Many residents of Castle Rock
and surrounding districts who
have lived here 50 years or more,
will remember Capt. and Mrs.
Hugo Storm of the Tower dis-
trict, but there are many new
residents who should find this ar-
ticle interesting.

In fact it was new to me, until
Mrs. Ella Waite, now at Gresh-
am, Ore., daughter of these pio-
neer parents, gave me the data
for this article.

At the age of 12, Capt. Storm
served as an apprentice on old
sailing ships. When he was 27
years old he received his
master's papers and commanded
his first ship, the Mozart. He
lost this ship during a typhoon
in the Bay of Kobi, Japan.

His ports of call were all from
Germany to the Orient, and is-
lands thereabouts - Borneo, Su-
matra, Dutch East Indies, For-
mosa, and Singapore. His sec-
ond ship was the Luebeck of
which he was half owner. This
interest he sold when he came to
the United States in 1893.

While commander of his ships
he was under contract to collect
wild animals for the Museum of
Natural History in Luebeck, Ger-
many, and on his last trip he
brought home an Orangoutang [thus]
named Joe, which I will mention
later.

While in Singapore on one of
his trips, he stayed at the Raffles
hotel where a troupe of six sis-
ters, famous musicians, were en-
tertaining the guests. One of
them, Gisela, was later to be the
mother of Mrs. Waite. Gisela
was invited to dine at the cap-
tain's table, and unbeknown to
her a romance was in the mak-
ing.

The six sisters played as a unit
of string instrumentalists, and
were wined and dined by nobility
in various countries such as Rus-
sia and Egypt. An Italian, Count
De Silva, presented Gisela with
a wrist watch which is in the
possession of Mrs. Waite.

Years ago it was the practice
of one seeking the hand of a lady
to propose to the parents before
asking the young lady herself; at
least it was done by Capt. Storm
to Gisela's parents in Austria.

Gisela knew nothing of this
until she received orders to come
home, pack her things, and leave
for the States. Think of the storm
of protest and rebellion of young
people of today, if their parents
ordered them to do likewise
and give up a musical career.

While Gisela was preparing
her trousseau, the oldest sister
married a sea captain and they
left for Hawaii, where the sis-
ter died a year ago at the age of
100. After two years Gisela was
ready with her 11 trunks of
dresses and linens and arrived in
Tacoma in 1896.

Gisela's sister came from Ha-
waii for the wedding. Preceding
all this, Storm had sent his mo-
ther and two brothers, Frank
and John, to take up a donation
land claim, preferably near wa-
ter, which was natural for one
who had followed the sea in
ships; and of all the lonely places
they could have settled, they
chose the Tower district on the
Toutle River.

After the wedding the couple
came to Toledo [Wash.] and journeyed to
their wilderness home by horse-
back. After being acclaimed by
nobility of Europe, and other
countries, Mrs. Storm came to
a log cabin in dense timber and
no near neighbors. Eleven trunks
of feminine finery including
dainty slippers that had graced
the halls of conservatories of
music, had come to this.

Here was the spirit of all pio-
neer wives; a cabin now, but a
home later, and the dream house
was built later.

This log cabin was located near
the top of the ridge back of the
ten acres now owned by the Con-
radis near the old military trail.

Their first real home was built
in 1898 by Mr. Reiman, father of
Ed and Henry. The old log cabin
stood for many years after be-
ing vacated. The glass enclosed
porch facing the road is the first
home built, and was large e-
nough for the famous parties
held there in later years.

All the lumber was brought by
oxen from Winlock, over ter-
rible roads at the time. Neigh-
bors Mrs. Waite remembers were
the Shaffers, Lockes, Ben Bei-
ghle, Reimans, Conradis, Wil-
liams, Craner, and Wilkensens.

The Orangoutang I mentioned
was educated as well as mischiev-
ous. It ate at the table, smoked
cigars, roller skated, churned
butter, and helped with small du-
ties; but he also threw cats into
the well, which meant much la-
bor emptying the well at times.

During one of his monkey-
shines, he took all the yarn Ella's
grandmother had spun from wool
off their sheep and had in balls,
and wound it around the old lady
as she sat in a chair. She had to
sit there tied up until the men
returned from clearing land. If
the rest of the family was pres-
ent, he would behave, but alone
with grandmother, anything
could happen. He tormented her
beyond endurance.

Another time he nailed her in
the smokehouse. He carried in
wood, gathered the eggs, fed the
chickens, and did the chores o-
bediently and efficiently as long
as Storm was in view. Joe's room
was the small one off the kitchen
next to the pantry, The well that
was such a pleasure to Joe was
just outside the pantry window.

After the orangoutang did
something particularly bad at
the well, Ella's father chained
Joe in the tool shed, where he
had his own bathroom, but he
tore it apart in anger, threw his
food on the floor, and became so
temperamental his welcome wore
one and he was sold to a man
named Edwards in Portland.

The advent of Ella being born
hastened Joe's departure, so she
says she replaced the monkey.
Probably a wise procedure or she
too might have been thrown in
the well. He was human in ac[-]
tions, but his mind could not dis-
tinguish between right and
wrong.

Mrs. Waite remembers many
parties her parents gave; neigh-
bors coming from far and near
by wagon, buggy and horseback.

Butchering, and baking went
on for weeks in advance. A brass
band was always on hand, one
member being Fred Roller. Mrs.
Waite remembers The ladies
slept in the house and the men
in the barn and shed.

Among the souvenirs of the
captain's travels was a large
ape skin. One night Fred Stan-
key dressed up in this and in-
vaded the ladies' rooms, and the
screaming that broke our is still
remembered by Ella.

The cellar was well stocked
with wine, whiskey, and other
beverages for those who cared
for it. One old friend of the
Storms always managed to get
into the cellar, and never left it
until carried out.

My first visit to the house of
Captain and Mrs. Storm occurred
in 1900, while a guest in the home of
Mr. and Mrs. W. W. Williams,
neighbors of ours before
they moved to Tower on the
Wilkinses' homestead. The Wil-
liams children were Ivie, George,
Walter, Mercer, Maude, and Alice.

The impressionable years of
12-year-olds sometimes prove
that what they saw or, thought
they saw, was imaginative in
some respects, and 59 years later
I learned the truth about what I
saw at the Storm home.

Walter and Mercer Williams,
two of the boys I was visiting, pic-
tured the woods as full of bears
and cougars ready to spring
from the brush any moment, and
I was looking over my shoulder
as we took the road to the Storm
home, imagining every sort of
creature eying me.

It was practically a new home
in 1900 and the upstairs wasn't
finished; just a large attic with
the stairway going up from the
kitchen.

The stairway was later moved
to the back porch where it is to-
day.

With all the places to choose
from as a site for a future home,
why did they pick that place in
the Tower district? The Captain
had instructed his two brothers,
Frank and John, and grandma-
ther Storm, to locate near water.
As a seafaring man it would be
natural for him to want to be re-
minded of the years on ships, but
the Toutle river was no place
for sailing vessels.

Those two Williams boys had
a sinister reason for that visit,
and had planned ahead for what
happened. I haven't the least
recognition [.] [.] T [.]
recollection of meeting either the
captain, or his wife, as we trouped
through the big kitchen
to the stairway, and neither did
I see Joe, the orangoutang.

Being a guest I was allowed to
procede ahead up the stairs to
the dim attic with the boys close
on my heels. At the top I came
face to face with that grinning
apparition of an ape hide, the
one Fred Stankey used to throw
the ladies into the screaming
meemies.

I never found out who imper-
sonated the ape. It could have
been Joe and my imagination
made it look taller than it was,
but after what Stankey did, I be-
lieve it was the hide.

With arms outstretched, gleam-
ing teeth and eyes, that hairy
apparition froze me at the land-
ing as it would any 12-year-old.
I fell over backwards knocking
Walter and Mercer down the
steps with me on top, clawing
and fighting to escape. What
with stories of bears and cou-
gars, this was the climax.

I tore through the kitchen and
down the road, anywhere to es-
cape that hideous thing chasing
me. Bears and cougars were kit-
tens compared to what was in
that attic.

In a letter from Mrs. Waite,
she tells me of the scare she got
from this ape hide while going
through some things of her mo-
ther's in the attic. It was back
under the eaves and probably
hanging in a lifelike attitude.
When I saw it, it had someone
in it.

Sometime in the early 1900s
the Stankey boys, Rudolf and
Gus, finished the upstairs with
rooms, and changed the stairs to
the back porch. I visited the
house last August, the second
time to enter the kitchen in ma-
ny years.

To the west of the house is a
small building with a stairway,
where guest slept during the
gay parties. Mrs. Waite tells of
a salesman who bought sheep
hides and used the occasion on
the visit to extend his stay, to
the annoyance of Mrs. Storm.
One extremely hot day she made
his bed in the small house, put-
ting heavy wool mattresses and
many quilts on his bed. The poor
fellow nearly smothered under
the low roof that night and nev-
er again overstayed his welcome.
That was one way Mrs. Storm
got rid of freeloaders.

Mrs. Waite's Uncle John was
murdered in Seattle, on his re-
turn from gold digging in Alaska
with a large amount of gold.
Capt. Storm made an extensive
search for John but he was nev-
er found.

His two trunks arrived in Cas-
tle Rock with their contents, but
no sign was found of him or his
gold. He had written saying it
was a large fortune.

Prior to digging under the
bee hives for hidden gold, the
Storms had moved to the pres-
ent home of the Conradis, the
second home Capt. Storm built.
On my visit there last summer,
I inspected the barn that he built
at the age of 75. Where the roof
extends out on the front end are
many wooden strips evenly
spaced apart, but none at the
other end of the barn. My cur-
iosity was aroused as to the rea-
son they were put there.

Mrs. Waite informed me that
they were placed there by her
father for an anchor so mud
dauber swallows could fasten
their nests. The barn was built
the year before he died in 1927.

She remembers an old lady
that lived in a hut near the river,
by the name of Mrs. Who, on the
site of the present Grover Thorn-
ton home, and the fear Mrs.
Storm had of this eccentric old
lady. Mrs. Waite knew of a
school teacher who lived in a
shack by the river, and did some
prospecting.

Little mills sprung up here
and there along the river, mak-
ing long hauls from Toledo and
Winlock unnecessary with lum-
ber manufactured near at hand.

Russell Martin's parents, Mr.
and Mrs. John Martin, were early
settlers as were the Davidsons
further down river.

The property once owned by
the Storms, now belongs to Mr.
and Mrs. Ted Conradi. There are
no modern buildings on the place
except the machine shed, built in
1943. The only other new build-
ing, which was the Conradis'
home, burned down.

Their ranch is as much a tree
farm as anything else. At one
time they had over 100 head of
cattle, but have cut down the
number a great deal since then,
and those they have are of out-
standing quality. They also have
335 acres in certified tree farm.

This place is known as the Stillmeadows Farm.

I have tried to locate Walter
Williams to substantiatemy
claim that there was more in
that attic than a dressed up ape
skin. Mrs. Waite doesn't remem-
ber the boa constrictor snake
skin draped over the beams up
there, but I do.

The captain also collected
bugs and snakes for the museum
in Germany. It could be possible
that he brought home a snake
skin.

When Mrs. Waite was [a little?]
girl she played lot in the [attic?]
and two of her cherished [toys were a?]
red ball and a m[arionette that?] climbed a string, [which fell? be-]
tween the walls of [the stairs? .]
on the back p[orch .]
hopes sometimes [someone finds her?]
toys.

All informat[ion for this article?]
was furni[shed by myself?]
and Mrs. [Waite, and their neighbors, and?]
thei[r children?].