160 flora margeret mcbeth

8/14/2019 160 Flora Margeret McBeth

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Kessock Ferry Inverness August 27th 1889

Dearest Flo,

It gives me great pleasure to write a few lines to you in answer to your very kind and very welcome

letter and the Order. It is really good of you to send so much. Just fancy three pounds. I don't know how to

thank you enough but god will reward you. Father says to thank you very much for him. He is very pleased

indeed. I received the photos today. You have made a splendid Photo and so has Agnes, and I think Mr. Linklater a fine looking young man, and so does Mother and Father and, Flo dear, I may tell you I read your

letter to Father and Mother last night. Father said the young man seemed to do his best for you and both said

if he was as good (and) principled a man as you say he ought to make you a very good husband. Of course it

lies with yourself if you think you can love him and care to serve him as his wife and companion for life. Now

dear Flo I don't know how to congratulate you most and if it God's will that you should go together I hope, Dear Flo, you will feel satisfied with what he gives. You must know if you can spend a Christian life with your

husband. It must be a happy and prosperous one so I hope, Dear Flo, I hope you will judge wisely and not

hasty. Just fancy yourself getting a man and such a nice house to live all in one year, and me keeping company with Ted 4 years and have to wait one more before we can afford to get married. Not money, but

love, brings happiness. I hope you will feel more settled next time you write.

The neighbors are all sending love to you and Mrs. Cameron, and Anna. I will bring your photo up

to Lina and Donald to see. We had a very dry summer but it has turned rather wet now. Every one is very

busy at the harvest.

Goodby.

Flora and Jane McBeath

About 1888Studio Portrait, Inverness

Chapter 6-1

Flora Margaret (McBeath) Linklater

1868--August, 1924

Flora Margaret McBeath is

central to the story of the Watkins

in America. In 1888 she took a

position as governess in Portland,

Oregon. In 1889 she met andmarried John Linklater. She – and

here I am speculating just a little – conspired with her sister, my

grandmother Jane Anne (McBeath)

Watkins, to get Edwin and JaneWatkins and their four children to

emigrate to Portland.

Grand Daughter Ruth Ross

remembers: Flora Margaret

McBeth came to Portland to be a

governess. En route, on the boat, as I recall the story, she met this fine

young man, John Linklater,returning from a visit home to

Scotland, to his business as a

building contractor in Portland.

They fell in love, and I don’t knowhow long later they were married

in Portland. [Ed. Note: Probably

wed in 1889 or 1890. See letter of August 1889 to Flo from her sister Jane.] I am told shewas a person that enjoyed laughter, jokes, etc. (I wonder if that’s where I got some of my

interests). She always wanted her sugar in her tea BEFORE the cream, so the hotter liquid

would help dissolve the sugar. When my father was there, during the courting times, I



Chapter 6-2

understand when she asked for the cream and sugar to be passed, he ALWAYS passed her the

cream first. My mother was born in a house John Linklater built, one of two alike (they did twin houses in

those days), on Grant Street in Portland. It stands today, and looks quite nice.

Shortly after my grandmother settled in Portland, she went to the produce stand to buy

vegetables. As the Scottish habit was to refer to rutabagas by the color they turned whencooked...”Swedes,” she asked the produce man “Where are the Swedes?” He replied theydidn’t live in that neighborhood!

I’m told nearby their neighborhood were some strict (Orthodox) Jews. I understand it was a

usual act, or chore, perhaps, that my mother, probably following her mother’s instructions,

went on Friday night and Saturday morning (their Sabbath) to light the stove etc. as that wasnot to be done by them during those hours. Interesting. We would have expected them to be

Presbyterian, but somewhere along the way, my grandmother chose the First Baptist Church

in Portland, where I was baptized and married, as were my sisters. That is really what brought my parents together, too - a Baptist young people’s activity.

My father was followed, unknowingly, by my grandmother and mother, who had seen this nice young man come to church, and wanted to see where he lived. He went to the YMCA,

downtown Portland. They assumed he lived there. It turned out he ate Sunday dinner there, asit was the cheapest dinner in town! He lived in a rooming house elsewhere.

When my dad, Hallie Reuben Kibler, known as “Hal,” went to a skating party at Oaks Park

(still there, too), a friend told him he wanted to introduce him to a young lady (it was a Baptist

Youth skating party). He said she was wearing a red hat. My father saw two young ladies inred hats, and prayed it would be the pretty one (one was quite homely and turned out to be a

dear family friend, Lydia Plyder Doll, who did have an unfortunate receding chin, freckles, or

whatever). He was overjoyed to be introduced to my mother, Florian; the other lady in a red hat!

There are several little stories about their courtship which went on for quite a while. Dad

went to WWI, writing regular letters, with a French silk hankie enclosed now and then. I have

amid my earrings in the bathroom today a tiny photo he took of Gen Pershing, speaking to thetroops, from that era. Also have Dad’s 116 th Engineers (the group from Portland) Army

uniform in the closet!

Another reason it was prolonged was that after mother graduated from Reed, in the first

graduating class, when it was still called Reed Institute, she went to teach in Nez Pers, Idaho.She continued to work for several yeas to be sure to see that there was enough money for her

sister to complete college AND medical school at U of O medical school up on the hill in

Portland. (My grandfather had died by then). Grandmother was left with several houses he

had built as rentals. You may remember the one your Gammie lived in for a while on LarabeeSt, site of the Portland coliseum, now. Another set of twin, skinny tall two-story houses,

bathroom upstairs with chain to pull for the toilet. We three girls have inherited some fine oil

paintings that were obtained by the family during that time: whether Mrs. Barcus rented or had grandfather remodel or repair a home, I do not know, but she did pay in paintings for

sometime. They are now highly prized I understand. I am sure none of us could afford to go

out and buy one, that’s for sure!

Granddaughter Flora remembers: She [Flora Margaret] was the youngest—called “Pretty Little Flora, the lily of the West.” Abducted [stolen?] by gypsies, who liked her red hair, so

her mom went to town [Applecross? Or were they already in Inverness?] and got the

constable to come with her to the gypsy camp. [Ed. Note: I’ve also heard this abduction story



Flora (McBeath) Linklater

1910

Chapter 6-3

about Amos, my father. In that case I’m 99% sure it’s just an “urban legend.” I also saw thisstory on a TV special about the gypsies.]

Flora Margaret (McBeath) Linklater came over from Scotland by herself. She got a job

working as a housemaid in the now-historic Mansion (Pittock?) (I'll see if Grace can

remember that).

She joined the little First Baptist church. She'd become a Baptist in

a little mission church in Glasgow, I think though the rest of the family

were Scottish Presbyterians. I

think she met our grandfather, John Linklater, at church.

He was from the Orkney Islands.We used to go as a family, when we

were kids, to the Orkney&

Shetland Society outings, a dinner & dance in winter...(fun for the

kids to slide across the floor

between the adults' dances) and a

picnic in summer. They lived upon Grant street (I’ll keep my eyes

out for the picture Grad, Ruth and

I took a couple years ago, still looks good).

Grandfather Linklater was a

carpenter-builder, & built the twinhouses on Larabee where Anne &

Flora lived...Do you remember

that house? [Ed. Yes, I do, pull

chain and all.] I specifically

remember the toilet at the top of

the stairs, with the pull-chain. TheColiseum stands there now.



Chapter 6-4

Notes-

Flora K 16 Nov 2000: My baby book says, in my dad's handwriting:

Flora McBeath: Linklater, born 1868 in Inverness, Scotland, died August1924 at Portland,Oregon,

Came to America (Portland) in 1889. Grandfather John Linklater born 1859 in Edinburgh,

Scotland, [Editor’s note: Another sister says John came from the Orkney Islands, and adds that

she remembers family picnics with a group of Orkney emigrants. Sounds authentic.] He died 1913 in Portland. Came to America in 1879.

Use the above as backup; I don’t know if these are all accurate. –

160 flora margeret mcbeth

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