Bert A. Ryan

I, Bertram Alvin Ryan, was born in Bear Creek Washington on October 20, 1917. I was delivered at the home of “Grandma Alger” an old family friend who was a midwife. My father, Jack Ryan, was a soldier stationed at Vancouver Barracks. He died in the flu epidemic of 1919 when I was two years old. He was an orphan from New York City, consequently, I have no known relatives on his side of the family and can only assume from the name of Ryan, that he was of Irish ancestry.

After my father’s death, my mother and I moved into Grandma Miller’s house at 758 Gantenbein Avenue. (Later, when the city was divided into sections, it became 3538 N. Gantenbein Avenue.) We lived there with ”Gram” and my aunts, Bertha & Minnie, until January 27, 1929 when Mom and Dad got married and we moved to Buster Camp, a logging camp where Dad was a shovel operator.

To go back to the beginning of my recollections of family history…

My grandfather, Fred Miller (originally Fred Mueller) was born in Austria and came to America in about 1905. He married Aunt Scheer and they bought acreage in St. Johns where Gramp grew vegetables and berries. They had three daughters; Minnie Bertha, Alda Roselind and Bertha Marie Miller. They were divorced after several years at that location in Dodson, and then Gram moved into the Gantenbein house with the three girls around 1907. Gramp worked on the Columbia River and was a steam engineer on a riverboat, a steam engineer at McGowan’s Fish Cannery at Dodson, and a fish wheel operator for McGowan just below what is now The Bridge of The Gods. He gradually became blind from an accident at the cannery job and lived several years in a tent house on cannery property until it closed down. He then stayed with each of the girls for a while until he moved into the Globe Hotel where he remained until he was placed in a foster home where he later died about the age of 90.

Gramp had a brother and niece in New York State who are now deceased. “Mutt” Scheer (from Grandmutter) was born in Germany. I was a very small boy and only remember her as she lay in her bed upstairs in a farmhouse somewhere just before she passed away. There were several Scheers who lived in the Oregon City area, I remember Uncle “Aug” and Aunt “Els” (she was my pipe smoking aunt!) Then there was “Pooka” and her son Carl. Anna Miller, “Grammy-Gram” to Gary and Wendy but just “Gram” to the rest of us, was born near Lincoln Nebraska. She went back there in about 1935 and saw her sister whom she hadn’t seen in 36 years! I remember the newspaper article from back there about the reunion. She died of a heart attack when she was about 74. She is the one who started on me “sugar on tomatoes, cream and sugar in my tea, and jam on my cottage cheese”! She also started the famous “Hooligan” tradition.

Minnie Bertha Miller, Aunt Minnie (who preferred “Mina”) was born in 1899 at St. Johns. She worked in the main post office in downtown Portland and helped Gram in raising the two other girls until they were old enough to start working themselves. She was in her late thirties when she married her best girlfriend’s recently widowed father, Will Barger. They moved to Colorado where Will had a partnership in Silver Fox Farm. Then Will’s partner absconded with the company funds and left Will broke with no Fox Farm. They then came back to Portland in “Okie” style in an old Cadillac coupe that had been cut down to resemble a pick-up truck. Will tried unsuccessfully to sell insurance, but soon ran out of friends and relatives so he gave up on that. Then they bought a small orchard near Fisher’s Landing Washington where they had a daughter, Esther Ann. She was injured in the birthing process and was mentally retarded. She died in an accident when she was about eight years old and is buried at Rose City Cemetery. Then they bought a farm near Orchards where they lived until Will, who was several years older than Minnie, died. Alda Roselind Miller was born on November 28, 1899 in New Era Oregon. She went to grade school in Dodson area when Gramp was working at the cannery. Later she went on to work as a cashier and hostess at several Portland restaurants until she opened her own beauty shop near Killingsworth and 15th.

Mom and Dad were married on January 27, 1929 and we moved to Buster Camp near Birkenfield into a little “camp house”. I was then in 4th grade and although my Dad never “legally” adopted me I still considered him to be my Dad and went by the name “Lundberg” until I graduated from grade school. Bertha Marie Miller was born in St. Johns. Minnie, Mom Bertha and I lived with Gram on Gantenbein until after Bertha married Charles Stone (Over Gram’s strenuous objections – She was only 15). And then Mom and Dad and I moved to Buster camp. B & C lived in several apartments and we looked after them until World War II, than bought their house on Denver Avenue. Gram lived there with them until she died. For the rest of my adult life I lived with my wife Betty in the Portland area.

~Bert A. Ryan

Bert is predeceased by his wife of 53 years, Betty Ryan. He is survived by his two children Gary Ryan, and Wendy Bowman (Gary); his four grandchildren Gregg Ryan, Julie Ryan, Case Bowman and Courtney Tomlinson and his ten great-grandchildren.

A memorial service will be held at 1:00pm on Saturday, April 25, 2015 at gateway Little Chapel of the Chimes, 1515 NE 106th Avenue. Portland, OR 97220. In lieu of flowers donations in his memory may be made to Portland Adventist Hospice.