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The Goldendale Sentinel, Goldendale, WA., July 1, 1954
Diamond Anniversary Edition insert, page 7

LETTER RECALLS PIONEER PERIOD

Reminiscences of old times in Klickitat County were included in a recent letter to The Sentinel from Mrs. Sophia Athow of Soap Lake, one of our county pioneers.

Her letter follows:

Have noticed by The Sentinel that you want names of older settlers of Goldendale and vicinity.
Well, I was born there in November, 1878 and grew up in the home my grandfather built on his homestead in the No.6 area and I believe Joe Hector and family are still living in it, or were the last time I was there. My brother, Ed Andrews, and I were complete orphans by the time I was six years old and the grandparents brought us up. We lost them both by death before I was quite grown. I spent my entire life at Goldendale until I moved here in March, 1943.
But Goldendale is still my home town and will always be so. Never lived anywhere except on a farm until the death of my husband Jim in 1932. I love the land and it's been fun and a great education to grow up with it and watch its development from the open prairie we used to cross on our way to town six miles away. Our roads were just two deep ruts through the sod. When they got too deep and hard to turn out of in meeting an occasional team, we just pulled out and made new tracks elsewhere. Oh, yes, we had free choice of ways to travel; afoot, horseback, or in a farm wagon. I was grown when I saw the first top buggy.
Don't suppose this is of much interest to you, but I don't know just what it is, if anything, That you want besides the name, date of settling, date of birth and number of years one has lived there. I could give you names of my people, four of whom took homesteads, all farming our there. The first alfalfa was grown there when I was seven. Wild cattle and horses were on the range. Hard winters, deep snow. I have seen it four feet deep on the level, rail fences completely buried. Stock on the range, principally cattle, froze to death when the grass and water were covered with snow. If I can help in any way to keep the memory of some of the early settlers experiences, their problems, methods of early day farming etc. from being completely forgotten by those who come to read about them, I'll be glad to so.

Thank, you, sincerely, Sophia Athow, Soap Lake, Wash.

P.S. And don't forget we had fun, too, right along. Hard work didn't stop us from having good times.