| Parents: Education: Occupation: Marriage: 2nd Marriage: |
August "Gust" Balder Maria "Mary" Kampa 4th year of high school "Looptender" in a logging camp [Source: 1930 U.S. Census] Donkey engineer in logging industry [Source: 1940 U.S. Census] Bessie Hooper February 25, 1933 by Justice of the Peace at Court House, King County, Washington Witnesses were Margaret Inabnit and J. I. Cawles Dora Yoast |
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| Children: | Janet M. | Abt. 1937 | † Feb. 26, 1932 |
| Ellsworth |
| Notes: | On Apr. 15, 1910 Ervin was 7 years old and living with his parents, sister Margaret (age 3) and his half-brother, Alfred C. Balder (22 years). His father August |
| was working as a laborer on the railroad, and half-brother Alfred was working as a carpenter's apprentice. His parents had been married 9 years and mother Mary was the mother to seven children, two of whom were still living.
On March 1, 1920 Ervin was 17 years old and living in a rented home with his parents, sister Margaret (age 13) and brother Joseph (age 1 year, 2 months) in Riverdale Village, Irondale Township, Crow Wing, Minnesota. His father was working as a blacksmith for Iron Mine. Sister Margaret was attending school at the time, however Ervin wasn't. At the time of the 1930 federal census, Ervin was single, 27 years old, and living with his parents on the family farm in Tanner, King county, Washington. They owned the farm which was appraised at $3,000 [$30,000 in 2001 dollars] [Source: NA Film #T626-2505, p. 2A, E.D. 376, Image 0934]. His 69-year-old father was working as a farmer and Ervin was a "looptender" in a logging camp. The family did not own a radio. On February 26, 1932 water was running heavily on the roads in north central Washington, but they were all open except Blewett Pass. Rain fell steadily in Wenatchee all morning. Severe flood conditions were forecast in Snohomish county, north of Seattle. The Sultan river, tributary of the Skykomish, rose six feet in eight hours the previous day and was steadily approaching flood stage. The Snohomish and Stillaguamish rivers were also rising. Rains were continuing and the higher temperatures melted much snow on the lower levels of the Cascade foothills. The Washington State Highway Patrol reported that the flood damage was the most serious in years. Despite the heavy rain of the previous two days, Seattle still lacked two inches of normal rainfall from January 1 to that date, due to a number of clear, dry days. Unbeknownst to local residents at the time, logging debris began to clog a culvert installed by the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul & Pacific Railway during the construction of a bridge beneath a 175-foot berm over Boetzke Creek designed to carry runoff from the mountainside through to Boxley Creek. The growing obstruction created an artificial dam that would burst under enormous water pressure from the torrential rain and snowmelt. Ervin was with his 48-year-old brother-in-law, William R. Blades, near the bank of Snoqualmie River when they heard a thundering commotion and saw the deluge of icy water and debris speeding toward their homes in Edgewick. They sprinted up a hill, barely dodging the landslide of mud and wreckage. Ervin's elderly parents were in the yard of their home when the tsunami hit the hamlet. The old folks raced for shelter to an outbuilding but were entangled in the upsurge and borne away. Justice of the Peace Ira Moore had been sick in bed and was being ministered to by his wife, Ermina, when the flood uprooted their small house and transported it away as well. While walking up the path to the Moore home where his car was parked, 32-year-old Elwood Clagett and his wife, Mary, were caught in the open when the surge struck. Clagett was cast aside and later found unconscious upon a ridge. As Ervin and his brother-in-law William worked their way back toward Edgewick, they found Ervin's father Gust Balder pinned beneath the ruins of a shed. He was alive but seriously injured. Disturbingly, they found that the Blade house, with sister Margaret and two baby daughters inside, had disappeared in the cataclysm. His sister was found crushed to death with her two infant daughters among the logging debris hundreds of yards down Boxley Creek. It took a week before the remains of their mother were located and retrieved. The body of Mary Clagett was never found. At the time of the May 7, 1940 federal census, Ervin R. was 37 years old and living with his 26-year-old wife Dora and their 3-year-old daughter, Janet M., on the farm they owned valued at $1,500 located at Tanner, King, Washington. He was working as a donkey engineer for the logging industry and made $1,520 in 1939 as a result of his job and supplemental income from the farm. The highest grade of education attained by both Ervin and Dora was the 4th year of high school. Ervin died on Sept. 17, 1986 in Belleview, King, Washington. He was 84 years old. |
| Ancestry: | The Balder Line |
| The Johann "Hans" Kempa Line | |
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