Whiteley The Wendling

“Charles Edward Whiteley and Mary Elizabeth Scott-Whiteley’s four daughters and a son. Ed Whiteley worked in the woods and in backwoods lumber mills. Back then, as now, it was hard work. It was also seasonal work in a boom-or-bust industry, and periodic layoffs were inevitable. As were so many families at the time, the Whiteleys were forced to move frequently in search of employment. Late in 1902 they left Colton for Wendling, Oregon, a hamlet near Marcola in the southern Willamette Valley. Two years later, at the time described in The Story of Opal, they were living near Mary’s mother’s parents in Walden, another wide spot in the road located about four miles east of Cottage Grove.”

The Wendlings of Penkill Castle

Opal Whiteley’s father worked for Frank Buck who is related to the famous Sedgwick family. She could be riding a Booth-Kelly logging train, she eager  to get out of Wendling…