Eleanor and Will were married in the home of her parents in Mira Valley, 8 miles south of Ord, NE. Will was, at the time, living in DeBeque, CO where he was in charge of a ranch his father owned. Immediately after their marriage Will and Eleanor spent a couple of weeks or so in Ord, NE where they managed Ord Produce Co. for it's owners (Will's aunt and uncle) Libbie and Oliver P. Cromwell, while Cromwells were in Baltimore, MD where Oliver was a elder commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. Then, Will and Eleanor went to the ranch in Colorado where they lived for a time.
This is a letter from Eleanor L. (Hastings) Ollis, 20 Sep 1918, 9:30 AM, writing from her home in Elbert, Colorado. To her mother, father and sister Jane in Ord, Nebraska "Dear Papa + Mama, (and Jane) "House is all straightened up and I'm ready to sew (as soon as I write three or four letters ha!). Will has gone to help Mr. Litherland stack oats. Elmer has been at Richardson's all week helping him with his corn so the boys could get the binder that much sooner, but it has been giving lots of trouble. They should have been thru Wed. and I don't know whether they'll make it tonight or not. Will finished drilling the wheat & rye in the corn on Wed. and then cut a little piece of oats that was too wet before. Yesterday he tried to cut some corn with the grain binder but it wouldn't work without wasting lots of it. We certainly would have lots of earcorn if it could get ripe. Looks as good as lots I've seen in Nebr. but we had 1/8 of an inch of ice Sabbath night so its drying pretty fast. Had snow that night too. Has been warmer and weather more settled since then.
"Catherine is playing in the dirt on top of the cellar. Has taken a great fancy to playing there lately. Has some old jar lids, etc. and has a big time. Often if I don't hear her for awhile and go to the door & call she'll answer, 'She's alright; I me pay a dirt.' She's taken a notion too to sew when I do. Is very happy if she can sit on the floor with some rags pins & a pair of scissors but she'd rather have 'Muller's scislers' than 'Casser's' which are blunt pointed, quite dull and not very shiny. Then when anything is dirty she thinks she must have a 'clean one.' And 'just' is a favorite word lately. She does love the kittens and every once in a while she brings one to the house and plays with it like a baby. Lets it play the piano, puts it to bed, rocks it, tells it 'how mustn't be tied in panties' and various other things which I tell her and meantime the kitten yells for dear life, which makes it interesting to say the least.
"I guess its about a week or more since I wrote you and I believe I said we were looking for Murry's. Well, we haven't seen nor heard anything from them so don't know whether they're still coming or not. Any way we got the dirtiest windows and curtains washed ha! ha!
"Sabbath was a very disagreeable day--out doors. Quite cold and rained all day. Just a drizzle part of the time and real hard part of the time. We sat in the kitchen & kept up a good fire most all day. Didn't go to S.S.
"Monday I washed & Will went to town in the A.M. & hauled in the sweet corn in P.M. I didn't have a very big washing and got it all dry, unironed ones folded & put away & others dampened all the same day. Something wonderful for me! and Tues: I did the ironing and most of the mending that was in the wash. Wed. was bake day & C. and I went to town in A.M. for mail. ("C" refers to her daughter Catherine.) Got a letter from Jane & one from Ethel. In the P.M. I did more mending. Don't know whether I'll ever get the basket full that's been standing a long time, done or not but I have hopes. Yesterday I ripped, washed & ironed my old blue coat and will make Catherine a coat of it. You know I got the jacket to my tan suit ready to make her one last spring and never got it done so thought the blue would be heavier and more suitable for winter. Will put black velvet collar & buttons on it & make a hat of the blue & black. Will send pictures when I get them finished for I'm not just sure how they'll turn out. Got material for two gingham dresses down there & sent to the National for material for 3. One gala tea at 39 cents and two gingham at 29. Paid 40 down here but like it real well and am anxious to see the other. Her rompers are getting too little & most of them beginning to go to shreds. When I get her coat finished, think I'll make my skirt & gingham dress that have been cut out so long before I begin on hers and only three months to sew for the "wee'er one" too.
And I would like to do some Red Cross work. But I think I can keep at the sewing pretty well now so guess I'll get thru alright.
"As you probably supposed, you have been very much in our minds the past week or so and after getting Jane's letter on Wed. I did wish I could run in and talk awhile and see those boys for myself. So sorry they weren't what you expected. Wonder if acquaintance makes them seem different. I can easily imagine the meeting at the Home a hard one for you for you would have your minds made up. What you would expect and when that wasn't what you saw it would be disappointing and then the fact that curious eyes were watching all of you (both then & ever since) wouldn't make it any easier. And too, children, especially boys, of that age are not as attractive as little ones and it would be hard to see & know them at a glance. You had had several days (hard ones for you no doubt) with them when Jane wrote but I am anxious, very anxious to know how you feel after having them at home a while. Anne of Green Gables & Pollyanna were both so different in clothes other than 'Home clothes' and with more favorable surroundings but of course those were stories. Well I hope they will prove to be decidedly satisfactory or else decidedly otherwise so it won't be a question what to do with them. You certainly have been upset for awhile and I fear your wish, Mama, that you'd have no more questions to settle for awhile would be lost in a good many every day for awhile. I dreamed I saw you all last night and I thought the boys all right. Thought Henry (you called Edward in my dream) was tongue-tied was what made him talk 'babyish.' Dreams are contrary so they say. Jane didn't say very much about them you will see. I fear the letter you would get Sat. night when you got home wouldn't fit the circumstances very well, but I declare I don't know what to write that will fit so I just write what I think and hope I won't say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I'm sorry I didn't get a letter off on Thurs. but I just didn't. Don't know when I'll have a chance to send this. Possibly with Wilma in the morning.
"Who took care of things while you were gone? Did you see Uncle Rob or was he gone? Suppose you saw Aunt Ella? Any news at Uncle Willmore's? Has Aunt Alice any help? Sadie says Marge is working for her. Is grandma still at Bell's?
"I must write to Jane, Ethel & James. The girls have arranged for him to get a letter each day from some of the family. Our day is Friday, Elmer's Sabbath. Was wishing I had sent you Howard Richardson's address so you could call on him a minute. He is very lonesome & I'm sure he & his people would have appreciated it.
"Lots of love & very best wishes for your decisions. Wish I could help you but feel I'm not much help so far away.
"Got your card from Omaha & one from Jane in Lincoln. Hope you are feeling better Papa.
"The plain green and pink & white are trimmings. The poplin is for collar, cuffs & belt on the heavy white dress Sadie sent. It has no collar at all and she doesn't look very nice in it as it is. I thought this would make it suitable for S.S. Your daughter, Eleanor."
(J. Keith Cook notes regarding Eleanor's letter: 1. September 20, 1918 was a Friday. 2. Eleanor was age 20 when she wrote this letter. 3. Will is her husband. 4. Elmer and James are her husband's brothers. James was in the military in France just after WWI at the time. 5. Her parents were 'trying out' a couple of boys they'd adopted from Omaha. It didn't work out. They returned the boys.) 6. "S. S." refers to Sunday School. 7. Jane is her own sister.
Virginia "Ginny" (Davies) Ollis wrote in July 2000 to Ruth L. (Ollis) Cook (Eleanor's niece), asking if Eleanor (Hastings) Ollis had been influenced in the early days by a fundamentalist preacher in Nebraska. Ruth responded as follows (copying in Ruth's own sister Marilyn [Ollis] Goodenberger): "Dear Ginny, I don't know of Aunt Eleanor being influenced by a fundamentalist preacher in Nebraska, but it wouldn't surprise me. Dad (my father James B. Ollis, Eleanor's husband's brother) was strongly influenced by a preacher or preachers at the ‘Rose' meetings, which were before my time; during the late 1920's or early 1930's, I surmise. My impression is that they were revival-type tent meetings led by a preacher named Mr. Rose. It was in there somewhere that Dad switched his political party affiliation from Democrat to Republican; that, he always said, was because he blamed the Democrates for abolishing Prohibition. (James Ollis was outspokenly against the use of alcoholic beverages.)
"Those fundamentalist teachings ‘took' more with Aunt Eleanor than with Mom and Dad even though they (Dad, at least) were very moved by them for a time. Jim and Marilyn (Ruth's siblings) may have been more impacted by those ideas than I; by the time the folks had endured my growing up they had moderated their views. Aunt Eleanor, on the other hand, moved with her family to Bremerton, WA where their fundamentalist tendencies were reinforced and encouraged by Rev. Scafe, the pastor for their Presbyterian Church. I gather that he was a charismatic, renegade Presbyterian. Eleanor spoke often of him, in glowing terms.
"It's a debate as to whether Fundamentalists are born or made. I've often thought that Aunt Eleanor may have suffered from feeling less blessed than her little sister, Jane -- my mother. Eleanor: intelligent, good at domestic things, educated through 10th grade, I think. Jane: intelligent, musical, had piano lessons, was educated through one year of college. Eleanor married Will, a sweet man whom we kids loved but who, for whatever reasons, didn't make a go of farming and worked in Bremerton as a custodian. (For a school, I think; he also did carpentry and repair for the school.) Jane married Will's brother James, who was successful by those days' standards in a white-collar job with a secretary. Jane's three children became productive adults. Of Eleanor's four children, one (Dorothy) was mentally impaired and required a lot of care and institutionalization. Another, Catherine, sweet as she was, had a very difficult marriage and struggled all her adult life. It's easy for me to imagine how someone like Aunt Eleanor would find vindication and relief in a rigid faith in which the rules were clear. But Aunt Eleanor may have found validation in judging others even as a young person. That, at least, is how she always seemed to me. (As does my husband Keith. And my brother Jim. My sister Marilyn is more charitable.) I have some negative memories of my Aunt Eleanor, but I have a happy memory of walking to their house when I was little (they lived in Ord before moving to Washington) and having her give me fresh cookies. I think she was a good cook, and that is a nurturing thing. I also know that my family and her family were extremely close in those early years, exchanging childcare and sharing birthdays and holidays. I'm sorry I came along too late for most of that.
"Eleanor's daughter Catherine was a delightful person. I'm so sorry she had to struggle so much with her family. She was not rigid like her mother, and yet had to depend on her parents for help with her children when they were young. Catherine and her kids lived either with or near her parents. Catherine went to the Episcopal Church (along with her husband, who in the midst of his severe emotional struggles switched from Presbyterian ministry to become an Episcopalian priest, and was later institutionalized for many years). The move to the Episcopal Church may have been a source of tension between Catherine and her mother."
Then Marilyn (Ollis) Goodenberger wrote, in response to the above letter: "Aunt Eleanor's fundamentalist preacher was probably Rev. Real. All I really remember about him was that he was a horse trainer on the side. There was another pastor who was a longtime family friend, but I can't remember his name. Ruth's description of Rev. Scafe in Bremerton seems accurate, I think. Our brother Jim really hated his summer spent in Bremerton, as far as religious pressures were concerned.
"Uncle Bill worked as a school carpenter in Bremerton. His work was for the district and he went from school to school making repairs of various kinds.
"I, personally, enjoyed the interactions with the that family and our visits back and forth to their farm (just a short ways outside Ord, to the northeast). We always ate well on Sundays when they had dinner with us in town, or we with them on their farm. The fun of a poetic invitation to vacation on the farm during the depression caused a lot of fun. Once we were met at he door by Will and Eleanor's girls wearing red bandanas on their heads, acting like 'redcaps.' They carried our bags and treaded us royally for a while. Then we pitched in with the work. I guess I was an age that I was pretty much excused from dishes, etc. when we were together. Their girls were older and more efficient. I did a lot of dreaming out in the yard while the others chatted or visited in adult talk. The year Dad and Mother (James and Jane Ollis) went to the Presbyterian General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, Jim and I stayed with the Will Ollises. I was required to memorize the 1st Psalm, and to prepare a song to sing to Mom and Dad when they returned. In my 7 year-old self-absorption, I don't remember what Jim had to do. I didn't mind my assignment. I felt proud to accomplish those tasks. Probably Jim didn't like it much, and Ruth was just a gleam in Mother's eye."
This is a letter from Eleanor L. (Hastings) Ollis, 20 Sep 1918, 9:30 AM, writing from her home in Elbert, Colorado. To her mother, father and sister Jane in Ord, Nebraska "Dear Papa + Mama, (and Jane) "House is all straightened up and I'm ready to sew (as soon as I write three or four letters ha!). Will has gone to help Mr. Litherland stack oats. Elmer has been at Richardson's all week helping him with his corn so the boys could get the binder that much sooner, but it has been giving lots of trouble. They should have been thru Wed. and I don't know whether they'll make it tonight or not. Will finished drilling the wheat & rye in the corn on Wed. and then cut a little piece of oats that was too wet before. Yesterday he tried to cut some corn with the grain binder but it wouldn't work without wasting lots of it. We certainly would have lots of earcorn if it could get ripe. Looks as good as lots I've seen in Nebr. but we had 1/8 of an inch of ice Sabbath night so its drying pretty fast. Had snow that night too. Has been warmer and weather more settled since then.
"Catherine is playing in the dirt on top of the cellar. Has taken a great fancy to playing there lately. Has some old jar lids, etc. and has a big time. Often if I don't hear her for awhile and go to the door & call she'll answer, 'She's alright; I me pay a dirt.' She's taken a notion too to sew when I do. Is very happy if she can sit on the floor with some rags pins & a pair of scissors but she'd rather have 'Muller's scislers' than 'Casser's' which are blunt pointed, quite dull and not very shiny. Then when anything is dirty she thinks she must have a 'clean one.' And 'just' is a favorite word lately. She does love the kittens and every once in a while she brings one to the house and plays with it like a baby. Lets it play the piano, puts it to bed, rocks it, tells it 'how mustn't be tied in panties' and various other things which I tell her and meantime the kitten yells for dear life, which makes it interesting to say the least.
"I guess its about a week or more since I wrote you and I believe I said we were looking for Murry's. Well, we haven't seen nor heard anything from them so don't know whether they're still coming or not. Any way we got the dirtiest windows and curtains washed ha! ha!
"Sabbath was a very disagreeable day--out doors. Quite cold and rained all day. Just a drizzle part of the time and real hard part of the time. We sat in the kitchen & kept up a good fire most all day. Didn't go to S.S.
"Monday I washed & Will went to town in the A.M. & hauled in the sweet corn in P.M. I didn't have a very big washing and got it all dry, unironed ones folded & put away & others dampened all the same day. Something wonderful for me! and Tues: I did the ironing and most of the mending that was in the wash. Wed. was bake day & C. and I went to town in A.M. for mail. ("C" refers to her daughter Catherine.) Got a letter from Jane & one from Ethel. In the P.M. I did more mending. Don't know whether I'll ever get the basket full that's been standing a long time, done or not but I have hopes. Yesterday I ripped, washed & ironed my old blue coat and will make Catherine a coat of it. You know I got the jacket to my tan suit ready to make her one last spring and never got it done so thought the blue would be heavier and more suitable for winter. Will put black velvet collar & buttons on it & make a hat of the blue & black. Will send pictures when I get them finished for I'm not just sure how they'll turn out. Got material for two gingham dresses down there & sent to the National for material for 3. One gala tea at 39 cents and two gingham at 29. Paid 40 down here but like it real well and am anxious to see the other. Her rompers are getting too little & most of them beginning to go to shreds. When I get her coat finished, think I'll make my skirt & gingham dress that have been cut out so long before I begin on hers and only three months to sew for the "wee'er one" too.
And I would like to do some Red Cross work. But I think I can keep at the sewing pretty well now so guess I'll get thru alright.
"As you probably supposed, you have been very much in our minds the past week or so and after getting Jane's letter on Wed. I did wish I could run in and talk awhile and see those boys for myself. So sorry they weren't what you expected. Wonder if acquaintance makes them seem different. I can easily imagine the meeting at the Home a hard one for you for you would have your minds made up. What you would expect and when that wasn't what you saw it would be disappointing and then the fact that curious eyes were watching all of you (both then & ever since) wouldn't make it any easier. And too, children, especially boys, of that age are not as attractive as little ones and it would be hard to see & know them at a glance. You had had several days (hard ones for you no doubt) with them when Jane wrote but I am anxious, very anxious to know how you feel after having them at home a while. Anne of Green Gables & Pollyanna were both so different in clothes other than 'Home clothes' and with more favorable surroundings but of course those were stories. Well I hope they will prove to be decidedly satisfactory or else decidedly otherwise so it won't be a question what to do with them. You certainly have been upset for awhile and I fear your wish, Mama, that you'd have no more questions to settle for awhile would be lost in a good many every day for awhile. I dreamed I saw you all last night and I thought the boys all right. Thought Henry (you called Edward in my dream) was tongue-tied was what made him talk 'babyish.' Dreams are contrary so they say. Jane didn't say very much about them you will see. I fear the letter you would get Sat. night when you got home wouldn't fit the circumstances very well, but I declare I don't know what to write that will fit so I just write what I think and hope I won't say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I'm sorry I didn't get a letter off on Thurs. but I just didn't. Don't know when I'll have a chance to send this. Possibly with Wilma in the morning.
"Who took care of things while you were gone? Did you see Uncle Rob or was he gone? Suppose you saw Aunt Ella? Any news at Uncle Willmore's? Has Aunt Alice any help? Sadie says Marge is working for her. Is grandma still at Bell's?
"I must write to Jane, Ethel & James. The girls have arranged for him to get a letter each day from some of the family. Our day is Friday, Elmer's Sabbath. Was wishing I had sent you Howard Richardson's address so you could call on him a minute. He is very lonesome & I'm sure he & his people would have appreciated it.
"Lots of love & very best wishes for your decisions. Wish I could help you but feel I'm not much help so far away.
"Got your card from Omaha & one from Jane in Lincoln. Hope you are feeling better Papa.
"The plain green and pink & white are trimmings. The poplin is for collar, cuffs & belt on the heavy white dress Sadie sent. It has no collar at all and she doesn't look very nice in it as it is. I thought this would make it suitable for S.S. Your daughter, Eleanor."
(J. Keith Cook notes regarding Eleanor's letter: 1. September 20, 1918 was a Friday. 2. Eleanor was age 20 when she wrote this letter. 3. Will is her husband. 4. Elmer and James are her husband's brothers. James was in the military in France just after WWI at the time. 5. Her parents were 'trying out' a couple of boys they'd adopted from Omaha. It didn't work out. They returned the boys.) 6. "S. S." refers to Sunday School. 7. Jane is her own sister.
Virginia "Ginny" (Davies) Ollis wrote in July 2000 to Ruth L. (Ollis) Cook (Eleanor's niece), asking if Eleanor (Hastings) Ollis had been influenced in the early days by a fundamentalist preacher in Nebraska. Ruth responded as follows (copying in Ruth's own sister Marilyn [Ollis] Goodenberger): "Dear Ginny, I don't know of Aunt Eleanor being influenced by a fundamentalist preacher in Nebraska, but it wouldn't surprise me. Dad (my father James B. Ollis, Eleanor's husband's brother) was strongly influenced by a preacher or preachers at the ‘Rose' meetings, which were before my time; during the late 1920's or early 1930's, I surmise. My impression is that they were revival-type tent meetings led by a preacher named Mr. Rose. It was in there somewhere that Dad switched his political party affiliation from Democrat to Republican; that, he always said, was because he blamed the Democrates for abolishing Prohibition. (James Ollis was outspokenly against the use of alcoholic beverages.)
"Those fundamentalist teachings ‘took' more with Aunt Eleanor than with Mom and Dad even though they (Dad, at least) were very moved by them for a time. Jim and Marilyn (Ruth's siblings) may have been more impacted by those ideas than I; by the time the folks had endured my growing up they had moderated their views. Aunt Eleanor, on the other hand, moved with her family to Bremerton, WA where their fundamentalist tendencies were reinforced and encouraged by Rev. Scafe, the pastor for their Presbyterian Church. I gather that he was a charismatic, renegade Presbyterian. Eleanor spoke often of him, in glowing terms.
"It's a debate as to whether Fundamentalists are born or made. I've often thought that Aunt Eleanor may have suffered from feeling less blessed than her little sister, Jane -- my mother. Eleanor: intelligent, good at domestic things, educated through 10th grade, I think. Jane: intelligent, musical, had piano lessons, was educated through one year of college. Eleanor married Will, a sweet man whom we kids loved but who, for whatever reasons, didn't make a go of farming and worked in Bremerton as a custodian. (For a school, I think; he also did carpentry and repair for the school.) Jane married Will's brother James, who was successful by those days' standards in a white-collar job with a secretary. Jane's three children became productive adults. Of Eleanor's four children, one (Dorothy) was mentally impaired and required a lot of care and institutionalization. Another, Catherine, sweet as she was, had a very difficult marriage and struggled all her adult life. It's easy for me to imagine how someone like Aunt Eleanor would find vindication and relief in a rigid faith in which the rules were clear. But Aunt Eleanor may have found validation in judging others even as a young person. That, at least, is how she always seemed to me. (As does my husband Keith. And my brother Jim. My sister Marilyn is more charitable.) I have some negative memories of my Aunt Eleanor, but I have a happy memory of walking to their house when I was little (they lived in Ord before moving to Washington) and having her give me fresh cookies. I think she was a good cook, and that is a nurturing thing. I also know that my family and her family were extremely close in those early years, exchanging childcare and sharing birthdays and holidays. I'm sorry I came along too late for most of that.
"Eleanor's daughter Catherine was a delightful person. I'm so sorry she had to struggle so much with her family. She was not rigid like her mother, and yet had to depend on her parents for help with her children when they were young. Catherine and her kids lived either with or near her parents. Catherine went to the Episcopal Church (along with her husband, who in the midst of his severe emotional struggles switched from Presbyterian ministry to become an Episcopalian priest, and was later institutionalized for many years). The move to the Episcopal Church may have been a source of tension between Catherine and her mother."
Then Marilyn (Ollis) Goodenberger wrote, in response to the above letter: "Aunt Eleanor's fundamentalist preacher was probably Rev. Real. All I really remember about him was that he was a horse trainer on the side. There was another pastor who was a longtime family friend, but I can't remember his name. Ruth's description of Rev. Scafe in Bremerton seems accurate, I think. Our brother Jim really hated his summer spent in Bremerton, as far as religious pressures were concerned.
"Uncle Bill worked as a school carpenter in Bremerton. His work was for the district and he went from school to school making repairs of various kinds.
"I, personally, enjoyed the interactions with the that family and our visits back and forth to their farm (just a short ways outside Ord, to the northeast). We always ate well on Sundays when they had dinner with us in town, or we with them on their farm. The fun of a poetic invitation to vacation on the farm during the depression caused a lot of fun. Once we were met at he door by Will and Eleanor's girls wearing red bandanas on their heads, acting like 'redcaps.' They carried our bags and treaded us royally for a while. Then we pitched in with the work. I guess I was an age that I was pretty much excused from dishes, etc. when we were together. Their girls were older and more efficient. I did a lot of dreaming out in the yard while the others chatted or visited in adult talk. The year Dad and Mother (James and Jane Ollis) went to the Presbyterian General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, Jim and I stayed with the Will Ollises. I was required to memorize the 1st Psalm, and to prepare a song to sing to Mom and Dad when they returned. In my 7 year-old self-absorption, I don't remember what Jim had to do. I didn't mind my assignment. I felt proud to accomplish those tasks. Probably Jim didn't like it much, and Ruth was just a gleam in Mother's eye."
Eleanor and Will were married in the home of her parents in Mira Valley, 8 miles south of Ord, NE. Will was, at the time, living in DeBeque, CO where he was in charge of a ranch his father owned. Immediately after their marriage Will and Eleanor spent a couple of weeks or so in Ord, NE where they managed Ord Produce Co. for it's owners (Will's aunt and uncle) Libbie and Oliver P. Cromwell, while Cromwells were in Baltimore, MD where Oliver was a elder commissioner to the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church. Then, Will and Eleanor went to the ranch in Colorado where they lived for a time.
This is a letter from Eleanor L. (Hastings) Ollis, 20 Sep 1918, 9:30 AM, writing from her home in Elbert, Colorado. To her mother, father and sister Jane in Ord, Nebraska "Dear Papa + Mama, (and Jane) "House is all straightened up and I'm ready to sew (as soon as I write three or four letters ha!). Will has gone to help Mr. Litherland stack oats. Elmer has been at Richardson's all week helping him with his corn so the boys could get the binder that much sooner, but it has been giving lots of trouble. They should have been thru Wed. and I don't know whether they'll make it tonight or not. Will finished drilling the wheat & rye in the corn on Wed. and then cut a little piece of oats that was too wet before. Yesterday he tried to cut some corn with the grain binder but it wouldn't work without wasting lots of it. We certainly would have lots of earcorn if it could get ripe. Looks as good as lots I've seen in Nebr. but we had 1/8 of an inch of ice Sabbath night so its drying pretty fast. Had snow that night too. Has been warmer and weather more settled since then.
"Catherine is playing in the dirt on top of the cellar. Has taken a great fancy to playing there lately. Has some old jar lids, etc. and has a big time. Often if I don't hear her for awhile and go to the door & call she'll answer, 'She's alright; I me pay a dirt.' She's taken a notion too to sew when I do. Is very happy if she can sit on the floor with some rags pins & a pair of scissors but she'd rather have 'Muller's scislers' than 'Casser's' which are blunt pointed, quite dull and not very shiny. Then when anything is dirty she thinks she must have a 'clean one.' And 'just' is a favorite word lately. She does love the kittens and every once in a while she brings one to the house and plays with it like a baby. Lets it play the piano, puts it to bed, rocks it, tells it 'how mustn't be tied in panties' and various other things which I tell her and meantime the kitten yells for dear life, which makes it interesting to say the least.
"I guess its about a week or more since I wrote you and I believe I said we were looking for Murry's. Well, we haven't seen nor heard anything from them so don't know whether they're still coming or not. Any way we got the dirtiest windows and curtains washed ha! ha!
"Sabbath was a very disagreeable day--out doors. Quite cold and rained all day. Just a drizzle part of the time and real hard part of the time. We sat in the kitchen & kept up a good fire most all day. Didn't go to S.S.
"Monday I washed & Will went to town in the A.M. & hauled in the sweet corn in P.M. I didn't have a very big washing and got it all dry, unironed ones folded & put away & others dampened all the same day. Something wonderful for me! and Tues: I did the ironing and most of the mending that was in the wash. Wed. was bake day & C. and I went to town in A.M. for mail. ("C" refers to her daughter Catherine.) Got a letter from Jane & one from Ethel. In the P.M. I did more mending. Don't know whether I'll ever get the basket full that's been standing a long time, done or not but I have hopes. Yesterday I ripped, washed & ironed my old blue coat and will make Catherine a coat of it. You know I got the jacket to my tan suit ready to make her one last spring and never got it done so thought the blue would be heavier and more suitable for winter. Will put black velvet collar & buttons on it & make a hat of the blue & black. Will send pictures when I get them finished for I'm not just sure how they'll turn out. Got material for two gingham dresses down there & sent to the National for material for 3. One gala tea at 39 cents and two gingham at 29. Paid 40 down here but like it real well and am anxious to see the other. Her rompers are getting too little & most of them beginning to go to shreds. When I get her coat finished, think I'll make my skirt & gingham dress that have been cut out so long before I begin on hers and only three months to sew for the "wee'er one" too.
And I would like to do some Red Cross work. But I think I can keep at the sewing pretty well now so guess I'll get thru alright.
"As you probably supposed, you have been very much in our minds the past week or so and after getting Jane's letter on Wed. I did wish I could run in and talk awhile and see those boys for myself. So sorry they weren't what you expected. Wonder if acquaintance makes them seem different. I can easily imagine the meeting at the Home a hard one for you for you would have your minds made up. What you would expect and when that wasn't what you saw it would be disappointing and then the fact that curious eyes were watching all of you (both then & ever since) wouldn't make it any easier. And too, children, especially boys, of that age are not as attractive as little ones and it would be hard to see & know them at a glance. You had had several days (hard ones for you no doubt) with them when Jane wrote but I am anxious, very anxious to know how you feel after having them at home a while. Anne of Green Gables & Pollyanna were both so different in clothes other than 'Home clothes' and with more favorable surroundings but of course those were stories. Well I hope they will prove to be decidedly satisfactory or else decidedly otherwise so it won't be a question what to do with them. You certainly have been upset for awhile and I fear your wish, Mama, that you'd have no more questions to settle for awhile would be lost in a good many every day for awhile. I dreamed I saw you all last night and I thought the boys all right. Thought Henry (you called Edward in my dream) was tongue-tied was what made him talk 'babyish.' Dreams are contrary so they say. Jane didn't say very much about them you will see. I fear the letter you would get Sat. night when you got home wouldn't fit the circumstances very well, but I declare I don't know what to write that will fit so I just write what I think and hope I won't say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I'm sorry I didn't get a letter off on Thurs. but I just didn't. Don't know when I'll have a chance to send this. Possibly with Wilma in the morning.
"Who took care of things while you were gone? Did you see Uncle Rob or was he gone? Suppose you saw Aunt Ella? Any news at Uncle Willmore's? Has Aunt Alice any help? Sadie says Marge is working for her. Is grandma still at Bell's?
"I must write to Jane, Ethel & James. The girls have arranged for him to get a letter each day from some of the family. Our day is Friday, Elmer's Sabbath. Was wishing I had sent you Howard Richardson's address so you could call on him a minute. He is very lonesome & I'm sure he & his people would have appreciated it.
"Lots of love & very best wishes for your decisions. Wish I could help you but feel I'm not much help so far away.
"Got your card from Omaha & one from Jane in Lincoln. Hope you are feeling better Papa.
"The plain green and pink & white are trimmings. The poplin is for collar, cuffs & belt on the heavy white dress Sadie sent. It has no collar at all and she doesn't look very nice in it as it is. I thought this would make it suitable for S.S. Your daughter, Eleanor."
(J. Keith Cook notes regarding Eleanor's letter: 1. September 20, 1918 was a Friday. 2. Eleanor was age 20 when she wrote this letter. 3. Will is her husband. 4. Elmer and James are her husband's brothers. James was in the military in France just after WWI at the time. 5. Her parents were 'trying out' a couple of boys they'd adopted from Omaha. It didn't work out. They returned the boys.) 6. "S. S." refers to Sunday School. 7. Jane is her own sister.
Virginia "Ginny" (Davies) Ollis wrote in July 2000 to Ruth L. (Ollis) Cook (Eleanor's niece), asking if Eleanor (Hastings) Ollis had been influenced in the early days by a fundamentalist preacher in Nebraska. Ruth responded as follows (copying in Ruth's own sister Marilyn [Ollis] Goodenberger): "Dear Ginny, I don't know of Aunt Eleanor being influenced by a fundamentalist preacher in Nebraska, but it wouldn't surprise me. Dad (my father James B. Ollis, Eleanor's husband's brother) was strongly influenced by a preacher or preachers at the ‘Rose' meetings, which were before my time; during the late 1920's or early 1930's, I surmise. My impression is that they were revival-type tent meetings led by a preacher named Mr. Rose. It was in there somewhere that Dad switched his political party affiliation from Democrat to Republican; that, he always said, was because he blamed the Democrates for abolishing Prohibition. (James Ollis was outspokenly against the use of alcoholic beverages.)
"Those fundamentalist teachings ‘took' more with Aunt Eleanor than with Mom and Dad even though they (Dad, at least) were very moved by them for a time. Jim and Marilyn (Ruth's siblings) may have been more impacted by those ideas than I; by the time the folks had endured my growing up they had moderated their views. Aunt Eleanor, on the other hand, moved with her family to Bremerton, WA where their fundamentalist tendencies were reinforced and encouraged by Rev. Scafe, the pastor for their Presbyterian Church. I gather that he was a charismatic, renegade Presbyterian. Eleanor spoke often of him, in glowing terms.
"It's a debate as to whether Fundamentalists are born or made. I've often thought that Aunt Eleanor may have suffered from feeling less blessed than her little sister, Jane -- my mother. Eleanor: intelligent, good at domestic things, educated through 10th grade, I think. Jane: intelligent, musical, had piano lessons, was educated through one year of college. Eleanor married Will, a sweet man whom we kids loved but who, for whatever reasons, didn't make a go of farming and worked in Bremerton as a custodian. (For a school, I think; he also did carpentry and repair for the school.) Jane married Will's brother James, who was successful by those days' standards in a white-collar job with a secretary. Jane's three children became productive adults. Of Eleanor's four children, one (Dorothy) was mentally impaired and required a lot of care and institutionalization. Another, Catherine, sweet as she was, had a very difficult marriage and struggled all her adult life. It's easy for me to imagine how someone like Aunt Eleanor would find vindication and relief in a rigid faith in which the rules were clear. But Aunt Eleanor may have found validation in judging others even as a young person. That, at least, is how she always seemed to me. (As does my husband Keith. And my brother Jim. My sister Marilyn is more charitable.) I have some negative memories of my Aunt Eleanor, but I have a happy memory of walking to their house when I was little (they lived in Ord before moving to Washington) and having her give me fresh cookies. I think she was a good cook, and that is a nurturing thing. I also know that my family and her family were extremely close in those early years, exchanging childcare and sharing birthdays and holidays. I'm sorry I came along too late for most of that.
"Eleanor's daughter Catherine was a delightful person. I'm so sorry she had to struggle so much with her family. She was not rigid like her mother, and yet had to depend on her parents for help with her children when they were young. Catherine and her kids lived either with or near her parents. Catherine went to the Episcopal Church (along with her husband, who in the midst of his severe emotional struggles switched from Presbyterian ministry to become an Episcopalian priest, and was later institutionalized for many years). The move to the Episcopal Church may have been a source of tension between Catherine and her mother."
Then Marilyn (Ollis) Goodenberger wrote, in response to the above letter: "Aunt Eleanor's fundamentalist preacher was probably Rev. Real. All I really remember about him was that he was a horse trainer on the side. There was another pastor who was a longtime family friend, but I can't remember his name. Ruth's description of Rev. Scafe in Bremerton seems accurate, I think. Our brother Jim really hated his summer spent in Bremerton, as far as religious pressures were concerned.
"Uncle Bill worked as a school carpenter in Bremerton. His work was for the district and he went from school to school making repairs of various kinds.
"I, personally, enjoyed the interactions with the that family and our visits back and forth to their farm (just a short ways outside Ord, to the northeast). We always ate well on Sundays when they had dinner with us in town, or we with them on their farm. The fun of a poetic invitation to vacation on the farm during the depression caused a lot of fun. Once we were met at he door by Will and Eleanor's girls wearing red bandanas on their heads, acting like 'redcaps.' They carried our bags and treaded us royally for a while. Then we pitched in with the work. I guess I was an age that I was pretty much excused from dishes, etc. when we were together. Their girls were older and more efficient. I did a lot of dreaming out in the yard while the others chatted or visited in adult talk. The year Dad and Mother (James and Jane Ollis) went to the Presbyterian General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, Jim and I stayed with the Will Ollises. I was required to memorize the 1st Psalm, and to prepare a song to sing to Mom and Dad when they returned. In my 7 year-old self-absorption, I don't remember what Jim had to do. I didn't mind my assignment. I felt proud to accomplish those tasks. Probably Jim didn't like it much, and Ruth was just a gleam in Mother's eye."
This is a letter from Eleanor L. (Hastings) Ollis, 20 Sep 1918, 9:30 AM, writing from her home in Elbert, Colorado. To her mother, father and sister Jane in Ord, Nebraska "Dear Papa + Mama, (and Jane) "House is all straightened up and I'm ready to sew (as soon as I write three or four letters ha!). Will has gone to help Mr. Litherland stack oats. Elmer has been at Richardson's all week helping him with his corn so the boys could get the binder that much sooner, but it has been giving lots of trouble. They should have been thru Wed. and I don't know whether they'll make it tonight or not. Will finished drilling the wheat & rye in the corn on Wed. and then cut a little piece of oats that was too wet before. Yesterday he tried to cut some corn with the grain binder but it wouldn't work without wasting lots of it. We certainly would have lots of earcorn if it could get ripe. Looks as good as lots I've seen in Nebr. but we had 1/8 of an inch of ice Sabbath night so its drying pretty fast. Had snow that night too. Has been warmer and weather more settled since then.
"Catherine is playing in the dirt on top of the cellar. Has taken a great fancy to playing there lately. Has some old jar lids, etc. and has a big time. Often if I don't hear her for awhile and go to the door & call she'll answer, 'She's alright; I me pay a dirt.' She's taken a notion too to sew when I do. Is very happy if she can sit on the floor with some rags pins & a pair of scissors but she'd rather have 'Muller's scislers' than 'Casser's' which are blunt pointed, quite dull and not very shiny. Then when anything is dirty she thinks she must have a 'clean one.' And 'just' is a favorite word lately. She does love the kittens and every once in a while she brings one to the house and plays with it like a baby. Lets it play the piano, puts it to bed, rocks it, tells it 'how mustn't be tied in panties' and various other things which I tell her and meantime the kitten yells for dear life, which makes it interesting to say the least.
"I guess its about a week or more since I wrote you and I believe I said we were looking for Murry's. Well, we haven't seen nor heard anything from them so don't know whether they're still coming or not. Any way we got the dirtiest windows and curtains washed ha! ha!
"Sabbath was a very disagreeable day--out doors. Quite cold and rained all day. Just a drizzle part of the time and real hard part of the time. We sat in the kitchen & kept up a good fire most all day. Didn't go to S.S.
"Monday I washed & Will went to town in the A.M. & hauled in the sweet corn in P.M. I didn't have a very big washing and got it all dry, unironed ones folded & put away & others dampened all the same day. Something wonderful for me! and Tues: I did the ironing and most of the mending that was in the wash. Wed. was bake day & C. and I went to town in A.M. for mail. ("C" refers to her daughter Catherine.) Got a letter from Jane & one from Ethel. In the P.M. I did more mending. Don't know whether I'll ever get the basket full that's been standing a long time, done or not but I have hopes. Yesterday I ripped, washed & ironed my old blue coat and will make Catherine a coat of it. You know I got the jacket to my tan suit ready to make her one last spring and never got it done so thought the blue would be heavier and more suitable for winter. Will put black velvet collar & buttons on it & make a hat of the blue & black. Will send pictures when I get them finished for I'm not just sure how they'll turn out. Got material for two gingham dresses down there & sent to the National for material for 3. One gala tea at 39 cents and two gingham at 29. Paid 40 down here but like it real well and am anxious to see the other. Her rompers are getting too little & most of them beginning to go to shreds. When I get her coat finished, think I'll make my skirt & gingham dress that have been cut out so long before I begin on hers and only three months to sew for the "wee'er one" too.
And I would like to do some Red Cross work. But I think I can keep at the sewing pretty well now so guess I'll get thru alright.
"As you probably supposed, you have been very much in our minds the past week or so and after getting Jane's letter on Wed. I did wish I could run in and talk awhile and see those boys for myself. So sorry they weren't what you expected. Wonder if acquaintance makes them seem different. I can easily imagine the meeting at the Home a hard one for you for you would have your minds made up. What you would expect and when that wasn't what you saw it would be disappointing and then the fact that curious eyes were watching all of you (both then & ever since) wouldn't make it any easier. And too, children, especially boys, of that age are not as attractive as little ones and it would be hard to see & know them at a glance. You had had several days (hard ones for you no doubt) with them when Jane wrote but I am anxious, very anxious to know how you feel after having them at home a while. Anne of Green Gables & Pollyanna were both so different in clothes other than 'Home clothes' and with more favorable surroundings but of course those were stories. Well I hope they will prove to be decidedly satisfactory or else decidedly otherwise so it won't be a question what to do with them. You certainly have been upset for awhile and I fear your wish, Mama, that you'd have no more questions to settle for awhile would be lost in a good many every day for awhile. I dreamed I saw you all last night and I thought the boys all right. Thought Henry (you called Edward in my dream) was tongue-tied was what made him talk 'babyish.' Dreams are contrary so they say. Jane didn't say very much about them you will see. I fear the letter you would get Sat. night when you got home wouldn't fit the circumstances very well, but I declare I don't know what to write that will fit so I just write what I think and hope I won't say the wrong thing at the wrong time. I'm sorry I didn't get a letter off on Thurs. but I just didn't. Don't know when I'll have a chance to send this. Possibly with Wilma in the morning.
"Who took care of things while you were gone? Did you see Uncle Rob or was he gone? Suppose you saw Aunt Ella? Any news at Uncle Willmore's? Has Aunt Alice any help? Sadie says Marge is working for her. Is grandma still at Bell's?
"I must write to Jane, Ethel & James. The girls have arranged for him to get a letter each day from some of the family. Our day is Friday, Elmer's Sabbath. Was wishing I had sent you Howard Richardson's address so you could call on him a minute. He is very lonesome & I'm sure he & his people would have appreciated it.
"Lots of love & very best wishes for your decisions. Wish I could help you but feel I'm not much help so far away.
"Got your card from Omaha & one from Jane in Lincoln. Hope you are feeling better Papa.
"The plain green and pink & white are trimmings. The poplin is for collar, cuffs & belt on the heavy white dress Sadie sent. It has no collar at all and she doesn't look very nice in it as it is. I thought this would make it suitable for S.S. Your daughter, Eleanor."
(J. Keith Cook notes regarding Eleanor's letter: 1. September 20, 1918 was a Friday. 2. Eleanor was age 20 when she wrote this letter. 3. Will is her husband. 4. Elmer and James are her husband's brothers. James was in the military in France just after WWI at the time. 5. Her parents were 'trying out' a couple of boys they'd adopted from Omaha. It didn't work out. They returned the boys.) 6. "S. S." refers to Sunday School. 7. Jane is her own sister.
Virginia "Ginny" (Davies) Ollis wrote in July 2000 to Ruth L. (Ollis) Cook (Eleanor's niece), asking if Eleanor (Hastings) Ollis had been influenced in the early days by a fundamentalist preacher in Nebraska. Ruth responded as follows (copying in Ruth's own sister Marilyn [Ollis] Goodenberger): "Dear Ginny, I don't know of Aunt Eleanor being influenced by a fundamentalist preacher in Nebraska, but it wouldn't surprise me. Dad (my father James B. Ollis, Eleanor's husband's brother) was strongly influenced by a preacher or preachers at the ‘Rose' meetings, which were before my time; during the late 1920's or early 1930's, I surmise. My impression is that they were revival-type tent meetings led by a preacher named Mr. Rose. It was in there somewhere that Dad switched his political party affiliation from Democrat to Republican; that, he always said, was because he blamed the Democrates for abolishing Prohibition. (James Ollis was outspokenly against the use of alcoholic beverages.)
"Those fundamentalist teachings ‘took' more with Aunt Eleanor than with Mom and Dad even though they (Dad, at least) were very moved by them for a time. Jim and Marilyn (Ruth's siblings) may have been more impacted by those ideas than I; by the time the folks had endured my growing up they had moderated their views. Aunt Eleanor, on the other hand, moved with her family to Bremerton, WA where their fundamentalist tendencies were reinforced and encouraged by Rev. Scafe, the pastor for their Presbyterian Church. I gather that he was a charismatic, renegade Presbyterian. Eleanor spoke often of him, in glowing terms.
"It's a debate as to whether Fundamentalists are born or made. I've often thought that Aunt Eleanor may have suffered from feeling less blessed than her little sister, Jane -- my mother. Eleanor: intelligent, good at domestic things, educated through 10th grade, I think. Jane: intelligent, musical, had piano lessons, was educated through one year of college. Eleanor married Will, a sweet man whom we kids loved but who, for whatever reasons, didn't make a go of farming and worked in Bremerton as a custodian. (For a school, I think; he also did carpentry and repair for the school.) Jane married Will's brother James, who was successful by those days' standards in a white-collar job with a secretary. Jane's three children became productive adults. Of Eleanor's four children, one (Dorothy) was mentally impaired and required a lot of care and institutionalization. Another, Catherine, sweet as she was, had a very difficult marriage and struggled all her adult life. It's easy for me to imagine how someone like Aunt Eleanor would find vindication and relief in a rigid faith in which the rules were clear. But Aunt Eleanor may have found validation in judging others even as a young person. That, at least, is how she always seemed to me. (As does my husband Keith. And my brother Jim. My sister Marilyn is more charitable.) I have some negative memories of my Aunt Eleanor, but I have a happy memory of walking to their house when I was little (they lived in Ord before moving to Washington) and having her give me fresh cookies. I think she was a good cook, and that is a nurturing thing. I also know that my family and her family were extremely close in those early years, exchanging childcare and sharing birthdays and holidays. I'm sorry I came along too late for most of that.
"Eleanor's daughter Catherine was a delightful person. I'm so sorry she had to struggle so much with her family. She was not rigid like her mother, and yet had to depend on her parents for help with her children when they were young. Catherine and her kids lived either with or near her parents. Catherine went to the Episcopal Church (along with her husband, who in the midst of his severe emotional struggles switched from Presbyterian ministry to become an Episcopalian priest, and was later institutionalized for many years). The move to the Episcopal Church may have been a source of tension between Catherine and her mother."
Then Marilyn (Ollis) Goodenberger wrote, in response to the above letter: "Aunt Eleanor's fundamentalist preacher was probably Rev. Real. All I really remember about him was that he was a horse trainer on the side. There was another pastor who was a longtime family friend, but I can't remember his name. Ruth's description of Rev. Scafe in Bremerton seems accurate, I think. Our brother Jim really hated his summer spent in Bremerton, as far as religious pressures were concerned.
"Uncle Bill worked as a school carpenter in Bremerton. His work was for the district and he went from school to school making repairs of various kinds.
"I, personally, enjoyed the interactions with the that family and our visits back and forth to their farm (just a short ways outside Ord, to the northeast). We always ate well on Sundays when they had dinner with us in town, or we with them on their farm. The fun of a poetic invitation to vacation on the farm during the depression caused a lot of fun. Once we were met at he door by Will and Eleanor's girls wearing red bandanas on their heads, acting like 'redcaps.' They carried our bags and treaded us royally for a while. Then we pitched in with the work. I guess I was an age that I was pretty much excused from dishes, etc. when we were together. Their girls were older and more efficient. I did a lot of dreaming out in the yard while the others chatted or visited in adult talk. The year Dad and Mother (James and Jane Ollis) went to the Presbyterian General Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, Jim and I stayed with the Will Ollises. I was required to memorize the 1st Psalm, and to prepare a song to sing to Mom and Dad when they returned. In my 7 year-old self-absorption, I don't remember what Jim had to do. I didn't mind my assignment. I felt proud to accomplish those tasks. Probably Jim didn't like it much, and Ruth was just a gleam in Mother's eye."
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