Love- The Odessa Record; "By Your Relative"

The last time The Record ran this column was November 1, 2012. This week the column continues with more about the Finks.

In 1991, an article written by Linda Gustafson, published in The Odessa Record (TOR), mentioned the following:

(1) That Reuben went to the Frederick school southwest of Odessa which was east three and a half miles from the Fink farm. That he, Reuben, walked or rode a horse to school because there wasn't any school bus service. Alvin Fink told me that during the time his father attended the Frederick school, it was usually during the winter months, not the spring or fall. The spring/fall periods were when the field work was first on the priority list and school was second. This was quite common for the sons on the farms in the early days. Reuben never graduated from school. His children did.

(2) The ground farmed was all dry land until the late 1950s and early 1960s, when they drilled wells.

(3) When recalling the toughest years the Finks had, they said 1930 was one of the worst. There wasn't any crop so they had to cut the crop with the header and then dumped it into piles. Reuben shoveled it into the harvester to get enough seed to plant for the following years crop.

(4) When the farming wasn't good, Reuben took a job repairing harvesters and running tractors in the Walla Walla area. In 1937, the ground produced seven bushels to the acre and the price was only 27 cents.

In Reuben's obituary, it mentioned that he and Elizabeth retired from farming in 1955; that they built a home in Odessa and movied into it; that Reuben continued to help his children in the farming operations which the children has assumed. Reuben died in 1996, Elizabeth in 2001. At the time of Reuben's death he and Elizabeth had been married 66 years.

As i collect information from many sources, I have learned that as time passes by, a person's memory sometimes remembers things differently than others remember it. A prime example follows.

In 1929, an article in TOR about Con Fink read, "Con Fink, a tractor farmer, reports that he plowed 400 acres in five days last week, an everage of 80 acres a day. Mr. Fink bought his first tractor last year and another this spring. His two boys, Reuben and Sam, ran them for him and he tells The Record editor that the cost of running a tractor and a big horse team is practically the same, but the tractor doesn't eat or need anything in the shape of care when it is not working."

Now, during one of my visits with Alvin Fink, he read the above and told me he doubts if his grandfather Conrad ever used a tractor, that he was a horse farmer. It was his father Reuben who was the first Fink using a tractor on the farm. Alvin was told that in Conrad's time, Conrad eventually was farming 3,000 +/- acres using 100 plus horses. In his early years of growing up, Alvin remembers a large corral that had horses in it until the 1930s when the change to tractors occurred. Alvin remembers when his father Reuben purchased his first tractor in 1937, a RD6. Alvin's father drove the tractor from Ritzville to Odessa and then out to the farm. Many people said the tractor would never make it, but it did make it to everyone's surprise.

Another issue that has become confusing is about the school building on the present Steve Fink farm on Fink road between Batum and Kagele roads.

The school, 2009

After talking with Don Schibel, Alvin Fink, Marvin Fink, Leroy Kuest, Calvin Graedel, Jr. and Melvin Kissler about the structure, there appears to be a good chance it is either the Wacker school or the Graedel school.

The Lincoln Co. 1911 map indicates the Graedel school in TS21N, R31E, Sec. 33., three and a half miles west of the George Schibel land in TS 21N, R31E, Sec. 36 which today is the Jeff Schibel land with the farm buildings located on the west side of Kagele road just south of the Clark Kagele farm buildings.

(Note: The 1-03-1956 issue of The Odessa Record provided information about the "Fourth Generation on the Fink Ranch." In it was stated "Originally the John Smith place, it was bought by Conrad Fink in 1907. Conrad farmed the place from 1903 to 1939. The farm was bought by Reuben in 1939. Conrad relocated to Odessa. During recent years the farm place has been improved with Quonset building, grain elevator and other buildings as the need required.")

(Note: Leroy Kuest calls the Frederick school, the Prairie Hope school. The 1911 Lincoln Co. plat map shows the school on Ludwig Kuest land, TS 2IN, R 32E, Sec. 27 which today (2010) is Schafer land south of Schafer road in the L-B-D.)

Until next time.

Your Relative,

Spokane