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Washington Women’s Heritage Project records, 1900-2000 
University of Washington Libraries Special Collections 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand 
May 20, 1986 
Cassette 3, Side 1 
 
 
Robert L. Reed  00:18 
This is Bob Reed, May 20, 1986, in the home of Esther Brand at 102 Northeast 50th Street, 
Seattle. This is the third and final recorded interview with Mrs. Brand.  
 
Robert L. Reed  00:38 
Mrs. Brand, let's talk a little more about when your father and mother moved to Oregon and what 
they did there. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  00:48 
Well, they moved to Oregon practically the same time that I got married, and they took up some 
homesteads, and they accumulated about 4200 acres. And as time went on, they al-- they had 
hundreds of cattle and also about 1000 sheep. And they built-- first, of course, they built 
themselves a house and got established, and they raised mostly cattle. 
 
Robert L. Reed  01:18 
And they went there about 1918. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  01:21 
About '14, about 1914. 
 
Robert L. Reed  01:27 
And how long were they there? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  01:31 
They were there about 17 years, I believe, approximately. 
 
Robert L. Reed  01:39 
And during that time... And you got married and-- or you moved into this house, rather, in 1918. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  01:50 
Well, we took over my mother's-- parents' house first for the first four years of our marriage, 
because they had subletted for rent, and we had no home to go to at that time, so we rented their 
house until we found something that suited us. 
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Robert L. Reed  02:05 
And what happened to-- who lived in the house after you moved out?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  02:11 
Oh, I rented it to some other people. 
 
Robert L. Reed  02:13 
I see. And later on, did your sisters live in the house part-time? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  02:22 
Later on, my parents came back from Oregon, and they occupied it.  
 
Robert L. Reed  02:26 
That was about, say, 14 years from 19-- 17 years [inaudible]? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  02:33 
About 17 years later. 
 
Robert L. Reed  02:35 
That would be 1927 or so. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  02:37 
Oh, about that. And they put on two-- built two stores in the front of their property and they had 
apartments upstairs in the house, so they had income. And they lived there until my father passed 
away. I think it was in '37 that he passed away. And my mother passed away about 13 years 
later. And then my two sisters took it over and took care of it. 
 
Robert L. Reed  03:05 
And when the family left Seattle to go to Oregon, did all the rest of the children go except you? 
Of course, you were married-- 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  03:14 
Yes, practically, excepting my one brother who was a druggist at that time in Minneapolis. 
 
Robert L. Reed  03:24 
And did you ever have occasion to visit them in Oregon? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  03:32 
Oh, yes, we did that every summer, every vacation. We took our little children and our Model T 
Ford and we drove, and it took day and a half or two to get there, because the roads were not that 
good from here to Portland and beyond. And of course, there was no eating places on the 
highway. We had to carry food with us. When we ran out of milk, we'd go to a farmer's house 
and try to buy some milk for the children. It seems such a long journey, and now one can do it in 
just a few hours. 
 
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Robert L. Reed  03:35 
That's interesting. I bet the children enjoyed this. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  03:35 
Oh, yes, they enjoyed it. We look forward to it. We'd stay maybe a week or two. 
 
Robert L. Reed  03:45 
When-- you told me also that when the children were young, you and Mr. Brand bought a place 
out on Richmond Beach? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  04:30 
Yes, we did. It happened this way. When my youngest, our youngest child, a little girl, was about 
10 or 11 years old-- 
 
Robert L. Reed  04:41 
Now that would be...? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  04:42 
Joan. She fell and injured her hip, and the doctor told her then -- Dr. Wycoff was the specialist -- 
if she could get out in saltwater and exercise every day, it would help. And at that time, gasoline 
was so short on account of the war that we had tickets to buy gasoline. So instead of that, we 
were riding around the countryside looking for a place on the beach, and we found this 
dilapidated place right on saltwater at Richmond Beach. It was covered with-- the whole thing 
was covered with blackberry vines and trees. You could hardly see the little old house until we 
cleared it away and fixed it up. And we had it for a number of years so the children could go 
swimming. 
 
Robert L. Reed  05:33 
And you took Joan out for [crosstalk]? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  05:36 
We stayed-- I stayed right out there with her for a while after it got to be fixed up livable, you 
know? We took her out to-- everything was just walking distance. And she got in the water every 
day and paddled around. I think it really helped her strengthen her body. 
 
Robert L. Reed  05:57 
And you kept this house for about how long, until the children were pretty grown?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  06:03 
Oh, yes, we kept it-- let me see. Shortly before my husband passed away, a contractor called us 
and he asked us whether we wanted to sell our place. He wanted to put up some buildings. Of 
course, at that time, my husband was not feeling well. He had a heart condition. We didn't get to 
go out very often as much as we'd like to. And he knew that it was a problem for me to keep it 
up. So he said, "Okay, let's sell it." And we got a very good price and somebody put up two huge 
homes, and they could see the water from there. Many times, I kind of regret I'd sold it because... 
But after all, it was the best in the long run. And so-- and we had a lot of fruit trees out there. We 
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had apples and we had prunes and we had greengages and we had cherries. And we didn't know 
those trees were there. They were beaten down with black-- wild blackberry vines until it began 
clearing. And all my little sons' friends would come out and start chopping and clearing away, 
and we'd have a nice picnic for them. It was fun. 
 
Robert L. Reed  07:16 
Did you ever have a church affairs or [inaudible]?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  07:17 
Pardon?  
 
Robert L. Reed  07:17 
Did you ever have any church affairs of any kind?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  07:25 
Well, out there, the nearest church was at Richmond Highlands, I believe. We didn't really get 
involved too much. We just got to church on Sundays or special days. 
 
Robert L. Reed  07:38 
You once told me about some of your children finding some money there. Would you tell us 
about that? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  07:42 
[Laughs] It was a old house. It was so dilapidated. The windows were out and the floors were 
broken and everything was-- you wondered why a person would buy it. But we bought it. It was 
a challenge. And when we sold it, my husband told the children, "If you can go out now, take 
whatever you want, whatever you find is yours." And it had to be snowing that day, slightly. So 
my youngest took his little boy-- my youngest son took his little boy, and they went out just to 
see what they could find, and they chopped through walls, and it was all wood, you know? And 
they went upstairs and they lifted the floors where-- none of us used the upstairs, but it was there. 
And they found a bag of old money, couple of hundred dollars worth, some coins and some 
paper money. So he was quite happy that he'd gone up there and, you know, found the treasure, 
as he called it. The little Michael still talks about the treasure he found. Of course, Michael is 
now over 20 years old. That was quite a surprise. It was probably a nice looking place when we 
got through with it, painted it inside and out and papered it. I even papered some of the walls 
with Saturday Evening Post covers, which were very nice to look at while you're just sitting there 
and watching the-- listening to the radio or whatever. We had a lot of fun there. We made use of 
everything. Of course, my husband changed it, put a little bathroom on the back of it and put a 
sink in it and a few cupboards and little range, a little old electric range. I don't know where he 
bought it, but it made the best biscuits I could ever make anywheres. Of course, the water was 
right [?at hand?], saltwater. We'd go out and find agate, beautiful, little agate, moonstones. It was 
really a nice-- and it was only about half an hour away from home in the city. That was the best 
part. That was-- convinced my husband to buy it. It was not too far to go. 
 
Robert L. Reed  10:04 
And afterwards, you drew pictures of some of the scenes in the building?  
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Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  10:09 
I sketched some pictures, just from memory. I had a few little-- a pictures taken of them, and I 
embroidered a picture of it. We had so many good times there. The children were just at that age 
when they enjoyed everything. We had a hammock under the trees and chairs and a table and a 
[?rotisserie?] to cook on, and they'd bring their friends out and between them, they'd have a 
lovely time. 
 
Robert L. Reed  10:40 
Now, how can you embroider a picture?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  10:42 
Well, I drew the picture on a piece of cloth. I fastened the cloth down first, and then I drew the 
picture from a snapshot, and then I sewed it in all different colors. It's mostly browns and greens 
and a little blue, and the background's just the water and clouds and an airplane going by. 
 
Robert L. Reed  11:10 
And it's a very nice picture which is now hanging on the wall... 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  11:14 
Yes, I still have it.  
 
Robert L. Reed  11:15 
...which reminds me that you also made a picture using glass in some way or other? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  11:23 
Uh-huh, glass. It's a glass-- what do you call it? Well, tin craft and glass craft and there are many 
kinds, you know, but this was glass. 
 
Robert L. Reed  11:34 
Could you tell-- describe that a little bit? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  11:37 
Well, I took a piece of glass which fit into a frame. It had to fit in the frame. And then I put a 
piece of drawing paper under the glass with a picture already drawn what I wanted to put on the 
top of the glass, with little bits of colored. So then I had-- see, I had a picture underneath to go 
by. That was my pattern. And I'd lay my little colored glass exactly where it was drawn. 
 
Robert L. Reed  12:11 
And glue it on in some way?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  12:13 
And then I had some kind of glue that I bought special for it. 
 
Robert L. Reed  12:16 
[?Makes another?]-- [wheezes]. 
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Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  12:21 
I made two of those. 
 
Robert L. Reed  12:22 
And they make very nice pictures-- 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  12:24 
They do. 
 
Robert L. Reed  12:24 
--which are hanging on your wall. And another bit of your artwork which I don't believe we've 
described is the tin work.  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  12:35 
Oh, [laughs] uh-huh, that was quite the rage. 
 
Robert L. Reed  12:39 
Could you tell me what that looks like and how you did it?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  12:42 
Well, there was a time when many of us people were taking classes in tin craft, which is-- at that 
time, was given at the YMCA in the University District.  
 
Robert L. Reed  12:56 
About what time [crosstalk]? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  12:57 
Let me see, maybe about 30 years ago. Doesn't seem that long, but it must have been. And then 
they told us which size cans of fruits and juices and different things to purchase. They were all 
edible, all things that we like, like tomato juice and fruit juices and so on, so forth. And then we 
would clean them, of course, and cut them flat, take the bottom out, cut it flat. Or some of them 
we left the way they were and clipped up the sides to make a design so it would flatten out on the 
wall, like a crescent, sort of, you know. And I made several of those. You had to have certain 
tools to do it with. 
 
Robert L. Reed  13:45 
And you have some of that work on your wall also. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  13:48 
Yeah, I still have some of those things. I made Christmas ornaments. They were beautiful, made 
out of the smaller cans. 
 
Robert L. Reed  13:55 
Well, you have done a lot of different craft work, and including a very impressive crocheted 
piece that's on the table in the living room. 
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Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  14:11 
Yeah, I made that crocheted tablecloth. Well, I took a long time to make it because I couldn't 
always sit right and doing that one thing, but I maybe make three or four a day and put it away 
and it took hundreds of them -- these little round, circle things-- to [inaudible]-- to crochet 
together eventually. And so I finally got it done. It's really my pride and joy. Besides that, I made 
three bedspreads. I made two the popcorn design and another one just a plain filet pattern with a 
rose in each square. That was very pretty. Put a fringe around it. And I've hooked rugs. I made 
small rugs and they're still down in the basement. They need a little going over. They're worn at 
the edges, but I'm going to repair them and have them clean it. They're usable. 
 
Robert L. Reed  15:10 
Did you ever make a quilt? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  15:12 
I made lots of quilts. I learned from my mother and she learned from her grandmother how to 
make crazy quilts.  
 
Robert L. Reed  15:20 
And what is a crazy quilt? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  15:22 
A crazy quilt, when you look at it, it has no particular design. You take a piece of material and 
work it in together the way it is. Have you ever seen a crazy quilt?  
 
Robert L. Reed  15:33 
I don't know! 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  15:34 
Well, I'll show you one sometime [laughs]. They were fun, because I could do most of it on a 
sewing machine. So you'd take these pieces and put them on a piece of newspaper. I kept a 
magazine so they were all the same size and sew these pieces. Then I'd tear the paper off, press 
them and glue on, finally put them together. 
 
Robert L. Reed  15:55 
And then you would have some kind of padding under the design? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  15:59 
Oh, yeah, you buy some. No, you buy-- 
 
Robert L. Reed  16:02 
You weren't doing it just for fun. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  16:02 
--a quilting, sort of a-- at the store, and then you put that in between. Then you tie it. With each 
square, maybe you tie it, maybe in between. Of course, they make these quilts differently, more 
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beautiful quilts, but I needed more quilts. There were too many beds to cover, so I used the 
quickest method I could.  
 
Robert L. Reed  16:02 
Batting, or...? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  16:05 
No, I was doing it because they were needed. And we-- every bed had a quilt, had a crazy quilt 
on it. 
 
Robert L. Reed  16:14 
Now, how about tatting? That's something some people don't even know about.  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  16:17 
Well, I love to tat. I've done a lot of tatting. I started to tat, uh, let me see, nearly 70 years ago. I 
had a neighbor who was sitting one day and doing this with her shuttle, and I got interested, and I 
said, "What are you doing?" Said, "I'm tatting." So she said, "You buy a tattle-- a shuttle, and I'll 
show you how." So I learned it. It takes a while because it always makes knots. You have to do it 
a certain way so one thread will slide over the other. If it doesn't slide, it knots. Then you throw it 
away, try another one until it slides. Well, finally I got it and I made a tatting-- tatted edges for 
all of my curtains in my first home. And there were 1, 2, 3, 4-- about eight panels, two and a half 
yards long and maybe a yard wide. I don't know how many yards of tatting that was, but I did it 
because I wanted it that way. 
 
Robert L. Reed  17:43 
That, I imagine, is a lost art by now. I don't know many [crosstalk]-- 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  17:47 
Well, you don't see it very often. It's kind of coming back. I saw one woman doing it not too long 
ago. 
 
Robert L. Reed  17:54 
You showed me a-- 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  17:56 
Handkerchiefs? 
 
Robert L. Reed  17:57 
--tatted piece on the back of the living room chair.  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  18:01 
Yes. 
 
Robert L. Reed  18:02 
A stole, was it? Did you call it a stole?  
 
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Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  18:04 
No-- well, you could wear it as a stole, but I put it on my chair. It looks kind of pretty there. And 
I've made little doilies and edgings and [inaudible]. And handkerchiefs. I've made any number of 
handkerchiefs, different patterns. I give them for bazaars. They sell them. They get from $3 or $4 
for each. And-- but I always keep a few for gifts. If I have a special friend who is very nice to 
me, I'll send her a handkerchief for her birthday or something like that. They come in handy. 
Everybody appreciates a handkerchief. 
 
Robert L. Reed  18:45 
We have a picture in our collection here, a slide, of three pieces of your artwork that are hanging 
in your hall. Can you describe those? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  18:57 
Well, they're actually made of driftwood or whatever you can find on the beach. Some are made 
of shells. And first you have to clean the wood because it's sandy and so and so forth. So I 
usually wash them real good and put a little cloth in the water and leave them dry thoroughly and 
then fit them together. Not just put them together any old way. You study what you have. It's 
long. It's a long panel. And you fit it so there's sort of a wave in it, so you see life, sort of a 
movement. And you can make very beautiful ones. You can [inaudible]-- visualizing, maybe 
waves or trees or something. 
 
Robert L. Reed  19:40 
In fact, you won prizes or ribbons?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  19:43 
Yeah, I did. At the Puyallup Fair I got a ribbon or two or a Special Mention. And I've given a lot 
of them away. One of my friends still has one hanging on her porch. And my daughters each 
have a piece. 
 
Robert L. Reed  20:01 
And you have made many things for church bazaars and senior center bazaar?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  20:07 
Oh, yes, whenever they had one, they'd ask me for something. 
 
Robert L. Reed  20:14 
I can understand why. What types of things did you make that we haven't already mentioned? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  20:22 
Well, everybody seemed to like my coat hangers, because they're not just covered wire. There's-- 
well, I can't describe them. There's sort of a-- little circles all over. [?Extend?] the whole thing 
together, and then you crochet them together, and I make little balls to trim them with. 
[Inaudible]. Different colors, red and green for Christmas sometimes, and the other colors for 
autumn, brown and beige and even pink and green, lavender. Some people like one color, and 
some people like another. And yellow is a good color, too. They're so nice to put your sweaters 
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on, or for men's shirts, or anything that's slippery that won't stay on the wire coat hanger will stay 
on these. 
 
Robert L. Reed  21:17 
I noticed a doll that you had made from a made from a man's sock. How did you do that? What 
[inaudible]? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  21:27 
Well, it's a little sock doll. And I found out -- and many other people who I've taken them to to 
sell find -- they sell much better than too fancy a doll, because they're more for little, tiny babies, 
and you fix them so there's nothing on it a baby can harm itself on. 
 
Robert L. Reed  21:48 
No button eyes?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  21:49 
There's no button eyes, just little crocheted eyes and so and so forth. And they're made of one 
sock. You can make two dolls out of one sock. Of course, you have to have a filler. I stuffed 
mine with shredded nylon silk hosiery. I saved all the old silk hosiery and my daughters would 
save theirs, too, and I'd stuff them with that, because you can wash them. Cotton batting isn't 
good; something like nylon is. And I sold them for $5. At one of the bazaars, a woman who was 
visiting Seattle, she bought two of them to take back East for her grandchildren. I felt quite 
flattered [laughs]. 
 
Robert L. Reed  22:35 
Well, that's certainly a large number of artistic mediums that you've worked with. Did we miss 
any? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  22:45 
Oh, I made a couple of afghans. 
 
Robert L. Reed  22:48 
And by what process are those made? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  22:50 
Well, let's see. These were-- well, these were all crocheted. I made one for myself. I made one 
for my oldest son, Philip, in autumn tones, because he's out at the beach. One for my younger 
son, the tier, T-I-E-R, the tier pattern. And I made another one. Oh, the granny squares. That's 
the one I kept for myself. 
 
Robert L. Reed  23:23 
Did you ever have any training in artwork or are these things that you picked up from other 
people? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  23:28 
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No, I just picked up from going places and learning from other people and kind of watching how 
theirs would turn out and get ideas that way. And magazine. And books, too, magazine books, 
handcraft magazines. Well, most of it just by going places and meeting people. 
 
Robert L. Reed  23:53 
Do you think of any of the things you have made that we haven't mentioned?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  23:55 
I can't think-- oh, I made many a little things, but I just-- I don't know. I can't think of any of 
them. Oh, I made sweaters. I made sweaters and booties and-- for my children as they were 
growing up. I also made sweaters for my daughter. When she went to the convent, I made her 
two sweaters. She still has them, and that's over 30 years, nearly 40 years ago. She just loves it. 
Made of wool, and they wash nicely. 
 
Robert L. Reed  24:26 
Did you learn much of that from your mother who was a skilled milliner? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  24:31 
Well, I-- she taught, but not too much. It was mostly sewing and hat trimming with her. But she 
did knit our stockings back East for winter, and little caps. But the crocheting and the knitting... 
She also did some crocheting. But I think I kind of chose the knitting and the crocheting and 
stuck with it. And I like to sew, too. I like to dabble with paints. It was not my thing, though, I 
found out. [Laughs] Took too much patience. So I tried that for a while, but my children are all 
very good painters. 
 
Robert L. Reed  25:28 
And you do have some nice work that you did on the walls, here, in your house. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  25:29 
Yeah, well, it's okay. 
 
Robert L. Reed  25:30 
I don't know the difference between a pastel and a... What else is there?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  25:30 
Well, the pastels are more made with kind of a chalky substance, the crayon. Of course, the real 
black ones, they're charcoal. I've done some of charcoal painting. 
 
Robert L. Reed  25:45 
We have a little time left on this side of the tape, and this will be the conclusion of our 
interviewing, so I have two or three little questions that I want to go back to, just to correct 
things that we think of. One, there are a number of Katherines in your family. Was their name 
spelled with a C-A?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  26:13 
K, always a K.  
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Robert L. Reed  26:14 
K. Probably was, but I wanted to be sure. And your mother's name was...?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  26:15 
Susanna. 
 
Robert L. Reed  26:15 
S-U-S-A-N-N-A. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  26:15 
--A-N-N-A. 
 
Robert L. Reed  26:15 
Correct. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  26:15 
But many times she said her name was Susan, you know? 
 
Robert L. Reed  26:16 
She sometimes used the name Susan? 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  26:16 
But actually her christened name, baptismal name was Susanna.  
 
Robert L. Reed  26:27 
And you have -- I believe you told me -- was it six or seven grandchildren?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  26:38 
Seven. 
 
Robert L. Reed  26:39 
There was one whose name I don't have it. Let's see. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  26:45 
Well, which one? Do you have any there? 
 
Robert L. Reed  26:54 
It's the family that has only one. 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  26:59 
That would be Ruth Johnson-- Kenneth Johnson. His name was--  
 
Robert L. Reed  27:03 
Kenneth, okay. Now going back to some of the earlier discussion... Now, these corrections will 
all be made, and you can make them also on the written material that we prepare, but you 
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mentioned once that there was 100 acres on the farm that you bought in-- that your father bought 
in Minnesota. Was that the correct figure?  
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  27:43 
120. 
 
Robert L. Reed  27:45 
120, okay, then I'll make that correction. And what I didn't have was just when the-- your family 
moved back to the house on 45th Street. And you say, now, that is about '27, 1927. 
 
Robert L. Reed  28:21 
1931-- 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  28:23 
About that. 
 
Robert L. Reed  28:23 
--seems to be the correct figure. Well, thank you very much for that. I-- do you-- this is the 
conclusion of our recording interview, and I want to thank you very much, and we will, of 
course, play all this back so you can still make corrections and-- 
 
Esther Gertrude Garske Brand  28:46 
Well, you're very welcome. It was a pleasure to me, also, to give it to you. 
 
Robert L. Reed  28:50 
Thank you. 
 