WPA Interviews

Lilly, Ella

INTERVIEW-Mrs. Ella Lilly

Historical Records Survey, Oregon, Benton County, Corvallis, Mark Phinney

Mrs. Ella Lilly, a widow, was interviewed at her home at 523 South Sixth Street. Mrs. Lilly is active in mind and body, interested in the work of her church and keenly alive to what is going on about her. Her husband was a cousin of Miss Hettie Lilly, who has been interviewed previously. Mrs. Lilly said: "I was born near Des Moines, Iowa, in 1862 and crossed the plains in 1865 in a mule train. The captain would allow no oxen in the train for they would slow up travel. There were some horses. My father, Thomas Custer, was a cousin and boyhood companion of General Custer, the Indian fighter.

My mother's name was Zilpha Eddy. I was the second in a family of four girls. My sisters are Addie Smith Eddy of Monrovia, California, Susie Rayburn of Pendleton, and Minnie Cooper of Salem. My oldest sister was married the second time to a distant cousin.

My mother crossed the plains with four girls, the oldest not yet five. When the Indians stampeded our horses and seemed about to attack the train, my mother, who had been called the 'coward' of the party, put us in our beds and took her stand at the open end of the wagon with the ax in her hands, ready to defend her babies.

Father was in poor health and died a year or two after reaching Oregon.

Mother's burden was doubtless lightened by the presence of her parents and other relatives who came with her. Our first home was at Blodgett Valley, where mother taught school for five years and cared for her family. Mother then married Henry McCullough, a farmer of the Blodgett community. My first schooling was with my mother at Blodgett before I was really of school age.

The Blodgett school held for only three months of the year, and my sisters and I got most of our schooling at Philomath College. Mother kept a diary of the trip west and of her later experiences, but the records were taken with other valuables by burglars.

I began teaching school when I was sixteen and taught for three years. I was married in 1881 to George Lilly. My husband had to take care of the farm of his father, who had just died, and wanted me to stop in the middle of the school term and begin housekeeping, but I finished the school first.

We carried on the farm until my husband's younger brothers were old enough to take over and then we moved to Corvallis and my husband joined the organization of the First National Bank. Mr. Woodcock, who was at the head of the bank, said he had my husband marked for a job in the bank ever since his school days. The two, with Walter Mills, carried on the bank for years.

My husband died in 1917 but he left enough to care for me and provide for the rearing and education of the children.

Our children are: Robert Custer Lilly, who is in the insurance business at Klamath Falls; Gertrude Estelle Flannery, who with her husband owns and operates a drug store in Springfield; and Ralph Lilly, a druggist in Klamath Falls. I guess I would have been a doctor if such a thing had been possible to a girl in my time. Perhaps that is why two of my children turned to a profession closely connected with healing.

After my youngest son finished college and went out for himself I was unbearably lonely for a time. I prayed about it one day, and that very evening the suggestion came through a friend to take a girl from the Children's Farm Home near Corvallis. Arrangements were soon made and the girl has been with me for about seven years. She will be in Junior High nest year. At my age they would not let me adopt her legally, but she is to be with me so long as I can give her a home. She is like one of my own, and I believe God's hand was in it.

My husband was mayor of Corvallis for one term and a member of the council for several terms. He never had time for public service in a wider field.

I have never been interested in any clubs or social organizations except the church. I have long been a member of the Corvallis Methodist Church, and have been for more than twenty years teach of the Older Women's Bible Class.

This is my Father's world and I love it. It has been a good world and I have enjoyed it, but I expect to enjoy the next one more.

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.