Lane County Historian

CANARY Post Office courtesy David Ramstead.

The Lane County Historical Society Vol. XXXIII, No. 1 Spring, 1988 The Lane County Historical Society Ethan Newman, President, 2161 University, Eugene, OR 97403 Membership Secretary, P.O. Box 11532, Eugene, OR 97440 Lane County Historian, Vol. XXXIII, No. 1 Spring, 1988 Lois Barton, Editor, 84889 Harry Taylor Rd., Eugene, OR 97405 Janet Burg, Assistant Editor, 2229 Blackburn, Eugene, OR 97405

CONTENTS TSILTCOOS LAKE POST OFFICES by David A. Ramstead 3

FIRST ASCENT OF NORTH SISTER? by Everett Hammond 9

A BOARDMAN FAMILY CHRONICLE by Harry L. Boardman 11

OREGON HOMESTEAD CLAIM NO. 2605 by Lois Paschelke 18

POSTAL COVERS courtesy David A. Ramstead 20

Has your family story been told? Do you have pictures of early Lane County people, places, events? We would like to helpyou preserve these valuable bits of history for posterity. If you have something to share, please writeyour editor at the address above, or phone me at 345-3962, and we will plan to be in touch to work out details. ISSN 0458-7227 TSILTCOOS LAKE POST OFFICES by David A. Ramstead

Tsiltcoos is an Indian name which has been shortened to Siltcoos by the uS. Board of Geographic names. in Douglas and Lane Counties is a fresh body of water covering several square miles. ,several miles in length, connects it with the Pacific Ocean. Tsiltcoos is said to be the name of a local Indian chief or an Indian family name. Another version is that it means "plenty elk". Tsiltcoos Lake was originally called Ten Mile Lake by the early settlers. Siltcoos Lake was formed by sandbars and dunes drowning out the stream mouth from Postmaster's desk and post office of ADA. the sea. courtesy of Mrs. Millard Martin. Many settlers came to the area in the late 1880s and early 1890s to line change. The post office was in claim land under the National Stone their home, previously built by Fred and Timber Acts. Land could be Anderson of lumber gathered on the bought for as little as $5.00 or $10.00 ocean beach, towed up the outlet and an acre, and little of the land around on across the lake with a rowboat, Siltcoos Lake had been settled then hauled on a sled half a mile to because of its isolation and lack of the building site. The walls were accessibility. papered with newspapers. Six post offices were near Siltcoos The post office was always on the Lake at various times, beginning in east side of Siltcoos Lake. It was in 1892, with only one remaining. the Fiddle Creek Valley, always near The post office of Ada was estab- Fiddle Creek, which flows into the lishedin Douglas County on lake, which in turn flows into the December 14, 1892, with Mrs. Jaretta Pacific Ocean. Fiddle Creek was so A. Wilkes first of three Postmasters. named because of an injured trapper, It closed on August 31, 1957 with isolated by a broken leg, who played mail to Gardiner. Ada was named for his fiddle to while the time away. Ada Wilkes, daughter of the Post- William Bay was the first carrier, master, who, with her husband bringing the mail by horseback, row- Benjamin F. Wilkes, settled there in boat and at times, on foot. 1889. In 1905 the office came into William Boyd was appointed Post- Lane County by reason of a boundary master August 16,1905. Mrs. Lane County Historian 3 Millard Martin, wife of the third and 1 Triner Scale last Postmaster, tells that the post 1 small Fairbanks scale office was first in a homestead cabin 1 book Register of Money on the east side of the George West Orders Issued farm (an early settler there) of Silt- 1 book Register of Domestic coos Lake where Fiddle Creek comes Money Order Advices in (NW¼ of Section 6, T2OS, R11W). Received William Boyd was Postmaster when 1 Cash Book of the Domestic the Martins came to the area in 1916. Money Order Office At that time the mail came in by train 4 Domestic Money Order Books and was picked up at Ada Station (on 1 Postmaster's Account Book the Coos Bay Line of Southern 2 Window Registration Books Pacific). It was picked up by the mail 1 Registry Delivery Book carrier and brought up Fiddle Creek When Mr. Martin took over the to the post office by boat, as long as office he also took the desk which Mr. the creek was high enough. The lower Boyd had used. The desk and scales landing was below the Fiddle Creek were moved to the front room of their bridge, where the boat had to stop and old home, located on the present the carrier had to find other means to county road (in the W½ of NW¼ of get the mail on to the post office. Carl Section 32, T19S, R11W). The Mikkelson was carrier from 1919 to Martins were building a new home at 1932. He was a big, husky fellow, and that time and in 1923 the post office when the mail was light he carried it was moved into the spare bedroom of by hand from the landing. When there the new house, where it remained were several sacks he carried it in a until the office closed in 1957. two-wheel cart. After the mail carrier, Carl Mikkel- William Boyd kept the post office in son, moved away, Pete Holesapple was the corner of the kitchen in his home carrier. Then a fellow by the name of (in the SE1/4 of Section 31, T19S, Graves was carrier. Clinton Cleveland R11W). The post office was a desk was then mail carrier for a number of with a lid that raised up and all of the years. Marie Riddell was then a supplies were kept there except the carrier, who was succeeded by Francis Trifler scale, which was on a box in Burch, who carried the mail until the the corner behind the outside door. trains quit running in 1954. The mail The upper part of the desk had pigeon was then brought to the Westlake holes for holding the customers' mail. Post Office on the west side of Siltcoos Mr. Boyd died in December, 1921. Lake, near Highway 101, and brought Millard Martin was appointed Acting across the lake where a carrier picked Postmaster February 6, 1922 and it up and brought it to the Ada Post appointed Postmaster May 16, 1922. Office. A rural mail route was later He receipted for the following U.S. established between Gardiner and Post Office Department property from Ada, with Charles Slonecker and then Mrs. Anna Boyd on January 21, 1922: his wife, Louise Slonecker, as carriers. 4 Spring, 1988 - -, Post office locations in the Siltcoos Lake area of 'scentral coast, courtesy David Ramstead. She kept the route after the Ada Post The inland mail route east of the Office was discontinued. lakes between Florence and Gardiner Another post office east of Siltcoos (there was a more direct mail route on Lake was Alene, established Decem- the ocean beach) was commenced ber 14, 1892 (the same date Ada was about 1892 by reason of the many established), with Julie C. Fremont settlers in the area. At that time first of four Postmasters. When it was called Clear Lake, opened it was about 3½ miles north Tsiltcoos Lake was named Ten Mile of Ada (in the SW'/4 of Section 10, Lake, and was T195, R11W), also in Douglas County called Five Mile Lake. The mail route on the north side of Maple Creek. started from Florence by rowboat Lane County Historian 5 across the Siuslaw River to Glenada authorities settled on the name (a post office on the south shore of the Canary, which name had no local river), then traveled by horse to Five significance. It was ½ mile west of Mile Creek. It was then about a seven- Maple Creek (in the NE¼ of the mile trip by rowboat down Five Mile NW¼ of Section 17, T19S, R11W), 200 Creek to Five Mile Lake; then across feet north of the railroad tracks. that lake to a landing near the Canary was the site of a very large railroad tunneL It was then a three- lumber mill and was a big lumber mile walk carrying mail bags and shipping area. Mrs. Alice C. Nute packages to the Alene post office. became Postmaster May 12, 1919. William Service was one of the first John H. Mathews became Acting mail carriers on the inland route east Postmaster October 1, 1921 and again of the lakes. H.H. Barrett, and later Postmaster October 21. He had taken his son, hauled the mail up the ocean the office in with his store, which beach before the coming of the rail- store building is still standing and road. Elmer and Ed Miles carried the being used as a residence. mail on the inland route almost eight Canary Post Office closed January years, beginning about 1900. Arthur 31, 1940, effective January 23, with Austin bought out Ed Miles in 1907. mail to Siltcoos. William T. Cane, who had settled Siltcoos Post Office was established there in the fall of 1886, became Post- July 31, 1916 (the same date Canary master August 21, 1903. The office post office opened), with Roy E. was then in the NW¼ of Section 20, Johnson first Postmaster. It was on T19S, R11W Frank Ferguson became the northeast shore of Siltcoos Lake Postmaster April 29, 1908 and the about two miles from Ada and was office moved 1½ miles northwest to named for the lake. Subsequent Post- the 5W1/4 of Section 8 at the site of the masters were John A. Barker, later post office of Canary. Orrin C. appointed December 31, 1919; John Stanwood became Postmaster Sep- T. Miller, May 19, 1921; Mrs. Eva A. tember 19, 1910, when the office Miller, April 3, 1925; Mrs. Frieda again moved ½ mile south to the SE1/4 McCoy, January 10, 1928 (Acting of Section 12 and ½ miles east of August 10, 1927); Perry F. Close, Maple Creek. Frank Ferguson again February 11, 1929 (Acting January became Postmaster on November 25, 14); Mrs. Milly Odessa Hurd, June 22, 1911 and the office moved back ½ 1943; and Charlotte B. Smith, mile northwest. At that time the October 21, 1955. office was located in the Stanwood Siltcoos Post Office closed July 7, railroad flag station in what was later 1963, mail to Gardiner. There was a Canary. Siltcoos railroad station nearby. Canary Post Office was established Booth Post Office was established July 31, 1916, with John H. Mathews July 27, 1934, with Clara P. Law first first of two Postmasters. It was to be Postmaster. It was named for Robert named Stanwood for the railroad A. Booth, a prominent Oregon station, then Treowen, but postal lumberman and a co-owner with A.C. 6 Spring, 1988 K First Millard Martin Home, third site of ADA post office, courtesy Mrs. Millard Martin.

Dixon of an island on Siltcoos Lake. be supplied by the officewas 400 He was a founder of Booth-Kelly people. Lumber Company. It was located near Booth Post Office closed November the south end of the lake (SE1/4 of 30, 1944, mail to Gardiner. Section 11, T205, R12W) on the Coos Westlake Post Office was estab- Bay Line of Southern Pacific Rail- lished September 30,1915, with road, which station, Booth, had been Fannie E. Clarke first Postmaster. It named earlier. The Post Office was so named because it was on the Application stated the population to west shore of Siltcoos Lake. Thecorn- Lane County Historian 7 Site of ALENE post office in Stanwood railroad station at later CANARY. Courtesy David Ramstead.

munity was started by WP. Reed in charge July 1, 1946); Vina M.Reavis, 1914. The community was incor- appointed January 12, 1961; and porated in 1962 with the name Dunes Emma T Thomson, appointed August City in order to avoid being included 18, 1966. in the proposed Dunes National Park. Westlake Post Office remainsin Subsequent Postmasters have been: operation. It is located about one-half Zilpha A Bamford, appointed April mile east of Highway 101and 1½ 18,1916; Mrs. Genevieve Cain, miles north of the Douglas County appointed February 4, 1947 (assumed line. 0

Spring, 1988 FIRST ASCENT OF THE NORTH SISTER? by Everett S. Hammond Ed. Note: The original letter from Mr. Hammond is among the archives at the Lane County Historical Museum. Mr. Hammond's business card lists him as occupying the Chair of Historical Theology at Kimball School of Theology, Salem, Oregon.

260 S. 15th, Salem, Ore 10/23, '35 Then we found our trail still going on Editor Register-Guard, through the woods, and we followed Dear Sir, until we came to the lava beds. After Some months since I saw a copy of looking about some time we redis- your paper in which you advanced the covered our trail going on over the lava claim for a Professor in the State beds, and we followed it. This brought University that his ascent of the North us to a delightful little valleywith two Sister in 1877 was the first ascent of streams uniting; one with chalk- that peak. I wish to send you a bit of colored water (White Branch?), the history not hitherto published. other beautifully clean Here we ate our In the summer of 1872 my father, dinner and leaving our horses, started Rev. Joseph R. Hammond, was pastor up the middle peak. Wereached the of the Methodist Church in your city. timberline about sunset, and here we There are a few still left in Eugene who spent the night. The next morning we remember him. In August of that year started about daybreak. We continued four of us went horseback into the the ascent until we came out upon a mountains on a camping trip. The spur of the mountain with a wide party consisted of my father and glacier between us and the summit. We mother, myself and a Yale divinity had no safety appliances, nor helps for student who boarded with us, having such work, so we did not dare to come west for health reasons. His attempt to cross, and very reluctantly name was Isham, I think the initials retraced our steps. were JH. He had been quite a Mn Isham went on ahead and traveller, and had done some moun- rejoined us some hours laten He tain climbing in the Alps. reported that he had succeeded in We went up the McKenzie for some reaching the summit of another one of sixty miles to some sulphur springs on the three peaks, and that he had found the bank of the Belnap riven (I forget a crater from which he thought the the name of the owner). We had lava had come. I am satisfied it was planned to stay here, but finding no the North Sister he ascended, for at pasture for our horses we pushed on least these reasons: 1st, while I paid the next day to what was called no attention to directions there (I was Summit Prairie. Shortly after finding not quite nine years old) I am sure a blazed" trail, we followedit until from our route we must have climbed we came to another good-sizedprairie. on the Northwest side. The mountain Lane County Historian 9 he ascended was near and plainly I do not know where the trail led visible from the point we had reached. beyond the point where we left it at the 2nd, The South Sister would have foot of the lava beds on the side next been remote, and it would have taken to the mountain. I hever heard who him much longer to reach and climb made the trail, nor theirpurpose. that than the time he was gone. 3rd, Whether they climbed one or more of while I know nothing of the three the peaks I have no idea. peaks except what I saw and can I make therefore three claims. 1st remember, the fact that he found a that Rev. Mr Isham was the first white crater would doubtless identify the man to climb the North Peak. 2nd that peak. I might add that Mr Isham was my mother was the first white woman a Christian gentleman of the highest to come as near to the summit as she character and his word was absolutely did. 3rd that I was the first white boy dependable. He gained in health in the to attempt the ascent. west, returned to Yale, and I under- I shall be glad to get further data stand entered the ministry of the upon this matter Congregational Church. E.S. Hammond 0

Middle and North Sister, Ca. 1903. Kiser photo, Courtesy Lane County HistoriCal Museum.

Spring, 1988 A B OARDMAN FAMILY CHRONICLE by Harry L. Boardman The following excerpts are from a manuscript loaned by Joy Palmerlee of Berkeley, CA, and tell of her grandfather's early life and years as pastor of Eugene's First Baptist Church. Ed.

My grandfather, Amos Board- children. .. . Here the rest of his man, born in 1791, married Lydia family of twelve children were born. Worcester in 1814; and in 1818 moved The youngest, Thomas Worcester from Bridgewater, N.H., to Harwick, Boardman was my father... My Vermont with his wife and four father migrated to Iowa, Kansas and

l-r: Delia Hanford Boardman, Alfred, Harry, Thomas Worcester Boardman, courtesy Joy Palmerlee. Lane County Historian It the Pacific Coast, and lost contact chunks out in the warm summer almost entirely with his own family. days. ..Grandfather was a strictly It was in the summer of 1872 religious man ... Irecall once that father began to talk of Oregon. hearing father tell of an experience he In the summer of 1874 the had when a child, which well illus- grasshoppers came - a scourge so trates this point. He was walking, on terrible that I can never forget it. a Sunday afternoon, by the stream They blackened the sky at midday, which flowed past the house. Seeing ate every living green thing over all a shad which had killed itself trying that territory; covered the ground and to leap the fall, floating near the the sides of the houses. I think this bank, Thomas secured it and took it visitation greatly strengthened home. But his father reprimanded father's desire to get away from him sharply, not on the grounds that Kansas. In October 1874, we traveled perhaps the fish might not be good, emigrant style on a train made up in but for doing such a thing as that on part of freight cars and in part of the Sabbath; and the boy was passenger coaches. The coaches were required to throw the fish back into on the rear end of the train, which the stream. was often very long. This train moved Some time in the later 1850s slowly and stopped often, but this did father made the long trek to ...Iowa. not detract from the enjoyment of the On August 25, 1859 he married Delia trip for us children. We were a full Hanford. In 1865 the family moved week on the way from our starting back to Ohio, near Delia's family. I point to San Jose, California, our first was born at Dover, Ohio, June 23, destination.Father had some 1866 relatives here, and we spent a week In 1870 father outfitted himself with them before going on to Oregon. with a team of horses and a covered A short trip one late afternoon wagon and we made the journey to by horse-drawn stage coach to the Kansas. ..Father settled on a claim southern tip of San Francisco Bay, on Osage County. I remember the and by a little stern-wheel steamer to wide prairies, the making of wild hay, San Francisco, where we transferred the humble board cabin in which we to the ocean-going vessel for thelast lived, and a little shop where father lap of the journey to Oregon ...This shod his own and the neighbors' vessel - the Oroflam - was a small, horses .... I have the most vivid slow-going craft, badly buffeted by the recollections of the prairie fires in the waves, and I suspect, not too sea- autumn - long lines of light on the worthy. The voyage was rough. Father horizon at evening, and our feeling of and Mother were both deadly seasick. fear as father "backfired" to protect I was not sick, however, and so enjoyed us ... Father had an ice house - a even the ocean part of ourlong trip. little shack where he stored ice cut in I think it must have taken two days the winter from a nearby small lake, and nights before we finally came, one packing it in sawdust and taking bright morning, into the mouth of the Spring, 1988 12 Columbia River .... At breakfast .The winter of 1874-75 spent in that first morning at Portland, in the Amity was notable for me as a boy on old St. Charles hotel, we had salmon account of one principal thing. It was steaks. We stayed with the Doanes- during a revival meeting in the small cousins - for two weeks. Baptist church there that I professed As soon as possible after we had conversion - a very serious matter, arrived in Portland father went on a "getting religion" as a boy of eight trip up the Willamette River looking .Thanks to a devout father and for a place to settle .. . he made the mother and the influences of a trip by river boat. After a few days genuinely religious family life, I never absence he came back to us with the had to be "converted" over again. news that he had found the place; and Pastor Ezekiel Russ lived at so we took our leave of the Doanes, McMinnville, and served the church crossed the river again on the little at Amity as one of several charges. ferry, (the docks all being on the west Throughhimfatherbecame side) and embarked in the early interested in McMinnville, and early morning on the small, stern-paddle- in 1875 he went to McMinnville wheel steamboat for an all-day trip prospecting for a permanent location The water was low, being the late for the family. McMinnville appealed fall season, and as clear as crystal. In to him as a place to live in part that clear water we could see because the Baptist college was there, hundreds of salmon- great fish and a good Baptist church. gleaming in the sunshine, sporting in I was fifteen years old when we the stream. At some of the riffles in moved from McMinnville to a farm the river the boat would grate on the four miles west in the hills where the bottom, and the boatmen would take elevation gave mother relief from her long poles and push it off. Late in the asthma...the very next year the new afternoon we turned into the mouth college building was erected. In the of a narrow and sluggish stream, the basement of the new building was a Yamhill River. It was so narrow and "commons" where the dormitory so crooked that the boat made very students, living in the building, might slow headway, and the poles of the board. Father and mother became boatmen were in use most of the time caretakers for the building, so for the pushing the craft off the banks. next three or four years we lived on We landed... at Dayton, the head of the farm in the long summers, and in navigation. Thomas Henderson met the college building in the winters. I us with a team and wagon and took stoked the furnaces to warm the us to his home in Amity. .. .For building, and did much of the janitor several weeks we made our home in work....During these yearsI part of the Henderson's big-rambling completed work of preparation for farmhouse....Father soon found college and did the work of the employment as a blacksmith and I freshman year. The college was a was sent to school. The life in Oregon preparatory school for the most part, had begun. corresponding to an academy or high Lane County Historian 13 school...Perhaps a dozen students, found that I had some gifts in preach- all told, were doing actual college ing; fooled myself into thinking that work. In the spring of 1884I a short theological preparation was graduated from the preparatory all I needed; and thus would avoid the department of the college. ...I had long delay which would be involved if an oration to deliver as my graduat- I went to seminary ... at Rochester ing performance. I got through the NY. speech and was turning to take my seat in the midst of great applause When I returned from Spokane in when down the main aisle came a the spring of 1890 I worked on the sweet girl, Olive Powell, carrying an ColfaxCommoner,aweekly immense bouquet, which she tossed newspaper ...I worked for the paper into my hands!.. .At this the until September.Ihad made applausewasredoubled,she arrangements to go to the Baptist retreated gracefully to her place, and Theological Seminar at Chicago. The I sat down suffused with blushes. I seminary opened a new world to me. went tocollegeone yearat Next summer I went back to work for McMinnville. That fall I taught a 5 the paper during the summer and fall and on December 3rd we were month term of school. ..asthma recurred and we moved to Colfax in married. 1891 ... back to Chicago eastern Washington with Myrtle and a baby ... Then a In 1886 I became a student at church in Tacoma Washington. Ordination as a Baptist minister in Colfax College. ...Here in Colfax College I studied for three years, Colfax. Panic of 1893 closed my work finishing a four year classical course with the Baptist mission in Tacoma. I was the first graduate of the new Accepted a call to the Eugene Baptist college. My one critical illness came Church in November, 1893. to me at Colfax. I developed an acute When the call to Eugene was first attack of inflammatory rheumatism extended to me I declined it. There I taught school two terms while were two reasons ... One wasthat I prosecuting my studies at Colfax .. had heard ... that any pastor would After graduating in 1889 I spent the have trouble with certain prominent summer working for a building elements in the church if he contractor in Colfax and Pullman. In endeavored to make practical applica- the fall I taught a four month term of tion of the gospel to public morals and school in Pine City. Following the community affairs, especially as close of this term of school I was asked regarded the liquor business. And to go to Spokane and supply the since I was quite determined to fulfill pulpit of a newly organized Baptist this part of what I thought a true church there. ..I had formed a ministry should be, I hesitated to strong attachment for Myrtle Jackson come to Eugene. A further reason, at Colfax ... We became engaged. and the one which was really most This was the situation when I went determining, was a feeling that to Spokane for my supply term. I Myrtle would not be equal to the spring,1988 14 heavy responsibilities which would pulpit. I had some most appreciate inevitably devolve on the shoulders of listeners in my congregation, notably the wife of the pastor of such a church, Prof. Mark Bailey, of the University in such a community, as Eugene. This faculty. How kind he was, how wise, was the direct result of my having how genuine! One Monday morning asked dear Myrtle to marry me before not long after our settlement in she had received the education and Eugene there was a knock at the general training which would have parsonage door. I went to answer and better qualified her for such a task. there stood Dr. Bailey. He came in and Ifelt this keenly, myself, though sat down in the room alone with me. Myrtle, I believe, had not fully come He complimented me on my sermon to realize just what it would mean for of the preceding day; and then her. expressed solicitude for my voice if I In response to a telegram asking me did not treat it more kindly. I was to reconsider, I wired acceptance of speaking more strenuously than was the call to Eugene. The salary offered necessary, he said; and becoming too by the church was $900 a year, with much exercised in my delivery. The thought was beyond criticism, but no parsonage .. . I rented a small cottage on Eighth Street, just across perhapsIcould be a bitless from the church building. .. Here we demonstrative, with benefit to myself lived and worked for nearly three and without disadvantage to the years, till the summer of 1896. After listeners. It was tactfully done, and one year we moved from the cottage was a lesson withal which I much on Eighth Street to one somewhat needed tolearn.I thanked him larger and more homelike just around heartily for his helpfulness. As a small boy in McMinnville twenty the corner on Pearl St.. . .then came a local political campaign with moral years before I had known him and implications into which I threw revered him as a kind of superman. myself with more zeal than wisdom. Now this same man was sitting at my This fact reusulted in imperiling my feet from Sunday to Sunday as I tried standing and influence with some of to preach to him and the rest. He the best people in the church. always looked as if he were enjoying Hereupon I developed a characteristic my sermons! He was a past master in psychosis: My usefulness here was helping me to overcome my boyish ineptitudes. He was one of the rarest probably over.Iwas appointed president of McMinnville College. characters I have ever known. After ten years I was to be back again There were other good listeners in in the familiar surroundings of the audience at Eugene. One of the boyhood. best was Deacon B. F. Dorris who The Eugene community, including always sat in the end of the second as its outstanding characteristic the pew from the front on the right main State University, was a constant aisle, i.e. at my left. He was a genial, stimulus to the young pastor to do his kindly man, very faithful to his best in his work, especially in the church, and always a good friend to Lane County Historian 15 his pastor. He was treasurer of the close proximity to the famous church and had his office at the city McKenzie river....We (Myrtle, hail, being clerk of the city of Eugene Grace and I) made a camping trip in at the time, and for many years before the summer of1894,going with Rev. and after. On Monday mornings I J. F. Day, pastor of Springfield, and would walk down Eighth Street to his his family (on the upper McKenzie. office, have a little chat with him We went in his wagon behind his big, about the work of the previous day, strong team of horses. Myrtle was etc., and he would hand me my fond of such outings, and to me they weekly salary, usually in cash just as were always the very essence of it had come in the day before in the enjoyment. Again in1895we camped collections. The whole Dorris family for two weeks near Prof. and Mrs. were bulwarks of strength tothe J. W. Johnson (President Johnson of church in those days, particularly the the Univ.) at McKenzie Bridge. Trout Dorris girls. There was a quartet of fishing was the great thrill on these them who sang in the choir; Alice trips. I also made short trips to the (who was teaching in Eugene at the river by wheel, on the same quest, time), Kate (Mrs. McAlister), Cecile and often with success.... those and Benetta. Their singing as a were the years of the first bicycle quartet of women's voices was the craze. Of course I had to have a wheel finest I have ever heard or known to "help me in my work' Really it anywhere. Sue was another member was chiefly to assist me in my play. of this interesting Dorris group, I could tell some interesting adven- equally efficient in her way; and tures I had with that first bicycle. Mary (Mrs. Seymour Condon), who This it will readily appear that the did not live in Eugene then, was the years at Eugene were full of interest sixth member of "the Dorris girls" as and satisfaction - until the great they were popularly known in the shadow came. Myrtle was never well community. There were two brothers, after Faith's coming; and in the Ed and George, older, whom I knew spring of1896Dr. Loomis startled me less well. Their mother was a charm- one day by telling me that her lungs ing woman in her family life and were badly affected. She was about faithful to her church. To me the the house and able to do most of her Dorris family were outstanding as work during this spring, and seemed members of my first church, and did to get through the ordeal of breaking not wane in interest as the sequel will up and moving to McMinnville fairly show. Myrtle admired this group very well. Soon after getting settled in our much and they were sweet and kind rooms at the college ... she to her always. I could write a long list gradually faded away and on April27, of names of other loyal and lovely 1897,passed away. people in the church at Eugene, did .When the call came to me to go time and space permit. to my old school as its president, I felt Eugene was a charming place to it most appropriate that I should do live, not least of all because it was in so, conditioned only on my assurance Spring, 1988 16 that this would be an opportunity for not more than $1,200, including valuable and effective service . everything. I have the satisfaction (if Ever since .. my two years of study I can call it that) of having worked at the University of Chicago Divinity longer and for less money than any School I had been distinctly conscious other president in the college's of a tendency to question many of the history, before or since....The list of assumptions of regular orthodox subjects I taught at one time or Christianity .... asthe years passed another while president at McMinn- I found myself restive in relation to ville: Greek, Latin, History, English many requirements of theregular, (Composition and rhetoric), Philo- orthodox, Baptist faith. Particularly sophy (logic and Christian evidences), did I sense this as I discovered that Psychology, Pedagogy,Sociology, the "regulars" so often were little Economics and Public Speaking disposed to make practical applica- (principally coaching debaters). I had tion of the teachings of Jesus to the never taught any of these subjects correction of the evils of the social except English before going to this order. I felt this in my work at Eugene, job, and in the case of several of them and so when, having resigned the I had never studied them before tak- pastorate there, this call to the college ing charge of the class .. presump- came to me, I foundmyself favorably tious would be a more appropriate disposed toward it at once. Education, designation than versatile. I married I was sure, even denominational Alice Dorris Sept.1, 1898 in the education, would be more conducive family home at Eugene; Father died to freedom in thinking than the and Mother came to live with us at pastorate of Baptist churches. McMinnville, which she continued to Seven years at the college .... I do almost without change from 1900 have always considered my principal till her death in 1915. service to the college the raising of Ed.note: From the collegeat the standard of work by two full years, McMinnville, Harry Boardman went bringing it up to what we now call a to several pastorates and eventually

standard junior college . ... My to teaching at Riverside Junior average salary for the seven years was College until his retirement in 1938. 0

Myrtle Jackson Boardman, courtesy Joy Palmerlee. Harry L. Boardman, courtesy Joy Palmerlee.

Lane County Historian 17 OREGON HOMESTEAD CLAIM NO. 2605 by Lois Paschelke Our last issue (Fall, 1987) carried a story about Jacob and Nancy Bahr, who homesteaded in the community of Mabel. Lois Paschelke has kindly furnished more information about the homestead which they settled, giving us a picture of land use over nearly a century of Lane County history.

out of their way. When they set it Mennonite minister Jacob Bahr down, it was katty-corner to the and his wife Nancy came to the directions. This was a source of Mohawk Valley to help organize a irritation to Paul Paschelke, a later congregation and church in what owner. He was a man who took great later became the town of Mabel. To pride in being very precisely correct raise funds for that effort, they proved in all he owned or did. up on a claim for 160 acres of land and On March 28, 1896, the Bahrs sold received their Homestead deed from their property to J. A. and wife Phebe the Roseburg Land Office on June 3, Royer for fifteen hundred dollars. The 1891. Royers sold the place to Paul As they developed the claim, they Paschelke for twelve hundred and built a small two-story house and a fifty dollars on November 27, 1901. forty-foot square barn of lumber cut, This represented the savings Paul itis believed, on a small water- had earned in working his gold claim powered sawmill built near Mabel by in the Alaskan gold rush. Andrew Workman and Washington After buying the farm, Paul wanted Adams. Adams was a skilled wood- to go back up to Alaska to rebuild his worker who finished the boards with cash money supply, but his wife, a wood lathe he had built. He liked Lizzie, didn't want him to leave her to finish cedar boards for house alone with baby Arthur. So, instead, interiors. The Bahr house las a large he sold the old-growth timber on his room over the kitchen with the one hundred acre hillside across Mill ceiling, walls and floor of the raw Creek from the house and barn. He cedar paneling. A heating vent into got a fortune for those days - five the room from the kitchen stove thousand dollars. below, makes it appear that this was Then he did something that made aimed to be a storage room. his neighboring farmers think he had The barn was put up with hand- taken leave of his senses. While they hewn beams, held together with wood were working to clear their forestland pegs and the rough-cut lumber for the and even piling and burning the logs walls was put up with square nails. to create fields and pastures, Paul Both buildings were apparently built Paschelke took advantage of the facing true west but when Southern standing cull trees left by the loggers. Pacific built their railroad up to They made good seed trees and, in Wendling, they had to move the barn some twenty years later, he had a 18 Spring, 1988 timber covered hillside again. He homestead claim. came from Germany where tree- Leo's elder son Robert planned to farming was the thing to do with marry in 1974 and, in a deed dated forestland. February 19, 1984, Leo and Lois gave Paul and Lizzie Paschelke had two him the old house and two-plus acres. more sons, Walter, in 1904and Leo, He and his family have lived there in 1908. Both were delivered at home until December of 1986, when they by their grandmother, Adeline Pioch, founditnecessary to move into who was the midwife for the upper Eugene. Mohawk Valley. In the latter part of 1988, a family Leo was the son who continued to from Vancouver, B.C. is making plans live on the farm and, on November 3, to buy the house, barn and remaining 1939, Paul and Lizzy gave him a deed twenty-two acres of the Bahr claim. for twenty-five acres of the tree farm. By then, the claim will have been Paul died in 1942 and, five years later, broken up into twenty-one parcels. Lizzie moved into Eugene to live with The tree-farm subdivision will remain son Walter. Leo and his wifeLois tree covered. bought the rest of the farm from her, The new buyer wants to restore the as shown by the deed she gave,dated barn to its old appearance before it August 7, 1951. was damaged by the Columbus Day Leo, primarily an independent wind storm in 1962. Though the contract logger with his brother homestead can no longer be located Walter, continued to care for the on a property map, old-timers should family tree farm until a 1968 accident always be able to recognize it as they in a rock quarry forced him to retire. travel along Paschelke Road, north- Medical expenses forced him to sub- east of Marcola. U divide over one hundred acres of the

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7. Spring, 1988 LANE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Board of Directors and Officers for 1987-88 President: Ethan Newman Vice President: Quintin Barton Recording Secretary: Alfaretta Spores Membership Secretary: Alta Nelson Treasurer: David Ramstead Board Members term expires 1988 term expires 1989 term expires 1990 Lois Barton John McWade Orlando Hollis Quintin Barton Ethan Newman Hallie Huntington Martha Frankel Marty West David Ramstead Alfaretta Spores A.J. Giustina

YOU ARE INVITED TO BECOME A MEMBER OF THE LANE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Membership entitles you to receive THE HISTORIAN, published three times a year by the Society. Members are eligible to participate in periodic public interest meetings and in projects to preserve and collect Lane County History.

I would like to become a member of the Lane County Historical Society in the classification checked:

Family membership, annual $ 10.00 Sustaining Membership, annual $ 25.00 Contributing Membership, annual $ 50.00 Patron, annual $100.00 LI Lifetime Membership $500.00 L] Contribution to Society's Preservation Projects $ LANE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Non-Profit P.O. BOX 11532 Organization U S POSTAGE EUGENE, OR 97440 PAID Permit No 658 Eugene, Oregon

Bend siagin deep snow Ca. 1927, McKende Pass area. Stevenson photo. courtesy LaneCounty Historical Museum.