Bernice Hilda Alwood - I0009 - Individual Information

Bernice Hilda Alwood (I0009)

Given Names: Bernice Hilda
Nickname: Bunny
Surname: Alwood

Gender: Female

Birth: 24 July 1917 Edgerton, Alberta, Canada
Death: 8 January 2008 Lynnwood, Washington

Personal Facts and Details

	Events of close relatives
Birth	24 July 1917 2622 Edgerton, Alberta, Canada Source:
Marriage Ending Status	Donald William Armstrong - Divorce
Marriage	27 July 1936 (Age 19) Donald William Armstrong - Source:
Fact 1	12 November 1958 (Age 41) Donald William Armstrong -
Marriage	12 September 1959 (Age 42) James Peter Shea -
Marriage	27 February 1985 (Age 67) Donald William Armstrong - Bow, Washington
Death	8 January 2008 (Age 90) Lynnwood, Washington
Burial	Bow Cemetery, Bow, Skagit Co., Washington
Last Change	3 March 2008 - 20:52:05 - by: mklaus

Notes

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Note

From _The Family Alwood_ by Terry Klaus, June 1991:

In the early years of the Alwoods moving to Washington, we mentioned theOld Equality Colony. It didn't last long, but this is a school paper,English II, written in 1933/34 by Bernice Hilda Alwood.

HISTORY OF EQUALITY COLONY

About forty years ago a group of socialists decided to start a colony.They picked the sight for their town about half way between what is nowBlanchard and Bow. The railroad then ran at the foot of the hill. Theyowned many acres of land in the fiats. To become a member of the colonyyou had to pay one- hundred and fifty dollars into the treasury. Forevery day that you worked you received fifty cents in colony money. Thiscolony was called "Equality Colony" because everyone in the colony wasequal.
The colony was planned into streets. They had a park, a grave-yard, amill, a bakery, a hotel, a schoolhouse, a big dairy, and many otherbuildings. These members depended on the outside world for practicallynothing. They had their own newspaper. they made their own money, theymade their own clothes, raised all their food, and made lumber for all oftheir buildings. They even made their own coffins.
They made most of their money by shipping sauerkraut. They raised cabbageand made the kraut themselves.
At noon everyone ate in the same large house thereby saving the time ofeach individual housewife of getting dinner. The store was open toeveryone and each received his share of the supplies. Everything belongedto everyone. There was a nursery in which the mothers could leave theirchildren while they worked in the bakery, store, house cleaning, orwhatever their work was.
The colony prospered and many of the members became rich. It is notexactly known what started the trouble that ended the colony. It isgenerally said that two men, whom the old members now call "Jews", sawwhat a money making business this was.
These "Jews" each decided to get the members to elect them head of thecolony. They soon had the colony people into two groups. Each grouptrying to elect a "Jew" head of it. Each side held firmly to theirbeliefs or wants and much arguing was done, without avail. Finally theyresorted to cruder methods of getting what they wanted. One night whenone group was holding a meeting in the schoolhouse, a party from theother group set the school building on fire. After that there was openhatred between the two groups. One night they took some long stockingsand put some big rocks in the toes. They used these weapons as a crudeimitation of what we now call "blackjacks". There was no one fatallyinjured in this fight but many people got a hard knock on the head iftheir opponent happened to have a good aim. Many of the buildings wereburned and with them, the records of the colony. Finally Uncle Samstepped in and put the colony in the hands of the receiver. All theproperty belonging to the colony was sold. The old members had the firstchance to
buy back the property on which their house was located.
A few of them did this although most of them left. Some of them firstbuying their houses, insuring them, and then burning them for theinsurance money. The land in the flats was sold for a large sum of money,although no one seems to know what became of it.
Some of the old members of the colony have since tried to get peopleinterested in starting another one, without success. Now there is onlyone old member left in the colony, Mr. Herz. He is about eighty nineyears old. The name of "Equality Colony" is now forgotten and no longerappears on the maps. The fences have been put in the middle of thestreets and there is only one open road left. That is the county road.The railroad has been moved farther out in the flats. The old grade isnow grown over with salmon berry bushes. The hotel was recently torn downin order to keep it from falling down. You can still see where the schoolhouse once stood. In the fields and in the woods you can now find flowerssuch as daffodils, roses. daises, flags, violets and many others whosenames I don't know. In the vicinity of the flowers you can still find thesites of the houses in which were torn down, moved, or burnt forinsurance. The house in which my grandmother is now living in was setfire to three times but failed to burn. What was once the park is now asmall forest in the background of our front yard. The graveyard is grownover with trees and many of the tombstones have fallen over.
This short history is not very authentic. I have written down just what Ihave heard from time to time from the old members whose conversation Ihad the pleasure of listening too, also what I have noticed, frompersonal observation.

Sources

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Media

Multimedia Object	Bernice with teacher, Blanche Miller, 1958 Type: Photo Note: Blanche Miller taught Bernice from 5th thru 8th grade.
Multimedia Object	Bernice, July 2003 Type: Photo Highlighted Image: Yes
Multimedia Object	Bernice & Joy 1976 Source: Bernice Alwood's Picture Albums