Personal Involvement

Bob Zybach: Did she hear the story from anybody, or was that a matter of talking to her?

Lorna Grabe: She must have heard it from somebody, somebody told her the story when they moved in and anyway, she swears it's true and Ken ... Ken died just a year ago, so he's not living anymore, but he'd seen the ghost too. It's fun anyway. I don't believe it but

Bob Zybach: Well, I've heard the story from somebody that lived here in 1905, so it's not a new story.

Lorna Grabe: Really! Oh!

Bob Zybach: So she's got company that predates her. Then the School House Foundation, how did you get involved in it?

Lorna Grabe: Well, I saw that this saddle club that was using it was also just falling apart because our daughter was president of it at that time, and whenever she'd try to call a meeting together, nobody would show up or if they'd have a trail ride the kids ... people just didn't come anymore. Some of them moved away, and they just weren't interested. And I saw this school house sitting there, and I was just really concerned that what was going to happen to it. And so I had been collecting pre-1900 elementary school textbooks, and I had this collection, and so in the fall of 1974, I put a notice in the paper and sent flyers up and down the valley to the families and had an exhibit of my old textbooks, and then we served refreshments, and we had a really pretty good

Lorna Grabe: attendance. I don't remember what it was, but it was thirty to fifty, somewhere in there. And so I decided well, there still is an interest in the historical aspect of this, and so in the spring ... and then in January, I think it was, that I called the neighbors together as many as I could get to reorganize the Foundation and so then we have ... this first secretary's book starts in July, but I think we organized in January

Bob Zybach: January of 1974?

Lorna Grabe: '75.

Bob Zybach: Can I get copies of this also?

Lorna Grabe: Yes. Sure.

Bob Zybach: Good.

Lorna Grabe: And so then we just used the same constitution and we read it over at each of our January meetings when we have our general meetings.

Bob Zybach: So that constitution was written by the previous members?

Lorna Grabe: Yes, right.

Bob Zybach: Do you know who wrote it?

Lorna Grabe: Well, I presume Bessie Nordahl and her mother; there's Shirley Rice.

Bob Zybach: Has the constitution changed at all?

Lorna Grabe: No. It was amended in 19 ... October 11, 1976. We got the deed from the North Corvallis Farmer's Union, because if we had the deed, we would no- be able ... we would not have to pay the taxes anymore. And so we wanted to be able to use that money for furnishings and restoration rather than taxes. And so they, Farmer's Union, was disintegrating at that time, and so they came out and liked what we were doing with it, liked our exhibits, and so they gave us the deed.

Bob Zybach: Who was the person from the Farmer's Union that ... ?

Lorna Grabe: That was Clifton C. Kaster, K-a-s-t-e-r, was president, and he lived up there in that little green house by Lewisburg across from the Grange. And then I have the names of two other people from the Farmer's Union that one ... that Shirley Rice gave me that says knows about the Grange, Vesta Steiner, and C. Lloyd Anderson was treasurer of the County. I have his phone number here, and then there's a Mr. Casson that's mentioned in this book.

Bob Zybach: C-a-s-s-o-n?

Lorna Grabe: Right.

Bob Zybach: I've seen that name some place else, I think it might be a pioneer family or something.

Lorna Grabe: I couldn't find it in the phone book, so apparently he's not

Lorna Grabe: living, and then Mr. Kaster has died also, but C. Lloyd Anderson

Bob Zybach: Maybe Mr. Casson has moved, but not necessarily have to die.

Lorna Grabe: No, he died, I cut out his obituary from the paper, I have it laying around here somewhere.

Bob Zybach: When did they get title to the school house?

Lorna Grabe: They got it shortly after it closed, and they got for a dollar. And we 're told this by Mr. Kaster and then also by several open houses we've had, people from the Farmer's Union have stopped in and told us that they got it because they wanted to sponsor a boy scout troop, and they wanted to use it for that purpose and that actually they didn't use it for that purpose. One lady told me that they never held meetings there, that they would going to but didn't, and so no meetings were held there. (I have learned that the Boy Scouts used this building for less than three months during 1959 or 1960. They started making wood shakes for the roof but left because of vandalism of their materials.) They just hung onto it because they thought it was a valuable old building, and they didn't want to see it fall down, and so they just kept it. And so I think they were really an important group in preserving this building.

Bob Zybach: They were based in Corvallis?

Lorna Grabe: Well, I think it's up by Lewisburg. I think it's that grange building on 99. I think that was their

Bob Zybach: So the Lewisburg Grange was where North Corvallis Farmer's Group Union was located, and the names and phone numbers you got here are kind of the principal characters in preserving the building.

Lorna Grabe: Well, yeah, they were in the Farmer's Union when it was the property was transferred. There was only about four or five that I know of ... maybe three that we knew ... everyone just kind of dropped out and so

Bob Zybach: Is this Farmer's Union still

Lorna Grabe: No, it's not in existence anymore. (the North Corvallis Farmers Union has merged with the North Albany Grange Group)

Bob Zybach: So kind of its legacy is the School House Foundation?

Lorna Grabe: Right. So, there's just a couple people left that would know about that, and I've been meaning to call them and I haven't.

Bob Zybach: So anybody writing the history of the school?

Lorna Grabe: Well, I've got kind of a history that I've written ... put up on the ... in the school house we have big posters in the back, two in each of the little cloak rooms in the back and then I have this history that I've written up, and this history I've gotten from interviews with former students, and with information from the old registers that were left in the

Lorna Grabe: school when it closed. And after I started in the Foundation in 1974, Louise Hollister and I went down to the school house and cataloged all the original books that were there, and we brought them to my house because we were afraid that they might be stolen.

Bob Zybach: With no thought of adding them to your collection?

Lorna Grabe: Right. So, we have ... so those are still at my house, and then when we have open houses, we take a few of those each time just to exhibit so people can see the original ones.

Bob Zybach: These minutes you have those are for ... did you write those yourself?

Lorna Grabe: This history.

Bob Zybach: Not the history, the minutes?

Lorna Grabe: These minutes were written by the secretary at that time. I need to let that dog in.

Bob Zybach: Sure.

Lorna Grabe: Treasurer ... the secretary.

Bob Zybach: Do you have minutes from the earlier group ... ?

Lorna Grabe: These are the earliest.

Bob Zybach: So these minutes here ... you just inherited from the 1969?

Lorna Grabe: No, I don't have those. This one starts in 1975. I don't have the minutes of the earlier one.

Bob Zybach: So are those dated?

Lorna Grabe: Pretty well, yes.

Bob Zybach: And they list all the people that attended?

Lorna Grabe: No, most of them ... usually most of the people that attended.

Bob Zybach: And have those been kept from 1975 to the present?

Lorna Grabe: Yes, but I don't know whether I have the last one, but I will need to ask the secretary if she has the other one.

Bob Zybach: Did the person who wrote these sign them?

Lorna Grabe: Yes.

Bob Zybach: So they're signed, dated and got a fifteen year history of minutes. This history that you're writing, did you just start doing that recently?

Lorna Grabe: No, I did this about ten or fifteen years ago from our old record books from the early ... clerk's record books. We have five clerk's record books, and they list some of the earliest students and some of the earliest teachers and their salaries. And also gave information on who went out to

Lorna Grabe: select a site for this school and the date and when very how much money each family donated to build the first school.

Bob Zybach: So it would have all the families names? Like the Moores, I think the Moores were the one that donated it?

Lorna Grabe: Right.

Bob Zybach: And then you read your history from that?

Lorna Grabe: Yeah, right.

Bob Zybach: Pretty complete.

Lorna Grabe: So, well, there could be some things wrong with it. I see I spelled a teacher's name wrong, I think, but it's kind it's just ... what I thought written the way I thought people would ... that come out would want ... in a simple language.

Bob Zybach: Is there any plans to elaborate on this history or continue it?

Lorna Grabe: We wanted ... we talked last year, and we had a new person move into our group that's really good in art and graphics. Rudy Bischof, and he thought he could make up a flyer that we should be passing out a flyer. We've been talking about that for a couple of years so that when we have an open house, people would have a flyer to take back with them with the information about the history, so that should be done, but we haven't.