Lorna Grabe

LORNA GRABE Family History and the Story of the Soap Creek Schoolhouse Foundation Interview by Bob Zybach December 22, 1989 Soap Creek Valley History Project OSU Research Forests Monograph #1

Soap Creek Valley, 1899. Photo by Samuel H. Moore

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The Soap Creek Valley History Project was authorized by, and is under the direction of, Dr. William Atkinson, Director of the OSU Research Forests. Oral history research and current interview transcription have been performed with the cooperation, and under the direction, of Lucy Skjelstad, Director of the OSU Horner Museum. This interview was transcribed by Bonnie Humphreys of the Horner Museum staff. The excellent quality of her work has been instrumental in bringing the oral history portion of this project to its current level of completion.

INTRODUCTION The Soap Creek Valley History Project was undertaken by Oregon State University (OSU) Research Forests in 1989 for the purpose of better understanding the history and culture of an area impacted by OSU forestry and agricultural practices for nearly sixty years. An important part of the project has been the locating of recorded interviews with individuals who have had an influence upon the valley's history. Additional interviews have also been made with significant individuals who were not recorded previously, as well as "follow-up" interviews with a few people who have continued to contribute to our understanding of this area. The publication of these interviews as monographs is being undertaken in an effort to make them available to researchers, educators, and resource managers. A comprehensive cross-indexing of the individual monographs is an important part of this project. The index will allow the interviews to be systematically edited in order to provide accurate references for a scholarly history that is being written of the Soap Creek area. So far as possible, that history is being assembled from the spoken and written words of the people who made it and lived it. It is fitting that the first monograph to be printed concerns the history of the Soap Creek Schoolhouse Foundation ("the foundation"). It was partially due to the foundation's concerns and efforts that this project was undertaken. The interview that follows provides a good record of the foundation's past, and gives some insight into its plans for the future. For the past 15 years, Lorna Grabe has been central to the foundation's plans and activities. This interview was recorded in her home on Soap Creek Road during the afternoon of December 28, 1989 (the date printed on the cover is in error). The transcript of the recording was then proof-read by me, by Mrs. Grabe, and by other members of the foundation. The proof-reading was performed in order to correct errors and to determine if important facts or observations had been overlooked. This monograph is being distributed in its present form to select libraries and historical organizations as a method of making it more readily available. A personal biography of Lorna Grabe is included as an appendix. Bob Zybach Corvallis, Oregon June 11, 1990