Walla Walla Union Bulletin (Walla Walla, Washington) > 1970 > November > 8, page 10

A Heap of Living Went into 80 Years

When friends and neighbors of Mrs. W.S. (Nellie) Caverhill helped her mark the 80th milestone of her busy, highly useful life recently at Milton-Freewater, it was to mark the milestone for a woman of today who has lived the life of a pioneer mother and wife.

For, Mrs. Caverhill lived pretty much as did pioneer settlers of the Northwest as she made a home for her family doing much of the "proving up" of a homestead while her husband taught school, usually at some distance from the home.

Mrs. Caverhill’s heritage traces back to the first white people to come to the Oregon country. Her mother was Henrietta Hart, a daughter of Horace and Marguerite Hart of Prescott. Hart was a brother of Eliza Spalding, wife of Rev. H.H. Spalding, the contemporary of the Whitmans. Horace Hart was the only brother of Mrs. Spalding that she saw after she came west, Mrs. Caverhill told me.

Her father, Frank McGirr, was the first white man to settle in Fox Valley; he had an imposing (for then) herd of some 200 cattle and owned 1200 acres of land. All the nine children in the family were born and raised there and the family house, a huge, two-story frame building at entrance to the hamlet of Fox, Ore., still is the residence of a brother of Mrs. Caverhill, Frank McGirr. Her brother still runs a sizable herd of beef cattle, doing most of the chores required, only occasionally hiring help to aid him.

Mrs. Caverhill was born there in 1890. Her schooling, as it was for rural areas of the time, consisted of three months in the summer at the Fox school.

"After the boys (her brothers) got older," Mrs. Caverhill recalled, "Mother and us children moved to John Day to go to school. This was 1903. Father stayed at the ranch."

It was while she was a pupil at the old Fox School that she met her husband, who was the teacher there in the one room building. That was 1905. In 1906 the couple were married and last month (September 1) they marked their 64th wedding anniversary.

Tackled Big Job

Marriage at such an early age was not uncommon in those days.

Taking on the work of raising a family and running a homestead was also something some young women did in those days. Mrs Caverhill’s lot was just this, but despite young of age and small of frame, she tackled the job and put forth a yeoman effort, as further lines will reveal.

Personality Profile

The Caverhills have had but two children of their own but Mrs. Caverhill figured they’d raised about 30 others over the many years, up to the past three years at least. "We’ve always had somebody in, it seemed, who was going to school or boarding with us for one reason or another."

Took up Homestead

A few years after their marriage, the Caverhills took up a homestead claim on Pine Creek, located between Ritter and Long Creek. Her husband was teaching school at Long Creek then, a nine mile walk for him each weekend.

It was at this point, when she was to have to stay at the homestead all alone with two small children, that Mrs. Caverhill put her small foot down.

"I just plain vowed I wasn’t going to stay out there alone without some protection," she said.

To gain that protection, Mrs. Caverhil got a rifle, spent many hours practicing with it, then felt she had "that extra something. . . protection" she felt needed to cope with the homestead "elements."

Some small help in the matter of household operating expenses came with the establishment of the post office at the Caverhill ranch in 1912. Mrs. Caverhill was duly appointed the postmaster of the new office to serve the area’s 15 families. An addition was made to their house for the office but until it was completed, the postal affairs went through the smokehouse.

Mail came twice a day via horse drawn stagecoach and when the muddy roads would delay the stage’s arrival (as it often did) Mrs. Caverhill would have to wait up, often till midnight for it to get there with the mail.

Raised a Garden

Mrs. Caverhill raised a big garden each summer and when she had to be away from the house to care for it, she’d get help at the post office from one of the neighbors. The post office was useful for the area farmers because it was a case of their either walking the nine miles to Long Creek or six miles to Ritter.

The garden’s produce was primarily to feed the family but chickens were also raised and these and their eggs sold, as was milk from a cow. . . milked by Mrs. Caverhill as a rule.

Homesteading days at the turn of the century were days of sharing with your neighbor and Mrs. Caverhill certainly lived up to this tradition of the pioneer. Often she wasa called upon to act as nurse for a family with an ailing member. A unique task of hers was to "sit up with the dead when somebody passed away. . . until the undertaker could come for the body. . . it didn’t seem right to leave the body alone . . . somebody always sat with it," she recalled.

Mrs. Caverhill helped out when harvest time came, cooking meals for a neighbor. Usually women on about four or five ranches would go together, she said, and cook meals where ever the threshing operation was.

Of course, after helping out a the neighbors’ she had to get on home and take care of her own family!

The Caverhill home was always the place the school teacher at nearby Pine Creek school (about 1 ½ miles distance) would board for the term. "It wasn’t necessarily the closest home," she said, "but the only one that wanted to bother."

Party Line a Favorite

Most families had a telephone and the party line was a favorite form of amusement as well as useful in emergencies.

"one long ring," said Mrs. Caverhill, "meant ‘Everybody Listen!’ If there was trouble, the one long ring was used."

Long winter evenings saw the party line used as a source of entertainment for the ranch families before the advent of radio.

"When somebody got a new phonograph record, they’d ring the long ring and let everybody hear it. . . or, fiddlers would play or a group would sing while somebody accompanied on a piano or the organ.

A Long, Lone Ride

Once this matter of being a nurse required a long horseback ride which would have taxed any of the men of her time.

Her sister was ill lat her home in Mt. Vernon, some 45 miles away. Mrs Caverhill left home about 9 a.m. and rode to Fox where another horse was supposed to be ready for her.

"It wasn’t there so I just got back on my horse and rode on," she said. It was springtime and roads were pretty muddy. She arrived at her destination around midnight.

Skinning Demonstration.

One time, still smarting over how her brothers had been "kidding" her about her marksmanship with the rifle, Mrs. Caverhill came across a badger one morning as she went to milk the cow. She shot and killed it (to prove to her brothers she could do it), then had to skin the animal to back up her contention. She had no knife, other than the kitchen butcher knife, but performed the task with it and thus silenced her brothers.

In the fall of 1922, the family packed up and moved north to Milton-Freewater in order that their daughter (Mrs. Raymond (Lulu) Meengs of Ukiah) could attend high school there, there being none in Long Creek at that time.

Mrs Caverhill continued a busy life here and has been active in the Christian church and lodge work. She is a member of Eastern Star and Pythian Sisters. She had taught Sunday school at Pine Creek and continued to do that after coming to Milton-Freewater.

At 60 Mrs. Caverhill helped shingle the house; at 75 she caught a limit of trout and beat her husband fishing that day7. Fishing was something she had often enjoyed doing with her mother on the old ranch at Fox. The two would fashion rods of willow branches, use fish line and hook and bait with worms, grasshoppers or periwinkles and fish while the haying crews were busy.

At 80, most people can look back onto many years of an interesting life.

Not much was left out of the pioneer life and livelihood experienced by Mrs. Caverhill.

Burial: Fox Cemetery, Grant, OR

Census 1: 1900, OR Grant Fox Dist 15 Pg 78A(See father)

Census 2: 1910, OR Grant Middle ED 68 Pg 239B(See Husband)

Census 3: 1920, OR Grant Long Creek ED 57 Pg 5A(See Husband)

Census 4: 1930, OR Umatilla Milton ED 12 Pg 3A(See Husband)

World War I Draft Registration Cards, 1917-1918 Record

about Walter Stanley Caverhill

Name: Walter Stanley Caverhill

City: Not Stated

County: Grant

State: Oregon

Birthplace: Norwich, Ontario;Canada

Birth Date: 8 Jan 1887

Race: Caucasian

Roll: 1852056

DraftBoard: 0

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Walla Walla Union Bulletin (Walla Walla, Washington) > 1977 > April > 27

W.S. Caverhill

MILTON-FREEWATER -- Funeral services for W. S. caverhill, 142 SE Seventh St, will be at the Munselle-Rhodes Funeral Home at 10 a.m. Saturday. Burial will be in the Fox, Ore, Valley Cemetery at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.

Caverhill died Tuesday morning at his home at the age 90.

He was born Jan 8, 1887, in Norwich, Ont, Canada, the son of Walter and Euphema Caverhill. He was married in Fox, Ore. to Nellie McGirr Sept 1 1906.

He served as Grant County commissioner for eight years. he came to the Milton-Freewater area in 1922 and taught school at Dry Creek. He taught school and became the prinsipal of Ferndale School.

Caverhill wrote for several newspapers in Oregon and wrote books about eastern Oregon. In 1940s he wrote stories about a fictional character named Cal Tuller and later wrote a history of early-day roadbuilding in Grant County and a history of Milton-Freewater. He was the mayor of Milton before its consolidation with Freewater, was a member of the city council, city planning committee and former secretary-treasurer for the Milton Freewater Water Control Distrct. He was a member of the Umatilla County Better Roads Committe and the committee for the development of Jubilee Lake, president of the Milton-Freewater Chamber of Commerce twic president of the Milton Freewater Pea Festival and active in the development of Marie Dorian Park.

He was a member of the Knights of Pythias Hercules Lodge No. 51 of Milton Freewater and the First Christian Church.

He is survived by his wife Nellie at the home, his son Frank Caverhill of Milton-Freewater and his daughter Lulu Meengs of Ukiah Ore, His brother Earl Caverhill of Vale Ore, three grandchildren, eight great grandchildren and a number of nieces and nephews.

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1910 Census OR Grant Middle ED 68 Pg 239B

McGirr,Barney,head,MW,52,m1,22,CA,IRE,TN,Farmer

Nancy P.,wife,FW,41,m1,22,4,3,TN,TN,TN

James B.,son,MW,16S,OR,CA,TN

Bessie,daughter,FW,12S,OR,CA,TN

Alva E.,son,MW,9S,OR,CA,TN

Caverhill,Walter S.,boarder,MW,23,m1,3,CAN,CAN,CAN,m 1888,School Teacher,Public school

Nellie L.,boarder,FW,19,m1,3,1,1,OR,CA,TN

Lulu I.,boarder,FW,2S,OR,CAN,OR

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1920 Census OR Grant Long Creek ED 57 Pg 5A

Caverhill,Walter,head,MW,33,m,,im 1887,NA 1903,CAN,CAN,CAN,Owner,Farm

Nellie L.,wife,FW,28,m,OR,CA,WA

Lulu I.,daughter,12S,OR,CAN,OR

Frank M.,son,MW,9S,OR,CAN,OR

************

1930 Census OR Umatilla Milton ED 12 Pg 3A

Caverhill,Walter S.,head,MW.43.m21,CAN,CAN,CAN,im 1889,Principal,Ferndale School

Nellie L.,wife,FW,40,m18,OR,CA,WA

Frank M.,son,MW,19S,OR,CAN,OR

Burial: Fox Cemetery, Grant, OR

Census 1: 1900, OR Grant Long Creek ED 15 Pg 4A(See Father)

Census 2: 1910, OR Grant Middle ED 68 Pg 239B

Census 3: 1920, OR Grant Long Creek ED 57 Pg 5A

Census 4: 1930, OR Umatilla Milton ED 12 Pg 3A

Walla Walla Union Bulletin (Walla Walla, Washington) > 1956 > September > 9, page 31

Half Century Together

Mr and Mrs. W. S. Caverhill, longtime residents of the Milton-Freewater area and prior to that of Grant County, have been ovserving their 50th wedding anniversary in appropriate fashion.

A Family reunion at Battle Mountain State Park, sout of Pendleton, on Saturday, Sept 1, was the first official recognition of the anniversary.

A Reception Friday evening, Sept. 7, in the knights of Pythias Hall in neighboring Milton-Freewater was arranged in their honor by the Knights of Pythias and the Pythian Sisters with which the honorees are affiliated. Caverhill, in fact, has been a lodge member for close to 50 years.

Wed in Grant Co.

Teh wedding half a century ago was solemnized in the little community of Fox, Ore., in Grant County at the bride's home. She was Nellie L. McGirr. Both the Caverhill and McGirr families were pioneer settlers in the John Day country.

Thirty-three years ago, the Caverhills moved to Umatilla County and Caverhill taught school for two years at Dry Creek and nine years at Ferndale.

He served as councilman for four years and a similar period as mayor of Milton before the consolidation of the two towns.

He's Writer

Caverhill has long been interested in writing and his homespun philosophy and tales of earlier days have gained him a wide reading audience. He regularly contributes a column, "Cal Tuller," to the East Oregonian, writes for the Pilot Rock paper and has had several books published, including "Road South," and a volume of poetry.

The Caverhills belong to the Christian Church.

Their immediate family includes a daughter, Mrs. Ray Meengs of Ukiah, and a Son, Frank Caverhill of Milton-Freewater, and three grandchildren, Raymond and Donald Meengs and Irene Caverhill.

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Walla Walla Union Bulletin (Walla Walla, Washington) > 1966 > August > 26, page 3

Anniversary Celebrated

Honored Aug. 20 at a reception celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary were Mr. and Mrs. W. Stanley Caverhill of Milton-Freewater. Hostess for the party held at Ukiah was their daughter Mrs. Ray (Lulu) Meengs, assisted by a niece, Mrs. Max Graevell of Wenatchee.

Six of the guests in attendance had also been present at the couple's wedding, Sept. 1, 1906, at the home of the bride in Fox, Ore. Silver-leaved white roses trimmed the enscribed anniversary cake flanked by single white candles entwined with orchids.Mrs. Caverhill had a white orchid corsage.

Caverhill was a school teacher for many years in Long Creek, dry Creek, Ferndale and up the Walla Walla River, retiring in 1945 after teaching high school in Ukiah. For eight years he served as County Commissioner for Grant County and, since his retirement, has served civically in the Milton-Freewater area.

Mrs. Caverhill was postmistress at the Caverhill Post office between Long Creek and Ritter for 12 years. In Milton-Freewater she has been active in the Christian Church, Eastern Star and Pythian Sisters. Her hobby is gardening.

Marriage: 01 Sep 1905, Fox, Grant, OR