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North Western Journeys: Spokane Pioneers and Scablands Settlers
A century-old family saga of westward migration unfolds through letters, diaries, and photographs revealing triumphs and hardships.
This family saga of westward migration is told through the voices of people who lived 100 years ago by means of letters, diaries, oral history and photographs. It includes a memoir of the author's improbable discoveries as he found the stories of the grandfather he never knew.
The Lawtons' first ancestor arrived in Massachusetts in 1635. Its succeeding generations followed forest cutting to the west, across the northern states, until one branch of the family arrived in frontier Spokane in 1890. Will and Irene Lawton followed a string of settlers from Wisconsin, where the pine forests were playing out after a quarter century of logging.
They established homes and businesses in Spokane, then left in 1906 and settled a few miles west in the scablands of the Columbia Plateau, where they bought land, took up a homestead, and commenced farming and storekeeping. The dream worked until misfortune and flawed assumptions eventually led to the loss of all they had built.
The family had been multi-generational and closely knit. But by 1920 the family had scattered because of untimely deaths and the collapse of homesteading. As a fatherless boy, Walter Lawton, Will's son, spent years in Idaho's mountains herding sheep to get by.
This family saga of westward migration is told through the voices of people who lived 100 years ago by means of letters, diaries, oral history and photographs. It includes a memoir of the author's improbable discoveries as he found the stories of the grandfather he never knew.
The Lawtons' first ancestor arrived in Massachusetts in 1635. Its succeeding generations followed forest cutting to the west, across the northern states, until one branch of the family arrived in frontier Spokane in 1890. Will and Irene Lawton followed a string of settlers from Wisconsin, where the pine forests were playing out after a quarter century of logging.
They established homes and businesses in Spokane, then left in 1906 and settled a few miles west in the scablands of the Columbia Plateau, where they bought land, took up a homestead, and commenced farming and storekeeping. The dream worked until misfortune and flawed assumptions eventually led to the loss of all they had built.
The family had been multi-generational and closely knit. But by 1920 the family had scattered because of untimely deaths and the collapse of homesteading. As a fatherless boy, Walter Lawton, Will's son, spent years in Idaho's mountains herding sheep to get by.
Book Details
- Publisher: America Through Time
- Publish Date: Jan 30th, 2017
- Pages: 128
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.40in - 6.80in - 0.40in - 0.75lb
- EAN: 9781634990158
- Categories: • United States - State & Local - Pacific Northwest (OR, WA)• Pictorials (see also Photography - Subjects & Themes - Regio• Subjects & Themes - Historical
About the Author
JOHN LAWTON grew up in Yakima, Washington. He holds degrees from The George Washington University in Washington, D.C. and Washington State University in Pullman. He spent his career in city finance and management with positions as City Manager of Great Falls, Montana, and Assistant Administrator in Billings. He was appointed by two governors to consecutive terms on the Montana Heritage Preservation Commission. He won an international award for professional work in done in Central Asia, traveling extensively there.
Praise for this book
...in 1995, [Lawton] happened upon some letters written from Will to his wife, Irene. Will was a commercial painter and had traveled from the family homestead in Fishtrap to work on the Mallory Hotel in Portland. And those letters launched a 20-year journey in which he not only discovered his family heritage, but also uncovered priceless pieces of local history. The result is North Western Journeys: Spokane Pioneers and Scabland Settlers (Arcadia Publishing, 2017). The Spokesman-Review
'How well do we know our family history? The answer varies as some of us have meticulously documented genealogies, including stories about how our forebears lived, worked, migrated across oceans and continents, while others have only limited knowledge about those who preceded them. One of the problems faced by those who delve into family history beyond establishing their family trees is bringing their ancestors to life. John W. Lawton, a graduate of Davis High School, does an excellent job of skillfully weaving facts gleaned from diaries, letters, newspaper articles, personal interviews and a wonderful collection of photographs into a fascinating story about his family. Yakima Herald