06/12/2025
This past winter I stumbled upon a "Hanson Family Cookbook" full of wonderful Scandinavian recipes and a beautiful narrative by Martha Hanson's grand-daughter, Gale Curtis Derrah on her memories of those years surrounding WWII.
HANSON FAMILY HISTORY
I wish I’d known my grandfather, Jens Hanson. (He was so handsome.) H died a year before I was born: March 15, 1938. I loved and admired my grandmother, Martha Hanson. When she visited us, she always pitched in and cooked, hayed, gardened, canned, knitted, darned (this was something you did when socks got holes in them; a lost art! Oh darn!) butchered, and baby sat.
When she was a young girl in Norway, she and a sister would take the cows and goats to the mountain pasture for the summer. Their other responsibilities were to make cheese and knit socks.
Jens Hanson immigrated to America in 1908 from Rosendahl, Norway (Hardinger Fjord). He first stayed with relatives in Kalama, Washington; with Martin and Christina Skaala. He soon moved to Knappton, Washington, where he worked at the Quarantine Station for ships coming into the Columbia River, on their way to Portland, Oregon.
Grandma Hanson, (Martha Vee) was born in Etna, Norway but lived in Rosendahl. My mother, Bessie Hanson Curtis, says Martha (Grandma Hanson) knew Jens (Grandpa Hanson) before they met again in America.
Grandma Hanson came to her sisters, Christina, in Kalama, Washington, when she arrived in America. She entered the U.S. at Ellis Island. Grandma worked as a “domestic” in Portland for a year before marrying Jens Hanson. Grandma Hanson was 23 years old and Grandpa Hanson was 31 years old when they married. Jens had filed for a homestead in Knappa, Oregon. (My question was, “Why Knappa?”) The three sisters, Martha, Brita and Janetta all had adjoining homesteads. Actually, my Uncle Carl Johnson (widowed) had the first homestead and his parents and daughter Ida, lived there as well.
Grandma and Grandpa Hanson lived with Uncle Carl, and the family until their house was built. My mother, Bessie Hanson Curtis, was born in the Johnson home, as was Aunt Louise. My mother remembers walking from Uncle Carl Johnson’s home (she was about three years old) to get the men who were building their home, to come for lunch and dinner. They moved into the home when mother was about three years old.
What I remember about Uncle Carl Johnson’s home was the magnificent wicker furniture in his living room and an old radio-phonograph.
I loved Grandma Hanson’s home, especially the upstairs. (You must remember my first impressions are probably when I was about 3 years old.) The upstairs had this gigantic room that looked like a ‘dance hall’. The floor was wood and very smooth. They say that this room was where Grandpa Handson “made net”. I remember it is where Grandma stored the Christmas decorations in an old dresser drawer from a dresser that I now see in my mother’s closet.
The next best room upstairs was this HUGE bedroom with dormer windows, that looked towards the road. There were window seats under these windows. Aunt Elsie and Aunt Billie had the room at the top of the stairs and they never let Glenda (twin sister) and I in, because we might get into their stuff. They would giggle a lot, behind the closed door. Uncle Harold must have been home by this time, but I remember Uncle Buster’s room because Grandma said, “Uff Da” a lot about this messy room.
I remember sitting on the wood box behind the kitchen stove – very cozy. I didn’t like using the bathroom at Grandma Hansons’s because it was off the back porch, cold and kinda lonely! Aunt Mary says they didn’t get a bathroom until she was ten years old (1927). They built a back porch that went to the woodshed. Bathroom was off the porch. During the summer, when a lot of water was needed, they couldn’t use the flush toilet because the well would run dry. It’s a good thing they didn’t tear down the outhouse.
I remember Aunt Billie and Aunt Elsie ironing with ‘flat-irons’, getting ready for dates. Grandma washed on Monday, ironed on Tuesday. I thing she’s have loved the permanent-pressed fabrics that you whip out of the dryer and onto a hanger.
Grandpa and Grandma Hanson’s children are:
Bessie (Curtis) born 1910
Louise born 1912, died 1935
Gudrun (Goody) born 1914, died 1967 Her nickname was Peter because everyone thought Grandpa wanted a boy. That’s probably why she called me “Petey”. My dad probably wanted a boy, too.
Mary, born in 1917
Harold born in 1919
Lillian born 1921 (nicknamed “Billie”)
Arther, born in 1926, (nicknamed “Buster”)
You can see with eight children; birthdays would come around might often. That’s probably why “no fuss” was made when someone had a birthday.
I wanted to know if they made a “fuss” over Christmas. It sounds like they did. The tree was decorated behind closed doors in the dining room/living room. When they were allowed in on Christmas Eve, the tree was a surprise. They danced around it. Aunt Mary and Mother remember getting really special surprises, such as candy, nuts, oranges, dolls, rings and nice things from the catalog. Grandpa Hanson made tables, cradles and other things.
Before school started every year, the kids were taken to the dentist and each one got a new pair of shoes. Grandma Hanson sewed dresses for the girls.
When my mother started the first grade, she spoke Norwegian, wore wool dresses with “fairy aprons” and carried a large man’s hanky because she had nosebleeds. I guess that was something I inherited, along with migraine headaches, her “sneezing fits” and yes, I have shaky hands!
Aunt Mary (Lyons) told me a cute story about how she got a beautiful doll that said, “Mama” from her friend Mary Alice Foster’s mother. Mary Alice and Aunt Mary had made pets of two of the Foster’s ducks. Mrs. Foster had a hard job convincing the two girls that the time had come for the ducks to be a festive entrée. Two beautiful dolls arrived for the girls as the ducks appeared on the table!
Aunt Mary was very happy with her doll and Uncle Harold was very curious about the voice mechanism. After Uncle Harold took her doll apart, it never said “Mama” again.
Grandma Hanson belonged to the Ladies Aid Society of Knappa. She and Grandpa played cards socially, especially a game called “500”. The attended school functions and things at the Knappa Grange. I remember the Fall Dinner and Bazaar at the Knappa Grange. Grandpa was also a school board member at one time.
Grandpa’s boat house used to be near the barn, which was across the road from the house. The boathouse moved to the other side of what is now the road on the Ziak side of the slough.
There was a swimming hole in the slough which was a favorite place to gather in the summer with friends, family and relatives. One time, Aunt Goody wanted to go swimming, but it was also her job to care for (her younger brother) Buster, that day. Being a creative gal, she sewed Buster a swim suit and took him along to the swimming hole. When they arrived at the swimming hole, Buster promptly removed his new suit and went swimming. Goody was very embarrassed.
Mother says that Grandpa was a very good-natured, easy-going man except for the time she messed with his new gasoline engine that rand the saw to cut firewood. She put a wooden stick in the place that you put water and broke it off! She got a spanking… Speaking of wood cutting, that’s what activity always was on Labor Day. My ideas of Labor Day is “No Labor”!
On the 4th of July, the milk truck delivered ice-cream, which was a great treat. In the summer, during the Tongue Point fishing season, two kids at a time would go to the float house kept at Tongue Point. They would go for a week to help their dad. This was a great summer adventure.
Grandma and the rest of the kids tended to the chores of gardening, milking, canning and taking care of the house. Haying was also done in the summer.
My mother (Bessie Hanson – Curtis) graduated from high school in 1928. She still remembers the beautiful coat and two dresses that her parents bought her. One was for Baccalaureate and the other for graduation. She said her sisters and brothers probably had it a bit “tougher” because of the” Crash” of 1929. Grandpa borrowed money to send Aunt Louise to Beauty School. My mother apprenticed with Louise and learned the beauty business.
Aunt Mary went to beauty school as well, graduated and joined Bessie in the in the beauty business. They had a beauty shop alone at first, then joined “Odney’s Beauty Shop. Aunt Goody worked for Rebe’s Confections.
My mother married Glen Curtis in 1933. Goody Married Hans Pasma in 1937. Uncle Harold fished during the summer runs. He went to San Diego and attended Aviation School. After school, he took a job at the Chico Airbase. While there, he met Audrey. I thought she was very pretty and she called a davenport a “Chesterfield”.
Aunt Billie was a good friend of Beverly LaBeck. That’s how she met uncle Darryl. Aunt Elsie started dating Lyle Pedersen when he was on leave from the Navy. He was such a handsome sailor.
Uncle Buster (Arthur) was about twelve when Grandpa Jens died. Grandma stayed four or five years on the Knappa homestead after Grandpa died. Then she moved to Astoria and bought a cute, small white house on Franklin Street. Buster finished high school at Astoria High School, then went into the Navy.
I remember when he lived with us, on our dairy farm and worked in the Knappa area. He dated this one lady who lived (I think) down on the Ivy Road and she would call our house wondering why he was late. Mom would get a bit annoyed with him, because he’d be asleep in the bathtub.
Grandma Hanson worked for Bumble Bee Cannery (C.R.P.A. at that time) for ten or eleven years. Grandma Hanson went to Norway in 1965. It was her first return to her homeland since she left in 1909. She wore a green coat and hat on her trip. I have her green hat in my “hat collection”.
My nephew, Ted Jens Curtis and his wife Heidi, have a son, Tyler Jens Curtis, born on Grandpa Jens Hanson’s birthday, March 27. I’m very proud of my heritage and hope that the story of our family will be of interest to you; perhaps a bit amusing and somewhat informational and inspirational.
Each of you can add the next “chapters” to your life story. Do have a wonderful adventure.
Always,
Gayle Janet Curtis Derrah.
(Editors Note: The Hanson family had their home on the hillside of Fertile Valley south of the intersection of what is now Ziak-Gnat Creek Road and Carl Johnson Lane (formerly Hanson Lane).
The property now has a large pond later created by ‘Kewpie’ Ziak. The land is now owned by a private conservancy trust. The house was later the home of Jimmy Morrel (sp?) and then Kewpie Ziak. The home fell into abandon, and was torn down. The barn (now a wide spot, across the lane, was lost in a fire around the same decade. Approximately 1939 the road was built across the valley and continued on to Brownsmead. A tide gate was installed at the small bridge and the channel was changed, prohibiting boat traffic. The Hanson’s gillnet float-house and dock were moved from below the barn and were moored in the pondlike area below the (Ziak Gnat Creek/Carl Johnson Lane) intersection on the north side of the road. Carl Johnson was a fishing partner with his brother-in-law, Jens Hanson, had his float here too. Carl retired from fishing a few years after Jens passing. Both men helped build the “swinging bridge” that school children used to walk to school on Knappa Plat (Lower Knappa School), just above Knappa Docks. End of note.)
