Historic Hood River
Eph Winans, 1948
8-20-2020
Notes
This view of Eph Winans is from a Kodacolor print dated July 1948. As is common for color prints of that vintage it was badly faded and mostly yellow. I did my best to tease out a little color, but not much is there to work with.
Winans penned a column in the Hood River News with his reminiscences of life in the 1880s. It was published between 1949 and 1950 under the title, “Hood River … as I Have Known It.” The Hood River Historical Society republished them in the 1990s.
Dale Nicol
Eph is standing in front of a new 1948 Studebaker Champion convertible.
Nellie
Ephraim Thomas Winans was born in Kansas on 20 February 1862 to Edgar
William and Elizabeth (Kinney) Winans. The family moved from Kansas to Hancock County, Illinois where Eph basically grew up. The family eventually made their way west and by 1900 were living in Hood River County (then Wasco County). Eph did a number of things and in the 1920’s worked in the mill in Skamania County. As he never married he spent his elderly years with first his sister Margaret Neff and then Martha Spalding in Hood River.
His little writings are very interesting. My grandfather was a very good friend of his and I have the little book that Eph autographed for him.
Melody Shellman
Is that the Sheppard’s building behind him, looking east on State Street?
Arlen L Sheldrake
I would say yes Melody.
nels
Wish we still had those old style street lights. THey give off a softer glow. Wonder what ever happened to them.
nels
Are Mr. Winan’s writing available at the library or HR Museum?
Kalley
Arthur, do you have the plot map for the Town of Winan’s? When I was on the county planning commission, I saw the plotted out map for The Town of Winan’s. It was so interesting that a whole township was plotted out there. Iowa Drive is there now.
ArthurB
I haven’t seen the map for Winans, but I know the county records include several maps like that. I published the 1883 map for Belmont a while ago. I think those are examples of people’s ambitions outstripping their wallet.
nels, I think there’s a good chance the library has a copy of the "Hood River … as I Have Known It" pamphlet which was reprinted in the 1990’s. I’m sure there’s one at the museum someplace too but we’re not able to have visitors right now, so the library is your best bet.
Kate A McBride
I lived on Iowa Drive in the plotted town of Winans. Our title insurance showed the map with many individually plotted lots. I believe there was an Indiana drive behind our house to the north.
Barbara Parsons
I recognized Eph Winans before I read the text! I was 3 when we moved to
Hood River, and he went to our church, so I guess his image was implanted in my mind
. My mother always pointed him out as the man who knew the most about the area. I remember going to a program where he told some Indian legends.
Also, I remember a Sunday when Eph was about to sit down on a three-legged chair in the Knights of Pythias hall where our church met. He was creaking slowly down to thevseat, when my mother started yelling his name and dashing to stop him before he could put any weight on it. She pulled the unsafe chair right out from under him and slipped a good one in its place. No wonder our church called its women’s auxiliary the Relief Society.