Bill and Phil -The Elting Brothers Go West
By Grace Elting Castle
When James Elting left New Paltz at the age of 16 to seek a
new life "Out West" in Iowa, he could never have imagined that two of
his grandsons, bitten by the same adventure bug near the turn of the century,
would go way "out west" to make their homes near the Pacific Ocean. Or
that, years later, one of his great grandsons would follow suit.
Phillip
Hasbrouck Elting (photo) and William S. Elting, two of the sons of James and Ada
Sommerville, grew up near Dodgeville, Iowa. There "Phil" married
Estella G. Miller. The couple made their home on a farm in Dodgeville, near
Burlington, Iowa. "Bill" was married to Jessie E. Smith, a native of
Idaho, but no record has yet been found of their marriage, so it is unknown
whether he was married at the time he left Iowa. I suspect that if he made his
way to Oregon by train, as did other Elting men, later, he may have stopped off
in Caldwell or Boise for awhile and fallen in love with the young woman who was
to become a beloved great-aunt of a houseful of little Eltings on the Oregon
Coast.
The exact date of the brothers’ departure from Iowa, and the
reasons for it, remain a mystery, though their eldest sister, Kathryn (Kate)
Deyo Elting Riddle, remembered that Phil decided to move to Oregon "because
of Estella’s health problems." Aunt Kate, was 102 ½ years old in 1976
when I asked her about this, and the details of Estella’s health problems had
been lost in a myriad of other memories.
But arrive in Oregon they did. Records have been identified
that clearly show them settled in on their farms in the Siletz River valley by
June 27, 1914 when Phil became the first postmaster at the tiny hamlet of Orton,
Oregon. He served in that position, with the post office being operated out of
his home, until November 10, 1915. In June 1921, the name was officially changed
to Logsden, Oregon, so as to avoid an ongoing confusion with the nearby
postoffice of Nortons, Oregon. The Logsden name remains to this day---a one
building store/postoffice/gas station, across the highway from the former Elting
farm, and located eight miles east of the town of Siletz, former headquarters
for the Coast Indian Reservation.
A 1916 listing in the county newspaper reported that James
Elting had traveled from Iowa to visit his sons at Orton.
The farms purchased by the two brothers appear on maps of
allotments made to members of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. Further
research of land records may reveal whether the brothers purchased their land
from the Indian allotees, or if it had been lost for taxes and picked up through
tax sales.
Long time residents of the area recall that Phil Elting’s
home, described as a "show piece", burned to the ground some years
after the young couple arrived. The new home, designed to further their stance
as the center of the social activity in that part of the reservation area,
included an entire upstairs "ballroom" for community dances. Many
local romances are reported to have blossomed at those events.
Phil’s niece, Helen Shank, in a 1976 letter from Iowa,
recalled a trip with her mother, Kate, to Logsden in "1931 or 1932":
"..We thought he was quite an individual. I can see him yet as he put on
his gloves (good looking ones, too) as we were about to go some place when we
were out there. It was quite evident he was a very much respected person. They
had no telephone so we drove miles and miles to invite friends to a gathering in
our honor. We were there about a week and on numerous occasions we were very
proud of Uncle Phillip.."
In those years few employment opportunities existed for the
Native people still being restrained within reservation boundaries But many
tribal elders a few years ago still remembered their years bucking hay and
tending cattle for "Mr. Elting"--- their first opportunity, as young
men, to make money, with perhaps the exception of being permitted to pick hops
in the Willamette Valley.
The Phil Elting farm, or "ranch" as it was usually
called by these elders, was known throughout the area for its herd of Dutch
cattle, as well as for its congenial, gregarious and opinionated owner who was
the "gentleman farmer" in suit and tie even in this remote, coastal
wilderness area accessible only by dirt roads and trails. In fact, Phil and
Bill, utilizing Bill’s teams of horses and a lot of human sweat and muscle,
worked on the "road gang" that carved new roads into the area; roads
that were then graveled with the rock blasted from local hillsides by Bill, the
"powder monkey".
Local newspaper articles, and court minutes for the early part
of the century document Phil Elting’s involvement and importance in the
county. When he traveled to Toledo to visit the courthouse, it was an event to
be mentioned in the newspaper. When an important argument was raging in
political circles, his opinion was sought, even though it would have taken a
concerted effort to travel the more than 20 miles over dirt roads, with several
river crossings, first by horseback, later by buggy, then, in even later years,
by automobile. Paved roads did not exist in the Siletz-Logsden area in his
lifetime.
Bill
and Jessie settled on a farm about a mile west of Phil and Estella. Though they
were also popular neighbors, they eventually chose to move to "town",
settling in Toledo, fed by the largest spruce and fir forests on the continent.
There, they quickly became the center of the social circle, hosting popular
house parties.
Bill’s name was also occasionally mentioned in the local
newspaper, but the stories were much more colorful and, as was the custom of
editors in those years, full of advice that the young man straighten out his
life instead of engaging in raging street fights. That Elting temper and too
much partying just kept getting him into trouble!
Though I remember Uncle Bill and Aunt Jessie well from my
childhood, some of most pleasant memories are the stories told to me by their
friends in the Toledo community when, as a young adult, I was a reporter for
that same newspaper. Uncle Bill had died nearly 20 years before and Aunt Jessie
had moved to Idaho, but all I had to do was mention the Elting name to a
long-time Toledo resident and the stories would begin to flow.
It may well always remain a mystery why these two brothers
undertook an adventure to a remote, nearly inaccessible Oregon Indian
reservation in the early 1900s. It is not even certain that they traveled
together.
Neither had children, though Phil and Estella did have at
least two foster sons, Roy Grinstead and Ernest Anderson who were recognized
locally as sons. Roy stayed at home to take care of Estella after Phil’s death
and inherited the farm. Roy’s widow sold it after his death as she was unable
to manage it alone.
In 1933, two of Bill and Phils nephews, sons of their youngest
brother James Henry of Burlington, Iowa, caught the infamous Elting adventure
bug, and hopped trains bound for Oregon. One Charles Leland "Red"
Elting made it to Oregon, stayed with Phil and Estella for awhile and returned
to Iowa, later settling in southern Illinois where he married and raised his
family. The other, James Everett "Ev" ran out of money in Montana, so
arrived in Oregon later. Though he worked, sporadically, for his Uncle Phil, he
was soon unofficially "adopted" by Uncle Bill and Aunt Jessie and
lived with them until his marriage. His children, (me included) were treated as
grandchildren by these two wonderful people.
Phil and Estella and Bill and Jessie are buried near the
Pacific Ocean, in the Eureka Cemetery at Newport, Oregon, now just a short 20
miles drive from the farms where they settled after making what must have been
the adventurous trip of a lifetime. Whether they made the trip for reasons of
Estella’s health, or because they, like many other Eltings, had to see what
was "out there", their actions continued the westward migration begun
by James, son of Moses and Phebe (Vredenburgh) Elting when he left New Paltz for
his adventure in 1858. His great, great-great, and great-great-great
grandchildren continue to have adventures "Out West."
The Road Crew - Bill (2nd) and Phil (3rd) from left
All photos courtesy Grace Elting Castle
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