Pond Parents

Arabelle and Rufus Pond are named figures in the Eden Pond Series.

Biography

Arabelle and Rufus Pond were the parents of Eden, Harry, and Merton Pond. Though they died well before the events of the Eden Pond books, their presence was felt through the memories of Merton and Eden.

The two were married in 1897, when Arabelle was seventeen and Rufus thirty-two. Though there was a significant age difference, their marriage was a happy one. Rufus continued to work as a logger, while Arabelle kept house and took in sewing. She gave birth Merton in 1899, but their second child, Stella in late 1900, survived only a few minutes. After that, they came to believe they couldn't have more children. They were content raising Merton, a reserved but pleasant boy. It was much to their surprise that Arabelle became pregnant in 1916, and even moreso when she gave birth to twins in February the following year.

The effect of a pregancy at age thirty-eight left Arabelle with compromised health, which may have contributed to her death from Spanish Flu. Rufus, fifteen years her senior, also became ill and succumbed to the disease three days after she did. Merton was in France when his parents died, having volunteered with the American Expeditionary Forces. The twins, just a year-and-a-half old, were cared for by the family of Tillie Larkin until Merton returned.

Arabelle was of mixed heritage, her father being of Scots-Irish descent and her mother half-Clatsop. Arabelle never had a strong association with her indigenous roots, having grown up in Astoria, though she suffered the effects of prejudice. Eden apparently got her dark hair and eyes from Arabelle.

Rufus was Breton and English via the Island of Jersey. He worked as a logger and fisherman. When he and Arabelle wed, he built a house in Garibaldi which remained the family home after he and Arabelle died.

Vital Statistics

Arabelle Date of Birth: 13 April 1880 1918
Arabelle Date of Death: 10 November 1918

Rufus Date of Birth: 3 August 1861
Rufus Date of Death: 13 November 1918

Issue:

• Merton Pond: born 1899
• Stella Pond: born/died 1900
• Harry Pond: born 1917, died 1942
• Eden Pond: born 1917

Mentioned

• Tillamook Guerillas