William Edwin Clark

William Willie Edwin Clark, Grandma Icel's dad,  was an only child. He went to live with his maternal grandmother in Portland when he was about 2 years old. He had been living in The Dalles with his mother but she became afraid of losing him to his father so she "hid" him. Had that happened in this day and age we would have seen his face plastered all over milk cartons and such.

What a doll he was! He looks a little like the Campbell's Soup kid to me.

When he was a teenager he became the ring leader of a group who called themselves the Albina Gang. Albina is an area in Portland. Compare it to Hillyard in Spokane or Soho in Manhattan. Here is a picture from that general area and  time.

They were not a gang like the characters who spray paint their symbols all over our homes and fences and neighborhoods to let rivals know where their borders lie. They were simply a gang of guys who hung out together. They played music on street corners. They jumped off the bridges of Portland for the seemingly worthy price of $5 per jump. This photo is not him of course but I just wanted to give a feel for the thing. Crazy!

Willie was given a clarinet by a man who was dying and who wanted to bequeath it to some worthy person. Willie proved himself to be that person and devoted much time and energy to teaching himself to play it. Later he acquired a saxophone and soon learned to play it too. (Again this picture is not him)



 As for developing ability to jump off of bridges.... I suppose you just lean over further and further until.....you have jumped.


Some members of his gang were Silas Harris, who later married Grandma's mother's sister Esther; Bill Marchekva who married another sister, Goldie; and Ed Coffin who married a third sister, Marie. Those girls were like a marrying gold mine for the infamous Albina Gang.

Grandma doesn't know at what point her dad joined the traveling circus or where it was camped when her mother met him but apparently he and she ran off together and were married, much to her parents dismay. She says he was a man everybody loved, that he hadn't an enemy in the world but I think maybe her grandparents were not too fond of him.

She can't remember exactly their ages when this elopement transpired but she does remember there was a 10 year gap in their ages. As a mother I would have been devastated...sick with worry......wondering what I had done wrong in my daughter's upbringing. As I have said a time or two already it was a different time.

As mentioned in an earlier post William had a trained bear.


He also trained horses and performed with them. He dressed as a clown and did tricks on their backs as they ran around the ring. I suppose he learned these feats the same way he learned to fall jump off of bridges. Grandma says there was a green velvet album full of pictures from those glory days but she could never locate it after her parents had passed away.

The people I have spoken to who remember him are filled with admiration and love for this man. My own beloved, Ray, shared a birthday with him and has very fond memories of gatherings to celebrate that day.

Life at 412 2nd St West, The Dalles, Oregon with the Allens

Last night I talked to Grandma about her memories of her times at her grandparents' house. They lived in The Dalles Oregon at 412 3rd St. I am continually astounded by her knowledge and memories of her family. I think the place looks like it is right out of Pollyanna, which is a great movie by the way. Maybe this was taken on the 4th of July or some other patriotic holiday....

 Grandma Allen was William Clark's mother, so Grandma's paternal grandmother. Her name was Ollie Lizetta. Here she is on her front porch. Grandpa Allen is on the right. He was her second husband. Her first husband ran off to the Yukon but apparently, tried to kidnap little "Willie" more than once so the boy was sent off to be raised by his maternal grandmother. He came to visit his mother when it could be arranged and she would visit him. These modern times are not so different from the past as we tend to think. I love the two chairs, especially the one on the porch.

Grandma says that when she was 10 her grandma was sick so her dad sent her to help take care of her. While living there she went to a Catholic school and this dress she is wearing was her uniform. She remembers it being blue. Her grandma thought it was silly for a 10 year old to take care of her but she grew quite fond of her. She had a bedroom upstairs as did her grandma while grandpa's room was downstairs but she doesn't know why that was - if he was anything like most men I know he snored too loud for her to be able to sleep. Grandma did say she spent a fair amount of time on that little stool thinking about why she had done something she wasn't supposed to have done at Grandpa Allen's request.

Hey look, here's that cool chair from the porch. These people were extremely fond of their dogs too.....King and Queen were their names. I surmised the fondness because of the large amount of pictures of them, especially in comparison to the very few pictures of a young Grandma Icel.


See here they are again. I liked this picture because of the snow and the winterized look of the porch, i.e. no plants

They really loved those dogs didn't they?

Grandma says her grandma was a very fastidious housekeeper. You could have eaten off her floors. Grandma helped her with the cooking and dish washing. She was taught to make a bed with perfect corners and there was no such thing as fitted bottom sheets. You tucked and folded until it was perfect and if it wasn't perfect you had to do it over!!! She owned two boarding houses (ahem... although I have heard rumors of what those houses had been in earlier days) and two rentals and they changed the bedding every day and brought the used bedding home to wash. Her grandma was sure an energetic sick person! But apparently she was so sick for a time that her hair went white because of it. Grandma told me she boarded at the catholic school for 3 months so she wouldn't get sick too. Her grandma was a huge Oregon State Beavers fan and had her own seat at the ball park.

Grandma said her grandpa, Charles Allen, was known for his beautiful roses. He would clip some every morning on his way to the bank and hand them out to the women who worked with him.

He had come to America from Norway as a stowaway on a steamboat. He sold jewelry and such to earn a living (one wonders how he acquired it) and worked his way across the country from New York. He became fairly well-to-do. Here is is with the local fire marshall.

And here they are with, of course, the dogs....

He later owned a pool hall. Grandma Icel memorized this poem http://freemasonry.bcy.ca/biography/service_r_w/dan_mcgrew.html to impress her grandpa and he was so proud he took her down to his pool hall and set her on the piano to recite it. After I read it over I was super impressed too!

There are a lot more pictures of this house (and the dogs) but I will end with this one...

And this one....

The five generations are Ollie Allen, William Clark, Icel Perkins, Barbara Gaines (my mother {in law}), and Ray Gaines (my own beloved)

This is Grandma Icel with her Grandma and Grandpa Allen and one of their beloved dogs. I love everything about this picture. The lamp with the fringe, the pattern on the drapes, the fern (fake or real?), Grandma Allen's glasses and her expression (She looks mischievous and a little bit like she is keeping a secret), Grandma Icel's stockings and the way her hands are folded on her lap, and the dog, who looks more like he owns the man than vice versa.

I don't  know anything about this picture but Grandma's smile still looks just the same. Who knew they had sidewalks back then? I mean when was concrete invented anyway?

This one is pretty on the edge. Thank goodness the photographer covered her with a sheet or something.

These 3 are the extent of younger pictures of Grandma Icel. It is so different than today where we take pictures of every changing expression our babies make and every gift they open on their birthdays and their Halloween costumes from every possible angle. There are so few of these that it makes them a rare gift.

This story is about the person known to the world as Icel Belle Perkins. She joined the human race on April 14, 1917 and she has been running that race at break neck speed ever since. She was, for many years, in a wee bit of denial about that year, 1917. She eventually reached the point where she was and still is proud to proclaim her age, and is even a little bit of a braggart, about each. and. every. single. year. This is the oldest picture I could find of her:

I wish this picture showed her fiery red hair. She still, at the age of 95, has beautiful red hair and it is completely (ahem) natural (ahem).

She is my grandma by marriage but she has always made me feel as though I were her own flesh and blood. From the very first time I met her. She is amazing that way.

She was named after her mother who was named after some relative in Ireland, who was a twin. I wonder what the other twin was named? Don't you wonder? Her middle name, Belle,  is after her grandma, Martha Belle Weakley. Martha is the one on the right.

She was born third in line to William Edwin and Icel Lee Clark. Her mother's maiden name was Weakley. Their eldest child, a son, was Harold. Next came Ralph, then Grandma. This is Ralph and Harold:

This is William, the father, when he was 3 years old:

 William and Icel met at the circus. William was actually in a traveling circus.

I imagine it looked something like this:

  

Icel had gone with her family to see the circus. She was very young, probably 15 and William was 25!!! Can you imagine if you had been their parents? I know, I know, things were different then. Anyway, I think she looked very exotic in this picture:

 Grandma says her dad had a trained dancing bear. Icel joined the circus too and traveled with them. She had her first two children while traveling with the circus. The bear picked Ralph up once. The bear had to be put down (aka: killed). I don't know if the bear is dead or alive here, but it kind of creeps me out either way:

The bear didn't hurt Ralph but that was enough for Icel. 

She said she would not have another baby in the circus. She went to Berkley California and stayed with her sister, Esther. That is where Grandma Icel was born.

I think this picture of the elder Icel with Tony, a Portugese hired hand, really speaks volumes. It has a Grapes of Wrath feel to it. Okay, I will confess that I only read one page of that book before I decided it was too depressing but I still picked up on the feel of the time period.

 And look at this picture of Icel holding baby Ralph and showing him a rose:

Cool huh?