My Story
By
Maude Lois Ashenfelter Ravenscraft Champion
March 1957
I was born December 29, 1885 in Potwin, Butler Co., Kansas. My father was Peter Elmer Ashenfelter, who was born May 5, 1860 or 1861 in Clearfield Co., PA. His parents were David Ashenfelter and Sarah Gilnet (Note: my records shows the spelling as Gelnet) - descendants of immigrants from Germany- probably about the time of the Revolutionary War (1775). My mother was Ida Susan Joseph, daughter of Moses Nathan Joseph and Mary Elizabeth Jones, and was born at Joseph Mills in West Va. January 19, 1865. Grandfather Joseph was a descendant of William Joseph who was appointed Colonial Governor of Maryland by Lord Baltimore in 1685. Grandfather Ashenfelter brought his family to Kansas in the 1870’s and took up homestead and was a farmer in Butler Co. as long as he lived- which was until 1920.
Grandfather Joseph was the son of Waitman Joseph who was a plantation owner in West Virginia and at the time of the Emancipation Proclamation- in Civil War times- he freed his slaves, sold his holdings in West Virginia and came to Kansas and took up land and became a farmer and cattle man. He took pride in helping other men to get a start in a new country. No young man who ever came to his place was turned away; he would find something for them to do and would encourage them to try to homestead for themselves. He helped many to make a start at getting settled. When I was about 18 years old- a man said to me- “You or none of your folks will ever be hungry. Your great grandfather cast bread enough on the waters for that. He helped me get a homestead. I have lived on it many years and have raised a family here”. It was told to me that there has been as many as 20 men at one time eating at his table. One man who lived there one winter was Frederic Remington, the artist. There was generally a widowed mother with children living with them and helping Great Grandmother with the cooking- glad to have a home for her family. My grandfather and his family came later and were farmers as were his three brothers.
My father was a young school teacher and my mother went to school to him when she was 16. Father studied law and was admitted to the bar and had prospects for a career in law work, but he became a liquor addict and couldn’t hold down a job either at law or in teaching- even though he was an exceptionally good teacher- when sober. My mother taught one term of school before she married my father. She was 19 and he 24 at the time. I was born less than a year after their marriage. We moved to Brainerd, another small Butler Co. town, when I was three and father was in a store. Two years later he sold out and moved to Whitewater, another Butler Co. town. He taught school there for one year. He then learned the brick mason trade and that with farm work was his work the rest of his life. I had a little sister, Blanche Elsie born while we lived in Brainerd. She only lived one year. I had another sister Effie born soon after we moved to Whitewater; she is Mrs. Fred Finch of Fort Collins, Colorado.
I started to school in Whitewater when I was 5 years old and got all of my schooling there until I was 16. We only had a partial high school course- so I learned the printers trade when I was 15- then worked one and a half years on the Whitewater Independent- a weekly paper. All the time I worked here I was taking different classes- German, bookkeeping and music lessons. I was always eager to learn. I got to work on a daily and weekly paper in El Dorado, the county seat. I had been making $4.50 a week in Whitewater and could get $6.00 a week for six days of ten hours- seven to six- in El Dorado. That was good wages for a girl. I worked ten months and when summer normal school courses started I quit and went to school. I took my teachers examination and got my certificate when I was 17. I got my first school- a one room school ten miles from town. The wages were $32.50 a month. I paid $2.50 a week for my board, room and laundry. It was a seven month school- with many experiences. There were six big boys- four of them older than I and as there was no compulsory school before this year they had only come during the winter months and were hardly beyond the third or fourth grades. Other teachers had put them in regular classes with the smaller children. I put them in a class by themselves and gave them a lot of business arithmetic, had them practice writing and spelling and gave them histories to read. It was quite a successful experiment. Two years later I was offered a similar problem in another school at $65.00 a month which was big wages at that time- but I got married and quit teaching.
After my first school I taught another country school nearer and where I could live with relatives. The next year I taught the primary department in my home town. It consisted of a primer or kindergarten class- first and second graders. There were sixty-five from four and a half to seven and a few eight year olds. I was going to summer school every summer and had my first grade certificate- I only lacked four months teaching experience to get my life certificate when I got married. A new telegraph operator came to Whitewater. He was Samuel Francis Ravenscraft- from Nelsonville, Mo. We were married in 1906. He continued to work in Whitewater for a year after we were married. My oldest child, Fern, was born in March 1907 and soon after that he decided to go west and hunt a better job. He worked in Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho before he found what he was looking for. A station agent’s job in Dell, Montana for the Oregon Shortline. Living quarters were furnished- it was a good job but what a place. The town consisted of a railroad station- depot with living quarters (our home)- a hotel with a pool room and bar- a store with a bar room attached. It also for a time, housed the post office. There were two log houses-homes for the store keeper and his helper. Another log house where my good friends lived- Mrs. Dowling, a widow and her two daughters, Mayme and Rose and two sons, Henry and Joe. They served meals. Dell was at certain times a very busy place. There were two basins that used Dell as a shipping point- Sheep Creek Basin where the ranchers were engaged in raising sheep- The other was Sage Creek Basin where they raised a good many horses and some sheep. All supplies- groceries, clothing- for these ranchers were shipped to this little station.
We lived there seven years. Earl and Sam were both born here in our depot home. After seven years my husband was afflicted with an illness that caused his death in 1915. We had moved to Idaho- as my father was there- having taken up a homestead about thirty-five miles from Idaho Falls- after my mother had passed away. The area was called Mud Lake. Many of the homesteaders were Mormon refugees from the uprising in Mexico and had come from there with the most meager belongings. They had left their homes with only what they could carry in their buggies or wagons. They were so poor but always seemed cheerful and worked so hard with the poorest of living conditions. We lived in a one room house with a large tent adjoining. We went to the ranch in early May. About the middle of June we came out and went to Rupert, Idaho- where Florence was born- June 21. July 6 we went back to the homestead and never left again until the next February- when we moved to Rupert. My father stayed on the ranch. Sam, my husband, died that year in October. I was living with the children in a little house on Grandpa Ravenscraft’s place. I needed to do something to make a living as most of our savings were gone. I had a few music pupils and played one or two nights a week for dances. I had a neighbor boy, Henry Jacques, who played a violin very well and we teamed up to play for dances.
I had two babies- Florence was 16 months old and Sam was less than 3 years old, so I had to try to find something I could do at home and as the country was new and they were still working on the canals I decided to keep boarders. I did very well but it was hard work. All the water I used had to be hauled in barrels. I have cooked for from six to twenty- five besides my family of six.
One of my boarders was Fay Champion whom in 1917 I married. I never kept any boarders after we were married. Our first child, Bonnie was born in 1918. I had a small home in Acequia that I acquired while keeping boarders. We sold that in 1919 and moved to a farm. We lived there six years but got nothing but hard work. We later moved into town, Rupert, where we continued to live until 1942 when we came to Oakland, California and have been here ever since. Two more children were born to us- Bessie in 1920 and George in 1926.
When I lived in Acequia- keeping boarders was really my first experience with L.D.S. people. People whom I scarcely knew realized my need and helped so much. The L.D. S. people were raising money for a building fund- They had no place of their own and were meeting in a hall. They made it possible for me and my violin playing friend to play for all their dances. The ladies would come into my home and offer to help get my dishes done (and there were mountains of them) and one girl of mutual age whom I used to hire would give me so many free hours in a month to fill her cells in Beehive work. I began to think Mormons can’t be as bad as I have always believed but I still didn’t know they believed in the Bible. Later after I married I found out Fay was an …
(This history was given to me without the final pages- but I thought I should share what I did have).
