Week 14: Great

 Week 14: Great

Since this week’s prompt is “Great”, I thought I’d feature my great aunt Bertha (Canaday) Thomas and her family. There are still some things I would like to learn about her, such as when did she move to Hawaii; how long did she live there, and why did she return when her sisters didn’t? However, here’s the story of what I do know. Bertha E Canaday was the oldest child of William Hardy Canaday and Anna Nelson. She was born in Amherst, Colorado on November 2nd, 1894. According to the 1900 census, her father (who went by Hardy) owned his own home and was a “stock raiser” - I assume cattle, but it didn’t specify. Hardy’s brother Obadiah also lived with them and was listed as a farm laborer.  Other people in the household included Bertha’s mother Anna and little sister Lottie. 

Ten years later, according to the 1910 census, Bertha and her family were living in Notus, Idaho.  Her father is now listed as an “off bearer” at a sawmill and several more children have been born: Claude (aka Big Mike), Carl (my grandfather), Lester (aka Scoop), and Ruth. Bertha and her siblings who were seven years old or older were listed as farm laborers as was their mother Anna. They owned the farm they were working on.

On the 1920 census, Bertha, now 25, was living in Emmett with her parents and siblings. Her father’s occupation was listed as “general”, Bertha and her mother were listed as having no occupations, Lottie was a teacher, Big Mike was a farm laborer, grandpa Carl was working at the sawmill, Scoop was 14 and didn’t have a job and neither did Ruth, age 11.  The family also had a female lodger named with the last name Fowler who was 24 years old and worked as a teacher.

At some point after the census, Bertha attended Good Samaritan Hospital Training School for Nurses in Portland, Oregon and earned her diploma on May 12, 1922. In 1926 she married William Obray Thomas, who was born in Utah to a Mormon family as evidenced by his mother’s obituary. William was 7 years older than Bertha, and the 1930 census shows the couple living in Multnomah County, Oregon (I assume Portland) in a house valued at $6000 which they owned.  They also had a radio. William was an electrician for a cannery, and Bertha wasn’t working. 

According to a 1936 passenger list for the “Niagara” sailing from British Columbia to Honolulu, Aunt Bertha travelled alone.  Her address at the time was in Honolulu.  By the time her husband died in 1963, it looks like they were back in Multnomah County, Oregon.  

Bertha couldn’t have children. I remember her living in Emmett, Idaho when I was little.  We used to go visit her. She was a very sweet person. Before she died, she indicated that I was to inherit her class ring.  I remembered there was some confusion, because it was thought she didn’t graduate from high school.  Then it was determined that it was her nursing class ring.  Bertha passed away in 1982, when I was a junior in high school.  I wore the ring through the rest of high school and through college, then I put it away. I still have it.  Where a stone is typically, there are the letters GSH and the year 22.  It has a beaver that wraps around the back of it.  The ring is 99 years old this year, and I think it’s time to pass it down to the next generation - especially since I have a niece who is graduating high school this year and planning to go into the medical field.