The wheat would be cut by the teeth of a sickle moving back and forth, then a reel would lay the stalks down on the draper. The stalks with heads were then moved by the draper, a canvas conveyor belt, to a horse drawn header box, a special wagon with a short inside side rail and tall outside side rail. The header box was driven to the site of the threshing machine and the cut wheat stalks were unloaded with the aid of a Jackson Fork or by hand. The reaper or header is powered by its wheels using the power of horses to run the sickle, reel, and draper as well as to move it forward.

The “Jackson fork operator”, in this picture John and Fred’s younger brother, Henry, had the job of operating the Jackson Fork, to lift wheat stalks from the pile to the derrick table, and then to move the fork back to the pile. The horses are used to power the Jackson Fork.

fig:On the derrick table are two men called “hoe downs” who use pitchforks with the tines turned down to move the wheat stalks onto the draper, a canvas conveyor belt that carries the stalks into the thresher.

Another man operated the steam engine that powers the thresher. He wanted a big enough fire to make steam to power the thresher and not so big that the boiler explodes. This steam engine burned wood as fuel as seen on the far left. The steam engine was only used to power the thresher, but not to move it. The thresher was moved with horses.

fig:Fred Mahrt is standing on top of the thresher. His job is to operate the thresher by making sure that the wheat stalks are fed into the machine evenly. The grains of wheat are flailed out of the heads by the teeth on a rotating cylinder. The wheat kernels are then separated from the straw and the chaff through a set of zinc sieves with holes in them for the wheat to fall through. A blower blew the straw and chaff into a pile behind the thresher. Forkers would assist in piling the straw and chaff. The straw and chaff would be left in the field to feed cattle during the winter.

On the front side of the thresher, a man would collect the wheat in sacks and pass the filled sacks to a loader. The loader would load the sacks into a wagon and drive the wagon to the barn or to a warehouse in town. If the wheat was handled in bulk; the sacks would not be sown, but left open so they could be easily dumped at their destination.

Life on the farm could be hard work and very lonely. Fred Mahrt’s wife Emma missed her family and the life she left behind in Wisconsin. So Fred and Emma invited her mother to come out for a visit. Emma’s mother had remarried and was in the process of raising a second family. William Frederick Mahrt (a son of Fred Mahrt) recalls in 1978 to his daughter Leah Mahrt:

“In the winter of 1896-7 Grandpa and Grandma [Henry and Anna] Meyer came out from Wisconsin [to Reardan, WA]. It was after New Years. Fred Mahrt took a bob sled to haul them out from Reardan. Had a whole bob sled full of people of the Meyer family. They stayed with us for three months. They had 3 boys and 4 girls [in addition to the four Mahrt children at that time]. We had a lot of fun. We slept on the floor all over the house. We has a lot of fun while Meyer’s lived with us. I don’t think they ever got through laughing.

“They moved to the Buckman place and farmed that place for about two or three years or longer. And then they bought ten acres of bottom land on the edge of Reardan. He had hogs and chickens and a cow or two and garden.”

Henry and Anna and three of their children (Henry David Meyer, Ella Meyer Collis and Fred’s wife Emma Mahrt) are buried at the Reardan cemetery. Another son, Charles age 22, may also be buried at Reardan, as he died of Bright's liver disease, undifferentiated liver disease, in 1903. Henry died in 1920 also from Bright’s disease and Anna passed in 1931.

John Mahrt bought the Buckman place from the widow Lizzie Buckman in 1906. This is the same year Fred Mahrt's wife Emma died.

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The Buckman place sometime near turn of century (note car).

In 1916 John sold to his sister and brother-in-law, Mary and William Koeller. While they lived at the Buckman place, many Emanuel Lutheran Church picnics where held in the so-called Koeller Grove. The Koellers appear to be living here in 1914, although they were still at the Prince place in 1910.

William and Mary’s son Roy married Helen Barline in 1921. They farmed this quarter and two more purchased by William and Mary Koeller, the school quarter (SW ¼ Section 16) and Fred Mahrt’s railroad quarter (SE ¼ Section 19). At some point William and Mary moved to Reardan and Roy and Helen took over the house. They may have stayed until the land was redistributed upon the death of his parents in 1941. They moved to Sequim, WA where he sold insurance and eventually retired.

In 1941 the property then passed to Roy’s brother Emil, who in turn sold the land in 1963 to the Wendlandt family whose heirs own it today.

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”Our Western Home” sketch of the Buckman place by Edwin Koeller probably done sometime after 1910.

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===John Mahrt Homestead Quarter (NE 1/4 Section 20)===

fig:John Mahrt was granted a homestead on this land in 1889. It appears that he followed his brother Fred out from Wisconsin to Reardan. John came west with his wife Julia Koopman. Anna was born in Washington Territory in 1882 and Charles “Charlie” followed in 1884. Julia died in 1891 and is buried in her native Wisconsin. John hired a housekeeper Ulricka “Ricka” Doering to look after the children, as he tended the fields and livestock. He married Ulricka in 1892 and they had one son, Otto.

John’s lasting legacy is that he was able to build up his land holdings over time. Many of the properties in this collection of stories were purchased by John and most have been retained by his descendents.

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John Mahrt’s barn (still standing).

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===Fred Mahrt Homestead Quarter (SW 1/4 Section 20)===

Fred Mahrt was born in Wisconsin, on May 20, 1860, being the son of John and Margaret (Jaeger) Mahrt, natives of Germany. They came to the United States when they were young and settled in Wisconsin, where they were married. To them, eight children have been born, three boys and five girls. Margaret suffered a brain injury when Fred was born and she was not to be trusted afterward. His father, John, died when he was 14. Fred was raised by his grandparents, John and Catherine Jaeger.

Fred received his education from the public schools of Wisconsin. When fourteen years of age, he quit the school room for the farm and labored three years in Wisconsin for an uncle. Then he journeyed to Sabula, Iowa, where he farmed for three years. [it is possible that he was farming with one of his Jaeger uncles, John??]

According to William and Leah Mahrt:

Fred came west from Iowa in 1880 with the Immigrant Train, which went from Omaha, Nebraska to San Francisco. The train was the only train coming west at that time and this was a special immigrant train. The train was so slow that Fred could get out and walk beside it. The trip took two weeks. From San Francisco he went by boat to Portland, Oregon and then by another up the Columbia River to the Cascade Locks. From there he took a stage around the Locks to the Dalles and then took another boat up to Wallula. The he took Cook's train from Wallula to Walla Walla. They had wooden rails covered by rawhide and the coyotes used to eat the rawhide. From Walla Walla he took another stagecoach to Spokane. A blind woman on one of the stages could tell a person's age by their voice. She guessed that Fred was 20 and he admitted that he was that age.

This story needs a little debunking. Robert Louis Stevenson described the “immigrant train” in his book, Across the Plains. In this account he describes traveling from England to San Francisco to visit a sick girl friend (who unfortunately is married to someone else). He calls the train an emigrant train as it mainly moved Americans west, not newcomers to America. He took the train in 1879, which is nearly the same year that Fred took the train. His description of the trip took a little less than a week to go from Omaha to San Francisco. There were a lot of stops for coal and water. From the perspective of a passenger, these were dinner stops. There were also stops to allow other trains to pass. At six and a half days traversing the 1,668 miles, the average speed is 179 miles per day or 7.4 miles per hour including all of the stops. At this speed, it is doubtful that this is the train that he could walk beside.

“Cook’s train” is probably Dr. Dorsey Syng Baker’s train. This 30-mile line, called the Walla Walla and Columbia River Railroad, was completed October 23, 1875. It ran from Walla Walla to Wallula. (Incidentally both names are derived from the same Indian expression for many waters.). First Baker tried to get public financing for the railroad. The railroad was needed, but the public did not want to pay for it. So he attempted to build it with his own money. After surveying the route and finding the cost beyond reach, he looked for ways to save money. He used narrow gauge engines and cars to save money. Unfortunately this prevented connecting with other railroads which used the standard gauge. Another cost saving measure was to use wooden rails with strap iron nailed to the top, a common practice in the day. The story that he used rawhide on the track and that crews had to keep rebuilding track as coyotes gnawed away the rawhide is complete fiction.

From the internet:

Once the roadbed was graded and ties and rails were milled, crews went to work laying track. They laid ties on the roadbed and then laid the wooden rails on top of the ties. Then they secured a strap of iron one-half inch thick by two inches wide to the top of the rail. They drove spikes through the iron to hold it to the wooden rails. Then they bent the ends of the iron over the ends of each rail to help prevent the iron from curling up from friction by locomotive wheels. This didn’t always work; sometimes the iron worked its way loose and sprang up through the floorboards of the train cars. To prevent such “snakeheads,” engineers traveled very slowly over the rails. …Don’t be surprised at travel-time for this Promethean express between Wallula and Walla Walla: twenty-eight miles: seven hours.
…

Even so, he always looked for ways to save money. He did not build water tanks along the route, but instead crews had to take water from the river and streams with buckets. Frank Baker kept a sheep dog on the train to chase away cows that strayed onto the tracks. Initially he bought no passenger cars, so people rode on top of the grain sacks on flat cars. Eventually he had a passenger car built at the Wallula mill, nicknamed “The Hearse.” It had only small windows with benches along the sides.”

The speed of this train would be four miles an hour, or just about walking speed. So it could have been this railroad line that Fred was describing, instead of the emigrant train.

Once in Spokan Falls, Fred went to work for the Northern Pacific Railroad making railroad ties for one and a half cents a tie. He made up to 100 ties per day or $1.50. Once he turned 21, he was legally able homestead a place for himself. He could have settled in Spokan Falls, but being a good farmer he thought the land west of town near the present day town of Reardan was much better. In those days there was only a stage coach route that went from Spokan Falls though Cheney, Deep Creek Falls (the present day hamlet of Deep Creek), and Capp’s Station (north of the present day town or Reardan) on to Camp Spokane which we know today as Fort Spokane or Miles. This was a U. S. Army fortification to protect the settlers from Indian attacks strategically located at the confluence of the Spokane and Columbia rivers.

Fred built a small house and began to break out the land. He received a homestead land patent in 1889 and a timber culture patent on adjoining land in 1892. There were very few settlers were in this area when Mr. Mahrt located and he is well acquainted with the life of the pioneer, its hardships and labors.

In an undated letter (although before he got married in 1888), he wrote to his sister Mary Mahrt Koeller in Wisconsin:

<poem>

The grain tookey[?] good. I brok 32 acres this spring. I am plowing old ground now, but don't the dust fly. I look worse than a niger ever might. Why don't [sisters] Anna and Christina write. Is it because I am a bachelor and live in a dirty house and eat off dirty plates? I ain't got their address. I wrote a letter for Anna two months ago and I went over to John to get an address and he had none. Now if you sent me their address I shall thank you for it or give them my address so that they can write to me. This is all the news for this time and I wish you with my best respects,

Fred Mahrt
Capps P.O.
Lincoln, Co, Wash

Family tradition claims that Fred sold a half a quarter section of land to his brother John to finance the trip back to Wisconsin to find a wife in the fall of 1887. He got the homestead patent in 1887, so he could have sold the land to John, but this sale did not happen until 1891, three years later. Fred did take a mortgage on the property in December of 1887 for $600, so that is probably the money he used to finance his trip and to flash around young ladies to make prospective brides think that he was rich. Fred may have had to sell the land to John to pay back the mortgage.

In 1887 after his fall work was done, he went to Wisconsin and there married Miss Emma Steffen of Newburg, Washington county. They were married in Milwaukee and the ceremony was witnessed by two of his future brothers-in-law William Koeller (sister Mary’s husband) and Johann Wollerman (sister Anne’s husband). When he returned to Washington Territory, he sent the following letter to his new wife’s family:

Capps June 10th, 1888

Dear Friend

Since we left you we got on the Train at Cederburg and arived in Milwaukee. We only stayed their on the depot about 15 minutes and from their we took the C, M, St. P, R.R. [Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul Railroad] to St. Paul. We came to Lacross in the evening. the Missippi [Mississippi] River was very high and as we left their we had a thunder shower. We arived in St. Paul in the night at 12 o'clock. We stayed their until in the morning at eight o'clock.

And in the morning I was going to take a wash and I took my towell and soap and down stairs and washed and got my towell. It was raped up so nice I taught by my self this lookes like maried life, and I unfolded it and out on the floor dropded a nice little pair of baby socks. Now I can tell you Emma had her laugh. And on our way from their to Spokane Falls we seene a little snow throung Minisota but none in Dacota but lots of watter.

We arived in Spokane Falls thirsday Night at 12 o'clock. In the morning I found my Brother Henry on the Streets and we Started for home at wonce. and on our way home Emma seene a good many flowers and I had to stop and get some of them. We got home both in good helth and enjoyed the thrip very mutch. The next day we opened our thrunk. What do you supose Emma found in their. A pair of baby socks for her too. Then I had a good laugh at her too. She like it here purty well. She ain't been homesick yet.

I bought my old horses back from Henry agin and he went back on his rent and is working for me now. Besides them I bought three more horses.

They are working on the New rail Road (Branch of the Northern Pacific) two miles sought of me. I sold all my oats their $1.00 a hundred pounds. Wheat is 45 cents a bushell.

Now the flowers Emma got from your wife are in blosum now and is growing Nice.

It has been very drie this spring but we are having a good deal of rain now. The grain looks well. I have plowed 75 Acres since I have benn here and got 25 more too plow. I bought me a Sulkey plow this spring. It cost $65. It does good work. This is all the newes for this time.

And now I shall close my letter and send our best regards to you and your family.

Yours Thruley, Fred Mahrt, Capps P.O., Lincoln Co., Wash. T.

(Fred Mahrt, Capps Post Office, Lincoln County, Washington Territory)

In Wisconsin where Emma grew up, they had a lot of fun with neighborhood parties. There was dancing and music. Emma learned to play the accordion and was very good at playing old German songs like 'Waltzing on the Rhine'. She was also a natural artist and could draw any animal from memory in such a way that you could recognize the animal. Later in life she was visiting the home of her sister-in-law, Mrs. Henry (Anna) Mahrt, and kept looking out the window at a cow. On a reciprocal visit, Anna saw the drawing and recognized the cow to be her cow. Emma knew how to make a lovely basket by folding a sheet of paper. The basket had four splits, which could be filled with Easter eggs, etc. She taught her son William how to do this. In turn he taught his wife, and she used it for years teaching primary school children, including Emma’s granddaughter, Leah.

Fred and Emma’s first babies were the twins Anna Louisa and Margaret Wilhemine Mahrt born 1 Jan 1889, probably on the ranch. Emma had eleven children. Seven of her children lived to adulthood: the twins, Annie and Maggie, Willie, August, George, Florence, and Alice. Two others died very young. Her third child, a little girl name Dora died at age four years from eating poisoned wheat. Wheat was commonly treated, or poisoned, with blue stone to deter birds and animals from eating the seed after being planted. Another tragic death was her youngest son Harry, who was killed when a farm wagon ran over him. He was not quite two years old. Emma lost at least two more and possibly as many as four babies soon after birth. Two babies with no names are listed on Emma’s tombstone. Lincoln County has a record of a baby girl that lived five days before dying in 1896. A letter from grandmother Anna Johannsen Meyer mentions a baby girl born Sept 1900 that lived only one night. This is a total of thirteen children that Emma may have had. However, the babies listed in the tombstone may be the baby girls born in 1896 and 1900.

Emma had her first three children baptized in the Reardan Lutheran Church in 1891, but Fred finally rebelled and decided not to take his family to church any more. He believed that the church was only interested in collection contributions. It was an unfortunate decision that prevented spiritual renewal for Emma and cut off an important social interaction for people isolated on a lonely farm.

Like most people in those years, Emma worked hard. Born to immigrant parents, she never learned to speak English and always spoke German. She didn't want her children to learn her broken English, so she insisted that they speak German at home.

As long as Emma lived, Fred insisted in having his dairy farm. Perhaps this was a life long dream for a man born in Wisconsin, the dairy state, and whose ancestors came from Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, which developed Holstein cattle, the primary breed used in dairies to this day. The dairy was located in the heart of some of the finest wheat fields in the world. Lincoln County produces more wheat that all other counties in the country, except nearby Whitman County. While all of his neighbors were growing wheat, Fred had his dairy, sometimes as many as 60 head of Holstein cattle. Work on a dairy never stops. Cows must be milked twice a day, everyday, rain, snow, or shine.

Emma worked hard and helped with the farm, milking cows, making butter, gathering eggs, feeding the hogs and delivering the butter and eggs twice a week. She raised a large family, did the laundry, sewed clothes, hand pumped water, prepared meals on a wood stove, tended the garden, picked fruit, and canned fruit and vegetables for the long winter. After all of this, housework was not a priority. Eventually her health was ruined. Her doctor told her to drink whiskey for her heart and that lead to still worse problems.

In 1903 Fred and Emma bought another adjacent quarter from the Northern Pacific Railroad giving them a total of 400 acres.

From the History of the Big Bend Country, 1904:

Mr Mahrt has improved his estate with first class buildings, fences, orchard and so forth. About one hundred acres are devoted to pasture and the balance is all first class grain land. He started in the Big Bend country with very little capital and he has been rewarded for his thrift and industry and has a large holding at the present time. In addition to the other industries mentioned, Mr. Mahrt is handling a fifty-cow dairy, probably the largest in the county.

At the time of this picture the Fred Mahrt dairy farm consisted of about 60 head of Holstein dairy cattle, some of which are shown in center and right of picture. The area where the picture was taken was not the usual pasture area used by the dairy cattle, as they were kept in an area closer to the barns. Also the cows were not milked in the pasture as shown in picture, but were milked in the dairy barns. The milk was carried in buckets to the milk house (next to the main house), where the cream was separated from the milk to make butter. The skim milk was fed to the hogs. Twice a week (Tuesday and Friday) Fred and/or Emma took butter and eggs to Spokane to sell. This trip was 27 miles each way and was by horse drawn wagon, so this meant a very long day.

The central part of the storage barn (see below) was used as a granary to store hay and feed (bran and shorts) for livestock. This part also had room for a wagon to be driven inside through barn doors that divided into two parts from center and rode on rails above the doorframe. The picture shows the closed doors pushed outward a little. Attached to the side of storage barn is a horse shed that had “outlaw horses” purchased cheaply from neighbors who didn't want them. These horses were broke for farm use. On the other side of the storage barn another smaller shed housed horses and cattle.

The new big red barn (built about 1903 [and still stands today]) was not yet built, but lumber for it can be seen in the barns picture.

To the left of the barns is a creek (part of the headwaters of Crab Creek, supposedly the longest creek in the world). The creek often ran dry in the summer, so the main water supply for the farm came from two wells. These wells were hand operated until 1906 when Fred started using a gasoline engine to pump water. Fred never did use a windmill. One well was by the barns and was used for livestock; the other well was located between the milk house and main house and was used by the family.

Fred Mahrt family members in the picture below, from left to right, are: Annie, Florence, William ‘Willie’ , Maragret ‘Maggie’, mother Emma Steffen Mahrt holding baby Alice, August ‘Gus’ (almost hidden by bush), father Fred, and George. (Try to imagine this house in the winter of 1896-7 when it was occupied by four adults and eleven children when Emma’a parents and half siblings came for an extended 3 month visit.)

File:Pictures/10000000000007F8000005B97476E8606A669A63.jpgThere was a fence surrounding the main house, milk house, chicken house and orchard. The back of the house, where the family posed for this picture faced south and a county road. Fred's brother John Mahrt had a farm that was 1/2 mile east on this road and north one mile. From John's place you could go to Reardan by either of two directions. Between the house and road at Fred Mahrt's place were willow trees and maybe a few fruit trees.

On two sides of the house north and east was a large orchard, partially seen at right of picture. The orchard included: apple, pear, apricot, and cherry trees. They also raised raspberries, gooseberries, currants, black caps and strawberries. People used to come and pick berries by halves (half for themselves free, and other half they gave to Mahrt family). By this arrangement the Mahrts canned enough berries to last the family for a year. The Mahrts picked their fruit trees themselves.

A path led from the entrance to the main house (north side) east through orchard and on east through a gate in the fence to a large enclosed garden area where most varieties of vegetables were grown for family use. Seeds were planted with a hand operated planter. Fred grew lots of root vegetables and put them through a root cutter to make them into strips. These root vegetables were fed to the horses and cattle along with their hay, bran and shorts. Willie and others helped milk cows, churn butter and wash clothes by cranking a washing machine by hand.

On the north side of the house (see left in picture) the milk house doorway faced the doorway entrance to main house with a water well in between. The main industry of the farm was the dairy from which butter and eggs were delivered twice a week to Spokane. Carlo, the dog, sitting on the west side of house . There was a pathway that led from milk house down to the chicken house where a gate opened to the cattle barns. Sometimes Fred butchered 2 or 3 hogs and sold them to a butcher shop in Spokane. The hogs were fed the skimmed milk, plentiful on this dairy farm. They raised practically everything they ate on the farm.

Emma died in 1906 of typhoid pneumonia and heart failure at the young age of 36 years. Her death seemed to doom the farm. Emma died without a will, so half of the land was Fred’s and half went to the children. After a long probate, Fred bought the children’s interest and sold the homestead quarter and half the timber culture quarter to Albert C. and Louella Plaster in 1914 and the railroad quarter to his sister Mary and William Koeller in 1915. The land was reunited when the two buyers’ children, Irma Koeller and Robert Roy Plaster, were married in 1915 and began to farm the land. The land remains in the hands of two of Roy and Irma’s daughters, Fred’s grand-nieces.

Fred moved to Sherman County, OR to a wheat farm and for some years during World War I made a lot of money, but eventually as the children became old enough he divided the money from the estate among them. Later during the depression he lost everything he had.

Fred lived with is son William from about 1925 off and on through 1929 or 1930. Some of that time they lived in Hardman, Oregon in Morrow County. They had a three-acre plot in this small village where there was only about two stores, a post office and a garage run by William. William’s wife Myrtle taught school there for about six years. Fred used to take care of a crazy cow and had some Leghorn chickens. He always had a wonderful garden and he loved to work with the soil. He grew wonderful cabbages, potatoes, carrots, rutabagas, anfees? beans, peas, and beets. At the county fair he received blue ribbons for his vegetables. At the time Fred didn't have to do anything he didn't want to do and he received a great deal of enjoyment from his garden, chickens, and cow. He had been sick in the hospital before coming to live with William and he said he never felt better than when he was with them. He was a big man—six feet with big square shoulders. He always had a beard. He never was very religious, but one time when William and Myrtle were away, he sent his granddaughter Leah to a Sunday school. He knew Myrtle would want Leah to go. He used to buy a big hog and process it and there was never such good eating. He surely knew how to fix meat. He also used to make sour bread and dill pickles.

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Fred was broke and living with his daughter Florence in Arcata, California when he died in 1932. His brother, John Mahrt, paid to have his body shipped to Reardan, Washington where he was buried in an unmarked grave beside to his wife Emma and infant children.

The twins Annie and Margaret married two Gillette brothers, Fred and Edward, who farmed immediately south of Reardan on the Davidson Homestead Quarter at the base of the Reardan Butte. These marriages did not last and both girls remarried. The older two boys August and George served in World War I. August served as an Army Private in the 74th Spruce Squadron. When the United States entered the war, their European counterparts had been in the war for several years and had advanced the science of flight to where it becoming a dominating force. The US had to play catch-up as they largely ignored the invention of flight. Aircraft of the day were built with lightweight wooden frames covered with fabric. The wood of choice was Sitka spruce, because it was a straight-grained knot-free wood, which resulted in a lot of strength and little weight. For the war effort the federal government created the US Spruce Corporation, a government agency, to run saw mills for spruce and hemlock. The government built a network of railroads to bring the cut logs from the forest to the sawmills. To provide the manpower, the government inducted draftees into Spruce Squadrons of the Army. August was a mechanic charged with keeping trucks in operation and he never left the states during the war. In a letter to one of his sisters, he wrote, “I have never seen so much mud.” After the war August continued being a mechanic in Oregon. He married Ida Bowen, and had one son, August Jr., before dying in 1922. Ida married his brother George and they raised August Jr. and two of their own children, Robert and Vivian. George also died young in 1937 due to respiratory problems, possibly from complications from exposure to poisonous gas attacks during WWI.

William moved to Oregon. He was an electrical contractor and ran a small electrical utility generating power with diesel generators. Alice became a nurse.

Prince Homestead Quarter (NE ¼ Section 30)

George Prince homesteaded this quarter. He occupied the land in March 1883 and completed the improvement requirements for homesteading on 15 Nov 1889, just four days after Washington became a state. This makes him one of the first five settlers in the township surrounding Reardan. In 1895 he sold to W. G Estep, who in 1897 sold to L. W. Moody, who sold to Chris Janett, who in 1901 sold to W. H. Childs. John Mahrt bought the place in 1908 and it has been in his family ever since. It is not clear when the house and other buildings were built, but if they were built by Prince, they would be one of the oldest standing buildings around Reardan.

Prince Place around 1910

At the urging of her brothers, John, Fred and Henry Mahrt, William and Mary Koeller decided to move from Milwaukee to Reardan in October 1905. It was felt that the climate was healthier than Milwaukee where four other Mahrt sisters had died before their 30^th birthdays. They moved with their children Roy, Edwin, Emil, and Irma. It is believed that they first lived in the Prince house before moving to the Buckman place. They may have rented from Mr. Childs. According to family lore, the house was ‘old’ even back then.

While the Koellers lived at the Prince place, they boarded at least one school teacher for the Locust Grove School, a mile and a half away. The last teacher of the school, Evelyn Dobbler, married Edwin Plaster who grew up and lived most of his life next door to the school.

Near June 20, 1908, probably the Reardan Gazette:

LITTLE GIRL MEETS DEATH IN FLAMES

Adopted Daughter of Wm. Koeller Fatally Burned by Falling in a Pile of Hot Ashes

Evelyn Ferch, the four-year old adopted daughter of Wm Koeller, was fatally burned last Saturday evening about six o’clock, and death relieved the sufferings of the little one five hours later.

As there were no eyewitnesses at the time the child’s dress caught fire, it is thought that she fell on a pile of hot ashes and her dress caught fire in that manner. Mr. Koeller had been cooking potatoes for the stock, and after he had finished the task scraped the hot ashes out from beneath the tub and poured water on them. He did not have enough water to completely extinguish the fire, but did not think the blaze would start again.

He went into a shed and was mixing the feed for the stock, and as Mr. Koeller is a helpless cripple, the little child was continually at his side, ever ready to perform some favor for him. At the time the fatal accident occurred, the child had been sent back to the tub near the fire for a dipper left there. She was gone but a short time when Mr. Koeller heard her screaming. He managed to get out of the shed and seen the girl coming around the corner of the building with her clothes in a blaze. Owing to his helpless condition Mr. Koeller could not reach the child so called to the house for his wife, who rushed out and smothered the flames with her dress and hands. But it was too late, as the flames had burned the little one all over the body excepting the feet.

Dr. Dean was hastely summoned and everything was done to alleviate the sufferings of the child, but of no avail and she died that night at 11 o’clock.

She was a healthy and beautiful child and a great favorite in the Koeller home. She was born in Milwaukee, where her father and three brothers are still living, but they are unable to get here in time for the funeral which was held Tuesday.

Otto and Meta Mahrt (John’s son) lived in the house and farmed the land at least from the 1920’s through the 1940’s. Otto graduated from Reardan High School in 1915. Otto was left this quarter upon John’s death. Meta was a Wegner from another Reardan pioneer family. They had three children: one an infant that lived one a few days, Roger who was a pilot in WWII and disappeared over the south Pacific, and Helen who married Ed Kasten, a Lutheran minister. All are buried at Reardan. Ed and Helen's two children have both passed, Tim is buried at Reardan.

Next on the farm were tenant farmers, Herman and Sylvia Ahlf, They lived there in the 50’s and 60’s until about 1968 and raised two boys: Ron and Ken. Two of Herman’s sisters, Edith and Estella, married two of Meta Wegner Mahrt’s brothers, Otto and Emil. The Ahlfs were also raised on the Davidson Homestead Quarter just south of Reardan at the base of the Reardan Butte.

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Prince Place around 2010.

The Nelson family rented the place in the early 1970’s. The barn burned down in the fall of 1971 where 'Spud' was raising pigs for an FFA project. Bob and Penny Piper lived there during the late 1970’s and into the 1980s. The house was insulated and the interior extensively remodeled. The house, buildings, and pasture land were separated from the farm land and sold around 1986.

Rice Homestead Quarter (NW ¼ Section 28) and Railroad Quarter (SW ¼ Section 21).

This story is based on research, mostly on the Internet and public records. All errors are mine. Notes or items for further research are indicated with square brackets.

Jeremiah Farmer Rice was born in Missouri in 1843. He is the old second child to Charles Coleman Rice and Jane Powell. Their first child, a daughter had died as an infant. After their fifth child was born, Charles may have caught "gold fever" and moved his family California. Instead of going to the gold fields near Sacramento, Charles settled near Upper Lake, California. The records only indicate Missouri as Jeremiah's place of birth, although his siblings were born in Jackson county, Missouri. In all Charles and Jane had ten children; the last five of which were born in California.

Emily White Rice tombstone in Lakeport, California [findagrave.com]

While in California Jeremiah married Emily P. White and they have at least two children, Charles P. and Gertrude. Charles was born in Denverton, California. Emily died in 1881 at age 30 and is buried in Lakeport, California some 100 miles from Denverton where Charles was born. [Jeremiah is in a Big Valley California 1880 census. need to check where Big Valley is and who was living with him at the time.]

Jeremiah moved with his two children to Reardan. He filed a Receivers’ Receipt to reserve this quarter of land in January of 1888 and a year later he got the homestead land patent. He also had a timber culture quarter granted in 1893 (see Rice Timber Culture). Timber cultures were supposed to take 10 years, so that would have put his arrival in 1883. However, there were some exceptions to the law for homesteaders. Figuring that a homestead took five years, it would have put his arrival to the land in 1884, although he does not appear in the 1885 census. In 1889 Reardan itself was established with the completion of the railroad between Spokane and Grand Coulee and Washington qualified for statehood.

Jeremiah married his second wife, Sarah B. Robison Glassburn, in November 1886. Both he and Sarah appear in the 1887 census as living on this land with Jeremiah’s two children from his first marriage, Charles and Gertrude. Sarah was a neighbor living about a mile and a half away when her husband died in 1885. Jeremiah served as the executor of his estate (see the Arius Glassburn/Bowen Quarter). Sarah had at least two minor children at the time, but no record of what became of them has been found.

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This photo was taken from what is now the Plaster Road looking east. The Rice barn is to the left and the Rice home is to the right.

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This photo was taken cross the road from the Plaster home. In the background to the left of the car is the Locust Grove schoolhouse and to the right of the car is the Rice home and windmill.

The homestead included a home, windmill, cistern, and barn in the southwest corner of the homestead quarter. The wooden cistern burned down around 1950 and the barn collapsed around 1985. There also was a grove of black locust trees, some of which stand today. It is possible that these trees were to qualify his separate timber culture property/ (See also Rice Timber Culture.) On the Plaster land just south of this grove, a school house was built known as the Locust Grove School. This school continued until consolidated into the Reardan Schools.

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Jeremiah Rice gravestone in the Reardan Cemetery

When Jeremiah died in 1898 at age 55, he was buried at Reardan. His will describes three quarters in his estate -- the homestead quarter (this quarter), [[Rice Timber Culture Quarter (SE ¼ Section 30)|a timber culture quarter (SE ¼ Section 30)] and the Rice Railroad Quarter (SW ¼ Section 20) that he purchased from the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1889. He left the homestead quarter to his wife, the railroad quarter to his daughter Gertrude and the timber culture quarter to his son Charles.

After Jeremiah's death Sarah remarried again, this time to Manuel Glassburn (a second cousin of her first husband), and in 1905 sold her quarter to John Hughes who in turn sold the land immediately to A. C. Plaster for a 4% profit. A. C. and Luella’s son Roy farmed this quarter. Roy and his wife, Irma Koeller, the daughter of William and Mary Koeller, lived in this house between their marriage in 1915 until their home was built on the Fred Mahrt homestead quarter in 1917. More information about Sarah and Manuel is told with the Glassburn/Bowen Quarter.

Jeremiah's daughter, Gertrude, married Victor Imhoff, a Reardan neighbor, who became a train dispatcher first in Spokane and later in Fresno, CA. She had two children, Roy and Myrtle [probably born in 1902 in Spokane]. She sold the railroad quarter to John Mahrt in 1909. She died in 1964.

Charles’ story is told with the Rice Timber Culture Quarter (SE ¼ Section 30).

Franz Homestead Quarter (SE ¼ Section 28)

This quarter was homestead by Charles Franz (from Germany) in 1892. He and his wife Vinie (from Iowa) had two children Fannie (born in Iowa) and George (born in Washington Territory, probably on this place). The sheriff took possession of the property (perhaps for back taxes) and sold the land to the American Mortgage Company in 1895. Eventually William Sherman owned the land and sold it to William Sumerlin on May 4, 1899, who with his wife, Lucretia, turned around and sold it a year later to Albert Plaster on January 8, 1900.

Little more is known about the Franz family or the location of their homestead buildings.

Plaster Homestead Quarter (SW ¼ Section 28)

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Samuel Whaling Plaster at age 66 and his wife Jane homesteaded this quarter in 1886. The photos of the couple were taken around the time that homestead was granted. He was born in Virginia in 1820. She was born in 1830 in Ohio. They were married in 1847 in Edgar, Illinois. He served as a sergeant in the Union Army in the Missouri Engineers building fortifications on the Mississippi River. They owned land in Illinois before and after the Civil War where they farmed before moving out to Washington Territory.

fig:Emigration is sometimes a family affair. Sam and Jane’s youngest son Albert moved with his parents and married a local Washington Territory girl, Luella Robinson. When her father, James Boardman Robinson and his wife Sarah Ferguson moved to Washington Territory in 1883 all but one of their twelve children followed and who in turn helped populate eastern Washington. (James, Sarah and several of Luella’s siblings are buried at Reardan.)

Samuel’s nephew John also settled near Reardan. John came out west in 1886 after the death of his father in January and his first wife in April. By November he bought the quarter of land (SW¼ Section 2 Township 24N Range 39E Willamette meridian about two and a half miles southeast of Samuel’s homestead. By 1890 he went back to his native Missouri where he married his dead wife’s sister and started to raise a second family of eight kids. In 1893 he sold the land to a Missouri neighbor. Although John did not stay long in the Territory, he did maintain contact with his cousin Albert.

Samuel and Jane were also followed by their youngest daughter, Kate. She married a slick dandy, Leland Westfall. They homesteaded land north of Spokane in 1891 and a year later decided to plat their land that was adjacent to the new railroad yards for Jim Hill’s Great Northern Pacific Railroad. This land became known as Hillyard, WA. About this same time Leland fathered two children with her niece, so Kate divorced him and moved to Cheney with her parents Samuel and Jane. After recovering emotionally, she decided to move further west to find a healthier place to live. She helped to found the town of Riverside, WA (just north of Omak) and served as Riverside’s first postmistress and married Dan Edwards in 1896.

From The Cheney Free Press, Cheney, Washington, May 18, 1900.

Mr. and Mrs. S. W. Plaster, late of Reardan, for many years residents of Cheney, have gone to Riverside, Okanogan county, to visit their daughter, Mrs. D. J. Edwards. They will reside there permanently if Mr. Plaster's health is improved.

From The Cheney Free Press, Cheney, Washington, June 22, 1900.

Death of Samuel W. Plaster

S. W. Plaster, one of the early pioneers of this section, died Friday evening, June 15, at the home of his daughter, Mrs. D. J. Edwards, at Riverside, Okanogan county, Wash., in the 80th year of his age. He had for several years been a sufferer from diabetes. He passed into a state of unconsciousness on Tuesday and remained in this condition until his death. His faithful wife was by his side.

Deceased came to this county in 1883 from Illinois and settled three miles northwest of Cheney. He sold his well improved farm two years ago and moved into this city. Last summer he removed to Reardan, and only a few weeks ago went to Riverside. He leaves a wife, two sons and three daughters. A. C. Plaster of Reardan is his son.

Mr. Plaster was an honest, industrious and hard-working man, respected by all who knew him. He was a member of the Methodist church.

Samuel Plaster was one of the first burials in the Riverside Cemetery. His wife Jane, daughter Martha and son-in-law Sam Albright, Sr. are also buried there.

In 1889 Samuel Plaster sold the homestead to his son Albert. About ten years later there is this curious set of transactions. In December 1898, Albert sells the land to John Bets for $1600 and then a few months later in April of 1899, Albert’s wife, Luella, buys the land back for $1000. During the intervening time, the Plasters did not own any land in Lincoln County and the Plaster’s address at the time was Cheney—a long way away to be taking care of horses and other livestock on the farm. John Betz is also interesting. He was a Civil war veteran from Illinois involved in the campaigns on the Mississippi River. This may have been the bond with the elder Plaster. He had several sons including two, George and John W., who farmed in the Mondovi area, Albert and Christian who farmed near Cheney, and Edward, who farmed for a while before turning to becoming the president of the National Bank of Cheney in 1908 and had an elementary school named after him in 1957. One son helped found the Cheney Rod Weeder Company, a farm implement manufacturer and whose rod weeders were used throughout eastern Washington to help conserve precious moisture for wheat crops. There seems to be more to the land transactions than what is recorded with the deeds. There may have been a requirement to not own land when purchasing foreclosed property. Mr. Betz may have needed to own the land for some reason and was willing to pay a price for owning it for three months in the middle of winter. The true answer may never be known.

Over the next few years, Albert and Luella accumulated farm land for their sons, Edward and Robert Roy. In 1900 and 1901 they bought the Sprague and Franz quarters immediately to the west and east of their homestead property. In 1905 they picked up the Rice homestead quarter just to the north. In 1914, they picked up a quarter and an eighth from Fred Mahrt to complete their Reardan area holdings. They also bought land between Reardan and Davenport.

Edward Plaster remained on the main part of the land, although he lived on the quarter just across the road from the homestead quarter. He married Evelyn Dobler, who was the last school teacher at the Locust Grove school.

Roy Plaster married Irma Koeller, daughter of William and Mary Koeller, mentioned elsewhere in these stories. After their marriage in 1915 they lived in the house on the Rice quarter, while a new home was built on the Fred Mahrt homestead quarter. This home was completed in 1917.

Figure 5 Summary of rod weeder patent

Sprague Railroad Section (All of Section 29)

This property has a few distinctions. First it is the only section in the township that was sold intact as a complete section. But this happened at a cost, the property was foreclosed upon at least twice and eventually broken up into more manageable pieces. Otis Sprague was the first person to own the land, buying it from the Northern Pacific Railroad in 1886. Later the land was in the hands of the Northwestern and Pacific Hypotheekbank of the Netherlands implying that the land was foreclosed upon, and the NE quarter was sold to John Mahrt on May 2, 1888. This is just before John bought the west half of the SE quarter of section 20 from his brother Fred (these two quarters lie on opposite sides of a road (then the Mahrt Road, now the Rice Road). The records say that the county sold the entire section in 1897 and 1898 again to the Northwestern and Pacific Hypotheekbank of the Netherlands [probably less the NE ¼ that John already owned]. [Some land transactions are missing.]

John Mahrt bought the NW ¼ on December 18, 1900.

The SW ¼ was sold to James Heard in 1900. This quarter along with the adjoining quarter NW ¼ of 32 were sold to Richard Gerken in 1902. Richard Gerken sold this to Amila Gerken in 1904.

Albert C. Plaster bought the SE ¼ on Febuary 9, 1901. This is the land where the Plaster home, farm buildings and barn are today. (Only a grain elevator and school house remain across the road on the homesteaded quarter. A strip along the southern edge of the quarter was sold to Richard Gerken in 1905 for a road to his buildings.

The Plaster buildings were the only buildings that were ever in this section of land.

Rice Timber Culture Quarter (SE ¼ Section 30)

The evidence for this place is not very good, but it makes a nice story. Again this is a product of an active imagination, the internet, public records and some additional research by Sandra Brommer Whalen.

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In the 1911 Atlas of Lincoln County, the road from Fred Mahrt’s place to the Edwall Road has a kink in it that was removed sometime before the late 1920’s. This road would have turned south of the existing road and followed the fence line that goes over the hill just east of the grainary and machine shed on the Prince place. In half a mile the road turned west and ended at what is now the Detour Road at the Edwall Road. Also according to the atlas, there was a house at the corner and the land was owned by Lulu J. Rice.

This land was the timber culture quarter for Jeremiah Rice, who homesteaded a mile to the east. Originally the Timber Culture Act required 40 acres to be planted in trees to get 160 acres of land. Over the years the law was modified to make some exemptions, so only 10 acres of trees would need to be planted for a homesteader. The Timber Culture Act eventually was rescinded due to the amount of fraudulent abuse.

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The land was willed to Jeremiah’s son, Charles, when Jeremiah died in 1898. Charles died just two years later in 1900 and is also buried at Reardan. He married Lulu Jane Crow in 1896 and had three children (Hazel, Floyd, Cecil). Charles may have built, or started to build, a home here, either shortly after getting married or after his father’s death. This home was shown on the 1911 atlas. In the 1910 census there is a Josesph Bowman, his wife Emma or Alvina, and daughter Bessie, living on the Mahrt Road shared by the Fred Mahrt and William Koeller families. This almost has to be this same house.

Lulu remarried George Clother (widower of Jennie Anderson, also buried in the Reardan Cemetery) in 1902 at Spokane. George Clother, age 13, was living with Jeremiah and Sarah Rice in 1887. He would have been a year younger than Lulu. Jeremiah's own children, Charles and Gertrude, are not living with him that year. In the 1910 census, Lulu is again using the name Lulu Rice, states she is widowed and lives in Spokane with her three kids. George Clother lived elsewhere in Spokane. Also in 1910 Lulu, using the name Lulu Clother, is purchasing property in Stevens County adjacent to Thomas Crow. [Could this be her brother or father?] In the 1916 probate documents Lulu is married to Augustus Imhoff and living in Fresno, CA with children Hazel and Floyd. Cecil was in the military in 1920. As of the 1930 census, Augustus and Lulu are living with daughter Hazel, her husband, Aldis Webb, and their son and foster daughter in Long Beach, CA.

At the time of death in 1900, Charles owned “three work horses, geldings, two work horses, mares, one gelding unbroken, one milch cow, three head of hogs, two sets of harnesses, one buggy and single harness, two farm wagons, one bob sled, heavy, one bob sled, light, one fanning mill, one gang plow, one new 18 inch disc seeder, one six-horse drag harrow, one-half interest in a Hodge steel header, one-half interest in a wheat stacker, one-half interest in a McCormick binder and the real property.” The description of the real property does not mention buildings.

The property is in limbo until January 1916. Since Charles died without a will the property passes to his wife Lulu and their three children. Because the children are not of age, they cannot sell the property and neither can Lulu. She goes back to the court to get a court ordered real estate sale. The high bidder turns out to be Gertrude Rice Imhoff, Lulu’s former sister-in-law. She signs the papers as Lulu Rice Imhoff. (The two sister-in laws are using the same last name and both move to California.)

Gertrude quickly sold to other neighbors, Adolph and Edwin Anderson, a few days later. Adolph gave up his claim on the land in 1938.

The Bowen Railroad Quarter (NE ¼ of Section 33)

This quarter originally purchased from Northern Pacific Railroad by George Bowen in April 1884. He sold the following year to Arius and Sarah Glassburn. He was born to David and Mary “Polly” Glassburn in Ohio. Sarah was born in Ohio to Joseph and Nancy (Cook) Robison.

Arius died in 1885 at age 43. He was buried in the Medical Lake cemetery. At the time of his death there was no cemetery at Reardan, so Medical Lake may have been one of the closest cemeteries. It is also possible that he was buried in the Deep Creek cemetery that was moved in the 1930’s to Medical Lake.

The probate for his estate took several years. Arius and Sarah Glassburn have two boys (George, born 1875 in Iowa and L. age 16 years born Illinois) according to the 1885 census. [This would put L’s birth about 1879. According to Rootsweb, there was a daughter, Mabel, born in 1864 in Illinois. She would have been 21 when Arius died. Rootsweb has no record of “L.”] So when Sarah took control of the other half of the property in 1898, G. would have been 23 years old. A widowed neighbor living a mile away, Jeremiah Rice, served as the administrator to the will. Sarah and Jeremiah were married in 1886. There is no record of the boys living with their mother after she remarries.

Sarah sold to Annie Jerard in 1894. (Annie must have been sure the title was good, although there are several transactions between Sarah and Jeremiah Rice recorded in 1894 and an affidavit to David Glassburn [probably Arius’ brother or his father, who died in 1895] in 1895. David was probably looking after the interest of the two boys. Unfortunately the probate file, that is supposed to be kept by the Lincoln County Clerk, was checked out in 1922 and not returned.

Annie sold the quarter to Gustav Wendlandt on 6 Nov 1914. The property remains in the Wendlandt family.

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Jeremiah Rice died in 1898 (see Rice homestead). Sarah marries again, this time to Manuel Glassburn on 14 January 14, 1903. Manuel is a second cousin to Arius. This is Manuel’s second marriage, so again Sarah is assisting with raising children. By 1910 they are living in Cunningham, a settlement near Connell, WA.

Sarah and Manuel are buried in the Medical Lake cemetery with Arius. Sarah died in 1916 and Manuel in 1940. The tombstones of both Manuel and Arius include Sarah as their wife, but only Manuel's tombstone includes Sarah's dates.

fig:Manuel had seven children by his first wife. His fifth child, Edward, married Hazel Ayers. They had at least on child, Hazel, who married Clark Cordill and they had at least two children including Colleen, who married Terry Snow, who was raised in the Reardan area and provided legal services. So Colleen’s great grandfather was Manuel Glassburn. Sarah B. would be a step great grandmother, who just happened to the Jeremiah Rice's second wife. Arius Glassburn would be Colleen’s second cousin thrice removed.

The Glassburn family tree is interesting. They were originally the Glassbrenner family from Germany. If all of the relationships could be proven that are on the internet, one branch of the family includes the Carpenters who can be traced back to the original colony at Rhode Island. William Carpenter was one of the charter members of Roger William's Baptist Church in America and had one of the first recorded deeds in Rhode Island. He married Elizabeth Arnold on the ship on the way to America. Elizabeth's brother is Benedict Arnold, the infamous traitor. The notes on this family that can be found on the Internet tracing back through the generations claiming to have descended from William the Conqueror, Charlaemagne, and Joseph of Arimathea, an uncle of Jesus.

About the author: Kirk Carlson is a great grandchild of William and Mary Koeller and Albert and Louella Plaster. He grew up on his great great uncle Fred Mahrt’s homestead and went to school with many Mahrt, Koeller, Ensor, Wegner, and Wendlandt decendants. Much of the text was adapted from interviews by Leah Mahrt with her father William in 1978. William was a son of Fred Mahrt.