Pioneering Oregon
_ Mv name is Margarei
M.,rg.,rci Holes Bur
Hui
mile I am 9' sears old and I I ive in
' akima, W .tvhington
ft
P ortlan d Obswrver M a y 22, 1980 Page 5
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“ ns is m y - | „ , e story,” someol
" told io Kathryn Hall Bogle. and
ihe rest w ritte n by mysell some
years ago.
'Mien I think ol all my hardships
and my struggles. | realize there
'* u i mans valleys ol disappoint
ments and the question rises: Is
there a reason lo r serving God?
Mow I know the answer to that. My
''tisngth and latth h.ise come Irom
the Bible and I have reaped a great
reward I am proud ol my children.
I am comlortableand at peace.
Hack in 1920 we were living in a
little coast town near (.oos Hay in
Oregon My husband and I were
raising cattle and hogs lo r our
livelihood. We had thoroughbred
Poland China hogs, the most
beautilul in live counties. One ol
them weighed 730 pounds, the nicest
hog’ s I have ever known, lo r he
would lie down and let all ol our
children sit on him. I (trough the tail
and winter we sold the pigs m small
loads. We had never made so much
money belore and we were pleased
with our lot.
Our family numbered seven then.
We owned a tw o-story house in
town near the school and a little live
room house out in the country.
Ihe children thought the country
house was paradise. Ihe land was
covered with lovely wild (lowers,
lerns large and small, and many
evergreen trees there were birds,
bees, and butterflies and lots ol wild
berries. When the tide ol the Hay
M r. and M rs Earl W B urdine and ch ildren. L to R A lfre d . V erd ell
was m, the children could fish, or go
Ion lap) and D elores
in bathing, or go boat riding. They
were happy all the time, and so were
(M a rs h fie ld . O regon 1914)
we.
A ll this was quite a contrast to
what our lives had been in Arkansas
where I was born in 1H85, and from
Muskogee, Oklahoma where Earl
Burdine and I lived when we were
married.
My husband said he left home
w hen he was 14 years old.
He was the eldest o f 11 children
and his parents thought he should
have stayed and helped the family
with the farm because, year after
year, the family struggled but could
not get out o f debt.
Earl got a job and sent money
home to his mother to help out the
family, but still they stayed in debt.
As the years passed, Earl and a
younger brother rented some land,
batched together, made good crops
and paid o lt their father’s debts.
Everybody in the family was made
proud and happy because o f this.
Earl was a man ot his word, a very
faith I ul worker in the church and he
believed in right liv in g , (rouble
was, he thought everybody else was
the same way.
I went from Arkansas to
Oklahoma Territory with my sister
and brother in 1906. There was a lot
ol knotty oak there and my brother
worked in the sawmills. I went to
keep house fo r him , but I also
taught school there. I had always
liked to read and had learned to
read Irom my older sister before I
went into regular school at age six.
In our school Abe Grey was the
Four of the Burdine girls in 1945 Audrey. Erma Jean. Verdell. and
teacher and he switched the legs ol
Helen. (Annie not present)
anybody who did not know the
lesson. I hat way, you learned fast! I
liked teaching reading, writing and
arithmetic.
Yes, my eyes are blue and my skin
is fair. My father was Irish and my
mother was part Negro and part In
dian My grandmother was Negro, a
slave. My husband was Negro.
That brings up a fa m ily joke,
about my c h ild re n ’ s b irth cer
tificates, all dilterent, though they
had the same parents. Depended on
the clerk who issued each certificate,
I guess. On five certificates I am
listed as white and my husband is
listed as a Brown Indian. One child
was listed as white and three were
listed as Indian. In M a rsh fie ld ,
Oregon I was listed as white, my
husband was listed as Brown Indian
but that child was described as
Negro!
Lets’ see now. Where was I? Oh
Verdell Burdine R utherford and Delores Burdine Goodm an w ith
yes, we were living in Oklahoma and
their m other. M aggie Burdine
started our fam ily there. We had
(Photo: Buddy Bogle)
started homesteading and, though
we enjoyed the easy m ixing and
That was enough for me. I had been
want to homestead anymore, so he
m ingling ot all homsesteading
reading
books on the western part
said, " I don’t think I’ ll go.”
people, the climate was so severe
o f the United States, and Oregon
” 11 you don’t go, that’s all right
that we could not get ahead.
seemed the best selection to me. I
with me,” I said. "Y o u can stay,
Something always destroyed the
had read where a couple could get a
but I’m going.”
crops. We went through some
homestead
in Bend, Oregon, 320
"H o w can you go? Fare on the
terrible drought yeais when you
acres ol land, live on the land for
tram is $35.00 apiece. What will you
could look at a tree standing there
three years and own it alter that I
do with all these children?”
and just see the leaves dry up.
made up my mind that Oregon was
So many questions and I didn’t
The last year we were in
where I wanted to go.
have the answers. But suddenly I
Oklahoma a cyclone swept through
Not so, Earl. "W hat do you want
had the determination and I knew
our property It picked up our house
to go for?” he asked me. I told him
the answers would come. And they
and turned it completely around.
again and again. He didn’ t really
did.
AMERICAN STATE BANK
I here was the heap ol wood that
had been our house. We had no
shelter ol our own I looked at it all
and the remaining pieces ol our fu r
nishings left undamaged by the
cyclone, and the solution look
shape I was an early women’s lib
her, I guess.
I took everything that was whole
and ran up and down the street and
managed within two days to sell
enough to buy seat tickets on the
train lo r all o l us. My husband
couldn’t believe what he was seeing
and, up to the hour belore the tram
was to leave, he said he was not
going.
Earl was not unkind, so he said he
would take me and the children to
the station a lew miles away and he
hitched our two horses to the buggy
and loaded us all in. On the way he
tried to make me change my mind
and I tried to gel him to come with
us.
We were w ith in yards o l the
station when I played my final card
with my husband. He would have to
go with us, I told him, lor there on
Ihe platform watting lor us was the
man who had bought our horses and
the buggy we rode in.
And that’s how our family came
to Bend, Oregon, to Marshlield and
later on to Yakima, Washington.
It look us six days and nights to
get Irom Muskogee to Bend I had
packed enough food for us all to eat
on the way out so we did not go
hungry, but we were all very tired
when we arrived in Bend.
Ihe children and I sat on our
bags, grips and boxes there at the
railroad station until Earl could find
a place to take us, at least lor the
night. We watched him go down the
mam street until he found a barber
shop where he could ask questions
about work and a place for us.
W ithin a lew minutes he came
back and dangled a key in Irom ol
my eyes. It was a key to a little
house we could rent tor eight
dollars a month and it was com
pletely furnished!
We were so excited W hat seemed
unbelievable was that a man in the
barber shop wanted Earl to work
tor him, starting right then, and the
house was available.
We gave thanks to the l ord and
move right in.
The Bank that integration bu ilt’
2737 N E. Union
282 2216
SHOP
■ENOW'S
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Continued next w eek.
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