Lloyd Blankman

Nora Courtney and Mary Hubbard were neighbors. One day in August in 1900 they went after blueberries in the woods. When they returned Grotus Reising was on hand to take their pictures. They were proud of the berries and they tipped their pails slightly toward the picture taker.

Dee Courtney and his wife Nora lived in a house on a high bank over- looking the West Canada Creek. The Burt Conklins could see their place from where they lived at Broadwaters. The Courtneys had two children, Bernhard and Agnes, born in 1894 and 1896. Agnes died in 1907 of pneumonia. This was a sad loss to the family and to the community.

Dee and Nora worked lumbercamps as cooks for “Sol” Carnahan, the big lumberman, contractor and builder of dams and bridges. The Courtneys lived at one time on the knoll just east of Haskell’s Inn. Dee died of the flu during the epidemic after World War One. Mary Hubbard’s maiden name was McPhillips. She and her husband, Fred, did a flourishing business in what is now Haskell’s Inn catering to hunting and fishing parties, since Mary was an excellent cook. She was tall and slender, very pretty with kinky auburn hair, a typical Irish lass. There were three children, Ed, Minnie and Ray.

Jerry Flansburg built what is now the Haskell Inn for his bride when he was discharged from the army after the Civil War. Most of the women up in the woods wore cotton stockings for everyday and had a silk pair for good or dress-up affairs. Nylons weren’t even heard of in those days.

The old cotton stockings were used on the arms for picking berries in July and August. They reached from the upper arms to the fingertips. They protected the wearer from fly and mosquito bites, from scratches by prickers and branches on the bushes and from sunburn on hot summer days. It was fun to pick berries in the woods and the berries made excellent pies.