Densho Digital Archive - Martha Nishitani Interview (denshovh-nmartha-01-0002)

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SY: I remember you saying that, basically, over a period of (sixteen) years, he did a lot of various jobs, and one was the caretaker and gardener of that Trenholme estate. (Narr. note: Father worked on the Trenholme estate for sixteen years.)

MN: Uh-huh.

SY: And there, two more children were born, May and George. And then he later leased five acres in the Lake City area, and became one of the first Lake City settlers in 1912. Do you remember any stories about these early homesteading days?

MN: Well, it was all stump land, which means it was not cleared. And at night, you could hear the cougars crying. And the stream that went through the place had these large salmon that would come up to spawn. They were about two feet long. And he had to clean out all the stumps, and to cultivate the area. And he had built a greenhouse. And so he started his florist and nursery that way.

SY: Well, it was on this property that Tom, Woodrow, you, and Constance were born. And so really, here your life began on this five-acre property in a family of twelve. Can you help me visualize this property, as you remembered it?

MN: Well, it was five acres, and it was quite, quite flat and it was divided in the middle by this stream, a creek. And he planted rows and rows of little trees, all different kind of little shrubs. And on the edges of the property, he grew these Japanese cherries and plums and pine and a George Washington elm, which is still in the northeast corner of the property. And in the middle, over the stream, was a big willow tree. I think it's the biggest willow tree in Seattle.

SY: The George Washington elm, I know, is very important to you because it's still on that property. Why is that elm so important to you?

MN: Because in the '20s, thirteen -- let's see, no, eleven cuttings were sent from the original George Washington elm at Valley Forge in Pennsylvania. And because it was University of Washington, I guess they wanted some George Washington elms. And the head of the Botany Department gave my father one of the cuttings, and that's the tree that's in the corner of the property. And not too long ago, there was a, there was a disease called "elm tree rot," and it practically killed all the elm trees in this country and in Europe and there were very few trees that were spared. And I think our tree, being way out in Lake City, in the country, didn't get this little bug that was responsible for all this. And so I had (our elm) put in the Elm Tree Registry back in Madison, Wisconsin. And I, since I grew up with this tree and since it was my, a link to my father, I really cherished that tree. And it's beautiful. In the fall, the whole corner of the property is one big yellow cloud with the yellow leaves from that tree.

SY: You know, the property is now sold to another company? Is that right?

MN: Yes. Weight Watchers bought it in the early '70s, I think it was, with the stipulation that they would not remove a single tree from the property. The man that bought the property, he loved trees, too, so he could understand how we felt. And he had, Weight Watchers needed a lot of parking area so he built parking lot areas to conform with the trees (...). So there are two or three different areas where you can park out there.