Edward and Lena

Dear Donald, Marjorie and Gladys,

After talking with Lawrence Hickman last week, he confirmed that his grandfather Edward Rubin was an older brother of Grandma Aeschliman and Willy Rubin. To repeat some of what I had written before:

Edward was born in Switzerland in Sept. 1855. His wife Lena was born in Nov. 1867. According to the 1900 federal census taken when they were living in Onecho, they were married in 1879. This must have been a mistake as she would have been only 12 years old. It appears Edward had been married before because he had a son, Louis, born April 1877. A daughter, Emma, was born to them in June 1886.

In 1887 they sailed to the US aboard the French liner La Bourgogne arriving in New York on 20 January 1887. They settled in Coney Island, NY for several years where he made and repaired harness for the dray horses that moved the goods on wagons in and out of New York City. In 1888, they moved to Canton, Ohio where three more daughters were born: Paulina in Nov 1889, Bertha in July 1894 and Louisa in Sept. 1896. They lived on the same block as the soon-to-be President McKinley family. The kids waved to him as they walked to school and put up campaign posters for him.

In early 1899 they moved to Onecho into the house on the school land that Grandpa and Grandma Aeschliman had just vacated when they moved to their new farm next to the Wicks' place. There must have been some letters back and forth between the brothers and sister, and that may have influenced the timing of their move west to join the rest of the family. Lawrence showed me a photo, taken about 1906, of Edward, Lena and their four daughters on the porch of the house in the canyon. Shortly after that their oldest daughter, Emma who had been born in Switzerland, died of TB. She was a schoolteacher. The three remaining daughters married in the community. Paulina married Roy Hickman and their children were Lawrence and Marie. Bertha married Horace Rogers and their son was Norman. Louisa married Arthur Payne and their daughter was Edith. I don't know the history of the three men except Roy Hickman. Dad said the Hickmans came from the Midwest as early pioneers and had a lot of land that extended down into the canyon. They became quite wealthy by running cattle and sheep on the bunch grass. They bought one of the early tractors and a wooden combine while the rest of the farmers in the community still farmed with horses and threshed with a stationary and headers.

Edward died in 1923 and is buried in the Onecho Cemetery with his wife Lena who died in 1952.

It is interesting that the 160 acres of school land in the canyon played a significant part in our extended family. In 1887 when Grandpa Aeschliman and family and Chris and Aunt Sophie Schlunegar came west to Almota, Grandpa stayed in Almota where he had work as a blacksmith/carpenter. Chris and Aunt Sophie rented the school land. By 1893, Chris decided to move his family to Palouse. Grandpa rented the farm, moved his family of five sons from Almota and began farming. Six years later in 1899, Grandpa bought the home place and when he moved out, Edward, coming from Ohio, rented the land and moved in with his family. Sometime in the late 1920's Edward was able to by the 160 acres of school land and some acreage adjacent to it. Eventually his son-in-law Horace Rogers, and his grandson Norman, farmed it. Today it is farmed by a great-grandson.

According to the 1900 census, Edward’s mother, Mattie Rubin, was living with her daughter Rosa and her husband Fred Aeschliman at Onecho. She was age 77 and was probably a widow. Her three children, Edward, Willy and Rosa, were living at Onecho and they probably encouraged her to join them.

I asked Lawrence how he was able to attend high school. He said he rented an apartment in Colfax and stayed there while school was in session. He said he graduated on a Friday in 1929 and the next Tuesday his Dad, Roy died of what they called adhesions. I could tell it was still very emotional for him to talk about this. He said he had to grow up in a hurry. They had 600 acres of wheat to harvest that year. His Dad had one of the early Palouse tractors and a combine. He drove the tractor and they had hired men to run the combine and a sack jig and sack sewer. He said it was tough because they didn't want to take orders from a kid. Eventually they hired Arthur Payne to manage the farm and Lawrence and his mother moved to Seattle where he attended the University of Wash. and obtained a law degree. He said he had to stay home one year because they didn't have enough money. This was in the depths of the depression when wheat was about 25 cents a bushel.

Wayne Aeschliman Updated 22 Feb 2007