Marie Trupp Krieger - A Short Biography
I, the former Marie Trupp, was the 10th child born to Henry Jr. and Maria Dorothea (Libsack) Trupp on November 29, 1910 on a wheat farm located 16 ½ miles southwest of Odessa in the northwest corner of Adams County, WA. I lived there the first fourteen years' of my life where the Emaus Congregational church provided my religious training leading up to and including confirmation. By then I had completed the required eight grades of formal schooling at the Schafer School, District #73, a one-room school house and I was enrolled at the Odessa High School from which a diploma was issued in 1929. Lack of bus service compelled many country lads and lassies to seek domiciles in town.
For four years I resided in the home of Sam and Grace Williams and worked for my room and board. Mr. Williams owned a plumbing shop while his wife retailed Ladies' Clothing and needlework at a shop attached to the family residence on Odessa's main street. Encouragement by my 8th grade teacher, Jennie Jantz, had persuaded me to enter high school while Mrs. Williams' inspiration paved the way for college at WSU from which I graduated in 1934, a BA degree in Foreign Languages. I earned my room and board performing chores in college professors' houses in Pullman.
A variety of summer-time jobs provided the necessary funds for school supplies; tuition, transportation, clothing and miscellaneous items. Summer employment included farm tasks - milking cows, hoeing Russian thistles, cleaning chicken coops, cooking - I sewed my own clothes, executed the intricacies of embroidery and crocheting for pay, especially during my high school years of study, a golden opportunity to add to my savings for college. Anticipating higher expenses after high school graduation, I drove two horses hitched to a header box for my father one summer; the following summer, I drove 16 head of horses and mules pulling a two-man combine, punched the header, assisted in greasing the machine and harnessing of the horses, milked a cow twice a day and cooked three meals for my brother and me. The wages - $1.00 per day. How fortunate I was that good health appeared to be my greatest asset!
For four years I resided in the home of Sam and Grace Williams and worked for my room and board. Mr. Williams owned a plumbing shop while his wife retailed Ladies' Clothing and needlework at a shop attached to the family residence on Odessa's main street. Encouragement by my 8th grade teacher, Jennie Jantz, had persuaded me to enter high school while Mrs. Williams' inspiration paved the way for college at WSU from which I graduated in 1934, a BA degree in Foreign Languages. I earned my room and board performing chores in college professors' houses in Pullman.
A variety of summer-time jobs provided the necessary funds for school supplies; tuition, transportation, clothing and miscellaneous items. Summer employment included farm tasks - milking cows, hoeing Russian thistles, cleaning chicken coops, cooking - I sewed my own clothes, executed the intricacies of embroidery and crocheting for pay, especially during my high school years of study, a golden opportunity to add to my savings for college. Anticipating higher expenses after high school graduation, I drove two horses hitched to a header box for my father one summer; the following summer, I drove 16 head of horses and mules pulling a two-man combine, punched the header, assisted in greasing the machine and harnessing of the horses, milked a cow twice a day and cooked three meals for my brother and me. The wages - $1.00 per day. How fortunate I was that good health appeared to be my greatest asset!
Marie working on the combine in Eastern Washington. Courtesy of Marie Trupp Krieger.
The beginning of the "Great Depression" in the fall of 1929 decreased the attendance at WSU as well as teaching positions to the point that by 1935 an inexperienced candidate for the teaching field pursued other lines of work. I had neglected the study of office skills such as typing, bookkeeping and shorthand in high school or college which proved to be a definite handicap. Neither my experience as a life guard at the Odessa swimming pool during two seasons nor a summer's firsthand knowledge of housekeeping equipped me adequately in acquiring a position of some kind. To fulfill the requirements for a teaching certificate after receiving my degree, I sought a maid's job for one semester in order to earn enough income to sustain me for a half semester of school studies; the other half gave me time to fulfill a required assignment as a cadet teacher at John Roger's High School in Spokane. After paying my room rent, I was able to purchase a nutritious bowl of soup for 15 cents in the school cafeteria per day. I believe two crackers were included, a nine-week daily nourishment.
In the fall of 1935, my parents, forced to seek other means of livelihood because of crop failures, sold their farming equipment and moved to Beaverton, OR, a suburb of Portland. They rented a walnut orchard for a year but soon decided that my father should follow the trade he learned as an apprentice in Russia, shoe repairing. I had come with my parents and four siblings, took a maid's job in a private home; my income? - $20 per month plus room and board. I found a dentist's office on Union Avenue and made arrangements with him to repair my teeth at a cost of $40.00.
In the summer of 1936, after an appendicitis attack and the removal of my appendix, I signed a contract for $996.00 to become a teacher of German and English at Endicott, WA that fall. I spent three school years there and two summer sessions at WSU. I took a position as an English and Spanish instructor at Tonasket where my extracurricular activities included the supervising of the library and directing the senior plays. I resigned at the end of the school year in 1941 to be married in Portland.
I had met my future husband, Walter C. Krieger in the spring of 1936; we purchased a house in 1940 where we were married on Oct. 25th, 1941. This has been our home for the last 48 years. About a month after our wedding day, Pearl Harbor was attacked. My husband served in the European theatre from August 1943 until December 1945. During that time I worked in a plywood factory before reentering the teaching field at Roosevelt High in North Portland near my home. Upon Walter’s return to the States, we purchased a Refuse Hauling business, a new truck and I became the Secretary and Treasurer unofficially until 1970 when we incorporated the business and served in that capacity until our retirement in 1982. We hired college boys to assist us during the 36 years of work.
Besides our hobby, sport salmon fishing the year around within a radius of 20 miles from our house in the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, we count ourselves among members of Northwest Steelheaders, Ass., 440 Troop Carrier Group, Odessa Historical Society, Odessa H.S. Alumni Ass., WSU Alumni Ass., Rivercrest Community Congregational Church, a merger of Brethren and Zion Congregational Churches of Russian-German heritage and The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia based in Lincoln, NE; I have been very active in our local Oregon chapter.
One recalls the old German proverb: "Every beginning has an end" - we have left the "Golden Years" - behind us now that old age and poor health have curtailed all activities, salmon fishing included.
In the fall of 1935, my parents, forced to seek other means of livelihood because of crop failures, sold their farming equipment and moved to Beaverton, OR, a suburb of Portland. They rented a walnut orchard for a year but soon decided that my father should follow the trade he learned as an apprentice in Russia, shoe repairing. I had come with my parents and four siblings, took a maid's job in a private home; my income? - $20 per month plus room and board. I found a dentist's office on Union Avenue and made arrangements with him to repair my teeth at a cost of $40.00.
In the summer of 1936, after an appendicitis attack and the removal of my appendix, I signed a contract for $996.00 to become a teacher of German and English at Endicott, WA that fall. I spent three school years there and two summer sessions at WSU. I took a position as an English and Spanish instructor at Tonasket where my extracurricular activities included the supervising of the library and directing the senior plays. I resigned at the end of the school year in 1941 to be married in Portland.
I had met my future husband, Walter C. Krieger in the spring of 1936; we purchased a house in 1940 where we were married on Oct. 25th, 1941. This has been our home for the last 48 years. About a month after our wedding day, Pearl Harbor was attacked. My husband served in the European theatre from August 1943 until December 1945. During that time I worked in a plywood factory before reentering the teaching field at Roosevelt High in North Portland near my home. Upon Walter’s return to the States, we purchased a Refuse Hauling business, a new truck and I became the Secretary and Treasurer unofficially until 1970 when we incorporated the business and served in that capacity until our retirement in 1982. We hired college boys to assist us during the 36 years of work.
Besides our hobby, sport salmon fishing the year around within a radius of 20 miles from our house in the Willamette and Columbia Rivers, we count ourselves among members of Northwest Steelheaders, Ass., 440 Troop Carrier Group, Odessa Historical Society, Odessa H.S. Alumni Ass., WSU Alumni Ass., Rivercrest Community Congregational Church, a merger of Brethren and Zion Congregational Churches of Russian-German heritage and The American Historical Society of Germans from Russia based in Lincoln, NE; I have been very active in our local Oregon chapter.
One recalls the old German proverb: "Every beginning has an end" - we have left the "Golden Years" - behind us now that old age and poor health have curtailed all activities, salmon fishing included.
Source
Story written by Marie Trupp Krieger and used with her permission.