WPA Interviews

Weber, Lizzie Rinehart

INTERVIEW with Mrs. Lizzie Rinehart Weber. July 23, 1937.

My name is Lizzie Weber. My maiden name was Rinehart. My people came from Germany and were at first very poor. For this reason I had to go out and work for the pioneer families about Brownsville, and in that way I got to know some of them well.

I worked for Millie Brown for almost two years. She was a daughter of the missionary, Rev. Henry Harmon Spaulding. Her real name was Amelia but everyone called her Millie. She was an invalid because her back was broken. It was broken in childbirth. They put something hard under her and in the strain her back was dislocated. Her spine overlapped just like that. (She placed two fingers side by side overlapping about three inches.) Millie was the wife of John Brown who was a son of Hugh L. Brown after whom Brownsville was named. Their home was on the old H. H. Spaulding claim just east of Brownsville. It is now known as the Samuelson place.

Hugh L. Brown had seven children. They were Mrs. Elmore; Mrs. Montgomery; Mrs. Missouri Tycer, wife of John Tycer; Mrs. Moyer; John Brown, Millie Spaulding's husband; and a younger brother of John's who drank so much that John and the rest would have nothing to do with him. It was not the poor boy's fault because a neighbor got him into the habit by taking him over to his barn and giving him hard cider to drink when he was just a small boy. The neighbor liked to do this because the boy always acted so funny when he was drunk. I told John that he should be sorry for the boy and good to him, but none of the family would have anything to do with him. Finally he went away to eastern Oregon and herded sheep. He used to write pitiful letters back to his brothers and sisters but none of them would answer him. Millie showed me some of them. In them he said that he had been alone out there where he could not get the drink for three or four years, and if he stayed away a year or two more they thought that he could get the best of the habit.

John Brown and his wife Millie had four children. The oldest girl married Johnnie Waters, brother to Will Waters. The daughter Lauretta married Clyde Foster. (See interrupted interview with Mr. Foster enclosed herewith. L.Haskin.) After her mother's death Loretta inherited the H.H. Spaulding farm, but she and Clyde Foster parted and she sold the place. Millie's youngest child was a boy. He was born after she had been a helpless invalid for twenty-two years. She named him Malcom Earl. He is still living and works in the Los Angeles post office. This child was born when the mother was so hopelessly crippled that she could not even turn herself in bed or so much as raise a knee to shift it to a more comfortable position. Often she could scarcely raise her hand to her own head.

Hugh L. Brown was a good old man but his wife was a terror. Almost all of his family were a queer lot. They were always getting something on one another. Half of the time they would not speak to one another. Poor Millie lay there suffering year after year and they wouldn't even come in to give her a little cheer. She never had a bad word for anyone but the Browns were always getting into some kind of a fuss and they always laid it to Millie. Half the time she couldn't speak above a whisper and she just lay there and saw no one and no one saw her, but she got blamed for everything. Missouri Tycer never came into the house. John Tycer never came either. It wasn't John's fault, for he liked Millie. Whenever John Tycer would go past on the road to attend revival meetings he would whistle the gospel songs that Millie liked, but she couldn't have the comfort of having him come in and sing and pray with her. It was his wife's fault. She wouldn't let him.

When John Tycer died Millie asked me to bring her paper and pencil. The girls, (her daughters) shook their heads at me. They didn't want her to write to Missouri (Her sister-in-law, John Tycer's wife.) Millie saw them do it. She took it all in. After they were gone she said to me, "I do wish that you would bring me some paper and a pencil. I want to write to poor Missouri."

I got them for her and she wrote a letter. She could just write a line or two and then she had to stop to rest. She couldn't write much but she just gave her the good scriptures. When the mail came past I took the letter out and sent it for her. After that Missouri came to see her. She said, "Millie, forgive me". She was all broken up. Millie was a blessed saint if ever there was one.

Millie owned her own farm which she inherited from her father. John Brown owned his own land. Whatever was spent on Millie's land, even if it was only one nail, was put down against it. In the fall John Brown came in to show her his accounts and told her that things had been so high and the expenses so much that after her crops were sold there was nothing left. Millie's underwear were all worn out and in rags. I told her that she should have something new. John Brown always wore the very finest white woolen underwear both winter and summer. He wore it out riding for stock and it got very dirty. It shrunk every time it was washed until he could no longer wear it and then he threw it away. Millie told me to bring her some of John's old underwear and she worked with it and cut it down and made some for herself. It kept shrinking though, until she could scarcely get it on, and there was a bad seam around the waist where she had shortened it that was rough and hurt her back. I said to her, "It's a shame for you to wear these old things that hurt you so when John has plenty of money laid by."

John Brown heard me. He said, "What's that? What are you storming around for? Spit out what's eating you."

I told him just exactly what I thought. I told him, "It's a shame for that poor thing to lie there suffering for want of decent clothes when you have more money than you can use." (He had thousands of dollars out on interest.)

The next time that he went to town he came in and threw a big box on her bed. She said, "Why John, I didn't send for anything."

He said, "Open it up and see."

I handed her the box. She couldn't reach it and he knew that she couldn't. She opened it and it was full of the finest underwear. Millie asked me to bring her account book. She looked in it and then she said, "John, I haven't any money on hand to pay for them." Do you know what that man did? He took them back to the store and told the storekeeper that Millie said they were not good enough.

Millie asked me not to tell anyone about the underwear. I went to the store to buy some things a little later and the storekeeper asked me, "What kind of a woman is that Mrs. Brown? She must be a queer one. Her husband bought her the very best underwear and she said it wasn't good enough." I just stood and looked at him. I wanted to tell him all about it but I had promised Millie not to tell and I didn't.

Millie always paid half of my wages and John Brown the other half. I did not know about it at first but I found out about it later. She also bought the girls clothes from her own money. She had a little mare and she raised the colts from the mare and sold them when they were about a year old. In that way she paid for her daughters dresses. She was in bed almost twenty five years before she died but she did sewing for her own children and she sewed for hire besides, and all the time John Brown had thousands of dollars let our for interest.

Everyone talks about what a fine woman Eliza was. (Eliza Spaulding Warren, Amelia Brown's sister.) They tell you that she was a fine Christian woman, but she treated her sister Millie like dirt. I began to work for Millie in November, and it was April before she ever stepped foot inside of the house. Everyone thought that Millie was dying, too. I was working around the house one morning in the spring and I saw a lady and a boy ride up on horseback. I said, "Millie, there's a lady and a boy tying their horses out at the hitching bar."

She said, "What color are their horses? What do they look like?"

By that time the woman had tied her horse and was taking off her riding skirt to hang over the saddle. They always wore long riding skirts then. I said, "It's a tall woman and a kind of fat boy."

She said, "That's sister Eliza and Warren Callaway. (Eliza Spaulding Warren's grandson). Millie was so glad that she just laughed. She said, "Lizzie, when you get dinner, fix everything the very best that you can." She told me what kind of pie to make and what meat to cook, and she said to put on the best tablecloth and dishes.

Millie was always kind and friendly and I though that Eliza would be like her. I went to the door and she was just as stiff and formal as ice. She came in as cold as could be and just barely spoke to Millie. That old rip didn't have the least kindness for her poor sister who lay there and suffered. When John Brown came home at noon she went out to dinner with him. I had to get Millie's dinner and tend to the baby so I left them to serve themselves. After they had eaten Eliza said to John Brown. "Now I will tell you why I have come to this house. You have some grapes that you call "white grapes" but they are green when they are ripe. You said that I might have some cuttings from them. That is what I came after."

Poor Millie just lay here and sobbed, and sobbed. She was so fond of her sister. The reason why Eliza acted that way was because an heir had been born. Eliza had always wanted the home farm but Millie got it and now an heir had been born so that Eliza would never get it.

After Eliza had gone Millie said, "Now I will tell you a few things. When my father was getting old he asked me to go out to ride with him. We went together and he said to me: "Millie I have made my will and you are to have the old home place."

I said, "No father, Eliza has always wanted that place. Give me the hill farm and it will be all right with me. I love that hill place. I have always liked the woods and the running brooks and I will be very happy there."

Father said, "No. Eliza gets that. When Eliza began to go with Warren I begged her not to marry him. I told her that he was a drinker and didn't care for anything but drink. I begged her not to think of marrying him but she would have her own way. Now you are to have the home place and Eliza can take her man and live back in the woods. That is the best place for her and her drunken sot."

Millie said, "I never had asked my father anything about the place. I never thought about it. I asked my father to give the home place to Eliza because she wanted it so bad, but father said:- "What I have done I have done. That is all settled. Eliza had her own way when I begged her to do differently. Now you are to have the home place. I will tell her that myself."

When Father died and I received the place Eliza was mad. She said, "Millie, you've been tweedling pa." But I never had. I never thought of asking for a thing about the place."

Millie was a good woman. All that she though about when she was a girl was to help her father to win souls. Her father always took her along with him to help sing at his meetings. When she was little she rode on front of him on the horse. When she was older she rode on behind. He took her everywhere to help him with the music.

After Mrs. Spaulding died, before Millie was married, she lived with Eliza. That was after her father had gone back to Idaho to preach to the Nez Perces. They had to carry water and drag in big limbs for their fire. Millie would drag in those big limbs when that old sot of a Warren lay drunk on the floor. (Note: Other informants have told me that it was this hard labor of carrying wood and water that broke Amelia Spaulding's back. L.Haskin.)

(When asked concerning Rev. Spaulding's third daughter, Mrs. Wigle, Mrs. Weber declared that she had never heard of her.)

There was a man named Wigle used to live at Harrisburg. He came to see Millie once while I was there. I looked out of the window and saw him coming up the walk. I said, "I wonder what that Wigle from Harrisburg is doing up here." Millie smiled and said, "You can let him in."

I went to the door and told him that Mrs. Brown was an invalid and often could not see people. He went right in to see her. When John Brown came home Millie told him, "I have had a visit from a real old friend today." That Mr. Wigle from Harrisburg had a big red beard and held his head on one side like this- (pose of a wryneck.)

Another morning I looked out and saw an old man coming up the path. He was walking with a cane and another man was leading him. That was when I was new there and I didn't know anyone. I told Millie, "There is a strange old man coming this way. I wonder what he wants. Another man seems to be leading him."

Millie said, "Oh, that is that dear old man, Father Brown. He is coming here to see me! Oh, bring him right in. He saved my life once. I was almost dying and he came here and held my hand and prayed with me, and held me back when I was almost gone." Mr. Brown (H.L. Brown) came into the house and sat with her.

When Father Brown was sick, just before he died, he wanted to see Millie. They fixed a chair for her and loaded her into a wagon so that she could go down and see that good old man. When they brought her back I put her into bed. She was so weak that she could only just whisper. When Father Brown died they wanted her to go to the funeral but the one trip had been too much. She could not stand it.

When John Brown built his big new house they showed her the plans and where her room was to be. They brought in pieces of boards with beautiful grain that was to be used. She said, "This is the corner where my bed is to stand. I want you to scatter those nice pieces of wood all about the wall on the other side where I can lie and look at them. Instead they put them all in the corner where her bed hid them and she could not see them at all. One day while I was working for her, she asked me to move the bed out so she could look at them. I said, "Perhaps I can." I moved the bed a little and she just gave a sigh and fainted away.

They had a wheelchair for her and I told her that I thought that I could lift her into it and wheel her out into the sunlight. She let me try. She was a very slender woman, and not heavy. I wheeled her out on the porch. She said "O this is wonderful. Could you do me another favor? I want you to put some old clothes on the baby and give him a basin of water to play in."

I filled a basin with water and he just sat there and splashed water all around. "Oh," she said, "Do me one more great favor. Just bring a little more water so that I can see him play."

After that I took the mattress from her bed and sunned it awhile. I looked at the wood behind the bed and it was very beautiful. Millie died when her baby Earl was three years old. She did so want to live to see him grow up."

We were married at Millie's house. (Lizzie Rinehart and Fred Weber) We planned just to go to Albany to be married, but Millie said, "Do you want to break my heart?" She insisted that we be married there and she fixed everything so nice for us that day.

Copyright © 2000 Patricia Dunn. All rights reserved. This transcription may not be reproduced in any media without the express written permission by the author. Permission has been given by the Transcriber to publish on the LGS web site.