Bio: Smith, Mrs. Will – Letter to Gleaner (1 Jul 1903)

Transcriber: stan@wiclarkcountyhistory.org 

Surnames: Smith, Miller, Derry

----Source: Greenwood Gleaner (Greenwood, Clark Co., Wis.) 9 Jul 1903

The Gleaner prints below an interesting letter from Mrs. Will Smith, who with her husband and family, used to live in Greenwood. Her husband is general manager of the Columbia River Lumber Company, in which Harry Miller, another former Greenwood son, is largely interested. Following is the letter:

Wenatchee, Washington, July 1, 1903,

Dear friends all: As many of you can bear me witness, I am a very poor correspondent, so I am going to “kill a number of birds with one stone,” and write to you all through the medium of the Gleaner. I have intended to write the Gleaner before but my family cares are rather numerous, so nearly everyone has been neglected. But the old saying, “out of sight is out of mind,” is proven false for not a day passes over my head by I think of Greenwood and old friends.

We like it here real well, but I think – yes, I know I should like it better the other side of the Cascades. This part of the country is so dusty and dry, and I am sure I shall never become accustomed to it. Wherever water is available grows beautifully, but everything wild looks rather dreary and dead. The water for irrigating in this immediate vicinity is taken from a mountain stream about four miles away. There will be a large new ditch ready for use shortly, known as the Highland ditch, and it is a wonderful piece of engineering.

I shall no begin to tell you of the fruit raised her for you would think I was exaggerating. Every ranch has a look of neatness and thrift that would do you heart goo, but on the other hand, one can look over acres of sandy barren waste. As Will’s father says, “I believe I would rather live where the Lord does his own watering.”

One thing in favor of this part of the country is the beautiful winters, just cold enough and just enough snow to be nice. I never imagined anything nicer than last winter was. The thermometer registered from ten to twenty degrees above zero as an average. We had about two weeks of rainy, disagreeable weather in the fall, and the rest of the winter was simply beautiful. They had more rain than usual over on the coast last winter, but the summers are nice enough to pay for it. When it is 100 degrees in the shade her it is never over 75 or 80 over there. But we have the cool nights here the same as there, so that gives us some respite.

We have been up in the mountains camping once this spring, and three families of us are going to spend the third, fourth and fifth of July camping. I enjoy it immensely. Simply the sight of timber after so much sage brush and bowlder(?) is refreshing.

I do not want you to conclude from anything that I have said that I do not like it here, for I am simply giving arguments both for and against the country. The amount of money in circulation here would be an inducement to almost anyone. Then we do not have the extremes in heat and cold that you have there.

Among the numerous things at are strange to me, especially after seeing the enormous wheat fields of Adams, County, is to see small fruit farms here. Fifteen and twenty acres is the average fruit farm, but they are worth three or four hundred dollars per acre. The amount of fruit and vegetables that can be raised on ten acres is wonderful. Eight hundred dollars’ worth of cantaloupes can be raised on four acres of ground in one season, and all that has to be done is to put the seeds in the ground and see that they have water, no fertilizer being used at all. A great many people raise alfalfa, four crops being raised in a season. An average of twelve tons to the acre at twelve dollars per ton makes pretty good interest on money invested. If it is well taken care of, as high as twenty tons per acre can be raised, and it often sells for eighteen or twenty dollars per ton in the winter.

Water nearly everywhere in eastern Washington is hard to be unless one lives near some stream. A well three hundred feet deep is considered shallow. That reminds me of an anecdote of an eastern salesman riding through eastern Washington, and meeting a farmer with his water tank, stopped and asked him how far he had to go for water. “Seven miles,” replied the farmer. I believe there is not a well in this city.

We have bought a home here and it is on a hill overlooking the Columbia River for over a mile. I enjoy watching the steamboats come down the river and make a landing. There are six boats on the river plying between here and Bridgeport, (?) miles north of here. There are no boats run between here and Pasco to the south because the river if too rough. The river is crossed at this place by a cable ferry. The practicability of building a bridge has lately been discussed, but they finally decided it would cost too much money. It would take a bridge half a mile long anywhere near this place.

Well, I think I’d better close or this will have to be printed in the form of a serial. I wish to tell a little piece of news and then I’ll stop. Amy was married at Mission, Washington on June 13th to Mr. Norman Derry of this place. They spent aa few days at Mission and Leavenworth, and then returned home. They have a ten acre fruit farm about a mile from town. Mr. Derry has lived here for sixteen years and is well spoken of by everyone.

Hoping I have not tired you with so much description, I never was note for any literary ability, I will close.

Regards to all,
Mrs. F.W. Smith

P.S. Would only be too glad to hear from old friends and am will to give any information possible.