This story was submitted for use here by Mrs. Violet Thompson.

WILLIAM F. AND MARGRETHA JEBE
October 6, 1885

Written by Mary Rundall Andrews Jebe
December 6, 1949

     I wanted to tell about when Mr. Jebe and his wife were married in Portland, Oregon, on October 6, 1885 in a Jew's home where Margretha had been working. He said that he wanted them to be married, live right here but that would never do that as he had a homestead away up here in the Camas Prairie. So they got them a Lutheran minister and they were married in their home then they started for their homestead. It was October when they transferred at Cascade Locks on the Columbia River. Their goods was taken off the river boat below the Rapids and put on a narrow-gauge railroad and taken five miles up the river and were transferred from the railroad and put on the steamer.
     But this is the story. Mr. Jebe couldn't find his grindstone and he told them about it being not there. So they hunted up the deck crew and how they did laugh when Mr. Jebe told them in his broken English that he couldn't find his "blindstone". How they got a grabhook and reached down into the river and pulled out the "blindstone". How they did laugh, but Mr. Jebe thought they were glad because they had found his grindstone. He said it was a long time before he knew the difference. Then that Margretha cried because the hearth on her cook stove was broken … and how they laughed. But they fixed it before they got to Warner's Landing at Bingen, Wash. where they unloaded and the Carson boys from Oak Ridge were there to meet them. They stayed all night and she was to stay there while he walked into his homestead to get the roof on his log cabin before she came. To his surprise the Carson boys had to bring her the next morning as she cried all night for her dearly beloved husband. Bless her dear heart!!! She didn't realize what it all meant until she got there. But he said they were so glad to be together they forgot about their troubles. He said he never thought of bringing his Margaretha to a home in the big woods to a house without a roof. No …. Nothing! But he said that she never complained and was the bravest pioneer woman in all the world! Mr. Jebe had a few shakes so he put them for a shelter in one corner of the building.
     It was October so the warm sunshine kept them busy and the cook stove was a blessing. Such a story for newly-weds to spend their honeymoon under the shade of the big pines. But they wanted a home and that was the only way to get a home in those days … stick to it! He didn't have a horse so he cut the trees down in the slough (cottonwood trees) and then carried them up the hill on his back and built a nice log house and a big barn and a chicken house and a cellar. He also made the clay bricks and built a fireplace. He was sure a strong man to do such heavy work. He split out singles for the roof (called shakes) two feet long and also split out boards for the floor and he sealed and sided it up with those boards split out of four foot logs. They were split with an instrument called a "frog". The pioneers made them and his grindstone kept them sharp!! What a life! There wasn't a saw mill anywhere around so that is why they split the boards out of logs. Mr. Shaw built the first saw mill in the valley but no planner.

Copied by Violet Thompson
October 29, 1991

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