Category Archives: Memoirs

Memoirs written by residents

Hunt Club Childhood of Mike Norris, M.D.

Posted on November 20, 2019 by

For children growing up in the Hunt Club area in the 1940s and ‘50s, it often felt like a park. Mike and his friends could be found sneaking through the gate into the Frank farm, shooting pheasants in Gertsch’s pond, … Continue reading →

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Barbara Kiggins Green memoir

Posted on October 8, 2019 by

By Barbara (Kiggins) Green, 2019 (age 87) I was born in 1931 and we moved to Garden Home around 1934 or 1935. We lived in a small two room house with an outside toilet located down a dirt road which … Continue reading →

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The Garden Home Totem Pole, by Andrew Gorman

Posted on August 18, 2019 by

[Editor: Many of you who have lived in Garden Home since the 1990s will remember the surprising totem pole standing in the shrubs at the NW corner of SW 82nd and Garden Home Road. Unfortunately it gradually deteriorated in our … Continue reading →

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Glenn and Isolda Rooper Steele

Posted on August 18, 2019 by

Glenn (1895-1989) and Isolda Rooper Steele (1896-1986) In 1937, Glenn and Isolda Steele relocated to Garden Home from Antelope, Oregon. Isolda worked at the Garden Home School preparing lunches for the children and staff in the late 1930s, 1940s and … Continue reading →

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Ward Nelson – Garden Home memoir

Posted on September 12, 2018 by

We moved to 7814 SW Occidental Avenue as it was called in those days, in 1947. Today it is 7170 SW 76th. My parents were Helene and Ward Nelson. We moved from Ardenwald, near Milwaukie, where my grandmother lived. Our … Continue reading →

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Patty Bonney and son Ken Woodard

Posted on July 20, 2018 by

By Elaine Shreve, July 10, 2018 Patty Bonney brought her three children to Garden Home in 1960 when she married Bill Bonney. Patty, Ken, Keith and Carolyn all joined Bill in his home on two acres on SW Oleson Road … Continue reading →

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Letha (Kidd) Lane and daughter Jacki (Lane) Wisher

Posted on June 20, 2018 by

Letha Kidd Lane and her daughter, Jacki Lane Wisher, enjoyed remembering their early Garden Home days from the 1960s up until recent times. Shetland ponies, Alpenrose 4th of July pageants, Rusty Nails, Frank Estate (also known as the Frank Farms), … Continue reading →

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May 18, 2018 Reception Honoring Virginia “Ginny” Mapes

Posted on May 1, 2018 by

Thank you to everyone who attended our meeting of the Washington County History Societies Roundtable, and following reception honoring Ginny Mapes on May 18, 2018 at the Garden Home Recreation Center.   [Editor: Virginia “Ginny” Mapes authored the first book … Continue reading →

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Bruce Koester

Posted on February 22, 2018 by

Bruce Koester was born in 1946, married Sandy in 1973 and has three children: Beth, Glen and Carl. Bruce has lived in his grandmother’s home near 62nd and Garden Home Road all of his life. The home was built in … Continue reading →

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Robert Gertsch

Posted on February 22, 2018 by

Robert Gertsch was born in 1946. His grandfather and two brothers had settled in Garden Home in the 1890s and developed the early Shattuck Dairy. Robert started Garden Home School in the fourth grade in 1960 and graduated from Beaverton … Continue reading →

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Nancy Donner

Posted on January 24, 2018 by

Nancy and William (Bill) Donner moved to the Garden Home area in 1967 when Bill was transferred with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers from Walla Walla, Washington. Their large home at SW 62nd and SW Garden Home Road accommodated … Continue reading →

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Mary Helen Himes Koeber

Posted on December 19, 2017 by

Mary Helen Himes Koeber (1913-2017) [Update: Mary Helen passed away on May 7, 2017. She was a beautician and opened the first beauty shop in Beaverton. She attended Garden Home and Hillsboro grade schools, graduating from Lincoln High School in … Continue reading →

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Fanno family biography

Posted on October 7, 2017 by

Fanno is an important name here in our southwest Portland community. The Fanno Creek Trail follows the historic Oregon Electric Railroad track bed that crosses Fanno Creek. The trail then connects to the Tualatin Hills Park and Recreation District’s (THPRD) … Continue reading →

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T. E. Hills (U.S. Civil War veteran)

Posted on May 14, 2017 by

The name of Mr. T.E. Hills comes up in various accounts of early Garden Home. He lived in the older two-story blue house (Dickson home) on Oleson Road at Shirley Lane, 7730 SW Oleson Road, back in the early 1900s. His … Continue reading →

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Don Krom memoir

Posted on April 9, 2017 by

My parents were George and Harriet McNamara Krom.  My family moved from Wisconsin to Garden Home in 1946 when I was 3 years old.  We bought the house on 7 acres of fruit orchard which was located on the NE … Continue reading →

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Godwin Family

Posted on July 11, 2016 by

Jannette Godwin (Wassenberg now) married Jack Godwin and had three children in the 1930s: Jalene, Jean and Jim.  Jalene has been our source for this Godwin material and it is used with her permission. By Jannette Godwin Wassenberg,  2012  (wife … Continue reading →

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The Hunt Club, “Memories of Horsing Around Years”

Posted on July 7, 2016 by

By Patti (Ransom) Waitman-Ingebretsen *The Hunt Club was located on or near the Frank Estate off SW Oleson Rd in the Garden Home area.  Being too young to drive, this writer has no details about location, transportation etc. Teen aged girls … Continue reading →

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Memories of Whitney’s Custom Cannery, Circa 1954-56

Posted on July 7, 2016 by

By Patti (“The Ransom girl” ) Waitman-Ingebretsen, Multnomah Village My family moved to Maplewood in 1950 and our ¼ acre property allowed for a very large garden.  My father, raised on a farm in Corvallis, knew all about gardening and raising … Continue reading →

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Memoir of Dorothy Lois Upchurch (1919-2009)

Posted on May 24, 2016 by

This story about the Upchurch family was sent to us by Dorinda Troutman, from her home in Hamilton, Montana.  Her mother Dorothy Lois Upchurch Hogue Bates was a teenager and young woman when her parents Theresa Boyd Upchurch and her … Continue reading →

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History of the early Patton family

Posted on April 23, 2016 by

[Editor’s note: Ole Oleson and his wife, Polly Philena Patton Oleson were early pioneers in Garden Home.  They owned a number of properties in the north Oleson Road area.  They had one son and seven daughters who married into various Schalk, Wolf, Stark, … Continue reading →

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