Knight in Shining Armor

The knight in shining armor never went away. From the moment mom met him and he her they were a pair as indicated in the drama with Walt’s ring in the park.

Emerson Wilkinson “Mike” Haggerty was from a very different background than Francis. The only connection was that both of their fathers had mined gold in Cripple Creek Colorado at the same time without knowing each other. Dad grew up in and around Union a small eastern Oregon town where he was known as Emerson. He came into this world in High Valley, a rural setting of small ranches in the foothills of the Wallowa Mountains. His birthing took place on February 8, 1905, in the same room where his mother had been born. His mother’s family the Wilkinsons had homesteaded their 750 acre ranch in 1861 coming across on the Oregon Trail. In hindsight it was an ideal place to grow up. He was surrounded by nature, rode his horse to the one room school and played with his younger siblings William and Gracia. However, in the reality of the moment it was a hardscrabble existence. The home had no running water, electricity or phone line. No indoor plumbing meant a cold seat in the outhouse in the middle of the winter, hauling water for household use from the spring up the hill, and chamber pots for night time relief of full bladders or worse! No one ever wanted the chore of emptying them.
The fun times were remembered by dad in the stories he told and retold. There were dances in their small sitting room with the wood stove radiating warmth. The neighbors would come with their offering of food to add to the abundant selection of dishes to choose from, the chairs would be pushed back and men, women and children danced far into the night with the babies tucked in between the layers of coats on the beds. Then out into the night they would go to hitch up the teams for the trip home. He had a vivid memory, told when I was a nursing mother, of one of the neighbors one evening at the dance, whose 5 year old was still nursing and would come up to his mother and say, “Give me some titty”. Maybe he was afraid I wouldn’t wean my children soon enough!
While having their share of chores to do the brothers did have time to explore the many miles of horse and cattle trails surrounding them. Horses cost money and had to have a purpose so the horse they had was for transportation. By riding double one horse was ample to get them to school and back and when their little sister was of school age one of them walked along side. School was only a mile away and upon arrival they would put the horse in the stall with the other kids horses l and give them some hay for their day of waiting for school to be out.
Their property was made up of foothills of timber and lowland of meadows and cultivated fields. The timbered hills were a drawing card for the biggest adventures as they backed on the wilderness and had abundant wildlife. Many times I was told about how they would ride up in the hills just to explore and while going under a low tree limb the front rider would duck only to have the fellow bringing up the rear swept off. It was too far to run home crying to mom or dad but the trip home was fraught with each others verbal thrusts.