Mother Alma Marie (Rich) Schmidt
Alma Schmidt was born on Jan 30, 1913 to Reinhold Rich and Bertha Kison in Spokane, Washington. Her father Reinhold had changed his name to Rich from Reich to avoid some of the discrimination against Germans in the period around WWI. He used Rich in his Naturalization Papers and Military Registration Papers.
Reinhold was working as a transit driver and had a truck which he used to move people and their household goods. This worked reasonably well until he was forced out of the business by the large moving companies that came in and took over most of the business. He later worked for a local hardware company in Spokane.
Alma went to school in Spokane and graduated from Lewis and Clark High School. She wanted to attend college but the family income did not allow for that. She did attend a business school for two years and learned shorthand and office skills. At that time, school wasn't considered to be particularly important for girls, and thus was not a priority for her family. Her brother Elmer did go to a "Teachers College" after also graduating from Lewis and Clark, and he spent many years as a Manual Arts teacher at Lewis and Clark High School.
I don't believe that Alma was ever employed using her business school education, but was married to Ben Schmidt on May 26, 1933, and became a housewife and raised her family in the Spokane Valley, east of Spokane. She had three children, Robert Benjamin in 1935, Helen Marie in 1936, and George Raymond in 1938.
They moved into a house in the Spokane Valley when they were married, and were greeted into their new home by family tricksters who thought it would be funny to plug the chimney, so the house filled up with smoke when they started the fire in the stove. Fortunately, no serious damage was done.
Ben went to work for the local dairy, Early Dawn Dairy and did farming on the side. He raised vegetables like corn, beans, potatoes, cucumbers, carrots. The crop was taken to the Farmer's Market in Spokane for sale to grocery stores. The crop also helped provide for the family food throughout the year. Canning fruit and vegetables was a mainstay for the family food supply. They also typically raised a calf which was raised for beef. Alma became attached to the calves which she cared for and fed. One year, they put they calf out in a pasture owned by a neighbor. Later the calf was found with his neck caught in the fork of a tree, which was a heart-breaker for Alma.
They also raised a large crop of cucumbers for pickles one year, that they worked hard on, including Alma and part of the time even other family members. They harvested the cucumbers and sent them to the person that was supposed to make them into pickles for sale. Unfortunately, he didn't know what he was doing and used iodized salt, which made the pickles soft and unsaleable. A hard years worth of hard work and what was to be their main cash crop went for nothing.
Ben eventually went to work for the Northern Pacific Railway, and made this his career for about 40 years. During all that time, he also built houses that we moved into, and lived in while he built another house, which we moved into when it was finished, then the first house was sold. This was repeated many times while Bob, Helen, and I were in school.
We lived in downtown Spokane for a few years where Bob and Helen started "grade school" (elementary school). The house was near the home of Grandmother Rich. He then built a home in Veradale, which was next to an apple orchard, and the local railroad tracks that led down toward the Veradale Grade School. This was a two story house, where Bob and I had our bedroom upstairs. From there we moved to a house that was not yet finished, and lived in the basement while building work continued above us in the daytime, with sawdust drifting down on us for a time until the permanent floor was finished. It was in that house that I started Grade School.
That was the beginning of many such moves. The last move was to the duplex that Ben built on a slight hill above the south side of the freeway in Opportunity. It was designed to provide a separate place for Grandma Rich (then Siewert), so they could be near her and provide for her needs. Grandma later passed away there on Feb 12, 1991, as did Ben later on Aug 6, 1989.
Just a year or so before Helen retired from the mission field, she had a new single story house (with full basement) built in Opportunity, Washington, (now Spokane Valley, Washington). Alma moved in and lived there while Helen finished up in Cameroon. They shared the house when Helen came home on furlough, and had planned to spend many years together there. Unfortunately, Alma passed away before Helen came back to Spokane permanently after her retirement.
Ben and Alma were married at the Arthur Street Baptist Church in Spokane. Families from both sides (Ben's family, Alma's family, and Grandma Schmidt's Tobert family) were also members there at the time. Both were very active and supportive of this church. When the language was changed from German to English, both the Schmidt and Tobert families left and went to the Valley Baptist Church in Opportunity, Washington. Ben and Alma's family and Grandma Rich continued with that church until it was eventually sold, because of structural issues (a rock foundation), and the new Terrace Heights Baptist Church was built a few miles away. Her brother Elmer Rich laid the brick for the new building.
Alma had always been very active in the church. At times she was the church treasurer, and for many years was the choir director. During the earlier years, she played the violin to accompany church singing. She was also active in the Missionary Society work, making quilts and blankets and diapers, etc. to be sent to the Cameroonian Mission Field. She was one of the primary financial supporters for the church during the last years of the Terrace Heights Baptist Church.
Even after Ben passed away, Alma and Helen continued their membership there, even while Helen was in the Republic of Cameroon as a medical missionary. However, the membership diminished, and could not financially support it, and the building was eventually sold. When Alma found out the church was being sold, and the church congregation dissolved, she decided that her mission in life was finished and got her affairs in order on a table, including arranging all official paperwork, and the order of services that she had planned. She passed away peacefully in her sleep on May 28, 2003.
No comments:
Post a Comment