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Homer Neyland stands next to his jeep with four of his six grandchildren, including Denise, who is the child closest to him.

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History: Campfire stories with the Neyland girls
3/30/2015 3:51:40 PM

By Karen Johnson
Liberty Lake Historical Society

Sitting around a fire and sharing stories with neighbors is a Liberty Lake tradition. This month, as part of its 2015 "Neighbors and Neighborhoods" series, the Liberty Lake Historical Society invites you to visualize and enjoy a fireside conversation with the Neyland girls. Before we introduce these neighbors, some background on the Neyland family. Daniel and Louisa Neyland came to Liberty Lake in 1901 or 1902. Their son Gage and wife Floy moved into a home still occupied today (across the street from the community beach on the northwest corner of the lake). There began the family's legacy of resort ownership at Liberty Lake, one that eventually extended to Sandy Beach on the northeast shore. Most of the history traced below comes through the lineage of Gage and Floy's son, Homer. 

The memories below are from a recent conversation with two of Homer's daughters, Mary Floy Dolphin and Betty Trembly, as well as Mary Floy's daughters, Leslee McLachlan and Denise Coyle. If you are keeping track at home, that's representatives from fourth and fifth generation Neylands living at Liberty Lake. Let's listen in … 

• • •

In 1940, "Daddy" (Homer) was living in Seattle with "Mother" (Della, a true blue west-sider) and "us" (Mary Floy, Betty and their sister, Carol). Looking at the prices of Lake Washington's shoreline, Homer announced to his Seattleite sweetheart that he knew where he could get lake property cheaper than that! He sold his tire business, bought almost two miles of shoreline along the east side of Liberty Lake between Molter Road and McKenzie Bay, and off they went.

They moved into "Tarry A Bit," one of Grampa Gage Neyland's cabins, for the summer. It was a great location considering it bordered Liberty Lake Park, which often hosted large Elks Club parties. So the young sisters often waltzed over to the parties, joined in the picnics, ate and played as though they belonged, though they knew they were probably not supposed to!

Don Becht, a local, ran the carousel. Since it looked better to have people riding it, he often invited Mary Floy and Betty to ride for free. They didn't know they were being used as the park's shills, but would that have mattered?

After moving for a short time to Lilac Lane, Homer built a house on the northshore hill, which later became the Elks Club. He always had a stack of Popular Mechanic magazines laying around and loved to build things from it, such as the time he built a hovercraft. They had to remove the sliders on the house in order to get it out.

Besides the hovercraft, they also had a cow, bantam roosters and a chicken named Henny Penny. One day Henny Penny got run over. That night, they had chicken for dinner. The girls cried, "THAT'S HENNY PENNY!" Della insisted it wasn't, but nobody ate poor Henny Penny that night.

Homer also planted an apple orchard on their flatland south of Sprague Avenue where his grandchildren later built forts and played with friends. Leslee remembers those years (by then the early 1960s), that the kids' moms each had a specific whistle signal. When the kids heard their mom's signature whistle, it was time for them to go home.

Toward the end of the 1940s, Homer platted roads to extend access down the hill and along the east side of the lake. Now the family was able to move to (and bring about) their longtime paradise known as Sandy Beach Resort. The sisters' first chore was to pull up all the poison oak…by hand. That was only the beginning of an era of hard work owning a resort. 

The winters at Liberty Lake were colder than now, and the lake used to freeze thick and solid. Everyone skated - sometimes even on the road. The kids would use the sharp point of their skates to chop a small hole in the ice to drink from. ("You wouldn't wanna do that today," Mary Floy quips.) 

Mary Floy recounts that in their courting years, Howard, her late husband, couldn't count on Sprague Avenue's steep hill to be driveable, so he often drove across the frozen lake from the other side to pick her up for a date! For Betty, the lake's massive ice rink was where she learned to drive! Planes landed and took off every so often. The pilot? Homer! 

Things were a lot more laid back in those days, and especially in rural areas like Liberty Lake. Betty was slightly too young to drive but not too young to run errands. One day, Della asked her to deliver a home-baked cake sitting prettily on a pedestal. She gave strict instructions for wrapping and boxing it. Thinking that was "stupid," Betty simply set the unwrapped cake-on-pedestal on the seat next to her. Taking a corner at the top of the hill, the cake toppled, she reached out with both hands to catch it, and ended up between trees. 

"We could do that because no one was around," defended Betty. "I used to drive to the post office all the time." 

She described how the occasional police officer would spot her, wait until she went inside, put on his siren, come inside and ask to see her license. 

"You know I don't have one," Betty'd respond. 

"Then quit driving!" he'd retort. 

But she never received a ticket. 

There were plenty of obvious perks about living at the lake, plus the unplanned: As a junior in high school, Mary Floy was one of only two girls who got to drive to CVHS because there wasn't a Liberty Lake extracurricular bus. There were also a few expected drawbacks living waaaay out here, like winter ice houses for summer refrigeration, no electricity, limited field phones instead of telephones, only one nearby gas station and no major grocery stores for miles. 

As the years rolled by, Mary Floy, Betty and their husbands raised their families here. "Poppy," as Leslee and Denise called their Grandpa Homer, would take all the grandkids with him when he'd visit a certain three hermits he knew in the area. The kids loved to ride in his jeep, and on the way back he'd stop at Brownies, the local store that was located on present-day Melkapsi, for penny candy. They'd say, "Oh Poppy ... I just need one more penny!" He'd reach his big hand into his pocket, hold out his change and quietly say, "Just take what'cha need and leave some for next time." So they took only what they needed. 

Leslee and Denise also covet memories of walking up the beach every Saturday night with their cousin, Joe (Betty's son), to spend the night at Mammy's (Grandma Della's).

Asked why they obviously love Liberty Lake so much, the Neyland girls gave a multitude of responses, including the peaceful lake and the familiarity of home. But Denise and Leslee summed it up pretty well: "It's partly heritage," Denise explains. "I think, ‘Great grandmother walked around here!' Pretty cool feeling." 

Then Leslee fast-forwarded to the legacy, "All six of Mom's grandkids have been married on the beach at Sandy Beach." Even the in-law kids wanted to be married here. 

Pretty cool feeling indeed.

Karen Johnson enjoyed sitting down with the "Neyland girls" to glean the stories and reflections in this article. Johnson serves on the board of the Liberty Lake Historical Society. 

• • • 

Did you know?
• Homer Neyland's initial purchase of land on the east side of Liberty Lake in 1940 totaled just under 200 acres and stretched from the shores at Molter Road southward almost to Starr Road. He also had the opportunity to buy the land where Liberty Lake Golf Course now stands, but he couldn't think of what for.

• Homer's daughters, Mary Floy Dolphin and Betty Trembly, remember the old Liberty Lake Dance Pavillion, especially commenting on all of the carnival type mirrors. An interesting twist is that Mary Floy's daughter, Leslee, married into a Pavillion connection. Her father-in-law used to play there.

• When Betty's son, Joe, was around 5 years old, he looked out the window one day and told his mom, "Look! There's penguins on the baseball field!" Turns out there was a church picnic at the resort and the nuns were playing baseball!

• Henny Penny, the family chicken noted in the story, meant more to the Neyland family than a fried chicken dinner. Homer was able to secure gas coupons during the war because he owned farm animals. Both the farm animals and the extra gas were needed commodities since they lived so far out and away from stores. He also received rations for growing potatoes by the baseball field. 


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