Parents were Benjamin Skinner & Harriet Wymer
An 84-year-old-woman who had lived in the Ritzville area since she was a girl of 17 died last Friday. Funeral services were held Monday for Mrs. Helen Victoria Lewis, one of the city's oldest and most widely known early-day pioneers. As a young bride, Mrs. Lewis came to Adams county in 1887 on an immigrant train that took from Monday noon until midnight Saturday to travel from Chicago to Pendelton, Ore.
Her first child, Harriet, the present Mrs. L. D. Emerson, was born that same year in the old Exchange hotel while the doctors was still on his way from Sprague. The Lewis homesteaded, about 18 miles from Ritzville, was considered luxurious for its day. It contained two bedrooms, a kitchen with a small hole under it for a cellar and wallpapering of newspaper, later used to teach reading to the children, all surrounded by a quarter section of unbroken bunchgrass.
While her husband toiled in the fields to "prove up," Mrs. Lewis gathered cow chips from the prairie for her cooking fire, drew water by the bucket from a crude cister and one day traded a good featherbed for a young heifer and calf so her growing children could find out what milk tasted like.
Mrs. Lewis also rode her saddle pony around the ranch early in the morning to spread squirrel poison. Ocassionally she traveled to Ritzville or Lind alone in a two-wheeled cart drawn by a plow horse. She would keep her youngest baby in a box at her feet and often reached home late at night with coyotes howling alongside th road. Four children were born on the ranch without benefit of a doctor.
With wheat at 19 cents a bushel one year, her husband Will, secured a job as schoolteacher at Fletcher. He arose before dawn, did the chores and walked two miles to school because it was too cold to leave horses outside, handled his own janitor work and arrived back home often after dark, because school didn't let out until 4 p.m. His salary was $35 a month. When he was gone, Mrs. Lewis finished the chores, sewed, mended, knitted and cooked and matured, alone in the prairie with her children, in a way few present day women could understand.
She used to laugh when she recalled how it took a neighboring bachelor to teach her how to make good sourdough biscuits and pancakes. She laughted too, during a memoriable picnic at the Big Falls of the Palouse in 1892. It took a day for the lumber wagons to reach the falls. There the men turned the wagon boxes on their sides to use as windbreaks. Men, Women and children slept on the ground for two nights, picnicked for two happy days, used up a fourth day to drive home over the hot dusty roads.
But doubtless there was far more discouragement than laughter in Mrs. Lewis' life After eight years on the ranch, Mr. Lewis was elected county assessor on the Populist ticket and the family moved to Ritzvile. Lewis also owned the Ritzville newspaper for a short time and later became an attorney.
The husband died in 1944. When Mrs. Lewis followed him last Friday, she had lived in the Ritzville area for 67 years.
Her surivors include three daughters, Mrs. Emerson and Miss Ruth Lewis and Miss Alice Lewis of New York City; and three sons, Oliver A of Wallace, Raymond R. of Yakima and Fred A. of San Francisco.
The Rev. Cliffor Knight conducted funeral services at Trinity Methodist church. Burial was in the Ritzville Memorial cemetery.
Ritzvile Journal Times January 12, 1950
An 84-year-old-woman who had lived in the Ritzville area since she was a girl of 17 died last Friday. Funeral services were held Monday for Mrs. Helen Victoria Lewis, one of the city's oldest and most widely known early-day pioneers. As a young bride, Mrs. Lewis came to Adams county in 1887 on an immigrant train that took from Monday noon until midnight Saturday to travel from Chicago to Pendelton, Ore.
Her first child, Harriet, the present Mrs. L. D. Emerson, was born that same year in the old Exchange hotel while the doctors was still on his way from Sprague. The Lewis homesteaded, about 18 miles from Ritzville, was considered luxurious for its day. It contained two bedrooms, a kitchen with a small hole under it for a cellar and wallpapering of newspaper, later used to teach reading to the children, all surrounded by a quarter section of unbroken bunchgrass.
While her husband toiled in the fields to "prove up," Mrs. Lewis gathered cow chips from the prairie for her cooking fire, drew water by the bucket from a crude cister and one day traded a good featherbed for a young heifer and calf so her growing children could find out what milk tasted like.
Mrs. Lewis also rode her saddle pony around the ranch early in the morning to spread squirrel poison. Ocassionally she traveled to Ritzville or Lind alone in a two-wheeled cart drawn by a plow horse. She would keep her youngest baby in a box at her feet and often reached home late at night with coyotes howling alongside th road. Four children were born on the ranch without benefit of a doctor.
With wheat at 19 cents a bushel one year, her husband Will, secured a job as schoolteacher at Fletcher. He arose before dawn, did the chores and walked two miles to school because it was too cold to leave horses outside, handled his own janitor work and arrived back home often after dark, because school didn't let out until 4 p.m. His salary was $35 a month. When he was gone, Mrs. Lewis finished the chores, sewed, mended, knitted and cooked and matured, alone in the prairie with her children, in a way few present day women could understand.
She used to laugh when she recalled how it took a neighboring bachelor to teach her how to make good sourdough biscuits and pancakes. She laughted too, during a memoriable picnic at the Big Falls of the Palouse in 1892. It took a day for the lumber wagons to reach the falls. There the men turned the wagon boxes on their sides to use as windbreaks. Men, Women and children slept on the ground for two nights, picnicked for two happy days, used up a fourth day to drive home over the hot dusty roads.
But doubtless there was far more discouragement than laughter in Mrs. Lewis' life After eight years on the ranch, Mr. Lewis was elected county assessor on the Populist ticket and the family moved to Ritzvile. Lewis also owned the Ritzville newspaper for a short time and later became an attorney.
The husband died in 1944. When Mrs. Lewis followed him last Friday, she had lived in the Ritzville area for 67 years.
Her surivors include three daughters, Mrs. Emerson and Miss Ruth Lewis and Miss Alice Lewis of New York City; and three sons, Oliver A of Wallace, Raymond R. of Yakima and Fred A. of San Francisco.
The Rev. Cliffor Knight conducted funeral services at Trinity Methodist church. Burial was in the Ritzville Memorial cemetery.
Ritzvile Journal Times January 12, 1950
Parents were Benjamin Skinner & Harriet Wymer
An 84-year-old-woman who had lived in the Ritzville area since she was a girl of 17 died last Friday. Funeral services were held Monday for Mrs. Helen Victoria Lewis, one of the city's oldest and most widely known early-day pioneers. As a young bride, Mrs. Lewis came to Adams county in 1887 on an immigrant train that took from Monday noon until midnight Saturday to travel from Chicago to Pendelton, Ore.
Her first child, Harriet, the present Mrs. L. D. Emerson, was born that same year in the old Exchange hotel while the doctors was still on his way from Sprague. The Lewis homesteaded, about 18 miles from Ritzville, was considered luxurious for its day. It contained two bedrooms, a kitchen with a small hole under it for a cellar and wallpapering of newspaper, later used to teach reading to the children, all surrounded by a quarter section of unbroken bunchgrass.
While her husband toiled in the fields to "prove up," Mrs. Lewis gathered cow chips from the prairie for her cooking fire, drew water by the bucket from a crude cister and one day traded a good featherbed for a young heifer and calf so her growing children could find out what milk tasted like.
Mrs. Lewis also rode her saddle pony around the ranch early in the morning to spread squirrel poison. Ocassionally she traveled to Ritzville or Lind alone in a two-wheeled cart drawn by a plow horse. She would keep her youngest baby in a box at her feet and often reached home late at night with coyotes howling alongside th road. Four children were born on the ranch without benefit of a doctor.
With wheat at 19 cents a bushel one year, her husband Will, secured a job as schoolteacher at Fletcher. He arose before dawn, did the chores and walked two miles to school because it was too cold to leave horses outside, handled his own janitor work and arrived back home often after dark, because school didn't let out until 4 p.m. His salary was $35 a month. When he was gone, Mrs. Lewis finished the chores, sewed, mended, knitted and cooked and matured, alone in the prairie with her children, in a way few present day women could understand.
She used to laugh when she recalled how it took a neighboring bachelor to teach her how to make good sourdough biscuits and pancakes. She laughted too, during a memoriable picnic at the Big Falls of the Palouse in 1892. It took a day for the lumber wagons to reach the falls. There the men turned the wagon boxes on their sides to use as windbreaks. Men, Women and children slept on the ground for two nights, picnicked for two happy days, used up a fourth day to drive home over the hot dusty roads.
But doubtless there was far more discouragement than laughter in Mrs. Lewis' life After eight years on the ranch, Mr. Lewis was elected county assessor on the Populist ticket and the family moved to Ritzvile. Lewis also owned the Ritzville newspaper for a short time and later became an attorney.
The husband died in 1944. When Mrs. Lewis followed him last Friday, she had lived in the Ritzville area for 67 years.
Her surivors include three daughters, Mrs. Emerson and Miss Ruth Lewis and Miss Alice Lewis of New York City; and three sons, Oliver A of Wallace, Raymond R. of Yakima and Fred A. of San Francisco.
The Rev. Cliffor Knight conducted funeral services at Trinity Methodist church. Burial was in the Ritzville Memorial cemetery.
Ritzvile Journal Times January 12, 1950
An 84-year-old-woman who had lived in the Ritzville area since she was a girl of 17 died last Friday. Funeral services were held Monday for Mrs. Helen Victoria Lewis, one of the city's oldest and most widely known early-day pioneers. As a young bride, Mrs. Lewis came to Adams county in 1887 on an immigrant train that took from Monday noon until midnight Saturday to travel from Chicago to Pendelton, Ore.
Her first child, Harriet, the present Mrs. L. D. Emerson, was born that same year in the old Exchange hotel while the doctors was still on his way from Sprague. The Lewis homesteaded, about 18 miles from Ritzville, was considered luxurious for its day. It contained two bedrooms, a kitchen with a small hole under it for a cellar and wallpapering of newspaper, later used to teach reading to the children, all surrounded by a quarter section of unbroken bunchgrass.
While her husband toiled in the fields to "prove up," Mrs. Lewis gathered cow chips from the prairie for her cooking fire, drew water by the bucket from a crude cister and one day traded a good featherbed for a young heifer and calf so her growing children could find out what milk tasted like.
Mrs. Lewis also rode her saddle pony around the ranch early in the morning to spread squirrel poison. Ocassionally she traveled to Ritzville or Lind alone in a two-wheeled cart drawn by a plow horse. She would keep her youngest baby in a box at her feet and often reached home late at night with coyotes howling alongside th road. Four children were born on the ranch without benefit of a doctor.
With wheat at 19 cents a bushel one year, her husband Will, secured a job as schoolteacher at Fletcher. He arose before dawn, did the chores and walked two miles to school because it was too cold to leave horses outside, handled his own janitor work and arrived back home often after dark, because school didn't let out until 4 p.m. His salary was $35 a month. When he was gone, Mrs. Lewis finished the chores, sewed, mended, knitted and cooked and matured, alone in the prairie with her children, in a way few present day women could understand.
She used to laugh when she recalled how it took a neighboring bachelor to teach her how to make good sourdough biscuits and pancakes. She laughted too, during a memoriable picnic at the Big Falls of the Palouse in 1892. It took a day for the lumber wagons to reach the falls. There the men turned the wagon boxes on their sides to use as windbreaks. Men, Women and children slept on the ground for two nights, picnicked for two happy days, used up a fourth day to drive home over the hot dusty roads.
But doubtless there was far more discouragement than laughter in Mrs. Lewis' life After eight years on the ranch, Mr. Lewis was elected county assessor on the Populist ticket and the family moved to Ritzvile. Lewis also owned the Ritzville newspaper for a short time and later became an attorney.
The husband died in 1944. When Mrs. Lewis followed him last Friday, she had lived in the Ritzville area for 67 years.
Her surivors include three daughters, Mrs. Emerson and Miss Ruth Lewis and Miss Alice Lewis of New York City; and three sons, Oliver A of Wallace, Raymond R. of Yakima and Fred A. of San Francisco.
The Rev. Cliffor Knight conducted funeral services at Trinity Methodist church. Burial was in the Ritzville Memorial cemetery.
Ritzvile Journal Times January 12, 1950
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