Edith Hoggard, An Intimate Encounter with a Centenarian: Unraveling a Heritage of Resilience

Edith Hoggard, a remarkable centenarian, shares her extraordinary journey and vibrant experiences with Jan Johnson, the host of "Women of the Northwest." 

Edith's infectious energy and youthful spirit captivate the listeners as she narrates her life story, filled with resilience, adventure, and a deep appreciation for the simple joys of life. 

From her ancestral roots as a Cherokee Indian to her family's migration to California, Edith delves into the tapestry of her heritage and the remarkable individuals who shaped her life. 

Her reminiscences transport the listeners to a bygone era, where covered wagons and mountainous landscapes were witnesses to her family's pioneering spirit. 

Edith's love for music and dancing shines through her anecdotes, painting vivid pictures of her performances and the joy she found in expressing herself through it.

Amid the delightful anecdotes, Edith's voice softens as she talks about her father's premature passing, leaving her with faint memories of him. She recalls a poignant moment when she tried to share something with him, but he gently redirected her, affectionately calling her "Wind Jammer," a name that held special significance in their Native American heritage. Edith shares the bittersweetness of this memory, cherishing the love and connection it represents.

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Transcript

00:34] Jan: Yes, that's perfect. Okay. Well. Hello, Edith.

[00:40] Jan: Hi, Jan. Jan I am Jan because you are 100.

[00:50] Edith: And let me see. December, January, February, March, April.

[01:00] Jan: And we're in May.

[01:02] Jan: So that many more? Five more months. Almost six months. 100 years and six months.

[01:09] Edith: And six months.

[01:10] Jan: Whoa.

[01:11] Jan: You have lived a long life, and.

[01:13] Jan: Look at how good you look.

[01:15] : And healthy.

[01:16] Edith: Yes. God has been very kind, very kind to me. 

[02:25] Jan: Where did you grow up?

[02:25] Jan: Where did you grow up?

[02:27] Edith: Where did I grow up? 

 I grew up in Maywood, California, and quite a bit of my life was spent there and some very hard things. You don't want to know where my people came from.

[02:46] Jan: Where did your people come from?

[02:47] Edith: My father's name was Christopher Columbus Red. A Cherokee Indian. Oh, yeah. And he said all over the papers and all that stuff anyway. And I tried genealogy for a while through a whole bunch of things. It was very interesting. I finally just had to give it up. It gets to be too. It's a rabbit hole. You keep finding more things.

[03:23] Jan: So what were some of the things that you found out?

[03:26] Edith: Well, I found out that my great grandfather was full blood and that I had mom and White grandmothers came from England and was some kind of a special I had some kind of a special site title or something. But, yeah, I learned a lot of things. We did not come in the so many things I try to remember and I'm sorry coupled out the Trail of Tears. Now that right away sort of identifies, but my family were not part of that that I know of.

[04:21] Edith: I don't have any record of that. My grandfather was he was in the War of the States. 1861

[04:38] Edith: And he was from the south.

[04:44] Edith: He got into that army, and he was a guide. Indian guide.

[04:55] Edith: But the thing was that when it finished, there was no money. Had no money. And I believe that's true. I don't think it was the other way around, because that's what I've heard so much of.

[05:17] Edith:You know, but anyway, he oh, he found himself without any transportation. Wherever you were, he was leading and guiding and wherever you were at the end of the war, they didn't have any money to get him home. So just get home whatever way you can. And so whatever ingenuity appeared to him, he got home anyway. And when he did, they had all the Indians they had gotten together and they brought them to the camps and stuff, and they wanted everybody to sign up again, get the names of people. My grandmother, grandfather would not sign up because he was afraid they'd put him in the service again. He'd been that route.

[06:32] Edith He'd been that route. And so anyway, they have records in Washington and all that. And this way, when they can communicate, they communicate from the archives, and they're great big paper, pieces of paper like this, really. But because he didn't sign up at that time, we're dropped out. I mean, they don't have any records.

[07:09]Jan: No more records.

[07:09] Edith: Then you have more records now. Of what? My family was a part of the ending of the war and all that stuff. But he was not going to he decided we've left all alone, whatever he.

[07:30] Jan: Was in, like, thanks a lot.

[07:32] Edith: Yeah. Get home whatever way you can get home. So that was the end of that.

[07:40] Jan: What year was that?

[07:42] Edith: I have no idea. Yeah, I have no idea. Okay, that may be in the records in Washington, but I don't have it. Yeah, but anyway, I never thought about that. But I suppose it may be in the papers. I'm not sure where they are. My family sort of got part of them. Yeah, they got scattered. I don't have all of those records. But anyway so we were not a part of that famous.

[08:24] Edith: But he could have but he didn't want to be a part of anything again. He was going to be independent. He was going to get home, and he did.

[08:40] Edith: I've got pictures, but I named them all that. But I don't remember now. All I can say is we have that background. And my father wanted he married my mother in Missouri.

[08:58] Edith: And her name was Millie Mae Hawkins at that time. And then when he married my father, it was Red. Millie Mae Red. And anyway, he wanted to go to California, and he was the man. He was a merchandiser.

[09:24] Jan: He liked to gather stuff together and sell it.

[09:27] Edith:

: Every time he stopped someplace. And they came across the country, I'm assuming from Missouri, from that area. We don't know exactly where they started, but he came in and across the country to get to the place where you go at that time. And you know what? I've never been able to get a hold of the name of that town.

[09:57] Edith:

: That state. And there's a big mountain there. When they got there, he had several wagons full. 

Jan: So he was doing covered wagons t

Edith: that he had brought with him that he was going to set up in California.

[10:25] Edith: And this was on covered wagons.

[10:28] Edith: 

They were what they call springboard.

[10:31] Edith: Yeah. Anyway, and they were there, but now these men had to be paid. He paid them, told them to go on home because they couldn't continue because it was snowing.

[10:46] Edith: And the winter had hit there, and it was impossible for them to get those wagons over the mountains. So I don't know exactly what town it was, but anyway, they stayed there for long as they needed to. They finally got to California, and where I was born, I have nine brothers and sisters. But I never lived with any of them. I came last.

[11:24] Edith: It came after they got to California.

[11:28] Jan: So you got to be a single child.

You got to be an only child.

[11:32] Edith: Yeah. But my father died at some 60. I didn't know him. I never really got to as a daddy. But the only thing that I remember about this was that he was in the front part of the we always lived in the same building with the store. Whatever we had, we used that. Anyway, we lived back behind there, and so he was out in front, and he wasn't feeling well, and they always have a big barrel there, like heat, and people from all over would come in, gather around that, and he was out there. And I remember he was in a wheelchair. No, in a rocking chair. But I wanted to tell him something, whatever it was. But he says, Go on in the back, wind Jammer. So that's how I knew what he called me. And Indians have this thing they do a lot in what your value is or what great thing you did or some particular thing about you. They would give you a name that would signify some way or other. And so he did me, evidently. Talk. I do. I do a lot of talking. It's one of those kind of things I have to kind of control sometimes. It's not always easy. But anyway, if I get in any part of this that doesn't fit in.

So now we're in California, and we're in Delhi, California. The five goes right goes right by there. And then what is the other Modesto Del. What was the name of the town? Delhi. I'm not sure what the name of that town is, but anyway, it was together. They were close. They grew up, and it's a big town there now, and really? On the other side of the freeway. Yeah, over there. But I've gone by Delhi many, many times in my lifetime, and it looks just the same.

[14:38] Edith: 

I mean, it's not like something like grow up.

[14:42] Edith: Yeah.

[14:43] Jan: It never seemed to be different.

[14:45]: What are the things that you the fun things that you remember about growing up?

[14:52] Edith: Fun things. Singing and dancing.

[14:56] Edith: I did a lot of that singing and dancing. Our grocery store, the men people that would come in would get me to dance on the table. The cupboards covered the merchandise. What was the music?

[15:22] Jan: Was somebody playing music or that you were dancing to, or was it on the record?

Edith: I was singing, dance. I was singing dance, singing dance. And then there was a time when at school I don't remember what age I was. I think around I don't know. Anyway, they were going to have a program, and they had a program, and they dialed me up like, they can't do it now. But then they made me look like a little epic. They make my face black and rolled my hair. My hair was straight like it is now. And I danced, and I could dance, and I danced and sang for the program. Yeah, I remember that. And then I have a picture of myself there at home in the studio. I'm sure it was later than that, but the big bouquet of flowers and stuff, they had taken my picture. And one of the fun things about being a part of that music studio, the lady that owned it was my teacher at school.

[16:44] Edith: And then they had a party, Halloween party. I don't remember where it was. It might have been at the school, but I know it was big enough for the whole bunch of kids. And my mother had made me a cat outfit, black. Okay. And she sewed a big, long tail, and she sewed this tail on that part, and I got so embarrassed. I didn't like it, even as little as I was, and I didn't like it. So I finally went home, and I made my mother cut it off. She was very upset with me.

[17:40] Jan: You like the rest of the costume and not the tail.

[17:42] Edith: But I was going to tell you soon after, when I talked to my father in the store, he went to the hospital, and he died there. And so it was some sort of a brain fever or something. I don't remember exactly what it was. Anyway. And at the time, I'm having my tip tonsils sticking out in the same student in the same hospital, so I really wasn't a part of that anyway, but we sure were afterwards, because the Depression came.

[18:22] Edith: 

And when the Depression came, there was a man that we were you don't rent what is it?

[18:36] Edith: 

Lease, yeah. And this man was a realtor in town and he had this so what is leased anyway, and we were paying for it all the time and everything. And that was where all of the story of my grandfather in the big stove that they had there. Anyway, of course my father died then and then when the I just got the telling you the lease? No, the what happened to the country?

[19:27] Edith: The depression. Okay. When the Depression came then now, even in the stores in those days, you made out a list of things that you buy, whatever you buy and how much it costs. And that was left with the man who person you bought that from.

[19:53] Edith:

: Then you come back. It was very hard times then when they would come back then and they had the money, they would pay that off.

[20:05] Jan: You were buying it on credit, just.

[20:08] Edith: The way it was. Everybody knew that the people that had come, they were all the new neighbors and nobody ran off without paying or anything.

[20:26] Edith: People were relied on.

So they would come and pay the but the man that was the realtor sheets, I think his name was, anyway, he came down on my mother and he said we had to leave because he didn't believe that he would be going to be able to keep getting his money from the store. And so they kicked us out. And when they did, my youngest brother was the one, only one that was not married, but anyway, so that's the only one that I'd ever had any kind of a life together, which was just my youngest brother. And he was, I think, twelve years older than me or something like that. Anyway, but somehow other they obtained a building, a house somewhere out in the country and they had an outside toilet. That's the first experience I have with that. But also in those days, if you had a gun, you could shoot rabbits and things like that. And he thought he would shoot something and bring it home. That's what we'd have for yeah, because we can do that to survive that way. Now, that was in Maywood on Main Street. Now later on after well, let me see. Anyway, my brother who was in California, he lived on Ryer Island and he was the man who took care of Ryer Island. He was in charge. And they had peat moss, is it they had there? Okay, so he dealt with this peat moss. Well, he got a TB from the so he was very young. And then they put him in I can't think of the name, but anyway, it was one in the country, out in the sun, no trees. That was a lot. They were dealing with it, with the sun, and they held it. One day my husband said he was willing we drove up there. Mother had never seen him, never heard him because his wife was very mean and they didn't say they would never let any of his family come. That was hard. My mother had no connection, so I know that he died there and he bear is buried in Pottersfield. And so my husband took me up there and they opened up the archives and brought up and they had all of that day by day, exactly what they had given him that day.

[24:09] Edith: And every day through the years they had all of that. And if we wanted it, we could have it. But I don't think we took much of anything from liquids. My brother was only twelve years older than me anyway, but what he did, he found a stone and he carved the stone and put his name they didn't have anything to put it on there just a little board there or something. So he did that and they put it there when we found his grave. And it was way in the back, like it had been so many years during the time freeway had gotten down. And I have no idea what freeway it was, but it was right in all those looked like nobody had ever walked, but the leaves had all come down and it was beautiful. It was the cemetery, Potter's, nice resting place. It was Potter's Field, it's what it was. And we went and he found his stone. He was thrilled about that, my brother. But anyway, then but we didn't take well, we brought, I don't know, something from the archives to breed of my mother. But she was so hurt yeah. So hurt that yeah.

[26:09] Jan: Because she lost so many years yeah. Of a relationship yeah.

Edith: That that it was, it was hard for her..

[26:15] Edith: It, it really didn't do what I thought it was going to do. Well, now I know where my son is and all that, but she dealt with that already one way or another, until she wasn't waiting to find out. But I thought, wouldn't that be just wonderful that she'd know right where he was on earth?

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