Russell D. Richardson, Reminiscences, Chapter 1, Part 1

by Russell David Richardson, 1971

Our family lived at Northfield,Minnesota, only a few blocks from the high school, and also within walking distance of Carleton College. In fact, all our activities were within walking distance, as very few people had automobiles. 

My father’s business was located about four blocks from our home, and he always walked to and from his work. He and his brother Earl were partners in a furniture business, and this required the use of delivery equipment. Consequently, we had a good-sized barn in back of our home where we kept two coal-black horses, named “Nig” and “Ollie.” By the time my brother, Fay, and I were ten and twelve years old, we had full responsibility for taking care of these two horses. Nig was assigned to Fay, and Ollie to me. So each morning after feeding the horses and cleaning the stable, it was our responsibility to curry and brush the animals and put the harness on so that after breakfast they could be hitched up to the delivery wagon and one or the other of us would drive the wagon down to the store and leave it before school.

Ferguson & Richardson Furniture Store

 

My father had a tendency to gain weight, and as a result of his overweight he had a serious heart attack, and the doctor told him that he must change his mode of living or he wouldn’t live long. He took this advice seriously, and decided to sell his business and to move out West. He had heard about growing apples out in Oregon, so he made a prospective trip to that area and decided to buy a small apple orchard and to sell out the furniture business.

This decision occurred in 1913, just as I was finishing high school. So the family moved to Sutherlin, Oregon, after school was out; but I stayed on in Northfield so that I could attend Carleton College.

The college did not have dormitories for men, and it was the practice for residents of the city to rent rooms to male students. Together with three other boys in similar circumstances, we rented the lower floor of a two-story home and spent our first year in that residence. There were no cooking facilities, and we found a boarding house in the neighborhood where we could have our meals.

Inasmuch as my three older sisters had preceded me in attending Carleton, I found that the professors were continually comparing my scholastic performance with that of my sisters. My oldest sister, Ella, had been an excellent student, made Phi Beta Kappa, and was valedictorian of her 1906 class. I still remember my professor in economics taking me aside and saying, “Russell, you do not seem to have the grasp of this subject that your sister Ella did.”

My college days were not particularly happy ones. I had no definite goal in attending college. I was immature and had had little contact with people in professions such as law, engineering and medicine. My parents offered no advice. However, my sisters had all gone on to college and the whole family took it for granted that I would go to Carleton and eventually reach my own decision as to what profession I would prepare myself for.

I knew I did not want to be a farmer, although that occupation did appeal to my brother Fay, and he went to the Minnesota State Agricultural College in Minneapolis. Ella and Florence had both obtained positions as teachers in high school after graduation from Carleton; but I had no desire to enter the teaching profession as Claude and Bernard Street had done. Moreover, it was doubtful that I would be able to continue for a full four-year course because of limited finances. I received a small scholarship from Carleton in recognition of my high scholastic record at Northfield High School, and had some accumulated savings. In addition, my parents had rented out our former home and gave me some of the income from that source. However, I knew that they had lost their main source of income from the business, and the fruit ranch which he had purchased in Oregon was very young and just starting to bear, so there was little or no income from that source.

There were no fraternities in the college, but there were some Greek letter clubs; and the club that I particularly wanted to join did not invite me. I was informed that the main reason was that I had indicated that I might not attend college for more than one or two years.

At the end of the first years, I had enough money to pay for rail transportation to Sutherlin, and picked the longest route I could develop. I took a train to Fargo, North Dakota, and then almost directly north to Winnepeg, where I connected with a westbound Canadian Pacific train to Vancouver. En route we passed through the beautiful Banff and Lake Louise resorts, and part of the trip was taken in open air cars where they transfer you to cars without any roof. For a person who had been raised in the flat Middle West, the mountains were most impressive.

From Vancouver I had a short boat ride to Victoria, and then on to catch the train to Portland and farther south to Sutherlin.

The small ranch which my father had bought was located about four miles from the town of Sutherlin. The former owner had built a nice two-story house, three bedrooms, with a nice view overlooking the valley. The barn had space for Father’s team of horses and two cows. Later, Father acquired a Model T Ford, but at the time I first visited the place there was no such convenience. My brother Fay was living at home, as well as my sister Ruth. The entire valley had been planted to apples in imitation of the success acquired by the Hood River apple growing region. However, it was actually principally a real estate project and the crop of apples and the marketing of them was never a success.

Apples from the Richardson orchard

During the summer months, I helped out with the orchard work; and then in the fall returned to Carleton for a second year. After that summer in Oregon, I could see plainly that my folks would be unable to help me very much, and that I would not be able to finish college. I did get some income from odd jobs, and one of my regular sources of income was at the college gymnasium.

The modern gymnasium had a large basketball court with an oval-shaped balcony above the playing field, on the edges, and this mezzanine oval area was the indoor running track. Whenever there was to be a basketball game, temporary seats had to be erected, covering the running track. I was able to get the assignment to put up these temporary seats and to remove them after the game.

Incidentally, this gymnasium was the nearest thing to a clubhouse for the male students. It had a huge Olympic-sized swimming pool, which was available for our use at almost any time. The gymnasium was well equipped with all kind of gymnastic equipment, as well as several basketball courts.

During the Christmas vacation, I practically lived there because it afforded something to do. I remember one particular time another classmate and I challenged a group of Northfield High School athletes to have a tournament, staged like a track meet. We’d do the high jump, and broad jump, the hop, skip, and jump, run races, heave the shot, and do as many events as could be performed indoors. While this classmate and I were not top athletes, nevertheless we were able to completely outclass the high school athletes, merely because of our better development as a result of our age.

When the school year ended in June, 1915, the Panama Pacific Exposition was in progress in San Francisco, so I returned to Oregon by way of San Francisco so as to be able to visit the fair. Fred Watson and his wife Sydney were very hospitable and invited me to stay a few days in their home at 375 Elwood Avenue, Oakland.

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