A Mending at the Edge: A Novel (Change And Cherish)

by Jane Kirkpatrick

  Many have assisted me, but special appreciation goes to curator Patrick Harris, executive director John Holley, and staff members Janus Childs, Pam Weninger, and Elizabeth Corley. Board members Norm Bauer, Gail Robinson, Jim Kopp, and Annette James continued to offer wise counsel and encouragement throughout the series. Volunteers Irene Westwood and Roberta Hutton opened doors to history that would otherwise have been closed, and I’m grateful beyond words. Each of these people gave of themselves in the way the colonists did, helping make someone else’s life better than their own—in this instance, mine.

  I am indebted to direct descendants of Emma: David and Patricia Wagner (Emma’s great-nephew through William’s line), Mike and Ariana Truman (Emma’s great-grandson through Catie Ehlen’s line), and Louise Hankeson (Emma’s great-granddaughter through Christian’s line), all of Portland, Oregon, who shared their homes, letters, photographs, fiber arts, musical instruments, and even recipes handed down from Emma and her daughter. Members of the Jerry Giesy families (descendants of Emma’s first husband’s brothers) provided treasured looks at calling cards and opportunities to explore the lives of the descendants who have peopled my life for the past three years. I’m deeply grateful to them all, especially for their willingness to share family stories, including the ones related to Christian’s death and Emma’s spirited life, and for allowing me to speculate to fill in historical gaps.

  Erhard and Elfi Gross again offered advice and suggestions related to the German language used by Emma and others, though any errors in usage are mine. Their years operating a bed-and-breakfast in Astoria, Oregon, helped inform me about the wonderful German cuisine that I hope reflected well on Emma’s own efforts in this book. Most of the recipes mentioned came from either the Aurora Colony Heritage Recipes cookbook or from the 1915 Kenilworth Presbyterian Cook Book that included recipes from Emma and her daughter. Author and quilter Mary Bywater Cross introduced me to Emma through her book Quilts of the Oregon Trail. How could I ever thank her enough for that?

  Retta and Steven Braun, owners of the historic Frederick Keil House, allowed us to visit, to photograph, and to get a feel for the root cellar and the flow of life in the early gross Haus built close to the colony church, neither of which still stands. Frederick did indeed marry Emma’s niece, Louisa Giesy, and they lived in the house, which is said to have the same floor plan as the gross Haus. I’m grateful for the Brauns’ hospitality and their continued efforts to maintain this piece of Aurora history. Suzie Wolfer, a colony descendant, loaned me period books on herbal healing that both Keil and Martin Giesy might have used, and shared tea and stories with me. Descendants of many of these families—Keil and Wolfer, Will and Stauffer and Steinbach in Aurora and Portland, Oregon; in Ohio and Pennsylvania; and Lucille Bower back in Bethel, Missouri—shared photographs and stories that brought insights into the telling of this community.

  In previous books in the series, I included a suggested list of reading material related to communal societies and the Aurora Colony specifically. For this last book, I relied heavily on Eugene Edmund Snyder’s book Aurora, Their Last Utopia: Oregon’s Christian Commune 1856–1883; as well as drawings done by Clark Moor Will, a descendant of a colony member, and his remembrances; those published by the Aurora Historical Society; and those included in the Marion County Historical Society newsletters. In step with the incredible memory of Patrick Harris and the volunteers, colony archives, and descendant records and stories, I did my best to stay true to the historical record. I did, however, diverge for some story elements, and I want to convey those detours now.

  From the record, we know that Emma returned to the colony in 1861, and from a divorce petition she filed thirty years later, in 1891, we learn of the circumstances under which she left Willapa and returned to Aurora. We know she didn’t initially have her sons with her, but it is not clear why. From a letter Emma wrote to her parents in 1862 from the Aurora Colony (reproduced nearly verbatim in the text), we learn that she did have all four of her children with her by then since she comments on that. Her father has a ledger page in November 1862, telling us when they arrived; but there are few entries after that date, for either her parents or for Emma herself. It is noteworthy that Emma is the only woman with a colony ledger page in her own name. After 1862, most items for her sons are listed under Martin Giesy’s name, so something happened that meant Emma’s sons were no longer with her. This is verified by later census records. Did she have her own funds and thus didn’t need to use the colony communal supplies? Did Jack provide resources? There’s no evidence of either. Yet a house was built for Emma sometime around 1864–65. It still stands. Did she leave the colony in the interim? Did her parents live with her in that house? Did she go with them, if in fact they left? If she had a house, why were her sons with Martin still living in the gross Haus? Was she banished for some reason? These are all speculative questions, and I have tried to answer them while staying true to Emma and the rest of the historical record. These questions became threads for the fabric of fiction.

  There were tensions between her family back in Bethel and Andrew Giesy the manager and August Keil, Keil’s son who was sent there to encourage dispersing of property so the Bethelites would come west. But letters suggest that the Bethelites were quite happy where they were, and the more primitive conditions in Aurora forestalled the migration. The difficulties between Emma’s parents and the Giesys of Bethel appear to be related to personal property ownership, and this would indeed have created conflict in what was to be a largely communal society. Whether this was the source of tension between Emma and her parents is speculative. But when Emma’s father died in 1873, he did have an estate to leave to “Wagner and Heirs,” and it was a portion of this estate that in Emma’s 1891 divorce petition she claimed as money used to purchase her property that was hers and hers alone. She was apparently hoping to prevent Jack Giesy from making a claim against her property, telling us that he continued as a force in her life, one I believe she managed well over time.

  A newspaper account in the 1870s suggests that Emma lived with her parents near Aurora at least for a time. Following her father’s death, Emma and her mother and siblings “officially joined the Aurora Colony,” according to colony records. Up until then, Emma had apparently kept herself at the edge, separate, even though she lived and worked there, perhaps as a final statement that the Willapa group was indeed its own entity, much as Bethel was.

  Jonathan Wagner helped negotiate the purchase of property along the Willamette River in 1874 for his mother and siblings. The property acquired belonged to George Law Curry and his wife, Chloe Boone. Curry was Oregon’s territorial governor from 1854 to 1859. The property remained in the Wagner family until becoming the development of Charbonneau, which is how it is known today. David Wagner did own a grist mill in Aurora, and the flour sacks were stenciled with “Wagner and Heirs,” just as Emma had noted.

  After her father’s death, Emma took her inheritance—something unique for a woman to even have in that period—and bought property. Two years later she sold it, doubling her money. She later loaned money to her son Andrew, who did indeed go on to become a physician, though his original schooling was provided by the colony. In census records he is recorded as a helper at the pharmacy. He continued to live with Martin Giesy and Martha Miller after their marriage until he left for school.

  Andrew graduated from Willamette University in 1876 and did postgraduate work at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, earning his MD degree in 1882. He returned to serve as a colony physician for three years. Andrew was named assistant physician at the Oregon State Hospital in Salem in 1885. In 1886, he married Ida Harriet Church. They had one son. Andy eventually opened a private practice in Portland, in the new specialty of obstetrics and gynecology. It appears likely that the loan to him was for the additional training, so Emma did continue a relationship with her son.

  Christian married Louisa Ehlen, and his sister Catherine (Kate/ Catie) married Lorenz Ehlen, thu
s blending these two families. The Ehlens were known for their basket making, weaving, reed making, farming, and carpentry skills. In later life, Emma lived for a time with her son’s family and still later with her daughter’s family in Portland, Oregon. Census records also show her living for a time with Ida’s family, the Beckes. Emma stayed connected to her children. On May 17, 1916, Emma died. She had lived with Catie for some years and was a member of the Kenilworth Presbyterian Church in Portland at the time of her death. Incidentally, Catie did change how she spelled her name, as evidenced by a sampler contained in the colony’s collection of artifacts.

  Emma did make one visit back to Willapa after she left there in 1861. She was well into her eighties at the time and was described as being alert and knowledgeable. She visited Christian’s grave and recalled fondly her journey across the continent with the scouts in 1853. She said little else about her time in Willapa.

  Ida, the daughter of Jack and Emma, married Henry Becke, a farmer, and the families all remained within the Northwest for many years after the dissolution of the colony. Ida and her daughters were known for their quilting, a continuing family tradition. Some of these quilts, as well as a sewing machine said to belong to Emma and likely used by Ida, are often on display in the colony during the colony quilt show held each fall.

  A house, with two front doors, was built for Emma. We know of such a house from a photograph with the notation that it was built by Jonathan Wagner “for his widowed aunt and her three children.” We know where it was located in Aurora proper, and it probably had a view of Mount Hood. The notation errs in that it was not Jonathan’s aunt but his sister, Emma, for whom the house was built. We believe she had only her daughters with her, but she may have had Christian as well, at least for a time, which would account for the “three” children mentioned. The house built for Emma became the home of John and Elizabeth Kraus, the daughter of John and Barbara (BW) Giesy, and in the 1970s the house was given as a gift by the Kraus family to the Colony Historical Society. It was moved from its original site on Liberty and Third to its current site next to the ox barn on Second Street and is known today as Kraus House.

  Whether Emma used the house to welcome others like herself, who lived at the edge, is also not historically certain, but I wanted to convey the essence of care and community that the Aurorans were known for through the years. Serving and restoring through music and good food were hallmarks of the colony, and through such work I believe Emma found peace and meaning. Stories relate that no one in need was turned away, and I felt that Emma might well have been at the center, living the art of hospitality and spiritual understanding within a family setting, and in so doing demonstrating how profoundly an ordinary life can touch the lives of others.

  Almira Raymond was an actual historical woman who endured the trials mentioned, and she might well have known Emma, or Emma might have known about her, given the notoriety of her divorce. We also don’t know whether Emma and the others found comfort in walking paths, but reports from the Rapp Society of Pennsylvania, of which her parents were a part, describe several such labyrinth paths, and it was likely Emma would have enjoyed their replication and perhaps used them as a way to keep her from falling back from hope.

  Whether or not Emma found that the gift of music soothed her soul is unknown. But the old German proverb, “Music washes the soul of the dirt of daily living,” is a sampler included in the Bethel Colony Museum in Bethel, Missouri. Emma might well have heard this proverb spoken and taken its message into her heart. We do know that workers in the colony—as did many workers of old—sang as part of their everyday experiences in the potato and bean fields or while bathing their children at home. We also know that the Aurorans, including Emma, were deeply attached to the landscape, seeking Heimat, that special homeland where roots could grow deep. They likely found solace at the Park House nestled beneath the trees, where paths meandered and people picnicked as the band played.

  Christine was fostered by the Wagner family. Her name appears on a special accounting of residents of Phillipsburg, listing those in the David Wagner home. The translation, 1833 Residents of Phillipsburg (Now Monaca), Pennsylvania, was compiled by Dr. Eileen Aiken English in 2004 (Skeeter Hill Press). Many colonists did adopt or foster children as a way of expanding their population. That’s all we know of Christine; the rest of her journey is purely fictional. None of Emma’s sisters married; only her youngest brother, William, did. Emma did move with her family in 1870 to a property not far from Aurora, though she remained connected to the colony.

  I also detoured in my storytelling regarding the marriage of Matilda and Jacob Stauffer, placing it just outside of Aurora, rather than in Willapa where it likely took place. Whether they lived in the house with Emma as portrayed is unlikely. What happened to Matilda and her babies is documented, as is her incredible creativity with needle and thread. Quilts of hers have been handed down, and her descendants have graciously permitted them to be displayed during quilt exhibits of the colony. Jacob Stauffer did build a two-story log home outside of Aurora in 1865, which today belongs to the Aurora Colony Historical Society. I wanted to explore Keil’s restrictive marriage policy and the way it was sometimes thwarted by marriages performed away from the colony, and so I used Matilda and Jacob to do that. (One factual story concerns a couple who dated each other for thirty years, marrying only after Keil died. That way, when the colony assets were divided, the man received his portion and the single woman received a portion that amounted to half of what the man received. A married couple only received the man’s portion; a wife’s contribution to the colony effort was not counted.)

  We don’t know the actual date of Matilda and Jacob’s marriage, but we do know the dates of their children’s births. Jacob Stauffer later married Christina Wolfer, the sister who watched her brother break all those dishes along the trail. The rescued butter dish was handed down through the family along with the story. In 2007, the dish was given to the Aurora Colony Museum by a descendant, where the story continues to be told.

  Every year, thousands of school children learn about early colony life by spending a morning at the Stauffer Farmstead. They cut fir branches to make candle holders, dip into wax to make their own candles, piece together swatches for quilt blocks, knead biscuits and watch them being baked in the old cast-iron stove. Children also make cedar shakes and write their names on them, recording their journeys into the past while taking some of that past with them when they leave. The shakes were originally used to side the smokehouse and other colony structures. Making primitive crafts that children can hold in their hands may be the finest way of bringing history alive in this technological age.

  Life did seem to revolve around the Oregon State Fair, which was usually held in October after harvest. The colony’s dance hall and the first restaurant at the state fairgrounds brought them wide renown. Many items are listed in the Oregonian records as being exhibited by the Aurora families, though Dr. Keil’s are the most prominent. The Aurora Band toured at the expense of railroad magnate Ben Holladay. The band was known throughout the region, performing at Butteville, Oregon, as they first performed in the 1850s, and at the colony’s elaborate three-story, hotel, especially when the train brought in its first travelers in October 1870. The Pie and Beer Band played second fiddle, so to speak, to the Aurora Band. After a remarkable discovery in 2005 of original compositions of music, the historical society has begun the work of restoring and performing this music, including introducing it to school-children.Already two public concerts of the works have been performed. Many of the instruments were handmade and of unusual designs. The Ehlen family, which Emma’s daughter and son married into, was known for their skill at making reeds for wind instruments.

  The colonists were also known far and wide for their food, served at the fair and at the hotel. Though the hotel was but thirty minutes by train from Portland and the end of the line, for years the train stopped in Aurora for meals “served within 15 minutes.” Many other
patrons took leisurely Sunday rides to the colony to participate in the restoration promised by fine German cuisine.

  Most of the growth of the colony occurred through arrivals of Bethelites and the Willapa residents coming south to Oregon. By 1867, nearly all of the Willapa Giesys related to Emma had come to Aurora, except for Jacob/Jack Giesy and Sebastian and Mary. Interestingly, other Giesys came to Willapa from Ohio after the Civil War. The Giesy clan continued to look after the stockade that Christian and the scouts built in 1855–56, until it crumbled with age. They also tend the cemetery where both Willie Keil and Christian Giesy, among others, are buried. Willie Keil’s burial site is marked by Washington State highway maps. Joni Blake graciously assisted in early readings of this series.

  The pharmacy, the Keil and Company Store, and the colony church were some of the later buildings to be erected by the colonists in Aurora. The church was dismantled in 1911, and the lumber used elsewhere. The pews, however, found a home in the Aurora Presbyterian Church, which stands across from the ox barn, and some of the hand-turned pillars became part of the museum’s changing exhibits. Several original colony buildings are identified by markers for visitors taking a walking tour of Aurora today.

  Changes in the economy of Aurora and the eroding of communal life are well documented. Keil may have wanted his people to be self-reliant and to find spiritual strength through their work and their arts, or perhaps he wanted to stand out from neighboring religious practices and thus did not preach except twice a month. The record shows he did stop preaching for a time and that the deaths of his children caused an enormous change in his demeanor. With the arrival of Christopher Wolff, colony youngsters gained a more consistent school experience. After that, younger men were invited to preach, and perhaps these same young men became the advisors when the agreements (included at the end of this section) were developed. Henry C. Finck was the music instructor, and his son Henry T was the first Oregonian to matriculate to Harvard. Karl Ruge continued to live at the gross Haus, tend the bridge as toll keeper, and teach.