August Edition

Whoops! August started without me and this is a little late. Family camp is just around the corner and I'm looking forward to seeing all of you there.

August Birthdays:

Todd Hoebeck-8/16

Sally Mullins-8/18

Traver Thompson-8/26

Makayla Wilbur-Bash-8/28

The 91st Lansbery/Sankey Reunion is in the books:

Carol and Jan

Phil and Lucy

Bill looking for trouble

Phil with Uncle Jack

Julie, Wayne, and Aunt Inie

Uncle Jack

LANSBERY HISTORY

Lansbery is an English dialectual spelling of Landesborough, the town where the ancestors lived in Yorkshire, England. The origin, in its root form is Loden'sburgh. Interpertation, Stronghold of the shaggy-haired one. Original spelling Lounsbury.

The following is Grandpa Lansbery's story in his own words. I found a typed copy in some family papers I was looking through and thought it made interesting reading. I hope you enjoy it.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF MY Life

By Bruce Edmond Lansbery

Part One

I, Bruce Edmond Lansbery, was born March 9, 1887 in Clearfield, Penn. The fifth son of William and Mary T.(Sankey) Lansbery. There were seven boys born before a girl showed up in this family of thirteen children. The boys had to help with the housework, as well as the outside chores as soon as we were old enough. I learned to milk a cow when I was 11 years old. From then on I worked on the farm in the summer and went to school in the winter, finish­ing to the eighth grade. I still worked on the farm and helped the neighbors during harvest time. By 1907 I had saved enough money to buy a ticket to Oregon. My brother Coy and I left Clearfield, Pennsylvania on the 24th of March, and landed in Eugene, Oregon on the 31st. Our brother Ward, who had come to Oregon in 1904, met us and on April Fools Day we headed up the McKenzie River to a logging camp where Ward was working. I went to work swamp­ing road for horse-logging, this job was completed July 1. Coy and I went over on the Mohawk to see Rannie and Alf Koozer (friends from back home) who were just finishing up a job. The four of us decided to go to Newport for the 4th of July. To get there at that Lime we had to go to Albany on the train, stay all night and take a train the next day to Toledo, a stage from there to Yaquina and a ferry across to Newport.It took almost a day to get from Eugene to Newport at that time.

After the 4th, we came back and headed up the McKenzie, all of us went to work for George Barnes & Son, who had a contract with Booth Kelly Lumber Co. We camped in the old Lane place, where Riley's service station is now located. Again I went swamping for a four horse team. That job lasted about three months. While working for Barnes, Rennie, Coy and I put up a tent with board floor and side walls and a shake roof. We batched there all that winter. We did a lot of hunting and fishing as most of the logging was shut down during the winter.

In the spring of 1908 I rented a 27 acre ranch, known as the "Ulrey Place^", and farmed that summer and batched. I stayed on the ranch that winter and in the spring of 1909 I gave up the ranch and went to work for McNutt Bros, on a ranch east of Walterville. They were also partners in the Bangs-McNutt Livery Stable in Eugene. They had the contract to carry the mail from Eugene to Poley Springs and also haul passengers and freight. They ran a four horse team from Eugene every day, changing horses at Walterville, Vida, and Blue River, stay­ing at McKenzie Bridge and returning the next day. The roads were all dirt, dust in the summer and mud in the winter. They needed a driver the first of July so I took the job. In the winter they cut down to one stage, going up one day and back the next, so I lost my job. 1 went back to the McNutt Ranch and worked during the winter. In March Of 1910 I went up to Washington to see an old schoolmate and worked with him in the mill which his uncle owned.

I spent the remainder of the year in Washington, coming back to Walterville just before Christmas. Didn't do much that winter and in the spring of 1911 Freeman Lansbery (a cousin) and I bought a lot out Fifth St. in Springfield. We built a small house on Freeman's lot and a stable on mine. We batched in Freeman's cabin and built a two-story house on my lot (The house is still standing and in good condition.) After finishing my home, I worked for Flegal & Long in the plumbing business that late summer and fall until the bad weather. The winter of 1911-1912 I worked for Tom Sikes in a grocery store. In the spring I went back to work for Flegal & Long again and then became sub­stitute mail carrier for the only foot carrier Springfield had at that time.

Next month, the kids!