Arthur McClain’s older sister Nellie Maude McClain married Joseph Everett Warren in 1905 in Albany (or somewhere nearby). Twin sons Ray and Roy were born to them in 1908. The Warrens seem to have moved around a lot. The twins were born in Oregon, but by 1910 the family was living in northern California and Joseph was working on a farm. By 1919 the family was back in Oregon. A third son, Charles, joined the family that year. In 1920 they were living in Monroe on their own farm. (Probably they were living on that farm in 1919, but I don’t know for sure.) By 1930 they were living in Toledo (Oregon) and Joseph had given up farming to be a barber. (Joseph was over 60 years old by this time, so perhaps it would be more accurate to say he retired from farming to take up a second career as a barber.) By 1935 they were living in Salem and Joseph was still barbering. This continued in 1940. Nellie passed away in 1944 and Joseph in 1946.
All this is relevant to the photo below not only in explaining who Roy Warren is, but also in addressing the question of where the photo was taken.
Given how Roy is dressed and how his Uncle Arthur is dressed, it seems more likely that this photo was taken when Arthur visited the Warrens than vice versa. So probably it was not taken in Tallman. But I don’t know whether it was taken before or after the Warrens moved to Toledo. There are some photos of the Warrens coming soon that were definitely taken in Toledo. The above photo seems to suggest “farm” though, so I’m going to guess it was taken in Monroe. (But I freely admit the Warrens could have had a garden plot as big as the one in the photo when they lived in Toledo.)
I don’t have any information about when this photo was taken. Based on Roy’s apparent age in the photo, it seems like it would have been fairly close to 1923. Roy turned 15 that year.
I have fond memories of Roy and his wife Janet from my childhood. They were probably the closest geographically of Mom’s cousins, so we visited them often and vice versa. Roy and Janet’s wedding anniversary was July 10th and Dad and Mom’s was July 9th, so they often celebrated their anniversaries together.
Also I seem to remember their daughter Kathy babysitting Dan and me on a few occasions. The memory is vague, but I think Kathy made snickerdoodle cookies on one of those occasions. It was the first time I’d had that particular cookie. I was fascinated with the name as much as the cookie.
This has little to do with the photo above, but since I’ve given a tiny synopsis of Nellie Warren’s life, it seems appropriate to mention the thing for which she is most famous among my siblings. It is this well-used recipe in Mom’s handwriting:
Although the title of the recipe is just “Cherry or Berry Pudding,” it is known within our family as “Aunt Nellie’s Berry Pudding.” (I’m not sure anyone has ever tried to make it with cherries.) The attribution is barely legible in the lower right corner: “from Aunt Nellie.” I don’t know whether Aunt Nellie came up with this recipe herself or got it from someone else. But she gets the credit in our family anyway.
In case you want to try this for yourself, I’ll transcribe the recipe so you don’t have to strain your eyes…
Cherry or Berry Pudding
- 1 c sugar
- 1 c milk
- butter [the] size of an egg
- 2 c flour
- 2 t baking pwd
- [pinch of] salt
Make batter like cake. Pour into greased pan [a cake pan or something even deeper] then pour over following:
- 1½ c berries (or more)
- 1 c sugar
- 2 c boiling water
- butter [the] size of an egg
Stir all [the above berry mixture] together and pour over batter. [Do not stir into batter.] Bake in slow (325°) oven for ¾ to 1 hour.
from Aunt Nellie
Note that this makes a “pudding” closer to the British definition of that term than the American. As it bakes, the berry mixture sinks through the batter and ends up on the bottom with the “cake” part mostly on top. It is delicious made with wild blackberries and served warm with ice cream on top. Yum!
This also has little to do with the photo, but as we’ve been going through Mom’s photo album, I’ve mentioned from time to time that there are two sets of captions on the pages. One set (often very faint) appears to have been written as the photos were added to the album, so when Mom was a teen. There aren’t a lot of these. The other set was written years or decades later when Mom (bless her for doing so) went through the album and added captions on virtually every photo. Without those, I would have no idea who the people in some of these photos are.
I don’t know when the second “adult” set of captions was added, but there is a clue in the caption for the above photo. Mom wrote “Roy Warren & Daddy Arthur Wright” (intending to write “Arthur McClain” or maybe just “Arthur”). She tried to erase “Wright” but the chalk pencil or whatever she was using does not easily erase on a black photo album page. This indicates that the “adult” captions were written at a time when the automatic last name going with “Arthur” in Mom’s mind was “Wright” and not “McClain.” That could not have been before 1940 (when Art was born)—and it was probably long after.