OBIT:

Mildred T. Haberman, one of the few women homesteaders in early-day Asotin County, died at 4:50 Saturday afternoon at Tri-State Convalescent Center at Clarkston of infirmities incident to age.

She was 92 and had lived on her Joseph Creek ranch until a year ago when she moved to the nursing home. She and her son, Fred, shared the Asotin County Cattleman of the year honor in 1961. Her parents lived at Endicott, Washington, but she was born in Kansas while her mother was visiting her family.

When Mrs. Haberman was 2, her father gave up barbering at Endicott and began ranching on the Tucannon River in Columbia County. She spent her childhood there, then finished her education at Asotin. Then she got a job working for Charles and Nellie Brown from 1912 to 1917 in their store at Rogersburg on the Snake River south of Asotin and at their home.

At the store she became acquainted with rancher Rudolph Haberman and married him Dec. 14, 1917. Prior to their marriage she had acquired a homestead on Birch Creek near Mt. Wilson and had her father and her brother build a cabin on it for her. During her years of clerking at the Rogersburg store near the mouth of the Grand Ronde River, she and her husband developed a large cattle operation along Joseph Creek and adjacent lands. Haberman died in 1948. Mrs. Haberman and her son, Fred, continued to operate the ranch. She was a member of the Asotin County Cattlemen's Association and the Cowbelles.

She is survived by her son, Fred Haberman at Asotin; two brothers, Carl Thompson of Clarkston and Max Thompson of Portland; a sister, Edith White of Clarkston; two grandchildren and three great grandchildren. Another son died in 1927.

The funeral will be conducted at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday and burial will be at Normal Hill Cemetery. Other arrangements are pending at Merchant Funeral Home at Clarkston. The family has suggested that any memorials be contributions to the Asotin County Historical Society.

Lewiston Morning Tribune, September 5, 1982