The Secret Saddle_Anna Troy's Emancipation

by Dani Larsen

  When the new phone was installed in their house on the 5th of July, Anna made the first call to her parents' ranch in Pleasant Valley. George said he didn't care how much the phone call cost, as he knew that Anna needed to talk to her mother, and to let her know what had happened as a result of her letter.

  "Mama? It's me, Anna. We just got our phone installed so I thought I would call and give you the number and also tell you the news about Jude Burden."

  "What news? Are ye all okay? Is that fiend down there? John went into town and found out that the man had left town over a year ago."

  "Yes, Mama, he was here. But don't worry, he's dead now. I didn't read your letter until just after the children went by in our wagon in the parade yesterday. When I read it, I realized that while we were at the Fourth of July festivities it would be a great time for him to search our farm for that saddle. He came to town over a year ago and had been working on the water pipeline east of here. I guess I didn't mention that he was here. Anyway, I hurried home with John and Bert and told Helen to tell George that Jude was after the saddle, and to come home immediately. When I arrived I found Jude in the stable. John went to get the rifle, but in the meantime Jude grabbed Bert and held a pistol to his head. I had to put the rifle down or he would have hurt Bert. He said he just wanted the saddle, and sent John to retrieve it. John pulled out the crate, and Jude slit open a secret compartment inside the saddle and pulled out a handful of gold nuggets, a mere sample of what was in the bags."

  "Oh my goodness, so it really did have gold in it?"

  "Yes, Mama, it sure did. Then he put the saddle on one of our mares and took off on his horse, with our mare trailing behind carrying his stolen treasure. Just then, George came driving up the road and Jude shot at the car as he rode off. When I told George that Jude was responsible for his father's death and that he had held a gun to Bert's head, he went after him and chased him all the way up the mountain to Lolo Pass. Lucky for us, it was raining hard that day and the Sandy River rose and washed out the road. George caught up to Jude just as he was trying to cross the raging waters. The greed killed him, Mama. He only had our mare by then, and he unbuckled the saddle and let her go, and the heavy gold in the saddle pulled him down."

  "I guess it isn't very Christian like to say this, but good riddance. Thank the Lord that ye are all okay."

  "We are all fine now, Mama, thanks to your letter. I better hang up now though. This call is probably going to cost us a pretty penny. I just wanted to let you know what happened. How is everyone there?"

  "We are all doing fine, Anna, and we are so glad that ye are too. Da and the girls send their love."

  "We love you all too. I will write you with a lot more details. Bye, Mama."

  Anna hung the ear piece in its cradle on the wall, and said to George, "I think I like this telephone. I can't believe I could talk to Mama through it, with her being so far away. What a wonderful invention! First the car, and now this, what will be next?"

  "Don't forget the airplane."

  "Oh, yes. I never would have thought any of that would be possible."

  "Yes, it is a new world we are living in."

  Life in Sandy was good for the family for the next few years, but as George and Anna grew older, and their children began leaving to live their own lives, George started talking about selling the farm.

  John graduated from Sandy High School in 1927. He really didn't like working on the farm and needed to make his own way, so he got a job at the Kelso Store. Then he met a girl who had just moved to the Cottrell area. Hazel Booth didn't live too far from the Hempe Dairy. George and Anna liked Hazel, but they were concerned as her family was not Catholic. In late 1929, John announced that they were going to be married. The ceremony was held in a nondenominational church in Gresham when John was nineteen years old. George and Anna were not too happy about that, but their oldest son had a mind of his own. A year later John Kenneth Hempe was born, making George and Anna grandparents for the first time.

  Helen blossomed into a lovely young lady her last two years at Sandy High School. Her best friend was Johnnie Shelley, daughter of Percy and Blanche Shelley, a family whose roots in Sandy went way back to the pioneer days. The two girls often delivered mail to the Cherryville Post Office for Johnnie's father on the plank Cherryville road that went up the mountain to that small area. Percy had a contract on the Star route delivering mail to the Sandy and Boring area post offices, and he let the girls take his car and deliver to Cherryville. In 1928, Helen's senior year, she was elected Student Body President as she was an excellent student. After she graduated, she got her teaching certificate and taught for a year at Eagle Creek, which had a one room school house a few miles south of Sandy.

  In 1930, George was offered a job as a longshoreman in Portland. The dairy farm was making a living for the family, but George was nearing fifty years old, and he was working harder without the help of his two oldest children. The job offer would put a lot more money in the family coffers than they were now earning, so they decided to sell the farm and move into Portland, where George would be working on the docks. They knew they had made the right decision when Helen came home with some shocking news. It was the last day of classes at Eagle Creek until fall when Helen made her big announcement.

  "Ma, Pa, I have made a decision. I am going to join the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Names."

  Her parents sat there with their mouths open. They knew their daughter had become quite religious, but they had never thought of her joining a convent.

  "Helen, what happened that made you decide to do that?" George asked his daughter.

  "Pa, I have been thinking about it for a long time. It has just suddenly become something that I know I must do. As a nun I can teach school, which I have found that I love to do. I will be able to go to Marylhurst College, which is next to the convent, for free. I will live at the convent until I graduate, and then they will assign me a school to teach at, or somewhere else I can be of service to the poor. I will be taking a vow of poverty, and that is what I want."

  Anna came over and hugged her daughter.

  "I am so very proud of you, Helen. There is no better thing that you could do with your life."

  Tears poured from her eyes. "Your brother Joseph would be so proud of you."

  "Yes, Mama, he would be. He and I talked about God often."

  That weekend, Helen packed up the few things she would take with her, mainly underclothes and pictures of her family. Her father drove her all the way to Lake Oswego, which was on the other side of Portland, and left his oldest daughter at the convent of the Sisters of the Holy Names (Jesus, Mary, and Joseph). Helen had already chosen her new name. After taking her vows, she would be known as Sister Mariam Magdala.

  Mary and Bert graduated from the eighth grade in Sandy and transferred to St. Stephens when the family moved to Portland. George Jr. was in the eighth grade. George sold their seventy-seven plus acres and was able to pay cash for their new home and to start a little nest egg for their retirement. The couple found a nice house on East 54th Street, right down the street from Franklin High School, but since St. Stephens had a good Catholic High School only a little farther away, and they were making a little more money, they decided to send their children to that school instead. They made their move to the city at the end of 1930. The children settled in easily and loved living in the city where they enjoyed a busy social life.

  In 1934 there was a big Longshoreman strike on the West Coast which started in the City of Portland. George was heavily involved in the union and the strike. Anna spent a lot of time worrying about George as the papers were filled with news about the angry strikers and the scabs who dared to cross the strike line. Violence erupted and several people were hurt, but finally the union won and the strike was over. Anna was very relieved.

  In 1935, when Mary was twenty, she married Hank Kutter, a twenty-two year old, who was a warehouseman for a wholesale grocery chain. The young couple moved to a house
on Southeast 8th Street shortly after their wedding.

  Bert graduated from St. Stephen's that same year and immediately enrolled in Business School. When he graduated in 1937, he went to work at the brand new Timberline Lodge as a bookkeeper.

  George fell in love with Gertrude Pennings right after High School, and they were engaged to be married soon after. The young couple were both nineteen years old when they tied the knot in 1939.

  Bert was the only one left living at home at the end of 1939, when the telephone rang one night and changed his life forever. His mother answered the phone and called him.

  "Bert, it's for you!" She put her hand over the mouthpiece, raised her eyebrows and said, "It's a girl."

  Bert took the phone from her hand.

  "Hello?"

  "Hello, is this Bert Hempe?"

  "Yes, it is, who is this?"

  "This is Vivian. My friend, Betty, said that she saw you and your brother the other day, and that you were both very handsome, but that your brother was married. She looked up your number in the directory, dialed it, and put the phone in my hand and made me call you."

  "Really? And where are you calling from?"

  "Here in Portland. I just graduated from Northwestern Business School, and I'm working at my Aunt's grocery store until I get a job."

  "I just graduated from Northwestern two years ago. I've been working as a bookkeeper at Timberline Lodge, but I don't like my job."

  "What don't you like about it? I think that would be a fun place to work."

  "It's not, it's boring. I can't stand sitting behind a desk all of the time, and besides, it is a long way to drive every day."

  "Yes, that would be a long drive. So you have your own car?"

  "Yes, I had to buy one to drive that far. I just applied for a job with Fred Meyer though. I need to be up and doing things. Hopefully, I will know if I got the job next week."

  "That sounds good. I need to hang up now."

  "Wait, I want to know more about you. Can I call you back?"

  "No, I don't know you well enough to give you my phone number. My aunt is coming. I need to go. I'll call you back sometime."

  Then he heard a click. He was disappointed, as he knew he wanted to talk to the girl more. Her husky breathy voice enticed him, and he wanted to find out more about her. He couldn't wait to talk to her again.

  Bert stayed by the phone the next night, but she didn't call. Three days later she called again, and Bert answered the phone before his mother did.

  "Hello?"

  "Hello, Bert? This is Vivian."

  "I thought you'd never call back. Why did you wait so long?"

  "I've been very busy."

  "Going out on dates?"

  She giggled. "I've just been busy."

  "I want to know more about you. Tell me about yourself. Where did you go to high school? Tell me about your family."

  "Okay, I graduated from Commerce High School in 1937. I moved here to live with my aunt from Kalama, Washington, in 1936. She owns a small grocery store and we live above it. My best friend is Betty, and we went to high school together."

  "Where are your parents?"

  "My parents are dead."

  "I'm sorry. What happened?"

  "My mother died of consumption when I was three years old, and my father was killed in a logging camp accident when I was six. I lived with my stepmother and her family in Idaho for a while, but then I was sent to live with my grandmother in Kalama along with my older sister, where we lived most of our life. I have a younger sister, but I haven't seen her since we left Idaho."

  "Wow. That is tough. Why did you come to live with your aunt? Did your grandmother die too?"

  "No, my Aunt Irene and my Uncle Dee adopted us a few years after my daddy died, but then he died, too, the next year. His appendix burst. My aunt sent us back to our grandmother. For some reason, my grandma told my aunt that she needed to take us back a couple of years ago. I guess two teenage girls were too much for her."

  "Do you like it here?"

  "I guess it's okay, but I really liked it in Kalama where I knew everyone. I was upset when we had to move again."

  "It sounds like you and your sister have been shoveled around all over the place."

  "Yes, I guess we have. Here comes my aunt, I'd better go."

  "Please call me again, tomorrow night?"

  "Okay, I'll try."

  Bert was now very intrigued. He couldn't wait to meet her. When she called back he would insist on getting her phone number, or even better, take her out. He hoped she was as lovely as she sounded. When he went to bed that night, all he could do was think of her and imagine the face that went with the voice.

  She called him for the next three nights, and they talked for a long time each time. Finally, on the last night that she called he talked her into going out with him.

  "Vivian, please go out with me next Saturday night. I must meet you. I love your voice and I just know that we will get along well. I can't wait any longer to meet you."

  "You might be disappointed when you meet me."

  "I don't think so. Please?"

  "Okay, if you are sure you won't be disappointed?"

  "I know I won't. By the way, what is your last name?"

  "It's Hill, Vivian Hill."

  "That is a lovely name. Now I need your address and phone number?"

  "I live above the little grocery store on the corner of 34th and Clinton. My number is Belmont-7823. What time should I be ready?"

  "Is seven o'clock okay?"

  "Yes, where are we going?"

  "How about going to dinner and a movie?"

  "Okay. Now promise you won't be disappointed."

  "I'm sure I won't be disappointed."

  "Okay, I will see you at seven on Saturday."

  He couldn't wait until Saturday. He was so anxious, and he was afraid he would be disappointed. Vivian sounded so wonderful, would she be everything he had imagined?

  On Saturday he took a bath, put on his best suit, and splashed Old Spice on his face after he shaved. His mother smiled when he came downstairs.

  "Bert, you look so handsome. Do you have a date?"

  "Yes, Mama, I am going out with the girl I've been talking to on the phone."

  "I don't know what I think about a girl who calls a young man all the time."

  "It will be fine, Mama. I had to talk her into going out with me. I'm hoping she is as pretty as she sounds."

  "Have a good time, Son." His father came in from the kitchen.

  Bert was so nervous when he got out of the car he almost fell down. He had stopped and bought a bouquet of flowers for her aunt and a corsage for Vivian. He took a deep breath as he knocked on the door at the side of the store. It took a few minutes, before he heard someone come down the stairs. An older woman smiled at him as she answered the door. There was a door to his left, which led to the little store that had closed an hour earlier, and a tall staircase that led up the stairs to their apartment.

  "You must be Bert. I'm Irene, Vivian's aunt."

  "It's very nice to meet you, ma'am. These are for you."

  He heard the door at the top of the stairs open, and as he looked up the stairs his brown eyes got huge as he saw her for the first time. He was not disappointed! A beautiful girl, with porcelain skin and dark hair, stood at the top of the stairs. She smiled at him, and he thought ... Oh, my gosh! She is prettier than I imagined.

  As she came down the stairs, he was delighted to see sparkling hazel eyes smiling at him. Her lovely lips revealed straight white teeth, and she had a figure that knocked him out. He was smitten the minute he saw her. He took a deep breath and uttered the only word he could get out.

  "Wow!"

  Bert and Vivian Hempe

  Anna Troy Hempe and George Hempe

  The George and Anna Hempe Family

  1912 The George and Anna Hempe Family 1928

  The Frank and Caroline Hempe Family

  George and Anna Hempe's 50th W
edding Anniversary, 1958

  Mary, Bert, Sister Helen, Anna, John, George, and George Jr.

  Sister Helen Hempe

  The Secret Saddle:

  Anna Troy's Emancipation

  Fact versus Fiction

  I hope you enjoyed this novel of historical fiction and that you are not reading this until you have finished reading the entire book. I heard from some readers of "The Emancipation of Mary Sweeney" that they were upset to find out that Mary Sweeney had not actually come to America all by herself. If you want to believe that everything that happens in "The Secret Saddle" is all true, then do not read this part, but if you want to know who were real people and what events in this story really occurred, then by all means continue reading.

  If you read "The Emancipation of Mary Sweeney" you already know that Mary and John Troy were real people, and that they were my great grandparents. All of the other Troys are real too. Anna Troy was my grandmother. Her brother, Jeremiah, did marry a girl named Blossom, and one of their granddaughters lives in the old ranch house on the property in Pleasant Valley, Oregon, as the two thousand acres are still in the family. Margaret Troy married Rob Becker and they lived most of their life in La Grande, Oregon. Frances (Fan) and Elizabeth (Zee) Troy never married and were both teachers in Baker County for many years, and also taught many of the children in the area to ride. They lived until they were ninety and eighty-nine years old, and ran the Troy Ranch until Jeremiah's son, Wayne, took over from them in their later years. My aunt, Sister Helen Hempe, told me many stories about her beloved aunts. Steve Troy (John Steven Troy Jr.) did fight in World War I and came home and married a woman named Laura. They moved to Portland, and he had a successful barber shop in Portland for many years. Their son, Steve, Jr. was a well-known football player at Franklin High School, and became a fireman after graduation.