Rothenbuhler Family Stories

This page includes stories contributed by our family members as well as those published.
If you have any stories or memories you'd like to see added for us to read....
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"Creator of Talkie Tooter dies"
Device improved logging safety
- by Sean Lamphere of the Courier-Times; Sedro Woolley, WA

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    Jacob Rothenbuhler and his wife, Susan Yennie, were born in Switzerland in 1857 and 1862, respectively. He left Switzerland and moved to Ohio where he met and married Susan. They had nine children - seven boys and two girls. One boy was stillborn. The boys were John Jacob, Walter, Ernest, Paul, Fred, and Norman. The girls were named Nellie and Esther. The four oldest boys were born in Ohio, the rest of the children were born on the South Fork of the Nooksack River.
    Jacob was a cheese maker in Ohio, but he wanted to go out west. He saw an ad in a paper sent by Mr. Zobrist announcing that people could get land to homestead. They corresponded for a while and then in 1889 Jacob brought his family to Park. They spent the winter at the Zobrist's.
    Jacob discovered upon his arrival that little farm land remained to be claimed. He found acreage about eight miles up the South Fork of the Nooksack River where he filed a homestead claim for 144.31 acres on May 23, 1896. He cleared land and built a cabin. His brother, Fred Rothenbuhler, had previously taken a claim up river.
    When Jacob completed his cabin, he went down the river to work for Mr. Zobrist to earn money for food, clothing and supplies. This income also made it possible to clear more land and to construct more buildings. Whenever possible, he would return home to spend weekends with his family.
    One day Susan and her sons were outside clearing a place for a garden. They heard a loud noise coming from the river. Susan saw Indians and hustled the children inside. She did not know what to expect. She bolted the doors and waited but the Indians just passed by. They were going up river to fish. After that, she wasn't afraid of them. She understood they were from the Nooksack Tribe and learned they were peaceful people.
    Being alone all week with four boys to care for - cooking, washing over a scrubboard, baking bread, tending a garden - really kept Susan busy. However, she always found time to read her Bible.
    Homesteaders were not immune to contagious diseases. All the children had measles and were very sick. Because there were no doctors living close by, Jacob spent a lot of time studying his "Doctor Book."
    Susan gave birth to a stillborn son and kept the dead baby in bed with her for a couple of days before Jacob could bury it. The grave was dug beside the orchard. Until recently, flowers continued to grow on the grave.
    On one of Jacob's trips for supplies, he borrowed a horse and rented another from Mr. Zobrist. On his way home, the river had come up and it was getting higher. Jacob thought he had found a safe fording place. In his attempt to cross, one horse drowned, the other made it across, and Jacob was left stranded in the river on a rock. All the supplies vanished down the rushing river. Luckily he could whistle loudly through his fingers. Worried, Susan had gone outside to see if she could see any sign of him. Hearing his whistle, she knew something was wrong. She gathered the boys and ran down to the river where Jacob called to them for a rope. He had them tie one end to a sapling and the other to a solid tree on the river bank. The sapling was thrown up river and permitted to drift down to his marooned location. The rescue was successful on the second attempt.
    While helping to get her husband out of the river, Susan had slipped. She was expecting a child in about two months. However, a couple of days later the baby was born. She was named Nellie. Her first crib was a shoe box.
    The orchard was young and didn't bear much fruit. In fact, one year only one apple ripened. The children were thrilled to get one bit each from it. They all waited anxiously to see what the next year would produce. One day after lunch Jacob commanded, "You children all go out to play now." They went out and the younger ones thought they would have some fun by tying up Ernest. This kept them busy until Jacob came to the door and announced, "Norman, I have something for you in the house." Norman responded, "What is it? An apple? Half an apple?" when Jacob nodded his head, they all went inside. Instead of an apple, Jacob showed them a new baby. Esther had been born, but this didn't deter Norman from looking for his half an apple.
    The neighbors worked and shared whatever they had with one another. They built a schoolhouse up behind Great Uncle Fred's place where a picnic was held every year. Susan always made a "jelly cake" for this occasion. Jacob and Fred gave the Leonz Fischer family some land. A neighbor, William F. Beyer, had a clock that ticked so loudly that children liked to stop by just to listen to it. One day George S. Heald, another neighbor who visited the Rothenbuhlers, came in carrying a rocking chair. He said, "A mother with so many children needs a rocking chair."
    Jake Rothenbuhler and Albert Dye were close friends. Ernest, Jake's brother, was more friendly with the Haggard boys, Henry and Jim, who lived in Wickersham. They interested Ernest in taking a correspondence course which was equivalent to a high school diploma. Ernest was interested in engineering, completed the course and passed his exams. Today, his son Howard owns the Rothenbuhler Engineering Company in Sedro Woolley. (Now owned by Howard's son Neal)
    A lot more could be written about the settlers up the South Fork - about their hardships, their hard work, their births of their babies, and the loss of their loved ones. There were also many more happy times. I'm sure they would all do it over again. There was a closeness, a neighbor caring for neighbor, that seems to be missing nowadays.
    In 1900 Jacob and Susan moved from their claim to a farm in the Acme area. Most of the land up river now belongs to timber companies or is state land. Norman's wife Gertie, Ernest's son, Howard, and myself, Walter's son, still have some acreage up there. Great Uncle Fred gave me the land I own there.
    One of my greatest pleasures is to go up river to the old Jacob Rothenbuhler place. I stop at the old orchard, pick a few apples to eat, and try to visualize what it once was like when my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and Dad lived there. Then I continue to my acreage. It is so peaceful with the rumble of the river coming down through Fred's Canyon. It is like music to my ears. I am sure I could live up there and be happy - just as the early settlers did before me.   --Robert Rothenbuhler

Fred Rothenbuhler cabin abandoned about 1900 is visited
by Bill Nelson (pictured) and Ernes Hamel before WWI.
(Photo by Ernes Hamel)

   Fred Rothenbuhler was born in Switzerland and came to Whatcom County before his brother, Jacob, arrived with his family in 1889. Throughout the community he was known as "Uncle Fred," the name that the eight children of his brother Jacob called him.
   Fred filed a homestead claim of 139.25 acres with the government land office on November 22, 1895. One year earlier he purchased a forty acre timber claim in the adjacent section.
Fred's log cabin was sturdily built of notched logs and pole rafters. The shakes for the roof were split from such straight, long-grained cedar bolts that only five rows of shakes were required to finish each slope of the roof. Windows were set in each wall for light, and a small stove in the corner provided heat for the one-room cabin.
   The settlers took turns going down-river after the mail. They picked it up at Bowman's for a while and then at Wickersham. One day it was Mr. Culhane's turn to go for the mail. When he didn't return, everyone was concerned for Culhane's safety as well as anxious for his mail. Albert Dye and Fred Rothenbuhler went looking for him. In Wickersham they found he had picked up the mail and had reported his plans to take an alternate route home. They followed his tracks and found him. His coat had caught on a knot as he was going under a tree that had fallen across the path. He was dead. They conjectured he thought a cougar had grabbed him and that he had died of fright for he was deathly afraid of cougars. The mail was still in his possession.
   Shortly before World War I, Bill Nelson and Ernest Hamel hiked to the Dye area. Fred's cabin was found to be well preserved even though it had been abandoned since 1900.

"Creator of Talkie Tooter dies"
Device improved logging safety
- by Sean Lamphere of the Courier-Times; Sedro Woolley, WA

   When he returned to Skagit County after serving in World War II, Howard Rothenbuhler saw a need to improve safety of loggers.
   So he founded Rothenbuhler Engineering in his home in Acme in 1946 and designed the original "Talkie Tooter" that same year for improving communication in the logging industry. He soon moved the company to Sedro-Woolley.
   "With his background in logging, he decided they needed radio control to make logging easier and safer," said Neal Rothenbuhler, president of Rothenbuhler Engineering and a son of Rothenbuhler. "And the Talkie Tooter remains our main product."
   Howard Rothenbuhler died June 2 at United General Hospital at the age of 83 from complications with pneumonia.
   Since its inception, the Talkie Tooter has evolved from a wire-connected system to its current form as a belt-mounted transmitter capable of carrying whistle sounds or voice communication from up to a mile away.
   Neal Rothenbuhler said the system is used for choker setters to communicate with skid or skycar operators to safely move logs.
   After designing the Talkie Tooter, Howard Rothenbuhler oversaw his family-operated company expand its product line to include other radio controls, alarm systems for banks and radio-controlled firing devices for commercial and military explosives. He worked full time until suffering a stroke in November 1999 at the age of 81.
   According to Neal Rothenbuhler, his father studied mechanical engineering at the University of Washington before joining the U.S. Army Air Corps. When World War II broke out, Howard Rothenbuhler went to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he trained in radar and radio design.
   Rothenbuhler Engineering employs 23 people in Sedro-Woolley and seven at its Canadian subsidiary, Talkie Tooter Canada Ltd. It markets its products in the Western United States, Canada, New Zealand and South America.

   On a rainy afternoon, the second day of June 2001, I found that I had lost a friend of great value. Howard's son Neal Rothenbuhler informed me that his father had died earlier that day.
   Life is largely made up of gains and losses. This is definitely a loss, a very serious one. Howard and I go back a long ways.
   My part of the world was filled with men and boys who sported the last name Rothenbuhler. Our nearest neighbor on the east was Jake Rothenbuhler and on the west was Fred Rothenbuhler and down the road was Walter. Up the track a couple of miles was Ernest and his son was named Howard Ernest Rothenbuhler. We were surrounded by Rothenbuhlers and glad of it. My dad fell timber with Ernest and bucked logs behind Jake and his partner. I was fixing to drive Pearl (Mrs. Walter) to town to see her injured husband when word came that Walter had died as the result of a logging accident.
   As boys our main companions were named Rothenbuhler. Fred's sons Melvin and Jack along with Walter's sons, Robert, Archie, Bruce and Glen were all friends of me and my brothers: Orville, Charlie and George. We hunted together, fished together, went swimming in the Nooksack river together and even worked together. Years later I also bucked logs behind Jake and his partner Everett Youndyk.
   Strangely enough at the time I did not know Howard well. He lived several miles 'up the track' and we did not get together much. Whenever the whole bunch of us did get together and played games Howard was always on one side and I was on the other.
   Being two years my elder he graduated from Mt. Baker High School as the Valedictorian of his class when I was a sophomore. He was his class leader and I was my class's follower.
   In 1936 I was punking whistles on a cold deck donkey. I fell into disfavor with the logging foreman and he canned me and hired Howard for that job. Howard graduated from the University of Washington with a Double E Degree as an Electronics Engineer. He was one of the pioneers in the development and perfection of Radar. He spent WWII in this vital end of things where it took both brains and courage. He was honorably discharged with both brains and courage intact.
   He was married at the end of hostilities and decided to create and build an electronic whistle blowing system for yarders. That was the start of the Talkie Tooter.
   In the early winter of 1947 I had taken my Dad, Asahel W. Hays, and my wife to be, Jean Henderson, to Bellingham to see a movie in my 1939 Buick. On the way back to my Dad's place, about 25 miles from Bellingham, we drove into that part of the flooding South Fork River that covered the highway half a mile north of Acme. All at once we were in the water and the engine on the Buick quit. I packed Jean out on my back and my Dad made it on his own power. Along came an Army Ambulance and Chad Johnson leaded out the door and said, "We'll pull your car to solid ground for three dollars." I said, "Good Deal." Wading back to the partly submerged car, the water was still rising, we hooked onto the Buick and that life saving ambulance pulled it to safety. The driver of that Ambulance was Howard E. Rothenbuhler.
   I came back from Alaska in the fall of 1954 and worked that winter for George Impero. Our Donkey Puncher was Joe Buckenmeyer and he told us of the electronic devise used by Zee Brothers that allowed the rigging slinger to blow the yarder whistle. During the winter another man and I were working alongside the county road building a yarder sled. Along came a man in a car who stopped by our job to ask directions to get to the logging job of Herb Talmadge. That man was Howard Rothenbuhler and he was on his way to install a Talkie Tooter on Herb's yarder.
   I asked him many questions about his invention and told him I'd like to buy one from him when I started a contract logging job for George Impero next spring.
   I did buy a Talkie Tooter from him several months later. The factory was in Sedro Woolley and working in the factory were: Howard and his father Ernest. Howard's right hand man was Walter Bingaman and doing much of the wiring was a technician named Frank. That was the crew.
   By the end of the logging season, we got snowed out about the tenth of November of 1955, I had gladly accepted the job of demonstrating and selling Talkie Tooters in the state of Oregon, Northern California and South West Washington. Big dream---big territory. As we worked together and became better acquainted and later on I told someone that I was going to write a book titled, "LUCKY LOGGER! The Best Man I've ever met is my Boss and the best Woman I've ever met is my wife."
   I found Howard to be honest, intelligent and a whole lot of fun to work with. During the following years he learned to fly and made the airplane a part of his excellent service department.
   He was an outstanding leader and an excellent boss. Me, being whom I am, did not always agree with Howard but I always listened to him and usually cooperated in every way possible. As different as we were when we were working toward the same goal we thoroughly covered all the bases and got the job done. He had the good sense to give me a lot of latitude and I had the good sense to not take advantage of that freedom.
   During the early sixties I became obsessed with the idea of creating and publishing a Logging Magazine. During that time the Talkie Tooter business was slow and I accepted a position as field rep for a Chain Saw Company based in Vancouver, British Columbia. When I went to work for them I promised them to stay for a year. At the end of that year Howard said something like this: "If you will come back and work for us I'll help you start up that logging magazine you are always talking about."
   That was great news and Jean and I moved to Sedro Woolley where we helped with the Sales of Talkie Tooters. True to his word when we were ready to publish Loggers World Howard was our biggest advertiser. Without him and his help Loggers World would not be.
   Howard was a helper and only he knew how many people he had helped along the way.
   Bob Evans, who also sold Talkie Tooters, and I came up with the name of Loggers World. Howard believed in my dream and for many months I worked for two employers; for Howard and for Loggers World. Eventually the success of the Magazine demanded my full time. Howard was our first advertiser and that advertising was a tremendous help in our early years.
   Vernon Galbraith was now the Manager of Talkie Tooter and the company expanded and grew faster than ever. When Vernon was seeking retirement Neal Rothenbuhler became the manager. Under each of these managers the business expanded and grew healthily.
   Howard was a dedicated business man and for many years one of his main interests was the business he had started. At the same time he did not let the business come between he and his family. I have remembered many times the Sunday morning that I showed up at his place to get the company airplane to use in flying to Lester to install a Talkie Tooter. Howard pointed out to me that I was working too hard. He explained that the reason he didn't like working weekends was because he wanted to spend every weekend he could with his family. "I want to spend time with the kids when they are young because all too quickly they'll be grown up and going about their own business."
   Before I knew it the Talkie Tooter business was 50 years old and the staff held a big celebration in Sedro Woolley to honor Janet and Howard Rothenbuhler. I was asked to be a speaker and accepted with haste only to find out that I was so emotionally involved with Howard and Janet that their people that my talk had to be shortened extremely due to a choking sensation in the throat. That was a tremendous evening. Everyone seemed to enjoy the fact that I couldn't talk---much.
   Howard was an enjoyable man to be with and that was because he enjoyed living. He had a healthy and large sense of humor and no one enjoyed a joke or a prank more than he. He also was a very active man and his weekends always included some or all of his children in some sort of planned activity. They headed for the mountains and skied till dark many days. As hard as he tried he never tempted me to take up skiing. My stock answer was: "I've worked in and fought snow all my life and I'm not going up there to play in it."
   I did join them on trips up the river to their 'property' several times and had a great time every time.
   Howard always had an airplane handy since he first learned to fly and I could write quite an article about his experiences in the sky. He built a landing strip near his house and constructed a hanger at one end. That airplane was a part of his life and I believe both his sons are pilots also. He liked fishing and hunting and spent many days after Salmon or Steelhead on the Skagit river with his friend and river guide Dods Athearn.
   He liked hunting and a annual fall trip to Eastern Washington to hunt birds was eagerly looked forward to and hugely enjoyed. He was a man of action in many directions. He was always working clearing land and improving the land on his place. He raised beef cattle and in one form or another always had half a dozen projects in action.
   Howard had one enemy he was never able to tame. That enemy was the South Fork of the Nooksack River. This branch of the river ran down one side of his land and almost every year did some damage to the "Rothenbuhler Acres." Howard used several forms of flood control weapons but eventually the river had it's way. During one span of years he constructed a dike and behind the dike had a great pond for swimming in and raising fish in. Eventually though the river reclaimed it's own gravel and water and erased that fish pond. I think Howard enjoyed that enemy more than he did some of his friends. He and that river treated each other with respect.
   It is the custom I guess to look back down memory land at the death of a friend or family member and remember the high spots of many years of friendship and activities.
   For me it is difficult to get used to the idea that Howard is gone. It is much easier to talk about him and some of the great things he did. One time I was blowing smoke at him in the nature of his smartness and general high intelligence. He said something like: "You have me over rated. What I am is a pretty good horse trader. I know how to make a deal and in some of the successful ones every party involved profits." I know that I have profited from my association with this man and his family. Jean and I were always made welcome at Janet and Howard's house and took definite advantage of their hospitality on many occasions.
   Jean and I, along with his family and his many friends, mourn that neither Janet nor Howard are no longer with us. We take hope and gladness in their accomplishments; in their business that is still thriving and growing and in the help they have been to us in our own careers. We know this world is a better place because of them and will continue to get better due to the plans and work of their family members.
   Several weeks before Howard left us I stopped at his house to visit him. No one seemed to be home and I went about my business. I'd of liked to have had that one more visit with Howard Ernest Rothenbuhler. However, I do cherish and value all the visits that had gone before.

My parents were born in Switzerland. Our folks never told us much but my mother did say Dad was born near Zurich on the German side of Switzerland. Uncle Fred said Alpenthal. I asked him what that meant and he said "Seven Valleys". Mother was born in a more central part - Thune. I may not be spelling the names right. Mother also told us that at one time the Swiss were slaves to another country but she didn't say what country. In my World Book Encyclopedia it named Austria and told all about it. The Swiss couldn't take the cruelty any more and a handful of them fought six battles, winning every one. So they got their freedom. When Esther, my sister, toured Europe she spent a week or so in Switzerland. She said there are many Rothenbuhlers in Switzerland. The name is as common as Jones and Smith are here. She checked on a few but none were relations of Dad's family. All came to America while he was still young. I do know both Dad's parents were teachers in Switzerland. In fact, Esther found the school house where Grandfather taught. There was still a plaque on the wall commemorating his faithful work for 20 years.

Dad's folks intended to educate father to be a surgeon. Aunt Margaret told me that theirs was a big family - 11 or 12 children. In a fever epidemic, first the mother died. Uncle said all the children were in a circle crying and their father said, "Don't cry, children. I will take care of you." Within two weeks he, also, died. So there were all those orphans. Mother said it was in all the Swiss papers. The children were farmed out to different relatives. Aunt Margaret and Aunt Kate were twins. My mother and father met in Ohio but mother remembered about all those children being left orphans.

The oldest of my uncles on my Dad's side was John. Gertie (Norman's wife) always says there must be a John in later generations as there always was a John. That was really Jake's first name - John Jacob. Well, father, even as a kid, was progressive and leaned toward farming, but with all the hills in Switzerland, he couldn't see how it could be done there. So he and John came to America to some relative in Ohio. They worked wages, were poor, but they got all the children (their brothers and sisters) to America. A doctor's family adopted one of the little girls. She later married a man named Martin. Esther usually gets a long letter at Christmas time telling how and where they are. They have several children.

One of father's sisters married a Biery. I kind of think his first name was Jacob. Norman Biery that we knew best was one of their children. I think that sister of my father's was named Margaret, I'm not too sure. There was Margaret, Caroline and Rose. Then the one that was adopted. Kate and Margaret were twins so Kate may have been the adopted one.

Esther has a list of all our family. Someone in the east was tracing the family tree. Maybe you remember John Gednetz. His brother, Herman, was tracing the family. Herman was killed at Christmas time several years ago.

Mother's name was Susan Yennie. She was born in 1862. Dad was born in 1857. It states on the gravestone at Saxon that mother was the oldest child. I think her father's name was Rudolph. Mother had two sisters, Mary and Louise and had two brothers, Rudolph and Fred. My sister, Esther, found the house that mother was born in and a woman that remembered when Susan was born. They were an ordinary family. Mother's mother (my grandmother) worked for the president of Switzerland - housework - but the father nipped a little too much, he was rather mean as many are. Anyway, the mother took the children and came to America. She left him (Rudolph) in Switzerland. Soon after that she heard he had died. Mother worked out, too, to help her mother. She had an offer to work on the French border. She was happy thinking, "Now I can learn to talk French". So she went there to work but quit almost at once. The work was waiting on tables in the basement of a home. It was serving drinks, not food. To serve the first table, she was serving okay but one of the men reached down and touched her ankle. She said she slapped him in the face as hard as she could, tore off her apron and told the landlady (her boss) "I quit. I go home. I don't work in place like this." In later years, after Mother came to Washington state, her mother remarried Jacob Eggert. She lived to age 96. All grandma's children died before Grandma did. Aunt Mary's daughter, Flora Hornbeck, 2318 Broad Avenue, Canton, Ohio, corresponds with me. Esther has visited them and says they are a wonderful couple.

Rudolph Yennie, the older brother of mother's, drowned. He and his son had been haying. On the way home he decided to swim in the lake. Well, he went down, and didn't come back up.

Fred, the youngest brother of mother's, got into a woolen mill and was manager. He got quite wealthy and married a beautiful woman. Your dad and she corresponded but after the 1939 crash he was found in a park in his car. He had been shot. When Conner and I were east I heard just a little bit of a conversation. It sounded like there might have been another man in the case. My mother didn't worry about grandma as long as she knew Fred was looking after her. Mother's sister, Mary, was still alive when my mother died.

Yes, Mother and Dad met in Ohio at the time Dad was going steady with, I think, a cousin of Laura Biery's. You know that she was Norman Biery's wife. He was my cousin. Norman and Laura both have died. Well, as soon as Dad met Mother, he dropped the one he had been going with and married Mother. A cousin of Dad's told me how they could dance. Mother and Dad both loved to dance. Mother could yodel, too. Anyway, I think Dad dropped the girl he had been going with. I am sure she belonged to or was a cousin of the Biery's. They could see Dad was progressive, a good worker, and they thought they had him collared and cinched. Then they lost him to mother.

Dad was a cheese-maker but had to buy milk from different farmers which he didn't like. He wanted a farm where he could keep enough cows to have is own milk for cheese. Well, he read an ad in a German paper from a Mr. Zobrist of Park, Washington. He answered and was told he could take up a homestead. Anyway, they corresponded with Zobrist and then, with the four boys, came to Park. It must have been about 1889. They stayed the winter at Zobrist's. Mr. Zobrist was the one that located folks on homesteads so he began showing Dad places. All the farm homesteads were gone, so when they found the place 8 miles up in the woods, Dad figured he could cut down trees, dig out stumps and make a farm out of it.

In the spring of the next year, Jake was playing on the hillside and a log rolled down the hill. It broke his leg. Esther can probably tell you more but I do remember some of the happenings in the early days on the south fork of the Nooksack River. They were happy days for the whole family.

I remember while the folks were still living in the old house, my father's older brother, John, went to West Virginia at the time that Uncle Albert did. They wanted my father to go there too, but father was bound to go to Washington state. Anyway, father was told that John was missing and they wondered if he had come to be with Jacob (his brother, my father). But he never did show up anywhere. The last he was seen was when he went to the bank and drew out his savings. He had started for home. Another man was seen walking with him. They had to walk in a path over a small knoll. That is the last anyone there saw John. There was never further trace of him. There was a daughter, Mrs. Hicks. Your father corresponded with her at one time. (Ernest.) We kind of heard that she was in one of the big hotels in Chicago. Esther would know, but she looked into the Morrison Hotel and found no connection.

Mother lived in the cabin alone. She kept herself busy with four little boys and herself - always nourishing food for all. One day the boys were playing outside. She was out, too, trying to get some ground in shape so she could plant a few vegetable seeds. She heard an awful racket coming up river. She thought "Indians!" right away, got the boys inside, barred the door as best she could, got the gun down - never had shot it - then waited, but the racket went on by. No Indians came to the cabin. She later learned that Indians from a reservation near Bellingham go further up the river, fish and smoke the fish, then go back to the reservation. (Must have been the Lummi Indians.) When they came back a-whooping and a-hollering, she didn't even go in the cabin. She was not scared.

As I said, Mother stayed in the cabin with the boys. Dad worked for Zobrist as soon as he had Mother and the four boys here. Dad sometimes could come home on weekends, but not always. Mother tried to plant some garden. All the family were fond of vegetables. T'was all they could do to buy sugar, flour and nails. Mother baked bread almost every day.

To explain how come they had a stove: Dad packed everything in on his back using the path through the woods on our side of the river. He would take something like the stove to pieces and pack as many pieces as he could on each trip. He put the stove in the one room cabin that was on the timber claim and put it together after he had all the pieces in the cabin. I tell you, it was hard but the only way.

We always had a big meal at noon. Mother was a wonderful cook. The older boys worked like men so they needed food. Jake, Walter, Ernest and Paul never even got to go to grade school. As soon as they could pull a crosscut saw, they were helping father cut down trees.

Our folks always raised all kinds of vegetables and always had either a pig, beef or lamb for meat. Then Dad usually got a deer in winter. Money was scarce. Dad was always building. When he'd find a cedar that he figured would split easily, he would fall that tree in such a way that he could cut it in lengths he wanted for lumber. When he had to have supplies he went to Acme to get them. Zobrists had moved to Acme and had a store and building. They had rooms like the Hotel for travelers. There used to be quite a few peddlers those days who needed to stay overnight.

There were only Dad's kids for school but he, with some help from other settlers, got a log school house built, hired a teacher and we went to school three miles through a path in the woods.

When I was born, Jake ran all the way to Uncle Fred's to tell him a sister was born. Uncle lived near the school house. The year after the folks moved out, some folks from Acme were going camping and asked if they could stay in our old log house. "Of course," Dad said. Somehow it burned. Later the school house burned, too. I would like to have seen both places.

I must tell you how Ernest, your dad, discovered water power. There was a little creek on my father's farm. Us little kids knew Ernest was doing something. We used to have fun when the skunk cabbage bloomed. We'd take the yellow bloom and say they were boats. We - Fred, Norman and I - would mark them someway so we knew which was which. Then we'd put them in the stream and see whose got the the sandbar first. Of course, they would hang up on this and that, but it gave us something to do. Ernest would make a dam to make a lake, then he made some paddles. Then he told us to come and see, now, what he was doing. He put the paddles a certain way, then let the water out of the lake that the dam had made. The water made the paddles go around so we could see how much power the water had. He also made whistles for us out of a certain bark - I think from the willow trees.

I'd better tell you how I came to be born prematurely. Mother said they looked for me to arrive in June but I came on the 20th of March instead. This was due to Dad almost drowning in the river.

In March, when the snow was melting, the river was high. Dad decided to go for supplies. I think he needed nails the most. He was building a house on a rise in the ground - about 4 or 5 good size logs down, then above the logs, split lumber. A roof of split shakes, but always he needed nails. He left right after breakfast. They had got a farm horse, or maybe someone gave him one. He figured he could ride the farm horse as he had to walk 8 miles upriver from the Saxon bridge and go across the river. Then he planned to rent a horse from Zobrist to bring the supplies back. This is what he did. Us kids always were anxious to have him get home as he always brought some candy.

We were all outside waiting. Mother was in her house slippers. It was fairly nice. Then one horse came but not the other. Then Mother and Jake heard a whistling. You see, where they forded, just below was a deep hole. We caught many a fish there. In the deep hole were big boulders. Dad said the horse bucked him off but I thinks the horse probably slipped on a rock. Anyway, it put Dad in the water. He couldn't swim but managed to get on one of the big boulders so he could whistle through his fingers. As soon as they heard the whistle, Mother and Jake ran to where they would be closer to the river. They called so he would know they heard, then he called, "I am in the river! Bring a rope! An axe!" Both those things were in the woodshed so one grabbed the rope, the other the hatchet and they ran. They had quite a ways to go. One place had kind of a deep ravine with just a log to go over. Mother said one of her slippers came off so she kicked to other off. Then they had to run through brush to the river bank. The bank was quite steep. Mother said she just lay down and rolled down the hill. Then Dad said, "Tie one end of the rope to a solid, sturdy tree." There were willows at the river's edge so they did that. Then he said, "With you axe, cut a small tree. Tie the other end of the rope to it and drag it up stream a little. Throw it out and in. When it comes by I'll grab it." Ten they could pull him in. The first throw didn't come near enough to him so they had to try again. That time he got it so they pulled him out. After two days, I arrived. My first crib was a shoebox. I was so little, how did they save me? Dad had a big doctor book he was always reading and studying. I often said, "Dad reading the big black book, Mother reading the little black book (the Bible) is what kept the wild animas from us." I guess the two black books helped save me, too.

See, the nearest doctor at that time would have been in Bellingham and he would have to walk miles to Park on Lake Whatcom. Mother had born four or five children in Ohio, but up the river she had just Dad to help her. The first baby, a boy, died during birth or right after all the family and Uncle Fred, too, so no one could take care of the little baby. Mother had the dead baby in bed with her for a long time. She probably had measles, too. She was awfully sick.

Now, about the day Esther was born. Dad was well known in Bellingham so there would be what we called "big shots" come from Bellingham to have Dad show them timber claims. On this special day Dad told these men where to go and he stayed home. After dinner, he told us, "You children can go out to play." So we went out, not knowing what to play. We finally decided to see if we could tie Ernest down. Dad came out and called us, saying, "Norman, I have something in the house for you." (The fall before only one apple got ripe. Each of us had a bit.) Norman said, "What is it? Half an apple?" My Dad nodded his head so we went to the house. He showed us the baby but Norman kept looking for that half an apple.

I'll probably be able to think of some other things, such as what happened to Mr. Culhane. He and his wife had a cabin between Uncle Fred's place and the school house. The cabin was near the river on the edge of the school grounds. There was a bachelor named Boyer who lived there. He had a clock that ticked so loud. We sometimes went in to see him at noontime or at recess. After school season was over, the community held a picnic at the schoolhouse. Mother always was asked to bring jelly cake and, boy, did it go fast. But she always made one whenever one of us had a birthday. I also remember at the last picnic they got together and got the ingredients for a taffy pull. Mrs. Dahlen made it.

The settlers took turns going after the mail. There was a place near Bowman's where they could get it, but only for a time. Then it was Wickersham. It was Mr. Culhane's turn to go. He went, but never got back. Everyone was anxious to get their mail. The next day he didn't come so my father, Uncle Fred and Albert Dye went to Wickersham to see if they could find out about him. "Yes," they said, "he was here and got the mail but he was not going home the way he came." He was going over the mountain. He was easily trailed since he was getting old. There was a path on our side of the river. On the other side there was a wagon road but that was a longer way. Poor old man must have fallen down many times, got up and ran. He planned on following our path when he came to it but probably his sight was not so good. Brush had grown over the path. He came to it but crossed over. He would have been not too far from Father's home had he seen the path. He had on an overcoat. After crossing the path they found him. His coat had snagged on a dead branch that stuck out so the ones following his trail figured a cougar must have been after him. He died of fright. He had the mail. Cougars scream like cats - that poor man! His wife kept living in their cabin for quite some time. Us kids had to take a message now and then and when any butchering was done, my folks always divided the liver, put in some steaks, etc. and made a package for each settler. Us kids had to deliver. Dad had a smoke house full of meat at all times. None was ever stolen.

On the timber claim my Dad took up, he build a one room cabin right close to the river. On the other side of the river lived a Mrs. Dye and her son, Albert. I noticed his resting place near Ernest's at the cemetery in Saxon. My father lived for awhile with a Mr. Krahlings on the old Ulrich place when he first came to Washington state. My parents and Krahlings were very close. In fact, Krahlings lived at our house until they found the Ulrich place. Joining our place toward school was a bachelor named Jonli. Further on beyond the school house were the Hiram Willets on our side of the river. Further on across the river were the Urfers and some people by the name of Nelson. I think they had two sons, Fred and Algot - no relation to the Pete Nelsons near Skookum Creek. There also was a Mr. Heal who stopped at our house once in awhile on his way out or in. At one time he brought Mother an old time rocking chair, saying, "A mother with so many children needs a rocking chair, if at all possible."

I think Jake and Albert Dye soon were kind of chums but Ernest chummed with the Haggard boys, Henry and Jim. They were from Wickersham and I know he brought them home several times. Ernest wanted an education and would rather visit or chum with educated people. I think it must have been the Haggard boys who told him to take a correspondence course and it would be the same as going to high school.

I remember well how Ernest studied. I think there was no good place to study. The boy's room was upstairs and it got awful hot up there. But he studied and, I think, he got a magazine called the "Geographic". Anyway he made it. He told us little kids he was studying to be an engineer. We thought he meant a train engineer. We asked him if he'd take us for a ride on the train when he got to be an engineer, but he said that was not the kind of engineer he was studying for. So that ended us begging for a ride on the train.

When I was at Gertie's last summer, I was reading the Bellingham Herald and I think, under some Harmony news, it mentioned guests at a certain gathering. It said Mrs. Della Urfer. I know Della had married Ray McMackin from Prairie but I know he passed on a few years ago. They must be in the Harmony area. I think that would be east of what we used to call the Rome district. I would love to see Della. She was older than I.

I must tell you, a few years ago, we went to Woolley to see the parade. While we were there I was to go to Gertie's for a few days. This was after Conner passed on. Gertie said, "Now, tomorrow we need to go to Marie Hamel Royer's. Some of the old timers will be there and they want us there." So the next day we went to Marie's home. At that time it was just about where Mr. Quantz's cabin was. Just about a little south of it there is a road uphill. Gertie drove right up to the house. Well, we found Emma Weide, Naomi Nelson, Tom and George Nesset and Audley Galbraith there. They had a tape recorder and said they were getting up a book of the experiences of the early "South Fork of the Nooksack River" settlers.

I am a history nut and a collector of many antiques and histories. That's why I've over the years been given much of the Rothenbuhler Collectables and stories.

   I will share this. Dad (Archie) before he past away bestowed on me some of his war stories he kept to himself, nearly to the end. He was a military policeman in the special forces that was a feature article in the Sports Afield in January 2002 issue, "How Hunters Won W.W.II" and started out in North Africa. There, they fought Rommel and at the end of the campaign. They loaded up all the captured Narrow Track Trains and readied them for shipment to the European Campaign. Reason being, our Western Trains were too big and wide to run the tracks.
   After the invasion of Italy, he told me about the time that our powers to be kept sending our troops up a valley that was over shadowed by a villa high on a cliff top being used by the Germans as a spotting post. Our troops repeatedly where mowed down by German machine gun fire. They called in for air support from the B24 bombers but to no avail because they were dug into a net work of extensive tunnels.
   When the officer told his men to again charge in, everyone knew it was suicide. The officer was the first and only to go...he didn't get far, before he got a round in the back from one of his own men. This bothered dad to no end, he said these were unnecessary American casualties and ranged in the thousands out of stupidity.
   That's when they were sent in to scale the cliffs from the back side during the night and caught the Germans by surprised and ousted them out.
   He was assigned near the end of the Italian conflict, to guard Mussolini Grandson in a private villa to protect him from the vigilante mobs that had already hung most of the family members. I believe and am not sure but was given two very intricate cameo carvings that, one was given to my sister Cheryl and the other to me. I had it mounted into a gold and diamond broach for my wife Cherryl. As she likes to wear broaches while working at Bellingham Travel. She gets many complements from it as it is so stunning as well as unusual.

From Italy he was returned to train for the high Alps and sent to the European campaign. He didn't tell me much about this Campaign, other than that he was almost killed by a woman sympathizer for the Germans. She had tossed a grenade in their sleeping quarters and the fact they had a tuff time with many of the French Women fighting a guerilla warfare campaign for the Germans at night.

Gordon Rothenbuhler had told me that one of the other things that upset dad was the Jew's in the camps being stacked like cord wood, ready to be burned. Gordon may have more to say on this because dad talked little of the European campaign. Other than he was once assigned to guard General Eisenhower and acquired a much deserved dislike for the man. These stories I'll entrust to myself and immediate family members. We all have a secret life I guess? YOU LET THE DEAD PAST BURY ITS PAST AND REJOICE IN THE FUTURE.

After the End of the European campaign he was sent home to retrain. He said that they were preparing to drop them in Japan at night to assassinate the Emperor, when word came down that they had dropped the A Bomb, on the very day they were set to leave.

I remember dad saying that he'd send home to mom and us kids. Extra pay earned by doing other GI's duties, like shinning their boots, pulling their sentry watches and Ect.

Mom said dad came home a different man then and was never the same after that. They had some trouble for along while from this but the two of them were able to work it out and saved the marriage. Mom knew well enough not to tell him that all his letters were blacked out and that she never received the money he sent because it would have sent him in furry. So she held back from ever telling him.

Well Kriss. I will sign off for now and write more later on about the hunting and fishing trips with the Rothenbuhler clan, Bob, Glen, Bruce, Gordon and dad.

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Archie grew up in the Saxon area and married Marian Stamm June 15, 1938. Archie served during WWII in the Special Forces during the European and African Campaigns. He was an avid fisherman who loved all that nature had to offer. His yard and gardens were admired by all. His family was his life.

Visitation will be 1 pm to 7 pm Tuesday, Sept. 10, 2002 in the Jerns Funeral Chapel. A Graveside service will be held at 10:30 am Thursday, September 12, 2002 in the Saxon Cemetery. In Lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to Stafholt Good Samaritan Nursing Home, 456 "C" Street, Blaine, WA 98230.

The arrangements and services are directed by:
The Jerns Funeral Chapel and On-Site Crematorium of Bellingham

   Howard Ernest Rothenbuhler, a lifetime resident of Acme, WA and longtime Sedro Woolley businessman passed away Saturday, June 2, 2001 at United General Hospital in Sedro Woolley, WA at the age of 83 years. He was born July 15, 1917 in Acme, WA the son of Ernest and Irene (Gorrie) Rothenbuhler.
   Howard graduated from Mt. Baker High School in 1933 and the University of Washington in 1945 with a degree in Mechanical Engineering and while attending the University he was a member of Tau Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and R.O.T.C.
   He entered the US Army in 1940 and married Janet Douglass Thompson in February of 1941 in El Paso, TX.
   In 1946, Howard founded Rothenbuhler Engineering, an internationally known company with headquarters in Sedro Woolley, WA and a branch office in Vancouver, Canada. He developed the "Talkie Tooter", an electronic signaling device that helped make logging a safer industry.
   In 1986, he was awarded a State Safety Award from the Governor and the State of Washington. He was a licensed Professional Engineer and one of a few "Professional Radio Engineers".
   Howard was a member of the Sedro Woolley Rotary Club since 1954 and was a President from 1970-71. He enjoyed hunting, fishing, skiing, and boating.
   He lost his wife, Janet, who passed away on August 21, 1997 and he continued working at Rothenbuhler Engineering until suffering a stroke in November of 1999.
   He is survived by his close companion, Pat Tompson of Mt. Vernon, WA; his children: Julia and her husband Al Reed of Lake Stevens, WA, Dan Rothenbuhler and his wife Mary of Boise, ID, Ellen O'Hern of Ballard, WA and Neal Rothenbuhler and his wife Marsha of Acme, WA; a sister Myrtle Johnson of Ballard, WA; 13 grandchildren; and 2 great-grandchildren.

                                                                            Mrs. Rothenbuhler Dies Here at Age 67
   Josephine Rothenbuhler, 67, 2721 Meridian St., died in a local hospital Friday. Mrs. Rothenbuhler had lived in Whatcom County 36 years, spending the last 19 years in Bellingham.
   Surviving her are her husband at home; two daughters, Mrs. Evangeline Demorest, Bellingham, and Mrs. Norma Carter, Bremerton; three grandchildren; three brothers, Stanley Radonski of Clipper, Joe Radonski of Blaine and Anthony Radonski, Oxnard, Calif.; a sister, 'Mrs. Sophia Briggs, Snoqualmie, and many nieces and nephews.
   Funeral services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Monday in the Jones Funeral Home. Burial will be in Greenacres Memorial Park.

ROTHENBUHLER - Paul F. Rothenbuhler, age 75, of 2721 Meridian St., passed away in a local nursing home Friday, Feb. 7. A retired logger, Mr. Rothenbuhler came to the Saxon area from Ohio in 1889. Survivors are two daughters, Mrs. Milton Demorest of Bellingham and Mrs. Jack Carter of Bremerton; three grandchildren; two sisters, Mrs. Nellie Mullins of Everett and Mrs. Esther Linnane of Seattle; one brother, Norman Rothenbuhler of Acme; numerous nieces and nephews. 'Services will be conducted at the JONES FUNERAL HOME by Pastor Ray W. Anderson Monday, Feb. 10, at 1:00 p.m. Final resting place Greenacres Memorial Park.

Bernice Rothenbuhler, life-time Bellingham resident, passed away on Saturday, March 11, 2006, in Bellingham. She was 82, born in Bellingham on July 13, 1923, to Cordelia (Caron) and Jesse Stamm. Bernice married Glen Rothenbuhler on June 14, 1941. He preceded her in death in 1986.

She was a volunteer for many functions and organizations, including Maple Alley Inn, Catholic Daughters of the Americas, and Sacred Heart Church. Bernice was dedicated to her family, especially her grandchildren. She loved the outdoors, hiking, beachcombing and mushroom hunting, and enjoyed reading.

Bernice was preceded in death by brothers Malcolm and Edward Stamm. She is survived by her six children, Glenda Yamasaki and husband Minoru of Edmonds, Mark Rothenbuhler and wife Cathy of Bellingham, Sandra Reynolds and husband Michael of Bellingham, Steve Rothenbuhler and wife Vickie of Ferndale, Craig Rothenbuhler and wife Cheryl of Bellingham, and Janice Neher and husband Scott of Ferndale; three sisters, Shirley Morris of Camp Verde, AZ, Dorothy Koerner of Long Beach, WA, and Marion Rothenbuhler of Bellingham; 15 grandchildren, and one great-grandchild.

You may share your thoughts and memories of Bernice in the online memorial guest book at
www.molesfuneralhome.com (click on Bayview Chapel).

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