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HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by: Wayne Chambers

“These history talk about Dever School District were given at the 100th year celebration on November 5, 1954 at Dever School. The 8 Edward A. Chambers children including your great-great grandfather Elmer and my father Elbert attended Dever School. My sister Marilyn, brother David and I went 8 years to grade school at Dever.

“The Dever community has changed over the years, resulting in too few students for a grade school. The school building was sold in 1983. I hope this history is of interest to you.”

‘The Beginning of School District No. 20, Linn County

My talk given tonight concerns the years 1854 to 1880, the beginning of School District 20, Linn County. Our toastmistress, Mrs. Harnisch, has already mentioned that Syracuse Precinct had earlier schools, one of which was attended by Allie, McClain, and aunt of Mrs. Elizabeth Truax in 1848. It was located on Fenn Butte, afterwards called Zimmerman’s Hill, where Mr. and Mrs. Parker now live. Mrs. Truax has established this as correct, as there is a spring above the house from which Johnny Fenn, the teacher, carried a bucket of water for his school in the Fenn house. There was also a brickyard close by — a pile of brick is still there. In 1865 the minutes mention this brickyard location. This was the first school in Linn County.

There was a District 22 organized by law in November 1854, from which date we celebrate this Centennial. That schoolhouse was situated on the Charlie Cox farm, once part of the donation land claim of an old pioneer, John Weis, who lived where Mr. and Mrs. Drager now live. This school house was a log house with homemade seats and desks. Quills were used as pens and their ink was homemade. The equipment was a stove with pipe, a bucket, wash pan, dipper and dictionary.

The first directors elected were James F. Jones, John T. Crooks and John B. Miller; the clerk was Benjamin F. Redman who was the first teacher. He was also a justice of the peace. Redman lived in a house east of Ardle Edwards’ old house and was clerk and teacher until 1861.

Much honor is due these early pioneers for their perseverance and ability. We are justly proud of them. The first funds received were $52 in April, 1855. Mr. Redman taught in 1855 three months for $33.33 and received part pay of 58. At that time 3 months a year was the time taught. 

When this district was organized, the pioneers built their own school house by subscription, 17.5 square feet, located very nearly in the center of that district. The pioneers built this log school house in one month’s time. 

In 1858 the voters made a union of District 20 with District 22 and thereafter the entire district was called District 20. By this, we see there was a District number 20 already existing. The Weis school house was then sold to Mr. Weis for the sum of $100, with the teacher taking $65 of his money in trade. Perhaps Mr. Weis ad a store at his place. The remainder of the $100 was paid by James F. Jones. District 22 is now near Scio.

From 1858 to 1869 there was a school house on the Allphin claim near the Allphin cemetery which was on the hill behind Mr. Mervin Case’s house. This was a small school house, too small for the number of pupils attending. At different times it was voted upon to divide the district but the motions were lost as were also motions to raise school money by taxation. This old Allphin school house was sold later to Wm. Allphin for $16 when the new Allphin school house was built.

In 1859 the voters began to talk of a new school house and selected a place as near the center of the district as the nature of the ground would permit but it was not until 1868 that the district accepted a site which Wm. Allphin came forward and proposed to give: a site of 2 acres near Fenn’s Butte on the south side of Allphin’s land claim, near the old brickyard. Dayton Simison was appointed to circulate a subscription list to procure money to build the school house, which he did, and raised $558.  In 1869 the new school house was built. It was 36 feet long, 24 feet wide and 12 feet to the eaves. This was the second school house to be called the Allphin School House. In 1879 it was voted to move this Allphin School House  and the move was made in 1885 to the S.T. Jones Place where Mr. and Mrs. Craft live, which is now the E.A. Chambers’ farm. It was then known as the Syracuse School House, and referred to as the Jones School House. This building burned in the summer of 1911. 

To go back to the pioneers of these years to whom we owe so much, we will mention some of the directors of District 20. They were Samuel T. Jones, John McCoy, Absolam Addington, J.J. Davis, John Meeker, Hiram Farlow, James Butcher, Thomas Allphin, John Weis, Elias Johnson, Christopher Farlow, Henry Johnson, John Wilson (for whom Wilson Lake is named), Wm. Hale and David Lewis. Many of these names we recognized by having heard them mentioned by our parents; also some descendants are living in the districts of Dever and Conner. I will mention these descendants now: Mrs. Myrtle Jones Graham and Charles Jones, descendants of S. T. Jones; Mrs. Zelma Davis Harnisch and Mrs. Davis Harnisch, descendants of J.J. Davix; Stacey Meeker Neeley, descendant of John Meeker; Elizabeth Cardwell Truax and Gerald Truax, descendants of E.C. McClain; Rebecca Crooks Hoefer, descendant of John T. Crooks; Dale Wills Harnisch, descendant of Dayton Simison. 

The clerks who served between 1854 to 1880 are also recognized as outstanding men. Their minutes in the record book clearly show their ability. These clerks we honor this night of November 5, 1954 are: Benjamin F. Redman, who served 7 years; E.C. McClain, 1 year; J.J. Davis, 2 years; Horace Farwell, 4 years; Dayton Simison, 7 years. Samuel Crooks, 4 years (elected in 1876). 

Now to honor our teachers. I will mention just a few of the most important: Benjamin F. Redman, the first teacher who taught 4 years; Lydia Miller, 1/2 year; W.L. Coon of Peoria, 3 months; L. Flynn, later an Albany banker, 3 months; J.D. Pruitt of French Prairie near Salem, 3 months; John S. Fenn, 3 months in 1869, 1872, 1873 and 2 terms in 1874; Peter A. Moses, 3 months in 1879; and T. Handord, 3 months in 1880. 

I know this District 200 was a typical frontier district, having their trials, such as lack of money, no roads, great distances to travel, which was done by horseback, and no conveniences. But they had their joys too. They had singing lessons, political rallies and church services. 

We do not know many exciting events of this period but we are told of two murders, two suicides and a big flood — the water being higher that at any time since, measuring 36 feet in Albany in 1861. I thank you for your kind attention. (Rebecca Crooks Hoefer)

 

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by: Lynn and Claudia Hoefer

“Arriving in the Dever Conner Community on June 3, 1926, the day of my birth, I was just in time to grow up in the Great Depression of 1929. A trip to Albany down an old gravel country road in the Model T Ford car without a top was seldom and an ice cream cone was a real treat. Coming home by Bob Groshong’s house was steep drop off in the road, not a gradual grade as it is now, and my father would try to slow the Model T down with one foot on the brake pedal and one foot on the reverse pedal and would would still gain speed down the hill.

“There are many memories of my early days in Dever Conner such as fishing in Wilson Lake, riding on my father’s old horse-drawn water tanker on a hot afternoon down to Blackdog Landing where river boats landed and brought and loaded much of the things needed in the community. Blackdog Landing reportedly got its name from an old black dog that would lay in the landing and greet the boats when they came in. The tanker was to haul water for spraying pesticides on my father’s hop field and we had to run a pump by hand with a 4 foot wooden handle which we pushed back and forth for about an hour to fill the tanker. Going back to the farm, we would stop in the shade of an old plum tree and let the horses rest while we had our fill of plums.

“I attended Dever School which was heated by a very large wood stove, kept full of wood by one of the boys. This was a privileged job as it broke the monotony of school each time it needed fuel. There was usually only one teacher in the two-room school and 25-30 students in 8 grades and several subjects: recitation, spelling, flash cards. The teacher did it all, and even had time to read for 10 minutes or some other interesting book, which we all looked forward to. Our teacher was also the chief disciplinarian and I remember well one young lady who on more than one occasion would test the teacher’s patience and authority with argument and stubborn rebellion until she would be forced to stay in at noon recess to continue her punishment. Being boys with inquisitive tendencies, the four of us would go around to the back of the school building to an opening in the foundation and crawl there to the underside of the room to listen in order to find out whether she’d give in before she received a good licking. We’d emerge dusty and dirty, brushing our clothes off. I don’t know if the teacher ever got wise to use or not.

“There were only gravel roads then with potholes and muddy water. Walking to school my first two years, later riding a bicycle, was how we got to school, rain or shine. Going was easier than coming home as we were riding into the wind and rain, standing on first one pedal and then the other, barely moving, sometimes even having to get off and push our bikes.

“I never attended school at Conner School. The land was donated by the Conners (relatives of my father) but we had many pie socials and Sunday School meetings in both the Conner School and the Old Dever Store. Sometimes things would get very interesting when some of the older men at the pie-socials would bid some girlfriend’s pie up high, causing much laughter and embarrassment. My mother always taught Sunday School in these old buildings, which were no doubt the forerunners of Dever Conner Church, as we know it now.

“Occasionally the boys who had to devise their own entertainment would gather in our old hop dryers, with its many ramps and catwalks, gather up corn cobs left from the corn shelling (or snow when it would happen to come around) and a real fight would ensue. Sometimes boys several years our seniors would join in and this was alright until they would decide to soak the cobs in water. Corn cobs (and snowballs) soaked in water are murder if you get hit and things would get really rough till everyone was too tired or smashed to continue. Girls were not excluded but I can’t remember of more than one or two joining in.

“Evenings were long and cold in winter: playing checkers or listening to an old Victrola with a Kerosene lamp for light in front of an old fireplace for heat (neither of which adequately served their purpose unless you were up really close.

“Among other memories was sitting between my father’s knees on an old tracklayer tractor, learning to drive down the long rows of hops or sitting with my grandmother on our front porch on a late, hot summer evening, watching sparrow hawks flutter and make their long power dive with an airplane-like sound.

“We had an old horse-drawn wagon which I will never forget for when we took it out on the gravel road the old steel rims on the wooden wheels would vibrate until it seemed your head and teeth were not a part of you and you would stand on your tiptoes to soften the beating.

“Old Dever Store and the railroad stop where Dever Conner Road crosses the railroad were not in use since I can remember but the buildings were still there. Now they are completely gone. Morningstar Grange Hall (the land for it was donated by my wife’s ancestor) was the site for many functions of the neighborhood. Grange meeting, Saturday night dances, fairs, etc.

“As times improved, cars got better and gas could be afforded. We would get someone to take us to town in Albany and when the district could not afford a bus, neighbors would chip in and fund some old school bus or an old truck. Eventually paved roads came and modern cars too. Dever Conner today is a thriving farm community with all the modern things.

“Maybe of no interest to anybody but ourselves, I married a city girl, Claudia Hannon, whose grandparents lived next door to my grandparents in the Conner community in the late 1890s. Coincidence or not, we still live on some of the original property and love Dever Conner,”

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by: Marion Pesheck True

“I, Marion Pesheck True, moved to this very house I live in now, in 1937. Four of us kids went to Conner School that fall. Older kids went to high school in Albany and a younger sister was still at home.

“Conner School was a one room school with 30 kids, all grades, and one teacher. I was in 4th grade when I started at Conner School. The school I had gone to in North Dakota taught us to read by sight, not by phonics. So as I listened to the teacher teaching phonics to the first and second grades, I learned them too. That is one good thing about one-room learning. We had a softball team at school and would walk as a group to Dever School about 2 miles away to play their team. I even earned a letter C for my part in the team.

“My family lived 3/4 of a mile from Conner School and we walked in all kinds of weather. We even picked tomatoes (we raised them as a cannery crop) before going to school in the morning and again when we got home from school.

“The one-room school house got too crowded when more kids came to school and another teacher was hired. A curtain was strung across the middle of the school, making 2 rooms; one the lower grades and one the upper grades. The 7th and 8th grades were bused to Albany. The year I went to school in the 7th grade, 1941, they built a 2-room school for 8 grades. So I was an 8th grader in the new school. I was glad to be in the country school that year instead of going to town school.

“In 1942 I graduated from Conner School (8th grade). Also, George Atchison, Verle Lamb, Raymond Gwinnette and Lloyd Lovejoy. My two younger sisters graduated from 8th grade and went to Albany High School. In 1958 my cousin, Carroll Larabee’s daughter Kathy Larrabee Kennedy was to start first grade in Conner school. The school board chose to consolidate Conner School with Jefferson School. So since then this area is in the Jefferson School District. Kathy and her siblings graduated from Jefferson as did Perry Davis, David Harnisch and his sisters, and Bill Case and his sons and daughters.

“Now I am back in the farm house where I lived when my family first moved to Oregon. Perry Davis is still my neighbor as is David Harnisch, Dee Chambers, Bill Case and Lynn Hoefer.

“After the school consolidated with Jefferson, the building was sold and made into a home. It has changed owners several times. The outside is the same, but the inside is very nice and there is an inside stairway to a balcony for a bedroom.

“The tall fir tree that grew in the yard has been cut down before it fell. That was a land mark because it was so old.”

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written for: Danielle Johnson

“There used to be several small community schools in the Jefferson area that were attended by neighborhood children. Most were one or two room school houses with a bell tower. These were gradually closed down in the 1940s and ’50s, but were attended by several of your relatives.

“Not, however, by your great grandfather, Varion Goin, who attended school in Jefferson. He rode his pony to elementary school, stabling it nearby during the day. By the time he was in high school, cars were being seen in the area. Varion’s father Alfred, bought one of the first cars in the neighborhood, but he didn’t like to drive it. So by the time Varion was 15 years old, he was driving the car to school.

“Varion had some health problems that caused him to not attend for a couple of years during high school. He returned and graduated in 1925, I think, where he liked to say he was second in his class. There were only two of them, which was a small graduating class, even for the time.

“Varion’s first three children: Veva, Bonnie, and Vernon, went to elementary at the Looney Butte School which was converted to a house. You probably know which building it is.

“Your grandfather Ace attended a small school south of Salem. If I remember right, it was part of the Salem District, but he lived on the boundary and was able to choose. He went to high school in Jefferson. You’d better ask him to correct my mistakes.

“Jim McManus was raised in Talbot. Local children went to their first three grades (no kindergarten in those days) at Talbot School, a one room school located where the Talbot Fire Station is now. After three years they transferred to a Sydney school for grades 4 through 6. It was located where the Kuzma family now lives. After 6th grade, they rode the bus to Jefferson for the rest of their schooling. By 7th grade, of course, girls and boys were pretty interested in each other (ok, mostly the girls were interested), so the ‘new’ students from Talbot were highly anticipated. They would be known to Jefferson kids and known of by others. There was much checking out of the opposite sex, and of the competition.

“My siblings went to Jefferson Grade School, which is where I expected to go. But it turned out my class was too large for one room, too small for two, so they bused 13 of us to the Conner School every day. Conner took local Dever-Conner students in grades 1-3 but the year I was there, there were only one third grader and three or four second graders. Most of my Jefferson classmates spent a year at the Conner School in first, second or third grade. The school was closed after my third grade.”

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by: Ace Johnson

“Back in the early 1960s when I went to Jefferson High School, it was common for boys to walk home from ball practice and hitch a ride with most anyone in the community to make the walk shorter.

“Art Brandt drove a manure truck. He hauled and delivered cow manure to and from local dairies around the area. Art’s truck was decorated with cow manure and you could smell it coming well before you could see it. Art was always generous to stop to pick up the boys and give them a ride. It was 6 miles from school to my house, so I never turned the ride down. The only catch was: Art’s dog always rode in the cab with him, so we had to ride in the back on the manure!”

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by: Jerry Cox Nicholson, great-great-great grand daughter of Jesse and Ruby Bond Looney

“Jesse Looney was born near Knoxville, Tennessee and spent his youth and early manhood in the South. He was a first cousin of Andrew Johnson, President of the United States.

“Jesse Looney inherited land and many slaves as his heritage. Slavery was one of the local conditions under which he was reared, but early in life he espoused the idea of human freedom and decided to leave the land of his birth and its tradition of human slavery. He sought a place where he could rear his family under better influences. Jesse, with his wife and six children, joined a wagon train made up of many families. With Dr. Marcus Whitman as their captain and guide, they headed for the Oregon Country. They started on May 22, 1843 from Independence, Missouri and arrived in October of that year in what is now called Jefferson, Oregon.

“Jesse Looney showed his good business judgement in fitting out his family wagons. There were three. One was built like a boat, with a tight bottom, so as to ford the streams without getting the contents wet. One was called ‘fiddle’ because of its peculiar construction. In these wagons they had packed everything they could think of that they would need in the new country.

“Jesse and his wife Ruby Bond Looney chose for their donation claim a beautiful location about twelve miles south of Salem, known later as ‘Looney Butte’. The Looney cemetery is only 1/4 mile from this home and Jesse Looney (1802-1869) and his wife Ruby Bond Looney (1808-1900) are both buried there.

“Jesse Looney packed the wagons for their new home in Oregon Country. A jar of apple seeds was a dream for their new land. Jesse developed one of the largest orchards in the new country. When the apple trees all came to bearing, folks came all the way from California to get apples.

“The old Jefferson Institute which was located near where the present elementary school now stands was in operation from 1857-1899. The first enrollment was 89 pupils. Courses were taught from the elementary level up to the equivalent of two years of college.”

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by: Weltha Jo Goin Johnson

“My Dad’s family, the Goins, came to Oregon in the late 1850s by covered wagon. They first settled east of Jefferson near Green’s Bridge. In about 1898 my grand dad, Alfred Goin, bought the property north of Jefferson that my husband and I live on now. My dad was born on the farm in 1903 and died there in 1993. My children, Kari and Blair, and their families, including Danielle, live on this same property. That’s five generations to have lived on this property. The farm used to go from Danielle’s house all the way to the Jefferson Middle School, but most was sold.

“My dad went to school at Jefferson. So did I, my children and now my grand daughters. My dad walked 3 miles to school and home. Sometimes he rode a horse or drove a buggy on the dirt or mud road, but it was too much trouble to take the horse to livery stable downtown Jefferson in the morning and pick it up after school, plus the horse was ‘barn sour’ and really didn’t want to be taken to school. So my dad just walked or jogged. Our neighbor says he was the original ‘jogger’ way back in 1916.

 

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by: Margie Chrisman Powell

“I was born in Kansas and when I was 2 1/2 years old my mom and dad moved our family (one sister, two brothers and me) to Jefferson, Oregon. We had lived on a small farm that my dad farmed. Jefferson was small then and everyone knew each other.

“I especially remember the bridge that was brand new and so clean that it sparkled. That was in 1934. Jefferson had an onion festival before mint was grown here.

“There was no Interstate 5 so all the traffic came through town. During World War II the troops would ride in their trucks and jeeps through town. We would stand on the sidewalk and wave to them.

“There was a movie theater where the Masonic Lodge is now. It cost 10 cents to get in. There were wooden floors and sometimes when the film came off the roll everyone would stomp on the floor until Mrs. Curl, the owner, would come down the aisle and tell us to stop.

“My mom always took me to pick strawberries and pole beans to buy my school clothes. She never just sent me, but came with me because she liked to pick beans too. When I started first grade in the fall of 1938, the brick building which is now the elementary school was brand new. We were the first class to go all 12 years there. Mr. Pat Beal came as our principal in 1940. We had a great band that played at lots of parades. Our motto was “Not the biggest, but the best.”

“I graduated in May of 1950 and married my sweetheart on June 1950 in the Jefferson Christian Church where we still attend. We have 3 grown children who all graduated from Jefferson High School. We also have 6 grandchildren and 1 great granddaughter.

“I can’t imagine living any place but in Jefferson.”

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by Nadine (Croft) Larabee

“My name is Nadine (Croft) Larabee and our family moved to Oregon in March, 1947, first living in the Grizzel place. My aunt and uncle (the Cole family) lived in Charles’ big house and we in the little green one. With 7 kids, it was just a little crowded!

“My older brother Marion and I registered for school with the District Clerk Ruby Pesheck at her house. Little did I know that a few years later I would be part of that family. Marion drove our big Studebaker President to Jefferson each day, along with Betty and Bonnie Brannen who had just moved here from Iowa. They lived in the Dever area but were assigned to Jefferson High School, same as we were.

“My younger two brothers and sister attended Conner School; Don graduating from 8th grade in June 1947. Summer time meant lots of work, but we were glad for the opportunity–hoeing mint for Noah shelby, working 10 hours a day. At 50 cents an hour, that was $5 a day. Big money to us. We soon got a raise to 75 cents an hour and felt quite rich (after a week)! Bean picking at Charlie Grizzel’s occupied the latter part of summer. Our move to the ‘Davis Cabins’ that fall changed our school to Albany High, the younger ones still at Conner. A big flood came late fall, with neighbors riding around in boats. I remember wading out to the outhouse at various times (no inside plumbing). Our next move was to the Harnisch house around the corner–a little more room, but with 7 kids, still crowded. We experienced the blessings of electricity here for the first time, and indoor plumbing a little later. Our fun times included summer softball games, riding on Harnisch’s flatbet truck down to the floating bridge for a swim after a long day of work, neighborhood kids just getting together (we walked everywhere). When we were lucky, we got in a car and went to Albany for a milkshake at Linn Creamery, sometimes (when we had the money) to In and Out or Cleo’s for a hamburger.

“Winters of 1947, ’48 and ’49 were the coldest I can remember, maybe into 1950 also. But there again we had our fun times: skating on frozen ponds, where surface water had collected from earlier heavy rains, then frozen solid. We managed to ‘skate’ without skates and it was fun. During snow times, my brothers Marion and Dan, along with Dave Harnisch rigged up snow skis from barrel stoves (how, I don’t know). We used the hill behind the Case’s for a good downhill run. Youth group times at the church were fun with Wyman and Mildred Bohl, our first full time pastors at Dever Conner Community Church. One sunday night we wanted to get out early from our meeting to go see the fireworks in Albany. It was kind of difficult to persuade Wyman to close early, but finally he did let us go.

“Before the freeway was built, we could walk across what is now Dever Conner Road, over to Bender’s. Sometimes clear into Jefferson, as the Greyhound bus stopped at the Jefferson Terminal Cabins on its way into Albany. We could also catch it at the intersection of 99E and the Bluff Road for a day of shopping and fun in Albany.

“We sometimes went swimming in the Santiam by the Bluff — Pat Bender, F. Kuvaas, Conners, Wanda Cole and I, along with others. We almost drowned one time when 3 of us girls all got into one innertube and it tipped us over. Later a man did drown in that same place, so that put a stop to our visits.

“Early in 1951 our family moved to the Elbert Chambers place (same place Syracuse School was). My younger brothers then attended Dever School. Marion had graduated from Albany High School by then (1948) and joined the Army. I also graduated in 1949 and lived in Albany where I worked. My youngest sister was born in 1951 — our only Oregonian. We as a family really enjoyed our early Dever-Conner experience and all the original ‘home-made’ fun of those days.

HERITAGE JOURNALS: STORIES COLLECTED BY 6TH GRADE STUDENTS OF JAQUI EICHER, 2002

Written by: Connie Baillie

“I was born on a hop farm near Amity, Oregon. I went to Wheatland Grade School through the eighth grade and then to Amity High School. After graduating in 1945 I moved to Salem and got a job with the State of Oregon. There I met my husband to be, Charles Kerper who was employed with the State Tax Department. We raised four boys who have presented me with 10 grandchildren. I served as Den Mother for eight years and also as Room Mother. We did a lot of traveling all over the Northern states, back to where Charles was born in Pennsylvania. We also went to Washington D.C., twice to Yellowstone Park and to Disneyland with the boys. Charles passed away in 1972. I went back to the State Revenue Department and worked until 1989, seeing that my boys went to college. I married Glenn Baillie in 1984. We did some traveling to Nebraska, Wisconsin, California, Mexico and Canada.

“When he passed away in January, 2001 I sold my home and moved to The Springs at Sunnyview.”