Centenarian recalls the old days of Sisters

In 1914, the year that the First World War broke out, Ethel Goodrich's family moved from Maine to the High Desert of Eastern Oregon, to an area now known as Wagontire.

Ethel was 2 years old and suffering from what was called "tuberculosis of the bone" and a dry Western climate was expected to help her.

It was a pioneering life.

"My dad raised cattle and trapped coyotes," Ethel recalled.

In 1919, the family pulled up stakes and moved west to what is now the Cloverdale area of Sisters Country. They arrived just in time for a heavy winter, where snow piled up to the eaves of a ranch house.

Ethel's father, Ariel Linwood Goodrich, took up farming, raising alfalfa hay, wheat, potatoes and a flock of sheep. He would eventually give his name to Goodrich Road, east of Sisters.

"The hay we stacked up in the summertime and fed it to the sheep all winter and then sold the sheep in the spring," Ethel recalled. "I worked in the hay field. I raked hay and stacked hay and all that sort of stuff. We had strawberries; I picked strawberries."

She was one of five siblings. When she wasn't working, she attended high school in Redmond, boarding with a family there.

A young man worked on her father's farm by the name of Glenn Van Tassel. He was born in a log cabin in what is now the Plainview area and graduated from Sisters High School, where he played basketball, in 1928.

The couple "got acquainted" and married in 1930. They lived for a while on the Goodrich Ranch, then moved to Sisters and built a home, which still stands on Adams Avenue.

Glenn did some farming and logging to make a living, and Ethel's daughter-in-law Jannie notes that "she used to cut logs, too."

She recalls Sisters in the old days: "It was just a small town. There was at least a couple of grocery stores, a post office, a high school and a grade school."

In 1949, the family migrated to Redmond. Glenn got into the fence-building trade and Ethel taught school and worked at the Redmond Library while raising seven children - five sons and two daughters.

They didn't leave Sisters Country behind, though.

Much of Glenn's work involved building fences for cattlemen who pastured in the mountains of Sisters Country.

"We lived in camps when we did that," Ethel said. "It was fun... those big sugar pines up there..."

The family did a lot of camping.

"That was one of the high points of our lives," Ethel recalled.

Jannie says, "They did a lot of backpacking up into their 70s."

The Metolius River was a favorite spot.

"I suppose that was the one place we camped the most," Ethel said.

Glenn died in 1997, and Ethel lived on in her modest Redmond home. She turned 100 years old on March 5. The family plans a big celebration March 11.

Ethel proclaims no formula for longevity. Her daughter-in-law notes that she was a vegetarian almost all her life and Ethel says she had a good marriage and good kids. She also attests to a strong faith in God.

"That was first place," she said. "Everything else came after that."

She's led a simple, good life.

"We've never been rich," she said. "We've always had enough, though. We never went hungry."

She said she wasn't so keen on living to be 100 and actually had hoped she would pass on before she hit the century mark.

But, she said. "I changed my mind. I'll just go as long as the Lord lets me."

Author Bio

Jim Cornelius, Editor in Chief

Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.

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