CLYDE  FERDELL  URIE
&
ETHEL  JENNIE  WONDERLY

Clyde Ferdell Urie was born December 18, 1879 in Denver, Colorado and Died 
October 03, 1966 in St-Helens, Oregon.  He is buried at Woodbine Cemetery in 
Rainier, Oregon.  He married Ethel Jennie Wonderly March 03, 1907 in Rainier, 
Oregon by Rev. Fay, the Methodist Church Minister.  Ethel was born September 
18, 1885, in Beaver Valley, Delina, Oregon (near Rainier, Oregon).  She died 
January 17, 1981 in Longview, Washington at a nursing home.  She had been in the 
nursing home about 3 years.  She had her 95th birthday in the nursing home at 
Longview.

Mother and Dad lived in Houlton, Oregon after marriage where Eva, and Hazel 
were born.  They  moved back to Rainier to be near mothers parents where Alma, 
Ruth and Roy were born.  Dad was working with Grandpa Wonderly, Building 
roads from Rainier to St-Helens.  He also worked for Grandpa Urie at Fort Stevens, 
as a concrete finisher on the gun Batteries.

About November of 1917, they moved from Corvallis back to Houlton, Oregon.  
They lived for a short period of time in an old saloon building where Dorothy was 
born.  Then they moved into the house that we all know as the "Van Natta House".
They bought property on what is now South Vernonia Road, which was next to 
McBride School.  This is where we lived as family and myself and Gib was born and 
raised.

Dad built their home.  It started out with two rooms and a loft.  The house was 
batten construction.  When it snowed the girls had to shake the covers to get rid of 
the snow on the bed.  The house was improved on, over the years until 1943 when  it 
burned down while I was in the service.  Dad rebuilt the home, which he completed 
it enough to live in, by late 1944.  It still stands there today.  I was born in this 
house, while Gib was born in St-Helens General Hospital.

 Clyde F. Urie had a Homestead he had applied for in Evanston, Wyoming which 
was near Fort Bridger.  He had it until November 21, 1899.  He gave up the 
Homestead in April 5, 1901.  On February 4, 1913, he sent a letter to see if he could 
qualify for another Homestead.  A Letter from Department of the Interior stated 
that he was still qualified to receive another homestead.  I have a copy of the letter 
on hand in the family book.                  

In July of 1909 Dad applied for and passed the examination for Concrete finisher 
with the U.S. Civil Service Commission.  Letter on file in family book.  He was 
upgraded to concrete finisher at Fort Stevens, Oregon where he was working for his 
Dad John Harvey Urie.  I believe he worked there through World War I, when he 
moved to Houlton, Oregon.  But also after that job he worked with Grandpa Oscar 
Edward Wonderly in Building roads and bridges from Rainier to St-Helens, 
Oregon.  Which at that time the road went by Little Jack Falls, which was located 
just out of Rainier through to Goble, Oregon.  He was a carpenter and concrete 
finisher by trade.  A picture of the road building crew available in family book.

In 1923 just prior to my birth Dad was working on the roof of the old McBride 
School, which was 3 stories high.  He fell off the roof and was severely injured.  He 
was unable to work from that day on.  After I was born I was passed around as a 
baby; Grandma Wonderly, Grandma Urie and Aunt Lily took care of me for several 
months.  Between Grandparents and Aunts along with my older sisters mainly Eva 
until she was married in June 10, 1928 in St-Helens, Oregon.

After Dad was injured from the fall at McBride Grade School, Mother took in 
Washing and ironing to make ends meet.  With Grandpa Urie and Grandpa 
Wonderly's help and assistance with Dad and Mother.  A second building was built 
behind the main house for doing laundry in.  This was a two-story building with a 
wood heater in the center for heat with clotheslines through out over half of the 
bottom floor and all of the top floor for drying clothes.  A small room was built at 
the front for ironing.  Mother had purchased a Mangle Iron for ironing sheets, 
towels and etc.  It had about a 4-foot roller for pressing of these  products.  Mother 
had contacted all of the Doctors and Dentists in the area and did their laundry, 
which was daily.  Washing machines were on the back porch, which started out with 
hand wringers to dry clothes after being washed.  All of us children had to take 
turns in drying clothes through the hand Wringers.  Then mother and at times the 
older sisters had to hang all the clothes up to dry and also to keep the wood heater 
controlled to dry the clothes.

I can remember Dad having to walk on crutches from the house to the train depot 
which was approximately 1/2 mile to ride the train to Portland, several times per 
month for treatments and Doctor appointments and return at night.

Originally we had an outhouse for a toilet and used Montgomery Wards and Sears 
Catalogs for toilet paper.  It was a three holer which was located about 100 feet from 
the house across a drainage ditch.  We had to move it about every 2 years by 
digging a new hole.  Building was about 6 foot long and 4 foot wide.  One hole was 
small for us younger kids.   Two holes for adults.

Behind the toilet, Dad had built a chicken house and a small barn.  Dad and  Mom 
raised chickens for meat and eggs.  A cow for milk.

Also Behind the house Dad had built a garage and a wood shed.  In the back of the 
car area was a window which would slide open which we all could look at the garden 
area.  Which was from the garage and wood shed to the drainage ditch that ran 
through the width of the property and ran through the area by the McBride School 
all the way to Milton Creek.  In which later year Dad and Mother sold part of the 
land to McBride School and had the open ditch Piped with a 3ft. Diameter pipe to 
the edge of their property on the North side.  They installed electric lights about 
1928 and about 1932-33 Hazel bought an inside toilet and bathtub and Dad installed 
it by making a bathroom.  About the same time the city and government required 
the city to install a Sewer system down S. Vernonia Road and assessed each 
property by frontage along with a hook up charge.  Dad and Mother had been given 
I believe 5 years to pay off the sewer line and hook up costs plus interest on the 
forced installations.  They had not made enough money to pay it off.  So they made 
the decision to give the back acre to the city to settle this debt.  The city also black 
topped the road after digging for the sewer line, prior to this it was first a mud road 
and off and on they would scatter some gravel on it.  It seemed like every year they 
would oil the road to keep the dust down.

Every spring Dad would start spading for a garden.  Just behind the woodshed and 
garage next to the building, he planted strawberries.  In order to save part of the 
strawberries from the birds we would go into the garage, slide open the window and 
knock off the strawberry birds.  He always tried to plant peas right after Valentines 
Day.  As Dad spaded my job was to pick up rocks and there were plenty of them 
every year.  

When I was about 6 years old, I started selling magazines each week and my first 
earnings was to buy a BB gun.  Dad and I had many contests of shooting birds out 
of the strawberry patch.  He was a mighty good shot with almost any type of gun he 
shot.

When I was about 8 years old Dad decided to enlarge the garden and started 
digging up across the ditch even thou it was mostly a rock area, but little by little we 
kept digging and picking up rocks.  Dad would measure an area 10-ft. by 10 ft.  It 
grew in size each year there after.

Dad picked up 6 geese to run with the chickens every time Gib or I had to go out to 
feed them the ganders would grab our pants leg and then beat us with their wings.  
Both of us would like to have killed those geese.  Dad helped us out by picking up a 
puppy.  He was called Prince.  When he grew up and least half grown.  He hated the 
geese because they would attack him also.  He finally got his fill of those ornery geese 
and he killed every last one.  Dad was good and mad at the dog but Gib and I loved 
the dog and he finally gave in to us.

Dad next picked up a couple of turkeys to raise.  At first he housed them in the 
chicken house.  They grew real fast, so that all we could do was make a leather strap 
to fasten to their legs and put them outside on a rope and pipe in the ground, so 
they could move around and eat grass and grain.  Next he got some rabbits and 
made up cages in the cow barn.  It wasn't long before we had a large number of 
rabbits which we started butchering and selling to the local markets at $.50 for each 
rabbit.

Every spring Dad would buy unblocked lime and he made up a trough to mix the 
lime and water, which we used a hoe to mix it with to slack the lime and then had to 
paint the trunks of all of the trees, which consisted of 4 English Walnut trees, 2 
apple trees and 2 pear trees.  I figured that we always painted them with this white 
slacked lime to make them pretty but dad said it was for keeping  the bugs out of the 
fruits from the trees.  I guess he was right because it worked.

Dad had the gift of water witching with a forked stick of willow and he could also 
tell how deep a well had to be dug with a pearl button tied to linen thread with a 
glass by holding it in the center of the glass it would swing and hit the side of the 
glass for each foot to the water vein.  He was hired many times by the city to find 
their water pipes as well as people asking him to witch for their wells around the 
area.  I know that I dug several wells that he witched and we always hit water as he 
told us we would.  The pearl button tied to a linen thread that Dad used to give him 
the depth of the water source. ( That I have on hand).  My sister Alma made up a 
lighted Christmas tree (home made) using broken colored glass and a variety of 
gems taken from jewelry, along with lights and in part of the tree she installed the 
Pearl button and linen thread that dad used.  At which we display, Alma's home 
made tree every year at Christmas time.  Which reminds us of Dad and his many 
years of Water Witching.

Every summer Dad and I would go out and cut wood for the year, most of which 
was on Grandpa Wonderly's farm in Yankton.  Many summers I stayed with 
Grandma at the Yankton farm which they owned a lot of timberland.  About the 
3rd or 4th year there, a forest fire started near the area where we had a steam 
engine running the big saw that cut stove wood lengths.  It burned most of the 
timber land and hay fields of the Wonderly farm.  Shortly after the fire they sold the 
farm at Yankton and moved back to town by the Milton Creek.  And Grandpa 
Wonderly bought another farm in Bachelor flat area.  Dad and I with Grandpa 
Wonderly witched for water and dug the well on the corner, for the farm- 32 feet 
deep.

Dad took me and Roy deer hunting up to La Grand, Oregon near Mt Baker area, in 
an old Buick with a trailer towed behind.  We slept in the trailer at nights and I 
remember how cold it was.  This was my first deer hunting trip for a week and I was 
excused from school.  My previous hunting experience had all been on weekends in 
the hills out of St-Helens or Vernonia.  I remember we hunted every year for deer 
mostly Dad and I and Roy.  Roy and I would make drives through the brush areas.  
By  the time Dad got in position for the drive, we would finish the drive and then 
egg Dad to get in position for the next drive.  He finally told us that we had to learn 
to slow down because he never got any rest.  We were taking advantage of his 
crippled old feet and running the deer out before he could get into position.  I guess 
that was why we learned to hike and didn't get too many deer, until we learned to 
hunt smarter with Dad. 

When I was about 13 Dad had wanted a boat to fish with.  He drew up plans for this 
boat and with his knowledge. Gib-Roy and I helped Dad construct this boat.  After 
finally getting it built Dad came up with the name for the boat.  4U.  He said that 
because us men - Dad, Roy, Ed and Gib built it from scratch.  Ready to go fishing 
with a set of oars.  That it was the 4 Uries it should be named 4-U. and so it was 
named that and Dad painted the boat green (dark) and name in white on the bow.  
We did fish a lot, rowing out from the moorage and Dad taught all of us boys to 
row.  We Mostly fished for catfish and then salmon.  A few years of this rowing Dad 
bought a motor, then Mother and Dad did a lot of fishing and Mother caught as 
many fish as Dad did after she got onto how.

Dad always could sit and whittle with his Jackknife.  He taught all of us kids how to 
make tops from wooden spools.  Whistles from willow and hazelnut bushes.  By 
taping the bark and getting it to slip and you could adjust the tone of your whistle.  
He carved a lot of toys even chain links with wooden balls inside of a unit all from 
on piece of wood.  He carved out many duck decoys from cedar blocks painted them 
up they would look like real ducks on the ponds.  Practically all of our toys were 
hand made in some form.

Dad even raised pigs for butchering each year.  Mother and Dad taught us how to 
get by on what you could grow.  Even eggs put down in salt Brime in Crocks so they 
wouldn't spoil.  Made sausage and the thing I hated the worst was Hominy all put 
up in crocks to last through the winter.  Mother did a lot of baking and canning 
every year.  Later years Dad taught us how to pitch Horseshoes.  It seemed like 
Mother and Dad never ran out of ideas to keep us Kids busy year around.

The results of Mother and Dad's teaching each of us have developed creative talents.  
It taught all of us to make things, which was all due to our earlier upbringing.

written by 
Ed Urie