Personal Page of $Name

James Parker Ehlers

Personal Data:

Item	Date	Place/Description
Birth	15 Oct 1887	Clearbrook, Wa.

Parents:

Parent	Name
Father	Henry Christopher Eberhard Ehlers
Mother	Nancy Arminda Dobbs

Personal Note(s):

Note Number	Note Text
1	[Ehlers Family History.FBK.FBK.FBK.FBK.FTW] See notes in the H.C. Ehlers section regarding James Parker Ehlers mining claims. Also materials in the metal file box filed with the other family information. 1. Thoughts written by Mary Ehlers DeVries, James' daughter when he died in l967. "Composed by Mary Ehlers DeVries, April 14, 1967. "God knew we could not get along if each one walked along and no one gave a passing thought to troubles not his own and so, to help us on our way Until the journey ends He gave us out of His great love the cherished gift of friends." 2. In honor of Jim Ehlers, written by Skip Nims. Read at the grave side ceremony for James Parker Ehlers. "I can not remember the beginning. There will not be an end I am fortunate. I have been told that something is missing. I know it is not true because I know where it can not be missing. I can find it on a quiet chill morning when I hear the call of the birds in the fields. It's in the summer sunlight that filters down through the leaves in the woods. It's in the sound of the wind in the trees that were old at the time of my birth. It's in the sound of water running over rocks of a creek bed. It's always there and it always shall be. It is the quiet talks between an old man and a young boy. The explanations to questions that are confusing to a youngster. The wholey (spelling??) shared laughter and frustrations that could not be fully understood by the youth. But I could walk and listen and ask. I could watch a man resist creeping civilization with only his mind as a weapon. I could watch him try to preserve a small part of nature so other young boys might have the same opportunities. That they, too, might be able to find a quiet place to think and question. The old man talked of far away places and I went to see them and while I was gone the old man became tired but! he isn't missing because I know where he is." 3. Story by Effie Ehlers Fowler, undated. "When I was just a teenager I remember being down at Jim's. There was an overwhelming aroma of honey in their house. Jim had been watching the bees and noticed they always headed to a certain area in the back of what we then called King's Woods. The location was on the north side of the creek. Well, he narrowed it down to a little area in the woods and found the bee tree. Jim cut down the old tree and found it filled with the most beautiful natural cones of honey. Their kitchen, as I stood there, had tubs, dish pans, pails, crocks and many large pans filled with these long slabs of honey. Jim relocated the bees along with plenty of honey. The nice part was Jim had very few bee stings." 4. Story by Effie Ehlers Fowler, undated. "This is a true story. Many years ago there was a little brother and sister. It was winter time and an especially bad snow storm had just passed over their farm at Clearbrook. The snow drifts completely covered the fences and everything looked like a fairy land. These two decided to go out to play and thought it would be great fun to walk on top of the snow drifts over the fences. And to make it even more exciting they took off their shoes and stockings. Two little children by the names of James and Laura sat in front of the fireplace a long time that evening warming cold feet." 5. Listing of gold mine claims by James P. Ehlers found in folder. 6. Letter from Missouri Ellen Dobbs Bradford Butler, a cousin of Jim's. About the Dobbs family in Texas. Dated March 12, 1957 from Mineral Wells, Texas. In the folder. 7. Letter from J.P. Ehlers to Laura (Ehlers) and G.G. Hunter, dated April 21, 1955. In folder. 8. Original article from the "Sumas News", October 8, 1964. Story about his life at age 77. I have included excerpts from the article. In the folder. "There were only five white settlers along the Indian trail north of Nooksack River, now the Van Buren Road, when his father...came to the area via California...Henry Ehlers married the daughter of James Dobbs... The wedding took place at the home of next door neighbors, the Jack Kellys, who lived a mile south." "Mrs. Ehlers preempted 160 acres adjoining her husband's homestead and the couple's property extended east from Pangborn Lake to the present Nordlund Brother's farm, where the Ehlers' log cabin was located in a 'hole in the woods'. The nearest trading center was at Nooksack Crossing, near the present site of Everson." "About 1895 the family moved into a new frame home and...built a one-room log school on his farm. He gave 20 acres to his cousin, Julia Jacobs, to teach the five or six children in the area, including his two older sons. A year later a forest fire wiped out the school and the Ehlers' home and barn. The family moved back into the log cabin and James walked to the two room school at Clearbrook." "The father set aside several acres of his farm for a public cemetery when his son, John, died in 1899... The family holdings continued to dwindle as settlers moved into the area and parcels of the land were sold off to newcomers." "There was little entertainment for the pioneer children. 'We ran around looking at birds and wild animals and boxed, wrestled and played baseball,' muses Ehlers... He saw the first train pass through Crearbrook on its way from Bellingham to Sumas and shouted, 'It's blessing hot!' in childish concern for the smoke belching out of the smokestack." "A neighborhood stream, long disappeared...fed into other streams, running into the Fraser River and was choked with salmon at spawning time. Bears, drawn by the fish, were common but deer were scarce until predatory cougars were cleaned out by the settlers." "Ehlers suffered a serious bout with pneumonia as he was completing the 8th grade. Dr. R.N. Port walked out from Sumas with medicine and left with the admonition, 'Jimmy, if you don't get well, it's your own fault." "...became the first Clearbrook youngster to graduate from high school. He enrolled first at Sumas, which carried only the 9th and 10th grades. When the weather was too severe to permit walking home he remained overnight at a hotel...he then transferred to Nooksack High School...graduating with the school's first class in 1908." "His ambition carried him to the University of Washington...forced to drop out through lack of money and returned to the family farm." "He cut shingle bolts in the woods but worked one day in the mill at Clearbrook where he lost the little finger on his left hand...Many years later, he caught his right hand in an electric meat grinder and lost part of two fingers..." "...acknowledges the generosity of neighbors who built his present home in 1918... He was in the hospital, suffering from an appendectomy, when fire destroyed their home. Everything was lost, including $800 in cash which had been borrowed to buy cattle." "Watching the traffic on black-topped Pangborn Road he recalls when it was a dirt road. 'With dust so thick you couldn't see 15 feet a head and mud two feet deep when it rained.' ...remembers that he never got to drive the only car he ever owned. His son wrecked it the day the salesman brought it out." "In 1943 ...joined the war effort and moved to Seattle...worked for five years in the shipyards....returned to the farm...raising of Chinese Pheasants for the hunting market...seven or eight years until the lack of demand forced him to give it up." "...with 'Mike', a l2 year old black English-Irish setter constantly at his side, he enjoys television and reads a great deal. 'The years go faster and faster, even though I move slower and slower,' he said."

Note Number

Note Text

[Ehlers Family History.FBK.FBK.FBK.FBK.FTW]

See notes in the H.C. Ehlers section regarding James Parker Ehlers mining claims. Also materials in the metal file box filed with the other family information.

1. Thoughts written by Mary Ehlers DeVries, James' daughter when he died in l967. "Composed by Mary Ehlers DeVries, April 14, 1967.

"God knew we could not get along
if each one walked along
and no one gave a passing thought
to troubles not his own
and so, to help us on our way
Until the journey ends
He gave us out of His great love
the cherished gift of friends."

2. In honor of Jim Ehlers, written by Skip Nims. Read at the grave side ceremony for James Parker Ehlers.

"I can not remember the beginning. There will not be
an end I am fortunate.
I have been told that something is missing. I know it is not true because I know where it can not be missing.
I can find it on a quiet chill morning when I hear the call of the birds in the fields. It's in the summer sunlight that filters down through the leaves in the woods. It's in the sound of the wind in the trees that were old at the time of my birth. It's in the sound of water running over rocks of a creek bed. It's always there and it always shall be.
It is the quiet talks between an old man and a young boy. The explanations to questions that are confusing to a youngster. The wholey (spelling??) shared laughter and frustrations that could not be fully understood by the youth.
But I could walk and listen and ask. I could watch a man resist creeping civilization with only his mind as a weapon. I could watch him try to preserve a small part of nature so other young boys might have the same opportunities. That they, too, might be able to find a quiet place to think and question.
The old man talked of far away places and I went to see them and while I was gone the old man became tired but! he isn't missing because I know where he is."

3. Story by Effie Ehlers Fowler, undated.

"When I was just a teenager I remember being down at Jim's. There was an overwhelming aroma of honey in their house. Jim had been watching the bees and noticed they always headed to a certain area in the back of what we then called King's Woods. The location was on the north side of the creek. Well, he narrowed it down to a little area in the woods and found the bee tree. Jim cut down the old tree and found it filled with the most beautiful natural cones of honey. Their kitchen, as I stood there, had tubs, dish pans, pails, crocks and many large pans filled with these long slabs of honey. Jim relocated the bees along with plenty of honey. The nice part was Jim had very few bee stings."

4. Story by Effie Ehlers Fowler, undated.

"This is a true story. Many years ago there was a little brother and sister. It was winter time and an especially bad snow storm had just passed over their farm at Clearbrook. The snow drifts completely covered the fences and everything looked like a fairy land. These two decided to go out to play and thought it would be great fun to walk on top of the snow drifts over the fences. And to make it even more exciting they took off their shoes and stockings. Two little children by the names of James and Laura sat in front of the fireplace a long time that evening warming cold feet."

5. Listing of gold mine claims by James P. Ehlers found in folder.

6. Letter from Missouri Ellen Dobbs Bradford Butler, a cousin of Jim's. About the Dobbs family in Texas. Dated March 12, 1957 from Mineral Wells, Texas. In the folder.

7. Letter from J.P. Ehlers to Laura (Ehlers) and G.G. Hunter, dated April 21, 1955. In folder.

8. Original article from the "Sumas News", October 8, 1964. Story about his life at age 77. I have included excerpts from the article. In the folder.

"There were only five white settlers along the Indian trail north of Nooksack River, now the Van Buren Road, when his father...came to the area via California...Henry Ehlers married the daughter of James Dobbs... The wedding took place at the home of next door neighbors, the Jack Kellys, who lived a mile south."

"Mrs. Ehlers preempted 160 acres adjoining her husband's homestead and the couple's property extended east from Pangborn Lake to the present Nordlund Brother's farm, where the Ehlers' log cabin was located in a 'hole in the woods'. The nearest trading center was at Nooksack Crossing, near the present site of Everson."

"About 1895 the family moved into a new frame home and...built a one-room log school on his farm. He gave 20 acres to his cousin, Julia Jacobs, to teach the five or six children in the area, including his two older sons. A year later a forest fire wiped out the school and the Ehlers' home and barn. The family moved back into the log cabin and James walked to the two room school at Clearbrook."

"The father set aside several acres of his farm for a public cemetery when his son, John, died in 1899... The family holdings continued to dwindle as settlers moved into the area and parcels of the land were sold off to newcomers."

"There was little entertainment for the pioneer children. 'We ran around looking at birds and wild animals and boxed, wrestled and played baseball,' muses Ehlers... He saw the first train pass through Crearbrook on its way from Bellingham to Sumas and shouted, 'It's blessing hot!' in childish concern for the smoke belching out of the smokestack."

"A neighborhood stream, long disappeared...fed into other streams, running into the Fraser River and was choked with salmon at spawning time. Bears, drawn by the fish, were common but deer were scarce until predatory cougars were cleaned out by the settlers."

"Ehlers suffered a serious bout with pneumonia as he was completing the 8th grade. Dr. R.N. Port walked out from Sumas with medicine and left with the admonition, 'Jimmy, if you don't get well, it's your own fault."

"...became the first Clearbrook youngster to graduate from high school. He enrolled first at Sumas, which carried only the 9th and 10th grades. When the weather was too severe to permit walking home he remained overnight at a hotel...he then transferred to Nooksack High School...graduating with the school's first class in 1908."

"His ambition carried him to the University of Washington...forced to drop out through lack of money and returned to the family farm."

"He cut shingle bolts in the woods but worked one day in the mill at Clearbrook where he lost the little finger on his left hand...Many years later, he caught his right hand in an electric meat grinder and lost part of two fingers..."

"...acknowledges the generosity of neighbors who built his present home in 1918... He was in the hospital, suffering from an appendectomy, when fire destroyed their home. Everything was lost, including $800 in cash which had been borrowed to buy cattle."

"Watching the traffic on black-topped Pangborn Road he recalls when it was a dirt road. 'With dust so thick you couldn't see 15 feet a head and mud two feet deep when it rained.' ...remembers that he never got to drive the only car he ever owned. His son wrecked it the day the salesman brought it out."

"In 1943 ...joined the war effort and moved to Seattle...worked for five years in the shipyards....returned to the farm...raising of Chinese Pheasants for the hunting market...seven or eight years until the lack of demand forced him to give it up."

"...with 'Mike', a l2 year old black English-Irish setter constantly at his side, he enjoys television and reads a great deal. 'The years go faster and faster, even though I move slower and slower,' he said."

Partnerships:

Adele Mary Higginson

Son:	William Harold Ehlers	Born: 6 Jun 1914
Daughter:	Mary Joyce Ehlers	Born: 8 Jul 1915
Daughter:	Arlene Ehlers	Born: 19 Dec 1916
Daughter:	Vera Jeanette Ehlers	Born: 5 Sep 1918
Daughter:	Patricia Ehlers	Born: 17 Mar 1924