Feature a Family

A Story of Loss, Grit, and the Quiet Strength That Helped Shape Early Enterprise Submitted by: Lydia Kramer Hartwell , great-granddaughter My great-grandparents, Johann and Elise Kramer , arrived in the Wallowa Valley in the autumn of 1882 , weary from travel but full of the sort of hope only pioneers seemed to possess. They had left Bavaria a decade earlier, first settling near St. Louis before hearing about the “green valley beyond the mountains” from a traveling preacher.

Margaret “Maggie” Whitcomb was born on June 3, 1847, in Council Bluffs, Iowa, the eldest daughter of Samuel and Ruth Whitcomb. From a young age she was known for her quick mind, tireless work ethic, and uncanny sense of direction — a trait her siblings joked was "borrowed from the wild geese." That same instinct would later guide her westward and help shape the community that eventually became Enterprise and the surrounding Wallowa Valley. Journey to the Valley In the spring