220 walter winfred larsen chapter

8/14/2019 220 Walter Winfred Larsen Chapter

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Walter Larsen at age four.

Cut from studio photo, 1896

Walter Larsen at age 12Cut from studio group photo 1904.

Chapter 12 -- 1

Walter Winfred Larsen

Feb 22, 1892-1983

The picture to our right shows Walter at age four.

The picture was taken in 1896, the year his father,

Laurits, died, but probably while Laurits was stillalive.

From Son Ralphs Larsen family history [Ed.

Note The narrative begins in 1896, just after

Maries husband Laurits Larsen died.]:

Their son, Walter, lived with the Bockmans at Aloha, west of Beaverton, for about a year afterLaurits died. The Bockmans had no children and wanted to adopt Walter but Marie said no.Marie married Anthony Naderer in 1904. Walter started school at age 6, going about 6months per year until age 16. He was skinny and frail. Marie thought manual labor wouldmake farming difficult for him, so got a college catalog from the Oregon Agricultural College(OAC, now OSU). Walter had been good at mathematics, so he and she thought civilengineering, with its combination of outdoor and indoor work, would be a good occupation.In November 1908, he enrolled. He studied for 6 years. He stayed out of school to work forone complete year prior to his junior year.The portrait, top left, I cut from a group picture made in 1904, on the occasion of his mother,

Maries wedding to Anton (Anthony) Naderer. All of the children in the picture have a wistful,apprehensive look, and no wonder. They will have to learn to live with a new man as head ofthe family.


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Nellie Gellatly weds Walter Larsen.Studio portrait, 1916.

Children: Lillian, Lyle, EvelynParents: Walter and Nellie Larsen.

From family snapshot files, 1924.

Laurelview farm, ca.1910.

Lily, Walter, and Mabel Larsen.

Chapter 12 -- 2

From son Ralph Larsens Larsen family

history:

Walter Larsen and Nellie Gellatly met at the Evangelical Church in Corvallis. Theybegan dating in March 1912, and weremarried on July 23, 1916. They rented the

family farm In Laurel from Walter's parents andoperated it as a dairy farm. Lillian and Evelyn wereborn there.

Walter Galloway, the Benton CountySurveyor, asked Walter to be DeputyCounty Surveyor. Walter accepted andthe family moved-to Corvallis in June1920. They lived on Orchard Streetwhere Lyle was born. They built a littlehouse on north 8th street in 1922. Theysubsequently bought 7 acres of land onLincoln Lane, 1 mile south of Corvallis,built a house, and moved into it in December 1925. One year later, a logrolled out of the fireplace, ignited

Lillian's clothing, and claimed her life.This picture shows the Larsens just two

years before the tragedy.

Daughter Evelyn recalls the tragic

death of Lillian:

Of course the third memory is the mostvivid and traumatic. It was the day wewere waiting for time to go to school

and mother and Lyle were gone on an errand. It was cold and there was a fire in the fireplace,


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Family Reunion. Laurelview, 1928.Standing: Walter Larsen, Anton Naderer, Chet Christensen, (?), Amos Watkins, Ralph Christensen?, Julius Christensen, Lynn Guenther?,(?),

Nellie Larsen, (?),(?),(?),(?),(?).

Seated: Lurene Christensen, Lura Christensen?, Carl Christensen?,(?),(?), Mabel Guenther?, Marie Naderer, Elsa Christensen, (?),(?),(?),(?)

Children, (Ted Watkins),(?),Lyle Larsen(w/glasses). Lloyd Guenther, John Watkins, Eve Larsen, Jean Watkins, Nelda Christensen?, (?),

Ernestine,Guenther, Helen Mae Guenther.

From Family Files, 1928.

Note Walter Larsens confident stance.

The Walter & Nellie Larsen Family in 1926

Clockwise: Lillian, Nellie, Walter, Evelyn, Lyle

This group portrait was made in the year of Lillians tragic death.Studio Portraits.

Chapter 12 -- 3

so we sat in front of it with our backs to the fire. A log rolled out and caught her dress on fire. I threw water on the flames, but she cried and said that hurt too much. I had heard somewhere about a rug smothering flames, so Ihad her lie down on therug and tried to roll her upin it. That didnt work,

either. We were screamingand finally the neighborfrom 2 houses away heardus and came to our rescueand threw her coat over Lillian and that did thetrick. I dont know why Ialso didnt catch fire, wewere so close the wholetime, but I didnt. Most ofher body was burned

and she died that night.My folks wanted toprotect me and didntlet me see her either at thehospital or in her casket. I still feel that was amistake, but in those daysparents thought it best to shield us from life. But how could I be shielded from her death afterwhat I had lived through?


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Walter Larsen at 731965 Larsen family photo files.

Walter and Nellie Larsen at 74John Watkins slide, 1966.

Chapter 12 -- 4

Daughter Evelyn remembers:

My dad loved nothing else like he loved a joke, be it a story or a practical joke (some of whichwerent exactly funny to those involved). When he was in college, he rigged up a chair withelectricity so when you sat down on it, it would give you a shock. That was just one exampleof many. Another pastime of his was to give us children mathematical problems at the dinnertable. e.g. If one car was going 60 mph

toward the north and another on theopposite side of the highway going 40mph south, at what speed were they passing each other? Or if a bicyclewheel had a diameter of 36 inches, howmany times would the wheel turn to go 1mile? He believed in being active andeating in moderation, both in amounts of food and in kinds of food. He always said it didnt matter whether you wentoverboard on sugar or alcohol, it was

always bad to eat anything to excess. Hetook us hiking up Marys Peak and Mt.Hood and Mt. Rainier and fished with usat the coast.

He was not an affectionate man and he was also quite blunt in conversation, but he showed hislove in other ways. When we went to bed at night, he would write the name of a destination ona piece of paper and give it to us as a ticket to dreamland. Wed think about that place thenwhich made going to bed and to sleep a lot more fun. If I had a sliver in my finger, he woulddivert me with conversation while he dug it out. He made whistles out of willow twigs andshowed us how to blow them, also how to play a tune on a comb with paper wrapped aroundthe teeth. He took me up to his office in the County Courthouse and showed me how to use the

drawing equipment, then letme use it on a schoolproject.

He was a very intelligentman. When he was incollege he could work out problems in systems theprofessor didnt understand,but then when a substitute gave Dad an A and his

regular professor questioned it, he informedhis professor that Somemen just know how toteach. I said he was blunt. He was a man of smallframe. He told me when hewas young he used to throw stones at a telephone poleand told himself if he hit it,he would grow big like the


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Chapter 12 -- 5

other boys. I think he always felt inadequate because of his size. He was neither farmer nordairyman, but he figured out how to bring electricity to the barn so a milking machine couldbe installed. When I wanted to do something and he thought it was wrong, he would let me tellhim why I wanted to do it, and then when I was through, hed say, But I am your father, andIm asking you not to do that. Because he let me talk myself out, I always went along withwhat he wanted. When Bob Boyl wanted me to go with him to meet his mother, and my familywas going somewhere else for the weekend, he called my boyfriend aside and talked about his

intentions. He liked what he heard and said I could go with him. We were married a fewmonths later. Dad was right. Bob was the right husband for me.

Dad also, however, used to like to create a problem. When I had an afternoon date with oneyoung man and another in the evening, he would ask the first young man to stay for dinner, sothe first would still be there when the second one arrived.

Blunt, yes, a tease, yes, but Dad could also be understanding. When I walked down the aisleat my wedding he could see how nervous I was, so he started hitting the back of my knee withhis, to divert me, so I could relax.

Honesty was a passion with Dad. He never ever used the county car for anything other thanengineering business--not even to drop by the grocery store. One summer he had a lot of

secretarial work that needed doing, so he had me type a lot of land descriptions for the county.But, because I was his daughter, he never asked that I be paid. l did it for nothing.

[Evelyns son, Bob, worked for Walter one summer.] Bobby had broken his leg in amotorcycle accident and his whole leg was in a walking cast. Dad was a tough taskmasterand expected him to run chain and all the rest of the work entailed by a surveyor assistant.When Bobby got home, his doctor was furious, but Bobby did then adore his grandfather. Hestill talks about Dads idiosyncrasies, but only in love. One of his favorite stories is howGrandpa told me he was so proud of me and my achievements in school, that he would takeme out to dinner in a really nice restaurant he knew about. If you havent heard the story, youd never guess the restaurant. It was MacDonalds. Dad was amusing, rough, frugal,outspoken, curious, busy, bossy, loving, and completely adorable!

Nephew John Watkins Remembers:

When I graduated from high school at 17 I was just a scrawny kid who looked 13. No onewanted to hire me. Uncle Walter invited me to his home in Albany, Oregon, and put me towork as a surveyors helper at $0.50/hourgood pay in 1941. I only got paid when I workedand I only worked when there was land surveying to do. Uncle Walter taught me my dutiesand also taught me how to use the calculating machines, etc. in the office. When I workedwith Uncle Walter people would always ask if I were his son. I was more his size and lookedmore like him than did his taller son, Lyle. He was a patient, but demanding teacher, and Im

grateful for both his kindness and his discipline.

I especially enjoyed meal times at the Larsens. Aunt Nellie was a good cook and saw to it thatthe family sat down to a sumptuous and rather formal dinner every night. We even had clothnapkins and napkin rings! Uncle Walter and his mischievous sense of humor kept usentertained. Aunt Nellie seldom asked us directly to pass anything. If the potatoes werebeside Walter she would say: Would you like some more potatoes, Walter? He would say:No thank you. So Aunt Nellie would finally say: Please pass the potatoes. He taught byexample and soon he had us all saying: No, thank you and not passing the potatoes. Ofcourse there were plenty of stories to tell about the antics of the Linn County Judge,commissioners, and other members of the courthouse gang.


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Walter and Nellie Larsen at 78John Watkins slide, 1970.

Chapter 12 -- 6

It was Uncle Walters policy to have each of his nieces and nephews in turn come to live withhim right after high school. Three of his nephews and his two sons went on to becomeengineers. All of us, nephews and nieces, came away better people because of the example heset in fulfilling his duties as acting head of the extended Larsen family. I think many of usnieces and nephews were surprised to find that Uncle Walter was an important man in hiscommunitya pillar of the Evangelical Church, and manager of a large work force composed

of construction workers, heavy equipment operators, clerks, and engineers. I saw that hisemployees plainly liked and respected him for his professional skill and the fair treatment hegave them.

Biographical Summary

Walter Winfred Larsen was born February

22, 1892 at the family farm, Laurelview,

Oregon. He attended school at the one-room

school next door to the farm for 10 years.Because he was small his mother decreed he

should go to Oregon Agricultural College inCorvallis [now Oregon State University] andstudy civil engineering. He graduated in

1916. While in Corvallis he met and wed

Nellie Gellatly. They rented the family dairyfarm and ran it for four years making many

improvements. In 1920 Walter took the job

of Deputy County Surveyor in Benton Count

and moved his family to Corvallis. Hebecame County Engineer for Polk County in

1930 and held the position until 1935 when

the Republicans lost the 1934 election. Hebecame County Engineer for Linn County in

1935 and, one year later, County Surveyor as

well. He moved his family to Albany,Oregon, and continued in those positions

until 1961 when he retired at age 69. Four

of his children, Evelyn, Lyle, Ralph, andLorraine survived to adulthood. All

graduated from Oregon State University.

He was always active in the Evangelical Church, serving in important lay positions.

The next 23 years of retirement were happy ones. Walter and Nellie traveled with their trailer

home until it came time to retire to Oregon City.

220 walter winfred larsen chapter

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