Elk and the Old Brick House

Osborn Low with pet elk and daughters.

The Lows and their pet elk.

Hunting season is upon us.  Here's a couple of "shots" we don't see everyday.  The Lows were famous for their tame elk (or at least the photos survive).  These photos were probably taken by Esther Matthews and seem to document the process of taming elk beginning with calves.  They were probably like horses and appear to be taking care of the lawn just fine. 

We can also see the evolution of the red brick house - the first sidewalk looks like it was made as a board walk. Apparently the whole front porch and steps which are in wood here were redone with cement at a later date.   When the house was torn down last year,  a narrow cement sidewalk was uncovered under the lawn.  I doubt if wood sidewalks last more that a few years at a time in deep snows.

Look closely at the lady on the front porch - she's holding one of the twins - they're both on the steps in little bonnets, so that dates the photo to about 1913-1914 because Cliss and Berniece were born in 1912 and lived with the Lows before their father George remarried.

Bedroom Window on the old Kennington House, watercolor.

The old Kennington house has been on my mind this fall.  

The bedroom window happened to make a pretty good composition.

 I think of who would have looked out the window on a cold winter day or felt the breezes through it in July, when there was good news, and when there was bad news.  

 It's been fun to try in a couple of different sizes.  I'll probably try it lots of times.  

 This was a time when art was simply therapeutic.

The old Kennington House is no more

Thought you might like a final look at the old Kennington house site on the Swift Creek Road. The lot hasn't looked like that in 107 years.   Time marches on...

Last Visit to the Old House #2; The Letter

This is the attic of the attic - you'd need a ladder to get up there, but that was the spot where we found lots of letters and magazines from the Low period - 1908 - 1917.  Forrest's bedroom is on the right below the attic.

 A few weeks ago both Gene and Craig said the older brothers had their beds upstairs while the girls were down in the north east bedroom.  They remembered Forrest having the bedroom over the stairs. It was our first clue as to where anything from Dad might be  located.

Bear in mind, if you haven't seen the upstairs,  it is an unfinished area.  While the owners after the Kenningtons kept a very nice house downstairs, the attic area seems to have been left alone for all those years except for a little storage.

The room over the stairs is rather odd shaped with the eve of the roof taking away a good chunk of room on the right of the window.  In addition,  a chimney stack is about 5 feet away from the window coming up from the parlor and what was the master bedroom.   The walls are done in rough cut lumber.  (Perhaps surroundings like that inspired him to be a carpenter)

Because Saturday was our last trip to the house, we focused on his room which we had skipped on the other trips. We tried to think how Dad (Forrest) would have set his room up.    We remembered his shops and how methodical he was wherever we lived.  Anything he did would be logical and the most direct.  We assumed he would have centered activity around the window - maybe a chair or stool or desk near the window for light and fresh breezes.  (I hate to think how cold it would be in the winter)

Chimney stack in what was Forrest's bedroom.  Window is now boarded up.

Looking south from the bedroom door.  Chimney stack is on the far left.

 When we examined the south side of the chimney stack facing  the window we were delighted!
This was one time a kid could be forgiven for writing on the walls! 

Believed to be K and F for Forrest.

Right below is a very plain "Kennington" with the hook typical of his signature.

THE LETTER

We thought it couldn't get better than that, then Carson again came through (he discovered the first letter).  He checked the floor boards under the window and there was a lovely letter from Forrest's Sunday School Class offering condolences at his father's passing in July of 1939.

 His father's death came when Forrest was 15 years old.  He keenly felt the weight of providing for his Mother and younger siblings.  One could imagine him sitting near that dormer window catching a July breeze while he read the letter after his father's passing.  He would try to make the family dairy pay, but it was a loosing battle.  He left school and headed out to work in Evanston,  then on to Arizona with the General Contractor, Schumaker-Evans and last to the Marine Corps.  He sent the balance of his pay back to his mother for the family over the next 5 years - through the end of WWII.

We were touched to imagine the 15 year old Forrest pondering that letter one final time before slipping it under his window where it would lay undisturbed for the next 73 years.  And we were so grateful for its discovery.

Somehow it seems fitting that a tender letter to our father be our family's final memento of the old  brick house.

Donna and Lynette reading the letter.

Transcript of the letter:
We wish at this time, Forrest, to offer our sincere sympathies to you.  In these hours of bereavement we hope you will not be discouraged, but that your will always look on the bright side of life and know that what is done now or anytime is done for the best by the hand of One who knows what is best for us.

We understand that a lot of the responsibilities that your father had will now fall on you, and we hope that you will be able to carry on just as your father would have done if he had not been called and we know you will.

We all know what a wonderful father you had!  We all know how blessed you are to have had such a person to guide and direct you.  And the things which come up in your life to puzzle you, although    you won't have his direct counsel,  think "If I do what my father would have done,  I will be right."

Forrest, He is not dead!  
I cannot say and will not say that he is dead.  
He's just away, 
With a cherry smile and a wave of the hand, 
He wandered into an unknown land, 
And left us dreaming, 
How very fair it needs must be, 
Since he lingers there.
 And you, Oh you, who fondly yearns,
 For the old time step and the glad return, 
Think of him faring on as dear in the love of 
There as the love of here. 
Think of him still as the same I say
He is not Dead, he is just away.

.........ly,

...Sunday School Class


Note:  Poem quoted is Away by James Whitcomb Riley (1849-1916)

One last visit to the Old Brick House #1

Donna arranged for us to have one final go through of the old Kennington Home.  We just wanted to make sure we didn't miss anything.  We did a quick visit at the DUP Museum on our way.  They are getting a fabulous collection.  It really put us in the mood to look for old stuff.

Not much had changed since our family reunion last month.  The trees around the house are starting to be cut down.  But I doubt if anyone had been inside since the reunion. 

Below is a quick swing around the front room.

We touch the past...

And then it happened... on the last trip over to lock up the house till it is torn down, a crumpled envelope stuffed behind one of the chimneys in the attic caught Carson's eye.  It was a letter to Uncle Garth from 1937- something we could actually touch had been sitting in the old brick house for 75 years which connected us to our Kennington past! 

That was all it took.  We rounded up flashlights and headed back just before twlight with any able bodied man we could find. 

-->

Papers and letters had fallen or were stuffed by kids between the floorboards in the attic and in that upper attic above the two small south rooms. 

What a treat!  I’ve been dusting the papers clean and putting them in plastic sleeves this week.  The papers are so fun because they really show a slice of life – things usually considered boring and easily discarded in the moment,  but which seem vivid from a historical perspective -  One hundred plus years now.

The material fits into 3 groups:

1.  The Low material includes  several scraps of letters from  high school buddies and cousins, crumpled pages from newspapers, magazines, etc.   The Earliest material dates from 1908 when Jen was about 12.  For some reason the letters are only to Jen.  Maybe she used the upstairs as a hideaway ....  There are questions about the babies - a direct reference to when Molly and Osborn Low opened their home to care for Cliss and Berniece before George married Martha. 

2. The Kennington material ranges from about 1928 - 1941.  They must have carried some stuff over with them when they moved.  It includes scraps of newspapers, there was a 1933 hunting license for Uncle Garth, a class schedule and a chemistry test for Forrest,  lots of church material, some school material, a couple of cancelled checks, etc.   

 Craig  filled us in a little on how the house and attic were used: "

--> The kitchen and front room were in the center of the house, with the kitchen to the back; parents' bedroom was on one side, the parlor at the front, and then the girls' bedroom on the other side.  The upstairs was all one big unfinished room with four alcoves with a bed in each alcove. It was also kind of a storage area.  The big porch or varanda went along the front of the house.  The kitchen, at the back, was over the root cellar, and had a back porch.  The cast iron cooking stove was against the kitchen wall.  There was no indoor plumbing and they brought water in from the hydrant outside.
 Craig said he remembers he and your dad [Forrest] playing ball upstairs one day, and when they came downstairs there was ceiling plaster all over the kitchen table.  Their Mother was not happy!"  (Craig & Helen Via email 2012) So there we have evidence that the attic was a boy's domain.

3.  The last group of material is from the Shorter family who lived there from about 1943 to 1980's.  There are magazines, an old income tax form, a bank book belonging to a sheep herder from Rock Springs, etc. Mrs Shorter kept the main floor of the house very nice.  Even now the carpets are nice and things were not roughed up.

Back in the attic we also found an awl, a child's shoe, and a doll shoe.  There was also a  fancy glass decanter or vase with the neck snapped off under the floorboards too.  I bet some little person had a guilty conscience…  But which family ?

Child's shoe and doll shoe found in attic

Page 1 of Matthews letter.  Transcript below.

Page 2 Matthews letter

Page 3 of Matthews letter - mentions Grandparents and "Uncle George"

Page 4 of Matthews letter.

 Transcript of Matthews letter ( sorry it won't tab to the right):
 -->Liberty Idaho
Nov 11, ‘13

Miss Jennie Low,

Dear Cousin Jen,- I was certainly glad to receive your letter the other day and also glad you have forgiven me for failing to answer your last letter.  I have no excuse to offer and I fear none would be …to be excuseable and would only make things …se so … the past be as it is and in the future will try and do better.

..ay this find you well, happy and in extra good temper else fear my efforts to interest you with this bunch of nonsence will be …and I will have to go fishing for an answer to th…

first I want to say that it is raining and for bear now don’t know what rain is  I will just say it is “Wet stuff from above” that makes mud in this country and I suppose snow in yours.  Ha Ha  I have been to Fielding and learned several deffinitions like the above.   So …have.. I learned to walk up our walk with out rolling all over the side hill Ha Ha

We are having some sporty times out here now dances in the Fielding Academy are much better that they were when you was here and the Olsen Hall is filled to over flow.  The new dance hall will soon… and Grandma and Grandpa say I would like to see them.  We got a letter from Grandmother she said Uncle Geo. had gone to get married  Who is he froze onto this time.  I hope his girls are well.  Tell Esther I am going to write to her in a day or two.  I am plowing every day have got about 60 acres plowed for Oats next spring.

Well Jen, I am wondering what it was I have told you not much I suppose and believe me I can’t think of much it is as scares as hin teeth or flea hair.

Well I am going to have a hair cut and shave Friday and the “Wet stuff” is still coming so good night.  Answer soon.  What is Bill, Bertha and all the rest doing?

 [in margin above]  (It is Snowing for a change)

Now after getting all these notions out of my system I am prepared for a good night’s rest.
Love to All from
A.H. Matthews

Page 1 Missionary letter from Osborne Low Jr to Jennie

Page 2, Missionary letter

Garth's hunting license

Cancelled Check

Update: Sept. 8, 2012.  Gene told us his parents stored their cancelled checks upstairs on the north side of the attic.  The younger kids would pretend the checks were real money.  So that's how some found their way into the floor boards.  KKH

Page 1 Ballantyne to Garth

Page 2  Ballantyne to Garth

Page 3  Ballantyne to Garth

Envelope Ballantyne to Garth

Above is the letter Carson found behind the attic chimney which prompted a closer look and opened the possibilities of forgotten papers in the house.

 Uncle Garth was on a survey crew with a Jenkins boy in the summer of 1937.  He told me they would work long hours and camp out where ever the work ended.  One night they pulled along the creek bottoms between Cokeville and Kemmerer and threw out their sleeping gear without making a fire because they were so tired.  Sometime during the night they were jolted awake by the scream of a train whistle.  All they could see was the bright headlight of the engine coming straight for them.  They didn't know if they were camping on the track nor which way to roll.  They froze in terror and the train roared past. But there was no more sleep that night.  In daylight  they could see they were right along the track but not far enough to recognize it.

Reciept for pants and a shirt at a mens' store.  Perhaps school clothes for Forrest who would be about 16?  His signature is faint just below the word Tax.  He left to work in Evanston about this time.

An infamous milk check which was so low as the years wore on.  Not enough to support the family.

   -->Notes from Garth:  "The next year the Depression hit full force.  Milk Checks which came every 2 weeks went from the neighborhood of $60 - $80  down to $12 to $14 and on down to $5….  The family was hit hard…"

 

Possible rough draft for a talk in Martha's hand.

A short poem - author unknown - in Martha's hand.

Update on the above verse - it's part of a nursery rhyme.  Here's the whole thing:

-->

Five Little Chickens

Said the first little chicken,
With a queer little squirm,
"I wish I could find
A fat little worm."

Said the second little chicken,
With an odd little shrug,
"I wish I could find
A fat little bug."

Said the third little chicken,
With a sharp little squeal,
"I wish I could find
Some nice yellow meal."

Said the fourth little chicken,
With a sigh of grief,
"I wish I could find
A little green leaf."

Said the fifth little chicken,
With a faint little moan,
"I wish I could find
A wee gravel stone."

"Now see here," said the mother,
From the green garden patch,
"If you want any breakfast,
Just come here and SCRATCH!"

The Family Reunion's Field Trip

Gene and Colleen with some of the woodwork taken from the old house (with permission).  What a nice memento.  

The field trip begins. 

Note the front porch - Dave was told that instead of rebar to reinforce the concrete, Os Low used railroad iron.  That porch hasn't moved a bit - it's still tight against the house and the steps show no sign of separating.  I wonder where the front sidewalk went (the one we see in the 1905 photo).

Gene, Garth, Dave, Kaylene and Colleen learn about the house.

Dave, Marilyn and Ron in the front parlor.

Gene remembered his father's casket being in front of that east window during his viewing in 1939.   In the 1905 photo you can see Molly Low looking out that door.

The door to the cellar off the original west kitchen.  The stove was behind us on the inside wall.

Looking down the cellar stairs. 

In the cellar - a good view of the rock foundation and plumbing added after World War II.

Gene describes how the front room fireplace smoked and was rarely used.

Andrea, Kaylene and Kathy listen.  The yellow room is the bathroom which was divided off the original kitchen.  The kitchen was moved to the original master bedroom and a door was cut out the west wall and a wooden porch added after the family  sold the house.

Where no Kennington had Ventured for Seventy Years...

The original kitchen door bricked up after WWII to make way for indoor plumbing.

The west side of the house.  The middle section originally held the kitchen.

South windows on what was originally Grandma and Grandpa's bedroom.

Reminds one of a haunted house. 

Stairs off the front room.  The basement stairs were under these from the west kitchen.

An old trunk left in the attic.

Lynette and the lady who gave us permission to look around.

Mike surveys the west side of the attic.

A small room on the south attic area.

Apparently the attic had always served as a storage area.  Uncle Gene said he was surprised at how little it had changed since they lived there.

Peak of uninsulated roof (brrrr).  A small attic is formed over the 2 south bedrooms.

North West bedroom - where the little boys slept after they served as bed warmers for older kids.

kitchen door into living room.  Originally the master bedroom, converted to kitchen after WWII.