Beulah Slingerland Wickberg and her first born child, Lucille c. 1911, who would go on to marry Les Wilson of Nahcotta and begin the Ark Restaurant on the Nahcotta dock.

Beulah Henrietta Slingerland Wickberg (1893-1995)

Although she was a “family friend,” grew up in Oysterville, and was of the same generation as my mother, Beulah Wickberg always seemed from a world apart to me. It wasn’t only that she was a “character of the first order.” She had experienced a life completely different from what I was familiar with and, even now, it’s hard to imagine that her grandfather Isaac Clark and my mother’s grandfather R.H. Espy were “of an age,” were good friends and, together, founded Oysterville.

Clark was married within three years of Oysterville’s 1854 founding, while Espy waited until 1870 to marry, so it stands to reason that Beulah was 18 and married by the time my mother was born. But it wasn’t the age difference that fascinated me about Beulah and her family. Nor was it her foghorn voice or her way of saying exactly what she thought. No. It was the story of their family trip to Africa as missionaries made possible, it was said, because the elder Slingerlands had been blessed with “the gift of tongues.”

Beulah was 14 when they began their journey. They sailed on the SS Silvonica from New York City to Naples, then by boat to Port Said, Egypt, then to Aden, Arabia, and finally to Berbera in Somalia where they spent nine months. At every port of call along the way they spent time sight-seeing. When fears of a native uprising caused the authorities to suggest they leave Berbera at once, they headed for Genoa, Italy, then on to Marseille and Cherbourg, France and finally to London for a week before sailing back to the United States! It was one story that I think the neighbors talked about more than the Slingerlands did!

But Beulah told many stories about her long life, always with a crusty sort of delivery which often prompted her daughter, Lucille, to tell her “Cool it, Mom!” I think Beulah did… sometimes. Nowadays, Tucker Wachsmuth often tells Beulah’s “mud pie” story, which involved Tucker’s great-grandfather. Beaulah’s family lived about a block south of the Wachsmuths’ place when she was a little girl in Oysterville and it was her habit to sit out in front yard and make mudpies each morning right at the time that Mr. Wachsmuth’s morning walk took him past her busy “baking.”

Pull Quote

Beulah told many stories about her long life, always with a crusty sort of delivery which often prompted her daughter, Lucille, to tell her “Cool it, Mom!”

He always stopped to ask Beulah what kind of pies she was making that day and she never failed to give him one. He’d thank her, take it on his walk, and return the empty pie tin on his way home. One day Beulah peeked over the fence and saw him dump the mud out of the pie pan. That day when he returned the empty pan, she angrily confronted him about his deceit. She never gave him another “pie.”

The next Christmas at the community celebration in the Methodist Church, there was a lovely doll under the tree with Beulah’s name on it. She described it as “14 inches high, wearing a red dress with gold lace trim, a little gold hat and gold slippers. And it could open and close its eyes!” It was the most beautiful doll she had ever seen! Years later Beulah learned that the doll was a gift from Mr. Wachsmuth.

Another story Beulah loved to tell was of the shipwreck of the Alice in 1909. Crew members were all rescued but spoke only French — not a word of English. “Well, everybody knows that music is the international language,” Beulah would say, “so I’d go over to the Taylor Hotel Lobby where they would gather and I’d play the piano for them. We had a wonderful time though our communication was all through music!”

Not only was Beulah an accomplished pianist, she also wrote many songs, four of which were published over the years. However, it was not a song she wrote that would set her eyes sparkling. It was the song “I Wonder Who’s Kissing Her Now” from the musical “The Red Mill.” In her late teens, she was allowed to go to a “sleep-over” in Long Beach with a friend but, instead, they snuck over to South Bend with a big group of young people to see that musical. It was on that trip that she met Ed Wickberg and the day after she got home to Ocean Park, Ed showed up and asked her father for her hand in marriage!

Beulah lived to be 101. During those many years she worked in clam and oyster canneries, sold real estate, was a car dealer, and finally was owner-operator of Beulah’s Gift Shop in Ocean Park. She was active in the Elks and, also, in the Daughters of the Pioneers of Washington, Willapa Bay Chapter, which is where I was lucky enough to hear many of her stories first-hand. What a delightful woman! How fortunate I was to know her.