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By ADAM LAPIERRE
News staff writer
With a crisp white
bonnet, a flowery farm dress and a 34-star American flag she
sewed herself, Marelie Vorster fit the part of Mary Coe like she
grew up churning butter in a log cabin.
Vorster, a
Horizon
Christian
School
sixth-grader, acted the part of Coe for 90 minutes Wednesday
morning, sharing details about the
Hood
River settler’s life in a first-person presentation to the rest of her
school.
Based on research they
did as part of the school’s sixth-grade social studies class,
Vorster and 18 of her classmates portrayed some of the area’s
predominant historical characters in a project called “Early
Inhabitants of the Gorge.”
From Coe to Sam Tucker,
Peter Neal, Chief Thompson and Sam Barlow, characters from the
Gorge’s not-so-distant history were illustrated for an hour and
a half, and in that time a small slice of the Gorge’s history
was brought back to life.
“It was really fun to
find out information about people who lived here, and how they
survived without all of our modern technologies,” Vorster said
about the project. “I think Mary Coe was an impressive person
because she did a lot for Hood River’s history.”
According to Vorster’s
presentation, Mary and her husband, Nathaniel, came to the area
in the mid-1850s from New York, and after building the first
home and planting the first fruit trees in what is now Hood
River, the two settled, started roots for a new town and
eventually came to be known as the “Founder and First Lady of
Hood River.” Mary is credited with changing the name of the town
from Dog River to Hood Vale, and eventually to Hood River.
“I was impressed with
how brave all of those pioneers had to be to move out to Oregon
and leave everything behind,” Vorster said. “They were tough
people.”
This is the sixth year
Sheila Sletmoe’s sixth-grade class has done the project, which
she uses as a tool to not only teach kids about local history,
but also about ancient history around the world.
“This project helps the
kids learn about other places a lot better,” she said. “The
first year I taught ancient civilizations, the kids didn’t
really understand the importance of the landscape and natural
resources.
“With this project, they
learn how the Columbia River, the mountains and the Gorge shaped
the way people lived, and that understanding helps as they learn
about other civilizations,” Sletmoe said. “It helps the students
understand that we are all impacted by the environment.”
Students used the
Internet, the Hood River Library and a book titled “Legacy”
(published in 1995 by the Hood River News) as the bulk of their
research material.
The following are the 19
“Early Inhabitants of the Gorge” that the class studied: Mary
Joslyn, Alma Howe, Peter Neal, Jason Lee, David Thompson, Martha
Aleck, Sam Barlow, Sapotiwell, Chief Comcomly, Flora Thompson,
Indian Nellie, Martha Tucker, David Eccles, Ing Hay, Mary Coe,
Chief Thompson, Chiniedere, Captain R. Gray and Silverlocks,
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