Sharing our Links to the Past
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Sketch on Helen Esther Gray By Wallace F. Gray based on interview on January 1, 1971 Other sources: graduation certificate, birth certificate and other documents My mother, Helen Esther Bungard Gray, was born at Rainier, Thurston County, Washington where she lived for 21 years. She and her family lived at their ranch for 20 of those years. The house was built when Helen was one year old. In 1918-19 she and her father (Nels Bungard) worked as postmasters at the Rainier post office. She attended a business college in Seattle and then worked at Seattle for two years at the George P. Ide Co. (shirt and collar manufactures) as a stenographer. In 1921 she came down on The Queen from Seattle to Wilmington. Her father had come down the year before. It was on this boat where she met my father. She lived in Santa Monica with her father (1511 15th St.) and worked as a stenographer in Los Angeles, first for Comptons Pictured Encyclopedia and then for American Crushed Rock for one and one-half years.They rented on 6th street in Santa Monica, then on Broadway and 8th, (known then as Utah and 8th.) She and her father built the house at 1511 15th Street in S.M. She was married on Christmas day in 1923, her father having died on December 7. She worked for a year after married. Having been raised on a farm, she walked two and one-half miles to school (East Union School) through rain, snow, sleet and frost. Her father, a farmer, raised his own cattle and crops. They sold eggs and cream and some calves, made butter for themselves and raised their own food. She graduated from the eighth grade on 13 June 1910. They had a team of horses, and Helen had a riding horse. They were seven miles from town of Rainier. During the time they ran the P.O. they lived in Rainier. She left Rainier in 1922 and never returned. Her parents were born in Denmark but met each other in Tacoma. The father had gone to North Dakota and her mother had gone to Minnesota, (from Denmark) but her dad and mother were working in Tacoma when they met each other. The first house built on the ranch (where Helen was born) burned when she was a year old. The photo includes Howard, (seated on ground), Aunt Christina (Christine Madsen, Bertha’s sister), Verna (not sure who she is, yet), Helen, father Niels Bungard (seated on ground) and mother Bertha Madsen Bungard. Also dog Fido. Picture taken on their farm. Picture was taken on 31 Oct 1903. It was Niels’ and Bertha’s twelfth wedding anniversary. Helen was almost seven and Howard was eleven. She has always loved farming and was very happy in Topanga Canyon where they had animals, raised vegetables and flowers, and enjoyed the wide open spaces. Addena: Helen was born on November 6, 1896. Her brother, Howard Luther Bungard, was born 10 Nov 1892 and died 12 May 1914 at age 21. Her mother died 28 April 1914. Helen was 18 when these deaths occurred. |
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