Illinois Valley News, Cave Junction, Ore. Wednesday, June 8, 2016
Page A-3
Valley woman reflects on her 90 years
Judy Hoyle and Dan Klapheke
IVN Contributing Writers
Millie Box celebrated her 90th
birthday Saturday, June 4 with a party
at Wild River Brewing & Pizza. Box
reminisced about her life in the Illinois
Valley, which has included many
different jobs, places and people.
Box grew up in Flint, Michigan
as one of nine girls and two boys, and
she was third from oldest. She said she
remembers heavy housework in her
early years, like washing clothes on a
scrub board, before modern inventions.
The family moved to Pasadena,
California during World War II, where
her father got a job in an airplane engine
factory. The family moved in pieces,
with Box’s aunt driving the seven
youngest children across the country in
one of the last cars built on a Detroit
assembly line before the factory was
converted for the war effort. Box and
her older siblings travelled to Pasadena
separately on Greyhound buses.
“After the war, everything was
getting really crowded,” Box said.
“Dad decided to sell the house and was
looking for property.”
Box said they saw an ad in the
Illinois Valley offering 24 acres for
$999, and her father took it. Box had
two children of her own, so her and
her husband bought three acres from
Box’s father. Box ended up having six
children—four boys and two girls—who
gave her 19 grandchildren. She has
many more great-grandchildren and four
great-great-grandchildren.
The family lived in a tent before
logging the property to build a house,
but Box said they wouldn’t have made it
if it wasn’t for the people around them.
“People back then were really
nice,” Box said. “We couldn’t have
survived without the neighbors. Old
timers made sure nobody starved.
Everyone helped everyone else.”
As a writer, Box produced a column
called the Bridgeview News for the
Illinois Valley News and the Grants
Pass Daily Courier. Box said the Mail
Tribune and The Oregonian would
occasionally publish her work, but they
never paid her. Box dropped the column
in 1957.
Box also delivered the Daily
Courier six days a week, growing from
around 75 homes to over 200.
“We told them we would get the
news to them by dark, and we always
did,” Box said. “The people always
liked to read the news because we
didn’t have local news on TV then. Not
everyone had a TV.”
Box and her family had to move
from the Valley several times to find
work. Box found jobs in various stores,
as well as in the sterilizing department
of Southern Oregon Hospital in Grants
Pass. They moved back to the Valley in
1977.
(Photo by Judy Hoyle, Illinois Valley News)
Millie Box with her family at her 90th birthday party. Box has 6 children, 19
grandchildren and many great-grandchildren and great-great-grandchildren.
Box said a lot has changed since
she’s lived in the Valley.
“Everything,” Box said. “The whole
of Cave Junction has changed. The only
buildings I know haven’t changed are in
Kerby.”
Box also has advice on how to
make it to 90.
“I’ve never been depressed;
always been busy,” Box said. “I always
encourage everyone to do the best they
can with their life.”
Land conservation in
Southwest Oregon
(Courtesy photo for The Illinois Valley News)
Riders take a coffee break during the fourth annual Otis Memorial Bike Ride hosted by
the Spiral Living Center, Sunday, May 22.
It is beautiful here, so let’s keep it that way. Kristi Mergenthaler,
stewardship director, will provide an overview of the Southern Oregon Land
Conservancy’s work protecting low-elevation farms, streamside forests,
rare plants and special places important to the community by working
cooperatively with landowners. She will discuss upcoming conservation
opportunities, including a gorgeous property on the Rogue River outside
of Eagle Point, a pristine low elevation valley owned by the Department
of State Land’s near Woodcock Mountain outside of Cave Junction, and a
special grassland in the Cascade foothills. Kristi is also a board member with
Siskiyou Field Institute. Location: Siskiyou Field Institute, 1241 Illinois
River Road, Selma, OR. For more info: 541.482.3069 or info@landconserve.
org.
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