Page 117 - Family History

Family Stories

“George Fernandez’ Pysht Valley Story”. The book contains many stories about
early life in Pysht, Washington including information about the Stange and

Pontine families. The following are some excerpts from his book

Pg 4

My name is George Fernandez. My mother was Gertrude Fernandes. She was the
daughter of Joe Stange, who homesteaded on the 40 acres of land where I still
live. In 1909, Gertrude married my father, Anton Fernandes. I was born on April
15, 1910, in Port Angeles. There were five boys in our family. I am the oldest, then
came Walter; he had a twin sister Bertha, who died shortly after birth; then came

Albert, Ernest, and Paul, who is eight years younger than me.

THE FARM HOUSE

Grandpa built the house in 1910, with the help of Tony. There are four bedrooms
upstains and two bedrooms downstairs, with a bathroom and a living room, and a
kitchen and, of course, the sunporch. Gertie’s family homesteaded here, and after
Tony and Gertie were married they came here to live, and we’ve lived here all the

time.

FARM LIFE

Behind the barn, a steep grade went down to the creek, where the old barn stood
(before it fell from a snowfall in the 1960’s). Anyway, at that time, the creek
bottom was full of devil’s club and other growth. We did not like the place and we

spoke of the place as “down by the slip crick, close to the coon crank.” Upstream,
there was a hole dug in the creek with a plank over it where we dipped water in
gallon buckets to carry to the house. I think we carried 30 buckets a day or more.
We put the water on a shelf inside the sun porch.

Pg 6

When we were younger, we had visits from our cousin, Lizzie Pontine. We would
get together and pick trillium in the woods about the farm. There were so many in

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