The Okanogan County Heritage - March 1972
Written by Hugh Imes
The Imes Story
Prudence Laymance was born in Healdsburg, California March 1st 1880, and came by covered wagon with her parents and two other children in 1889, when she was 9 years old, to settle for a time at Lind, Washington where her father homesteaded. It took six weeks to make the trip from California through Klamath Falls, Hepner, and Pendleton, Oregon. They entered Washington State as we know it, but the still Oregon Territory, near Walla Walla where they spent the Fourth of July. They crossed the Snake River by ferry south of Ritzville. They lived on the homestead southwest of Ritzville about four years. The Laymance family was the only family with children in this community so there was no school near.
Lord Blythe owned most of the area between Moses Lake and Cra? Creek at that time. He had a suffered heavy losses in his cattle herds, as all other cattle barons had during the 1892-1893 winter. There were dead carcasses all along the way as the Eben Laymance family made their way toward Waterville where they lived the next few years. When they arrived April 1st there was three feet of snow on the ground. They were traveling by wagon.
Prudie's father died in 1898 and her mother and the eight brothers and sisters carried on the farm operations on the place about two miles north of town until 1900, when they moved into Mansfield.
Prudie, or Pet, as she is known in her family, took up a homestead in her own right four miles south of Mansfield, and when she and J. Burton Imes were married in 1903, he sold his homestead near Rock Island Dam. They farmed her place until 1920, when the Imes family moved to Winthrop.
They came in March to the 160 acre, dry land ranch which they had purchased from Everett Johnson, near Stokes Mountain between the forks of the Methow River. Mrs. Imes drove the team of mules and Mr. Imes the four horse team with a hack trailing his wagon. The wagons contained all the family possessions. They came by way of Dyer Hill, crossing the Columbia River by ferry at Pateros. Lela Stockdale, as the eldest Imes child, recalls the trip through the rolling hills, just touched by the first green of spring. She chuckles now as she remembers how they worked so hard to get the loose animals across on the ferry. It was far from a laughing matter then, when one calf refused to take the ferry. Finally, it consented to swim across, and once started, it swam the river three times. Mr. Imes was ready to give it away if he could have found someone to take it off his hands.
During the time spent on the new place, Burt was afflicted with an asthma condition. He would help the family put up the one crop of dry land hay, then return to the Mansfield country to help through the harvest season there. Prudie always helped out in the fields, regardless of her size, a mere four feet two inches, and her crippled condition, caused by one leg being slightly shorter than the other. She was able to handle any of the horse-drawn equipment and always stacked the hay for her husband until the boys grew large enough to handle the job.
They had a string of cows to milk and care for, and every cream day -- it used to be Monday -- you would see the Imes' hack truck come into town to deliver the cans of cream to the local creamery, or later to a receiving station, where a truck would pick the full cream cans up to deliver to an outside creamery. The farmers also gathered at the local auction sales held occasionally on the sandy lots between the Farmers' State Bank and the Winthrop Hotel.
Mrs. Imes was an able seamstress and kept her family well clothed with hand-made garments. Everyone worked to fill the larder for winter from the garden. Despite al the necessary work, Prudie always had a flower garden, and at one time she had 10,000 spring bulbs, which she liberally shared -- both bulbs and flowers -- with her many friends.
It was always a problem to get the youngsters to school from the hill ranch. For a time the children attended the Grafford Hall School, situated about three and one half miles over the rolling hills. It was a one room school for all grades, used for schooling and the community socials. a school with a hitching rack for the saddle horses; a bucket for the water to be carried in; a common dipper to drink from, and a pot-bellied stove for a heating system. The teachers were usually young people and changed almost every year. At one time the current teacher lived in the same time.
When the outlying schools were discontinued about 1930, the Imes children walked down the steep hill to catch the school bus on the South Fork River Road, a distance of about two miles, to attend the central school in town, or they boarded or batched in town. Helen worked away from home for her high school years, attending the Pateros and Okanogan Schools. Mrs. Imes states she fought for all of fifteen years to keep her youngsters in school and it was a battle all the way.
Two of the Imes boys, Dale and Hugh, were in the service during World War II. Dale saw quite a bit of action, being in the thick of things in Italy.
The family sold their hill ranch in 1947 to a Mr. Koch and moved in to Winthrop, where Prudie still lives. Besides her large family, she helped raise three of her grandchildren.
In October 1963, Mr. and Mrs. J. Burton Imes celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and Mr. Imes passed away within a month.
Mrs. Imes continues to live alone and is quite active in church work, having provided fresh flowers for over twenty years. She is a faithful Grange member and belongs to the Garden Club, the Bear Creek Community Club and the W.S.C.S. Mrs. Imes still does her own baking on the wood range and keeps busy with her flower garden and needle work. She has made eight crocheted table cloths in recent years, and just a year ago she made 13 quilts, all pieced, feather stitched and tacked. There were more quilts made this last winter.
Prudence Laymance Imes' life has spanned from Covered Wagon Days to trips to the Moon. She never expects to go to the moon, exactly, but she and Mr. Imes did make a jet trip back to Chicago and to Kansas to visit his brothers and other relatives in 1961.
Sixty-one of Mrs. Prudie Imes' immediate family gathered at the Winthrop Community building Sunday, March, (1970) to help her celebrate her 90th birthday with a pot-luck dinner. The group included her 10 children, 17 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, and four of the great great grandchildren. Nine of her children attended church with their mother that morning. Her friends gathered later in the afternoon at the Open House and Reception planned for her by her family to swell the guest list to 138. Her children, oldest to youngest, are: Lela Stockdale, Winthrop; Helen Nelson, Seattle; Wilma Dyer, Everett; Ruby Garman, Wenatchee; Clair Imes, Winthrop; Walter Imes, Bremerton; Harriet Haase, Winthrop; Dale Imes, Seattle; Hugh (Bill) Imes, Winthrop; and Evelyn Bair, Roseburg, Oregon.
The close friends who helped at the reception were Enid Thompson, Nettie Smith, Necia Hunter, Viola Painter, Marilyn Imes (granddaughter), Annie Rawdon, Hazel MacFarlane and Cora Davis.
This story is written as a tribute to a fine woman who, through her stamina and fortitude, helped settle this western country and make it a better place for us who follow to live in.
Written by Hugh Imes
The Imes Story
Prudence Laymance was born in Healdsburg, California March 1st 1880, and came by covered wagon with her parents and two other children in 1889, when she was 9 years old, to settle for a time at Lind, Washington where her father homesteaded. It took six weeks to make the trip from California through Klamath Falls, Hepner, and Pendleton, Oregon. They entered Washington State as we know it, but the still Oregon Territory, near Walla Walla where they spent the Fourth of July. They crossed the Snake River by ferry south of Ritzville. They lived on the homestead southwest of Ritzville about four years. The Laymance family was the only family with children in this community so there was no school near.
Lord Blythe owned most of the area between Moses Lake and Cra? Creek at that time. He had a suffered heavy losses in his cattle herds, as all other cattle barons had during the 1892-1893 winter. There were dead carcasses all along the way as the Eben Laymance family made their way toward Waterville where they lived the next few years. When they arrived April 1st there was three feet of snow on the ground. They were traveling by wagon.
Prudie's father died in 1898 and her mother and the eight brothers and sisters carried on the farm operations on the place about two miles north of town until 1900, when they moved into Mansfield.
Prudie, or Pet, as she is known in her family, took up a homestead in her own right four miles south of Mansfield, and when she and J. Burton Imes were married in 1903, he sold his homestead near Rock Island Dam. They farmed her place until 1920, when the Imes family moved to Winthrop.
They came in March to the 160 acre, dry land ranch which they had purchased from Everett Johnson, near Stokes Mountain between the forks of the Methow River. Mrs. Imes drove the team of mules and Mr. Imes the four horse team with a hack trailing his wagon. The wagons contained all the family possessions. They came by way of Dyer Hill, crossing the Columbia River by ferry at Pateros. Lela Stockdale, as the eldest Imes child, recalls the trip through the rolling hills, just touched by the first green of spring. She chuckles now as she remembers how they worked so hard to get the loose animals across on the ferry. It was far from a laughing matter then, when one calf refused to take the ferry. Finally, it consented to swim across, and once started, it swam the river three times. Mr. Imes was ready to give it away if he could have found someone to take it off his hands.
During the time spent on the new place, Burt was afflicted with an asthma condition. He would help the family put up the one crop of dry land hay, then return to the Mansfield country to help through the harvest season there. Prudie always helped out in the fields, regardless of her size, a mere four feet two inches, and her crippled condition, caused by one leg being slightly shorter than the other. She was able to handle any of the horse-drawn equipment and always stacked the hay for her husband until the boys grew large enough to handle the job.
They had a string of cows to milk and care for, and every cream day -- it used to be Monday -- you would see the Imes' hack truck come into town to deliver the cans of cream to the local creamery, or later to a receiving station, where a truck would pick the full cream cans up to deliver to an outside creamery. The farmers also gathered at the local auction sales held occasionally on the sandy lots between the Farmers' State Bank and the Winthrop Hotel.
Mrs. Imes was an able seamstress and kept her family well clothed with hand-made garments. Everyone worked to fill the larder for winter from the garden. Despite al the necessary work, Prudie always had a flower garden, and at one time she had 10,000 spring bulbs, which she liberally shared -- both bulbs and flowers -- with her many friends.
It was always a problem to get the youngsters to school from the hill ranch. For a time the children attended the Grafford Hall School, situated about three and one half miles over the rolling hills. It was a one room school for all grades, used for schooling and the community socials. a school with a hitching rack for the saddle horses; a bucket for the water to be carried in; a common dipper to drink from, and a pot-bellied stove for a heating system. The teachers were usually young people and changed almost every year. At one time the current teacher lived in the same time.
When the outlying schools were discontinued about 1930, the Imes children walked down the steep hill to catch the school bus on the South Fork River Road, a distance of about two miles, to attend the central school in town, or they boarded or batched in town. Helen worked away from home for her high school years, attending the Pateros and Okanogan Schools. Mrs. Imes states she fought for all of fifteen years to keep her youngsters in school and it was a battle all the way.
Two of the Imes boys, Dale and Hugh, were in the service during World War II. Dale saw quite a bit of action, being in the thick of things in Italy.
The family sold their hill ranch in 1947 to a Mr. Koch and moved in to Winthrop, where Prudie still lives. Besides her large family, she helped raise three of her grandchildren.
In October 1963, Mr. and Mrs. J. Burton Imes celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and Mr. Imes passed away within a month.
Mrs. Imes continues to live alone and is quite active in church work, having provided fresh flowers for over twenty years. She is a faithful Grange member and belongs to the Garden Club, the Bear Creek Community Club and the W.S.C.S. Mrs. Imes still does her own baking on the wood range and keeps busy with her flower garden and needle work. She has made eight crocheted table cloths in recent years, and just a year ago she made 13 quilts, all pieced, feather stitched and tacked. There were more quilts made this last winter.
Prudence Laymance Imes' life has spanned from Covered Wagon Days to trips to the Moon. She never expects to go to the moon, exactly, but she and Mr. Imes did make a jet trip back to Chicago and to Kansas to visit his brothers and other relatives in 1961.
Sixty-one of Mrs. Prudie Imes' immediate family gathered at the Winthrop Community building Sunday, March, (1970) to help her celebrate her 90th birthday with a pot-luck dinner. The group included her 10 children, 17 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, and four of the great great grandchildren. Nine of her children attended church with their mother that morning. Her friends gathered later in the afternoon at the Open House and Reception planned for her by her family to swell the guest list to 138. Her children, oldest to youngest, are: Lela Stockdale, Winthrop; Helen Nelson, Seattle; Wilma Dyer, Everett; Ruby Garman, Wenatchee; Clair Imes, Winthrop; Walter Imes, Bremerton; Harriet Haase, Winthrop; Dale Imes, Seattle; Hugh (Bill) Imes, Winthrop; and Evelyn Bair, Roseburg, Oregon.
The close friends who helped at the reception were Enid Thompson, Nettie Smith, Necia Hunter, Viola Painter, Marilyn Imes (granddaughter), Annie Rawdon, Hazel MacFarlane and Cora Davis.
This story is written as a tribute to a fine woman who, through her stamina and fortitude, helped settle this western country and make it a better place for us who follow to live in.
The Okanogan County Heritage - March 1972
Written by Hugh Imes
The Imes Story
Prudence Laymance was born in Healdsburg, California March 1st 1880, and came by covered wagon with her parents and two other children in 1889, when she was 9 years old, to settle for a time at Lind, Washington where her father homesteaded. It took six weeks to make the trip from California through Klamath Falls, Hepner, and Pendleton, Oregon. They entered Washington State as we know it, but the still Oregon Territory, near Walla Walla where they spent the Fourth of July. They crossed the Snake River by ferry south of Ritzville. They lived on the homestead southwest of Ritzville about four years. The Laymance family was the only family with children in this community so there was no school near.
Lord Blythe owned most of the area between Moses Lake and Cra? Creek at that time. He had a suffered heavy losses in his cattle herds, as all other cattle barons had during the 1892-1893 winter. There were dead carcasses all along the way as the Eben Laymance family made their way toward Waterville where they lived the next few years. When they arrived April 1st there was three feet of snow on the ground. They were traveling by wagon.
Prudie's father died in 1898 and her mother and the eight brothers and sisters carried on the farm operations on the place about two miles north of town until 1900, when they moved into Mansfield.
Prudie, or Pet, as she is known in her family, took up a homestead in her own right four miles south of Mansfield, and when she and J. Burton Imes were married in 1903, he sold his homestead near Rock Island Dam. They farmed her place until 1920, when the Imes family moved to Winthrop.
They came in March to the 160 acre, dry land ranch which they had purchased from Everett Johnson, near Stokes Mountain between the forks of the Methow River. Mrs. Imes drove the team of mules and Mr. Imes the four horse team with a hack trailing his wagon. The wagons contained all the family possessions. They came by way of Dyer Hill, crossing the Columbia River by ferry at Pateros. Lela Stockdale, as the eldest Imes child, recalls the trip through the rolling hills, just touched by the first green of spring. She chuckles now as she remembers how they worked so hard to get the loose animals across on the ferry. It was far from a laughing matter then, when one calf refused to take the ferry. Finally, it consented to swim across, and once started, it swam the river three times. Mr. Imes was ready to give it away if he could have found someone to take it off his hands.
During the time spent on the new place, Burt was afflicted with an asthma condition. He would help the family put up the one crop of dry land hay, then return to the Mansfield country to help through the harvest season there. Prudie always helped out in the fields, regardless of her size, a mere four feet two inches, and her crippled condition, caused by one leg being slightly shorter than the other. She was able to handle any of the horse-drawn equipment and always stacked the hay for her husband until the boys grew large enough to handle the job.
They had a string of cows to milk and care for, and every cream day -- it used to be Monday -- you would see the Imes' hack truck come into town to deliver the cans of cream to the local creamery, or later to a receiving station, where a truck would pick the full cream cans up to deliver to an outside creamery. The farmers also gathered at the local auction sales held occasionally on the sandy lots between the Farmers' State Bank and the Winthrop Hotel.
Mrs. Imes was an able seamstress and kept her family well clothed with hand-made garments. Everyone worked to fill the larder for winter from the garden. Despite al the necessary work, Prudie always had a flower garden, and at one time she had 10,000 spring bulbs, which she liberally shared -- both bulbs and flowers -- with her many friends.
It was always a problem to get the youngsters to school from the hill ranch. For a time the children attended the Grafford Hall School, situated about three and one half miles over the rolling hills. It was a one room school for all grades, used for schooling and the community socials. a school with a hitching rack for the saddle horses; a bucket for the water to be carried in; a common dipper to drink from, and a pot-bellied stove for a heating system. The teachers were usually young people and changed almost every year. At one time the current teacher lived in the same time.
When the outlying schools were discontinued about 1930, the Imes children walked down the steep hill to catch the school bus on the South Fork River Road, a distance of about two miles, to attend the central school in town, or they boarded or batched in town. Helen worked away from home for her high school years, attending the Pateros and Okanogan Schools. Mrs. Imes states she fought for all of fifteen years to keep her youngsters in school and it was a battle all the way.
Two of the Imes boys, Dale and Hugh, were in the service during World War II. Dale saw quite a bit of action, being in the thick of things in Italy.
The family sold their hill ranch in 1947 to a Mr. Koch and moved in to Winthrop, where Prudie still lives. Besides her large family, she helped raise three of her grandchildren.
In October 1963, Mr. and Mrs. J. Burton Imes celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and Mr. Imes passed away within a month.
Mrs. Imes continues to live alone and is quite active in church work, having provided fresh flowers for over twenty years. She is a faithful Grange member and belongs to the Garden Club, the Bear Creek Community Club and the W.S.C.S. Mrs. Imes still does her own baking on the wood range and keeps busy with her flower garden and needle work. She has made eight crocheted table cloths in recent years, and just a year ago she made 13 quilts, all pieced, feather stitched and tacked. There were more quilts made this last winter.
Prudence Laymance Imes' life has spanned from Covered Wagon Days to trips to the Moon. She never expects to go to the moon, exactly, but she and Mr. Imes did make a jet trip back to Chicago and to Kansas to visit his brothers and other relatives in 1961.
Sixty-one of Mrs. Prudie Imes' immediate family gathered at the Winthrop Community building Sunday, March, (1970) to help her celebrate her 90th birthday with a pot-luck dinner. The group included her 10 children, 17 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, and four of the great great grandchildren. Nine of her children attended church with their mother that morning. Her friends gathered later in the afternoon at the Open House and Reception planned for her by her family to swell the guest list to 138. Her children, oldest to youngest, are: Lela Stockdale, Winthrop; Helen Nelson, Seattle; Wilma Dyer, Everett; Ruby Garman, Wenatchee; Clair Imes, Winthrop; Walter Imes, Bremerton; Harriet Haase, Winthrop; Dale Imes, Seattle; Hugh (Bill) Imes, Winthrop; and Evelyn Bair, Roseburg, Oregon.
The close friends who helped at the reception were Enid Thompson, Nettie Smith, Necia Hunter, Viola Painter, Marilyn Imes (granddaughter), Annie Rawdon, Hazel MacFarlane and Cora Davis.
This story is written as a tribute to a fine woman who, through her stamina and fortitude, helped settle this western country and make it a better place for us who follow to live in.
Written by Hugh Imes
The Imes Story
Prudence Laymance was born in Healdsburg, California March 1st 1880, and came by covered wagon with her parents and two other children in 1889, when she was 9 years old, to settle for a time at Lind, Washington where her father homesteaded. It took six weeks to make the trip from California through Klamath Falls, Hepner, and Pendleton, Oregon. They entered Washington State as we know it, but the still Oregon Territory, near Walla Walla where they spent the Fourth of July. They crossed the Snake River by ferry south of Ritzville. They lived on the homestead southwest of Ritzville about four years. The Laymance family was the only family with children in this community so there was no school near.
Lord Blythe owned most of the area between Moses Lake and Cra? Creek at that time. He had a suffered heavy losses in his cattle herds, as all other cattle barons had during the 1892-1893 winter. There were dead carcasses all along the way as the Eben Laymance family made their way toward Waterville where they lived the next few years. When they arrived April 1st there was three feet of snow on the ground. They were traveling by wagon.
Prudie's father died in 1898 and her mother and the eight brothers and sisters carried on the farm operations on the place about two miles north of town until 1900, when they moved into Mansfield.
Prudie, or Pet, as she is known in her family, took up a homestead in her own right four miles south of Mansfield, and when she and J. Burton Imes were married in 1903, he sold his homestead near Rock Island Dam. They farmed her place until 1920, when the Imes family moved to Winthrop.
They came in March to the 160 acre, dry land ranch which they had purchased from Everett Johnson, near Stokes Mountain between the forks of the Methow River. Mrs. Imes drove the team of mules and Mr. Imes the four horse team with a hack trailing his wagon. The wagons contained all the family possessions. They came by way of Dyer Hill, crossing the Columbia River by ferry at Pateros. Lela Stockdale, as the eldest Imes child, recalls the trip through the rolling hills, just touched by the first green of spring. She chuckles now as she remembers how they worked so hard to get the loose animals across on the ferry. It was far from a laughing matter then, when one calf refused to take the ferry. Finally, it consented to swim across, and once started, it swam the river three times. Mr. Imes was ready to give it away if he could have found someone to take it off his hands.
During the time spent on the new place, Burt was afflicted with an asthma condition. He would help the family put up the one crop of dry land hay, then return to the Mansfield country to help through the harvest season there. Prudie always helped out in the fields, regardless of her size, a mere four feet two inches, and her crippled condition, caused by one leg being slightly shorter than the other. She was able to handle any of the horse-drawn equipment and always stacked the hay for her husband until the boys grew large enough to handle the job.
They had a string of cows to milk and care for, and every cream day -- it used to be Monday -- you would see the Imes' hack truck come into town to deliver the cans of cream to the local creamery, or later to a receiving station, where a truck would pick the full cream cans up to deliver to an outside creamery. The farmers also gathered at the local auction sales held occasionally on the sandy lots between the Farmers' State Bank and the Winthrop Hotel.
Mrs. Imes was an able seamstress and kept her family well clothed with hand-made garments. Everyone worked to fill the larder for winter from the garden. Despite al the necessary work, Prudie always had a flower garden, and at one time she had 10,000 spring bulbs, which she liberally shared -- both bulbs and flowers -- with her many friends.
It was always a problem to get the youngsters to school from the hill ranch. For a time the children attended the Grafford Hall School, situated about three and one half miles over the rolling hills. It was a one room school for all grades, used for schooling and the community socials. a school with a hitching rack for the saddle horses; a bucket for the water to be carried in; a common dipper to drink from, and a pot-bellied stove for a heating system. The teachers were usually young people and changed almost every year. At one time the current teacher lived in the same time.
When the outlying schools were discontinued about 1930, the Imes children walked down the steep hill to catch the school bus on the South Fork River Road, a distance of about two miles, to attend the central school in town, or they boarded or batched in town. Helen worked away from home for her high school years, attending the Pateros and Okanogan Schools. Mrs. Imes states she fought for all of fifteen years to keep her youngsters in school and it was a battle all the way.
Two of the Imes boys, Dale and Hugh, were in the service during World War II. Dale saw quite a bit of action, being in the thick of things in Italy.
The family sold their hill ranch in 1947 to a Mr. Koch and moved in to Winthrop, where Prudie still lives. Besides her large family, she helped raise three of her grandchildren.
In October 1963, Mr. and Mrs. J. Burton Imes celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary, and Mr. Imes passed away within a month.
Mrs. Imes continues to live alone and is quite active in church work, having provided fresh flowers for over twenty years. She is a faithful Grange member and belongs to the Garden Club, the Bear Creek Community Club and the W.S.C.S. Mrs. Imes still does her own baking on the wood range and keeps busy with her flower garden and needle work. She has made eight crocheted table cloths in recent years, and just a year ago she made 13 quilts, all pieced, feather stitched and tacked. There were more quilts made this last winter.
Prudence Laymance Imes' life has spanned from Covered Wagon Days to trips to the Moon. She never expects to go to the moon, exactly, but she and Mr. Imes did make a jet trip back to Chicago and to Kansas to visit his brothers and other relatives in 1961.
Sixty-one of Mrs. Prudie Imes' immediate family gathered at the Winthrop Community building Sunday, March, (1970) to help her celebrate her 90th birthday with a pot-luck dinner. The group included her 10 children, 17 grandchildren, 18 great grandchildren, and four of the great great grandchildren. Nine of her children attended church with their mother that morning. Her friends gathered later in the afternoon at the Open House and Reception planned for her by her family to swell the guest list to 138. Her children, oldest to youngest, are: Lela Stockdale, Winthrop; Helen Nelson, Seattle; Wilma Dyer, Everett; Ruby Garman, Wenatchee; Clair Imes, Winthrop; Walter Imes, Bremerton; Harriet Haase, Winthrop; Dale Imes, Seattle; Hugh (Bill) Imes, Winthrop; and Evelyn Bair, Roseburg, Oregon.
The close friends who helped at the reception were Enid Thompson, Nettie Smith, Necia Hunter, Viola Painter, Marilyn Imes (granddaughter), Annie Rawdon, Hazel MacFarlane and Cora Davis.
This story is written as a tribute to a fine woman who, through her stamina and fortitude, helped settle this western country and make it a better place for us who follow to live in.
Family Members
Spouse
Siblings
