The Life Story of Edith D. Spady
By Michael Mitchell
It was back in 1992, when I was attending East-West College of the Healing Arts in Portland Oregon, that I met a woman who was soon to become one of my closest and best personal friends. Her name was Patricia Spady. She was also attending East West College working towards an advanced degree to meet the required hours for a state license in massage therapy. At the time, I was living in a very small studio apartment across from the Portland Art Museum, and I began to spend some time visiting Patricia. She lived, and still does, in Oregon City, on piece of land that has been in her family for many years.
It does not take long for a person to begin to inquire about the origin of the property after looking around a little bit. After driving past a large apartment complex and a quarter of a mile down a gravel road driveway, you end up stepping right into a country setting that sits in the middle of the city. It is a very picturesque scene with a beautiful view of Mount Hood. After a quick survey of the moss-covered, aging, concrete slab foundation, the question arises, "What is this place?"
At one time, back in the 1960's, the property was a hog ranch. It was owned and operated by her father, William G. Spady, who also owned and operated a garbage business. Both of these were family businesses. The hog ranch is long gone but the garbage business has been owned and managed by Williams's wife, Edith D. Spady, for over 30 years since her husband's death in 1966. Edith, her husband, and her father as well were in the garbage hauling business. The life story of Edith D. Spady is important because of the rich cultural heritage that surrounds her family as German Russian immigrants and the colorful local history involving Edith D. Spady, her parents, as well as many of her relatives, who also ran Portland, Oregon-area sanitation businesses.
The story of this German family's heritage begins in Russia, in an area called the Volga River Valley. In one of my interviews with Mrs. Spady, she remembers that, "they came from a village along the Volga River. There were villages all along the Volga River in Russia. And, the one that our family came from was called Norka and there were others along the way also."
Edith's ancestors were most likely part of the German immigration to the Volga region between the years 1764 through 1772 and it is estimated that 27,000 made the one-year journey during that period. The Germans were taking advantage of a manifesto offered by Catherine II (Catherine the Great- a German who married the Czar of Russia) on July 22, 1763. "The Manifesto offered free land, a thirty-year tax exemption, freedom of religion, exemption from military service and full political autonomy for any European (except Jews) who would establish colonies on her frontier"(Society). This was all part of Catherine's plan to modernize the Russian Empire. This underdeveloped and remote area near the Turkish border, was described as "a happy hunting ground for adventurers, vagrants, bands of marauders and river pirates"(Scheuerman 37).
An historical fact regarding the preference for German immigrants over Russian peasants to develop the steppe region, was the necessity of Catherine II to maintain a diplomatic relationship with the well-established aristocracy in Russia. Scheuerman and Trafzer write in, The Volga Germans, that "Catherine found it both unwise and impractical to suggest that the institution of 'serfdom' be altered in order to provide the Russian peasantry with opportunity to colonize the frontier"(44).
The Germans settled in a region known as the steppe country. It was a rugged, barren and extremely isolated place to begin a new life. One of the old German proverbs from the region claims that "work tastes better than food". This is easily understood examining the harsh conditions in which these people survived. By the 1870's, the Russian government was reneging on the manifesto promises of Catherine the Great to the German people, thus motivating another exodus out of Russia to the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina.
Edith knows the history of her family through the eyes of a people that fled Germany and Russia due to religious persecution and political oppression into areas that often had extremely harsh climates and living conditions. She summed up the exodus of multiple generations as: "Our family, our German families, got to Russia when Catherine the Great married the Czar of Russia. And, she promised her people religious freedom, military freedom and they were each given a section of land and this is how the people left Germany and went into Russia along these different rivers and areas. When they got there it was bare, bare land and through toil and hard work they started to develop the land and were farmers and helped develop the country."
The family history tells of stories about hauling cargo on horse drawn sleds across the frozen ground in the wintertime. This was the preferred method of hauling cargo because there were very few roads in those days; so consequently, it was easier to haul on the smoother frozen ground in winter. Edith still recalls many details of the old ways: "My father had a hauling business in Russia and the only times that they could work were in the wintertime when the roads were frozen because there were no roads or highways or whatever you want. The land was frozen and that is how they were able to transport things from one area to another when the ground was frozen solid."
Another fascinating tale passed down orally through her family is a story about one of the hazards her father encountered in the wild and unsettled territory of the Volga region. Edith told a story about Ludwig's necessary survival skills in the hauling business: "I don't know the stories as well as I should but you always see a third, a team of horses with one lone little horse off to one side. And, if they were being attacked by a pack of wolves they would cut that little young colt loose and the wolves would devour that and would leave the main wagon with the horses alone because they were busy chewing up this colt that they had to sacrifice to get their dray, as they called it at the time, from one part to the other."
Prior to and during the Russian revolution, Germans were denied to speak their native tongue and the young men were inscribed into military service. These events were the final blows of persecution to the Germans of the Volga region. And so, the Russian climate of hostility in the 1870's bought opportunity to the people of the Volga region. As a result of the political chaos in Russia and also the loss of freedom of choice to religious worship, many thousands of Germans from Russia left the Volga region and headed for America in search of a new and better life. Two of those folks seizing the opportunity to leave were Ludwig and Catherine Denies, the parents of Edith D. Spady.
Edith told me about the catalyst that forced her family to flee their homeland. "Then, of course, when Catherine the Great was no longer there, they immediately started breaking down and our young men were sent off to war. The schools were all German at that time and the schools had to be intermingled and they lost their freedom that they had been promised and that's when our family's left and came to America."
The fact that most of the Volga Germans ended up in the United States was a direct result of propaganda from the railroads and steamship companies. At the time, there was a huge advertising campaign launched to lure foreigners to the paradise that brochures claimed to exist. Of course the motive for this campaign was to sell the goods and services that these companies offered and to sell the land owned by the Railroad Company thus creating a growing dependence on the need for rail services (Scheuerman 121).
Ludwig Denies and his family arrived in Portland, Oregon in 1906. He, his wife and five children crossed the Atlantic by steamship and then crossed the continent by train through Canada. Edith recalls the story as told to her by her mother. "I don't know personally about the coming from the old country, but Mother told about being on the train with all of us, all of the children, I wasn't even born yet. And, the entry was through Canada because their ticket was a ticket that had been bought or purchased through London and throughout the English shipping. And, they landed into Canada and came down by train into the U.S."
Edith goes on to tell about another family story that exemplified one difference between the customs in the old country and the lifestyle here in America. This involved the change regarding the parents, relatives or extended family living separate from their children. "And it was the custom at that time-I remember this story vividly- that it was the responsibility of the youngest son to take care of the parents. So my father's sisters and brothers had come to America ahead of him. He was the last one to come. And, he brought his mother and father with him, which was the custom of the time, because the youngest son took care of the parents. I don't remember the parents living with us as children but my other brothers and sisters do. And, my father said the hardest thing he had to do was tell his father that, 'In this country each family lives in their own house' and then they moved my grandparents to another little house not too far away. But my grandfather was there every day to help with the chores and to keep the children busy."
The legacy of the hauling business begins a new chapter once the family was settled in their new homeland. The Oregon Journal reported that, "Ludwig Deines, a Russian-German immigrant, had come to America with his wife, his parents and five children. In his native Norka, a village along the Volga River, he had hauled cargo on sleds for a living when he wasn’t busy farming" (13). So a new country and a burgeoning Portland brought with it new opportunities for the hard working and thrifty Germans from Russia who now proudly called themselves Americans.
Portland, whose name was decided by a coin toss in 1844, was originally called the "The Clearing" by the Indians and trappers and was platted out in 1845. It was originally limited to the West Side of the Willamette River, but in 1891 it was incorporated along with the two towns on the East Side of the river: "East Portland" and "Albina". Portland was a progressive city for its time and size. Wanda June (Byers) Schwabauer, whose husband, Richard Schwabauer, was of German Russian descent, wrote in a thesis for Portland State University that:
It had a newspaper (since 1850), a railroad (since 1863) and at the time of incorporation served by three Trans-continental lines, streetcars (since 1871), telephones (since1878), and street lighting (since1885). Portland was the first city to have long distance transmission of electricity, which was bought from the falls at Oregon City to Portland in 1889 (17).
Ludwig and family settled into the Albina neighborhood, which was also called "Little Russia", into a small house at 404 Monroe Street. Edith proudly told me, "That house was built with labor one neighbor helping the other. I'm sure, that's the way the story went. It was what you now call Albina, the Albina neighborhood." The family grew in both reputation and in size. Katherine, Edith's mother, gave birth to thirteen children the last of who was Edith Eleanor Deines born March 7, 1916.
Edith still sums up her position as the youngest in the family as, "The last of the dozen", and she still recalls the story of how she was given the name Edith. "John was the oldest boy in the family and was a student at Elliot school. When I was born, his schoolteacher's name was Edith Wright, and this is where the name Edith originated.
She was also the 13th child born in her family, and she insisted that Edith be her protégés at that time."
The family ties of the Germans from Russia were strong in Portland and these bonds grew more important in the struggle to survive as immigrants in a new country with limited financial resources. Often it was the case in the close-knit German Russian family that a crisis situation would effect the entire family both on a financial and domestic level as well as an academic level for continuing educational goals.
Edith vividly remembers as a young girl that, "When father took sick with the scarlet fever and it turned into pneumonia and at that time he was in the hospital for a full month and came home weighing about 95 pounds. And, brother John, who was about 13-14 had to leave school and work on father's so called garbage business or scavenger business at the time because this was the bread and butter for all of us. The principal of the school came to the house most every day to see how my father was getting along, so that my brother could get back into school. Because they realized that he had every potential in being a leader for his time."
The strong religious ties and beliefs of the German Russians survived the move to the United States and continued to thrive in the Albina neighborhood. The church was the backbone of community life and social gatherings in Portland's "Little Russia" for all of Edith's childhood and young adult years. "Our church life was our social life, we all were raised in the church. We were all confirmed in the church."
She also went on to emphasize that "church going and our church's life were our social life at that time. Our Russian German people were really a religious group that came and were able to support their own churches and their own families in the church. There were 5 or 6 different churches within a small distance because they were all active in their particular beliefs and religion and this is where we went. Our outings were going to church and coming back."
It was part of the German culture at the time for women to be the homemakers so the traditional roles centered on domestic responsibilities and church activities. Edith attended Elliot School and at the age of 17 graduated from Girls Polytechnic School at 2508 NE Everett, (now Monroe High School) in Portland. The Homepage for the American Historical Society for Germans from Russia points out that: "It was rare that children finished the first eight years of school during the early years of settlement in Portland. All able children went to work to help support the family. In later years, more children began to graduate from elementary school and went on to complete their high school education"(American).
In the 1900's there were many changes that occurred on both a local, national, and international level that would have a lasting impact on the Albina community and its residents. One movement that was sweeping the country with reform was the suffragette movement. Although it began in the 1800's it took years to gain momentum and widespread support; this was due to the expanding role of women's occupational roles outside of the home.
The Readers Companion to U.S. Women's History points out that "...they needed the vote to gain control over their conditions and to protect themselves rather than to be protected by fathers and husbands"(578).
Thus, to gain support across the nation women "...argued for the vote less as an individual right than as a class tool". This was necessary due to the changing economic, political and social conditions taking place throughout the country. It was not until 1920, that the Nineteenth Amendment passed and women suffrage became constitutional law (Mankiller et al. 578).
Other changes that had an effect on the community throughout the lifetime of Edith D. Spady were: 1917 the Bolshevik Revolution, 1918-flu epidemic, 1921 the Volga Relief Society, the Great Depression Era, Prohibition, WWI and anti German sentiment, WWII, Korea, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights, the Vietnam War and The Cold War.
It is fascinating to look at the diverse changes that have taken place throughout the world during the lifetime of Edith D. Spady. From the early 1900's to the new millennium, there have been so many new changes made in the name of progress. For a woman of eighty-three years of age however the future & present will always yield to the past, for the memories of youth are priceless and not soon forgotten.
Even before I began my interview with Edith, I knew that there would be an endless supply of historical family and business stories. I had heard abridged versions of some of these stories over the past ten years of socializing with the Spady family. I had already experienced the annual Denies Family Christmas party numerous times, (with well over a hundred relatives present). I learned, first-hand, that in some matters there was an improper way of doing things and then there was the Russian German way of doing things; correctly. In fact, more times than not, I learned it was the only way of doing things. This belief I came to understand better through the course of my interviews with Edith.
It is clear that Edith and her family were raised with a well-defined system of values and beliefs. It was a reflection of the times that the family passed on its best values to its children. The pride that these Russian German people brought with them to America was a key to the success that they were able to achieve here in America. Pride was and is a family value.
The evidence of structure and order in the close-knit family became clear to me as Edith clarified. "As a child growing up in my early years I was pretty well protected by all my older brothers and sisters 'It was one big happy family'. There were lots of rules and regulations in the house but nobody superceded any of them". It is clear that being the youngest in the family had its advantages at times.
An example of her father's influence and character in shaping beliefs that dealt with sibling rivalry is Edith's memory that. "I know that there were never any squabbles allowed in our household because our father would say 'What, you can't get along with your brothers and sisters and you want to get along in this world? What's your problem? Why are you having a problem? Stop and think of what you're doing.' "
I was captivated to witness the detail with which Edith could recall of some events that took place over seventy years ago. She told me about some of her early adventures riding the streetcars in Portland and her family's thrifty approach to travel. "One incident that was so outstanding to me... a cousin of mine invited me to go to the Oaks Park which was quite a park at that time. That would have been like 1926 or so and the Union Avenue streetcar was five cents and the Oregon City streetcar was 8 cents. The Oregon City streetcar would have taken us right across to the Oaks Park. But no, we took the Sellwood streetcar for five cents and we had to walk down the hill from Sellwood Park down into Oaks Park just to save 3 cents. And in those days 3 cents meant allot."
Although we always hear about the extreme conditions that were associated with the Great Depression Era, I was re-educated to discover that some ordinary folks, (like Edith's immigrant family), were virtually untouched by the economic hardships. For others, beliefs and ways of living that formed from the poverty and hopelessness changed them forever.
One would tend to think in a business labeled such a disreputable name as "scavengers," (as the early garbage haulers were known), and poverty, (especially during the depression era), would go hand and hand. Such was not the case.
Edith recounted her experiences during that infamous period of American history. "We were most fortunate in that the Depression was on at that time, but we, personally, as a family didn't feel it. Because my father (being in business like he was) always had some money. He was exchanging money almost every day in the business, so we never ever had to really feel the Depression like lots and lots of families did. For the time I guess we lived a very lucrative life compared to others in the Depression days because we had fluent money going in and out. Yet we were very careful."
The lifestyle of many German Russian residents in the Albina neighborhood combined a blend of urban conveniences and rural farming and gardening traditions.
Edith explained that even though they lived in the city, "The Irving Park was still a pastureland at the time. Every morning most of the families took their cow and staked it at the Irving Park. When school was out, the older brothers would come and get the cow and take it home and this was the butter and cheese and eggs we had from our own (animals), so I guess you would want to call it almost a farm."
"Then we had chickens in the back yard and on and on. Every thing was useable. We had a little garden and, oh my, I remember our first lettuce and onions and that type of thing in this little garden because many families didn't have what we had. There was nothing that went to waste. Every potato peeling went either to the cow or to somebody. We were really very, very fortunate in that respect."
It is this thrifty approach to life and consumption that she still practices to this day. I have witnessed first hand Edith's reuse of many everyday products that the majority of us send to the garbage without a second thought: Edith gets several more uses out of envelopes, rubber bands, paperclips, plastic bags etc. Careful consumption is clearly a way of life that has been passed down through generations...a concerted effort to get the most uses possible out of everything. I believe this is more of an influence from harsh conditions in the Old Country than the shortages found in the U. S. during the Depression. Edith sums it up matter-of-factly: "We lived an affluent life for those days but a very saving one. Nothing was wasted. We knew nothing about wasting anything. It all had a purpose."
The occupation of "Scavenger" provided the opportunity to reuse items that others abandoned before their usefulness was over. Apparently there was hierarchy to the things that became available and who had first choice of such things. Edith lit up with excitement as she told me, "Besides the things that my father brought home, at that time everybody had a junk man. Well, not everybody, but we did. He would come down the street and he would buy & sell the bottles and the rags and whatever was there to be salvaged."
She still proudly recalls one day when the junkman arrived in the neighborhood, "In the mean time my mother had been out there and had already salvaged the things that we as children could wear or use. I remember that one of the nicest dresses that I ever had was one that my mother picked up out of the rag bin. She brushed it and shook it and fixed it all up and I just thought I was a princess wearing that little dress".
One might assume that with her father in the garbage business Edith might have been encouraged to play an active role in the family business. However, these were different times and there were traditional roles to be played. She told me about several early memories concerning her father and the family business. " My first introduction to the business was when they would bring the horse and the wagon home at the end of the day and the horses had to be tended to before any thing else. They were curried and fed and brushed. They were taken care of before anybody or any other chore in the house."
I could sense the excitement when Edith told me about accompanying her father on the route. "I remember one of my first rides that I had on the so-called (if you want to call it that) at the time one of the "scavenger" trucks. My father had one of the first ones that were motor driven, solid tire and open cab. I got a ride down to what is now the Overlook Park in the Overlook District and it was just a big, big hole at that time. All of the trucks went there and dumped, plain dumped their garbage and started to fill that hole, which is now one of the beautiful sites going down to swan island."
Even with the advent of trucks to haul garbage, the daily routine was a little different from the conveniences that we are accustomed to today. She vividly remembers, "I know that we had one of the very first cars that anybody had in the area and they also had one of the first trucks that were gas I guess it was gasoline at that time. The gasman would come on Monday mornings with two five-gallon cans of gasoline and he would fill the car and the trucks with gasoline. At that time there weren't service stations and all the things that we know about now."
Edith clarified that when she did get to go with her father it was just for a ride and little girls were shielded from the men's world of work. However, with an eye for detail she still recalls that: "Well then the first trucks came in. And they were Federal - I think a Federal was the very first truck that we had. It was an open cab and an open box. Solid tires. Then the box - you would wind that all up by hand. I remember that distinctly down there at Swan Island or as they call it Overlook Park."
She shared a few more memories about a few of her other career experiences. When she married William G. Spady, they moved to a house on 24th and Klickitat. She would take the streetcar to work everyday. Edith also reminded me that in the Portland area, there was at one time, a well-established network of streetcars for public transportation. When I asked her why they removed the streetcars, she went on to emphasize, "I don’t know why they did that. That was the biggest mistake they could ever have made when they took those away. I would say the reason was politics because they wanted to encourage the use of gasoline & gas engines and you know, that type of thing - but that, (the streetcar system), was by far the best because he (the conductor) would just 'ding, ding, dang, you know.' "
Edith explained how some of her early work experience helped influence her approach to operating a business in a field that was completely dominated by men. "I was at Troy Laundry. I was doing comptometer work. And I tell you one thing I know, and I wish I knew the dates, but the comptometer was kind of the forerunner of - well the computers are no comparison now - but at that time it was and I was trained in the Bedeau System of payroll."
She clarified for me exactly what this Bedeau system of payroll was. "Bedeau was a Frenchman and he had worked up the system of payroll that was very fair, very honest. There was an effort factor for the job. There was a speed factor - some people - like you do everything ten times faster than I do - well you should be compensated for that.... And accuracy was also one of the things that went into it. And there was a penalty for default. It was a very, very forerunner of accurate labor relations."
Edith also went on to verify that "the Ford Motor Company was the only company that Bedeau could never show a big saving". This was, "because they had already perfected their business to where the Bedeau system couldn’t begin to show them a big saving." She also exposed a piece of political history involving the labor unions. "At the time - this is way back when I was in my twenties - the Prince of Wales was going to come to America to visit and he was going to bring Mr. Bedeau with him as one of his Aides. And our Unions would not let Bedeau into our country. And so, the Prince of Wales did not come. Our Unions wouldn’t let him in."
When I asked her why the unions did not want him to come to the U.S. she concisely clarified for me that it was because, "he had perfected the payroll in such a way that the 'sliders' couldn’t get by with anything."
One of the things that she incorporated into the garbage business from the Bedeau system was the effort factor. She had observed that the men would exert a lot of effort and energy repeatedly climbing into and out of the cab of the garbage truck all day long.
So, on a trip through southern California she visited Ray Gaskins, who was assembling her brand-new garbage truck for the company. She described her influence on that truck's modification and design. "And when I got there, they had sitting there the walk-in cab. And here I had gone to an International chassis and the body was a Pak-More. And they were going to mount that Pak-More body on that International chassis. And it was a cab-over. And, when I got there they already had a right hand drive on another vehicle and I said to Ray Gaskins, What do you have to do to convert my truck into this?" He said, “You have to have air brakes and an automatic transmission." And I said, “Well, I’ve got both of them. Because that truck...your Dad had ordered before he died. And they had delivered it after your Dad was gone. And I said, 'Well, How much will it cost?' And I don’t remember whether he said $1,400 or did he say $14,000. And I said, 'Go ahead and do it!' "
And, then Edith acknowledged the thoughts running through her head at the time, "I guess I’m allowed to make a mistake. If my drivers have a wreck, it will cost me that much money for a wreck...you know if they total something. And, so by the time I came back, he had converted it to a right-hand-drive."
During our conversation, Edith's daughter, Patricia confirmed. "So that meant you could either climb up into the cab on the left and drive the truck or you could step up straight up from the street one step and drive it on the right hand side of the vehicle like they do in England?"
And Edith answered "yes."
Edith went on to clarify that this was the first right-hand-drive garbage truck in the state of Oregon. And went to point out that " And do you know, to this day I was never handed a compliment. They went to the dump - everybody saw it and looked at it but do you think there was ever a compliment? Or they said where did that dumb lady get that idea? Another one of her screwy ideas? 'Nothing.' Nobody. Ever. Ever. Ever."
Edith also incorporated the Cushman scooters into her business because this enabled the workers to service hard-to-access areas and to cut down on manual labor lifting heavy cans. " Ambrose had the West side - the heights - all of that district and until you packed those cans in and out - you know you were exhausted and so that’s where the Cushman Scooter came from. And he’s the one that introduced me to the Cushman Scooters."
These are just a few of the stories about the life of an eighty three-year-old woman. Edith is the daughter of a garbage-hauler, married a garbage-hauler and when her husband, William, passed on, went on to run the family garbage business. She has since passed the reins of the family business to her daughter, Patricia.
My interviews with Edith D. Spady proved to be educational and illuminating. They provided an opportunity to look closer into the life and history of a friend who has witnessed many changes in the world throughout her lifetime. I have captured a few of these memories and experiences on tape and on paper. As the clock struck nine on an April evening in the new millennium, Edith softly shared with me, " That clock. Grandma Weber in Canada said that clock was in the Russian Japanese war. When Russia and Japan had a war - that’s a long, long time ago."
It does not take long for a person to begin to inquire about the origin of the property after looking around a little bit. After driving past a large apartment complex and a quarter of a mile down a gravel road driveway, you end up stepping right into a country setting that sits in the middle of the city. It is a very picturesque scene with a beautiful view of Mount Hood. After a quick survey of the moss-covered, aging, concrete slab foundation, the question arises, "What is this place?"
At one time, back in the 1960's, the property was a hog ranch. It was owned and operated by her father, William G. Spady, who also owned and operated a garbage business. Both of these were family businesses. The hog ranch is long gone but the garbage business has been owned and managed by Williams's wife, Edith D. Spady, for over 30 years since her husband's death in 1966. Edith, her husband, and her father as well were in the garbage hauling business. The life story of Edith D. Spady is important because of the rich cultural heritage that surrounds her family as German Russian immigrants and the colorful local history involving Edith D. Spady, her parents, as well as many of her relatives, who also ran Portland, Oregon-area sanitation businesses.
The story of this German family's heritage begins in Russia, in an area called the Volga River Valley. In one of my interviews with Mrs. Spady, she remembers that, "they came from a village along the Volga River. There were villages all along the Volga River in Russia. And, the one that our family came from was called Norka and there were others along the way also."
Edith's ancestors were most likely part of the German immigration to the Volga region between the years 1764 through 1772 and it is estimated that 27,000 made the one-year journey during that period. The Germans were taking advantage of a manifesto offered by Catherine II (Catherine the Great- a German who married the Czar of Russia) on July 22, 1763. "The Manifesto offered free land, a thirty-year tax exemption, freedom of religion, exemption from military service and full political autonomy for any European (except Jews) who would establish colonies on her frontier"(Society). This was all part of Catherine's plan to modernize the Russian Empire. This underdeveloped and remote area near the Turkish border, was described as "a happy hunting ground for adventurers, vagrants, bands of marauders and river pirates"(Scheuerman 37).
An historical fact regarding the preference for German immigrants over Russian peasants to develop the steppe region, was the necessity of Catherine II to maintain a diplomatic relationship with the well-established aristocracy in Russia. Scheuerman and Trafzer write in, The Volga Germans, that "Catherine found it both unwise and impractical to suggest that the institution of 'serfdom' be altered in order to provide the Russian peasantry with opportunity to colonize the frontier"(44).
The Germans settled in a region known as the steppe country. It was a rugged, barren and extremely isolated place to begin a new life. One of the old German proverbs from the region claims that "work tastes better than food". This is easily understood examining the harsh conditions in which these people survived. By the 1870's, the Russian government was reneging on the manifesto promises of Catherine the Great to the German people, thus motivating another exodus out of Russia to the United States, Canada, Brazil and Argentina.
Edith knows the history of her family through the eyes of a people that fled Germany and Russia due to religious persecution and political oppression into areas that often had extremely harsh climates and living conditions. She summed up the exodus of multiple generations as: "Our family, our German families, got to Russia when Catherine the Great married the Czar of Russia. And, she promised her people religious freedom, military freedom and they were each given a section of land and this is how the people left Germany and went into Russia along these different rivers and areas. When they got there it was bare, bare land and through toil and hard work they started to develop the land and were farmers and helped develop the country."
The family history tells of stories about hauling cargo on horse drawn sleds across the frozen ground in the wintertime. This was the preferred method of hauling cargo because there were very few roads in those days; so consequently, it was easier to haul on the smoother frozen ground in winter. Edith still recalls many details of the old ways: "My father had a hauling business in Russia and the only times that they could work were in the wintertime when the roads were frozen because there were no roads or highways or whatever you want. The land was frozen and that is how they were able to transport things from one area to another when the ground was frozen solid."
Another fascinating tale passed down orally through her family is a story about one of the hazards her father encountered in the wild and unsettled territory of the Volga region. Edith told a story about Ludwig's necessary survival skills in the hauling business: "I don't know the stories as well as I should but you always see a third, a team of horses with one lone little horse off to one side. And, if they were being attacked by a pack of wolves they would cut that little young colt loose and the wolves would devour that and would leave the main wagon with the horses alone because they were busy chewing up this colt that they had to sacrifice to get their dray, as they called it at the time, from one part to the other."
Prior to and during the Russian revolution, Germans were denied to speak their native tongue and the young men were inscribed into military service. These events were the final blows of persecution to the Germans of the Volga region. And so, the Russian climate of hostility in the 1870's bought opportunity to the people of the Volga region. As a result of the political chaos in Russia and also the loss of freedom of choice to religious worship, many thousands of Germans from Russia left the Volga region and headed for America in search of a new and better life. Two of those folks seizing the opportunity to leave were Ludwig and Catherine Denies, the parents of Edith D. Spady.
Edith told me about the catalyst that forced her family to flee their homeland. "Then, of course, when Catherine the Great was no longer there, they immediately started breaking down and our young men were sent off to war. The schools were all German at that time and the schools had to be intermingled and they lost their freedom that they had been promised and that's when our family's left and came to America."
The fact that most of the Volga Germans ended up in the United States was a direct result of propaganda from the railroads and steamship companies. At the time, there was a huge advertising campaign launched to lure foreigners to the paradise that brochures claimed to exist. Of course the motive for this campaign was to sell the goods and services that these companies offered and to sell the land owned by the Railroad Company thus creating a growing dependence on the need for rail services (Scheuerman 121).
Ludwig Denies and his family arrived in Portland, Oregon in 1906. He, his wife and five children crossed the Atlantic by steamship and then crossed the continent by train through Canada. Edith recalls the story as told to her by her mother. "I don't know personally about the coming from the old country, but Mother told about being on the train with all of us, all of the children, I wasn't even born yet. And, the entry was through Canada because their ticket was a ticket that had been bought or purchased through London and throughout the English shipping. And, they landed into Canada and came down by train into the U.S."
Edith goes on to tell about another family story that exemplified one difference between the customs in the old country and the lifestyle here in America. This involved the change regarding the parents, relatives or extended family living separate from their children. "And it was the custom at that time-I remember this story vividly- that it was the responsibility of the youngest son to take care of the parents. So my father's sisters and brothers had come to America ahead of him. He was the last one to come. And, he brought his mother and father with him, which was the custom of the time, because the youngest son took care of the parents. I don't remember the parents living with us as children but my other brothers and sisters do. And, my father said the hardest thing he had to do was tell his father that, 'In this country each family lives in their own house' and then they moved my grandparents to another little house not too far away. But my grandfather was there every day to help with the chores and to keep the children busy."
The legacy of the hauling business begins a new chapter once the family was settled in their new homeland. The Oregon Journal reported that, "Ludwig Deines, a Russian-German immigrant, had come to America with his wife, his parents and five children. In his native Norka, a village along the Volga River, he had hauled cargo on sleds for a living when he wasn’t busy farming" (13). So a new country and a burgeoning Portland brought with it new opportunities for the hard working and thrifty Germans from Russia who now proudly called themselves Americans.
Portland, whose name was decided by a coin toss in 1844, was originally called the "The Clearing" by the Indians and trappers and was platted out in 1845. It was originally limited to the West Side of the Willamette River, but in 1891 it was incorporated along with the two towns on the East Side of the river: "East Portland" and "Albina". Portland was a progressive city for its time and size. Wanda June (Byers) Schwabauer, whose husband, Richard Schwabauer, was of German Russian descent, wrote in a thesis for Portland State University that:
It had a newspaper (since 1850), a railroad (since 1863) and at the time of incorporation served by three Trans-continental lines, streetcars (since 1871), telephones (since1878), and street lighting (since1885). Portland was the first city to have long distance transmission of electricity, which was bought from the falls at Oregon City to Portland in 1889 (17).
Ludwig and family settled into the Albina neighborhood, which was also called "Little Russia", into a small house at 404 Monroe Street. Edith proudly told me, "That house was built with labor one neighbor helping the other. I'm sure, that's the way the story went. It was what you now call Albina, the Albina neighborhood." The family grew in both reputation and in size. Katherine, Edith's mother, gave birth to thirteen children the last of who was Edith Eleanor Deines born March 7, 1916.
Edith still sums up her position as the youngest in the family as, "The last of the dozen", and she still recalls the story of how she was given the name Edith. "John was the oldest boy in the family and was a student at Elliot school. When I was born, his schoolteacher's name was Edith Wright, and this is where the name Edith originated.
She was also the 13th child born in her family, and she insisted that Edith be her protégés at that time."
The family ties of the Germans from Russia were strong in Portland and these bonds grew more important in the struggle to survive as immigrants in a new country with limited financial resources. Often it was the case in the close-knit German Russian family that a crisis situation would effect the entire family both on a financial and domestic level as well as an academic level for continuing educational goals.
Edith vividly remembers as a young girl that, "When father took sick with the scarlet fever and it turned into pneumonia and at that time he was in the hospital for a full month and came home weighing about 95 pounds. And, brother John, who was about 13-14 had to leave school and work on father's so called garbage business or scavenger business at the time because this was the bread and butter for all of us. The principal of the school came to the house most every day to see how my father was getting along, so that my brother could get back into school. Because they realized that he had every potential in being a leader for his time."
The strong religious ties and beliefs of the German Russians survived the move to the United States and continued to thrive in the Albina neighborhood. The church was the backbone of community life and social gatherings in Portland's "Little Russia" for all of Edith's childhood and young adult years. "Our church life was our social life, we all were raised in the church. We were all confirmed in the church."
She also went on to emphasize that "church going and our church's life were our social life at that time. Our Russian German people were really a religious group that came and were able to support their own churches and their own families in the church. There were 5 or 6 different churches within a small distance because they were all active in their particular beliefs and religion and this is where we went. Our outings were going to church and coming back."
It was part of the German culture at the time for women to be the homemakers so the traditional roles centered on domestic responsibilities and church activities. Edith attended Elliot School and at the age of 17 graduated from Girls Polytechnic School at 2508 NE Everett, (now Monroe High School) in Portland. The Homepage for the American Historical Society for Germans from Russia points out that: "It was rare that children finished the first eight years of school during the early years of settlement in Portland. All able children went to work to help support the family. In later years, more children began to graduate from elementary school and went on to complete their high school education"(American).
In the 1900's there were many changes that occurred on both a local, national, and international level that would have a lasting impact on the Albina community and its residents. One movement that was sweeping the country with reform was the suffragette movement. Although it began in the 1800's it took years to gain momentum and widespread support; this was due to the expanding role of women's occupational roles outside of the home.
The Readers Companion to U.S. Women's History points out that "...they needed the vote to gain control over their conditions and to protect themselves rather than to be protected by fathers and husbands"(578).
Thus, to gain support across the nation women "...argued for the vote less as an individual right than as a class tool". This was necessary due to the changing economic, political and social conditions taking place throughout the country. It was not until 1920, that the Nineteenth Amendment passed and women suffrage became constitutional law (Mankiller et al. 578).
Other changes that had an effect on the community throughout the lifetime of Edith D. Spady were: 1917 the Bolshevik Revolution, 1918-flu epidemic, 1921 the Volga Relief Society, the Great Depression Era, Prohibition, WWI and anti German sentiment, WWII, Korea, the Civil Rights Movement, the Women's Rights, the Vietnam War and The Cold War.
It is fascinating to look at the diverse changes that have taken place throughout the world during the lifetime of Edith D. Spady. From the early 1900's to the new millennium, there have been so many new changes made in the name of progress. For a woman of eighty-three years of age however the future & present will always yield to the past, for the memories of youth are priceless and not soon forgotten.
Even before I began my interview with Edith, I knew that there would be an endless supply of historical family and business stories. I had heard abridged versions of some of these stories over the past ten years of socializing with the Spady family. I had already experienced the annual Denies Family Christmas party numerous times, (with well over a hundred relatives present). I learned, first-hand, that in some matters there was an improper way of doing things and then there was the Russian German way of doing things; correctly. In fact, more times than not, I learned it was the only way of doing things. This belief I came to understand better through the course of my interviews with Edith.
It is clear that Edith and her family were raised with a well-defined system of values and beliefs. It was a reflection of the times that the family passed on its best values to its children. The pride that these Russian German people brought with them to America was a key to the success that they were able to achieve here in America. Pride was and is a family value.
The evidence of structure and order in the close-knit family became clear to me as Edith clarified. "As a child growing up in my early years I was pretty well protected by all my older brothers and sisters 'It was one big happy family'. There were lots of rules and regulations in the house but nobody superceded any of them". It is clear that being the youngest in the family had its advantages at times.
An example of her father's influence and character in shaping beliefs that dealt with sibling rivalry is Edith's memory that. "I know that there were never any squabbles allowed in our household because our father would say 'What, you can't get along with your brothers and sisters and you want to get along in this world? What's your problem? Why are you having a problem? Stop and think of what you're doing.' "
I was captivated to witness the detail with which Edith could recall of some events that took place over seventy years ago. She told me about some of her early adventures riding the streetcars in Portland and her family's thrifty approach to travel. "One incident that was so outstanding to me... a cousin of mine invited me to go to the Oaks Park which was quite a park at that time. That would have been like 1926 or so and the Union Avenue streetcar was five cents and the Oregon City streetcar was 8 cents. The Oregon City streetcar would have taken us right across to the Oaks Park. But no, we took the Sellwood streetcar for five cents and we had to walk down the hill from Sellwood Park down into Oaks Park just to save 3 cents. And in those days 3 cents meant allot."
Although we always hear about the extreme conditions that were associated with the Great Depression Era, I was re-educated to discover that some ordinary folks, (like Edith's immigrant family), were virtually untouched by the economic hardships. For others, beliefs and ways of living that formed from the poverty and hopelessness changed them forever.
One would tend to think in a business labeled such a disreputable name as "scavengers," (as the early garbage haulers were known), and poverty, (especially during the depression era), would go hand and hand. Such was not the case.
Edith recounted her experiences during that infamous period of American history. "We were most fortunate in that the Depression was on at that time, but we, personally, as a family didn't feel it. Because my father (being in business like he was) always had some money. He was exchanging money almost every day in the business, so we never ever had to really feel the Depression like lots and lots of families did. For the time I guess we lived a very lucrative life compared to others in the Depression days because we had fluent money going in and out. Yet we were very careful."
The lifestyle of many German Russian residents in the Albina neighborhood combined a blend of urban conveniences and rural farming and gardening traditions.
Edith explained that even though they lived in the city, "The Irving Park was still a pastureland at the time. Every morning most of the families took their cow and staked it at the Irving Park. When school was out, the older brothers would come and get the cow and take it home and this was the butter and cheese and eggs we had from our own (animals), so I guess you would want to call it almost a farm."
"Then we had chickens in the back yard and on and on. Every thing was useable. We had a little garden and, oh my, I remember our first lettuce and onions and that type of thing in this little garden because many families didn't have what we had. There was nothing that went to waste. Every potato peeling went either to the cow or to somebody. We were really very, very fortunate in that respect."
It is this thrifty approach to life and consumption that she still practices to this day. I have witnessed first hand Edith's reuse of many everyday products that the majority of us send to the garbage without a second thought: Edith gets several more uses out of envelopes, rubber bands, paperclips, plastic bags etc. Careful consumption is clearly a way of life that has been passed down through generations...a concerted effort to get the most uses possible out of everything. I believe this is more of an influence from harsh conditions in the Old Country than the shortages found in the U. S. during the Depression. Edith sums it up matter-of-factly: "We lived an affluent life for those days but a very saving one. Nothing was wasted. We knew nothing about wasting anything. It all had a purpose."
The occupation of "Scavenger" provided the opportunity to reuse items that others abandoned before their usefulness was over. Apparently there was hierarchy to the things that became available and who had first choice of such things. Edith lit up with excitement as she told me, "Besides the things that my father brought home, at that time everybody had a junk man. Well, not everybody, but we did. He would come down the street and he would buy & sell the bottles and the rags and whatever was there to be salvaged."
She still proudly recalls one day when the junkman arrived in the neighborhood, "In the mean time my mother had been out there and had already salvaged the things that we as children could wear or use. I remember that one of the nicest dresses that I ever had was one that my mother picked up out of the rag bin. She brushed it and shook it and fixed it all up and I just thought I was a princess wearing that little dress".
One might assume that with her father in the garbage business Edith might have been encouraged to play an active role in the family business. However, these were different times and there were traditional roles to be played. She told me about several early memories concerning her father and the family business. " My first introduction to the business was when they would bring the horse and the wagon home at the end of the day and the horses had to be tended to before any thing else. They were curried and fed and brushed. They were taken care of before anybody or any other chore in the house."
I could sense the excitement when Edith told me about accompanying her father on the route. "I remember one of my first rides that I had on the so-called (if you want to call it that) at the time one of the "scavenger" trucks. My father had one of the first ones that were motor driven, solid tire and open cab. I got a ride down to what is now the Overlook Park in the Overlook District and it was just a big, big hole at that time. All of the trucks went there and dumped, plain dumped their garbage and started to fill that hole, which is now one of the beautiful sites going down to swan island."
Even with the advent of trucks to haul garbage, the daily routine was a little different from the conveniences that we are accustomed to today. She vividly remembers, "I know that we had one of the very first cars that anybody had in the area and they also had one of the first trucks that were gas I guess it was gasoline at that time. The gasman would come on Monday mornings with two five-gallon cans of gasoline and he would fill the car and the trucks with gasoline. At that time there weren't service stations and all the things that we know about now."
Edith clarified that when she did get to go with her father it was just for a ride and little girls were shielded from the men's world of work. However, with an eye for detail she still recalls that: "Well then the first trucks came in. And they were Federal - I think a Federal was the very first truck that we had. It was an open cab and an open box. Solid tires. Then the box - you would wind that all up by hand. I remember that distinctly down there at Swan Island or as they call it Overlook Park."
She shared a few more memories about a few of her other career experiences. When she married William G. Spady, they moved to a house on 24th and Klickitat. She would take the streetcar to work everyday. Edith also reminded me that in the Portland area, there was at one time, a well-established network of streetcars for public transportation. When I asked her why they removed the streetcars, she went on to emphasize, "I don’t know why they did that. That was the biggest mistake they could ever have made when they took those away. I would say the reason was politics because they wanted to encourage the use of gasoline & gas engines and you know, that type of thing - but that, (the streetcar system), was by far the best because he (the conductor) would just 'ding, ding, dang, you know.' "
Edith explained how some of her early work experience helped influence her approach to operating a business in a field that was completely dominated by men. "I was at Troy Laundry. I was doing comptometer work. And I tell you one thing I know, and I wish I knew the dates, but the comptometer was kind of the forerunner of - well the computers are no comparison now - but at that time it was and I was trained in the Bedeau System of payroll."
She clarified for me exactly what this Bedeau system of payroll was. "Bedeau was a Frenchman and he had worked up the system of payroll that was very fair, very honest. There was an effort factor for the job. There was a speed factor - some people - like you do everything ten times faster than I do - well you should be compensated for that.... And accuracy was also one of the things that went into it. And there was a penalty for default. It was a very, very forerunner of accurate labor relations."
Edith also went on to verify that "the Ford Motor Company was the only company that Bedeau could never show a big saving". This was, "because they had already perfected their business to where the Bedeau system couldn’t begin to show them a big saving." She also exposed a piece of political history involving the labor unions. "At the time - this is way back when I was in my twenties - the Prince of Wales was going to come to America to visit and he was going to bring Mr. Bedeau with him as one of his Aides. And our Unions would not let Bedeau into our country. And so, the Prince of Wales did not come. Our Unions wouldn’t let him in."
When I asked her why the unions did not want him to come to the U.S. she concisely clarified for me that it was because, "he had perfected the payroll in such a way that the 'sliders' couldn’t get by with anything."
One of the things that she incorporated into the garbage business from the Bedeau system was the effort factor. She had observed that the men would exert a lot of effort and energy repeatedly climbing into and out of the cab of the garbage truck all day long.
So, on a trip through southern California she visited Ray Gaskins, who was assembling her brand-new garbage truck for the company. She described her influence on that truck's modification and design. "And when I got there, they had sitting there the walk-in cab. And here I had gone to an International chassis and the body was a Pak-More. And they were going to mount that Pak-More body on that International chassis. And it was a cab-over. And, when I got there they already had a right hand drive on another vehicle and I said to Ray Gaskins, What do you have to do to convert my truck into this?" He said, “You have to have air brakes and an automatic transmission." And I said, “Well, I’ve got both of them. Because that truck...your Dad had ordered before he died. And they had delivered it after your Dad was gone. And I said, 'Well, How much will it cost?' And I don’t remember whether he said $1,400 or did he say $14,000. And I said, 'Go ahead and do it!' "
And, then Edith acknowledged the thoughts running through her head at the time, "I guess I’m allowed to make a mistake. If my drivers have a wreck, it will cost me that much money for a wreck...you know if they total something. And, so by the time I came back, he had converted it to a right-hand-drive."
During our conversation, Edith's daughter, Patricia confirmed. "So that meant you could either climb up into the cab on the left and drive the truck or you could step up straight up from the street one step and drive it on the right hand side of the vehicle like they do in England?"
And Edith answered "yes."
Edith went on to clarify that this was the first right-hand-drive garbage truck in the state of Oregon. And went to point out that " And do you know, to this day I was never handed a compliment. They went to the dump - everybody saw it and looked at it but do you think there was ever a compliment? Or they said where did that dumb lady get that idea? Another one of her screwy ideas? 'Nothing.' Nobody. Ever. Ever. Ever."
Edith also incorporated the Cushman scooters into her business because this enabled the workers to service hard-to-access areas and to cut down on manual labor lifting heavy cans. " Ambrose had the West side - the heights - all of that district and until you packed those cans in and out - you know you were exhausted and so that’s where the Cushman Scooter came from. And he’s the one that introduced me to the Cushman Scooters."
These are just a few of the stories about the life of an eighty three-year-old woman. Edith is the daughter of a garbage-hauler, married a garbage-hauler and when her husband, William, passed on, went on to run the family garbage business. She has since passed the reins of the family business to her daughter, Patricia.
My interviews with Edith D. Spady proved to be educational and illuminating. They provided an opportunity to look closer into the life and history of a friend who has witnessed many changes in the world throughout her lifetime. I have captured a few of these memories and experiences on tape and on paper. As the clock struck nine on an April evening in the new millennium, Edith softly shared with me, " That clock. Grandma Weber in Canada said that clock was in the Russian Japanese war. When Russia and Japan had a war - that’s a long, long time ago."
Sources
"The Life Story of Edith D. Spady" by Michael Mitchell. Works consulted:
- American Historical Society of Germans from Russia Homepage. http://www.germans-russia-pdx.com/ date accessed 4/15/2000
- Battaile, Connie Hopkins. The Oregon Book Information A to Z. Saddle Mountain Press. Newport, Oregon First Edition 1998
- Gould, Charles F. Portland's Germans. Northwest Magazine, Sunday, Nov. 24,1974.
- Klooster, Karl. "Notes and Anecdotes" Round the Roses. (The Oregonian)
- Klooster, Karl. "Little Russia a Lost Community" Round the Roses. (The Oregonian)
- Krieger, Marie. The Portland Community of Russian Germans.
- Journal of the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. Vol. 10, No.3, Fall 1987
- Mankiller, Wilma, et al. The Readers Companion to U.S. Women's History. Boston, New York. Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998
- Oregon Journal, Monday, January 31, 1977, page 13
- Scheuerman, Richard D and Trafzer, Clifford E. The Volga Germans. Boise: The University Press of Idaho, (no date).
- Schwabauer, Wanda June. The Portland Community of Germans from Russia. Portland State University, May 1974.
- Schwartz, Eleanor Brantley. The Sex Barrier in Business. Atlanta, Georgia: Georgia State University Publishing Services Division , School of Business Administration, 1971.
- Schwantes, Carlos A. The Pacific Northwest, Lincoln, Omaha: The University of Nebraska Press, 1989.
- Spady, Edith D. Personal interview. 4/15/2000.
- Sullivan, Julie. "Portland's Germans-from-Russia celebrate history." The Oregonian, Saturday, April 8, 2000.
Last updated June 13, 2022