Heinrich and Katherine Schmunk
My Father, whose name is Heinrich Schmunk, was recorded on the Verdi ship manifest as Heinrich Schmonk, age 21, and my Mother as Katerine Schmonk, age 21, as well, arriving on April 6, 1908 from Buenos Aires, Argentina. This is incorrect, as they were not the same age. I recall Mom saying she was 2 years younger than Dad. My father was from the village of Rosenberg, Russia.
My Uncle Jake and Aunt Julia had a Dairy on Sauvie Island just out of
Portland on Hwy 30. Having moved into Portland when I was about 2 years
old and Harold was the baby with our Shepherd Dog Betty guarding his buggy
on our wonderful covered porch, we, the Schmunk's were city folks living on
NE 15th and Prescott Street in Portland then.
On Sundays, we used to drive out to the Island and spend the day with the
Dietz family. How our whole family, crowded in our 1927 Chrysler, loved to stop
in St. Johns to visit the miniature railroad that ran around the grounds
of the Fire Station just before the Bridge, then drive out across the
beautiful St. John's bridge, through Linnton, then to Burlington, where we
turned onto the wooden ramp that led down to the Ferry that crossed the
Willamette River at that point. I recall how scary it was for me to
think that we just might not get onto the Ferry before it started to move,
or before the Ferryman had fastened the cable across the end,
and we might be hanging on or even roll back off. I was always glad when
we were in the middle on one or the other side, and not the first or last!
Then, when the Ferryman secured the rope at the shore and untied the cable
on the Ferry on to the other side, our car would lurch down off, then up
the ramp to the other side onto the Island. As I recall, their Farm was
just a little distance uphill from the Ferry crossing.
A little anecdote: It was at the Farm on those Sundays that, for some
reason, the men and some of the boys would walk down to the water's edge
and jump onto the log rafts tied at that place, and talk! One Sunday, I
walked down there too. It must have been cold, since I had on a Harris
Tweed Coat and my Oscar-made Wooden Shoes. Of course, Daddy and the other
men were already out on the raft. So, I decided to jump out and join
them. I forgot that my legs were short! I gave a big lurch, but it
wasn't big enough, and I found myself in the River. Daddy looked down and
saw this long red hair floating on the top of the water. He reached down,
grabbed my hair and pulled me out of the water and onto the raft. I never
lost my wooden shoes! Needless to say, when I went sloshing back up the
hill to their Farmhouse, I was shuddering and shaking in my cold, wet
clothing.
"What happened to you?" Mama was horrified when she heard the story,
because, "if Daddy had not grabbed you at that moment," she reminded me, "you could have been pulled under the rafts by the river's current!" Aunt
Julia got me some of cousin Dorothy's clothes. We were the same age, and
I sat by their wood stove the rest of our time there!
We loved it out there, the boys going one way, and we girls going another.
We loved to climb up into the haymow to look for the chicken's eggs, and
just enjoyed the cats waiting for their squirt of milk warm from the cows
during milking time! What wonderful muddy times! Daddy and Uncle Jake
truly enjoyed their times together, I remember. When Grandma Born was
present, I remember she had to have Alka Selzer all of the time. Maybe
that's where I got my tender stomach!!!
March 27, 2002