Lillian (Cox) Davey/Lawsha

Note to readers: What follows is a typed version of a story that Lillian Davey Lawsha wrote in cursive script. No attempts have been made to edit the article. Some words have been added in brackets to make the work more easily read. Where Lillian’s work could not be understood blanks are left. Now the story….

Lillian June Cox, Davey Lawsha born June 1913 June 8 in Tieton in the family home without a doctor. Born were twins. I lived but the other (named Leona) only lived 48 hours. Buried in an old grave yard in Cowiche. We each weighed 2 lbs and 7 months premature.

My mother Eva Bond Cox, my father Manely James Cox. My mother fed me with an eye dropper and milk from her breast every hour. Bathed me with oil and kept me wrapped with cotton, I slept for 2 months. She always slept at night with me.

(It was) something in those days to raise a baby the size (of me). No wonder my mother was always protective of me. The brothers and sisters called me mother’s pet, but I never felt that I was.

My mother said “Her wedding ring went on to my arm and fit. My head size was the size of a cup”, Mother wanted to be able to explain to me the size I was if I lived. I saw a baby one time in an incubator in Pasco. I stood and watched it quite a while, couldn’t believe how my mother did what she did.

I started to school at 6 years of age in a small 3 room school house my father helped to build, stayed there through the 5th grade. The school house by then had two more rooms. At grade 6, I entered the big rock building and graduated in 1932.

In 1933 I married Walter William Davey and lived in a house owned by his grandpa Perin. He worked for him by the hour at 15 cents, 10 hours a day. That was when the Token was used, if you missed ½ hr you got that taken off your wages 7 ½ cents.

The house had a faucet with running water from a cistern on the hill, but no phone, no hot water, no bathroom only the toilet across the spillway by our house. No electricity and didn’t get electricity until we had lived there 12 years and then had to pay for the poles (no car when first married) had to ride with grandpa Perin to get groceries. I wish I could remember the year of the car that experience was something else.

After getting electricity we were able then to have a refrigerator and washing machine. All these years I had been washing in a tub and wash board heating water on the stove and line ourselves to get it.

Janet was born 1934. We worked and lived in that house until we built on in 1945. By that time we had bought the ranch from grandpa Perin and paid for it by crop payments. We saved 5 thousand dollars when we started to build, to finish the job we had to borrow 7 thousand. I worked in a warehouse until Lois was born. We needed more money to live through the winter months because if the weather didn’t allow Walter to work we didn’t get paid. I started out checking and sorting apples in a warehouse until I learned to pack, and got 5 cents a packed box, and packed 150 or 200 boxes in a 10-hour day. Even packed when I was pregnant, not allowed but I managed to get by because I wore large loose clothes.

Lois was born 1945 Walter died in September 1949 just started harvesting the crop, he had a severe heart attack.

1951 Erwin Herbert Lawsha married me and my family also bringing with him his girl Karen 9 years old. Walter had built a tractor out of an old truck (I bought with my packing money) Slim didn’t enjoy trying to drive it, so he brought a Ford tractor up to this time we had used houses on the ranch to do the work, the tractor was very much appreciated. At that time he paid all my bills, 7 thousand the borrowed money for the house, Paid 7 hundred and paid off my lawyer. We built the house for 12 thousand. We hired one carpenter and worked with him every day or the house would have cost more.

When I married Slim I knew him for 20 years but didn’t know his name when I went to pay him for work (Gale Lawsha was born July 5, 1952-Doris born April 1939) I couldn’t write him a check to just Slim. When we went to get the marriage license I had to ask him the name of Erwin.

Sold the ranch in 1960, bought 14 apartments in Pasco. Sold the apartments in 1966. Bought a mobile home and moved to a mobile court in Pasco. Moved to Selah 1969. Moved to Sun Country Estates in November 1983.

Old thoughts of my life, fun, work, school and etc. About 1930 Bobbie socks became popular. Three of us girls decided to wear them to school. Well the principle was going to expel us, we went to the superintendent (which was a woman) and she decided we could stay from then on that was what we wore, only summer months. We wore wool stockings in winter and real silk for good if we had any. When we got a run we always mended by sewing or working it up with a crochet hook. For fun we played in straw piles dug holes and made a play house on the inside it’s a wonder they didn’t cave in on us. We made houses out of apple boxes a lot. One time babe and I decided to cook our supper over a pumpkin with a candle lite. We fried apples mine turned out pretty good but Babe’s was a mess. We made whistles from a new wood from the willow tree, cut a piece the right length tapped it with something hard until the bark loosened and we could slip it off. We then cut the under piece to make the whistle then put the bark back on.

May 1st was a special day for us kids. We would make May baskets and decorate them then in the evening before dark we would fill the baskets with wild flower we had picked. Put them on our neighbors’ door, knock, run and hide. They would find us and hand a treat for us. Something that has been forgotten from the past, I don’t see the wild flowers that grew then, anymore. Violets, blue grass flowers

We played a lot in the corn fields and the open fields, games with several of the neighbor kids one called run sheep run played that one a lot. Chose up sides, had two leaders ……..turns a caught…….hide our group and the…….other group and ….in the dirt and we would…….the map to find the groups. First home would win. Played that a lot.

We had eighth grade exams to pass before going to high school, put out by the county. I didn’t pass in arithmetic so had to take it over. Lorena passed me a story problem or I guess I would still be there. Lorena helped several other kids. Don’t know how we cheated and didn’t; get caught. I went on to high school and took the exam too.

Several of our neighbors we called aunt because we and no relatives living close and I guess they served the purpose.

My clothes my mother made all thru the grades. When I was in high school I worked in the orchard and fields and warehouses and made my own money. Bought some and sewed some myself. I saved my money and sometimes had to help the folks. My hiding place was the flour bin. Wrapped the money in a piece of paper and rolled it up and put a rubber band to hold only for mother knew where I kept it.

Before going to school each morning I had 1 cow to milk and sometimes more. Changed into school clothes and caught the bus at the end of our road. If I missed I had to walk to school and that I did many times (about 3 miles). Our shoes, we had 1 pair wore them a long time and when needed repair work. My father had tools and put on new soles or heels or sewed them. Then wore them for as long as they stayed together. In summer we went bare foot a lot.

I learned to swim in a small irrigation ditch that ran through our place. We didn’t have suits so swam in our dresses and pants. We kept digging the ditch deeper all the time until we could swim well enough to go to the big ditch that was by our place. The water was really cold but we got used to it and would stay in all afternoon.

My sister Lorena and I did a lot of the cooking our mother had a lot of outside chores to do; she raised chickens turkeys in the hundreds.

We raised all our own food only bought flour and sugar. We canned fruit and vegetables and meat when we butchered, also dried a lot on a dryer my father built with wire trays and a large one. We dried corn by hanging the cut corn in a flour sack. My home was also without bathroom, toilet, electricity, and phone. Only two bedrooms so the girls had to sleep in the same room as my parents slept. I hated that very much. I never felt that I could have friends stay overnight. We had several slumber parties during the summer months, sleeping on a canvas and blankets on the lawn.

Started keeping house after my marriage with a bed given to us by Walter’s folks. Bought on time an unpainted table and 4 chairs. 1 rocking chair if we needed more chairs the apple box always served the purpose.

Just remembered that we used a tube of white paint to put under our finger nails to make them white. Did this in my teens like they do now.

The school bus started out a covered wagon with straw in the bottom and a small kerosene stove to keep us warm. The wagon was drawn by two horses. Then next was a covered wagon a little larger drawn by 4 horses and 6 in the winter months. I got to drive sometimes (real fun with 4 horses). From there we went to a model T truck covered, seats down both sides and in the center. Got stuck in the mud often and had to walk on to school. Once I remember all of playing in a straw pile, was late at school of course and covered with straw. You need to know in those days no roads had gravel just plain sand and lots of mud.

An exciting day that we looked forward to was when a pig or a beef was butchered because we got to watch and help scrape the pig. It was shot and then put into a tank of boiling water and it was then we had scrapers and we scraped the hair off. When a beef was butchered we took bladder and blew it up and let it dry and then used it for a ball to play different games with. When it was time to butcher the turkeys that took all day and sometimes more than one. The turkeys were hung by feet and killed by cutting a slit in the top of their throat. There was then a rack held by a were attached to their throat. They bled to death while we picked the feathers off. I thought there was surely a better way to do it, but they needed to look real nice for market. We worked in the barn. It took sometime 3 days. Mother raised a lot of turkeys and that was one way to make money. We sold a lot of berries of all kinds and a lot of vegetables from the garden. The orchard wasn’t yet producing fruit so we had to make money the best way we could. Get up early and work late that is how I grew up. Something the grandkids will never see. The horses and cows we doctored them, never called a vet. If one of the cows bloated, we had to get their front feet higher than the back ones and start punching them in a certain spot and try to get them to belch if they didn’t then the next thing was to use a trocar and stick them to let the gas off. If one of the stocks cut them on something, we sewed it up ourselves and used medicine on the cut to help it heal. I herded cows a lot in the open fields and usually rode the pony it was a long-hot-days.

When we butchered our father would give us the bladder and we would blow it up and let it dry and used it for a ball. Have you ever watched a chicken lay an egg (I have). If I wanted something to do I would get several girls together and we would take a sack lunch and climb Mt. Clemons, did that many items and each time would pick a different route.

Rode our pony a lot sometimes with a saddle and sometimes bare back. We liked to race with someone on their horse.

Bobby socks became popular when I was in high school. Three of the girls got together and wore Bobby socks to school; we were almost expelled because of it quite different today.

Over the years I have seen a lot, most changes of progress. I’m not sure it all has been for the best. This generation can’t enjoy the country and go wherever they could go alone and never have any fear.

Our Camping Trips
In our camping trips my father took 10 or 12 girls camping almost every summer. We went to Boulder Cave campgrounds and American River. We would stay a week. We had a large round tent. Daddy would make his bed out of the car seats in one corner of the tent and would hang up 2 blankets to enclose it. The girls cooked the meals; we would divide into groups of three and take our turn, some of the meals good and some real bad. We did lots of swimming and hiking and it was a big highlight of our lives.

Some of my experiences on the farm (my folks).
I had the experience of raising bees. I worked with my brother Lewis, we tended the bees and exchanged the frame and when taking them from the hive we would extract the honey in the extractor for that purpose. We would do 4 frames at a time in a room of at least 100 degrees. We put the honey in gallon buckets and my brother had a label with his name on it and he sold the honey. I received enough bee stings that they didn’t bother me anymore. We wore certain clothes for the job, a hat with net around and long sleeves. If you worked real careful and didn’t disturb the bees to much they would leave you alone. Only would sting if we would smash one or got one under our clothes. I also had experience helping to raise rabbits, chickens, turkeys, and all the animals on the farm. We never had time that there wasn’t something to do.

One game I forgot to tell was going to the orchard, the 3 of us Lorena, Lewis and myself, we would catch mice and put them in a pail, take them to the house, put the mice under a wash tub and dig holes in the sand, get the cats and the cats would catch the mice when they came out the holds that were dug.

Items we made and raised: Butter, cottage cheese, vinegar sauerkraut, bacon, ham, and sausage. Canned all different kinds of fruit. Made jelly, jams, apple butter, lots of vegetables canned and dried, soap, and baked bread. Raised our own meat, beef, pork, chicken, turkey, and a few ducks. Had our own bees and extracted honey. Had lots of rabbits, sold and ate both. Had a large garden and grew our own vegetables. Also had berries, grapes, cucumbers to sell, corn lots of, sold and made silage for food for the cows. Making ice cream in the winter months, when we had a nice snow we would take snow, sugar and cream and stir, have a nice dish of ice-cream. We had no pop, I’m not sure it was even sold then in the stores. We made our own first by starting with vinegar, sugar water and adding a little soda for the fizz. In later years we made root beer and bottled in ourselves. Lorena and myself took root beer with us to work in the orchards. We put it in the ditches to keep it cool.

(After Thought)
We started to work at 7:00 (all the family) worked 10 hours and then did chores. We were called in to meals by a large bell my mother rang to let us know of the time, we had no watches.

My mother’s, mother grandma (Bond) Boyd came to Eugene Oregon with her parents when she was 9 years old. They came by wagon train from Missouri. She rode a horse behind the wagon. Had lots of experience to tell also Indian attacks.

1993 was the bacteria out break on hamburger. Now they advise to rub the meat with vinegar. We did that for years, my parents always did that to our meat in 1920 or before. We didn’t have glue we used egg whites to make things.

Married Slim September 8, 1951 per marriage license.

My ancestors the best I can do. I was never very close to any aunts, uncles, or grandparents. We didn’t travel then were lucky if we made a trip from Tieton to Yakima.

Grandmother Ellen Bond – Boyd Born 1856 Died 1947—91 years old.
Grandfather – Scott Bond
Mother Eva Caroline Bond –Cox Born 1878 Died 1956—78 years old.
Father – John Manely Cox Born 1880 Died 1959—79 years old.
Father’s Mother
Jennie Cox
Father’s father? Cox
Davey- Walter William Born 1912 December 6 Died October 1950
Grandfather – Charles Davey
Father – Jim Davey Born 1891 died 1962—71 years old.
Mother – Married Perin Davey Born 1892 died 1949—57 years old.
Grandma Perin 1871-1954—83 years old.
Grandpa Perin 1869-1947—78 years old.

Erwin’s Life Story
Born….. in Reedsburg Wisconsin. Parents ….. Mother Flora Gardner married to Frank Lawsha. Married in the year 1898. Father died in 1909 at age 29 of TB. There was 3 children; Arvon, Electa (sister). Arvon died at the age of 29 of TB.

I started school at the (age) of five in Dear River Minnesota with long hair and short pants and long curls to my shoulders. When I got home after school I told my mother I wasn’t gong back until she had my hair cut. We moved to Wisconsin and my mother remarried. I attended school in La Valle Wisconsin for four years. We then moved to Yakima and attended school for less than one year. I picked hops to make money so I could go to school. I also picked up brush in the orchard and all of that was done with time off from school. At the age of ….. I started working in the ….. fields and held down a fulltime job at 10 hours a day. I worked one year in Idaho on the Salmon River building a road full time, all this time I had been on my own and living away from home.

I then rode the rails and went to Wisconsin and helped my Uncle on his farm. Lived with them about two years. Then I got a job in a butcher shop and butchered hogs and cattle. Worked there for one year. Then rode the rails and came back to Yakima and worked at any job I could find.

In 1929 I started working for three years at the Horticulture Union in Tieton. After three years I was promoted to a foreman job and worked until 1940. The warehouse then had the big fire and I was trapped on top of the building and had to jump to the ground to save my life. One man was killed. I spent three years getting my legs and feet healed.

I had been married to Anna Morasch before the fire, then Karen was born and I retired on a pension (full benefits).

I traveled the western part of U.S. in a model T-Ford I built into a live-in rig. I painted signs to make money and pay my way. My life goes on from there as you all know.

My Mother married the second time in Wisconsin to a man named Cook. They lived together in Yakima for three years and he left and went to Canada. My grandfather died and my Mother went to Wisconsin to take care of her Mother and I stayed in Yakima, and so did Aavon and Electa. At this time I was eleven years old. Arvon and Electa were older and Electa married Harley Penfield. I made three trips by rail to Wisconsin. I then came back to Yakima.

Odd Jobs

Painted five service stations in Arizona. Painted stations in Mexico also painted smoke stacks. Painted in Utah and also Colorado in the mountain high alt. Worked on a wheat farm at age 16 in Pomeroy. Worked on a flat bottom boat on the Snake River moving wheat sacks across the river. No railroads across the river. Also painted and made signs. Did this for several years in Yakima and while traveling in the Ford.

1994 When Written
Slim just remembered this. At the age of 15 he picked pears when it was 100 degrees out in Moxee. Picked enough for a wagon load that he hauled to Yakima by a mule hitched to the wagon. Took them to train. It was so hot he couldn’t stop on Yakima Ave because the wagon would get stuck in the tar on the street and the mule couldn’t get it started again.

Walter William Davey Life

Walter, Wendall and parents Jim and Muriel moved from Baxter Iowa to Naches Heights in 1918. Walter was six years old. They came by train to Yakima.

The family lived in a small house owned by Will Perin or Grandpa Perin.

Muriel’s parents owned an orchard and house, had fruit bearing trees. Walter attended Marcus Whitman grade school his first grand and through grade four. His father got a job as ditch rider and because of the territory he had to ride ditch they lived in many homes owned by the ditch company. Homes in the Tieton and Cowiche area.

When he was ten years old he attended Tieton grade school. He finished the grades at Tieton (As per marriage license).

His father was transferred to a house that was at the top of Cowiche grade. Walter refused to attend his school in Cowiche but drove to Tieton each day and graduated from Tieton.

Walter was working on Saturday and Sunday and after school and buying a Ford roadster. I didn’t know he had a payment due. He worked and fixed the car up by putting on new things and painting it instead of making the payment. He lost the car. We had plans to get married, so we had no car. His parents never made their payments on time so I guess he thought he could get by too, but I also had to suffer but it was a dear lesson for him. He never missed a payment again on anything.

High school 1932 in the same class as Lillian Cox. The last year of his school he went steady with her and then married in 1933 April 3.

Walter and Lillian lived in a house that was on the ranch Grandpa Perin had purchased and not far from grandpa’s own ranch. He worked 10 hours a day 15 cents an hour for 10 years. He then bought the ranch from Grandpa Perin and paid for it by crop payments.

In the winter he went to Tieton and worked at the Horticulture Union at different jobs. Came back to the ranch to live. He built the old house over into a new one. He had three girls Janet, Doris, and Lois. He died in 1950.

His parents lived at Camp Four after he was married and his father was still ditch rider. Jim Davey was an alcoholic and had drinking friends in the area. He often drank too much and the Company fired him.

Jim and Muriel then moved to moved to a small house by Davis High in Yakima. Lived there a while then moved to a house by the lumber company. Lived there several years with Muriel working in the warehouses packing. Jim never got another job. They moved from there to a shack on a small fruit ranch at Naches Heights. Jim’s father died and left them money so they built a house at the top of Schuller grade.
Jim’s father owned a store in Baxter Iowa and sold farm machinery. He helped them with money often. I have not dates to put down as to the time a lot of this happened.

We took Jim to Shadles in Seattle for a cure from his drinking and it worked. He never drank after that.

Walter played many years in an orchestra. Played drums and sang, Wendall played the saxophone. The started the orchestra while still in high school. They played for dances in Yakima, Cowiche, Tieton, Ellensburg, and lower valley. A lot of the dances were for granges, Odd Fellowes, Eagles Halls, and private parties. Played at Naches Heights Club House when it was new and had big crowds and people from all around the different towns.

Walter stopped playing for a while but the orchestra still played. He bought a new set of drums and had started again just before he died. The drums came after his death. We made a trip to Kirkland Washington to visit his grandmother. We had dinner at a relation that lived there, the table was beautiful with all the trimmings. Served fried chicken. Walter took a piece and while going to his plate it dropped right on the white linen table cloth. The funny part was to hear Walter tell the story to someone afterwards.

Another funny part of his life, we had attended a dance and came back to Ora Packers house to eat. A group of us, going to the house to a car with their daughter and her boyfriend got stuck on the hill. Walter went to the bathroom, came out with hip boots on and Ora’s sanitary belt, a kotex and went out to help push the car. The group really never forgot.

The group really never forgot.

1997 May 27 The Ranch

Grandpa Perin owned the ranch he lived on and bought the Culp Ranch. Walter and Wendall bought their ranches from him. Paid for them by crop payments. Horses were still used in the orchards to do the work. They bought a truck and tractor (John Deere) together. Walter built a tractor from an old truck to be used in place of horses. Walter died and I married Slim. He bought a new ford tractor and paid Wendall for the use of the truck. He paid Wendall for 1/2 the price of the truck. Nothing was ever done about the John Deere tractor. Walter put in pipes in the orchard so we could use the pressure to spray and … at home to pull the sprayer through the orchard.

We started spraying from a different system after many years of use from the pipes. A speed sprayer took the place next. I didn’t give dates. I don’t know them and I don’t want to guess.

Grandpa Perin moved from the ranch to Yakima. Grandma Perin also moved but soon was put in a nursing home in Kent. Grandpa lived several years by himself. He had sugar diabetes and one leg was cut off. Died while living in Yakima. Grandma died while living in Kent. She had lost her mind and knew no one.
Dates

Moved to Canyon Lakes in 1994

Moved to Pasco into apartment from ranch in Yakima in 1960

Moved from apartment to a Court in 1966

Moved for Court in Pasco to Yakima in 1969 in Selah

Moved from Selah to Sun Country in Yakima in 1983

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