$3.00 The CONFLUENCE Publication of Wenatchee Valley Museum Vol. 35, No. 2 & Cultural Center Summer 2019 Photo by Welcome Sauer, courtesy of the Sauer Family courtesy Sauer, Welcome by Photo The Sauer Family of the Upper Wenatchee Valley Wenatchee Valley From the Director Sauer Family Settles in Upper Valley Keni Sturgeon M w U w S w E w U w M by Chris Rader & Cultural Center This edition of The Confluence highlights Most day hikers living in or visiting the Leavenworth Holdrege, Nebraska. There they grew wheat and lived “Inspiring dynamic connections to the unique the Sauer family’s history in the Upper area are familiar with the popular three-mile trail in a large farmhouse. Peter was interested in real estate heritage of the Wenatchee Valley” Wenatchee Valley. Undoubtedly, this history known as Sauer’s Mountain. Who were the Sauers, and investments, and when he heard from an attorney 127 S. Mission Street, Wenatchee, WA 98801 was passed down over the years, and was what was the family’s impact on the Leavenworth and friend that Everett, Washington, was an up-and-coming (509) 888-6240 v www.wenatcheevalleymuseum.org valued and expanded by each new generation. Peshastin communities? community with many possibilities, he decided to Hours: Tuesday-Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. A family’s history goes beyond names, dates The story begins with Peter Sauer and his second move his family there. With Theodore Roosevelt as U.S. First Fridays: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m., free admission and locations, and the value of gathering, wife, Mary. Peter was born to German immigrants in President, the West had its appeal. Member saving and sharing family histories is a key Keokuk County, Iowa, on April 15, 1857. He married his By this time (1905) there were eight Sauer children: American Alliance of Museums element in preserving our community’s American Association for State and Local History first wife, Augusta, also a German immigrant, in 1882. Helen, George, Henry, Phillip, Leonard, Minnie, Mary Cascade Loop Association collective heritage. Collecting your own Their daughter Helen was born the following year, but and Welcome. Two other boys, Peter and Page, had Great Northern Railway Historical Association family’s history is important for a number of reasons. Augusta died five months later. Peter married Augusta’s died as infants in Nebraska. Sister Eva rounded out the Museum Store Association Knowing, recording, preserving and sharing family histories National Trust for Historic Preservation younger sister, Mary Berg, in 1885 and they raised Helen family in 1907. benefits individuals, families and communities. Family history Upper Columbia Museum Association along with the 10 children they would eventually have The Sauers loaded their belongings into two train is more than charts, family trees, census data, and birthdates; it Washington Museum Association together. cars, household goods in one and horses in another, and Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society is a powerful antidote for some of the adverse life experiences Mary had been born in Germany, coming to the rode the Union Pacific through Wyoming and Idaho Wenatchee Downtown Association we face today, giving us a deeper understanding of who we are Wenatchee Rotary Club United States with her parents at age five. She only to Puget Sound. Peter bought land on Everett’s Ebey and motivating us to be more connected to future generations. Wenatchee Valley Chamber of Commerce attended school through the second grade but her Island. It is not clear whether he farmed this land or Forming relationships with family—past, present, and children eventually helped her improve her reading and merely intended to sell it at a profit. The land was often “Linking the Past to the Future” future—helps fill an innate human need, that of belonging writing skills. “When she was staying with us, when I inundated with water, however, and the family’s horses and connection. The relationships we form with others can be Board of Trustees was in grade school (in the 1930s), she’d be sitting there died in a flood. Peter hadn’t managed to strike it rich in incredibly durable, not only with people in our present, but with Linda Haglund President in the rocking chair reading my geography book, or any Everett and wanted to find a drier climate, so he moved Lorna Klemanski Vice President people from our past. The more we discover about our past, the book I had,” granddaughter Dolores Sauer Dahl said Kathleen McNalty Secretary greater a connection we feel to our ancestors. As we record our the family to Leavenworth in 1908. (Helen returned to recently. Along with her love of learning, Mary was Lisa Dahlgreen Treasurer own history, we create an opportunity for future generations to Holdrege and married Sam Schrock.) Don Gurnard Past President industrious and cheerful. Dahl described her as “warm connect with us when we are gone. Sauers colonize Leavenworth and Peshastin Lyle Markhart City of Wenatchee Liaison and loving; tall, straight, healthy and a delight to be Chuck Johnson City of East Wenatchee Liaison Learning the history of our family helps us gain a better around.” Leavenworth had earned a reputation as a rather Dennis Johnson, Marco Mejia, Lisa Parks, understanding of the challenges they faced, and can inspire Paul Parmley, Andy Petro, Eliot Scull Five children were born to Peter and Mary Sauer wild town. Incorporated in 1892 with the completion of greater compassion for their flaws and mistakes. This can translate Ex-Officio Members in Iowa before they moved in 1895 from Iowa to the Great Northern Railway line between Seattle and St. Wenatchee Mayor Frank Kuntz to our other relationships, helping us to better understand that Paul, Minn., it was the headquarters East Wenatchee Mayor Steve Lacy we all face hardships. Remembering that, in the context of others’ of the railroad’s Cascade Division Wenatchee City Council: Jim Bailey, Ruth Esparza, weaknesses, allows us to be better employees, managers, spouses, – which included the roughest part Linda Herald, Keith Huffaker, Mark Kulaas, Mike Poirier parents, children, siblings, and human beings. of the route, through Stevens Pass. East Wenatchee City Council: Jerrilea Crawford, Tim Detering, Finally, family records impact generations to come. Family Matthew Hepner, Shayne Magdoff, Harry Raab, John Sterk Seven railroad tracks bisected the history keeps memories alive and gives each generation an town (replaced by U.S. Highway 2 in Museum Staff idea of who they are and where they came from. Genealogical Keni Sturgeon Executive Director the late 1920s when the tracks were organizations, such as the Wenatchee Area Genealogical Society Linda Davis Bookkeeper rerouted up Chumstick canyon). (WAGS), museum collections, like those at the Wenatchee Valley Brennan Gleason Facilities/Exhibits Assistant Most of Leavenworth’s early-day Anna Holman Curator of Education and Programs Museum, and county archives are wonderful places to begin residents were single men, working Kasey Koski Curator of Exhibits exploring your family’s history, or to continue to expand on Kristin Lodge Development/Communications Director either for the railroad or the large your family’s story. Debbie Sawyer Education/Volunteer Specialist Lamb-Davis lumber mill. Saloons Jill Sheets Education/Volunteer Specialist outnumbered churches; “ladies Ashley Sinner Outreach/Public Relations Coordinator Table of Contents Anna Spencer Administrative Coordinator of the night” operated thriving Giorgio Tayé Facilities Coordinator Editor: Chris Rader businesses; and bar fights, some of Marriah Thornock Deputy Director them fatal, were common. However, Melanie Wachholder Curator of Collections Peter and Mary Sauer Family ....................................3 Adam Walker MakerSpace Coordinator the character of the town gradually The Confluence is published for members of the Wenatchee Val- Welcome and Celia Sauer Family............................. 6 mellowed as families like the Sauers ley Museum Association. All rights reserved. Nothing may be George and Bud Sauer in Peshastin ....................... 13 moved in. reprinted in whole or in part without written permission of the Peter bought some farmland north publisher. Publisher: Wenatchee Valley Museum and Cultural Cover: Leonard, left, and Gary Sauer display their catch of Courtesy of the Sauer Family Courtesy Center; (509) 888-6240; [email protected]. Editor: Chris Rader, mountain trout from somewhere in the Icicle Valley near Leav- of town, off Railroad Avenue (now [email protected]. enworth. In the 1940s the individual daily limit was 20 fish. Sauer family in 1906, front from left: Peter, Welcome (in white), George, Mary, Ski Hill Drive), where he planted young Mary. Back: Minnie, Philip, Helen, Henry, Annie Kessel, Leonard. potatoes and apple trees. The younger Confluence 2 Summer 2019 The Confluence 3 Summer 2019 children attended Sauer daughters were sociable Leavenworth and Winthrop national fish hatcheries. Leavenworth schools. Peter and Mary Sauer lived with their younger He was then sent to Hoover Dam in Nevada and Grand Older boys George, children in a small house on Cascade Street, a short Coulee Dam, finishing his career in Quincy with the Henry and Leonard walk from the apple ranch. Granddaughter Dolores Columbia Basin (irrigation) Project. William and Eva found outside jobs and, Dahl noted that it must have been a comedown from had one son, Glen, born in 1934. In 1971, after William at his insistence, gave the large farmhouse they’d had in Nebraska. Peter’s died, Eva lived in a retirement community in Sequim, their earnings to Peter. orchard did not do well and potatoes (tended by hand) then an apartment in Cashmere. She moved to East Welcome was the only were not a lucrative cash crop. After giving up ranching Wenatchee to live with Glen and his wife Barbara for son permitted to finish he invested in a few land speculations but none was several years before entering a convalescent center high school.