Ruby was born on November 29, 1910, in the mill town of Monohon. Monohon was located on the southeastern shore of Lake Sammamish. Her full name is Ruby Barbara, nickname Ru-barb. She says she was 14 before she realized her name was not "Ruby watch the kids." Ruby was one of eight children. She was born with cataracts on her eyes, and at the age of 80 had her first operation to remove the cataracts. Before the operation the color she saw was dim.

Ruby attended the two-room schoolhouse in Monohon. There were four classes in each room. Ruby was able to read before she started school. Ruby's father taught her to read by having her sound out the words. When her older brother received a new reader at school he would bring it home. Ruby would read each of these books.

When Ruby was a child the roads that existed were one-lane dirt ones with deep ruts. During the rains the ruts would fill with water and children would wade in them when parents were not looking. It was great fun for children; however, the parents did not think the same.

The children of the period were very creative and inventive. Ruby says, "they were dirt poor but never felt deprived." They had a great full, fun life with much love. They created games out of anything that was available to them. One was fish; the leaves of the ferns became the fish. They would build a house out of small trees and play in it until Mom called for lunch. Gunnysacks were used as hammocks; the sacks would be taken apart at the sides and bailing wire woven in and out at either end and tied to trees. The children would sometimes sleep out in them at night in the summer, the sun would wake them early and they were not allowed in the kitchen until the mill whistle blew at 7:30 in the morning. Their mother once made a ball and bat for the children to play baseball. She took a stick and carved a bat. The ball was made from a square piece of rubber from the heel of a shoe; a Rockford sock was wrapped around the piece of rubber and denim was placed around the sock. They were ready for a game of baseball.

The children would often walk to meet their father in the woods and walk home with him. They would take a bag with them to gather wood from the stumps. The thick bark from the trees "held a fire well" and was excellent for cooking bread. Ruby's mother often baked bread and ironed on the same day.

Ruby was a witness to the fire that devastated Monohon on June 29, 1925. At the time of the fire her mother had left to visit her own mother Mary (Molly) See Peck. Ruby was left to watch the other children. One of Ruby's brothers had poured water in her hammock. Ruby jumped out of her hammock to chase him. He was able to elude her by climbing a tree. Once up the tree he announced there was a fire burning Monohon, and indeed, there was. The children were placed in a wagon and taken to their grandparents' house. The community pulled together to help one another save what they could from their homes.

Ruby's father, Thomas Edwin Howatson, was born on the 4th of July 1883 in Quebec, Canada. His parents were from the county of Ayr in Scotland. They owned 160 acres on Bay Chaleur in Quebec. He first moved to Vancouver, Canada where a sister lived and from there he went to Seattle; then Monohon. He thought it was wonderful that on the 4th of July everyone celebrated his birthday. At that time there were fireworks, boat races and picnics on Lake Sammamish in celebration of Independence Day. He was known as Ed, and worked in the Monohon Mill as well as the woods. When he worked in the woods, he drove a team that pulled logs out. He was a very warm, caring parent. If he sat down anywhere, "there would always be a kid on his lap". Ruby would crawl up onto his lap while he was reading the paper and ask him to tell her what it said. His comment to her would be, "sound out the words." Ruby's Dad knew he would only have "a kid's attention for about five seconds," so he always kept his comments short and to the point. He was 90 years old when he passed away.

Ruby's mother was Elsie Peck, born October 20, 1888. She married Thomas Howatson on December 11, 1907 in the home of Elsie's parents - the Peck family owned 80 acres located off 212th Ave. The family came from Germany in the 1630s. They arrived on the coast of Virginia, making their home in Louisa, Kentucky. They came by railroad in the spring of 1889, occupying half a boxcar on the way to settle in Fremont, which at the time was a separate town from Seattle. They were witness to the Seattle fire in June 1889. In November 1889 they witnessed Washington become a state. The property the Peck family owned was located on the site of Lincoln High School. They traded this property for 80 acres in the Pine Lake area in 1901. The family walked to the Pine Lake area leading their two cows, crossed Lake Washington by ferryboat. Two days after they arrived at Pine Lake, Ruby's Aunt Pearl was born.

Ruby's father purchased the first phonograph in Monohon in 1911. It is reported that he taught Leona Eddy's mother, Dwinar Forgue, how to dance. Leona was the great granddaughter of Mary Louie, a Snoqualmie Indian who is reported to have lived to 130 years of age and could often be seen walking the Lake Sammamish shore between Redmond and Issaquah.

Everyone owned a cow that provided milk and butter. They baked their own bread, and had a garden. Ruby still goes out in the spring and tills the soil to plant her garden.

Ruby remembers dances at the Skogman house (now known as the Freed House). There was a large room on the second floor of the house where the dancing would take place. The kids would be piled on the bed along with everyone's coats. The Howatson clan would go to the Skogman's to pick cherries from their tree; Ruby says, "They were the best cherries she ever tasted."

Ruby married Floyd Eddy, one of 12 children. They were married May 4, 1928. She graduated high school in the same year. The graduation exercises were held at the Issaquah Theater. In attendance were her family and in-laws. Floyd was born on March 31, 1905, and passed away in 1990. The Eddy family came to Washington from Nebraska where they had lived in a sod shanty. Floyd was born in the sod shanty. Ruby says that she and Floyd visited the site; the shanty had been destroyed. Floyd was three years old when the family arrived in Bothell. The Eddy family owned a 10-acre farm just southeast of SE 4th St. on 218th Ave. SE. The 10 acres were in one of the Burke and Farrar developments. Burke and Farrar purchased the land for development after it had been logged off. The house is still in use as a residence and appears very much the same as the day it was built. The original barn has been converted to a home. The first home they built burned down in August 1920. Floyd took over his father's job at the Sammamish Shingle Mill (while his father rebuilt the house). At the time Floyd was a freshman in high school. Floyd was a successful water witcher and located many wells, failing only once. He could tell where to dig and how deep to dig the well.

Ruby and Floyd purchased one acre on the southeast corner of NE 8th St. and 228th Ave. NE (Safeway location). At the time they purchased the property, there was a one-room schoolhouse located on the corner. The schoolhouse performed many uses for the community over the years before it became home to Ruby and Floyd. It was not only a place for children to learn their lessons, but also a place for the community to gather for dances and meetings. Ruby and Floyd lived in the schoolhouse until their cottage was completed. Sam Dorman built the cottage. The floors from the schoolhouse were taken up and used in the new cottage. The schoolhouse was then converted to a chicken house. Their new home was completed just before the birth of their only child, a son, Donald, born December 3, 1934. She spent more that a week in the hospital following the birth. They drove their big Buick to the old Renton Hospital where Dr. Bronson delivered Donald. Donald was born 15 minutes after their arrival at the hospital. Ruby had cleaned and packed 30 dozen eggs the day Donald was born.

They acquired 20 acres of land on this corner before selling the property in 1943 for $1,800 and purchased property off the Redmond-Fall City Rd. Floyd passed away in 1990. Ruby still lives in the home built in 1892-93 by a Swedish bachelor. She still uses a chainsaw to cut wood that goes into her only source of heat, a wood burning stove. She says she "warms herself twice that way."

Ruby has many memories of places and things that no longer exist in the Sammamish area to share with the community and is one of the Treasures of Sammamish.

Ruby Eddy's high school graduation portrait.
Floyd and Ruby Eddy. Wedding picture, May 4, 1928.

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