John Olin’s logging camp in the summer of 1902. The girl on the ladder is Eva Asp, next to her is Hanna Asp, and next to her is Hanna Olin, wife of John Olin. Photo provided by Bernice Olin.
Hanna Asp was the daughter of Anders and Maria Asp (Aspnäs in Finland). Hanna immigrated to the United States in 1888 with her family from Pedersöre, Finland. The following are entries from the diary of Hanna Asp during the summer of 1902. She worked for the John Olin family in a logging camp near Chinook, Washington. A copy of the diary was generously donated to SFHS by Bernice Olin. Photos of the family are from the SFHS archives unless otherwise noted. We kept the original grammar and spelling from the diary.
July 8, 1902
I should have began yesterday but I was too tired last night to write. I had no oil in my lamp.
We left Astoria yesterday morning at about eleven o’clock. It was after twelve when we arrived at Chinook and about four when we reached the camp. Charlie had a fire in the stove and was beginning to prepare supper. He had no bread nor heat in the house and we had to bake some hot biscuits and wait for the meat which was in the boat so we just barely got everything ready by six.
Everything was turned topsy turvy. There was moldy food every place, the floor was dirty and the dish towels were black. Well did Mr. Olin sing to-day.
We had a general clean-up this forenoon and I baked some pie and we made some beans and other things for dinner and we forgot to put the beans on the table.
This afternoon Esther and I went huckleberrying and each got a little can full. Then Mrs. Olin called us and we had to dig clams. That was the worst job I ever did yet. I just couldn’t bear to touch them at first. Afterwards I got used to it and didn’t mind it so much.
July 9, 1902
Mr. Lanchley lengthened out the dining room today. It looks like a different place altogether. There were 18 for dinner today and the same for supper and we may be more to-morrow. This afternoon I washed and it took from one o’clock till four. Then we began with supper.
July 10, 1902
I got up at half past five this morning. It took us o nine to do the dishes then I ironed the clothes till time to set the table for dinner. We got the dinner dishes away to two and rested till three and then began with supper, then finished our evening work by eight and now it is nine o’clock and I am going to bed but first I must do some mending.
July 11, 1902
Everything went as usual today. John went to Chinook to see if he could get a cook because Mrs. Olin is not feeling well enough to do the work. Esther and I jumped rope a little while this evening. Mrs. Olin is to bed already and so is Esther. I am waiting for two of the men to come home & I can fix some supper on the table for them.
The Asp family left to right: Carl August, Hanna, Andrew William, Anders, Eva Irene, Maria, Esther
July 12, 1902
I got up at twenty minutes past five this morning. When I got the breakfast dishes washed, the men who were on the raft came home for breakfast so I had another batch of dishes this afternoon. We scrubbed the floors and got through at three, then we rested till twenty minutes past four and began with supper. We got through at a quarter past eight. After that we sat talking in the front room a little while.
July 13, 1902
Today being Sunday we did not get up till seven o’clock. By then we were through with breakfast and by half past one we were through with dinner then Mrs. Olin and Esther and I took a walk in the woods. We went to a point of land where Mrs. Olin had been before where she said we could see out on the river but we could only see a little bit now because the foliage was so thick. We rested there awhile and then started for home. Just when we turned a bend we met August who was going to row Mrs. Olin over to Olsens, so she could look at a cow that Olins intend to buy. Esther & I went with them out on the tideland a little way and we picked some flowers that we found there. Then we went home for I had to make supper. It was half past four when we got home. I got supper ready to six and rang for the men to come in. They had had some liquor here during the day and some of them were drunk and they made so much noise and were so rough that I was almost afraid they would do some harm. Just when I got though with the dishes Mrs. Olin and August came home and they ate their supper and washed their dishes and we picked some potatoes for to-morrow morning and got through half past nine.
July 16, 1902
I have now got a new head cook. Her name is Ina. She came last Monday morning and she cannot talk Swedish or English and it is pretty hard for us both but we get along pretty well. Yesterday I washed from one to half past four and today I ironed some in the forenoon a little and in the afternoon from two to half past four and then not through yet with all of it. We just got done for to-day and it is ten minutes past eight o’clock.
July 17, 1902
I got up at 10 minutes past five this morning. I ironed a little in the forenoon and then five men had to have dinner at eleven o’clock so I just had to set on and off and on the table. In the afternoon Ina and I went for a walk in the woods. We climbed up on a stump and sat there and taught each other languages. We came home at half past three and got through with supper at half past nine.
July 19, 1902
Yesterday it was so late before I got to bed that I did not feel like writing. It was very hot at 91° in the shade. Last evening Alfred did not come home in time to milk so Ina and I hurried up with the dishes and went to milk. I found more blackberries around the road. I got a new bed or rather we got a new bed because it is Ina’s too. This forenoon I fixed up our room a little and cleaned the woodshed, it is dinnertime now.
The Cast of Characters
The Olin Brothers—Hanna’s Cousins
from Nykarleby, Finland
John—Johan August Olin
Jack—Jakob Olin
Alfred—Alfred Olin
The Källström Siblings
from Nykarleby, Finland
Mrs. Olin—Hanna Maria Källström
August—August Källström
The Asp Siblings
from Pedersöre
Hanna—Maria Johanna Aspnäs
Charlie—Carl August Aspnäs
Esther—Esther Asp (born in Astoria, Oregon)
Eva—Eva Irene Asp (born in Astoria, Oregon)
July 20, 1902
To-day was Sun. and everything in the morning went as usual. After dinner we went down to the river and John was driving out logs and I got on them too. I stayed from the place where they usually keep the boat till we come to the boom. It was pretty good fun but a little dangerous. We went home at 5 and made supper then John and I went to the raft to scale the logs. Just when we came there Mr. Christians and Dawson came. Ina & I walked on the logs and rowed in the boat while we were waiting. We went outside of the Chinook River. When we came home John was Captain and I and Mr. Christians and Dawson rowed. It was a very beautiful evening. We got home at half past nine.
July 22, 1902
Yesterday it was so late before we got to bed that I did not want to write. Both of us cooks over slept in the morning and then there was so much more to do than usual. We had to grind coffee and I did not have the table set and it was five minutes to six so I ground with the coffee mill & Ina with a fruit jar. We managed to get everything done in time though.
In the afternoon Ina washed and she got through at half past three. This forenoon I ironed and in the afternoon we went berry picking. We filled our cans twice and then we watched the donkey awhile and then went home. Alfred said this evening that we ought to stay at the donkey all the time and the engineer would not be so cross. He said that as soon as we went away he began to get cross with the fireman but Alfred and the engineer do not seem to get along very well so I don’t know if he is so very cross or if Alfred thinks him so because he doesn’t like him.
July 23, 1902
This forenoon everything went as usual except that I forgot to put the mush plates on the table. In the afternoon I went out to pick blackberries and I got a small can full. When I came back I met Mr. Wood out (the man that buys John’s logs) on the planks and they are so narrow that only one can walk on them and seeing a log I stepped off and waited for him to go by. When he passed he said, “I was just thinking of drawing straws to see who should have to get off.” I didn’t know who he was then but when I came in Mrs. Olin told me.
John came home about four o’clock and Mr. Dawson had been with him so we had to fix some lunch for the fourth time. Then when they got through eating Jack and Eric Anderson came to make some wood for us because we had only one armful left and we made some coffee for them. I had cleared the table and washed the dishes it was time to set the table for supper. Then we were through with our work. Mr. Christians took us out huckleberrying. We went up the new log road. The logs had made it almost as smooth as a carriage road. We went as far as it went and then we came through all kinds of brush to the road that comes out by the barn. I saw a bush of devils walking cane and as I had not seen it before I did not know what it was and I was going to take one of its large leaves to press but Mr. Christians told me not to touch them. I left it alone when I found out what it was. We went to the place where the pictures were taken to. At first I said not sure of the place but when I saw the tree with the undercut in it I knew it right away. From there we went through some more brush and rough places and came at last to the road that goes behind Mr. Christians’ cabin. It was half past nine o’clock when we got home.
Today being Sat. we are scrubbing in the afternoon and Mrs. Olin went blackberrying and got 2 pudding pans full which she boiling now.