3. How did your family come to live there?

Mama said that we moved 20 times  in the 19 years that she and daddy were married.  So I'm going to answer this questions based on my original take on it- "how did you come to live there" meaning the area- not the house!

My parents ,20 year old Jack Williams and 19 year old Emma Gilmore Williams ,  married January 1948 and I was born that  December. They were both born and raised in Ferry and Steven County.  My mother's father was born in Idaho in 1890, but the rest of the grandparent were born on the other side of the Rockies.  My dad's mother was born in Pike County, Kentucky. His father was born in Missouri. Mama's mother was born in Michigan.

My father's family -  mother (Rebecca Ramey Dobson Williams)  and father  (Arthur Justus Williams) had property on the Columbia River  just north of the falls (The Kettle Falls) (and near present day twin bridges.

 The south end of their  property was  adjacent to the salmon fishing grounds. Dad used to play with the Indian children who camped out with their families next to the river  during salmon season.  

His family lived in other places in the area, including Laurier- on the Canadian border- where his mom was post mistress. And  he also lived in Colville in a big house up on the hill behind town.  His dad was a logger. His grandfather, Fredrick  Williams was a carpenter and traveled out to Washington state from Kansas with his wife and children.  

My mom's mother  (Esther May Riley Gilmore) and father ( Arthur Francis Gilmore ) lived in a house that belonged to Esther May's father, Ed Riley.   My grandfather was 21 years older than grandma and for much of my childhood, he was an old man trapped in deafness and daydreams. He used to stand at the living room window- and peer through hanging begonias and ferns and palms, two parakeet cages and a couple of cages full of canaries and gaze at  a world outside the window where  more was going on than I could ever see.

Regarding where my family lived when I was born

Corrections from my mom- we did live in the house up behind Barney's junction when I was a baby- but that was the 3rd place we lived after I was born.

They brought  me home to one of Grandma Gilmore's cabins. She had a boarding house and cabins for rent in Kettle Falls. We lived in  Cabin One. note: that's what Grandma always called it "Cabin One".  It had been a barn and 1/2 of it was converted into rental space.  Mama said that daddy was logging and the rent was cheap.

Then we moved into a basement apartment that was in an old house. It was southwest of town on the east side of the intersection where the road to Meyers Falls Dam and the road Old Kettle Falls cross. 


The photo of the three of us (below) was taken there. I was about 6 months old in that photo. Mama's dress is white and lavender. I'm in a pink dress. Daddy is wearing a soft blue shirt. It looks so nice in the picture because as mama says "I ironed it".

Daddy, Mama and me

2.When and where were you born?

I was born on December 3, 1948 at Mount Carmel Hospital in Colville, Washington at about 4:30 in the afternoon.  I always said "my first ride was in a logging truck in a snow storm".  I always thought it was an old beat up truck with a broken window.  But my Dad remembers it as a real nice truck. He told me that he traded off the car for as a  down payment on it- that's probably why it was my first ride.  Mama has maintained her version (old beat up truck with broken window) for more years though.

My folks lived in a little house behind Barney's Junction  up on the side of the mountain. It overlooked Lake Roosevelt and the twin bridges that span the water and link Stevens and Ferry County in Northeast Washington.