Front Piece

September 2001 I chose this picture of Flora and Jane McBeath for the Frontispiece because it helps tell a story. You will see the picture again, and yet again in this book. That is because it is a rare picture of these women so young and beautiful and because, taken with the letter Jane wrote her sister Flora in 1889, we can document the plan that finally brought Jane (McBeath) Watkins with Edwin, her husband, and their four children to Oregon. I feel sure that there were many stories like it during those days of mass immigration if only we could find them. Alas, the stories are lost in the mists of history. Take, for instance, the picture of Marie Vibert and her cousin made at about the same time. There is certainly a like tale there if we could but find the letter to go with it.

For the picture of Flora and Jane we do have the letter. You’ll find it in the chapter Two Strong Women. There you can clearly see how the seed was planted in1889 and how it fruited 17 years later in 1906 when Jane’s family arrived in Portland, Oregon. It was a trip partly financed with money sent by her sister, Flora (McBeath) Linklater, and her building contractor husband.