Week 7 – Unusual Source – Grain Solo “home”

 2021 – 52 ancestors for 52 weeks

(challenge by Amy Johnson Crow)

 My challenge for 2021, I am writing 52 “stories” about my mother’s parents and their line instead of 52 ancestors.  I thought it would be a good way to get those stories onto the page for others to enjoy.

An “unusual Source” can also mean an “unusual home” when you look in the Thesaurus. And that is just what my Great Grandparents (William and Eliza Hollingsworth) used for their bedroom – an unusual source/home. 

 

My Great Grandparents, William and Eliza Hollingsworth moved from Ashland Oregon, a pretty little town known for the Shakespearian Festival, to Vale Oregon located in the high desert of Eastern Oregon.  Definitely two different kinds of scenery. Since Ashland is located on the west side where they receive lots of rain, there are lots of trees. Very green looking. The high desert of Vale consists of more shrub brush and not much rain. Not long after William and Eliza had made the move, their daughter and son-in-law, John and Emmeline Schoenewald, joined them from Ashland to Vale. The house was located about 3 miles from Town. The little house was too small for a family of 4 adults and 2 children so the old granary was cleaned out and decorated as a bedroom.  Both my mother and aunt remember sleeping in the Grain Solo with their Grandparents, my Great Grandparents. What a cool idea to make the Solo into a bedroom.  The girls thought it was pretty special to sleep out there. They evidentially built a larger home for everyone to live in.

 

I wish I had a picture of the Grain Solo but here is what the house looked like.

Claudia Emmeline (Hollingsworth) Schoenewald, John Schoenewald, Eliza (Bentz) Hollingsworth, William Hollingsworth, Darlene Schoenewald.

This is a sample picture of what a Grain Solo looked like. The Solo were usually located out by the barn area.  It was a round metal building that held the grain after it was brought in from the fields.  The farmers either used it for themselves to feed the stock or sold it.  Some Solos can be very big, some small.  I do not know how big the one was located on the Schoenewald / Hollingsworth property.

Picture courtesy of unsplash: https://unsplash.com/s/photos/grain-silo

In future posts there will be additional stories told around this move to Vale.

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