What can you tell us about Cy Jensen and Laura??
By Judy Bushy
Perhaps you recall Cy Jensenj, well known from the story of Dear Mad’m by Stella W. Patterson, when he was called “Up’nUp”. Do you remember the days down by Ferry Point south of the Clear Creek post office when he was mining with Fred Crooks, “DearSir” in the story.
Thanks to Roberta, we’ve found that Laura came from Trinity (there was hint in the book!!) and they went to Washington to be married.
Do you remember the years along the Klamath, when a couple of men could bring in gold and fish along the Klamath River?? Stella turned 80 years old in 1946 and wrote the book, DearMad’m about a year deciding if a woman of her age could live the adventurous life on the River.
Tell us your stories and remembrances of those wonderful ol’ days along the Klamath River!! Thanks!!
I believe UPnUP’s wife was Nora, not Laura. Whatever happened to Millie (Millicent)?
The names in Dear mad’m are all nicknames. Stella Walthall Belcher Patterson was “Dear mad’m.” Even her husband, James Patterson was known to call her Mad’m previous to the book being written.
Dear Sir” was Frederick Henrick Measor, who went by his step father’s name of Crooks most of his life. He was born in South Dakota and we have pictures of him in groups but we don’t know which of the young men is Fred as a youth.
“UpnUp” was Clarence “Cy” Vademar Jensen and he is always the tallest one in photos!! He married Laura who was the mother of “Benji” whose real name is Tim Jenson. We are looking forward to meeting Tim when he comes to the Dear Mad’m Symposium October 14th at the Siskiyou County Museum to celebrate Stella’s 151 birthday. “UpnUp” loved fishing and we have photos of him, usually with fish!! After Laura left, Cy Jensens brother and his wife Dora adopted Tim Jenson.
Thanks to Roberta Everett who has done a great deal of research, and Peter and Elizabeth Lismer who researched to write the biography of Stella W. Patterson, we have learned more about the characters in the story. In coming days I plan to share more about them, with (those we have) photos, so you can see that they were real people living on the Klamath River at the time.
“Frenchy” was Eugene Nicholas Dufour who died when attempting to swim the Klamath River at high water, as recounted in Dear mad’m. The Lioness Club of Happy Camp put a marker on a grave for Frenchy in the Happy Camp Cemetery.
The young Karuk girl, Millie or “Millicent” Banning was Arleen Daphne Oates. She and her brother Huddleston were the children of Henry Mason Oates and Virginia Effman. She married Lewis W. Joslin when he had a 30 day leave from the military service and went to live with him in San Francisco. They had a baby boy, Dale Lynn Joslin who was born in 1951, but died in August as an infant. Arleen also died October 21, 1951.
The only character in the story that we don’t have a different name for was the contractor building a motel east of Happy Camp, Kirk Hubert of San Diego. It is even a mystery yet about what motel he was building.
Judy Bushy, Friends of Dear Mad’m