The courtship
Jacob Wesley DEBAR and Marie Magdelena HEINRICHS (Lena) met when she was 12. Jake was dating her sister, Olive. Lena told of being small for her age and sitting on Jakes lap when he visited. They were living in Ithaca, Michigan at the time.
1904 brought the HEINRICHS family west to what is now Withrow, Douglas County, Washington.
That same year, Jake went to Kansas City where he taught school for a short time and also went to the World’s Fair.
A letter came to Lena from Kansas City in which Jake said he would be coming out to Washington and that she knew why he was coming. Lena would tell of this, turn beet red and say, “I didn’t know why he was coming.”
Jake arrived in 1905 with a proposal of marriage, but Lena refused to marry him until she was 18. Jake waited until her 18 th birthday, 9 October, 1905 and proposed again. Again, Lena said wait, Jake was teaching school and she did not want to marry during the school year. At last, the two were married in Waterville, Douglas County, Washington on 2 May, 1906.
TopThe first years in Withrow, Washington
The Debars settled into a little one-room cabin on the homestead site just north of what is now Withrow, Washington. They were a mere 3-1/4 miles from the home of Lena’s parents, Wilhelm Joseph and Anna Maria (JULICHER) HEINRICHS and her brother, George HEINRICHS.
At the time, there were many small communities in the area with Saint Germaine having the local post office. Jake taught school in various places during the early years of their marriage. Some areas held school for three months in the fall and three months in the spring due to the extreme winters.
In the spring of 1907, the home grew by a room to two rooms and the family grew to three with the birth of Mary Antoinette (Nettie), DEBAR on 12 April, 1907. The family again grew on 16 March, 1909, with the birth of Helen Anna DEBAR. Both were born in the two-room cabin.
Later in the year of 1909, Lena’s father, Wilhelm Josef HEINRICHS, collapsed and died from an apparent heart attack while husking corn near the family barn.
Lena became pregnant again in 1910 and was having difficulties. The doctor suggested the high elevation was the problem, so, recommended that she go someplace with a lower altitude. Lena, three and a half year old Nettie and one and a half year old Helen boarded a train for Michigan to stay with Jake’s parents. Lena said it was the easiest train trip she had ever taken, because the other passengers were so good about helping her with the two girls. Jake finished harvesting the wheat and joined Lena and the girls in Michigan.
Years later, Helen talked about the way some of the family members they were staying with would ask her to call the family down for breakfast. She remembered everyone laughing when she went to the foot of the stairs and yelled “breakfast.”
James William DEBAR joined the family in Ithaca, Michigan on 13 December, 1910. He was named after Jake’s father, James and Lena’s father, Wilhelm. The newly expanded family remained in Michigan until March when they returned by train to Withrow. The trip home was very difficult, with Jim crying most of the way. Jake said he had to carry him all the way from Michigan to Washington. Upon their arrival home, Jim settled down and was “as good as gold.” He seemed to realize that he was home.
When traveling by train, Jake and Lena always carried their lunches with them. They would come into a train station and Jake would tuck Helen under one arm and a coffee pot in the other and go out to get liquid refreshment.
TopMove to Wenatchee Heights
Jake and family moved, for a short time in 1913, to Wenatchee Heights, where he taught school. Helen was four and Nettie was in school. They lived in a house above the school and Helen fondly remembered being permitted “to go to the edge of the hill to watch Jake and Nettie walk down to the school.” Lena would stand in the doorway to keep a close eye on her while she watched. Helen remembered the hill as “being quite large,” but was surprised when she visited the site in the 1960s to see that the large hill had become much smaller.
While they lived in Wenatchee Heights, Jake returned to the homestead every chance he had to care for and harvest the crops.
TopReturn to Withrow
In the spring of 1913, Jake purchased an adjacent homestead and moved the house they had been living in and adjoined it to the one he had just purchased. Now, the two rooms, which were rather crowded with three children and a fourth on the way, became two rooms and a lean-to bedroom. This was definitely a necessary addition, as Georgia June DEBAR, joined the family on 15 June, 1913.
A short time before Christmas, 1914, Helen accompanied Nettie on the three and a quarter mile trek to school. Helen remembered the thrill she got when they crested the hill above the school and was able to look down on the schoolhouse. This was the first time Helen had seen Crayons and a girl named Anna Hanson let her use them.
After Helen’s visit, the teacher wanted her to start school. Lena said it was because the teacher thought Helen would be “so cute to have in the Christmas program.” Helen started primary, what we now call kindergarten, before Christmas, 1914.
Jake usually drove the girls to school in the winter, but in nicer weather, they would walk the three and a quarter mile to school. Occasionally, a car would come along and give them a ride part of the way. “Imagine your children walking three and a quarter miles to school today.”
27 August, 1915, saw the arrival of Clyde (Budge) Whitfield DEBAR.
Helen attended Willow Springs School when she was in the third grade. It was a small country school with grades one through eight and had 15 or 16 students for the one teacher. During this school year, Jake built a house in Withrow. The family lived in the house in town, while Jake stayed on the homestead and farmed. Nettie, Helen and Jim attended school in town.
One year, during World War I, Jake and Lena had a woman, whose husband was overseas, stay in the house with her three children. She took care of Nettie, Helen and Jim while Lena stayed out at the homestead with Jake. Their daughter was a little younger than Helen and they developed a friendship. Helen remembered the excitement when they came home from a school activity and their father was waiting for them.
1919 found Jake suffering badly with rheumatism and unable to work on the farm. He spent six weeks soaking in Soap Lake, the minerals in the lake are still believed to have healing powers, but it had little affect.
While Jake was incapacitated, Lena worked out on the farm. She was pregnant at the time. Once, she fell off the disk, fortunately, Lena and the baby were not injured.
Talking of this reminded Helen of seeing her grandmother, Anna Maria (JULICHER) HEINRICHS, out in the wheat fields, stooped over in her full skirt pulling weeds and putting them in her apron. (This reminds me of seeing grandmother, Lena bent over in her beautiful flowerbeds in Manson, pulling weeds and putting them in her skirt.) Anna would then take the weeds in and feed them to the chickens. Nothing went to waste on the farm.
A new baby joined the Jacob DEBAR family on 4 January, 1920. Lena had had some difficulties while carrying the baby and he was born a “blue baby.” Georgia was seven at the time and she ran to the neighbors and told them “they had a new baby boy, but he was black all over.” Helen was the one who chose the name for Bing Anthony. Bing was very special to Helen, not only because she had named him, but also because she was the sister who took care of him most of the time. He became Helen’s special baby and “he always will be.” Bing was named after one of Helen’s favorite uncles, Isaiah Bing TAPPAN.
TopHomestead sold
That year, Jake sold the homestead and went to Skykomish to work because there was no work for him in Withrow. He worked there for six or seven weeks. That summer, the family packed up the old Ford with their belongings, chickens, and kids and moved to Deer Park, near Spokane. Helen said “they looked like the Okies in the GRAPES OF WRATH. They stopped around Coulee City for lunch, then, later, coming over the hill to Spokane, Jake told them that was Spokane. They were “all impressed with the great size of the city.”
Jake worked at a lumber mill in Deer Park and bought a small two-room cabin. The older kids all slept in a tent outside until Jake added another room.
The family was in Deer Park for about six months when Jake received word from his brother, Whitfield, that their father James was not well and wasn’t expected to live much longer. Around February, 1921, Jake and family boarded a train for Michigan. Helen was impressed by the “huge contingent of neighbors from Deer Park that turned out” to see them off. Lena, Nettie and one of the other children suffered with train sickness. The trip was extremely dirty because, people would open their window and ashes and soot would fly in and irritate the eyes. Helen remembered passing through Glacier National Park in Montana.
When they arrived in Elsie, Michigan, they disembarked and began searching for Whitfield. The troupe arrived at Whitfield’s house to be met by Martha, Mary, Millard, Bert, Bing, Ruby and Louise. “The house became quite full when they were joined by Jake, Lena, Nettie, Helen, Jim Georgia, Budge and Bing.” Jake and family stayed with Whitfield’s family until a house on another farm that Whitfield owned was made ready. It was a two and a half mile drive to the other house, but a nice walk across two fields and a creek, to the other house.
That summer, Lena had a huge garden with plentiful watermelon. The relatives and some neighbors would come over on Sundays and have a big family gathering. One Sunday, they had so many people that they picked 43 watermelons and ate them all.
The school was on the opposite side of Whitfield’s house, so the kids had a long walk to school. On their way to school one day, they saw a little animal in the woods near the house. They stopped by and told Bing and Bert about it. They set a trap and were anxious to see what they had caught. When Bing arrived late to class, the kids knew what he had caught as soon as he came in the door. One class member said, “Somebody killed a skunk, peeeeyooooo!
James Hyde DEBAR passed away 20 July, 1921. After the funeral, Jake couldn’t stand it any longer. He had to return to Washington. So the family boarded a train and headed back to Withrow. They arrived in Wenatchee at about 2:00 AM and spent the night in a hotel room with two beds. The next day, they caught the train to Withrow.
TopReturn to Washington
9 March, 1922 saw the arrival of another brother, Howard Eugene DEBAR.
They stayed in Withrow until June, when Jake and Lena were hired to thin apples down on the Columbia River, just below the Beebe Bridge. Jake and Lena thinned apples all day while Helen and Nettie traded off thinning apples for half a day and watching the other kids the other half.
After thinning, they moved to Lakeside where the younger kids attended Lakeside School and the older ones went to Chelan School. Helen had quite a battle entering as a sophomore when she was only 13. The superintendent said that couldn’t be and would not accept her report cards from Deer Park. He didn’t think she had taken Physiology and would not accept the information on her eighth grade diploma. He finally relented and allowed Helen to enter as a sophomore. Chelan School was the largest Nettie and Helen had ever attended. The girls were extremely concerned about going to such a large school, but all went well.
It was while attending school in Chelan, that Helen met Ivan WILSEY, again. She had first met him in Michigan when she was nine years old. Ivan was going with Mary Ward at the time and they had hoped to get married.
Jake’s rheumatism had gotten really bad while they were at Lakeside. Ivan would come over and give Jake body rubs to help ease the pain. He did this for two or three days at a time and seemed to rub the rheumatism out of him, because he was not bothered by it again.
NOTE: This is an edited version of the story told to Dorothy Leota (KEENEY) DEBAR. This story ended here. I hope that other family members can add to this story.
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