WilliamHartleyLee

Before the end of 1900, William and Elvira had 3 more children and were also supporting a motherless 16 year old girl, Roxana Holmes whose father had been acquainted with Elvira’s mother. The 1900 census also lists a farm laborer, Edward Staddon as a boarder, and it would still be many years before their sons would be old enough to help with farm duties [09].

On the 1910 census, William is listed as a truck farmer with his wife and seven children still at home ranging in ages from infant to 20 years old [13]. A decade later in 1920, 64 year old William is still listed as a home farmer on the census along with his wife and five children, three of them still in school, and son Frank is helping out with the farming duties [14].

William and Elvira’ children were fairly well educated, with all of them finishing high school and some attending a local Seventh Day Adventist college. Most of their offspring decided against living the hard life of a farmer and they moved on to other locations and occupations. Their last child, Alvin remembered his father William as a stern parent who always strived to instill his hard work ethic into his children [05].

FAMILY LIFE ON THE FARM

William worked hard to raise his family and be successful. Along with his farming duties, William was employed as a carpenter and contractor, involved in local projects such as the Washington Water Power Company’s Little Falls hydroelectric power plant on the Spokane River. He would work his farm very early in the morning, and then leave for a city job six days a week. On returning home in the evening, he again worked on his farm [05].

William embraced the Seventh Day Adventist religion after being exposed to it in his workplace, and he raised his family according to their beliefs, including Saturday Sabbath. He was also a vegetarian, perhaps as much for humanitarian reasons, and their meatless diet must have been troublesome for his child bearing wife Elvira. A family story was passed down that relates how her mother Rebecca helped to supplement her diet with meat at times, without William’s knowledge [05

MARRIAGE TO ELVIRA STIRLING

William Lee and Elvira Stirling met in Spokane Falls and were married on his 31st birthday, July 25, 1887 with both of their mothers acting as witnesses [06]. Also on that same day, he became a naturalized citizen. They had their first child, Thomas in June of the following year but the infant died about six weeks later [07], coincidentally on their first anniversary.

SAINT JOHN, NEW BRUNSWICK

William Hartley Lee was born on July 25, 1856 in St. John, New Brunswick Canada [01], the third child of parents Hartley W. Lee and Sara Jane Armstrong, and their first son. While growing up in St. John, William followed his father’s trade as a carpenter and cabinet maker.

[01] Washington State Certificate of Death, State File No. 13309

[02] Ancestry.com ID: 1493 Name: Isabella Armstrong

[03] St. John, Daily Telegraph, 3 Jan 1883 Obituary

[04] St. John, Daily Telegraph, 8 Mar 1883 Obituary

[05] My Conversation With Great Uncle Alvin, Summer 1985, by Karen Lee Fogg

[06] Marriage certificate, Spokane Falls, Territory of Washington, July 25, 1887

[07] Thomas Lee tombstone

[08] Greenwood Cemetery Indenture, north one half of Lot no. 123 in block 13, Oct 15, 1888

[09] 1900 US Census, June 23, 1900, Spokane County, Abernethy Precinct, Sup.Dist.No.286, En.Dist.No. 47, Sheet No. 10

[10] Birth Certificate No. 161, Office of County Auditor of Spokane County

[11] Spokane Falls City Directory 1890, Volume 11, R.L.Polk & Co. Page 315

[12] Spokane Falls City Directory 1892, R.L.Polk & Co. Page 332

[13] 1910 US Census, May 20,1910, Spokane County, West Spokane Township, Sup.Dist.No.35, En.Dist.No. 130, Sheet No. 213A

[14] 1920 US Census, Jan.6,1920, Spokane County, West Spokane Township, Sup.Dist.No.5, En.Dist.No. 146, Sheet No. 1B

[15] 1930 US Census, April 22,1930, Spokane County, West Spokane Township, Sup.Dist.No.5, En.Dist.No.32-172, Sheet No. 11A

[16] Washington Death Index, 1940-1996, Washington State Department of Health

[17] Spokane Spokesman Review, 24 July 1951, p 15, obituary

[18] The Solicitors Trust and Loan Company, Dec 9, 1895

LATER YEARS

By 1930, at the age of about 74, William is listed on the census as a dairy farmer with only Alvin working as a farm laborer, and son Stirling was still living at home but employed as a mechanic at the time [15]. In the later years of occupancy, both William and Alvin leased out the land to local farmers. William’s wife Elvira passed on in 1940 [16], and then on July 22, 1951 at the age of 94 years, William Hartley Lee also passed away due to congestive heart failure [17]. Both William and Elvira are buried in the family plot at Greenwood Cemetery in Spokane. Vira died in 1963 leaving only her brother Alvin on the homestead, and when he passed away in 1987, he left the property to some of his close friends.

IMMIGRATION TO THE UNITED STATES

William H. Lee made trips to the western part of the United States seeking new opportunities, and does not appear with the rest of the family on the 1881 Canadian census. He traveled to Denver on his first trip and a short time later, visited Washington Territory, which was very unsettled at the time [05]. After returning to St. John from his second trip, and in light of the setbacks caused by city fires and the depressed economy, the family group was persuaded to immigrate to the Washington Territory area. William was about 26 years old at this time.

A few months later, William arranged an indenture with the Greenwood Cemetery for a family plot at the cost of $45 with Thomas as its first burial [08]. Their second child, daughter Vira was born in 1890 [09] and their third, Nina in 1892 [10]. An 1890 Directory finds him boarding in the city [11], and in an 1892 city directory, William and possibly his wife and child are boarding on Medical Lake Road where Elvira’s mother Rebecca also ran a boarding house [12]. On William’s trips from the city to the family home and back, hewalked across farmland that would someday be his own. In September of 1892, he and Elvira took out a loan and purchased 120 acres of farmland next to his father’s farm, paying $4 an acre [05]. The land was part of a Northern Pacific Railroad grant, and the loan was paid off by the end of 1895 [18]. He purchased and planted fruit trees for his farm’s orchards ordered from the Stark Nursery out of Missouri, but they apparently were not suited for the climate and did not fare well. William took out the trees and planted grains and potatoes on the land [05].

Isabella’s brother Christopher had married William’s sister Bertha Armstrong a few years earlier, and at some point, William and Bell lived in Boston close to his aunt Bertha. William and Isabella had a child, Isabella M. Lee in late 1882 but within a very short period of time, both mother and child took sick and died, possibly of diphtheria [03][04].