Louvena Chapman Oral History
Dublin Core
Title
Louvena Chapman Oral History
Description
Louvena Chapman Oral History
Creator
Churchill County Museum Association
Publisher
Churchill County Museum Association
Date
June 27, 1992
Format
Analog Cassette Tape, Text File, MP3 Audio
Language
English
Oral History Item Type Metadata
Duration
Recording 1, 1:03:00
Recording 2, 11:02
Recording 2, 11:02
Bit Rate/Frequency
128kbps/44100hz
Transcription
CHURCHILL COUNTY MUSEUM & ARCHIVES
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
an interview with
LOUVENA McLEAN CHAPMAN
June 27, 1992
OH
Cha.
This interview was conducted by Eleanor Ahern; transcribed by Glenda Price; edited by Norine Arciniega; final typed by Pat Boden; index by Gracie Viera; supervised by Myrl Nygren, Director of Oral History Project/Assistant Curator Churchill County Museum.
PREFACE
Louvena McLean Chapman believed in education and spent most of her time in teaching and then her summers in continuing education classes. Not one to be idle, Mrs. Chapman decided to further her schooling but in a different occupation during her summer breaks. She attended a cosmetology school and spent her summers as a hairdresser.
I spoke to a couple of Mrs. Chapman's former students and asked their impression of her. The two former students replied that they were in awe of her. Mrs. Chapman believed in a no-nonsense approach to teaching and was also formidable in height (five feet ten inches).
Now at the age of eighty four, Mrs. Chapman has little time to be idle. She tends her immaculate garden and yard daily. If she had the agility and strength, she would be tending to the minor household repairs herself.
Interview with Louvena McLean Chapman
This is Eleanor Ahern of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Project interviewing Louvena McLean Chapman at her home at 457 Esmeralda Street, Fallon, Nevada. The date is Saturday, June 27, 1992. We are sitting in the living room of Mrs.
Chapman. The time is two o'clock P.M.
AHERN: Good afternoon, Mrs. Chapman. How are you? CHAPMAN: Good afternoon. I'm fine, thank you.
AHERN: Would you please give me your full name?
CHAPMAN: Louvena Rahel Chapman, unless you want my maiden name in there.
AHERN: Whichever name you go by.
CHAPMAN: Well, I go by--as far as the business is concerned--Louvena McLean Chapman.
AHERN: And I understand your middle name is Rahel? CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: You were named after a grandmother?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN:
AHERN:
It's unusual spelling. Would you tell me something. about your grandparents? Where were they from?
They were from Germany.
Were both of them living in the United States when they met, or did they meet in Germany? Do you recall?
I think they met in the United States. I'm pretty sure they did.
Do you remember them, your grandparents?
I remember the grandmother, but the grandfather was killed.
Would you tell me about that incident, please?
Well, as far as I know, he was driving a team of horses and he fell out of the wagon and was killed.
I imagine he wasn't that old when he died.
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CHAPMAN: No, no, he wasn't, but I don't really know. Probably it told the day of his death in the paper.
AHERN: From what I understand, at one time he was in the mule team business.
CHAPMAN: Yes, he was.
AHERN: Where was his business located?
CHAPMAN: Well, I guess it was located right at the ranch that he owned which is right there at the river bridge on McLean Road, but I think he teamed from Wadsworth if I remember.
AHERN: The ranch was situated on the east side of McLean Road what is now Millers'?
CHAPMAN: Well, yes, that's where the home was on McLean Road at the river bridge there, but the ranch itself extended along the river for eight hundred acres.
AHERN: What was in the eight hundred acres?
CHAPMAN: I suppose there was some feed for cattle. Of course, this was a toll bridge that went across the river.
AHERN: Who paid the toll?
CHAPMAN: Anyone that crossed the bridge
AHERN: Were these just mainly businesses that paid the toll
like other teamsters? Was it a way station?
CHAPMAN: Not exactly, I don't think. I really don't recall this
part.
AHERN: Tell me this. What do you recall of your grandparents? CHAPMAN: My grandmother--I remember her very well.
AHERN: Could you tell me something about her, please?
CHAPMAN: She was a small woman, and I think she was quite intelligent. My mother was the last one of the three girls to marry, and she and my mother lived together, and they purchased a lot of property here in town.
AHERN: You stated your grandparents are from Germany. Do you recall your grandmother speaking in German?
CHAPMAN: Oh, my, yes.
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AHERN: Did you learn German?
CHAPMAN: No, I didn't. But something that is rather
interesting, at that time all the telephones were party lines and if my mother and grandmother or my mother and her sister, who lived just a few miles away, wanted to correspond and they didn't want anybody to know what they were talking about because those are party lines,
they would talk in German. (laughing)
AHERN: But, your mother and your aunt did speak German? CHAPMAN: Yes, oh, yes.
AHERN: Did they ever speak to you in phrases to the point where you understood a word here and there?
CHAPMAN: No, really, no. My grandmother, of course, had kind of an accent, but I thought that was pretty good
(laughing) because there was lots of rubbering. That's what they called it, rubbering, going on in those days. (laughing)
AHERN: And the term, rubbering, what was that?
CHAPMAN: If someone heard your telephone number [ring] and they wanted to hear what you were going to say, then they would take down the receiver, and they called that rubbering. (laughing)
AHERN: You said your mother was the last one to marry, but she was not the youngest, right?
CHAPMAN: No, she was the second. She was the middle girl.
AHERN: There were a total of . .
CHAPMAN: Three girls.
AHERN: Three girls. Would you tell me the names of your aunts?
CHAPMAN: There was Kate Fallon. Her husband's parents had the first post office here in Fallon on Maine Street just behind where the courthouse is now.
AHERN: Was Fallon named after her husband's parents?
CHAPMAN: Yes, it was. After his father My aunt's husband's father it is named for.
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AHERN: What was her husband's name?
CHAPMAN: Ira and the parent was Mike Fallon.
AHERN: And the other sister?
CHAPMAN: The youngest sister married young, so she didn't really have any other occupation.
AHERN: And what was her name?
CHAPMAN: Her name was Minnie Branch.
AHERN: Tell me about your parents. Where was your father from?
CHAPMAN: He was from West Virginia.
AHERN: HOw did he end up in Fallon?
CHAPMAN: He had a brother that came out here. Now, I can't tell you why the brother came, but I know it was because of the brother that he came.
AHERN: What was his brother's name?
CHAPMAN: Fleming McLean.
AHERN: What was your father's occupation?
CHAPMAN: He was a railroader at One time.
AHERN: And what would a railroader do at that time?
CHAPMAN: I can't tell you, unless they changed the tracks like they do on some of those things or worked as a conductor would work, maybe.
AHERN: Your parents met here in Fallon?
CHAPMAN: Yes, they did.
AHERN: Had your father always worked on the railroad?
CHAPMAN: He may have even worked in lumber back in West
Virginia, too, in the lumber mill. But as far as I know, after he came to Fallon he farmed.
AHERN: Where did he farm?
CHAPMAN: This farm of the grandfather's was over eight hundred acres and the Branches had one section of it; it was
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divided evenly, and then my mother and my father had the other section which they farmed.
So of your grandfather's eight hundred acres, each daughter had a piece of that?
The older daughter Kate Fallon did not because she and her husband went to Yerington. That's where he located. He had a big sheep ranch over there.
So then the eight hundred was between the two daughters and the mother?
Yes. Well, I don't know whether the mother had
anything more to do with it. Probably they bought her out.
Do you recall how your parents had met? Did they ever talk about it?
I really don't know how that came about. Of course, my mother and her mother lived here in town a good part of their life, too, and they both bought property. They had quite a lot of property here in town at one time which has been sold of course over the years.
Tell me about your mother. What was she like?
She was . . . (tearfully) I'm sorry that I'm like this (laughing). She was very intelligent, and she was a graduate of the University of Nevada. In fact, in her younger years, when the grandparents lived on the farm, she went to Reno and lived with a sister of my grandmother's, and she went to school there. While staying there and working for her,she went to the University of Nevada.
And what did she major in at the University?
She was a teacher. She taught school here.
I understand she was Fallon's first school teacher.
In the city, I suppose. You've seen that picture a hundred times of where those kids are standing out in front of the schoolhouse; well, she was the first teacher right here in town.
And what was the name of that school then?
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CHAPMAN: I don't know. Kind of like a rural school, I guess. There weren't very many children in it. Ten or twelve
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or so, but she didn't stay with teaching too long. If you know where Kents' store is uptown on [165] Maine Street, right kitty corner across from there where that bank [Interwest National Bank of Nevada] is now,
that's where the schoolhouse was. She, I think, really was the first teacher right here in the city of Fallon. But she gave it up because she could make more money working for Mr. Kent over in his store.
What did she do for Mr. Kent?
She sold dry goods.
How long was she a school teacher?
About three or four years, I would say, maybe.
So then she had spent most of her years working for Mr. Kent?
I really don't know because history was never foremost in my mind.
And you don't recall her, talking about it either?
Other than that she taught and that's why she stopped teaching. In the meantime, I'm sure she got married after that.
This Mr. Kent, which of the Kent brothers was he?
He's the grandfather. I. H. Kent.
And she worked for I. H. Kent.
Yes, the original.
Was your father a Fallon native?
No, he was from West Virginia. His brother had come out here, and that's the reason that he came. He was not a native and farming, I guess, was what he did. I don't know whether when they got married they went immediately out to the farm or not because they had a home out there. I mean, my mother and her grandmother had a home out there, and that house is still right there by the river bridge, but it's remodeled.
When you talk about the river bridge, what street would it be known by today?
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
CHAPMAN: McLean Road and that's about four miles out of town.
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AHERN: You were raised on the farm?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: You were born out there?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
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Did you enjoy living on the farm?
Well, yes, I guess so. (laughing) I have nothing that's really outstanding, but then, everything went along very well and, of course, my mother's sister was only about a mile away and of course she had four children, too, and we visited back and forth. Everybody more or less visited in those days, come around and see what was going on.
Tell me about your childhood. Living on the farm, did you have any specific chores?
No, I didn't. Just play, I guess, mostly. Well, it isn't very long 'til you get ready for school.
On the large acre that your parents lived on, what was produced on it?
Grain and alfalfa.
Any livestock?
Yes.
Did they have any helpers?
Oh, yes. There was always hired help because there was lots of irrigating to be done and milking cows.
All this was for your own consumption?
Yes.
These hired help, were they from around town?
Yes, I'm sure they were from around town and sometimes they stayed for a long time. Some of those hired men would stay two or three years with you. At one point, the ranch farm and ours were leased to Italian families and they raised potatoes. My father and whoever else built them a home not very far from where our house was, and they lived there with their own family. Then
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there was quite a good-sized orchard, too, out there right across the road from where the house was. People used to come buy apples and crabapples and things like that.
AHERN: Did your grandmother live with your mother and your family after they were married?
CHAPMAN: She lived with my mother for just a short period of time and then she went to live with the younger daughter, and she lived there after that.
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Tell me about your education, your schooling years. Where did you go to school?
By the time I was six years old, there was a school not very far away; Soda Lake School it was, and I wasn't too far from the school so that I could walk to school everyday. I went just for the two years to the Soda Lake School when it was consolidated into the Fallon Schools.
Did your mother ever teach you at home?
Well, she didn't teach me, but then, well, she taught us, yes, of course.
This was before you even went . .
Well, she didn't actually teach us as a teacher, helped with all your problems.
After the Soda Lake School, what other school did you attend?
We rode the bus to Fallon school, and I did that through the eighth grade, and then by that time we had moved here to town.
What was your address in town?
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CHAPMAN: Right here.
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: This is the house on Esmeralda right here? Yes. and
CHAPMAN: You had mentioned earlier that your grandmother mother had bought property. Were they doing it investment purposes? just as
Oh, I'm sure they were.
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AHERN: That is pretty innovative.
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: When they had bought the property, was it just plots of land?
CHAPMAN: Some of it was. Yes. There were a lot of just plots, and then there were houses, too, I guess, that were on some of them. In fact, this house, and my sister's next door which was the family home, were sitting up here on Stillwater Avenue, and after they had to build streets, make better streets, these two houses were sort of out in the street, so they had to be moved. Instead of just moving them back, they were moved into these two positions here. Then a good time later the Methodist Church bought this property up here on the corner [280 E. Stillwater]. But, my mother and her mother owned quite a lot of property here in town.
AHERN: Do you recall how many or where it extended to?
CHAPMAN: They had a two-story building on Maine Street which was--they didn't run it--but it was a rooming house and that was on the west side.
AHERN: And around here?
CHAPMAN: Well, not right here, but off over in this other area right over in here they had--well, maybe I would say in the Williams Avenue section over in there they had three or four houses, and then on Maine Street they had a two-story rooming house that they rented, and it burned later.
AHERN: The property was bought after your grandfather died?
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, and even before my mother was married. She and my mother bought all this property. If they sold a piece they divided it up, I'm sure [the monies].
AHERN: Do you ever recall them talking about when they first started purchasing the property?
CHAPMAN: No, I don't. At one point, my mother and grandmother-and this again was before she was married, too---lived here in town. They had a home, but I don't know which one it was.
AHERN: Wasn't it unusual back then for women to be buying a lot of property?
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CHAPMAN: Well, I don't think so. I doubt it very much. I don't
know how they got into the business really, but they did very well for themselves anyway.
AHERN: After all these years, do you find it difficult talking about your mother?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: Do you miss her very much?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: Were you very close to her?
CHAPMAN: (tearfully) Yes. I hate this about myself.
AHERN: Well, if you love somebody .
CHAPMAN: I know, but this being kind of sentimental like this is really ridiculous to me.
AHERN: No.
CHAPMAN: Gosh! In fact, I'm thinking about this again. From Stillwater Avenue here she and her mother owned this whole section clear up to those foothills right up here where the Adventist Church is [755 Esmeralda]. They owned this whole section through here.
AHERN: That would be Humboldt Street.
CHAPMAN: No, Humboldt Street's over this way. But, this was from here up to the--well, we called it the sand hill because that's what it is up here. Yes, they owned all that up to the sand hill. And, of course, as the city grew, they had to have alleys and more streets and that sort of thing, and then, of course, all this property had just nothing but outhouses, too, (laughing) you know. A lot of things have happened over the years.
AHERN: A lot of changes, you mean?
CHAPMAN: A lot of changes is right. Yes, they certainly have.
AHERN: In your family was it just you and your younger sister? CHAPMAN: Yes, that's all. Just the two of us.
AHERN: Was your sister as close to your mother as you were, too?
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CHAPMAN: Oh, yes.
AHERN: It sounds like you had a lot of fun together. CHAPMAN: Oh, yes.
AHERN: Tell me about those happy times.
CHAPMAN: Oh, I don't know. Just being around her. She made all our clothes and, of course, well, by the time I was seventeen I was out of high school and then you go away to college and you go into your own work and so on.
AHERN: After high school you went on to college. CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: Where?
CHAPMAN: To San Jose.
AHERN: Why did you pick San Jose?
CHAPMAN: Because I wanted to teach in California.
AHERN: Did you already have a place where you wanted to teach in California?
CHAPMAN: No. Well, I wanted to be able to teach in California if I wanted to, and if you had gone to Nevada, you could not teach in California. I mean, if you'd graduated up here.
AHERN: Since you graduated from California could you have taught in Nevada?
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, I should say so. No problem. Of course, when I graduated in 1927 from San Jose, jobs were scarce and you just had to take anything you could get.
AHERN: But, still, you were able to find a teaching job?
CHAPMAN: Yes. Instead of finding a teaching job in California, I came back to Nevada, and that's when I went to this rural school that was sixty miles south of Winnemucca.
AHERN: What was the name of the school?
CHAPMAN: Bushee District. I don't know where they got that. It might have been somebody's name. In fact some of the children of the people I stayed with own the radio
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station out here now.
AHERN: The KVLV radio station?
CHAPMAN: Um huh.
AHERN: What was the name of the people you stayed with? CHAPMAN: Pearce.
AHERN: You mentioned that the school house was just a short ways from their residence. How many children were in the school house?
CHAPMAN: Just five.
AHERN: And did all five belong to the Pearce family? CHAPMAN: No, there were two families.
AHERN: They were Pearce . .
CHAPMAN: and Etchegoyhen. They were Portugese, I think, or Spanish. The Etchegoyhens had two children and the Pearce family had three, but the Pearce family had had other children that had graduated, too. They had six or seven children in their family.
AHERN: What were the ages of the children?
CHAPMAN: Well, I had a first grader so that was six years, and then I had a third grader so that must have been about eight years, and then I had the girl graduated from eighth grade so she must have been twelve or thirteen. And then in the other family the girl was fourth grade so she was probably about ten maybe, and then the boy was a year older or two years older so he was probably about sixth grade. But that was the extent of the school.
AHERN: Did you enjoy your time there?
CHAPMAN: Yes, it was fun!
AHERN: When you had teaching degree was it for the elementary level?
CHAPMAN: Yes, for the elementary. You couldn't teach in Fallon because you had to have two years experience before they would even think about hiring you, so you had to find some other place to go.
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AHERN: But the other places weren't as particular? CHAPMAN: Well, (laughing) let's say that.
AHERN: How long were you at the Pearce ranch?
CHAPMAN: Just the one year.
AHERN: And after that year where were you?
CHAPMAN: And then the next year I was here at the Beach
[District] School here in Fallon which is out south of here.
AHERN: Do you recall the street name?
CHAPMAN: Well, that was the name of the school.
AHERN: Where would the school be by today's street names?
CHAPMAN: It was about six or seven miles out here. Just on the Lee farm, I think. And I had about three or four
families there with more children, of course.
AHERN: When you say the Lee farm, do you recall their first names?
CHAPMAN: I know what the brother's name was but I can't think of what the father's name was.
AHERN: Who was the brother?
CHAPMAN: Bob Lee was his name.
AHERN: And this time you had a larger student body? CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: How large was it?
CHAPMAN: It must have been about twelve, and there were more grades.
AHERN: Did that intimidate you to have a larger class? CHAPMAN: No.
AHERN: How old were you then?
CHAPMAN: I was nineteen when I started teaching, so I was twenty at the second go round. And I only stayed out there
one year. Well, I said, I think, that they wouldn't
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take you in the Fallon schools unless you had two years experience.
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So after you accumulated your two years experience, did you finally come to the Fallon school?
Eventually, but I taught in about three or four other rural schools around before I got there.
I understand you obtained a second occupation. Would you tell me about that, please?
(laughing) I'd always been interested in doing hair-don't look at mine today, though--and I just thought that I could spend my after school and Saturdays and holidays and summer doing something else because I really did like to work with hair, so I went to the Reno School of Beauty in the summertime and graduated from there and then got a license to practice, so I
did. I had a good friend [Alice Snelling] here who had
a shop so she took me in and let me work with her.
You mentioned you had attended various summer schools. What were they?
You had to get your certificate renewed until you had a life certificate. You had to have six years before you could even apply for a life diploma, so you had go out really into the country to get your experience, and then they were very particular. I sometimes think belonging to the town why that made a little difference, too, as to whether they'd hire you or not. And, of course, as I say, I went to summer school many, many times and finally I received my degree from the University of Nevada.
When you attended the summer schools, what subjects were you taking?
Just courses that applied to teaching mostly. Education?
To get a degree you had to take a lot of different things, too, like psychology and all that sort of stuff that you don't have too much use for. At least, I didn't, anyway. Of course, it all depended, too, on what you wanted your degree in what kind of courses that you would take. Whether it was teaching or science or whatever you wanted to become. Course, I really got up to my master's degree. I got all the courses in and then I never did take the orals.
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AHERN: This'd be a master's degree in education?
CHAPMAN: Um hum. But I just never got around to going for the orals. I don't know what happened about that time.
AHERN: Were you a strict teacher?
CHAPMAN: You betcha. (laughing) I really don't know how these teachers get along these days because I don't see how you can teach children if you don't have order in the room.
AHERN: When you started teaching in a larger class and if the child was undisciplined, how did you discipline the child?
CHAPMAN: Just mostly talked to them. I think I spanked about three children in my lifetime, but that was because they misbehaved too badly out on the school ground, not in the school room. Just bothering other kids until they couldn't stand it. Course that's been outlawed a long time. You wouldn't dare do that anymore, but I just gave three little swats. That was all I ever did (laughing) But I didn't have any trouble with discipline for some reason. The kids really minded pretty well. The classes now I don't think they're very large, are they, anymore? I don't think they have more than twenty or something like, but we nearly always had about thirty-five, sometimes even more. That's quite a few children, but then we got along. We learned.
AHERN: Do you think part of the reason you never had any discipline problems is because the values were different back then?
CHAPMAN: Yes, I think so. The parents themselves were stricter, yes, and the parents were home, too, in those days. 'Cause when the mother and father have to work now and they're gone, it makes a big difference with children, I think. Parents were behind you most of the time.
AHERN: Tell me a little bit about your sister. When she
graduated from high school, what did she do?
CHAPMAN: First she worked for the telephone company, and she also worked for the Western Union. She worked in Reno, too, in Western Union, and then she finally got a job out here at the base. Worked out there in Civil Service.
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AHERN: And what is her name?
CHAPMAN: Her name is Madeline McLean. And she stayed out there until she retired.
AHERN: Is she married?
CHAPMAN: No, she's not married.
AHERN: Was that considered unusual, also, for someone not to marry when you were growing up?
CHAPMAN:
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No, I don't think so. Seems to me there were lots of people around that were not married in those days. But seems like everybody that got married, then they became a housewife. They didn't work out in those days like they do now.
Is that what happened to you after you married?
No, I just kept right on. (laughing)
Tell me about your husband. Where did you meet him?
Over in Hawthorne at the Marine base. He was over there, and I was here even after we were married. Part of the time I was still at home while he was over there.
Did he drive over to Fallon to court you?
Oh, you betcha! I should say so! I think he wore out
two or three cars. (laughing)
You met at a social function?
Yes. The Marines didn't have very many women around in those days.
Tell me what attracted you to him.
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CHAPMAN: Just his personality, I guess, and he was six feet, two
and a half. (laughing)
AHERN: How tall are you?
CHAPMAN: I'm five ten.
AHERN: Were you considered extremely tall?
CHAPMAN: Yes, I was. You bet I was. (laughing) I surely was
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considered tall in those days. You bet I was! That's the days, too, when there was always a Saturday night dance here in town.
AHERN: Where in town?
CHAPMAN: You know where the Fraternal Hall building is? Down on the south end of Maine. In fact, about across the street from the Nugget. There's a Fraternal Hall there [39 South Maine Street] and there was a big dance hall up on the second floor. It was actually the lodge room, too, but it was a large dance floor, so it was a Saturday night affair always. We went to the dance every Saturday night!
AHERN: So, your husband was based in Hawthorne. Did he come to Fallon to attend the dances?
CHAPMAN: Yes, you bet.
AHERN: He was in the military. What military branch?
CHAPMAN: He was in the Marines, and that was the ammunition depot that's in Hawthorne now. There's several Marines over there now, I guess. He had been in the Marines for quite some time 'cause he had put in time in China and San Diego and back in North Carolina, too.
AHERN: Did he make the Marines his career?
CHAPMAN: Yes. He stayed with it. In fact, he was the company barber. Everywhere any of our Marine was, he was the company barber. And then after we were married, he came over here to Fallon and went into business here and had his own barber shop. Then he retired from there.
AHERN: How many children did you have?
CHAPMAN: We didn't have any.
AHERN: Did you ever do your cosmetology out of his barber shop?
CHAPMAN: No. At one point, he had a barber shop in Hawthorne afterwards, and I had always been interested in starting here or anywhere working with hair, so I thought maybe I would be going over there, but it didn't turn out that way. He came here, which was better anyway.
AHERN: After you were married, where did you live?
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CHAPMAN: We lived right here.
AHERN: You lived in your family home?
CHAPMAN: Um huh. My parents lived in the house next door. We lived here.
AHERN: Was this already here or did you and your husband build the house?
CHAPMAN: No, this was one of my mother's and grandmother's properties that are right here. We did some remodeling on it after we married. In fact, the two houses would still be there--they were out in the street actually when they wanted to put the street through, so they had to be moved down here.
AHERN: Your husband enjoyed doing barber work?
CHAPMAN: Oh, sure, I should say so. He liked to be around people anyway.
AHERN: Was his the only shop in town?
CHAPMAN: No. There were two others besides his. He worked for another man here when he first came over, but he wanted to be his own boss, so we built a building which is still on Maine Street on the lot that my mother and her mother had owned at one time and my mother still owned. A building that had been on the lot had burned, so then we built. There is a barber shop in the one side there yet. In fact, in order for my sister to have her share, why we divided the building into two parts and she rented her part and he had the other part for his barber shop. And if I do say so, he was a very good barber. (laughing)
AHERN: He eventually retired from .
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes. Yes, he eventually retired.
AHERN: After retirement from the barber business, what did he do?
CHAPMAN: We traveled a great deal. Not on our own, but we had a friend in Sparks who had a business of soliciting people to go on trips. She had her own travel agency, and she recruited people that she knew around, and we did a great deal of traveling after he retired . . . with her.
AHERN: Was she almost like a tour guide, then?
19
not. I never did learn to
really care about fishing,
about it, so we went. Had
CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
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AHERN:
Yes, she really was a tour guide. A good one. It's just been within the last year that she has given up being the guide herself. She still has the tours, but she has somebody else go on the bus. They were bus tours. Well, most all of them were bus tours. Course the one to Hawaii was by plane, and the one to Canada was on a big ocean liner out of San Francisco. Yes, we did a great deal, and I think we did most everything. Mexico.
What would have been your favorite place?
I don't know. I just liked all of it. Canada, we went clear 'cross Canada. All down the east coast.
This is basically a sightseeing .
Yes, really. It was sightseeing, but this tour guide was really excellent. She really was. She knew just exactly what she was doing. She had everything outlined. We knew exactly where we were going to stay at night and all that sort of thing. It was very, very good.
Do you recall the name of the tour guide business?
Elaine Fairchild. She, as I said, still has the agency, but I understand she has somebody else who goes on the bus that she doesn't go on the bus 'cause she's as old as I am. Just about, anyway.
When your husband retired from the barbering business, did he keep any memento of his former occupation? Like the barber pole?
No, not really. I guess razors, probably. (laughing) That all stayed with the building when he sold it. He liked to fish and hunt. He was really fanatic on that.
Did you go on these fishing and hunting trips with him?
Well, yes, but just in Nevada. I got awfully tired getting ready to go on those weekend trips.
Did you fish and hunt alongside with him?
CHAPMAN: No, I did
never did was crazy
use a gun, and I (laughing) but he a dog with us.
20
AHERN: Did you ever can or prepare any of the fish or venison?
CHAPMAN: No. I never did do that because I worked for so many years I never did get into that canning stuff because so often you had to go to summer school every summer. Not all the time but then you went lots of the time.
AHERN: In your years of teaching and all that, you belonged to numerous organizations. Were there any in particular that you really enjoyed being in?
CHAPMAN: Oh, I enjoyed belonging to any of those organizations. I liked to go to AAUW and Retired Teachers. You see some of your old friends there. Some of them are sort of dying out though (laughing), retired teachers, and the new ones aren't very interested in it, for some reason.
AHERN: Were you quite active in the community other than being a teacher?
CHAPMAN: No, not really, because, after all, I was teaching most of all my life, it seemed like, and then after I retired, we traveled a great deal of the time. Several years there.
AHERN: Did you and your husband retire close to the same age? CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: What age was that?
CHAPMAN: I retired at sixty five.
AHERN: And your husband's age?
CHAPMAN: I think he was sixty eight. He retired a couple of years before I did. It's hard to describe so many things because as time went on you forget things you have done and some don't have very much consequence.
AHERN: Is there anything that you remember in looking back on your life now that you especially enjoyed or that stays in your memory? Something you've done or enjoyed doing?
CHAPMAN: Gardening. I still garden. My husband, in fact, was a very good gardener. That was one of the trades he learned while he was a Marine over at Hawthorne. He used to like to go out with the gardener over there and work with him, and we always had a big garden right
here. And I liked that, too. I liked to garden. In
21
fact, I have continued. Well, now this year, I say is my last year because things are not doing a bit well this year. The plants are just . . . I don't what's the matter. They just are not producing or growing. In fact, growing like they should. Course maybe it's my fault, I don't know. Maybe I'm not preparing the ground well enough anymore, and I don't get around quite as well as I did either.
AHERN: You no longer travel as you used to?
CHAPMAN: No, I don't. About three or four years ago I pulled the Achilles tendon from my leg, and ever since then I walk with a cane now.
AHERN: But, prior to that, even after your husband was gone, you still traveled?
CHAPMAN: Well, not too much, but, yes, a little bit. Yes, I had a friend here in Fallon that went with me. She would go on more trips, but I'm the one that sort of backs
out now. (laughing)
AHERN: You say that your sister lives right next door to you. She's your neighbor. Do you ever do things together?
CHAPMAN: We never have because she's five years younger than I am, and we never ever did things together because by the time she was ready for high school I was gone. No, we never have done too many things together. She has her own group, and I have mine. She likes to go to these lodges. Well, I used to, too. I used to belong to a couple of them, but I still belong, but I don't go anymore to those things. You know, you run out of friends, the people that you've known all your life (laughing).
AHERN: I imagine you still run into a lot of your former students.
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, but, you know, every once in awhile you see about someone, but you don't see as many as you think you would, and some of them I wouldn't recognize anyway (laughing) 'cause they change a lot from seven years old to seventeen or whatever it might be or whatever it is.
AHERN: Looking back on your life is there anything you would have done differently?
CHAPMAN: I wouldn't have changed what I have done. I guess I could have saved more money or something. (laughing)
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AHERN: If you did, what would you do with it?
CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN: (laughing) You could just hire someone to do everything that you don't want to do---like hire someoe to help clean the house and work in the garden.
Is there anything that you can think of that you would like to talk about that I forgot to ask you?
I think you covered things very well. I don't know of anything that should be unusual or anything other than that I'm more interested in church work and things like that now than I was when I was younger.
You do quite a few volunteer church work now? I mean I have become a good member, let's say. And what church do you belong to?
I belong to the Episcopal Church, and I help them. Right now I have an automobile, but I don't like to drive anymore.
Why not?
Well, it just seems to bother me. The traffic.
It's too congested?
Yes, it just seems like it bothers me, and I'd rather not worry about it, which isn't good. I do have a good friend that takes me every place that I need to go, so things have worked out all right.
Tell me, how do you spend your days now?
In the summertime I'm out in the yard all summer, and then there are two or three organizations that I go to, and the church would keep you busy all the time if you would (laughing) let them, I'm sorry to say.
Do you curtail your activities when winter comes?
Well, yes. You have to. You can't get out always. Course this past year has been a really kind of a bad one for me. My sister hasn't been very well.
So you've been walking over to take care of her?
CHAPMAN: Yes, she's had a couple of operations, so that has
23
taken time this last year.
AHERN: Do you watch TV a lot?
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, but I'm not one of these people that sits in front of them forever and ever. I like the news very much and some of the stories, but I get terribly bored with some of that stuff. I'd rather not see it at all. I'd rather read something. There was a time, too--I
forgot this--I really liked to cook. (laughing)
AHERN: What type of dishes did you like preparing?
CHAPMAN: It didn't make any difference, just a good meal. We used to have quite a bit of company, and I really did enjoy cooking, but right now I'd rather eat a TV dinner.
AHERN: You say you like to read now and then. What kind of reading matter?
CHAPMAN: Oh, let's say, magazines. Just any old magazine. Doesn't matter. In fact, I take more magazines than I can read.
AHERN: On behalf of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Program, I would like to thank you for allowing me to
come and interview you. I appreciate it very much.
CHAPMAN: You're certainly welcome.
LOUVENA McLEAN CHAPMAN Index Page 19
Beauty school 14
Branch, Minnie 4
Chapman, Walker 16-17, 18,
Etchegoyhen family 12
Fairchild, Elaine 19
Fallon, Ira 4
Fallon, Kate 3, 5.
Fallon, Mike 4, 5
Farm life 7-8
Gardening 20-21, 22
Grandparents 1-3, 4, 5, 8, 9,
Lee family 13
McLean, Annie Theelen 5-6, 8-11
McLean, Edwin P. 4, 6
McLean, Madeline 15-16, 22
Marriage 17-18
Pearce family 11-12
"Rubbering" 3
Schooling 8, 11, 14, 15
Teaching experiences 11-15
Travel experiences 18-19
10
ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
an interview with
LOUVENA McLEAN CHAPMAN
June 27, 1992
OH
Cha.
This interview was conducted by Eleanor Ahern; transcribed by Glenda Price; edited by Norine Arciniega; final typed by Pat Boden; index by Gracie Viera; supervised by Myrl Nygren, Director of Oral History Project/Assistant Curator Churchill County Museum.
PREFACE
Louvena McLean Chapman believed in education and spent most of her time in teaching and then her summers in continuing education classes. Not one to be idle, Mrs. Chapman decided to further her schooling but in a different occupation during her summer breaks. She attended a cosmetology school and spent her summers as a hairdresser.
I spoke to a couple of Mrs. Chapman's former students and asked their impression of her. The two former students replied that they were in awe of her. Mrs. Chapman believed in a no-nonsense approach to teaching and was also formidable in height (five feet ten inches).
Now at the age of eighty four, Mrs. Chapman has little time to be idle. She tends her immaculate garden and yard daily. If she had the agility and strength, she would be tending to the minor household repairs herself.
Interview with Louvena McLean Chapman
This is Eleanor Ahern of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Project interviewing Louvena McLean Chapman at her home at 457 Esmeralda Street, Fallon, Nevada. The date is Saturday, June 27, 1992. We are sitting in the living room of Mrs.
Chapman. The time is two o'clock P.M.
AHERN: Good afternoon, Mrs. Chapman. How are you? CHAPMAN: Good afternoon. I'm fine, thank you.
AHERN: Would you please give me your full name?
CHAPMAN: Louvena Rahel Chapman, unless you want my maiden name in there.
AHERN: Whichever name you go by.
CHAPMAN: Well, I go by--as far as the business is concerned--Louvena McLean Chapman.
AHERN: And I understand your middle name is Rahel? CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: You were named after a grandmother?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN:
AHERN:
It's unusual spelling. Would you tell me something. about your grandparents? Where were they from?
They were from Germany.
Were both of them living in the United States when they met, or did they meet in Germany? Do you recall?
I think they met in the United States. I'm pretty sure they did.
Do you remember them, your grandparents?
I remember the grandmother, but the grandfather was killed.
Would you tell me about that incident, please?
Well, as far as I know, he was driving a team of horses and he fell out of the wagon and was killed.
I imagine he wasn't that old when he died.
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2
CHAPMAN: No, no, he wasn't, but I don't really know. Probably it told the day of his death in the paper.
AHERN: From what I understand, at one time he was in the mule team business.
CHAPMAN: Yes, he was.
AHERN: Where was his business located?
CHAPMAN: Well, I guess it was located right at the ranch that he owned which is right there at the river bridge on McLean Road, but I think he teamed from Wadsworth if I remember.
AHERN: The ranch was situated on the east side of McLean Road what is now Millers'?
CHAPMAN: Well, yes, that's where the home was on McLean Road at the river bridge there, but the ranch itself extended along the river for eight hundred acres.
AHERN: What was in the eight hundred acres?
CHAPMAN: I suppose there was some feed for cattle. Of course, this was a toll bridge that went across the river.
AHERN: Who paid the toll?
CHAPMAN: Anyone that crossed the bridge
AHERN: Were these just mainly businesses that paid the toll
like other teamsters? Was it a way station?
CHAPMAN: Not exactly, I don't think. I really don't recall this
part.
AHERN: Tell me this. What do you recall of your grandparents? CHAPMAN: My grandmother--I remember her very well.
AHERN: Could you tell me something about her, please?
CHAPMAN: She was a small woman, and I think she was quite intelligent. My mother was the last one of the three girls to marry, and she and my mother lived together, and they purchased a lot of property here in town.
AHERN: You stated your grandparents are from Germany. Do you recall your grandmother speaking in German?
CHAPMAN: Oh, my, yes.
3
AHERN: Did you learn German?
CHAPMAN: No, I didn't. But something that is rather
interesting, at that time all the telephones were party lines and if my mother and grandmother or my mother and her sister, who lived just a few miles away, wanted to correspond and they didn't want anybody to know what they were talking about because those are party lines,
they would talk in German. (laughing)
AHERN: But, your mother and your aunt did speak German? CHAPMAN: Yes, oh, yes.
AHERN: Did they ever speak to you in phrases to the point where you understood a word here and there?
CHAPMAN: No, really, no. My grandmother, of course, had kind of an accent, but I thought that was pretty good
(laughing) because there was lots of rubbering. That's what they called it, rubbering, going on in those days. (laughing)
AHERN: And the term, rubbering, what was that?
CHAPMAN: If someone heard your telephone number [ring] and they wanted to hear what you were going to say, then they would take down the receiver, and they called that rubbering. (laughing)
AHERN: You said your mother was the last one to marry, but she was not the youngest, right?
CHAPMAN: No, she was the second. She was the middle girl.
AHERN: There were a total of . .
CHAPMAN: Three girls.
AHERN: Three girls. Would you tell me the names of your aunts?
CHAPMAN: There was Kate Fallon. Her husband's parents had the first post office here in Fallon on Maine Street just behind where the courthouse is now.
AHERN: Was Fallon named after her husband's parents?
CHAPMAN: Yes, it was. After his father My aunt's husband's father it is named for.
4
AHERN: What was her husband's name?
CHAPMAN: Ira and the parent was Mike Fallon.
AHERN: And the other sister?
CHAPMAN: The youngest sister married young, so she didn't really have any other occupation.
AHERN: And what was her name?
CHAPMAN: Her name was Minnie Branch.
AHERN: Tell me about your parents. Where was your father from?
CHAPMAN: He was from West Virginia.
AHERN: HOw did he end up in Fallon?
CHAPMAN: He had a brother that came out here. Now, I can't tell you why the brother came, but I know it was because of the brother that he came.
AHERN: What was his brother's name?
CHAPMAN: Fleming McLean.
AHERN: What was your father's occupation?
CHAPMAN: He was a railroader at One time.
AHERN: And what would a railroader do at that time?
CHAPMAN: I can't tell you, unless they changed the tracks like they do on some of those things or worked as a conductor would work, maybe.
AHERN: Your parents met here in Fallon?
CHAPMAN: Yes, they did.
AHERN: Had your father always worked on the railroad?
CHAPMAN: He may have even worked in lumber back in West
Virginia, too, in the lumber mill. But as far as I know, after he came to Fallon he farmed.
AHERN: Where did he farm?
CHAPMAN: This farm of the grandfather's was over eight hundred acres and the Branches had one section of it; it was
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5
divided evenly, and then my mother and my father had the other section which they farmed.
So of your grandfather's eight hundred acres, each daughter had a piece of that?
The older daughter Kate Fallon did not because she and her husband went to Yerington. That's where he located. He had a big sheep ranch over there.
So then the eight hundred was between the two daughters and the mother?
Yes. Well, I don't know whether the mother had
anything more to do with it. Probably they bought her out.
Do you recall how your parents had met? Did they ever talk about it?
I really don't know how that came about. Of course, my mother and her mother lived here in town a good part of their life, too, and they both bought property. They had quite a lot of property here in town at one time which has been sold of course over the years.
Tell me about your mother. What was she like?
She was . . . (tearfully) I'm sorry that I'm like this (laughing). She was very intelligent, and she was a graduate of the University of Nevada. In fact, in her younger years, when the grandparents lived on the farm, she went to Reno and lived with a sister of my grandmother's, and she went to school there. While staying there and working for her,she went to the University of Nevada.
And what did she major in at the University?
She was a teacher. She taught school here.
I understand she was Fallon's first school teacher.
In the city, I suppose. You've seen that picture a hundred times of where those kids are standing out in front of the schoolhouse; well, she was the first teacher right here in town.
And what was the name of that school then?
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
CHAPMAN: I don't know. Kind of like a rural school, I guess. There weren't very many children in it. Ten or twelve
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CHAPMAN:
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6
or so, but she didn't stay with teaching too long. If you know where Kents' store is uptown on [165] Maine Street, right kitty corner across from there where that bank [Interwest National Bank of Nevada] is now,
that's where the schoolhouse was. She, I think, really was the first teacher right here in the city of Fallon. But she gave it up because she could make more money working for Mr. Kent over in his store.
What did she do for Mr. Kent?
She sold dry goods.
How long was she a school teacher?
About three or four years, I would say, maybe.
So then she had spent most of her years working for Mr. Kent?
I really don't know because history was never foremost in my mind.
And you don't recall her, talking about it either?
Other than that she taught and that's why she stopped teaching. In the meantime, I'm sure she got married after that.
This Mr. Kent, which of the Kent brothers was he?
He's the grandfather. I. H. Kent.
And she worked for I. H. Kent.
Yes, the original.
Was your father a Fallon native?
No, he was from West Virginia. His brother had come out here, and that's the reason that he came. He was not a native and farming, I guess, was what he did. I don't know whether when they got married they went immediately out to the farm or not because they had a home out there. I mean, my mother and her grandmother had a home out there, and that house is still right there by the river bridge, but it's remodeled.
When you talk about the river bridge, what street would it be known by today?
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
CHAPMAN: McLean Road and that's about four miles out of town.
7
AHERN: You were raised on the farm?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: You were born out there?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
Did you enjoy living on the farm?
Well, yes, I guess so. (laughing) I have nothing that's really outstanding, but then, everything went along very well and, of course, my mother's sister was only about a mile away and of course she had four children, too, and we visited back and forth. Everybody more or less visited in those days, come around and see what was going on.
Tell me about your childhood. Living on the farm, did you have any specific chores?
No, I didn't. Just play, I guess, mostly. Well, it isn't very long 'til you get ready for school.
On the large acre that your parents lived on, what was produced on it?
Grain and alfalfa.
Any livestock?
Yes.
Did they have any helpers?
Oh, yes. There was always hired help because there was lots of irrigating to be done and milking cows.
All this was for your own consumption?
Yes.
These hired help, were they from around town?
Yes, I'm sure they were from around town and sometimes they stayed for a long time. Some of those hired men would stay two or three years with you. At one point, the ranch farm and ours were leased to Italian families and they raised potatoes. My father and whoever else built them a home not very far from where our house was, and they lived there with their own family. Then
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
8
there was quite a good-sized orchard, too, out there right across the road from where the house was. People used to come buy apples and crabapples and things like that.
AHERN: Did your grandmother live with your mother and your family after they were married?
CHAPMAN: She lived with my mother for just a short period of time and then she went to live with the younger daughter, and she lived there after that.
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
Tell me about your education, your schooling years. Where did you go to school?
By the time I was six years old, there was a school not very far away; Soda Lake School it was, and I wasn't too far from the school so that I could walk to school everyday. I went just for the two years to the Soda Lake School when it was consolidated into the Fallon Schools.
Did your mother ever teach you at home?
Well, she didn't teach me, but then, well, she taught us, yes, of course.
This was before you even went . .
Well, she didn't actually teach us as a teacher, helped with all your problems.
After the Soda Lake School, what other school did you attend?
We rode the bus to Fallon school, and I did that through the eighth grade, and then by that time we had moved here to town.
What was your address in town?
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
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CHAPMAN:
CHAPMAN: Right here.
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: This is the house on Esmeralda right here? Yes. and
CHAPMAN: You had mentioned earlier that your grandmother mother had bought property. Were they doing it investment purposes? just as
Oh, I'm sure they were.
9
AHERN: That is pretty innovative.
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: When they had bought the property, was it just plots of land?
CHAPMAN: Some of it was. Yes. There were a lot of just plots, and then there were houses, too, I guess, that were on some of them. In fact, this house, and my sister's next door which was the family home, were sitting up here on Stillwater Avenue, and after they had to build streets, make better streets, these two houses were sort of out in the street, so they had to be moved. Instead of just moving them back, they were moved into these two positions here. Then a good time later the Methodist Church bought this property up here on the corner [280 E. Stillwater]. But, my mother and her mother owned quite a lot of property here in town.
AHERN: Do you recall how many or where it extended to?
CHAPMAN: They had a two-story building on Maine Street which was--they didn't run it--but it was a rooming house and that was on the west side.
AHERN: And around here?
CHAPMAN: Well, not right here, but off over in this other area right over in here they had--well, maybe I would say in the Williams Avenue section over in there they had three or four houses, and then on Maine Street they had a two-story rooming house that they rented, and it burned later.
AHERN: The property was bought after your grandfather died?
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, and even before my mother was married. She and my mother bought all this property. If they sold a piece they divided it up, I'm sure [the monies].
AHERN: Do you ever recall them talking about when they first started purchasing the property?
CHAPMAN: No, I don't. At one point, my mother and grandmother-and this again was before she was married, too---lived here in town. They had a home, but I don't know which one it was.
AHERN: Wasn't it unusual back then for women to be buying a lot of property?
10
CHAPMAN: Well, I don't think so. I doubt it very much. I don't
know how they got into the business really, but they did very well for themselves anyway.
AHERN: After all these years, do you find it difficult talking about your mother?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: Do you miss her very much?
CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: Were you very close to her?
CHAPMAN: (tearfully) Yes. I hate this about myself.
AHERN: Well, if you love somebody .
CHAPMAN: I know, but this being kind of sentimental like this is really ridiculous to me.
AHERN: No.
CHAPMAN: Gosh! In fact, I'm thinking about this again. From Stillwater Avenue here she and her mother owned this whole section clear up to those foothills right up here where the Adventist Church is [755 Esmeralda]. They owned this whole section through here.
AHERN: That would be Humboldt Street.
CHAPMAN: No, Humboldt Street's over this way. But, this was from here up to the--well, we called it the sand hill because that's what it is up here. Yes, they owned all that up to the sand hill. And, of course, as the city grew, they had to have alleys and more streets and that sort of thing, and then, of course, all this property had just nothing but outhouses, too, (laughing) you know. A lot of things have happened over the years.
AHERN: A lot of changes, you mean?
CHAPMAN: A lot of changes is right. Yes, they certainly have.
AHERN: In your family was it just you and your younger sister? CHAPMAN: Yes, that's all. Just the two of us.
AHERN: Was your sister as close to your mother as you were, too?
11
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes.
AHERN: It sounds like you had a lot of fun together. CHAPMAN: Oh, yes.
AHERN: Tell me about those happy times.
CHAPMAN: Oh, I don't know. Just being around her. She made all our clothes and, of course, well, by the time I was seventeen I was out of high school and then you go away to college and you go into your own work and so on.
AHERN: After high school you went on to college. CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: Where?
CHAPMAN: To San Jose.
AHERN: Why did you pick San Jose?
CHAPMAN: Because I wanted to teach in California.
AHERN: Did you already have a place where you wanted to teach in California?
CHAPMAN: No. Well, I wanted to be able to teach in California if I wanted to, and if you had gone to Nevada, you could not teach in California. I mean, if you'd graduated up here.
AHERN: Since you graduated from California could you have taught in Nevada?
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, I should say so. No problem. Of course, when I graduated in 1927 from San Jose, jobs were scarce and you just had to take anything you could get.
AHERN: But, still, you were able to find a teaching job?
CHAPMAN: Yes. Instead of finding a teaching job in California, I came back to Nevada, and that's when I went to this rural school that was sixty miles south of Winnemucca.
AHERN: What was the name of the school?
CHAPMAN: Bushee District. I don't know where they got that. It might have been somebody's name. In fact some of the children of the people I stayed with own the radio
12
station out here now.
AHERN: The KVLV radio station?
CHAPMAN: Um huh.
AHERN: What was the name of the people you stayed with? CHAPMAN: Pearce.
AHERN: You mentioned that the school house was just a short ways from their residence. How many children were in the school house?
CHAPMAN: Just five.
AHERN: And did all five belong to the Pearce family? CHAPMAN: No, there were two families.
AHERN: They were Pearce . .
CHAPMAN: and Etchegoyhen. They were Portugese, I think, or Spanish. The Etchegoyhens had two children and the Pearce family had three, but the Pearce family had had other children that had graduated, too. They had six or seven children in their family.
AHERN: What were the ages of the children?
CHAPMAN: Well, I had a first grader so that was six years, and then I had a third grader so that must have been about eight years, and then I had the girl graduated from eighth grade so she must have been twelve or thirteen. And then in the other family the girl was fourth grade so she was probably about ten maybe, and then the boy was a year older or two years older so he was probably about sixth grade. But that was the extent of the school.
AHERN: Did you enjoy your time there?
CHAPMAN: Yes, it was fun!
AHERN: When you had teaching degree was it for the elementary level?
CHAPMAN: Yes, for the elementary. You couldn't teach in Fallon because you had to have two years experience before they would even think about hiring you, so you had to find some other place to go.
13
AHERN: But the other places weren't as particular? CHAPMAN: Well, (laughing) let's say that.
AHERN: How long were you at the Pearce ranch?
CHAPMAN: Just the one year.
AHERN: And after that year where were you?
CHAPMAN: And then the next year I was here at the Beach
[District] School here in Fallon which is out south of here.
AHERN: Do you recall the street name?
CHAPMAN: Well, that was the name of the school.
AHERN: Where would the school be by today's street names?
CHAPMAN: It was about six or seven miles out here. Just on the Lee farm, I think. And I had about three or four
families there with more children, of course.
AHERN: When you say the Lee farm, do you recall their first names?
CHAPMAN: I know what the brother's name was but I can't think of what the father's name was.
AHERN: Who was the brother?
CHAPMAN: Bob Lee was his name.
AHERN: And this time you had a larger student body? CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: How large was it?
CHAPMAN: It must have been about twelve, and there were more grades.
AHERN: Did that intimidate you to have a larger class? CHAPMAN: No.
AHERN: How old were you then?
CHAPMAN: I was nineteen when I started teaching, so I was twenty at the second go round. And I only stayed out there
one year. Well, I said, I think, that they wouldn't
14
take you in the Fallon schools unless you had two years experience.
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
So after you accumulated your two years experience, did you finally come to the Fallon school?
Eventually, but I taught in about three or four other rural schools around before I got there.
I understand you obtained a second occupation. Would you tell me about that, please?
(laughing) I'd always been interested in doing hair-don't look at mine today, though--and I just thought that I could spend my after school and Saturdays and holidays and summer doing something else because I really did like to work with hair, so I went to the Reno School of Beauty in the summertime and graduated from there and then got a license to practice, so I
did. I had a good friend [Alice Snelling] here who had
a shop so she took me in and let me work with her.
You mentioned you had attended various summer schools. What were they?
You had to get your certificate renewed until you had a life certificate. You had to have six years before you could even apply for a life diploma, so you had go out really into the country to get your experience, and then they were very particular. I sometimes think belonging to the town why that made a little difference, too, as to whether they'd hire you or not. And, of course, as I say, I went to summer school many, many times and finally I received my degree from the University of Nevada.
When you attended the summer schools, what subjects were you taking?
Just courses that applied to teaching mostly. Education?
To get a degree you had to take a lot of different things, too, like psychology and all that sort of stuff that you don't have too much use for. At least, I didn't, anyway. Of course, it all depended, too, on what you wanted your degree in what kind of courses that you would take. Whether it was teaching or science or whatever you wanted to become. Course, I really got up to my master's degree. I got all the courses in and then I never did take the orals.
15
AHERN: This'd be a master's degree in education?
CHAPMAN: Um hum. But I just never got around to going for the orals. I don't know what happened about that time.
AHERN: Were you a strict teacher?
CHAPMAN: You betcha. (laughing) I really don't know how these teachers get along these days because I don't see how you can teach children if you don't have order in the room.
AHERN: When you started teaching in a larger class and if the child was undisciplined, how did you discipline the child?
CHAPMAN: Just mostly talked to them. I think I spanked about three children in my lifetime, but that was because they misbehaved too badly out on the school ground, not in the school room. Just bothering other kids until they couldn't stand it. Course that's been outlawed a long time. You wouldn't dare do that anymore, but I just gave three little swats. That was all I ever did (laughing) But I didn't have any trouble with discipline for some reason. The kids really minded pretty well. The classes now I don't think they're very large, are they, anymore? I don't think they have more than twenty or something like, but we nearly always had about thirty-five, sometimes even more. That's quite a few children, but then we got along. We learned.
AHERN: Do you think part of the reason you never had any discipline problems is because the values were different back then?
CHAPMAN: Yes, I think so. The parents themselves were stricter, yes, and the parents were home, too, in those days. 'Cause when the mother and father have to work now and they're gone, it makes a big difference with children, I think. Parents were behind you most of the time.
AHERN: Tell me a little bit about your sister. When she
graduated from high school, what did she do?
CHAPMAN: First she worked for the telephone company, and she also worked for the Western Union. She worked in Reno, too, in Western Union, and then she finally got a job out here at the base. Worked out there in Civil Service.
16
AHERN: And what is her name?
CHAPMAN: Her name is Madeline McLean. And she stayed out there until she retired.
AHERN: Is she married?
CHAPMAN: No, she's not married.
AHERN: Was that considered unusual, also, for someone not to marry when you were growing up?
CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
No, I don't think so. Seems to me there were lots of people around that were not married in those days. But seems like everybody that got married, then they became a housewife. They didn't work out in those days like they do now.
Is that what happened to you after you married?
No, I just kept right on. (laughing)
Tell me about your husband. Where did you meet him?
Over in Hawthorne at the Marine base. He was over there, and I was here even after we were married. Part of the time I was still at home while he was over there.
Did he drive over to Fallon to court you?
Oh, you betcha! I should say so! I think he wore out
two or three cars. (laughing)
You met at a social function?
Yes. The Marines didn't have very many women around in those days.
Tell me what attracted you to him.
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
CHAPMAN: Just his personality, I guess, and he was six feet, two
and a half. (laughing)
AHERN: How tall are you?
CHAPMAN: I'm five ten.
AHERN: Were you considered extremely tall?
CHAPMAN: Yes, I was. You bet I was. (laughing) I surely was
17
considered tall in those days. You bet I was! That's the days, too, when there was always a Saturday night dance here in town.
AHERN: Where in town?
CHAPMAN: You know where the Fraternal Hall building is? Down on the south end of Maine. In fact, about across the street from the Nugget. There's a Fraternal Hall there [39 South Maine Street] and there was a big dance hall up on the second floor. It was actually the lodge room, too, but it was a large dance floor, so it was a Saturday night affair always. We went to the dance every Saturday night!
AHERN: So, your husband was based in Hawthorne. Did he come to Fallon to attend the dances?
CHAPMAN: Yes, you bet.
AHERN: He was in the military. What military branch?
CHAPMAN: He was in the Marines, and that was the ammunition depot that's in Hawthorne now. There's several Marines over there now, I guess. He had been in the Marines for quite some time 'cause he had put in time in China and San Diego and back in North Carolina, too.
AHERN: Did he make the Marines his career?
CHAPMAN: Yes. He stayed with it. In fact, he was the company barber. Everywhere any of our Marine was, he was the company barber. And then after we were married, he came over here to Fallon and went into business here and had his own barber shop. Then he retired from there.
AHERN: How many children did you have?
CHAPMAN: We didn't have any.
AHERN: Did you ever do your cosmetology out of his barber shop?
CHAPMAN: No. At one point, he had a barber shop in Hawthorne afterwards, and I had always been interested in starting here or anywhere working with hair, so I thought maybe I would be going over there, but it didn't turn out that way. He came here, which was better anyway.
AHERN: After you were married, where did you live?
18
CHAPMAN: We lived right here.
AHERN: You lived in your family home?
CHAPMAN: Um huh. My parents lived in the house next door. We lived here.
AHERN: Was this already here or did you and your husband build the house?
CHAPMAN: No, this was one of my mother's and grandmother's properties that are right here. We did some remodeling on it after we married. In fact, the two houses would still be there--they were out in the street actually when they wanted to put the street through, so they had to be moved down here.
AHERN: Your husband enjoyed doing barber work?
CHAPMAN: Oh, sure, I should say so. He liked to be around people anyway.
AHERN: Was his the only shop in town?
CHAPMAN: No. There were two others besides his. He worked for another man here when he first came over, but he wanted to be his own boss, so we built a building which is still on Maine Street on the lot that my mother and her mother had owned at one time and my mother still owned. A building that had been on the lot had burned, so then we built. There is a barber shop in the one side there yet. In fact, in order for my sister to have her share, why we divided the building into two parts and she rented her part and he had the other part for his barber shop. And if I do say so, he was a very good barber. (laughing)
AHERN: He eventually retired from .
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes. Yes, he eventually retired.
AHERN: After retirement from the barber business, what did he do?
CHAPMAN: We traveled a great deal. Not on our own, but we had a friend in Sparks who had a business of soliciting people to go on trips. She had her own travel agency, and she recruited people that she knew around, and we did a great deal of traveling after he retired . . . with her.
AHERN: Was she almost like a tour guide, then?
19
not. I never did learn to
really care about fishing,
about it, so we went. Had
CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
Yes, she really was a tour guide. A good one. It's just been within the last year that she has given up being the guide herself. She still has the tours, but she has somebody else go on the bus. They were bus tours. Well, most all of them were bus tours. Course the one to Hawaii was by plane, and the one to Canada was on a big ocean liner out of San Francisco. Yes, we did a great deal, and I think we did most everything. Mexico.
What would have been your favorite place?
I don't know. I just liked all of it. Canada, we went clear 'cross Canada. All down the east coast.
This is basically a sightseeing .
Yes, really. It was sightseeing, but this tour guide was really excellent. She really was. She knew just exactly what she was doing. She had everything outlined. We knew exactly where we were going to stay at night and all that sort of thing. It was very, very good.
Do you recall the name of the tour guide business?
Elaine Fairchild. She, as I said, still has the agency, but I understand she has somebody else who goes on the bus that she doesn't go on the bus 'cause she's as old as I am. Just about, anyway.
When your husband retired from the barbering business, did he keep any memento of his former occupation? Like the barber pole?
No, not really. I guess razors, probably. (laughing) That all stayed with the building when he sold it. He liked to fish and hunt. He was really fanatic on that.
Did you go on these fishing and hunting trips with him?
Well, yes, but just in Nevada. I got awfully tired getting ready to go on those weekend trips.
Did you fish and hunt alongside with him?
CHAPMAN: No, I did
never did was crazy
use a gun, and I (laughing) but he a dog with us.
20
AHERN: Did you ever can or prepare any of the fish or venison?
CHAPMAN: No. I never did do that because I worked for so many years I never did get into that canning stuff because so often you had to go to summer school every summer. Not all the time but then you went lots of the time.
AHERN: In your years of teaching and all that, you belonged to numerous organizations. Were there any in particular that you really enjoyed being in?
CHAPMAN: Oh, I enjoyed belonging to any of those organizations. I liked to go to AAUW and Retired Teachers. You see some of your old friends there. Some of them are sort of dying out though (laughing), retired teachers, and the new ones aren't very interested in it, for some reason.
AHERN: Were you quite active in the community other than being a teacher?
CHAPMAN: No, not really, because, after all, I was teaching most of all my life, it seemed like, and then after I retired, we traveled a great deal of the time. Several years there.
AHERN: Did you and your husband retire close to the same age? CHAPMAN: Yes.
AHERN: What age was that?
CHAPMAN: I retired at sixty five.
AHERN: And your husband's age?
CHAPMAN: I think he was sixty eight. He retired a couple of years before I did. It's hard to describe so many things because as time went on you forget things you have done and some don't have very much consequence.
AHERN: Is there anything that you remember in looking back on your life now that you especially enjoyed or that stays in your memory? Something you've done or enjoyed doing?
CHAPMAN: Gardening. I still garden. My husband, in fact, was a very good gardener. That was one of the trades he learned while he was a Marine over at Hawthorne. He used to like to go out with the gardener over there and work with him, and we always had a big garden right
here. And I liked that, too. I liked to garden. In
21
fact, I have continued. Well, now this year, I say is my last year because things are not doing a bit well this year. The plants are just . . . I don't what's the matter. They just are not producing or growing. In fact, growing like they should. Course maybe it's my fault, I don't know. Maybe I'm not preparing the ground well enough anymore, and I don't get around quite as well as I did either.
AHERN: You no longer travel as you used to?
CHAPMAN: No, I don't. About three or four years ago I pulled the Achilles tendon from my leg, and ever since then I walk with a cane now.
AHERN: But, prior to that, even after your husband was gone, you still traveled?
CHAPMAN: Well, not too much, but, yes, a little bit. Yes, I had a friend here in Fallon that went with me. She would go on more trips, but I'm the one that sort of backs
out now. (laughing)
AHERN: You say that your sister lives right next door to you. She's your neighbor. Do you ever do things together?
CHAPMAN: We never have because she's five years younger than I am, and we never ever did things together because by the time she was ready for high school I was gone. No, we never have done too many things together. She has her own group, and I have mine. She likes to go to these lodges. Well, I used to, too. I used to belong to a couple of them, but I still belong, but I don't go anymore to those things. You know, you run out of friends, the people that you've known all your life (laughing).
AHERN: I imagine you still run into a lot of your former students.
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, but, you know, every once in awhile you see about someone, but you don't see as many as you think you would, and some of them I wouldn't recognize anyway (laughing) 'cause they change a lot from seven years old to seventeen or whatever it might be or whatever it is.
AHERN: Looking back on your life is there anything you would have done differently?
CHAPMAN: I wouldn't have changed what I have done. I guess I could have saved more money or something. (laughing)
22
AHERN: If you did, what would you do with it?
CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN: CHAPMAN: AHERN: CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN:
CHAPMAN:
AHERN: (laughing) You could just hire someone to do everything that you don't want to do---like hire someoe to help clean the house and work in the garden.
Is there anything that you can think of that you would like to talk about that I forgot to ask you?
I think you covered things very well. I don't know of anything that should be unusual or anything other than that I'm more interested in church work and things like that now than I was when I was younger.
You do quite a few volunteer church work now? I mean I have become a good member, let's say. And what church do you belong to?
I belong to the Episcopal Church, and I help them. Right now I have an automobile, but I don't like to drive anymore.
Why not?
Well, it just seems to bother me. The traffic.
It's too congested?
Yes, it just seems like it bothers me, and I'd rather not worry about it, which isn't good. I do have a good friend that takes me every place that I need to go, so things have worked out all right.
Tell me, how do you spend your days now?
In the summertime I'm out in the yard all summer, and then there are two or three organizations that I go to, and the church would keep you busy all the time if you would (laughing) let them, I'm sorry to say.
Do you curtail your activities when winter comes?
Well, yes. You have to. You can't get out always. Course this past year has been a really kind of a bad one for me. My sister hasn't been very well.
So you've been walking over to take care of her?
CHAPMAN: Yes, she's had a couple of operations, so that has
23
taken time this last year.
AHERN: Do you watch TV a lot?
CHAPMAN: Oh, yes, but I'm not one of these people that sits in front of them forever and ever. I like the news very much and some of the stories, but I get terribly bored with some of that stuff. I'd rather not see it at all. I'd rather read something. There was a time, too--I
forgot this--I really liked to cook. (laughing)
AHERN: What type of dishes did you like preparing?
CHAPMAN: It didn't make any difference, just a good meal. We used to have quite a bit of company, and I really did enjoy cooking, but right now I'd rather eat a TV dinner.
AHERN: You say you like to read now and then. What kind of reading matter?
CHAPMAN: Oh, let's say, magazines. Just any old magazine. Doesn't matter. In fact, I take more magazines than I can read.
AHERN: On behalf of the Churchill County Museum Oral History Program, I would like to thank you for allowing me to
come and interview you. I appreciate it very much.
CHAPMAN: You're certainly welcome.
LOUVENA McLEAN CHAPMAN Index Page 19
Beauty school 14
Branch, Minnie 4
Chapman, Walker 16-17, 18,
Etchegoyhen family 12
Fairchild, Elaine 19
Fallon, Ira 4
Fallon, Kate 3, 5.
Fallon, Mike 4, 5
Farm life 7-8
Gardening 20-21, 22
Grandparents 1-3, 4, 5, 8, 9,
Lee family 13
McLean, Annie Theelen 5-6, 8-11
McLean, Edwin P. 4, 6
McLean, Madeline 15-16, 22
Marriage 17-18
Pearce family 11-12
"Rubbering" 3
Schooling 8, 11, 14, 15
Teaching experiences 11-15
Travel experiences 18-19
10
Interviewer
Eleanor Ahern
Interviewee
Louvena McLean Chapman
Location
457 Esmeralda Street, Fallon NV 89406
Files
Collection
Citation
Churchill County Museum Association, “Louvena Chapman Oral History,” Churchill County Museum Digital Archive: Fallon, Nevada, accessed May 8, 2024, https://ccmuseum.omeka.net/items/show/180.
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