The information found here was volunteered by family members. Some of the historical information is as accurate as the memories of the children of John and Alice Ventris. The pages were typed and duplicated by volunteers.
It is the beginning--as complete as time would allow. Make it as accurate, complete, and up-to-date as you wish; but most of all, enjoy it!
John Joshua Ventris was born 21 March 1867, in Atchison, Kansas, to John Bennett and Barbara Ellen (Reese) Ventris, John Bennett Ventris was born 28 June 1828, in Wales. They had one daughter when they came to America and settled in Kansas. Most of their children were born in Kansas, and later in Oklahoma. Their children's names were; George, Willis, John, Charles, Ann, Elizabeth, Louise, and Minty. Much of the family still lives around Stillwater, Oklahoma. John Bennett Ventris died in Kansas in 1897, and Barbara Ellen Reese Ventris died in Stillwater, Oklahoma 11 January 1908.
Three years after their marriage in 1871, Sara and Elwood Harold moved from Indiana to Bangor, Iowa. At the time Elmore, born in September or October 23, 1869, was about two years old. Sara may have been with child during the trip, as Alice was born March 16, 1871 in Bangor, Iowa. Next was Margaret Jane, born October 7, 1872.
Elwood's parents, who were Quakers, had instilled in him the principles of righteous living. While in Bangor, Iowa, besides farming, Elwood worked in a shoe house as a cobbler and made very heavy work shoes. Money was hard to come by and so he was paid with chickens and pigs. He built up a herd of pigs. When young ones were finally ready for marketing cholera broke out among the pigs in the area. All were quarantined and had to be killed and buried in trenches.
Inspired by the lectures of P.T. Russell he was baptized in the Christian faith in 1874 at the age of 28. Their fourth child, Alphens, was born the same year on September 9, 1874. Walter was born May 16, 1878. Their sixth (and last) child, Clare Belle, was born to them September 25, 1887. Their oldest child Elmore, passed away at the age of 19, on January 11, 1888 in Indiana. He was unmarried.
The Harold family moved to Sumner Co. Kansas and two years later to the Oklahoma Territory. When Indian Territory opened up for settlers, the Harolds, along with other families, loaded all their possessions into covered wagons and rushed to Oklahoma to take up homesteads.
While in Oklahoma Territory the two oldest girls were married. Alice married Jackson Jay Waller on March 3, 1889. However, Jay passed away before their daughter Julia Edyth was born. Margaret married Bruce C. Spurgin on December 25, 1890.
The Harold's fifth child, Walter, died September 2, 1894. He was 16 years old.
In 1895 at the age of 49, Elwood Harold was ordained a christian minister and was appointed to evangelical work in Oklahoma, especially Wayne Co. During his first year as minister he conducted the marriage ceremony that united his daughter Alice to her second husband John Joshua Ventris. They were married December 25, 1895 at Paradise, in Oklahoma Territory. John was 28 and Alice was 24 years old.
Elwood Harold organized numerous churches, many of them meeting in school houses. A woman called "Mother Younger" would come to Mr. Harold for advice. She was having trouble with her sons. They were running with the wrong crowd. As it turned out, her sons were the Younger Brothers and the wrong crowd was the James gang.
In 1901 the family moved to Genesee, Idaho where Elwood was called to pastor a church there. Also, Elwood and Sara had both been ill quite a bit of the time and the doctor suggested they leave Oklahoma.
In 1903 the family moved to Albion, Washington and then to Farmington, Washington where Clara, their youngest daughter married James Roy McMahan. They married October 11, 1905.
Reverend Harold was pastor at St. John's, Washington by 1908. In 1908 during a revival he baptized 28 members into the church. St. John's records show that in 1909 Elwood Harold received a salary of $700.00 with the parsonage furnished. Because there was a small church at Sunset (nearby) he divided his time between them.
In 1914, upon the death of his wife, Sara, (May 2) he returned to Albion for a short time, then to Spokane, Washington. His remaining years were spent in Spokane. He married Lillian Paruim May 6, 1915. He spent his last years living with his daughter Clara, and son-in-law. At his death on June 3, 1932, he was described as an outstanding Christian leader and minister of the Northwest Christian Standard. At the time of the funeral, Alice (Ventris) was living in Millwood, Washington. Margaret (Spurgin) was living in Phoenix, Arizona. Elwood Harold was buried beside his wife, Sara, at St. John's Cemetery.
John Joshua Ventris and Alice Harold Ventris lived in Oklahoma for seven years. In the beginning, they lived in a sod house. It was one room lined with thin muslin and boxes with curtains over the front served as cupboards. Alice was always careful to look before reaching into the cupboards as a snake would sometimes be resting there. Snakes would also come in through the roof on occasion when it rained.
The second year of their marriage began in a series of heartaches and hardships that the Ventrises were forced to endure. Their first child, Ruby, was born February 13, 1897, but lived only three months. That same year John's father passed away.
The Ventrises were eventually able to build a house. They raised corn and cotton. Alice was always frightened of the Indians who would come and make themselves at home. Sometimes they would ask for things; sometimes they just took what they wanted.
Their second child, Elwood, was named after his grandfather. Elwood was born September 4, 1899. Grace Barbara was also born in Perkins, Payne, Oklahoma on February 16, 1900. Two years later, John came along, but lived only one month, from February 25, 1902 to March 1902.
When Alice's folks had gotten settled in Genesee, Latah Co., Idaho, John , Alice, and the children set out to join them. It was in 1903. The journey from Oklahoma to Idaho must have been a difficult one.
Alice suffered with malaria and John had had typhoid. Hartzel was born to them in Idaho on June 22, 1904.
John found work in Idaho with the railroad as a section hand. The railroad station had living quarters in one end. That is where the family lived. Indians would storm in from the reservation riding their ponies and whooping and hollering. Alice would hurry her children into the house and lock the door. The Indians would cross the tracks and settle in a grassy spot across the creek. They seldom bothered the family.
The railroad agent was there only part of the time; and since the station was always open, hobos and drunks came to the door now and then.
In the early months of 1906, John Joshua Ventris, always wanting to farm, and his father-in-law, Elwood Harold, left Farmington, Washington by team. They took the household goods, one cow and a calf, and a colt named Prince (who was being bottle-fed). They joined a wagon train in Genesee, Idaho. There were four other wagons in the party; the R. R. Sutton family had two, Henry Toning had one, and Cal Howton had one. It was quite a journey traveling through Lewiston, up the Snake River, and then along the Salmon River to Midvale, Idaho. It was rough going. In some places there was no roads, only a trail. They had to devise methods of getting the wagons over the rough places. The Sutton boys took a liking to the colt. They named him the White Elephant. They milked the cow and fed him. When he got tired they put him in a wagon. The colt was to be young Elwood's pony. He named him Prince. Each party found his homestead in Idaho. The Ventris party decided to settle 13 miles east of Midvale, Washington County, Idaho.
John and Elwood set to work building the house and the out building. Lumber had to be hauled from Cambridge, 18 miles away.
Alice Ventris and her children (Julius, Elwood, Grace, and Hartzel) had remained in Farmington with her mother, Sara, until James Roy was born May 16, 1906. As soon as they were able to travel, the family went by train to their new home.
Grace recalls, "We children had great fun helping Dad stack and burn brush as he cleared the land. Some of the sage brush had large trunks that were saved for stove wood. Life was filled with new adventures, like hauling water in barrels from a farm about four miles away.
Mother would read to us from the Bible. We enjoyed it. Things seemed to be going well. Then tragedy came---Elwood was accidentally killed by a playmate Aug 4th, 1907. (He was 7 years old) It was hard for dad to get over the loss, and nothing seemed the same. On the day Elwood died a neighbor boy came over to get Elwood to go with him to find a lost cow. (He was from a very strange family) The mother had gone up to a saw mill, way up in the mountains to be with her husband. She left the boy to take care of the house and stock. The boy was afraid of his mother and had to find the cow. Mother did not like the idea of Elwood going. She had a bad feeling about it. She gave in to Elwood, but told them to go only up to a certain hill where they could look all around. If they couldn't see the cow they were to come right back. Elwood was always very obedient. The dog went with them. He always went everywhere with Elwood. After they had been gone quite a while, mother became worried. The dog came whining and scratching at the screen door and mother knew something was wrong because the dog would never leave Elwood. She grabbed a little pail of water and some white cloth and started down the trail following the dog. Then the neighbor boy met her and said he had accidentally shot Elwood. She sent the boy for help and went on and found Elwood on the path. He had been shot in the back of the head. She picked him up and took him into the neighbor's house out of the hot sun. (She should not have moved him until the officer came) After the boy reported to the neighbor he ran and hid in a cave. When they found him he gave the report that he had got the gun from over the door. His mother had left it there. He did not know it was loaded. They were playing cowboys and Indians. Dad was up the creek several miles getting supplies. A neighbor went after him on horseback. He rode the horse home as fast as he could and the neighbor brought his team back. Louise was born four months later, Dec. 21, 1907.
Other settlers came and we had neighbors about a mile away. There were terrible dust storms with hail and lightning. One night the neighbor's tent and everything in it blew away. They were invited to our place until they could get things together again. This neighbor had a well-drilling outfit, so we had a well drilled. It was not very successful, as there wasn't enough water for all the stock in summer. So we kids drove the cows to the creek once a day to water.
Dad and Jim Goodnight built the first school three miles away from our house, "Sweet Home Schoolhouse". It was one room with a big pot-bellied stove in the center, a teacher's desk, desks for the kids, and a blackboard. One teacher taught all from the first grade through the eighth. Eighteen students were the most that attended at one time. Winters at school were fun. At noon we could slide down a hill on sleds or play on the ice in a creek behind the schoolhouse. We skated without skates which was hard on the shoes.
In the spring and fall we walked to school across the fields. Dad took us in the winter. When we were big enough to take care of the horses, we rode horseback. In the cold weather, the little black pony would inadvertently dump his passengers, then patiently wait for them to climb back on board. When Roy was old enough to care for the horses we went in the buggy or sled in the winter. We often had school plays, with everyone taking part.
The first few years the garden did well. Fruit trees were planted and we had gooseberries and currents. There was a field planted with corn and beans. When dry, the beans were tramped on a tarpaulin, the trash was blown out in the wind, and the corn was fed to the pigs. We took trips to Indian Valley for fruit and tomatoes, which were bought in bushel baskets. We were plenty busy canning and drying as there was no refrigeration. The grainery was flat on the roof, and made a very good place to dry fruit and vegetables. We also raised potatoes, carrots, and turnips which were put in the dug-out cellar.
John and Alice had a new baby on March 4th, 1910--John Russell. Each summer we looked forward to Aunt Clara and Cousin Faythe's visit. Faythe was born Dec. 31, 1907--just 10 days after Louise's birth. Sometimes Uncle Jim would come. They lived in Spokane, Washington. Faythe loved to help feed the animals and enjoyed horseback riding.
Mother was Postmaster for a couple of years. The post office consisted of a desk in the living room. Business was light. She sold a few stamps. The postman came twice a week. Dad was Justice of the Peace for one term.
There was no wood around our place. So, after the farm work was done and before the snow was too deep in the mountains, the neighbor men and Dad would go and "snake" down logs, piling them close to the road. It was a day's drive and they would return the third day. In the spring or summer when the roads were dry, they could each bring out their logs for wood. A few times we older kids went with Dad to haul logs. This was great fun sleeping on pine boughs under the stars, listening to the wind blow through the pines. Dad loaded the logs on the wagon in the evening so as to get an early start up the long steep grade. We wondered what was keeping him so long. Finally a man drove up behind our wagon and found Dad in a daze. In trying to tighten the load, he had gotten knocked on the head and didn't know what he was doing. The man drove our four-horse team and load of logs up the grade where Dad rested awhile. He had a terrible headache and we were glad to get home safely.
One winter and epidemic of scarlet fever came and the kids in school were exposed to it. We kids took sick in December and were strictly quarantined until the first part of February. We were all very ill. There was no phone and no one could come and help the folks. It was at this time in January that Hartzel passed away. (January 16, 1912) He was seven years old. The house had to be fumigated by burning formaldehyde. We kids were bundled up and taken to the neighbors for a day and a night. After bathing and putting on sterilized clothes, everything that could be burned, like books, papers, and toys were burned. This was also a difficult time as Tom was born the 10th of February. We were just out of quarantine for a few days.
There was progression through the years. There was binding and shucking grain. Then we got a header and an old threshing machine, then the combine. Always during the harvest time there was excitement and work. Meals had to be prepared--sometimes for a few men and sometimes for many. It meant going to bed tired and getting up very early in the morning.
Then one summer when Dad had been ailing for a few months but had tried to keep going, the doctor came and told us that he would have to have an operation for appendicitis. His appendix had burst. After giving Dad a shot for pain, the doctor fixed a bed in the back seat for Dad, and he and Mother were taken to the hospital in Weiser, Idaho. Operations were not common in those days and Dad's was complicated. They were gone nearly three weeks. It seemed like ages to us kids. It was harvest time. Julia and her husband, John Baker, and their boys came to help us get in the crops. That fall Dad had to have help to haul the grain to Midvale where some was exchanged for flour and the rest was sold.
One fall, during our annual trip to the mountains for wood, it was rainy and cold when we started home. One wagon broke the reach. We had cut a pole and hued out a new one. We had no way to bore a hole in the wood tongue, so we built a fire and burned the bolt in. We had to stay another night because of this. Our beds were wet, we had very little food that night and none the next day. Tom was with us and quite small. He got so hungry that when he did get food at the Dunham ranch, he overate and became quite ill. Dad left him there to recover. Later in the day the Dunhams sent him home on one of their saddle horses.
Tom remembers, "During the next months several families got together at someone's house for a sawing bee. We would saw the logs up with six foot crosscut saws and then have a party afterwards. Roy played the violin and we all danced. Often everybody spent the night and worked again on Sunday. Some other week we would move to another neighbor's place and repeat the procedure. Next it was butcher time and just like the sawing bees, we would get together for butchering and curing the meat. Everybody had what was called a smoke house where we sugar-cured or salt-cured the meat. Mother made sausage and made containers out of old flour sacks. Each long container was about 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Then we hung it by wire from the ceiling in the smokehouse to keep mice from getting it. My mouth still waters when I think about that sausage."
Occasionally in the winter entire families would travel many miles by sled to a dance and box social. These also would be held in the schoolhouse. Generally the violin, banjo, or guitar and sometimes the organ provided music--all volunteer. They would put the school desks around the wall and make beds for the little ones when they went to sleep. Dad called for the square dances. At midnight the men would bid on the girl's box lunches. The winner would have the privilege of eating with the lady.
Dad was deputized to keep the peace in and around the farms. At one of the dances an argument began between some young men who had been drinking. So, Dad picked up all of their guns and brought them home. Sunday he called them to come and get their guns. It was embarrassing for them as we were all friends. Mother was always afraid that Dad would get himself hurt. During another dance after he watched some younger men box, he proceeded to challenge the winner--much to Mother's disliking.
Their last baby, Vera, was born May 20th, 1914. She lived only one day.
Grace recalls, "I was going to Link's Business College during what would have been my sophomore year in high-school. I was at school in Boise when I received a telephone call from Dad. It was frightening. Dad would never call unless there was something very serious. He said, "Your mother is very sick. Catch the first train home. It leaves in two hours. There will be a ticket at the station for your fare." He also told me that Aunt Clara was there. I was so upset that the assistant manager of the school collected my things and took me to the station.
The doctor arranged for a room in the Midvale hotel for Mother, and I was to nurse her. The doctor came two or three times a day until Mother began to improve. She was unconscious and running a fever, but the doctor told me how to care for her. This was the biggest responsibility that I had ever had. Time passed so slowly, but finally she started getting better. It was about 18 days before we could take her home. While mother was sick a young woman named Ann Kulick came to care for the family. It was during this time that all the kids had the measles. It may have been during this illness that the doctor told Mother that she could lay there and worry herself to death and let someone else raise her children, or she could force herself to never worry about anything and raise her children herself. She evidently was able to do just that, for her children remember her optimistic attitude."
Roy has written, "Our Grandmother Harold passed away May 2, 1914. After that, Grandpa Harold spent two or three months each summer with us. He would hold church services in the schoolhouse as no church was available. Grandpa Harold was much loved by the community for his contributions as minister and for his holiday services. The congregation would often bring a picnic dinner and spend the afternoon playing baseball. Occasionally the young men would put on a rodeo. Sometimes on the fourth of July all the neighbors would get together for baseball, horseback racing, foot racing, etc. Then we'd have a picnic with homemade ice cream.
Grandpa used to sit on the front porch a lot. The chickens were free to run, so they were in the yard at will. When the big rooster would start to crow, Grandpa would pick up a pebble or corn cob. He was such a good shot. He could cut that rooster off right in the middle of his crow. It tickled him so."
Grace married Robert Clyde Shand on March 30, 1918, and moved to Utah.
In December, 1918 we children (Roy, Louise, Joe, and Tom) all had whooping cough. Dad had gone to Crane Creek to cut small limbs for firewood. We sometimes burnt sagebrush, but the odor was very bad. The house caught fire. Mother told us to run outside and she brought blankets, coats and boots. There was snow on the ground and we got cold and wet, which complicated our illness. By the time Dad got home and the neighbors had arrived everything was gone. All the money and stamps for the post office was gone. Mother and Dad had trouble getting square with the government.
Our neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Pete Groaver, took us into their home. We were there about two weeks. The neighbors went together and set up housekeeping for us in the old Elly homestead on the Gene Dunham farm. Julia and her husband, John Baker, had divorced. Julia and John had lived with us until after the baby was born. His name was Leslie. He passed away when he was about three years old. John Baker came to our farm one time with a wagon and two horses. He kidnapped Vern and headed for Midvale. Dad immediately hooked up his two high-spirited mules and went after him. He returned with him the next day. (Dad was so proud of those mules--they kicked anybody that walked behind them. In the late summer, a government buyer came through and asked Dad what he would take for the mules. He set the price high, thinking that he was safe from parting with his matched team, but the buyer accepted. (They were to be used by the army during WWI) Julia married Clarence Beckman and after their house burned they left their farm. We didn't get to see them after that.
We had 14 head of milk cows which had to be milked twice a day. It was quite a task when Dad and Roy were away at harvest. Joe and Tom had to drive the cows to pasture each day and then return them in the evenings.
The family lived on the Dunham farm until drought and poor soil caused crop failure. People were moving away. Dad tried to make a go of it, but was finally forced to file bankruptcy.
In the fall of 1922, Mother, Dad, Joe and Tom caught the first train that Joe and Tom had ever been on and headed for Grace's in Utah. They arrived broke. Louise had gone to Grace's earlier. Dad did any work he could find; harvested potatoes in Gunnison, herded sheep, etc. That fall we lived in a tent and worked the sugar beet fields. After the sugar beets were harvested, we moved to a small house in Manti, Utah. Dad worked for Clyde Shand, Grace's husband.
Tom remembers, "Joe, a friend named Eddie Fox, and I borrowed some horses one time and went camping in the mountains. It stormed and we lost all the horses. We hiked, carrying the saddles, to a sheep camp. A herder helped us back to town where the owner of the horses announced he planned to sue us! But Louise had a couple of boyfriends who rode until they found the horses--much to the delight of Mother and Dad.
We spent two years in Utah. Dad and Joe worked in the mountains herding sheep. Joe was the camp cook. Mother and Tom lived in town where we raised 14 lambs and milked a cow. One fall and winter we moved to Provo, Utah, where Dad and Roy helped build a steel mill. In the spring we moved back to Manti.
There wasn't enough work. Roy went to Spokane, Washington, and found a job at the paper mill in Millwood. So he bought a house and the family joined him in September of 1924. Louise had been going with Fred Wintch for over a year. They were married October 15, 1924, and returned to Utah to live.
Life revolved around the work that could be found. Dad worked helping build houses. Joe and Tom worked picking beans and cucumbers for a canning company during the summer. After two or three years the paper mill had financial trouble and Roy was laid off. So Dad, Roy and Joe hopped a freight train to Havre, Montana to work on a farm for the spring and summer. Mother and Tom stayed home. They picked strawberries and raspberries and sold them by putting a sign up on the highway.
Life improved in 1927-1929. Sister Julia and Clarence, Roy and Joe found work in Potlatch, Idaho. They brought Dad and Mother. Dad worked on the railroad as a section hand in 1930 until he was laid off because of his age, although he said he could out-work any of the crew. Mother took care of an elderly couple for about two years.
In 1930 the Depression hit. Everyone was out of work. The family moved back to Millwood where they began a struggle for existence. Tom had received a full scholarship to college with room and board. Dad and Joe took a WPA job for digging an irrigation ditch. They had to walk six miles through snow and mud to the job in winter. They started while it was still dark and returned after dark. Later, Dad, Roy and Joe cut cord wood for $1.00 per cord, working as soon as they could see in the mornings and as late as they could see at night. Eventually, Joe got on at the paper mill, but the pay was so poor that he had to work a full night shift and unload a gondola of coal with a scoop during the day for a coal company.
Roy married Viola Marie Morrison on January 1, 1934.
When the kids were married and gone, Mother had her eye operation for cataracts. Something went wrong and she lost an eye. She would never have the cataracts removed from the other eye and gradually lost her sight. As mother and Dad got up in years, they lived in Spokane near Aunt Clara for a time. When Dad got ill, Julia took them home to live with her to Hoquim, Washington. When their health was good they lived alone. When it was not, their children took care of them. Mother fell down the stairs one time and was badly hurt. She was taken to the hospital and used a cane after that. Then Dad's health failed and he had to go to a rest home. This was terribly difficult for Mother. Dad passed away on April 20, 1956.
Mother moved in with Aunt Marge Spurgin. (Uncle Bruce had died) They were happy. Then Aunt Marg got cancer and Faythe took Marg to Seattle. Mother was alone again. She was in a rest home for a short time. Then Grace quit her job in Texas to drive to Spokane to take care of Mother at Julia's home until Mother passed away on October 19, 1960. Burial was at St. John's Cemetery, Whitman Co., Washington.
We, the descendants of John and Alice Ventris, have much to gain from knowing our ancestors. This story, told by their children, takes us through hardships too difficult to imagine. Only six of their eleven children grew to adulthood. Tom remembers his father John Joshua Ventris, as a silent, honest, proud man. He believed in hard work. He felt full responsibility for the welfare of his family. He praised the accomplishments of his family with few words, but with a twinkle in his eye. The love and respect he had for Alice instilled in his children the love and respect they had for their mother. Alice Harold was the backbone of the family. She was very religious, and was able to cite many scriptures. She was loved by everyone who knew her. Her expression, "Kill them with kindness" was the advice she gave to her children when they had unpleasant feelings towards anyone. She ruled with few words. She ruled with love.
The Ventrises always made the best of what they had. The family stayed together, depended on one another, and helped each other through many hardships!
Note: This history is a combination of two sources:
- "The Family Book"
- "Memories of Grace Ventris Clelland" as told to Jean Dawson (1986)
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