The Wrought Iron Fence

When death came knocking, all she could afford was the wrought iron fence.

During the turn of the century, the fertile Oregon region encompassing the counties of Wasco and Sherman quickly became a mecca, successfully producing wool from sheep farming.  People flocked to the area to cash in on the easy farming.  Towns such as Grass Valley, Moro, Klondike, Wasco, Antelope, Locust Grove, Monkland, Kent,and Shaniko popped up throughout the region. By 1903 the town of Shaniko earned the title of the largest inland wool shipping center in the world.

Homestead in Kent Oregon

Photo provided by Paul Manly.

Ned M. Lane, born in Illinois, came to Oregon much like many of the others did, in search of a better way of living.  He ended up in the fast growing town of Kent Oregon where he took up work as a well driller for Kent residences, and the surrounding area. 

Though the surface land was perfect for sheep farming, obtaining the luxury of water required deep well drilling. This land was a very extreme and harsh environment to survive in.  You had to have water.  Windmills quickly popped up everywhere.  Water, the source of life, made living in such a harsh region possible.  But, well drilling was very hard work.

 The town of Kent grew fast.  A new church and school were built.  There were two general stores, a post office, meat market, barbershop, millinery shop, drug store, and two large grain warehouses.  Ned was hired to run the drill, along with a small crew.  Well drilling in these parts was difficult.  A think layer of volcanic basalt lie just below the surface.  The drill had to cut through solid rock before reaching water.  Not all drills were successful. 

One well Ned was working on belonged to a Sarah Trotter.  She platted the town of Kent and sold off lots, but she didn't amass any wealth out of the deals.  She barely kept afloat financially.  Sarah was instrumental in getting a church built in the town, and she gave a choice lot for the United Presbyterian Church.  She never missed a Sunday service for years.  

Windmill near Kent Oregon.

Ned is supposedly the one center front ~ photo provided by Paul Manly

Ned and his crew were drilling an unsuccessful 300 foot well on Sarah's property.  The well ended up not hitting water, but that is when Ned first met Iva Viola, Sarah's daughter.  Ned was very nice to Iva Viola, and took up a liking for her.

One can only speculate that the community of Kent and its surrounding homesteads would look forward to a Spring or Summer event like a social gathering or maybe a community barbeque and even a barn dance.  Such events provided the residences a time to relax after a hard week of work and enjoy the company of their neighbors. 

A barn dance gave the opportunity for a hard working well drilling single man to spend time with a young lady of his liking to seek out a potential wife.

It might have been at such an event in the summer of 1904 where Ned Lane won the heart of the beautiful young woman named Iva Viola Trotter.

Iva Viola fell in love with Ned and on July of 1904 they married.  She was 17, he was 30.

Iva Viola - circa 1910 - photo provided by Paul Manly

A happy life was just beginning for the newlywed couple.  Iva Viola had found her true love and she knew it was it true and sure and would endure forever. 

Sadly, fate had other plans.

One month after the two were married, Ned had a hemorrhage from the lungs due to contracting Tuberculosis. In less than a year after they were married, Ned died in his home on April 14th 1905 of consumption. 

At age 31, Ned M. Lane was laid to rest in the very small cemetery just south of the town of Kent.  And now, left to mourn at the young age of 17, Iva Viola was a widow.

What makes this story so riveting and wretched to learn is not the fact that they were married for less than one year, but because she was now a 17 year-old widow, and the only thing she could afford to mark the grave of the love of her life was the wrought iron fence.  She could not afford the headstone.

As the years passed, Iva Viola must have visited the wrought iron fence often.  One can speculate that she'd go and sit within the confined space of the fence and talk, and cry openly, to mourn, to just spend time with the one she called, "the love of my life."

Though Ned's life was over, Iva Viola had to move forward.  She went back to school, taking up where she had left off, the ninth grade.  Iva Viola never went out with anyone, nor did she receive anyone for a long 15 years.

Eventually, Iva Viola moved to White Salmon Washington where she met and married her second husband William C. Manly in 1920.  Iva Viola was at the late age of 33 when she re-married.  William and Iva Viola had four children, two boys and two girls.  

Iva Viola Manly died in 1976 at the age of 89.  Her husband William Manly died in 1964.  Her boys died in 1989 and 2013.  All four, along with Iva Viola's mother Sarah who died in 1924, and two of Ida Viola's siblings, are also buried in the West Klickitat Cemetery in White Salmon Washington.  Her daughters are still living. 

It is unknown if Iva Viola ever returned to visit the grave of Ned M. Lane, her first love and husband.

Mount Hood from Grass Valley Oregon.

Today, when crossing the aired regions of Wasco and Sherman Counties, you'll discover several windmills dotting the landscape.  These industrial reminders of a time long gone most likely can be the credited to a man named Ned M. Lane.  He and his crew worked on several of the wells throughout the counties.

In an ironic twist of comparison, much like Ned only having a wrought iron fence and no headstone, so too do most of the existing windmills today stand alone and have a house.

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A special thanks to Paul Manly for providing photos and information about Ned Lane and Iva Viola Trotter.  His contribution helped bring the story of the Wrought Iron Fence to light. 

Paul Manly is the grandson of William and Iva Viola Manly.  Paul is also the sexton, or caretaker, for the Evergreen Cemetery in Spokane Washington.  He is planning on providing a headstone to eventually be placed within the Wrought Iron Fence belonging to Ned M. Lane.