William Ehlers Biography

************************************************
Copyright. All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
************************************************

Submitted Jan 2006 by Nancy Russell
nanruss@icehouse.net
---------------

History of Bill Ehlers
Summer of 1974

Bill Ehlers was born December 5, 1892 in Walla Walla, WA.  At the age of three, 
his family moved to Rossland, B.C., CAN where his father built and owned the local 
hotel.  One of his fond memories was a vacation which his family took to 
Germany in 1900.

Bill drove a delivery truck at age sixteen and at age eighteen, went to work 
for Hunter Brothers General Merchandise in the hardware department.

In 1920 he worked one year in Vancouver, B.C., then returned to Rossland for 
six months.  He then moved to Spokane, WA where he worked for John T. Little in 
hardware where he stayed about nine months.  In October, 1922 he moved to 
Okanogan where he worked C.E. Blackwell.  He only intended to remain one year.

Bill married Mary Ellen "Nell" Driscoll on September 25, 1919.  They had three children; 
William Gordon, born September 12, 1920, died in 1943 when the tug boat where 
he was Captain went down in the Gulf of Alaska; Robert James, born May 11, 
1924, now living in Salt Lake City, Utah; and Mary Jeanette, born October 1, 
1925, now lives in Spokane, WA where she teaches school.

Bill worked for C.E. Blackwell for ten years, then went to work for Vince White 
as Deputy Okanogan County Treasurer in 1935 and was elected to office of 
Treasurer in 1943.  The first election was the only election in which he was 
opposed.  He retired from this office in 1963.

Bill had an attack of throat cancer about 1965.  He loved sports and played La 
Cross and Hockey.  He played hockey against the world famous Patrick Brothers.  
He loved bird hunting and trout fishing.  He used to get his limit of three in 
the morning and three in the afternoon.  Bill said he lost two fingers in gears 
at a machine shop when he was fifteen years old.

Bill moved the old house from new Sam Bohr Lake to Okanogan.  He paid $200.00 
for the house and $200.00 for the lot.  He had to borrow $200.00 from a woman 
in Okanogan and it cost him $122.00 in interest before he got the debt paid.  
The house was hung up on Shellrock Point and it made the Wagner crew late for 
work.  The carpenter got $.25 per hour in wage.  Bill’s mother gave then 
$400.00 so they added the bathroom, bedroom and dining room.  Their home 
flooded on 1948.  There was eighteen inches of water in the house.  There is 
water in the basement most every year, Bill observed.  They had eighteen inches 
in 1972 too.

Bill and Nell had their fiftieth wedding anniversary celebration in 1969 at 
Paul Ambrose’s in Okanogan.

Nell earned $60.00 per month as a telephone operator at Rossland, and on the 10 
p.m. to 7 a.m. shift.  It was sometimes necessary to walk through two to four 
feet of snow.

Bill worked where soda pop was made when he was fourteen for $15.00 per month.  
He saw his first car in Rossland about 1915.  He went from Rossland to Trail in 
sled and wagon and also skied from Rossland to Trail, and then would ride the 
train up the hill in the evening.

Bill played a violin until he lost his fingers, then he played the drums in the 
local orchestra.

Nell had a heart attack in 1968, and a brain tumor in 1973.

Bill paid $150.00 for his first car, a 1914 Model ‘T’ Ford which he purchased 
about 1924.  It took them two days to drive from Okanogan to Vancouver, B.C.  
His first NEW car, a 1929 Model ‘A’ Ford cost him $700.00.