OUR FAMILY TREE ~ by Gerald Lee Matlock

Perhaps it will be interesting to my children to put in writing what little I know of our families' origins.

In 1916, I went to Eugene, Oregon to enter University study. Shortly, we encountered an old gentleman named Matlock, who was ninety-four or ninety-five years old. I visited him and he told me much of the background of the Matlocks. I do not remember his given name, for this was the only interview I had with him. He died a couple of months after our interview. Here is his story: story:

On the border, between Wales and Britian, was a mountain spa (hot Sulphur water) which was called Matlock Spa. It was about the time of our revolutionary War with England. The fiery Scot, John KNOX, came to Scotland with the message of John CALVIN of Switzer-land. Wales was Catholic and Britian was Protestant. At any rate, the conflict between these two religious faiths induced the two Matlocks - They were in their early twenties - to emigrate to America, in the early 1800's.

They landed in New York and walked through Pennsylvania to the Ohio River where they constructed a raft, piled on what little baggage they had accumulated, and drifted down the Ohio to the town of Memphis, Tennessee. They homesteaded a piece of ground and started farming. I don't know their first names, and my father did not recall their names. One couple had seven sons, no daughters. When they grew up, they likewise spread. Two of the sons came to Eugene. It was this gentlemen I met in 1916. These two families are the origin of the Matlocks we encounter in Washington and Oregon.

My fathers father left Tennessee with his brother and settled in St. James, Missouri. His brother settled close to Independence, so my father thought. The other brothers settled in Iowa and the Carolinas. So far as I know, all the people who carry the Matlock name, started from these two brave immigrants from Wales who settled in Tennessee.

My father had two brothers, Joe and Frank, both of whom came to Washington and settled in the Spokane area. He had a sister, Mary Elizabeth (Nora), in Sprague. He also had a half-brother Dave. We visited uncle Dave, when he was past ninety, in a St. Louis Veterans' Home. Both Joe and Frank lived into their nineties before they died.

My father, James Monroe MATLOCK, was born June 15, 1861. He left home when not quite twenty and sailed to Alaska and the fish canneries. As I remember, my father never ate a single salmon dinner after this experience. He ended up in Montana and the mines at Butte, where he became leaded from the fumes on the elevator which he operated. He was sent to San Francisco to (13) recuperate in the sun. He received word that his mother was sick and he re- returned to St. James, but she passed away soon after his arrival. He adored his mother.

Rolla was a sprouting college town 20 miles west of St. James and it was there he met my mother, Henrietta SHINNEMAN. They were married April 27, 1890. My father was nearly 30 at the time. I believe they met at a dancing celebration of some sort.

Mother's fathers's name was Albert SHINNEMAN. His father came to America in the early 1800's from a town that straddled Prussia and Saxony Germany. He called himself a Saxon and a high German. He came to America because of the military situation. Prussia was at war with France and won, only to fight France again and lose. Any-way, he emigrated to America - crossed New York to Lake Erie and settled in Saginaw, Michigan. It was there that my grandfather and mother were born. At some time in early life, grandfather Albert, his English wife Rose and family, moved to Rolla, Missouri, where he became close to the president of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. He purchased cattle in Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Oklahoma and Texas and sold them in St. Louis. Rolla was a stopover and feeding station. Grandmother was a mild and loveable person, and I remember visiting them when I was quite young. Every farm house in that vicinity had a cyclone cellar or root cellar - about six feet deep with bins on the sides and usually about 12 x 14 feet. An "A" frame was built over the opening and covered with dirt. A vent was built in about one foot square with a flat board on top, but having vent-ilation. This vent extended up about three feet and made an ex-cellent pulpit. I remember after going to church, I would imitate the preacher from my own "Pulpit". As I recall, I went about the task with great vigor. But - and this tells you something about my grandfather, he didn't like it - it was about to break down the cyclone cellar and I was instructed, in no uncertain terms, to abandon my piety. Another thing about this cellar I vividly re-member, it had steps going down one end - six or seven steps - with a big door at the bottom.It was a nice place to keep the milk cool. Well, grandma wore long black skirts - clear to her ankles and when she went down the steps I would follow and, invariably I would trample on that long, black skirt and of course that would pull it off. It was fastened with a pin at the waist and poor Grandma,with hands full of milk, just couldn't retrieve her skirt. Grandma never scolded me - but you can bet your life, my mother did - and more - I had a sore bottom for some time. Of course, this happened more than once for I loved to follow Grandma.

As I recall, my grandfather was a very intelligent, highly educated aristocrat. He travelled in high circles and was away from home a great deal. He was a 32nd degree Mason. He was tall, 6' 1", and wore a beard which he kept trimmed immaculately.

But worst, I was afraid of him. However my mother was his pride and joy and so I had to tolerate him.He, however, kept good track of me and kept me moving about. I was very curious in my youth and had to investigate everything. However, this combination worked out well for both of us - except I was smaller than (14) he and I could run faster.

Mother and Father had five children. Rosetta Beatrice was born February 6, 1891, in St. Louis, Missouri, and died (diphtheria) August 20, 1900 in St. Louis (Bethany Cemetery, Lot 5778). Gladys Helen was born in St. Louis, May 1, 1901 and passed away (Spinal Meningitis) December 18, 1903. She was buried in Bethany Cemetery (Lot J234). Lorene Elizabeth was born February 12, 1893, at Colfax, Washington. Viola May was born February 29, 1894 at Colfax, Wa. and Gerald Lee was born October 22, 1898 at Port Royal, Missouri.

As can be seen, my parents came to Oaksdale, Wa. shortly after the birth of Bea in 1891. Father's sister (Nora E.) married her second cousin, John H. MATLOCK. Uncle John - that was his name - was a fairly prosperous man. He owns a number of farms in the vicinity of Oaksdale and owned and operated the main grocery store there. My father didn't ever tell me how Nora got out West, but Uncle John sold Dad an 80-acre ranch nearby with horses and tools to farm it. Of course, this was done on credit. There was a money panic in 1893 which continued until 1896, which made it impossible for Father to even feed his family and they returned to St. Louis in 1897. .

Grandfather Albert secured a pass on the railroad for them. By this time they had the three oldest daughters, and I was born in 1898 in Port Royal, Missouri - a rock-crushing plant for the Missouri Pacific on the Missouri River - some fifty miles from St. Louis. Soon after this, tragedy struck and Bea passed away with diphtheria. Gladys was born and the poor little tyke died of spinal meningitis, I was very poorly and Lorena had polio.The World's Fair came to St. Louis in 1904 and Uncle John, Aunt Polly and Uncle Joe came to the fair and persuaded my parents to return to Washington. We moved in 1904, I believe. Uncle John wanted Dad to build him a barn and that was reason enough. But our folks drifted down to Oregon in 1905. Dad had taken a course in J.I. Case's threshing machine in Walla Walla and he found plenty of work. They lived at, or near, Helix, Oregon until the fall of 1909, when they moved to Vancouver, Washington, or near Vancouver (Fisher), four miles up the Columbia and harvested a five acre strawberry field. In 1910 they shifted to a prune farm, a half mile away - I attended 13 schools during the first six grades. They could never make up their minds to stay put and prosper - staying poor and moving seemed to be less burdensome. But we can say that our parents kept trying, and trying, and trying. The family finally came to Vancouver proper and Dad worked in Fisher's Flouring Mill for several years. I left for college in 1916 so we have come to a complete circle. During this time, my sister Lorene was married to George Washington PIPER, of Helix, Oregon on December 25, (Christmas Day) 1910. My other sister, Viola, married Max DUDLEY of Athena, Oregon on September 28, 1917 at Walla Walla, Washington.

We now turn to Lois Aline MATLOCK, mother of my four children. Lois' mother was Adeline Rosalia NYSTRUM of Bishop Hill, Illinois. She was born in Moline, Illinois. her parents were Anna and Eric NYSTRUM, both of whom were born in Sweden and came to this country about 1846. Lois' father was David ALINE, whose parents, Eric and Sigrid, were also born in Sweden and came to the United States in 1846. There was an outbreak of cholera on the ship which brought them from Sweden. ALINE was not the original name of Lois' grand-parents. They went to court, either in Sweden or Bishop Hill, to have their name legally changed. Lois had two sisters, Anna Aline and Rose Johnston, and four brothers - Francis, Herman, Clarence, and Elmer ALINE.Only Francis, Rose, and Elmer were married. Rose had one child, Joanne GASPARD, and Lois had four children. Lois' mother and father are deceased and they are buried in Salem, Oregon. Lois' grandparents Eric and Segrid, are buried in Eugene, Oregon. Her maternal grandparents, Eric and Anna NYSTRUM, lived all their married lives in Bishop Hill. Illinois, and are buried there. Lois was born in Eugene, Oregon, May 19, 1898. At this date in 1977, Francis, Herman and Rose are deceased, leaving Lois, Anna, Clarence and Elmer living. Lois and I were married in Woodburn, Oregon, September 23, 1922 where we were to finish our last and seventh year of college by May 1923. I was ordained a minister in Eugene, Oregon in May 1918, two years after entering college in 1916, the year I left home for good at the age of eighteen.

I can well remember the first year of school 1916-1917. I left for school with $54.00 and paid out a total of $105.00 for the eight months of school. Four of us boys, Gottlieb SCHMIDT, Clifton PHILLIPS, Wallace JONES and I rented a three-room house, unfurni-shed, for $5.00 a month, total. We cooked our own meals, did our own laundry, and worked out Saturdays in exchange of a few dollars and potatoes, carrots, cabbage, etc. We had meat, maybe once a week. To say the least we were frugal - but we went to school. We enjoyed a common poverty, but strangely, we hardly ever knew or mentioned it. We were delightfully happy to do what we wanted to do. My two sisters and, of course, my parents sent us a few dollars now and than, which was highly appreciated.

I received my schooling in both the Eugene Bible University and University of Oregon - each recognizing each other's credits. At the University of Oregon I took two years of Greek language. I already had two years of Latin at the Bible University as well as two years of Hebrew language. I also took literature, History, Writing, Education and philosophy at the University of Oregon. I graduated in 1921 with a B.A. degree - one-half graduating credits from the University of Oregon. I took a B.O. and B.D. degree from the Bible University in 1922 and 1923 respectively. This gave me a wide range of historical culture and religious and secular history, as well as three years of Greek Language, and for years of Latin and Hebrew language and literature.

Looking back to my college days, I had experienced many hard-ships that required a set will and discipline which has remained for life. To top it off, I experienced a ruptured appendix in July 1917 that nearly cost my life. After two operations in July 1917, I had peritonitis with black showing in my fingernails. However, God was gracious to me & I recovered. I always felt it a miracle and part of the destiny of my life. In precarious physical condition I returned to school in October of 1917 and resumed studies. I bounced back in the spring of 1918, and began preaching - first at Scott's Mills, Or. and then at Kingston in the Fall of 1918. By 1919, I went to Woodburn where I remained as student minister until our marriage in Sept. 1922. My wages were always small - $10.00 to $12.50 per week, but they covered my modest needs, and I was happy helping people in the various churches. After all, I did not enter the ministry for money, but to be of spiritual help to people. Even after my resident ministry began, my top wages never exceeded $38.75 per week. Of course, most of the time we had a parsonage, which helped, but we never received reimbursement for our car. Sometimes the car and upkeep cost us a third of my wages - but I never complained, and we did rear our family and we were never in want.

I started our resident ministry in Enterprise, Oregon in 1923, where Ruth, our oldest daughter, was born. This was a lovely place with fine spiritual people. We enjoyed the outdoors, the mountains and the wonderful lakes. In 1925, we moved to Baker, Or. just across the mountains from Enterprise. Some of our people from Enterprise moved to Baker and they wanted to take their minister with them - or so they said.

In 1926 Bonnie Jean was born - our second daughter. Baker, with a population of about 8000 people, and about 5000 feet high, was another lovely place, with receptive people. We have a fond memory of our years spent there. They were happy years. Some famil-ies, like the Jones family, came to western Oregon and Washington and lived until they passed away. This fellowship was long and precious. The Entermills, the McDowells, the Wrinkles and other families have enriched our lives with their love and concern.

In 1929 we had the stock market crash with its economic disruption. A month before the crash we moved to The Dalles, where they wanted to build a new church structure. We thought it would be a challenge to our capabilities so we accepted a call to The Dalles. It was there in 1930 that David, our oldest son was born. We loved the people of The Dalles, but the economic conditions pre-cluded any building of a church structure. We debated the matter of our situation and decided that maybe we could take advantage of this lull in economic conditions and return to advanced Seminary study in the Middle West. We were apprehensive about just what direction the church, as a whole, was taking and I wanted to be better informed. So, we went to Indianapolis and enrolled at Butler University and preached at Marion, Indiana, a factory town. The wages were still $25.00 per week. I went to school from Monday to Thursday night and worked in the church the balance of the week. Well, President Roosevelt closed the banks March 1932, you remember, and poor old Central Christian Church had no money. So we shifted to a rural community, Yorktown and Tabor, Indiana - every other Sunday, but we lived in Yorktown. Money did circulate in the rural areas - milk, eggs, meat, hogs, corn, wheat, and hay just had to move for people to eat, so the church got along and so did we. It was all a wonderful experience. It was in Yorktown in 1935 that Ivan our second son was born. The people, again, were understanding and helpful.At this stage of our lives, I had to come to grips with my hearing loss. In the summer of 1932, I went to the famed Mayo Clinic to ascertain whether medical science could help. Our major professor in the University had urged me to go on after receiving my B.D. degree and obtain a Doctorate in either the University of Chicago or the University of Wisconsin. He was thinking of a teaching position in our Christian colleges. As a matter of fact, I did nearly a year's work at Butler for this project. However, Mayo Clinic came out with the verdict that they could do little, or nothing, at that stage to correct my hearing loss. That changed things drastically - my hearing loss was critical, and getting worse, fast.

We had a family conference and decided that we had better head back "home", meaning Oregon and Washington, which we did in the fall of 1933. We held a meeting in Jefferson Christian Church in Spokane, and at Milton Freewater Christian Church in that eastern Oregon metropolis, and then another in Beaverton Christian after that. We wanted to get our children in school, and settled in St. Helen's church for a temporary pastorate, until we could decide what to do because of my hearing loss. A church in Tacoma, Lincoln Park Christian Church, wanted a pastor and we assumed that leader-ship in 1934. That was to be my last resident pastorship, because it became difficult to communicate even with a hearing aid. This problem became so acute that by the spring of 1936 we decided to go "farming". We bought a three-acre ranch on the newly opened River Road in Puyallup just in time to harvest a couple of acres of rasp-berries - which helped. This was a traumatic change in life style and approach to life's problems. About this time, we became aware that by using a bone conduction hearing aid I could hear through the bones of the inner ear. At least I could use the telephone, after a fashion. I concluded that if I could not continue preach-ing, I would be the best farmer possible in this beautiful Puyallup Valley. So we started our farming experience. It took us nearly five years to pay the $3,000.00 we paid for our first ranch, with both of us working out. The second World War broke out and we spent two years down at the shipyard on the Tacoma tideflats. We saved because I was convinced we could not make a living on three acres. In 1945, nine years after leaving the resident ministry, we sold the little farm on the River Road and bought the ten acres at Alderton. This was a real break for us, as we moved into berry production within a few months of our Alderton purchase. By 1946 we had paid for our new farm and bought five more acres adjacent to our ten acres, so we felt we could do better. This was all paid for by the end of 1946. Determination and discipline was paying off and sacrifice was a way of life.

By this time, David was sixteen and Ivan thirteen, and they decided they wanted to be farmers too, and would prepare themselves for the task ahead. It was our job to help and at the same time, be helped by our boys who were growing up. They finished high school and through the years, college also. It wasn't easy to send two boys through college as well as help Ruth through College of Puget Sound, but we managed through the Grace of Christ, whom we worshipped in sincerity. In 1950, a farm purchased for Dave, one mile up the road from Alderton. In 1953 another farm was purchased for Ivan adjacent to our home place. This would enable the boys to start out on their own - or so we thought. But by the time the college days for the boys were over, and the Army was satisfied with David's service, we felt it would be better to farm together, buy more land and develop a three-family economic unit and use our combined resources and education to make a viable farming oper-ation. Mr. HATCH, next door, was getting old and eventually passed away. In stages, we bought his holdings - one hundred acres - and incorporated them into our own and thus gave us a producing unit worthy of our present endeavor. Other purchases followed and so we endeavored to create a profitable business, ending up with more than two hundred acres.

I would like to address my thoughts to another matter. We are proud of our family partly, I presume, because we have passed on to our children a part of ourselves, physically, mentally and spirit-ually. We are convinced that a strong inheritance persists in all families, that ours is no exception. We have hoped that our sincere religious convictions would likewise be passed down to our children - not simply ideas, or simply external religious concepts, but a religious conviction or attitude that is basically Christian. We do not presume that, for instance, God can be objectively known so as to manipulate Him according to our selfish self, but must be ex-perienced in life's situations where it is possible to "know" Him as One outside of ourselves in a vast universe that demands His existence. Of course, Jesus Christ is the only avenue we have of knowing the love of God and the salvation of our soul and that of society. It is tragic, to us anyway, to see so many people who sit by and witness the disintegration of society and the world and do nothing about it. It denigrates human personality. For that reason, we believe in the Bible as the Word of God and Man's cognitive means of knowing the nature, love and purpose of God in human ex-perience.It magnifies man's awareness of eternal values. This basic belief has ever been our endeavor and purpose of life. We cherish this faith and hope that this nation, under God, will be blessed, at least a little, because we have been good stewards of God's faith. Gerald Lee Matlock, about 1977.

Covered Wagon train story goes here

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