Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 3.djvu/303

Rh but a girl of twelve; the three boys of William Black; Emeline Stuart, later Mrs. Lee Laughlin, the banker of McMinnville, and Mrs. Brown's two granddaughters, Teresa and Caroline, the former becoming Mrs. Zachary, and the latter Mrs. Robert Porter. These two granddaughters assisted in the housework, although Mrs. Brown herself conducted all household affairs personally.

Mrs. Brown was exceedingly quiet and cheerful in her ways and Mrs. Smith can not recollect a single case of insubordination or discipline, so orderly arid intelligent was "Grandma's" management. All the various household affairs were punctually ordered, meals being on time, and retiring and getting up in the morning promptly observed. At dusk Mrs. Brown would call the children in from their play, and arranging themselves at their seats they repeated together an evening prayer. In the morning, especially Sundays, she would waken her household by singing, and as her voice was still sweet and strong, and her singing good, this made the children feel cheerful all the week. This lady was also something of a mechanic, and contrived many little conveniences, one being a clay-made oven, which was the admiration of the neighborhood; having been constructed by simply a wooden framework, of proper size, over which was placed a sufficiency of well-mixed clay, after which the woodwork was burned out, and other fuel added until the clay was hardened into something like brick.

All the holidays were properly observed, and Mrs. Brown took as much interest as the children in seeing that suitable dresses were provided for the girls. The matter of cloth for gay clothes was not an easy one to arrange. The dress goods in the territory were still mostly obtained from the Hudson Bay stores, and their trade was still mostly calculated for native taste, the white women often found it difficult to get what they wanted.