I think these next two pages of Dad’s photo album reveal as much about his personality as they do about the photos on them. He dedicated two pages here near the front of the album to photos of the houses he had lived in recently.
On these pages there are photos of the following houses:
- the house on Goltra Road (photo appeared in an earlier post), with the caption “Home ’24–’27”
- the house in Jefferson (see below) with the caption “Home 1927”
- the house in California (photo appeared in an earlier post) with the caption “Home Nov 1929 – May 1930”
(As an aside, in my role as a family historian, I am grateful for these captions. They correct some inaccuracies in the chronology as Dad recalled it later in life. And I’m always looking for a more accurate chronology!)
What Dad chose to put in the photo album was mostly just whatever he found interesting. You’ll see that in future photos from the album. So I don’t want to read too much into these pages. At the same time, I wonder whether the idea of a home that was habitable and maybe even comfortable was pretty significant after the homes he’d grown up in on the Alberta prairie and even some of the places he’d lived after coming to Oregon.
Of the three “home” photos, the one that has not been posted on this site already is this one, of the house in Jefferson, taken in summer 1928:
(Not relevant to the topic, but I believe that’s Aunt Ann walking up the sidewalk at far right.)
This is the house the Wrights moved into in fall 1927. The house and ten acres of land near Sheridan were received in trade for the Goltra house and farm (which was 150 acres). Grandpa and Grandma (John and Minnie) lived here into the 1960s.
That fall while the family was moving into this house, Dad and Uncle Irvine were working the wheat harvest in the Palouse (in eastern Washington). They returned to the Jefferson area in very late 1927 or early 1928. Depending on when they returned, Dad may have lived here briefly then. But by spring 1928 he was at the Zehr farm, where he lived and worked until he and Uncle Ed drove to California in fall 1929. The longest period Dad lived in the above house was between his return from California in May 1930 and his marriage in July 1933. During that period he paid rent to his parents.
As I pointed out earlier, Dad invented the selfie stick in 1933. Judging from the above, it would appear he invented the home page about 1930. Where are all the royalties???
You may commence throwing virtual rotten fruit now. ;–)
Yes, of course! The home page, too!!!
Love,
Donna
Was the house near Sheridan with the 13 acres the place with the splendid weeping willow? I remember going to visit Great Grandpa (John) Wright as a child — on the event of his birthday, I think — and the tree made a big impression. The site was memorably pastoral. I might be thinking of a completely different place, though, as I remember the house being more ornate and Victorian. It would have been after he and Minnie lived with Lloyd and Florence in Junction City.
I don’t think anyone in the family ever lived on the property in Sheridan. I don’t know whether there was even a house on the property. My guess is that it was sold pretty soon after it was acquired in the trade. I’m not aware of any property in Sheridan during my lifetime, anyway.
Grandma Minnie passed away in 1965 (when they were living with us in Junction City) and soon after that Grandpa moved to Portland and lived with various of his sons. I’m guessing the event you are remembering was after 1965, so was probably in the Portland area. My further guess is that you’re thinking of Uncle Ed and Aunt Helen’s house in the Boring/Damascus area. He was the only one of the brothers who lived in a pastoral setting (he had a filbert/hazelnut orchard), and they often hosted family parties.
That’s probably it, then! Thanks, Lloyd.